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Inspired by Trump’s Counsellor, Trinidad & Tobago Social Media Users Start Whipping Out ‘Alternative Facts’ · Global Voices
Flora Thomas

“Soldiers and Airmen from the Florida National Guard look on as President Donald Trump takes the oath of office during the 2017 Presidential Inauguration.” Photo taken from The National Guard flickr page, CC BY 2.0.
In an era of fake news, where netizens sometimes struggle to separate credible reporting from propaganda, there is a new catchphrase, courtesy US President Donald Trump's counsellor, Kellyanne Conway: “alternative facts”.
The phrase slipped out during an interview with TV network NBC's public affairs program Meet the Press, in which she was defending the evidence-free claims of White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, that “this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period — both in person and around the globe”.
It was widely reported in mainstream media — and spread via social media — that the crowd size at Trump's inauguration was not as large as it was for Obama's in 2009:
Comparing the crowds at Donald Trump’s and Barack Obama’s inaugurations https://t.co/Ip6UwbzinI pic.twitter.com/jClpwd4uWa
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 21, 2017
The minute Conway said that Spicer was presenting “alternative facts” and that there was “really no way to quantify crowds”, journalist Chuck Todd called out the claims as “provable falsehoods”. He also said that if Spicer could lie about such a small thing, it “undermines the credibility of the White House press office”. Conway accused Todd of being “overly dramatic”.
Dramatic or not, Trinidad and Tobago netizens — like social media users the world over — turned the phrase into a rather humourous hashtag.
Facebook user Keith Francis quipped:
Ringling Brothers closed down in anticipation of the competition from the American government.
#alternativefacts
Artist Christopher Cozier was so stunned, he publicly posted this status update:
So…my world view is formed by ‘alternative facts’
Trinidadian calypsonian David Rudder, who regularly brings joy to his Facebook followers with his clever commentary, posted this amusing status update, in which he compared himself with popular soca music star Machel Montano:
My show had ten more people that Machel's show, but the nasty media would never say that.
When I started to count the amount of women alone in attendance I reached a-bacchanal seven thousand, then I got tired. But the media would never say that. Ask my publicist Kelly Ann Converse, my little all star who will go through hoops for me, she go tell allyuh.
Facebook user Nigel Thompson applied the “alternative facts” concept to rationalise Trinidad and Tobago's spiralling crime rate:
20 days 35 dead.
COP [Commissioner of Police]: serious crime is down.
#alternativefacts
Laura Dowrich-Phillips, who is black, decided to have some fun with the hashtag on a personal level:
I am a red [light-skinned] girl with a tan #alternativefacts
Franka Philip, meanwhile, mused:
Kellyanne Conway was which character in Harry Potter again? Or is she a horcrux?
Many social media users were concerned rather than amused, however. As one member of the Trinidadian diaspora put it:
alternative facts… (?!)
2017's mandatory reading list – the complete works of george orwell.

author: Flora Thomas


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Russia Says No to Political Crowdfunding by Individuals · Global Voices
Isaac Webb

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Photo: Wikimedia.
On Monday, the online wallet service Yandex.Money announced that it would stop allowing online transfers of money to individuals for political purposes in order to comply with Russian election laws—a decision many see as aimed at undermining opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is using the service to crowdfund his 2018 presidential campaign.
In a blog post published on Monday afternoon, Navalny drew attention to an email sent on Jan. 20 from Yandex.Money to Leonid Volkov, his campaign manager and the man in whose name Navalny's Yandex.Money account is registered. In the email, Yandex warned that funneling political funding through individuals could violate Russia's election laws.
The email sent from Yandex.Money to Leonid Volkov.
Writing online, Navalny described a campaign of harassment by state bodies aimed at undermining his ability to raise campaign funds:
История моего сбора средств на общественные и политические проекты — это и история о том, как ФСБ, МВД, администрация президента, ЦБ и прочее жульё пытается запретить в России сбор средств на такие проекты.
The history of my collection of funds for civil and political projects—it's a history of how the FSB [Federal Security Services], the MVD [Ministry of Internal Affairs], the president, the Central Bank, and other swindlers have tried to ban the collection of funds for these projects in Russia.
Yandex.Money, the opposition leader argued, is being forced by the Central Bank to block donations to Volkov's account by any means possible, in order to handicap Navalny's 2018 presidential bid.
Speaking to the website TJournal, Yandex.Money's press service said that Russian law requires them “to limit the use of electronic wallets in ways that might be considered legally ambiguous,” otherwise the company could be assuming certain legal risks. Yandex says it must work to minimize the risks to itself and its millions of users:
Мы приняли решение изменить условия пользовательского соглашения и внести пункт, ограничивающий сбор средств на кошелек в политических целях. Это ограничение — стандарт для рынка электронных платежей.
Изменения будут размещены на сайте в ближайшие дни. С момента публикации это требование вступит в силу. Несогласие с изменением оферты, согласно п.12.4, означает отказ от использования кошелька.
При этом фонд-юрлицо по-прежнему может использовать «Яндекс.Кассу» для сбора пожертвований от частных лиц в любых объёмах.
We made the decision to change the conditions of our user agreement, introducing a clause that limits the collection of funds for political purposes. This limitation is the standard for the electronic payment market.
The changes will be posted on our site in the coming days. Once they are published, they will enter into force. Refusal to accept the changes in clause 12.4 will mean no longer being able to use the wallet.
Legal entities, however, will still be able to use Yandex.Kassa to receive money from private individuals in any amount.
Losing the opportunity to raise money through his campaign manager, Navalny will still in theory be able to collect donations through his nonprofit organization, the Anti-Corruption Foundation, using another service: Yandex.Kassa. Unfortunately for the campaign, however, the group is not registered in Russia as a political organization, barring it from a role in Navalny's political campaign, Volkov told TJournal.
Once Yandex's new policy goes into effect, the only way left to send money to Navalny's presidential campaign will be over PayPal, where supporters of any nationality, anywhere in the world, can wire Volkov money directly. Currently, there are no indications that PayPal, a California-based tech company, has any plans to restrict the services it now offers in Russia.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Isaac Webb


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Snapshots of Migrants Working at a Riverside Brickworks in Myanmar · Global Voices
The Irrawaddy

Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy
This article by Zaw Zaw is from The Irrawaddy, an independent news website in Myanmar, and is republished by Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Leading a life of hand-to-mouth existence, over 100 internal migrants bake blocks every day in one of the brickworks near Don Kone and Thayet Tapin—small villages on the bank of the Irrawaddy River in Mandalay’s Patheingyi Township in Myanmar.
In this area there are four brickworks, and each location contains more than 20 small kilns. These workplaces are unique in the way that entire families, with the exception of babies, can be found working there.
In some cases, children as young as five years of age share in their family’s labor when they really should be playing or studying at school.
Living in make-shift huts, the migrants have moved from other parts of Mandalay Division to the riverbank in order to earn a living.
For most of these families, the meager wages and the high cost of food mean that everyone has to work. There is no other way to meet production goals and to earn the money they need to sustain themselves.
In some cases, when adult workers have fallen ill, they have asked their employers for an advance on their wages until they can recover. Then, when they are unable to pay the money back quickly, they pull their children into working with them.
The migrant families will bake bricks on the bank of the Irrawaddy River until the rainy season, when water levels rise and clay is no longer available. Then they will move—along with their families—to another brickworks controlled by the same owners in Madaya Township, continuing the vicious cycle.
Below are more photos of laborers carrying baskets of clay and hauling stacks of finished blocks in a brickworks near Don Kone and Thayet Tapin villages.
Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy
Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy
Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy
Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy
Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy
Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy
Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy
Photo by Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

author: The Irrawaddy


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“The Human Rights Situation in Burundi Is Deteriorating: We Need a New Approach to Show the World What is Happening” · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

Armel NIYONGERE (with his permission)
Armel Niyongere says he refuses to let fear get in the way of his goals.
Niyongere has heard from from far too many people in Burundi about torture, extrajudicial killings, arrests, and arbitrary detentions for him to stop campaigning for the protection of the rights of every citizen in his country.
Niyongere is a human rights defender and lawyer serving as chairman of the organisation ACAT Burundi (Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture, Burundi), and he coordinates a network of associations dedicated to the defence of human rights. Niyongere also lives in exile currently, and ACAT Burundi was suspended by the government in the midst of Burundi's unrest in late 2015. He has since founded another organization, SOS-Torture Burundi.
President Nkurunziza's decision to seek a third term in 2015 sparked vehement disagreement, leading to a number of demonstrations and campaigns that quickly descended into armed rebellion and clashes. The government's harsh retaliation has also forced dissidents into exile or silence. Global Voices met with Armel to shed some light on the human rights situation in Burundi:
Global Voices (GV): Following the controversy surrounding President Pierre Nkurunziza's third term in office in 2015, the situation in Burundi remains critical. The Arusha Peace Agreement has not had the desired effect. The regime's radicalisation has polarised the political conflict, resulting in hundreds of deaths and the flight of more than 328,000 since April 2015  from the country. How do you see the short term situation in the country?
Armel NIYONGERE (AN) : Oui, effectivement, la crise actuelle au Burundi a été déclenchée à l’origine par ce troisième mandat illégal et inconstitutionnel de Nkurunziza qui met en cause les accords d’Arusha.  La population avait organisée des manifestations pacifiques pour protester contre ce mandat. Le gouvernement  a de facto réprimé ces manifestations dans le sang avec plus de 2 000 morts, plus de 500 000 réfugiés et plus 8 000 personnes détenues arbitrairement. Dans l'immédiat, je pense que la communauté Internationale devrait être ferme pour obliger le gouvernement à négocier avec les opposants pour une solution pacifique. Sinon, il y a risque de se retrouver dans une guerre civile ou de plonger la crise dans l’irréparable.
Armel NIYONGERE (AN): Yes, the current crisis was triggered by Nkurunziza's third term in office. This is both illegal and unconstitutional, and has raised doubts about the Arusha Agreement. The general population has organised many peaceful demonstrations in protest, however these have been violently crushed by the government. This has resulted in more than 2,000 deaths, more than 500,000 refugees( ed's note: projected number at the end of the year)  and more than 8,000 people who have been arbitrarily detained. For now, I think the international community needs to be firm, and to force the government into negotiations with the opposition, to try to find a peaceful solution. Otherwise, we risk civil war or allowing the crisis to become irreparable.
GV: You are both a lawyer,and a staunch defender of human rights in Burundi. What are the primary obstacles facing the protection of humans rights in Burundi today, and how are organisations working together to highlight and denounce any violations?
AN : En tant qu’avocat et défenseur des droits humains au Burundi, je constate que la situation des droits de l’homme continue à se dégrader. Il y a l’impunité permanente, la justice est toujours aussi corrompue et n’est vraiment pas indépendante. La police manque cruellement de professionnalisme et elle est souvent citée dans beaucoup de crimes. De plus, il y a la présence de des milices de l'Imbonerakure, les jeunes du Parti au pouvoir qui semble être au-dessus de la loi. Et maintenant, le gouvernement est entrain de fermer et radier de nombreuses organisations de la société civile pourtant très dynamiques dans leurs dénonciations des violations des droits humains.  Mais toutes ces répressions a l’endroit de ces associations dont nous faisons partie n’affecteront pas notre travail, nous devrons par contre changer de stratégie pour continuer à alerter le monde sur ce qui se passe au pays pour que chacun joue son rôle.
AN: As a lawyer and human rights advocate in Burundi, I am noticing a marked deterioration of the human rights situation. There is constant impunity and an ever-corrupt justice system, which fails to act truly independently. The police demonstrate a cruel lack of professionalism and are often mentioned in conjunction with criminal activities. Furthermore, the youth wing of the ruling party, the Imbonerakure and its militia, appear to be above the law. And now, the government is closing down many very engaged civil society organisations due to their outspokenness against human rights violations. However, although they may try to suppress these organisations (to which we also belong), this will not affect our work. Nonetheless, we need to change our approach in order to show the world what is happening in this country, so that everyone can play a part.
GV: Do you envisage a start to constructive talks on issues relating to human rights and the freedom of speech with the different parties involved?
AN : Un dialogue inter-burundais constructif est pratiquement impossible vu que le gouvernement du Burundi continue de refuser  à se mettre autour de la table avec ceux qui ont organisé les manifestations de contestation. On remarque aussi que l'organisation de la région de la Communauté East Africaine qui s'est saisi de la question n’a pas montré de volonté à trouver une solution tangible à la crise burundaise, ce qui pourrait faire trainer le retour à la paix.
AN: A constructive Burundi-based dialogue is almost impossible, as the Burundi government is still refusing to enter into discussions with the organisers of the disputed demonstrations. It is also evident that The East African Community, the regional inter-governmental organisation that has raised the issue, has not appeared willing to find a palpable solution to the Burundi crisis, which may delay the peace process.
GV: You are the president of ACAT-Burundi and now the director of SOS-Torture: How would you describe a typical day faced with these responsibilities? How do you ensure the security of your loved ones and colleagues?
AN : Tout dépend de l’engagement pour arriver au résultat,  peu importe le contexte. Maintenant avec la crise, nous avons appris à la population à être eux-mêmes des observateurs pour dénoncer des violations des droits de l’homme. Nous avons bien sur des enquêteurs anonymes sur terrain mais nous recevons aussi des informations de la part des agents de l’Etat (police, administration, etc…). Nous essayons de ne pas exposer nos collègues. Nous travaillons dans un contexte très difficile, mais nous adoptons des stratégies spécifiques régulièrement pour nous adapter conformément à l’évolution du contexte.
AN: It's all dependent on the commitment we have to achieving our aim, regardless of the context. In these times of crisis, we have shown the public how individuals can be observers, so as to denounce any human rights violations. Of course, we have anonymous investigators on the ground, but we also receive information from state officials (police, public administration, and so on). We try to not expose our colleagues. We are working in a very difficult environment, however, we regularly adopt specific strategies to allow us to adapt, in line with the ever-changing context in which we work.
GV:  What role does the international community play in regard to your actions, and how is the current situation perceived on the international stage?
AN: La communauté internationale joue un rôle important dans la crise burundaise, vu comment elle est adoptée beaucoup de résolution mais qui n’a jamais été mise en œuvre. Les observateurs internationaux continuent a présenté des rapports montrant qu’il y a des crimes commis par des agents de l’Etat, nous attendons les actions concrètes par rapports aux rapports présentés par les Nations Unies. Il faut absolument que les Nations Unies mettent en place la résolution pour envoyer les policiers dans la mesure de protéger la population burundaise et prévenir le génocide sinon ça sera une complicité.
AN: The international community plays a very important role in the Burundi crisis: it has passed many resolutions that have, however, never been implemented. International onlookers continue to issue reports into crimes committed by state officials; we are still waiting for definitive action on reports issued by the United Nations. It's imperative that the UN put in place a resolution to send in police officers to protect Burundians and to prevent genocide. If not, they will be complicit.
GV: Relations between Burundi and the European Union and the African Union appear strained. Does this impact the situation within the country and endanger organisations like yours?
AN : Oui, certainement.  Les relations tendues du gouvernement du Burundi avec ces partenaires met en danger la vie de la population burundaise. En effet, ces tensions avec les partenaires internationaux provoquent indirectement une hausse des produits alimentaires de base  à cause du manque de devise que cela engendre. Ceci a pour effet de rendre en général la vie de la population au quotidien très difficile. Pour éviter tout cela, il faut trouver rapidement une solution rapide à la crise burundaise.
AN: Yes, undoubtedly. A tense relationship between Burundi and its allies puts Burundians’ lives in danger. These strained relations with our international partners actually indirectly cause an increase in the price of basic foodstuffs, due to the lack of foreign exchange. As a result, daily life has become very difficult for the general population. In order to avoid this scenario, we need to find an urgent solution to the Burundi crisis.

author: Rakotomalala


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These Venezuelans Have Some Ideas to Share With Trump Opponents · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

“The recipe is universal. Find a wound common to many, someone to blame for it and a good story to tell. Mix it all together. Tell the wounded you know how they feel. That you found the bad guys.” Image by Venezuelan cartoonist Eduardo Sanabria. Used with permission.
It's not the first time that Trump-Chavez comparisons have been made in citizen media — people have already noted the ways in which both leaders rely on their personalities to push forward their political projects — but now that the presidency of Donald J. Trump has become a reality, some of those who opposed former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the system he created are speaking openly to those who oppose the newborn Trump era.
Caracas Chronicles, a collective site devoted to explaining Venezuela's complex political situation, shared the experiences and ideas of two of their authors. Both posts had their share of debate in the comments section, with people agreeing — and disagreeing — with them. In the posts, the authors explain how both leaders have relied on populism to make their own way, how the strongest figure of the rhetoric is a created enemy, and how the United States could learn from the mistakes they believe Venezuela has made.
In his post “Trump, Chávez and the Personal Ideology of Showmanship“, Manuel Azuaje Álamo analyzes the ways in which both Trump and Chavez shocked concerned citizens and intellectuals, and also how they used communication strategies that hadn't been seen before. Their personality — and the character they created for themselves — was their main asset:
Like Chávez, Trump has built his power on a personal ideology of showmanship, where ideas and facts always take a back-seat to feelings, and to the appearance of ideas. […] The only idea Trump has consistently championed is Trump. Venezuelans see it and can’t help [but] shudder. Chavez also championed himself above everything else, even above the new constitution that he himself had had tailor-made for his initial years in office.
He continues:
Chavez and Trump share this obsession for showmanship, spectacle and power —or, more precisely, the arbitrary flaunting of power followed by the equally arbitrary decisions not to follow through their own proposals— which was at the center of their relationship with their followers. Chavez became a reality television star after becoming President, Trump had been a reality television star before becoming President […] We in Venezuela know how terrifyingly plausible it is that, in four years, a Trump voter will look around at his declining quality of life and blame not Trump but an ‘economic war’ with China or Mexico, aided by treacherous elites in Washington and left wing intellectuals, always eager to sell out the National Interest.
This element pointed out in Azuaje Álamo's post about the construction of an enemy is also a relevant point in Andrés Miguel Rondón's post, “How to Culture Jam a Populist in Four Easy Steps“. To both authors, one of the main strategies these leaders have used is identifying an enemy and then developing a strong political discourse from there:
The recipe is universal. Find a wound common to many, someone to blame for it and a good story to tell. Mix it all together. Tell the wounded you know how they feel. That you found the bad guys. Label them: the minorities, the politicians, the businessmen. Cartoon them. As vermin, evil masterminds, flavourless hipsters, you name it. Then paint yourself as the saviour. Capture their imagination. Forget about policies and plans, just enrapture them with a good story. One that starts in anger and ends in vengeance. A vengeance they can participate in.
In the four points that follow, Rondón recounts the mistakes he believes Venezuela's opposition to Chavismo has made and the results they have had. He argues that strategies like those used by both Chavez and Trump thrive in polarization.
Rondón says that expressing contempt feeds these divisions — something that, he says, many among Venezuela's opposition movement failed to see. For the author, strategies to force Trump out of power could prove disastrous, and he analyzes the Venezuelan case to illustrate his point:
Your organizing principle is simple: don’t feed polarization, disarm it. This means leaving the theater of injured decency behind. The Venezuelan Opposition struggled for years to get this. It wouldn’t stop pontificating about how stupid it all is. Not only to their international friends, but also to the Chavista electoral base itself. [If you do this] You’ve just lost the first battle. Instead of fighting polarization, you’ve played into it. In which case, try again, seriously, because by all means […] Don’t try to force him out.
He further explains:
Our Opposition tried every single trick in the book. Coup d’etat? Check. Ruinous oil strike? Check. Inviting international intervention? You guessed it. Want to know how they did that last one, by the way? By removing themselves from the ballot in a parliamentary election. Yes, they just handed Chavismo full congressional power as some sort of ‘diplomatic statement’. Honest to God. […] But we failed. Because we lost sight [of the fact] that a hissy-fit is not a strategy. The people on the other side, and crucially Independents, will rebel against you if you look like you’re losing your mind. Worst of all, you will have proved yourself to be the very thing you’re claiming to be fighting against: an enemy of democracy.
He concludes:
There’s no point sugar coating: the road ahead is tough and the pitfalls are many. […] But if you want to be part of the solution, the road ahead is clear: Recognize you’re the enemy they need; show concern, not contempt, for the wounds of those that brought Trump to power; by all means be patient with democracy and struggle relentlessly to free yourself from the shackles of the caricature the populists have drawn of you.
It’s a tall order. But the alternative is worse. Believe me, I know: I’m from Venezuela.

author: Laura Vidal


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Thousands of Women March to Reclaim Public Spaces Across India · Global Voices
Vishal Yashoda Manve

Screenshot from YouTube
Thousands of women across India, from Delhi and Mumbai to Puducherry, rallied this Saturday, carrying signs reading, “I will go out,” in a campaign to reclaim their right to access public spaces without fear of being attacked.
Activists rallied online using the hashtag #IWillGoOut, forming groups around the country, following the horrific mass molestation case in Bangalore, which triggered a mainstream debate about the exclusion of women from public life.
Saturday's marches were coordinated to begin at 5 p.m. IST in more than 30 Indian cities, with organization work by various groups working to promote women's rights.
The official poster for #IWillGoOut. This Saturday 21st Jan at 5 PM, women #takebackthenight. (More cities being added as we speak!) ?????? pic.twitter.com/Ck4YYWzUOC
— Feminism in India (@FeminismInIndia) January 18, 2017
Ever since the New Year's Eve incident in Bangalore, the city has witnessed several forms of protest, including human chains, online campaigns, and gatherings in parks.
Here's how the group describes itself on Facebook:
#IWillGoOut is a nationwide gathering on 21st January in solidarity against sexual harassment and misogyny, and to reclaim women's rights to safe public spaces. We're a collective of individuals and organisations across various cities in India.
Saturday's demonstrations coincided with the global women's march centered in Washington D.C. against the misogyny, bigotry, and hatred critics attribute to Donald Trump, who became America's 45th president on Friday.
Similar protests broke out in European capitals, as thousands of women took to streets to join sister marches in Asia and the United States, protesting against Trump's inauguration. According to reports, marches took place in Berlin, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Geneva, and Amsterdam.
A demonstration also took place in Nairobi, Kenya, with an additional message to the government:
Here in Kenya we will march to demand reproductive rights, women's land and inheritance rights, and the implementation of the 2/3 rule. We will march to end sexual harassment and assault, female genital mutilation, and the trafficking of women and children; and to end discrimination against LGBTQ people, sex workers, disabled women, HIV positive women, refugee women, women in the informal sector and other marginalized groups.
The protests in India attracted thousands of women across the country, and participants flooded social media with photos and video footage from the events:
Ab kehti hai har ek nari
Din bhi hamara raat bhi hamari#IWillGoOut pic.twitter.com/NOauum34Pb
— Feminism in India (@FeminismInIndia) January 21, 2017
Every woman says now that even the day and the night belongs to us. #IWillGoOut
At Jantar Mantar. #AzaadiAzaadi #IWillGoOut pic.twitter.com/11DrmIWkQy
— Feminism in India (@FeminismInIndia) January 21, 2017
Delhi women were loud and proud at the #WomensMarch yesterday. And I was proud to be a part of it #IWillGoOut ?#Delhi #India pic.twitter.com/pAEDGUnDoZ
— Sunny Mangat (@mangat_sunny) January 22, 2017
Our sisters in Thrissur, Kerala! #IWillGoOut pic.twitter.com/rDkT7TpDZ9
— I Will Go Out (@iwillgoout2017) January 21, 2017
#IWillGoOut Mumbai chapter. @mizarcle @The_Karishma @iwillgoout2017 @WiseDonkay @whyloiter @FeminismInIndia
?: @rahul_vangani pic.twitter.com/M43xRPWXf4
— Neha Ramneek Kapoor (@PWNeha) January 21, 2017
No one should hide because of fear:
#IWillGoOut ‘because I am fed up of hiding behind doors to avoid being groped.’ #ChennaiSpeaks #WomensMarch pic.twitter.com/Lf5fTwfgyl
— I Will Go Out (@iwillgoout2017) January 21, 2017
We have reached #jantarmantar and it's starting to get dark. #reclaimthenight #iwillgoout pic.twitter.com/0kEWy5K4l5
— Feminism in India (@FeminismInIndia) January 21, 2017
Mai bahar jaaungi!! #IWillGoOut pic.twitter.com/MdUjYykfDm
— Feminism in India (@FeminismInIndia) January 21, 2017
Around the country, folks are ready to go out. Are you? #IWillGoOut pic.twitter.com/URtWbUnyCF
— I Will Go Out (@iwillgoout2017) January 21, 2017
Here is Kaavya Pillai, a journalist and a feminist, explaining the importance of these protests:
We can't live our lives fearing spaces. The only way is to own them and reclaim the night. #IWillGoOut @TheRedElephnt @FeminismInIndia
— KaavyaAnomaly (@Kaavya_Pillai) January 21, 2017
#IWillGoOut because my ambitions and hopes are bigger than patriarchal boundaries @TheRedElephnt @FeminismInIndia @INBreakthrough
— KaavyaAnomaly (@Kaavya_Pillai) January 21, 2017
Bangalore joined in:
Bengaluru is getting ready to say #IWillGoOut Join us at City Railway Station Auto Stand at 4.30pm today and march with us for womens safety pic.twitter.com/Z8MZ71vTZD
— Divya Titus (@Titus_klutz) January 21, 2017
Hyderabad, too:
#IWillGoOut in #Hyderabad pic.twitter.com/QV4oFVMG9B
— Varsha (@VarshaBhargavi) January 20, 2017
Shikha Sreenivas wrote in The Ladies Finger about why the conversation is so important:
Systems of oppression and control work differently in various cultures, they reinvent themselves with the times to find new ways to control women, their bodies, and their movement. But these women are full of hope and energy to fight a mindset that seems undefeatable. The movement is a powerful reminder of sisterhood sans borders. These women reminded me what I had forgotten in my despair — that the streets of this country are ours too.
S. Sentalir commented in The Hindu report:
The movement questions the traditional notion of public spaces as the domain of men. It challenges the patriarchal culture that raises questions on a woman’s presence outside her home and blames her attitude and clothes for any act of violence or harassment.
Zoya Vallari wrote in Feminism in india:
The rally in India was triggered by the appalling incident of mass molestation on New Year’s Eve in the city of Bangalore. This march is aptly called ‘#IWillGoOut’. The ‘I’ in the title asserts a woman’s agency to decide her own actions, behaviour, clothes or timings. The ‘Will’ describes a wilful act of protest in the face of harassment that women experience when they claim their agency. The ‘GoOut’, seemingly straight-forward, stands for multiple things – go out to protest, go out to work, go out to party, go out to question the illegal state actions, go out to contest elections or simply to stare at the sky and loiter in the streets because it is ‘I’ who has the agency to decide what I want to go out for.

author: Vishal Yashoda Manve


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Azerbaijan’s Last Rail Stop Before Nagorno Karabakh Is a Quiet Place, When It Isn’t Getting Hit by Shells · Global Voices
Chaikhana.media

Photo taken from Chai-Khana.org and used with permission. Rafael Mammadov sits at his desk in front of a photo of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev. All photos in the post used with permission of Chai-Khana.org.
The following is a version of a partner post written by Ilkin Hasanov that first appeared on the website Chai-Khana.org.
Kocharli railway station in the Terter region of ex-Soviet Azerbaijan has been operating since 1983 and is the very last Azerbaijani station before the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region the country contests with Armenia.
Before the war between Armenians and Azerbaijanis over control of Nagorno Karabakh broke out in 1988, the railway carried passengers and cargo from the national capital, Baku, 250 kilometres away, as far as the last station in Karabakh itself, Khankendi.
After 1994, when the ceasefire agreement was signed, the last station in Azerbaijan's rail network became Kocharli station, and it was used only to carry passengers.
The station's caretaker Rafael Mammadov says that the train is not used as often as it was in Soviet times, although some passengers still use it daily. During the summer, the line ferries university students from Baku and other settlements back to their hometowns for the summer holidays.
During the most intense phase of the conflict, the station was used as a medical point and a shelter for displaced people. Until recently, IDPs from Karabakh found homes inside the freight wagons. Over three years later, they were relocated to new settlements, although many of their belongings have remained.
This rail outpost close to the line of contact between the two countries suffered damages during the so-called “Four-Day War” in April, 2016. The station had needed renovation even before a shell fell next to the building, shattering the windows and cracking the roof.
When it rains, raindrops now leak from the ceiling into the hall. Because the station is located near the line of contact, there are no gas lines. When the electricity cuts off in winter, it can get bitterly cold.


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From Facebook Live Questions to a Police Investigation, the Curious Case of a Trinidad & Tobago Presidential Housing Allowance · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Formerly referred to as “Government House”, the image shows a stamp with an illustration of President's House in Trinidad and Tobago, which has been under repair for some years now. Photo by Mark Morgan, CC BY 2.0.
News broke on January 15, 2017, that the Trinidad and Tobago anti-corruption police would be starting an investigation of the country's president, Anthony Carmona.
It's the latest twist in a months-long saga that came to the nation's attention largely thanks to one woman — Rhoda Bharath, a university lecturer who has been putting pressure on the president using social media.
The president has admitted to receiving a sizeable housing allowance while occupying state quarters, which is not allowed. The accounting inconsistencies were first identified in the 2015 Auditor General's Report on the Public Accounts, released in April 2016. Bharath's Facebook Live sessions on the issue attracted such a high level of public support that the president was forced to make a public statement. Portions of his statement were later found to be contradictory.
After seeking the advice of a senior attorney based in the United Kingdom, Bharath formally requested that there be a police investigation into the president's housing allowance. Based on Bharath's evidence, the British Queen's Counsel, Cathryn Mc Gahey, found that there were “reasonable grounds to suspect that the offence of misconduct in public office has been committed”.
The police were slow to respond to Bharath's calls for an investigation, but on January 12, the issue came under further public scrutiny when the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) met to examine expenditure practices at the president's office. Bharath herself kept a close watch on the proceedings, flooding her Facebook feed with live updates.
Keeping up the pressure, Bharath also linked to a news report about a man who was given a harsh sentence for stealing cigarettes and rum, commenting:
If this is what a man get for cigarettes and rum…what we giving people who tiefing we housing allowance $$$$$$$$$????
#StrenkAndPowaz
#Cargona
On the heels of the PAAC meeting, other social media users — including cartoonist Dion Dane Jennings — began to agitate for the police investigation to begin:
Cartoonist Dion Jennings’ assessment of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service's performance when it comes to investigating allegations of financial mismanagement by the country's president. Widely shared on Facebook.
By January 13, when mainstream media ran a story claiming that the Office of the President had estimated an overseas travel budget of TT $6.4 million (close to US $950,000) — an obscenely higher amount than the TT $1 million (approximately US $150,000) approved by parliament — the police were in quite a position. Two days later, it was announced that they would commence the investigation.
Facebook user Ja Ffari scoffed, “It take them long enough.” Another social media user, Marvel Mendez, took the announcement as a sign that the government was committed to fighting crime “at all levels”.
The explanation of the police was somewhat confusing, however. Acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) Stephen Williams made the point that this was not a criminal investigation, even though the matter was being spearheaded by the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau. Corruption is a criminal offence.
Williams said the matter was a question of whether or not the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) “went beyond her authority”, adding that even if she did, it still would not be a criminal investigation, but rather, “a matter for the Public Service Commission”, which oversees the civil service. The CPO heads the government department which determines remuneration and other work-related terms and conditions for public sector employees. The acting CoP added that “the only time that this becomes relevant for the police to consider is if it involves criminality”. Thus far, he says, “nothing has been so advanced.”
Many netizens were sceptical. Gerard Gordon-Toylor commented on Facebook:
Hmmm, I wonder if this investigation will finish before the POTT [President of Trinidad and Tobago] leaves office? Has the Ag CoP ever concluded an investigation?! Maybe we can get the next POTT to launch an investigation into that, hmmm, is that one of the powers that the POTT has?
Oh T&T, a tale of woe, corruption, greed, death and disappointment, smh.
On January 16, there was a report in one of the national dailies which said that asbestos had been found at President's House. Carmona, who currently resides at a cottage on the grounds of the main house, stopped receiving the housing allowance when he moved there in 2015. Bharath wondered whether the report would “raise the issue of suitability and Housing Allowance again [and] stall the investigation”.
On Facebook, Bharath's lawyer, Justin Phelps, posted a letter to the editor that called for Carmona's resignation, commenting:
Observe the silence of the usual pontificators, the ‘independents’, the intellectuals, the change agents. Where are they? And what credibility could they have going forward if they are silent now?
Meanwhile, the opposition has accused the government of trying to remove Carmona from office before the end of his term, and warned that they will bring a motion to expose the “conspiracy”. The opposition was in government when Carmona was inaugurated in 2013.
In this Carnival season, though, when many calypsonians are known for their caustic social commentary, the 2016 Calypso Monarch, Devon Seales, released a song — “I, Carmona” — which could very well be interpreted as an indicator of public concern about the matter.
Update: An online petition demanding President Carmona's resignation began circulating shortly after this post was published, on January 24, 2017. Netizen Amanda T. McIntyre, who started the petition, explained,”We are calling on the Senate and the House of Representatives to begin the constitutional process for the removal of the President, so these investigations may proceed free of conflicting interests.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Popular Chinese Selfie App Meitu Prompts Privacy Fears · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Donald Trump and Barack Obama beautified by Meitu app.
This post was written by Catherine Lai and originally published by Hong Kong Free Press on Jan. 22, 2017. The version below is published under a partnership agreement.
An overnight hit around the world, the Chinese photo-editing app Meitu has prompted privacy fears after realizations about the unusual range of permissions it requires for installation.
The free mobile app, popular in China for years, was launched in 2008, but recently took off in the West after people started using it to share photographs transformed into anime-like images. The company went public in Hong Kong in December.
Cybersecurity expert Leo Weese told Hong Kong Free Press that users should be careful about what security permissions are granted when installing apps:
On iOS and on newer Android versions you can manually choose what is allowed and what not, because the app is – by default – asking for a lot more than it should.
According to the app’s page on the Google Play store, it can access users’ location, phone number, call information, carrier information, Wi-Fi connections, information about what other apps are running, change audio settings, and more.
Expert Jonathan Zdziarski also found that the iOS version checks whether the device is jailbroken, meaning it can detect whether a user has bypassed software restrictions imposed by Apple’s system.
Welp, Meitu definitely has a number of different checks to see if your iPhone is jailbroken… pic.twitter.com/XSbKqDKgqX
— Jonathan Zdziarski (@JZdziarski) January 19, 2017
Weese said:
It’s reasonable to assume that the app would want access to your camera and want access to your storage, but it’s not reasonable why it would want to make phone calls or change your audio settings or why it would want to access the storage of other apps or even know what cellphone carrier you use.
Another point of concern is that the app may be transmitting devices’ IMEI — the unique number that identifies individual devices — to servers in China, according to self-proclaimed security pessimist “Four Octets.” A Whois search for the server addresses posted by Four Octets found that one was allocated to Hangzhou Alibaba Advertising Co., and the other two allocated to Forest Eternal Communication Tech, a data services company in Beijing.
Just to let you guys know that photo app that makes you look an anime is sending you IMIE to several servers in China. https://t.co/dQdroq5qhA
— FourOctets (@FourOctets) January 19, 2017
A Meitu spokesperson told Hong Kong Free Press that the app collects information about users’ phones instead of users’ personal information, saying the company collects IMEI to “optimize the user experience” — for example, to know what size the phone’s screen is, the spokesperson said. She added that the app collects information about user location in order to show them the appropriate ads, and collects IP addresses in case competitors hack into the app. She stressed:
We don’t sell the information to anyone else.
A press release further stressed:
Meitu DOES NOT share any user information with the Chinese government. User data is sent ONLY to Meitu.
Matthew Garrett, a security developer at Linux, wrote that most apps require the device’s IMEI, he wrote on his blog:
It’s certainly something to be concerned about, but Meitu isn’t especially rare here – there are big-name apps that do exactly the same thing… Let’s turn this into a conversation about user privacy online rather than blaming one specific example.
Weese also said users should not be overly concerned that the app is being used by the Chinese government to crack users’ phones. The information-gathering is a common business practice, he said:
I think it’s just a very shady business practice to try to gather as much data as you can without asking for permission, without asking for consent, and this has become a lot more common business practice, especially in places like China.

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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The First Non-US Animated Short to Win an Oscar Was Made by a Director From Croatia · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

A frame from the Academy Award-winning short film “The Substitute” by Dušan Vukotić.
Oscar nominations were announced on January 24. Once again, no Croatian films are in the running for an award, although “On the Other Side” was submitted for consideration to the California-based The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which oversees the Academy Awards.
In fact, since its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, no movie made in Croatia has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. But that doesn't mean no Croatian film has ever won an Oscar.
It's a little known fact that a director from this country, Dušan Vukotić (1927-1998), won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 1961 for “The Substitute” (“Surogat” in the original language, also known by the German title “Ersatz”). As representative of Yugoslavia, it was the first non-American cartoon to win that award. The funny film with cubist aesthetics is stored in the repository of the Academy Preservation Program.
Vukotić was known as one of the founders of the studio Zagreb School of Animated Films which has produced over 400 films since its establishment in 1956. It set the standard of high quality for animation production in Yugoslavia.
His work was praised during his lifetime, and some of his films beyond “The Substitute” are available online, mostly thanks to avid fans who've become YouTubers.
In 1963, another of Vukotić's films, “The Game,” was nominated for the same Oscar, but did not win.
Another fan favorite is the “Cow on the Moon” which in 1959 addressed topics which are still current in 2017 — bullying and ‘girls in tech.’
Another classic short by Vukotić is “The Avenger” (1958), based on a novel by Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov.
After the 1960s Vukotić rarely engaged in new animation projects, and worked mainly as a feature film director and a professor of film directing at the Zagreb Academy for Drama Arts.
Vukotić was of Montenegrin descent, born in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina, and his mixed heritage and residence in Croatia fit well within the “brotherhood and unity” credo of Yugoslav society. However, after the break-up of Yugoslavia, various nationalist authors laid claim to his legacy as representative of their particular ethnic group. For example, a Serbian diaspora website from Canada included him in their list of “Magnificent Seven Serbian Oscar Winners.”

author: Filip Stojanovski


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The Tyrants Bring the Invaders: What Follows After Russia Helps Secure Assad’s Victory · Global Voices
لیلا الشامی

President of Syria Bashar Assad greets Russian president Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in October 2015. PHOTO: Web site of President of Russia (CC BY 4.0)
“The tyrants bring the invaders.” – Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)
As liberated Aleppo was falling, the horror broadcast by media activists in real time, thousands across the world took to the streets to protest the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding. While such solidarity is vital, some may bitterly complain that it came six years too late. The last pockets of grassroots democracy and creative resistance are now being crushed and the Syrian conflict is mutating into a much darker and more terrifying phase.
An Assadist victory in Aleppo would not have been possible without Russian support. The regime was close to collapse in September 2015 when Putin intervened at the regime’s request. And it had been saved once before, by Iran, in 2013. The same pattern as Aleppo is being played out on dissenting communities elsewhere. Crippling starvation sieges are enforced on the ground by an array of mainly foreign and sectarian Shia militias backed by Iran, while bombs and missiles from Assad’s and Russia’s planes fall like rain from the skies. In forced capitulation deals people are exiled from their homes, perhaps permanently.
Russia initially intervened on the pretext of fighting ISIS. Yet over 80% of Russian bombs have fallen nowhere near territory controlled by the terror group. Instead they fall on communities which have self-organised in democratic local councils, on schools and hospitals which doctors and teachers are desperately trying to keep functioning, on volunteer relief workers who risk their lives to pull terrified and bloodied children from rubble.
In the first 305 days of its intervention, Russian airstrikes killed 2,704 civilians, including 746 children. Both Syrian and international human rights and humanitarian organisations testify to Russia’s systematic and deliberate targeting of hospitals as a strategy of war. Russia’s intervention was intended to prevent the regime’s collapse and help it regain lost territory, and it’s worked.
There’s a historical relationship between Russia and the Assad regime dating back to the Cold War. The Soviet Union sold weapons to the Syrian dictatorship and Syrian students often studied in Russia or other eastern bloc countries. A Soviet naval base was established in Tartus, Russia’s only base in the Mediterranean. Syria was a Russian asset, and Putin has revitalised that relationship. Russian bombs keep Assad in power, and Russia protects its client state at the Security Council in the same way the US protects Israel.
Through its intervention in Syria, Russia has expanded and upgraded its naval base in Tartus to a permanent facility and established an air-base south of Latakia in 2015. Deals with the regime mean that Russian companies are set to benefit from lucrative oil and gas exploration contracts. It showcases its advanced weaponry and has increased its arms exports. But more importantly, through Syria Russia has successfully challenged US hegemony in the region. It is Russia that is leading international negotiations, after Obama backed down following the chemical weapons deal. And Putin is also developing relationships with other regional authoritarians such as Turkey’s Erdogan and Egypt’s Sisi, with whom he has recently conducted joint military training. Putin has also strengthened relations with Israel, increasing economic cooperation, selling Israel military drones and sharing military intelligence on Syria.
Through its constant aerial bombardment, driving thousands from their homes, and its backing of populist fascist groups in the west, Russia has also contributed to the destabilisation of Europe, already reeling from failed economic neoliberalism and austerity. Through its propaganda outlets such as Russia Today, it spreads a campaign of disinformation, not so much intended to convince as to confuse.
Some have claimed that Russia’s intervention cannot be imperialism if Russia’s military was invited by the Syrian regime. By the same argument, America’s intervention in Vietnam would not have been imperialism either, invited as it was by the South Vietnamese government. These commentators believe that sovereignty resides in states, not people, and that legitimacy can be still be held by those who wage a campaign of extermination against those who peacefully protested their rule.
Others will say that the rebels are also supported by regional and international imperialisms, backed by the US, Turkey and Gulf states. But the rebels have never received anywhere near the level of financial and military support the regime has received from its allies. Obama’s most significant intervention was to veto states providing air defense weaponry to the rebels. It was the rebels’ inability to respond to Assad’s overwhelming use of airpower which kept the balance of power in the regime’s favour, as it obliterated all possible alternatives to its rule.
With the abandonment of Aleppo, it’s now clear that Turkey is concerned primarily with crushing Kurdish autonomy in Syria’s north, and Erdogan’s own authoritarian campaign against all dissent. And the reactionary Gulf states all have their own agendas, backing their respective factions, contributing to rebel disunity and infighting. Motivated primarily by their regional struggle for dominance with Iran, they have fanned the flames of sectarianism and extremism which the regime and its backers have so viciously provoked.
It does not appear that Trump will deviate significantly from Obama’s isolationist position. Like Obama, he will continue to see ISIS as the greatest threat to American interests. This doesn’t help Syrians who see the regime as the greatest obstacle to peace, which together with its allies has been responsible for over 90% of civilian deaths and is the primary cause of displacement. Obama and Putin have coordinated for some time now in the “War on Terror”. Trump admires Putin and is likely to work with both him and Assad directly, paying even less lip-service to issues such as human rights, democracy or civilian protection. Never mind that Assad and Putin are attacking Free Army and Islamist militias that are actually fighting ISIS, as well as being the only defense for civilians.
It remains to be seen if tensions develop between Iran and Russia. Already in Aleppo’s evacuation deal negotiated between Russia and Turkey, Iran’s sectarian militias did not comply. And whilst Trump may grow closer to Putin, his close advisors are opposed to Iran and Obama’s nuclear deal. But Russia also knows that Assad cannot hold reconquered territory without Iranian-backed troops on the ground. Can there be more than one puppet master pulling the strings?
The fall of Aleppo may be the final nail in the coffin for Syria’s orphaned revolution. An Assadist victory means the end of Aleppo’s civil democratic experiment, once a beacon of hope. It means the possible arrest of hundreds more civil society activists, medical and relief workers who will join the thousands already languishing in prison with little hope of release. The refugees and the displaced will never be able to return to their homes. Extremist groups will grow in strength, no longer subject to popular pressure. It will mean a return to the kingdom of fear.
The Syrian people have paid a heavy price for their desire for freedom. They have been bombed by their own government, bombed by foreign governments, and invaded by the world’s most crazed jihadists. The regime has never shown a genuine willingness to go to negotiations. Assad is not prepared to give up or share his power. All ceasefires thus far have acted as preludes to increased slaughter and displacement, carried out with nothing more than “strong condemnations” from the international community. Assad, Russia and Iran believe in a military solution to this conflict.
It is now up to people, globally, to build a sustained anti-war movement that stands with the Syrian people against all states participating in and perpetuating this conflict.
This post was originally published on Open Democracy under a Creative Commons license.

author: لیلا الشامی


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Australia Day Ads Promoting Diversity Stir Controversy Before National Holiday · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Aboriginal Flag – Invasion Day Rally and March, Brisbane 2007. Courtesy Flickr user David Jackmanson (CC BY 2.0)
Two advertisements for Australia's national day celebrating multiculturalism have caused quite a stir online.
The first is by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) promoting lamb as the barbecue meat of choice. MLA's past ads have often been controversial. The latest is no exception. It begins with a group of indigenous Australians setting up for a barbecue on the beach. “Anyone else coming?” one asks. “A beautiful spot like this, it'll be packed before you know it,” another answers, and sure enough, they are soon joined by the Dutch, the British, the French, the Chinese and more, each arriving in a ship.
When a modern-day ship of “boat people” are spotted, one woman asks provocatively, “Aren't we all boat people?” — a clear dig at Australia's contentious asylum seeker policies. Those seeking asylum from Australia who arrive by boat without a valid visa are currently sent to offshore centres on Manus Island and Nauru, where abuse and mistreatment are allegedly common.
This is the long version:
The ad is meant to represent Australia's history of immigration and celebrate, amongst other things, national diversity and multiculturalism. Some high profile Aussies take part including Aboriginal Olympic gold medallist Cathy Freeman and former cricket wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist.
Comments on posts at Rupert Murdoch's Daily Telegraph give the flavour of conservative reaction to issues surrounding Australia Day. Blogger Tim Blair focused on the omission of the date from the MLA ad. A common response was “I'm boycotting meat this Australia day”. Most of the 160 comments were critical of the ad.
Kevin Donnelly's article “January 26 is Australia Day. Stop trying to change it” brought similar responses. Karyn's comment was popular:
Well said Kevin Donnelly. I am sick of being lectured to by a conga line of leftist commentators about how bad Australia, and by extension, white Australians are. This is a wonderful country whose tenets are continually under threat by noisy minorities who are hell bent on getting their way on any subject or cause they happen to believe in at the time.
The MLA ad provoked some satirical videos. Yakovich's is certainly “taking the piss”:
Everything that's wrong with the 2017 #AustraliaDay #LambAd https://t.co/fWkQBNo0vE
— Yak✖ (@DamnYaks) January 15, 2017
Watto favours an iconic Aussie food, the meat pie:
@gettoolsdirect makes an address to the nation. #AustraliaDay #meatpie #aussie #LambAd pic.twitter.com/BWqmP6PRIC
— Get Tools Direct (@gettoolsdirect) January 18, 2017
Australia Day itself is controversial for other reasons. Many regard it as #InvasionDay as 26 January is the anniversary of the arrival of the British ‘first’ fleet in 1788.
Indigenous Australian playwright and actor Nakkiah Lui commented on Facebook:
There are a lot of things to like about the Lamb Ad – congrats to the creators and all involved for offering a more diverse and inclusive image of what Australia is and can be.
However, it's an ad and I wonder how people would respond to the ad if it started with a more accurate portrayal of the arrival of the Tall Ships. An arrival that started with the mass massacre of Aboriginal people, an arrival that resulted in years of government enforced genocide, segregation and oppression; would the end of that ad still result result in a celebration and a bbq? Would that ad still make you want to buy lamb then?
There is a campaign to #changethedate. You can even buy beer from Sparkke Change Beverage Company that supports moving the national day:
@MomentsAU Enuf said. Be a lion not a lamb on inclusivity. #sparkkechange #changethedate pic.twitter.com/Kq5LgeiUU5
— Sparkke Change (@sparkkechange) January 12, 2017
In a separate stoush (that's an Australian term for “argument”), a billboard advertisement commissioned by the Victoria state government promoting Australia Day was removed after threats against it appeared on social media. It showed two young women wearing hijabs. A campaign to restore the ad has raised over AUD $160,000 (USD $120,000):
A campaign to reinstate an #AustraliaDay melbourne billboard with two girls wearing hjiabs is gainting momentum. https://t.co/s6QUUknCZ0 pic.twitter.com/SvOg6Ss0sU
— AMES Australia (@AMES_Australia) January 20, 2017
The billboard's detractors took issue with Muslim Australians being the face of the country's national day. Muslims, who make up about 2% of Australia's population, can be targets of discrimination or prejudice in Australia. For example, Kim Vuga, a “Stop The Boats” campaigner and founder of a political party called Love Australia or Leave, tweeted in response to the billboard:
LOOKS LIKE THE #AUSTRALIA DAY MUSLIM #BILLBOARD IS BREEDING RAPIDLY WHEN AUSTRALIA DAY IS FUNDED BY THE LOONY LEFT APPEASERS !
TRAITORS! pic.twitter.com/oGqpw3NCxJ
— Kim Vuga (@Kimmaree13) January 25, 2017
A thorough exploration of the issues related to Australia Day is beyond the scope of one post. Chris Graham, editor of news magazine New Matilda, wrote about the Meat and Livestock Australia ad and touched on many of them from a progressive perspective. He is part of the Sparkke group. His views included:
In my kinder moments, I think there’s a lot to like about the ad. But only when I think about it purely as a piece of marketing and comedy, and ignore what the issue is really all about.
[…] A respectful national discussion about Australia Day is the only way forward.
His advice to Australians:
If you’re not sure how to feel about the ad, why not ask an Aboriginal person who they feel about it. And if you don’t know any Aboriginal people… well… that kinda should tell you something already.
Anyway, there is little doubt that there will be discussion of the ads around many Australia Day BBQs.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Meet the Young Ecuadorians Behind the First Kichwa-Language Radio Show in the US · Global Voices
Christina Noriega

Charlie Uruchima in Radio El Tambo Stereo in Bronx, Photo by Itzel Alejandra Martinez for Remezcla. Used with permission.
The following is a re-edited excerpt of a full article written by the author for Remezcla, and it can be read here.
Not far from South Bronx corner bodegas, street vendors, and the Yankee Stadium, stands an unremarkable tan apartment building. You wouldn’t know it from the outside, but in its weathered basement, is a radio studio and haven for New York City’s indigenous Ecuadorian Kichwas, a community of an estimated 10,000. In contrast to the Spanish, English, and even Spanglish spoken above ground, the ancestral language Kichwa fills the studio in the form of lyrics, poems, and debates.
Founded in 2014, Kichwa Hatari is the first radio show in the country to broadcast in Kichwa, a regional variant of Quechua and the language of the indigenous Ecuadorian Kichwas. Starting in the 1990s, indigenous communities from Ecuador have migrated to the United States, particularly to New York City and other urban centers, to escape an economic recession back home that has hit indigenous peoples the hardest. But despite their sizable population, Kichwas are often rendered invisible among Ecuadorians and the larger Latino population.
Kichwa Hatari, which translates to “raising Kichwa,” is about regaining visibility and a voice for indigenous Ecuadorians through online media, made for and by Kichwas. Every Friday afternoon, the hosts of Kichwa Hatari — Charlie Uruchima, Segundo Angamarca, Fabian Muenala, and Renzo Moyano — meet underground to discuss indigenous music, culture, language, and world views, as well as the concerns of the local community. Together, the four form a microcosm of the greater Kichwa community, representing different generations, backgrounds, and interests — a show “ about expressing oneself and not being afraid to do it”:
We’re motivating people with the program […] We’ve seen some changes. Many of us were afraid to state whom we are, but now, in the streets, in trains, in restaurants, people are speaking in Kichwa. Women dress in traditional clothes. There’s not that fear anymore.

author: Christina Noriega


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Russian Police Lose an Easy Way to Trap ‘Internet Extremists’ · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Image by Kevin Rothrock
For years, Russian police have turned to Vkontakte, the country’s most popular social network, for an easy supply of potential criminal suspects. Hunting down thieves and murderers is difficult, dangerous business, and so it should come as no surprise that state investigators have consistently prosecuted “Internet extremists,” instead.
In addition to its enormous user base, Vkontakte appeals to Russian police because the network consistently complies with law-enforcement agencies’ requests for information about the identity and location of individual users — data that is vital to bringing charges against people for sharing supposedly illegal content online.
On Tuesday, Jan. 24, by revising one of its default privacy settings, Vkontakte significantly reduced the number of shared photographs publicly visible on individual account pages, according to the news website TJournal. The change applies to “saved” images, which is a feature offered on Vkontakte that allows users to bookmark photographs shared by other users. Until Tuesday, anything someone “saved” was added to an album that anyone could see — exposing many users in ways they never realized.
Vkontakte’s new policy hides these photo albums from everyone except the users who create them. Individuals can still share their “saved” albums publicly, if they revert their privacy settings manually.
If you think this change sounds trivial, you might consult Evgeny Kort, the 20-year-old Muscovite convicted of extremism last November and sentenced to a year in prison. Luckily for Kort, an appellate court later reduced his punishment to a fine of 200,000 rubles (about $3,400), but it’s still a steep penalty, considering that Kort’s crime was that he “saved” a cartoon depicting Russian nationalist Maxim “the Hatcher” Martsinkevich attacking famed and long-deceased poet Alexander Pushkin.
Kort says he never intended to disseminate the image, but it was displayed publicly in his “saved” photo album on Vkontakte, which Russia’s judicial system considered proof that he sought to propagate illegal hate speech.
Vkontakte’s new privacy settings could have repercussions in Belarus, as well, where the network also has millions of users. Earlier this month, a woman in Belarus was convicted of distributing pornography because she “saved” a photograph showing two people having sex. The woman, Diana Selvanova, says she “saved” the image absentmindedly, while using a mobile device, without even realizing that it depicted a man’s penis.
For her criminal deed, Selvanova got a two-year suspended sentence, but that’s not even the worst of it: she also lost her job and local child protective services have warned her family and threatened to take away her six-year-old son.
Had Vkontakte revised the privacy settings on its “saved” photo albums a year ago, it’s unlikely that police would have ever discovered, let alone prosecuted, individuals like Evgeny Kort and Diana Selvanova.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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In Moldova, Civil Society Stands Up to ‘Big Brother’ Law · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Civil society organizations from Moldova and Romania organized a public debate in October to warn about the dangers of the “Big Brother” Law. Photo by LRCM, used with permission.
Moldovan legislators are debating changes to a proposed “Big Brother” Law that civil society groups and human rights standard bearers say would enable surveillance and censorship.
Formally known as Draft Law no. 161 on Amendments and Supplements to Certain Legislative Acts, the law would broaden the obligations of telecommunications service providers to collect and retain metadata from citizens’ communication activities, increase other types of digital surveillance, and enable authorities to block websites “containing information that urges hatred or ethnic, racial or religious discrimination, to hostility or violence.”
European Digital Rights, the leading pan-European organization for protection of digital freedoms, commented on the draft law, arguing that the legislative process on the bill should not continue “without a comprehensive analysis of the necessity and proportionality of this excessive interference with the fundamental rights” and ensuring that the law is consistent with international human rights doctrine.
Human rights lawyer Pavel Grecu warned via Twitter:
If the Moldovan Big Brother draft law will be adopted it will be the official end of the hope to build a democracy in Republic of #Moldova
— Pavel Grecu (@pavel_grecu) April 3, 2016
Grecu explained that Moldovan judicial system is unable to protect citizens against abusive surveillance, citing official data that judges approve 98% of prosecutors requests for intercepts of electronic communications.
Nadejda Hriptievschi, the program director of the Legal Resources Centre from Moldova (LRCM) stated that they are concerned about the draft law because it contains several provisions that propose introduction of “absolutely unjustified” mass surveillance measures provisions. She also noted that provisions regarding removal of objectionable content could theoretically lead to blocking Facebook, Youtube or Twitter in the Republic of Moldova or “sites inconvenient to the government / establishment.”
Nadejda Hriptievschi, photo by LRCM, used with permission.
The law entered the Moldovan Parliament in April 2016. Its adoption was postponed after several civil society groups called for further revisions of the draft law intended to bring it in line with international standards. This would include a review by the Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law, who provide constitutional assistance in Central and Eastern Europe.
In October of 2016 the concerned civil society organizations organized a public round table with MPs and advocating pushing back against blanket surveillance.
In November the LRCM published recommendations concerning the “Big Brother” Law, prepared in cooperation with Bogdan Manolea, the Executive Director of Association for Technology and Internet (ApTI) from neighboring EU member Romania. The group recommended rejecting the proposed articles that would lead to mass surveillance measures, undertaking a detailed examination of legislation that limits the fundamental rights, and waiving the obligations to “stop“ access to web pages.
On December 10 the Commission issued a joint opinion on the draft law identifying number of issues the authorities need to address in order for it to meet the applicable European standards.
Since Moldova is a member of the Council of Europe, the parliament should either amend the draft law in line with the recommendations by the Venice Commission and civil society organizations, or send it back to the government to come back with a new proposal.


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Netizen Report: Trump Administration Kicks Off With Media Gags, Anti-Protest Measures · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

An anti-Trump rally in New York City, November 2016. Photo by Mathias Wasik via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Less than a week into Donald Trump’s presidency, state legislators have introduced a smattering of anti-protest bills, four federal agencies have been placed under a media gag, and Trump staff have lambasted media over their coverage of the inauguration and anti-Trump protests last week.
On January 24, an anonymous source from within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told reporters that, along with other federal agencies, EPA staff had been ordered to decline all press requests and to stop posting on their blogs and social media feeds until further notice. The EPA was also instructed to remove climate change-related content from its website.
The Department of Interior received a similar order coinciding with a flurry of activity on Twitter accounts associated with the National Park Service, which falls under the Department’s jurisdiction. Following the Trump administration’s social media ban, the official Twitter account for Badlands National Park in South Dakota posted a series of tweets citing scientifically-proven climate change data, which were deleted shortly thereafter. Since January 24, an account called @AltNatParkSer that claims to have been launched by park service employees but has since been handed over to a group of journalists and climate scientists, has swiftly accumulated over one million followers. The account is mostly tweeting climate change data, interspersed with critiques of the new president.
Trump directly attacked the media in his first publicly broadcast speech, in which he addressed CIA employees and other intelligence officials on national security issues, including allegations of Russian hacking of party servers and voting machines. In the speech, he described the media as being “among the most dishonest human beings on Earth.”
This kind of antagonism may leave reporters feeling uncertain about how to cover Trump, especially for those who fear that the White House may cut communication with media outlets altogether.
National Public Radio, a liberal-leaning broadcast service that depends on public funding, has pledged not to use the word “lie” to describe untrue statements uttered by the president, reasoning that a lie is defined as “a false statement made with intent to deceive,” and that they cannot prove (in most cases) that Trump’s false statements are intended to deceive the public. Reporter Mary Louise Kelly was criticized by listeners after she refrained from using the word in a recent broadcast.
Meanwhile, as both Trump staff and conservative media organizations cast doubt on the reported size of protest crowds that gathered in over 600 cities across the country, state legislators have ushered in new bills that would infringe rights to protest by raising fines for blocking roads in Minnesota and North Dakota. The bill introduced in North Dakota would absolve motorists who hit or kill protesters standing or lying down in roadways, if they do so accidentally.
A response to the week’s developments (and a useful segue for our Netizen Report) came from Lebanese political commentator Karl Sharro who says that the US “looks like an Arab country right now.” In a satirical piece for Politico, he wrote:
From blaming the press for engaging in secret conspiracies to undermine him to threatening their access to his White House palace to refusing to take questions from certain reporters, President Trump reminds us of several of our own leaders. In fact, an Arab leader complaining about CNN coverage is pretty much a staple of our political life…The not-so-veiled threats by the president and Mr. Spicer to the media are very much in the spirit of Arab governance.
Citizens in the predominantly Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest Cameroon have been without Internet access for over a week, after months of protests concerning the marginalization of English speakers in the predominantly French-speaking West African country. Protests have led to mass arrests and what the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called “excessive force” used by Cameroonian law enforcement against protesters. The Internet shutdowns follow the arrests of two prominent Anglophone advocates and civil society organizations’ calls for a “ghost town” action, in which citizens stayed home from work and school and otherwise refrained from public activities.
Systematic trolling on Twitter has become a top concern among journalists and human rights defenders in Mexico. Amnesty International released a dispatch this week from Mexico City, where a leading expert on the issue described how a “repentant troll operator” approached him and confessed that she was paid the equivalent of USD $2500 per hour to run a Twitter accounts that generated a counter protest in the face of citizen demanding justice for the 43 students who disappeared in Ayotzinapa in 2014.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced it will require all virtual private network service providers to obtain government approval if they wish to continue operating. This will render illegal most of China’s VPNs, which many in the country use to circumvent the Great Firewall. The Ministry’s move is part of a 14-month “clean-up” of Internet access services, according to CNN, that will run through March 31, 2018.
Russian online wallet service Yandex.Money will stop allowing transfers of money to individuals for “political purposes.” Critics see the move as an attempt to stop opposition politician Alexei Navalny from using the service to crowdfund his 2018 presidential campaign. Once the policy goes into effect, the only remaining way Russians will be able to donate to the campaign will be through PayPal.
Hardliners in Iran are pressuring President Hassan Rouhani to block access to the messaging app Telegram ahead of May 2017 presidential elections. Rouhani has not yet responded to the request, but resisted similar pressure approaching the February 2016 parliamentary elections. Officials have cracked down heavily on Telegram channels and users recently, arresting 32 people in Hormozgan province for allegedly using the channels to “spread lies, disturb public order, create fear and promote immoral and anti-cultural material.”
On 19 January, a Kuwaiti court acquitted activist and Twitter user Sara al-Drees of insulting the country’s ruler. Al-Drees was tried for comments she made on Twitter about a pardon she received for a previous jail sentence she was serving, and for insulting the Emir.
UAE academic and economist Nasser Bin Ghaith is suffering serious medical problems in jail, where he has been denied medical treatment while in solitary confinement, and was refused access to winter clothes. He has been held since August 2015, for tweeting critically about Egyptian authorities’ 2013 violent crackdown on protesters gathering at Rabaa Square. His trial has been postponed to February 22.
Algerian journalist Hassan Bouras was given a six-month suspended sentence on accusations of “contempt of court, offense and defamation” for investigating corruption allegations in the town of El Bayadh. He was released from jail after his sentencing, and plans to appeal the decision.
Afef Abrougui, Renata Avila, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Weiping Li, Leila Nachawati and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Puerto Rico Celebrates Political Prisoner Oscar López Rivera’s Release · Global Voices
Ana Gabriela Calderón

Image by Kike Estrada. Used with permission.
Jubilant celebrations began the same day that Oscar López Rivera, Puerto Rico's longest held political prisoner, had his sentence commuted by former President Barack Obama on January 17.
López Rivera was convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1981 and sentenced to 55 years in federal prison. He has spent 35 years incarcerated, 12 of those in solitary confinement.
José López Rivera, Oscar's brother living in Chicago, affirmed that this was a special day for Puerto Rico, which is a US territory. He expressed his amazement for all the support that his brother has received from different sectors in various parts of the world. The movement to demand the release of López Rivera attracted politicians, activists and artists of diverse political positions and backgrounds, from pro-independence supporters, like US Congressman Luis Gutierrez, and pro-statehood advocates like Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló.
Campamento contra la Junta, a grassroots organization of activists who established a campsite outside the Federal Courthouse in the capital city of San Juan as a symbol of civil disobedience against the Fiscal Control Board that the US recently imposed on Puerto Rico, were among several groups that documented the celebrations that took place on the streets of San Juan with traditional Puerto Rican music.
People celebrating at the Placita de Santurce in San Juan the night of the announcement by the press. Photo by Rafael A. Ortiz Mendoza. Used with permission.
López Rivera's release occurred only two days before the annual San Sebastián Street Festival, and San Juan major Carmen Yulín quickly announced that the city will be preparing a special event for his arrival in May. The San Juan major also assured that López Rivera will be given a position in the municipality as a community organizer, and that his release represents a day of justice and dignity for the people of Puerto Rico.
In the US, however, not all reactions to his sentence being commuted were positive. US conservative political commentator Glenn Beck expressed his disapproval, and several news outlets have referred to López Rivera as a “terrorist.”
López Rivera was convicted of seditious conspiracy due to his links to the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN-Armed Forces of National Liberation), which was a group that carried out several bombings in the US in the 1970s and early 1980s to advocate Puerto Rico's independence from the US. López Rivera maintains he was never involved in any violence, and he was never directly accused of plotting the bombings.
He has also never renounced his support for Puerto Rico's independence.
Clarissa López Rivera, Oscar's daughter, responded to her father's critics, stating, “My father does not have any blood on his hands”, adding that he was awarded a Bronze Medal for his service in the US Army during the Vietnam War and that he was one of Chicago's most dearest community organizers.
Historian Jorge Nieves Rivera published in the digital magazine 80grados a brief essay on the first political prisoners in Puerto Rico under Spanish rule in the 19th century, establishing parallels between them and López Rivera. On October 1896, 27 active members of secret societies that plotted to separate Puerto Rico from Spain were arrested. The major of Cadiz in Spain ordered their imprisonment, but after a year, they were pardoned. Nieves Rivera writes:
Como maestro de historia se me hizo inevitable comparar y contrastar estos prisioneros políticos puertorriqueños finiseculares con el prisionero político Oscar López Rivera. Son sobrados los paralelismos en estas dos historias, tanto en los prisioneros políticos de Arroyo como en Oscar López. En ambos sucesos encontramos que tanto los presos políticos de Cádiz como López Rivera pertenecían a sociedades secretas que conspiraban con fines separatistas, fueron sentenciados por los mismos cargos y enviados a cárceles extranjeras a cumplir sus condenas. Por otro lado, contrastan los elementos de la condena entre ambos casos. A ninguno de los prisioneros políticos por los sucesos de Arroyo se les sentenció a más de diez años de prisión, ni por los cargos de conspiración para la rebelión, ni por los cargos de ataques a las fuerzas armadas.
As a history teacher, it was inevitable for me to compare and contrast these turn-of-the-century Puerto Rican political prisoners with Oscar López Rivera. There are many parallels between these two stories, with the political prisoners [from the town of] Arroyo and with Oscar López. In both cases, we see that both the Cadiz prisoners and López Rivera belonged to secret societies with separatist goals, faced the same charges and were sent to foreign prisons. On the other hand, the sentences were different. None of the prisoners from Arroyo were sentenced to more than 10 years of prison, and they did not face any charges related to seditious conspiracy, or charges related to attacking the armed forces.
Global Voices has been following Oscar López Rivera's story and the movement calling for his release for various years. Stay tuned for more details regarding his anticipated return to Puerto Rico in May.

author: Ana Gabriela Calderón


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Russian Developers Launch ‘Airbnb for Homophobes’ · Global Voices
Aliide Naylor

Photo: Pixabay
A Kazan-based website called “MyLinker” is stirring controversy in Russia with a service that supposedly calculates the number of LGBT persons in cities around the country, in an effort to help people evade anti-discrimination policies by homestay networks like Airbnb.
In Moscow, for example, the website says there are “173,851 gays,” and warns visitors, “Oh my! That's a lot of gays! Danger!” while offering help in “fending off the gays.”
Scrolling further, visitors to MyLinker are told that “AirBnb cleaned up and deleted all the owners who refused to rent to homosexuals,” before getting the sales pitch: the homophobes re-registered with MyLinker, the website claims.
“You probably don't want to cradle your child in a bed where a bunch of gays were just frolicking about,” MyLinker says.
Screenshot from locator.mylinker.ru
Search a smaller city on the website, however, and you get different results. The city of Izhevsk is supposedly “just a little gay,” though visitors are still invited to register their email addresses with MyLinker to receive discounts on local accommodations.
The website's questionable methodology for “measuring gays” relies on tracking the number of online requests for pornography in a city and compares it to the number of Internet searches for gay porn, and then applies the differential to the city's total population and “calculates” the LGBT population.
In an interview with the tabloid Life on Tuesday, a representative for MyLinker said the service is a response to backlash against anti-discrimination policies like Airbnb's ban on refusing to rent to members of the LGBT community. “Denying gay people is fine, if we're talking about the freedom of choice,” Rodion Kadyrov told Life.
A woman named Maria Andreeva disagrees, and has already launched a petition on Change.org to ban MyLinker as discriminatory, also arguing that the website's “gay population measurements” are also probably wildly inaccurate. At the point of this piece's publication, just 650 people had signed the petition.

author: Aliide Naylor


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A Russian Pilot Fights to Keep His Aging Aircraft From the Scrapheap · Global Voices
Victoria Vziatysheva

Photo by Victoria Vziatysheva
A longer version of this story first appeared in Russian on the website Bumaga on Dec. 29, 2016. The translation below was written by the text's original author.
A huge passenger plane stands in the corner of a small military airdrome on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. Its engines are hidden under a thick canopy, and you can make out an “Aeroflot” logo on its side.
The logo is just a sticker, however — a reminder of the aircraft's past.
Today, this plane — a rare passenger modification of an Ilyushin Il-14 — has no role in Russia's aviation industry. The aircraft hasn't even left its tiny airfield in years.
As I visit the airdrome, a tall, gray-haired man wearing a dark jacket pushes a step-ladder to the plane, and then makes his way up. This is retired pilot Alexander Poddubny, the owner.
Now 66 years old, Poddubny has spent nearly a quarter of a century fighting to keep his Il-14, refusing to scrap the plane and battling repo men trying to collect the aircraft as collateral on his enormous personal debt. In December, bailiffs even showed up again to seize the plane.
Photo by Victoria Vziatysheva
“Everything began with this aircraft. It was produced as a flagship in passenger aviation,” Poddubny tells me, making his way to the cockpit. It’s spacious inside the plane. Almost all the seats have been removed, but the atmosphere is still cozy, somehow. The floor is covered with soft carpet, the cabin’s walls are lined with redwood, and a leopard-skin pattern adorns the pilots’ seats.
“We do everything they’ll let us do. We repair it, repaint it, take care of it — so the plane won’t feel neglected. He’s a picky little guy, after all,” Poddubny tells me without cracking a smile.
In all the world, there are only three remaining Ilyushin Il-14s still capable of flight, and Poddubny’s plane is probably the only one that’s still legally allowed in the air, according to Sergei Fedorov, one of Poddubny’s friends.
“The uniqueness of this plane lies in its documents,” Fedorov says. “Alexander keeps it for the history. It’s like he and the plane are one. Of course, this isn’t about making money. We just need to save it — like a [religious] icon.”
The Il-14 was manufactured in Dresden beginning in 1959, and first used in Romania. In the late 1970s, models started arriving in the USSR, where Il-14s carried cargo across Siberia and the Russian Far East, until it was eventually decommissioned.
In 1993, Poddubny discovered the last remaining Il-14 wasting away in an aircraft factory in Ulan-Ude.
“Of all the planes standing there, this one had survived,” Poddubny tells me, studying the aircraft with love.
Photo by Victoria Vziatysheva
At the time, he was a pilot working for Aeroflot. Poddubny decided to rescue the aircraft, buying it for an amateur flying club that taught teenagers the theory and practice of piloting. “We were flying this plane all over Siberia. Any money that we earned we invested right back into teaching new students and buying fuel and spare parts,” he says.
Eventually, however, financial problems brought an end to the school, and the Il-14 remained with Poddubny.
In the early 2000s, he flew to St. Petersburg, where some aircraft enthusiasts planned to launch a museum. Poddubny parked his plane at one of the local airdromes, but the museum project suddenly fizzled out, and the airdrome was handed over to General Motors as a parking zone.
As a result, Poddubny's cherished aircraft was trapped behind rows of cars for several years. Later, in 2011, he managed at last to move the plane to Gorelovo, where it hasn't budged since.
Unfortunately for Poddubny, while his Il-14 gathered dust, Russian tax laws changed. No longer belonging to the amateur flying club, the plane was now individual property, incurring taxes that Poddubny couldn’t afford to pay.
Every year, the dual-engine plane cost Poddubny 475,000 rubles (about $8,000) in taxes — an especially great burden, given the plane’s legal status, which barred Poddubny from using it for commercial purposes to earn extra cash. As a “general aviation aircraft,” the Il-14 was only allowed in the air for recreational purposes.
Poddubny’s tax debt grew over the years, reaching almost 3 million rubles (more than $50,000), until the government formally seized the plane and forbid him from flying it.
Every month, the state subtracts almost half of Poddubny’s pension payments to service his tax debt, though it doesn’t come close to paying off what he owes.
Poddubny still spends what he has left on maintaining the plane, making repairs and scheduling special commissions to prolong the Il-14’s flying certificate.
“I told them I would find a way to earn money on it. I said I’m going to fly and I’m going to pay. But no, they just wanted to seize it,” Poddubny says.
Photo by Victoria Vziatysheva
Talking about what he’ll do once he finishes the repairs and gets his plane back, he tells me all the ways he could use it to make money again: dropping parachutists, carrying passengers along tourist routes, performing at airshows. He’s written it all down, calculating the budget, in little digital brochures.
Neither the airlines nor the authorities have showed any interest in financing Poddubny’s projects, however, and he says he’s unable to attract foreign investors while his aircraft is still locked up.
“It’s much easier for them to scrap it for the metal and come away with a few kopecks. No more plane that way, and no more Poddubny,” he mutters angrily.
Photo by Victoria Vziatysheva
Back in the plane’s cockpit, he looks down at the old, still fully functional dashboard. Periodically, he brings in inspectors to verify the equipment’s functionality. The safety commission has to send older specialists; the younger inspectors have no idea how to test, let alone how to use, the now ancient equipment.
“It doesn’t matter how old a plane is, whether it’s 5 or 30 years,” Poddubny says proudly. “What actually matters is how it’s treated.”
When he’s done showing me the plane, we walk away and Poddubny jokes that soon he and his friends will fly down to the Black Sea and go for a swim. Behind us, though, the aircraft is still rusting in the rain.

author: Victoria Vziatysheva


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Better Late Than Never? Trinidad & Tobago Wins 2008 Olympic Gold After Jamaican Athlete Found Guilty of Doping · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidad and Tobago's 4x100m relay team after their race at the 2012 London Olympics. Photo by Citizen59, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Trinidad and Tobago's track and field relay team will soon have another gold medal — nearly nine years after they ran the race.
The stunning news that Nesta Carter — part of the four-man relay team that powered through to win gold in the 4x100m event at the in Beijing 2008 Olympics — tested positive for a banned substance, will result in Jamaica being stripped of its top spot, and second-place finisher Trinidad and Tobago being awarded the gold instead. In dominoes style, Japan will now be given the silver medal in that event and Brazil will take the bronze.
Satirical sports and politics website Wired868 took up the baton early on, saying:
It started off as a sprint but ended up as a marathon. On 22 August 2008, eight nations and 32 athletes contested the men’s 4×100 metre final in Beijing, China.
And, on 25 January 2017, Mr Live Wire can now reveal the impending result.
The winner, with an amazing time of eight years, six months, three days and 38.06 seconds… Trinidad and Tobago! Bawh!
On Facebook, the Late O'Clock news chimed in with a clever caption:
Meme posted by satirical site The Late O'Clock News; widely shared on Facebook.
At first, even after the International Olympic Committee‘s (IOC) doping findings were announced, the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) remained conservative about what they could mean:
The Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) has not at this time received any official communication from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in respect of the Trinidad and Tobago Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Men’s 4 x 100m Relay Team.
It is therefore premature of the TTOC to speculate on any upgrading of the Trinidad and Tobago Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Men’s 4 x 100m Relay Team medals from Silver to Gold. The IOC has its protocols and procedures in respect of medal upgrades. […]
It is always a disappointing and an unfortunate situation when an athlete from any country is embroiled in such a situation and, more so a Caribbean athlete.
The IOC soon released the full decision on its website, which made it clear that “the Jamaican team is disqualified; […] the corresponding medals, medallist pins and diplomas are withdrawn and shall be returned; [and] the IAAF [International Association of Athletics Federations] is requested to modify the results of the above-mentioned event accordingly and to consider any further action within its own competence”.
After that, Trinidad's Richard Thompson publicly spoke about the issue on behalf of his teammates:
A few months ago we got the news that we may be upgraded, and this morning we woke up to messages confirming that we are now, in fact Olympic Gold medalists. Every athlete works hard to cross the line first, every athlete strives to stand at the top of the podium and hear their anthem play and we all want to come back home to the fanfare but unfortunately, this is not our fairytale story.
However, […] we still hold our Jamaican brothers in high regard and cannot/will not judge your unfortunate circumstances for we do not know the intricate details of what transpired.
Thompson also took the opportunity to call out broken promises made to the team after a similar situation happened after the 2012 London Olympics, when their medals were upgraded to silver:
There was a function held for us by the president, […] then there was a follow up convo that we had with [sports] Minister Smith regarding retroactive financial compensation.
We were promised in July that something would be done to assure that we were rewarded for our efforts and representing T&T with integrity. There were media releases and pictures taken… and then nothing! […]
To make matters worse, in trying to prepare for the Rio Olympics, we endured an immense struggle to receive elite funding, which was intended to assist us with our Olympic preparation. To this date, I still have not received funding despite several attempts to coordinate with the minister, his assistant and the ministry officials.
I mention many of the things above—not to sound bitter or ungrateful for some of the luxuries afforded to us in the past—but to illustrate to the people, the obstacles that we face in order to perform against the best in the world.
While Trinbagonians were happy for the team and sensitive to its struggles, they were also genuinely disappointed for the Jamaican athletes who were negatively affected by Carter's rule breaking — particularly Usain Bolt, who is revered across the region. Facebook user Leslie-Ann Boiselle explained:
There are opposing views on the issue, one of which that it's not fair that Usain Bolt should lose his medal because of what someone else did.
People this is a team event – when one goes down they all go down. That's just the way the cookie crumbles. You agree to abide by the rules when you chose to participate.
I'm sorry but I for one am not going to support rewarding wrong behavior. It is a pity that the other Jamaican team members have become collateral damage.
But our empathy for the Jamaican team should not cloud or outweigh our obligation to support doing what is right.[…]
Bolt's achievements have been recorded in the annals of athletics and no one can take that away.
Rather than lament for the Jamaican team, I prefer to focus all my energy on lauding my Trinbagonian athletes who ran a ‘clean’ race.