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Global Voices Author Nwachukwu Egbunike Unveils Debut Collection of Poems · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Global Voices author and writer Nwachukwu Egbunike will unveil his new book Blazing Moon today in Ibadan, Nigeria:
Join us as we unveil Nwachukwu Egbunike’s debut collection of poems Blazing Moon. Egbunike is a blogger and essayist.
In commemoration of the 2015 World Poetry Day celebration, the March edition of ARTMOSPHERE will also play host to Dami Ajayi, a medical doctor and author of the poetry collection, Clinical Blues.
Both poets will read from their collections and discuss the creative process, governance, political, as well as social issues. There will also be book signings and music performances by D’Jazz Band at the event.
Blazing Moon is a book that draws you out, strips you naked, and asks you to confront yourself, define yourself and know who you are. There is no room for quibbles, for middle-of-the road stances: you must yourself pick up the gauntlet and fight your own battle of honour, of faith, of self. In this you will confront striking contrasts that paint human follies in the garb of lifting sanctity: thirsty, loves the drought; hungry, loves the famine; the contents though spilled, yet never exhausted. You would be telling yourself, I know a story like that.


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‘Egypt Needs More than Investment, Egypt Needs Individualism’ · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

Egyptian protesters praying, photo taken by Jonathan Rashad in February 2012. Published under creative commons license.
I remember once, as a young child burning with nationalistic fervour ignited by anthems and dramatic war adaptions where sacrificing one's life for the country was portrayed as the highest good, I was chanting “May we die so Egypt may live”. I also remember being somewhat disgruntled when a family friend looked at me disapprovingly and remarked that we should instead strive to live for Egypt, because without us there is no Egypt, we make up the building blocks of the country. Far from the common romanticised ideas of nationalistic self-sacrifice, this rare bit of reason stuck with me up until now – Sara Labib
Earlier this month, the Egyptian government held a three-day economic conference in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. Egypt signed investment deals worth more than $138 billion during the first two days of the conference. The deals should help foster economic growth, which should, in turn, help stabilise the country. During the conference, the Egyptian government unveiled plans to build a new capital for the country, a project that would cost $45 billion and take five to seven years to complete.
National newspapers dedicated special coverage to the conference. One writer described the conference as a great victory for the Egyptians. Another writer stated the main reason behind the success of the conference:
لكن الأهم من كل هذه العوامل كان التفاف الشعب المصرى حول قيادته الراهنة، ودرجة التماسك الواضحة التى أبداها فى مواجهة الهجمات الإرهابية الشرسة والدنيئة.
The most important factor was the unity of the Egyptian people behind their current leader, and the degree of cohesion they had in the face of fierce terrorist attacks.
Such calls for unity behind national goals and putting the interests of each individual aside for the sake of the nation moved Sara Labib to write a blog post titled ‘Egypt needs more than investment, Egypt needs individualism’. Sara has a degree in economic and international law, and writes about Egyptian matters on her blog, Tabula Sara:
Before the revolution, and more so thereafter, Egyptians were fed the idea that the interest of the country requires for all to forsake their own personal interests and stand together behind the common good. This is a prevalent theme in a discourse completely lacking in respect for individualism and oblivious to its importance as a conditio sine qua non of progress in a country which has long been plagued by collectivist notions, whether on a societal, religious or political level. Both revolutionaries and those they opposed have this dangerous flaw in common.
Until this very moment, many revolutionaries believe that the failure of the revolution is due to the fact that former participants in the January 25 protests, left the ranks in order to seek their own self-interest. While the establishment of a democratic system was the purported goal of the 2011 uprising, many who took part in it found the idea of political parties a negative divisive factor rather than a necessity for the functioning of a pluralistic democracy. Diverging political ideologies were considered a threat to the elusive unity .. The unity they spoke of was one that negated the individual and put a vague idea of the revolutionary common good above the very real and diverging interests of the population of the country, among whom the revolutionary forces themselves. In such a climate, anyone who dared break the so-called revolutionary rank was considered a traitor, as if to echo the slogan I chanted as a child: we all must die as individuals so the revolution may live.
The same phenomenon appeared and continues to appear on a larger scale. Fired on by state propaganda, ignorant media and statist political forces, an atmosphere is created whereby anyone who adopts an opinion differing from or opposing the official stance, is considered a traitor. Political language is rife in mentions of the need to put aside personal interests and to stand together in face of a common enemy or in support of the government, purportedly the one authority which has the country's interests at heart, in fact, the one force which actually knows what the “country's interests” are.
In the same post Labib referred to a recently published Op-ed, wherein Amr Abdel Razek, who writes for the Egyptian news outlet, DotMasr, stated that what is needed for the future capital to work, is for everyone entering it to leave his or her own ideas at the doors. The capital's doors should not open to anyone who does not fully submit to its special laws or who comes to market personal ideas in the city.
Labib wrote:
This new capital, which symbolises a new vision of Egypt, sounds like a totalitarian dystopia where all must submit and forsake any notion of personal interests, diverging ideas or individualist discourse. Unfortunately, the author's opinion expressed above is echoed by many.
Ironically, this view is expressed against a background of Egypt marketing itself as the hub for investment and economic progress where self-interest is the driving force. Yet a country where the notion of capitalism is still treated as the plague by many and businessmen pursuing profit are considered evil can hardly be a hub for anything other than the failing economy it has been experiencing for a while. Of course, one must not confuse self-interest with corruption nor capitalism with crony capitalism, which is inevitable so long as the state plays a big economic role. A free market is a place for innovation which is driven by competition which, in turn, is the result of diverging interests. This, along with transparency and rule of law, is what attracts investment.
She concluded her post:
It is time public discourse in Egypt changed, not just in an economic context, where the notion of a free market not inhibited by the government is yet to properly find a place, but also in general. There is no Egypt without the individual Egyptians which make up its population. Instead of sweeping diversity under the rug, Egyptians must enter the difficult stage of learning to face and deal with their differences and consequently enjoying the advantages of pluralism. This is what sustains stability and ensures growth based on innovation and technological advancement. No state can create such a climate, it is up to individual citizens pursuing their self-interest in the context of a true free market of goods and ideas to shape “Egypt The Future”. This is the lesson the government should heed if it wants Egypt to have any future at all.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Tarek Amr


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Giving Voice and Hope to the ‘Forgotten’ Victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The coastal town of Estancia was hit by two disasters in one day on November 2013: Typhoon Haiyan and an oil spill from a power barge. Photo from the Facebook page of Rep. Tonchi Tinio
A group of volunteers and citizen journalists have been documenting the recovery and struggles of villagers in the town of Estancia, Iloilo Province, after typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Yolanda) left a trail of destruction throughout the region in 2013.
Haiyan was the strongest typhoon in recorded history and killed more than 6,000 people in the Philippines, mainly on the islands of Samar and Leyte. Haiyan also hit other islands such as Iloilo but the plight of the victims there is seldom mentioned in mainstream media. Most relief groups and foreign governments are focused on providing assistance to Leyte, the ‘ground zero’ of Haiyan; while badly hit towns on other islands like Estancia received little attention or help in the aftermath of the typhoon disaster.
Estancia, located in northern Iloilo, is a fish trading center. When Haiyan struck the region on November 8, 2013, it almost wiped out the fishing boats in Estancia. It also damaged a power barge which spilled more than 800,000 liters of bunker fuel into the water. Unknown to many Filipinos, two disasters — Haiyan and the oil spill — hit Estancia in a single day.
Haiyan destroyed coastal villages in Estancia. Photo from the Facebook page of Citizens’ Disaster Response Center.
Government assistance arrived but it came too late and proved too little. During the waiting period, residents organized themselves and campaigned for the gathering and distribution of relief. Church groups, schools, and non-government organizations from Manila and other parts of the country responded by collecting donations and other forms of assistance and giving it directly to Estancia residents.
A year after the Haiyan tragedy, many were still complaining about the failure of the government to rehabilitate the damaged schools, health centers, and houses in Estancia. Many residents were also not compensated for the oil spill disaster which destroyed their livelihoods.
The struggle of Estancia residents for justice and their initiative to provide relief to typhoon and oil spill victims, are documented by the Voices of Hope project, a Rising Voices grantee in 2014.
Ma. Alejane Carbajosa, a Voices of Hope volunteer, articulated the demand of Estancia residents for justice during the first anniversary of Haiyan:
Estanciahanons still cries for help. Oil spill victims are still craving for justice. But the government is blind, deaf and heartless regarding the sentiments of its people. How could the government let its people suffer from pain and agony?
To help residents cope with post-disaster trauma, several activities were organized such as theater workshops and medical missions. A ‘walk for justice’ gathered more than 5,000 people last November and called on the government to fulfill its pledge of providing relief and cash assistance to Estancia residents. Voices of Hope documented these activities, including the disaster preparation efforts initiated by local organizations in the town.
During the ‘walk for justice’, residents carried banners which read ‘rise up for abundant life’.
Medical mission in Estancia. Photo from the Facebook page of Nona Prieto.
Fearing a coming storm as strong as Haiyan, residents troop into a school which was temporarily converted into an evacuation center.
Residents are transported to an evacuation center in preparation for a coming storm.
Community outreach involves cultural performances, discussion of climate change impact, and feeding sessions.
Estancia continues to suffer from neglect and the government has failed to completely clean up the oil spill close to the town. But the residents there proved that even when government is slow giving aid, they can unite and effectively mobilize to gather assistance from other sources.
The photo below symbolizes the struggle of Estancia residents: Solidarity is a rainbow that inspires people to overcome the tragedies that threatened to destroy their lives.

author: Mong Palatino


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How One Fukushima Family Is Moving on Four Years After the Great East Japan Earthquake · Global Voices
Izumi Mihashi

“After Tsunami at Haramachi, Minami-soma, Fukushima, Japan.” Photo courtesy Flickr user Jun Teramoto.
March 11 marked the fourth anniversary of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Nearly 20,000 people died as a result of the massive temblor and resulting tidal wave, and nearly 230,000 people were forced to relocate.
A Japanese blogger, Takayoshi Saito, has described in detail how the disaster affected the life of his youngest sister and her family. They used to live near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that itself became the scene of yet another large scale disaster following the earthquake and tsunami.
The following post was translated and republished on Global Voices with permission from the author.
‘My Sister Built a New House With the TEPCO Settlement, Soma City is Building a New Municipal Hall’
Soma City in Fukushima Prefecture is my home town. My youngest sister and her family used to live very close to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the township of Okuma. Her husband used to work at Fukushima Daiichi as an employee at a security company, a TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc.) subsidiary in charge of facility management.
Four years ago, on March 11, 2011, the situation at Fukushima Daiichi got so frantic that no one cared about the security of the facilities anymore. So my youngest sister and her husband decided to evacuate from Okuma town with their 1-year-old daughter.
I was in Tokyo, and had no luck when I tried to call my sister and my parents in Soma City. I worried about them so much, but there was nothing I could do so I killed time by tweeting stuff like “Ohhhhhhhh, the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is comiiiiiiiing!!!!“
Only once I was able to talk with my parents in Soma over the phone. They gave me an update saying, “Our house is fine. Your youngest sister and her family have evacuated to Tamura City in Fukushima prefecture. Your sister's father-in-law is staying in Okuma because he is a volunteer firefighter.”
After this conversation, I watched TV and learned the evacuation zone had been expanded and Tamura was now included in it.
Then I lost the whereabouts of my sister and her family. I worried if they could evacuate from Tamura, but I couldn't get hold of her. The only thing I could do was browse the Internet. I read polarized discussion between two groups — one which was overly stressing the safety of the situation at Fukushima Daiichi and the other which was highly alarmed by the danger of the situation.
When I was browsing online, I discovered that the first relief supplies to arrive in Soma were coffins. Soma Girls’ High School, which I had been so keen to attend when I was a high school student, had become a temporary morgue.
Many unidentified bodies were brought there from the coast, which had been hit hard by the giant tsunami. The Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) had also arrived in Soma and had started rescue operations.
Around the same time, my middle sister who lived in Urawa city in Saitama Prefecture (just to the north of Tokyo) asked her police officer boyfriend to drive up north to look for our youngest sister. They found our sister and her family among other evacuees in Kita Ibaraki city (just down the coast from Soma and Okuma).
They put them in the car and drove back to Urawa city. Meanwhile, I was just surfing the internet. I was such a useless brother in that time of emergency.
My middle sister got in touch with me and said that she was going to share her studio apartment in Urawa city with our youngest sister and her family in a while — that would make four people living in a tiny apartment.
I couldn't be of much help, but thought they would probably need cash. So I withdrew money from Mizuho Bank, which had also been temporarily knocked offline by the sheer number of people trying to make donations to help people affected by the disaster.
I went to Urawa with the money and handed it to my sisters. Urawa was at that time experiencing planned, rolling blackouts in order to conserve power from the weakened electricity grid, and my sisters seemed to have experienced a few blackouts.
When I gave them the money, my youngest sister said: “I'm so happy that everyone was okay”, then cried.
My youngest sister and her family stayed in Urawa for about a month before returning to Soma, where they were able to move in to one of the temporary housing allocations.
When I visited Soma about one year later I saw my sister's temporary housing. It was a wooden house that was clearly built in a hurried manner; the wood at the bottom had already started to rot.
I brought an Anpanman (a popular Japanese animation character) toy for my niece, but I couldn't help feeling pity for them.
Four years have passed since then. My youngest sister's family made lots of savings thanks to the compensation money from TEPCO, and they built a new house in Soma.
A little one was born during this time, and they now have two daughters. My sister's family told me that they were receiving a good amount of monetary compensation from TEPCO because the company pays even to small children, and my sister's family was therefore receiving compensation for four people.
My brother-in-law seems interested in having laser eye surgery or tooth whitening. They are in good financial shape. My relatives in the area do not hate TEPCO as much as TV reports.
In Soma city, construction work has begun on a new city hall. The design for this new hall was inspired by a Japanese traditional storehouse style called “Kura-zukuri”.
The old city hall, however, wasn't damaged by tsunami, and I wonder if there is a surplus in the budget for recovery that they'd rather spend somehow.
I also went to see the coastal area, but the little town where I used to see many guesthouses had turned into a vacant lot. Some of the buildings were left damaged. Soma used to be famous for seaweed cultivation, but it seemed too early to resume the business.
My mother lives in Soma. One time she was listening to a traditional Japanese popular song called Matsukawaura Ohashi Ondo (The Dance of the Matsukawaura Bridge) when she was driving.
My mother said that this song reminded her of Soma before the earthquake. The singer of this song had been killed by the tsunami during the earthquake.
It has been four years since the earthquake.
People from Uda village walking in a parade as a part of Soma wild horse chasing festival. I took this photo after the earthquake.
Follow-up
Last month, I visited Soma to tell my family about my latest move to a new condominium. I wished I could have returned to my hometown as someone who had accomplished a great thing. I told my parents: “I couldn't come here because I didn't have any good news.” They said: “It's your home. You can come back anytime.”
I will try again, ever harder, I promise.
About the Author
Takayoshi Saito (齊藤貴義) is the president of Sanbo Honbu, a prominent Japanese web development company. Saito has worked with a number of Japan's top internet companies include Livedoor, where he led development of Livedoor Reader. Saito is generally known online by his Twitter handle @miraihack.

author: Izumi Mihashi


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In China, Online Game Has To Comply With Laws in Real Life · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Ministry of Culture's Online Game Content Censorship Workflow. Via China Digital Times.
An online game designer, Xu Youzhen revealed in his Weibo that the Chinese authorities require that childbearing in his company's video games comply with family planning. The guideline was issued by Internet Culture Office, Bureau of Culture Markets in their powerpoint explanation of “Ministry of Culture's Online Game Content Censorship Workflow” in 2010.
In addition to family planning law, the guideline also instructs game designer not to include content that violates animal protection laws and marriage laws.
China Digital Times picks up the story and translates some netizens’ reaction to the guideline.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Thousands of High School Students Protest throughout Macedonia · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

High school students march in downtown Skopje against controversial educational reforms. Photo by Vanco Dzhambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.
After university students and professors organized several marches to protest new laws related to Macedonia's education system, high school students in the capital Skopje organized a march of their own, braving a threatening counter-campaign by the government.
Hundreds of high school students gathered in the country's capital and thousands marched throughout the streets of several other Macedonian cities, including Tetovo, Resen, Kumanovo, Negotino, Bitola, and Struga, on March 19 under the motto “Stop the bad reforms in education.”
These protests came after the successful conclusion of a protest campaign by university students and professors, who objected to the new law on higher education, and staged massive protests and occupied faculties since late summer of 2014 and well into the new year. The government finally caved to the demands and agreed to draw up an entirely new law, without the controversial and unpopular external tests for Macedonian educational institutions that have triggered the protests through an inclusive parliamentary process.
External testing has already been implemented in primary and secondary schools in Macedonia, however, and these younger protesters consider it a tool for bureaucratic repression. Based on end-of-the-year multiple-choice tests, its critics claim it doesn't provide objective measurement of the knowledge acquired during the year and is used to traumatize both pupils and teachers, who may get salary reductions or worse if students post low test scores. It also encourages corruption, through dissemination and even sale of leaked test answers.
Networking against the state machine
The digital natives who are part of this protest movement use social media and online tools as their primary means for communicating with the public, including their High School Plenum Facebook page, the Twitter profile @plenumsredno, and the hashtags #СредношколскиПленум (High School Plenum), #СредношколскиМарш (High School March), and others. Communicating with a wider audience, outside their personal and everyday circles, seems to come naturally to many Macedonian high schoolers.
Hundreds of teenagers gathered for the protest in Skopje on March 21, 2015, and thousands in total gathered in other cities throughout the country. Photo by Vanco Dzhambaski, CC BY-NC-SA.
Activist and photographer Vanco Dzambaski provided information about the protests in his photo gallery from the Skopje protest:
Several thousand high school students marched the streets of Skopje, but also several other cities today, holding banners saying “We are the future” and “You will hear us now” starting from the city park and finishing in front of the building of the Ministry of Education and Science.
With this march, the students reinforced their demands aimed at the Ministry of Education and Science to place on hold the law changes on the external testing for high school students, and showed their revolt from the new concept of state graduation exam which begins implementation from this school year. With this, among other changes, taking an exam in Mathematics becomes compulsory for all high-school graduates, regardless of their primary subjects of program stream and future plans for faculties on which they would continue their education.
The protests took place in other cities as well: Tetovo, Resen, Kumanovo, Negotino, Bitola, Struga are some of the cities where high-school students marched the streets in these days. Their protests and actions were met with an anonymous counter campaign, posters with their names and statements that they were paid to organize them and they were controlled to do so, but also messages and phone calls not to protests, and even locked doors in schools at the time of the protests.
The external examination was also a controversial measure at the time it was introduced. Not being piloted before the errors in implementation were removed, its first implementation in 2013 was marked by a flawed process, damaged students, protests and a petition of 26.000 signatures unrecognized by the institutions.
A video by youth-run Internet-based Radio MOF also provides a feel of the atmosphere at the protests in Skopje. Radio MOF also aggregated special coverage of the High School Plenum activities.
‘Horrible methods’
As alluded to in Dzambaski's post,  the ruling party-sponsored campaign against the protesters is full of dirty tricks. In addition to the labelling of the protesters as mercenaries paid by billionaire philanthropist George Soros or opposition leader Zoran Zaev, fake leaflets — branded as if made by the Plenum — have been distributed on the streets of Skopje.
Teachers have also threatened young students with bad grades and warned them their parents may be fired, with some even locking the students in the schools.
On Twitter, organized bribery attempts were reported. For instance, Twitter user @koropanovska wrote about a high school in Resen, a small town in the South of Macedonia:
ОВА ШО СЕ ДЕШАВА ВО НАШЕВО УЧИЛИШТЕ ЗА ДЕЦАВА ДА НЕ ИЗЛЕГУВААТ НА ПЛЕНУМОВ Е СТРАШНО.
— Симона за тро Бојана (@koropanovska) March 17, 2015
Horrible methods are used in our school to prevent the kids going out and joining the plenum.
@gemidjy @razvigor Се закануваат,даваат по 50 ден. да се откажеме,професори ќе не оставеле на полагање и слични работи.
— Симона за тро Бојана (@koropanovska) March 17, 2015
They threaten, they give 50 Denars [about 1 US $] per person, teachers say they will make us fail the year, and the like.
In one instance, Nova TV reported on the blockade of a vocational high school in Veles, a provincial town around 50 kilometres from Skopje, where the principal closed the doors to stop around a hundred students who tried to join the march. About twenty pupils managed to escape by jumping from the windows and over fences, while the rest were detained by the security detail.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Tunisian Activists Fear Rights Setbacks After Bardo Museum Attack · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

The Bardo Museum in Tunis, which has the largest collection of Roman mosaics in the world, will reopen to visitors next Tuesday. Photo by Richard Mortel shared on flickr under a BY-NC-SA Creative Commons license.
Tunisian activists and bloggers have been expressing concerns over rights setbacks in the aftermath of the deadly attack on the Bardo Museum, in Tunis, on Wednesday. In the attack, claimed by ISIS on 19 March, 20 tourists and a Tunisian police officer lost their lives. The two attackers were killed by police.
Following the attack, statements made by politicians and individuals calling for restrictions on rights and liberties and the use of capital punishment raised eyebrows among human rights activists.
Amin tweeted:
y a des tunisiens qui veulent moins de droits, liberté et démocratie pour combattre des gens qui sont contre la liberté et démocratie #logic
— Amin أمين (@AminKh) March 18, 2015
There are Tunisians who want less rights, less freedom and less democracy to fight those who oppose freedom and democracy
Wafa Ben Hassine warned:
Tunisian president Sebsi talks about ‘wiping these terrorists off the map’. Time to welcome even more curtails on freedom.
— Wafa Ben Hassine (@ousfourita) March 18, 2015
As the dramatic events were unfolding on Wednesday afternoon, Khawla Ben Aicha, an MP for the big-tent anti-Islamist Nidaa Tounes party which won the legislative and presidential elections in late 2014 tweeted:
Qu'on ne ns parle +de #droitsdelhomme ac ce genre d'individus,aucune indulgence!La loi doit être votée en tte urgence! #TnARP #AttaqueBardo
— Khawla Ben Aicha (@Khaw_laa) March 18, 2015
Let's never talk about human rights with this type of individuals, no indulgence. The law must be voted immediately
Ben Aicha was referring to a counter-terrorism draft law set to replace the 2003 law enacted by the former regime of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. Passed under the pretext of preserving security, the 2003 law was deployed as a tool of oppression against peaceful dissent. According to Human Rights Watch, a draft law submitted to the constituent assembly in July 2014 — but eventually not adopted — contained several improvements over the 2003 law, yet its definition of what constitutes a terrorist activity remained broad and ambiguous.
Ironically, at the time of the attack members of the parliament, housed right next to the Bardo Museum, were debating the new anti-terrorism legislation. Speaking to Democracy Now, Amna Guellali director of the Human Rights Watch Tunisia office warned of “a more tightening of the security apparatus and sweeping anti-terrorism operations that would lead to some backsliding on rights”.
The parliamentarian's tweet prompted angry reactions from a number of Tunisian Twitter users:
Selim, a member of the parliamentary monitoring group AlBawsala, tweeted:
@Khaw_laa le déni des droits de l'homme ne résoudera pas le problème du terrorisme, au contraire, il le renforcera..
— Selim (@Selim_) March 18, 2015
Denying human rights won't solve the problem of terrorism, but will rather reinforce it…
Eya Turki responded:
@Khaw_laa Les droits de l'homme concernent absolument tout le monde, faites vous une raison et arrêtez de parler sous le coup de l'hystérie.
— Eya Turki (@EyaTurki) March 18, 2015
Human rights concern absolutely everyone. Think rationally and stop talking under the effect of hysteria
Tunisian journalist and blogger Malek Khadhraoui expressed his dismay:
@Khaw_laa t'es une véritable honte pour notre assemblée. Ait du respect pour les morts et garde ta propagande à deux balles pour toi
— Malek Khadhraoui (@malekk) March 18, 2015
You are an absolute disgrace to our assembly. Have some respect to those killed and keep your propaganda to yourself
At an anti-terrorism protest on Wednesday, a protester holds banner which reads “No to human rights with terrorists. We want life. They want death. So death is theirs.” Photograph shared on Twitter by @RymKH
In the aftermath of the attack, calls for the death penalty resurfaced. Supporters of Nidaa Tounes who gathered outside the parliament on the evening of 18 March demanded the use of capital punishment against those involved in “terrorism related activities”, privately-owned Radio Mosaique FM reported.
Tunisia has observed a moratorium on executions since 1991, though judges continue to pronounce death sentences.
la peine de mort à tout terroriste et toute personne qui soutient les terroriste à tout jihadiste en Tunisie et… http://t.co/r1TsAAI2Jd
— TOUNSSIA HOURRA (@DBELWAFA) March 19, 2015
The death penalty against every terrorist and every person who supports terrorism in Tunisia and every jihadist in Tunisia
Internet freedom was not spared from blame. The liberal Afek Tounes party, which is a member in the coalition government led by Prime Minister Habib Essid and has eight seats in the parliament, issued a statement calling for “waging a war against terrorism” and taking a number of measures, including declaring a state of emergency and adopting the counter-terrorism law. The party, whose leader Noomane Fehri heads the Ministry of Communication Technologies and Digital Economy, also called for filtering sites that incite terrorism and prosecuting those behind them. On the other hand, Essid announced that the ministries of Interior and Communication Technologies are cooperating through a ‘specialized agency to monitor sites that promote terrorism’.
These statements did not pass unnoticed in light of Tunisia's abusive history and restrictive internet legislation.
Lawyer Kais Berrjab tweeted on 19 March:
analyste, politicien .. si tu crois que #censure du #Net est une mesure efficace contre le #terrorisme … fermez la #AttackBardo #Tunisie
— Kaïs Berrjab (@OstezEdgar) March 19, 2015
Analysts, politicians…if you think censorship of the net is an effective measure against terrorism, shut it down
He added in another tweet:
c'est la fin de #NetFreedom en #Tunisie à cause de #BardoAttack #Filtrage potentiel et surveillance de masse et réduction de #Privacy #A2T
— Kaïs Berrjab (@OstezEdgar) March 19, 2015
This is the end of net freedom in Tunisia. As a result of Bardo attack, [there is the] possibility of filtering, massive surveillance and reduction of privacy
Previously considered an internet freedom enemy, Tunisia's interim authorities lifted internet filtering practices after the toppling of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's, who had been in power for 23 years. This has allowed users in Tunisia to freely access the web and express themselves, including individuals who adopt extremist ideologies.
For instance, a number of tweets have been posted under the hash tag #غزوة_تونس (Tunis invasion) to celebrate the Bardo Museum attack and commemorate the gunmen.
Some politicians have also joined activists to call for respecting human rights in the fight against terrorism. Former president Moncef Marzouki said that “resorting to tyranny won't solve Tunisians’ problems” and called on the government not to make use of the Bardo attack to “take away what the revolution has snatched [from rights such as] freedoms of expression and opinion”.
MP Sayida Ounissi from the Islamist Ennahdha party tweeted the cartoon below on 21 March:
Despite the emotion, the worries and the temptation. We have to keep on the democratic path #Bardo #antiterrorism pic.twitter.com/L5f1woXf18
— Sayida Ounissi (@SaidaOunissi) March 21, 2015
Will Tunisia uphold liberty and freedom while it battles militants?

author: Afef Abrougui


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With ‘Kangaroo Care,’ Parents in Ethiopia Can Save Their Premature Babies, Just by Holding Them · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

At a hospital in Ethiopia's capital, Wandamu and his wife Lakish have been in practicing kangaroo care for nearly three weeks. Their heavier, healthier twin, can now sleep on his own and is breast feeding healthily. The smaller twin is still in the “kangaroo” position on his mom's chest. Credit: Dalia Mortada
This article and radio report by Dalia Mortada for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on March 17, 2015, and is republished as part of a content-sharing agreement.
A modest solution is turning out to be the difference between life and death for thousands of infants born prematurely in the developing world.
In hospitals like Zeweditu in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, incubators are rare. And when they are available, the electricity supply isn’t reliable enough to keep them running. So staff here are keeping new parents of premature infants in the hospital and, whenever possible, encouraging “kangaroo care,” a technique developed in South America decades ago to safely help premature and underweight babies grow with the help of skin-to-skin contact.
As soon as a baby is born — as long as there aren’t other major medical issues — the infant is put naked on a parent’s bare chest, generally the mother’s. The baby stays there as long as necessary: days, weeks, months even — tucked in tight by wrapping a blanket around both the baby and the adult.
A pair of twins and their parents have been in the hospital for nearly a month. One baby was born weighing less than three pounds, the other less than two, so mom and dad were each wrapped up with a baby for nearly three weeks. Now, the heavier twin is healthy enough to sleep on his own. The second baby is still getting there.
Wandamu, the babies’ soft-spoken father, smiles sheepishly. “Initially … they weren't able to feed properly, but now we are seeing them breast feeding and we are very happy,” he says, as his wife, Lakish, nods in agreement. The tiny infants are strapped to her chest still.
That feeling of happiness is crucial in Ethiopia, where people sometimes assume that an especially premature baby won’t survive.
“Unfortunately some communities will say, ‘God made his judgment,’ and the baby will be put somewhere to die. That baby might actually survive if it's close to its mother,” says Alice Allen, who’s been teaching a group of nurses at Zeweditu Hospital the techniques of what’s now called Kangaroo Mother Care, or KMC.
For some exhausted parents, though, the demands of KMC are difficult. Birkutan, a 30-year-old, first-time mother, has been here three weeks now. Her eyes look tired. Having a baby attached to her chest 24/7, and trying to sleep propped upright, isn’t conducive to rest.
Birtukan had her baby two-and-a-half months early. Because of health issues, the baby had to stay in an incubator for a week. Afterwards, nurses wrapped the baby onto Birtukan’s chest for KMC. But right now, she’s worried.
“The weight of the baby feels less, so I don't believe that KMC is helping,” Birtukan frets. Because she fears her daughter won’t survive, she hasn’t given the baby a name yet. The nurses are trying to ease her fears.
In Ethiopia, plenty of measures have been taken to help keep mothers and babies alive: In recent years, they’ve built more roads and health facilities in remote places for easy access and they’ve invested in maternity wards and infant ICUs. All this investment seems to be working: The number of kids who don’t make it past the age of 5 has dropped four-fold since 1990. But a lot of these measures need regular electricity and a lot of money to keep afloat — both of which aren’t in plentiful supply in Ethiopia. Nor are doctors.
“[KMC] takes away the time the doctors have to spend,” Allen explains. “You don't need the technology to do it, so it's absolutely perfect for developing countries, which seems a complete no-brainer.”
As long as parents can feel the pay-off of what can be a fraught and difficult time, that is. Wandamu and Lakish now do. “The more we are caring and holding the babies, the more our love grows as well,” Wandamu says.
Dalia Mortada’s reporting was made possible with a fellowship from the International Reporting Project.

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
10 Common Words in Spanish and English That Come From Quechua · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Image by elisa la in Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The post by Juan Arellano was originally published on the blog Globalizado.
Quechua, the language of the Inca Empire, has had nearly 500 years of contact with Spanish, so it makes sense that each language has influenced the other. The most obvious way, besides the distinctly Quechua flavor that permeates the speech of those bilingual in both languages, are loan words. Everyday Quechua includes many words of Spanish origin, and visa versa, although sometimes that is not as well known.
A large amount of words for animals and agricultural products in Peru were incorporated with slight modifications into Spanish from Quechua, such as llama, guanaco, vicuna (just to name South American camelid species), potato (papa), quinoa, avocado (palta) and lucuma. But there are many more words that you might not realize came from Quechua.
The following is an informal and non-exhaustive list.
Arruabarrena en @SoloBocaRadio “El hincha de Boca tiene que verse reflejado en la cancha por el equipo”. pic.twitter.com/w7xf9c3mjE
— SECTOR BOSTERO (@SectorBostero) March 12, 2015
[Player] Arruabarrena on @SoloBocaRadio: “A Boca fan must see himself reflected on the field by his team.”
This word, which comes from the Quechua kancha, is used throughout Spanish-speaking America to describe the site where a game, especially a soccer game, is held. But it has also other, more local meanings. For example, toasted corn is called also cancha or canchita…yum.
Plus, it's impossible to be unhappy in a poncho… http://t.co/bk2c4aWUgN pic.twitter.com/PWVoUHkuBa
— Salt Lake Comic Con (@slcomiccon) March 12, 2015
This word is used almost globally, but the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy, the Madrid-based institution which publishes guidelines for the Spanish language) does not recognize it as Quechua.
The word's origin is uncertain; however, the Quechua word punchu has the same meaning, so unless there is an opinion to the contrary, we have decided to include it on this list. Poncho can also have a different meaning in some South American countries, for example, in this usual usual phrase: No dejarse pisar el poncho (Don't let yourself step on the poncho), which means that you shouldn't let yourself be humiliated or intimidated.
El cura del fin del mundo: da misa en la Antártida http://t.co/RIlXfkw583 pic.twitter.com/Rizt93JhEi
— Clarín.com (@clarincom) March 6, 2015
The doomsday priest give a mass in Antártida.
Cura is a colloquial word for a priest. It's used in almost all Spanish-speaking South America, and its origin is the Quechua word kuraq or kurakas, used to refer to the head of a community in the Inca Empire. The phrase hijo de cura (son of a cura), which at one time was considered an insult referring to a person's illegitimate birth, is used in some places as a sarcastic comment to point out that someone is being overlooked.
Meat Feast Gaucho Style @gauchogroup #steak #Richmond pic.twitter.com/QNGNRNBLJ1
— Gaucho Richmond (@GauchoRichmond) March 11, 2015
The word gaucho, which refers to cowboys from the Pampas region in the north of Argentina, is used worldwide to refer to Argentinians in general. Its origin may be related to the Quechua word wakcha, which means orphan, and it has gave rise to the Peruvian word huacho, that means alone.
#ComoCuesta entender que nadie pregunte por este morocho. ¿Querés conocerlo? Visitanos: http://t.co/2IGnAa30xK pic.twitter.com/JhqxfVmHVL
— El paraíso felino (@elparaisofelino) March 10, 2015
It's difficult to understand why no one asks for this morocho. Would you like to meet him?
Morocho comes from the Quechua word muruch'u, which is a variety of hard corn. Its most common meaning in Spanish is a dark-skinned person. In some countries, it is used for people with fair skin but black hair. By extension, it also applies to animals with black skin. In Ecuador, morocho is a delicious thick drink.
Intendencia y Fac Veterinaria avanzando en proyecto de Hospital Veterinario en chacra d Brío Uruguay pic.twitter.com/KE0AXu9quy
— enzo squillace (@SquillaceEnzo) March 11, 2015
Veterinary school and management make progress on the Veterinary Hospital project at a chacra in Brío, Uruguay
In several South American countries, the word chacra is used instead of ranch, meaning a house surrounded by cultivated fields in a rural area. It comes from the Quechua word chajra or chakra, meaning a small partition of arable land. In Peruvian slang, chacra means that something is badly done.
#beGood #beyondBeanie When you buy a bB, you make this a better world for children in need. http://t.co/Q3uA7Ls38O pic.twitter.com/FAKqvP3qGb
— beyondBeanieUSRep (@beyondBeanieUS) March 11, 2015
Some artists like to wear this Peruvian fashion garment, whose name comes from Quechua, as an exotic touch. The term comes from ch'ullu, meaning a cap with earflaps, traditionally made of alpaca wool.
Carpa informativa ahir a Vallmoll. Bon ambien i bona companyia. #Podem pic.twitter.com/ud19PWFSZL
— Cercle Podem Valls (@podemvalls) March 2, 2015
Information carpa at Vallmoll. Good atmosphere and good company
In South America and in Spain, including in Catalan, which is spoken in Catalonia (the above tweet is in Catalan), a carpa is a tent; even a big circus tent is called a carpa. The word karpa is its Quechua origin. Some South American countries have a more colloquial use of this word: Estar carpa (to be like a circus tent), a phrase with a very adult meaning.
Así se estudia… #Pucho y #CocaCola #Actitud pic.twitter.com/k7ZC568Cj0
— Mariano Bruzzone (@marianobruzzone) March 1, 2015
That is the way to study… pucho and Coca-Cola
This word, which comes from the Quechua word puchu, is generally used to describe cigarette butts or half-smoked cigars, though it is also used in some countries to describe a whole cigarette. In others countries, when it is used as part of the phrase sobre el pucho, it means immediately or at once.
Bat guano carries the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum which can infect the brain making you psychotic. pic.twitter.com/6kgL2yHQG5
— Howard Farran DDS (@HowardFarran) March 13, 2015
Guano comes from the Quechua word wanu, and was originally used to name the seabird droppings used as fertilizer. By extension, it is also used to describe other animal droppings. Its use is more widespread than you might think.
Go Quechua go!
PS: No linguist was mistreated while writing this post.
Others posts in English about Quechua:
5 Free Apps, Podcasts and Blogs to Learn Quechua
Languages: Let's Tweet ans Speak in Quechua

author: Juan Arellano


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Confessions of Former Japanese ‘Netto-Uyoku’ Internet Racists · Global Voices
Izumi Mihashi

Japanese rightists march in Tokyo. Image source: Wikipedia.
Discrimination against other nationalities and cultures has often been at the root of conflicts and hatred around the world.
That said, do we really know how racism starts and how we can stop it from spreading? The following courageous confessions of former supporters of racist discourse in Japan may give us some insight into the questions.
Twitter user @New-OC-MAN confesses that it was her loneliness and longing for some sort of comfort from her isolation that eventually led her to embrace racist views against China and South Korea as part of Japan's online netto-uyoku (ネット右翼) movement — Internet commenters who support and promote far-right and racist views.
実家でTVの音声聞いてるとほんとに「外国人が日本を褒めまくる」番組増えてるなあと感じる。これ、個人的に怖いなと思っている。なぜなら私が引きこもり時代ネトウヨになりかけたきっかけが、こういう「日本大好き外国人まとめ」みたいなサイトを読み漁ることだったから。(続
— 新しきOC-MAN (@tori7810) October 5, 2014
続き)そうやって日本凄い日本素敵なまとめサイトを見続けるうちに、自然とリンクを辿って中韓叩きが多く取り上げられているまとめサイトに行き着いた。すでに日本スゴイエライモードになっていたので、そこに書かれている中国や韓国の悪印象のあるエピソードを素直に信じてしまった。(続く
— 新しきOC-MAN (@tori7810) October 5, 2014
When I watch TV at home, I get the impression that these days the type of programs where foreigners shower their admiration on Japan have become increasingly popular. I personally think this is scary because when I was hikikomori [acute withdrawal from social life], I got myself into reading a lot of those websites that collected open-handed admiration from foreigners towards Japan, and this led me very close to becoming a netto-uyoku [an Internet commenter who supports and promotes far-right and racist views]…
When I was hikikomori and suffering from depression about ten years ago, I was reading only those websites that collected foreigners’ admiration towards Japan and I felt like I was comforted by them.  At that time, I thought of myself as a total dropout from society in every aspect. The only thing that remained was that I was “Japanese”.
So, when I saw people expressing their love for Japan I felt like they loved me as well…
…As I continued my habit of visiting those websites, their links and references often brought me to other websites where I found a lot of racist comments directed at China and Korea. By then I had become an avid believer of “Japan is great!” so I was easily convinced that all those negative comments towards the two countries were true.
Fortunately, @New-OC-MAN was eventually able to realize by herself that these comments were not true.
続き)そういったサイトに書かれている事がおかしいと思うようになったきっかけは、コメント欄での女叩きの酷さ。情けない話だけど、外国や外国人が叩かれている時は気にならなかったのに、自分と同じ女という属性が叩かれているのを読んで、やっとその行為の酷さと非論理的な部分に気付いた。(続く
— 新しきOC-MAN (@tori7810) October 5, 2014
What made me start doubting these comments was how awful they were towards women. I am ashamed to say that I had no problems with their discriminatory comments as far as they were thrown at foreigners or foreign countries, but when they turned to women, when I myself am a woman, I finally came to realize the absurdity and ugliness of their arguments…
According to Tsukushi Kawai writing on his blog, apart from being an escape from his loneliness, it was the pleasure of sharing the information that others did not have that made him get involved with the discriminatory discourse.
さみしかったわけだ。暇だったのもある。だからネットに熱中した。当時はやり始めていたまとめサイト。あれを読むとね、学校やテレビでは「得られない情報」に触れることができたんだと当時は思った。そしてそういう情報を見知らぬ「誰か」だったとしても、共有できるのはうれしかったな。しかも天下国家を論じる話ばかりだ。自分が偉くなった気がしたね。
[中略]
あの当時の自分は、韓国の人を馬鹿にした、あるいはもっと酷い言葉でののしられた文章を見てもなんとも思わなかった。単に罵られている側の人を知らなかったからかもしれんが…自分と違う世界に住む人が何を言われようが、正直どうでもよかったんだと思う。
I was lonely and had nothing to do at that time. So I spent a lot of time on the Internet. This was just as “matome” meme aggregator websites were just becoming popular in Japan. After reading websites that focused on discrimination, I felt great because I thought I had gained knowledge that they did not teach in school nor you could not get by watching TV.
I was also very happy because I was sharing the knowledge with “someone” even though I had not met them in person. The topics we were discussing were often about how to set the world right.
So, I felt I was someone important…
When I saw those comments making fun of the Koreans or even worse, they did not bother me at all. Perhaps it was partly because I didn't know anything about Korea and the Koreans…
In any case, they were living in a different world from mine and frankly speaking it didn't matter to me at all.
Tsukushi says meeting with different people and knowing the existence of genuine and sincere people through reading books eventually helped him overcome his racist views.
俺がネトウヨを辞めた理由は、３つある。
一つは、一応大学に入れてもらって…今度こそ友達を作ろうとして、いろいろと自分なりに努力したから。
[中略]
見知らぬ人と情報を共有してさみしさを紛らわせる必要もなかった。
二つ目は、たくさん本を読んだからネトウヨ的な考え方がばかばかしく思えるようになったこと。 ネトウヨ時代に見聞きした、愛国サイト、いかがわしい書き込み、そして「保守本」(日本は素晴らしいからこの国を愛そうみたいな)とは違う種類の本を読んだ。自分が特に熱中したのは、昭和維新の生き残りの人の本とプロレタリア文学の人の本だ。詳しくは触れないけど…あの人たちの本には「なぜ自分がこの国を愛そうとおもったのか」とか「なぜ自分が貧しい人々を救いたいのか」が明確に書かれた。昭和維新の生き残りの方でいうならば、軍人として戦場で戦った経験、貧しい部下の新兵の家庭の事情を知ったこと…とかかな。プロレタリア文学ならば、自分が労働者として実際に働いた経験、そこで見聞きした経験なんかが克明に描いてあった。そういう経験を踏んだうえで、今の世の中は間違っている、だから正さなきゃならないんだ…とちゃんと書いてあった。
There were three reasons why I quit being netto-uyoku.
First of all was that I entered a university and this time I made a real effort to make friends there…then I felt no need to console my loneliness by sharing views on the Internet with someone I did not know.
The second reason was books. After reading so many books, I started to see the netto-uyoku views as absurd. I read books from different genres than the usual one that fomented patriotism through simple or absurd arguments that I had been so used to when I was netto-uyo.
Among the books that I read a lot were the ones written by the survivors of Showa Ishin and those from the proletarian literature. I would not go into detail, but I found in them a clear manifestation of why they loved this nation or why they wanted to help the poor.
For example, those from the survivors of the Showa Ishin described their experience on the battlefields as soldiers as well as the extreme poverty that the families of the new soldiers under their command were forced to suffer.
From proletariat literature, I learned in detail about the working conditions those authors themselves were under and what they saw and heard there. Based on their own experience they put forward a clear and legitimate argument that the world they were living was not right and it needed to be made right.
Tsukushi reports he eventually experienced a sort of catharsis:
[中略]
そしてもう一つ…。それは俺が障害者施設にかかわり始めたこと。
[中略]
見た目は、涎を垂らしているような人でも、何度も話すうちにこの人にも趣味があるんだなーとか、家族がいるんだよなーとか…そういうことを思うようになった。結局ね、見た目は違っても、あるいはできることが違っても、人間ってのはどこかしら似たようなものなのだと…なんとなくだけど気づけた。
And the last one was that I got involved in a day care center for the disabled…
There I discovered, for instance, after talking with someone drooling constantly several times that he had in fact hobbies or had beloved family. Finally, I realized that under our different appearances and abilities or disabilities, we are all similar in nature.


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Internet in Iran: Evaluating Rouhani’s First Two Years as President · Global Voices
Small Media

Small Media assessed Internet policy during President Hassan Rouhani's first 18 months in office.  Image created by Small Media and used with permission.
This post was written by Small Media researcher Kyle Bowen based on the report of the same name.
“Filtering has not even stopped people from accessing unethical websites. Widespread online filtering will only increase distrust between people and the state.”
These words, uttered by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani shortly after winning the 2013 election, raised hopes that the Iranian Internet was about to become a bit more free. For Iranian netizens, this was welcome news, as the final eighteen months of Ahmadinejad’s presidency were marked by a persistent tightening of restrictions on internet freedom.
In January 2012, strict rules were introduced for cyber cafés, requiring owners to keep detailed records of patrons’ personal information and browsing history for at least 6 months. In March of that year, the Supreme Leader created the Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC), a powerful and shadowy organisation with the ultimate say on all Internet policy matters. While the council is chaired by the president, it is dominated by conservatives. And in the early months of 2013, government throttling reduced the Iranian internet to glacial speeds ahead of the June 14th election.
In this context of heightened restrictions and creeping censorship, Rouhani’s message of a more open internet struck a consonant chord with the Iranian public.
But has Rouhani lived up to these lofty expectations? This is the question Small Media’s latest report sets out to address. This research looks at media perceptions, Iran’s censorship institutions, and three years of ICT budget data to put together an internet policy report card for Rouhani’s first 18 months in office. So how has he done so far?
The Good
One positive sign is Rouhani’s willingness to take on Iran’s internet censorship body, the rather verbosely-named Committee to Determine Instances of Criminal Content (CDICC). When the CDICC passed a motion ordering WhatsApp to be blocked, Rouhani advised his ICT minister Mahmoud Vaezi to refuse to implement it. Naturally, Iran’s censorship body did not respond well to such insubordination, with the CDICC’s hardline secretary Abdolsamad Khoramabadi claiming that Rouhani had no basis for challenging his committee’s directives. It was at this point that Vaezi pulled rank, pointing out that as chairman of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, Rouhani’s say on the matter was final, and the block on WhatsApp would not be implemented. As of this writing, WhatsApp remains available in Iran, temporary disruptions notwithstanding.
Among other things, this political standoff over WhatsApp illustrated that Rouhani was serious about some of his campaign promises. What’s more, his intervention tangibly impacted Iran’s filtering policy, keeping WhatsApp available in the Islamic Republic. Rouhani’s decision to challenge the CDICC over the WhatsApp ban was certainly a step in the right direction. But when we turn to the ICT budget and examine Rouhani’s spending priorities, some troubling signs begin to emerge.
The Bad
One potential cause for concern is the explosion of the cyber security budget. When Rouhani took office, cyber security funding stood at 42,073 million IRR (3.4 million USD). In the budget for the upcoming year, it has soared to 550,000 million IRR (19.8 million USD), an increase of over 1200% in just three years.
The ICT budget has increased of over 1200% in just three years. Image created by Small Media and used with permission
This vertiginous rise, which comes on the heels of the Stuxnet and Flame cyber attacks and the NSA spying scandal, shows that the government is making security a higher priority. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but it raises the worry that vague security concerns will be cited to justify further restrictions on internet freedom. Indeed, Iran has a long history of rationalising censorship based on the threat of Western cultural invasion. And the NSA scandal has prompted numerous calls to support Iran’s national internet, from hardliners  and reformists alike.
Another problematic development concerns the ICT ministry’s full-throated support for both SHOMA (the national internet) and intelligent filtering. Last month, Rouhani’s ICT minister Mahmoud Vaezi announced that he was courting private sector investment in SHOMA, perhaps in an attempt to increase efficiency and expedite the development process. Vaezi also explained that work on phase II of the intelligent filtering system began on January 28, after the successful completion of phase one. In January, a number of Iranian netizens complained that testing of the intelligent filtering system disrupted their access to Instagram.
The Future
After assessing Rouhani’s ICT policies thus far, the report concludes with three predictions about the future of internet censorship in Iran. Here are a few things to look out for:
More fights over social messaging apps. Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ali Jannati recently announced that 9.5 million Iranians are on Viber. As these mobile apps continue to grow in popularity, blocking them will become an increasingly difficult proposition for elected representatives of Iran’s government. But that won’t stop the conservative judiciary from fighting tooth and nail to outlaw their use. We can expect more battles over the blocking of apps like Viber, pitting Iran’s moderate president against its hardline censorship institutions.
Iran is unlikely to be cut off from the global internet, partly because it’s a lifeline to tech entrepreneurs. Iran’s recent launch of a domestic search engine, coupled with its development of a national internet prompted fears that the Islamic Republic would soon be cut off from the World Wide Web. The government is certainly encouraging Iranians to use domestic apps and platforms over which it has greater control. But it’s worth remembering that a substantial portion of Iran’s tech sector still depends on the global internet. For example, Blogfa, one of Iran’s most popular blogging platforms, is hosted in Canada. Moreover, lucrative Iranian startups such as Digikala may soon look to expand to new markets or solicit foreign investment (Iran’s emergent startup scene has aroused considerable interest in the West). Viewed from this angle, it’s clear that any long-term disconnection from the global internet could incur considerable economic and political costs for the Iranian government. Yet temporary disruptions during politically sensitive times are likely to continue.
Iranians are more concerned about internet access than online security. A recent survey on VPN use in Iran found that Iranians flock to circumvention tools that are free and easy to use, while more secure (but less user friendly) VPNs such as Tor were not as popular. A previous Small Media study reached a similar conclusion, finding that only 6.6% of respondents used VPNs for the primary purpose of enhancing personal security online. The preference for access over security makes sense when you consider what Iranians like to do online. As BBC Persian journalist Hadi Nili explains, “They want to listen to music, watch videos, download both, and update their Android or Apple devices… So even if they need a better security, they might opt to compromise their privacy for the price and ease of use.”
We can draw a couple of conclusions from these priorities. First, despite all the hype about “Twitter Revolution” following the 2009 election, it seems quite plausible that most Iranians are be more interested in using the internet for entertainment rather than political activism. Second, Iranians’ somewhat blasé attitude towards online security will make VPN users much more susceptible to government surveillance. In the past couple of years there have been a series of arrests related to VPN use in Iran. We can expect this crackdown to continue, and perhaps even accelerate after the launch of SHOMA.

author: Small Media


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Macedonian Journalist Describes How It Feels to Be Subject of State Surveillance · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Prominent investigative journalist Meri Jordanovska wrote a testimony about her experience on receiving evidence that she was one of allegedly twenty thousand individuals who have been subjected to state surveillance in Macedonia. In an op-ed on Balkan Insight, Jordanovska explains:
Meri Jordanovska. Photo: BIRN Prizma Project. Used with permission.
Each report on one of my wiretapped conversations was true: the date, the story I was working on and the sources I was getting briefed by. Everything was correct. I am not sure I will get another “diploma”. This folder was more than enough for me to clearly see what is happening in my country.I can clearly see that someone knew in advance what story I was working on. Enough for me to conclude that my sources of information were endangered. Enough for the centers of power to be able to react preventively before the story was published. Enough to become aware, even though I had always suspected this, that some people know the problems of those closest to me – people who had shared personal matters with me over the phone.
Jordanovska received a file containing surveillance of her communications during a press conference by the opposition party SDSM, at which representatives of the party also revealed that journalists had been wiretapped en masse in Macedonia. Besides publishing several conversation as proof, twenty journalists were given folders with CDs containing their own files, leaked by sources from within the Ministry of Interior. Her text is also available in Macedonian and has been republished by several independent portals in her home country, including Mojot grad.
SDSM leader Zoran Zaev claims that National Security Services illegally targeted over twenty thousand people with the surveillance, which involved illegally recording and storing phone conversations of these individuals over at least four years. His party has not yet published a list of all the alleged victims, nor a list of the wiretapped phone numbers. According to SDSM representatives, these included both citizens of Macedonia and foreigners using local telecom services, including several diplomats.


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Mexico’s Airwaves Aren’t the Same Without Journalist Carmen Aristegui  · Global Voices
Maria Antonieta Mejia

Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui. Photo: Wikimedia.
Journalist Carmen Aristegui, considered by some “the most influential journalist in Mexico”, was fired yet again by radio station Noticias MVS, just a few months after exposing a high-profile scandal involving a sitting president.
It is not the first time that Aristegui has been taken off the airwaves after questioning powerful interests in her country. In 2011, her microphone was temporarily unplugged after she made an editorial comment about the alleged alcoholism of Mexico's former President Felipe Calderón during her radio show.
This time Aristegui was relieved of her on-air duties not long after publicizing, in November 2014, an investigation by Mexican journalists into the expenses of the so-called Casa Blanca (White House) of current President Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The investigation revealed a potential conflict of interest involving first lady Angélica Rivera, who is also an actress employed by media company Televisa. Rivera has been criticized for providing an unconvincing explanation for the source of funding that enabled the purchase of the president's US $7 million home in an upscale neighbourhood of Mexico City.
The luxurious home is neither under the President or his wife's name, but under Grupo Higa, a construction company which was on the verge of benefitting from a lucrative contract to build a train from DF to the city of Queretaro. The house is, however, adjacent to one of the actress’s residences in a neighbouring street.
Aristegui is one of the most influential and recognized journalists in Mexico. Throughout her career she has helmed several radio and television shows. For several years her talk show on CNN in Spanish has been transmitted to several countries in Latin America. She won the National Journalism Award in 2001 and 2005. In 2008 she received the Maria Moors Cabot award from Columbia University. In 2012 she was honored by the French government with the Legion of Honor for her defense of freedom of expression and democracy in her country. The the corporation that employs her, however, appears to find her an inconvenient presence on air.
MVS/Multivisión, the parent company for which Aristegui has worked for the last several years, stated that her dismissal was related to the unauthorized use of its trademark by MexicoLeaks, a new digital platform that, despite not having yet published anything, is already a thorn in the side of Mexico's elite. Two members of Aristegui's editorial team appear in a promotional video for MexicoLeaks in which the MVS logo is visible. The new platform, which has the support of media outlets critical of those in power such as the magazine Proceso and the independent organization of Mexican journalists Periodistas de a pie (Journalists on the ground), invites people to submit anonymous reports about corruption and misbehavior.
In a message on her morning MVS program, Aristegui said it was “unacceptable” for members of her editorial team —the same team that shed light on President Peña Nieto's real estate investment— to have been fired.
On the March 13 broadcast of her show, Aristegui called for her collaborators, journalists Daniel Lizárraga and Irving Huerta, to be reinstated. MVS indicated it would not give in to Aristegui’s ultimatum and decided instead to fire her as well.
On Monday, March 16, Aristegui showed up for work as usual but found her microphone had been turned off.
Aristegui says her firing is an attack on free speech. MVS disagreed, claiming that the incident was evidence of a “breach of trust.” The last time Aristegui was fired, the company said she had violated its code of ethics. Going forward, Aristegui is likely to have trouble finding air time.

author: Maria Antonieta Mejia


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Police Roadblocks in Trinidad & Tobago Stir Public Ire, Not Sympathy · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Directing Traffic in bulletproof vests”; photo by Taran Rampersad, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
The Monday morning blues took on a new meaning in Trinidad and Tobago today, thanks to massive roadblocks carried out by the country's police service, allegedly in protest over the government's failure to settle wage negotiations.
Social media was the outlet of choice for commuters trapped in traffic. From about 6:30 a.m., Facebook users were crowdsourcing the reason for the gridlock, and drivers who use Waze, the popular, community-based navigation app, began entering information about the roadblocks. On Facebook, Maria Rivas-Mc posted:
Police are doing countrywide road blocks, seemingly protest action to speed along wage negotiations. Traffic snarled everywhere. Hear tell hundreds of school children are walking, maxis are offloading passengers and turning around. Reports are police are checking dipsticks, spare tyres, bags of passengers. Not sure if, without due cause, such action on their part is even legal. Never a dull, no-news day in T&T
Facebook user Rose-Marie Ingrid Lemessy-Forde voiced what many netizens were undoubtedly feeling:
Well well TTPS. I can't think of a better way to get the country to support your quest for better salaries than to hold the entire country to ransom. It's ok for hard working people including school children to spend hours in standstill traffic while Kamla [the country's prime minister] and the PP [People's Partnership government] flashing blue lights possee gets to whizz by. Ingenious move …
Skye Hernandez called the whole fiasco “just plain wickedness”. This Twitter user was much more blunt:
This is tantamount to a terrorists attack from agents of the state #Trinidad and Tobago #traffic
— Zubby (@Zuberix) March 23, 2015
In a country where violent crime is widespread and there are very few arrests and even fewer convictions, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service has not won a whole lot of public sympathy for their cause. Many netizens feel that compensation should be linked to performance and the TTPS has not been living up to its motto “to protect and serve” the citizenry. One irate Twitter user explained it using this analogy:
Photo: reiddesigns: #photogrid #policegate #roadblock2015 #trinidad #tnt #traffic http://t.co/raszvE5VS8
— Lady OD (@LadyOblivious) March 23, 2015
Back on Facebook, Nicholas Laughlin referenced a 2010 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Citizen Security Survey of the Caribbean (see page 103 of the report), noting that:
…only 21.2 per cent of Trinidad and Tobago respondents believed the police show ‘fairness in dealing with people’ and 16.0 per cent said the police show ‘courtesy to ordinary citizens.’ I wonder what those figures would look like if they re-surveyed the populace today.
Steven Valdez wanted to make the gravity of the situation clear to those who may have been tempted to brush off the curious timing of the roadblocks:
……….take a moment to wrap your brain around what happened in our country this morning due to the action of the T&T Police Service…every sector of business, every school, every government institution, every municipal corporation, every health institution, every elderly and/or sick person, every single individual has been affected in a very negative way…it is inconceivable that this can take place without dire consequences !!!…..
Representatives of the police service appeared to be distancing themselves from any possible consequences of the mass action. Inspector Roger Alexander, who hosts a crime show on a local television station, was interviewed on the station's morning programme as to whether the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service Social and Welfare Association was “encouraging unofficial action in the form of roadblocks”. His response was a resounding no — the police were simply trying to lower the incidence of traffic accidents, curb crime and “show the importance of police on the ground.” He advised law-abiding citizens to “walk with [their] breakfast, lunch and dinner”.
Minister of Transport Steven Cadiz said that his ministry had no power to ease the gridlock, but he too questioned whether the exercise was related to industrial action. C News Live's Facebook page posted shortly thereafter that the Minister of National Security, who apparently knew nothing beforehand of the planned roadblocks, announced that they would be immediately discontinued.
The comments thread reflected positions on both sides of the divide. Laila Mohammed-Pantin, whose response garnered 246 “likes” at the time of publishing, said:
I am a proud, hard working citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. I have faith in the protective services even though there are times they mess up. Today, that changed. Do you seriously expect citizens to respect the Police Service after a stunt like this ? How many criminals were caught heading to work on a Monday morning with guns, driving drunk or missing documents ? When you put self before country, when you hold an entire nation to ransom, when you play politics with your duty to protect and serve, you have failed us. Shame on those who instigated, took part and allowed this fiasco. SHAME ON YOU !!!
Facebook user Adrian Juman countered:
Pay the protective services they blasted money ….how is it possible that a clerk is getting more money than a job where you risk your life on a daily basis …..WELL DONE POLICE LOCK D CITY UP
Some netizens took the opportunity to draw attention to the country's need for better traffic solutions. On Facebook, Natasha Ramnauth said:
Now maybe, we will give more credence to decetralisation [sic], school zones, staggered work hours and a host of other solutions.
On Twitter, Attillah Springer added:
Election issues more important than cat vs dog: Decentralisation, Working from Home, Adequate Public Transport #Trinidad #traffic
— Tillahwillah (@tillahwillah) March 23, 2015
Many are concerned about the fact that top brass in the Ministry of National Security and the police service seemingly had no knowledge of the island-wide roadblocks, particularly since all official communication denies that the exercise was linked to industrial action. Had that been the case, public sympathy might have swayed more in the favour of the police; most people can appreciate that working conditions are often sub-par and many police officers are underpaid. As it stands, though, citizens feel that their civil rights have been trampled upon. This, however, did not stop Trinbagonians from injecting humour into the situation:
Fun fact while you sit in Traffic. The @TTPoliceService is engaged in something known as a “Japanese Strike” @tv6tnt pic.twitter.com/jj4AadkOa6
— Kejan Haynes (@KejanHaynes) March 23, 2015
#oprah #roadblock2015 #block #policegate #ttps #traffic #trinbago #trinidad http://t.co/4MgpmzeZOm pic.twitter.com/0R5vVyAkNj
— ReidDesigns (@ReidDesigns) March 23, 2015
Still, most netizens interpreted what happened this morning as – at best – an incredible inconvenience and at worst, an infringement on civil liberties. The same Twitter user that called the police action “a terrorists [sic] attack from agents of the state”, made a call for the people to use their own power:
Let the people stay home today…#Traffic..#PoliceProtestAction #Trinidad… the people must take action too..
— Zubby (@Zuberix) March 23, 2015

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Russia Will Deploy “Digital Fingerprinting” to Enforce Copyright Online · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
A register containing information about intellectual property rights holders in Russia will be created by the Ministry of Communications and Media, Deputy Minister Alexei Volin said Friday. RAPSI reports that such a register would likely be based on the principle of digital fingerprinting and would be used to “track and protect copyrighted files online.”
Deputy Minister Volin said that many rights holders are afraid to provide a digital fingerprint of their intellectual property for fear that it could be pirated.
“Digital fingerprinting is a system that can be used to track a desired property while excluding the possibility of illegal distribution,” the deputy minister said.
Volin added that initially the ministry believed that there should be no monopoly in this industry, that the contribution of intellectual property to the register must be voluntary and that it should serve the interests of the entire sector.
Digital fingerprinting is a technique that uses software to identify and extract unique components of digital video or audio files. The unique “fingerprints” can then be used to track content online. Film studios use digital video fingerprinting to locate copies of their films on various websites and enforce their copyright, while YouTube's Content ID and Vimeo's Copyright Match use Audible Magic's audio fingerprinting tool to identify the audio used in uploaded videos and check for copyright violations.
The Russian Union of Copyright Holders had recently proposed introducing “an internet tax”—a blanket solution suggesting all users are automatically charged for accessing copyrighted content on the web, regardless of whether or not they're consuming it. The idea seems to have stalled after it was heavily criticized by industry representatives and government officials.
The Russian anti-piracy law took effect on August 1, 2013, and was met with opposition in the RuNet. Among other things, it holds Internet service providers and hosting platforms liable for the distribution of pirated content over their platforms and puts it upon their shoulders to issue warnings and take down pages and websites containing pirated music, videos, and other materials. In May 2015, new amendments to the law will come into effect, allowing for swifter blocking of websites with pirated content for repeated violations of copyright.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Six Reasons You Should Visit Malapascua, Philippines, at Least Once in Your Life · Global Voices
Marie Bohner

Jump in! The boat is waiting for you. Photo by author
There are more than 7,000 islands in the Philippines, which means there are also more than 7,000 reasons to visit the country. But here I will offer a single reason it's worth making the trip to this tropical country: Malapascua.
After the Global Voices 2015 Summit in Cebu, I visited the island with a happy bunch of Global Voicers. Annie, Pantha, Esteve or Pauline, who were among the lucky few from Global Voices who had the chance to visit Malapascua, can tell you in several different languages: visiting Malapascua, a tiny island of 5,000 inhabitants off the northernmost tip of Cebu, is a must.
Malapascua, which, depending on who you talk to, means “bad Christmas” or “bad Easter” in Cebuano (and Spanish), is a little paradise which provides a great combination of intimacy (tourists are relatively few) and access to all possible services, including Wi-Fi (a must for our global connected souls).
Out of thousands, here are six good reasons why you should consider visiting this island in the near future:
A smile to welcome you on board, en route for snorkeling or island hopping. Photo by author
1. Malapascua is small, and if you are willing to do so, it is easy to feel at home in the small villages of Logon. If you stay just a couple of days and interact with the residents, you will feel like you have been their neighbour forever.
2. You aren't a diver. If you aren't really into jumping into the abyss to meet with friendly thresher sharks, there's no reason you have to. And you might make some interesting encounters in the beach:
Ramdom animals you find on the beach in #Malapascua #Filipinas2015 pic.twitter.com/5zRGfaiPmH
— an (@300mundos) 11 Février 2015
3. You are a diver. In that case, you should really see the thresher sharks, the manta rays and the smaller, but colorful, fish and corals in shallower waters. Most of the dive shops in Malapascua are incredibly professional and trustworthy, and open water courses are more affordable here than in some of the other fancy diving spots around the world. You sometimes have to contend with lousy weather, and wait a couple of days until Mother Nature is ready to show you her wonders. But it is worth it, and the grace of the thresher sharks swimming next to you is fantastic to behold, as Elise, our diving GVer, can testify.
#Malapascua‘s Morning Glory – Watch the video at http://t.co/a3PfrP96z7 pic.twitter.com/2e9YONBL7E
— evolution diving (@evolutiondive) 1 Février 2015
4. You like to eat, drink and enjoy incredible sunsets every evening. If so, Malapascua is perfect for you. Happy-hour sunset cocktails—with or without alcohol—are a very nice habit to acquire. Incredible Pork Sisig and Lechon Kawali (the sisig can also be made with squid and is equally delicious) are available at very reasonable prices in the village. Fruit lovers will enjoy eating magnificent-tasting tropical fruit such as rambutans and lanzones, sold every morning on the beach by some charming ladies .
Be romantic: treat yourself to a happy hour sunset cocktail. Photo by author
5. You're seeking peace. You have been working too hard for too long and your body aches and clamors for redemption. Malapascua is an island of relaxation, peace and meditative sounds like wind and waves on the beach. Treat yourself! Get a massage on the beach. Go snorkeling. Stroll around aimlessly. The island is not Ibiza: there are parties and discos but in most of parts of the island calm and warm breeze accompany your sweet dreams in the nighttime. There are also no cars—the only way to reach Malapascua is by boat.
Take a deep breath, relax… Global Voices author Violeta lost in her thoughts.
Or find a good teacher and practise acro-yoga on the beach. Photo by Luisa San Juan.
6. Malapascua was struck hard by supertyphoon Haiyan, locally known as Yolanda. All the coconut trees are gone, and many community buildings and houses need to be rebuilt (sadly and unsurprisingly, the resorts were rebuilt faster than the locals’ houses, but then one could also argue that the tourist activities are vital to Malapascua's economy). To be able to continue to offer a slice of paradise to its visitors from all over the world, Malapascua's inhabitants need their support. There are several ways to do this. One way is to check out the Save Philippine Seas website or even visit the place and get involved there, on the spot, with the locals.
Despite the beauty of the island, one can still see the destruction caused by typhoon Haiyan everywhere.
In case you are still not convinced, then kindly be nice and rush towards Malapascua to respond to Joey‘s “Mayday” on Facebook, as for all we know, he might still be stuck there. Hurry up—don't let him down!:
HELP! I'M STUCK ON A BEAUTIFUL ISLAND WITH AWESOME PEOPLE!

author: Marie Bohner


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Two Brave Acid Attack Victims Take School Exams From Their Hospital Beds · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

A protest on February 24, 2015, seeks justice for Sunday's acid attack on school girls Sangita Magar and Sima Basnet in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo by Sunil Sharma. Copyright Demotix.
Two brave girls, bed-ridden from acid attacks almost a month ago, are vying with 574,685 students to pass the most dreaded School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exams — nicknamed the Iron Gate — with flying colours.
On 22 February, Seema Basnet and Sangita Magar were attacked with acid by an unidentified male at a Basantapur-based tuition centre in the heart of capital city Kathmandu. Nepalese police announced on 20 March that they had arrested Jiwan BK and accused him of carrying out the attack, 26 days after the incident.
Seema, one of the girls, had written a four-page letter to the Prime Minister Sushil Koirala requesting that she be allowed to appear for the exams from hospital.
Acid attack victims to take SLC exams from hospital bed http://t.co/fcJwpzC3HY via @setopati pic.twitter.com/2dQdSikdU8
— Setopati (@setopati) March 12, 2015
The prime minister responded by instructing the Ministry of Education to arrange for the examinations to be taken from the hospital beds.
While Seema wrote her first paper from the Bir Hospital on her own, Sangita took the exams with the help of an assistant at Kathmandu Medical College (KMC) Hospital.
Acid attack victim Seema Basnet writes the first paper of SLC exam from Bir Hospital on Thursday. Hemanta Shrestha pic.twitter.com/C39dBJSTzw
— The Kathmandu Post (@kathmandupost) March 19, 2015
Acid attack victim Sangita Magar takes her SLC exams with the help of an assistant at K.M.C. hospital on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/tB6YjNLT6D
— Nepali Times (@nepalitimes) March 19, 2015
There was a huge uproar in Kathmandu following the acid attack against the teenage girls.
Leading Nepali blogger Lex Limbu posted photos of protests against the violence.
Against the recent acid attack! Happening right now in Basantapur #Kathmandu pic.twitter.com/mdaYy8dTGg
— lexlimbu (@lexlimbu) February 24, 2015
People have increasingly been speaking out to amend the law and increase the punishment as there is no harsh punishment against the crime. The current law carries a fine of up to 2,000 Nepalese rupees (about 20 US dollars) and a maximum sentence of four months in jail.
Ankit Koirala, an assistant professor of agri-economics at Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, tweeted:
Can we not ammend the law and prosecute the culprit? #EndImpunity #AcidAttack
— कृषि मुलश्च: जिवनम् (@ongkeet) February 24, 2015
People also demanded that treatment be provided for free to both girls.
Hinting at the money spent from state coffers on petty issues, Ram Kumari Jhakri, a central committee member of Community Party of Nepal – United Marxist and Leninist, tweeted:
एउटा जोगीलाई भेट्न सातहेलीकप्ट उडाईन्छ तर अपराधिले तेजावले जलाएकी बालिकाको उपचार योराज्य गर्दैन भने मान्नुसकि दिनगन्ती गरेहुन्छ हिसाब हुन्छ।
— Ram Kumari Jhakri (@ramkumarijhakri) February 26, 2015
Seven helicopters are flown to meet a sage but if this state doesn’t take care of a girl burned by acid thrown by a criminal, face it – the countdown will begin, scores will be settled.
Thanks to Seema and her courage, after receiving her heart-touching letter the prime minister directed the concerned authorities to provide free treatment to both girls.
Journalist Bhabasagar Ghimire tweeted his interpretation of the girls’ bravery in the aftermath of the attack:
जसले एसएलसीलाई फलामे ढोका भनेर तर्सायो उसलाई एक पटक भेटेर भन्नुछ, मैले त्यो ढोका जोखेर कवाडीमा बेच्दिसकेँ, अब नभन्नु ।
— Bhabasagar (@Bhabasagar) March 19, 2015
Whoever frightened [me] saying that SLC was an iron gate, [I] need to meet with them and tell them, I have weighed and sold that door to the scrap dealer. Now don’t tell [me].
Salute to these brave girls, who are determined to move ahead and succeed in life and are not getting cowed down despite the violence they have suffered.

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


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Why Are Mostly Foreign Artists Representing Kenya at the Venice Biennale? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The Shame in Venice. Acrylics mixed media on canvas by Michael Soi. Artwork used with his permission.
Did Kenya sell its art scene to China via Italy?
This is the question Kenyans and lovers of Kenyan art are asking themselves following the revelation that this year's Venice Biennale Kenya pavilion will be represented by only one Kenyan artist, with the other representatives being mostly Chinese artists plus a controversial Italian artist, Armando Tanzini, who is representing the country for a second time at the Biennale.
The ‘Kenyan’ participants are listed here and here.
Founded in 1895 as an International Art Exhibition, this is the 56th edition of the festival, which is now one of the most prestigious cultural events in the world. It will run May 9 – November 22.
In 2013, the Kenyan pavilion had only two Kenyan artists. Among the non-Kenyans representing the country were one Italian-Brazilian, the Italian Tanzini plus eight Chinese. In the same year, Joyce Nyairo, a Kenyan cultural analyst, asked Kenyan authorities to explain the country's disastrous display at the ‘Art Olympics’. She wanted to know why Kenya did not use the opportunity to showcase its contemporary art:
They are a broadly shared outrage — locally and internationally — on account of the casual way in which an opportunity to represent Kenya at one of the foremost art events in the world has been hijacked by charlatans.
In an email interview with Njeri Wangari, a Kenyan poet, blogger and performer, about Kenya's contemporary art scene, Global Voices learned that the Kenyan contemporary art scene is vibrant and growing. However, it still looks towards foreign donor-based art organisations, which is primarily due to the continued failure of the Kenyan government to offer any form of support to the Kenyan arts community. She pointed out that private interests have taken over Kenya's participation at this year's event, just as they did two years ago
Angered at yet another misrepresentation, Kenyans have created an online petition titled, “Renounce Kenya's fraudulent representation at the 56th Venice Biennial 2015 & commit to support the realisation of a national pavilion in 2017″:
For the third time, a group of well-connected persons, who lack neither the intellectual nor creative capacity to represent Kenya's contemporary art to the international arena, are posturing to the world as the Kenyan Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennial in Italy.
It should be noted that the Venice Biennial carries with it a profound global significance. For Kenya its cultural scene and its contemporary artists, Venice is a big deal and big business. It brings with it the absolute potential to launch the careers of artists, curators, writers, cultural entrepreneurs, cultural managers, collectors, art educators, patrons – both individual and corporate and many other players to monumental heights. It enriches our discourses and articulates our sophistication as a people both to ourselves and to the to the world at large. It also goes a long way to inject much needed commerce and cultural capital into our societies.
Due to multiple failures in our systems, local and international platforms where Kenyan Artists and our socio-creative infrastructure can gain capital have been poorly managed, misrepresented and outrightly appropriated.
This petition therefore, is another urge to amalgamate the resonance of Kenya's contemporary voices and consolidate the outrage that our supporters both locally and internationally feel. It is to seek the comradeship of those who are witness to both the vibrancy and frustration of Kenya's contemporary artists, and those who bear them support.
Explaining the reasons for supporting the petition, Boniface Maina wrote on the petition's website:
I am signing because it is a shame for our slot to be misrepresented in the Venice biennale again as if it wasn't enough already and the government through the ministry stands aside as if nothing is happening. This should stop from happening again and let the real Kenyan Artists represent but not the Chun Chings who pose to be “Kenyan.” Kenya already has excellent Artist who ought to be in that biennale and clearly whoever is in charge of this deal is sleeping heavily in the job… STOP THIS MADNESS..!!!!
Another petitioner, Judith Kibinge asked:
Have we no shame? No cultural pride? Isnt anyone at the Ministry of Culture not sick of misrepresenting kenya and kenyans to the world as a nation of jokers? The people behind this need to be called to account – and jailed / sacked or fined if found guilty of compromising our national pride.
A non-Kenyan supporter of the petition, Kristina Wright, wrote:
Although I am not Kenyan, I have spent a lot of time in Kenya over the last 15 years and consider it to be my second home. I am a long-time admirer of Kenyan art, and am dismayed at the way Kenya is being misrepresented at the Venice Biennale.
Arnola Lakita noted the importance of the arts:
The arts are the last bastion of expression and we can't have that also taken away by corruption and neocolonialism.
On Facebook, Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina had the following questions:
So. Is Armando Tanzini [who is based in Kenya] a Kenyan citizen? A legal resident? Does he have a work permit? Does he have letters of authority from our government to represent us internationally? Why does the Venice Biennale accept his credentials again after the previous scandal? Is somebody qualified to do so writing to Okwi Enwezor the Nigerian curator of the Venice Bienale about this? What action(s) are our arts institutions formally taking about all this? I am speaking about Kuona, Godown and more. What is the position of our Minister of Culture. When will this position be made public. What is the position of our Foreign Ministry. Our Rome Embassy? What action has our Roe embassy taken since 2013?
Reacting to Binyavanga's post, Kenya-born artist Phoebe Boswell identified the main problem with Kenya's pavilion:
The problem with Kenya's Pavilions is the heinous lack of curatorial intention, from choice of artists to the weird, nonsensical titles. Tanzini is obviously a driving force so it's necessary to focus on his role in it.
But the issue with Tanzini is merit-based. Whilst being a longterm resident in Kenya and a longterm maker of ‘stuff’ (I wouldn't call it all ‘art’ but I will credit that), his work is irrelevant to Kenya's contemporary conversation. It is disconnected. And frankly just not very good. More importantly, there are so many Kenyan artists who are better and relevant. More importantly still, and the crux of the whole thing, what is being presented is a curatorial mess. There is no thought process behind it, no criticality, and it makes a mockery of the concept of the Venice Biennale – for countries to present new, progressive, idiosyncratic, vital, current ways of seeing. Tanzini is an opportunist, using it as a vanity project, getting China's (substandard) artists onboard to pay for it, because who doesn't want to show at Venice! And after living in a Kenya 45 years, why wouldn't he want to/be allowed to show for Kenya? It's important to focus on the fact that the work is shit (in a nutshell), the curation of the work is nonexistent, and the whole affair is exploited, weak, and entirely lacking in credibility.
On Twitter, SkepticAfro wondered why the Italian artist Armando Tanzini still represents Kenya at the Venice Biennale when the exhibition itself will be led by Nigerian-born curator, Okwi Enwezor.
Venice Biennale's got a #Nigerian-born boss (Okwi Enwezor), but the Italo-Mombassa-Berlusconi ‘jambo bwana’ cabal still represents #Kenya.
— SkepticAfro (@skepticafro) March 17, 2015
(The Swahili greeting used in the tweet above, jambo bwana, was a common phrase the colonised people in East Africa used to greet their colonial masters).
On Twitter, Boswell demanded:
#Kenya artists! Why haven't we thrown our rocks hard enough to claim back our Pavilion after the '13 fiasco? #Venice https://t.co/4klh0dGbTX
— Phoebe Boswell (@PhoebeBoswell) March 17, 2015
You can follow tweets related to this debate on a storify curated by Phoebe Boswell's journalist sister, Frederica.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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American Blogger Offered Money to Publish Russian Propaganda  · Global Voices
Maria Volkova

Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
An American blogger turned down the offer of a lifetime this past weekend: getting paid to do nothing. The slight catch was that he had to publish articles written by someone else on his blog and claim them as his own—no big deal, right?
According to the blogger, David Swanson, after giving a talk at an anti-war event in Washington DC on March 20, he was approached by a young man with a thick Russian accent who introduced himself as Alexsei G. Padalko. This man showed Swanson his business card, which identified him as an air attaché assistant for the Russian Embassy in the US. He bought one of Swanson’s books, asked for an autograph, and then offered to buy Swanson a cup of coffee, in order to discuss prospects of working together “in order to achieve peace.”
Swanson and Padalko met the following day, and Padalko allegedly offered him a certain amount of money to publish already-written articles about the situation in Ukraine as though Swanson had written them himself.
He claimed a personal interest in peace and a desire to keep this secret from his employers. It was fine to email him, he said, but he'd have to give me the articles in person.
Padalko refused to disclose to Swanson the source of both the alleged information and the funding. Swanson says he rejected the offer.
I told him what I considered proper journalistic behavior and he expressed surprise and concern that I would bring up journalism since I was a blogger. Apparently a blogger is someone you can feed propaganda to, while a journalist is someone who's out to get you. I tried to tell him I was actually interested in communicating the facts about Ukraine to the U.S. public and that I thought that doing so would benefit both Russia and peace.
According to Swanson’s blog, a brief email correspondence followed their meeting at the coffee shop, though Padalko has stopped replying.
Ironically, Swanson and his blog actually support pro-Russian views, which seems to have made the incident doubly disappointing in his eyes. (This is also presumably why Padalko felt comfortable approaching Swanson in the first place.) In his reaction post, Swanson calls the regime change in Kyiv a “US-backed violent coup,” the new government “foreign-imposed,” and says he and others are not happy about “the baseless characterizations of Russia's behavior, the lies about your aggression.” But Swanson is adamant that Russia shouldn't try to “fix lies” about Moscow's “aggression” by “behaving aggressively.”

author: Maria Volkova