text:
Residents of Japanese region slammed by typhoon fear they are being forgotten · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Captions: Tateyama City, Chiba Prefecture; 900,000 households left without power following fierce typhoon. Structures toppled, utility poles uprooted; first responders called to more than 100 homes, with at least 10 sent to hospital in Tateyama. Image source: ANN News YouTube channel (screenshot).
Residents of communities located just outside of Tokyo feel devastation caused by a major typhoon has been largely overlooked by national media.
After battering Japanese island communities to the south of Tokyo, Typhoon Faxai made landfall in Chiba City at 5 a.m. local time on Monday, September 9. The typhoon brought heavy, flooding rains and winds of between 180 and 200 km/h, the equivalent of a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane.
Before landing in Chiba City, as it moved north up Tokyo Bay, the typhoon delivered punishing winds and torrential rains to Minami Boso, the relatively isolated communities on the southern end of the mountainous Boso peninsula in Chiba Prefecture, including Tateyama and Minami Boso.
Much of the coverage of Typhoon Faxai has focused on how people in Tokyo, Japan's nexus of business, government, and media, were affected.
The storm killed at least three people across Kanto, a region home to 36 million people that includes Tokyo and other prefectures. Much of media coverage of the storm focused on at least 10,000 travelers stranded for about 24 hours at Narita International Airport after road and rail links into central Tokyo had been severed.
Nearly 400,000 households across the Kanto region were also left without power, with Tepco, the power utility, estimating it would take until Friday, September 13, nearly a week after the storm hit, to restore service. The widespread and prolonged blackouts pose a serious threat to human health not only because of a lack of refrigeration at supermarkets, but also because without air conditioning there is no respite from torrid temperatures. This past week, temperatures reached nearly 40 degrees Celsius in some locations.
Some residents of the southern Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture have felt their region has largely been ignored and forgotten in the aftermath of the typhoon.
On Wednesday, September 11, Finders, an independent Tokyo-based media and news website, noted:
気象庁をして「関東上陸では最強クラス」と言わしめた台風15号。千葉県南部を中心に甚大な被害が生じており、今も停電や断水などで多くの人が苦しんでいる。現在何が起こっているのか、何か自分にできることはないかと思いネットやSNSで検索をかけても、断片的な情報しか見当たらず全体像が掴めないため、不安でもどかしい気持ちになる。
Great damage has occurred mainly in the southern part of Chiba Prefecture, and many people still suffer from power outages and water outages. Searching on the internet or social networking site to find out what is happening or how I can help, I can only find fragmentary information rather than a complete picture (of how the storm has affected southern Chiba), which makes me feel anxious and frustrated.
The blog post features images of widespread destruction from the storm in Tateyama, in southern Chiba.
Another article, published on blogging site Naver Matome and widely shared on social media, collected photos of the destruction in southern Chiba prefecture, giving a more complete look at the plight of local residents.
Some of the tweets collected in the blog post complain about the lack of attention paid to the typhoon devastation in Minami Boso and other communities there. Tobigeri, a soccer-focused website based in Minami Boso, on the southern end of Chiba, noted:
我々の地元でもありtobigeriの開催地でもある南房総が台風15号で甚大な被害を受けた。が、マスコミやメディアでは全く報道されないという不思議。激甚災害レベルです。これは報道されるべき
皆さんにまず南房総の現状を知って頂きたい#南房総 #台風15号 #館山 #台風被害 #台風 pic.twitter.com/ByEmiMGtwK
— tobigeri.jp (@tobigeri_jp) September 9, 2019
Minami Boso, the home base of tobigeri (sic) was severely damaged by Typhoon Faxai. However, we wonder why there have been almost no reports at all about the destruction by the media. It is a severe disaster. I want everyone to know the current state of Minami Boso.
Kamogawa, another city in southern Chiba prefecture, was also walloped by the typhoon. A twitter user shared scenes of devastation a day after the storm, and the tweet was shared tens of thousands of times:
千葉県の鴨川市の様子です。。
やっと少しずつ停電が回復してきました。
拡散してください。
お願いします。#拡散希望 pic.twitter.com/avZxdWzVvg
— 中野 聖子 (@seico1017) September 10, 2019
Here's what things are like in Kamogawa… Little by little electricity is being restored. Please share this and get the word out.
By Wednesday, September 11, two days after the storm, stores in southern Chiba were still left unstocked and in some cases were still left without power:
今の館山のコンビニ状況は
こんな感じです！！！
棚がすっからかん！ pic.twitter.com/dw4oXbCx2M
— K-MAN (@Dj_K_MAN) September 11, 2019
Here's the situation at convenience stores in Tateyama. The shelves are bare!
Local residents are now trying to get help for their stricken communities. The Minami Boso Facebook page has a call for donations:
千葉県 館山・南房総地域を助けてください。
台風で壊滅的な被害を受けました。
写真に写っているのはほんの一部です。もっと酷い地域もあります。
停電、断水、通信障害、まだ続いている地域も多くあります。
電気がなく真っ暗、コンビニには何もない、ガソリンも入れられない、エアコンも冷蔵庫も使えない。
こんな状態が丸3日になります。
道路閉鎖、建物倒壊、猛暑、食糧不足、人手不足、ガソリン不足。
どうか助けていただきたいです。
Please help the Tateyama and Minami Boso areas in Chiba Prefecture. We have been devastated by a typhoon, and only a small part of the destruction is pictured here — some areas are even worse. There are many areas where there are power outages, no water, and no phone or internet. There is no electricity, it's dark, there is nothing in the convenience stores, the gas station pumps aren't working, and where neither air conditioning nor refrigerator can be used. This will be a full 3 days so far following the typhoon. There are road closures, buildings collapsed, heat waves, food shortage, manpower shortages, gasoline shortage. Please help us.
The Facebook post links to a “hometown tax donation” (furusato nozei) web page that, besides documenting some of the typhoon damage in the area, is collecting and distributing tax-deductible donations to the communities in southern Chiba prefecture. The hometown tax donation scheme has generated controversy in recent years, but has generated significant funds for other disaster-affected regions in Japan.
More photos of typhoon damage can be found on Naver Matome. Progress of typhoon recovery efforts can be followed using the hashtag #南房総 (Minami Boso City).

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
Serbian member of pro-Kremlin biker club under investigation for assaulting a female journalist · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Serbian journalist Verica Marinčić. Photo by Inđija Cafe, used with permission.
A man from Inđija, a town in the North of Serbia, is under investigation for assault and harassment against Verica Marinčić, a journalist with local news portal Inđija Café. The man, who was identified as Nenad Marić, is a member of the local branch of the pro-Kremlin motorcycle club the Night Wolves, VOICE – a research and analytical center run by the Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina, reported on 31 August.
Following his attempts to intimidate Ms. Marinčić by following her on the streets and at her workplace on 19 June 2019, the police charged Mr. Marić with ‘endangering the security of a person who conducts activity of public interest in the sphere of information’ under article 138 par. 3 of the Criminal Code.
A screen grab of the Facebook post of an illegally parked car in Inđija with a caption “Good morning/good day. We are fine and how are you?” Fair use.
He is accused of assaulting and stalking the journalist after she published a photo of a car  illegally “parked in a disdainful manner on the sidewalk in front of a pastry shop” on the Facebook of her portal. Marić recognized the car as his and he started following and harassing the journalist. He first tried to throw water on the  journalist, and then followed her on her home street where he drove his motorcycle into her and swerved at the last moment. The journalist reported the incident to the police, but Marić continued to visit her workplace in the following days.
Marić seems to have connections to the local authorities in Inđija, which seem to tolerate his  aggressive actions. He is a member of the Night Wolves bikers club which had received grants from the municipality to support their activities, which may have included trips to Russia.
When the journalist tried to obtain footage of the assault from the municipal security cameras, she encountered a wall of silence. “Immediately after the attack I asked the municipality to provide the video footage of the incident, but they did not even dignify me with an answer, let alone to give me the tapes,” Ms. Marinčić stated for VOICE.
Meanwhile, on 24 June, a Member of Parliament from the People's Peasant Party Marijan Rističević used his Twitter account to discredit Ms Marinčić's journalist status, claiming that she is just a “shopkeeper who for some unknown reason is presented as victim of persecution by some biker with immunity.”
In addition to her work at the local portal, the journalist had taken up a second job at a news kiosk to make ends meet.
In response to the MP, she posted archive footage of a TV show she hosted back on 11 September 2006 that featured Rističević as one of the guests. She  commented: “Rističević says I'm not a journalist but a shopkeeper. Here's some footage from the shop.”
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Reporters without Borders (RSF) have both condemned the intimidation attempts. Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) and Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS) issued demands to the police and prosecutors’ office to investigate the threats to her safety.
.@RSF_inter is calling the authorities of #srbija to protect journalist Verica Marincic @epicentarus of @IndjijaCafe as neither local politicians nor people in power should be above the law .The harassment of journalists has to stop! @anabrnabic @avucic #napadinanovinare #mediji
— RSF in English (@RSF_en) June 22, 2019
Starting from 26 June, the website of the portal Inđija Cafe has been under constant hacker attacks aimed at cracking its WordPress passwords and slowing the site down. The portal's administrators took it offline out of precaution.Cyber forensic experts quoted by Cenzolovka.rs explained that the ‘brute force attack’ comes from many different addresses located in different countries around the world. At the moment of writing of this post the site www.indjijacafe.in.rs remains unavailable, while the media outlet's Facebook page has not been updated since 23 July.
The motorcycle club Night Wolves, also referred to as “Putin's Angels” in U.S. media, was founded in Russia in 1989 and currently has branches in 14 different countries. Over the years, they have performed various propaganda and paramilitary functions for the Kremlin while openly supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin. They were placed under US sanctions for their support to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
In its article, VOICE also uncovered data showing that the municipality of Inđija used taxpayers’ money to finance the activities of the local branch of the Night Wolves. In 2018, the club received over 9200 US dollars from the municipal budget, an increase from the 4200 dollars they received in 2017.
Screen grab of the Facebook page titled “Night Wolves Serbia – subsection Inđija”, featuring members of the Night Wolves motorcycle club in Moscow, including Nenad Marić holding a flag of the municipality. The top post has a caption “Nobody has died from the ‘malign Russian influence,’ while ‘the  goodness’ of the West resulted in so many mothers crying over the graves of their children.” Fair use.
The official Facebook page of “Night Wolves – subsection Inđija”, contains cover photo showing the suspected assailant Nenad Marić posing with other members of the bike club while holding the flag of the local municipality of Inđija. The photo is captioned “Moscow 2019.” According to the other photographs and posts, the Night Wolves from Inđija also took part in a motorcycle show in Sevastopol (in Russian-occupied Crimea), during which Vladimir Putin delivered a speech.
According to the the official website of ‘Night Wolves Serbia‘, a decade after the founding of the club in Russia in 1988, it opened branches in Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, North Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Germany.
Несумњиво је да је клуб основан на бунтовничким начелима, али се увек ослањао на Православно корење и историју своје земље. За нас је мотор Симбол наше Слободе, наш Знак је Симбол Незаборава, Оданости и Части. Поносни смо на нашу ничим умрљану прошлост, на своје Руско име. Наш МС је Мотоклуб Руског духа, мотоклуб патриота! Мотоклуб, способан да обједини руско, словенско друштво снагом искреног бајкерског братства.
Undoubtedly our club has been founded upon rebellious premises, but always relying on Orthodox Christian roots and the history of its country. For us the motorbike is a [sic! capital letters] Symbol of our Freedom, our Logo is Symbol of Unforgiveness, Loyalty and Honor. We  are proud of our unstained past, and our Russian name. Our bike club is a club of Russian spirit, a club of patriots! A club capable of uniting the Russian, Slavic society with the power of true bikers’ brotherhood.
The presence of the Night Wolves in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro has been connected with the promotion of Russian influence, Serbian nationalism, pro-Kremlin and anti-NATO activities, with backing of the Serbian political elite. They have been organizing various events such as visits to monasteries, and have also taken part in controversial military parade.
Some of their members from Serbia have been denied entry to Bosnia and Herzegovina under security grounds. Members of the local branch in Montenegro have been questioned by the police for acting as unlicensed bodyguards for Serbian Orthodox clergy visiting the country.
According to research by the reputable Balkan Investigative Research Network (BIRN) the Night Wolves have been receiving support from the government of Republika Srpska, one of the two constituent entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, dominated by Serbian nationalist parties.
The Night Wolves’ branch in North Macedonia has been promoting Russian interests and Macedonian nationalism. They admitted participating in the protests leading to the assault on the Parliament on 28 April 2017, but denied taking part in the actual raid, which then included attempted murders of political opponents of Kremlin-supported then-ruling party VMRO-DPMNE.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Filip Stojanovski


text:
A proposed administrative shift in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church stokes ethnic, religious tensions · Global Voices
Endalkachew Chala

A priest of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church rests inside the 13th century rock-hewn Church of Bet Giorgis, Lalibela, Ethiopia, November 1, 2007. Photo by A. Davey via Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
On September 1, 2019, an ad hoc committee formed by Oromo clerics from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC), declared their plan to establish a new regional parish administration unit in Oromia Regional State. They want to establish a regional “episcopacy” — in church speak — that caters to the spiritual, administrative and linguistic needs of the Orthodox Oromo people.
The EOTC currently has over 50 million members comprised of members from all over Ethiopia.
Oromo church members say that inefficiency and corruption hinders EOTC from addressing their spiritual, linguistic and administrative needs and members of the ad hoc committee threatened to take measures into their own hands — including the launch of a distinct, separate administrative unit — if they don’t hear back within 30 days from EOTC's ruling body, known as the Holy Synod and Church fathers.
The EOTC has its own unique administrative structure that does not match Ethiopia’s federal government structure, which constitutes nine autonomous ethnic regions — among which Oromia is the largest. The Oromo clerics want to reorganize the church's structure to follow Ethiopia's federal political system.
The EOTC has about 35,000 churches throughout Ethiopia. Some reports suggest about 7,000 are in Oromia. This constitutes about 20 percent of all churches.
If Oromos create a regional parish administrative structure without approval from the Holy Synod, it could create an administrative conflict.
The clerics believe that reorganizing the church’s administrative structure will help revitalize empty and neglected churches whose followers left them for expanding Protestant churches in Oromia.
According to the head of the ad hoc committee, arch-scholar Belay Mekonen, there is already a precedent for doing this. He says that the church has changed its governance structures throughout history to match changes in government structures.
He also insisted that new administrative unit will help the EOTC realize its apostolic mission by bringing the church closer to Oromia people, with plans to consolidate and institutionalize the use of Afan Oromo (the Oromo language) within the EOTC.
Unlike Protestant churches that offer services Afan Oromo, Oromo clerics say the EOTC expects Oromos to worship in Ge’ez, the church’s liturgical language, or Amharic, the working language of Ethiopia's federal government. But Ge'ez is an ancient language that most people barely understand — not only in Oromia but throughout Ethiopia. And Amharic is a language spoken mainly by people who reside in major cities and towns in Oromia, and less so in rural areas, where Afan Oromo is prevalent.
Another member of the ad hoc committee said the new administrative unit will help to bring the people who felt alienated back to church.
A monk reads Ge'ez, the liturgical language of the Ethiopia Orthodox Tewahedo Church, October 15, 2018. Photo by Rod Waddington via Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
The committee’s push prompted a stinging rebuke from the Holy Synod, setting up a protracted intra-institutional administrative conflict.
Opposition to the committee has also come from Orthodox faithfuls, who feel the push to establish a separate administrative unit is profoundly disturbing. They say their church is a sacred institution only willed by God.
Others variously labeled the move as an opportunistic shot or attempt to destroy the defining element of their national, cultural and religious identity:
This why I think these new rebels aren’t EOC institutionalists who seek greater inclusiveness. They are cultural vandals who have suddenly got the opportunity to economically and politically profit from the chaos and crisis in one of humanity’s greatest institutions. https://t.co/zyvHonOC9V
— Abiye Teklemariam Megenta (@abiyetk) September 1, 2019
I don’t think I will ever identify with any specific religion anymore but I have a soft spot for EOTC [ which I used to taunt in my college days when I was “ woke” ]
It’s historic and was nurtured and protected by our forefathers. I am proud of EOTC and its wisdom. https://t.co/5ZUOBPiDEX
— Mady Yonas (@Madyyon) September 2, 2019
Numerous Addis Ababa-based EOTC organizations and parish administrators have scheduled to hold a rally on Sunday, September 15, 2019, protesting an escalation of violence against Orthodox clerics, laity and the destruction of churches.
Rally organizers said the demonstration is planned to demand the government to provide protection for Orthodox Christians throughout Ethiopia. They emphasized the planned rally has nothing to do with the Oromo clerics and could be called off if they get a practical response.
But the planned rally takes on added significance because the organizers say they support the response the Holy Synod has given to Oromo clerics.
The Oromo clerics have also gotten lukewarm support from an unlikely source: Daniel Kibret, a prominent EOTC personality, writer and strong ally of Ethiopia’s reformist prime minister, Abiy Ahmed.
In a lengthy blog post, he wrote that while he agrees with the clerics’ analysis of the problem in the EOTC, he also wrote the clerics’ solution is wrong.
But members of the ad hoc committee insist that they do not want to splinter the EOTC in Oromia. They have not proposed a distinct theological element nor introduced a new canon and ritual activities, they say.
Crucially, the dispute has also become an important manifestation of religious tension freighted with ethnic rivalry among political elites of Ethiopia’s several ethnic groups.
On social media, the clerics’ move has amplified increasing ethnic tensions, due to a long-standing rift between Amhara and Oromo people, two of Ethiopia's largest ethnic groups: Conflicts over land, history, economy and culture have intensified, nearly a year after their ruling elites entered a tactical alliance within the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Party (the EPRDF), to bring down the supremacy of Tigryan elites who ruled for 27 years.
Both Amharas and Oromos practice a wide range of religions. Christianity and Islam are the main ones.
Statistically, 30.4% of 25 million Oromos follow the EOTC, while 82.5% of 19 million Amharas are Orthodox faithfuls.
The Amharas have a tangled relationship with the EOTC. A prominent historian Harold Marcus describes the Amharas alongside the Tigrayans as inheritors and avatars of Orthodox Christianity.
This contrasts sharply with the Oromos’ relationship with EOTC. Although there is a significant number of Orthodox Oromos, some argue Oromo nationalists have tended to promote the development of secular nationalism as a unifying ideology.
In fact, a long-held belief among Oromo nationalists asserts that when Oromos and other southern peoples of Ethiopia incorporated into modern Ethiopia, the EOTC was an active agent for assimilationist policies of successive Ethiopian emperors.
They contend that most of bishops and priests historically appointed to Oromia were native Amharic speakers who aimed to “Amharize” Oromos by discouraging the use of Afan Oromo in church.
The latest dispute between Oromo clerics and the Holy Synod is a new incarnation of a long-standing strand of EOTC’s intra-institutional conflict — albeit with different features and players.
In 1991, after the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) troops assumed control of the country, a prolonged intra-institutional conflict broke out within the EOTC, when the TPLF-led regime plotted to force the abdication of the fourth Patriarch, Abune Merkorios.
Following the abdication of the Patriarch, a movement supported by members of the Ethiopian diaspora in the US formed a Holy Synod in Exile in 1996.
This resulted in division among clergy and faithful that stemmed from ethnic and political tension between the Amhara and Tigray.
The EOTC in exile also operated as an anti-EPRDF body based in Washington, DC.
In July 2018, Prime Minister Abiy assisted the reunification of the Synod of the EOTC and the Synod of the EOTC in exile.
Regardless of one's ethnic background and recurring intra-institutional conflict, most Orthodox followers consider the church a defining element of Ethiopian national identity. Even people who describe their affiliation to the church as cultural rather than faith-based feel a connection.
But Ethiopians who live in regions dominated by non-Orthodox faiths emphasize that their identity is not predicated on Orthodox religiosity.

author: Endalkachew Chala


text:
Cameroonian football star Samuel Eto’o rises to global fame and retires by 38 · Global Voices
Ekonde Daniel

Eto'o with Anzhi Makhachkala in a Russian Cup game against FC Dynamo Moscow, September 2011, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The Cameroonian great, Samuel Eto'o, has “put an end” to his illustrious career spanning 22 years in 13 clubs across six countries – winning four African player-of-the-year awards and three Union of European Football Associations Champion League trophies.
Netizens quickly took to Twitter to celebrate the football hero:
The-End?
Just had confirmation from Samuel Etoo’s representatives that the 4-time African player of the year and 3 time UEFA champions league winner has decided to retire from football.
Probably one of Africa’s greatest footballers @ESheriff237 @oluwashina @UsherKomugisha pic.twitter.com/xJnw8SUym5
— Njie Enow: Mr Razzmatazz (@NjieEnow) September 6, 2019
The famous African Player, 2 times nominated for the FiFa Ballon D'OR, 4 Times CAF Ballon D'OR, 2 African Cup of Nations and Highest Goal Score in Africa #Samuel_Etoo has taken his Retirement in Football today.
Don't Scroll without RT, Like and a Word for Him.
???????? pic.twitter.com/GsLtuTOZY2
— Nelson Diaz ?? ???? (@NelsonD13255387) September 6, 2019
But how did he get there?
Appearing as the youngest player in the 1998 World Cup in France, Eto’o had sterling performances back home with his formation club, Kaji Sports Academy, before switching to Real Madrid as a youth player, at the age of 15.
“As young as he was … on February 11, 1996, Eto’o was [a student] with KSA [Kaji Sports Academy] before moving to Real Madrid,” former Cameroon midfielder, Samson Che, told Global Voices in an interview on September 7, in Buea, Cameroon.
Che himself helped qualify Cameroon's national football team, the Indomitable Lions, for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. He is also the 2000 Cup of Cameroon winner with Kumbo Strikers, and a 2006 Rwandan Cup winner with Armée Patriotique Rwandaise Football Club (APRFC).
“I had the opportunity to play against him in a friendly game at [the] club level; by then I played for PWD Bamenda [a northwest regional club] while he represented KSA,” Che said. He continued:
“[He was] barely … 16, because he was born in 1981 … he gave our central defenders all sorts of problems — with his pace, technical ability and tactical maturity for that age – it was so amazing — despite him playing just 45 minutes. About two years on, he came to the World Cup as the youngest player.
Having impressed so young, Eto’o played a significant role in Cameroon’s 2000 Summer Olympics qualifiers against Ghana.
“We were called to camp in the Olympic national team — that was November 1999. Eto’o, and Pierre Nlend Womé, came one week to the game against Ghana. We had lost to Ghana away, 2-1, but we defeated them in Yaoundé 2-0,” Che explained. He continued:
Eto’o was all over the field — that was the day he revealed himself to the Cameroonian public under the watchful eyes of Pierre Lechantre [then-Indomitable Lions coach]. … I think that match earned him a ticket to go for the 2000 Africa Cup of Nations [hosted by] Ghana and Nigeria.
Eto'o, the former Barcelona forward, went on to emerge as Cameroon’s joint top scorer with Patrick M’Mboma, as the Indomitable Lions held their nerve to beat Nigeria in the final.
? @setoo9 ?
?? 2004-2009
? We take a look back at his career with Barça including the most important stats and images ?https://t.co/UJUVjh9HeY
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) September 7, 2019
Cameroon defended their berth as African champions in Mali in 2002 with Samuel Eto’o restricted to just a goal, but he would go on to score 18 times, becoming the tournament’s record scorer.
Samuel Eto’o will be remembered for always delivering on big occasions.
The 38-year-old netted in both UEFA Champions League finals for FC Barcelona in 2006 and 2009 as the Catalonian giants clinched gold in the events.
As if those weren’t enough, he went on to win another Champions League trophy with Inter-Milan – playing a modified role under former Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho:
Samuel Etoo retires at 38,one of the best African footballer of all time.
2 AFCONS ??
1 Olympic Gold ?
2 Copa del Rey ??
3 UCL ???
3 La Liga ???
1 Serie A ?
2 Coppa Italia ??
AFCON all-time top scorer ⚽
4 African Player of the Year ?
Best African of all time? pic.twitter.com/FlXMW9f21s
— YangaWin (@yanga_win) September 7, 2019
Eto’o’s ability to stamp his mark as one of the top scorers at former club Mallorca and FC Barcelona with 108 goals in 144 appearances make him an African legend.

author: Ekonde Daniel


text:
Locked down in Kashmir: A traveler’s view · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

The Dal Lake in Srinagar, Kashmir. Image by Fatima Jahan. Used with permission.
Fatima Jahan is a Bangladeshi living in Bangalore, India. Travel is one of Fatima’s passions, and one of her favourite places to visit is Kashmir, which she describes as “a paradise on earth”—she’s visited the region seven times.
This year, after she had made travel arrangements for Kashmir, the political situation there changed dramatically when, on August 5, the government of India revoked Article 370, the section of the Indian constitution that has provided special autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir since 1950. The Indian authorities placed hundreds of political leaders and their aides under house arrest, and suspended access to mobile, landline, and internet networks.
Fatima’s flight was scheduled for the third week of August. By that time, the authorities had begun to ease some the restrictions and slowly lift the curfews, though there were still some controls in place. Fatima decided, nevertheless, to undertake the journey to the region, where staying for a few days before returning to Bangalore. She shared some of her experiences in a series of posts on Facebook that we have excerpted below.
Life is uncertain and moments are frozen when curfew is declared. Dal lake, Srinagar, Kashmir. Image by Fatima Jahan. Used with permission.
Here are some selected parts of her first two days of experience.
সপ্তম বারের মত কাশ্মীরে এসেছি।
… প্লেন থেকে নেমে দেখি বাইরে সব থমথমে। এয়ারপোর্টের কোন দোকান খোলা নেই। আমি কোন অফিসারের দিকে ভয়ে তাকাচ্ছিলাম না। তাকানোর অপরাধে যদি ফেরত পাঠায়, এসেছি বেশ কৌশল করে।
লাগেজ বেল্টে লাগেজ পাওয়ার সাথে সাথে বেরিয়ে পড়লাম। পুরো ফ্লাইটের যাত্রীর মধ্যে আমি একমাত্র ট্যুরিস্ট বা বাইরের লোক।
This is my seventh visit to Kashmir.
. . .  I get off the plane and notice an ominous silence outside. None of the airport stores is open. I do not look the officers in the eye, for fear they might take it as an offence and send me back!
As soon as I retrieve my luggage from the conveyor belt I leave the airport. Turns out that I was the only tourist on the entire flight.
This used to be a busy street with a lot of traffic. Image by Fatima Jahan. Used with permission.
শ্রীনগর এয়ারপোর্ট থেকে বের হয়ে প্রিপেইড ট্যাক্সি স্ট্যান্ড থেকে ট্যক্সি নিলাম। বের হয়ে দেখি শহর থমথমে। এখন বাজে সকাল সাড়ে সাতটা, বাইরের তাপমাত্রা ১৩° সেলসিয়াস। পরশু কারফিউ তুলে দেয়া হয়েছে। কোন দোকানপাট খোলা নেই। স্থানীয় মানুষজন দু’ একজন বেরিয়েছে বাজার করার জন্য। কেউ গাড়ি বের করেনি। হেঁটেই চলাফেরা করছেন, ২/১ জন মহিলাকে দেখলাম হেঁটে বাজারে যাচ্ছেন। ট্যাক্সিচালক এজাজ ভাই বললেন আমাকে পৌঁছে দিয়ে তিনি বাড়ি চলে যাবেন। দিন চালানোর জন্য একজন প্যাসেঞ্জারই যথেস্ট এখন।
Exiting Srinagar airport, I take a taxi from the prepaid taxi stand. As we drive slowly into the city I witness the same ominous silence. It is 7:30am and the outside temperature is 13° C. The authorities lifted the curfew day before yesterday, but no shops are open. Some locals have come out to shop. They are walking; few people have come in their cars. There are even two or three women going to the market. The taxi driver, Ejaz Bhai, tells me he will go straight home after dropping me. One passenger is enough for the day in this situation.
এজাজ ভাই বললেন কোন অপরাধে আর্মি ধরে নিয়ে জিজ্ঞাসাবাদ করে সে ভয়ে কেউ ঘরের বাইরে থাকেনা। দোকানপাট বন্ধ তাই খুব হিসেব করে আগের করা বাজার খরচ করতে হচ্ছে, পরে অবস্থা কি হয়, কিভাবে সংসার চলবে কে জানে!
এজাজ ভাই আরো জানালেন এখানকার সব হোটেলে পুলিশ সিল করে দিয়েছে। গেস্ট রেজিস্ট্রার বইয়ে আগস্ট ৫ এ লিখে দেয়া হয়েছে এরপর আর কোন গেস্ট রেজিস্ট্রার হবেনা।
রাস্তা ভরে গেছে আর্মিতে। এত আর্মি আগে একসাথে দেখিনি। প্রতি তিন মিটার দূরত্বে একজন আর্মি পারসন দাঁড়িয়ে আছেন পাহারায়।
আমি যাব হোসেন আঙ্কেলের হাউসবোটে। আমাকে ডাল গেট নং ৭ এ এজাজ ভাই নামিয়ে চলে গেল। শিকারা নিয়ে পৌঁছালাম হাউসবোট, হোসেন আঙ্কেলের হাউসবোট আর বাড়ি।
According to Ejaj Bhai, no one leaves the house unless it is absolutely necessary, fearing the army might arrest them on any pretext. Most shops are still closed, so people are using up their stocks of food. Who knows what will happen tomorrow?!
Ejaz Bhai also told me that police have closed all the hotels here. On the 5th of August, they marked in hotel guest registers that no further guests will be allowed in.
There are a lot of armed security personnel on the roads. Approximately every three meters an army officer is standing guard.
I am going to Hussain Uncle’s houseboat. (I have known him for a few years). Ejaz Bhai drops me at Dal Lake Gate No. 7 and I take a shikara to the houseboat, which is also Hussain Uncle's home.
Shikara boats seat six. Like Venetian gondolas, they are an iconic feature of Kashmir's Dal Lake. Image by Fatima Jahan. Used with permission.
AFSA ১৯৯০ সাল থেকে চালু আছে। আর্মির হাতে সমস্ত ক্ষমতা অর্পন করা হয়েছে। আর্মি যে কাউকে তুলে নিয়ে যেতে পারে, সিভিলিয়ান বা মিলিট্যান্ট যে কাউকে গুম বা হত্যার জন্য আর্মিকে কোন জবাবদিহি করতে হয়না এই ধারার কারনে ।
…হাজার হাজার মানুষের গনকবর আছে এখানে বারামোল্লা, উডি এসব জায়গায়। যুবকদের তুলে নিয়ে মেরে ফেলা হয়েছে মিলিট্যান্ট সন্দেহে। গ্রামের পর গ্রাম উজাড় করে দেয়া হয়েছে এভাবে।
৫ আগস্ট, ২০১৯ থেকে নাকি অনেক যুবককে গ্রেফতার করা হয়েছে, যার কোন খবর জানা যাচ্ছেনা।
পরশু কারফিউ তুলে নেবার পর এখানকার মানুষ নিজেরাই কারফিউ দিয়েছে, যাকে বলে সিভিল কারফিউ । কেউ দোকান খোলেনি, কেউ কোথাও কাজ করছেনা। ৩৭০ ধারা তুলে নেবার যে সিদ্ধান্ত নেয়া হয়েছে তার বিরোধিতা করে।
The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has been in effect since 1990. The army has all the power. The law allows the army to pick up anyone, civilian or militant, and they don’t have to be accountable if people turn up dead or disappear.
. . . There are mass graves of thousands in the districts of Uri and Baramulla. It's alleged that suspected militants were picked up and they ended up in those graves. This is the story in a lot of villages in the Kashmir Valley.
After the 5th of August many youths have reportedly been arrested, and no one knows where they are.
Even though [the government] have lifted the curfew, the people here imposed their own, civil curfew. No one is opening their shops; no one anywhere is working. This is all in protest at the decision taken to revoke Article 370.
Image by Fatima Jahan. Used with permission.
PSA ধারা ১৯৭৮ সাল থেকে কার্যকর করা হয়েছে। এর কারনে কোন ধরনের মিটিং, মিছিল নিষিদ্ধ কাশ্মীরে। তবে মিছিল বের হয় এবং ধরপাকড়ও হয়।
এবারের অবস্থা সবচেয়ে খারাপ, টেলিফোন, ইন্টারনেট লাইন বন্ধ। বাইরের জগতের সাথে কোন যোগাযোগ নেই।
এবার কারফিউ এর আগে পুলিশের কাছ থেকে পাওয়ার নিয়ে নেয়া হয়েছে, পুলিশের অস্ত্র জমা নিয়ে রেখে দেয়া হয়েছে। এয়ারপোর্ট থেকে আসার পথে কোন পুলিশ তো দেখলামও না।
The PSA [Public Safety Act] has been in force since 1978. This banned any kind of gathering or procession in Kashmir. However, people do come out for protests, and mass arrests take place.
This time, it’s worse. Telephone, internet lines are down and there is no contact with the outside world.
Before the curfew, the army had seized power from the police and took away their weapons. I did not see any police on my way into the city from the airport.
বেশিরভাগ রাজনৈতিক নেতাদের গ্রেফতার করে দিল্লী, আগ্রার জেলে পাঠানো হয়েছে। শোনা গেছে কাশ্মীর আর জম্মুর সব জেল নাকি ভরে গিয়েছে। অবশ্য তা শোনা কথা।
কারফিউ শিথিল করার পর থেকে কেউ গাড়ি বের করছেননা কারন পেট্রোল পাওয়া যাচ্ছেনা তাই। বাস চলছেনা।
বিকেলে হোসেন আঙ্কেলকে বললাম লেকপাড়ে যাব শহরের পরিস্থিতি দেখতে। আঙ্কেল মানা করলেন। বললেন, ‘কাল যেও। আজ শহর মোটেই ঠান্ডা নয়।’
[The authorities] have arrested many political leaders and sent them to jail in Delhi and Agra. Rumour has it that the jails in Kashmir and Jammu are already full.
Even without the curfew in effect, no one is taking their car out. Because gasoline is not available. The buses are not running either.
In the afternoon, I ask Hussain Uncle to take me to the lakeside to see the situation in the city. He suggests that I go tomorrow instead: “Today there is trouble in the city.”
কাশ্মীরে কারফিউ চলাকালীন সময়ে আমার দ্বিতীয় দিন।
ব্যক্তিগত জীবনে কোন কাজের তাড়া নেই। আর কারফিউ এর কারণে কোথাও যাবারও প্ল্যান নেই। হুসেন আঙ্কেলের দু'টো হাউসবোটের একটিতে নিজেরা থাকেন আর আরেকটি রেখেছেন ট্যুরিস্টদের জন্য। আমি এখন আছি ট্যুরিস্টদের বিশাল হাউসবোটে একা। সব ধরনের ট্যুরিসম বন্ধ এখন কাশ্মীরে।  […]
নাস্তা করতে করতে হুসেন আঙ্কেলের ছেলে শেহজাদের সাথে কথা হচ্ছিল। গতকাল নাকি শালিমার গার্ডেনের দিকে মিছিল বের হয়েছিল। পরের খবর কেউ জানেনা। কতজন গ্রেফতার, আহত, নিহতের সংখ্যা জানার উপায় নেই। টেলিফোন, ইন্টারনেট বন্ধ।
My second day in Kashmir.
I, personally, am in no hurry. Because of the situation, I have no plans to go anywhere. Hussain Uncle lives in one of his two houseboats and keeps the other for tourists, so I am now alone on a huge houseboat. All tours are now closed in Kashmir. . .
I talk with his son, Shehzad, during breakfast. Yesterday, a protest rally took place at Shalimar Gardens. Nobody knows what happened after that. There is no way to know how many were arrested, injured, or killed. There is still no telephone, internet.
Birbed-wire in front of government houses and bridges. Image by Fatima Jahan. Used with permission.
আগে একবার সরকার অনুমতি দিয়েছিল মিছিল করার ২০০৮ সালে, তখন নাকি সারা শহরের মানুষ পথে নেমে এসেছিল, কন্ট্রোল করা মুশকিল হয়ে গিয়েছিল। তারপর থেকে সরকার আর মিছিলের অনুমতি দেয়না।
কাশ্মীরের সাধারণ মানুষ চায় আজাদী। সেটা রাজা হরি সিং এর আমল থেকেই চাইছিল। এখনকার লিবারাল আর কনসারভেটিভ মানসিকতার ভারতীয় জনগণ কি চায় সে বিতর্কে নাই বা গেলাম। কাশ্মীর তো কাশ্মীরীদের তারা কি চায় সেটাই মূল বিষয়।
Once, in 2008, the government allowed people to protest. People from all over the city came out into the streets of Kashmir, which was very hard to control. The government became smarter, and protests rallies are no longer allowed.
The common people of Kashmir want azadi (freedom). They have wanted it since the reign of King Hari Singh, before India became independent. I am not going to debate what the mass of Indian citizens want. . . . What Kashmiris want should be the main concern, because they are from this place.
Image by Fatima Jahan. Used with permission.
আজকে নাকি রেশন দিচ্ছে। আঙ্কেলের ছোট ছেলে জুনেয়েদ সদরে গিয়ে খবর এনেছে যে আগামীকাল থেকে রেশন দেয়া শুরু হবে। এখন রেশনে শুধু চাল দেয়। আগে আটা, চিনিও দিত।
আমি খাবারের সময় বাদ দিয়ে বাকি সময় হাউসবোটের বারান্দায় বসে থাকি। লেক থেকে জীবনযাত্রা স্বাভাবিক বলেই মনে হয়। যে যার কাজ করতে নৌকা বেয়ে যাওয়া আসা করছে। কারফিউ এর সময় এখানকার নারীদের করার কিছুই থাকেনা। এবার তো ইন্টারনেটও বন্ধ করে দেয়া হয়েছে। টেলিভিশন দেখা ছাড়া মনোরঞ্জনের কোন মাধ্যম এখন নেই।
They have started to ration food distribution again. Uncle’s youngest son, Junaid, went to the centre of the town and learnt that from tomorrow they will start the distribution of rations. They are providing only rice now. Earlier they used to distribute flour and sugar as well.
I spend the rest of the day sitting on the porch of the houseboat. Life on the Dal lake seems to be normal. People are going to their usual work or other places on small boats. During the curfew, the women here have nothing to do, especially as mobile phone and internet service have also been shut down. Except for TV, there is no option for entertainment.
বিকালে আমি বের হলাম, আঙ্কেল জুনেয়েদকে আমার সাথে পাঠিয়ে দিল। তীরে নেমে হাঁটলাম শহর অবধি। বোলভার্ড রোড মানে ডাল লেক ঘেসা রাস্তাটায় শুধু অল্প কয়েকজন আর্মি দেখলাম। এরপর প্রতি ১০ মিটার পর পর একজন সেনা সদস্য দাঁড়িয়ে আছে। প্রায় সব সরকারী অফিসের সামনে কাঁটাতারের বেড়া দেয়া। আজ দেখি পথে বেশ কিছু গাড়ি, মোটর বাইক চলছে। বোলভার্ড রোডে স্থানীয় মানুষজন এসেছে ঘুরেফিরে বেড়াতে। সাধারণত বিকেলে শ্রীনগর শহর উপচে পড়ে এখানে।
পাবলিক ট্রান্সপোর্ট সব বন্ধ। শুধু জম্মু যাবার জন্য বাস স্ট্যান্ডে কয়েকটা শেয়ার ট্যাক্সি দাঁড়িয়ে রয়েছে। এখন জম্মু বাদে অন্য সব রুটের রাস্তা বন্ধ।
In the afternoon I go out, and Uncle sends his son Junaid with me. From the boat, I step on to land and walk along the lakeside. I see some army men patrolling the Boulevard Road. After that, every 10 meters there is an army officer standing. Barbed-wire fences have been placed in front of almost all public buildings. Today I saw several cars and motorbikes on the street. I saw some local people strolling on Boulevard Road. Usually, many people from Srinagar flock here in the afternoon. . . .
Public transport is still shut down. A few shared taxis are waiting at the bus stand to take people to Jammu. All roads except those towards Jammu are closed.
Shops are closed. Iamge by Fatima Jahan. Used with permission.
রাস্তাঘাটে ছবি তোলা নিষেধ, সেনা সদস্যদের তো একেবারেই না। শুধু অল্প কয়েকজন সাংবাদিক ছবি তোলার অনুমতি পেয়েছেন। আমি একজন ভ্রামণিক। কারফিউ চলাকালীন সময়ে ভ্রমণ করতে এসেছি শুনলে সাথে সাথে পাঠিয়ে দেবে বা উগ্রবাদী সন্দেহে গ্রেফতার করবে। গ্রেফতারের পর সাধারণত সে মানুষের আর কোন খবর পাওয়া যায়না।
অনেকটা সময় বাইরে থেকে ফের নৌকা চেপে হাউসবোটে ফিরলাম। ফেরার পর হউসেন আঙ্কেল জানালেন ডাউনটাউনে নাকি টিয়ারগ্যাস ছেড়েছে। আওয়াজ শোনা গেছে।
মাগরেবের নামাজের পর মসজিদে মসজিদে সমানে দরুদ পড়া শুরু হয়েছে। দোয়া পড়া ছাড়া আর কিছু করারও নেই। ভালো বা মন্দ যে কোন শব্দ মসজিদ থেকে বের হলে মসজিদে উপস্থিত সবাইকে গ্রেফতার করে নিয়ে যায়। আর মসজিদের ভেতর কি হচ্ছে তা জানার জন্যও সেনাবাহিনীর গুপ্তচর আছে।
সব বড় মসজিদ বন্ধ করে দেয়া হয়েছে কারফিউ ঘোষণা দেবার সাথে সাথে।
Photography is prohibited on the street and there is an even stricter ban against photographing army personnel. Only a few journalists have permission to take pictures. I am a visitor and if they find out that I came here despite knowing about the curfew, I suspect they will send me back immediately. They could even book me on suspicion of extremism—and we know that after an arrest, there is usually no further news of the detainee.
After spending a substantial time in the city, I return to the houseboat. Hussain Uncle tells me that there was trouble in downtown. He heard the sound of teargas shells.
After the Maghreb prayers came the loud sound of prayers from the mosque. There is nothing else to do besides pray. On hearing that any words, positive or negative, are uttered in the mosque besides prayers, the army comes to arrest people. Ther are army spies inside the mosque listening to hear what’s going on.
All the big mosques were closed after the announcement of curfew.
Editor's note: The Indian government continues to maintain that the situation in Kashmir is normal. Restrictions have been re-imposed in parts of Kashmir.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the situation in Kashmir.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


text:
Netizen Report: Malicious attack takes Wikipedia offline · Global Voices
Ellery Roberts Biddle, Netizen Report Team

“Hacker” by the Preiser Project via Flickr. (CC BY 2.0)
The Advox Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in technology and human rights around the world. This report covers news and events from September 6 – 13, 2019.
Wikipedia was offline for several hours on September 6 and 7 in countries across Europe, the Middle East and North America, due to what the Wikimedia Foundation says was a malicious cyber attack on site infrastructure in the US and EU.
Although Wikipedia has long been blocked in Turkey and China, and has been blocked temporarily in other countries, such as Venezuela, these measures have been taken by government authorities who typically cite a legal justification for their decisions.
In this case, the outage was completely unexpected, and did not happen at the hands of any government official. Instead, it appears to have been the result of scores of devices contacting the site at once, in a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.
An entity known on Twitter as @UkDrillas has claimed responsibility for the attack, though this has not been confirmed. Although the entity’s Twitter account has now been suspended, the Israeli news outlet Haaretz managed to capture and publish a screenshot of their feed, which offers a detailed timeline of the Wikipedia outages. Haaretz also quoted a tweet in which @UkDrillas indicated that the attack involved “testing some new IOT devices,” suggesting that the attack was carried out not by people or bots sending data requests from regular computers, but rather by a network of internet-enabled household appliances or “Internet of Things (IoT)” devices, such as “smart” refrigerators.
The cybersecurity blog HackRead noted that attacks carried out via IoT devices have become increasingly common in recent years:
It is worth mentioning that lately, hackers have been using vulnerable and unauthentic smart devices such as vending machines security cameras, coffee machines, Smart TV, and even Internet-connected cars to conduct DDoS and ransomware attacks.
In an official blog post about the incident, the Wikimedia Foundation wrote:
We condemn these sorts of attacks. They’re not just about taking Wikipedia offline. Takedown attacks threaten everyone’s fundamental rights to freely access and share information.
On September 12, Cuban media reported that the Twitter accounts of former president Raul Castro and multiple Cuban state-run media outlets were suspended without warning. Responding to an inquiry from Reuters, Twitter officials said “the company’s platform manipulation policies prohibit users artificially amplifying or disrupting conversations by using multiple accounts.” Some of the accounts were restored by the end of the day, including the official account of Granma, the national daily newspaper and official organ of the Communist Party of Cuba. The official account of Raul Castro was still offline at the time of publication.
While it is not uncommon for state media accounts to repeat messages coming from party officials, which in some cases might constitute a violation of Twitter’s policies and trigger suspension, these accounts nevertheless play a unique public interest role as an official information source. And once blocked, their URLs simply lead to the generic “account suspended” page, leaving no public record of what the account posted in the past.
In a Twitter thread about the incident, Cuban journalist and Global Voices author Elaine Diaz wrote:
Entre las cuentas bloqueadas se encuentran los medios más importantes para conocer la versión oficial del gobierno cubano en un momento de crisis e incertidumbre. Mientras no se explique qué ocurrió esto sigue siendo un acto de censura que debe ser denunciado.
Among the blocked accounts are those belonging to media outlets that are most important for understanding the Cuban government’s official version [of facts] in moments of crisis or uncertainty. As long as there is no explanation of what happened, this will continue to be an act of censorship that should be condemned.
Journalist Yasumi Iwakami may have to pay a fine for retweeting a message suggesting that staff working under a former state governor had been driven to suicide. Although Iwakami later deleted the retweet, former Osaka governor Toru Hashimoto still brought a defamation case against the journalist, seeking 1.1 million yen (around 10,000 USD) in damages. An Osaka court ruled on September 12 that Iwakami would need to pay one third of the amount, citing his influence — Iwakami has 180k Twitter followers — and the fact that the original statement could not be proven.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is suing Terry Xu, chief editor of independent news website The Online Citizen, for defamation over an article in which Xu criticized the leader’s public feud with his siblings. In Singapore, defamation is an offense that carries a maximum penalty of a two-year prison sentence and a fine.
Critics say this is another example of the government’s harsh treatment of independent media and other groups that report about dissenting views against the country’s authorities — even Xu has been accused of defamation in the past, also by the ruling government.
Journalist and activist Kirsten Han challenged the prime minister’s decision to target people who are merely repeating statements made by his siblings:
If the comments are so harmful to his reputation, why is he not suing his siblings and allowing their comments to remain up online? If those comments can remain publicly available, why is it that repeating them will attract a lawsuit claiming that one has harmed his reputation?
The Indonesian government finally restored internet access in West Papua and Papua provinces on September 5, ending the shutdown that began August 21, after protests mounted against military abuse.
The protests and shutdown came after a confrontation in which army officers called Papuan students “monkeys” — a racial slur commonly used against Papuans, who typically have darker skin than Austronesian Indonesians. On August 17, an estimated 42 students were detained by police overnight. Protests and riots in response to the detentions and soldiers’ use of racial slurs followed in both provinces and other Indonesian cities.
Government officials said the internet shutdown was intended to curb the flow of fake news and hoaxes amid protests. In a press statement, a senior security minister warned that “if [security] conditions worsen, which we hope will not, we will block the internet again.”
Papuan journalist Arnold Belau in Papua told Global Voices on September 9 that despite the lifted ban, internet access and mobile data services in the provincial capital of Papua Jayapura are still patchy.
Oiwan Lam, Mong Palatino, Juke Carolina Rumuat, Taisa Sganzerla and Nevin Thompson contributed to this report.


text:
Siberians appeal to world leaders via YouTube to save them from coal smoke · Global Voices
Christopher Moldes

Noxious coal smoke settles over houses in Kiselyovsk, Russia, July 4, 2019. From Novosti Kiselyovska's YouTube video “Уголь горит под землей.”
As fires rage across wide swathes of Siberia’s forests, residents of one town are battling another ecological menace: open-pit mines.
Kiselyovsk is a town of 90,000 which lies in the Kuzbass, a large coal mining basin in the Kemerovo Region of southwestern Siberia. The town has made headlines for its terrible air quality and recurring “black snows,” both resulting from surrounding open-air coal mines.
But now, the people of Kiselyovsk have had enough: they have recorded YouTube videos in which they appeal to Canada, the UN Secretary-General and the International Criminal Court for assistance. The first appeal was recorded in June 2019 when, tired of inaction from their local government and mining companies, Kiselyovsk residents gathered in a field to read out the following message in a 12-minute recording:
Дело в том, что наш край богат углем и сейчас основные разработки угля ведутся варварским способом. Открытым способом, не обращая внимание на то, что рядом с огромными разрезами находятся жилые дома. В нашем городе Киселевске в черте города ведут свои работы 9 разрезов. В городе проживает 90 тысяч человек. Большая часть населения живет именно вокруг этих разрезов.’ Этой зимой весь мир увидел наш черный снег. Мы задыхались в городе от угольной пыли, выхлопов карьерного транспорта. Наши дети почти всю зиму (а она у нас такая же длинная, как и в Канаде) не могли выйти на улицу, чтобы погулять. Детям становилось плохо от смога, от висящей в воздухе угольной пыли.
Our region is rich in coal and today barbaric methods are used for mining: open-pit mining, ignoring that there are residential homes next to the massive open-pit mines. There are 9 open-pit mines operating within Kiselyovsk’s city limits. There are 90,000 people living in the city, and the majority live near these mines. This winter, the whole world saw our black snow. We were gasping for air in the city because of coal dust and emissions from mining trucks. Our kids couldn’t go out to play for almost the whole winter, which is just as long as Canada’s. Kids were getting sick from the smog and the coal dust hanging in the air.
They then addressed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directly, asking that he consider their request for asylum on the basis of social and class discrimination. They describe their Catch-22: they would like to leave Kiselyovsk, they say, but their homes aren’t worth much owing to the area's poor environmental conditions.
Even if they could sell their houses, they say, nobody would voluntarily move to Kiselyovsk. Even if they could move to another part of Russia, they say, there’s no guarantee that natural resource exploitation wouldn't force them to relocate again. Therefore, the people of Kiselyovsk request asylum in Canada on the grounds that, as they put it, the country has a similar climate and landscape to their native Kemerovo Region (though it must be added that Trudeau has a mixed record on environmental issues, as shown by his support for carbon taxes while encouraging the development of more oil pipelines).
Trudeau isn't the only world leader the people of Kiselyovsk have appealed to. They also reached out to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, asking him to raise the issue with Russia's representatives to the international organization. Furthermore, they told Guterres that their many appeals to Vladimir Putin have gone unanswered, while also wondering whether the Russian president was getting the full truth about the situation in Kiselyovsk from his subordinates. Therefore, the appeal should not necessarily be read as strong criticism of the Russian president; in fact, the townspeople added that they hoped that Putin would force those guilty of ruining their local environment to make amends.
Nevertheless, the Kiselyovsk residents have highlighted a profound disconnect between the Russian government's domestic agenda and the stated objectives of its foreign policy:
“Наша страна помогает многим другим странам, таким как Сирия, Донецкая область, Луганская область. Наше правительство прощает другим странам огромные долги, а про своих жителей Кузбасса – как будто забыли. А ведь мы тоже люди. И дети наши тоже живые. Мы не сделали никому ничего плохого, так почему же мы живем в таких невыносимых условиях?…безрассудная добыча полезных ископаемых – это беда всей России, а добыча угля открытым способом привела к ситуации, которую мы, те, кто чувствует на себе последствия этой добычи, считаем настоящим геноцидом…
Our country assists many others like Syria and the Donetsk and Lugansk regions [a reference to the war-torn regions in the east of Ukraine that declared independence as “people’s republics” in 2014 and continue to receive Russian military aid to this day] Our government forgives the massive debts of other countries, but it seems they’ve forgotten their own citizens in the Kuzbass. We’re people too, after all. Our kids are also living. We haven’t done anyone any harm, so why should we have to live in these intolerable conditions? Reckless resource development is a disaster for all of Russia; open-pit coal mining has led to a situation which we, its victims, consider to be a real genocide…
The response from Canada came within a few days. On June 11, the country's immigration agency said that asylum is usually only granted when the applicant has already left their country and has no desire to return.
The Russian authorities also responded; on 10 June, the governor of the Kemerovo Region instructed his deputies and the mayor of Kiselyovsk to meet with residents to discuss their issues. The governor’s office stressed that because of Kiselyovsk’s history as a coal mining town and its dependence on the industry today, it would be difficult to change the situation overnight. Local city officials also pointed out that all the local mining enterprises have ecological plans in place, but conceded that these were long term strategies unlikely to produce immediate changes.
But in subsequent months, the mayor’s office has also obstructed efforts for the townspeople to raise their grievances. In early September, a local journalist was warned that only one-on-one interviews with local residents could be taken without prior permission from the local authorities. Interviews with large groups of residents, the mayor’s office continued, would be considered illegal and forbidden under Russia’s particularly restrictive laws on public gatherings.
Nevertheless, some Kiselyovsk residents have carried on undeterred. At the end of August 2019, another video message was filmed, this time addressed to the president of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Chile Eboe-Osuji, and its chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda. Citing the ever-increasing levels of harmful substances in the city’s air, the establishment of illegal dumpsites, and hazardous fires, residents implored the ICC to open a case based on Article Six and Article Seven of the Rome Statute, the establishing treaty of the ICC. These articles contain provisions for cases of genocide and crimes against humanity. The Russian government withdrew itself as a signatory of the ICC’s Rome Statute in 2016 and, as The Guardian reports, had never fully subjected itself to the ICC’s jurisdiction. The fact that these concerned citizens tried anyway demonstrates the strength of their desire for justice.
The video appeals from Kiselyovsk are not the only example of the increasingly imaginative methods which the inhabitants of Russia’s regions are using to attract attention to local issues which they feel are being ignored. In another display of innovative attention gathering, on September 1 the inhabitants of Olkhon on the shores of Russia’s Lake Baikal, one of the world's largest largest freshwater lakes, erected a bust to Putin as the “Guarantor of the Constitution” to get media attention towards local issues of rule of law and land use. In recent years, environmental issues have increasingly become mobilising factors across Russia; ordinary people from across the country are coming together to compare notes and express their outrage over local issues like illegal dumps and illegal exploitation of natural resources.
These movements cut across the pro- or anti-Kremlin political divisions, indicating that Russian citizens have the capacity to meaningfully affect politics when focused on local problems. The scale of issues like climate change or corruption can make these issues seem insurmountable, but local focus is what gives activists and engaged citizens hope for change. And after the recent scandals around Moscow’s local elections, the example of Kiselyovsk is even more important: it shows that many understand that politics does not begin or end at the ballot box.

author: Christopher Moldes


text:
Muharram in Pakistan: Daring to observe Ashura · Global Voices
Anas Saleem

Muslims attend a ceremony during the ashura mourning period in Faisalabad city on September 9, 2019. Photo by author. Used with permission.
The first day of Muharram, a sacred month for all Muslims, marks the beginning of Islamic New year. Ashura, or the tenth day of Muharram, is a period of mourning when the Shia Muslim community commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, the son of Hazrat Ali and the grandson of Prophet Muhammad.
Shia Muslims make up 15-20% of Pakistan's population; the rest of the population is Sunni. Sectarian violence against Shias and Shia Hazara communities are common. Despite this, each year people come out in their numbers to observe Muharram, amidst tight security.
This year, over 70,000 police officers were deployed in various parts of Pakistan, and mobile phone services were partially blocked.
Peaceful completion of Ashura in Pakistan. No untoward incident reported across the country. Good job law enforcement agencies. Mashallah
— Inamullah Khattak (@Khan_Inam1) September 11, 2019
Policemen stand guard at a roadblock during ashura mourning period in Faisalabad, Pakistan on September 9, 2019. Photo by author. Used with permission.
Ashura marks the day 14 centuries ago when the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, Imam Hussain, and his young son were killed by the second Umayyad caliph Yazid I in the Battle of Karbala. The Mourning of Muharram is a set of rites observed mainly by Shia Muslims, and Ashura is a major holiday in several countries in the Muslim world.
The month of Muharram is extremely holy for all Muslims, and particularly mournful one for Shia Muslims, who, in commemorating the death of Imam Hussein and his family, refrain from partcipating in joyous events. Rituals include the wearing of black clothing, observing abstinence, fasting, public self-flagellation with chains, cutting the skin with knives and sharp objects, and holding mournful public processions.
This day of Ashura not only reminds us of the sacrifices of Imam Hussain RA but is a lesson to fight and never give up for a just cause. This day is a remembrance of sacrificing everything for righteousness and truth in the face of extremism adversity #Ashura pic.twitter.com/WQkH89RCqf
— Women's Parliamentary Caucus Pakistan (@wpc_pak) September 10, 2019
The photos in this post showcase the people, places and rituals of Muharram as captured by the author in Faisalabad, Pakistan.
A man lighting oil lamps during the ashura mourning period in Faisalabad city on September 9, 2019. Photo by author. Used with permission.
Ali Hassan (L) and his friends pose for a photograph on 9th of Muharram in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Photo by author. Used with permission.
A vendor sells ritual objects on 9th of Muharram in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Photo by author. Used with permission.
A roadside vendor awaits for customers during the ashura morning period in Faisalabad on September 9, 2019. Photo by author. Used with permission.
Lighting oil lamps on 9th of Muharram in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Photo by author. Used with permission.
A woman devotee praying. Photo by Anas Saleem. Used with permission.
People shopping for ashura ceremony from a roadside stall in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Photo by author. Used with permission.
A boy selects a ring from a roadside stall on 9th of Muharram in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Photo by author. Used with permission.

author: Anas Saleem


text:
New finance minister of North Macedonia faces sexist attacks online · Global Voices
Pavlina Simonoska Arsikj

Nina Angelovska at her first day on the job as Minister of Finance of Republic of North Macedonia. Photo by Ministry of Finance, Public Domain.
Nina Angelovska is the first woman to ever head the Ministry of Finance in North Macedonia. Immediately after her appointment in late August, she was attacked with sexist and misogynistic insults online, including by the spokesperson of the main opposition party VMRO-DPNME.
Angelovska, 31, is one of the founders of the start-up Grouper, the first Macedonian online coupon service. According to her CV, she graduated in Business as the best student of her class in 2010 and went on to obtain a PhD in Organization Sciences and Management in 2016. That same year, the German magazine The Hundert listed her among 100 successful women start-up founders in Europe and, in 2018, she made it to Forbes‘ annual “30 under 30″ list in the retail and trade category.
But reactions to Angelovska's appointment centred on her age and appearance in detriment of her professional experience. And among all of the attacks against her, one stood out: the spokesperson of VMRO-DPNME Naum Stoilkovski wrote a Facebook post brimming with misogynistic language, including the terms “Džirlo Girl” (a sexist term in reference to defunct teleshopping company Džirlo, whose famous TV commercials during the former Yugoslavia featured female models) and “group girl” (alluding to promiscuity). The post has since been deleted, but not before it drew backlash.
The Network for Protection Against Discrimination, a coalition of human rights organizations in North Macedonia, strongly condemned Stoilkovski's remarks:
Служејќи се со примитивен и омаловажувачки говор, во обидот да се дискредитира министерката за финансии, портпаролот на ВМРО ДПМНЕ ја претставува Министерката како наводно промискуитетна и неспособна жена, чија „вистинска” задача е да ги задоволи сексуалните потреби на мажите политичари, што претставува сеприсутен сексистички стереотип за професионално реализираните жени во сите општествени сфери. (…)
Мажите политичари треба да бидат активни партнери, поддржувачи и промотори за вклучувањето на жените во политичкиот и јавниот живот и за воспоставување на родова еднаквост во сите општествени сфери. Повторуваме дека местото на жената е секаде каде што таа сака да биде, политичката моќ им припаѓа на жените, исто како што грижата за семејството им припаѓа на мажите. Женското учество во јавниот живот е предуслов за развој, благосостојба и демократија.
Од тие причини го повикуваме портпаролот на ВМРО ДПМНЕ Наум Стоилковски да упати јавно извинување за својата шовинистичката, сексистичка и мизогина изјава.
Апелираме до медиумите да не ги пренесуваат, без критички коментар, ваквите сензационалистички и сексистички објави со кои се врши вознемирување и повреда на достоинството на жените и се потхрануваат родовите стереотипи. Ја повикуваме Комисијата за заштита од дискриминација, согласно своите законски овластувања да поведе постапка за заштита од дискриминација по службена должност и да утврди вознемирување врз основа на пол и род.
In a primitive and derogatory speech, in an attempt to discredit the finance minister, a VMRO-DPMNE spokesman presents the Minister as a supposedly promiscuous and incompetent woman whose real task is to meet the sexual needs of male politicians, a pervasive sexist stereotype of professionally realized women in all social spheres (…)
Male politicians need to be active partners, supporters and promoters of inclusion of women in the political and public life, in order to ensure gender equality in all societal spheres. We repeat that the women's place is wherever she wants to be, that political power belongs to women, just like responsibility for care for the family belongs to men, too.
For these reasons we call upon the spokesman of VMRO-DPMNE Naum Stoilkovski to make a public apology for his chauvinist, sexist and misogynistic statement.
We appeal to the media to refrain from transmitting — without critical commentary — such sensationalist and sexist announcements which perpetrate harassment and affront to dignity of women, and perpetuate gender stereotyping. We call upon the Commission for Protection against Discrimination, in line with its legal competences, to initiate an ex officio procedure for protection from discrimination and determine sex and gender-based harassment.
The Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Mila Carovska, also reacted sharply:
Ние жените ќе бидеме се погласни и се поприсутни на јавни клучни позиции каде што се носат одлуки за иднината на државата независно од обидите на шовинистите да го спречат тоа. Заедно ќе се бориме против сексизмот и шовинизмот во нашата држава. (…) Срамно и недолично е однесувањето на портпаролот на ВМРО-ДПМНЕ, Наум Стоилковски. Ова е под секое ниво на политичка култура, под секое ниво на култура воопшто. Никогаш нема да одиме напред ако не го казнуваме и искорениме јавното линчување и етикетирање на жените. Жени продолжуваме уште посилно да се бориме против силите што го влечат назад нашето општество!
Women will be louder and more present in key public positions where decisions are made about the future of the state, regardless of the chauvinists’ attempts to prevent it. Together we will fight against sexism and chauvinism in our country. (…) The behavior of VMRO-DPMNE spokesman Naum Stoilkovski is shameful and inappropriate. This is under every level of political culture, under every level of culture in general. We will never go forward unless we punish and eradicate public lynching and labeling of women. Women, let us continue to fight even harder against the forces that are dragging our society back!
Even members of Stoilkovski's own party rebuked his remarks. Daniela Rangelova MP said on Facebook: “I strongly condemn any sexist assault on any woman… let's keep up the level of behavior and stop hate speech directed at women.” Also on Facebook, Blagica Lasovska MP wrote she condemns all forms of hate speech and sexism, whether they come from government or opposition representatives. “I remain at the forefront of women's rights, the fight for respect for women and their freedom,” she added.
Their reactions were considered unprecedented for the VMRO-DPNME. When in power (2006-2017), they pushed for anti-abortion policies and launched sexist media campaigns while never facing public resistance from its female members.
Women organizations, other political parties, ministers and the government of the Republic of North Macedonia have also publicly condemned Stoilkovski's Facebook post.
Young people at top posts in the Macedonian government
Angelovska might seem young for heading the Ministry of Finance, but it isn't uncommon in North Macedonia for people below the age of 35 to hold senior government offices. In 1991, 25-year-old Ljubčo Georgievski became the country's vice president. A year later, Branko Crvenkovski was elected prime minister at the age of 29. Nikola Gruevski was appointed minister of trade at age 28 in 1998, and minister of finance a year later, before finally becoming prime minister at age 36. His cabinet included several people around and under thirty, such as Mile Janakievski and Dime Spasov, who were both were 28 when they took on the posts of minister of transport and communications and minister of labor and social policy, respectively. Unlike Angelovska, those men's young aga was not typically used to discredit them.
Stoilkovski initially responded by saying that his critics had distorted his words:
Мојот став не се однесуваше на министерката туку се однесуваше на Зоран Заев. Да појаснам, никогаш не сум промовирал сексистички ставови, ниту се дел од мојот карактер и светоглед. Напротив реагирав на прес-конференцијата на која што Зоран Заев ја злоупотреби Нина, новата министерка, да го презентира,  по само два дена на таа функција, ребалансот кој што не е нејзин, притоа претставувајќи ја и во потчинета ситуација, да не и дозволи да одговори ниту на новинарско прашање, барем од она што го видов. Апсолутно сметам дека ова е само едно извртување и спин на една изјава која што ја претставува релноста… (…) Групировка е само едно несреќно изведување од нејзината претходна работа. А ‘Џирло девојка’ за оние што не знаат, е основата на она што се нарекува Али експрес трговија…
My position was not about the minister but about Zoran Zaev [prime minister of North Macedonia]. To be clear, I have never promoted sexist attitudes, nor are they part of my character and worldview. On the contrary, I reacted at a press conference in which Zoran Zaev abused Nina, the new minister, to present, after only two days in office, the budget rebalance that was not hers, while presenting her in a subordinate situation, not allowing her to answer a journalistic question, at least from what I saw. I absolutely believe that this is just a twist and a spin on a statement that represents the reality… (,,,) “Gruppirovka” is just an unfortunate derivation from her previous work (Grouper). “Džirlo Girl,” for those who don't know is the basis of what is now called Ali Express trading…
After that new statement incited a new round of reactions, he again attempted to explain himself claiming his post was misinterpreted, and apologized if he caused offense:
Бидејќи и тоа што го кажав не е протолкувано како извинување, еве ќе бидам појасен: изнесената метафора беше погрешно разбрана и протолкувана на погрешен начин, затоа се извинувам ако на некој начин сум предизвикал навреда или таа метафора предизвика навреда на нечии чувства. Како син, брат, сопруг, татко, пријател никогаш не поддржувам ниту пак ќе поддржам сексизам или говор на омраза и останувам застапник за човечките права и слободи. Како човек барам прошка ако ненамерно сум погрешил. Очекувам и овој мој јавен став да биде преземен од медиумите.
And since what I have said is not interpreted as an apology, here I will be clearer: the metaphor presented was misunderstood and misinterpreted, so I apologize if in some way I have caused offence or that metaphor has offended one's feelings. As a son, brother, husband, father, friend, I never support sexism or hate speech and I remain an advocate for human rights and freedoms. As a human being I ask for forgiveness if I have inadvertently made a mistake. I expect that this statement will also be taken up by the media.
Anita Angelovska-Bežovska, Governor of National Bank of Republic of North Macedonia, and Nina Angelovska, Minister of Finance. Photo by Ministry of Finance, Public Domain.
Women frequently face discrimination at the workplace in North Macedonia. According to UN Women:
Despite significant legal changes, gender gaps and inequalities continue across all levels. Women make up only 39.5 per cent of the employed, earn 17.9 per cent less than men per hour of work, and are 64.2 per cent of the country’s economically inactive population.
Political parties rarely nominate women candidates for high office. Although the statutory representation quotas have increased the number of female MPs from 31 percent in 2011 to 38 percent in 2018, men still dominate parliament. Same with municipal politics: there are 75 male mayors in the country against only six female. With the appointment of Angelovska, the number of women ministers is now five, out of 23 ministerial posts.
Interestingly, all the main financial institutions in North Macedonia are now headed by women – the Ministry of Finance, the National Bank (also headed by two female vice-governors) and the Public Revenue Office.

author: Pavlina Simonoska Arsikj


text:
Filipino community radio stations struggle to survive amid attacks and difficulties · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Radyo Lumad community broadcast. Source: Facebook
A book published in 2018 documented the challenges faced by community radio networks in the Philippines. This author interviewed one of the groups behind the book project about the significance of community radio in a country where most of the murdered journalists are broadcasters from the rural provinces.
Titled ‘Amplifying the People’s Voices: The Philippine Community Radio Experience and Challenges’, the book was published by the International Association of Women in Radio and Television and Kodao Productions. [Note: Kodao is a content partner of Global Voices.]
Jola Diones-Mamangun, executive director of Kodao, shared via email some of the highlights of the book and the current challenges of community radio broadcasting under the government of President Rodrigo Duterte. First, she explained what community radio means:
Community radio is broadcasting or ‘narrowcasting’ by a community on a topic that is of importance to them through a (usually) low-power radio transmitter (broadcasting) or a public-address system (narrowcasting). It is a form of a town-hall meeting that uses the radio program format. Both the broadcaster/s and the interviewee/s are usually members of the community themselves. If the community succeeds in putting a community radio station, they broadcast a series of programs that is similar to how other radio stations operate (eg, Radyo Sagada). If not, they can set up a public address system and place speakers around the community and the program/s usually last for just hours (eg. Radyo San Roque).
Sagada is part of the Cordillera Region, the home of the Igorot indigenous peoples, in the northern part of the Philippines. San Roque is an urban poor community in Metro Manila, the country’s capital region.
She mentioned how community radio stations formed a network in the early 1990s
There have been earlier stand-alone community radio stations in the Philippines but it was only in the early 1990s that the late Louie Tabing started the Tambuli network of community radio stations. He is acknowledged in the global community radio broadcasting movement as an Asian pioneer.
‘Amplifying the People’s Voices: The Philippine Community Radio Experience and Challenges’. Source: Kodao
She said Kodao’s work was inspired by the legacy of the Tambuli Network. Tambuli spearheaded the establishment of more than 20 community radio stations in remote villages across the Philippines, with assistance from various sectors such as the academe, church, international NGOs, and the communities themselves.
She then summarized the main challenges faced by community radio in the past two decades:
Sustainability is the main challenge. When funding for Tambuli dried up, most of the stations became moribund, shriveling the network and stopping the project on its tracks.
Second problem are the laws that appear to discourage the establishment of independent community radio stations. For example, while there are more than a hundred Radyo Natin stations all over the archipelago—low-power Manila Broadcasting Company (MBC)-owned stations—there are very few genuine community radio stations such as Radyo Sagada. It is unjust that large networks such as MBC are given hundreds of frequencies on both AM and FM bands that it is no longer possible, for example to put a radio station in the Metro Manila area, or Cebu, Iloilo, Davao and others. What if the Dumagats of Antipolo want to have a radio station of their own? [Dumagats are indigenous peoples from Rizal province. Antipolo is part of Rizal, located east of Metro Manila].
Third, because they are non-profit, community-owned and operated, and assisted by non-government organizations, genuine community radio stations are often victims of attacks and harassments, leading to their closure or abortion of their establishment. Radyo Cagayano was burned down and its staff attacked in Baggao, Cagayan in 2006; Radyo Sugbuanon’s full operation was aborted because of threats by the police and politicians; Radyo Lumad was closed last January 2019 because of threats and harassments. NGOs that help put them up are red-tagged and some have even been killed or imprisoned.
Radyo Cagayano, Radyo Lumad, and Radyo Sugbuanon are located in communities where the residents have been either resisting the entry and expansion of mining interests or opposing the approval of large-scale projects that could destroy their homes and livelihoods. These radio stations have consistently worked with communities threatened with displacement by broadcasting the issue and providing a platform for local residents to articulate their demands. It is this mission of ‘amplifying the people's voices’ that led to vicious attacks targeting those who are speaking truth to power.
She emphasized that the ‘people’s right to communication’ should be part of the broader struggle for real development and inclusive democracy in the Philippines:
These are no small challenges that could be addressed by simple problem-solving. There must a systemic social change if community radio is to finally succeed in the Philippines. It must be pursued as part of the people’s right to communication. If the marginalized are underserved by the mass media establishment, they must be allowed to be their own voice (as opposed to claims that they are voiceless and that the networkers are giving them one.)
She accused the Duterte government, which came to power in 2016, of enabling more attacks against the independent press including community radio:
It is under the Duterte regime that Radyo Sugbuanon and Radyo Lumad have been threatened, leading to the abortion of the former’s full establishment and the closure of the latter.
She said Kodao plans to give copies of the book to mass communication schools throughout the country to serve as a resource. She added that the book can be part of a campaign to push for an enabling law promoting community radio broadcasting in the Philippines.

author: Mong Palatino


text:
Jamaica remembers Hurricane Gilbert, but is the island prepared for a Dorian? · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Lt.j.g. Eli Maurer, executive officer Guard Cutter Winslow Griesser, assists in delivering relief aid to McLeans Town Cay, Great Bahama Island Sept. 9, 2019. The Coast Guard is supporting the Bahamian National Emergency Management Agency and the Royal Bahamian Defense Force, who are leading search and rescue efforts in response to Hurricane Dorian. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Seaman Mikaela McGee, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
On September 12, 1988, at the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, a storm named Gilbert hit a surprised and largely unprepared Jamaica. The eye passed over the island in about eight hours, from the eastern to the westernmost tip.
It has been 31 years since the Category 3 hurricane devastated parts of Jamaica; those old enough to remember reminisced, while others reflected on whether the island could withstand a much stronger storm today.
1/9 At this hour in 1988 Hurricane Gilbert was flattening the parish of Portland. A lot of Jamaicans still don't know — and many don't remember how powerful and devastating the hurricane really was. pic.twitter.com/YIdCiGbtjF
— ST. ANN (@stann360) September 13, 2019
Businessman Wayne Chen shared on Facebook:
Hurricane Gilbert hit Jamaica with sustained winds of 125 mph as its 15 mile-wide eye moved […] across the length of the island leaving a swathe of destruction. It produced a 19 ft storm surge and brought up to 32 inches of rain, causing flash flooding. 49 people died and US$700 million in damage was sustained. More than 100,000 houses were destroyed or damaged and the country's banana crop was wiped out. Hundreds of miles of roads and highways were heavily damaged and the electricity supply was disrupted. The country struggled to regain normalcy, but we prevailed and Jamaica was mostly back on track within months.
Times have changed, however: over the past thirty years, climate change extremes have become more marked. The deadly Hurricane Dorian was a catastrophic Category 5 storm that remained stationary over the Bahamas from September 1-3, 2019. The number of those still missing is now estimated at around 1,300, due to the fact that some parts of the islands most badly affected have hardly been reached one week later; the archipelago also comprises hundreds of much smaller, scattered cays.
Judging from the reaction on Twitter, Jamaica might be just as vulnerable:
There still remain many vulnerable communities, especially those that r informal in set up (poor housing stock). Additionally, where water, hygiene & sanitation are concerned, we arent prepared. Serious long term strategies will have 2 include securing land tenure 4 d vulnerable
— ??#IAMworthy ?? (@DMarcAnthony) September 13, 2019
The passage of Dorian has also brought into sharp focus the inequity on the islands — the devastation in an area known as The Mudd, for example, home to many Haitian refugees, was far worse than in areas where wealthy Bahamians and foreign nationals live. This, according to one Caribbean academic, is a recurring pattern after hurricanes:
We must understand that the most vulnerable or marginalised communities before the disaster (poor and working class folks, persons living with disabilities and severe health conditions, elderly, migrants, and those caring for others) will be the most in need in the aftermath. This is how disasters work. They are not the great equalizer. All they do is unearth and exacerbate existing inequalities and vulnerabilities. We have seen this again and again – from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans to Superstorm Sandy in the Northeast US, as well as in the continued failed response and relief for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. The most vulnerable are made more vulnerable.
Moreover, an oil spill on the coast of Grand Bahama caused by the storm has now reportedly spread some 50 miles out to sea and along the coast, threatening the marine environment. Conservation organisations such as Grand Bahama-based Coral Vita and BirdsCaribbean are extremely concerned about both the short- and long-term impact on the environment, which will no doubt affect livelihoods on the tourism-dependent islands. Both organisations have already started fundraisers, but as Tropical Storm Humberto approached The Bahamas on the evening of September 13, those concerns grew.
So, how would Jamaica fare in such terrible circumstances? According to a new report, the world in general is “gravely” unprepared for the impact of climate change. Where exactly does that leave vulnerable small islands?
Some heavy (though short) rainstorms over the past two weeks have resulted in flash floods, with garbage flowing down the streets of Kingston, blocking drains in the capital city. Low-lying areas, both urban and rural, are regularly flooded during such weather — one Kingston resident shared a video:
Look at this pic.twitter.com/fntMr49AZo
— Bob Loblaw ? ?? (@FoxalotWill) September 8, 2019
Irresponsible habits like littering also contribute to the problem:
Drain cleaning work underway along MGD, near Chesterfield Dr. Notice the scores of plastic bottles in the drain. Old car parts are among debris being loaded in the truck. The kind of things that compromise our drainage network. pic.twitter.com/rOYltVT0kN
— NationalWorksAgency (@NWA_JA) September 11, 2019
Nevertheless, political leaders concede that Jamaica's infrastructure is “antiquated” and in need of a major overhaul; in fact, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has just announced plans to restore and replace the country's drainage system.
Over the past three decades, the Caribbean has seen its fair share of storms. In September 2017, the impact of Hurricanes Irma and Maria  on a number of islands in the eastern Caribbean and Puerto Rico were perhaps a forewarning that such weather systems were becoming more violent.
Is this the “new normal” for the Caribbean? If so, the mood suggests that the time for talk seems to be past and in Jamaica, as elsewhere, there is a growing sense of urgency.

author: Emma Lewis


text:
Tobago’s coral bleaching alert makes it clear there is ‘no alternative’ to fighting the climate crisis · Global Voices
Jada Steuart

Bleached stag horn coral. Photo by Matt Kieffer, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Tobago's coral reefs are an integral part of both the island's marine ecosystem and its economy. Home to numerous species of marine life (and a main source of fish for local fishermen), they also protect the coastline from wave erosion and the effects of tropical storms. Popular spots like Buccoo Reef are also popular tourist attractions.
But after a press release issued by the country's Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA) on August 22, 2019, in which it warned that — based on findings from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch — Tobago's coral reefs have been placed on a watch for “Bleaching Alert Level One”, all eyes are on the island. There is a distinct possibility that the bleaching could advance to Level Two within a matter of weeks, which would threatens not only the existence of the reefs themselves, but also the island's marine life and people.
Corals coexist with and become home to symbiotic algae, helping it store nutrients and remove waste. In return, the algae gives the coral the energy it needs to grow, but drastic changes in water temperature can threaten this cooperative relationship.
When water becomes too hot (or too cold) the corals expel the algae — and with it, its main source of food. Eventually, the coral starves to death; the most noticeable outward sign of this phenomenon is that the coral loses its colour, going from shades of brown and green to a crisp, brittle, bone white.
Bleaching Level Alert One means that the corals are extremely likely to start the bleaching process. The IMA therefore suggests that both biologists and citizens should keep an eye out for signs of bleaching over the next 9-12 weeks.
Level Two bleaching would be an indication of widespread coral bleaching and coral mortality.
According to local coral reef ecologist Anjani Ganase, the main contributors to coral bleaching in Tobago are the warmer water temperatures — a result of climate change.
Via email, Ganase explained that the ocean absorbs much of the heat in the atmosphere, which in turn causes the water — especially shallower bodies of water, like the Caribbean Sea — to heat up.
In fact, NOAA's 12-week outlook extends well past Tobago to the reefs of the Lesser Antilles. Other reefs around the region, most notably in parts of the Greater Antilles and Cuba, have already been placed on a Level Two Bleaching Alert:
This makes me so sad. The coral reefs in Tobago have been dying for years. The littering, fishing, oil/gas emissions have destroyed our beautiful reefs. We just have to try and protect what is still there?? https://t.co/4R053KMVOL
— Dawn Marissa (@DawnMarissa1) August 29, 2018
Coral bleaching is a huge threat. Because reefs provide fishes with a habitat that allows them to have access to shelter, food and most importantly, shelter for their young until they are ready to survive in the wider ocean, the proposition of losing them will impact the ability of fish species to survive. It will also negatively affect the livelihoods of local fishermen.
Tobago relies very heavily on its local tourism industry; its reefs reportedly attract around 40 per cent of the island's tourists. Should coral bleaching continue, there will be fewer thriving reefs for people to explore and quite likely, a reduction in tourism dollars, which affects a range of hospitality-related industries: hotels, restaurants, transport services and tour companies.
The great irony is that, as tropical storms intensify as a result of the climate crisis, reefs are needed more than ever to absorb the force of waves and create a buffer between the ocean and the shore — but the reefs are compromised by global heating.
Studies show that coral reefs protect around 90 per cent of Tobago's shoreline from wave-induced erosion.
In a feature address at the International Year of the Reef at the University of the West Indies in 2018, Professor John Agard said that this function will only become more important as storm intensities increase and sea levels rise.
Ganase says the lack of proper management that has allowed overfishing and pollution to go unchecked has made Tobago's coral bleaching worse. If this continues, she explains, active management and protection will be critical for full recovery and growth:
Ideally, coral reefs should be closed to the public and placed into an intensive recovery programme to ensure healthy fish communities and water quality that will support coral growth and recruitment.
She added:
Individual actions to reduce our carbon footprintare are always warranted but we also need citizens to demand more action from our governments to provide the infrastructure, resources and education for climate conservation and adaptation. Communities need the support to manage and conserve our natural resources not just from governments but from businesses and corporations that also utilise these resources.
There is a pressing need for regional island governments to demand an international effort in tackling the climate crisis. On September 11, 2019, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley addressed this issue at the United Nations’ Geneva headquarters, urging larger nations to do better in fighting climate change. The islands of the Caribbean, she said, “do not have the luxury of time because [we] are busy trying to survive”.
Ganase agrees about the urgency of the matter. Any and all forms of aid in tackling climate change and coral bleaching, she said, especially on political levels, “requires effort”:
It's not going to be easy as seen internationally, but there is really no alternative.

author: Jada Steuart