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In Denmark, Imams and Priests Square Off in a Friendly Soccer Match · Global Voices
Masih Sadat

Photo by Saif Shah. Used with permission.
This story by Masih Sadat originally appeared in Danish on the website Opinionen. An edited version in English appears below with permission.
In early June, in Denmark, priests and imams challenged each other over a game of soccer. But besides sports and fun, this day had another, more serious purpose to it – to defy the media picture and show that Danes are perfectly able to coexist despite cultural and religious differences.
It was a Saturday mid-afternoon and the sun’s heat warmed the soccer fields in one of Copenhagen’s sport arenas. Families and friends across gender, age, religious and ethnic divides had come together and placed themselves on the sidelines, ready to act as cheering squads. From the stands, youngsters yelled “imaaams,” while other spectators clapped, rooted and drummed for the sweaty players out on the field.
If the fans were typical, the teams were anything but. On both sides of the field were religious leaders, wearing soccer shoes and ready to play. On one side were Danish priests in blue jerseys, and on the other side Danish imams in red. Both had put aside their religious uniforms and holy books for a while to focus on one thing – the ball.
The match was arranged by the organization, One Goal, One Society, recently founded by Nora Omari and Mikkel Lind. Beyond soccer, fun and heat, these two had something more serious on the agenda.
A statement from them on Facebook read:
Vi lever desværre i et samfund, hvor religion bliver anskuet som værende et af de mange faktorer, der er med til at skabe had mellem mennesker. Mange tror, at kristne og muslimer ikke kan enes, og vi ønsker at gøre op med de mange fordomme… Fodbold har som så ofte vist, at man kan samles mellem folkeslag og religioner, og med baggrund i verdens største sportsgren samles mennesker fra nord og syd, øst og vest i fredelig fordragelighed. Dette sker med sikkerhed også her.
Sadly, we live in a society in which religion is seen as something that contributes to creating hate between people. Many believe Christians and Muslims aren’t able to agree with each other, and we wish to break with these many prejudices … Soccer has in many cases proved to work as something that unites different peoples and religions. With the world’s most popular sport, people are gathered from north, south, east and west, in peaceful harmony. This will with certainty happen here as well.
Danish rabbis were also supposed to participate in the match on the imams’ team, but had to bow out because it took place on a Saturday – the weekly Jewish day of rest. A Danish magazine called Føljeton interviewed rabbi Jair Melchior, imam Waseem Hussain, and priest Jeppe Nissen before the big match:
Following the match, One Goal, One Society plans to arrange similar events in the future, co-founder Nora Omari said.
Vores primære formål vil være at samle mennesker sammen på tværs religioner, kulturer, hudfarve, etnicitet og alt, hvad der kan gøre af forskelle i samfundet.
Our primary aim will be gather people across religion, culture, skin color, ethnicity, and everything that is considered divisive in society.
Nora said she and Mikkel were inspired by a similar event in Norway, which received a large amount of support and positive feedback:
Vi fandt lynhurtigt ud af, at det var noget for os, fordi det er sjovt og fordi der er behov for det på grund af den negative politiske debat. Vi har brug for noget, der viser, at mennesker godt kan sammen.
We immediately came to realize that this event is needed here in Denmark both because it’s fun and because of the negative political debate taking place. We need something that shows that we as human beings are able to live together.
In addition to soccer, musical performances with Persian frame drums called dafs, comedy from famous Arab-Danish comedian Omar Marzouk, and speeches by priest Nicolai Halvorsen and imam Naveed Baig were also on the programme.
Naveed Baig, a Pakistani hospital imam, gave the first talk:
Mit budskab for i dag er, at vi skal kigge på de små ting, der giver os glæder i hverdagen, og det er det, vi skal holde fast i. Vi skal kigge på os selv – ikke nødvendigvis som religiøse, men først og fremmest som mennesker, og det er det, vi er, når vi er på banen. Det møde, der er mellem eksempelvis muslimer og kristne i dag – det er dét, der giver noget. Bare på vores imam-hold er vi ni personer, men repræsenterer syv forskellige nationaliteter, og vi har både en shia-spiller og sunni-spillere.
My message for today is that we should aim to look for the small things in life that give us pleasure in day to day, and that's what we should hold on to. We have to look at ourselves – not necessarily as religious, but first and foremost as human beings, and that's what we are when we play on the field. The meeting that is taking place today, for example, between Muslims and Christians, that's what will give us something. Just as on our imam team we are only nine people, but still we represent a whole of seven different nationalities and we have both a Shia player and Sunni players.
Naveed said he was saddened by the negative picture that Danish media draws of the relationship between citizens of different walks of life in Danish society – a relationship which Naveed believes is working perfectly fine. For him, diversity already exists in Denmark, not just among Muslims, but among citizens in general. This, he believes, is something Danes should appreciate and be proud of.
Det er lidt ærgerligt, at man skal blive ved med at fortælle omverdenen, at vi ikke er hinandens fjender, men jeg er en optimistisk person, og jeg holder fast i håbet. Vi er i samme båd. Hvis en af os laver et hul i båden, så synker vi alle sammen. Må Gud give os styrke til at vi kan holde sammen og skabe en stærk sammenhængskraft for hinanden og for alle andre i Danmark.
It is unfortunate that one has to keep telling the world that we are not each other's enemies, but I am an optimistic person and I will hold onto hope. We are all in the same boat. If one of us makes a hole in the boat, we will all sink. May God give us strength enough to stay together and create a strong cohesive power for each other and for everyone in Denmark.
In the opinion of all of the players, the event was a successful one. Especially for the imams, who beat the priests in the final match and won the trophy with a 3-1 victory.
Photo by Saif Shah. Used with permission.
For Thomas Nedergaard, a priest at uKirke in Vesterbro (central Copenhagen), the match wasn't meant to be a superficial public relations stunt:
Det skulle være præster og imamer, der skulle spille fodbold imod hinanden. Det gjorde vi, og det var sjovt. Jeg håber, at kampen vil skabe et billede af, at vi hænger sammen i stedet for, at vi er adskilte. At der er kærlighed imellem os, og ikke frygt.
It was supposed to be priests and imams playing some soccer with each other and that was what we did – and it was fun. I truly hope this match will prove that we belong together rather then being apart; that there is love between us and not fear.
Waseem Hussain, an imam and chairman of the Danish Islamic Center, shared the same hope. He said he also believes that citizens in Denmark, across religions and cultures, are able to live together:
Sådan et event som i dag vil kunne hjælpe med at bryde nogle fordomme og vise, at religiøse mennesker sagtens kan sammen, og at det ikke er værre end som så. Man stirrer sig som regel blind på problemerne i stedet for at se på de løsninger og de ting, man kan udrette sammen. Det er ligesom, at hvis vi eksempelvis havde en fodboldbane her – så kunne vi alle sammen, som fodboldspillere, stå og kigge på et eller andet hul, en ujævnhed, og stå og brokke os over den. Eller vi kunne vælge at sige: nå ja, der er en ujævnhed, men nu spiller vi den kamp alligevel.
An event like the one today will help break some prejudices and show that religious people are perfectly able to function together, and that it is not worse than that. We are used to looking blindly at the problems we have, rather than looking at the solutions and the things we can accomplish together. It's like if we, for example, had a soccer field here, then we, the soccer players, could all choose to either just look at some hole, an irregularity, and just complain about it, or we could choose to say, oh well, there's a hole, a problem, but we will play the game anyways.
“And what made the day even better is the fact that we won,” Imam Naveed added, laughing.
The organizers of the match Nora and Mikkel have got big plans for their project following this success. “We will continue doing this and on a bigger scale, and hope that it will have a ripple effect.” Their next event will be women's only and possibly with other type of sports.
Photo by Saif Shah. Used with permission.

author: Masih Sadat


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In the Battle for More Transparency in Mexico, Politicians Win This Round · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

Mexican Republic Senate Office in Mexico City. Wikimedia Commons photo by Haakon S. Krohn used under license CC BY-SA 3.0.
Mexico's Congress approved a package of new laws and legal reforms to combat corruption on June 17, 2016. What at first glance might seem like a step in the right direction instead generated a wealth of controversy thanks to lawmakers watering down a measure related to the transparency of politicians’ declared assets.
The legislative work was the result of an anti-corruption constitutional amendment passed in 2015. That amendment anticipated the creation of a National Anti-Corruption System by bringing existing organizations together such as the Federal Auditing Office and the Civil Service Secretary, among others, and forming the District Attorney Specialized in the Fight Against Corruption.
An unprecedented citizen's initiative followed, promoted on social media as #Ley3de3 (3of3 Law), formally requesting that legislators include in the National Anti-Corruption System an obligation for politicians to publicly divulge their taxes, assets, and conflicts of interest. Public officials already had to declare their assets; however, publishing this data was (and still is) optional. By forcing the publication of this data, the 3of3 Law hoped to increase transparency in politics.
But the 3of3 Law didn't come to pass. Independent news site Animal Político (Political Animal) reported the result of the senators’ work:
El Senado aprobó la Ley General del Sistema Anticorrupción y de Responsabilidades Administrativas, pero ignoró la demanda ciudadana para obligar a todos los funcionarios a publicar su declaración patrimonial, fiscal y de interés con el formato de la plataforma #3de3.
The Senate approved the General Law of the Anti-Corruption System and Administrative Responsibilities, but ignored the citizen’s demand to require all civil servants to publish their taxes, assets, and conflicts of interest with the #3of3 platform's format.
The approved law stipulates – ambiguously – that the declarations of assets that citizens wanted must exist, but restricts the publication of anything “that may affect the private life”, thus allowing a legal loophole to avoid making the information public.
In his column for the newspaper Exclésior, analyst Leo Zuckermann addressed specifically the legislators who approved the laws:
Son los políticos que no han entendido el hartazgo de la ciudadanía por la corrupción. Son los que optaron por defender sus intereses –escondiendo su riqueza, mucha de ella mal habida– a reformar el régimen político para fortalecer la democracia. Dice el refrán popular que “el que nada debe, nada teme”. Pues aquí estamos frente a mucho temor, pavor, terror a que la ciudadanía se entere de lo ricos que son nuestros políticos, muchos de los cuales sólo han trabajado en el sector público toda su vida profesional acumulando riqueza que no se sustenta con los sueldos que han recibido.
It’s the politicians who haven’t understood citizens are fed up with corruption. It’s they who chose to defend their interests — hiding their wealth, most of it wrongfully acquired — instead of reforming the political regime to strengthen democracy. As the popular saying goes, ‘He who has nothing to hide, has nothing to fear.’ Well, here we are facing a lot of fear, dread, and terror that the citizens find out just how rich our politicians are, many of whom have worked solely in the public sector for their entire professional lives, accumulating wealth that is not supported by the salaries they have received.
Legal expert Miguel Carbonell commented on Twitter:
Ver a ciertos legisladores discutiendo sobre las leyes anticorrupción da bastante vergüenza. Descarados.
— Miguel Carbonell (@MiguelCarbonell) June 15, 2016
To see certain legislators arguing about the anti-corruption laws is really embarrassing. They’re shameless.
As pointed out in a news report, the “reasoning” against the publication of such information came no less than from the very same senator who leads the Anti-Corruption Commission:
El argumento del presidente de la Comisión Anticorrupción, Pablo Escudero, del PVEM fue que hacer pública toda esta información pondría en riesgo a los funcionarios ante posibles grupos delincuenciales o secuestradores.
Pablo Escudero, president of the Anti-Corruption Commission from the PVEM, argued that making all of this information public would put the civil servants at risk of possible criminal or kidnapping groups.
The PVEM or Green Ecologist Party of Mexico is a bit of a political leech, maintaining their privileges and permission to exist as a party thanks to their alliance with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.
In his comment below, Mexico's president couldn’t hide how thrilled he was with the development
Mi reconocimiento al @senadomexicano por la aprobación de las leyes en materia de combate a la corrupción.
— Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN) 16 de junio de 2016
Many thanks to the @MexicanSenate for the approval of the laws in the fight against corruption.
Although the news of the laws being approved left the 3of3 Law proposal in the dust, the reactions of disgruntled citizens were quick to follow.
Members of the Mexican business community went out into the streets to protest, as noted on the Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity Twitter account:
#Ley3De3 Empresarios se pronuncian en el Ángel contra la corrupción https://t.co/5e4VRk6HHS
— MXvsCORRUPCIÓN (@MXvsCORRUPCION) June 16, 2016
3of3 Law. Business owners take a stance against corruption in Angel https://t.co/5e4VRk6HHS
Twitter user Armando Regil shared the following image with his followers while questioning if the legislators actually represent the citizens:
¿Somos una democracia? Cuando 59 senadores deciden ignorar a + de 630,000 ciudadanos ¿estamos siendo representados? pic.twitter.com/5vzKjz15i6
— Armando Regil (@armando_regil) June 15, 2016
Tweet: Are we a democracy? When 59 senators decide to ignore more than 630,000 citizens, are we really being represented here?
Image: Yesterday, in an extraordinary session, the Senate voted no to the 3of3Law. More than 630,000 citizens supported the law, 77 senators decided not to listen (59 voted against, 1 abstained, 17 didn't even vote)
Fher Aguilar also expressed his annoyance:
#Ley3de3 se ha ido a la mierda, de nuevo los diputados protegen sus intereses no asi los del pueblo.
Son unos ladrones y traidores!
— fher aguilar (@mousebit7) June 16, 2016
The #3of3Law has gone to shit, once again congressmen protect their own interests rather than the interests of the people. They’re a bunch of thieves and backstabbers!
The moans about the Senate’s decision, however, weren’t unanimous. Legal expert and writer Gerardo Laveaga pointed out that having approved the publication of income and asset information for civil servants would have interfered with the right to privacy:
Temo que,de aprobarse como venía, la #Ley3de3 habría violado el artículo 6º de la Constitución, que contempla #ProteccionDeDatosPersonales .
— Gerardo Laveaga (@GLaveaga) June 16, 2016
I’m afraid that passing the #3of3Law would have violated the 6th article of the Constitution, which takes into account the Protection of Personal Information.
On the other hand, Heli Lopez extended the following invitation to those who are worried about the invasion of privacy as far as the National Anti-Corruption System is concerned:
#LeyesAnticorrupcion son un terror para los políticos #Ley3de3 Rindan cuentas al pueblo, si quieren privacidad váyanse al sector empresarial
— Heli López (@HeliLopezJuarez) June 16, 2016
Anti-Corruption Laws are a nightmare for politicians. 3of3 Law.
Be accountable to the people and if you want privacy, then go to the business sector.
Incidentally, corruption is a serious problem in Mexico. Proof is its ranking in 95th place out of 167 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index created by the NGO Transparency International. In other words, Mexico is positioned worse than Peru and tied with the Philippines and Armenia, and very far from the countries that occupy the first three places: Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, respectively.
For many, an important battle has been lost in the war against shadiness and corruption in Mexico. According to the debates online, the political class openly reinforced their own arrogance and disdain for transparency, standing by their disregard for society by turning their back on the people’s request. The work will continue, nonetheless, because the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption System is still to be settled.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: J. Tadeo


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It Turns Out Venezuelan Women Don’t Appreciate Being Lectured by a High-Ranking Official’s Wife · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

Diana D'Agostino, the wife of the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly. Image: Globovision
When Diana D'Agostino, the wife of the Venezuelan National Assembly's president, disparaged the women working in the government, calling them “poorly dressed, dirty, or walking around without makeup,” she doesn't seem to have anticipated that her comments would be ill received by many in the public.
D'Agostino made her remarks in response to criticisms following her recent appearance on the cover of a glossy celebrity magazine. D'Agostino called her critics Chavismo supporters, saying, the country's political Left has “gotten into a bad habit” of employing unkempt women. “Us Venezuelan women aren't like that,” she explained.
Venezuela has a reputation for its cultural infatuation with cosmetic surgery and beauty contests. The country witnesses more plastic surgeries on a per capita basis than anywhere in Latin America, and it also leads the region in reported cases of eating disorders. In a country with 13 “Miss Universe” champions, beauty standards that are impossible for most women weigh heavily on Venezuela's girls.
Hearing D'Agostino's comments about what Venezuelan women are supposed to look like, many women online have responded by sharing their experiences with how beauty ideals clash with the wellbeing of women and girls.
Writing on Onda Feminista (Feminist Wave), Mariana González outlined what she sees to be the main points behind D'Agostino's comments:
“Las mujeres venezolanas no somos así.” ¿Y entonces que son las venezolanas que tienen prioridades más importantes que maquillarse? ¿Cuya vida no gira entorno a su apariencia? ¿Extraterrestres? […] Si una representante gubernamental anda arreglada o en pijama, maquillada o con cara de recién levantada, es completamente irrelevante. Su trabajo no es andar modelando. […] Además de horriblemente misógino, este comentario es desatinado, absurdo y complemente desconectado de la realidad.
“Us, Venezuelan women, aren't like that.” And so what exactly are Venezuelan women who have more important priorities than putting on makeup? Whose lives don’t revolve around their appearance? Aliens? […] Whether a government representative is well dressed or in pajamas, has makeup on or looks like she just woke up, is completely irrelevant. Her job is not to look like a model. […] In addition to being horribly misogynistic, her comment is foolish, absurd, and completely disconnected from reality.
In a post titled For Diana D'Agostino, the artist Yole Quintero shared stories from her adolescence about her fight for acceptance, and her problems with her surroundings, social demands, and plastic surgery:
…yo no crecí intentando ser inteligente, yo crecí intentando ser bonita. Tanto era, que me la daba de bruta para que no me rechazaran, que me hacía la gafa, la boba. Supongo que es más fácil esconder la inteligencia que la fealdad. De esta época no tengo muchas fotos, justamente porque no me gustaba verme.
… I didn't grow up trying to be intelligent. I grew up trying to be pretty. So much in fact that I lowered myself to stupidity so that they wouldn't reject me. I pretended to be the idiot, the dummy. I suppose it's easier to hide intelligence than ugliness. I don't have very many photos of that time, precisely because I didn't like looking at myself.
She continued:
Hace 7 años más o menos, me hice la única operación que me he hecho en toda mi vida […] Intercambié parte de mi cara por sentirme bien conmigo misma cuando me viese en el espejo. Era estético, mis miedos eran estéticos. Y me dolía muchísimo pensar que si hubiese nacido bonita, me hubiese ahorrado tiempo, dinero y sufrimiento.
Around 7 years ago, I had the only operation that I've ever had in my whole life […] I exchanged part of my face to feel good about myself when I look in the mirror. It was aesthetic, my fears were aesthetic. And it hurt me a lot to think that if I had been born beautiful, I would have saved myself a lot of time, money, and suffering.
In one of her “Chronicles of the Defective Feminist,” Aglaia Berlutti emphasized the pressure she experienced specifically within Venezuelan society:
Nadie que no sea venezolano comprende muy bien esa presión invisible que llevamos a todas partes como un peso real. Es complicado explicar a alguien que no creció siendo estigmatizado y menospreciado por su aspecto físico cómo es vivir en un país donde la belleza se exige, en donde ser «bello» —lo que sea que eso pueda significar— es un elemento necesario e incluso imprescindible para el triunfo social.
Nobody that's not Venezuelan understands very well this invisible pressure that is felt everywhere like a real weight. It's complicated to explain to someone that didn't grow up stigmatized and despised for your physical aspect, how it is to live in a country where beauty is demanded, where being beautiful—whatever that means—is a necessary and even essential element for social success.
Berlutti also points out the complexity of the values of beauty in identity:
Y no se trata solo de la cultura de la apariencia, conocida y bien difundida alrededor del mundo gracias a los medios de una época egocéntrica e infantil, sino de algo más complejo, turbio y doloroso. Porque en Venezuela la belleza es un síntoma de algo más duro de sobrellevar. De una percepción sobre la identidad que aniquila la individualidad. Como si lo estético fuera una meta, un proceso y un triunfo que pocos pueden alcanzar y que define en todo extremo posible, la forma como Venezuela se entiende a sí misma. O mejor dicho, la forma como menosprecia la diferencia.
And it's not just about the culture of appearance, which is known and dispersed throughout the world thanks to the media of an egocentric and childish era, but also something more complex, dark, and painful. Because in Venezuela beauty is a symptom of something harder to bear: a perception about identity that destroys individuality. As if aesthetics were a goal, a process, and a success that few can achieve and that define at all cost, how Venezuela understands itself. Or in other words, a way of looking down on differences.
Naturally, not every response to D'Agostino's comments addressed the struggle against oppressive beauty aesthetics. The satirical news site El Chigüire Bipolar (The Bipolar Capybara) had some fun with D'Agostino's apparent obsession with appearances, casting her concerns as a plea for international aid:
La abogada y esposa del presidente de la Asamblea Nacional (AN), Diana D’Agostino, solicitó el día de hoy en rueda de prensa a la comunidad internacional ayuda humanitaria de maquillaje y secadores de pelo.
At a press conference today, Diana D’Agostino, the attorney and wife of the National Assembly president, requested humanitarian aid from the international community in the form of makeup and blow dryers.

author: Laura Vidal


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Netizen Report: Russian Authorities Step Up Information Controls in the Name of National Security · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Surveillance camera stencil art. Photo by Paul Lowry via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
A new set of “anti-terrorist” amendments in Russia would affect more than ten different laws and would broadly expand the state's powers to control citizens’ civil rights.
As Russia-focused independent media site Meduza put it, the amendments would enable authorities to “…strip Russians of their citizenship, revoke the foreign travel rights of people convicted of reposting certain ‘wrong’ content online, and access every single telephone conversation and email that crosses Russia's telecommunications lines.”
The amendments also increase penalties for Internet users who “incite terrorist activity and justify terrorism,” raising the maximum prison term for such offences from five to seven years behind bars. Another will obligate telecommunications companies and organizers of “online information distribution” — including blogging platforms and social network websites — to store records of customers’ phone calls or voice data, text messages, images, videos, and other types of content for six months on Russian soil.
The amendments have already passed first reading in the Duma and it is widely expected that they will pass. They would take effect in July of 2018.
In another critical development, Russian state media regulator Roscomnadzor was recently granted new powers that allow it to revoke the domain names of websites that host child pornography. The power to revoke domain names in the .RU or .РФ domains adds to a growing list of extrajudicial privileges for Roscomnadzor and a handful of other Russian state agencies including the Interior Ministry, which have the status of “competent agencies”, meaning they are able to designate content as dangerous.
Two digital journalists in Makassar, Indonesia, were attacked on June 5, 2016, while attending an event at the Makassar mayor's house. The journalists, Global Voices Indonesian author Arpan Rachman and his wife, Icha Lamboge, were stopped by two men in black uniforms – not the standard uniform of city security guards – and asked for their journalist ID cards. One of the men then snatched Lamboge's mobile phone. When Rachman intervened and tried to get her phone back, the man grabbed punched him in the chest while the other man strangled him. Rachman has recovered well but both are fearful for their safety.
The couple worked together on stories they suspect may have provoked the incident, including coverage of controversial mass evictions taking place in central Makassar. There have been 12 cases of journalist abuse documented in Makassar thus far in 2016, according to the Alliance for Independent Journalists in Makassar.
A Tanzanian man is facing three years in prison following his conviction for insulting President John Magufuli on Facebook in March 2016. Isaac Habakuk Emily allegedly posted a comment in reference to the President’s surprise live call to current affairs show 360, critiquing him for “theatrics in politics”. On June 22, another Tanzanian man was charged under the same law, again for insulting the president, though his message was posted on WhatsApp.
Opponents of the Cybercrime Act argue that the law gives too much power — without meaningful oversight — to police, bestowing upon them the ability to search the homes of suspected violators of the law, seize their electronic hardware, and demand their data from online service providers.
Mexican blogger and technology researcher Jacobo Najera filed a challenge against computer manufacturer Lenovo concerning a pre-installed security software on the Yoga 2 laptop model that prevented users from installing a Linux free software operating system. Najera challenged Lenovo before Mexico’s Federal Consumer Protection Attorney, who decided in his favor, ruling that the company had not duly informed consumers of the machine’s technical limitations. Najera describes his experience in a first-person piece for Advox.
Singapore’s government announced plans to restrict Internet access in government offices in what some people are calling an “Internet ban” for civil servants. The policy would require government workers to use special Internet terminals rather than their own computers in their offices if they need to access the web. Officials say the policy is an attempt to improve Singapore’s cybersecurity, but others have criticized it as drastic and unnecessary.
Kenya’s National Bank is suing blogger Cyprian Nyakundi for defamation over a series of posts on alleged corruption at the bank. In an initial hearing, a court issued an interim injunction restraining Nyakundi from publishing any statements defamatory of the Bank.
A US appeals court fully upheld net neutrality rules that expanded federal oversight of Internet service providers, rejecting a lawsuit from telecom, cable and wireless industry associations that sought to challenge the so-called Open Internet Rules. Despite the rejection of their case, observers expect the telecom industry will seek an appeal before the Supreme Court.
Ellery Roberts Biddle, Weiping Li, Tetyana Lockot, Ndesanjo Macha and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


text:
Russian Activists and Industry Speak Out Against New Draconian ‘Anti-Terrorist’ Laws · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

“I am against surveillance!” Fragment of online banner from the RosKomSvoboda campaign against the new “anti-terrorist” legislation that ramps up surveillance over online communications and threatens encryption.
Russian civic activists and Internet companies have been raising the alarm about a new set of “anti-terrorist” legislation amendments that has already passed first reading in the Russian Duma. Those opposing the comprehensive amendments say the new laws are a severe threat to free speech and expression online and offline, as they empower the government and law enforcement to crack down on encrypted communications and beef up existing surveillance measures.
The new “anti-terrorist” laws were drafted by lawmaker Irina Yarovaya and Senator Viktor Ozerov, and were supposed to pass second and third reading on June 22, but the vote was postponed until Friday, June 24. Russia-watching media website Meduza reports that the amendments would affect more than ten different laws and would broadly expand the state's powers to control its citizens and limit their civil rights.
If the legislation is approved (which is almost certain), Russia's authorities will gain the power to strip Russians of their citizenship, revoke the foreign travel rights of people convicted of reposting certain “wrong” content online, and access every single telephone conversation and email that crosses Russia's telecommunications lines.
Among the many measures aimed at curbing terrorism and extremism in Russia, the suggested amendments increase penalties for Internet users who “incite terrorist activity and justify terrorism,” raising the maximum prison term for such offences from five to seven years behind bars.
Another worrying measure that has caused much alarm among Russian Internet freedom circles is a norm that obligates telecommunications companies to store user communications and metadata for six months on Russian soil. Communications providers and organizers of “online information distribution,” such as blogging platforms and social network websites, will be obligated to store records of customers’ phone calls or voice data, text messages, images, videos, and other types of content.
Telecommunications companies and Internet service providers will also be required to store the metadata from all messages sent and received between users (such as the information about the time of the exchange, the sender and recipient information, location data, etc.) for three years. All this data must be made available to Russian law enforcement if its agencies require this data for investigative work. If voted into law, these regulations would take effect in July of 2018.
After the first reading of the draft amendments, lawmakers added another norm to the legislation: they propose to curb data encryption online by requiring that all Internet and telecom companies that use encryption for user communications (such as end-to-end encryption in messaging services or the HTTPS protocol on websites) to make their encryption keys available to Russia's Federal Security Service so they can decrypt the communications. Companies that refuse to provide decryption information could face fines of up to one million rubles (over $15,000).
Russian free expression advocates have campaigned against the increased surveillance measures in the proposed legislation, and have said the new encryption resrictions have made the bill “even more dangerous.” RosKomSvoboda, an Internet freedom organization affiliated with the Pirate Party in Russia, set up an online campaign “No to Surveillance,” launching a website called 1984.live at the time of the first reading of the new legislation, and following up with a social media campaign in which users addressed government officials asking them to nix the amendments. RosKomSvoboda also collected over 3,000 signatures for a petition against the law that they submitted to the Russian Duma and the Communications Ministry on June 21, before the initially scheduled second reading of the draft bill.
Более чем 3 тыс. граждан из 79 регионов России подписались против законопроекта Яровой-Озерова. #НетСлежке #1984live pic.twitter.com/xKUvPz3gqL
— Natalie (@moi_fee) June 21, 2016
Over 3 thousand citizens from 79 regions of Russia signed [the petition] against the Yarovaya-Ozerov draft bill.
Industry representatives in Russia have also voiced their concerns about the new laws. A spokesperson for Internet giant Yandex told RBC news website that the proposed requirements for storing user data and the encryption-curbing measures would “lead to increased expenses for Internet companies, and would excessively limit the rights of businesses and users.”

author: Tanya Lokot


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‘Well Done Baku’?: Azerbaijan’s F1 Forray Leaves Inequality Firmly in the Driving Seat · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

Baku F1 street circuit. Wikipedia image.
When Mirzabite Abdullayeva, a 21-year-old mother gave birth to triplets on June 21, she had little inkling that two of her three newborn babies would die in their intensive care basins within hours of their birth due to an electricity outage at the hospital and a malfunctioning generator.
According to independent media in oil-rich Azerbaijan, the baby that did survive was transferred to a hospital in Baku where its condition remains critical, and where the country had just finished hosting a showpiece Formula One Grand Prix costing several hundred million dollars amid a deepening economic crisis.
Instead of acknowledging state failure's role in the deaths of the two newborns at the provincial facility, the Ministry of Health said the newborns died before the electricity outage, and that the hospital therefore carried no responsibility.
According to the infographic below published by RFE/RL, Azerbaijan has allocated close to $500 million for its health budget in 2016, a 4.2% decrease from last year.
Both last year, when the economic crisis related to global oil's crash started to bite, and this year, huge amounts were spent on hosting the European Games and the Formula 1 Grand Prix respectively.
Defence remains the sector that receives the highest allocation in the budget pie, against the background of an increasingly combustible conflict with neighbouring Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
These skewed public spending priorities did not seem to bother government officials, or long-reigning F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, who claimed his group had a “100 percent” clear conscience regarding human rights in Azerbaijan on the eve of the event's opening June 18.
His positivity was shared by Azerbaijan's ambassador to the United States:
#WellDoneBaku indeed! Celebration @BakuCityCircuit #Formula1 #EuropeanGP in #Azerbaijan #F1 pic.twitter.com/lwI5tLtbti
— Elin Suleymanov (@ElinSuleymanov) June 19, 2016
Cartoon by Azeri cartoonist Gunduz Aghayev highlighting inequality amid the glamour of the F1 Grand Prix.
Independent media and human rights activists in the country have a different take.
Meydan TV, a dissident media outlet based in Germany, put together an alternative F1 race circuit for readers that digs beneath the Baku glitz revered by Ecclestone.
Titled “Race for Truth: Explore the Stories behind the F1 Circuit”, Meydan's multi-layered, multimedia storytelling format brings readers stories such as “A Hard time for Pensioners”, “Two Faces of Baku”, “Tale of Two Schools” and “Downtown Baku: Playground for the Rich” all themed on the inequality and social injustice that has plagued the Caucasus country under the long-reigning Aliyev regime.
Recently released investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova went further in an article for the OCCRP last year, implicating President Ilham Aliyev's family in corruption that the F1 race actively enabled:
While taxpayers ultimately foot the bill for this, two privileged citizens have been massively enriched by the games: the president’s daughters. That’s because they control an enormous chunk of the luxury hotel business in Baku. Their hotels, sporting such well known Western brands as the Four Seasons, Sheraton and the Mariott, sit at key points in the city.
Watching #Formula1? Want to see how the #Aliyev benefits from the #BakuGP? https://t.co/m4LkE5YVb5 #F1Baku #F1 pic.twitter.com/m1zAprR8d0
— OCCRP (@OCCRP) June 19, 2016
The Sport for Rights campaign has also been a loud voice reminding F1 fans of human rights violations in Azerbaijan:
#BakuGP is about to start! All eyes on the track, but don't forget #Azerbaijan political prisoners @SportForRights pic.twitter.com/RWB3oZxvXm
— ARTICLE 19 Europe (@article19europe) June 17, 2016
These two Azerbaijans — one thriving and prosperous, the other struggling and downtrodden — continue to live side by side.
But with prices for the country's key crude oil export stuck at around half their 2014 levels, there is increasing uncertainty as to how long Aliyev and his regime will be able to keep this double act going.

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


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Brexit: Heartbroken, But Not Broken · Global Voices
Zara Rahman

Brexit? London, UK 2016. PHOTO: Tomek Nacho (CC BY-ND 2.0)
Morning clouds of disbelief have given way to sadness. I'm grieving, as are at least 16 million other people around me. Not only for the EU and for a united stance against the horrors of the world today, but also for the country I grew up in.
It's been exhausting to follow the lead up to the referendum. To feel myself tense up as someone in the room mentions UKIP, or Brexit. To have to be the one to say “but they're racist” and be met with “but their economic ideas make sense” by people I had formerly respected—and to repeatedly realise first-hand that so many of us have no problem with ignoring bigotry when it suits us. To know that if this had been the political climate when my parents were coming over from Bangladesh in the 70s, it's highly unlikely that I would ever have been able to grow up in the UK, or had any of the opportunities afforded me during my childhood.
“. . . had this been the political climate when my parents were coming over from Bangladesh in the 70s, it's highly unlikely that I would ever have been able to grow up in the UK, or had any of the opportunities afforded me during my childhood.”
It's been a strange process to watch from abroad as this anti-immigrant, xenophobic sentiment took hold in the UK. At first I tried to ignore it. I had that privilege: I live in Berlin, it doesn't affect me so much. Slowly, I took more notice. I started to talk to friends about it, to engage online, and yesterday, I flew back to help with some last-minute campaigning for the Remain campaign on polling day. I'm proud I did that, but I regret so much that it took me so long to get more involved.
I suspect many people will share that feeling today, too. Ignoring what's been going on in our country's politics is what got us here today. We were too comfortable, and uninvolved in decisions and politics that have made a huge impact on our lives. We didn't realise how much we had to lose, or that we needed to actively protect the rights that we enjoy, no matter how we feel about party politics.
Talking to friends yesterday, it came out that many of them talked about politics on Facebook for the very first time thanks to this referendum. Many of us grew up with a deep mistrust in the British political system. Seeing white men who went to Eton and Oxford coincidentally rise through the ranks to run the country, over and over again, will do that to you. Many in my social circles were relatively happy with the status quo. Not ecstatic, but doing okay; struggling to buy houses, but with jobs, and slowly paying off student debt. Again, a privilege, and one clearly not shared by many of the marginalised and disenfranchised people across the country who used this occasion to finally make their voices heard.
“Many in my social circles were relatively happy with the status quo. Not ecstatic, but doing okay; struggling to buy houses, but with jobs, and slowly paying off student debt. . . a privilege, and one clearly not shared by many of the marginalised and disenfranchised people across the country who used this occasion to finally make their voices heard.”
The country is split. The voting shows that. The splits are stark, too, from age, to levels of education, to geographic borders. Party politics had little to do with this. The lies and the misinformation that was spread during this campaign were poison, ugly untruths, irresponsible in the deepest sense of the word.
It's been hard to watch that happen, too. This is the dirtiest, most vicious campaign I've ever seen. Jo Cox's murder was an extra, devastating blow, but as Alex Massie wrote, you can't shout BREAKING POINT over and over again, and be surprised when someone breaks. I'm sad for the result, I'm sad for the way that the campaign played out, and I'm sad about the rising waves of right-wing sentiment that are spreading across the country. This isn't the country I grew up in.
And now? The fact it took us too long to realise what was happening, to take the threats seriously, to not just push for change but to defend what we hold dear, is something that we need to remember and not repeat. We've lost a lot yesterday, and our country won't be the same again.
It's nothing like the process I would have wanted, but we can't lose more, and now we need to do the very best we can. Whatever the party politics, those standing against bigotry, discrimination, and downright idiocy must stand together. I'm in grieving, but I'm conscious of the active, vocal role that we all need to play to prevent this getting worse.
As my friend Sarah wrote this morning: I'm heartbroken, but not broken.

author: Zara Rahman


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Japan gears up for a hot, humid rainy season · Global Voices
Sarah Lee Stones

Rainy Season in Japan, ‘梅雨’ (Tsuyu). Image from Flickr user Héctor García. License: CC BY-ND 2.0
Early June marks the start of the rainy season in Japan, known as tsuyu or baiu (梅雨, literally “plum rain”, as it coincides with the ripening of plums). Most people in Japan don't really like the rain and dread the start of tsuyu. The cloudy skies can be damper on the spirits, and the high humidity leaves many feeling more than a little irritable.
On top of that, sudden torrential rains can cause dangerous flash flooding.
九州の記録的大雨、熊本で3人死亡 3人が不明 – LINE NEWS https://t.co/LzvZujB298 梅雨前線の影響による大雨で、熊本地震で被災した熊本県では21日までに土砂災害などで3人が死亡し、3人が行方不明。 pic.twitter.com/uPgBiHEfv0
— LINE NEWS (@news_line_me) June 21, 2016
As Kyushu experiences record amounts of rainfall, three are dead and three others are missing in Kumamoto prefecture.
Heavy rains from the tsuyu monsoon front have triggered landslides in Kumamoto, which was hit by a devastating series of earthquakes in May 2016. The landslides have killed three people and left three others missing.
The rainy season is caused by the convergence of cold northerly and warm southerly air masses. A seasonal rain front (前線, senzen) moves up from the east China coast from May to mid-July each year. Okinawa—Japan's southwestern-most prefecture—experiences the rainy season first, from early May, while the Tohoku region to the northeast of Tokyo isn't hit until mid-June. Hokkaido in the far north is barely affected by the rainy season.
今日（6月21日）6～12時の降水強度の時間変化．日本付近にかかっている梅雨前線上を東進する低気圧に伴い，活発な積乱雲が観測されています．低気圧に伴う循環が降水強度でも良く現れています． pic.twitter.com/vhhDLrI6xa
— 荒木健太郎 (@arakencloud) 2016年6月21日
Changes in precipitation intensity from today (June 21) 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. Along with a drop in atmospheric pressure as the seasonal rain front moves east, we can expect to see active cumulonimbus clouds. The cycle brought about by the drop in pressure can be clearly observed in these patterns of precipitation intensity.
While flooding is not uncommon during the rainy season, at best the near-constant rainfall is considered to be a pesky inconvenience by most Japanese people. It's hard to dry laundry during the rainy season, and the temperature tends to fluctuate from sticky and sweltering to genuinely chilly.
It doesn't rain every day of the rainy season; however, June is known for gloomy, gray skies and predictably bad weather.
#梅雨 #sky #town #町 #clouds #雲  #空 #雨 #rain
A post shared by  Hiroshi Terada (@ground696) on
It's not all bad, though. There are some beautiful flowers that bloom during the season. Some of Japan's best scenery is even more picturesque when enshrouded in low-hanging clouds and mist.
今朝の御所湖。
無風で美しい水鏡。
こんなキレイな雲の顔が見られるなら梅雨もなかなか悪くないなと思うわけだよ。#水鏡 #御所湖 #つなぎ温泉 pic.twitter.com/yzbcpr4OCu
— 土ぼっくり 6/25.26青森東北六魂祭 (@Craft_158) June 14, 2016
Morning at Lake Gosho [in Morioka, Iwate]
Not even a hint of a breeze to disrupt the mirror-like surface of the lake. #reflectionsinthewater #lakegosho #tsunagihotsprings
If it means we can see such beautiful clouds, I guess tsuyu isn't all that bad.
The actual amount of rainfall tends to vary from day to day, and it's not unusual for a downpour one day to be followed by occasional showers or even clear skies the next.
おはようございます。
梅雨のせいでしょうか。
身体も気力もダウン。
元気を出さないとね。
明るい色合いのお花をアップしてみました。 pic.twitter.com/CCCMyMbxAF
— とうかとう(通知不具合中) (@hanazuki1949) 2016年6月20日
Good morning.
Maybe it's the rain.
I'm feeling tired and down.
Have to keep my chin up.
Maybe posting these colorful flowers will help.
While grey skies can lead to low spirits, the rainy season also coincides with the blooming of beautiful hydrangeas.
｢梅雨らしく淑やかに｣
雨が降って欲しい所で降らず、これ以上降ってはいけない所で降り、何だかもどかしいです。関東の水不足は如何に。
埼玉県幸手市の権現堂にて。 pic.twitter.com/KCV79GwMsh
— ゆうじ(Shiba)＠Photo (@Yuji_48) 2016年6月21日
An elegant symbol of the rainy season.
Rain never goes where it's needed, and yet it can often be found in places that could do better without it. It's a little frustrating. How's Kanto's water shortage now?
Taken at Gogendo Temple, Satte, Saitama.
Often seen around temples in June and July, they are known as ajisai (紫陽花) in Japanese.
今日の東京は梅雨らしい雨空。こちらは先日、道の側で見かけた小ぶりの紫陽花です。花を目にすると四季を感じられて良いね！今日も皆さん良い一日をお過ごしください。
（ASAGI） pic.twitter.com/mxtetFYHgn
— ASAGI_SOLO_WORKS (@ASAGI_SOLO) 2016年6月21日
A typical rainy season sky in Tokyo today. These are some little hydrangeas I spotted on the side of the road the other day. Looking at flowers really makes me aware of the seasons! Have a great day, everyone. (ASAGI)
The flowers are native to Asia and the Americas, and can be white, blue, red, pink, or purple.
#梅雨#雨降り#紫陽花
A post shared by  Fumiko (@lifeisbeautiful235) on
#rainyseason #rain #hydrangeas
It tends to be very hot and humid during the rainy season, but there isn't much relief to be had when it ends, as summers in Japan often reach scorching temperatures. Highs of almost 38°C  (or around 100° Fahrenheit) are not uncommon for much of the country.
白い空
梅雨の色
おはよう
蒸し蒸ししてるね
大雨で九州はまた
大変みたい
大丈夫かなぁ
気を付けて
くださいね
今日も元気だして
自分らしく
無理なくね
笑顔ある優しい
一日になりますように pic.twitter.com/QfOjYWE2uo
— hazuki (@kazukihazuki) 2016年6月21日
White skies
The color of the rainy season
Good morning
Isn't it muggy?
With all this rain
Kyushu seems to be having a hard time again
I wonder if they're all right
Be careful
OK?
Keep your chins up
Be true to yourselves
Don't take on too much
I hope today is a lovely day
Filled with smiles
While flooding and the resulting landslides can be a serious problem, for most people the rainy season is simply an inconvenience, and is best spent holed up indoors where it's cool and dry. Perhaps this Twitter user is onto something; riding out the sultry months inside with a cup of coffee while listening to the sound of the rain doesn't sound like a bad idea at all.
おはようございます。
雨音が跳ねる
４時に帰ってきて
一時間寝て
長めのシャワー。
テーブルの上の珈琲。
美味しく頂き
家をでる。
雨が傘を弾く音を聞きながら。 pic.twitter.com/6PZchQilAD
— く～さん (@kumayairo8) 2016年6月22日
Good morning.
The pitter-patter of rain
Come home at four
Sleep for an hour
Take a long shower
Coffee on the table
I savor it
Leave the house
Listen to the sound of rain bouncing off my umbrella.

author: Sarah Lee Stones


text:
Take a Virtual Reality Tour of West Papua’s Coral Reefs · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Pristine reef of staghorn coral with juvenile batfish in Wayag Lagoon, Raja Ampat. Photo by Sterling Zumbrunn. Courtesy of Conservation International
The Bird’s Head peninsula in West Papua is one of the richest marine biodiversity centers in the world. Through a virtual reality film launched by American nonprofit Conservation International, we can now see the underwater treasures of Birds’ Head and feel like we are “scuba diving in a healthy reef.”
“Valen's Reef” is one of the films being screened at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. It is released in partnership with YouTube.
The Bird’s Head region has more than 2,500 islands and reefs. It is home to 600 types of corals and 1,765 kinds of fish (including more than 40 species of sharks and rays). About 3 percent of the world's mangroves are located in this area. Scientists estimate that Bird’s Head holds more species of fish than Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and more species of coral than the entire Caribbean Ocean.
Bird’s Head provides food, shelter, and livelihood to 760,000 West Papuans. West Papua is located in the eastern region of Indonesia.
“Valen's Reef” is more than just a film showcasing the marine treasures of Bird’s Head. It also tells the story of how a marine habitat threatened by destructive fishing was revived by a joint effort of community groups and conservationists. The film is narrated by a local fisher who dedicates his advocacy to protect the seas to his son, Valen.
The “Valen's Reef” film was created in partnership with virtual reality production company Vrse.works and Finch Company, with support from The Tiffany & Co. Foundation.
Watch the full video below and dive into the clear waters of Bird’s Head:

author: Mong Palatino


text:
Vladimir Putin’s ‘Favorite Chef’ Is Linked to Attacks on Journalists and Opposition Members · Global Voices
Yulia Savitskaya

Vladimir Putin and what is probably his favorite chef, besides Evgeny Prigozhin. Image by Kevin Rothrock.
There have been more than half a dozen attacks on political activists in St. Petersburg since the beginning of the year. One man's skull was broken. Another man's face was smashed. Several people lost their cars in arson attacks. Dozens more people have been threatened and bullied online. The victims have been members of Russia's anti-Kremlin opposition, but they're ordinary activists, not the movement's leaders.
Victims believe they are being targeted because of texts and photos they've shared on social media. This, apparently, has been enough to enrage certain anonymous, self-proclaimed “patriots.”
Until recently the attacks generated little media attention in Russia. Finally, three victims managed to find each other online. After speaking to each other and realizing that they'd been targeted in patterned attacks, they approached the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta. In late May, the newspaper published the stories of Danila Aleksandrov (a volunteer elections monitor), Yulia Chernobrodova (an activist), and Aleksander Markov (a former DJ who now manages the anti-Kremlin online community “Crime Governance”). Police have taken some action regarding these attacks, but without any results.
Earlier this month, in June 2016, the news site Meduza published a report about attacks on Aleksandrov, Markov, and others in St. Petersburg, finding that assailants apparently used a single common source of information to plan the assaults: a website called “Who Is Who,” which presents itself as a Ukrainian website concerned about the new government officials and politicians that came to power following the Euromaidan revolution. Who Is Who has two main types of content: dossiers on Ukrainian politicians, and pro-Kremlin news stories.
Recently, the website even held a contest, promising to pay 500 roubles (merely $8) for every “valuable” report. On Who Is Who, you can find all kinds of personal data belonging to Ukrainian politicians and Russian activists unfriendly to the Kremlin, including taxpayer’s numbers, photos, home addresses, and the names of people's relatives. The website lists various individuals in “whitelists” and “blacklists.” The victims of the attacks in St. Petersburg can be found on Who Is Who's blacklist.
For months, there was no hard evidence directly linking Who Is Who to the attacks on activists, and it remained possible that the website only inspired or mirrored ongoing bullying aimed at the Kremlin's critics. (Hate groups that mobilize online are not unheard of, in Russia and elsewhere.)
On June 21, The BBC's Russian-language service published an investigation on the “Who Is Who” project. Journalists found a woman who previously worked for a PR agency hired by “Wikiblogger,” the original version of Who Is Who. She said the project is poorly organized, claiming that most of the team quit when the website began hemorrhaging money in 2014. This woman says the project director was a woman named Yekaterina Petayeva.
The BBC’s Andrei Soshnikov contacted Petayeva, who only admitted to working for Wikiblogger for a month as a freelancer, though reporters say they obtained documents showing she worked there for at least six months. Petayeva said she couldn't remember the names of any of her colleagues at Wikiblogger, and refused to say who exactly hired her to dig up activists’ personal information. She also threatened to sue the BBC.
The anonymous cyber-group “Anonymous International” has leaked emails mentioning Wikiblogger. According to some of these messages, the project was financed by people close to Evgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy catering-company owner who's known widely as Vladimir Putin's “personal chef.” Prigozhin is also believed to have financed the infamous “troll factory” operating outside St. Petersburg, spreading pro-Kremlin Internet content on social media.
Earlier this month, Prigozhin filed a dozen lawsuits against the Internet search engine Yandex, seeking to make use of Russia's new “right to be forgotten.” He's demanding the removal of search results tying him to reports that he funds the troll factory, reports about his shady business dealings (particularly involving government-procurement contracts), and more. The St.-Petersburg-based news website Fontanka has devoted special attention to Prigozhin's nefarious “empire.”
Last month, in May 2016, Fontanka released footage of police detaining Prigozhin's private motorcade, showing how law enforcement ripped from the front of one of his cars an illegally-installed siren (which Russian officials use to pass through traffic). On June 21, the website published a report accusing Prigozhin of masterminding a spying campaign against its journalists, as well as cyber-attacks intended to steal reporters’ personal data. One victim of these cyber-attacks was Denis Korotkov, a Fontanka reporter who's exposed Prigozhin's role in the “troll factory,” his questionable contracts with the military, and his business dealings in places like Syria and Ukraine. Fontanka also hints that the police could be supplying information to the people attacking activists and journalists. Five of Prigozhin's companies, incidentally, are managed by former law enforcement officers.
On June 24, the Kremlin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Russian officials would not investigate the allegations against Prigozhin, calling the allegations “baseless” defamation.

author: Yulia Savitskaya


text:
A Syrian Family in the US Creates Art and Music That They Couldn’t Back Home · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Jumana Jaber's project called “Chemo Therapy and Chemical Weapons.” The Syrian artist says it juxtaposes her experience with breast cancer in 2006 with the Syrian government's attacks on its people now. Credit: Courtesy of the Institute for International Education
This article by Jason Strother originally appeared on PRI.org on June 21, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Jumana Jaber has taught visual arts at Montclair State University in the US state of New Jersey since 2013. It’s been a little different from her job teaching art and theater design in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
“Everything was new for me — new system, everything was different here,” Jaber, 55, says.
Jaber and her family of four are among the millions of Syrians who have fled their country since the start of the civil war in 2011. But they aren't living in the US as refugees. Instead, they arrived with the help of the New York-based Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund. Since 2002, the program has helped connect about 650 persecuted intellectuals (many from Iraq and Syria) with schools in the United States or in other safe countries. The fund splits the cost of settling academics and their families with a host institution for the first two years. It also arranges their J-1 exchange visitor and companion visas.
Jumana Jaber fled the war in Syria and now teaches in a college in New Jersey Credit: Courtesy of the Institute of International Education
Sarah Willcox, the fund’s director, says Jaber and her family are typical of the people that the fund seeks to help.
“They are often dissidents,” Willcox says. “Scholars are targeted because they are recognized and respected people in their community.”
In Damascus, Jaber made art with political messages, including paintings that incorporated parts of chairs, which she says are symbols of power in Syria.
“The president, the boss, the sheikhs who say this is halal and this is not halal, you can do that, you can’t do that,” she says. “They control everything, these people who sit in these chairs everywhere.”
As the uprising against the Syrian government devolved into civil war, Jaber says her commute to work outside Damascus became nearly impossible. Then the university where she worked along with her husband, a ceramic artist, came under attack.
“We took the students to the basement,” Jaber says. “Some of my colleagues were killed.”
Jaber’s oldest son, Yazan Al-Hajari, also got caught up in the unrest. At the time, he was studying classical music at a Damascus conservatory and had his own band.
Chairs are symbol of power in Syria, says Syrian artist Jumana Jaber. Credit: Courtesy of the Institute of International Education
“When the revolution started in Syria I had to make a decision,” says Al-Hajari, now 31. And after witnessing the force used to put down the revolt, he sided with the revolution — politically and musically. Al Hajari was detained a few times for speaking out against the government. He also wrote a satirical song critiquing Syria’s leaders and media. After uploading it to YouTube in 2012, he feared for his safety and fled to Beirut.
Eventually, the rest of the family also escaped to Lebanon, where Jaber was introduced to the Scholar Rescue Fund and offered the teaching job in New Jersey. The family now lives in the suburban town of Nutley, about 16 miles outside of New York City.
But they’re in the country on temporary visas. So Jaber, her husband and their two sons are applying for refugee status — a process that could take years.
Jaber says she feels free to create art here in the US that she never could have made in Syria. Her family is worried about rising anti-Muslim sentiment following the attacks in Orlando and San Bernardino, however — even though they aren't religious. Jaber says she tries not to let the atmosphere get to her.
“It’s hurts me a little bit,” she says. “But I have wonderful colleagues and friends and they understand our situation.”
Yazan Al-Hajari fled Syria after composing music that was critical of the Syrian regime. Credit: Jason Strother

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
Balkan Right-Wing Populists Gloat Over #Brexit · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

To illustrate schadenfreude — pleasure derived from misfortune of others — Wikipedia used the painting “Taming the Donkey,” by Eduardo Zamacois y Zabala (1868), in which a group of monks laughs while the lone monk struggles with the donkey. (Public Domain).
While the official reactions by most Balkan governments included expressions of concern for the European Union (EU) after the Brexit, representatives of right-wing parties expressed joy via social networks.
As Balkan Insight reported, initial official reactions from the Balkan region to the negative vote on the EU in Britain are gloomy: “Balkan officials voiced concerns on Friday about the uncertain future of the EU following Britian’s vote to leave the EU, while affirming their commitment to European integration.”
However, over the social networks, there was an outpouring of joy and schadenfreude — open gloating over the “demise” of the EU — by representatives of the right-wing political parties, both in power and opposition, including members of the Europe-wide European People's Party. While officially professing European values when speaking to their constituents, these parties often spread Euro-skepticism and Europhobia.
One of the often-repeated mantras of Balkan nationalists is “Why bother joining the EU and NATO when they will break up anyway soon, just like Yugoslavia did?” The Macedonian public recently learned that even their former prime minister, Nikola Gruevski, received such “words of wisdom” by a soothsayer that was giving him advice:
She also advises against Macedonian joining the European Union because she is worried that the ‘EU will fall apart’ and concludes that NATO will remain a factor but will be ‘artificially maintained’.
The narrative of the further disintegration of the EU was echoed by Turkish president Erdoğan, who warned that more countries will leave the EU. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek tweeted:
You don't want to open Pandora's box… oh but it already has…#Brexit
— Mehmet Simsek (@memetsimsek) June 24, 2016
Macedonian president Gjorge Ivanov also stated, “We are worried that the EU may go down the same road as Yugoslavia.”
One of the reasons for the joy demonstrated by Balkan nationalists is the perception that the internal division would draw the attention of the EU away from its periphery, weakening its influence to demand the kind of reforms that could affect both national sovereignty and the grip on power held by corrupt elites.
One of the first public reactions to the Brexit happened the morning after the UK referendum results were announced. Vojislav Šešelj, a Serbian far-right politician who currently sits in opposition, tweeted, using metaphors from vampire folklore:
Красног ли летњег јутра, дивне ли вести која је обрадовала васколико Српство. Енглези су закуцали глогов колац у срце лешини Европске уније.
— Војислав Шешељ (@predsednikSRS) June 24, 2016
What a lovely Summer morning, and what a lovely news that overjoyed the whole Serbhood. The English nailed a wooden stake into the heart of the corpse of the European Union.
In Macedonia, there was a public uproar over a tweet by Gordana Jankuloska, the former Macedonian Minister of Interior and a high-ranking official of the ruling party, VMRO-DPMNE. She mocked the British decision to leave the EU by tweeting “Now what?” to the British Ambassador, Charles Garret:
Сега Шу праиме?!? @BritAmbCGarrett
— Gordana Jankuloska (@G_Jankuloska) June 24, 2016
Jankuloska has benefited from a UK government scholarship in the past. Her choice of words, “Now what?” (“Sega šu prajme?”) is similar to the form of “What's up?” (“Šu praiš?”) she used when speaking to her confidant, the then Minister of Finance Zoran Stavrevski, in leaked wiretaps related to ongoing investigations of high level political corruption by the Special Prosecutor Office. Jankulovska is one of the chief suspects in the case.
In 2015, the opposition used the term “Šu praiš” to mock Jankuloska — including through the use of graffiti, which the ruling party then covered over. Her attempt to reclaim the phrase can be interpreted as announcement of her impunity from the allegations of organized criminal activity contained in the wiretaps. Her tweet was re-tweeted by other right-wingers — including some current ministers — but it also received hundreds of replies, with many stating: “Now, you will go to jail.”
“Šu praiš” (“What's up”) graffiti in Skopje. Photo by Meta.mk News Agency, used with permission.
Some populist politicians used the outcome of the British referendum as an excuse to advocate for holding other referendums in areas under their control.
For instance, the President of Republika Srpska (RS) Mirolad Dodik, the Bosnian Serb entity, stated his commitment to the process of joining the EU, but also noted that the Brexit served to “affirm the additional strength of referendums as final decision on national issues, and that would serve the RS in some future.” Hinting at the desire for secession from Bosnia and Herzegovina, he added that the right to hold referendum was “sharply denied” to RS so far.
In Serbia, the anti-EU Democratic Party of Serbia demanded that the president fulfill his promise and organize a referendum on the entry of Serbia into the EU and NATO. Such a referendum would supposedly undermine the pro-EU efforts of Prime Minister Vučić.
In Slovakia, the far right party Kotleba – People's Party Our Slovakia launched a petition for a referendum on EU membership.
Mirroring some of the sentiments from the rest of Central and Eastern Europe, Ingo Mannteufel, the manager of Deutsche Welle Europe Department and the editor of DW in Russian, commented that while official Russian reactions would be diplomatic, the Kremlin would privately celebrate, as the EU would now be busy with its own woes. Brexit fulfiled the Russian goal to draw the Balkans further from the EU:
Ни о каком дальнейшем расширении Евросоюза сейчас не может быть и речи. Плохая новость для всех украинцев, молдаван и грузин: расширение ЕС за счет приема бывших советских республик или балканских государств отодвигается на далекое-далекое будущее. И даже скорую отмену визового режима с Украиной или Грузией сейчас трудно себе представить.
Currently we cannot speak of further EU enlargement. This is bad news for all Ukrainians, Moldovans and Georgians: expanding the EU by joining of former Soviet republics or Balkans states will be postponed to a far-away future. Now it is also hard to imagine that the EU would abolish the visa regime with Ukraine and Georgia.
However, one of the most re-tweeted tweets on the Brexit was optimistic and unorthodox, given the source. It came from the German Foreign Office, at the end of the long day after the referendum results were announced.
We are off now to an Irish pub to get decently drunk. And from tomorrow on we will again work for a better #Europe! Promised! #EURef 🇪🇺
— GermanForeignOffice (@GermanyDiplo) June 24, 2016

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Nature, Gender Identity, and Other Things You Learn Filming a Documentary in Mexico on the Banks of the Usumacinta River · Global Voices
Indira Cornelio

A scene from the documentary film “El Remolino” . Image: Facebook. (Used with permission.)
The Spanish documentary filmmaker Laura Herrero came to El Remolino, Mexico, to film a documentary about how a group of girls from the south of the country who were fighting discrimination, but her contact with the town didn't end with that project. Once in El Remolino, Herrero stayed to follow the lives of the people in the town, specially that of Esther and Pedro, two members of a local community, whose stories involved personal journeys, struggles with nature, and grappling with their own sexual identities.
The first set of stories appears in the documentary “Son Duros Los Días Sin Nada” (The Days Without Anything Are Hard), and another film, “El Remolino” (named after the community), presents a second collection.
Portraying discrimination and social studies, “Son Duros Los Días Sin Nada” was released in 2012. After two and a half years of work and 11 visits to the community, the second film, “El Remolino,” appeared in Mexico's documentary film festival Ambulante 2016. The community is situated by the banks of the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas. According to Herrero, its inhabitants live “surrounded by an abundant but fragile nature, [in which] they fight with the river that brings them as much sustenance as it does flooding.”
For Herrero, the experience of the documentary went beyond mere filming, saying she learned a great deal in El Remolino, both from the community and alongside it. In an interview with the website Crash, Herrero recounted the context of these experiences, saying that sometimes she would see just one thing differently and it changed her broader perceptions. For example, foreigners in some circumstances would see only a natural disaster, where members of the community might embrace the flooding season as a time for reflection and introspection.
The film follows the stories of Esther and Pedro, two members of the community and central characters in the documentary, with whom Herrero formed the strongest bond. Talking to Crash, Herrero said these people were pillars in her learning:
Esther [es] una mujer llena de fortaleza que saca adelante a su familia y nos comparte su mundo a través de una pequeña cámara […] Su hermano Pedro [es] un campesino travesti que defiende su identidad y sus sueños.
Esther [is] a woman who is full of strength, who provides for her family and shares her world with us through a small camera […]. Her brother Pedro [is] a transvestite farmer who defends his identity and his dreams.
In an interview with Ambulante, Herrero also described the learning exchange that she saw in Esther, who discovered by meeting the documentary team the fascination of creating images relating to her daily life:
Nos veía a nosotras llegar y grabar con la cámara. Ella hizo una gran reflexión sobre el inmortalizar, el grabar.. Ella consiguió su cámara de video y empezó a grabar. Durante el rodaje, puso una tienda, empezó a estudiar, se compró la cámara… hubo un fortalecimiento muy grande en ella. Empezó a grabar la inundación, a Dana [su hija], a grabar a su papá, las fiestas familiares y poco a poco empezó a hacer imágenes más subjetivas.
She would watch us arriving and recording with the camera. She reflected greatly on the immortalizing—on the filming. She got her video camera and began to record. During the filming, she set up shop, began to research, bought herself the camera… there was a very great strengthening in her. She began to film the flooding and Dana [her daughter]. She filmed her dad, family gatherings, and little by little she began to record more subjective footage.
Pedro, Esther's biological brother, is a 47-year-old farmer who is going through the process of gender identification to be recognized as a woman. From a young age, Pedro viewed her gender identity as that of a woman, despite the lack of understanding, discrimination, and exclusion that she endured. She now counts on the support of her family. Herrero focused on Pedro's efforts to share information and exchange information about her transition.
Asked about poverty and how the authorities have abandoned towns like El Remolino, Herrero came back to sexual identity:
Es alucinante cómo en estos pueblos tan anclados y pobres […] hay gente como Esther y Pedro, que tengan una lucha política y de identidad sexual. Esther es una mujer que trabaja en el campo y que tiene más ingresos que su marido. Por otra parte, Pedro quiere transformarse al otro sexo y sigue intentándolo. Le da igual, porque [con respecto a su identidad sexual] sabe que no puede tapar el sol con un dedo.”
It's amazing how in these towns that are so tied down and poor […], there are people like Esther and Pedro, who have a political struggle and a struggle for sexual identity. Esther is a woman who works in the field and earns more money than her husband. Pedro, on the other hand, wants a sex change and keeps trying to make it happen. She doesn't mind [to struggle for this] because she knows [that regarding her sexual identity] she can't bury her head in the sand.
Herrero also spoke about the importance of telling stories and preserving them with sounds and images:
Creo que lo primero que hace el cine es embalsamar un momento de la historia, y lo guarda para siempre de una forma. Es importante considerar el cine documental como una manera de mantener esta historia viva y que pueda ser recordada.
I believe that the first thing cinema does is to embalm a moment in history, and then it keeps it forever, in a way. It is important to consider documentary cinema as a way of keeping this story alive, so it can be remembered.

author: Indira Cornelio


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A Children’s Book Introduces German Kids to the True Story of Syrian Refugees · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Rahaf and her family fleeing Homs, Syria to Germany. Credit: Jan Birck
This article by Lucy Martirosyan originally appeared on PRI.org on June 20, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
There are now more than 65 million people displaced by conflict in the world, the highest level ever recorded. Half of these refugees are children.
Germany has received more than 1 million refugees, mostly from Syria and Iraq. Despite supporters initially celebrating Chancellor Angela Merkel's actions, many Germans have begun voicing concerns about when this acceptance of migrants will come to an end.
But while the adults in Germany have expressed mixed reactions to the refugees, German author Kirsten Boie wants children at least to realize that a refugee child is just like any other kid in the world.
In her latest children’s book, “Everything Will Be Alright,” she writes the true story of Rahaf and her family, who flee Homs, Syria due to bombings by war planes. The family crosses the Mediterranean Sea on a small boat, ultimately choosing a small town near Hamburg, Germany to start their new lives.
The book is published in German and Arabic and is meant to be read at school to both German-born children and their new immigrant neighbors. (An English translation is available online here.)
“You have hundreds of thousands of people who not only welcome refugees coming to us, but who support them very heavily, who give a lot of their time helping them to learn the language, to go to a doctor, to go to authorities and so on. And on the other hand, you have some people who are completely against refugees,” Boie says. “Children are somewhere in the middle and the information that they get — well, some parents speak about refugees badly, some say something different. So I thought just telling a story of a genuine family would give them a chance to learn what it was like.”
Throughout the past year, Boie has been in contact with refugee families. She says that she could have chosen a more “dramatic” story to tell — one that would have included more loss, violence and pain — but she decided to tell a more “ordinary” one. She hopes that will allow German children to relate to refugee children more easily.
The book includes some horrifying scenes endured by the main characters who are now settled in Germany. Credit: Jan Birck
As she worked on the book, Boie would meet with Rahaf and her brother Hassan (not their real names) as well as their mother. Instead of talking about the violence and war right away, the two children reminisced about their home and the friends and cousins they left behind. Their mother eventually prompted them in Arabic to speak of the war atrocities they had witnessed, Boie says.
Boie keeps in touch with Rahaf and Hassan — they even go to the movies together — but she doesn't plan on a sequel.
“I'm pretty certain I won't do that. I did everything so that nobody could identify these children. I even changed their names — that is, they changed them themselves. They told me what they wanted to be called in the story,” Boie says.
At readings Boie has done, some young German readers worry about the well-being of Rahaf and Hassan. They have even started to empathize with them.
“Children, I think they're very, very open-minded. When they hear what these kids have gone through, they want to know, ‘Can we help them? How can we help them? What can we do to make life easier for them?'” Boie says.
“In this story of these two Syrian kids, the smugglers on the Mediterranean, they steal their luggage. In the luggage there's the girl's doll. And she's very unhappy about losing her doll that way. The children here always start by asking, ‘Has she got her doll back?’ I think the reason for that is that this is something that they can imagine [happening to] themselves, whereas all the bombs and fighting and nights on the Mediterranean … they can't imagine that happening to themselves.”
Boie, who has written over 60 books for both children and teenagers, believes stories help young people understand what's going on in the world.
“Stories, I think, always make it much easier for children to understand something than theoretical knowledge. I think that's the chance we have,” Boie says.


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As Delhi’s Ruling Party Demands Full Statehood, Could Dexit Follow Brexit? · Global Voices
Sohini Chatterjee

States and Union Territories of India. Image by Maximilian Dörrbecker (Chumwa) via Wikimedia Commons
The United Kingdom's bowing out of the European Union has caused ripples around the world as other countries weigh in on the consequences of Britain’s EU exit and what the future holds for British politics and society.
Continual coverage and follow-ups of the event by the media have firmly established Brexit frenzy all around the globe. Now, Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, seems to be similarly ensnared by the political audacity shown by UK — so much so that he has re-asserted an old claim that a referendum for Delhi’s independence is impending. He made the statement on Twitter shortly after the final tally of the UK's referendum votes:
After UK referendum, delhi will soon have a referendum on full statehood
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) 24 June 2016
A member of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the current ruling party of Delhi, Ashish Khetan, also tweeted:
After the UK referendum on EU exit, it's time to have a referendum on full statehood of Delhi. In a democracy the will of the ppl is supreme
— Ashish Khetan (@AashishKhetan) 24 June 2016
India currently has 29 states and seven union territories. Delhi, the national capital territory, is a union territory, in which New Delhi is a municipality and a district in Delhi and serves as both the capital and the seat of Government of India.
In May, a draft bill concerning Delhi’s statehood was brought out by Chief Minister Kejriwal, which was also posted on the Delhi government website. The bill seeks to bring under the ambit of Delhi government, the Delhi police, as well as its Development Authority and Municipal Corporation. Should Delhi attain statehood, the Parliament of India will also assume “exclusive legislative and executive powers on matters relating to public order, police, local Government and land”. The AAP has invited public comment on the bill until June 30, after which date it is supposed to be re-drafted, taking due consideration of the insights received from the public.
Kejirwal became the Chief Minister of New Delhi in 2015 after the AAP defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — the current ruling party in India — in the Delhi Legislative Assembly Elections. AAP's manifesto included the promise of statehood for Delhi if the party managed to win the legislative assembly elections that year. However, Kejriwal has since been cautious in raising the demand for Delhi's statehood, repeatedly reminding the public that his party has not been first — or indeed, the only one — to raise the issue. The Delhi government's website introducing the bill reads, “All the political parties i.e. Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and others, who have contested assembly elections in Delhi during the last 22 years, have aspired and promised through their successive election manifestos that they are fully committed towards full statehood for Delhi.”
Kejriwal has stressed the need for political parties to come together for the cause of Delhi's separate statehood, but not everyone is happy with the suggestion. One of India's most revered journalists, Rajdeep Sardesai, dismissed a possible referendum for Delhi's statehood as a “bad idea”:
I support Delhi getting greater statehood powers, but referendum is a bad idea. Today, statehood for Delhi, tomorrow Kashmir/TN sovereignty?
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) 25 June 2016
Like Sardesai, many have expressed their displeasure with the AAP's insistence on Delhi assuming separate statehood:
Can we have #Dexit ? Delhi can exit from India along with AAP. https://t.co/gDil6uKJ9w
— Karthik (@karthik132) 25 June 2016
.@ArvindKejriwal Why not a different country? That's the only way you are ever going to be a Prime Minister.
— Gabbbar (@GabbbarSingh) 24 June 2016
Dear @ArvindKejriwal ji
If your statehood Referendum fails will you also resign as David Cameroon did ?https://t.co/dIvucrN4IO
— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) 24 June 2016
BJP leader Satish Upadhyay had reportedly called the bill unconstitutional when it was introduced, flagging it as another political gimmick by the AAP government and emphasising that his own party had promised Delhi statehood under different circumstances and through different methods.
On Twitter, netizens have also labelled the bill as unconstitutional:
No referendum in our constitution @ArvindKejriwal , but still you will get 5-finger referendum stamp on your cheek pic.twitter.com/UO8V2V7ny6
— गीतिका (@ggiittiikkaa) 24 June 2016
Since 2015, the AAP has consistently claimed that a referendum to decide on Delhi's separate statehood would not be unconstitutional — but experts have suggested that Indian constitutional provisions do not allow for a referendum to decide the issue. It remains to be seen how the AAP will move forward with its agenda, amidst and despite palpable public discomfort and legal constraints.

author: Sohini Chatterjee


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Interactive Security Tracker Maps Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A screenshot of the Sub-Saharan Security Tracker (SST) .
The Council on Foreign Relations is a nonprofit think tank and publisher that deals with U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. Under the leadership of John Campbell, its Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies (Campbell has extensive experience in U.S. policy towards Africa and has helped highlight the continent's fight against HIV/AIDS), the Council has launched a useful tool — the Sub-Saharan Security Tracker (SST) — to monitor trends in political violence in 48 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Designed by Allen Grane and Asch Harwood, the tracker draws on data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), which documents violence in Africa by surveying open sources, reports from non-governmental organizations, and publicly available data. The statistics, which are updated monthly, date back as far as June 1, 2011. Unlike ACLED's data, though, this tool is interactive and filters information relating to Sub Saharan Africa. This is particularly useful, considering that ACLED’s data covers more than 60 countries in Africa and Asia.
Currently, mass violence is a reality in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa — South Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Central African Republic, Nigeria and  Mali, to name a few. Perpetrators are both state actors and non-state actors, including extremist groups such as Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, and Anti-Balaka.
According to a press statement, the tracker uses over three million data points to map deaths caused by political violence, categorizing them by geographic distribution, trends over time, and actors involved.
The statement further explained:
The data reveals meaningful trends over the past five years. For instance, a plurality of deaths associated with political violence are caused by state forces, rather than rebel forces or other militias. The group responsible for the most deaths, however, is Boko Haram, and it is followed by the military forces of Sudan and Nigeria. Consequently, Nigeria has been site of the most political violence.
The data is presented in five easily understandable charts:
The graph below shows deaths caused by political violence over time:
A screenshot of a graph from the tracker.
The tracker will allow researchers, journalists and policymakers to identify both current and future trends in violence in the region. However, the Council on Foreign Relations noted that:
The ACLED data [which is the source of their information] has limitations. The quality of reporting across sub-Saharan Africa varies, as do incident accounts. Political manipulation may affect media accounts. Such limitations make the SST figures indicative rather than definitive.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Japan This: The Ultimate Online English-Language Guide to Authentic, Historical Tokyo · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Image of “Crucifixion Base” from former Suzugamori Execution Grounds located in what is now Shinagawa, Tokyo. Image courtesy Japan This/Marky Star. Image copyright Japan This/Marky Star, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (image can be shared only for non-commerical uses, if Marky Star is attributed, and if there are no derivatives).
Japan This is a historical photoblog by longterm Tokyo resident Marky Star devoted to the quirky history of Tokyo and the surrounding region. If you're interested in learning more about the etymology of some of Tokyo’s train lines, the history of the “Seven Rivers of Edo”, or the difference between “High Tokyo” and “Low Tokyo”, Japan This is the blog to check out.
In an interview with Tokyo Metropolis, Star says:
When I’d make references to Japanese holidays on Facebook or in e-mails to my friends and family living outside of Japan I found myself re-explaining them again and again to each person. Instead of just repeating myself again and again, I thought it would be a good idea to just write a few articles like “Japanese New Year” or “Coming of Age Day” and keep them all in one place where I could just refer people.
After a while Star says he ran out of topics, and decided that he would continue the blog by exploring the etymology of place names around Tokyo and the surrounding Kanto region, which now makes up the bulk of the site’s content.
Star has a particular interest in exploring the route of the old Tokaido postal road that linked Edo (the old name for Tokyo) with Kyoto, the old imperial capital. Although much of the landmarks have vanished due to wartime bombing or development, Star's keen eye still spots many surviving landmarks that tell a story about Japan's past.
For example, Star takes time to contemplate the “double peaks” of Komayama in Hiratsuka, the site of an old postal town located between what was once Tokyo and Mount Fuji.
高麗山・The Double Peaks of Kōmayama
Historical details in the photo info#Japan #浮世絵 #Tōkaidō https://t.co/oj2pz8HBWp pic.twitter.com/OXZNEKRg4G
— Japan This! (@JapanThis) June 12, 2016
While Star updates a lively Twitter account, he saves the more interesting details about the places he visits for Flickr and Twitter. For example, the Tweet above links to a Flickr image with a more detailed mini-history of Hiratsuka itself:
In the Edo Period, the town was known as 平塚宿 Hiratsuka-juku Hiratsuka Post Town. It was the 7th station on the 東海道 Tōkaidō the highway linking Edo and Kyōto. In the last census before the Meiji Coup in 1868, Hiratsuka had a local population of 2,114. It featured a 本陣 (honjin) exclusive inn for daimyō and high ranking shōgunate officials and 1 脇本陣 (waki-honjin) exclusive inn for officials outranked by whomever was staying at the honjin. For the average traveler, there were 54 旅籠 (hatago) casual inns providing a room, access to a bath, and most likely prostitutes. Interestingly, for readers of my blog, you may have noticed that this was 2 more inns than Shinjuku had before it was shut down by the shōgunate for rampant sexual impropriety that threatened the traditional establishment sex industry of Yoshiwara.
Star's jaunts around Tokyo take him to some genuinely interesting locations that are not covered in typical English-language guidebooks to Tokyo. For example, Star tracks down the site of the old Suzugamori Execution Grounds, in what is now Shinagawa, a city in Tokyo.
Suzugamori Execution Grounds. Image courtesy Japan This/Marky Star. Image copyright Japan This/Marky Star, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (image can be shared only for non-commerical uses, if Marky Star is attributed, and if there are no derivatives).
About the landmark, Star says on the Japan This blog:
The area that is preserved today is allegedly the actual killing floor. As such there are many Buddhist monuments which have been erected to “soothe the lost souls” that inhabit the area. Today, two streets run along the preserved area and an elevated pedestrian crossing goes over the entrance, so most people don’t even notice the area. This may be by design, as execution grounds are seen as unclean places. I’ve heard the rent is cheap in this area because people are afraid of ghosts – never investigated this myself, but my gut instinct tells me that while this might have been true in the past, in the overcrowded Tōkyō of today, this area might be just as pricey as anywhere else in the area. And while the name Suzugamori instills fear in the hearts of those who know the gruesome history of the area, there is a park and elementary school which both bear the name Suzugamori. So it’s not quite as dark and taboo as I’d been told when I first came to Japan.
If you're interested in Tokyo as either a resident or as a visitor, Star's blog and Flickr collection both contain a treasure trove of information. On another walk, Star explores the neighborhood of Tsukudajima, right in the heart of contemporary Tokyo.
Image: Ruins of the Ishikawa Island Lighthouse. Image courtesy Japan This/Marky Star. Image copyright Japan This/Marky Star, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (image can be shared only for non-commerical uses, if Marky Star is attributed, and if there are no derivatives)
About Tsukudajima, Star says:
The area is a fascinating look at one of the most traditional areas of Tōkyō. Many of the families are descendants of the original fisherman that lived and worked here in the Edo Period. Some can even trace their roots back to the first group of fishermen relocated from Ōsaka by the first shōgun, Tokugawa Ieyasu.
There is also an informative Japan This Flickr feed, a frequently updated Twitter account, and a fledgling Japan This podcast. Star offers walking tours of Tokyo as well.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Manila’s Pride March Advocates to “End the Hate and Let Love In” · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The term ‘LGBTindig’ refers to LGBT standing up for their rights. It also demands an end to discrimination. Photo from the Facebook page of University of the Philippine Manila Student Council; used with permission.
Members, families and supporters of the LGBT community in the Philippines led the celebration of the country’s 22nd Pride March to celebrate love, tolerance, and human rights. The first Pride March in Asia was held in the Philippines in 1994.
The theme of this year’s Pride March enjoined everyone to spread love in society:
Source: Facebook
This year, we need everyone to come together and advance the campaign for love. We call on all Filipinos to let love into their homes, their communities, and the whole country.
We want a future where all LGBTQIA+ people are able to freely live their authentic selves and love without fear of persecution. To achieve this, everyone inside and outside the LGBTQIA+ community needs to end the hate and let love in.
The LGBTQIA+ acronym includes people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexual, asexual and more.
The event was held a few days before the inauguration of the country’s new president — a timely move, as some groups challenged the incoming government to support the passage of an anti-discrimination law. Despite the claim of the country’s leaders that the Catholic-dominated Philippines is an open and democratic society, there is continuing prejudice against the LGBT sector.
Hate crimes persist, although most incidents go unreported. One recent famous case involved a US marine who is accused of killing a transgender. Ivanka Custodio, who is the leader of an LGBT group, wrote about the crimes committed against the LGBT community, citing high-profile cases like Olongapo (where the transgender was killed) and Orlando (where a mass shooting killed 50 LGBT people):
We have barely recovered from the shock and grief caused by the Orlando shooting which cut short lives of LGBT people of color. 50 died that day. But they only foreshadow the millions of other LGBT lives that have been extinguished due to hate and violence. Lives lived in constant struggle for survival and finally punctuated by gunshots, or drowned in a toilet bowl, or slashed and stuffed in a luggage. In the process of building a community, we saw that there are people like us whose lives are deemed more dispensable than others and are treated as such.
Photos of the 2016 Manila Pride March showed the humanity of the LGBT community:
Students of the University of the Philippines join the Pride March. Source: Facebook
The main program was held in front of the statue of Lapu-Lapu, a folk hero who fought Spanish colonialists:
#LetLoveIn #Pride2016 pic.twitter.com/akcNHpxBnH
— Althea David Cahayag (@kiddo_says) June 25, 2016
Curiously, a religious group joined the event and apologized for the bigotry of some religious institutions:
I'm sorry for judging you.#LetLoveIn pic.twitter.com/Hxy92J2gi6
— Not Silent Majority (@TalkativeAko) June 25, 2016
The staff of the Australian embassy also took part in the parade:
Australian Embassy joins #LetLoveIn #Pride2016 | @XaveGregorio pic.twitter.com/5YUjVSgEnL
— The Philippine Star (@PhilippineStar) June 25, 2016
Finally, in a stirring act of inclusion, gay senior citizens — many of whom must have lived most of their lives hiding their sexual orientation — were honoured and recognized as part of the community:
Meet the Golden Gays of this year's #MetroManilaPride #LetLoveIn pic.twitter.com/DcuyTzXkIk
— InterAksyon (@interaksyon) June 25, 2016