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In International Spotlight, China Convicts Human Right Lawyers and Activists on ‘Subversion’ Charges · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Campaign poster on the July 9 2015 crackdown of human right lawyer by China Human Right Lawyer Concern Group via HKPF.
In a rare invitation-only trial, a Chinese court from Tianjin city sentenced four prominent human right lawyers and activists to jail on “subversion of state” charges. All four pleaded guilty and expressed remorse in a trial that was attended by state-controlled media organizations and is being viewed as a show of Chinese muscle against ‘foreign forces’.
The convicted men and women are all connected with the Beijing-based Fengrui law firm, which has a history of taking on politically controversial rights cases, and is accused of being an internal ‘conduit for western infiltration.’
In the months leading up to the trial, state-controlled media outlets described the law firm as a criminal networks of lawyers, online opinion leaders and trouble makers, who channel public opinion and incite public disorder in the name of human rights.
In the trial, the founder of the Fengrui law firm Zhou Shifeng and former political prisoner and religious leader Hu Shigen were sentenced to seven years in jail, while activist Zhai Yanmin and lawyer Gou Hongguor were given a suspended three-year sentence.
The four are a part of an original group of about 300 lawyers, legal assistants and activists, who were associated with the law firm, and were arrested and interrogated between July 9 and September of last year.
While many were released within a day or two of questioning, at least 22 continued to be detained, including Hu, Zhou, Zhai, and Guo. Some have been held without access to family and lawyers.
Weeks before the trial began, some of the detained lawyers, including Zhao Wei, a legal assistant of the firm and Wang Yu, a prominent human right lawyer, appeared in newspaper interviews and video confessions, expressing remorse for their work. They also blamed foreign forces for using the Fengrui Law firm to undermine the Chinese government. The government claimed the both Zhao and Wang were released but their families and lawyers still don't know their whereabouts.
Currently, about 20 are detained, are under house arrest or have been forcefully disappeared.
Since 2001, the law firm has taken up many politically sensitive human right cases, such as suing diary producers over contaminated infant formula milk in 2008, defending members of Falun Gong, journalists, and human right activists including Uighur academic, Ilham Tothi, who was accused of inciting separatism in 2014.
These legal battles were labeled by the state controlled media as “criminal activities” that challenged state security and China's fundamental political system; and the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm was called “a premeditated, planned, organized clique that collides with foreign anti-China forces”. Their concrete examples of ‘anti-China forces‘ are foreign media outlets, such as the Associated Press, which has extensively covered the crackdown on the law firm, and foreign embassies, diplomats, and human rights organizations that have urged the Chinese government to release the arrested.
However, it still takes concrete evidence for building up a state subversion case. The critical evidence presented in all four cases concerns a dinner gathering at a Beijing restaurant called Seven-spice-BBQ (七味燒). The gathering was interpreted as a meeting that conspired to overthrow the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Following that logic, human right lawyers Liu Shuqin explained in the Weiquanwang, a website devoted to documenting Chinese human rights incidents, that anyone can be charged with subversion, if all its takes is the evidence that was presented on trial:
709的审判，让我明白，原来颠覆政权的准入门槛恁低，证成犯罪的逻辑恁强大。
想象一下：某年某月某一天，事前无通谋，各约三五好友凑了十几个人在七味烧吃了一顿饭，注意七味烧不是南湖的一条游船孤立的飘在水上，这里车马喧闹摩肩接踵人声鼎沸，是相当不安全和没有诗意的地方。席间，一位曾坐过多年牢狱的长老，发表了一番高论。即体制和平转型需要民间社会壮大、体制内部分裂，国际关注等多因素促成。再请注意长老这里的转型是和平转型，不是暴力转型。
众位在场的想必当时都颔首表示认可，甚至可能也有人附和说该理论可以用于指导实践，在工运、维权案件中应用之。总之，这颠覆理论就算隆重推出了，大家颔首认可热烈讨论又没有提出异议，就顺理成章算全票通过了。
从那一刻起，有司就认定这位长老拥有了一个团队，而且还是“死磕律师”、“民运”、“地下教会”、“访民”多个圈子的豪华团队，必要时可以多兵种联合作战。
After the trial on the July 9 crackdown I now know that the threshold to build a case on subversion is so low and the logic in the interpretation of evidence can be that loose.
Just imagine: On a particular day in a particular month, a few good friends get together for dinner with other acquaintances at a BBQ restaurant. Please note, the restaurant is not an isolated boat floating on a lake, but an insecure place, crowded with other customers. On the dinner table, an old man, who had been jailed for many many years, makes a speech about factors that can lead to a peaceful transformation of the regime: the need for civil society to grow, the internal conflict within the regime, and international attention. Please note that the old man was talking about peaceful transformation, not a violent transformation. Those who attended the dinner all agreed, some might even have suggested that the theory could be applied to workers strike and other human rights campaigns. This is the birth of a subversion theory and the fact that everyone joined in the discussion without counter arguments means a full endorsement of the plan.
That very moment, a team was formed and headed by the old man; a team composed of human rights lawyers, political activists, underground church organizers, grassroots protesters, who are ready to work together when time comes.
Liu continues to explain that once the theory and the plan is established, all actions that challenge the government's authority will be viewed as a subversive act, even though the action itself might be legal and well within Chinese law. More importantly, the lawyers and activists that pleaded guilty, were detained for more than one year without access to counsel and family, during which time their families were constantly harassed by the authorities. Liu concluded that the whole trial is a grand show for “foreign forces”:
从去年的7月9日开始看，以整个世界为舞台，它是一幕恢弘的正剧。家属、辩护律师和律师同仁、厂卫人员、暗处的老大哥，都出色扮演了各自的角色[…] 看着毫无违和感积极指控别人的翟岩民，看着反噬恩人的赵威，看着说自己被利用的王宇，看着向自己助理礼貌道歉以表现矜持高贵的周世峰，看着满头白发被判了七年半还能认罪悔罪绝不上诉的胡长老。
Since July 9 last year, the case has been set to perform to the world. It is a grand show that everyone has a role in – the family relatives [who were monitored and harassed], the defending lawyers and the lawyers, the secret police, the big brother in the dark. […] Look at Zhai Yanmin who accused others with enthusiasm; look at Zhao Wei who attacked her benefactor in public; look at Wang Yu who kept saying that she was used; look at Zhou Shifeng who kept apologizing to his assistant; look at Hu Shigen, the old man in the white hair, he confessed, showed remorse and refused to appeal even though he was sentence to seven and a half years in jail.
What exactly is this grand show about? A commentary on China Change pointed out that the crackdown is a political decision made in 2012 rather than a real subversion threat:
It’s increasingly clear that the Chinese communist government is treating the “709 incident” [July 9 crackdown] as an international face-off with Chinese security state. It is consistent with an assessment in 2012 by a think tank of the Chinese Ministry of National Security that names rights lawyers, underground religion organizers, dissidents, internet opinion leaders, and disadvantaged social groups as internal conduits for western infiltration.


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Leaked Documents Reveal Scale of Abuse at Australia’s Offshore Detention Centre in Nauru · Global Voices
Fiona So

A Melbourne rally protesting the return of asylum seekers and refugees to Nauru. Photo from Flickr page of Takver (CC license)
Over two thousand leaked files revealed a disturbing string of sexual abuse, assault and self-harm incidents at Australia's detention centre for asylum seekers on the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru. The redacted documents were published by The Guardian this week. With more than 8,000 pages, the leaks cover the period between May 2013 and October 2015. Over half of the incidents involve children.
On one occasion, a guard at the centre allegedly hit a five year old girl “so hard it lifted her off her feet and sent her crashing to the ground”. Another file detailed how a father threatened to kill both himself and his children on multiple occasions, but was initially not referred to mental health services. In another report, a female asylum seeker was told she was ‘on a list’ of single women Nauru guards were ‘waiting for’.
The leaked documents also exposed a raft of cruel and intolerable living conditions: women with incontinence refused sanitary pads; doctors’ orders for urgent medical attention routinely ignored; filthy toilets that remained so for weeks; and detainees forced to live in cockroach-infested tents.
The ensuing outrage was palpable on Twitter:
Let's cut the crap. Australia's offshore detention centres are nothing more than human rights abusing offshore gulags. #naurufiles #manus
— Anna or AK (@annakissed36) August 10, 2016
.@afpcommissioner @afpmedia Please investigate the #LNP govt's torture of refugees in #naurufiles #manus https://t.co/0nDiQP1N9B
— Anne Carlin (@sacarlin48) August 12, 2016
Shame shame shame on you Australia. Sort out #abuse now, stop passing responsibility. Sickening read #NauruFiles . https://t.co/KsoyONNUew
— Niina Kolehmainen (@niinamk) August 10, 2016
As of June, 442 asylum seekers and refugees were living in the Nauru “regional processing centre”, including 49 children. Several hundred more live “in the community” of Nauru, outside the scope of government statistics. It is current Australian government policy that no person who arrives on its shores by boat to seek asylum will be settled in the country. Instead, they are sent to Nauru, or to Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island in arbitrary and indefinite detention for “offshore processing”.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and dozens of other human rights, legal and medical organisations also lined up to criticise Australia's treatment of refugees in light of the #NauruFiles.
While this latest leak is significant, it is far from the first – nor likely the last – exposé of Australia's controversial offshore detention policies. A host of government-sponsored and independent reports, including the Australian Human Rights Commission's 2014 ‘Forgotten Children’ report, the Moss Review and a joint Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch investigation, had already flagged many of the abusive conditions on Nauru.
The seemingly lacklustre public response to the #NauruFiles, however, have some people quietly despairing over whether even they will be enough to catalyse meaningful change:
The #Naurufiles are page 1 of Wednesday's @guardian in the UK. The Aus media will be obsessed with gold medals https://t.co/o6mDC8w9i8
— Rick Eyre (@rickeyre) August 9, 2016
Response to #naurufiles shows such casual cruelty with Australians just turning their heads away.
— Nannan Nelson Bay (@NannanBay) August 12, 2016
Indeed, reactions to the #NauruFiles by the Australian government have so far followed a familiar pattern of obfuscation and denial.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton was quick to accuse asylum seekers of faking reports of abuse in misguided attempts to enter Australia, saying, “some people do have a motivation to make a false complaint.” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the files would be “carefully examined”, but refused to entertain calls for a royal commission. Meanwhile, leader of the opposing Labor Party Bill Shorten called for an independent children's advocate, but stopped short of calling for the closure of the Nauru centre.
If the duration and seriousness of the abuse allegations have taken many by surprise, those who have paid attention to the trajectory of Australia's asylum seeker policies for the last decade or so are not among them. Both major Australian parties have been integral in orchestrating what is known as ‘The Pacific Solution’, the policy of removing asylum seekers to remote island nations rather than process them on the Australian mainland.
reminder: if ur appalled at what you read in the #NauruFiles remember: this abuse is sanctioned by both major parties. bipartisan terror.
— not the only one (@theevulady) August 9, 2016
Surely anyone who has been Australian PM since the Pacific Solution is guilty of human rights abuse? #naurufiles
— Chloe Warren (@sciencechloe) August 9, 2016

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Fiona So


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‘Limited Bandwidth’: Where Is the Reporting on Kashmir? · Global Voices
John Lubbock

A soldier guards the roadside checkpoint outside Srinagar International Airport in Jammu and Kashmri, January 2009. The latest wave of unrest in the region began in July. PHOTO: Jrapczak – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Last week a US-Kashmiri teenage girl wrote an open letter to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi that was reported by the Times of India:
“Mr PM, I see the newsflash, the attack in Nice, France, is screened followed by the attempted military coup in Turkey, along with the report on the monsoon rains in southern India. But where is the news on Kashmir? Is this why I never knew what was going on in my hometown for such a long time, Sir?”
The public comments on the article demonstrate the scale of the division within India over the history and future of the volatile Kashmir region, which was divided between India and Pakistan when the two became separate states in 1947—and whose borders have been contested ever since. The top commenter accused the girl of being a ‘brainwashed terror supporter’ who knew nothing about the ethnic conflicts of the 80s and 90s between Kashmiri Hindus and Muslims.
The most recent wave of protests in Kashmir began in July, in response to the killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, commander of Kashmiri separatist group Hizbul Mujahideen. Dozens have been killed and hundreds injured, but it doesn’t seem that anybody is keen on taking an interest in Kashmir. Even the Indian prime minister took 32 days to address the unrest, for which he was criticised by opposition Congress Party politicians.
In the UK there are around half a million people of Kashmiri origin, yet the subject of Kashmir rarely comes up in the media or parliament, besides the odd question from an MP with a large Kashmiri population in his constituency. This is partly due to the fragmentation of allegiances and political divisions within the British Kashmiri community. As Foreign Affairs recently wrote:
‘Although the JKLF [the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front] was once a major organization, a number of other organizations have emerged in recent years, such as the Jammu Kashmir National Awami Party, United Kashmir People’s National Party, Pakistan People’s Party, Muslim Conference, and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, among many others. It has become a challenge now to bring all or most of these groups onto one platform. Most of these groups remain disconnected with the ground politics of the Kashmir Valley.’
British national politics is equally disunited and preoccupied with a host of serious domestic and regional matters. Historian and MP Kwasi Kwarteng, who wrote about Kashmir’s colonial and post-colonial history in his book Ghosts of Empire, told me that ‘if you know anything about British politics you know we have zero memory of anything that happened more than 10 years ago’.
The environment is not right for any serious engagement with the issue, Kwarteng believes, given the short-term news cycle, the recent changes in ministerial appointments and the ‘slow burning’ nature of the conflict. This means that ‘something extreme has to happen’ in order for people to take notice.
Another major factor Kwarteng highlighted was Britain’s close ties with India, with PM Modi having visited the UK in November 2015, and UK government ministers visiting India. ‘We are closer to India than we have been in ages’, he said, due to ‘the war on terror and the fact that Pakistan is teetering on the brink of being a failed state’.
On Twitter, Indian journalist Harinder Baweja summed up the cynical nature of the world’s disinterest in Kashmir in the following:
Sorry Kashmir, the Valley may be burning, but you neither have Dalits, nor do you have an election coming up #TruthHurts
— Harinder Baweja (@shammybaweja) August 8, 2016
Intelligence analyst Stratfor notes that the Indian and Pakistani election cycles have in fact made it difficult for politicians to make concessions when some of their electoral success has been due to an uncompromisingly hardline stance on Kashmir. According to Stratfor, Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif's party ‘won 76 percent of the seats in Pakistan-administered Kashmir's state elections on July 21 by taking a tough stance against India.’
Similarly, the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India finds it easy to blame the unrest in Kashmir on Pakistan, rather than seek to address any of the underlying social problems in the region, such as rising unemployment and lingering anger at the trial and execution by India of Kashmiri separatist Afzal Guru in 2013. The BJP has also proposed to repeal Article 370 of the Constitution, which guarantees Kashmir autonomous status and has suggested building housing colonies for Indian soldiers in Kashmir.
Meanwhile, if Western politicians are concerned with the wider world at all, it seems largely about how to insulate themselves from its effects. Shashank Joshi, an analyst for RUSI has attributed this to the West’s ‘limited bandwidth’:
@jwsal Limited bandwidth. Aleppo & terrorism take priority. Lots of conflicts under-reported. Myanmar, Baluchistan, Kashmir, etc.
— Shashank Joshi (@shashj) August 8, 2016
Western think tanks such as the right-wing Gatestone Institute believe that Kashmir should be part of the West’s discourse on Islamic terrorism. Vijeta Uniyal, writing for Gatestone, contends that violent mobs of Islamists are fighting to create a separatist Islamic state, and India’s military presence, rather than being an ‘occupation’, is a war against Islamic terrorism. He refers to the birdshot pellet guns used by the Indian army, and which have blinded many protesters, as ‘BB guns’, and criticises the Indian government for not standing up for Hindu rights in Kashmir. Uniyal believes that unless India builds fortified compounds and arms Hindu and Sikh civilians to reverse the ethnic cleansing of non-Muslims from the Kashmir valley, Kashmir will become another Islamic State.
For partisan commenters on both sides, compromise seems impossible. Kashmir is like Solomon’s Baby, except both of its prospective mothers are happy to cut it in half. In the absence of strong moderate voices on both sides, it is understandable that Kashmir appears to Western governments and media as just another headache they would rather ignore.

author: John Lubbock


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The Two Argentineans Showing the ‘Other’ Side of Education Are Now in Colombia and Ecuador · Global Voices
Romina Navarro

Malena, Martín and the ‘Guagua Transhumante’ on their way through Peru. Photo shared publicly on Facebook.
With cameras in hand, two young Argentinians are traveling around Latin America and documenting the integration of education into community life, also known as the popular education movement.
Popular education was born in Latin America in the 50s. The discipline is “grounded in notions of class, political struggle, and social transformation.” Popular education advocates believe in teaching in the social context of the community, by creating spaces for dialogue, meeting and reflection. In popular education set-ups, everyone educates everyone by generating popular and collective knowledge.
The two Argentinians behind this ambitious project are Malena and Martín. They are popular education advocates and are publishing their journey in a live digital documentary called Education in Motion. Malena and Martín started their journey about a year ago, and have been through Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Colombia. We began to tell their beautiful journey a month ago in the article linked below.
Read: Two Argentineans Travel Throughout Latin America Looking for ‘The Other Education’
Since then, in southern Colombia, they interviewed people participating in community projects focused on climate change education, and in Ecuador, they met indigenous leaders who said their community education projects were threatened by the federal government's recent “education revolution.”
Malena is a sociologist and circus performer. She is part of the social organization Ñanderoga, located north of Buenos Aires, where she works as a popular high school teacher. According to her, Ñanderoga is “a pedagogical-political project rooted in the reality of a neighborhood beat up by the injustice of the system, but back on its feet and with the conviction to work and fight for a more just country for all men and women.”
Activity organized in Aragua, Venezuela on June, 2016. Photo shared publicly on Facebook.
Martín is a teacher at the University of San Martín Technical College in Buenos Aires. About his role in popular education, he said: “Years ago I decided to dedicate my life to the neighborhoods where life is difficult. I organized the construction of social organizations that sow the seeds of other meanings, that allow us to see more deeply, something that we always leave for utopia.”
Their vocation and passion for quality education brought them to work with social organizations like Ñanderoga in search of a new cooperative and academic vision that reaches the most excluded areas. With the certainty of not being the only people working on this process of change, the idea of a touring Latin America to document each of these social movements and their educational proposals that resist the imposition of traditional education began taking shape. The journey is also an inspirational experience that allows them to experience different cultures and open their minds to all aspects of these communities and not only to their educational proposals. As Malena explains:
¿Por qué viajar? Porque viajar te conecta con otras realidades, te mueve y te hace crecer. Porque, si bien en la educación, así como casi todos los ámbitos de la vida, se reproduce el sexismo y los estereotipos de género que pesan sobre nuestros cuerpos, somos much@s organizándonos y construyendo otras formas de educarnos, de relacionarnos. Viajar para conocerlas, vivirlas y compartirlas.
Why travel? Because traveling connects you with other realities. It moves you and makes you grow. Because, although education, like almost all areas of life, breeds sexism and gender stereotypes that weigh on our bodies, many of us are organizing and constructing other ways of educating and connecting. We’re traveling to get to know them, live them, and share them.
In March, 2016, upon arriving to southern Colombia, the travelers happened to run into the Pedagogical Parade celebrating 45 years of CRIC‘s fight. The Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) is an organization that assembles more than 90% of the indigenous communities in Colombia's Cauca region. Their main objective is to reclaim the autonomy for their people, the sovereignty of their land and the cultural, social, political and economical rights of the indigenous community, and also push the State to consolidate, finally, their Own Indigenous Educational System (SEIP) which already has more than 400 schools.
An excellent example of these schools is the Comunidad Educativa ‘Vueltas de Patico’ (Patico Laps Educational Community), which is directed at “Food Sovereignty and Climate Change” and carries out teaching activities like a school vegetable garden, planting nursery, the development of community cooking recipes, an annual selection of a student council and an original didactic game that encapsulates the lessons in a lucid and fun format.
La educación de afuera nos ha dicho que untarse de tierra o estar sucio es ser pobre. […]
La eduación [tradicional o de afuera] nos blanqueó el pensamiento, nos volvió blanca nuestra mente, no nos servía. Fue un obstáculo la eduación de occidente.
Lo que ahora queremos en la educación propia es querer fortalecer, es recuperar nuevamente eso que se nos perdió. Primero la historia que fue borrada de nuestras mentes y fortalecer nuestros procesos culturales.
Outside education has told us that getting your hands dirty means you're poor. […]
Education (traditional or from the outside) whitewashed our thoughts, reset our minds, it didn’t work for us. Western education was an obstacle.
What we want now in our own education is to strengthen, to recuperate once again what we lost. First the history that was erased from our minds and to strengthen our cultural processes.
In Colombia, the connection between the trade unions and the social movements that seek to construct popular education for a popular economy is growing, as in the case of ASOINCA, la Asociación de Institutores y Trabajadores de la Educación del Cauca, [the Cauca Education Association of Professors and Employees] who’s union leader talked in a brief interview about the 16 years the trade union worked with the community of the department.
During the Rafael Correa administration, Ecuador established the foundation for its “education revolution,” which has served as an important investment in the new Unidades Educativas del Milenio (UEM) (Educational Units of the Millennium). They have very modern schools, fully equipped with the latest technology, communal libraries, laboratories and sports fields, with elevated standards of teaching professionalization and a participatory teaching model that guarantees free access to “quality” education for all Ecuadorians.
Education in Motion created various clips and interviews in order to demonstrate the different perspectives about the project:
Cuando me pasé a esta unidad, ya me sentí un poco diferente por la infraestructura que existe aquí, y por las aulas y todo lo demás era de mayor calidad. Y ya que me están brindando toda esta calidad de servicio, bueno, yo también debo demostrar más respeto, más responsabilidad, más dedicación hacia el estudio.
When I came over to this unit, I already felt a little different because of the infrastructure that exists here, and the classrooms and everything else were a higher quality. And since they’re providing all of this service quality for me, well, I also should show more respect, more responsibility and more dedication towards my studies.
However, the construction of these schools has encountered opposition from some rural and indigenous sectors because the new system is said to absorb and eliminate numerous bilingual and intercultural schools that the indigenous movements had fought to create.
To complete the analysis of the pros and cons of the educational revolution in Ecuador, you can watch the interview with the Ecuadorian Vice Minister of Education, where he talks in detail about the historic change in the educational politics of the country; and another interview with Blanca Chancosa, indigenous mentor to the CONAIE and ECUARUNARI, who shares her point of view about the UEM and emphasizes her worry for education with identity instead of the “preparation of a workforce qualified to work in businesses.”
Just arrived to Aragua, Venezuela. “There are no words to describe our appreciation for the warm welcome we received from our friends at the Pedagogical Movement.” Photo shared publicly on Facebook
On August 15, it will be one year since they began this adventure, one year of touring Latin American roads, rivers, towns and communities. Although the journey is not over yet, they are already satisfied to have completed part of their main objective. Many of the videos on their website have been used in analysis and reflection at seminars, meetings, workshops and lectures at different Latin American organizations and universities that stay in contact with them and follow their journey in anticipation of new information.
Nos alegra y emociona saber que los cortos editados en el camino son materiales de debate y reflexión para compañer@s de Nuestramérica!
It makes us happy and excited to know that the clips produced along the way are material for discussion and reflection for friends of Our America!
Education in Movement is a self-managed project that functions thanks to the support of partners, collaborators, and friends. By following this link, you will find the ways in which you can contribute to the project’s success. You can also check out the project's Facebook page for a journal of photos and stories.

author: Romina Navarro


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Turkish Sports Stars Get Caught up in Erdogan-Gulen War · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Hakan Sukur, Turkish football legend, is wanted by prosecutors. Wallpaper from justgoodvibe.com
You must move within the arteries of the system, without anyone noticing your existence, until you reach all the power centres.
You must wait until such time as you have got all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institution in Turkey.
The above quote attributed to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen from a sermon that first surfaced online in 1999 is often cited whenever someone is referring to the Islamic scholar-in-exile as a subversive political influence in his native Turkey.
Gulen is accused by the Turkish government of staging an unsuccessful coup in the country last month that left 265 people dead and triggered massive government reprisals targeting thousands of judges, military officers, teachers, academics and journalists.
Now the conflict has reached the world of sport.
In one of the more absurd-seeming news items to emerge from Turkey this week, Turkish prosecutors have reportedly issued a warrant for the arrest of former Turkish football star Hakan Sukur, who holds the all time goalscoring record for the national team.
Best-known for his exploits with Istanbul club Galatasaray as well as being part of the Turkish national team that finished third in the World Cup in South Korea in 2002, Sukur was also a member of the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) from 2011 to 2013.
But following the Erdogan and Gulen political fallout that dates back to at least 2012, Sukur apparently chose Gulen, and is now facing accusations of being a member of “an armed terror movement”.
Court (!) in Turkey seizes the private property of world known soccer star @hakansukur and his father because he turned critic of the regime
— Sevgi Akarcesme (@SevgiAkarcesme) August 12, 2016
Remember Hakan Sukur? He is the latest to be declared wanted for arrest over the #TurkeyCoup attempt. pic.twitter.com/no8JxgF55T
— Mustapha (@mustafaramalan) August 12, 2016
Sharp minds recalled that one-time allies Erdogan and Gulen both attended Sukur's wedding in 1999, the same year Gulen, 75, took up permanent residence in Pennsylvania.
In the photo below, Erdogan is on the microphone while Gulen is seated to Sukur's left.
Do you remember #Erdogan?
Wedding of Turkish footballer Hakan Sukur known as Gulenist&Fethullah Gulen himself. ;) pic.twitter.com/qJAkmcqMbq
— curdistani (@curdistani) August 5, 2016
Ironically, Erdogan was also a former footballer who played in the same centre-forward position as Sukur at semi-professional level, although his sports career never took off in the same way his political career did.
Sukur is not the only Turkish sports star caught up in the Erdogan-Gulen standoff.
The center for the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA basketball team, Enes Kanter, recently announced he had changed his surname to Gulen to show support for the reclusive philosopher.
Yeaa! 😎😉🔥 pic.twitter.com/ez69I2VDjT
— Enes Kanter (@Enes_Kanter) August 8, 2016
Kanter has been disowned by his family in Turkey as the nationwide purge of what Erdogan has called the Gulen “virus” continues.
Kanter's unwavering commitment to Gulen obvious across his social media accounts lends credence to the argument that the Gulen movement, Hizmet, has cult-like qualities.
Turkish NBA player Enes Kanter disowned by family for being a Gulenisthttps://t.co/j0FkK9HCGU
— TRT World (@trtworld) August 9, 2016
Family of @Enes_Kanter -NBA star-couldn't stand up to the wave of Erdoganists in #Turkey They rejected him pic.twitter.com/oEBmCDvTY7
— Hate Crime (@HateCrimeTR) August 9, 2016
Meanwhile, there is no mistaking whose side the notorious pro-Erdogan Daily Sabah newspaper is on:
“God, take my lifespan and give it to my hodja,” says Gülenist terror-cult supporter NBA player Enes Kanterhttps://t.co/WHknRZMaVj
— DAILY SABAH (@DailySabah) August 8, 2016
Although Kanter's defence of Gulen will sound familiar to anyone who has lost friends or family to cults, his family's disownment of him is equally worrying, as media comparisons between Turkey in 2016 and the purges of the Stalin-era Soviet Union continue to bear fruit.
Erdogan has repeatedly demanded the United States extradite Gulen, who is reportedly suffering from a long-term illness.
Gulen's global network of schools and universities has also come under a renewed diplomatic siege from Ankara since the July 16 coup attempt, with Turkish officials demanding governments around the world shutter institutions linked to the scholar.

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


text:
Aside From the Singaporean Swimmer Who Beat Michael Phelps, Meet the Other Southeast Asian Olympic Gold Medalists · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Singapore's first ever Olympic gold medal. Photo from the official Facebook page of Singapore swimming champion Joseph Isaac Schooling.
The Olympic games are not yet over but several Southeast Asian countries are already celebrating their historic victories this year.
Singaporean swimmer Joseph Schooling gained instant global fame after defeating Olympic champions Michael Phelps of the United States and Chad le Clos of South Africa in the 100m butterfly event at Rio 2016.
Aside from Schooling, three other athletes from Southeast Asia have won a gold medal in Rio as of this writing. They were Thai weightlifters Sukanya Srisurat and Sopita Tanasan, and Vietnamese shooter Hoang Xuan Vinh.
Schooling’s victory was special because it gave Singapore its first ever Olympic gold medal.
IT'S OFFICIAL: #SIN has its first-ever #Olympics champion in Joseph Isaac Schooling https://t.co/kbxECeEGGw pic.twitter.com/OJjAc8UiVP
— Channel NewsAsia (@ChannelNewsAsia) August 13, 2016
Sports fans highlighted that Schooling defeated Phelps, his sports idol whom he first met eight years ago.
Singapore's Joseph Schooling meeting Michael Phelps in 2008 & Schooling beating Phelps for gold last night pic.twitter.com/ErlhxlN0Vx
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) August 13, 2016
Meanwhile, Southeast Asia’s first gold medal in Rio was courtesy of Thailand’s Sopita Tanasan who won the weightlifting women’s 48-kilogram category.
News of her victory was cheered in particular by her fellow compatriots from Chumphon province, where officials even vowed to pave the road leading to her village in honor of her victory.
Team Thailand scores gold!Sopita Tanasan crushes it for the Kingdom, winning 1st weightlifting gold medal. Congrats! pic.twitter.com/xajPOejWYq
— Glyn T. Davies (@GlynTDavies) August 7, 2016
Thailand’s second gold medal was won by Sukanya Srisurat who set an Olympic record of 110 kilograms for weightlifting in the 58-kilogram category.
sukanya srisurat sets a new Olympic record in the snatch (110kg) and wins gold in the women's 58kg weight class pic.twitter.com/qZ4LLDA4LU
— Amy P (@spicylychee) August 8, 2016
The victory of Hoang Xuan Vinh in the 10m air pistol category was also memorable because it gave Vietnam its first ever Olympic gold medal.
Sports commentators mentioned that Vinh’s victory was remarkable since he is short-sighted and he practiced with paper targets and a shortage of ammunition because of funding constraints.
Vietnam just won its first ever Olympic medal with Hoàng Xuan Vinh taking the men's 10m air pistol https://t.co/vGVI50ElMg
— Jerome Taylor (@JeromeTaylor) August 7, 2016
As expected, news of Vinh's victory became a trending topic in Vietnam:
Vietnam won their first ever gold this morning, then made Hoang Xuan Vinh the biggest search trend back home. pic.twitter.com/IqYaIHHBcJ
— Google (@google) August 7, 2016
Singapore and Vietnam are rejoicing after finally winning a gold medal in the Olympics. Thailand has already won two golds this year.
The Philippines has not yet bagged a gold victory but it got its first Olympic medal in twenty years after Filipino weightlifter Hidilyn F. Diaz claimed silver in in the women’s 53-kilogram weightlifting.

author: Mong Palatino


text:
Astronomy May Have Just Debunked Russia’s Claims About a Ukrainian Incursion Into Crimea · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Image adapted from Georges Méliès’ famous film, Le voyage dans la Lune.
Russian state television may have broadcast false evidence released by the Federal Security Service (FSB) allegedly showing the discovery of a weapons cache belonging to “saboteurs” the Kremlin says the Ukrainian government sent into Crimea. (Kyiv denies these accusations.)
On August 10, the Russian state TV network Channel One aired a news segment with footage from the FSB supposedly depicting the results of a special operation by federal police on August 8: the discovery of dozens of improvised explosive devices, mines, and ammunition, supposedly recovered from Ukrainian spies. Slightly later in the broadcast, there is a brief shot of the Crimean sky with a full moon. Sasha Andreeva, a blogger living in Moscow, points out that the moon depicted in the scene could not have been filmed any later than July 21—the last time there was a full moon in the Northern Hemisphere.
The full moon over Crimea, but when? Image: Channel One
Writing on Facebook, journalist Sergei Parkhomenko shared Andreeva's finding, adding that Russian investigators similarly submitted apparently false evidence against the Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, when she was on trial in Russia. “The FSB's academies need to start teaching astronomy,” he joked, referring to research by open-source investigative journalists at the Conflict Intelligence Team suggesting that the shadows cast by trees in the background of video footage of Savchenko's capture actually refute the prosecution's claims about when she was taken into custody, thereby exonerating her.
Left: the moon over Crimea on August 8, the day of the alleged terrorist infiltration. Right: the last full moon in the Northern Hemisphere, on July 21. Image: Moonconnection.com.
One thing not entirely clear in Channel One's report on Crimea is whether the shot of the moon is being presented as a scene from the FSB's special operation, or just as stock footage of the peninsula. If the latter, it could be that Andreeva and Parkhomenko are jumping to conclusions.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Who Is to Blame for Mexico’s Lack of Medals in Rio 2016? · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

Mexican athlete.  Photo shared on Flickr by CONADE. Used under CC 2.0 licence.
A third of the Games is over and the medal count for the Mexicans is as poor as it could possibly be: zero.
Even in sports where promising Mexican athletes were participating, such as archery, synchronized diving and boxing, competitors have been eliminated before the final rounds.
Andy Rosales tweeted:
México una decepción en las olimpiadas Ni Tiro con Arco, Ni Box Ni, Gimnasia,Ni pesas, Ni clavados una decepción!
— Andy rosales (@Andy_Rosales10) August 9, 2016
Mexico is a disappointment in the Olympics. Not even archery, not boxing, gymnastics, weightlifting or diving, a disappointment!
Netizen Armando Rodríguez pointed a finger at the head of the National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport (CONADE):
Ante el terrible desempeño de México en #Rio2016, ¿Qué justificación tendrá “el bombero” (o todólogo) @ACC_Castillo, presidente de @CONADE?
— Armando Rodríguez (@armando_rc) August 9, 2016
Watching Mexico's terrible performance in #Rio2016, what justification will “the fireman” (or the jack of all trades) have @ACC_Castillo, president of @CONADE?
The members of the men's football team have borne a lot of the criticism after making a poor fist of their Olympic championship defense by getting eliminated at the group phase following a defeat to South Korea.
Que quien es el culpable de la eliminacion del Tri olimpico en @rio2016_es? todos, directivos, dueños de equipos, jugadores inflados.#Mexico
— Sergio Mendoza R (@sergiomendozare) August 11, 2016
Who should be held to account for the elimination of the olympic Tri in @rio2016_es? everyone, directors, team owners, and puffed up players. #Mexico
In the case of gymnast Alexa Moreno, comments concerned not only her poor performance and subsequent elimination, but her appearance as well.
Si googleas “gimnasta gorda mexicana” ¿adivinen quién sale? Sí #AlexaMoreno #sorrynotsorry lo dijo Google 💅 pic.twitter.com/NJa6X0BAFJ
— VANESA BELTRÁN (@Madislaes) August 10, 2016
If you google “fat Mexican gymnast” guess who comes up? Yes #AlexaMoreno #sorrynotsorry Google said it 💅 pic.twitter.com/NJa6X0BAFJ
But there are others who have came to Moreno's defense, claiming the criticisms as misogynistic.
Ayesha Borja on her Facebook profile made the following remark regarding an entry on Buzzfeed that compiles a series of comments made about the gymnast's physique:
Chingaos, yo aquí tranquileando echándome una chela y de pronto leo esto. Me dan asco, en serio, me repugna el “es un chistecito”, me cagan las personas doble moral con cerebros pequeños y nulo corazón. Alexa: eres una chingona, un país que aplaude a pendejos misóginos, que se regocija en discriminar, en ser racistas y que no se fija en tu esfuerzo, no te merece. Me da mucha rabia.
Goddamit, I was here chilling and having a drink when I read this. You disgust me, seriously, your “it's a joke” grosses me out, I don't give a shit about people with no morals, with small brains and no heart. Alexa: you are an amazing woman, a country that applauds its misogynistic assholes, that enjoys discrimination and racism and that doesn't give you credit for your effort, doesn't deserve you. It makes me so angry.
The Twitter user Lisse also came out in favour of Moreno:
#AlexaMoreno Ella no esta gorda, quien la crítica por ello espero y aguante uno de sus entrenamientos 👊.
— Lisse (@LissethMay) August 11, 2016
#AlexaMoreno She is not fat, whoever criticizes her for that just wait and try and get through one of her training sessions 👊.
Pictoline posted their response in a graphic which sums up the counter-criticism well: “Many are criticizing the Mexican athletes for their poor performance in #Rio2016.  But the problem goes a lot deeper.”
Losing Alone. Image by Pictoline.
Losing Alone.
You stink!
We only see (and criticize) the athletes. But the problem with their poor performance in #Rio2016 goes a lot deeper.
In addition to criticism, humorous comments made the rounds when netizens on Twitter made fun of the questionable green colour of the water in the diving pool, one of the events where Mexicans were hoping for good results:
Lo que no saben es que el agua de la piscina de clavados es verde en símbolo de la selva de Brasil
— Soy el negro que (@AlexGuillen23) August 11, 2016
What they don't know is that the water in the diving pool is green to symbolize the jungles of Brazil
El agua de la alberca de clavados es como “verde Xochimilco” ¿no? #Clavados #Rio2016
— denis (@K_denis) August 9, 2016
Isn't the water of the diving pool like “green Xochimilco”?  #Clavados #Rio2016
[Note: Xochimilco is a region of the Mexican capital where there are canals with dark green water.]
With more than 54,000 followers, Twitter user Jesús Robles Maloof urged Mexicans to continue to support Olympic athletes:
Propongo sigamos apoyando a quienes logran un gran papel en #Rio2016 a pesar (y muchas veces contra) @CONADE y @COM_Mexico nido de corruptos
— Jesús Robles Maloof (@roblesmaloof) August 10, 2016
I say that we should keep supporting those who are playing such an important part in #Rio2016 despite (and frequently against) @CONADE and @COM_Mexico nest of corruption.
Even if that means supporting representatives from other countries…
También deberíamos hacer un poco de lado el nacionalismo rancio y apoyar a equipos como el de los hermanos hondureños que demuestran coraje.
— Jesús Robles Maloof (@roblesmaloof) August 10, 2016
We should also put our rank nationalism on hold for a while and support teams like brotherly Honduras who are showing courage.
In London 2012 the total medal count for the Mexican delegation was seven — only one of them gold — leaving the country in 39th place in the medal standings.
In Beijing 2008 they won three. Technically, athletes representing Mexico still have time to better both of those displays but it will take some impressive performances to lift the fog of sporting skepticism that has descended over the country.

author: J. Tadeo


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A Viral Hit-and-Run CCTV Video Begs the Question: ‘Is Humanity Dead in Delhi’? · Global Voices
Rezwan

Where should we walk? With cars parked on pavements, people are forced to walk on roads. Image from Flickr by Veeresh Malik. New Delhi, India September 13, 2014. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
A CCTV video of a man lying in pool of blood for over an hour on a busy road near New Delhi's Subhas Nagar metro station has gone viral.
On Wednesday, August 10 at around 5:30 am, 40-year-old Matibool was hit on the side of a road by a three-wheeler milk delivery vehicle on his way home from an overnight shift.
The driver of the vehicle, speeding along the deserted road, rammed Matibool from behind. The victim hit a pole before collapsing.
CCTV footage uploaded to YouTube by Naresh VeeraSwarapu shows the driver approaching Matibool, the man he hit, before fleeing the scene after realising he was seriously injured and bleeding.
He lay there for more than than an hour as 140 cars, 82 three-wheelers, 181 bikers and 45 pedestrians passed the dying man without helping.
The camera also picked up the only man who stopped.
Shockingly, he did so in order to pick up the victim's mobile phone and walk off with it.
#Delhi, India.Over 200 people callously walked past hit & run victim,Matibool. One give him a kick & stole his phone https://t.co/aiEIeh8jDR
— Fawzia Suleman (@Fawzia786) August 12, 2016
Eventually help came but by the time policemen took him to a hospital nearby, Matibool had died due to excessive bleeding.
There were multiple hospitals along the road where Matibool died waiting for more than a hour to be rescued.
The victim drove an electric rickshaw by day and worked as a watchman at night.
Who killed Matibool? The driver who hit him OR all those who saw him dying but chose to ignore and walk away? 8am #DilliMeriJaan @927BIGFM
— richa anirudh (@richaanirudh) August 12, 2016
I completely believe #humanityisdead in #Delhi #matibool case has left me ashamed of capital, it's people and its #hypocrisy #delhisucks
— Sonal Garg (@Sonalsparkle) August 12, 2016
Shaffi Bulla wrote on Facebook:
In the rat race of Paisa Paisa paisa (money money money) we have lost the Humanity …..human touch
Anupam Raj made a sarcastic remark on the same platform:
Oh c'mon now! We are candle March specialist! Helping people is not our cup of tea!!
While Najeebullah M. Saidalavi wrote:
Who steals the phone of a dying man? the devil himself.
Pronit Roy Chowdhury noted that this is not only Delhi's problem:
Shame on this country and this video is so wrong to single out Delhi, this happens in so many places and goes undocumented. RIP Matibool :-(
The police have detained the milk delivery man with the help of the video footage but are still searching for the person that stole Matibool's cellphone.
The incident also raises questions about the state of footpaths in Delhi.
Matibool would have not been hit by the three-wheeler if he was walking on the pavement. Pavements in Dehli, however, are typically nullified by parked cars and a build up of construction materials.
Indian Facebookers noted that fear of the police and the Indian legal system might have been additional reasons for people ignoring Matibool's plight. Their suggestion is that onlookers and passersby avoided reporting what they saw out of concern that they might be pinned with the crime.
Since Matibool’s death, the Delhi government has announced plans for an “incentive scheme”, under which people, including drivers of taxis and autorickshaws, will be rewarded for taking victims to hospital.
The police also said that good Samaritans won't be harassed or forced to disclose their identity.

author: Rezwan


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Cairo’s Rabaa Massacre: Three Years On, the Smell of Death Still Lingers · Global Voices
Salma Essam

Viral graphic commemorating the third anniversary of the Rabaa massacre. Shared on Facebook by Peter Youssef.
I studied at a campus where I used to hear gunfire more often than the hustle of freshman students. The sight of army snipers with their firearms is as familiar to me as the loud chants of protests under the dome of Cairo University.
I entered the Faculty of Economics and Political Science eight months after the start of the Egyptian revolution. At a time of historic change, Cairo University had been home to a large and diverse politically-oriented student body. It was a maquette of the tense political scene in the land of pharaohs.
Never had I witnessed such a wrathful atmosphere of political tension and student-driven protests as the one that prevailed in the aftermath of the Rabaa el Adaweya sit-in dispersal, now called the Rabaa Massacre. I saw live bullets being fired at the main gate, ambulances on campus, and massive amounts of tear gas thrown at the marchers condemning the Egyptian security forces’ bloody actions at Rabaa el Adaweya Square.
Early on the morning of August 14, 2013, a state of emergency was declared across Egypt as security forces violently broke up sit-ins organized by Muslim Brotherhood supporters protesting the ouster of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president and a former high-level official in the Muslim Brotherhood, leaving up to 1,000 people dead in one day. The sit-in at Rabaa el Adaweya Square was the largest sit-in to be raided. As the shooting took place, armored bulldozers were on site and helicopters circled over the scene.
The area around the Rabaa Adiweya mosque on August 1. The area was packed with Muslim Brotherhood supporters who had been sleeping in tents for over a month. Families brought children to protect them from the police forcibly dismantling the sit-in. PHOTO: H. Elrasam for Voice of America, via Wikimedia Commons
It was a war zone.
Intense shooting targeted the medical field hospital as people hurried to drag the dead bodies away from fire. Doctors carried out last-minute rescue attempts.
I recall a leaked video of a doctor screaming: “The chest has exploded, the head had exploded, and the brain is outside. It’s over. What can I do? What can I do?”
I wasn’t there.
I wasn’t there, but I saw the footage. I saw pictures that were carved in my memory the moment I laid my eyes on them. Pictures of burnt tents, of clothes stained with blood, of crying mothers. I saw a young girl weeping on her brother's chest, witnessing his last breath.
I wasn’t there, but I saw my best friend weeping over her cousin who was shot in the neck. I remember her shaking voice over the phone saying they couldn’t find his dead body among the others. I remember the sound of the cries around her.
I wasn’t there, but I saw the rows of corpses laid out in white coffins, awaiting collection by relatives, in a Cairo mosque. It looked like a cemetery. It looked like a charnel house in the aftermath of a battle where blocks of ice covered the bodies and they sprayed air freshener to cover up the stench of decay.
Rabaa Square before and after August 14, 2016. PHOTO: Mazidan (CC BY-SA 3.0)
I wasn’t there, but I saw a mother examining the faces of dead people at a morgue, looking for her son among the burnt and shot bodies.
I wasn’t there, but I received news of my classmate who was gunned down while escaping from the southern area of the camp.
Back then, I was there.
I was there watching members of the media blessing these acts of murder. Blessing tyranny, oppression, and the mass extermination of those who did not conform to intolerant political agendas. I was there when the murdered were called “terrorists” and the murderers became the “saviors”.
I lived it all.
The square now looks like a typical bustling Cairo scene. Today, nobody remembers that not so long ago they had to cross through sniper fire to reach the other side.
The sound of bullets echo in my ears whenever I pass by this area. The dull and reckless scene of crowded cars rekindles the memory. It reminds me of inhaling tear gas, and that statue of the two hands representing the police and the army looks like it is covered in blood.
All my thoughts are with the victims of the Rabaa Massacre. The smell of death still lingers.
Feature photo: Screenshot from AlJazeera news report Security crackdown kills scores in Egypt.

author: Salma Essam


text:
From Harbin to Shenyang, Reminders of Japanese Rule Hang Heavy over Northeast China · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Diorama depicting the incarceration of Puyi (溥儀), the last emperor of China, at Liaodong No. 3 Prison (Fushun) in Harbin. Photo by Xinhua News Agency contract photographer Lu Gang.
The Ichinomiya Teacher's Association, via a joint Twitter account run by staffers at an Association office in a small city in the suburbs of Nagoya, has been posting some interesting tweets from the city of Harbin, in northeastern China.
A staffer with the association vacationing in northeastern China has captured Japanese colonial architecture and other reminders of the long war Japan waged against China in the 1930s and 1940s.
Some of the most striking snapshots posted to the feed are from the prison known as the Fushun War Criminals Management Center.
The prison in Fushun held about 1,000 former Japanese administrators of Manchuko, the puppet state established with Japanese backing in northeastern China in 1932.
Puyi (溥儀), the last emperor of China, was installed by Japan as the constitutional monarch of Manchuko from 1932 to 1945 and was incarcerated in the Fushun prison along with Japanese administrators and military commanders considered to be war criminals.
労働する溥儀。 pic.twitter.com/ZDw6T3vv9l
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 11, 2016
Puyi at work.
While some commentators say Japanese war criminals incarcerated at Fushun were “brainwashed” by the Chinese Communist Party, oral testimony by the prisoners themselves stressed the focus was on rehabilitation and admitting to the crimes against humanity committed by Japanese forces during the long war against China, that began with the invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and continued until Japan's defeat in 1945.
The tweets by the Ichinomiya Teacher's Association account capture some of this sentiment.
撫順戦犯管理所での日本人戦犯の様子。この絵も元戦犯が描いたもの。 pic.twitter.com/1o51OY5Gel
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 11, 2016
Japanese war criminals held at Liaodong No. 3 Prison (Fushun) following WWII. Painting by Japanese POW.
During their tour of northeastern China, the person in charge of the Ichinomiya Teacher's Association's Twitter account observed there is still much evidence of Japan's wartime conduct in northeastern China.
平頂山事件の現場。在瀋陽日本国総領事も献花に訪れたことがあります。つまり、日本政府もこの事実を認めています。 pic.twitter.com/JtOCzmz6Kt
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 11, 2016
Where the Pingdingshan massacre happened. There is a wreath here from the Japanese Consulate in Shenyang, and the Japanese government has officially acknowledged this (atrocity) took place.
While the museum at Fushun undoubtedly serves a political agenda, the exhibits are moving and do humanize a cohort of individuals typically referred to as “Japanese war criminals.”
寛大な判決文を読み、涙を流す武部六蔵。死刑は一人もいませんでした。 pic.twitter.com/W46ojUFDwM
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 11, 2016
Top Manchuko colonial civil servant Takebe Rokuzo weeps as he reads the (war crimes tribunal's) judgement against him. No war criminals (at Fushun) were given the death penalty.
The staffer from the Ichinomiya Teacher's Association also witnessed the scene of one of the more infamous crimes committed by Japan during the war in China.
Unit 731 is the name of the facility in northeastern China where Japanese forces conducted gruesome medical experiments on Chinese prisoners.
731部隊跡。 pic.twitter.com/7ygeHSNzlM
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 10, 2016
The ruins of Unit 731.
Other tweets provide a glimpse back not only to the time when Japan managed Manchuko as a colony, but also to a period of strong Russian influence in northeastern China.
Here are some snapshots of Saint Sophia's Cathedral in Harbin, completed in 1932, when about one-third of Harbin's population consisted of ethnic Russians:
聖ソフィア聖堂。 pic.twitter.com/r6vW3aTSx6
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 12, 2016
Saint Sophia's Cathedral
The region also has strong ties to the Korean Peninsula:
平壌館。 pic.twitter.com/2WLcLhvL8j
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 11, 2016
Pyongyang Pavilion restaurant, Harbin
Next up is Shenyang, the largest city in northeastern China.
The city was known as Mukden during the Japanese colonial era and was the major commercial and industrial hub in Manchuko. Many buildings from the colonial period remain.
旧東洋拓殖株式会社奉天支社。 pic.twitter.com/ZbjAGgD6uz
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 11, 2016
Former Shenyang branch of the Oriental Development Company.
旧朝鮮銀行奉天支店。 pic.twitter.com/vBqavX1O2Q
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 11, 2016
Former Shenyang branch of the Bank of Korea.
旧奉天警察署。 pic.twitter.com/G9IbCEYPAO
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 11, 2016
Former Shenyang police headquarters (of the Japanese colonial administration).
旧奉天大和ホテル。 pic.twitter.com/jQyM86SB4Z
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 11, 2016
Former Shenyang Yamato Hotel.
正確には分かりませんが、かつての日本人住宅？ pic.twitter.com/r3esgwpTzO
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 11, 2016
Hard to confirm, but could these be the residences of former Japanese colonists?
旧奉天郵便局。約100年前の建物。 pic.twitter.com/VVH4eHhpPg
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 11, 2016
Former Shenyang Post Office. Built approximately 100 years ago.
The tour and the tweets wrap up in Qingdao, across the Bohai Sea to the southwest of Shengyeng and Harbin.
A former German colony before being claimed by Japan, Qingdao is famous for its Munich-style lager:
青島ビール。 pic.twitter.com/Jgr10Ath5k
— 一宮市教組　公式 (@138shikyoso) August 13, 2016
Tsingtao Lager.

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
Indonesia’s First Palace Art Exhibition Celebrates Independence Struggle · Global Voices
Arpan Rachman

Guerilla Preparation (Persiapan Gerilya) by Dullah. Photo by Arpan Rachman
For the first time, in celebration of the country’s 71st Independence Day, Indonesia’s presidential palace has made available to the public a part of its vast art collection.
Indonesia was a former colony of the Dutch and the Japanese.
The art exhibit featured 28 works by 20 of the country’s famed artists such as Raden Saleh, Affandi, S. Sudjojono, Hendra Gunawan, Basoeki Abdullah, Dullah, Trubus Sudarsono, Sudjono Abdullah, Harijadi Sumadidjaja, Kartono Yudhokusumo, Henk Ngantung, and Gambiranom.
Some of these painters gained fame by drawing battle scenes from the campaign for independence.
Indonesian President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo opened the art exhibit at the National Gallery. The exhibit is open until the end of the month.
One of the paintings in the exhibit is a portrait of a mysterious woman painted by Sukarno, Indonesia’s founding president.
Unknown to many, the beloved leader was also a painter and art collector.
Rini made by President Sukarno. Photo by Arpan Rachman
The painting titled Guerrilla Preparation by Dullah (top photo of this article) is known for its visual beauty and message regarding war.
Dullah's models for the painting were real guerrilla fighters from Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta.
Warriors Headquarters in Warehouse Rice of Tjikampek (Markas Laskar di Bekas Gudang Beras Tjikampek) by Dullah. Photo by Arpan Rachman
Another highlight in the exhibit is a painting by the famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera.
The painting, Malay Girl with Flower, was acquired by Sukarno from Mexico on behalf of the Indonesian people.
Malay Girl with Flower (Gadis Melayu dengan Bunga) by Diego Rivera. Photo by Arpan Rachman
S. Sudjojono's famous painting titled Kawan-kawan Revolusi (Revolution Comrades) was produced in just one day in 1947 in response to an art critic who had doubted his technical ability to draw in the realist style.
The author poses in front of the Kawan-kawan Revolusi (Revolution Comrades) painting by S Sudjojono. Photo by Nurhayat Arif Permana
Curators Mikke Susanto and Rizki A Zaelani hope to promote nationalism through the exhibit:
At least, this kind of exhibition is expected to be able to grow and keep the love and pride of nationalism in the minds of Indonesian people, especially the youth.
Visited @galerinasional_ #Jakarta,to enjoy beautiful paintings collections of th Presidential Palace.a rare chance! pic.twitter.com/3INlrC08IP
— Rifki Abdi (@dosen_creek) August 8, 2016
Very long queue at Galeri Nasional, those kids come for augmented reality and pokemon pic.twitter.com/5hlTLMZNbA
— uchan (@susandevy) August 6, 2016

author: Arpan Rachman


text:
Japan’s Annual Summer Baseball Extravaganza Has Begun · Global Voices
Yugo Kawai

Koshien Baseball Tournament Open Ceremonies, August 2016. Screencap from YouTube.
Japan's annual summer high school baseball championships kicked off on August 8.
One of the biggest sporting events of the year, Japanese people of all ages and from all walks of life are glued to the television during the two-week tournament played out at the height of the stifling summer season.
The Koshien tournament is a major cultural event with teams that take part typically accompanied by enthusiastic cheering sections.
Up to 800,000 fans attend the championships.
前橋育英お疲れ様でした。タオル回し凄かったです。(^^)来年の甲子園は本家ライオン軍団が更にぐるぐる回します。pic.twitter.com/zW0km8AnlD
— gogo (@go_50_50_go) August 11, 2016
Congratulations to the Maebashi Ikuei High School Team… they cooled everyone off by waving their towels around. (^^) Next year it'll be the turn of our sister-school in Sendai to send a cheering squad to Koshien.
Each year 49 teams compete in the event, named after the stadium in suburban Kobe where the tournament is traditionally held.
Every one of Japan's 47 prefectures sends a team to the Koshien tournament each year, with Tokyo and Hokkaido sending two teams each.
While there are close to 4,000 high schools all across Japan, only a precious few receive the “golden ticket” and the privilege to step on to the field of Koshien—the aspiration of all high school baseball players.
Emotions run high along with regional pride during the protracted fight to claim a coveted spot there:
第98回全国高校野球選手権大会
3874校から49校に絞られました。本大会は８月７日に開幕。熱闘甲子園は８月８日スタートです！https://t.co/FY3OmgQ1OX#高校野球 #熱闘
― 熱闘甲子園 (@nettoh_koshien) 2016年7月31日
3,874 schools have been narrowed down to 49. The tournament begins on the 8th of August!
This is because to most schools, Koshien and the Senbatsu –a spring nationwide baseball competition — are the only tournaments that matter.
甲子園練習 履正社シートバッティング
を見ながaら入場する東邦
2016.8.4 甲子園球場 pic.twitter.com/0qTuAAb4di
— たすく+47 (@47_tasuku) August 6, 2016
Toho High School players from Nagoya watch Riseisha Academy at batting practice.
For fans, Koshien's appeal is its breathtaking win-or-go-home drama.
One of the most dramatic games so far this year came on August 11, as a pitcher showed off his skill by pitching a no-hitter up through the middle of the ninth (a no-hitter, or a fabled “perfect game” in baseball is when a pitcher gives up no hits to the opposing team over the course of nine innings. It is one of the greatest achievements any pitcher can earn).
However, the pitcher and his team ended up shockingly losing the game at the very last minute in the ninth and final inning by giving up a “walk-off” hit.
https://t.co/hJSSJAXnHW
高校野球富山第一対中越、中越の今村投手までは九回１死まで被安打０。最後はサヨナラ負けでしたが、見事な投球でした。（達）#高校野球 #中越高校 pic.twitter.com/toGArYnizO
― 朝日新聞 映像報道部 (@asahi_photo) 2016年8月11日
The Chuetsu High School pitcher pitched a no-hitter until there was one out in the bottom of the 9th. The no-hitter was shut down following a walk-off loss, but it sure was quality pitching.
Players step on to the field carrying with them the spirit of teammates who did not make the roster, as well as the memories of teams they defeated back home on the road to Koshien.
A photo posted by 【公式】阪神甲子園球場 飲食・物販担当 (@enjoy_koshien) on
In a baseball-mad country, this is literally the place where dreams come true.

author: Yugo Kawai


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A Black Man’s At-Work Reprimand Has Trinidad & Tobago Wondering, ‘Natural Hair Not Accepted Here’? · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Screen grab of a selfie by Maurice Ramirez, whose employer claims that his hairstyle is not in keeping with the company's Uniform and Dress Code Policy.
A letter to an employee from the human resources department of a major insurance firm in Trinidad and Tobago warning him over his “unprofessional” hairstyle is making waves on social media.
In correspondence dated August 11, 2016, COLFIRE‘s human resources manager signed a letter citing concerns about Maurice Ramirez's “improper professional grooming”:
The subject of your unprofessional hairstyle was repeatedly addressed. You were asked […] to comply with the Company's policy as it relates to professional image. […]
I refer you to our Uniform and Dress Code Policy Section 8, which states that “Hairstyles and hair colours must be conservative. Hair should be kept clean, neat and well-groomed.
[…] Please be advised that failure to comply will result in further disciplinary action being taken, up to and including termination of services.
Ramirez, who is black, uploaded a selfie — along with a photo of the letter — to his Facebook page.
He has since deleted the post, but it had already gone viral. While some social media users were asking about the backstory, many netizens took up the employee's cause on the basis of those two images, flooding the company's Facebook page with critical comments, some of which were allegedly deleted.
Most Facebook users felt that the company's policy was racist. Kenisha Bailey commented:
Race is a protected characteristic under the laws of Trinidad and Tobago's Equal Opportunity Act. It is also protected under international labour customs and treaties. This is foolish. He is a man of African descent with black hair. Does Colfire insist that the Indian men or white men employed at the organisation cut their hair or is it that their hair is inherently acceptable while black hair is inherently unacceptable?
Nadia Goodman added:
Umm we have a rasta hairstyle in Parliament. Colfire find they more formal than Parliament?
The blog Teenlink suggested that employers “have a loophole”:
Employers can include in their employee handbooks what hairstyles are appropriate for their work space. However, some hairstyles put some women, and men, at a disadvantage because it does not allow them to wear their hair in a more natural form. […] Hair that is worn naturally is more likely to affect a qualified candidate’s chances of being hired than their straight haired counterparts.
Race relations in the multi-ethnic country can be complex. Trinidad and Tobago's colonial era was socially, economically and politically dominated by the white elite — but there soon grew a coloured and black middle class that would forge the country's future. In 1970, there was a Black Power revolution aimed at changing the social status quo not just for blacks, but for the Indian population, which was initially brought to the country to serve as indentured labourers post-emancipation. A memorable event during the protests of that time was a march through central Trinidad aimed at uniting the two races, but nearly a half century later, there are still racial tensions, stereotyping and tribal politics.
Antineil Tristan Blackman couldn't help but see the irony in the fact that the leader of Trinidad and Tobago's Black Power Revolution — who recently passed away — was being honoured, while this type of alleged discrimination still exists, some 46 years after the late Makandal Daaga marched to demand racial equity:
COLFIRE makes me sick to my stomach
To see something appear like this close to death of Daaga is very heart breaking.
She wasn't the only one who felt that way. In a public post, Darryl Popwell said:
Makandal dagger [sic] funeral is today […] look at what's happening at colfire […] 1970 is still happening in Trinidad and Tobago wow
There were even memes being shared about it:
Meme being circulated on Facebook.
A meme making jabs at the company's new rewards card is being widely shared on Facebook.
One weave-themed graphic by artist Darren Trinity Cheewah seemed to sum up the online sentiment:
Graphic by Trinidadian artist Darren Trinity Cheewah that is being shared on Facebook.
Facebook user Rhoda Bharath, who is a COLFIRE customer, decided to take action by contacting the company, encouraging others to do the same.
She said that one of the company's executives confirmed “the board is currently in a meeting and will issue a statement on the letter sent to Mr Ramirez by the end of today”.
As promised, the company did release a statement on the matter via its Facebook page:
Screen grab of the COLFIRE media release being shared on social media.
It read:
We refer to the issues being aired on certain sections of social media regarding an internal matter with one of our staff members. We wish to advise that our confidentiality policy does not permit an open discussion in the public domain. However, we give the assurance that we will communicate directly with the staff member in accordance with the company's grievance procedure policy.
COLFIRE denies the damaging allegations that have resulted from the publication of an internal document.
COLFIRE continues to appreciate and value all our customers, employees and agents.
On Twitter, the response got criticised for its tone. Bharath maintained:
How a person wears his/hair [sic] hair is not an internal matter Colfire.
Soon you will want to dictate weight, hair colour and lightness of complexion.
Poor form.
#ColfireStorm
The negative attention continued to grow, with customers threatening to move their business, social media users calling the company's stance “colonial” and others suggesting a boycott of the firm, should the situation not be amicably resolved.
Some lobby groups and activists threw their support behind Ramirez on Facebook, but other netizens were more cautious.
Facebook user Bradley Wint speculated:
Sounds like something else is going on and they're using this as an excuse to fire him.
Barbs Winey was firmly on the side of the insurance company:
Dat [That is] the problem wit[h] Trini's dey doh [they don't] like to follow rules
If the company has rules n regulations obey it
Or suffer d [the] consequence smfh
Lawyer and Global Voices author Jason Nathu offered a different perspective:
You have a problem. You're battling your employer over some issue and you feel very strongly about your position.
Instead of trying to obtain professional advice on the issue, you post to social media, so that your friends can adjudicate on your issue without knowing all the facts. You know that your post will be shared and liked and retweeted and get attention.
Right or wrong, that's how things get done in 2016: Facebook, Ian Alleyne* and ‘putting them on blast’.
Ian Alleyne is a local television personality who hosts Crime Watch — a controversial show in Trinidad and Tobago that has, in the past, made some questionable decisions about airing sensitive content. “Putting on blast” means publicly calling out or humiliating someone in an embarrassing way.
Bharath countered:
Saying that Maurice Ramirez should not have exposed the prejudiced practices of Colfire on social media is like saying a domestically abused person should only talk about the abuse with the abuser.
Stop the illogical arguments.
#MissMeWithTheBullshit
#ColfireWithTheGoodHair
#ColfireStorm
In Trinidad and Tobago, the Equal Opportunity Act 2000 prevents employers from discriminating against employees “because of their status and also from discrimination by victimisation whereby the person victimised is less favourably treated that other persons.”
There has been precedence in the local courts for situations like this.
Back in 1995, there was a case in which the management of a commercial bank wanted one of its male tellers to cut his long hair; he refused, took them to court and won.
It is not unusual for companies to have policies that prohibit staff from sporting trendy hairdos or fashion fads — but in a 2005 newspaper interview, The Employers Consultative Association noted that employees’ hairstyles should be less important than their performance.
At present, no details are known about Ramirez’ performance at the job. Journalist and Facebook user Vernon O'Reilly Ramesar warned about jumping to conclusions:
All rise…the court of public opinion is in session. The full story be damned. I wish people could wait to see both (or even multiple) sides of a story. This applies to just about everything spreading on social media. Think before disseminating.
Lennon Lockiby said:
I don't know the entire story but either way this is an embarrassment to the organization. Don't confuse personal agendas with policy.
Most social media users view this as a case of an employee being policed for his choice of hairstyle, and several doubted Colfire could win a discrimination case.
Caribbean Man wrote on Facebook regarding the company's preference for “conservative” hair:
“Conservative” is very subjective and in no way is a definitive statement. Same should have been accompanied with pictures of what constitutes a professionally groomed hair.
That letter and the ink it was written with is not worth shit in the industrial court.
Meanwhile, Abeo Jackson, another Facebook user, predicted the controversy could continue to rage.
The only correct response is a reprimand, a retraction and a public apology. Also making courses on international human rights and diversity relations as well as dealing with diversity in the workplace mandatory. Anything else and the firestorm will continue…

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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A Serbian Town’s Donation Drive for Flood-Hit Skopje Proves Solidarity Breeds Solidarity · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

“Skopje's Flooded, Show Solidarity!” Within days of the Skopje flood, volunteers in Šabac called upon their fellow residents to join the relief effort. Photo by @maliremorker, used with permission.
A few days after a deadly flood hit Macedonia's capital Skopje, residents of the Serbian town of Šabac organized a food and supply drive.
Their solidarity wasn't random. Šabac was one of the worst hit during the floods of May and April 2014, when large parts of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were affected. Neighboring countries including Macedonia provided a massive amount of donations in supplies at the time, as well as volunteer labor.
pic.twitter.com/oRoDeiRdPB
— Mali Remorker (@MaliRemorker80) August 11, 2016
“Citizens of Šabac, Loznica, Bogatić, Koceljeva, Vladimirac, Krupanj and other cities/municipalities, it is time! Show solidarity to Macedonia and the city of Skopje! We won't forget their aid in 2014!
Gathering of aid on [Friday, Saturday and Sunday] at Hajduk Veljko Street 12 in Šabac.
Recommended donations: hygiene and disinfection utilities, diapers, canned food for children and adults, pasta, underwear, socks, clothes, blankets, sleeping bags, tents. Don't bring money or medicines.
For more information call 061/154-808 and 063/43-73-10
Citizens of Šabac supported by Association Svetlost (Light) and European Environmental Centre “
According to the drive's organizers, even though it was a holiday season weekend, a time when not too many residents are in town, they managed to gather a van of supplies, which will be sent to Skopje in a couple of days. The drive will continue until the end of the crisis.
Sabac za Skoplje pic.twitter.com/7zCoe8KtP3
— Mali Remorker (@MaliRemorker80) August 12, 2016
Šabac for Skopje
Times of crisis bring out the best and the worst in people. In Macedonia, some have been trying to divert attention from the issue of who's responsible for flood prevention and the authorities’ insufficient response by stoking the flames of ethnic hatred. For instance, a pro-government media outlet (funded with ads from public enterprises such as Skopje Waterworks and Sewage) published an article titled “Where are ‘brothers Serbs’ now, to donate a package of water and food for the flooded families?”
In fact, during the week after the floods, all Balkan states, as well as the European Union and some of its members, provided aid in funds or with rescue crews. Not to mention the residents of Šabac's own efforts.
It's certainly not the first time Skopje has been the recipient of aid. In the past, it was known as the “city of solidarity” because it was rebuilt with international aid from scratch after the devastating earthquake of July 27, 1963. This aid included contribution from both Western and Eastern blocs, temporarily putting aside the Cold War animosities.
In recent years, around that date, Macedonian Twitter users have published photos, films, or songs from that time with the hashtag #СкопјеСеСеќава (“Skopje Remembers”).
For instance, during last year's July Twitter user Yokio San, posted a selection of quotes from a book about 1963:
“Skopje must not remain merely a newspaper report of its first sufferings, but must be the responsibility of all of us, of all men who today or tomorrow, through some similar new catastrophe, may become Skopians” – Alberto Moravia, 1963.
“Skopje is not a film, not a thriller where we guess the chief event. It is a concentration of man’s struggle for freedom, with a result which inspires further struggles and no acceptance of defeat.” – Jean-Paul Sartre, 1963.
“My parents told me that Skopje has no schools now. The children have nowhere to study. I did not go to amusement park yesterday. Instead, I used that money to buy some pencils, notebooks and rubbers and I am sending them to you — to a student from Skopje. My parents advised me not to sign this note.” – A pupil from Amsterdam, 1963.
“Skopje suffered an enormous catastrophe, but we shall rebuild Skopje again. With the help of all our community, it will become our pride and a symbol of brotherhood and unity, of the  Yugoslav and world solidarity.” – Josip Broz Tito, July 27, 1963.
“This visit enabled me to witness the international solidarity in Skopje which followed the catastrophe seven years ago. I am convinced that such human communication can instigate larger and more efficient international cooperation between countries, cities and villages.” – U Thant, UN General Secretary, 1970.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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After Landmark Ruling in Belize, Human Rights Groups Hope the Caribbean Tide Is Turning Towards LGBT Equality · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Belize City Court House. Photo by Janine Mendes-Franco, used with permission.
Following in the wake of Hurricane Earl, a wind of change blew through Belize last week in the form of a widely anticipated oral court decision. On August 10, 2016, Honorable Chief Justice of Belize Kenneth Benjamin struck down Section 53 of the Criminal Code, a colonial-era legacy that makes anal sex or ‘buggery’ (described as “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”) illegal for men and women and punishable by ten years’ imprisonment.
The chief justice decided that Section 53 is inconsistent with the country's constitution, as it violates the rights to human dignity, privacy, freedom of expression, non-discrimination, equality and equal protection under the law. The court then read down Section 53 of the Criminal Code to exclude “consensual sexual acts between adults in private.”
The ruling also declared that the definition of sex in Section 16 (3) of the Constitution of Belize — which states that the expression ‘discriminatory’ refers to treating people differently due to sex, race, place of origin, political opinions, colour or creed — includes ‘sexual orientation’, consistent with Belize's international obligations.
The court case to challenge Section 53 was brought in July 2010 by Caleb Orozco, a gay Belizean man and founder and executive director of the United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM). Orozco was represented by lawyers with the University of the West Indies Rights Advocacy Project with the support of the International Commission of Jurists, the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, and the Human Dignity Trust. The country's prime minister and attorney general, as well as an alliance of local churches, supported Section 53. An appeal against the ruling is likely.
UNIBAM tweeted on August 10:
We won on all counts. Speechless. Omg. Speechless
— UniBAM Belize (@UNIBAMSupport) August 10, 2016
Human rights advocates across the region hailed the Belize ruling as a watershed victory that may have implications for the ten other Commonwealth Caribbean countries, all former British colonies, where ‘buggery’ remains a crime punishable by terms of imprisonment of varying lengths. Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago retain such laws. The Human Dignity Trust notes that there are still 76 legal jurisdictions across the world that make same-sex intimacy between consenting adults a crime, 38 of them Commonwealth members.
Dane Lewis, the executive director of the Jamaica-based LGBT rights lobby group J-FLAG, observed:
The feedback from the community is that the win is a win for the region. We are very proud of Caleb Orozco, who was very bold in his claim to be recognized as an equal citizen in his country…
He pointed out that the Belize case will serve as a reference in terms of jurisprudence for any case in the rest of the region, especially given the similarities of the laws across the countries.
Rodje Malcolm of Jamaicans for Justice pointed out:
IMPORTANT: #OrozcoCase ruling reminds that “buggery laws” are not ONLY “gay issues” but impact privacy 4 all couples https://t.co/77HsY6ISLf
— Rodjé Malcolm (@Rodje_) August 10, 2016
Executive Director of Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition, Dr. Carolyn Gomes, enthused:
Day Dignity and Respect granted to all regardless Sexual orientation @cliffnationwide @Petchary @suezeecue https://t.co/e6GWcA6soo
— Carolyn Gomes (@CarolynMusing) August 10, 2016
Christopher Hamel-Smith, who as lead counsel for Orozco, commented:
Good law always reflects common sense, and common sense has prevailed in Belize. The Court has confirmed that the Constitution recognises the inherent dignity of each and every human being, regardless of sexual orientation. Today’s decision shines a powerful light to guide us along the path we must take towards a more just, tolerant and inclusive Caribbean. Thank you, Belize.
Christina Coc, an indigenous leader and program director of the Julian Cho Society in Punta Gorda, Belize, observed:
The claim being made is that this law is inconsistent with the Supreme Law of Belize – the Belize CONSITITUTION. While citizens may have divergent views on the issue of freedom for sexual orientation, we must not fail to address the crux of the issue. If we allow a law to remain unconstitutional, then who is to guarantee that more laws will not be written that equally infringe on other fundamental human rights and freedoms? We are equally responsible to ensure STATE Accountability to protect the human rights of ALL and not SOME! Therefore, all laws, policies and actions must be consistent with the CONSTITUTION
Erika Castellanos, a Belizean trans advocate, commented:
As a trans woman living with HIV I am happy with the decision today. We don’t have to feel like criminals because of who we love. The judge recognized that HIV prevention, care and treatment are negatively affected by stigma and discrimination. This will open opportunity for new provisions in the HIV response.
Elsewhere in the Caribbean, Antigua's attorney general said that his government will be examining the court ruling, while Minority Rights Dominica expressed the hope that it will boost the group's campaign to change its own Sexual Offences Act. UNAIDS Caribbean called the ruling a triumph for equality and better access to HIV services, noting:
This is an encouraging step forward for a country that has already demonstrated a relatively high level of positive attitudes regarding homosexuals. A 2013 poll commissioned by UNAIDS found that two out of every three Belizeans were either accepting or tolerant of homosexuals (68%). In addition, three of four respondents agreed that people should not be treated differently on the basis of their sexual orientation (75%).
In Jamaica, noted attorney Bert Samuels said the ruling did not set a precedent for other Caribbean countries. Meanwhile, a new legal challenge against Jamaica's 19th-century law against buggery, filed by gay lawyer Maurice Tomlinson last November, is having a difficult passage through local courts. Public Defender Arlene Harrison Henry has appealed  against a July court decision blocking her from participating as an interested party, but allowing conservative Christians to participate.
Tomlinson himself hailed the Belize victory, posting numerous articles on his Facebook page:
THE HERO WHO IS Caleb!
I cannot put into words the amount of respect and admiration that I have for Caleb Orozco! I knew that he was destined for greatness when we met in 2007 and have been pleased to watch his amazing progress as a fierce advocate for LGBTI human rights. What he does is never for himself alone, and this hard won victory will benefit us all!
A Jamaican Gleaner editorial suggested that the Belize ruling may give Tomlinson's legal challenge some momentum. Meanwhile, Orozco has been dealing with online threats following the ruling.
Many members of faith-based communities across the Caribbean were far from happy, however, with some suggesting that the ruling might eventually lead to same-sex marriage becoming legal. Barbados Today quoted one church leader:
‘Once it starts in one of the Caribbean islands or one that is so close to us . . . then it can seep down in this part of the Caribbean, and that is very disappointing because we would want to maintain a standard of righteousness and help to guide people in the correct manner,’ [Rev. David] Durant said. He said the same sex marriages which the LBGT community wanted to ‘force’ on Barbados would now have more legal ground with which to work.
The Belize Reporter editorial also expressed disapproval:
This week’s ruling by Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin makes it clear that the civic law is not about morality. It is about establishing new frontiers for human decadence. It is about the unrelenting march of humanity to make its own rules as it presses towards its brazen new world which increasingly strives to separate itself from the concept of God and sonship and redemption.
Dr. Wayne West of Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society observed:
I would argue that the judge in the Belize case, like the judges in the United States, have operated in the framework that this buggery law represents some sort of a human rights construct. I disagree with that because homosexuality is abnormal.
Taking a slightly more guarded tone, the head of the Jamaica Council of Churches, Rev. Gary Harriott, noted:
It is clear that is the direction in whit the world in general is going but Jamaica has to make a decision as to what it will embrace as the normative way of existence. In Jamaica there are strong views against same sex relationships and I do not see that changing in the future…There is a strong view in the Jamaican culture, and people are not prepared to embrace that way of life.
So, will this landmark ruling influence other Caribbean jurisdictions? As the saying goes, the jury is still out.

author: Emma Lewis


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Online Petition Against Russia’s Draconian Anti-Terror Laws Tops 100K Signatures · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Banner for The Day We Fight Back anti-surveillance campaign from February 2014 has been adopted by activists campaigning against Russian anti-terror laws. Image from Wikipedia.
An online petition launched by Russian activists to protest the repressive anti-terrorism laws has gathered over 100 thousand signatures in just 36 days, and is now slated to be considered by Russian federal regulators. Authors of the petition on the Russian Civic Initiative (ROI) website say the laws further restrict free speech in Russia, curtail civil liberties and threaten online freedom on the RuNet, and must therefore be repealed.
The organizers behind the overall protest effort, including the Society for Protecting the Internet and the RosComSvoboda Internet freedom group, object to increasing levels of state surveillance that they say the laws enable by demanding that ISPs and online businesses store six months worth of user traffic data, including messages and calls. Signatories to the petition expressed solidarity with Russian ISPs and mobile providers who previously have said that the Yarovaya laws (named after one of the authors of the amendments) will lead to deteriorating Internet quality and more expensive online access, and will hamper network development in Russia, hurting both the industry and the users.
Petitions on the ROI website that collect over 100 thousand signatures are officially recognized by the federal government, as the signatures are verified through personal accounts on the Russian state services portal. However, there is no guarantee that a particular issue will be greenlit for consideration in the parliament by a group of relevant federal experts. Nevertheless, the activists see the petition as a successful instrument of “electronic democracy” and a kind of “public loudspeaker” that will allow to raise awareness of the dangers posed by the new laws.
On August 9, Russian opposition forces and Internet freedom activists also organized and held a rally in Moscow's Sokolniki district to protest against the laws. According to independent observers, a little over two thousand people showed up for the rally.
Speakers at the rally included opposition politician Alexey Navalny, leader of RosComSvoboda Artyom Kozlyuk, and Leonid Volkov, Navalny's political ally and head of the Society for Protecting the Internet, a new initiative aimed at safeguarding online freedoms in the RuNet. Independent online video platform Newscaster TV, which often broadcasts from protest rallies in Russia, streamed the rally live on YouTube, and later made a recording of the event available online.
The rally had initially been scheduled for July 26, but Moscow authorities denied the organizers permission to hold the event. It was later rescheduled to August 9 and moved to a less central location in Sokolniki.
In a Facebook post, Leonid Volkov explained why he thought both the petition and the rally, though organized after the laws had been passed, still made sense and were important steps in battling against new repressive legislation.
…это продолжение той стратегии, о которой мы только вот 9 августа на митинге говорили: не давать “пакету Яровой” уйти из информационной повестки, не давать замылиться и забыться. Создавать вокруг него все новые, как можно более разнообразные, точки напряжения и информационные поводы. Пока получается отлично и спасибо вам за это большое!
…this is a continuation of the strategy we discussed at the rally on August 9: not to let the “Yarovaya package” disappear from the information agenda, not to let it dissolve and be forgotten. To keep creating new, varied pressure points and news pegs around it. So far, we're doing great and thank you so much for that!
The “Yarovaya” laws were signed by President Vladimir Putin on July 7, 2016, and introduce a broad spectrum of amendments restricting civic activities and online expression in Russia, as well as boosting the state's surveillance powers.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Will a Buenos Aires Subway Station Take the Name of a LGBTI Figurehead? · Global Voices
Romina Navarro

Image designed by the artist Daniel Arzola, creator of the celebrated campaign “I am not your joke”. Published with permission.
In July, a proposal was presented to the municipality of Buenos Aires to rename the recently inaugurated Santa Fe station on Line H of the Buenos Aires subway after Carlos Jáuregui.
Jáuregui, who died in 1996, was for a long time the undisputed face of the battle for LGBTI rights in the country.
The law was introduced by three Buenos Aires legislators and included an intense campaign of support by political figures, civil associations, and members of the LGBTI community.
August 20 will mark the twentieth anniversary of Jáuregui's death.
Jáuregui was the founder and first president of the Comunidad Homosexual Argentina (the Homosexual Community of Argentina, or CHA), created on April 16, 1984, in the dawn of the restoration of democracy after the dark period of military dictatorship that took placen from 1976 to 1983 whose most notorious figure was José Rafael Videla.
He was also the founder of the Asociación Gays por los Derechos Civiles (the Gays for Civil Rights Association) from 1991 until his death and spearheaded the first gay and lesbian pride parade of Buenos Aires in 1992.
César Cigliutti, current President of CHA, affirmed that:
Carlos Jáuregui, como su primer Presidente, le dio su propia identidad y visibilidad a toda nuestra comunidad lésbica, gay, bisexual, trans e Intersexual (LGBTI). Fue la primera persona que dio su nombre y apellido a nuestros reclamos de igualdad de derechos en Argentina.
Carlos Jáuregui, as our first President, gave the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) community its own identity. He was the first person that gave his first and last name to our claims of equality in Argentina.
Moreover, the intersection of the avenues Santa Fe and Pueyrredón where the current Santa Fe station is found, has long been an emblematic gathering point for the LGBTI community of Buenos Aires.
During the dictatorship, it was in this part of the city that the few gay bars and pubs of Buenos Aires operated underground.
In an interview with the newspaper Clarín, the sociologist and writer Ernesto Meccia talked about the years after this period and the beginning of the “gay era”:
La gente se sentía a resguardo en ciertos lugares de socialización de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (genéricamente, Avenida Santa Fe) y los pocos boliches que existían. Me interesa pensar este fenómeno como la felicidad en el gueto: una felicidad emergente de la mezcla de garantías jurídicas, del trabajo de las organizaciones y de la existencia de entornos de socialización públicos y seguros donde sin temor la gente podía conocerse y reconocerse.
People felt safe in certain meeting places in the City of Buenos Aires (generally known as Avenida Santa Fe) and the few clubs that they had. I like to think of this phenomenon as the happiness in the ghetto: a happiness that comes from the mix of guaranteed rights, the work of organizations, and the existence of public and safe socialization environments where people can be known and recognized without fear.
The Argentine LGBTI community considers the contribution of Carlos Jáuregui to be invaluable.
Work of the Venezuelan artist Daniel Arzola in support of the campaign #EstacionCarlosJauregui [CarlosJaureguiStation]. Image provided by the author and published with his permission.
The achievements by the LGBTI collective were thanks to the intense activism and fight for the visibility and acceptance of homosexuality during the early years of the new democracy that he embodied.
His legacy continues and is present in the sequence of events that led Argentina to become the first country to approve in 2010 same sex marriage in Latin America, a region where conservatism and Catholicism present a longstanding challenge to LGBTI rights.
As part of the campaign to rename the metro station, Venezuelan artist Daniel Arzola, creator of the “I am not a joke” campaign, did a series of portraits of Jáuregui for display, one of which Global Voices has used with his permission.
Meanwhile, the wider community has also shown support for the legislation through a petition on Change.org that has gained 2,000 signatures.
On Twitter, the digital community expressed its support using the hashtag #EstacionCarlosJauregui [CarlosJaureguiStation]:
Estoy listo para salir a inaugurar la #estacioncarlosjauregui !!! pic.twitter.com/b4l2hGgLkj
— Mr_Spok (@Mr_Spok__) August 11, 2016
I'm ready to go inaugurate the #estacioncarlosjauregui !!!
Los unió sonreir, la lucha en común y los abrazos reparadores.#20añosSinCarlosJáuregui#EstaciónCarlosJáureguipic.twitter.com/9bI3Dqxr1o
— Gustavo Pecoraro (@gustavopecoraro) July 26, 2016
Smiles, their common struggle and restorative hugs were their bond.
#Jáuregui anda por todas partes, ahora lo queremos en @BA_subte#EstaciónCarlosJáureguipic.twitter.com/6DUATmtf3R
— Daniel Arzola (@Arzola_d) August 9, 2016
#Jáuregi is everywhere, now we want him in @BA_subte.
The authors of the legislation explained:
Hoy la Ciudad de Buenos Aires se exporta al mundo como “gay friendly” y es considerada destino turístico para el colectivo LGTBI mundial. Este proyecto se propone como oportunidad para certificarlo y, a la vez, para reflejar una parte de la historia de la democracia de nuestro país donde el colectivo LGTBI, sus referentes y sus formas de sociabilización, escriben un capítulo muy importante.
Today the city of Buenos Aires is advertised as “gay friendly” and is considered a tourist destination for the LGBTI population worldwide. This project is proposed as an opportunity to certify that and at the same time, to reflect part of the history of the democracy of our country, wherein the LGBTI population, their benchmarks, and their forms of socialization represent a very important chapter.
Some eight years before the groundbreaking same-sex marriage legislation was passed at national level, Buenos Aires became the first city in Latin America to establish civil unions, recognizing the legal effects of a registered union between two people, regardless of sex or orientation, who have lived together for at least two years.
Key print and digital mass media have also lent support to the campaign to rename the metro station by publicising the proposal, most notably Parlamentario, La Izquierda Diario, Clarín, and Sindicato del Subte.
Maximiliano Ferraro, one of the legislators that presented the project and the driving force of the media campaign, expressed his thanks for the publicity.
Gracias @clarincom por ayudar a difundir que Estación Santa Fe Línea H @BA_subte se llame #EstacionCarlosJaureguipic.twitter.com/PlZX4pW9mm
— maximiliano ferraro (@Maxiferraro) July 21, 2016
Thank you @clarincom for helping to broadcast that Santa Fe Station on Line H @Ba_subte be named #EstacionCarlosJauregui