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Colombian Economic Deceleration, Is the Government Aware of This Situation? · Global Voices
Milton Ramirez

On a review of what is going on with Colombian economy, Daniel Bustos writes on his blog Trayectoria Económica an analysis of what he calls ‘skinny cows’ or lean times.
Although the economy is still standing thanks to public and private investment and the construction industry, the oil barrel price is lower and tax evasion hasn't stopped. Enough problems, as to wonder: ¿Is the government aware of this situation? Bustos answers:
Parece ser que no, o por lo menos quieren disimular la cuestión a cualquier precio, […] ¿Que pasa en la economía colombiana si el precio del petróleo sigue cayendo? El país depende demasiado del petróleo, eso se puede observar claramente en las proyecciones de ingresos para los próximos años donde se situaba el precio del petróleo cercano a los 100 dólares para lo cual, con base en esto se realizaron las proyecciones de presupuesto para el mediano plazo pero con las recientes fluctuaciones del precio del crudo dichas proyecciones deben ser re-diseñadas, y los ingresos faltantes deben ser buscados de alguna parte; aunque por otro lado si el precio del dólar sigue subiendo como lo esta haciendo en este momento, sería interesante saber si este aumento de alguna forma ha amortiguado este déficit o incluso los lograra cubrir, desafortunadamente esto solo lo dirán los mercados.
Apparently, it isn't so, or at least they want to hide the issue, whatever the cost […]. What will happen with Colombian economy if oil prices keep going down? The country relies too much on oil, as we can clearly observe on the income projections for coming years, where the oil price was close to 100 dollars, and over that base, budget mid-term projections were made, but with recent fluctuations in the crude oil, those projections should be redesigned and the income shortage should come from somewhere else. Although on the other hand, if the dollar keeps increasing as it's doing, it'd be interesting to know if this increase has somehow softened the deficit or will even cover it. Unfortunately, only market will tell.
You can follow Daniel Bustos on his account on Twitter or G+

author: Milton Ramirez


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Communicators Profession: Reinventing Itself Day by Day · Global Voices
Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez

After talking with a colleague, Cintia Oliva reflects on a reality known by many communicators:
[Mi colega] me decía que con esto de las tecnologías, el periodismo como carrera estaba en decadencia. Ella, una excelente reportera y entrevistadora, contaba que cada vez le costaba más meter su pauta o que sus publicaciones sean tenidas en cuenta por los medios, o por el público, debido a la gran cantidad de información y contenidos que a diario se comparten por todos los medios.
[My colleague] told me that with technologies, journalism as a career was in decline. She, an excellent reporter and interviewer, told me she find harder to get her guideline done or her publications to be considered by tue media or the audience, due to the huge amount of information and content that are shared on a daily basis by all the media.
On the contrary, Cintia remarks the good time this is for journalism, precisely thanks to the opportunities new technologies offer, and sugggest five guidleiines for a renovation as communicators:
El concepto
Si hay un tema que te apasiona y quieres posicionarte como una experta en un tema, por ejemplo comunicación ambiental, entonces lee, investiga y escribe sobre ello.
La forma
Aprende a contar historias. Una tendencia que vino para quedarse es el marketing de contenidos y con él, la técnica de contar buenas historias, el storytelling.
Los medios 2.0
Sí, está bien, todos tenemos Facebook, Twitter, algunos hasta un blog de Blogger, pero cuánto sabemos de herramientas de gestión de contenidos?
La eficacia
Medir, corregir, medir, evaluar: Medir, ¿para qué medir? Eso es lo que me decían algunos colegas en el pasado.
El acceso
Aprende a gestionar la información en internet y en tu entorno, y a buscar lo que realmente vale la pena.
Concept
If you are passionated about a topic and want to be an expert, such as environmental communication, you should read, investigate and write about it.
Form
Learn how to tell stories. A trend that is here to stay is content marketing and with it, the technic of telling good stories, storytelling.
2.0 media
OK, we all have Facebook, Twitter, some of us even a blog on Blogger, but how much do we know about content management tools?
Efficenciy
Measure, correct, evaluate. Measure, why measure? This is what some colleagues used to tell me in the past.
Access
Learn how to manage information on Internet and around you, and to look for what's really worth it.
You can follow Cintia on Twitter.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez


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11-Year-Old Girl Starts Petition Calling for Mexican President’s Resignation · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

Screenshot of the people who want the resignation of Peña Nieto campaign on the Change.org platform.
Political activism is not exclusively reserved for young people and adults. This was demonstrated by Sofia, an 11-year-old Mexican girl who decided to collect signatures calling for the resignation of the president of her country, Enrique Peña Nieto. These are her reasons.
Peña Nieto no le ha respondido como se debe a los familiares de los estudiantes desaparecidos, se fue a China y tiene una casa de 80 millones de pesos.
Peña Nieto has not responded as he should have to the families of the missing students, he went to China and he has a house costing 80 million pesos (approximately 5.88 million dollars).
This initiative caused many positive reactions. For example, some decided to sign in order to demonstrate to Sofia and other Mexican children (as well as adults) that having a better country is possible, and to remind those who govern that people placed them there and that the people can remove them. Sofia's mother said:
Yo no tengo idea de cómo se destituye a un presidente. Pero ojalá pueda de verdad llevar esas hojas a alguna parte que ayude a Sofía a sentir que su esfuerzo vale la pena, que lo intentamos a toda costa. Fui incapaz de decirle que no lo hiciera, que era casi imposible. No puedo cortarle las alas. Esta generación viene con fuerza, con fe y determinación, y con un concepto de lo que es decente y justo que ya quisieran muchos para un fin de semana.
I don't know how to dismiss a president. But, hopefully one can take those papers somewhere so that Sofia can feel that her efforts were worth it, that we tried at all costs. I was unable to tell her not to do it because it was almost impossible. I couldn't cut her wings. This generation is full of strength with faith and determination, and with a concept of what is decent, something that many want for a weekend.
The petition was placed on the Change.org platform and already has 10,500 signatures at the time of this post.

author: Elizabeth Rivera


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Greenpeace Activist Injured in Confrontation with Spanish Navy · Global Voices
Lourdes Sada

Playa de Corralejo, near the prospecting site in the Fuerteventura biosphere reserve of the Canary Islands, with the silhouette of Lanzarote in the distance. Photo by the author.
Italian activist Matilde Brunetti suffered serious injuries when she was cut by a propeller following an assault by several boats from the Spanish navy. Brunetti and a group of Greenpeace activists were in a small boat attempting to ward off the beginning of a controversial oil exploration initiative in an area about 60 km off the Canary islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, which has been officially recognized by UNESCO for its ecological value. Two other activists, Paco del Toro and Francesco Diplomatico, were also injured in the scuffle.
The Spanish Government has authorized Spanish oil company Repsol to conduct explorations in three areas near the Canary Islands: Sandía, Chirimoya, and Zanahoria. The oil company's activities have met with opposition from environmentalists, citizens, and the regional government of the Canary Island, which sees them as a serious threat to tourism, the main source of income in the islands. In fact, the local government has waged a fierce legal battle to try and stop the prospecting. In addition to concerns about protecting the pristine landscapes, there is also the issue of access to fresh water. A significant percentage of the water consumed by island inhabitants is desalinated seawater, so any scenario involving a potential oil spill would have serious consequences.
Although on its website Repsol affirms that “our environmental protection standards are among the highest in the industry: on par with Norway, which is the country with the most exacting requirements,” environmental groups are not so sure:
Las prospecciones petrolíferas afectan a la fauna marina, como cetáceos y tortugas y a los recursos pesqueros. Pero también es un riesgo grave por la posibilidad de vertidos (…).
Otro de las grandes claves de este caso es el Estudio de Impacto Ambiental, que ha estado lleno de irregularidades (…).
Oil exploration affects marine wildlife such as whales and turtles and fish stocks. But it is also a serious risk for oil spills (…)
Another key element in this case is the Environmental Impact Study, which was full of irregularities (…).
The weak points in the environmental studies of this particular proposal have been reported to the European Commission's Directorate General for the Environment, which has initiated “a thorough investigation of the authorizations granted to Repsol by the government of Spain.”
Oil exploration areas. Image licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, altered by the author.
Against this backdrop, Repsol moved its ship Rowam Renaissance into the waters of the archipelago, where it is planning to begin exploration activities in the coming days. On Saturday, November 15, Greenpeace activists attempted to board the ship with the intention of deploying various protest banners, but they were surprised by a violent attack on the part of the Spanish navy, which sent out two boats to prevent them from boarding. The video shot by activists—which later went viral—clearly shows the navy's boats ramming the Greenpeace vessel on multiple occasions, which resulted in one of the activists falling into the water and getting her leg sliced open by a propeller.
The video also shows how one of the sailors jumped into the water to rescue the activist, who was later evacuated to a hospital in a military helicopter. The Ministry of Defence took advantage of the incident and tweeted the following comment:
La @Armada_esp y el @EjercitoAire rescatan a una activista de @greenpeace herida al caer al agua cerca de #Canarias pic.twitter.com/t0cixq27ze
— Ministerio Defensa (@Defensagob) November 15, 2014
@Armada_esp [Spanish navy] and the @EjercitoAire [Air Force] rescue an activist from @greenpeace injured by falling into the water near #Canarias pic.twitter.com/t0cixq27ze
The tweet caused indignation among netizens, and although #CanariasDiceNo[Canaries say no], Armada, and Greenpeace became trending topics in Spain, several dozen people denounced the navy officials as shameless, lying, cynical, manipulating, hypocritical, and even traitors and demagogues.
@Defensagob @Armada_esp @EjercitoAire @Greenpeace Que manera más sutil de contar que casi la matais haciendo de matones para una empresa.
— iugatore (@iugatore) November 17, 2014
@Defensagob @Armada_esp @EjercitoAire @Greenpeace What a subtle way of saying she was almost killed by your company goons
@Defensagob @Armada_esp @EjercitoAire @Greenpeace Es mejor parecer tonto que hablar y confirmarlo. Punto para el CM de @Defensagob
— Kikiño (@_kikelt) November 16, 2014
@Defensagob @Armada_esp @EjercitoAire @Greenpeace Better to look like a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. One point for the CM at @Defensagob [Ministry of Defence]
@Defensagob @SenoritaPuri @Armada_esp @EjercitoAire @Greenpeace Vaya cojones los vuestros. Vaya cojones…
— El Obtu (@elobturador) November 17, 2014
@Defensagob @Armada_esp @EjercitoAire @Greenpeace Man you guys have some nerve. Some nerve…
One of the Greenpeace boats was skippered by Brazilian activist Ana Maciel, who had spent spent two months in a Siberian jail in 2013 after being arrested by the Russian army in another attempt against the organization. She commented on the incident on arriving in the harbour:
Ni en Rusia fueron tan violentos; nos amenazaban con cuchillos y armas pero nunca nos embistieron así. Podríamos haber salido heridas seis o siete personas
Even the Russians weren't that violent; they threatened us with knives and weapons but never attacked us this way. Six or seven people could have been injured.
In the Spanish Congress, socialist member from the Canary Islands Patricia Hernández blamed the Spanish government for the navy's actions:
El ejército no está para defender los intereses particulares de una multinacional del petróleo, mucho menos poniendo en riesgo la integridad de civiles desarmados.
The armed forces do not exist to defend the special interests of a multinational oil company, much less when it puts the physical integrity of unarmed civilians at risk.
Minister of Defence Pedro Morenés justified the incident in the following way:
La armada estaba ahí cumpliendo órdenes en su condición legal de agente de la autoridad. (…)
En cuanto al incidente de la caída a la mar de la activista italiana, (…) fue rescatada, atendida y evacuada por la armada española, lo que agradeció expresamente el patrón de la embarcación de Greenpeace.
The navy was following orders in its capacity as a legal agent of the authority of the state (…) As for the incident in which the Italian activist fell into the sea, (…) she was rescued, attended to, and evacuated by the Spanish navy, for which the skipper of the Greenpeace vessel specifically expressed his gratitude.
However, Joel Stewart, captain of the Greenpeace ship the Artic Sunrise, condemned the violence of the attack:
En 25 años con Greenpeace, nunca había tenido una acción con una persona herida grave (…). Ha sido una reacción agresiva, muy violenta. (…) ahora la protesta sigue en las calles, y si el Gobierno no escucha habrá que echar a este Gobierno.
In 25 years with Greenpeace, there has never been an action against us causing a person to be gravely injured (…) It was an aggressive, very violent reaction (…) now the protest will continue in the streets, and if the government does not listen, then it will have to be thrown out.
Undeterred, the Spanish government has kept up its aggressive campaign against Greenpeace, initiating proceedings to sanction the organization and impounding the Arctic Sunrise in the port of Arrecife (Lanzarote), demanding a 50,000 € bond before it will release it. The Office of the Merchant Marine accuses Greenpeace of an “infraction against maritime traffic,” which is considered a serious offense punishable with fines of up to 300,000 €.

author: Lourdes Sada


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Using Your Reflex Camera From Your Cellphone? Lumera! · Global Voices
Patricia Carolina Saucedo Añez

Yes, now it's possible! Thanks to Lumera, after two years of hard work as a result of a project by Open Hardware, from Hackbo, Bogota's hackerspace. It's all about a small device that gets integrated into your reflex photographic camera, transforming it into a “smart camera”. Using Lumera, you can handle your camera from your cell phone, save your photos in the cloud, share them on social networks or edit, among other possibilities.
Photo from the website Kickstarter, used with permission
Sergio Fabara explains how it works:
Lumera cuenta con conectividad Wi-Fi y Bluetooth LE, un display LED, doble puerto USB, batería integrada y varios botones para compartir y transferir archivos de manera rápida y sencilla. El accesorio se ancla a la cámara mediante la entrada de tornillo universal y por el puerto USB se conecta al de la cámara. Y se vinculará con su celular mediante una app que estará disponible para Android y iOS. Con esta app, podrán configurar la antena para conectarla directo a las cuentas de Dropbox y Google Drive, haciendo el respaldo digital mucho más sencillo.
Lumera has Wi-Fi connectivity and Bluetooth LE, a LED display, double USB port, integrated battery and several buttons for quickly and easily file sharing and transfering. The accessory is fixed to the camera through the universal bolt input and through the USB port gets connected to the camera. And it will be linked to your cell phone through an app that will be available for Android and iOS. With this app, you will be able to set up he antenna to connect it directly to your Dropbox and Google Drive accounts, thus making digital backup way much simpler.
LumeraLabs is a Colombian-origin hardware, software and application firm that participates in a campaign by Kickstarter to raise funds to launch Lumera. So far, the project has raised $41,903 out of the $90,000 they have set as a goal. There is still time until December 12 for those photographs or amateurs that want Lumera to reach its goal.


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Another Celebrity Wants to Help Africa, And He’s No ‘Band Aid’ · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Akon in West Africa for his electrify project with permission
Since the Live Aid Event organized by Bob Geldof and a bunch of his famous friends in the mid-1980s, Africa has known many world-famous celebrities who show a willingness to help the continent. Most of these initiatives, however, have fallen well short of their stated objectives.
For many in Africa, the Ebola epidemic has made clear the gap between celebrities’ awareness-raising campaigns and realities on the ground, where “parachuted initiatives” by Western stars collapse after brief runs in the global news. By now, the limits of humanitarian work by such celebrities—indeed Western humanitarian work generally—are well documented.
“Band Aid 30″‘s remake of “Do They Know It's Christmas,” for example, does little to expand—let alone acknowledge—Africans’ agency in the fight against Ebola.
Contrasted with the song “Africa, Stop Ebola,” created by African artists including Tiken Jah Fakoly, Amadou, and Mariam and Salif Keita, it's hard to deny the difference in tone.
Despite Band Aid 30's good intentions, Africans have long been offended by the patronizing tone of the “Do They Know It's Christmas” song's adapted lyrics. (The updated song includes lines like, “Where a kiss of love can kill you and there's death in every tear,” “Well tonight we're reaching out and touching you,” and so on.) On the other hand, the lyrics of the Africa Stop Ebola song emphasizes what citizens in the affected region can do to help stop the spread of Ebola. The song is performed in French and vernacular languages (Haoussa, Fula etc.) widely spoken across the region to ensure that the message is understood by the majority of the population in the affected region.
Amidst Band Aid 30's campaign and the backlash in Africa, a far lesser known initiative is getting underway: a project by American singer Akon, who has family ties to Senegal, to help electrify West Africa.
Akon, whose full name is Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Bongo Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam, spent much of his childhood in Senegal and was ranked Africa's fifth most powerful celebrity in 2011 (on a list that included 40 names). In a video on Vimeo, Akon explains his electrification project:
He adds:
The lack of electricity is currently a major problem in Africa. A significant number of households in rural areas and even urban cities do not have access to electricity. This is a real obstacle to Africa’s Sustainable Development.
In that perspective and within the framework of a Public-Private partnership, an alliance was signed between the private entities and the governments of different African nations to support the initiative. The project will consist of the installation of solar equipment in households and promote their energy sufficiency that also will allow millions of children to have access to electricity and improve their education through extended study hours.
Akon's project is planned to be long-term, separating it from the one-off efforts often carried out in Africa that typically require large advertising campaigns. Akon's work is not directed at a Western audience, and it isn't an awareness-raising campaign. He is currently on an extended trip through West Africa, where he's meeting local entrepreneurs and political decisionmakers. He will visit nine different countries: Senegal, Mali, Guinea Conakry, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo and Côte d'Ivoire.
In Guinea, Akon met with students at the Gamal Abdel Nasser University in Conakry and said:
I'm also a businessman, but I want to do business that benefits Africa [..] all the resources needed to develop Africa are at the disposal of the continent, and that all Africans needed to do is to take the driving seat.
In Cotonou, Benin, Arnaud Dounhmanmoun writes:
Au Bénin, une phase expérimentale a déjà eu lieu et c’est le village Avlo à Grand Popo qui a été retenu.L’artiste procèdera à la réception des matériels, Il s’agit des kits solaires pour les ménages ainsi que les lampadaires solaires pour l’éclairage public.
In Benin, an experimental phase [of the project] is already underway—implemented in the village of Avlo in the Grand Popo region. The artist [Akon] will be there to collect materials: solar kits for households, and solar lamps for street lighting.
In Mali, Modibo Fofana on Journal du Mali says Akon is also helping change the image of Africa with investors, despite the Ebola crisis:
Après une visite en Guinée, Akon est arrivé au moment où le Mali a connu le premier cas. Selon Akon, la médiatisation à outrance de cette maladie en Afrique contribue à ternir son image. “C’est à nous de changer l’image de l’Afrique. Quand les gens voient que je suis au Mali malgré l’annonce d’Ebola, cela va rassurer les autres.”
After a visit to Guinea, Akon arrived in Mali as it reported its first case [of Ebola]. According Akon, media coverage of the disease in Africa unfairly tarnishes the continent's public image. “It's up to us to change Africa's image. When people see that I'm in Mali, despite the announcement of Ebola, this will reassure others.”
While it is too early to tell whether Akon's approach will bear more fruitful results than the overhyped Band Aid initiative, at least, Akon has focused on the potential for Africa to self-sustain its development rather than wait for the ever-elusive western saviors.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Colombians Push for Peace After Kidnapping Derails FARC Talks · Global Voices
Cati Restrepo

Delegations from the Colombian government and the FARC during the closing remarks of the fourth topic on the Agenda of Discussions: “Solution to the problem of illicit drugs” in the Convention Center in Havana, Cuba on May 16, 2014. Photo: Omar Nieto Remolina – SIG. Office of the President of  Colombia
Colombia has found itself on shaky ground in Havana, Cuba, ever since peace talks between the Colombian government and militant group FARC in Havana, Cuba were suspended due to the kidnapping of an army general and two of his companions.
At the time of this post's publishing, representatives of Cuba and Norway — guarantor countries of the peace process – announced in Havana that FARC agreed to release Gen. Alzate, along with a civilian lawyer and a corporal who were traveling with him, plus two soldiers captured a week earlier in the department of Arauca near the Venezuelan border.
Colombians have been voicing their opinions under the Twitter hashtag #TreguaYa, which means “truce now” in Spanish. Diana Marcela Otavo, (@dianamotavo), published the following tweet:
La paz en medio de las balas es difícil de conseguir, #TreguaYa necesitamos que @JuanManSantos y las Farc se sienten nuevamente a dialogar
— Diana Marcela Otavo (@dianamotavo) November 17, 2014
It is difficult to achieve peace when bullets are flying. #TreguaYa we need @JuanManSantos and the FARC to come back to the table and talk
Francisco Javier Cuadros also posted (@fjaviercuadrs):
Sin ser fatalistas,sí se acaba este proceso de paz pasarán 10 años para volver a dialogar, con miles de muertos mas.#TreguaYa #CeseBilateral
— Fco. Javier Cuadros (@fjaviercuadros) November 17, 2014
At the risk of sounding pessimistic, if this peace process ends it will be another 10 years with thousands more dead before talks resume.#TreguaYa #CeseBilateral (bilateral ceasefire)
The FARC is Colombia’s largest guerrilla group. It was established in 1964 by survivors of a government crackdown on a Communist-inspired peasant group, and has long financed its 50-year-old war against the government by kidnapping, extortion and participating in the drug trade on various levels.
The agenda of the peace talks covers six issues: land reform, political participation, drug trafficking, rights of victims, disarmament of the rebels, the implementation of the peace deal.
Political leaders of various ideologies have also protested the suspension.
Senator for the Democratic Pole Iván Cepeda, for example, wrote on the subject of a protest in Bogotá on the morning of November 19:
La gente sale a la calle para defender el proceso de paz y #TreguaYA pic.twitter.com/X42vBDw5Sb — Iván Cepeda Castro (@IvanCepedaCast) November 19, 2014
The people are taking to the streets to defend the peace process and #TreguaYA
[In the photo: “The people have the key to peace.”]
Meanwhile, Mayor of Bogotá and former leftist rebel Gustavo Petro commented:
Nuestros hijos no se merecen la guerra, llegó la hora de movilizarnos por la Paz. #TreguaYA
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) November 17, 2014
Our children do not deserve war, the time has come to stand up for Peace. #TreguaYA
On the night of November 19, Medellin residents joined together in the streets as shown by Juan Mosquera @lluevelove in the photo below:
“No suspendan los diálogos, suspendan la guerra” Ciudadanos ejerciendo ciudadanía hoy en el centro de Medellín pic.twitter.com/nnYZUoheaZ
— juan mosquera (@lluevelove) November 20, 2014
“Don't end the talks, end the war” Citizens practicing their civic duty in the center of Medellin
Finally, during the first week of November, author JR shared the following thoughts via the blog La paz en Colombia (Peace in Colombia):
Nadie sale bien librado de una guerra, ni víctimas ni victimarios. Si ante los unos cabe respetar y reparar su inmenso dolor, ante los otros cabe corresponder con decoro a su declarado arrepentimiento, con apego a la ley por sobre todo lo que intenta desvirtuarla.
When it comes to war, no one gets off lightly; neither the victims nor the victors. If in the presence of some we can respect and heal their incredible grief, we must in the presence of others respectfully respond to their declarations of regret, with adherence to the law above all things that try to distort it.
This November 19 marked two years since the Colombian peace process began in Havana, Cuba. You can read more about the talks on the Spanish-language “Official website of the round-table discussions for ending the conflict and building lasting peace in Colombia.”

author: Cati Restrepo


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Experiences After Working at a Youth Hostel · Global Voices
Milton Ramirez

Queralt Castillo Cerezuela describes herself as a ‘wanderer’, natural born nomadic and, of course, journalist. That's possibly the origin of her blog's name, Errabundus. On one of her posts, this globetrotter tries to report about her time working at a youth hostel in the Southern Alps and lists six things that would make life easier to those people who work at hostels:
- Cuando haya un cartelito en el que pone: “por favor, lava tus platos”, no es una opción: debes lavarlos sí o sí.
– El fregadero de tu casa no hace desaparecer la comida, ¿verdad? El de los hostels tampoco
– Solo tú eres responsable de tus objetos.
– ¿Tanto te cuesta abrir las ventanas antes de salir de la habitación?
– Los pelos que dejas en las duchas no desaparecen por arte de magia
– Sabes que debes retirar las sábanas cuando te vayas, ¿verdad?
- When you find a sign saying: “please, wash your dishes”, it's not an option, you must wash them no matter what.
– The sink at home doesn't make food disappear, right? Neither does at hostels.
– You are the only responsible of your belongings.
– Is it that difficult to open the windows before leaving the room?
– The hair you leave in the shower won't disappear as if by magic.
– You do know you have to remove the sheets when you leave, right?
It may seem no big deal, but there are thousands of backpakers around the world and reading about these experiences might help them behave differently next time they decide to stay at a place like the one where Castillo Cerezuela worked at, for the sake of her traveler spirit.
Please, follow the journey of this traveler on her Facebook page or on her account on Twitter.


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‘Humour Is a Sharp Weapon Challenging an Authoritarian Regime’  · Global Voices
inmediahk.net

Biantailajiao's award-winning political cartoon about the White Paper issued by the Chinese government's State Council on “one country, two systems.” People in Hong Kong believe that the new interpretation of “one country, two systems” will ruin the city's autonomy. Used with permission.
Below is an interview with Biantailajiao, a mainland Chinese political cartoonist who recently won the Best Political Cartoon in Hong Kong In-Media's E-Citizen Awards, which aim to promote original reporting, political cartoons, photography and commentary online. The interview was originally written in Chinese by Oiwan Lam and translated into English by Jennifer Cheung.
“I never thought I could win this award, especially when I saw so many excellent creations at the Occupy Central sites. I felt a little ashamed,” says Biantailajiao humbly. He won the Best Political Cartoon in Hong Kong In-Media’s E-Citizen Awards this year.
Biantailajiao's profile picture in social media. Use with permission.
Biantailajiao, which means Metamorphosis Chili, is the pseudonym of Wang Liming, a mainland China-based political cartoonist. During his honeymoon in Japan, he was criticised by a number of state-run media outlets in China and labelled a “pro-Japanese traitor”. He decided to stay abroad and now lives in Japan as a university researcher. He hopes to travel to Hong Kong to receive the award and observe the creative political expressions at the sites of the so-called Umbrella Revolution there.
He used to draw cartoons for iSun Affairs Magazine, an independent publication focused on greater Chinese communities, but the magazine was shuttered in 2013. Compared to other mainland netizens, Biantailajiao pays close attention to the political affairs of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, and Taiwan, whose independence as a country China rejects. He believes the democratic future of these two places will serve as examples for the mainland. Although Hong Kong doesn’t have democracy, the citizens’ determination in the pursuit of democracy excites him. In contrast, in mainland China, many people defend the communist party’s totalitarian rule, which leaves citizens hopeless.
An recent example of intellectuals protecting Chinese authoritarianism came during a literature forum in October, when Chinese President Xi Jinping praised young writer Zhou Xiaoping for spreading “positive energy” on the Internet. Mainland netizens have largely debunked Zhou's work as “full of lies”. In fact, famous blogger Fang Zhouzi, who is a skilled fact-checker, was kicked off popular Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo for his criticism of Zhou. Biantailajiao created a figurative caricature of the incident; netizens who retweeted the cartoon were questioned by police.
Biantailajiao points out that since Xi took office, Chinese citizens have enjoyed less freedom of expression. In October 2013, when the Central Propaganda Department cracked down on Weibo's opinion leaders, he received a subpoena from police accusing him of “spreading false information”. During the interrogation, the officers cautioned him to be careful, given that he had hundreds of thousands Weibo followers at the time.
Facing such pressure, Biantailajiao and other online opinion leaders have acted more cautiously since November 2013. Following the questioning, he limited his drawings to social problems that didn’t criticise the communist regime. Instead, he put his energy into a Taobao online store selling snacks from Japan and Taiwan that he operated with his friends. He never imagined that in May, when he was on honeymoon with his wife in Japan and collecting items for his Taobao store, that mainland authorities would level accusations of being a “pro-Japanese traitor” against him.
His accounts on Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo, a similar service, were later deleted, and his Taobao shop was closed (later re-opened), cutting off a major source of income. On 9 August, he described the episode in a tweet as “the worst censorship” he had ever experienced.
Some speculated that the move was a retaliation against his satirical cartoon on Hong Kong's Occupy Central protests, a massive movement calling on the Hong Kong and mainland Chinese governments to allow genuine democratic elections. On 17 August, he published a cartoon that featured a mainland delegate going to Hong Kong to denounce Occupy Central and implied that mainland Chinese authorities mobilized anti-Occupy Central protests from behind the scenes. The next day, dozens of official mainland media outlets republished an article titled “See Through the Pro-Japanese Traitor Face of Biantailajiao”.
He felt wronged. “I have been very careful not to talk about politics and any topics related to Sino-Japan relations. I only wrote about people and things I appreciate, but for that I was labelled as a traitor”, he says.
A political accusation like that worries him a lot. He believes his suppression has nothing to do with him being “pro-Japanese”, but due to his drawings criticising Xi Jinping and supporting Occupy Central. As the attack he faced came from both online and print media, such coordinated moves convinced him that it was an “unified deployment from inside the party”. He was afraid he might be further persecuted when he returned to China. Eventually, with the help of a Japanese friend, he found a two-year unpaid research position at a university and decided to remain in Japan.
‘Irony and satire can also help citizens disperse their inner fear’
Political cartoons are a low-income, high-risk venture in mainland China. How did Biantailajiao step into profession of no return?
He says he began drawing comics when he was young. In the beginning, he drew love stories like other cartoon fans. But in 2006, when he signed up for “Mop hodgepodge”, a popular mainland forum on social affairs, he started using simple drawings to respond to social problems and gradually branched out into political cartoons.
Earlier, he worked in the advertising industry. In 2009, he began using the pseudonym Biantailajiao to publish his political cartoons on Weibo. At that time, he idolized the opinion leaders, or the so-called “big Vs” on Weibo. However, since there are not many political cartoonists who dare criticise the government, he quickly became a big V himself and embraced hundreds of thousands of followers, which surprised him.
Living in an authoritarian society gives Biantailajiao endless inspiration: “In this society bizarre things happen every day. You can simply retell these stories in the form of cartoon, then the cartoon will carry a sense of absurdity.”
One of Biantailajiao's favorite political cartoons.
Of course, Biantailajiao has had to self-censor his drawings. Yet the euphemistic expressions he adopts can have wider appeal, and have become part of his unique style. One of his favorite cartoons uses three fortresses to represent three different types of countries: the normal one has its guns pointed outward, the ideal one has its guns pointed at the sky, and the evil one has its guns pointed inward. Everyone who reads the cartoon knows which country the cartoon is mocking.
“Humour is a sharp weapon challenging an authoritarian regime. The dictators have no sense of humour. Irony and satire can also help citizens disperse their inner fear”, Biantailajiao says, an opinion formed after many years of drawing cartoons under pressure in mainland China.
However, apart from facing political repression, drawing political cartoons in mainland China has also alienated him from some of his family and friends. His income has not been stable, either.
In 2011, he left the advertising industry and freelanced illustrations for various publishing houses. He also managed social media accounts for some companies. By working this way, he could have more time to publish his political cartoons on Weibo.
Since leaving China, he can enjoy the freedom to draw cartoons and express what is on his mind. However, he now faces new dilemmas too. Many mainland netizens have begun asking him to self-censor his cartoons because if they are too explicit and too critical, netizens who retweet them will be harassed by the police. Recently, a friend was questioned by the police after he retweeted a cartoon by Biantailajiao that mocked President Xi Jinping and writer Zhou Xiaoping. “In the future, I still need to practice self-censorship to make my cartoons subtle so that my work can continue to be circulated on China’s social media”, Biantailajiao says in frustration.
His readers have always been mainland friends and fans. Now that he has left the country, it is likely that in the future, he will need to draw cartoons that address Sino-Japanese relations for his career to take root in Japan.


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Kyrgyzstanis Skeptical about Government Biometric Data Drive · Global Voices
Dasha Kondrateva

Fingerprinting for biometric data. Wikipedia image.
Kyrgyzstan is falling into line with international standards by requiring citizens to submit biometric data for new passports. But some citizens, wary of creeping authoritarianism in the country and a lack of transparency in local law enforcement, are resisting the call.
The procedure officially began on August 28, 2014, when Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, Jomart Otorbaev, and Mayor of the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, Kubanychbek Kulmatov, submitted their biometric data.
Since then, there have been numerous controversies connected to the call, mostly focussed on the failure of the notoriously corrupt State Registry Service (SRS) to ensure biometric data points are properly equipped.
Currently the SRS admits it “cannot force” citizens to submit their data, but an SMS message distributed by local mobile service providers this month refers to the “obligatory” submission of data for people aged 16 and over.
The official website of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic says the formation of the biometric data database will offer the basis for accurate voter identification procedures ahead of parliamentary elections in 2015, reducing the carousel voting that has become common in local elections over the years.
Many citizens claim that the new policy limits personal freedoms and the right to privacy. As one reader of the popular news platform vb. kg argued:
биометрический паспорт противоречит принципам демократии. не обманывайте народ кыргызстана. это приводит тоталитарному контролью.
Biometric passports contradict the main principles of the democracy. Don’t lie to the people of Kyrgyzstan. This policy will lead to totalitarian control.
On the website's Facebook page, users discussed what motivations were behind the sudden demand for biometric data. Sarcastic suggestions were quick in coming:
накосячишь и тебя утром группа захвата будит
You do something wrong and a hit squad group wakes you up the next morning.
Perplexed state officials have already complained that many citizens are refusing to comply with the request, based on the belief that the data will some day be used against them. MP Cholpon Sultanbekova, the widow of a murdered mob boss, says citizens feel their data may be used by other people to secure loans under false premises, or in other criminal schemes.
Commenting under an article published on Kloop.kg, Dinara Oshurakhunova, head of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society writes:
биометрика нужна бесспорно. но при том, что наши правоохранительные структуры не реформированы и почти полностью криминализованы, я бы не хотела, чтобы они имели доступ к биометрическим данным граждан.
Biometric submissions are necessary for sure. However, due to the fact that our law enforcement agencies are unreformed and almost completely criminalized, I would not like them to have access to the biometric data of citizens.
Head of the SRA, Alina Shaikova, has assured the population  that all data is encrypted into codes and that officers collecting the data have received the training required to keep the data safe. Shaikova's agency has also said there will be no punishment for citizens that do not submit their data.
Otorbaev submitting his personal data. A picture taken from Kloop.kg.
Writing in his blog, journalist Azat Ruziev notes:
Основной критикой закона было то, что он противоречит Конституции Кыргызстана, в частности, праву на самоопределение в отношении своих личных данных и праву на неприкосновенность и охрану частной жизни человека.
The main criticism of law is that it contradicts the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic, in particular, the right to self-determination in relation to personal data and the right to privacy.
Passports. A picture taken from Kloop.kg
Kyrgyzstan will be the last Central Asian country to introduce a biometric system for passports as a number of countries warn that citizens travelling without biometric passports will not be allowed into their territories.
Turkmenistan was the first country in the region to provide the biometric passports in 2008, before Kazakhstan followed the example of its neighbour in 2009. Biometric data was subsequently introduced in Tajikistan in 2010 and in Uzbekistan in 2011.
Three months into the biometric data submission period, there have already been a number of scandals. In October, vb.kg reported that during the frenetic process of collecting data, top officials from the State Registration Service travelled to Montreal, Canada to attend a conference on counterfeit ID. Their trip was allegedly paid for by the British company De La Rue, a former contractor of the government and a likely bidder on the lucrative tender to produce the new biometric passports next year.
Correspondents of the same newspaper also found it was impossible to submit biometric data at several of the government-appointed facilities in the capital, due to lack of equipment, staff, or an unannounced change of location.
Nevertheless, some say that the nationwide collection of biometric data is long overdue and that the problem is the government's typically clumsy execution of the plan:
Работа начата и хорошо, что наконец-то правительство пошло на этот шаг. Хотя надо было начать раньше, чтобы без ажиотажа.
Work has started and that is a good thing. Finally the government has begun working on this issue. They should have started earlier in order not to do everything at the last minute, though.

author: Dasha Kondrateva


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In Putin’s Russia, Hell Is Other Liberals · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

The hard knocks of life in Russia's intelligentsia. Images edited by Kevin Rothrock. Illustration by Valery Osipov, CC 2.0.
What a difference a week can make! Last week, Russia’s blogosphere and news media were on pins and needles, waiting to learn the fate of Alexey Venediktov, the chief editor of Echo of Moscow, Russia’s most celebrated independent radio station. Venediktov’s job was on the line, after one of his top anchors, Alexander Plushev, tweeted an ill-considered joke about the recently drowned son of a high-ranking Kremlin official. Then, somewhat unexpectedly, Venediktov was able to reach a compromise with Echo of Moscow’s majority shareholder, Gazprom Media, and keep his position.
Today, Venediktov is at the center of two scandals that threaten his reputation among the same liberal oppositionists who defended him days earlier. On Saturday, November 22, he attended a birthday party for Konstantin Remchukov, chief editor of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, a semi-respected Russian newspaper. At the party, Venediktov schmoozed with Dmitri Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, and pro-Kremlin television personality Mikhail Leontyev. There are photos. Remchukov live-tweeted them.
Many in Moscow’s liberal intelligentsia—a clique known in Russian as the “tusovka”—were indignant that Venediktov would rub elbows with the same people who a week earlier might have welcomed his ouster. Some, like politician Boris Nemtsov and Snob.ru Chief Editor Nikolai Uskov, came to Venediktov’s defense, but younger, less compromising figures have not hidden their disappointment. Arseny Bobrovsky, the co-creator of the Twitter parody account KermlinRussia, compared embracing Peskov to hugging a turd. Such mingling, Bobrovsky says, is useless social-ladder-climbing.
Lesya Ryabtseva and Alexey Venediktov, May 10, 2014. Facebook.
Then, on Sunday, November 23, Venediktov’s personal aide, Lesya Ryabtseva, announced in a blog post on Echo’s website that she is coordinating a working group to draft a set of rules to determine appropriate social media behavior for employees of Gazprom Media, which owns several Russian TV stations, including NTV and 2×2, in addition to Echo of Moscow. Ryabtseva’s blog post, provocatively titled “EchoComNadzor” (a play on “RosComNadzor,” Russia’s FCC equivalent), was poorly worded. When describing the reach of Echo’s code of ethics, she said vaguely, “The maximum task is to create general rules for everyone. For each and every journalist. For this radio station, for this holding, or for the whole country—it doesn’t matter.”
To make matters worse, Ryabtseva also seemed to take credit for the infamous “Law on Bloggers,” which earlier this year created new obligations for “information distributors” on the RuNet and introduced a government registry for handpicked “popular bloggers.” Echo’s working group will include members of the station’s editorial staff, as well as lawyers from Gazprom Media, and representatives from the Communication Ministry and Roscomnadzor, among others. “Put simply,” Ryabtseva says, “I called all my friends, with whom we made the Law on Bloggers.”
Stanislav Apetyan, a “patriotic” blogger and Russian media figure, pounced on Ryabtseva’s admission, writing on Facebook, “Now I understand who’s to thank for a law written so idiotically that Roscomnadzor can’t even enforce it in practice.” It wasn’t just the pro-Kremlin crowd, however, who took issue with Ryabtseva’s “EchoComNadzor” bombshell. Dozens of prominent liberal journalists and civic figures criticized her, objecting to any collaboration with government censors, protesting the concept of a social media rulebook “for the whole country,” and even taking aim at Ryabtseva’s age (she's 23) and her curiously close relationship to Venediktov.
Ostap Karmodi speculated sarcastically that Ryabtseva might be another “Katya Moomoo,” referring to a four-year-old sex scandal where pro-Kremlin activists lured unknowing oppositionists into the company of hired escorts, implying that Venediktov’s ties to his aide are not exclusively professional. “Before, when men hired as their secretaries such illiterate, enterprising people, the risk wasn’t so high,” wrote former Kommersant journalist Demyan Kudryavtsev.
Lesya Ryabtseva in the Echo of Moscow studio. October 11, 2014. Facebook.
In her blog post, it turns out, Ryabtseva was referring to Echo’s involvement in consultations with Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov in April 2014 about the blogger registry, which was still just draft legislation. The meeting took place in public, at a busy café no less, and Echo attended along with news agencies Interfax and RIA Novosti. Even Wikimedia, Yandex, and Google sent representatives. Ryabtseva actually blogged about it when it happened, though few people took much notice. (The blog post has only 22 views, at the time of this writing.) “We gathered to discuss the future of the RuNet, and we ‘wrote the law,’” Ryabtseva told RuNet Echo. The consultations, however, had little impact on either the law’s final text or its bylaws, she says. “What resulted in the end, well, you’ll have to excuse us. We weren’t invited to the ‘final drafting’ of the law,” she told us.
Over the weekend, Venediktov was active on social media, defending himself and his assistant. When Leonid Volkov, Alexey Navalny’s former campaign manager and trusted advisor, asked on Twitter, “Which is worse: the Dima Yakovlev law [which banned American adoptions of Russian orphans] or the Lesya Ryabtseva law?” Venediktov resorted to a surprisingly nasty personal attack:
Так сколько раз Вы свободно пересекли границу РФ туда-сюда, когда все соратники Навального под арестом или невозвращением? @leonidvolkov
— Alexey Venediktov (@aavst) November 23, 2014
So, Leonid, how many times have you traveled abroad without any problems, when all Navalny’s comrades are either under arrest or in exile?
Venediktov also defended himself in a blog post on Echo’s website, telling readers that he won’t ask permission to meet with certain people. At Remchukov’s birthday party, Venediktov says, he was working, apparently securing interviews with Peskov, Japan’s ambassador to Russia, and trying to commission Leontyev to interview Rosneft Executive Chairman Igor Sechin.
The speed and vigor with which Russia’s intelligentsia turned on Venediktov in such a short time would be nothing short of amazing, were it anything unusual in the Moscow “tusovka.” As it happens, this kind of thing happens all the time. In fact, at the height of Venediktov’s recent job scare, Oleg Kashin published on his website a list of “12 labors” by the Echo chief editor, each one a brush with “traitorous,” pro-Kremlin behavior, like the kind on display at Remchukov’s birthday bash last weekend. Each time, the tusovka scolded Venediktov for flying too close to the nastiness of Russia’s powerful, and each time he managed to return to the public’s good graces, after they remembered his value as an independent journalist.
Venediktov’s latest controversy is a reminder of something Grigory Yavlinsky said in September last year. Yavlinsky, a perennial loser of Russian elections and another “frenemy” of the liberal intelligentsia, said, “There are few people in Moscow right now who are afraid of Putin, but nearly everyone fears their own tusovka.”

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Strong Earthquake in Japan’s Nagano Injures Dozens, Topples Homes · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Screenshot of M6.8 Nagano earthquake courtesy ANN News.
An earthquake struck central Japan on Saturday, November 22, injuring 41 people and collapsing dozens of farmhouses, destroying roads, and toppling tombstones in the village of Hakuba in Nagano prefecture.
The magnitude 6.8 earthquake trapped 21 people under collapsed houses, but all were freed and no deaths were reported.
Many houses collapse, 41 people injured after strong earthquake strikes Nagano in Japan. http://t.co/XHuCqPkXfS pic.twitter.com/3UrOFF3rkE
— わんわんわん公 (@watanabewankou) November 23, 2014
白馬村堀ノ内地区。一階部分が完全につぶれています。 pic.twitter.com/d97isDNPjM
— 山口のりひさ (@yamaguchijcpngn) November 23, 2014
Horinouchi Ward in Hakuba Village. The first floor has totally collapsed.
Hakuba in Nagano Prefecture lies about 200 kilometers northwest of Tokyo, and was the site of the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Following the quake, it was discovered that Hakuba sits atop an active fault line. The shifting ground caused considerable damage to roads and other infrastructure around the village, as well as to cemeteries.
被害、オリンピック道路です。悲しいな。 #地震 #白馬 pic.twitter.com/avP1VjNf5G — 金ちゃん (@kinchan795) November 22, 2014
Olympic Avenue has been damaged, so sad. #地震 (earthquake) #白馬 (Hakuba)
The earthquake also caused power outages that affected rapid express trains on routes in different parts of central Japan. Many Twitter users posted about being stuck on shut-down trains.
地震速報の影響？車掌アナウンスによると東海道新幹線の新横浜〜岐阜羽島で停電らしい pic.twitter.com/k3GuDDe0DV — Neriken (@nerikenn) November 22, 2014
I wonder if the earthquake is responsible for this? The conductor has announced that a power outage has shut down Shinkansen bullet train service has shut down between Yokohama and Gifu in central Japan.
Twitter users near the earthquake in Nagano posted photos of the aftermath of the temblor:
やばい！地震 アップルランドが大変なことになってる pic.twitter.com/NgwoTFNwjF
— AbeNori@P.F (@pleasant_vo) November 22, 2014
Oh no! The earthquake has made a huge mess in the liquor aisle!
長野市のドンキホーテにて地震に遭遇。 自分も妻も無事です。 pic.twitter.com/06gQW5stvZ
— まーちょ! (@marcho01) November 22, 2014
The aftermath of the earthquake at the Don Quixote discount store in Nagano City.
A total of 53 aftershocks had been recorded by midday Sunday, the Meteorological Agency’s earthquake and tsunami division said.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Three Cases that Show Social Networks Are Helping Hold Mozambique’s Government Accountable  · Global Voices
Uric Raul Mandiquisse

Some renowned journalists in Mozambique have accounts on various social networks, but they do not believe in their potential to influence decision-making, government action or social participation among others. However, the government itself has recognised their utility by creating accounts on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp. Here are three recent examples where social networks have knocked on the door of accountability and governance in Mozambique.
1. In November 2013, a letter by Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco circulated on Facebook criticising the method of government used by Armando Emílio Guebuza, President of the Republic of Mozambique. As a result, the author of the letter was summoned to testify before the Attorney General on May 26, 2014.
2. When the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA) offered a Mercedes Benz S350 to the President of the Republic, José Jaime Macuane, a university lecturer at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, immediately wrote a post on Facebook explaining that the act violated the Public Probity Law. The issue made the headlines of various newspapers and was discussed all over the country for over a week, even once the Mercedes had been returned three days later.
3. To promote citizenship, transparency and active participation by citizens, Olho do Cidadão (Citizen's Eye), which is led by Fernanda Lobato and Tomás Queface, developed digital platform Txeka to allow citizens to participate directly in observing elections on October 15 via SMS, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and email. This culminated in the creation of a situation room, comprising various civil society institutions and academicians, as well as a partnership with STV – an independent television channel – which hosted the broadest real-time coverage of the event, using the information sent by citizens via the Txeka channels.
In spite of the fact that in Mozambique, just 4.3% of the population has access to the Internet, the citizen reporter's perspective is valid and useful. Debates on social networks can influence government actions to a certain extent.

author: Uric Raul Mandiquisse


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Venezuela: Draft Law Would Criminalize Online Protest, Remove Checks on Surveillance · Global Voices
Marianne Díaz Hernández

A police officer watches protesters in Maracaibo, Venezuela 2014. Photo by María Alejandra Mora via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Venezuela's socialist party proposed an amendment to the country's Law on Organized Crime last week that would codify “cyber terrorism” as a crime. Deputy Eduardo Gómez Sigala, who opposes the bill, says it could be used to “intimidate and prevent citizens [from] express[ing] themselves through social networks.”
The draft was distributed on Nov. 19 but deliberations on the amendment have since been postponed.
Gómez Sigala told media outlets that under the new policy, people who use social networks or other electronic media to “promote or attack the constitutional order” or “disrupt public peace” could face between one and five years in prison.
Protests that peaked last February have since continued across the country, as have the trends of inflation, violent crime, and corruption that triggered demonstrations. The bill comes on the heels of numerous arrests of citizens using social media to organize protests and criticize government activities.
Article 72 of the text reads:
Attempt against public disorder [sic].
Whoever by use of mass media, electronic, telephone, social networking, advertising [or] audiovisual material originates, disseminates, promotes or exalts individual behaviors or activities of structured groups seeking to undermine constitutional order or seriously disturb public peace or the security and defense of the nation, or [to attempt] one or more terrorist acts, shall be punished with imprisonment of one to five years.
On Twitter the next day, Venezuelans used the #ciberterrorismo (#cyberterrorism) hashtag to gather information and express their opinions on the reform. Christopher Di Marco, an educator and expert in computing, tweeted:
Derechos, fue bueno tenerlos. Todos somos enemigos del Estado hasta probar lo contrario. #Ciberterrorismo pic.twitter.com/TI1zPa5Dx6
— Christopher Di Marco (@ChristophDM) noviembre 20, 2014
Rights, it was nice knowing you. We are all enemies of the State until proven otherwise. #Cyberterrorism
The image, which contains an article quoted by Di Marco from the draft of the bill, highlights the issue of “preventive interception.” It reads:
The Prosecution, through the criminal investigation bodies, may intercept documents, correspondence and wired or wireless communications from presumed terrorists or members of armed bands, terrorist organisations, structured groups or organisations, without court oversight, with a maximum of seven days, which content will be transcribed and added to the investigation, keeping the original sources of recording, ensuring its inalterability and subsequent identification. Besides, it may obtain intervened information between different government agencies.
Users also contested the vague language of the proposal, particularly terms such as “public peace” that could be subject to a broad range of interpretations by authorities. Journalist and cyberactivist Luis Carlos Díaz wrote:
La propuesta no sólo inventa el delito de #ciberterrorismo desde redes sociales. Además inventó la “paz pública”. ¿?
— Luis Carlos Díaz (@LuisCarlos) noviembre 20, 2014
The proposal not only invents the crime of #cyberterrorism from social networks. It also invented the “public peace”.
Along with the “preventive interception” provision, the draft also introduces concepts of “preventive home search”, “preventive detention”, and “preventive tracking”, all of which would give prosecutors the power to order these procedures without a court order.
There is little information on when the draft will be discussed at the National Assembly. But with the backing of the socialist party, which holds 99 out of 151 seats, its approval will be all but guaranteed.

author: Marianne Díaz Hernández


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Victims Reveal Culture of Rape and Silence at Brazil’s Top University · Global Voices
Taisa Sganzerla

Founded in 1912, the Medicine College of the University of São Paulo is one of Brazil's most traditional schools. Image by USP Imagens. CC BY-NC 3.0 BR
Brazil’s most prestigious university is facing accusations that it failed to investigate the rape of one of its students and the sexual assault of another — and pressured the victims not to report the incidents for the sake of the school's reputation.
At a public hearing this month in the São Paulo Legislative Assembly, two female undergraduates from FMUSP, the medicine college of University of São Paulo, came forward with their reports of sexual abuse while attending parties on campus.
An investigation opened by the human rights district attorney in the São Paulo public prosecutor’s office cites eight rape cases that took place in the school since 2011. Both the hearing and the investigation are looking into sexual violence, racism, discrimination and other human right abuses at the institution. Amidst the scandal and media attention, FMUSP has suspended all parties on its campus until further notice.
One of the students says she was raped in 2011 while she was unconscious at the party “Carecas no Bosque” (“bald heads in the woods”). The party is organized by the Academic and Athletic Association Oswaldo Cruz, one of the main FMUSP student organizations, which has existed since 1928.
In an account given to website UOL, she said that after having too much to drink a friend took her to a place called “cafofo” – closed structures with mattresses that serve as a place for couples to hook up – where she passed out. Shortly after, a man was seen raping her while she was unconscious, a fact she learned after waking up at a hospital hours later.
She said during the week that followed she was systematically discouraged by both classmates and faculty to report her rape to authorities:
Na faculdade, diziam que eu ia destruir a Atlética, que isso [o estupro] não podia vazar. Um ex-presidente da Atlética disse: “a gente precisa abafar: primeiro, para proteger a vítima e, segundo, porque isso vai destruir a festa”. Eu procurava as pessoas para saber se testemunhariam, e eu sentia que elas se mostravam receosas e esquivas. Todo mundo falava que eu tinha que deixar isso para trás, que tinha que tocar a minha vida para a frente. Chegavam a falar que eu não ia conseguir provar.
In the school, they said I was going to destroy the Academic and Athletic Association Oswaldo Cruz, that the story could not leak. An ex-president from the association said, “We need to silence it. First, to protect the victim and, second, because this will destroy the party.” I would ask people if they would testify, and I sensed they were fearful and evasive. Everyone said that I had to leave it behind me, to get on with my life. They said I wouldn’t be able to prove it.
She decided to take the case to the police anyway. But three years into the investigation, authorities haven't convicted anyone, though after the public hearing a suspect was charged. She said the FMUSP board of directors took notice of the case, but did nothing:
“Até hoje, quando o inquérito policial está sendo finalizado, eu descubro coisas sobre meu caso que não sabia, por exemplo, que a diretoria da Atlética não permitiu que a polícia entrasse no local da festa”.
Even today, while the police inquiry is being concluded, I found out things about my case that I didn’t know before. For example, that the directors of the association didn’t let the police enter the party.
The Academic and Athletic Association of the Medicine College of USP, one the main student organizations. Image by USP Imagens. CC BY-NC 3.0 BR
The other student who agreed to talk at the public hearing says she was abused by two men in November 2013 during another party organized by seniors at the Student Academic Center. It started when they insisted she go to the parking lot with them:
“Eu falava que não queria, eles insistiam para eu ir. Me puxavam, mas eu não queria ficar com eles. Nesse vai e vem acabamos chegando ao carro deles. Lá eles começaram a me beijar, enfiar a mão dentro da minha roupa, dentro da minha calça. Queriam que eu entrasse no carro, abriram a porta, e eu comecei a gritar, a fazer um escândalo, dizendo que não queria. Tentava sair e eles impediam a minha passagem. Me empurravam, e um deles começou a gritar comigo: ‘para de gritar, para de gritar!’. Eu dizia que não queria os dois e um deles respondia: ‘você quer sim, eu sei que você quer, deixa de ser chata’. E os dois me beijavam, passavam a mão em tudo, não me deixavam sair. Nisso uma menina que estava no estacionamento brigando com o namorado viu o que aconteceu, deu um grito e me chamou. Então consegui sair.”
I said I didn’t want to go, but they insisted. They kept pulling me, though I didn’t want to hook up with them. When we arrived by the car, they tried to kiss and fondle me. They wanted me to get into the car, they opened the door and that’s when I started to scream and make a scene, saying that I didn’t want to. I would try to get out and they would hold me, they pushed me and one of them said “stop screaming!” I said I didn’t want to hook up with either of them and they said, “Yes, you do, I know you do, stop being such a drag.” A girl who was also in the parking lot saw what was going on and shouted to me. That’s when I managed to get out.
Once she reported the case to the school, a commission of four professors was created. Six months later, it concluded that the interaction was consensual and the problem was alcohol consumption. She says she has been harassed by other students ever since – one of her abusers even threatened to sue her for defaming him:
“Após mais de um ano os caras continuam impunes e eu cruzo com eles quase todos os dias. Sou tida como uma vagabunda na faculdade.”
A year later, they haven't been punished and I see them almost every day. I am seen as a slut at the school.
Culture of violence
Although this is the first time the University of São Paulo's medicine school has faced such accusations, it has long had a reputation for its violent “trotes” – a ritual organized by seniors to mark the entrance of freshman students in the school. In 1999, one case gained national notoriety when 22-year-old freshman Edison Tsung Chi Hsueh died during a a “trote” after being pushed into a swimming pool and left there, despite his protests that he couldn’t swim. After a long court battle, the four men accused were found not guilty in 2006 by Brazil's Supreme Court due to lack of evidence.
In 2013, a group of FMUSP female students founded Geni, a feminist collective that also serves as a support group for survivors of sexual violence. Although Rosa and Leandra’s cases were the only ones taken to the police, Geni has received reports of at least eight other cases of campus sexual abuse.
A student that chose to remain anonymous told website Ponte that the problem is the extremely sexist environment at the parties, which encourages men to believe that any girl who in attendance is also available:
“Todo o marketing é baseado no fato de que lá haverá muitas mulheres e que vai ter sexo à vontade. A USP inteira sabe que tanto a ‘Carecas’ quanto a ‘Fantasias’ são para isso, para ir lá e transar”
The whole marketing of the party is based on the idea that there will be many women there and there will be sex for everybody. The whole university knows that the purpose of both “Carecas” and “Fantasias” is just that, to go there and get laid.
The parties “Carecas” and “Fantasias”, which happen alternately every semester, charge female guests almost half the price of their males counterparts for a ticket. The idea is that male teams of each sport would put up tents to sell drinks and raise funds, but students reported that in some of them hired prostitutes do strip teases and body shots, or porn movies are played; one team calls its tent “slaughter house”.
Marina Pinkman, from Geni, said representatives of the collective have tried to meet with the directors of the Academic and Athletic Association Oswaldo Cruz to insist that measures be put into place so that female students aren't so vulnerable at their parties. The association responded that nothing will be done before a court ruling is made:
As meninas não reclamam muito, fica velado, pois ninguém tem coragem de criticar a Atlética, porque é uma instituição muito forte. Existe um corporativismo muito grande envolvendo a Atlética, ou o Show Medicina. Você vai ser perseguido se reclamar, se der a cara para bater”
The girls don’t complain much, everything is veiled as no one has the guts to criticize the association since it’s a very powerful institution. The association and Show Medicina [another student entity] are only out for themselves. You’ll be harassed if you complain.
One of the posters for the “Carecas no Bosque” party. “The whole marketing is based on the idea that there will be women available for sex”, one student comments.
The eight cases that reached Geni were taken to the Public Prosecutor for Justice in Human Rights and Social Inclusion, Paula de Figueiredo Silva, who opened a civil inquiry in August to investigate human rights violations at the school. She told news portal Terra:
“A princípio achei que fosse um caso pontual, mas é um relato amplo, de uma realidade de violações constantes de direitos fundamentais das minorias. Existe (na faculdade) uma realidade de discriminação e exclusão, principalmente contra mulheres e homossexuais”
At first I thought they were isolated cases, but they’re actually widespread and stem from a reality of constant violation of fundamental rights. There is (in the school) a reality of discrimination and exclusion, especially against women and homosexuals.
FMUSP issued an official statement saying it is “making efforts to improve its mechanisms of preventing such cases, investigating reports and protecting victims.” It also stated the the “culture of the institution is based on tolerance and mutual respect, values that are passed to the students.” The school said it will present a full report next week on all the sexual abuse, rape and violent “trotes” cases that have taken place at the institution.
Another hearing is scheduled for November 25 in the São Paulo Legislative Assembly, to which representatives from the Academic and Athletic Association Oswaldo Cruz are invited to attend.

author: Taisa Sganzerla


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Young Independent Candidates Are Shaking Up Taiwan’s Local Elections · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

The Central Election Commission tells voters how to vote.
Taiwan's local elections will be held on November 29, 2014 in which 11,130 public servants, including city mayors, city councilors and village chiefs will be chosen from 19,762 candidates. The outcome of the local elections will affect the result of the 2016 Taiwan legislative and presidential elections.
While the electoral system in Taiwan favors the two-party system in which the ruling party is mainly a competition between Kuomintang (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), this year a number of small political parties and individuals have decided to compete with the big parties in the upcoming local elections.
Among the new faces are young people who are not affiliated with any party, but who come from the Wild Strawberry Movement in 2008 and the Sunflower Movement in 2014, which led a three-week occupation of Taiwan's legislature earlier this year to protest a secretly negotiated trade deal with China. Many want to use of the occasion of elections to deliver their ideas about social justice to a wider audience and bring change to their hometowns if they win the position of village chief.
One of the young candidates, Yoshi Liu, was involved in the 2008 Wild Strawberry Movement, a student movement that stood against the police abuse of power during mainland Chinese officials’ visit to Taiwan. He explained why he decided to run for the election in an interview with reporters from News E-forum, an independent citizen media run by students and activists:
回憶2008年野草莓運動，妖西看見「社會運動無法與學生生涯結合」，也看見了社運的侷限。他直言，社運青年常被政治潔癖或信條所困，無法有效結合握有權力者，最後人散掉了、也籌措不了更多資源。但政治卻可能帶來真正改變。
When Yoshi looked back on the Wild Strawberry Movement in 2008, he saw that “students were incapable of supporting a long-term social movement”. He also believed that the social movement had their limitations. However, most young activists tried to stay away from mainstream politics and refused to work with those who were in a position of power. Eventually, they [graduated and] left the movement, and it couldn't find enough resources for future mobilization. Election politics, however, can make real change.
News E-forum reporters interviewed a political scientist to explain why many young candidates are aiming for the village chief position:
「台灣的民主化果實，是樹上很漂亮的花，地方的根逐漸在腐爛。」談到台灣地方政治，台大政治系教授王業立直言，雖然中央政府已經歷二次政黨輪替，台灣民主素養看似提升，但地方民意代表至今幾乎其實都是地方派系掌控，甚至時常與「黑金」劃上等號。
台灣地方政治猶如一個小生態系，而當選與否高度仰賴人際網絡，因此，與地方連結度強的里長便成為關鍵角色：「樁腳」。
談到青年參政如何撼動或改變現有結構，比起哪一個「個人」能夠當選，真正的期許反而多落在「如何改變現有選舉文化」這個目標上。
“Democracy in Taiwan is the beautiful flowers hanging from the tree, but its roots based in the local communities are rotten.” When discussing local politics in Taiwan, Professor Wang Yeh-Lih at the National Taiwan University's Department of Political Science said that although the island has gone through the rotation of ruling parties and society has developed a political culture in the practice of democracy, at the local level councilors and village chiefs are still controlled by local factions, which are often connected to gangs and plutocrats.
Local politics in Taiwan is like a small ecosystem. The chances of winning a position are highly related to a person's social network. As a result, the village chiefs, who are well connected in their communities, are playing the role of “vote brokers” in upper-level elections.
Regarding how young candidates can change the present system, he believed that the emphasis should be put on the goal of “how to change the existing culture of election” instead of on which individual wins the vote.
With few resources, it would be indeed difficult for young candidates to win any elections. Coolloud.org, an independent media outlet focused on social movement news, explained why the electoral system in Taiwan does not favor newcomers without financial resources:
依縣市級別和參選項目之不同，每位參選人需籌措12萬~200萬不等，對於資源龐大且還可獲國家補助的大黨來說，保證金有如一碟小菜無足掛齒，但對於小黨及一般參選人來說，保證金是首先要面對的挑戰，不少綠黨參選人雖已準備好跨越這道門檻，但隨著保證金繳進國庫，從擬參選人正式加入選戰的綠黨「候選人」們，又要面對競選基金歸零的另一道難關。
除了設定的保證金門檻，接下來從競選團隊、買廣告一路下來有如一場精彩的財力遊戲
目前的選舉機制，是以財力來評量可否參選甚至當選。
Individual candidates need to pay 120,000 to 2,000,000 New Taiwan dollars [3,909 to 65,150 US dollars] for an election deposit, depending on the particular position and level of government he or she is running for. For big political parties, which can obtain resources from the government, the election deposit is a piece of cake. However, for small parties and individuals, it is their first challenge. Although many candidates in the Green Party have gathered enough money for the deposit, they have used up all their cash and will not have enough money for their election campaigns.
In addition to the deposit, the election campaigns and advertising are all part of the glamorous money game.
Our present electoral system evaluates whether a candidate can register or even win the election by their wealth.
In addition to the election deposit and campaign funding, the mobilization of voters is also a money game. For example, Taiwanese businessmen in China who support the current ruling Kuoming Tang provide discount flight tickets for Taiwanese working in mainland China to fly back to Taiwan to vote.
To help young student voters travel back to their hometown for the elections, a citizen group called “Young citizen volunteer network” has set up a crowdfunding project to raise money for travel expenses.
The money barriers make it unfair for ordinary people to participate in elections, but young people are taking an important first step to change the rules of the game by running in local elections.

author: I-fan Lin


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16 Days to Campaign Against Gender Violence  · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

From the campaign website.
To encourage action against violence in general and gender violence in particular, the Center of Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), based at Rutgers University in the US, has launched a 16 day campaign “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World”. Starting November 25, campaign participants “will highlight the systemic nature of gender-based violence and militarism which encourages inequality and discrimination”.
Global Voices Online will be participating in this campaign;  we will publish stories, debates and conversations on social media around the world about violence in society and violence against women.
The campaign also aims to raise awareness around the fact that most governments designate weapon spending more urgent and important, than funding projects devoted to education, equality and safer public spaces. Despite recognition of gender based violence as a public health issue and a human rights concern by international organizations, the low priority given in international development agendas continues to be alarmingly low.
According to the World Health Organization:
Violence against women – particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women – are major public health problems and violations of women's human rights.
Recent global prevalence figures indicate that 35% of women worldwide have experienced either intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.
On average, 30% of women who have been in a relationship report that they have experienced some form of physical or sexual violence by their partner.
Globally, as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner.
Violence can result in physical, mental, sexual, reproductive health and other health problems, and may increase vulnerability to HIV.
Risk factors for being a perpetrator include low education, exposure to child maltreatment or witnessing violence in the family, harmful use of alcohol, attitudes accepting of violence and gender inequality.
Risk factors for being a victim of intimate partner and sexual violence include low education, witnessing violence between parents, exposure to abuse during childhood and attitudes accepting violence and gender inequality.
In high-income settings, school-based programmes to prevent relationship violence among young people (or dating violence) are supported by some evidence of effectiveness.
In low-income settings, other primary prevention strategies, such as microfinance combined with gender equality training and community-based initiatives that address gender inequality and communication and relationship skills, hold promise.
Situations of conflict, post conflict and displacement may exacerbate existing violence and present additional forms of violence against women.
To broaden strategies and engage different groups, CWGL is launching the campaign on the International Day to end Gender-based Violence (Nov 25) with the Day of Human Rights (Dec 10):
The intersectionality of age, class, gender, geographic location, race/ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation among other categories of analysis inform the ways in which women experience and respond to violence, inequality, and discrimination. They also affect the ways in which communities and the States respond since States’ relations with the people are mediated in part through the above categories […] Integral to a world free of gender-based violence where all are able to experience freedom from fear and want is, in part, the recognition of the indivisibility of human rights, and that women’s rights are human rights.
The campaign has identified three priority areas of action: Violence perpetrated by state actors, proliferation of small arms in cases of intimate partner violence, and sexual violence during and after conflict. For each area, the page of the campaign suggests different types of strategies to raise awareness and participate in the struggle against these abuses.

author: Laura Vidal


text:
As Turkish Women Struggle for Freedom from Violence, Their President Tells Them: Give up on Equality  · Global Voices
Ece Basay

Photo from 8 March, International Women's Day, Night Walk in Istanbul. Photo taken from 3.bp.blogspot.com.
On the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan created international headlines with another of his trademark boorish statements.
Addressing  a meeting held by the Women and Democracy Association (KADEM) and the Ministry of Family and Social Policy,  Erdoğan said that it was impossible to speak of equality between men and women since the sexes differ in physical structure and nature.
Bizim dinimiz kadına bir makam vermiş, annelik makamı. Anneye bir makam daha vermiş. Cenneti ayakları altına sermiş. Babanın değil annenin ayakları altına koymuş. Ama bunu anlayanlar olur anlamayanlar olur. Bunu feministlere anlatamazsın mesela, onlar anneliği kabul etmiyor.
Our religion gave women a place – motherhood. It gave a mother another place. It laid the heaven beneath their feet. Not beneath a father's, but a mother's feet. However, this might not be understood by everyone. You cannot explain this issue to feminists. They do not accept motherhood.
According to Erdoğan, the struggle for women's rights has been tied for too long to rigid concepts, one of those being the concept of equality. Instead of talking about equality, he suggested, women should focus on “equivalence”.
Kadınların ihtiyacı olan şey nedir? Burada bazen erkek kadın eşitliği diyorlar. Kadın kadına eşitlik doğru olandır. Erkek erkeğe eşitlik doğru olandır. Ancak kadının özellikle adalet karşısındaki eşitliği asıl olandır. Kadınların ihtiyacı olan eşitlikten ziyade eşdeğer olabilmektir. Yani adalettir. Buna ihtiyacımız var.
What do women need? Sometimes they argue that what is needed is equality between man and woman. What is right is equality between woman and woman. Equality between man and man is correct. However, what is essential is the equality of all women before the law. Women need equivalence more than equality. This means justice. This is what we need.
Erdoğan's comments sparked instant controversy. Some argued that the head of state's position was the precise reason for ongoing inequality and gender violence.
Eşitlik doğuştandır, eşdeğerlik muktedirin lülfetmesidir,”Eşdeğer” tartışması eşitsizliğin devamı içindir. #KadınErkekEsittir — Arif Ali Cangı (@ARIFCANGI) November 25, 2014
Equality is birthright, equivalence is to favor the powerful. Discussions of “equivalence” are for the continuation of inequality. #Womenandmenareequal.
Güneş doğudan doğar. Su 100 derecede kaynar. İki kere iki dört yapar. #KadınErkekEsittir — Katre (@trajiklambasi) November 24, 2014
Sun rises in the east. Water boils at 100 degrees. Two times two is four. #Womenandmenareequal
In Turkey, violence againts women is a major issue. According to the women's branch of the Republican People's Party, 255 women were killed within the first ten months of 2014, while other forms of abuse against women — verbal, psychological and economic — are also common. For this reason, the United Nations-endorsed International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women had taken on a special significance in the country.
Many were unhappy that Erdoğan's comments could appear to undermine that significance and lead to a further deterioration in women's plight.
Her gün bir kadın öldürülüyor,her gün binlerce kadın şiddet görüyor ken eşit değil demek davetiyedir #KadınaSiddeteHayır #KadınKatliamıVar — Mavi (@1lahzamavi) November 25, 2014
Saying that women and men are not equal is an invitation where everyday a women is killed, and thousands of women face violence. #Endviolenceagainstwomen #Massacreofwomen
On November 25, different women's rights organizations gathered across Turkey for events and protests, publicising their efforts on social media with hash tags such as #KadınaSiddeteHayır (#Endviolenceagainstwomen) and #KadınKatliamıVar (#Massacreofwomen). As women in Turkey suffer more and more deaths related to gender violence, their demands are for better and more efficient government legislation and regulations, and proper state protection for women.
Erdoğan's personal hostility towards gender equality is unlikely to deter them.

author: Ece Basay


text:
Bahrain’s Justice Minister Picks Fight With Newspaper Editor on Twitter · Global Voices
Mohamed Hassan

Many voting stations in the opposition areas have been mostly empty as they are boycotting the elections of Bahrain 2014. Photo by Majed Tareef. Copyright Demotix.
Bahrainis voted for the first time since a popular uprising on the tiny island began in 2011 and was later brutally suppressed by authorities. Turnout depends on who you ask — the government says 51.9 percent of voters went to the polls, while the opposition (which boycotted the elections) puts the figure at around 30 percent.
The difference in percentages was noted by daily newspaper Al-Wasat's editor-in-chief Mansoor Al-Jamri, who reminded readers there's more to elections than simply winning in the numbers. But his observations about freedoms sparked a war of words on Twitter with Bahrain's Minister of Justice Khalid bin Ali Al-Khalifa, a member of Bahrain's ruling Al-Khalifa royal family.
In the November 24 editorial column titled “Beyond the numbers war,” Al-Jamri wrote:
بغض النظر عن الأرقام، فإن العملية السياسية الناجحة تقاس بمؤشرات أساسية لا يمكن إغفالها، ومنها فيما إذا كانت السجون مليئة أم فارغة من معتقلين لأسباب سياسية، وفيما إذا كان المختلفون في الرأي يمارسون حياتهم بصورة عادية ولا يوجد خطر على حياتهم، وفيما إذا كان بالإمكان أن يمارس الجميع دوراً ما من دون أن يتعرض لتمييز أو مضايقة بسبب انتماءاته أو أفكاره… في ذلك الحين، فإن الأرقام تصبح مادة للتحاور بدلاً من تحولها إلى مادة للتندر أو الاحتراب.
Beyond the numbers, a political process has indicators that can't be ignored. It includes whether the prisons are full or empty of people arrested for political reasons. Whether people of a different opinions live normally without fear for their life. Whether people are free to perform their roles without being discriminated against or harassed for their opinions or affiliation. After that, numbers will be a matter of debate instead of a laughing matter or a matter of increasing strife.
The minister seemed infuriated by the article — or what it hinted at. He tweeted in response:
من السفه ان يخرج شخص ليدعي بوجود حرب ارقام!! الحرب حوالينا ومنعتها إرادة الشعب ان تكون علينا. فالتبق في حربك الافتراضية وكف الناس هذا السفه.
— Bu Abdullah (@Khaled_Bin_Ali) November 24, 2014
It's out of lunacy that a person would claim that there is a numbers war!! The war is around us and the will of the people prevented it from being on us. Remain in your virtual war and spare the people this lunacy
Al-Jamri replied to the minister:
@Khaled_Bin_Ali عدل مزاجك يامعالي الوزير… سعة الصدر تفسح المجال للعدل في الامور بصورة افضل.
— Mansoor Al-Jamri (@MANSOOR_ALJAMRi) November 24, 2014
Calm down, your excellency, an open mind makes more room for justice
Al-Jamri is the 2011 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee and the co-founder of the paper. Another co-founder, Kareem Fakhrawi, was tortured to death in 2011.
The minister responded, proclaiming that the victory was “historic” despite the opposition's calls for boycott:
@MANSOOR_ALJAMRi الطعن في وقفة ٢٢ نوفمبر التاريخية وتصويرها على انها حرب ارقام محاولة بائسة. العدل ليست حالة مزاجية بل هي رسالة سماوية وكفى
— Bu Abdullah (@Khaled_Bin_Ali) November 24, 2014
Doubting the historic victory of 22 November and framing it as a numbers war is miserable attempt. Justice isn't a matter of temper, but a heavenly message and that's enough
Only six out of 40 candidates have passed the first round of elections, which were marred by reports that the government had offered incentives including priority for employment and public services for those who ran in the elections and even an iPhone for some students who voted. The winner of the most votes so far has 4,197, about the same number as political detainees estimated by the opposition.
Al-Jamri wrote:
@Khaled_Bin_Ali طال عمرك مصطلح حرب الارقام ليس من عندي وكانت في اخبار الاذاعات امس… يمكنك انشغالاتكم لم تسمح لكم الاطلاع عليها. وشكرا.
— Mansoor Al-Jamri (@MANSOOR_ALJAMRi) November 24, 2014
Your excellency, the term “numbers war” is not mine, it was in the wire news yesterday… Maybe you were too busy to review it. Thanks.
He was referring to news agency Agence France-Press (AFP), which is one of the news outlets that covered the elections. Bahrain's government has a history of denying foreign journalists a visa or entry into the country at the border.
The minister replied:
@MANSOOR_ALJAMRi المتابعة لما يكتب هي جزء من عملي… فإذا كان هناك مصطلح فاسد يتم الترويج له في الخارج فمن العدل التصدي لترويجه في الداخل
— Bu Abdullah (@Khaled_Bin_Ali) November 24, 2014
Reading what is published is a part of my job… if there's a foul term being used outside the country it's only fair that we prevent its promotion inside the country
Bahrain has also gone after home-grown journalists who have covered the uprising.
Al-Jamri pointed to the issue of freedom of opinion by tweeting in reply:
@Khaled_Bin_Ali نعم لكم رأي محترم وغيركم له رأي محترم ايضا، والاحترام المتبادل للاراء سمة لابأس بها.
— Mansoor Al-Jamri (@MANSOOR_ALJAMRi) November 24, 2014
Yes, you have an opinion, which I respect and others have their opinions, which I respect as well, mutual respect is a merit
The minister didn't agree:
@MANSOOR_ALJAMRi عندما يتولى السادة القضاة اعلان نتائج الانتخابات بالارقام فان المسالة ليست مسالة رأي. هي واقع وحقيقة ثابتة ليست للغط.
— Bu Abdullah (@Khaled_Bin_Ali) November 24, 2014
When judges are in charge of publishing the numbers, it's not a matter of opinion. It's an indisputable fact.
The judicial system in Bahrain had been the target of much criticism from international rights group, especially after fast-tracking hundreds of people through unjust trials in 2011. Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said, “Bahrain’s problem is not a dysfunctional justice system, but rather a highly functional injustice system.”
Al-Jamri responded to the minister:
@Khaled_Bin_Ali وهذالاينفي حق الرأي الاخر وحتى رب العالمين حاور ابليس
— Mansoor Al-Jamri (@MANSOOR_ALJAMRi) November 24, 2014
That doesn't abolish the right to have a different opinion, even God had a debate with Satan
The minister offered a final tweet on the matter:
@MANSOOR_ALJAMRi الله عز وجل لم يحاور ابليس!!!! ولسنا في هذا المعرض!!!!! ولا يجوز هذا التشبيه…. وسأقف عند هذا الحد
— Bu Abdullah (@Khaled_Bin_Ali) November 24, 2014
God didn't hold a debate with Satan!!! And this is not our topic!!! And this metaphor is not acceptable… and I'll stop at this point
Bahrain's elections took place in a climate of fear, where political dissent is a crime, freedom of expression is poor and the state sponsors an unspoken policy of sectarianism. The question is, what value does a vote have if it has all that baggage?

author: Mohamed Hassan


text:
China Touts Local Ground Rules for the Global Internet · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

World Internet Conference, by Badiucao for China Digital Times.
Wuzhen, China's futuristic town in the Zhejiang province, said hello and goodbye to the World Internet Conference last week. Many, of course, find it ironic that China—where the government blocks hundreds of foreign websites—hosted a summit about the World Wide Web, but local commentators seemed unfazed. Several speakers at the conference even argued that the outside world must accept China's confidence in its Internet regulations and understand that foreign businesses cannot profit in China without obeying local laws.
Conference attendees enjoyed special, temporary access to hundreds of blocked websites overseas. But throughout the rest of the country, the Chinese government stepped up censorship efforts. Edgecast, one of the world's largest content delivery networks (CDNs), experienced a DNS “poisoning” attack which left thousands of websites and mobile apps inoperable across China.
GreatFire.org, a website devoted to monitoring online censorship in China, claims the Chinese authorities are risking massive “collateral damage” by disrupting access to large numbers of apolitical sites in order to protect the state's sovereignty over the domestic network. For example, the attack on Edgecast inadvertently blocked Sony Mobile's global and Chinese sites, The Atlantic, Drupal.org, Gravatar, and others.
According to China's official media, hosting the Internet conference was an effort to “show confidence in sharing China's opinion on how to face online threats and how to enhance international cooperation online.” China's confidence, no doubt, comes largely from its enormous market of 632 million Internet users, 527 million of whom access the Web using mobile devices. Statisticians project there will be 850 million Internet users in China by 2015.
Many interpret China's Internet confidence to signal the country's growing determination to impose a Chinese approach to Internet governance worldwide. Su Xinghe, a Chinese commentator on tech news, says of China's new assertiveness:
极权在互联网领域的管控比以往任何时代都要严密，与一盘散沙的美国网路相比，中国的网路更加有组织、有纪律。20年来，从各种关于“备案”的法律法规，到广电总局等政府机构下达的内容限制令，再到对网路“有害资讯”的清除，以及对发布这些“有害资讯”的网路使用者的打击，中国互联网的发展可谓一日千里，为世界各国提供了相当宝贵的经验。[…]
互联网一直被当作意识形态领域斗争的前沿阵地，“带鱼”的上位和“野鸡”网站的兴起表明，当局发起了一场“占领互联网”的行动。以红色传统、社会正能量和歌功颂德为主体内容，以打击西方反华势力和国内自由民主思潮为抓手，充分利用资源和管道优势，让那些当局希望的内容充斥互联网——就如同文革时铺天盖地的大字报一样，给民众施以强力洗脑和强制服从的压力。适逢其时的世界互联网大会，便于当局将这样的内容更趋于官方化，在话语领域起到更好的压制作用。
Authoritarian power is good at using the Internet to monitor people. When compared with the United States’ loose control over the Net, China is more organized and disciplined. In the past 20 years, so many rules and regulations have been implemented [to restrict Internet service and content providers. Government authorities, including the State Administration of the Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television, keep issuing content-restriction directives and deleting “harmful information” on the Web. The distributors of harmful information are penalized. The development of Internet governance is far-reaching and this experience is valuable to other countries. […]
The Internet is considered to be at the forefront of China's ideological struggle. The rise of state-sponsored celebrities like Zhou Xiaoping and state-sponsored websites like “Phoenix” demonstrate that the authorities have launched a campaign to “occupy the Web” with the Chinese Communist Party's red tradition and “positive energy as praise” to help suppress anti-Chinese and Western values, like freedom and democracy. By controlling Internet resources and content platforms, the authorities fill the Web with the kind of content they want people to see, similar to the posters that covered every street corner during the Cultural Revolution. The objective is to brainwash people and use political pressure to make them submissive. Hosting the World Internet Conference, China's authorities can legitimize its practice in official language and further repress dissents.
In what was likely a Freudian slip, state-sponsored online celebrity Hua Qianfang praised China's “big-nation confidence” as “Sima Zhao's mind“, a Chinese idiomatic expression used to describe a hidden and immoral intention of usurping the throne or seizing power. During the World Internet Conference, many Chinese netizens repeated the idiom to mock the authorities’ hidden intention.
In Chinese, the whole expression reads, “Everyone on the street knows what's in Sima Zhao's mind.” The hidden intention is implied, and left unsaid. In fact, the director of China's State Internet Information Office, Lu Wei, said in the World Economic Forum, (via the China Digital Times):
Freedom and order are twin sisters, and they must live together […] The same principle applies to security. So we must have a public order [internationally]. And this public order cannot impact any particular local order. […] What we cannot permit, is the taking advantage of China’s market, of profiting from Chinese money, but doing damage to China. This will absolutely not be permitted. It is unacceptable to harm China’s interests, to harm China’s security, or to harm the interests of China’s consumers. Assuming respect for this bottom line any internet company is welcome in China.
The DNS attack on Edgecast and its “collateral damage” to thousands of business websites thus amounts to what Liu Wei says is China's determination to maintain “local order,” despite certain economic costs.
As China's role online grows and it becomes a key player in the shaping of global Internet governance, its approach to sovereignty still worries human rights activists. William Nee, a China researcher at Amnesty International, urged international business leaders to speak out about online freedom at the Conference, but the subject unfortunately didn't make the program.
As digital sovereignty continues to shape the future of Internet governance, it seems it will be left to local civil society to play a more significant role in China's fight for an open and free Internet.

author: Oiwan Lam