text:
14 Films That Have Been Banned in Iran Since 2007 · Global Voices
Center for Human Rights in Iran

Maadare Qalb Atomi (Atom Heart Mother has failed to make it to cinemas without any official explanation. Image from film publicity.
This is the second part of a post that originally appeared on iranhumanrights.org and is published here in collaboration with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Read the first part on Global Voices here.
Under President Hassan Rouhani, Iran has continued to ban films despite his repeated statements on the need to allow more cultural freedoms in the Islamic Republic.
“Rastakhiz” was the latest addition to the list of forbidden cinema, barred from screens in July 2015 by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, under the direct authority of Rouhani.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has compiled the following report on 14 films banned since 2007 in Iran. Other films may also have faced censorship issues but their makers have chosen to remain quiet, hoping to eventually get a screening permit.
Director Ahmad Reza Darvish directed the epic religious tale of the Ashura revolt. Despite abiding by many of Iran's religious ethics to make the film, conservative religious elements eventually called for its ban. Image from the Art Director, published for reuse.
“Rastakhiz” (Hussein, Who Said No) opened in cinemas on July 15, 2015, but was pulled within hours because of criticism from conservative religious leaders and protests by religious hardliners in front of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
“Rastakhiz” is a religious feature film set in 7th century Iraq that tells the story of the Ashura revolt, when Hossein, the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson and the third Imam of Shia Muslims, fought against the ruling caliph and died in an unequal battle near Karbala. Some religious leaders took issue with the depiction of Imam Hossein’s uncle Abolfazl al-Abbas. According to Shia theology, reproducing the face of the Imams and their family members is forbidden.
Director Ahmad Reza Darvish received many awards and accolades when “Rastakhiz” was first shown at the 2015 Fajr International Film Festival. But criticism from religious quarters was so strong that he was forced to cut 40 minutes of the film to satisfy Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance censors. Some religious leaders, however, were still dissatisfied and eventually forced the Ministry to pull its permit.
“As far as I’m aware as the director, this film has been made in accordance with the views of religious leaders, during the research phase when it received permission for production, and during the making of the film,” Darvish told ISNA, the official Iranian Students’ News Agency. “Even before public screening, when the film was being revised, representatives of some honorable religious leaders were present and some of them praised the filmmakers.”
According to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance spokesman Hossein Noushabadi, “'Rastakhiz’ will remain in suspension until its issues are resolved. In any case, this film will be screened at cinemas. But we hope the esteemed director and producer will cooperate with us so that we can resolve the issues more quickly.”
It is unclear if Darvish has agreed to make more revisions.
Image from Khooneh Dokhtar (The Girl's House), a film banned for being against “traditional and family values” by hardliners. Image from ICHRI.
“The Girl’s House” (2014), directed by Shahram Shah-Hosseini and written by Parviz Shahbazi, deals with issues facing Iranian women while telling the story of two female university students who try to solve the mystery surrounding the murder of one of their classmates.
Conservative media have slammed the film for being against “traditional and family values” and despite a number of revisions, it has not received a permit for public screening.
“The Girl’s House” was only screened at the 2015 Fajr Film Festival, after which it came under intense attacks from ultraconservative religious circles, and the Tehran Municipality’s cultural affairs division opposed its screening at cinemas under its management.
The state broadcasting organisation IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) reported that “nearly all viewers” considered the film to be immoral and the conservative Fars News Agency described it as an attempt to demonize religious Muslims and please foreign film festival judges.
Director Shah-Hosseini has dismissed the criticism. “I reject any accusation that this film is against Iranian or Islamic morals,” he told ISNA news agency.
Kami's Party promotional picture.
Ali Ahmadzadeh has made two feature films in his young directorial career and both have yet to get screening permission. His first film, “Kami’s Party”, about a road trip by a group of youths, was rejected by censors because they thought the actresses did not cover themselves properly.
“Mother of the Atomic Heart”, Ahmadzadeh’s latest film, has failed to make it to the cinemas without any official explanation. But its title has fueled rumors that the ban is due to references to Iran’s nuclear program.
Despite problems at home, Ahmadzadeh’s films were well-received abroad. “Kami’s Party” won the Best Film Award at the third Festival of Iranian Films in Prague and “Atom Heart Mother” was screened at the Berlin film festival.
A member of the production team of “Atom Heart Mother” told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that censors have not explained why it has been banned. “What usually happens is that if a film has a chance of being screened after censorship and revisions, the monitors will discuss it in a meeting with the director. But there are some films which have fundamental problems in terms of plot, screenplay and production and for those the monitors will not even bother to set up meetings,” he added.
Asabani Nista. Promotional film photo.
“I’m Not Angry” premiered at the 2014 Fajr International Film Festival after director Reza Dormishian agreed to cut 17 minutes, including the final scene, of the film. But the film was also shown simultaneously at the Berlin Film Festival, with the final scene intact.
“I’m Not Angry” was widely praised by film festival audiences but the reaction by hardline members of parliament, state media and conservative pressure groups was quite the opposite, forcing officials to ban special screenings of the film and to cancel a promotional press conference.
Dormishian’s film is about a university student who gets expelled because of his political activities and struggles to control his anger. Hardline critics are particularly displeased with scenes showing the turbulent events after the 2009 presidential elections in a positive light.
Despite its popularity with the Fajr film Festival’s audiences, “I’m Not Angry” was pulled from the festival’s competition category to ensure it received no awards, even though its leading actor Navid Mohammadzadeh had been nominated for the Best Actor award. At the awards ceremony, this note was read on behalf of the director: “Out of respect for the integrity of Iranian cinema and preserving peace, we will pass on our awards. Hoping for better days.”
Directed by Alireza Amini, the 2014 the Fajr International Film festival refused to show “Block 9, Exit 2″ because the organizers thought it was too “bitter”.
Still, the film was screened at a number of foreign film festivals. Most recently it won Best Film and Best Actor awards at the Kimera Film Festival in Italy.
Ashghalhaye Doostashtani. Promotional image.
“Lovely Garbage” did not get permission for public screening when it was completed in 2012 during Ahmadinejad’s presidency. But director Amiryoussefi has still not been able to show his third film in cinemas because the censors are unhappy about scenes related to the disputed 2009 presidential election.
The film begins with a group of protesters demonstrating against the results of the election. They run away from the security forces and take refuge inside the home of an old woman. There they discuss and criticize events of the past 30 years.
“Despite the insistence of the producer and some politicians, this film has not received a viewing permit and there are no plans to screen it,” Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance spokesman Hossein Noushabadi said in November 2014.
Khers. Promotional film image.
“The Bear” (2011) tells the story of a prisoner of war who returns home after many years in captivity to find his wife has remarried. Although the film has undergone some revisions, it has not yet been released for public viewing.
“This film has not crossed any red lines. We even did some changes for the Fajr Festival,” director Khosro Masumi told the Aftab newspaper on November 30, 2014. “Despite our efforts, the film is still banned and it’s not clear why. This isn’t pleasant for the producer who invested in the film but I’m still hopeful “The Bear” will be screened.”
Gozareshe Yek Jashn. Image from Borna News, published for reuse.
“The Report of a Party” was nominated for several awards when it was first shown at the Fajr Film Festival in 2011. It depicts events at a matchmaking agency managed by a woman who is targeted by the police. But critics accuse director Hatamikia of hiding the film’s true message in support of those who challenged the validity of the 2009 election results.
In an unprecedented move, the state-owned Film Organization purchased the rights to the film in order to cover Hatamikia’s production costs, a favor shown to no other banned film in the past. Hatamikia has not commented on the film’s status.
“The Guidance Ministry owns this film and there are no plans to screen it,” according to Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance spokesman Hossein Noushabadi.
Khiabanhaye Aram. Promotional film image.
The leading character in “Calm Streets” is a reporter who is suddenly faced with events similar to the aftermath of the 2009 elections. Not surprisingly, it has yet to be shown in cinemas.
“I was pretty much sure that this film would be banned if officials lacked tolerance. There are certain sensitivities surrounding this film and according to what they have told us this film will not be screened for the time being, because it is somehow related to the 2009 incidents,” director Kamal Tabrizi told Borna news agency in August 2013.
Parinaaz. Promotional film image.
Bahram Bahramian’s second film is about a little girl who is raised by relatives after the death of her parents. The lead female character, played by Fatemeh Motamed-Aria, is a traditional woman who wears the chador, the full-body cloak.
“This woman is very religious and suffers from deep personal issues which cause problems inside the home. Although these issues get resolved at the end of the film, the cinema authorities have said that a chadori woman should never be shown with moral or psychological issues,” the film’s producer Abdolhamid Najibi said in an interview in July 2014.
After President Rouhani’s election and the arrival of new officials in charge of the film industry, Parinaaz was issued a screening permit but the film has still not been shown in public.
Een Yek Roya Nist. Promotional film image.
“This is Not a Dream”, Mahmoud Ghaffari’s first feature film, was made in 2010. It is about a struggling young girl who gets caught up in a couple’s complex relationship.
“'This is Not a Dream’ was sent to the 2013 Fajr Film Festival but after being shown to the selection committee, I was told it needed changes and I acted on their request. But even after the revisions, it was again rejected by the selection committee,” director Mahmoud Ghaffari told Mehr news agency on January 7, 2013.
Khaneye Pedari. Promotional film image.
“The Paternal House” received a screening permit in 2014, five years after it was first made. But after only 10 showings at one theater in Tehran, it was pulled by the authorities.
Many have been critical of a scene where a fanatical boy brutally murders his sister with a rock. But veteran director Kianoush Ayari believes that is not the real issue behind the banning.
“The scene where the boy is ordered by his father to beat his sister with a rock only lasts a few seconds. That’s the only violent scene, which is nothing compared to similar scenes in other films which are screened without any problem in the cinemas. So it’s clearly an excuse. It looks like there are other interpretations which have caused this film to be banned,” Ayari told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
“It has been mentioned that this film has a tendency to reject Islamic behavior, but I don’t accept this view. That interpretation is completely wrong,” he added.
Ayari’s harshest critics have been in the Iranian Parliament. A day before the short-lived screening of “The Paternal House” on December 25, 2014, Morteza Agha-Tehrani, a member of the Cultural Affairs Committee, said that MPs believed “The Paternal House” is unsuitable for public viewing and its permit should be revoked.
“It’s not right to attack our nation’s history with misguided ideas and [accuse] our forefathers of discrimination and violence against women,” Agha-Tehrani said.
Sad Sal Beh Een Salha. Promotional film image.
The main character in “A Hundred Years Like This” (2007), directed by Saman Moghadam is a woman named Iran who goes through many stages of life during a 30-year period. She first loses her husband in the 1979 Revolution, then her son in the Iran-Iraq war, and then other relatives who becomes victims of various social and political upheavals.
The references to the human cost of the revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic have made authorities reluctant to release it to the public. As a result, its only screening was in the Fajr Film Festival in 2010.
“'A Hundred Years Like’ This received a screening permit during the previous administration but there are no plans to screen it in this administration,” said Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance spokesman Hossein Noushabadi in November 2014.


text:
Netizens Think Official Explanations for Tianjin’s Dead Fish Are as Likely as Fish Drowning · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A collection of fish gravestones list causes of death as homicide, suicide, suffocation, drowning and fits of rage. Cartoon drawn by DSX circulated on Weibo.
A week after massive blasts at a chemical storage warehouse killed at least 116 people in Tianjin, China, thousands of dead fish appeared in a river near the explosion site. Local residents feared the fish were poisoned by cyanide that leaked from the warehouse into the waterway.
To prevent panic from spreading, the Tianjin Environmental Monitoring Center announced that cyanide levels were “zero” in three water samples collected along the coast on August 20.
Though the cyanide levels of  water sample collected from a rain water pump station and at the center of the crater was 356 times and 800 times above standards respectively, the bureau stressed that the polluted water had been sealed off at the explosion site and ruled out a link between the dead fish and chemical leakage. Yet, even outside the quarantine zone, some water samples indicated that the cyanide levels reached up to eight times above normal.
Earlier this week, Chinese authorities confirmed that 700 tons of highly poisonous sodium cyanide were stored in the warehouse when the explosions took place on August 12.
In a press conference on August 20, Deng Xiaowen, director of the Tianjin Environmental Monitoring Center, said that the fish could have died for many reasons, such as a change in water temperature or levels of salt or oxygen. He also pointed out that the water quality in Tianjin has historically been poor and similar incidents have happened before.
But many found the explanation hard to believe. Cartoonist DSX's latest work (see top image) captured popular skepticism with a piece that depicted a pair of fish near several fish gravestones, listing homicide, suicide, suffocation, drowning and fits of rage as their cause of death.
On Twitter, @Lianhuaxiaofo made a similar satirical remark:
【新浪】天津港的大面积死鱼，距爆炸点六公里。拈花：这些鱼儿也是的，实在是太知道羞耻鸟。看到那么多人死，过意不去就淹死鸟。其实该死的是那些狗官和奸商！你们死了狗日的还说正常！ pic.twitter.com/OYPbITPQmm
— 拈花时评-lianhuaxiaofo (@lianhuaxiaofo) August 20, 2015
Sina headline: Massive amounts of dead fish found in Tianjin Harbor, six kilometers away from the explosion site.
These fish felt ashamed. They saw that so many people had died. They felt sorry and drowned themselves. Those bastard government officials and corrupt businessmen should die instead. Now, you fish are dead and the motherf***ers still insist it is normal.
On popular social media website Weibo, local media outlets quoted many experts to explain that what happened to the fish was not related to the explosions. But as Weibo user Xue Hanbo pointed out, this failed to assuage people's fears:
海河的死鱼事件虽然给出了解释，但是并没有真正的消除百姓的疑虑，尽管天津政府给出的答案可能是真的，可是由于政府的信息不够透明和前期没有赢得足够的信誉，所以简单出一个结论就想了事的想法会让事情变得更麻烦。涉及到百姓利益的事情，需要让百姓参与，让媒体透明公正的报道。
Though [the authorities] explained what happened to the dead fish, the clarification did not address people's doubts. Perhaps the answer was the truth, but the investigation process was not transparent enough and the government has lost its credibility already. As a result, a simple answer seems to have generated more doubts. As the issue at stake affects ordinary people, [the authorities] have to involve people in the search for answers and let the media cover the news objectively.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Malaysia Considers Forcing News Websites to Register with Government, As Political Scandal Unfolds · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Some of the participants during the #AtTheEdge campaign calling for a free and independent media in Malaysia. Photo from the Facebook page of “Malaysians stand in solidarity with The Edge.”
Malaysia’s new Communications and Multimedia Minister has proposed amending the country's Internet laws to force news websites to register with the government. Human rights groups have been quick to denounce the proposal as a threat to free speech.
Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak also wants to allow the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to block sites deemed to be “threats to national security and stability.” He has assured the public, however, that the government will study the models in place in other countries, before amending Malaysia’s law, which he expects to do in October. The Minister wrote on his blog:
We will try to make sure that Malaysia will follow the international standards. However, even in the ‘free’ and ‘liberal’ west there are limitations as to what you can say and publish. And this is what Malaysians need to understand.
On August 17, 2015, he wrote on his blog about the government’s meeting with Facebook, Google, and Twitter, where representatives discussed how to address more effectively the publication of false information on social media. He urged netizens to be more responsible. He also reminded critics that media freedom is not absolute:
The online environment is not a lawless space and action can be taken against anyone found to have breached the law, including in the online space.
Bear in mind that publishing or posting sensitive or unverified information might potentially spark an untoward situation likely to jeopardize public safety.
The Minister is perhaps referring to the recent suspension of a newspaper (The Edge) and the blocking of a news website (Sarawak Report) by the government for allegedly posting unverified information. Officials accused these news outlets of publishing inaccurate documents about a corruption scandal that linked the Prime Minister to 1MDB, a state-managed investment firm that reportedly lost billions of taxpayers’ money.
The government, however, has come under intense criticism for harassing the press and attempting to silence criticism over the 1MDB issue.
The proposal to require news websites to register is seen by some as part of the government’s response to the rising outrage over the corruption issue.
Media freedom advocates are urging the prime minister to remember his commitment to keep Internet free from censorship. Photo from the Facebook page of “Malaysians stand in solidarity with The Edge.”
Writing for Malay Mail Online, Khairie Hisyam pointed out that there are already laws that can address the Minister’s concerns about defamation and false reporting:
We have adequate laws in place to deal with malicious reporting and any other misdeeds imaginable when it comes to online news portals. So why does the specific point of registering online news portal arise? It makes no sense.
He warned that online registration can restrict free speech by extending the burdens newspapers face (like applying for government licenses) to less equipped groups.
The power of the ministry to revoke this license at any given time is an albatross around a licensed publisher’s neck. They are constantly aware that this power, without warning, may become a political tool to silence dissent or unfavorable reporting.
Should online news portals be also subjected to this restraint, it would effectively spread self-censorship from print to online media and stifle news reporting.
Activist Anil Netto argues that the registration of news websites is unnecessary:
Online news portals already have registered companies or societies managing their portals and their journalists already have had to register for official press accreditation cards.
Moreover, the authorities already have a slew of draconian laws which they can use – and have used – against journalists.
In an interview, the Minister clarified that his proposal is related to the need to tackle issues such as pornography, online gambling, and ISIS threats. But advocacy groups like the Association for Progressive Communications and the Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor have asserted that the proposed amendment to the law was made at a time when authorities were trying to limit media reporting:
…they must be viewed within the current political environment in Malaysia, where freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and association is under attack. It is highly unlikely that this move is intended for anything other than shutting down criticism and bringing into line what is left of the free press.
Last August 8, hundreds of journalists gathered in the capital to show solidarity with the beleaguered media groups. A bigger rally is being organized for August 29 by various groups to demand accountability from the government.

author: Mong Palatino


text:
Scammers Make Use of Mainland China’s Reputation for Corruption to Con Hong Kongers · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Scammers pretending to be mainland Chinese police called up Hong Kong people, telling them they were wanted fugitives in mainland China. Image from Standnews. Non-commercial use.
With its low crime rate, Hong Kong is one of the safest cities in the world. Yet, the number of telephone scams has recently increased tremendously — in the last seven months, Hong Kong police have received 2,371 scam reports, which involved HK $175 million dollars (US $22.6 million dollars).
The exact number of telephone scams is probably higher than that figure, as more than 90% of those who received the scam calls do not bother to report them to the police, according to a local survey. The survey estimated that about half of Hong Kong residents had received scam calls from mainland Chinese and about 5% were conned.
In most of the calls, the scammers claimed to be working for some official-sounding organization. They recited the victim’ personal data including ID card numbers and addresses and told them that they had become fugitives in mainland China. They then redirected the calls to someone posing as mainland Chinese law enforcement to confirm the “wanted notice.”
The “law enforcement officer” explained to the victim that it's possible that thieves stole their identity to commit crimes, but the case could not be cleared without a proper investigation. Then the scammers suggested that if they wanted the “wanted notice” erased, they would have to pay a certain amount of money. The scammers then asked the victim to transfer the money to a mainland Chinese bank.
The most recent case involved a famous Erhu musician Wong Kuo Tong and his wife. Together they lost HK$ 20 millions to the scammers. Wong said that he and his wife received a call from the “Hong Kong Post Office” which explained that they had a piece of mail held up by the mainland Chinese Public Security Bureau. The call was redirected to a mainland Chinese “police officer and prosecutor” who said they had evidence of Wong and his wife's abusive use of charity funds. In the process of investigation, the scammers said, the couple would have to pay an amount similar to bail to prove themselves innocent.
Aside from the post office, the scammers also pretended to be delivery services, banks and even the China Liaison Office. Last month, a few dozen people received scam calls coming from “the China Liaison Office” which accused the victims of money laundering. The victims were threatened that they would be arrested once they crossed the border unless they paid. One of the victims lost HK $3 million.
Scam victims come from all walks of life, including retirees, housewives, business people, CEOs, university professors, medical doctors and students. Many are wondering why scams like these are finding success. What kind of social psychology is at play?
Sam Ng, a current affairs commenter, talked about his encounter with the phone scammers. He theorized that because mainland China has a reputation for corruption, victims didn't have a hard time believing that authorities would demand payment to clear charges:
被騙者講聽普通話都沒有問題，顯示他們與大陸有相當聯繫。我試過扮作不懂普通話，對方馬上收線。
經常往返大陸，做生意、旅遊、交朋結友，甚至只是淘寶網上購物，或多或少會踩界，遊走法律邊緣。當對方一口咬定有甚麼假護照，包裹郵件涉及違禁品，即使沒有做過，也只能半信半疑。
這個國家甚麼都會發生，資料外洩、有人盜用你的身份犯案，可能性極高，肯定心情焦慮，要急於自證清白。
尤其有大陸背景的香港人，習慣服從權威 […] 大陸公安局、法院、檢察院，這類公檢法專政機關，一般人都知道惹上會周身蟻，一旦被釘上，後果堪虞，希望盡快解決。
中國是個貪污大國，用人民幣可以解決的問題就不是問題，已是一般平民小百姓的常識和生活習慣，當騙徒提出可以用錢解決案件，有大陸經驗的香港人，二話不說，會相信到底。
Most of the victims could communicate in Mandarin, which means that they probably had some social or business connection with mainland China. I pretended that I could not understand Mandarin and the scammers hung up.
If one travels to mainland China frequently, either for business or to see friends or be tourists, even if you just buy from [online shopping website] Taobao, they run the risk of crossing the legal line. If the scammers claimed that they have fake passports, or their packages contained illegal items, even if the victims did not commit the crimes, they would be confused.
In that country, anything could happen. Your personal information could be stolen or someone could use your identity to commit crimes. All these are possible and you will feel anxious and want to prove yourself innocent.
If the victims are originally from mainland China, they are so used to obeying the authorities […] They know that once the police, prosecutors or law enforcement bodies pin down someone, they are doomed and want to solve the problem as soon as possible.
China is full of corruption. People believe that problems can be solved with money. If the scammers said the case could be settled by cash, those with mainland Chinese experience would believe that firmly.


text:
Bashar Al Assad Got It Right: Syria Belongs to Those Who Defend It · Global Voices
أسعد حنا

A caricature by Palestinian artist Hani Abbas that reads, “The country belongs to those who defend it..” Taken from the artist's Facebook page.
Every speech Bashar Al Assad gives proves over and again that he's become merely a spokesperson of a country where he holds the honorary post of president without having any real executive authority to actually rule it. People from far and wide know that the Syrian political decision making is in the hands of Iran and Russia. The two countries have loyally supported the Syrian regime to guarantee international interests through remote occupation — regardless of what happens to Syria as a result.
Russia earned the Syrian decision making power after vetoing every suggested UN resolution that could result in ousting the regime, or even holding it accountable for the crimes it has been committing against its people. As if this was not enough, Russia even joined the regime in punishing the Syrian people by vetoing the resolution on providing food aid to the besieged areas.
Iran owned the military power gradually, from the beginning of the Syrian revolution, by injecting the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, military experts and professional snipers into Syria. Iran also mobilized its two controlled wings, the Lebanese (Hezbullah) and the Iraqi (Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas militia) to move into Syria and fight battles along side the Syrian army at first, and later on to take over the operations command in an attempt to exclude the Syrian army while ridiculing it; evident in the recurrent conflicts and disputes among them.
Bashar Al Assad's latest speech, in which he said “Syria is not for those who hold its passport or reside in it, Syria is for those who defend it“, sparked outrage among Syrian rebels who have spent the past four years fighting the regime and its thugs to free their country from a human rights and international conventions violating regime; a regime that used internationally banned weapons and starvation to subjugate rebelling areas.
Perhaps this statement was not said, or written in the speech, by coincidence or by mistake, but was in fact enforced by the decision makers as a preliminary step to legalize their non-direct rule, and turn it to a direct one in the future. Assad's words mean that anybody fighting under the big headline of defending the country will have the right to call the shots in Syria. From the regime's point of view, the Iranians, the Iraqis and the Lebanese fighting alongside the regime are defending Syria and its national sovereignty against the terrorist threat and the scheme to divide the region.
But maybe Assad forgot that Islamic factions such as Nusra Front and ISIS and others also claim to be defending the land of Levant. Those factions too have Chechens, Afghans and Gulf nationals fighting for them. Would Assad then give those too the right to rule Syria? Will he still say the country belongs to them since they are defending it? Or does this new rule only apply to his allies?
Many alignments could be found in Bashar Al Assad's speech and Hassan Nasrallah's, the Secretary General of Hezbollah, which he gave last month. The most important of which was that Hezbollah will not retreat from Syria and that the Party made a decision to stay there. This alignment is so evident that the Syrian official state media rarely mentions any “victory” of the Syrian army without the subsequent sentence of “backed by the Lebanese resistance (AKA Hezbollah)”. It is as if Hezbollah is now spread all over Syrian territories, and under lame excuses, the first of which was to protect the Shiite holly shrines, which nobody assaulted to begin with.
In the Zabadani battle, Hezbollah led the attack and the regime's air force and artillery destroyed the city and showered it by hundreds of random barrel bombs. The rebel brigades responded by attacking the villages in which Hezbollah barricaded in Northern Syria to force the Party to retreat and ease the pressure on Zabadani. Hezbollah, backed by Iran, immediately moved to the negotiations table with the Ahrar al-Sham brigade (an Islamic brigade fighting in Syria, composed of Syrian fighters only). Ahrar al-Sham was authorized by all brigades to head the negotiations which happened with out any presence of the regime, as if this matter is none of its concerns or one that it has no saying in. These negotiations were unsuccessful, and Ahrar al-Sham resumed the attack and escalation. They justified this by claiming that the Iranian negotiators suggested granting safe exit to trapped people in Zabadani in exchange of easing the attack of the Northern pro-regime villages. Ahrar al-Sham saw in this suggestion an Iranian move to change the Syrian demographics by emptying Zabadani from its original people who have lived there for thousands of years in order to house immigrant fighters from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah who have moved with their families to Syria in an attempt to settle there after four years of war.
It is worth mentioning that this was not the first time that Iran led negotiations and made such suggestions. The Homs 2014 negotiations, entered into with the trapped people of Homs who were besieged there for two and half years, during which they suffered immensely from starvation, so much so they had to eat grass and drink from the rain, resulted in people leaving their houses as part of the deal, but not being able to return despite many neighborhoods being announced safe areas. Subsequently documents surfaced proving housing Iranians in Damascus as well as Iranians ownership of many big estates; in what is thought to be an attempt to change the demographics of a country that has never, in its history, witnessed sectarian dividing or deportation.
Bashar Al Assad did not lie when he said Syria belongs to those who protect it. He actually meant that Syria now belongs to Iran and Hezbollah. The real and concealed meaning of his words which he never realized is that Syria belongs to its martyrs who die every single day in the torture dungeons of the regime. It is for those who sacrifice their lives for the fight for freedom. Syria belongs to the people who were forced to carry arms to fight a murderer who bombs his people with barbaric barrel bombs every day.
All this was because they told him “No”… Glory for he who said “No”.

author: أسعد حنا


text:
Did Wikipedia Just Outsmart Russia’s Internet Blacklist? · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
Wikipedia is trying something new in the fight against Russian censorship. On August 20, the Kremlin’s media watchdog agency, Roskomnadzor, announced that it has ordered Wikipedia to remove Russian Internet users’ access to an article about charas hashish, which a court in Astrakhan banned last June. If Wikipedia refused to comply with the order, it would be banned entirely, officials said.
On Wikipedia’s news forum, Russian users debated several different strategies regarding how to respond to Roskomnadzor’s threat. The RuNet news website TJournal collected several of these ideas, which ranged from complete compliance (some users felt the site shouldn’t host information about illegal drugs) to complete defiance. One user encouraged Wikipedia to place a banner on the Russian version’s splash page, so more of the site's users would know to expect and could understand why the resource might disappear in Russia. The banner, it was suggested, could also contain information about Web anonymizers and proxies, which Russians could use to circumvent the government’s potential ban on the site.
The court order (a scan of which is available on Wikipedia) lists the charas article’s specific URL. Wikipedia’s administrators initially said they would refuse to alter the article, at the risk of being banned in Russia. Today, however, the website made a small change to the URL of the charas hashish article, technically putting it in compliance with Russian law (insofar as the Web address identified by the Russian court no longer contains the information deemed to be illegal).
The URL specified in the Astrakhan court’s decision now leads to a list of seven different Wikipedia entries on the various meanings of the word “charas,” including information about a small island in the Indigirka River, a Central Asian type of grape, and more. The original text about charas hashish is completely intact (it’s actually been expanded), but it is now accessible at a new URL on Wikipedia.
Tension between Wikipedia and Roskomnadzor has existed for at least three years, since Wikipedia led the Russian Internet’s protest against the proposed Web blacklist, which Roskomnadzor now manages. In April 2013, Wikipedia butted heads with Russian censors again over an entry about cannabis. After suggesting it would resist the government's orders to change the article, administrators revised the text in accordance with the website’s internal quality standards, thus escaping being banned.
On Friday, August 21, after Wikipedia said it wouldn’t abide by the Astrakhan court’s decision, Roskomnadzor published a second note on its official Facebook account, lamenting the Wikipedia's choice to “enter into a conflict with Russian law enforcement.” According to Roskomnadzor, Wikipedia seemed to want the Russian government to ban it.
According to Russian law, websites have three days to comply with orders from Roskomnadzor, before being added to the government’s Internet blacklist. Wikipedia says it received the takedown notice on Tuesday, August 18, at 4 p.m., meaning that censors could have followed through on their threat to block the website on Friday afternoon. (It's unclear why they did not.)
On August 20, when Roskomnadzor publicly announced that it had ordered Wikipedia to remove Russian Internet users’ access to the charas hashish article, the agency warned that Wikipedia would be blocked in its entirety, even though the offending content was just a single article. Roskomnadzor said the need to block Wikipedia completely was the result of the site’s use of https protocol, which complicates the process of banning specific pages within a website.
Wikipedia is far from the only website that uses https, however, and it’s not certain why Roskomnadzor implied that blacklisting one Wikipedia page would necessarily block the entire resource. According to Roskomnadzor’s own information, only 30 percent of Russian Internet providers are incapable of blocking specific pages on websites using https.

author: Kevin Rothrock


text:
Guyanese Police Officers Punished for Being Pregnant · Global Voices
Dexter Wharton

“Marching Police”; photo by Amanda Richards, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
When three members of the Georgetown City Constabulary were dismissed earlier this month for becoming pregnant while they were still on probation, Guyanese netizens spoke out about the controversial move, which also got the attention of Amnesty International Caribbean. The women eventually got their jobs back, but the road to that decision and the ground still left to cover in Guyana is considerable.
Twitter user Mark Jacobs didn't understand why people thought the police were being unreasonable when it dismissed the three women:
I fail 2see anythin discriminatory abt askin women not to become pregnant durin trainin in police/military org #Guyana CONTRACEPTION. use it
— mark jacobs vive! (@emarkjacobs) August 7, 2015
Several women online said the police service's policy is what doesn't make sense today:
Guyana MUST amend its old rules. It does not make sense really that in today's world, women can be dismissed as… http://t.co/8LLnmpaneK
— Nyaradzayi (@vanyaradzayi) August 7, 2015
The fact that, in 2015, women are still being discriminated against on the grounds of pregnancy has left some dumbfounded, but the situation is perhaps more complicated that some believe. In a public discussion about the issue on the Stabroek News’ Facebook page, for instance, Yonnette Kennedy shared her personal experience:
The law was there all the time people […] they told you that when you go for the job if you get pregnant before a year you [are] on duty you have to leave, you have one year probation before you get pregnant, it happened to me 23 year[s] ago, and I leave because I know that was [sic] the rules, I know it [is] not right to dismiss someone because they are pregnant, but they knew that before they take the job.
Lorette Watson agreed that the women knew what they were getting into:
For whatever reason, I think young people don't take rules and regulations seriously and this is a example for them sorry it had to happen while they are pregnant but the rule is the rule.
Facebook user Rawle Chalmers expressed his irritation at the “bureaucratic assholes who keep turning back the clock on women issues,” while another commenter wondered about maternity leave, and Donnella Collison said:
I hope more women that lost their jobs under these circumstances come forward so that this archaic can finally be changed.
Though both Guyana's constitution and the Prevention of Discrimination Act prohibit such dismissals, the three women (according to the termination letters) were in violation of departmental policy that bars female constabulary officers from becoming pregnant within the first two years of probation.
The development (pregnancy) constitutes a clear violation of the City Constabulary Standing Order section 4:11(Para) J11.
As if those dismissals weren't enough, a former policewoman, 19-year-old Abassie Bobb, told the Guyanese press that she was dismissed in July of this year under a similar policy against pregnancy. Bobb claims she was dismissed after confiding to her superiors that she was with child. The dismissal letter stated that her services where being terminated in accordance with the Guyana Police Act.
According to Chief Constable Andrew Foo, the policy under which the female constables were fired is “an age-old one,” and while it may appear discriminatory, it should not be amended, he says. His fear is that “a great percentage of females [in the constabulary] could become pregnant.” Although the provisions within the policy are older than Guyana's 1980 Constitution and even the country's 1997 Prevention Against Discrimination Act, Foo reportedly believes that the policy is up-to-date because he helped revised it in 2013.
One female constable, Laurel Gittens, recently defended the policy, saying that leniency in this regard would put a tremendous burden on the police service.
It would put a burden on the organization if we allow women to become impregnated during probation…the pregnancy constitutes a clear violation of the City Constabulary Standing Order Section 4:11 (Para) J11
At the time, Gittens emphasized that any change in the policy would have to be made by Parliament. She also claimed that police command is tolerant, and women are able to take leaves of absence and return quietly to work, after giving birth.
The subsequent protest staged outside the capital's City Hall got the attention of the powers that be: the sacked constables have since been reinstated.
It may eventually be up to the Guyanese people to decide whether or not any pending Constitutional Reform requires amendments to an archaic policy that continues to stand up from the country's other, more modern laws. Many feel that a policy that discriminates against women—especially women trying to serve their country—should no longer be allowed.

author: Dexter Wharton


text:
Indonesian Court Orders Family of Former President Suharto to Return Embezzled Funds · Global Voices
Arpan Rachman

Students in Karawang, Indonesia. Photo from Public Domain Images
Indonesia's Supreme Court has ruled that the foundation of the late President Suharto is guilty of embezzling state funds from 1976 to 1998. It ordered the family of Suharto to return 315 million US dollars to the state.
Suharto ruled Indonesia from 1967 to 1998. During his 31-year rule, he was accused of committing grave human rights violations and massive corruption. Several weeks of street riots and rallies forced Suharto to resign in 1998.
In 1976, Suharto ordered state-managed banks to set aside 2.5 percent of their profits in favor of Supersemar Foundation's scholarship program. But in 2010, the court found the foundation once chaired by Suharto guilty of misappropriating public funds. It also noted that only a tiny amount of the funds was actually distributed to students. Last month, the court issued its final ruling on the matter.
The ruling, which was made public only this month, is significant since it’s the first time that a local court has found Suharto guilty of corruption. Naturally, it got intense reactions from many Indonesians.
Kompasiana, Indonesia's leading citizen media platform, featured some commentaries about the issue. Vishnu Andang Jaya urged Suharto's family to respect the court's ruling and to immediately return the people's money. Fadli Zontor wrote that the foundation was a mysterious entity with many questionable dealings in the past. Indira Revi urged an audit of all ‘donations’ registered by state-owned enterprises, especially during the time of Suharto.
But Hatta Celebes testified that the scholarship program was real:
I am proud to have received a scholarship from this foundation and this foundation had a positive role that many in this country are now ignoring.
Masinton Pasaribu, one of the student activists who joined the anti-Suharto rallies in 1998, urged the government to quickly implement the court's decision.
Meanwhile, Suharto's youngest son, Tommy Suharto, is challenging the decision of the Supreme Court via Twitter:
Tidak ada kata mundur sebelum berperang untuk kebenaran, Malam ini saya nyatakan Banding demi Harga diri putra putri lulusan Terbaik NKRI..!
— Hutomo Mandala Putra (@Tommy_Soeharto1) August 13, 2015
No retreat in fighting for the truth. Tonight I initiated an appeal to protect the dignity of sons and daughters of the best graduates of (Supersemar Scholarship)!

author: Arpan Rachman


text:
This Doctor Has Written Thousands of Postcards to Get Health Advice to India’s Poor · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Dr. Aaraveeti Ramayogaiah, a government doctor in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, says he wrote 27 thousand postcards about preventive medicine during his career. Credit: Rahul M
This article and radio report by Daniel Gross for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on August 19, 2015, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
High-tech hospitals are now commonplace in Indian cities. But they’re also expensive, putting them out of the reach of the poor.
So one Indian doctor found an ultra low-tech approach to delivering health care: writing postcards.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Aaraveeti Ramayogaiah wrote about 27,000 postcards to patients and acquaintances. Most of them explained preventive health care practices, like washing hands and boiling water. The postcards were intended to help thousands of people who couldn't afford or easily get to a physician.
In an interview with the Indian journalist Rahul M, Dr. Ramayogaiah said he came from a poor family and became a government doctor at the age of 27.
“He started seeing how health in India was driven by the profit motive, which was largely linked to the pharmaceutical industry,” says Rahul.
The high costs of care inspired Ramayogaiah to take a different approach. He collected the postal addresses of thousands of patients and even strangers. In his postcards, he explained that some health issues — like diarrheal diseases — can be avoided without medical treatment.
He argued that in communities where doctors are difficult to access, residents should focus on improving sanitation and the environment.
His postcard campaign and editorials made headlines in Indian newspapers. But he told Rahul that some outlets didn’t take him seriously, because of his rigid stance against high-priced corporate hospitals.
A postcard addressed to the journalist Rahul M. Credit: Rahul M
Recently, Ramayogaiah’s opposition to expensive health care became deeply personal. “He’s suffering from cancer right now,” says Rahul. A brain tumor has left him bedridden and weak.
Yet even in his poor health, Ramayogaiah remains skeptical of India’s for-profit hospitals. “He doesn’t want to go to a good hospital to treat himself,” says Rahul.
“He has fought his whole life against the system of corporatization of health,” Rahul adds. “Which is the only system that can help him extend his life a little longer. In some sense, for him, his principles were more important than life itself.”

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
Tourism Poster That Put Jamaica on the Map Gets New Life · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A screen grab from the Jamaica Tourist Board 1972 television commercial, featuring Sintra Bronte.
Back in 1972, a young Trinidadian model, Sintra Bronte, made Jamaica famous by posing in a wet t-shirt with the name of the island emblazoned across the front.
It was for a promotional poster for the country's tourist board, and it helped make Jamaica the go-to destination of the Caribbean at the time.
Now, the poster has been given new life thanks to American musician Alicia Keys recreating it and posting the image on Instagram, with the comment:
I always wanted to redo this 1972 classic! #funtimes
At the time of publishing, Keys’ post had garnered close to 100,000 “likes” and nearly 3,000 appreciative comments. Feedback from Jamaican netizens was also complimentary:
Thank you @aliciakeys for your contribution to the Jamaica culture. #Jamaica #AliciaKeys #Jamaicaposter #Jamaica1972 pic.twitter.com/JgEPbunfOn
— J€RK $AW©£ (@Ducedidit) August 20, 2015
@aliciakeys definitely nailed the redo of this 1972 classic!😍😍😍 #aliciakeys #jamaica https://t.co/hpj6ywgvz8
— WHATSPOPPIN NEWS (@whatspoppindot) August 9, 2015
Some Twitter users were pleased that Sintra's original poster was experiencing a renaissance:
Sintra back on the block with her world famous wet t-shirt Poster http://t.co/SO5d3MMHXy #jamaica #aliciakeys #SintraArunteBronte
— Ashley Moncrieffe (@AshFiMon) August 18, 2015
@aliciakeys #AliciaKeys #jamaica 🙌🏾 pic.twitter.com/tqtZQEzijw
— Sgt. Dankz (@loudpackm0nster) August 9, 2015
However, one blogger wasn't so sure — he had assumed, like many other Jamaicans, that the 1972 poster girl was indigenous:
Some 30+ years later, like the return of the ghost of yesterday’s past, the image is again being talked about. And it was through this buzz that I, like many other Jamaicans became aware of her name; Sintra Arunte-Bronte.
To my surprise and disappointment, she is not a Jamaican national. Disappointed, I say, because Jamaica has more than enough home grown models to choose from, but hey, reasons and politics behind that could be substantial.
The rationale for choosing Sintra over a Jamaican national was explained in this video featuring Anthony Abrahams, who was Jamaica's Director of Tourism from 1970-1975. He noted that at the time, there was a lot of interest in China. The advertising agency had originally pitched the idea of featuring a Jamaican girl of Chinese descent to illustrate that the exoticism of the Far East was also alive and well in Jamaica.
The casting effort didn't go well, however, so Sintra was put forward instead, and the rest is history.
The Sebastian Books blog post went on to claim that “the image is being talked about now because the Jamaican Tourist Board is considering an upgrade”.
There has been no confirmation that the Keys shoot was commissioned by the Jamaican government.
Still, the blogger maintains:
Pride should be taken from within, especially in a situation of a national photo-shoot; the use of models [of] external nationalities sends a bad message.
As for Sintra Bronte, she says she is flattered by the resurgence of attention surrounding the poster.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Afro-Latin American Women Use Social Networks to Commemorate Over a Decade of Struggle · Global Voices
Shirley Campbell Barr

“Dignity, recognition, knowledge, flavors.”  Poster for the July 25 celebration in Medellin, Colombia. Image take from the blog  planeta-afro.org.
June and July were important months in the fight for the rights of of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean women. July 25 was a particularly important date — the customary day of celebration for these women — highlighting the need to recognize the struggles they have faced throughout history.
It was also an opportunity to bring to light the injustices unique to women of African descent as opposed to those of men. The combination of gender, race and ethnicity, along with social class has only served to aggravate the oppression they have faced.
According to the blog Making:
Este día […] nos lleva a la reflexión sobre la necesidad de reconocer los aportes de las mujeres afrodescendientes en la construcción de nuestra nación en el ámbito social, cultural, económico y político; así como también en las luchas por la independencia de los países de América Latina.
De igual modo, es preciso entender la situación de las mujeres afrodescendientes como una situación particular, ya que en su contexto y vida diaria se intersecta el factor de género que puede ver agravada su situación de vulnerabilidad y exclusión. Eso, a su vez, ha impulsado a las mujeres afrodescendientes a visibilizar las particularidades de su situación y generar una agenda reivindicativa.
This day […] prompts us to reflect on the necessity to recognize the contributions made by women of African descent to the construction of our nation within social, cultural, economic and political spheres; as well as to the various struggles for the independence of Latin American countries.
Likewise, it is essential to understand that the situation of women of African descent as a unique one in that because of their gender they find themselves even more vulnerable and susceptible to exclusion. This, in turn, has motivated women of African descent to make known the particularities of their situation and create a more aggressive agenda.
Since then, the quest for better living conditions for women of African descent in the region has been addressed by other international forums, such as the American Regional Meeting, a precursor to the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which took place in Santiago de Chile in 2000.
In this case the setting was historical and critical for the recognition of the structural racism that exists in the region.
The declaration issued by this forum demonstrated the ways in which racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia have deeper consequences for women, who face harsher social, economic and cultural inequalities.
The blog Feminismo Afrodiaspórico (Afro-diasporic Feminism) highlights the importance of this time of reflection:
… julio es el mes aprovechado por las organizaciones de mujeres afrodescendientes para sensibilizar y difundir información acerca de las diversas formas de opresión de género y étnica que experimentan millones de mujeres en la región
…women of African descent use the month of July to bring awareness to the various forms of oppression millions of women in the region experience because of their gender and ethnicity
One critical focus is the struggle for dignity and rights for homemakers, who first used this day to make their message known in 2012:
Con énfasis especial para este año en la campaña mundial que adelanta la Confederación Sindical Internacional (CSI) ‘12 para 12’ que pretende lograr que 12 países hayan ratificado el Convenio 189 para finales de 2012, luego de la promulgación por parte de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) [del convenio sobre] las trabajadoras y trabajadores domésticos. […] El trabajo doméstico es realizado por millones de personas en el mundo, especialmente mujeres. Estos trabajos son mal pagados y su reconocimiento como trabajo es casi inexistente. En muchas partes del mundo el trabajo doméstico no es valorado frente al aporte que hacen estas personas al desarrollo de familias y niños.
With special emphasis this year on the international 12 by 12 campaign put forth by the International Trade Union Confederation which seeks to have 12 countries ratify Convention 189 by the end of 2012, and later to have the International Labour Organization enact [the convention regarding] female workers and domestic workers. […] Domestic work is performed by millions of people in throughout the world, especially women. These people are poorly paid, and their work is almost never recognized as a job.  In many parts of the world domestic work is not valued in light of the impact these people have on the development of families and children.
Another important element that must be reinforced at the July 25 celebration is the recognition of women of African descent as actors and subjects of governmental policies and agreements.
Therefore, the international forum, created by the United Nations, recognizes people of African descent, and women in particular, as a key group in the fight against racism, xenophobia and and all forms of intolerance.
In Latin America the exclusion of women of African descent is evident and can be seen across daily life. These women lack political and economic representation and generally form the lowest levels of society. People of African descent typically live in poverty, and women carry the heaviest burden of all.
As such, the July 25 celebration is also an opportunity to bring the plight of black women to the international scene, globalizing the movement and creating collaborative efforts in order to create a common front in the fight against discrimination and exclusion.
For some, this day also internationalizes black feminism, revitalizing the struggle of the women of the diaspora, as Lucieane Reis suggests in Blogueiras Negras:
O 25 de Julho internacionaliza o feminismo negro via aglutinação da resistência das mulheres negras à cidadania nas regiões em que vivem, principalmente as  opressões de gênero e étnico-raciais. Desta forma, essa data amplia e fortalece as organizações e identidade das mulheres negras, que vem construindo estratégias para o enfrentamento do racismo e do sexismo. Essa não é uma data qualquer  para nós mulheres negras, ele significa o rompimento com um feminismo que nunca nos contemplou. Resgata a luta das mulheres negras da diáspora, iniciada ainda na década 70, através das feministas negras em pontos diferentes da diáspora.
El 25 de julio internacionaliza el feminismo negro a través del refuerzo de la unión entre mujeres negras en las regiones en las que viven, sobre todo en cuanto a la opresión de género y de base étnica-racial. Por lo tanto, esta fecha se extiende y fortalece las organizaciones y la identidad de las mujeres negras, que se han dedicado a la construcción de estrategias para la lucha contra el racismo y el sexismo. Ésta no es una fecha cualquiera para nosotras las mujeres negras: significa el rompimiento con un feminismo que nunca nos tuvo en cuenta; y recuerda la lucha de las mujeres negras de la diáspora, que también comenzó a finales de los 70 con las feministas negras en diferentes partes de la diáspora.
July 25 internationalizes black feminism by reinforcing the union between black women in the regions in which they live, principally in regards to oppression on the basis of gender, race and ethnicity.  As such, this date lays out and strengthens the identity of black women and organizations which have dedicated themselves to the creation of strategies in the fight against racism and sexism.  This is not just another day for us black women: it marks the abandonment of a feminism that never took us into account; and remembers the struggle of the black women of the diaspora, which also began towards the end of the 70s with black feminists in different parts of the diaspora.
Similarly, organizations for women of African descent in the region have held events and stirred up the internet, especially during these dates, to prevent urgent issues from going unnoticed.
On July 25, 2014, for example, Desacato Feminista (Feminist Contempt) participated in a campaign that demanded justice for the women of African descent that were killed in Buenaventura, Colombia:
“Today we don't celebrate, we denounce!”  Image for the Desacato Feminista campaign in defense of the women who were victims of violence in Buenaventura, Colombia. This campaign was launched on the International Day of Afro-Descendant and Afro-Caribbean Women.
The commemoration coincided with the first Afro-descendant Women Leaders of the Americas Summit, held in the capital of Nicaragua. The event created a political platform in accordance with the International Decade for People of African Descent, creating a plan for the empowerment of women of African descent in order to overcome systematic discrimination and demand compliance with international treaties and international recognition.
In turn, the Red de Mujeres Afro-Latinoamericanas Afro-Caribeña y de la Diáspora (Network of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean Women of the Diaspora) which was born on July 25, 1992, continues fighting for better conditions for millions of black women in Latin America and the Caribbean.
At the same time, in each country in the region, dozens of organizations work diligently for political influence and equal participation in the development of Latin American society.
Nevertheless, there has been no real decisive change regarding the plight of Afro-Latin American and Caribbean women.  The hope is that social organization and the internationalization of the black movement will bring about structural changes for this demographic.
Part of the debate and discussion from July 25 of this year can be seen on YouTube thanks to work of Teatro en Sepia (Theater in Sepia), an association of women of African descent in Argentina, which presented its work “Afrolatinoamericanas…” after a debate which can be seen here:
The online discussion of Afro-Latin American rights (which goes far beyond the July celebrations) can be followed on Twitter: #Afrocaribeñas and #Afrolatinas.

author: Shirley Campbell Barr


text:
Is a More Child-Friendly Bangladesh Possible? · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

In Bangladesh, a large number of the population is under 18 years. Image by Mahbubur Rahman Khoka. Copywright Demotix (10/12/2013).
Bangladesh is one of the world’s most populous countries. It is also home to about 66 million children, who constitute around 45 per cent of the country's total population.
But sadly, Bangladesh's abundance of youth has little to celebrate.
A total of 4.5 million children in Bangladesh work as child labourers. Up to 40 per cent of those younger than 5 years old are malnourished. Bangladesh has the fourth highest rate of child marriage in the world and rising levels of child abuse: a total of 968 children were abused and killed in last three and a half years, according to official statistics.
In fact, it would be difficult to find another country in the world where minors face such a range of problems.
However, several popular initiatives recently adopted by the government promise to make Bangladesh a slightly more child-friendly country.
If you stand in front of a school in the morning in Bangladesh, you will see numerous children carrying heavy, outsized school bags on their tiny frames.
Blogger Tutul Chowdhury writes on Facebook about his son Rihan:
গতকাল ঋহান বলে “বাবা এই ব্যাগটা আমি নিতে পারি না, অনেক ওজন… কাধের এইখানটায় ব্যাথা হয়ে যায়।”
এইটুকুন পিচ্চি একটা বাচ্চা ব্যাগের ভারে জর্জরীত। ছোট ছোট কোমলমতি শিশুদের ব্যাগে বহন করা একগাদা স্কুল/হোমওয়ার্কের চাপায় হারিয়ে ফেলছে তার আনন্দময় শিশুকাল।
আইন করে সকল স্কুলে জরুরী ভিত্তিতে সেই আইন বাস্তবায়ন করা প্রয়োজন।
Yesterday Rihan was saying: “Papa, I can't lift this schoolbag, it is very heavy… my shoulder hurts.” This little boy (4 years old) is burdened by this heavy bag. The childhoods of these toddlers are being troubled by heavy bags full of school and homework.
An effective law has to be implemented to stop this.
To the relief of school-going children, the country's High Court recently issued a ruling aiming to lighten schoolbags for children.
The court ordered the government to formulate a law or regulation prohibiting children from carrying schoolbags that weigh more than 10 per cent of a child's body weight, and preventing the use of schoolbags by pre-primary children.
Shekh Sahiha Alam, a correspondent for the Daily Prothom Alo news outlet, spent 15 days weighing the schoolbags of children across various schools, ranging from nursery to class eight.
Her findings were as follows:
ওয়ারীর কিন্ডারগার্টেন স্কুলের এক ছাত্রের ব্যাগের ওজন ছিল সাড়ে চার কেজি। ইস্কাটনের একটি স্কুলের প্রথম শ্রেণির এক ছাত্রের ব্যাগের ওজন পাওয়া যায় তিন কেজি। ধানমন্ডির সাতমসজিদ সড়কে অবস্থিত একটি ইংরেজি মাধ্যম স্কুলের তৃতীয় শ্রেণিতে পড়া এক ছাত্রের ব্যাগের ওজন সাড়ে ছয় কেজি। নিউমার্কেট-সংলগ্ন একটি বিখ্যাত সরকারি স্কুলের চতুর্থ শ্রেণির ছাত্রের ব্যাগের ওজন ছিল সাত কেজি। শেরেবাংলা নগরের একটি সরকারি বালিকা উচ্চবিদ্যালয়ের পঞ্চম শ্রেণির ছাত্রীর ব্যাগের ওজন পাওয়া যায় সাড়ে সাত কেজি।
A student at a kindergarten school in Wari carried a schoolbag of 4.5kg. A student of class one of a school in Eskaton had a schoolbag of 3kg. The schoolbag of a class three student from an English medium school on Dhanmondi Satmasjid Road weighed 6.5kg. A class four student of a renowned government school near New Market carried a schoolbag of 7kg. The bag of a class five student from a government girls’ school at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar weighed 7.5kg.
Netizens welcomed the court’s ruling.
Emdadul Haque, an assistant professor of law at Southeast University, Bangladesh, tweeted:
Like India, school children in Bangladesh must not carry a school a bag exceeding 10% of their weight in a bid to prevent injury.
— Emdadul Haque (@Emdadlaw) August 12, 2015
Most Bangladeshis live in villages that are close to riverbanks. The land is criss-crossed with many rivers of different length and width. There are around 700 rivers in the country.
Come the rainy season the rivers fill up with water. During that time many children die from drowning.
According to a recent report of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), every year 18,000 children die because of they do not know how to swim.
To save them from drowning, the government has decided to make swimming lessons mandatory for all schoolchildren. The education ministry has published a draft circular on its website.
People are lauding the move of the Education Ministry. American swimmer Nathan Adrian also appreciated the initiative. He wrote on Twitter:
http://t.co/pA9CSpogMi swimming can save lives! Stoked to see people realizing this!
— Nathan Adrian (@Nathangadrian) April 9, 2015
Farhana Haider, a senior broadcast journalist for the BBC, tweeted:
Swimming lessons in #Bangladesh made law to stop drownings. Abt 18000 children die each year bec they cannot swim. http://t.co/0mNmw2qo6f
— Farhana Haider (@farhanahaider) April 9, 2015
In association with UNICEF, the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB), The Alliance for Safe Children (TASC) and Royal Life Saving Society Australia (RLSSA) all came together to create the SwimSafe program to reduce the number of water-related deaths.
They shared a swimming instruction video on YouTube:
Finally, the first ever children's budget was created in Bangladesh along with the the 2015-16 fiscal year budget.
It has been allocated nearly 26 thousands crore Taka (US $3,341,213). Which is 8.76 per cent of the national budget.
The child's budget is not separate from the state budget. Rather, it serves to facilitate and highlight the establishment of children's rights by reminding policy makers to prioritise children in their resource allocation.
A huge leap disguised by a small step? Bangladesh's child budget could mean a new future for the country's children: http://t.co/Spg8ik0DPH
— Stars Foundation (@StarsFdn) November 14, 2014
Bangladesh's Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith re-emphasised the need for a children's budget in his budget speech:
এটা প্রকৃত পক্ষে একটা কাঠামো, যা শিশুদের আর্থ-সামাজিক অধিকার বাস্তবায়নে সরকারি ব্যয়/বিনিয়োগের প্রকৃতি ও ব্যাপ্তিকে প্রত্যক্ষ এবং পরোক্ষভাবে প্রভাবিত করবে; যার ফলে একটি অন্তর্ভুক্তিমূলক ও টেকসই মানবিক উন্নয়ন নিশ্চিত করা সম্ভব হবে।
Basically it is a framework wherein the socio-economic rights of children are implemented. It also directly and indirectly affects public expenditure and investment. As a result, an inclusive and sustainable human development will be possible.
Child rights activists hailed the government initiative.
Abdullah Al Mamun, programme coordinator of Manusher Jonno Foundation, told Prothom Alo:
সরকারের এ ধরনের উদ্যোগের জন্য অবশ্যই ধন্যবাদ পাওয়ার যোগ্য। তবে শিশু বাজেট কে সমন্বয় করবে, বাজেট যথাযথভাবে বাস্তবায়িত হলো কি না তার জবাবদিহি কার কাছে থাকবে তাও নির্ধারণ করতে হবে।
It is a great initiative. I urge a children's department be formed under the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs to coordinate the children's budget and establish accountability for proper spending.
Nabila Mahabub tweeted:
Separate allocation for #children in next budget to better protect child rights and welfare in #Bangladesh http://t.co/GMNsyo07FP
— Nabila Mahabub (@NabilaMahabub) May 21, 2015
Bangladesh's decision-makers, it seems, are coming round to the idea of creating a better living environment for almost half of the country's citizens. Now the question is whether these initiatives will be put into practice.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


text:
Lebanese Activists Warn Against Political Attempts to Exploit Their Movement · Global Voices
Nada

Lebanese protesters at Riad Solh, in downtown Beirut earlier today. Photograph shared by @_Richardhall on Twitter
During their parliamentary sit-in, ‘Tol3et Re7etkom’ (‘You Stink’), a Lebanese grassroots movement initially created to fight the national garbage crisis, outlined their demands in a statement during the ongoing mass protests and warned against political attempts to exploit their movements to serve any party's agenda.
In a video shared on the movement's Facebook page on August 23, they denounced the brutal repression and “terrorism” that activists faced when they demonstrated peacefully yesterday. They demanded immediate accountability of those responsible for the violence, insisting that the peaceful demonstrations are targeting the political class as a whole, and that all should bear the responsibility, including Prime Minister Tammam Salam. They called for his immediate resignation and a second day of mass protests “against the terrorism of corrupt authorities” today.
In a separate statement circulated earlier in the day, the movement had also demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk as well as the whole government and highlighted the need to hold parliamentary elections. In the same document, they warned against any attempt for political parties to exploit the movement, noting that two government ministers who tried to enter the protest area were refused entry, but that those who resign are welcome.
Statement by #طلعت_ريحتكم. English soon. #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/6X616sR6rg
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 23, 2015
On their website the group also shared a financial report accounting for their expenses so far, complete with a scan of all receipts. Supporters can make a contribution via their Indiegogo fundraising campaign.

author: Nada


text:
Listen to the Haunting, Galactic Sounds of the Yaybahar Acoustic Instrument · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Görkem Şen plays the Yaybahar with the Marmara Sea in the background. He hopes his instrument will soon be as common as a violin or cello. Credit: Courtesy of Görkem Şen
This article and radio report by Dalia Mortada for The World originally appeared on PRI.org on August 19, 2015, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
In Turkey, a new instrument has been invented that makes crazy galactic and laser-gun sounds. It’s called the Yaybahar, and it’s completely acoustic. “This is real time, acoustic, string synthesizer,” Gorkem Sen, the instrument’s creator, explains.
Gorkem invented the Yaybahar about six years ago in a hunt for his own unique sound. The 33-year-old musician looked for inspiration to find his own unique sounds from all sorts of instruments: the Australian didgeridoo, the Turkish Ney and, most importantly, the thunder drum. The thunder drum is a small cylindrical instrument that has two drum-like membranes linked by a spring. When it’s shaken, it makes big, echoing sounds, like rolling thunder — and like the Yaybahar.
The Yaybahar is huge — it takes up Gorkem’s living room. The membranes are hooked to two very long springs that bounce all over when they’re touched. The springs attach to a tall neck – like a guitar or cello, but with just two strings.
After much trial and error, Gorkem found out that when he hits the membranes with a padded drum stick, the sound reverberates. When runs his finger down a coil, it makes an odd galactic “whoosh.” And when he plucks a string on the fingerboard, it goes “pew” — a laser-gun-like sound.
It is very cool — but is it music? “The first times of Yaybahar it's a really, really bad noise. It makes really bad noise,” Gorkem admits. But it has evolved after six years of practice and much tweaking to the instrument itself. “Now it's more musical. This noise now is more musical.”
Along with his ability to play it, the instrument itself has evolved from as many as 30 coils and membranes down to the two-springed Yaybahar Gorkem plays today.
The bouncy coils play a huge role in the Yaybahar’s unique sound — so it makes sense that the instrument is named for them. “The coil string is ‘yay,’” Gorkem explains. “Bahar” also means spring — as in the season. The whole idea of new life, a new beginning is important to Gorkem, he says.
One of his favorite songs to play is Gnossienne No. 1 by the French composer Erik Satie. The song is usually played on the piano. For the Yaybahar, Gorkem uses a bow on the strings, like one would on a cello. The result is a rich, reverberating sound that feels like it gets deep into your ears. “When you listen live this is really effective, really good mood and really good frequencies on the air,” Gorkem says. “It’s really delicious for ears.”
Gorkem and his Yaybahar have been touring lately in Turkey and around Europe. Audiences have loved it, he says. Though he admits it’s probably still mostly a curiosity. But in the future, he can see it becoming a new class of instrument. Until then, Gorkem wants to focus on understanding the full potential of the Yaybahar, and all the sound it has to offer.


text:
Peaceful Protestors Face Riot Police Brutality in Lebanon · Global Voices
Nada

A mother and her children escape teargas fired by police on protesters in Beirut yesterday. Photograph by Patrick Mouzawak shared on Facebook
Teargas, water cannons and live bullets: this is the violent response that awaited the peaceful protesters of the #YouStink movement who gathered at Riad El Solh in Beirut on Saturday, August 22 to demand a solution to the garbage crisis in Lebanon.
An estimated 10,000 people came in what appeared to be good spirits to call for a “sustainable solution to Lebanon's waste disposal problem.” On July 17, the country's largest landfill was closed and rubbish started piling all over Beirut as officials continued to mishandle the refuse problem. Rubbish and summer did not go hand in hand, and as the waste bags continued to pile up along the streets of Beirut, the appalling stench poisoned the air, rubbing Lebanese people in the nose.
Many of those who turned up at the protest were wearing costumes and some brought their young children along. Extreme security measures taken by the army and riot police were at first more a joke than anything else, but tension escalated dramatically when security forces responded with disproportionate violence, catching protesters and the press off-guard.
The boys in swim gear #YouStink #طلعت_ريحتكم pic.twitter.com/NckLuiNdL7
— Rampurple (@rampurple) August 22, 2015
It's not a demo. It's a festival of HOPE. Join us. #طلعت_ريحتكم #YouStink pic.twitter.com/XJd9g8f4Fj
— Ralph Aoun (@ralphaoun) August 22, 2015
Haha! Seems that Lebanese parliament security is also preparing for #YouStink event. Look at those new fences! 😏😏😏 pic.twitter.com/gecltXUMBC
— Sara Assaf (@SaraAssaf) August 22, 2015
Photographer Karim Mostafa shared on Twitter photographs of what became a violent confrontation fueled by the riot police's brutality:
The moment when the peaceful demo escalated into teargas, water cannons and rubber bullets #YouStink #Lebanon #Beirut pic.twitter.com/uxOqvUmv0K
— Karim Mostafa (@thekarimphoto) August 22, 2015
And when there was water! From the demo in #Beirut this afternoon. #Lebanon #YouStink #Trash pic.twitter.com/l0l9jcw6An
— Karim Mostafa (@thekarimphoto) August 22, 2015
A protester gets help at #YouStink demo in #Beirut pic.twitter.com/MIGhKwLRCI
— Karim Mostafa (@thekarimphoto) August 22, 2015
A wounded and lonely police start crying but gets help from the people in the demonstration. #YouStink #Beirut pic.twitter.com/84KYTdcAtA
— Karim Mostafa (@thekarimphoto) August 22, 2015
Brutality at this scale highlighted a reality that many have been turning a blind eye to. In response, protesters have staged a parliament sit-in until the resignation of parliament members and elections are held. Lebanon, already suffering from a poor infrastructure and daily electricity cuts, has had no president for more than a year. In 2009, its parliament extended its term until 2017, with no elections, citing instability as a reason.
Nancy Fakhoury shared a video showing protestors chanting on August 23, on day 2 of the sit-in.
#طلعت_ريحتكم #lebanon pic.twitter.com/DFn2854z5I
— Nancy Fakhoury (@EL_nan) August 23, 2015


text:
Son of Green Movement Opposition Leader Comes Out in Support of Iranian Nuclear Deal · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

A string of prominent Iranian dissident figures have taken a public stance on the nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers.
The latest is Mohammad Taghi Karoubi, the son of Mehdi Karoubi, one of the reformist presidential candidates for the 2009 elections and leaders of the Green Movement. Mehdi Karoubi has been under house arrest since 2011 for his involvement in the unrest associated with the 2009 elections.
Mohammad Taghi Karoubi often acts as his father's unofficial spokesmen for the media. He is a professor of law who was banned from teaching inside Iran, and now lives in exile and is a pro-democracy activist. He released a 30-second video expressing his support for the deal and hopes of a brighter future that it will bring for Iranians.
Many comments that followed Karoubi's post on Facebook were of thanks for his solidarity with the people of Iran.
Son of Mehdi Karroubi, green movement leader under house arrest for 4 years, supports #IranDeal https://t.co/k0aMjkI6RI
— Arash Karami (@thekarami) August 23, 2015
Karoubi joins an ever growing group of Iranian figures picking sides on the nuclear agreement. Leading up to the completion of the negotiations in Vienna on July 14, Global Voices collaborators the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran collected statements from notable members of Iranian civil society supporting the deal.
Last week, an iconic figure of the reform movement of the late 1990s, Ahmad Batebi, signed an anti-deal open letter and appeared in an advertisement condemning the agreement. He was closely followed by a video featuring Mohammedreza Jaleipour, a supporter and campaigner of the 2009 presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi who was arrested twice for his associations to the Green Movement.
Political dissidents support #IranDeal. No 1. Mohammadreza Jalaeipour VIDEO: https://t.co/VDRuKRyNd1 pic.twitter.com/VpzyN6k14i
— Negar نگار (@NegarMortazavi) August 20, 2015

author: Mahsa Alimardani


text:
Want to See the First Free African Town in the Americas? Go to Mexico · Global Voices
Lupita Peimbert

Statue of Gaspar Yanga. Photo by Erasmo Vasquez Lendechy via Wikipedia. Used under a Creative Commons license
This post was originally published in the blog Lupitanews.
It is called Yanga. In the middle of intense vegetation in southeastern Veracruz, a state along the Mexican Gulf, the town of Yanga is evidence to the presence and settlement of Africans in Mexico.
On our way to the Port of Veracruz, we stopped at Yanga and saw the agricultural fields full of caña and corn surrounding the area, also rich in coffee plantations; the tropical weather invites you to be outside, under the sun's open arms.
Yanga claims to have been the first free African town in the Americas, proclaimed on October 3, 1631. Afro-Mexicans proudly share the story of “El Yanga,” apparently an enslaved prince from the Yang-Bara tribe from Gabon, who helped slaves to be free from the Spanish around 1570.
One of the town’s plazas shows his statue, presenting El Yanga as a defiant, proud man.
The main plaza, the portales, and the main church are as typical as in many other Mexican towns inviting serene strolls. Yanga is peaceful and emanates longevity. Many centuries and people have lived and died there, perhaps oblivious to history, yet making history themselves.

author: Lupita Peimbert


text:
‘You Stink’ Protesters Call for the Resignation of the Lebanese Government · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Thousands of Lebanese protesters chanting “You Stink” outside parliament. Photo credit: @joeyayoub
“You Stink”! This is the message thousands of Lebanese protesters carried to Parliament, in the capital Beirut, yesterday. It may have started as a movement to protest against piling rubbish. Now the stench is threatening the government and calling for its resignation, with protesters from yesterday's rally camped outside parliament until their demands are met.
Thousands of people gathered yesterday at Riad El Solh in Beirut to call for a “sustainable solution to Lebanon's waste disposal problem.”
We are over 10,000. #Lebanon #طلعت_ريحتكم pic.twitter.com/RbT9pkuEmn
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
This was followed by a clash with security forces and ended with a sit-in in front of parliament until the protesters demands are met. Lebanon, already suffering from a poor infrastructure and daily electricity cuts, has had no president for more than a year. In 2009, its parliament extended its term until 2017, with no elections, citing instability as a reason. Today, protesters are demanding a change in all that. It is no longer a trash problem.
At Hummus for Thought, Lebanese blogger Joey Ayoub, who is also a Global Voices Online author and an activist, explains:
We want a sustainable solution to Lebanon’s waste disposal problem. Our current waste disposal mechanism is catastrophic and these past few weeks were a manifestation of this failure. Sustainable solutions are very simple to implement and extremely dangerous not to. The government is already in contact with environmental experts who reached out to us. But for them to get heard, we need to keep the pressure.
Right now, our accumulated waste is not being disposed properly, to say the least. This means that we are breathing filth, drinking filth, eating filth. When the rain comes, the waste will get to our sea. Our forests and reserves are already being polluted very severely. If we do not act, we will be facing a health crisis beyond anything we could’ve imagined. This is very serious.
Yesterday's call for protest attracted a huge turn out, the largest in a series of protests that have continued to grow and escalate since Tol3et Re7atkom (You Stink), a secular movement, started demanding a solution for Lebanon's mounting rubbish problem. On July 17, the country's largest landfill was closed and rubbish started piling all over Beirut as officials continued to mishandle the refuse problem. Rubbish and summer did not go hand in hand, and as the waste bags continued to pile up along the streets of Beirut, the appalling stench poisoned the air, rubbing Lebanese people in the nose.
An estimated 10,000 people turned up for yesterday's protest, whose demands were:
1. The immediate resignation of Mohammad Machnouk, Minister of Environment. Even though he doesn’t carry all of the responsibility, he carries the primary responsibility as the Minister in charge of this issue, and in particular due to his deadly decision of hiding the waste.
2. Transparent bids with environmentally-friendly, safe and sustainable terms and conditions that respect the citizen’s health and the environment rather than the pockets and interests of politicians. We refuse to have 6 Sukleens [Lebanon's waste disposal company] instead of one! [meaning that Sukleen is part of the problem, and having 6 ‘Mini-Sukleens’ only makes the situation worse.]
3. Accountability for all those who played a role in the current crisis or wasted public money by pressuring the financial public prosecutor to publicize the results of the investigations. We are also calling for a protest this Saturday (the 22nd) in front of the parliament, an institution whose mandate it is to protect lives and rights of citizens
More security personnel than protesters turned up to “protect” the parliament building. The inevitable then followed as police clashed with protesters, attacking them with water cannons, teargas and live bullets. Ayoub was on the ground, sharing what happened. Here's a breakdown:
There's more security than if both Israel & Assad invaded at the same time. Are we that scary? #Lebanon #طلعت_ريحتكم pic.twitter.com/yka3T8LORC
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
I've seen less security for an ISIS threat than this. Protest at 6. #Lebanon #طلعت_ريحتكم pic.twitter.com/9cNs9fXywf
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
5-6 cops for every volunteer. This is the State of #Lebanon. Protest at 6. #طلعت_ريحتكم pic.twitter.com/tpfbyJxA8x
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
This is just one section. There are easily over 200 cops. #Lebanon #طلعت_ريحتكم pic.twitter.com/kIoBMkiBJc
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
Soon enough, there was a face-off with police doing what they were made to do. Ayoub continues to report:
We were teargased. They beat old women and children. An old woman fainted. HELP #Lebanon #طلعت_ريحتكم
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
And then, they started shooting live bullets at protesters:
Some of the bullets that we found on the ground. #Beirut #Lebanon #طلعت_ريحتكم pic.twitter.com/CKpUaYRUqX
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
THEY ARE SHOOTING LIVE BULLETS at prostesters. #Lebanon #طلعت_ريحتكم #Beirut
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
Army/General Security now shooting live bullets near #Gemmayzeh. #Beirut #Lebanon #طلعت_ريحتكم
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
We can hear gunshots all around us in Gemmayzeh. Everyone PLEASE STAY HOME. #Beirut #Lebanon #طلعت_ريحتكم
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
They're still shooting at us. #Lebanon #Beirut #طلعت_ريحتكم https://t.co/c4SCrEfSPd
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
Unable to absorb the people's anger and not willing to continue with the security crackdown, the security forces retreated leaving the area for protesters, who agreed to stage a parliament sit-in. Ayoub explains:
UPDATE: We announce a permanent sit-in until the the resignation of this criminal parliament and until we have parliamentary elections.
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
We are at Riad El Solh and are staying here until justice is met. #Lebanon #Beirut #طلعت_ريحتكم
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
We're about 1,000 people staying at Riad El Solh tonight. #Beirut #Lebanon #طلعت_ريحتكم
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
For Mohamed Najem, the protest was a success. He explains:
Today was a success, it's not garbage issue anymore. How can we take this political success 2 move 1 step for #Lebanon we want? #طلعت_ريحتكم
— Mohamad محمد (@monajem) August 22, 2015
And he continues:
Protestors requests: 1) Immediate resignation of the government, 2) elections with new proportionate electoral law. #Youstink #طلعت_ريحتكم
— Mohamad محمد (@monajem) August 22, 2015
And for some, what happened yesterday will never be forgotten — or forgiven.
What happened today's unforgivable. We'll never forget and never forgive. We will continue until our demands are met. #Lebanon #طلعت_ريحتكم
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) August 22, 2015
For more on this story check out:

author: Amira Al Hussaini


text:
A Japanese Woman’s Impressive Appetite Leaves the Internet Hungry for More · Global Voices
N'Donna Russell

Screencap from Kinoshita Yuka's Official YouTube Channel
A Japanese woman named Yuka Kinoshita (木下ゆうか) is living the dream of being able eat a variety of food and a lot of it, apparently without any ill health effects.
Kinoshita, a self-described “professional competitive eater,” is also a dedicated YouTuber. According to her YouTube profile, Kinoshita also earns a living partly by promoting the restaurants where eating competitions are hosted.
To satisfy the demands of her fans, every day Kinoshita uploads videos that show her eating a large amount of food in short amounts of time.
For example, one video features Kinoshita consuming a beefsteak bowl weighing over seven pounds and clocking in at 6,625 food calories (kilocalories), and includes a cooking tutorial.
Another video demonstrates Kinoshita eating seven pounds of McDonald’s Big Mac sandwiches prepared with rice in a rice cooker.
Kinoshita's most ambitious meal features super-sized dishes traditionally made for children that total over 23,000 food calories (kilocalories).
Although Kinoshita shares the meal with others, she consumes most of the food, to the delight of her guests.
How is Kinoshita able to perform these whimsical flights of epicurean fancy?
In an English-subtitled Q&A video posted to YouTube last year, Kinoshita credits her success to her anatomy:
When I got examined by a doctor, it was determined that I have a very unique stomach… My stomach is able to expand and fill up all the spaces within my body.  That is why I can eat so much.
Kinoshita further credits her anatomy for her lack of weight gain. “My body doesn’t digest things at the same rate… and just passes them through.”
There is even a video that features her receiving a full physical examination.  She completes a series of tests along with a her fellow Japanese YouTubers and appears to be in good health.
Despite the professional eater's prodigious skill and resulting stardom, it's clear she doesn't take herself too seriously:
(^p^) pic.twitter.com/JOjAnhJLtf — 木下ゆうか Yuka Kinoshita (@mochiko0204) August 10, 2015
Photo caption: Useless adult
Kinoshita’s high level of spirited food consumption has earned her over 460,000 subscribers on YouTube and nearly 69,000 followers on Twitter. Thanks to the efforts of fellow YouTuber Aphexx, who has translated her recent videos into English, Kinoshita now has fans from all around the word.
Her fans show their appreciation for Kinoshita's craft by tweeting fan art as well as by generally offering praise for her work.
@mochiko0204 ゆうかちゃーん！！お腹すいたのら(。´Д⊂)美味しい食べ物の写真ほしいのらm(。≧Д≦。)m
— 生ハムの精 (@namahamunosei) August 15, 2015
Yuka! I'm sooo hungry now! (。´Д⊂) I really want pictures of delicious food!m(。≧Д≦。)m
服がスイカだ！！！かわいーい！\(* ¨̮*)/\(*¨̮ *)/ ♡ https://t.co/yFPbPV3HGL
— 木下ゆうか Yuka Kinoshita (@mochiko0204) August 14, 2015
ケージェイ – Q: Is that your boyfriend over there? A: Nope, that's Mochiko over there.\(* ¨̮*)/\(*¨̮ *)/ Yuka: My clothes look like watermelon! So cute!\(* ¨̮*)/\(*¨̮ *)/ ♡
私の動画の英語字幕を作ってくれるApexxさんが英語版動画サイトを作ってくれたよ！ そしてなんと！！！😳 そのサイトにケージェイさんがイラストを描いてくれたよ！ 素敵な仲間や視聴者さんに囲まれて、私はほんとに幸せ者！！✨✨ https://t.co/ngyWSb4wXy
— 木下ゆうか Yuka Kinoshita (@mochiko0204) August 13, 2015
Apexx, who does the English subtitles for my videos, has made an English website for my videos! And now this! [Twitter user] K-Jay drew this picture for me!
I am very happy to be surrounded by wonderful friends and viewers.
Kinoshita has also been featured on Japanese television program “Oogui” (大食い), where she travels to various restaurants around the country to eat enlarged portions of various restaurant's signature dishes.

author: N'Donna Russell


text:
Did Russia’s Biggest Search Engine Censor Itself to Protect Putin’s Spokesman? · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

“This watch I got here was first purchased by your great-granddaddy.” Peskov replaces Christopher Walken's Capt. Koons from “Pulp Fiction.” Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
Dmitry Peskov, the long-time spokesman for Vladimir Putin, can’t seem to get his name out of the news. Earlier this month, Peskov weathered two media storms about his expensive tastes: one about an opulent wristwatch he wore to his wedding, and the other about the pricey yacht he allegedly rented in the Mediterranean for his honeymoon.
Now “Peskov’s watch” is buzzing online again, after Russian Internet users discovered this weekend that Yandex, the country’s most popular search engine, returns image results for the phrase “Peskov watch” (“песков часы”) that are curiously different from the results available on Google. Enter these terms on Google’s image search, and you’ll be confronted by a wall of images related to Dmitry Peskov and the recent scandal about his Richard Mille RM 52-01, which is reportedly worth at least $620,000.
When searching for this on Yandex, however, the results, until late on Sunday, August 23, featured nothing about Peskov, instead showing hourglasses and pocket watches lying in the sand. (Peskov’s surname is identical to the genitive plural form of the word “sand” in Russian.)
АХАХАХА😂😂😂😂😂 #яндексзассал #цензура #часыпескова pic.twitter.com/JWqyMJv1AC
— Garmazhapova (@buu3a) August 22, 2015
AHAHAHAHA. 😂😂😂😂😂 #YandexChickenedOut #Censorship #PeskovsWatch
After several Internet users began mocking Yandex for the apparent effort to purge its image search results of political content, Yandex’s official support account on Twitter responded, calling the discrepancy an “error,” and promised to fix it.
@Liveuamap @LyapunovS Спасибо, что обратили наше внимание на эту ошибку, будем исправлять.
— Yandex.Support (@yandexsupport) August 23, 2015
Thank you for bringing this error to our attention. We will correct it.
Yandex appears to have made some change to the way it returns image results for this query, and some images of Peskov at his wedding do now appear, though the first ten results are still photographs of hourglasses and watches lying on the beach.
Yandex image search results for “Peskov watch” (“песков часы”), after Yandex allegedly “fixed” a “mistake.” Screen capture, August 23, 2015.
Yandex has yet to issue any official statement explaining why its image search results vary so strikingly from what can be found on Google, when it comes to this politically sensitive search.