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Thailand Cuts Rice Subsidy Price · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

After incurring a loss of 4.4 billion US dollars, the Thailand government has announced the reduction of rice subsidy price that it gives to four million farmers. Introduced in 2011 after the election victory of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the program involved the government buying the rice output of local farmers at high a price before reselling the rice to the global market. The program was meant to improve the savings of farmers.
For five decades, Thailand was the world’s largest rice exporter but it has been overtaken by India and Vietnam in recent years. Critics blame the rice pledging program for the huge financial losses in the rice sector.
Veera Prateepchaikul asserts that the program was unrealistic from the very start:
From Day One, the rice pledging scheme was criticised as unrealistic. Its first priority was to get the votes of the farmers, with the actual benefits for the farmers only a secondary priority.
An article in Asia Sentinel argues that the program benefits middlemen and rice traders and not the poor farmers:
Thai farmers during protest at Government House. Photo by Piti A Sahakorn, Copyright @Demotix (6/25/2013
There are also questions how much the program benefits the farmers, other sources say. Although famers do undeniably benefit from higher prices, it is the middlemen who make out the most in the long run.
Peter Warr cites the rice subsidy as an example of a populist measure in Thailand:
These populist interventions focus on short-term political benefits to the government, through gaining votes, and economic benefits to favoured special interests, while ignoring the need to craft long-term solutions to the country’s problems.
This new program departs from previous rice-buying schemes because of its high price, and because it fails to set any limit on government purchases.
Vikram Nehru explains what is wrong with the program and offers a solution:
Aside from its rising costs, another problem with the new rice policy is corruption. Farmers are required to sell their rice to millers, who have enough local market power to reduce the procurement price they offer to farmers, and at the same time receive compensation from the government at the procurement rate. It is hardly surprising that the number of mills in Thailand has increased over the last year.
Thailand should go back to the scheme that was operated prior to 2006, which provided farmers a guaranteed minimum price slightly below the prevailing market price
But the government is confident that the program has succeeded. It claims that it benefited millions of poor farmers:
…97.8 percent of the farmers agreed that the scheme had helped alleviate their debt burden both formal and informal, while 93.7 percent was satisfied with the scheme; and 85.4% said they had more savings.
Andrew Spooner reminds critics that farm subsidies given by European countries are bigger than Thailand’s rice subsidy:
What is astonishing in all this is that Thailand's rice buying subsidy scheme is relatively small if the total loss figures of roughly US$2billion match the government’s expectations. In the EU for example farm subsidies top US$75billion whilst in Korea, Switzerland, Japan and Norway up to 60% of all agricultural earnings come via government subsidy.
There's nothing that strange about agricultural subsidies. And the rice buying scheme was put to the electorate in the 2011 general election and they clearly voted to back this policy.
Terence Chulavachana makes a similar point:
How well off are Thai farmers? How well off are farmers in the Eurozone and USA? The fact is, Thai farmers are dirt-poor in comparison. How much is Thailand’s farm subsidy? And how much is the Eurozone and USA farm subsidy? The fact is, Thailand’s farm subsidy is a small fraction of Eurozone and USA’s farm subsidy.
So why has there been so much global out-raged over Thailand’s rice subsidy?
Rice farmers immediately opposed the reduction of the subsidy price and vowed to hold more protests in Bangkok and other cities.


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Croatia Joins European Union Amid Cheers, Skepticism, Apathy · Global Voices
Tamara Gocmanac

After nine years of waiting, Croatia has joined the European Union as its 28th member state.
But response to the Balkan state's entry on July 1, 2013 appeared to be lukewarm, with the majority of positive online commentary coming from the country's media and politicians. Few Croats celebrated on social media, with many more meeting the date with little to no mention, a change from the weeks leading up to Croatia joining the EU when lively online conversations treated the EU prospect with sarcasm and skepticism.
Croatia enters the EU with one of the lowest ranked GDP's of the bloc, with the country's GDP per capita amounting to 61 percent of the average GDP per capita in the other 27 member states, just above Romania with 49 percent and Bulgaria with 47 percent, according to data from Eurostat. The country as joins the union with the third highest unemployment rate of any member state, which was 18.1 percent in April 2013 compared with the EU average of 11 percent.
On Facebook, the sentiment among Croats was seen by following the hashtags #Hrvatska [hr] and #CroatiaEU. Facebook pages such as Occupy Croatia and Anonymous Croatia shared a photo from Zagreb in which a crowd of people push each other to receive gift packages of food from European food retailer Lidl, as part of the celebration of Croatia's accession into the union.
There was no euphoria to be felt among users on Twitter. Official statements about the celebration and protocol could be seen, as well as debates as to whether or not this would bring positive change to Croatia's economy and social matters. But there were very few affirmative comments or images.
The vast majority of tweets under hashtags #Hrvatska and #CroatiaEU were from news outlets and messages from other European citizens welcoming Croatia to the union. After celebrating last night and counting down the minutes to their official entry into the EU, Croats seem to be a little quieter on social networks today.
In the days prior to Croatia's entry, many Twitter users seemed apprehensive of the event and upcoming celebrations. Twitter user Jack Burton Jr (@JackBurtonJr) wrote:
@JackBurtonJr: Hrvatska je ostvarila svoje višestoljetne ciljeve, priključila se EU i NATO-u, utvrdila svoju poziciju bedema Zapada i kud sad?
Another user on Facebook, Ivan Radman, had this to say, as he shared a photo of a scruffy man searching through trash cans for food next to a poster of a menu listing several popular dishes and bearing the header “European Menu”:
Hrvatska je bogata onoliko koliko je bogat njezin najsiromašniji stanovnik. Nikakvi drugi indeksi ne zaslužuju biti mjerilo blagostanja. Nojevi smo i magarci. Izgubili osjećaj zajedništva i dopustili ovo. Mene je sram.
Some on social media even feared that Croatia will relive the Greek scenario of the past twenty years in the European Union of becoming, or in this case remaining, one of the economically weakest countries in the Union.
The one thing to cast a shadow on the monumental date was the last minute cancellation of an official trip to the capital city of Zagreb by German Chancelor Angela Merkel. Merkel's decision brought some negative feedback from Croatian citizens and some wondered if they were being shunned instead of being welcomed into the union.
Bobo Weber, a Croatian political analyst, when asked if and how the German leader's decision to not attend Croatia's state celebrations on the eve of its entry into the EU, stated in an interview with Al Jazeera Balkans that he doubted her decision had much to do with the her view of Croatia as part of the European family and that Croatia's fresh EU membership would develop as planned:
The current Croatian opposition, however, sees other reasons for Merkel cancelling her trip [hr], citing the Croatian government's recent legislative amendments that aim to put a time limit on European arrest warrants, in which case Germany would not be able to extradite former Yugoslavia State Security Administration agent Josip Perković, who is wanted for murder and lives in Croatia.
Croatian news portal Vijesti.hr [hr], with live updates of more than 300 news sources from Croatia, tweeted a Deutche Welle article that speculates on this recent legislature, the Perković case and its possible ties to Angela Merkel cancelling her visit to Croatia on this important date:
Ovo nije njemačka pljuska Hrvatskoj, nego hrvatska pljuska demokraciji! – article -
This is not a German slap to Croatia, it's a Croatian slap to democracy! – članak -
Regardless, the country's politicians celebrated the entry into the EU online. Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Neven Mimica (@MimicaEU) said this on his brand new Twitter account:
@MimicaEU: Hrvatska je u Europskoj uniji. Ponosan sam biti Hrvatom i Europljaninom NM #CroatiaEU
@MimicaEU: Croatia is in the European Union. I am proud to be a Croat and a European NM #CroatiaEU
Marija Lugarić (@marija_lugaric), a representative in Croatian Parliament, also tweeted in the morning Croatia joined the union:
@marija_lugaric: I tak… Eto nas u EU :)
@marija_lugaric: And so… Here we are in the EU :)
Austrian portal Die Presse Politik (DiePresse_Pol) was among the first to welcome Croatia to the European family on Twitter, in Croatian:
@DiePresse_Pol: Dobro došla Hrvatska http://bit.ly/17ls2sQ
@DiePresse_Pol: Welcome Croatia http://bit.ly/17ls2sQ
Twitter user Darko Horvatić (@komarac_) sarcastically wrote:
@komarac_: došla teta EU ko se nije skrijo, magarac je bijo…
@komarac_: Auntie EU is here, last one to hide is a rotten egg…
So far, a group of netizens from Poland were some of the most cheerful and original in wishing Croatian citizens a warm welcome on a special webpage set up just for this occasion that says “Hrvatska welcome to .EU”. Some Croatian citizens, however, didn't seem so thrilled, like Twitter user Asteroid B612 (@marina_b612):
@marina_b612: Stanovnike EU razlikujem od ostalih po tome sto ove ostale razumijem sta pricaju…
@marina_b612: I differentiate citizens of the EU from the others by the fact that I understand what the others are saying…

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Tamara Gocmanac


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Beethoven to Mark Croatia’s EU Entry · Global Voices
Danica Radisic

ArtsJournal.com was among the few to notice and post a video of Croatian President Ivo Josipović playing Beethoven to celebrate Croatia's official entry into the European Union on July 1st.
Ivo Josipović
A reader, Eleanor Hope, commented on the blog:
Congratulations Mr President! We need more music makers in power to show citizens how essential culture is in our lives. Welcome to the European Union!

author: Danica Radisic


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Grenada: Cleaning Up Social Media · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

The Electronic Crimes Bill…makes it an offence to send offensive messages electronically publicly, especially via social media such as Facebook and Twitter…be responsible for spoof and spam emails  and to violate another person’s privacy.
New legislation in Grenada tackles social media.

author: Matthew Hunte


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New Travel Blog ‘LatinAmericando’ · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Bloggers Edu (@ProyectosEdu) [es], Isa (@nscap) [es] and Mafi (@MafiViajera) [es] launched [es] a new travel blog called LatinAmericando [es], “a nomadic lifestyle open to whatever surprises us on the way.” You can follow the blog on Twitter [es] and Facebook [es].

author: Silvia Viñas


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Puerto Rican Tech Startup ‘Blimp’ is Changing the Project Management Game · Global Voices
Alfredo Richner

Nowadays, it's difficult to imagine an entrepreneur not using some kind of project management software on a daily basis, no matter how simple the tool. It's even harder to consider this scenario when a team is spread out through various offices, perhaps in different parts of the world. In these cases, project management tools are as essential – if not more so – than a business card.
Among the numerous software and cloud-based solutions that have cropped up to meet this demand, platforms such as Basecamp – designed by the renowned development team at 37Signals – have become synonymous with increased efficiency and organization in the modern workspace.
But there is always room for improvement, no matter how polished the competition – and that opportunity to innovate motivated a team of young, Puerto Rican entrepreneurs to develop Blimp, a new and surprising contender in the highly contested software niche of project management.
Launched late last year, Blimp has quickly won over a loyal group of supporters. Co-creators Giovanni Collazo (@gcollazo), José Padilla (@jpadilla_), and Elving Rodríguez (@Elving) have developed a company culture that values accessibility and openness towards its clients, also contributing to Blimp's rapid growth.
“No one is protected from angry clients”, mentions Giovanni. “We all do customer support, and share our personal email addresses and phone numbers with all our clients”. This practice has turned some of their clients into active collaborators that help develop an even stronger product – one that might easily surpass the expectations of the small core team that is responsible for Blimp.
What follows is an excerpt from the author's original interview with Giovanni Collazo about Blimp, the future of his company, and Puerto Rico. It was originally published in Spanish through PuertoRicoIndie.com [es].
Global Voices (GV): Your product competes with numerous high profile options. How is Blimp different?
Giovanni Collazo (GC): Blimp is a software with opinions, not a blank canvas like most of the tools that are available out there. This is a design decision that in some ways might limit its adoption rate, but also has the potential of attracting clients that simply love the product and can help us accelerate that rate.
When I say it's a software with opinions, I mean specifically the process we implement to manage a project's tasks. The majority of project management tools let users input tasks and manage them in the best way they can figure out the software. This becomes a problem for people that have never managed a project before or don't know how to. Blimp suggests one specific process for administrating a project. In this process, tasks are put through a series of simple steps that allow for better organization of your work, produce better results, and empower you to make better decisions during key moments within a project.
Blimp's process is derived from the techniques of lean manufacturing used by Toyota and other giant companies. The process starts out by laying out tasks that need to be done; then those tasks are worked on; then the results of those tasks are evaluated; and then those results can be approved or rejected. If the results are rejected, you start again; if they are approved, a task is considered complete.
GV: A problem within local technological entrepreneurship is its constant preoccupation with tailoring specific solutions for the Puerto Rican market. We've heard before about “a Facebook for Puerto Ricans” or the “a Twitter for Puerto Ricans”, and even a “Kickstarter for Puerto Ricans”.
It seems that the vision of providing services to a global community has been hijacked by one based on exclusion that is severely limited in scope – thereby difficult to grow and maintain. Yet Blimp is not “Basecamp for Puerto Ricans”. You are concerned with introducing new ideas into the global market.
GC: The new “default” is for all businesses to be global from day one. Whoever doesn't understand that is lost in space and needs help. Having said that, I think there is a big opportunity in creating services and businesses online for specific regions. But for those to work there needs to be some innovation, you need to provide something that no one else does, because others are reaching for the entire globe and your service might only work within a city, town, or street. I think the term is “micro-niche”.
A good opportunity that remains untapped is that Puerto Ricans spend millions of dollars a year on online sales, and I think that more than 90 percent of those transactions are done with companies outside the country. There's a huge opportunity there to make money with a “Puerto Rican Amazon”, but there needs to be innovation in order to take on Amazon. What can we do being geographically close to the buyer and understanding his cultural context, that Amazon can't?
So I don't think it's all bad. If you can make money with that and you don't harm anyone – good. But I agree that for many, the “default” is still to develop for the local market and then move elsewhere, as if the Internet had frontiers. From day one you are competing against the best in the world, no matter what you are working on.
GV: You've mentioned that Blimp bypassed financing its product through external channels outside the company because you didn't want your vision to be compromised. How about crowdfunding? Would you consider it in the future in order to develop new features or a new product, as the team behind blogging platform Ghost has done?
GC: More than compromising our vision, what we didn't want to have to do was to ask for permission. We are hackers and don't like to ask for permission. Perhaps we don't have the best ideas, but our ideas get made because we don't have to wait for anybody and this is something that we are not willing to negotiate. For us, creating a economic dependance on external elements is a way of having to ask for permission – and that's why we eliminated that possibility from the beginning. If we want to do something we have to get whatever we need directly and without intermediaries.
I think crowdfunding is a way of not having to ask for permission and doing what you want to do. The idea is to go directly to someone who cares and will benefit from your project and is willing to pay upfront so that it can become a reality. They are clients for what you are creating, not investors. The idea behind Ghost is a great one, and we know of other “free software” projects – free as in “free speech” not “free beer” – that have used crowdfunding successfully. This is better than going to investors, and we have already spoken about things that we are interested to do that go in that direction.
GV: Why do you think there are not many companies like yours in Puerto Rico?
GC: I think there are more people than we think and we are working, within initiatives such as Startups of Puerto Rico to make us more effective in the process of producing technology startups. I think we can hack Puerto Rico's economy.

author: Alfredo Richner


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Roberto Beličanec, Macedonian Media Expert and Vocal Activist, Dies · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Macedonian media expert, activist and blogger Roberto Beličanec died of heart attack [mk] on June 29, 2013 at the age of 41.
Beličanec was one of the few remaining publicly vocal proponents of liberty and human rights in the country, daring to speak the truth to power [mk]. He had a large social media following as a result of his courage to openly speak against the misuse of power, against corruption, censorship, and hate speech (which he deemed “verbal violence”), combining his wast expertise with wit and kindness.
After a distinguished career in journalism, including working for Fokus weekly in the 1990s, Beličanec served as a media expert and was instrumental in implementing the inclusive process for enacting the 2005 Broadcasting Law. As an activist, he was a founding member of Citizens for European Macedonia.
“Silence is not a solution” – Roberto Beličanec, 1972-2013. Photo shared as meme.
In the last several months, as director of the Media Development Center, Beličanec was engaged in a strenuous [mk] struggle against the new all-encompassing Media Law, intended to provide a legal means for total control over freedom of expression in Macedonia. His latest expert contribution was within an analysis of this draft law (pdf).
As a reaction to this draft law, Beličanec recently moved his blog “This is not America” from a domestic to foreign platform. His final blog post [mk] condemned a recent instance of endemic homophobic violence, a night stoning attack on the home of the family of actor & human rights activist Petar Stojkovikj who publicly announced his homosexuality, drawing parallels to 1930s Nazi pogroms. In his last Facebook post [mk], referring to propaganda intended to soften the perceptions of stalled international integrations of Macedonia, he asked:
И сега? Како? Уште 7 години ќе се занимаваме со вуду економија и вуду политика?
And now what? How? Shall we spend seven more years on voodoo economics and voodoo politics?
Fellow bloggers [mk, mk], journalists and other social media users posted mementos to Beličanec, also publishing his links or quotes as Facebook statuses, and expressed outrage at several (quickly removed) gloating comments [mk]. One often shared quote included an excerpt [mk] from an interview with а local portal from his native town of Prilep:
… Односот кон институциите секогаш ми бил конфликтен – да се почитуваат, но да се менуваат за да им служат на луѓето, а не луѓето да им служат на институциите. Тоа е слободно живеење и тоа не се сменило. Не трпам паши и друг тип на феудалци. Немам респект кон моќта, а уште помалку кон силата. Не верувам дека наведната глава сабја не ја сече – напротив – најлесно ја сече, само треба да се спушти раката. Не верувам дека човекот е способен да создаде совршена творба. Мора вечно да се менуваме за да опстанеме и да просперираме. Не знам дали сум бил бунтовен како средношколец – веројанто сум бил… Но не сум бил бунтовен без причина. Моите бунтови секогаш имаат и цел и причина. Не е тоа дифузен бунт на човек кој не знае зошто е гневен… О, не! И тоа како добро знам што и кој ми смета и зошто. И никогаш тоа не заради мене и заради мои лични цели, секогаш тоа е поширока приказна околу која се врти приказната за слободата. Не само мојата лична, туку и на другите. Слободата е основен предуслов  за самоостварување на човекот . Не мислам дека трпењето спасува…
Трпењето создава робови.  Ваквите ставови ми овозможиле да изборам некоја лична слобода никој да не ме управува, никој да не ме насочува и никој да не ме злоупотребува. Можам денес да мислам, да зборувам, да работам и мирно да си се гледам во огледало знаеќи дека никој нема да ми се појави на врата и да побара да вратам некој долг со нешто што не сакам да направам. Не е малку!
…My relationship with the institutions was always conflicting – they should be respected, but also changed to serve the people, and not the people to serve the institutions. That is what I consider a free life and that has not changed. I cannot stand [pashas] or any other type of feudal lords. I have no respect for power, and even less for brute force. I do not believe [a defeatist folk proverb] that “a bowed head is not cut by the sabre” – on the contrary, such heads are cut most easily, the executioner needs just to let his hand fall down. I do not believe that a human being is capable of creating perfection. We eternally need to change to survive and prosper. I do not remember being a rebel in high school – I probably was… But I was never a rebel without a cause. My rebellions always have a goal and a purpose. It is not a diffused rebellion of a man who does not know why he is angry… Oh, no! I very well know who and why is bothering me. And I never speak out only because of me and my personal goals, it is always a wider story related to the story of liberty. Not only my personal freedom, but also others’. Freedom is a precondition for self-realization in human beings. I do not think that putting up [with oppression] can save you…
Tolerating [oppression] creates slaves. These positions enabled me to win some degree of personal freedom – so nobody can rule over me, no one to direct me and nobody to abuse me. Today I can think, talk, work and peacefully look at the mirror, knowing that nobody can come to my door and ask me to return a debt with something that I would not like to do. And that is not a small thing!
Roberto Beličanec is survived by his loving wife and three small children.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Riots Spark Ethnic Policy Debate in China · Global Voices
Abby Liu

While Chinese government is tightening anti-terror efforts in Xinjiang due to the recent Xinjiang riots, an online plea from a Xinjiang native has triggered discussions on the causes of the constant violent clashes between Uyghurs and the Han people. Some netizens think the problem lies in the Chinese government’s ethnic policies. Offbeat China has translated some comments into English.

author: Abby Liu


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Russia’s Amnesty Proposal Tests Entrepreneurial Attitudes · Global Voices
Nina Jobe

A recent survey [ru] conducted by Russian polling firm FOM found that only 5% of Russians say they are involved in “entrepreneurial activity,” concluding:
Главными препятствиями для открытия собственного дела россияне считают высокие налоги, недостаточную поддержку со стороны государства и высокую коррупцию.
Russians say that they consider high taxes, lack of state support, and high corruption levels to be the main impediments to starting their own business.
FOM also asked [ru] its survey respondents why they think people in Russia engage in entrepreneurial activity. 72% said they think the main reason people go into business for themselves is to earn more money.
When asked why they did not have their own business, 17% of respondents answered that they were too old, 8% said they lacked the necessary skills, 7% replied that they already had a job, and 6% answered it was simply too difficult. Nearly half of those polled did not answer the question at all.
The government is clearly concerned about this trend, and believes that such attitudes are stifling economic activity. To that end, Boris Titov, the Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs’ Rights, has proposed an amnesty program for economic crimes. Under his plan, some 10,000 men and women incarcerated for economic crimes would be freed, though amnesty would be limited to first-time offenders who also agreed to repay the damages of their crimes.
Speaking to investors at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said [en], “It’s not just an act of humanity; it’s a signal to our supervisory bodies that we have a chance to reorganize the environment for entrepreneurs.”
Putin addresses the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, 21 June 2013, Russian Presidential Press Service, public domain.
Titov defended the planned amnesty in an interview, saying, “So this is the logic of the amnesty – yes someone will (be let) out who really committed a crime, but it’s better to do this than to keep a really innocent person – even one – in jail.”
Valery Fedotov, a United Russia Duma deputy representing Saint Petersburg, shared his own thoughts about Titov’s amnesty in a blog post [ru], titled “Who Needs This Amnesty?”:
Предложенная Путиным экономическая амнистия устроена хитро: реальным жуликам по ней выйти проще, чем невиновным и оклеветанным.
По поводу проекта экономической амнистии, основательно урезанного в процессе согласования с Кремлем, хочу заявить, что как политику, мне очевидно: данный проект – компромисс между экономическим блоком Кремля и всевластными силовиками.
Putin’s proposed economic amnesty is artfully arranged: the real crooks get through the process easier than the innocent and maligned.
According to the draft amnesty, thoroughly trimmed in the negotiation process with the Kremlin, I want to point out that, as a politician, it is clear to me that this project is a compromise between the Kremlin’s economic bloc and the omnipotent security forces [the siloviki].
Meanwhile, Fedotov pointed out, Titov’s original proposal had been edited to ensure that ex-Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky would not be eligible for early release.
“Mentality is our prison.” An anonymous demotivator widely distributed online.
Fedotov’s blog post brought out the skeptics [ru]:
Чтобы выпустить на свободу невинным и оклеветанным, нужно проводить не амнистию, а дополнительное следствие по их делам, дабы убедиться в том, что данные лица действительно невинно оклеветаны. Амнистия – не средство борьбы с судебными ошибками и преступлениями. Она направлена на действительно виновных, по крайней мере, тех, кого власть имущие считают таковыми.
In order to release the innocent and slandered, what we need isn't amnesty, but an additional investigation of their cases to ensure that these people were indeed innocently slandered. Amnesty is not a means to combat judicial errors and crimes. It is directed at the truly guilty, or at least those whom the powers that be consider as such.
Another commenter remarked [Ru]:
Мне тоже режет ухо термин “амнистия”. Амнистия подразумевает милость к виноватому. Иными словами, абсолютно правая власть дарует милость виновным перед ней.
Вот эта твердая несгибаемость есть признак уязвимости.
Мне пришло на память, как в России давали свободу крепостным: была объявлена “высочайшая милость императора”.
The term “amnesty” also grates on my ears. Amnesty implies mercy for the guilty. In other words, the high and mighty authorities grant mercy to those guilty before them.
It is this hard inflexibility that is a sign of vulnerability.
I am reminded that in Russia, when freedom was given to the serfs, it was declared “the supreme mercy of the Emperor.”
One commenter was more blasé [ru]:
Лучше чем ноль.
It’s better than nothing.
To which Fedotov replied:
С этим не поспоришь.
There is no disputing that.

author: Nina Jobe


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Former Activist for Banned Political Party in Swaziland Jailed for Bombings · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A former member of banned socialist opposition party in Swaziland, the People's United Democratic Front (PUDEMO), was sentenced to 65 years in jail after confessing to a spree of petrol bomb attacks, which destroyed property, in 11 locations throughout the country. Swaziland has been hit with petrol bombs since 1998.
Thantaza Silolo was on the run for three years before surrendering himself to police under what some call suspicious circumstances. The 28-year-old, who was a close member of the king's regiment and defected to join PUDEMO in 2005, claimed that he was trained and assisted by PUDEMO's youth wing, Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO).
Former political activist Thantaza Silolo. Image source. PUDEMO Facebook page.
PUDEMO was banned in 2008 on allegations that it was a terrorist organisation. Formed on July 6, 1983, PUDEMO claims to have the biggest following on Facebook, Twitter and the largest membership in Swaziland of all the country's political parties.
Swaziland politics is a mixture of an absolute monarchy and a constitutional monarchy. Despite Swaziland being one of the poorest nations in the world, the Swazi King, Mswati III, is known for extravagance lifestyle. He currently has 14 wives and 23 children. He is allowed by tradition to choose a new wife every year. He is the only absolute monarchy in Africa.
Manqoba Nxumalo (@NxumaloManqoba), a Swazi activist and the Mail & Guardian’s Eugene Saldanha Fellow for social justice reporting in 2013, addressed the news on ThoughtLeader in his article titled, “Will SADCC let Swaziland descent into war?”:
Last week Wednesday Swaziland woke up to shocking news of a 28-year-old activist who was sentenced to 85 years in prison after confessing to a spree of petrol bomb attacks that targeted mainly police officers and government officials.
We all missed the story because Swaziland only makes headlines when King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch, has added a new virgin to his harem. But last week’s events are historic if not profound for the small landlocked kingdom: they mark a new era in the political landscape.
In case you just landed from space let me bring you up to speed. Thantaza Silolo, a defecting member of Swaziland’s banned opposition party, the People’s United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), was sentenced to 85 [65] years in prison after confessing to the petrol bomb attacks.
He noted that the struggle for democracy in Swaziland has been under-reported:
Swaziland continues to be a rogue state with the dubious title of being the last absolute monarchy in Africa and one of four countries on the continent without multiparty democracy. It also has the highest HIV rate in the world and lowest life expectancy. The monarch is rated by Forbes magazine as the 15th richest monarch in the world with a net worth of $100 million. It is not difficult to understand the frustrations of these young people but surely violence is not the way to go.
The struggle for democracy in Swaziland has been under-reported and for a long time. Swaziland has escaped the world’s human-rights radar such that King Mswati has acted with impunity, no one cares about a country of less than 1.2 million people. History will prove that there are probably more Swazis in South Africa and various parts of the world escaping from the archaic and medieval system of King Mswati’s rule.
PUDEMO (@PUDEMO) has distanced itself from Silolo’s confession, posting the following statement on their Facebook page:
The people’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) would like to distance itself from the so called confession of comrade Thantaza Silolo who was yesterday sentenced to 65 years in prison for petrol bombing government structures.
We would like to unequivocally state that we have never commissioned anyone to go on a spree of petrol bombs nor do we have a policy advocating for the use of violence for political change. PUDEMO has since inception been an organisation committed to peaceful means of struggle and an unwavering commitment to dialogue as a means of solving political conflict.
In view of his surrender and confession, the party's youth wing SWAYOCO called for his mental evaluation:
To use his alleged confession against our President Bheki Dlamini and Zonke plus all those awaiting jail without proper mental evaluation, would be a greatest travesty of justice.
We once again want to state that at all material times the movement has taken care of Silolo at various capacities and reject his accusations that he struggled while in exile. Why again would he be the only one complaining when many comrades are in South Africa and are thriving in various career fields? These are nothing but ramblings of a deranged loser who cant seem to know what he stands for in life.
Whatever the regime did to Silolo is serious and we do not rule out a need for serious mental evaluation.
But PUDEMO believes that Silolo was abducted. Below is part of their reasoning for suggesting that he did not leave South Africa, where he was hiding, voluntarily:
4. A few weeks before his ‘hand over’, comrade Silolo was in Johannesburg to audition for a role in a new theatre production and still awaiting a response from the producers. This shows that comrade Silolo had outward looking prospects of establishing himself firmly in South Africa’s threatre and film industry. He had also asked the movement to help him register at UNISA to further his studies. To then have him hand over to the police after such initiatives points to more sinister and underhand manoeuvres by the regime. As if to make things worse, we were denied audience to the comrade to ascertain exactly what had happened.
5. Once the police had captured Silolo they made sure that they parade him to the media particularly to publicise his ‘confession’ so to implicate the movement by association. To them this was a big catch.
But Facebook user Pius UnSwazi Rito commenting on their statement did not believe in the abduction theory. To him, Silolo simply sold out:
Silolo sold out! That's a fact of the matter. We can't suddenly pretend he didn't. Secret work must be mastered, but that doesn't erase the fact that he's a sell-out!
Sandile Dlamini echoed a similar conclusion in a Facebook comment:
Silolo was never abducted. The so called abductions may be real but the fact is Silolo was never abducted but went to Swaziland of his own choice.
PUDEMO insisted that abductions are real:
Comrades, the abductions are real. ANC Comrades in Pongola have told me one comrade has gone missing from a safe house…this after numerous report of Special Branch unexplained “movements” in the area. Rather than doubt Silolo and label him a spy, lets go back to basics…”How to masyer [master] secret work.” The time for populism and cheap heroism is over…vigilance and discipline maCom [my comrades]
Blogger Brian Ntshangase castigated the Observer newspaper for not doing extensive research into Silolo's confession. The newspaper, owned by King Mswati III, reported that Silolo is a member of PUDEMO:
When the Observer is lapping up even the last titbits of the Silolo soapie, it paints a nation unassertive and a people fast asleep, whose sleep is being disturbed by PUDEMO. Had I not known that the Observer is owned by Mswati 111, I would accuse it of insulting the Nation’s intelligence. Had I not known that it is campaigning for the success of the upcoming pseudo elections I would assume that the Observer is taking the Swazi people for fools. But it is now common knowledge that the soul of the Observer journalist, or should I say ‘reporter’, is in the palace somewhere serving as surety on a monthly salary.
What would it have taken for the Observer to get at least one lousy quote from PUDEMO? I would assume that it (observer) took Silolo’s extensive ‘confession’ quotes as quotes from PUDEMO considering that it dwells so much on the ‘fact’ that Thandaza Silolo was a PUDEMO member.
It is common practice at the Observer that when the Nation asks for honest reporting, it gives nothing but jokes, and it is never shy to turn the joke on itself and turn itself into a laughing stock.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Light Weapons: Moving Pictures From Syria · Global Voices
Ivan Sigal

Over 500,000 videos have been uploaded to the Internet from Syria during the past two years. Many document the course of protest and conflict, while others promote the views and perspectives of combatants, protesters, peace movements, and ordinary citizens who are witness to events. Despite this profusion of eyewitness perspective, the Syrian conflict has been poorly covered by media outlets worldwide. In part, this is because narrative descriptions of the war do not easily fit into a framework of good and evil, right and wrong. It is also because many videos that emerge are created with an absence of context, editing, or explanation.
While many of the uploaded videos are created by individuals, collectives and organizations have been active in curating, vetting, subtitling and promoting the content. Several groups function as virtual news agencies, both investigating and guaranteeing the sourcing of content, and syndicating the videos to mass media outlets and through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and especially YouTube, as well as livestream sites such as Bambuser and UStream. Emergent Syrian organizations distributing citizen video include the ANA New Media Channel and Shaam News Network. Syria Deeply tracks and organizes coverage of Syria, and also produces original analysis. Syria Untold documents the under-reported peace movement, which has continued despite the escalating war. Global Voices has ongoing special coverage of Syrian citizen media. The New York Times produces an ongoing compilation of material called Watching Syria's War.
Following are two compilations of recent citizen video from Syria, produced in an effort to isolate and highlight several aspects of this flood of imagery. These videos are on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, running concurrently with the exhibition War/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath, organized by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and in Washington through September 29, 2013. They were produced in collaboration with Global Voices and Witness.
The first video, Light Weapons, reveals details of life during wartime: the uneven flight of a helicopter, a car creeping through the stillness of night, the swaying of a crowd, and people hurrying through the street. These scenes not only show the protests, police sweeps, shelling, and daily terror that have come to define daily existence for so many in Syria, they also reveal the incidental, the atmospheric: the sensations of war as well as the facts.
The second video, The Law of the Powerful Over the Weak, excerpts testimonials and interviews. These clips represent the many ways that individuals seek to understand their experiences. Here we find narration, retelling, interpretation, interrogation. A child recounts the destruction of his neighborhood; a nervous, laughing man describes how a sniper terrifies a community; a man mourns the death of his brother, a photographer. These accounts allow us to approach the war through the perspective of individual stories rather than the abstract language of geopolitics and national interest. They remind us that this war is foremost a vast tragedy for hundreds of thousands of individuals and families, and that the few stories represented here are emblematic of countless others.

author: Ivan Sigal


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Pakistani Mother, Daughters Gunned Down for Dancing in Rain · Global Voices
Faisal Kapadia

A mother and her two teenage daughters were shot to death after five masked men broke into their house in the small town of Chilas in Gilgit, Pakistan in what was reported to be an honor killing.
The girls, ages 15 and 16, were reportedly targeted on June 24, 2013 killing over a mobile video of them enjoying rain in their garden, which had been circulating locally and was taken as an affront to the family's honor.
Authorities allege that the killer was the girls’ stepbrother Khutore who was enraged at watching this video and enlisted the help of four of his friends to restore, in his view, his family's honor. The friends have since been captured and confessed to their crimes, but Khutore is still at large.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan‘s annual report, honor killings remain “the most consistent and abhorrent form of violence against women in Pakistan.” In 2012, 913 women were killed in the name of their family's honor, including 99 children, the report says.
Shafiqul Hassan Siddiqui dissected the reasons behind honor killing in Pakistan on Dunya blogs:
It is an outcome of vengeance. 95% focused on women. One of the family members (mostly a man), with the consent of other family members, kills and sentences the woman on few basis. For the whole family this becomes a moment of pride when they sacrifice their own blood because due to her they earned dishonor. There are many reasons that are considered as the main and basic causes behind the honor killing.
Screenshot from the alleged mobile video that is believed to have lead to the slaying of these teenage sisters. Uploaded on YouTube by NewsMedia24
Reacting to the recent killing, New York Times Pakistan Bureau Chief Declan Walsh (@declanwalsh) tweeted:
@declanwalsh: utter madness – two girls and mother killed in northern Pakistan over video showing them enjoying the rain. http://beta.dawn.com/news/1020576
Lubna Khan (@Lubnagigyani), a blogger on gender issues, commented on the killings:
@Lubnagigyani: CRIME of the heinous kind. Honourable humans do not KILL under any circumstances-egoistic machoism being the last
Political blogger Zeesh (@zeesh2) took issue with the term “honor killings”:
@zeesh2: honor killing is a misnomer – misdirected emotions- if they really have honor they need to kill themselves not others
A theatre performance displaying violence on women during a protest. — Hyderabad, Pakistan. Image bby Rajput Yasir. Copyright Demotix (6/8/2011)
Gedrosia (@gedrosian), a Twitter user from Balochistan province, added that leaked mobile videos have had dire consequences for female students in conservative areas too:
@gedrosian: there are a number of cases in Balochistan too where college/school photos were leaked. and girls were taken out of colleges
Writing a few days before this most recent killing, The Future summed up the solution to ending honor killings:
I feel that a revolution is required in the thinking pattern of the male members to change the existing notion of power. The prerequisite in the present scenario is not to empower one gender over the other but equilibrium between the two genders towards accomplishment of joint goals, better society and a better future for the upcoming generations by being proud of one’s own culture is needed.

author: Faisal Kapadia


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Protestor Asks Morsi to Leave in Code  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Massive protests calling on Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi to step down continue across Egypt for the third day.
On Twitter, Assem Memon shares this photograph from the protests:
An innovative protest sign. Leave written in 14 languages coded in QR. Photograph shared on Twitter by @AssemMemon
@AssemMemon: A very innovative protest sign. #ar7al in 14 languages coded in QR by @alaafareed pic.twitter.com/S7OOSDfpV6
QR code is a two dimensional barcode.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Electioneering Protests in South Korea · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Spearheaded by students at major universities in South Korea, protests against the National Intelligence Service's electioneering have continued over two weeks. Several photos of last week's protest in Seoul and protest photos of Korean community in the United States have been shared online.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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VIDEO: Stories from Argentina’s Floods · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

A video series highlighting human stories behind the heavy rains that hit La Plata in early April, 2013.
The heavy rains that flooded La Plata and parts of Buenos Aires in April left at least 80 people killed and thousands of homes destroyed. Crónicas de la inundación [es] (“Stories from the flood”), a series of short documentaries that are being released on YouTube, tell the personal stories of people affected by the catastrophic rains in La Plata.


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Videogame: Zaytoun, the Little Syrian-Palestinian Refugee · Global Voices
Syria Untold

This post is cross-posted from Syria Untold and translated by Global Voices Arabic.
Zaytoun, the little Syrian-Palestinian refugee, is the leading character of a videogame created by a group of Syrian, Palestinian and Spanish activists.
Through the obstacles Zaytoun faces, the choices he makes and the people he meets, the players of this videogame are meant to get an understanding of the background of both Palestine and Syria and the current situation of their people.  The project includes a website with an archive that will collect information about the different Palestinian refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon, the story of the Syrian uprising and reports on human rights in the region. The creators ask for everyone´s contributions to complete the work.
Here's five-minute video preview of the project:
The video game shares the story of Zaytoun, the little boy refugee, who was forced to flee after the Syrian regime destroyed his house in the Yarmouk refugee camp and killed many of his Syrian friends. On his way out of the camp, the players will share his journey, the friends he will meet and the stories he will experience. With the help of documents and maps of the state of the roads, cities, streets and hospitals in Syria, he will make decisions on where to go next and how to interact with the people he meets. Whether he reaches certain locations or not will depend on him being able to answer questions concerning the history of Syria and Palestine.
Zaytoun and his little Syrian brother. Source: “Zaytoun, from border to border” website
The story of Zaytoun is the story of many Palestinians who left their land after they were expelled by the Israeli occupation and settled in Syria, where Yarmouk and other camps became their homes. During the beginning of the uprising, Yarmouk became a welcoming space to anyone fleeing from other areas of Damascus, where the regime was cracking down on demonstrators, and arresting, torturing and killing activists. Solidarity with the revolution and those suffering persecution emerged within the camp, which in the end led to it being bombed by regime forces.
In the words of Mokha, a Syrian-Palestinian designer, the Syrian revolution has reconciled many Palestinians with their Syrian identity.
“We are not only Palestinians, we are also Syrians and we suffer what Syrians suffer. For many years I wondered why Syrians did not rise against their tyrants, and now that they have, I feel proud of my Syrian people, just like I do of my Palestinian people.”
Zaytoun, the little Syrian-Palestinian refugee. Source: “Zaytoun, from border to border” website
According to Syrian photographer Huss:
“It is important to understand that the Palestinian and the Syrian struggle go hand in hand and are equally legitimate. Both peoples have been oppressed and are fighting for freedom, justice and dignity. Supporting the right of Palestinians to self-determination and freedom while justifying crimes committed by Assad is a sign of either ignorance or dogmatism.”
In the words of Sara Carrasco, from Spain:
I support the right of every people to self-determination and autonomy, in every form. Both Syrians and Palestinians live under a monopoly of power directly connected to colonial and tyrannical interests. I am also concerned about our little knowledge of the struggles of our neighbors. In order to understand our own struggles in Spain and Europe, we need to be aware of those happening in the rest of the world. The image of Arabs and the Middle East and North Africa as a whole has been misrepresented by our media, and is it important to create alternative channels and projects to challenge such misrepresentations.”
This post is cross-posted from Syria Untold and translated by Global Voices Arabic.

author: Syria Untold


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Former Egyptian President Morsi Rants on Twitter  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

President Mohamed Morsi is no longer the president of Egypt. Instead, he is ranting on Twitter on his verified Twitter account @EgyPresidency.
Morsi's one-year reign was cut short, after massive protests across Egypt calling for him to resign started on June 30.
Head of the Egyptian Armed Forces General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi said in an announcement broadcast live minutes ago that the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Adly Mansour will be the new interim president and that a technocrat national government will be formed.
Al Sisi also announced that the Egyptian constitution has been suspended and that preparations will be made for both presidential and parliamentary elections.
In a series of tweets, in English, Morsi described the action taken by the Army represents a full coup:
@EgyPresidency: Pres. Morsy: Measures announced by Armed Forces leadership represent a full coup categorically rejected by all the free men of our nation
He adds:
@EgyPresidency: Pres. Morsy: Armed Forces announcement is rejected by all free men who struggled for a civil democratic Egypt.
And notes:
@EgyPresidency: Pres. Morsy urges civilians and military members to uphold the law & the Constitution not to accept that coup which turns #Egypt backwards
Morsi also calls for avoiding bloodshed:
@EgyPresidency: Pres. Morsy urges everyone to adhere to peacefulness and avoid shedding blood of fellow countrymen.


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Brazil Wins Confederations Cup, Amid Protests On and Off the Field · Global Voices
Thiana Biondo

This post is part of our coverage Brazil's Vinegar Revolt
[All links lead to Portuguese language pages, except when otherwise noted.]
Brazil won its fourth Confederations Cup title, in the midst of a series of protests that have been happening in the country since at least June 6, 2013 [en]. The demonstrations have gained momentum and have become a  significant national event [en] that is not only against the increase in bus fare, but also against the  expenditures for the 2014 World Cup [en].
On June 30, as Fred and Neymar scored goals at Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro, members of the Popular World Cup Committee (Comitê Popular da Copa) and the Forum for the Fight against the raise in Busfare (Fórum de Lutas) made a  series of claims, including against the  privatization of Maracanã stadium  and against the 2014 Cup. A contingent of nearly 10,000 police officers were activated to deal with the demonstrators and there was a confrontation between them on the outskirts of the stadium.
This video filmed from the top of a building by Youtube user Victor Neves shows a row of police officers blocking the passage of a crowd of protesters that marched towards Maracanã:
This video by Julio Ferretti shows scenes of the confrontation:
On Facebook, reactions were mixed and the moment of enjoying the Selection on the field did not contradict the desire to protest on the streets. Victor Lins commented:
.. prontooo!! Parabéns a nossa seleção .. Mas Não vamos perder o FOCO BRASIL!!!! #Protesto #VamosmudarObrasil #VemPraRua
… ready!! Congratulations on our selection.. But we are not going to lose FOCUS BRAZIL!!!! #Protesto #VamosmudarObrasil (Lets Change Brazil) #VemPraRua (Come to the Street)
Filipe Azambuja even reached the point of questioning whether or not the poor performance of Spain on the field had been on purpose to take away Brazilians’ focus on the protests:
Teoria da conspiração: Esse jogo foi estranho d+. A Espanha dormiu durante 90 min, parece ser arranjado. Resultado final, brasileiros esquecendo dos problemas.
#protestopoa #protesto
Conspiracy theory: this game was too strange. Spain slept for 90 minutes, it seems staged. The final result, Brazilians forgetting the issues. #protestopoa (protest Porto Alegre) #protesto (protest)
A unit of the Rio Military Police is accidentally hit by tear gas bombs from the riot police. Among the effects of the weapon are burning of the skin and eyes, a lack of air, and a burning feeling in the throat. /Midia Ninja/ Image used with permission.
Inside the stadium, the demonstration was also felt. The  effects of the pepper spray used by the police to disperse protestors reached FIFA volunteers and spectators. Two dancers that were part of the performance opened a banner against the privatization of Maracanã stadium.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycslNxMrjjA
#protestorj Participants of the closing ceremony raised a banner in protest of breaking the protocol. This was the banner that was raised./Anonymous Rio
Soon after, another dancer-protester raised a poster against homophobia directed at the evangelical TV host Mara Maravilha who stated a few days ago that homosexuality was an abomination. The poster read in Portuguese ” Being gay is brilliant. Abomination is prejudice.”
In Salvador
At the Fonte Nova stadium, Italy beat Uruguay with penalties, guaranteeing third place in the Confederations Cup. Outside the game, approximately 500 protestors of the Free Fare Movement of Salvador (Movimento Passe Livre Salvador)  marched towards Fonte Nova stadium, but the police stated that there were no clashes.
Agents of the Bahia Military Police created fake profiles on Twitter and Facebook to monitor the exchange of information between members of the protests on social networks. The objective was to identify and neutralize the leadership of the movements, as reported by investigative journalism agency A Pública.
Journalist Pablo Reis (@opabloreis) published a photo on Twitter saying:
@opabloreis Tropa de Choque faz barreira pra manifestantes perto do Dique do Tororó no entorno da FonteNova #VemPraRua Salvador pic.twitter.com/qTj8SZCF5w
@opabloreis Riot police form a barrier against demonstrators near Dique do Tororó in the vicinity of Fonte Nova #VemPraRua Salvador (Come to the Street Salvador) pic.twitter.com/qTj8SZCF5w
Photo @opabloreis /pic.twitter.com/qTj8SZCF5w

author: Thiana Biondo


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Brazilian Tear Gas Used Against Turkish Protesters · Global Voices
Pública - Agência de jornalismo investigativo

[All links lead to sites in Portuguese unless specified otherwise. At the time of writing, Condor's website was offline for maintenance.]
This post, written by Bruno Fonseca and Natalia Viana for Agência Pública, was originally published as a report entitled “Bomba brasileira na pele turca”  (Turks Feel a Brazilian Bomb Firsthand) and is part of the special coverage #IndústriaBrasileiraDeArmas (Brazilian Weapons Industry) on the weapons lobby and industry in Brazil. The story will be published in a series of three articles on Global Voices Online. This is the first part of the series.
In 2012, when the inscription “Made in Brazil” marked canisters of tear gas used against pro-democracy demonstrators in Bahrain, allegedly causing the death of more than a dozen people including a five-day-old baby [en], the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations (Itamaraty) announced [en] that it would investigate whether there were any irregularities in the export of Brazilian tear gas.
However, one year later, Itamaraty states that it is simply observing the case without conducting investigations or taking measures.
In an indignant response, American-Saudi activist Rasheed Abou-Alsamh, the author of a news report from January 2012 denouncing the use of Brazilian tear gas against pro-democracy protesters in Bahrein, wrote [en]:
O Itamaraty deve achar que somos ingênuos.
Itamaraty must find us naive.
In the absence of restrictions [from the Brazilian government] on the exportation of non-lethal arms, the same tear gas, manufactured by the firm Condor SA in Rio de Janeiro, is now employed by the Turkish police in repressing the growing protests against the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which have spread to more than 60 locations throughout the country, leaving hundreds wounded and estimates of 2,000 arrested.
Amnesty International confirms the use of Brazilian tear gas during the protests – which began after a peaceful protest against the removal of 600 trees in Taksim Square in Istanbul. American professor Suzette Grillot, who is in the capital city of Ankara, photographed one of the Brazilian canisters used by the police and told Agência Pública:
Um membro do nosso grupo encontrou a cápsula na noite de ontem (3 de junho) em Ankara.
A member of our group found the canister last night (June 3) in Ankara.
An American professor photographed one of the Brazilian tear gas projectiles used by Turkish police. Image: Suzette Grillot/Used under Creative Commons license.
Brazilian tear gas has been used since the beginning of the protests in Istanbul on May 31. One participant of the Occupy Gezi movement, who preferred not to be identified for fear of reprisal, explains:
Naquele dia, havia apenas um grupo pequeno de ambientalistas. A polícia invadiu o parque às 5h da manhã enquanto essas pessoas dormiam nas barracas. Os policiais queimaram barracas e atacaram os manifestantes com gás lacrimogêneo. Os policiais deveriam atirar os projeteis de gás para cima, mas eles miram nas pessoas. Alguns perderam a visão por serem atingidos diretamente (pelos projeteis), outros são atingidos nos braços e pernas. Existem centenas de vídeos mostrando efeitos do gás: lágrimas, náusea, vômito, dificuldade em respirar.
That day, there was just a small group of environmentalists. The police invaded the park at five in the morning while these people were sleeping in their tents. The police burned tents and attacked the protesters with tear gas. The police should have shot the gas canisters up, but they were aiming at people. Some lost their sight by being directly hit [by the canisters], others were hit in the arms or legs. There are hundreds of videos showing the effects of the gas: tears, nausea, vomiting, difficulty breathing.
The UN Office on Human Rights asked Turkey to conduct an independent investigation into the conduct of its security forces regarding the protests. The spokesperson for the UN High Commission for Human Rights, Cecile Pouilly, stated:
Estamos preocupados com relatos de uso excessivo de força por agentes legais contra manifestantes.
We are concerned with reports of excessive use of force by law enforcement agents against the protesters.
The shell photographed by the American Suzette Grillot is the remains of a long range tear gas canister (GL 202) produced by Condor, a leader in the production of this type of weapon in Latin America. The canister can reach an average distance of 120 meters (394 feet) and should be targeted before or above obstacles such as walls and barricades “in order to remove people and disperse groups of law-offenders,” according to the manufacturers own description. However, Condor states on its site that incorrect use of the canisters can cause serious damage to health — and even death.
Another photo taken by demonstrators shows a random movement tear gas grenade (GL 310), also known as the “ballerina.” Upon impact with the ground, the bomb bounces back up moving in various directions, spreading the gas over a greater area and avoiding the possibility of the “target” throwing it back in the direction of the police force. The company’s site states that the grenade can ignite fires when it comes in contact with flammable materials.
In a photo made public by demonstrators, the weapons GL 310 and Gl 202 from Condor are shown (1st and 3rd items from left to right). The 2nd weapon from the left is from Nonlethal Technologies, a company from the United States, which is the principal exporter of non-lethal weapons to Turkey, alongside the Brazilian Condor/Used under Creative Commons license.


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China’s New Petition Website Crashes on First Day · Global Voices
Abby Liu

China's new petition website crashed on the first day of its launch, sparking mockery and criticism from online users.
Chinese officials launched a new website for the average Chinese to submit online petitions on July 1, 2013, an effort to make the process more convenient with a promise that “every case made through the new online service would garner a response,” according to Xinhua news [zh].
But the new website crashed on the morning of the first day presumably due to heavy traffic. Though the website was back online in the afternoon, there were still a lot of problems. For example, it only supports Internet Explorer.
The Chinese have the tradition of going to Beijing to petition the emperor directly to address grievances when they fail to be heard by the local government. Although nowadays petitioning is still allowed,it is heavily discouraged. Petitioners sometimes search for justice through the legal system or local petitioning bureaus. However, those who feel that justice has not been served often travel to Beijing to appeal to the national petitioning bureau. More recently, Chinese have turned to the White House Petition Website for help.
The crash has many questioning how serious the government is dealing with the new project. On China’s most popular microblogging site Sina Weibo, a search of “online petition” yielded more than 525,364 [zh] discussions on July 2, 2013. Most netizens doubted that the online petition system would work, and some worried it could turn into a more convenient way for local government to track and control petitioners.
A screenshot of the petition website
Yunnan-based newspaper “Yunxin Shiping” published a commentary piece titled “What Does the Paralysis of the Petition Website Mean”:
正是因为基层行政机关、司法机关积压了太多的纠纷，才导致公众“不信法而信访”，万事往上走。可关键是，信访也并不是坦途，网上投诉开放之后，网站被挤瘫虽是在情理之外，倒是在意料之中。公众挤瘫国家信访局门户网站，鼠标背后，有多少权利被压抑，有多少权力的冷漠与傲慢，有多少基层组织不作为甚至乱作为……似乎不难想象。
Because basic administrative organs and judicial organs have ignored too many disputes, which made the public no longer believe in law but petitioning, everything has to go to the upper level. But the key is, the road to petitioning is not smooth, the paralysis after the launch of the petition website is beyond logic but is within one's expectations. Behind the mouse clicks, how many rights have been repressed, how many authorities have showed the indifference and arrogance, how many grass-roots organizations have done nothing or have done something wrong…… it’s not difficult to imagine.
“Qingwa Mading” complained [zh] about both the petition system itself and the ill-functioning website. He also wrote that the real-name registration provides easy access for local officials who intend to stop petitioners:
在一个公民需要通过信访寻求公正的国度，谈民主和自由是可笑的事情，因为法治的社会一切不公都能通过法律解决。中国网上信访局成立，用Chrome打开竟提示不支持，看来网站建设的费用又被哪个官员的亲戚装口袋了。注册须用身份证号码进行实名验证，减轻了今后地方截访的工作量。
In a country where citizens rely on petitioning to seek justice, talking about democracy and freedom is ridiculous, because in a legal society, all social injustices can be resolved through law. The China Online Petition Bureau was established, but it does not support Chrome, it seems the money used to build the website has gone to the pockets of some officials’ relatives. Registration shall be verified by the real-name ID number, which will help reduce the workload of the local officials who try to stop the petitioners.
Blogger “Laoshu Jiazi Beiyong” explained [zh] why he thinks the online petition won’t work:
从以往一些信访纠纷来看，多数基层或边远地区的访民，都不太善用网络，号召他们通过网络渠道表达诉求，可能难以收到良好成效。另一方面，很多访民“信访不信法”“信国家信访办不信地方信访局”，是因为与后者相比，通过到北京上访的方式伸张正义，概率相对大一些。但是，很多访民都曾遇到“踢皮球”或“冷处理”的对待，即便通过网络上访，同样不能避免这种问题；而那些惯于以“堵”“捂”“压”的方式应对访民的地方政府，只需将以前的“进京截访”变成“网络截访”，就同样可以抹掉所谓的“负面信息”。
Taking a look at past petitioners, we can see that the majority of them are from remote areas where Internet is not widely used, asking them to express their issues through online channels may not work out. On the other hand, a lot of petitioners don’t believe in law but petitions, they don’t believe in local petition bureaus but national petition bureaus because they believe they have a greater chance if they go all the way to Beijing to appeal for justice. However, many petitioners have encountered “pass the buck” treatment or “cold treatment”. Even if they petition online, they can’t avoid the same problem. Those local governments who are accustomed to the “blocking”, “cover”, “pressure” approach to deal with petitioners just needs to change the strategy from “stopping them from going to Beijing” to erasing the so-called “negative information.”
Critic Wang Chuanyan warned [zh] of the possibility of Internet monitoring by the local government:
上访民众的网络安全，首先应该是上网过程的安全，到底有没有被当地政府监控，自身的信息资料是不是已经被冻结，其网络信息是不是也已经被监控等等。
Petitioners’ Internet safety is an issue. First, the safety of the online process, is there any monitoring system by the local government? Has their own information already been frozen? Has the Internet information already been monitored?
Writer Jin Maolou concluded [zh]:
在基国，执法就是打人，税收就是抢劫，信访就是踢皮球。今日国信局宣布全面接受网上投诉并承诺“事事有着落、件件有回音” 。下午，网站瘫痪。其实民众何必这么热情呢。信访局本就是违宪怪胎，指望它那是缘木求鱼。办法不是没有，取缔信访局，司法真正独立，不从根子上解决问题，作秀自嗨有何用。
In our country, law enforcement resorts to violence, the taxes are robbery, petitions are just used to pass the buck to avoid responsibility. Today the Bureau announced that they accept online complaints and promised that “every case made through the new online service would garner a response.” However, in the afternoon, the website crashed. In fact, why are people so passionate about the website? Petition Bureau itself is unconstitutional monster, it’s useless to place hope on it. There’s only one way, a truly independent judiciary. Without solving the problem fundamentally, what’s the use of putting on this show?


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Hong Kong’s July 1 Rally in Photos, Videos · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Hong Wrong has a collection of best photos and videos taken from the annual July 1st Protest in Hong Kong. This year, people rallied in rain to protest for universal suffrage, a dream that keeps deferring since the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Eastern Europeans to Boost UK IT Industry · Global Voices
Danica Radisic

The UK labour movement restrictions placed several years ago to prevent migrants from Romania and Bulgaria from moving permanently and seeking employment in the UK will be lifted on January 1, 2014. Some predict large migrations of workers from these two countries, among the poorest in the European Union, while others say that migrations will be so small they will barely be felt and many emphasize the fact that Romania has a growing, innovative IT industry that will also benefit the British IT industry. Other Eastern European countries have also helped boost the UK's thriving IT industry in the recent past, such as Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and more.
The Independent covers several sides of the developing story, with quotes from Eastern European immigrant IT entrepreneurs in the UK:
Gal, a 23-year-old Romanian expat, is part of a new wave of eastern European immigrants coming to the UK to start businesses in high-growth sectors such as technology and social media. Britain’s pre-eminence in these fields attracts entrepreneurs who lack the markets and infrastructure needed in their eastern European homelands.
“Romanians are good at two things – engineering and entrepreneurship,” says Gal. His native country has produced a Nobel prize-winning biologist, the inventor of the jet aeroplane and even sent an astronaut into space.


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Economics Behind Colombia’s Peasant Revolt · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

The agrarian problem explains the restlessness and open rebellion of the peasantry against the neo-liberal economic policies and the growing encroachments of rentier capitalism.
In Cuadernos Colombianos, a blog from The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), Nazih Richani explains the motives behind a massive peasant mobilization in Catatumbo, North Santander, that has lasted more than 20 days.


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Egypt: Fighting Sexual Terror in Tahrir Square · Global Voices
Ahmed Awadalla

Millions of Egyptians held mass rallies on the first anniversary of former President Mohamed Morsi to protest his rule. As Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the Egyptian revolution in downtown Cairo, began to fill up, anti-sexual harassment groups geared up to stand up to sexual violence against female protesters. Previous mass rallies have been witnessing a rise in mob sexual assaults, particularly in Tahrir Square.
In a press release by Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment/Assault (OpAntiSH), 46 cases of sexual assaults were reported on June 30, the first day of protests. OpAntiSH was established in late 2012 to rescue survivors of mob sexual assaults and provide health response in the wake of increasing reports of violence. OpAntiSH cast the blame on the government for its failure to act on those incidents, accusing the presidency of faking concern of women's rights for achieving political gains. They added:
The increasing seriousness of sexual assaults on female protestors is a reflection of the increasing sexual violence against women in general, perpetrated by both society and the state, which negatively impacts women's participation in the public sphere.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement condemning all parties’ laxity towards sexual violence. “The rampant sexual attacks during the Tahrir Square protests highlight the failure of the government and all political parties to face up to the violence that women in Egypt experience on a daily basis in public spaces,” said Joe Stork of HRW. They also produced a video entitled “Egypt: Epidemic of Sexual Violence” including testimonies of survivors of the assaults.
In an effort to highlight the systemic use of sexual violence by different regimes; former president Hosni Mubarak, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Muslim Brotherhood, rights groups produced a video entitled “Sexual Torture is systematic: from Mubarak and SCAF to the Muslim Brotherhood”. A joint statement by rights groups reads:
The aim of this sexual torture is not to extract confessions or information, but to humiliate, terrorize and silence voices of dissent. Sexual torture does not discriminate between men and women, the old or the young. It happens in many places, both inside and outside the walls of the prisons and police cells of the country. Sexual torture has even reached the building of the High Court itself, where Ahmed Taha was raped only meters away from the judges that were supposed to protect his rights.
The reports of sexual assaults elicited angry reactions on social media outlets. Activists denounced the silence from the government and political groups on the matter. With increasing political tension, some members and supporters used the reports of the assaults to tarnish the image of Tahrir Square and delegitimize the protesters. The Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El Haddad responded to an invite to go to Tahrir by saying:
@gelhaddad: Its a pity how low #Tahrir square has sunk. 7 cases of gang rape, dozens of sexual harassment incidents & acts of thievery, …
While some activists directly accused the Muslim Brotherhood of sending thugs to harass women to limit their political participation, others disagreed, arguing that the problem goes deeper. Activist Mostafa Bahgat shared a note on Facebook, directing his criticism to both the State and opposition and revolutionary forces [ar]:
لما حصلت حالات الاعتداء و الاغتصاب يوم 25 يناير اللي فات كانت في حملة في كل حته يعني اﻻحزاب” المدنية و اليسارية و القومية” و كمان عليها الصحف و القنوات. عماله تصرخ وتقول الاخوان عاوزين يرهبوا الستات و بيستخدموا نفس اساليب النظام السابق ودية مجموعات منظمة و كلام كله انتوا عارفينة.
ومات الكلام علي كدة
و بالرغم من محاولات كتير من ناس انها تحاول تشرح للمعسكر “بتاعنا ” ان الموضوع اكبر من عصابات منظمة و ان دة بيحصل عادي كل يوم وفي كل حتة ومفيش يوم بيعدي من غير خبر في جرنان عن حادثة اغتصاب وان في اﻻعياد بيحصل كدة.
اللي ان كلهم تعاملوا معانا باعتبرنا مجانين
للاسف كتير منهم بيشوف ان قضايا الستات اصلا مش مهمه و النسوي منهم شوية بيقول مش وقته قضايا الفقراء و النظام الظالم اهم و محتاج تركيز و مش مفيد اننا نشتت نفسنا في قضايا الستات “المهمه” بس فرعية
المشكلة انهم مش شايفين مشاكل الستات اصلا ولو شافوها هيشوفوها اما مصلحه شخصية او مصلحة سياسية
اسف هنفضل في الحال دة لحد ما المعسكر “بتاعنا” يعترف اصلا ان الحوادث دي بتحصل و يعترف ويصرح بيها و يقتنع ان مشاكل الستات في نفس اهمية الخناقة علي السلطة.
When assaults happened on last January 25th, there was a campaign by civilian, leftist and nationalist parties alongside the media crying out that the Muslim Brotherhood want to terrorize women and are using the old regime's tactics by organized mobs. That was the end of it. Many of us tried to explain to ‘our camp’ that the issue is larger than organized mobs and that harassment is a common daily occurrence everywhere; that everyday papers have news of rape incidents; and that it even happen during feasts. They all dealt with us as we are mad.
Why is the situation this shitty on our side?
Many of them see that women issues are unimportant. Those who are slightly feminist say it's not the right time; dealing with poverty and the unjust regime are more important. It's not useful to distract ourselves in ‘important’ yet marginal issues.
The problem is they don't see women problems and if they do it's either for personal or political gain. We're going to remain the same until ‘our camp’ acknowledges that those incidents take place and get convinced that women problems are as important as the power struggle.
Activist Engy Ghozlan reflects on the dilemma of sharing news on sexual violence:
النهاردة 44 حالة إعتداء على فتيات في ميدان التحرير، مع الأسف إحنا بين طرفين، طرف خايف من مواجهة الحوادث دي “حتى لا تشوه قضيته” وطرف بيستغل المواقف دي عشان يعلم على الطرف الأولاني، وفي النهاية في 44 إنسانة (النهاردة بس) الشعب الجميل انتهك أجسادهن الحرة. مفيش ثورة مع إغتصاب مفيش ثورة مع أجساد منتهكه.
44 cases of mob assaults on girls in Tahrir Square today. Unfortunately, we're stuck between two parties. One is afraid of facing the incidents so that their cause is not tarnished. The other take advantage of the situations to defame the other. In the end, the free bodies of 44 human beings today were violated by the beautiful people. There's no revolution with rape. There's no revolution with violated bodies.
There is a growing number of initiatives combating street harassment and assaults such as Tahrir Bodyguards, Imprint Movement and others. Yasmin ElRifae shared her thoughts about being part of those initiatives in a post entitled “No Apologies”:
I am immensely encouraged by the men and women who time and time again have dropped everything to combat these sexual assaults, risking their psychological and physical safety and being creative, resourceful, and intuitive. I have to hope that there are enough people who see the process of social change as multi-faceted, more complex and more difficult than demanding the departure of a president or a government.

author: Ahmed Awadalla


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Egyptians Overthrow Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood Rule  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood senior member, is no longer the president of Egypt. Morsi's one-year reign was cut short, after massive protests across Egypt calling for him to resign started on June 30.
Head of the Egyptian Armed Forces General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi said in an announcement broadcast live minutes ago that the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court will be the new interim president and that a technocrat national government will be formed.
Al Sisi also announced that the Egyptian constitution has been suspended and that preparations will be made for both presidential and parliamentary elections.
Many are happy to see the end of the Muslim Brotherhood's days at the helm of Egyptian politics. Rasha Abdulla states:
Al Sisi announcing the end of Morsi's rule. Screen grab from CNN International
@RashaAbdulla:  EGYPT BRINGS ABOUT THE DOWNFALL OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD. HISTORY IN THE MAKING.
Egyptian Hossam Eid exclaims [ar]:
مافيش اخوان تاني
@EidH: There will be no [Muslim] Brotherhood again
And on the suspension of the constitution, blogger Eman AbdElRahman sarcastically says:
الى مزبلة التاريخ ياأعظم دستور في العاااااالم
@LastoAdri: To the garbage of history, the greatest constitution of the world
Reporting from Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the Egyptian revolution in downtown Cairo, reports:
@Beltrew:  I have never seen anything like this before: Beladi beladi beladi song filters through roar of crowd & explosion of fireworks #Egypt
On the flip side of the coin, the announcement angered the pro-Morsi. Mosa'ab Elshamy reports:
@mosaabrizing: So much anger at MB sit-in. Hearing distant gunshots.
Arabs too closely followed the unfolding events in Egypt.
Yemeni Abdulkader Alguneid tweets:
@alguneid: #Egypt Army is sacking Morsi, right now
Bahraini Salma exclaims:
جميلة يا #مصر
@salmasays: Egypt is beautiful
Mansoor Al-Jamri, also from Bahrain, notes:
المصريون يصححون المسار وينهون حالة الاختطاف التي تعرض لها الربيع العربي. تحي مصر.
@MANSOOR_ALJAMRi: Egyptians correct the path and end the hijacking of the Arab Spring. Long live Egypt!
And Moroccan Ahmed had a different view:
مصر في طريقها لتصبح باكستان.. إنتخابات ونقلاب .. إنتخابات وإنقلاب … إنتخابات انقلاب.. والنتيجة: كفر بالديموقراطية وتطرف ديني وسياسي
@blafrancia: Egypt is on its way to become Pakistan. Election and coup. Election and coup. Election and coup. The result is a total disbelief in democracy and religious and political extremism


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Iran: Opposition Leader’s Health Problem · Global Voices
Farid

Bloggers and news sites reported Mir Hussein Mousavi, one of Iranian opposition leaders,went to Tehran Heart Hospital for a checkup on Tuesday but security forces did not allow him to be hospitalized.

author: Farid


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St. Kitts & Nevis: Protesting the Prime Minister · Global Voices
Matthew Hunte

It's a twist rarely seen in Caribbean politics where party loyalties are fierce, but political tensions are high in St. Kitts and Nevis following the defection of two senior ministers from Prime Minister Denzil Douglas‘ ruling St. Kitts and Nevis Labour Party.
The move has placed the government in a minority position in the country's National Assembly, and the Prime Minister has not summoned Parliament in more than six months, presumably to avoid facing a vote of “No Confidence”. Meanwhile, the two ministers, Timothy Harris and Sam Condor, have formed a political party of their own, the People's Labour Party.
Late last week, the opposition People's Action Movement and the PLP led a protest march through the streets of the capital in an attempt to force the Prime Minister to either call an election or to step aside to allow the formation of a unity government.
P.A.M Chairwoman Cyndie Demming addresses the crowd
Permission for the march was initially withheld by the police and was finally granted hours before the event. Prior to the march, there was a smaller protest, but quite curiously, only one blog – Barbados-based at that – took note. It reported on a press conference held before permission for the march was granted, in which the opposition leader  laid out his justification for the march and for continued protests against the government:
The two elected members of PAM and partners in the CCM [Nevis-based Concerned Citizens Movement] and PLP have also written twice to the Governor General, confirming that all six of us, who make up the majority of the elected members of parliament, no longer have any confidence in the government and Dr. Douglas as Prime Minister. We have stated to the Governor General twice in letter that when the Motion of No Confidence is called, we will all vote in favour of it. We have also written twice to the Speaker of the National Assembly, echoing the same message that we communicated to the Governor General, and after six months, not one of these gentlemen has taken the appropriate constitutional action.
Marching through Basseterre
There were reactions to the march on the Facebook pages of some of the parties involved. On the People's Action Movement's page, Jacqueline Elliot felt that the march was not enough:
PAM and PLP the time has come to take our country back[…]instead of marching, everyone go down Church Street and do not move[…]you stay right there[…]close down St. Kitts. Marching last[s] a couple of hours[…]you need to stay down Church Street like they are doing [in] Egypt.
Caribbean Queen, on the contrary, thought the march could be the start of something big:
SK people is begging for a change, something they can look up to, call their own, something they hold on to and say, I made this happen, something they can [tell] their children that they were a part of, a story to remember, let it begin now.
“No Confidence in P.M. Denzil Douglas”
Rita Jarvis Pondt echoed these sentiments:
When fox can get the grapes he say dem sour. Lot more surprises coming. I'm not in the kitchen, but I can feel the heat. I can see people are fed up of all the lies and games that are being played everyday. I am so in support of the unity march yesterday and was very happy that it was successful. This is a sign that people are not going to tolerate anymore cr[a]p.
Gathering at Independence Square in Basseterre
Other than Facebook, YouTube appeared to be the new media forum of choice: several videos of the street protests were uploaded, most of them garnering an average of a few hundred views.


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Tanzanians Review Highly Anticipated Obama Visit · Global Voices
Omar Mohammed

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial capital, is getting back to normal after two days in which the city found itself playing host to arguably the most powerful man on earth: President Barack Obama of the United States. The city's streets were inundated with posters of the man.
Image of President Barack Obama on a billboard in Dar Es Salaam. Photo courtesy of Sandy Temu.
This instagrammer captured an image on one of the billboards and seemed quite pleased about the prospect of Obama's visit:
Folks lined up the streets to welcome the first African-American president to their shores, as the image posted with the tweet below demonstrates:
@shurufu: Tanzanians along Sokoine Drive waiting to welcome @BarackObama to #Tanzania. #ObamainTanzania #ObamainAfrica pic.twitter.com/yXMtpDE9KO
Obama was visiting Tanzania, as part of a week long, three-nation tour of Africa, his first comprehensive visit to the continent of his ancestral roots since he was first elected President in 2008. On the back of his arrival to Tanzania,  Obama announced a $7 billion plan to invest in electricity initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. This, it was said, was at the core of the relationship the US President was trying to cultivate, one that is built on investment and partnership:
@whitehouse: “Ultimately, the goal here is for Africa to build Africa for Africans.” —Obama in Tanzania: http://at.wh.gov/mz2hT , pic.twitter.com/pnBCU7bSCQ
And upon landing, Obama received an especially warm reception, as photo-blogger Issa Michuzi was able to capture in this photograph the mood at Julius Nyerere International Airport:
President Obama arriving at Julius Nyerere International Airport. Photo courtesy of Issa Michuzi.
Such images prompted one tweep to say this:
@bkyeyune: By the looks of the online images/photos, Obama had more fun in Tanzania than he had in South Africa.
The interest in Obama's visit extended farther than the streets of Dar es Salaam. Gaure Mdee (@Profesy) tweeted this image from Stone Town, Zanzibar showing people watching his visit on local television:
Zanzibaris watching Obama's visit on local television station. Photo courtesy of @Profesy.
However, not everyone in the country was as enthused about Mr. Obama's visit. The gentleman in the YouTube video below posted by Omar A. Mohammed, Karabani, Ras Novatus and John Mahundi, who was working just a street away from where the presidential motorcade eventually passed through, suggested that Obama was in Tanzania purely for self-interested motives and that his time in Tanzania had nothing to do with helping the country or its people.
This view seemed to be shared by blogger Elsie Eyakuze of The Mikocheni Report who, a week ago, conjured up the word ‘neocolonialism’ in describing the relevance of Mr. Obama's visit:
Now there's going to be a delegation of hundreds of businessmen in the Obama entourage looking to explore opportunities in Tanzania. There is something disconcerting about being considered a sweet little morsel by America on the planet…Gas, Africom, the Millenium Challenge Corporation, businessmen – what are these in the face of our current situation? Yes, Barack Obama is coming to Tanzania. If he could bring along plane-load of respect for civil rights and inject it directly into my government's veins I would be happier. But I understand POTUS has a few problems of his own respecting the freedoms of Americans- like, say, freedom from state surveillance? *shrug.*
Over at Vijana.FM, there were complaints about why there was more brouhaha for this Head of State than usually afforded to other visiting Presidents:
I can understand the vast security preparations for him, but should we only clean up when we have a high profile guest? I understand that he comes to visit our country and maybe he has good things in store, but our reaction to his visit is absurd. What message are we sending to our fellow African states, and most importantly, to the world? What message are we passing along to the young generation, the leaders in the making?
Elsewhere, January Makamba, who also happens to be the Deputy Minister for Science and Technology, blogging at Taifa Letu, argued that it is not Tanzania, and in extension Africa, that needs the US. Rather, it was America that needed Africa more:
America’s global leadership remains robust – at least for now. One way to retain and strengthen it in the face of insecure world and a deepening economic and cultural competition is to project it for the good of humanity. And this is the expectation of most Africans – that America shouldn’t befriend a country just for security or strategic concerns but because of advancement of shared values – of freedom, equality, tolerance and human progress.
Some Tanzanians seemed just glad to have Obama visit their country, a view encapsulated by the gentleman in the video below posted by Omar A. Mohammed, Karabani, Ras Novatus and John Mahundi, speaking after seeing the US President's motorcade pass through on its way to State House:
As Obama departed, Ahmed Salim (@asalim86) captured what the country felt yesterday evening:
@asalim86: …and POTUS [President of the United States] is gone, back to our regularly scheduled program in #Tanzania
And while the significance of his visit continues to be a point of contention, it seems like Mr. Obama is already entrenching his legacy into Dar es Salaam's identity:
@shurufu: #ObamainTanzania: The newly christened Barabara ya Barack Obama. Cc: @BarackObama pic.twitter.com/IuSXycqsL7
The newly christened Barabara [Road] ya Barack Obama. Image courtesy of @shurufu.

author: Omar Mohammed


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The Bahamas: Equality is for Everyone · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Bahamas’ Attorney General recently proposed that the country's Constitution be amended to end all forms of discrimination – except discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Blogworld explains why she has a problem with that.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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The Day Russia’s Libraries Stood Still · Global Voices
Andrey Tselikov

On July 2, 2013 three of Russia's popular online libraries blocked user access to their websites and collections as a way to protest a new law aimed at combating internet piracy (see RuNet Echo coverage here [GV]), which passed Russia's lower house of parliament on June 21, 2013. For a period of 24 hours any visitor of Flibusta.net [ru], Maxima-Library.org [ru], or CoolLib.net [ru] was redirected to identical black error-screens, with an image that read “Error 451F” [a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Ray Bradbury novel] at the top of the page.
Error message found on three Russian library websites on July 2, 2013. Screenshot.
Below lay the following message:
Государственная Дума разрабатывает серию законов, которые дадут чиновникам возможность заблокировать любой сайт в Рунете. Быстро и безнаказанно. Первая ступень уже принята и вступит в действие 1 августа. Следующие запланированы на осень. Через год многие сайты могут выглядеть вот так. Что делать? Протестовать. На их стороне деньги, власть и врожденная анацефалия. На нашей – техника, наука и устремления миллионов людей.
The State Duma is working on a series of laws which will allow bureaucrats to block any RuNet website. Quickly, and without consequences. The first stage has already passed [the current law deals only with video content, A.T.] and will come into effect on August 1. The subsequent stages are planned for the fall. In a year, many websites could look like this [one currently does]. What to do? Protest. On their side is money, power and congenital brain failure. On ours — technology, science and the aspirations of millions of people.
The pages also linked to an online petition [ru] hosted at OnlinePetition.ru, which currently has just under 80,000 signatures. (Interestingly, while there was also a link to the Russian Online Initiative webpage [GV], there is no associated petition there.) The petition calls for the repeal of the law, describing it as unjust and harmful to Russia's economy.
The three online book repositories are not alone in their protest. Earlier, on June 24, several Russian websites run by the entertainment conglomerate “Look at Media” pulled a similar stunt [ru], shutting down their services for an hour with a similar message — a black screen saying “this is pretty much what it will be like come August 1″. Rublacklist, an internet watchdog associated with the Russian Pirate Party, has also been strongly critical of the law and has called for a general internet “strike” [ru] on August 1, when the law comes into effect.
Meanwhile, Russian programmers are working to make such a strike a possibility. For example, one user of the Russian tech-blog Harbrahabr has created a JavaScript based application that allows webmasters to easily implement a blackout. The script has a few neat features. For one, while it blocks users from accessing the webpage, it comes with an optional “Continue” button that allows users to use the website after they view the message. It also comes with all sorts of “social” buttons, which will allow people to like, tweet, and otherwise share the information on social networks.
A blackout mock-up proposed by an anonymous programmer on Habrahabr.ru. Screenshot, July 2, 2013.
The reasoning behind the proposed blackouts is the same as that which led the Russian Wikipedia to strike for a day last July [GV], when it protested against censorship proposals couched in terms of defending Russia's minors. Critics of the anti-piracy law maintain that just like last year's legislation, which resulted in the creation of a Russian internet blacklist [GV], the true intentions of the legislators lie elsewhere. A Habrahabr user described the law in the following way [ru]:
Готовящиеся и уже принятые законы не направлены на решение проблем современного копирайта. Антипиратская реторика используется в качестве прикрытия для цензуры и окукливания Рунета.
Both the upcoming and the already adopted laws are not aimed at solving the problems of modern copyright. Anti-piracy rhetoric is being used as a cover for the censorship and closing off of the RuNet.
Of course, unlike Wikipedia, the three websites that were striking on July 2 do in fact host a lot of pirated content (along with many public domain works a la Project Gutenberg), which lends a certain ironic air to their rhetoric. It should be said that reading pirated versions of e-books is perhaps the simplest thing one can do on the RuNet — no downloads, torrents or peer-to-peer networks are required. Simply go to one of the many websites that host online libraries, search for a book, click on the link, and read in your browser. Because most of the content is in Russian, these websites have so far failed to attract the ire of the international anti-piracy forces.
But even if they had, the Russian reading community is extremely resilient — for instance Flibusta.net (with an Alexa rank of 645 in Russia it is the most popular of the blackout participants) is pretty much a clone of an older website called Lib.rus.ec, which incidentally did not take part in the blackout. A few years ago Lib.rus.ec [ru], the biggest pirated e-book website at the time, “sold out,” or went legitimate, (depending on one's point of view) and started to charge a monthly fee for e-book downloads (it is still possible to access and read the books for free through the website). That's when someone created Flibusta, a website that mirrors Lib.rus.ec's content. Presumably, if the current crop of online libraries gets shut down something similar will eventually happen. In such circumstances Nikolai Durov, brother of Pavel Durov, co-founder of the social network VKontakte, and a critic of the anti-piracy law, doubts [ru] that trying to involve the general public will work:
Я не особо верю в действенность подобных мер. Возможно, они нужны для очистки совести — “не говорите потом, что мы не предупреждали.”
I don't really believe in the efficacy of such measures. Maybe they are there for a clear conscience — “don't tell us that we didn't warn you.”
Durov is probably right — unlike the successes of the Internet lobby in the US in defeating SOPA, Russian “freedom of information” forces appear to be fighting a losing battle. Although, perhaps if Durov's website were to shut down for an entire day there would enough of a public outcry to effect change.

author: Andrey Tselikov


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The Story Behind Morsi’s [Fake] Arrest Video · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

A video showing what is being described as the arrest of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi is making the rounds online. The same video was posted on YouTube on May 21, 2013 under the title “The moment President Mohamed Morsi and his son were arrested.”
Morsi was ousted today [July 4] by the Egyptian military after serving as president for a year. Millions gathered across Egypt from June 30, the first anniversary of his rule, to demand that he — and his Muslim Brotherhood — leave power. Today, the Egyptian army named a new interim president, suspended the constitution and promised new presidential and parliamentary elections will be held soon.
The new video, entitled “In Video, the Arrest of Morsi”, has been uploaded on YouTube and starts with an argument between people [ar] saying that “he” should be handcuffed and “treated like any other criminal.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyt6r0qr7xY
This video, and the timing of his release which coincided with reports that Morsi was under house arrest, has made many confused.
Iyad El-Baghdadi notes:
@iyad_elbaghdadi: Reportedly #Morsi arrest video. Someone is saying over & over “he should step out in handcuffs”. http://bit.ly/12mCD28 #Egypt
And he adds:
@iyad_elbaghdadi: I don't understand the context of #Morsi arrest vid. Some army officers, but what are civilians doing there? http://bit.ly/12mCD28 #Egypt
Journalist Jenan Moussa first shared the video link on Twitter and then removed it. She explains:
@jenanmoussa:  I am deleting the video of alleged arrest of Morsi. Not confirmed at all. Apologies.
And Egyptocracy tweets:
@Egyptocracy: There is an false video circulating now of alleged “#Morsi arrest”, he was never arrested, he was under republican guard protection. #Egypt
Meanwhile, Cairo-based Egyptian journalist Amira Howeidy notes:
@amirahoweidy:  Morsi under house arrest. Not one single MB figure is accessible. All religious channels switched off. Islamists r silenced. What next?


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Trinidad & Tobago: A Travel Mindset · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Once you have the right perspective, you can travel anywhere … some places you might have to wait longer to visit, but you will eventually get there.
Travel blogger Rishi Sankar offers advice on how to “structure your mind to enable a life of travel”.


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We’re Uyghurs. We’re not terrorists.  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Against the background of two violent unrests in Xinjiang, a plea from an Uyghur from Xinjiang stirred up discussions of how to make peace with people from different ethnic backgrounds on Chinese social media. More from Offbeat China.