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Netizen Report: Two of Egypt’s leading digital activists await their release from prison, after years behind bars · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Alaa Abd El Fattah. Photo by Alaa (CC BY-SA 2.5)
The Advox Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in technology and human rights around the world. This report covers news and events from February 22-28.
Two prominent digital activists in Egypt are expected to be released from prison in the coming weeks. Both Mahmoud Abu Zeid, a photographer, and Alaa Abd El Fattah, a blogger and political activist, have spent most of the past five years behind bars.
Their families and supporters are determined to see them freed on time. But there is growing concern that state security may delay their release. In early February, the families of 18 political prisoners, including Abd El Fattah, were barred from visiting their jailed loved ones.
While his prison term is set to end on March 17, 2019, Abd El Fattah will then be under close police surveillance and made to spend every night in his local police station for the next five years.
Alaa Abd El Fattah was a leading voice in the 2011 protests that helped to overthrow former president Hosni Mubarak, and has been jailed or investigated under every Egyptian head of state who has served during his lifetime. He was given a five-year prison sentence for violating Egypt’s protest law, which prohibits public demonstrations without prior authorization by police. Public prosecutors also brought a separate case against Abd El Fattah for allegedly “insulting” the judiciary in a tweet, where he criticized Egypt’s justice system for its lack of independence.
In 2016, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Abd El Fattah’s detention was “arbitrary” and that he had been denied guarantees of due process and a fair trial. Since December 2018, his family has run an active online campaign, “100 days for Alaa”, advocating for his timely release.
Mahmoud Abou Zaid, aka Shawkan. Photo shared on Twitter by @Ciluna27.
Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known online as Shawkan, was unlawfully detained and tried for photographing the 2013 bloody dispersal of the Rabaa El Adaweya sit-in, while he was employed by Demotix. Supporters of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi had gathered to protest a military coup that ended Morsi’s presidency soon thereafter. Human Rights Watch reported at the time that Egyptian security forces killed at least 817 people in the incident, and injured many more.
From then on, Shawkan spent nearly four years in pre-trial detention, in violation of Egyptian law which sets the limits between six months and two years, depending on the seriousness of the crime. On September 8, 2018, he was convicted on spurious charges of murder and affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, now designated a terrorist group by the Egyptian government. He was sentenced to five years in prison, despite the fact that he had already served as much time.
Although he was set to be released in mid-February 2019, he remains behind bars as of this writing. On February 27, the International Press Institute called on Egyptian authorities to release him immediately.
Since mid-February, Algerians have been overriding protest laws and demonstrating in the streets, demanding that Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika withdraw from upcoming national elections. On February 21 and 22, the independent technical research group NetBlocks reported that multiple internet provider networks were intermittently shut down, likely as a result of demonstrations.
Bouteflika has been president since 1999 and is seeking a fifth term in office, despite his poor health. The 81-year-old suffered a stroke in 2013 and has been confined to a wheelchair and has made few public appearances since then. Protesters have emphasized the country’s weak and increasingly unstable economy — 29% of people under 30 are unemployed.
On February 27, Venezuelan technical research group VE Sin Filtro reported that both Twitter and SoundCloud were blocked for all subscribers to the country’s largest internet provider, state-owned CANTV.
Since mid-January, when opposition politician Juan Guaidó declared himself acting president of the Republic, in an open challenge to sitting President Nicolas Maduro, public protests and confrontations between the Maduro-aligned military and opposition leaders backed by the US have triggered numerous internet outages and blocks on websites including Wikipedia, Instagram and multiple services belonging to Google, including YouTube.
Australia-based blogger Malele Paulo was arrested in Samoa on February 8, while he was visiting the country to attend his mother’s funeral. Malele is a known critic of the government who writes under the pen name King Faipopo.
Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi filed a defamation complaint against Malele, concerning a post in which the blogger alleged that the prime minister had engaged in corruption and theft. He has been charged under Samoa’s criminal libel law with “making false statements with the intention of causing harm to a member of our Samoan communities’ reputation.” He is scheduled to appear in court on March 5.
Russian netizens could face censorship and fines for sharing “unreliable information” or criticizing the government online if two new laws are passed by the country’s Duma. But in a relatively positive development, new changes to the draft legislation include the “right to make mistakes.”
With this change, Russian authorities could issue advanced warning to individuals or media outlets whose writing they deem false or offensive. If they heed authorities’ warnings to delete offending content, individuals can avoid penalties on first violation — and media outlets can avoid having their websites blocked. It is worth noting however that such warnings will not be extended to media outlets that do not have a government-issued license.
A draft law before Nepal’s parliament would give authorities broad powers to order the removal of social media content, penalize users for “improper” posts, and block entire online platforms if they are not registered in the country. It would also require foreign tech companies with a large presence in the country, like Facebook and Google, to establish in-country offices and to pay a special tax on the earnings they accrue from Nepali users.
The bill would replace the existing Electronic Transaction Act, which the government has invoked in 106 cases over the past three years, in prosecutions for online content. Free expression advocates warn the new legislation could open the door to even more arbitrary prosecution, as the bill does not require authorities to seek court approval before they order internet service providers (ISPs) to block websites. ISPs that do not comply with these orders will face fines.
The Indonesian fact-checking website Cekfakta.com was reportedly attacked and infiltrated on February 19, just two days after the national broadcast of the second presidential debate. Attackers changed the site's DNS configuration and redirected users to a ghost video on YouTube. Cekfakta.com is a collaborative project among 24 media outlets in Indonesia, aimed at countering fake news and disinformation. The Legal Aid Institute for Press condemned the attack, and called on law enforcement to immediately investigate the incident. The site has since been restored.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Marianne Diaz, L. Finch, Juliana Harsianti, Leila Nachawati, Mong Palatino and Elizabeth Rivera contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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‘Not Allowed To Touch’ campaign is raising awareness about child abuse in Pakistan · Global Voices
R Umaima Ahmed

Image from public domain
The Federal Ministry of Human Rights of Pakistan (MOHR) recently initiated a campaign to raise awareness around child abuse in the country. The campaign highlights the need for parents, teachers, and society at large to be vigilant and inform children about child predators. Like many countries, child abuse in Pakistan is a serious issues which often goes unreported. This is the first campaign of its kind in the country and it has already received a warm response from both activists and the general public.
Ministry of Human Rights launches an awareness campaign to prevent child abuse. @ShireenMazari1 @pid_gov pic.twitter.com/ONRpVbzTst
— Ministry of Human Rights Government of Pakistan (@mohrpakistan) February 12, 2019
A man trying to touch a child in a park and trying to kidnap him, but the child starts shouting and the other kids gather around them saying, ‘not allowed to touch.’
Child abuse is not a recent phenomenon nor restricted to a particular region. According to Sahil, an NGO working in child protection services, about 3,445 children (2017 girls and 985 boys) were abused in Pakistan in 2017. However, this number is much higher as most cases are not reported because of social stigma attached to the issue and the lengthy investigation process by the police. Unfortunately, the victims are often abused by their relatives or someone they know and trust which leads many to remain silent.
In recent years, several child abuse scandals have shocked the nation. In 2016, the Kasur child abuse scandal made headlines and, in 2018, the rape and murder of six-year-old girl Zainab Ansari led to protests. These were widely discussed on social media and people demanded that the government punish the culprits and protect children.
The Minister of Human Rights thanked two local rights group Kasur Hamara Hai (KHH) and Shehri Pakistan for helping initiate this campaign and gathering videos to use in the campaign.
I want to thank Shehri and Kasur Hamara Hai (KHH) for helping us with our Child Abuse Awareness programme by providing us with the awareness videos on a voluntary basis.
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) February 14, 2019
Global Voices spoke to Shimaila Matri Dawood, a member of the Kasur Hamara Hai (KHH) group and the Managing Director of a media management company, to learn about their contribution to the campaign:
Shimaila Matri Dawood:It was after the brutal rape and murder of Zainab Ansari that a like-minded group of ordinary volunteers from different walks of life came together to form the Facebook group ‘Kasur Hamara Hai,’ to undertake two tasks. To begin with; the first, to advocate the establishment of a missing child alert, response and recovery system to be set in motion on receipt of a report of a missing child anywhere in Pakistan; and second, to create a series of videos for awareness of child abuse and actions needed to protect children from predators.
Global Voices (GV): What do you think about this campaign launched by the Ministry of Human Rights?
Shimaila Matri Dawood: We were very grateful that everyone we approached spared their time, expertise and equipment complimentarily and put in their hearts and souls in making an educational campaign on child abuse prevention. Later two of these videos were given to Dr. Shireen Mazari and MOHR for use in launching a public service campaign on child protection.
Here are some examples of the videos used in the campaign which ran on national TV and also on social media:
وفاقی وزارت انسانی حقوق نے بچوں پر جنسی تشدد اور ذیادتی کی روک تھام سے متعلق آگاہی مہم کا آغاز کر دیا ہے.
Ministry of Human Rights launches an awareness campaign to prevent child abuse. @ShireenMazari1 @pid_gov pic.twitter.com/xilIiUbWq6
— Ministry of Human Rights Government of Pakistan (@mohrpakistan) February 12, 2019
The above video shows that a mother is coming to drop her son at school and sees a driver trying to touch a child in a car, she walks up to the driver and tells him that he is ‘not allowed to touch’.
وفاقی وزارت انسانی حقوق نے بچوں پر جنسی تشدد اور ذیادتی کی روک تھام سے متعلق آگاہی مہم کا آغاز کر دیا ہے.
Ministry of Human Rights launches an awareness campaign to prevent child abuse.@ShireenMazari1 @pid_gov pic.twitter.com/kSty8CY4wU
— Ministry of Human Rights Government of Pakistan (@mohrpakistan) February 12, 2019
The above video highlights that children should not believe strangers or go with them anywhere is also uploaded.
On social media, the campaign was largely appreciated by users and a hashtag #ChoonaManaHay (not allowed to touch) was also trending on Twitter:
Good step, It is need of time to raise awarness about this issue. The teachers can play most important role in it. Make this compulsory part of teachers training. There should be special lectures on this topic in schools occasionally.  #ChoonaManaHay
— Aftab Ahmad (@Aftab_Sial1) February 12, 2019
#ChoonaManaHay
Great initiative!
With all the horrific cases of child abuse and molestation being reported, it's high time we start teaching young children about “Good Touch Bad Touch" https://t.co/c47H56uI4z
— Faria Salman ???? (@FariaSalman1) February 12, 2019
The Pakistani government has taken a number of steps to prevent child abuse. A National Child protection Centre has been set up by the Ministry which offers free education, counseling and medical treatment. A toll-free telephone Helpline (1099) has also been set up where human rights issues, including child abuse, can be reported.
However, Pakistan needs a lot more campaigns like #ChoonaManaHay to reach every citizen and create an impact to prevent child abuse.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: R Umaima Ahmed


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For the love of language: The first book of stories printed in Mro language · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

With the first fiction in their language, members of indigenous Mro communitity. Used with permission.
This past February 21st was International Mother Language Day and, to celebrate, a charitable foundation has published and distributed the first fiction in Mro language fonts to the tribes who live in the border regions between Myanmar, Bangladesh, and India.
Geographic distribution of Mru People n Bangladesh. Image via Wikipedia. CC: BY-SA
The Mro indigenous group live in the Bandaban district in the Southeastern hill tracts of Bangladesh. According to a 1991 census, the population size was only 22,178. They are a sub-group of the Chin people, Their language is from the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan family.
The fiction, titled “Mro Fairy Tales”, tells stories related to the groups’ beliefs, metaphors, culture, and practices. The book has also been published in Bengali so that the other communities can read the same tales. Written by Yangan Mro, this is the first fiction published in Mro language fonts and was distributed freely.
All languages of the world need saving, says Niaz Morshed on Facebook.
ম্রো ভাষায় প্রথম ছাপানো বই !!! এটাই হচ্ছে আমাদের একুশে ফেব্রুয়ারির উদযাপন।
যে দেশের মানুষ মাতৃভাষার জন্য প্রাণ দিয়েছে, সে দেশের কিছু মানুষ মাতৃভাষা হারাচ্ছে যুগে যুগে। এগুলো সংরক্ষণের কোন কার্যকর পদক্ষেপ চোখে পড়ে না।
The first book in Mro language !!! This is our celebration of Ekushe February (International Mother Language Day)
In the country where some of its citizens were martyred to fight for their language, some unique languages are withering away. I don't see any effort to save them.
A volunteer of Bidyananda Foundation is handing over a book to a Mro community member. Image used with permission.
Bidyanana Foundation is a volunteer organization which supports different sectors struggling with poverty and homelessness, especially orphaned children. It is guided by 40 officers and hundreds of volunteers, with 8 local branches. Bidyananda Publications is their sister organization.
Global Voices talked with the founder of the organization Kishor Kumar Das:
আমাদের একাধিক আদিবাসী এতিমখানায় কয়েকশ’ শিশু থাকে। তাঁদের মাতৃভাষায় বই উপহার দিতেই কাজটি করা। আর কাজটি করতে গিয়ে প্রথম সমস্যা ছিল ম্রো ভাষায় লেখক খুঁজে বের করা। এজন্য আমরা ফেইসবুকে বিজ্ঞাপন দিই।পরে আমাদের এক স্বেচ্ছাসেবকের মাধ্যমে এই লেখককে খুঁজে পাই। আর একটা সমস্যার ছিল ফন্ট।এসব ফন্টে কাজ হয় নি কোনদিন বাংলাবাজারে(বাংলাদেশের সবচেয়ে বড় বই প্রকাশনী কেন্দ্র)।আদিবাসী শিশুদের মাতৃভাষায় বই পড়ার আনন্দ উপহার দেয়ার দৃঢ় প্রতিজ্ঞা ছিল বলেই আমরা কাজটি করতে পেরেছি।
আগামী বছর আমরা আরো কয়েকটি ভাষায় বই প্রকাশ করার পরিকল্পনা করছি।এছাড়া আমরা আদিবাসী শিশুদের জন্য ভিডিও টিউটোরিয়াল তৈরির কাজ শুরু করেছি। সেটাও মাঝপথে থেমে গেছে স্বেচ্ছাসেবকের অভাবে।
There are a few hundred indigenous children in our different orphanages. We wanted to give them books in their own mother language. The first challenge for us to find a writer in Mro language. We advertised on Facebook and one of our volunteers found him. The other challenge was to work with the font, which was never used in Banglabazar, Bangladesh's largest book publishing market. But we had a great resolve to produce Mro language books for the indigenous children.
Next year we are planning to publish books in a few more languages. We started to create a video tutorial for the indigenous kids. But that work has stalled now for lack of volunteers.
The language map of Bangladesh. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Bangladesh is mainly a country of Bangla speakers, a group that makes up 98% of the population (163 million in Bangladesh, 261 million worldwide). However, there are 39 minority languages spoken in Bangladesh and some of them are facing extinction. Researcher Salek Khokon, published findings that two minority languages (Kudukh and Nagori) have already become extinct.
One of the challenges is that the people in the hills speak in their language but write in Bangla (some of them are only oral languages). However, there are some young indigenous activists who are using innovations to penetrate the digital world with their own language and fonts.
Since 2014, there has been an initiative to provide primary education in 5 indigenous languages, but critics claim that it was not implemented properly.
Bangladesh has now got the International Mother Language Institute (IMLI), a statutory body whose function is the preservation of languages. With the government placing attention on these issues and organizations like Bidyananda pushing for publications in diverse languages, there is hope steps will be taken to save these languages.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)


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For the first time in Brazil’s history, there is an indigenous woman in the National Congress · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

Joenia was the first indigenous woman to have a Law degree in Brazil. Image: Screenshot of video by United Nations Web TV.
In 1997, Joenia Wapichana became the first indigenous woman in Brazil to obtain a law degree. Eleven years later, she was the first indigenous person ever to defend a case in the Supreme Court. And in October 2018 Joenia earned yet another distinction, becoming the first indigenous woman elected to the National Congress.
Her 8,491 votes elected her to one of the eight seats destined to her home state, Roraima. The only time Brazil had an indigenous congressman was in 1986 — Mario Juruna, of Xavante ethnicity, was elected in 1983.
Born in a Wapichana tribe, Joenia moved to Boa Vista, Roraima's state capital, when she was eight years old. She juggled her law degree with a job at an accountant’s office and, she said in a recent interview, graduated a year earlier than expected, fifth in her class, and amongst the children of Roraima's oligarchy.
In December 2018, already as an elected congresswoman, Joenia won a UN human rights prize for her outstanding achievement in promoting indigenous peoples’ rights. The same recognition has been given to Nelson Mandela and Malala.
Joenia Wapichana defending an indigenous cause at the Supreme Court. Image: Screenshot of YouTube video/Brazil's Supreme Court.
Joênia made history in 2008 when she argued a case brought by five indigenous groups to have their land officially demarcated as an Indigenous Territory, a type of tenure that confers indigenous peoples inalienable rights over their traditional homelands.
The court ruled in favor of the indigenous groups, who now are permanent possessors of the largest Indigenous Territory in Brazil — the lands of Raposa Terra do Sol, located in the state of Roraima.
Meanwhile, Jair Bolsonaro, still a congressman at that time, insulted an indigenous activist who had attended a public hearing at the Chamber of Deputies about the Raposa Terra do Sol demarcation. “You should go outside and eat grass to keep with your origins,” Bolsonaro said on the occasion.
Shortly after his electoral victory in 2018, Bolsonaro brought up Raposa Terra do Sol again as an example of an indigenous territory whose economic potential should be exploited. He told reporters:
É a área mais rica do mundo [em minerais]. Você tem como explorar de forma racional. E no lado do índio, dando royalty e integrando o índio à sociedade.
It’s the richest area in the world. You can exploit it in a rational manner. And, from the indigenous’ side, giving them royalties and integrating them to society.
Ten years ago, with red painting on her face, in the tradition of her ethnicity, Joenia mixed Portuguese and her native language to remind the Justices that around three million US dollars circulated within those lands every year without that counting towards the Brazil's economy. “We are slandered and discriminated inside our own land”, she said.
Image: The Institute for Inclusive Security, CC 2.0
While she prepared to take her congressional seat as an opponent of Bolsonaro’s government, she told reporters at Folha de São Paulo, a national newspaper:
Por que ele persegue tanto os povos indígenas? Qual é a razão de todo esse ódio e de querer retroceder tanto?
Temos turismo, medicinas tradicionais, uma vasta biodiversidade na Amazônia. A gente tem de mudar esse discurso de que somos empecilho ao desenvolvimento, que estamos prejudicando A ou B. Temos de fazer com que sejamos nós os protagonistas também.
Why does he [Bolsonaro] persecute indigenous people so much? What is the reason for such hate and appetite for retreat?
We have tourism, traditional medicine, a vast biodiversity in the Amazon. We need to change this belief that we are a hindrance to development, that we are hurting A or B. We must become protagonists ourselves as well.
Brazil's Congress took office in February 2019 and Joênia began her term as the leader of her party, Rede Sustentabilidade (or Sustainability Network in Portuguese), in the Chamber of Deputies, the federal legislature's lower house. Rede was founded by former Environment Minister Marina Silva, who despite losing three consecutive presidential elections is a household name in Brazil's environmental activism.
Following the dam disaster in Brumadinho, a tragedy that killed over 160 people and destroyed all life at the Paraopeba River, Joenia presented her first bill proposal, which renders environmental crimes that seriously affect ecosystems, human health, and lives, “heinous crimes”, a type of offense that incurs in more severe penalties.
A day before taking office, the congresswoman told Folha de Boa Vista, a local newspaper from her home state, that the bill addresses private corporations’ carelessness with the environment:
Nos preocupa a política governamental de enfraquecer ainda mais os mecanismos criados para defender o meio ambiente saudável, previsto em nossa Constituição, e os impactos sociais, como, por exemplo, o licenciamento ambiental, diante da falta de responsabilidade das empresas e do baixo poder de fiscalização do Estado.
We are concerned with the government's policies of weakening mechanisms that were created to protect a healthy environment, as foreseen in our Constitution, and the associated social impacts. [Among those mechanisms], for instance, there is the environmental licensing process, [which helps curb] the lack of accountability by companies and the low power of control by the State.
Speaking with the BBC, Joenia says her top priority in Congress will be the demarcation of indigenous lands:
Se por um lado há meia dúzia de ruralistas, por outro há uma população de minorias que se sente representada por mim ali. É uma população que precisa de representação. A política velha é formada por pessoas que só pensam em benefícios individuais. Eu vou levar valores coletivos.
If on one hand you have half a dozen ruralists, on the other there is a whole population of minorities that see themselves represented by me in there. It’s a group that needs representation. The old politics is made out of people who only think about individual gains. I will bring collective values.

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Late night Japanese TV show takes aim at foreign convenience store clerks · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Well-known Japanese television personality Masahiro Nakai has been criticized for making unkind remarks about a foreign-born worker's Japanese language ability. Screenshot from YouTube.
An insensitive quip by a well-known television personality about the Japanese ability of a store clerk has sparked discussion on social media, including concerns the joke represents a contemptuous attitude towards foreign workers.
On February 27, in his late night variety program “Nakai's Window” (ナカイの窓), Masahiro Nakai and several other television personalities engaged in a jocular discussion about how convenience stores in Japan ought to be fixed (コンビニのココを直して!). During the banter, Nakai described how, during a recent trip to a convenience store, a non-Japanese clerk supposedly made a notable malapropism. According to Nakai, instead of saying “change” (釣り銭, or surisenyen), the convenience store clerk said the Japanese slang for “masturbation”, or zurisen (ずりせん).
Nakai's remarks generated laughs from the other television personalities on the program, who then recounted their own experiences interacting with “foreign convenience store clerks” (外国人店員).
As a member of the now-defunct “Johnnys” boy idol group SMAP, Masahiro Nakai, now 47, was once one of Japan's biggest pop culture stars for much of the 1990s and 2000s. While his omnipresence and ubiquity have faded over the past decade, Nakai still regularly appears on and hosts the variety programs that dominate Japanese prime time television seven evenings a week.
A Japanese Twitter user and language learner with the handle Wijita shared a short video clip of Nakai's quip that has since been viewed several million times, and the Twitter thread includes hundreds of comments and perspectives on what happened.
コンビニで働く外国人の店員さんの日本語、少し間違えるだけで笑われちゃう(´-ω-｀)
自分が英語やスペイン語を使って働いてる時にこう馬鹿にされたら、トラウマになりそうだなあ。
ノンネイティブが完璧に話すのって本当に難しいことなんだけどなあ。 pic.twitter.com/kOy29m82lZ
— Wijita?♀ (@mijita20) February 27, 2019
The foreign convenience store clerk's Japanese was a little off, but it made me laugh. (´-ω-｀)
However, if someone would ever mock my workplace English or Spanish like this, I would probably be traumatized. I think it's really challenging for non-native speakers (of any language) to achieve true fluency.
For some, the point of the segment seemed less to be about the fact that non-native speakers of Japanese sometimes mix up words when speaking to customers, and more about the fact that convenience stores employ foreign workers at all.
As one person in Wijita's Twitter thread remarked:
はじめまして。私が一番違和感を感じるのは、「外国人なのに日本人に仕事を教えている、この人リーダー？」ってところで爆笑が起きるところです。外国人なのに日本人より仕事ができるということがなぜウケるのかが分かりません。ものすごい差別心が浮き上がる場面だと思いました
— のんきな家なき子ニキ (@tsukaniki85) February 27, 2019
The thing that makes me most uncomfortable was the comment, “Why was a foreigner teaching Japanese people how to do their jobs? Is he supposed to be a supervisor?” getting such huge laughs.
What's so funny about a foreign worker being better at the job than a Japanese person? That comment really brought the discrimination (against non-Japanese workers) to the surface.
Foreign workers serve a much-needed role in Japan, which is struggling with labor shortages in almost every industry. There are at least 55,000 non-Japanese workers employees as clerks at convenience stores across Japan. Many are foreign students enrolled in Japanese schools, or foreign “trainee” workers who have been allowed by recent changes in labor laws to work for much lower pay.
Japan's relative population decline, combined with efforts by the central government to recruit more and more trainee workers from countries such as Vietnam, China, Nepal, and India, means there will likely be even more foreign convenience store clerks in the future.
Interviewed for an article about Nakai's remarks in online magazine Wezzy, media commentator Keiko Kojima, a former Japanese television presenter who now resides in Australia, remarked that Japanese people are just not accustomed to hearing anything other than perfect Japanese:
日本だと、ちょっとイントネーションがおかしいだけで、「あいつ日本語変」みたいな「いじり」をやるじゃないですか。外国人人口はどんどん増えているのに、日本語が母語の人のほうがクラスが上で、ロバート・キャンベルさんや、デーブ・スペクターさん、ピーター・フランクルさん並みにしゃべれないとなかなか仲間だと認めない。
In Japan, even if (a non-native speaker)'s intonation is just slightly off, a typical response is “they're really fumbling around with the language, aren't they?”
However, even though the foreign population in Japan is going to keep on increasing, native Japanese speakers will always occupy a higher social rank.
If these foreign workers are always going to be compared to (various foreign-born television personalities in Japan who are generally recognized to have achieved a remarkable degree of Japanese fluency), they will never be accepted as part of Japanese society.
The irony of Masahiro Nakai's remarks about the Japanese fluency of foreign convenience store clerks is that there have long been criticisms of the language ability of even native Japanese speakers in the service industry.
When interacting with customers, store clerks are expected to use a highly formal and polite register of Japanese called keigo. Keigo includes specialized vocabulary and diction that most professionals with a postsecondary education will master by the time they enter the workforce.
However, even Japanese part-time employees may not have this education in keigo, and so convenience store operators and other businesses in the service industry produce manuals for clerks and employees to follow. The result of this “manual keigo” in convenience store interactions can be robotic and grammatical Japanese, no matter where in the world the worker comes from in the first place:
Tokyo-based lawyer Allan Richarz notes:
Critics take issue with the use of what they see as a mindless, one-size-fits-all application of honorific speech in the service industry—a mechanical approach at odds with the contextual nature of the Japanese language.
As for the discussion about the intent and appropriateness about Masahiro Nakai's February 27 comments on ‘Nakai no Mado’ about foreign convenience store clerks, Wijita wrote a blog post after their tweets went viral. However, Wijita had to then temporarily take down the blog post due to strong backlash that included negative and abusive comments.
Apart from Wezzy, few media outlets in Japan picked up on Nakai's comments on his program on February 27. This could be because there is still little mainstream awareness in Japan about discrimination against foreign trainees who work in convenience stores, or because few television viewers are paying attention to Masahiro Nakai's late-night variety program.
This article has been updated.

author: Nevin Thompson


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#MeTooSebat: Kyrgyz take to social media to debate controversial ‘Gulen schools’ · Global Voices
Chris Rickleton

The Chingiz Aitmatov Kyrgyz-Turkish High School for boys in Bishkek (Photo: Chingiz Aitmatov Kyrgyz-Turkish High School). Featured on Eurasianet.
The #MeTooSebat hashtag has been trending on Kyrgyzstan Twitter as former pupils of private schools inspired by the controversial Turkish scholar Fethullah Gulen share stories of oppressive teachers and institutionalised bullying, while others defend the schools’ reputation for academic excellence.
зимой бывали случаи, когда болтунов, которые не спали, выгоняли ночью на улицу в пижамах и заставляли бегать несколько кругов вокруг общежития #metoosebat
— сэр Эльз (@a__elz) February 23, 2019
In winter there were cases when chatterboxes, who wouldn't sleep, were sent outside during the night in their pyjamas and forced to run several laps around the dormitory.
The hashtag has geopolitical connotations as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pressured Ankara's small Central Asian ally — and plenty of other foreign governments — to close all educational institutions linked to Gulen, his bitter rival.
The Turkish government says Gulen has long attempted to undermine the Turkish state from his de facto exile in the United States and was the mastermind behind a failed coup in the country in 2016.
The post-coup fallout saw Turkish diplomats coerce and tempt foreign governments from Azerbaijan to Angola into closing Gulen institutions.
Thanks) #metoosebat pic.twitter.com/56OUMMmvNQ
— samd (@kingleard_) February 26, 2019
A Kyrgyz twitter user jokes that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is paying users to tweet complaints about the school.
While many of Turkey's allies have responded to Ankara's call to close down the schools, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have sought a third way, allowing them to remain but renaming them and increasing government control over their management structures.
Turkey's leadership has indicated on multiple occasions that it is not satisfied by this approach.
On the back #MeTooSebat, at least one Kyrgyz lawmaker has already called for a thorough investigation of the schools, which have a reputation for secrecy, dismaying parents that view them as an affordable alternative to the troubled state education system.
Many Twitter users have pointed out that the bullying and other abuses reported in the high-performing institutions are no more than the tip of a giant iceberg of ills in schools across the country that authorities have regularly failed to confront.

author: Chris Rickleton


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Russian rocket Soyuz launches the first OneWeb satellites, tethered to the ground by restrictive legislation · Global Voices
RuNet Echo

The Soyuz ST-B vehicle carrying six OneWeb satellites on the launchpad // Screencapped by Runet Echo
On February 27, 2019, a Soyuz rocket deployed the first six satellites of what is projected to be a constellation of several hundred low-orbit transmitters able to provide Internet access across the globe, even in remote areas with insufficient infrastructure.
Russia’s RT network posted a video of the launch on YouTube, titled “Internet for ‘everyone’ & ‘everywhere': Soyuz rocket launches 1st OneWeb satellites”:
On the ground in Russia, however, things don’t look as idealistic. Shortly before the launch, Russia’s government signed a resolution requiring all satellite traffic inside the country to pass through government-mandated access stations. Both existing international satellite operators such as Iridium and Thuraya and Russian telecoms will be required to build these stations at their own expense and after a thorough vetting and licensing by Russia’s security agencies: the main domestic intelligence bureau, the FSB (Federal Security Service) and the FSO (Federal Protection Service), providing security to the country’s top officials.
From the start, Russian authorities have been aggressively staking out a claim in the OneWeb venture and ensuring that they will have as much control over the information flows as possible. Despite the joint venture agreement between OneWeb and Roscosmos, Russia’s state space agency, shortly before the inaugural launch OneWeb sold its majority stake to a subsidiary of Roscosmos, thus bringing the project under the Russian government’s firm control. The FSB has actively opposed OneWeb’s arrival, specifically citing suspicions that the network could be used for spying purposes. A Reuters report last October quoted Federal Security Service official Vladimir Sadovnikov who warned that “some of Russia’s regions would become totally dependent on a foreign satellite service.”
Initially, Russian users saw OneWeb and similar competing projects from Facebook and SpaceX as a possible remedy against the ever-tightening grip of censorship on online speech:
Пользователь сможет подключиться к сети SpaceX и выйти в Интернет, независимо от попыток цензуры со стороны правительств. К гонке присоединились OneWeb и Telesat. Общее число поданных заявок на запуск спутников – 18.470. Спутниковый терминал будет стоить около 200 баксов. https://t.co/RQtHcNCMmB
— Гурьянов Сергей (@Segozavr) February 12, 2018
Users will be able to connect to the SpaceX network and access the Internet, circumventing any government censorship attempts. OneWeb and Telesat have joined the race. Total number of applications for satellite launches: 18.470. A receiver terminal is expected to cost around 200 bucks.
The mood quickly changed after it became clear that the Russian government not only controlled the majority stake in the launch project, but expected all traffic to go through tightly monitored access points:
“Правительство России запретило использовать спутниковый интернет без наземных станций контроля” pic.twitter.com/GOZAPkSUXT
— Эйн (@einlj) 26 февраля 2019 г.
Russia’s government vetoed satellite Internet access without government access points
Alexander Plushev, a prominent tech journalist and a host at the independent Echo of Moscow radio network, summarized this disillusionment in a popular Telegram post:
Не раз встречался со странным заблуждением, что от Яровой и автономного интернета нас спасет космический интернет. Всякий OneWeb и прочее. Причем, многие почему-то еще думают, что этот интернет будет бесплатным. Нет-нет, мало того, что он будет по нашим нынешним меркам дорогим, но еще и мимо всех цензурных мер это дело не пройдет. Есть представление, что свободный спутник будет бить сигналом прямо в наш смартфон или даже ноутбук. Не будет. Система разрабатывалась не с целью обхода фильтрации и потому обходить ее не будет. На земле необходимо оборудование, ввоз которого будет жестко контролироваться, ну а теперь еще и сами операторы должны будут получить разрешение в ФСБ.
Не рассчитывайте на чудо, никакая заграница вам не поможет. Ни у каких масков и цукербергов нет благородной цели вырвать вас из плена цензуры, да еще и бесплатно. Идти к счастью придется своими ногами.
Time and again I’ve heard about this peculiar misguided notion that space Internet is our salvation from the “Yarovaya laws” and “sovereign Internet.” I’m talking about OneWeb and some such. Many are even fooled into thinking that this Internet will be free of charge. Nothing could be further from the truth: not only it’ll be quite costly by today’s standards, it will also be subject to every censorship regulation. There’s this erroneous idea of free Internet delivered straight to your smartphone or even laptop. But that’s not the way it works. The system wasn’t designed to circumvent content filtration, so don’t expect them to even attempt to. It also required equipment subject to strict importing regulations, and on top of that operators themselves will be required to obtain a license from the FSB.
Don’t count on any miracles, no foreigner will swoop in to save us. And don’t be fooled: there are no Musks or Zuckerbergs out there on a noble quest to free you from the shackles of censorship, let alone for free. We are to walk our path to happiness on our own legs.
Plushev refers to an ongoing series of restrictive laws and regulations sparked by the 2011-13 wave of popular protests against government corruption and election fraud. In response, Russian authorities passed several laws restricting freedom of assembly and controlling and prosecuting for online speech. “Yarovaya laws” is a series of amendments prescribing mass data retention, ostensibly to fight “extremism.” The “sovereign Internet” is a recent addition to the long list of restrictive bills, acts and laws which proposes a national IT infrastructure to protect Russia against a hypothetical (and highly unrealistic) country-wide internet “blackout.”
Vladimir Putin has recently announced an ambitious plan to improve the country’s IT backbone and provide cheap and reliable internet to all Russians — unless they expect to use it to vent out their frustrations.

author: RuNet Echo


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One month after Ghanaian investigative journalist’s murder, activists seek answers · Global Voices
Rosemary Ajayi

One month after Ghanaian investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela was shot dead in his car in Madina, Ghana, activists are calling for answers and insights into the circumstances of his gruesome death.
Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela [Image credit: Committee to Protect Journalists]
The group United Press for Development staged a peaceful solidarity walk in Accra in mid-February as a message to police that Divela’s killers have not yet been identified or convicted. They say that walks will continue until the group gets answers.
Divela’s killing calls attention to press freedom in Ghana where violent killings of journalists are actually rare, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Yet, Kofi Asante, the group’s organiser, says that his group recorded “31 journalists being murdered in Kumasi, some of them were killed in 2018 and the irony is Ghana has been accredited as the number one country in press freedom in Africa and 23rd in the world.”
Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela worked with Tiger Eye Private Investigations, an investigative journalism outlet led by Anas Aremeyaw Anas. Their unconventional and controversial approach to investigative journalism has exposed many high profile people across Africa.
Divela had recently contributed to investigative work that exposed Kwesi Nyantakyi, former president of Ghana’s football association, also a former member of FIFA’s General Council, accused of accepting a bribe of $65,000 USD. FIFA's adjudicatory council gave Nyantakyi a lifetime ban from all football-related activities.
Anas announced the murder of Divela in a tweet that included an attached video showing Ghanaian parliament member Kennedy Agyapong speaking live on TV in May 2018:
Sad news, but we shall not be silenced. Rest in peace, Ahmed. #JournalismIsNotACrime #SayNoToCorruption pic.twitter.com/Gk2Jdgo6Sn
— Anas Aremeyaw Anas (@anasglobal) January 17, 2019
In September 2018, Divela told the Committee to Protect Journalists via WhatsApp that some “powerful figures in Ghana sought to harm him” after an image of him was published on NET 2 TV station in May 2018 by Agyapong.
Since my image was published and [the] public was incited against me […] many people have attempted [to attack me]. These criminals after us are people who are […] associated with powers that be in Ghana and can do anything and get away with it. Indeed, it [has] been hinted in some quarters that the very man who published [my image] said he was doing everything possible to quell [my] existence.
Agyapong, a member of the ruling New Patriotic Party, has served as an MP for 19 years. In his fight against corruption, Agyapong is known for making bribery allegations against corrupt political officials — especially those within his own party.
A debate ignited over whether or not Agyapong’s remarks on live TV directed at Divela may have provoked his murder:
The boy is very dangerous. He lives here in Madina. If you meet him somewhere, break his ears. If he ever comes to this premises [sic], I'm telling you, beat him.
Agyapong justified his actions and said his comments were not meant to provoke harm and referred to a skirmish Divela allegedly once had with one of Agypong’s staff members. In another video, Agyapong suggests that Anas is actually a prime suspect in Divela’s death. He offered to pay a 100,000 Ghanaian Cedi reward (about 19,000 US dollars) for anyone who finds Divela’s killers as proof that he did not call for his murder.
Agyapong left Ghana after police questioned him — he strongly denied that he was fleeing Ghana or that he has been identified as a suspect.
Six people have been arrested and released on bail in connection with Divela’s murder. Police stated arrests were “based on reasonable suspicion.” However, their identities have not yet been released.
Tiger Eyes Investigations had been receiving death threats for several years and was accused of using unethical techniques that violate journalism ethics.
While there is no evidence to show that Agyapong had any direct connection to Divela's killing, his words do have power and were spoken on a TV station owned by him.
A CPJ report reveals that in 2018, about 53 journalists throughout the world were killed, “34 of whom were targeted for murder in reprisal for their work.” Between 2016 and 2017, 102 journalists were killed as a result of their work. Over one thousand journalists were murdered in the last decade (2006-2017) according to a report by UNESCO.
The high profile assassination of The Washington Post columnist, Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, by agents of the Saudi government drew global ire.
Awil Dihar Salad, a veteran journalist in Somalia, was killed in December 2018. Salad fled Somalia in 2005, fearing he could be targeted, but later returned and was then murdered.
Earlier in July 2018, three Russian journalists were killed in the Central African Republic while “investigating the activities of the so-called Wagner group, a group of private military contractors.”
Engaging in investigative journalism can be like signing a death warrant. Many African governments operate in opacity and they firmly resist attempts at exposure. Considering the poor remuneration of journalists, it does not make sense for most journalists take this level of risk.
Yet, Divela’s death is not forgotten and his work lives on. Journalists and activists will keep walking until there is resolve.

author: Rosemary Ajayi


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Meet the heroes helping Afghanistan’s suicide bomb victims rediscover hope · Global Voices
Ezzatullah Mehrdad

Zahra Yagana, director of Green Home, at her office in Kabul. Photo by Ezzatullah Mehrdad.
On August 15, 2018, 17-year-old Shukria was studying to pass university entrance exams in Afghanistan's capital Kabul when a suicide bomber struck, killing at least 34 of her peers.
Shukria was among scores injured in the attack and doctors gave her only a five percent chance of walking again.
But a month later, a network of volunteers raised enough money to send the high school student to India in order to receive care. Following subsequent recuperation in Kabul and further treatment in Iran, her chances of regaining the ability to walk have increased to 95 percent, according to Zahra Yagana.
Yagana, a single mother of two teenagers, was among those leading the fundraising effort, and also paid an early visit to Shukhria when she was first hospitalized.
“I was doing the job a doctor in a public hospital (should do),” says Yagana.
“Everyone there was telling Shukria that she would not able to walk, but I was telling her that she had to walk.”
Yagana, who directs the Green Home NGO, was no stranger to volunteer work by that point.
In 2017 she started a Facebook Campaign called ‘Sympathy Campaign’ to raise funds for the treatment of a civilian who was wounded when armed men opened fire on a car he was traveling in. The campaign attracted national attention after President Ashraf Ghani donated money to it.
Afghanistan's ISIS offshoot later claimed responsibility for the attack.
Yagana says she started the campaign to “teach people to help each other” because “any one of us can be the next victim of this war.”
After four decades of almost non-stop conflict and amid a militant insurgency strengthened by U.S. troop withdrawals, that statement seems impossible to contradict.
A recent report by the U.N. contended that there were 3,804 civilian deaths and 7,189 civilian injuries due to conflict in Afghanistan last year, a figure higher than any other since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
The figure also includes a record number of children.
State support for sufferers of gun and bomb attacks, as well as the loved ones they leave behind, is close to non-existent, making grassroots activism all the more important.
Sayed Naqibullah, the father of an Afghan traffic policeman who was killed by a suicide bombing, poses for a photo in his hometown Parwan. Photo by Ezzatullah Mehrdad.
The man that Yagana raised money for on that occasion eventually died after receiving treatment, and Yagana accompanied his corpse to his home province of Daikundi where he had left behind a wife and seven children, including a nine-year-old son.
The boy watched the funeral of his father in a daze.
“My father had promised me of a bicycle if I scored well at school,” the boy told Yagana, in tears.
Months later Yagana kept the boy's father's promise, after he performed well in school tests, and saved the raised money to pay for the educational costs of the man's other children, the oldest of whom is now at university in Kabul.
“All I want is to leave a legacy,” says Yagana, who was married off to a narcotics addict at the age of 13 and gave birth to her first child at 14 while living as a refugee in Iran.
“Someone drinks to feel inner peace. Another reads a book. I help others to reach that same peace.”
Green Home is one of several Afghan support groups focused on helping victims of the conflict.
While this patchwork of grassroots structures is far from sufficient relative to the scale of the challenge they face, it has already fostered concrete improvements in dozens of lives.
Asif Yousufi, an entrepreneur and photojournalist, offers support to victims in his spare time along with his collective of dedicated volunteers.
“We are often the first group that arrives on the scene of suicide attacks,” says Yousufi. “It leaves its emotional trauma on you.”
Yousufi regularly visits hospitals to collect information about bombing victims for an Australian-based foundation dedicated to their support called the Baba Mazari Foundation.
“I can’t stop myself,” he says. “It’s a habit to go and help people.”
The response of victims is a key source of encouragement to continue, he adds. “They tell us: ‘Humanity exists, there is someone who cares about us.'”
Asif Yousufi, an Afghan entrepreneur and photojournalist, sits next to a wounded man. Photo used with permission.
Social media has become a vital tool for local fundraisers, and support from existing social influencers can make a big difference to campaigns.
“It’s great to see that out of a population of 30 million, at least 10,000 people are ready to help,” says Ahmad Roman Abasy, in reference to a campaign he ran last year to help a drug-addicted single mother in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Abasy is a former national Taekwondo champion, who retired in 2017 due to an injury. Nowadays he is a champion of the grieving and wounded, and has harnessed his popularity as a sportsman to become a highly effective crowd-funder.
The change in lifestyle has helped him to see his fellow citizens with new eyes.
“People have become more kind and helpful,” he told Global Voices.
Abasy's most notable campaign saw him raise funds to support the family of a fallen Afghan soldier who was executed by the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Farah province  in May 2018.
Thanks in part to Abasy's promotion, the soldier became a viral social media icon. The crowdfunding campaign had raised $3,000 before the month was out.
“I thought: I can really help people through Facebook,” says Abasy. “The more I get immersed, the more people in need I see.”
Ahmad Roman Abasy, Taekwondo champion turned viral fundraiser. Photo widely shared on social media.
Despite challenges with internet access outside Kabul, the effects of such activism can extend well beyond the Afghan capital.
When Sayed Naqibullah, a farmer in Parwan province, learned his recently-married traffic policeman son Gharibullah was killed in a suicide attack in Kabul on November 12, 2018, his world fell in.
During the funeral on the same day, the mourning father's phone rang. It was Abasy, calling to ask his permission to raise funds on his behalf. Naqibullah's family now receives 7,000 Afghani (USD 100) every month from an anonymous donor.

author: Ezzatullah Mehrdad


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Photojournalist Mahmoud ‘Shawkan’ Abu Zeid walks free, after more than five years in prison · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Shawkan was arrested in August 2013 while he was covering a sit-in opposing the removal of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi. Photo shared by the Freedom for Shawkan campaign on Facebook.
After more than five years in jail, Mahmoud Abu Zeid, also know as Shawkan, was released from prison in Egypt on March 4.
The Freedom for Shawkan campaign announced the journalist's release in the early hours of Monday by posting a photo of the journalist with his father and brother.
يا أهلا بالأسفلت … ❤#Shawkan_Is_Free#شوكان_عالاسفلت pic.twitter.com/bZot9HBO7o
— Mahmoud Abou Zeid (@ShawkanZeid) March 4, 2019
Shawkan was detained on August 14, 2013 as he was photographing the Rabaa El Adaweya sit-in, in which supporters of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi gathered to protest a military coup that ended his presidency on July 3 that same year. Egyptian security forces killed at least 817 people and injured many more, according to Human Rights Watch, when they dispersed the sit-in.
Shawkan, who was working for Demotix at the time of his arrest, spent almost four years in pre-trial detention before his sentencing. This was in violation of Egyptian law, which sets the maximum limit to two years. He was tried along with 739 other defendants in what came to be known as the “Rabaa Dispersal Case”.
On Septembr 8, 2018 a Cairo Criminal Court convicted him on spurious charges of murder and affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, now designated as a terrorist group by the Egyptian government.
During the same trial, 75 prominent members and affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood were sentenced to death, and 47 other defendants were sentenced to life in prison.
Despite having spent five years in jail, Egyptian authorities kept Shawkan in prison without official explanation. In November 2018, Egyptian media outlet Mada Masr found that Shawkan and 214 others were made to stay in prison for an additional six months, because prosecutors deemed them incapable of paying for damages incurred during the sit-in and its dispersal.
Despite his release, Shawkan will remain under “police observation” for an additional five years, which means he will have to report to a police station every day at sunset. He will be made to spend the night at the police station, until there is a court order to decrease what they call “precautionary measures.”
Press freedom remains under siege in Egypt, where authorities continue to arrest, prosecute and harass independent media workers. On January 29, authorities at Cairo International airport detained journalist and human rights researcher Ahmed Gamal Ziada upon his arrival from Tunisia, where he is studying journalism. Following his detention, Ziada was disappeared for two weeks, until he was charged with spreading false news on social media on February 13. On March 2, he was granted release on bail, pending investigation.
On February 19, security officials at the same airport detained New York Times correspondent David D. Kirkpatrick upon his arrival. Kirkpatrick had his phone confiscated and was held for seven hours without food or water, the New York Times said. He was then expelled back to London without an explanation.

author: Afef Abrougui


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Uproar in Australia as lid lifted on Cardinal Pell’s child sexual abuse convictions · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne – Wikimedia Commons: courtesy Donaldytong (CC BY-SA 3.0)
One name dominated Australian media in the last week of February 2019: Pell. This followed the lifting of a court suppression order about Cardinal George Pell’s conviction on five child sex offences and a pre-sentencing court hearing. The offences took place at Melbourne's St Patrick's cathedral in the late 1990s. He was sent to prison at the plea hearing.
Many Australians have been taking sides. Opinions seem to have fallen into three categories: those condemning Pell, those asserting his innocence, and those awaiting the result of the appeal process. As crime journalist John Silvester explained:
George Pell is a polarising figure, which is perhaps why there are now two warring camps – those who want him to be guilty of historical sex offences against two choirboys and those who don’t.
One commenter on a Reddit thread for the journalist's article suggested that Silvester may be in the pro-Pell group:
Given the number of times we've seen investigations buried by the Catholic faithful, I'd also appreciate knowing if the author of such a problematic article is a Catholic himself.
A number of prominent people have leapt to the cardinal’s defence, including two former Liberal Party Prime Ministers. John Howard gave a reference supporting Pell to the court hearing, writing “None of these matters alter my opinion of the Cardinal”. Overall the social media response was strident in its condemnation of the controversial former PM. This sarcastic tweet by Adam Gartrell, who works for the Labor Party opposition, echoed many others:
Oh he’s a “lively conversationalist”? Why didn’t you say so sooner, because that definitely cancels out the child rape. https://t.co/7ShUS7oYru
— Adam Gartrell (@adamgartrell) February 27, 2019
Another former Liberal PM, Tony Abbott, revealed that he had phoned his friend Pell the day the verdict was made public. Many cartoonists were not so forgiving:
Howard and Abbott happily support child rapist Pell:- pic.twitter.com/SKtBacjdHt
— Greg Turner (@greg_207) March 1, 2019
There have been numerous attacks on the so-called #PellDefenders, often suggesting they have a common cause. Wendy Bacon, a journalist, activist and former academic, used Facebook to share her thoughts about those who are sticking up for him.
I am quite disgusted by the way the right-wing Catholic lobby are mobilising to defend a now convicted pedophile.
[…] I also wonder how many of the defenders are allies in causes like anti-abortion, anti-equal marriage and equal sexual rights – also I wonder how many are connected to Opus Dei in Australia, one of the groups that Pell helped prosper.
Opus Dei [Work of God] is a controversial, conservative Catholic organisation with which Pell has had links.
One survivor of sexual abuse was even stronger in her condemnation of the cardinal's supporters:
Almost immediately, the parade of aggrieved, disappointed, distressed, shocked, disbelieving, sad, angry Catholics and other Pell supporters began moving like a sullen, offended beast across the media, in unedifying protest at the guilty verdict.
High profile newspaper, radio and television commentator Andrew Bolt took a leading role in attacking the jury's verdict:
But at last some of the truckload of mud thrown at him has stuck. It adds up to this: Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic, has been made to pay for the sins of his church and a media campaign of vilification.
He is a scapegoat, not a child abuser.
Bolt copped considerable flak on social and other media. Sky News TV station even chose to run his Bolt Report segment on the cardinal without advertisements “to protect brands”.
Sleeping Giants Oz, campaigners ‘to make racism, bigotry and misogyny less profitable’, urged a boycott:
Thank you Sleeping Giants ? for shining the light & encouraging companies to think about who they are advertising with.
Bolt was arrogant, but most people can agree his latests comments should be career ending.
No one should want to advertise or be on the Bolt report.
— Clare D ? ( ?? is a Kakistocracy ) ?? (@Absurd_Penguin) February 28, 2019
A number of longer reflections on the conviction and its aftermath soon appeared online. Patrick Marlborough remembered a victim of abuse by clergy:
Cardinal Pell has been convicted and everyone I want to call is dead.
Elation slid into rage. That instant of ‘we got him’ flashed and passed and made way for instants of ‘you bastards, you absolute bastards’ with electric ease.
Here was a man so cloaked in authority, sanctity, and righteousness for so long by so many that his abuses of power—his abuses of children—went unchecked, unmarked, and unmasked for half a century.
In total contrast, George Weigel, senior fellow of the Institute on Religion and Public Life in Washington D.C. and friend of Pell’s, is outraged by the ‘perverse verdict’:
If it is not reversed on appeal, that false verdict will constitute a new indictment: the indictment of a legal system that could not bring itself to render justice in the face of public hysteria, political vendetta, and media aggression.
In a disturbing indictment, Caitlin Johnston recounted the tragic life of her uncle (a rape victim whose case was allegedly covered up by Pell and those in power) in The Monster Pell Has Been Caged At Last:
The Catholic Church murdered my uncle, as surely as if they had tied the noose themselves. It was a long, drawn-out treacherous act and it took forty years to complete, but they did it. They snuffed out that beautiful spirit.
And all I can think about the Church right now is, “Burn it down.”
A meme that runs through many of the reactions online concerns atheists who want Pell to burn in hell. Senior Victorian trade union official Luke Hilakari's Facebook post shared similar sentiments:
I have no faith in the Catholic Church.
And frankly I’m glad that so many of these perpetrators like George Pell believe in hell, because suffering for eternity seems about right to me.
Just when the stoush [brawl] seemed to be dying down a bit, senior defence counsel Robert Richter QC fanned the furore. In an extraordinary claim at the sentencing plea hearing, Richter referred to the case as “plain vanilla sexual penetration”. He apologised the next day but:
To little, to late. The damage is done! ?'Terrible choice of phrase': Robert Richter apologises for ‘plain vanilla’ comment https://t.co/bFXfNrdf9A
— Rhonda Forbes (@RhondaForbes) February 28, 2019
A seemingly trivial question on Twitter about what to call the prisoner brought a strong response. The thread, which can be accessed by clicking on the tweet, revealed the depth of feeling in the dozens of replies:
Can journos stop referring to Pell as “Cardinal” Pell. It’s long-standing accepted practise that convicted criminals are referred to by surname only, without honorific. I don’t see why this child abuser should get any special treatment.
— Brian Mitchell MP (@BrianMitchellMP) February 28, 2019
Meanwhile, the Vatican has opened its own investigation into the charges against Pell. This may lead to his being defrocked [dismissed from the priesthood].
Finally, a word from a journalist who attended the trial, Emma Younger:
The analysis of George Pell’s conviction from so many who weren’t in the courtroom is interesting.
The victim’s evidence was given in closed court. It means only the 12 jurors heard the full case.
Personally, I think this one is best left to the Court of Appeal.
— Emma Younger (@em_younger) February 27, 2019
Doubtless, the appeal decision will generate as much heat as the guilty verdict.
Some earlier posts:
In Cardinal George Pell's sexual abuse trial, Australian court fails to suppress the ‘nation's worst kept secret’
Senior Vatican Cardinal George Pell to stand trial on sexual offence charges in Australia
Cardinal George Pell, Vatican's Third Highest-Ranking Official, Charged With Sexual Assault Offences in Australia

author: Kevin Rennie


text:
Burundian troop withdrawal from Somalia leads to another diplomatic standoff · Global Voices
Liam Anderson

Burundian African Union troops arrive at Mogadishu Airport, Somalia, December 9, 2011. AMISOM Public Information via Flickr / Creative Commons.
Since 2007, AMISOM, the African Union (AU) mission in Somalia, has been tasked with combating Al-Shabaab, an extremist Islamist militant group with ties to Al-Qaeda. Many hundreds of soldiers have died among troops totaling 21,500 from several different countries, with Burundi having the second largest troops after Uganda.
In December 2018, the AU's Peace and Security Council decided to withdraw 1,000 of their 5,400 Burundian soldiers from Somalia by late February 2019, as part of the progressive reduction of AMISOM military decided by the United Nations Security Council in July 2018. UN resolution 2431 extended AMISOM’s mandate but determined to reduce troop numbers and eventually hand over the conflict to Somali forces by December 2021.
Burundian President Nkurunziza objected to the withdrawal while officials called it dangerous for regional security and protested to the AU. Burundi parliamentarians particularly objected to only Burundian troop reductions and none from other countries. They suggested the threat of withdrawing all their troops if the AU didn't reconsider the decision. Parliamentarians even spoke of plots and attempt to “destabilize” Burundi.
Burundi’s government had proposed to share the troop withdrawal with other states, as in a previous troop reduction in December 2017.
L'Amb. Basile Ikouébé,Représentant de l’@_AfricanUnion au Burundi a été convoqué au MAE.L'Assistant du Ministre Amb. Bernard NTAHIRAJA @BNtahiraja lui a réiteré un message déjà communiqué à l’Union Africaine,en rapport avec les préoccupations du Gouv't du Burundi.1/ @EzechielNib pic.twitter.com/AusnOYSCuU
— Ministère des Affaires Étrangères du Burundi (@MAEBurundi) 25 février 2019
“Ambassador Basile Ikouébé, Representantive of @_AfricanUnion in Burundi was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Assistant to the Minister Ambassador Bernard NTAHIRAJA @BNtahiraja reiterated to him a message already communicated to the African Union regarding the Burundian government’s concerns
During the Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed's visit to Burundi in mid-February, both presidents called for a summit in a joint communique to review the issue. Nevertheless, on February 21 and 23, 400 Burundian soldiers returned home, although the Burundian government refused to proceed with withdrawing the remaining 600, originally planned to be completed by February 26.
On February 28, Burundi’s government eventually relented, lacking support or leverage on the issue, and that the remaining soldiers would return in early March, according to high-level anonymous sources of AFP, cited by TV5Monde.
#Burundi #AMISOM Le 28 Février 2019 est la date butoir à @Amisom pour avoir rapatrié 1000 des militaires burundais en mission de maintien de la paix en Somalie. Selon des sources en Somalie, 600 troupes qui restent rentrent dès le début de Mars prochain sans plus de précisions pic.twitter.com/kHUTjhH0z3
— Isanganiro (@RadioIsanganiro) 28 février 2019
28 February is the deadline of AMISOM to have repatriated 1000 Burundian troops on a peacekeeping mission in Somalia. According to sources in Somalia, 600 remaining troops will return from the beginning of March, without further details
Burundi's ongoing political and economic crisis has led to serious budget shortfalls related to sanctions, exacerbated poverty, trade disruption and large refugee movements. Last year, the UN Security Council expressed concern for the humanitarian situation — citing 3.6 million people in need of assistance in Burundi.
Funding from international peacekeeping missions is, therefore, a significant source of foreign currency for the embattled government. Jeune Afrique reported the AU transfers 16 million euros every 3 months to Burundi’s Central Bank.
The EU – a major funder of AMISOM – tried in 2017 to avoid passing the funds for soldiers’ salaries and equipment directly via the government, which takes a percentage ostensibly for equipment and other expenditure. This led to a standoff until an agreement was reached, although RFI reported soldiers accusing the government of appropriation.
Observers such as anti-corruption campaigner Gabriel Rufyiri see a connection between the request for Burundi to reduce its troops and its ongoing tensions with the EU, and discontent from East African Community (EAC) and AU politicians, particularly Uganda, over the failure of mediated dialogue.
This dialogue intended to resolve the grinding political crisis surrounding Nkurunziza’s controversial third term in 2015, and subsequent constitutional changes. Burundi’s government intransigence is seen as heavily responsible — along with weak international engagement — for the dialogue struggling to get started. Burundi did not even attend the last round in late 2018.
Since 2015, many organizations, including the UN Commission of Inquiry, Human Rights Watch, or APRODH,  documented systematic rights abuses — especially against the opposition — clampdowns on media and nongovernmental groups and clashes with rebel groups. Officials reject reports as manipulated.
In response, the EU and other international partners implemented sanctions and cut direct aid to the government — which it heavily relied on — seeking to redirect it to NGOs on the ground. These organizations have found themselves under increased government control and pressure. In particular, new rules in late 2018 on financing and ethnic quotas prompted some, like Handicap International, to leave the country.
The troops’ return raises serious questions about security both in Somalia and in Burundi.
First, a troop reduction may spark potential problems for Burundi's military. Dangerous peacekeeping missions are better paid and more attractive as opportunities for soldiers. Many could be discontented with losing the AMISOM prospect, which could aggravate politicized divisions within the army originating in Burundi's civil war.
Second, critics point to an apparent contradiction in Burundi's government sending troops to improve foreign citizens’ safety while the human rights situation at home has deteriorated, with arbitrary arrests, torture and killings. Burundian blogger Apollinaire Nkurunziza reported that on the ground in Somalia, however, locals have shown appreciation for Burundian troops.
Controversy occurred, however, over AMISOM soldiers accused of killing civilians.
Third, while AMISOM’s eventual aim is to withdraw and hand over to Somali forces, there are concerns over capacity and future stability, including some from Somali officials. Al-Shabaab still controls territory and can launch deadly attacks, including outside Somalia, notably Kenya.
This episode seems to reflect ongoing tensions with EU and EAC governments over Burundi’s crisis. Regional governments are not united either, and the government has repeatedly faced off with the EU, AU, and International Criminal Court, among others, over rights abuses and dialogue with opponents. The CNARED Burundian opposition coalition in exile has also suffered further divisions.
More standoffs could occur, then, as the political-economic crisis continues – with hundreds of thousands still in underfunded refugee camps and proxy conflicts in eastern DRC – and new elections in 2020 are fast approaching.

author: Liam Anderson


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Carnival in Brazil looked extra orange this year as people protested ‘Bolsogate’ scandal · Global Voices
Isadora Varejão

Carnaval fan Tassiany Pereira shows her orange costume at this year's festivities. Photo: @tassianypereira/Instagram, used with permission.
It has nothing to do with fashion trends or a Carmen-Miranda-like pride: Brazilians who paraded on the streets of several major cities this Carnaval season wore orange costumes to send a message to President Jair Bolsonaro.
In Brazil, the Portuguese word for orange, “laranja,” is also slang for intermediaries of fraudulent financial schemes.
Two schemes involving Brazil's president or his family — the kind of old, corrupt plot he promised to fight if elected — allegedly made use of “laranjas.”
In December 2018, Rio de Janeiro state prosecutors opened a probe against Fabricio Queiroz, a retired police officer and longtime friend of the Bolsonaro family who received suspicious cash payments in 2016 and 2017 while he worked as an aide to the president's son Flavio Bolsonaro, at that time State Deputy for Rio de Janeiro (now senator for the same state). The Brazilian internet later dubbed this the ‘Bolsogate’ scandal.
And in February, newspaper Folha de S. Paulo revealed that the president's party allegedly diverted public campaign funds to candidates that never ran for office during the 2018 elections. Amid the scandal, President Bolsonaro fired one of his key allies, former Secretary General of the President's Office Gustavo Bebbiano.
Laranjou todinha #PSL ???? #laranjaldojair #laranjaldopsl #psl #candidatalaranja #bolsonaro #queiroz #énóisqueiroz #carnavalrj #carnaval2019
A post shared by  Thaísa Violante (@tataviolante) on
I'm all orange #PSL
???? #jairsorangeorchard #pslorangeorchard #orangecandidate #bolsonaro #queiroz #thisisusqueiroz #carnavalrj #carnaval2019
In December 2018, the Council for Financial Activities Control (COAF), a federal regulatory agency, disclosed that 1,2 million Brazilian reais — over 300,000 US dollars — had flowed through Queiroz’s bank account while he worked as a driver and aide to State Deputy Flavio Bolsonaro. Eight employees of Flavio's cabinet made payments to bank accounts belonging to Queiroz, who withdrew part of the money himself and made one payment — of around 6,700 US dollars — to the now first lady Michelle Bolsonaro‘s personal account.
The destination of most of the money is still unclear. Living in a simple house in the suburbs of Rio, Queiroz doesn’t seem to have benefited from the sum, therefore the “orange” suggestion.
Meanwhile, 48 cash deposits of 2,000 reais (around 500 US dollars) were made anonymously to Flavio Bolsonaro's bank account in 2017, all from an ATM located inside Rio de Janeiro State Legislative Assembly. Financial institutions are less likely to flag smaller amounts, but the series of deposits, made within a few minutes of one another, led investigators to suspect fraud. Flavio claimed the payment referred to the sale of an apartment to a friend.
Carnavalesca #dia2 #B17 #laranja #queiroz #motorista #17 #deusacimadetodos #psl #carnaval #carnaval2019
A post shared by  Valesca Zimmermann (@vdevalesca) on
On her hat, the phrase: Our flag will never be orange. “Our flag will never be red” is a common motto by right-wing conservatives in Brazil.
Queiroz’s daughter Nathália, one of his four relatives employed by Jair Bolsonaro himself when he was still a congressman, is also under investigation. According to The Intercept Brasil, she never set foot in Bolsonaro’s office in the 22 months while she was on the cabinet's payroll (between 2016 and 2018). Not even as a visitor.
She is suspected of having been a “ghost employee,” someone who is on the payroll but doesn’t actually do the work for which they were hired. If confirmed, Nathália wouldn’t be the first “ghost employee” linked to Jair Bolsonaro. Last year, newspaper Folha de São Paulo broke the news on how another staff member was selling açaí bowls during her office hours more than a thousand kilometers away from the capital Brasilia.
Investigators have been summoning Queiroz to explain himself since December. He only did so only in late February, and in writing: in a letter to prosecutors, he said he merely attempted to “expand” the number of employees who worked for Flavio Bolsonaro, and without the Senator's knowledge. Queiroz went missing for a few weeks and later came forth saying he had been hospitalized for cancer treatment. In a TV interview, however, he didn't remember the name of his doctor or the hospital where he stayed.
Dia 02 ???? Orange is the New Brasil "Oh Pátria Amada, Alaranjada, Salve Salve!!!" . . . . #laranja #orange #patriaalaranjada #repúblicadelaranjas #queiroz #cadêoqueiroz #motoristalaranja #laranjal #laranjaldopsl #PSL #PartidoSucodeLaranja #Bolsonaro #fantasia #fantasiadecarnaval #plaquinhasdecarnaval #inspiração #inspiracaocarnaval #fantasiadecasal #carnaval #carnaval2019 #blocodecarnaval #carnavalderua #blocoderua #olinda #pernambuco #ladeirasdeolinda #frevo
A post shared by  Valdenor Júnior (@valdenorjunior) on
In January 2019, newspaper O Globo revealed that Flavio hired relatives of a retired police captain who is a suspect in the murder of councilwoman Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes.
Folha de São Paulo revealed the second orange story in February. According to Brazil's electoral law, all political parties must set aside 30 percent of its funds to female candidates as a means to increase female participation in legislative seats.
People from Bolsonaro's party PSL (which stands for Liberal Social Party) are suspected to have used female candidates as a façade to pocket the money to themselves. Two of Bolsonaro's ministers allegedly knew about the scheme, and one of them was fired amid the scandal.
Meanwhile, the president himself doesn't seem very pleased with the protests and orange puns taking the streets. On Tuesday, March, 5, he tweeted:
Tão importante quanto a economia é o resgate de nossa cultura, que foi destruída após décadas de governos com viés socialista. Buscaremos o país da ordem e do progresso. Bom dia a todos!
— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) March 5, 2019
Just as important as the economy is the rescue of our culture, which has been destroyed after decades of governments with a socialist bias. We will pursue the country of order and progress. Good morning everyone!

author: Isadora Varejão


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How sports groups rallied for the release of a Bahraini footballer detained in Thailand · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Football player Hakeem al-Araibi (right) is back in Australia after more than two months in detention in Thailand. Photo from al-Araibi's Instagram account.
After 76 days in detention, Bahraini refugee Hakeem al-Araibi was released by Thai authorities on 11 February 2019. Global sports bodies and football players were among those who actively campaigned for his freedom.
Al-Araibi was a member of Bahrain's national football team, until he publicly criticized the violent crackdown against protesters (athletes among them) in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab uprisings. He was arrested and tortured for speaking out against abuse. He fled the country in 2014 and sought asylum in Australia, where he ultimately was given refugee status. He has since played for several football teams in Melbourne.
Al-Araibi and his wife traveled to Thailand for their honeymoon vacation last November. When they checked in for their return flight to Australia, al-Araibu was arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport by Interpol officers who were acting on an extradition request from Bahrain.
The extradition request stemmed from a second case against al-Araibi, who was convicted in absentia on charges of vandalizing a police station. He disputes this and says that his public critiques of football officials and members of the royal family is the reason behind his prosecution.
News about his arrest led several football groups in Australia to call for his freedom. Al-Araibi’s team, the Pascoe Vale Football Club in Melbourne, urged Thai authorities to allow their teammate to go back to Australia:
Pascoe Vale FC is proud of the work that we have done working to help protect refugees from around the world, and we participate in networks dedicated to that cause. We are also proud to call Hakeem al-Araibi our friend and teammate.
Albion Thunder (a team made up of @ASRC1 members) and St Albans Gospic supporting #SaveHakeeem after a pre season friendly yesterday at @HoppersSC @thepfa @Craig_Foster @pvfc_official pic.twitter.com/TkAYkGgYOb
— Community Soccer Hub (@soccerhubvic) February 10, 2019
Craig Foster, a former captain of the Australian Socceroos team, campaigned online and offline to secure Al-Araibi’s freedom. In an opinion piece for The Guardian, he wrote that “it was a fight for the soul of sport.” He added:
We think that this campaign showed what sport can be, and our job as former players or athletes is to ensure that all sport becomes the vanguard for human rights.
But Foster also revealed how Australia's treatment of refugees affected the campaign for Al-Araibi's freedom. He explained this in an opinion piece for The Sydney Morning Herald:
I have waited until after Hakeem was safely home [from Thailand] to explain that one of the reasons it was so difficult to garner international support was because of our own treatment of refugees. This was a constant theme throughout discussions with international stakeholders.
Supporters in Australia and beyond mobilized efforts online and off. Several weeks later, Bahrain dropped its extradition request and al-Araibi was released and allowed to return to Australia.
Sports bodies such as FIFA (football’s governing body), the International Olympic Committee, Football Federation Australia, Professional Footballers Australia, and World Players Association issued statements on Al-Araibi's behalf. Even the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) called for Al-Araibi’s freedom, although some criticized its initial inaction on the issue. AFC is headed by Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, a member of Bahrain's ruling family.
Powerful show of support from Malaysian football fans from Terengganu for #SaveHakeem campaign. Salute!
? : @FCTerengganu Media pic.twitter.com/ozjIIladuL
— PFA Malaysia (@pfamalaysia) February 10, 2019
The success of the campaign also underscores the potential of sports in advancing human rights advocacy. Brian Dooley, an advisory board member of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, was inspired by the global solidarity for Al-Araibi:
This is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a world football community acting together – local clubs and big stars connecting and pushing to have a footballer saved from being sent to a repressive dictatorship.
The last few months showed us that there is some sense of an international football community that isn’t controlled by billionaires, that it’s a massive force, and that it can be galvanised to fight and win against powerful interests.
I’ve learned so many valuable lessons these past weeks when it comes to how strategic communications can make a difference to people in need. Football can indeed be a unifying force and (those who administer it) very influential at all levels, when it wants to be. #SaveHakeem
— Andrew Orsatti (@AndrewOrsatti) February 11, 2019
Emma Race, an Our Watch Fellowship recipient and member of the Outer Sanctum podcast, appreciated the political significance of the #SaveHakeem campaign:
This effort has relied on sport exercising its political muscle to achieve the outcome. It has done so with none of the usual criticism that sport should not be political.
Aya Majzoub, the Lebanon and Bahrain researcher of Human Rights Watch, wrote about how “global sports groups can make use of their human rights policies to have a real influence on human rights.” She reminded other sports teams about their role in upholding human rights:
Other sports organizations – including Formula One, whose races begin in Bahrain on March 28 – should strengthen their internal human rights policies. They should make it clear to Bahrain that they will not stay silent when sports are used as an arena for human rights abuses.
This is particularly relevant for Bahrain, which Amnesty International's Allan Hogarth once accused of “harnessing …the glamour and prestige of sport [to] deflect attention from the arrests of peaceful critics, reports of tortured detainees, unfair trials and death sentences.”
In an opinion piece for The Guardian, reflecting on his experience as an athlete who criticized torture and abuse, Al-Araibi discussed the link between sports and politics:
Evidently, it is a myth that sports and politics do not mix. Authoritarian states use sports to raise their profile, like the World Cup, or Formula One races. But when athletes and individuals call attention to this practice they are imprisoned and forcibly silenced.
Al-Araibi returned again to see a homecoming game at the Pascoe Vale FC on 22 February.

author: Mong Palatino


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The French Yellow Vests movement seen through global lenses · Global Voices
Marie Bohner

The Yellow Vests movement in Canada. Photo by Nevin Thompson, used with permission.
This article has been made possible thanks to contributions from the following Global Voices authors and translators: Vishal Manve, Suzanne Lehn, Omo Yooba, Filip Noubel, Pernille Bærendtsen, Georgia Popplewell, Nevin Thompson, Juke Carolina Bransiecq, and Elena Dontsova.
The Yellow Vests protest movement that has been rocking France since October 2018 is showing no signs it will end any time soon. Initially triggered by the French government's proposal to increase fuel prices, the movement has turned into protests against inequality and globalization, mixed with simmering racial undertones.
In the comment section of an interview contrasting two points of view about the Yellow Vests movement in France, a Global Voices reader wanted to know how the world perceives the Yellow Vests movement. In order to answer this question, GV authors collected feedback from India, Nigeria, Russia, Serbia, Haiti, Denmark, Canada, and Indonesia. This overview is not comprehensive and doesn't claim to be so. The aim is rather to offer a transversal perspective on a complex social movement, which tends to be perceived differently in various countries around the world.
Writing for Indian newspaper The Hindu, Dr. Emile Chabal, Director of the Centre for the Study of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Edinburgh, analyses the complex love-hate relationship between France's people and their government, which can help understand what brings the movement together.
Despite their ire, the gilets jaunes also demand redress from the very same state they abhor. They want the French government to lower fuel taxes, reinstate rural post offices, increase their ‘purchasing power’, cut property taxes, and hire more doctors for rural clinics. They firmly believe that the state can and should fix their problems. The fact that many of the issues at the heart of the protests relate to deep structural imbalances in the French economy makes no difference. The state is held as sole responsible and sole guarantor.
Initially published in The New Republic by Karina Piser, a Paris-based journalist, an article in the Indian Strategic Studies blog condemns the so-called extreme right-wing tendency of the movement usually depicted by mainstream media. Although it agrees with the Indian Defence Review that “the Movement is leaderless, horizontal, without any structure and completely directionless”, Karina Piser's piece ends on a note of hope: she believes that the movement could tilt the balance in favor of a collective, united action against capitalism governance principles:
People are always searching for ways to explain why they suffer,” [Édouard Louis, a prolific and internationally known young French author] told me. “Do they suffer because of migrants, because of minorities? Or do they suffer because of capitalism, because of the violence of our governments, because of the violence of Macron?” For some of the banlieue activists, at least, these Yellow Vests protests offer hope that, finally, right-leaning rural voters will decide that it’s the latter.
A rather surprising approach on the French Yellow Vests movement comes from Prof. Dr. Shyama V. Ramani, Professorial fellow at the United Nations University, who makes a bold comparison between this movement and the Gaja cyclone in India, a severe cyclonic storm that killed 45 people on 11 November. She describes both events as unpredictable shocks to society, requiring complex solution designs.
Yellow Vest graffiti in Belgrade, Serbia, December 2018. Photo by Pernille Bærendtsen, used with permission
One thing the protests in France and Nigeria had in common was the lack of a clear leadership. Both started off as social media angst that spewed onto the streets. In Nigeria, labour leaders saw an opening in the headless mass of angry Nigerians, and entered negotiations with the government on behalf of everyone else. They reached an agreement in the night, in the dark, and by morning when they called off the protests, it wasn’t clear what exactly they had agreed to. The feeling of being sold out lingered with the protesters who trudged home to retire their placards and bury the dead. In France, they went on longer.
I remember thinking how peaceful [the protesters] were, other than the nuisance of impeding movement, how they chanted slogans at passing cars. A lady on a roller skate zipped alongside cars, her yellow vest a blur, smiling but chanting anti-Macron slogans.
“Don’t be scared,” my friend said. “They are mostly peaceful.”
“I am from Nigeria,” I said. “We don’t protest like this.”
In Canada, the Yellow Vests movement has resonated well — A Facebook group in Canada counts more than 110,000 members. A convoy of more than 150 cars is currently driving from Alberta to Ottawa to stand for oil pipelines, and, according to some media voices, white pride. Jesse Brown, a publisher in Toronto, insists on the anti-immigrant focus of the movement, denouncing a news report by CBC (Canada's public broadcaster) on Twitter:
This @CBCTheNational report on #YellowVestCanada isn't just late, it's wrong. It describes a legitimate movement about jobs, with “others” focused on immigration. Fact is that anti-immigrant sentiment (w death threats) IS what CDN Yellow Vests are about. https://t.co/3hkNcj6xun
— Jesse Brown (@JesseBrown) 14 février 2019
This aspect of the movement is widely documented by David Crosbie in an article analyzing the posts made on the primary Canadian Yellow Vests Facebook group. He also mentions how this tendency of the movement makes it different from the original French one:
While the Canadian Yellow Vests have some grievances in common with their French forebears, chiefly concerning economic disparity and unemployment, their message has been decidedly more hateful from the beginning.
Speaking to CTV News, French Ambassador in Canada Isabelle Hudon underlines the differences between the movements:
Isabelle Hudon says the movement in Canada appears to have been appropriated by far-right extremists espousing racist, anti-immigrant views and even indulging in death threats against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. […] While violent individuals have been involved in the French protests, some of which have devolved into riots, Hudon says she's never seen the protests there linked to race or immigration.
This last sentence has to be nuanced, considering, for example, recent anti-Semitic insults made by some of the Yellow Vests protesters in France. As in France, social networks serve as arenas for the movements. Simon Little writes on Global News about the “torrent of threats and abuses” faced by B.C. Radio after host Brett Mineer tweeted his criticism about the Canadian Yellow Vests movement, particularly “racist elements and conspiracy theories”, following a visit by Justin Trudeau in Kamloops.
Having the Prime Minister come to town and seeing just what gross, terrible human beings are out among us with their delusional conspiracy theories, racism, disrespect and total inability to engage in good faith conversation makes me want to get off this planet ASAP. #Kamloops
— Brett Mineer (@MineerBrett) 10 janvier 2019
Interviewing David Tindall, a UBC sociologist with a focus on social media and social movements about these online threats and abuses, Simon Little writes that:
The online environment has also allowed people with extreme views who might once have been isolated to come together and feed off each other’s energy. […] He said he’s seen evidence of increasing polarization in Canada, something he attributes to the breakdown of rules about what’s acceptable south of the border in the Trump era.
Elena Dontsova, author at Global Voices and living in Russia, shares some insights about the perception of the French Yellow Vests movement there:
Federal media displayed a disaster, a nearly emergency situation in France. The President of Russia, in a meeting of the local Human Rights Council, commented, regarding the freedom of meetings and demonstrations in Russia, that: “We don't want the same events as in Paris to happen here”
Independent media, however, described the situation with more nuances, as in the Novaya Gazeta.
More up-to-date reports say that most of the French people want the protests to end.
Media says that the French Yellow vests movement still had a lot of supporters but that the number of respondents, who considered themselves as members of the movement, has declined.
Below is a short video by Brut (in French) on how the movement is seen in some parts of the world:
Overall, the spectrum of international opinions seems to range from a display of global solidarity with fellow protesters against inequality to a reflection on divisions affecting society. Three months after the beginning of the movement, the world keeps talking about it, and we keep listening: it is indeed essential to maintain a global conversation.

author: Marie Bohner


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‘We are not  bots!’ In Berlin, thousands protest proposed EU regulation on internet upload filters · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

March 2, 2019 demonstration in Berlin against Article 13 of the new EU Copyright Directive. Photo by Tim Lüddemann, (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.)
An estimated 5,000 people gathered in Berlin on March 2 to protest a proposed EU copyright rule that could radically shift the dynamics of posting and sharing content online.
Among other provisions, Article 13 of the draft EU Copyright Directive would require internet platforms like YouTube to install “upload filters” — a technical mechanism that would block users from uploading copyright-protected content, effectively imposing a system of “prior censorship” on major internet and social media platforms.
The protest was part of a series of gatherings that will culminate in European Union-wide protests on March 23, netzpolitik.org reported.
Demonstrators in the German capital braved the icy cold weather and marched from the Axel Springer skyscraper, past the Ministry of Justice and on to the Brandenburg Gate. While the organizers had originally expected five hundred demonstrators, they estimated that more than ten times as many people came to demand protection of internet freedoms.
Demonstration gegen Internet-Urheberrechtsreform in Berlin:#Uploadfilter pic.twitter.com/h8RxdMVL87
— ZDF heute (@ZDFheute) March 2, 2019
Demonstrations against Internet copyright reform in Berlin. #Uploadfilter
The Berlin protest was organized by the alliance “Berlin gegen 13″ (Berlin against [Article] 13) which includes civil society organizations promoting digital rights and media freedoms, informal groups, and political parties opposing this aspect of the Directive.
According to the internet rights advocacy network European Digital Rights (EDRi), Article 13 was the result of closed-door discussions between the European Parliament negotiating team, EU Member States and the European Commission in February. Prepared by France and Germany, the current draft will be put to a vote between March and April in the European Parliament and could become law soon afterwards.
EDRi raised concerns that proposal could lead to unlawful restrictions on freedom of speech and reduce access to knowledge. Diego Naranjo, Senior Policy Advisor at EDRi commented:
The secret discussions have ended with the worst version of the “Censorship machine” we have seen so far. Citizens need to react, once again, to prevent these upload filters that threaten our freedom of expression from becoming reality.
The Berlin protest was third major offline gathering of people opposed to Article 13. Demonstrations in Cologne on February 16 and February 23 also attracted thousands of citizens.
In his speech at the Berlin protest, Markus Beckedahl the founder and editor-in-chief of media activism site netzpolitik.org stated: “We are not against copyright. But we are against compulsory upload filters!”
Demonstrators carried colorful signs reading “We are not bots,” “Diesel filter instead of upload filter”, “Save the Internet” and chanted the lyrics of the song “Wir sind keine bots” (We are not bots) made by YouTuber Willboy specifically in opposition to Article 13:
#SaveYourInternet #Berlingegen13 #artikel13 we are not bots ;-) pic.twitter.com/f70bfpCvOw
— Jos Poortvliet (@jospoortvliet) March 2, 2019
The song was released on Friday, a day before the demonstration, and become a viral hit with over half a million views in just a few days.
Julia Reda, Member of European Parliament for the European Pirate Party warned that the center-right European People's Party, which has a majority in the European Parliament, has attempted to hold the vote ahead of the massive protest events scheduled for March 23 by the #SaveYourInternet activist campaign.
Breaking: @ManfredWeber and the @EPPGroup want the vote on #Article13 and the Copyright Directive moved ahead to next week to pre-empt the #SaveYourInternet/#StopACTA2 protests! We need a public outcry to stop this! pic.twitter.com/6XQSWNbgpa
— Julia Reda (@Senficon) March 4, 2019
Whether or not the Copyright Directive is approved, digital rights advocates will have more battles to fight in the near term, when it comes to policy proposals seeking automated technical solutions to online content challenges. A European Commission committee tasked with addressing “terrorist content” online has proposed a similar solution that would obligate online platforms to begin using automated tools to “detect, identify and expeditiously remove or disable access to terrorist content.”
At a public conference in January, Evelyn Austin from the Netherlands-based digital rights organization Bits of Freedom expressed deep concern about policies that move in the direction of prior censorship:
We see as inevitable a situation in which there is a filter for copyrighted content, a filter for allegedly terrorist content, a filter for possibly sexually explicit content, one for suspected hate speech and so on, creating a digital information ecosystem in which everything we say, even everything we try to say, is monitored.

author: Filip Stojanovski