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A professor’s self-immolation puts the spotlight on the fragile future of Russia’s minority languages · Global Voices
Maxim Edwards

Professor Albert Razin's last interview, before the State Council of Udmurtia, from Udmtuno's YouTube video.
On 10 September, Albert Razin stood outside the State Council building in Izhevsk, a city in west-central Russia, and set himself on fire. The 72-year-old professor was taken away and died from his burns in a hospital bed soon afterwards.
A banner discovered next to Razin's body read “If my language disappears tomorrow, I am ready to die today”—a quote from the Avar-language poet Rasul Gamzatov. Razin's last protest had not been his first. The professor was a stalwart defender of his native Udmurt language, and by all accounts had felt increasingly hopeless in recent years about its future.
Udmurt is a Uralic (sometimes referred to as Finno-Ugric) language mostly spoken in the Republic of Udmurtia in the Volga district of European Russia. It achieved fleeting international fame when Russia's entry, the Buranovskiye Babushki, performed in the language at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest.
Well over 100 languages are spoken across Russia today, and 35 of them have co-official status with Russian in the country's 22 autonomous regions, including Udmurtia. Many of these languages appear to be at risk of disappearing, and Udmurt is no exception. Russian censuses indicate that between 2002 and 2010 the number of Udmurt speakers declined from 463,000 to 324,000—a decline of 30% in just eight years. In 2011, the UN's Atlas of Languages in Danger described Udmurt as “definitely endangered.” Studies indicate that the situation has not improved.
Hundreds attended a memorial service for Razin at the State Theatre in Izhevsk on September 12, including state officials.
Razin's death has prompted limited debate online and in newspaper columns about the fate of Russia's minority languages. Speakers of other minority languages are demonstrating solidarity with Udmurt speakers with the hashtags #АльбертРазин and #МонМиРазин (“I am / We are Razin” in Udmurt).
Nevertheless, it would be hard to call these discussions soul-searching. In fact, many Russians seem to find the professor's act utterly incomprehensible.
These are turbulent times for minority language rights in Russia. Last June, Razin was one of several public figures who sent an open letter pleading with local officials not to support a controversial law cancelling the obligatory study of minority languages in the country's autonomous republics. President Vladimir Putin argued that children should not be made to study languages which are not their native tongues; education in minority languages is now entirely voluntary, which prompted fears that many schools would simply stop offering them altogether. The Council of Europe strongly criticised the law in February 2018, observing that “over the past years a strong emphasis has been put on the Russian language and culture while minority languages and cultures appear to be marginalised.”
Idel-Ile, a Tatar and Russian language blog which covers inter-ethnic relations in the region, described the situation as follows:
В школах УР изучаются удмуртский, татарский, марийские языки. В минимально достаточном объёме – 3 урока в неделю – родные языки изучаются только в небольших сельских школах мононациональных сёл. В райцентрах, где учатся около половины сельских детей, родной язык изучается не более 1 часа. В городах национальные языки ни в качестве родных, ни удмуртский государственный практически не изучаются. Выбор родного языка носит фиктивный характер, почти везде “выбирают” русский язык … Таким образом удмуртский язык практически не изучается в школах городов и райцентров, и доступен для изучения только жителям удмуртских поселений – для не более чем половины сельских удмуртов.
The Udmurt, Tatar, and Mari languages are studied in Udmurtia's schools. In the minimum amount possible: three lessons a week. Indigenous languages are studied only in small rural schools in ethnically homogeneous villages. In regional centres, where around half of all village children study, indigenous languages are not studied for more than an hour. In the cities, these languages are practically not studied at all, whether as indigenous or state languages. The choice to study one's native language is fictitious: people “choose” Russian nearly everywhere […] Thus the Udmurt language is practically not studied in schools in cities and regional centres, and is only accessible to inhabitants of Udmurt settlements, in which not more than half of all rural Udmurt speakers live.
So for a committed Udmurt language activist like Razin, the new law may have been the final straw.
There are also indications, however, that Razin's forthright views were not representative of all Udmurt activists. Vladimir Baymetov, a member of the Udmurt Kenesh organisation, told the local website Udm-Info that “[Razin] was an elder and well-respected; he was an activist of the Udmurt movement for all his life, but he sometimes adhered to very radical views.”
The local authorities in Udmurtia have expressed condolences, but with caveats. On September 11, head of the republic Alexander Brechalov praised Razin's contributions to Udmurtia's cultural life but called on the media to “not speculate about connections between the republic's ethnic policies and the self-immolation of the activist… the policies pursued in the region are exclusively aimed at supporting the [Udmurt] language, culture, and history.”
Brechalov's words are all the more relevant in Udmurtia, which rarely makes news headlines in Russia and could hardly be called a hotspot of ethnic tensions.
So while the link between state policies and Razin's protest might be clear to his fellow minority activists, others take a very different view. In online discussions about Razin, many RuNet users belittle indigenous languages and seem bewildered that anybody would use them in daily lives, let alone die for them. This is by no means an attitude limited to Russia.
The comments on a post about Razin in a popular group about Izhevsk on VKontakte are a case in point. Many users compared the fate of minority languages to other “more urgent” social problems:
За удмуртский язык? Что блеат? Это основная проблема в рф что ли? Акцизы, медицина, образование да хотя бы пенсионный возраст, нет блин из за удмуртского языка…
— Антон Городецкий, ВКонтакте, 10 сентябрь 2019
For the Udmurt language? What the fuck? Is that really the main problem in Russia? Excise taxes, medicine, education, or at least the pension age, but no, damn it, for the Udmurt language…
— Anton Gorodetsky, VKontakte, 10 сентябрь 2019
Other commenters in the same thread speculated about Razin's mental health or berated him for not taking less extreme measures to preserve the language, relying on “folk linguistics” to question whether Udmurt and other regional languages are “needed” in the modern day and age. For example, this Twitter user cites the fact that the Udmurt literary standard was codified during the early Soviet period as “evidence” for its backwardness compared to Russian.
More poignant responses can be found on Udmurt language learning groups on VKontakte, a popular Russian social network. Speakers and enthusiasts lament the slow but seemingly irreversible fading away of the language in discussions entitled “why are people ashamed to be Udmurt?” Importantly, many of these discussions had started years before Razin's suicide. One woman remarks:
мы тоже как-то в далёких 90-х годах ехали в автобусе и разговаривали с подругой на своём родном языке. Так на нас посыпалось…нашлись тут иностранцы. Ладно мы возразили, что мы живём на своей малой Родине и говорим по-своему. А многие не могут возразить, сразу в слёзы.
— Людмила Евдокимова, ВКонтакте, 11 сентябрь 2019
Somehow, in the faraway 1990s, I also rode on the bus and was speaking with a friend in my native language. There was a torrent [of abuse]: they had found some “foreigners” here! We objected that we live in our small homeland and can speak in our own language as we please. But many people [in these situations] cannot argue back, and just burst into tears.
— Lyudmila Evdokimova, VKontakte, 11 September 2019
Some RuNet users sarcastically compared patriots’ indifference towards the fate of Russia's minority languages to their concern for the rights of Russian speakers in other post-Soviet states:
Заслуженный деятель науки Удмуртии Разин проводил одиночный пикет, в руках держал плакаты с требованием сохранить удмуртский язык,
после чего отошёл и поджег себя
Скончался в больнице.
А теперь, ватные гамадрилы, расскажите мне как притесняют русский язык в Украине или Латвии!
— Ледовый лоцман (@MarchDok) September 10, 2019
Razin, an honoured academic of Udmurtia, held a solitary protest, with posters in his hands demanding that the Udmurt language be preserved, then departed by setting himself alight. He died at hospital.
So now, you vatnik nymphs, tell me how they're suppressing the Russian language in Ukraine or Latvia!
— Ледовый лоцман (@MarchDok), Twitter, September 10, 2019
Nevertheless, the journalist Maxim Goryunov stressed that “soft chauvinism” could also be found among the Russian opposition and independent press:
про Российскую империю в головах: у Новой Газеты первый заголовок о самосожжении Альберта Разина – «В Ижевске… поджег себя защитник малых народов».
Альберт Разин защищал удмуртский язык. это государственный язык Удмуртии. вместе с русским.
Удмуртия, согласно статье №1 ее конституции 1994 года, является «государством в составе Российской Федерации». […] то есть, Альберт Разин защищал государственный язык своей страны, а не «малые народы». он не про «культурный Гринпис» для «индейцев». он про права и свободы народа, у которого уже есть конституция и территория. почувствуйте разницу. очевидно, автор заголовка не считает Удмуртию государством. «малый народ» – это скорее про природный парк с милыми людьми в традиционных одеждах. надо ли говорить, что у российского чиновника схожее мнение?
— Максим Горюнов, Facebook, 10 сентябрь 2019
A few words about Russian imperialism of the mind. Novaya Gazeta's first headline about the self-immolation of Albert Razin reads “in Izhevsk… a defender of small nations set himself alight.”
Albert Razin defended the Udmurt language. It is the state language of Udmurtia, alongside Russian.
Udmurtia, according to the first article of its constitution from 1994, is a “state which forms part of the Russian Federation.” […] That is to say, Albert Razin defended his country's state language, and not “small nations.” He wasn't talking about “a cultural Greenpeace” for “Indians.” He was talking about the rights and freedoms of a nation which already has its constitution and territory. Feel the difference. It's obvious that the headline's author doesn't consider Udmurtia a real state. A “small nation” sounds more like a nature reserve filled with nice people in traditional costumes. Does it really need to be said that Russian officials have the same opinion?
— Maxim Goryunov, Facebook, 10 September 2019
Observers with diverse political leanings saw Razin's act as an extreme step for a marginal cause. Ochki Brechalova or “Brechalov's Glasses,” a popular Telegram channel following politics in Udmurtia, expressed hope that Razin's desperate act would eventually be understood:
Это был тяжёлый день. Он, безусловно, войдёт в историю Удмуртии. О поступке Альберта Разина будут рассказывать следующим поколениям удмуртов, как сейчас рассказывают о Кузебае Герде, ставшим жертвой сталинского ГУЛАГа. Ещё много будет чего сказано и написано. Настоящее осмысление трагедии впереди. Уроки в краткосрочной перспективе извлечены, к сожалению, не будут. Ни властью, ни национальным удмуртским сообществом. Это по реакции четко показал сегодняшний день.
—Очки Бречалова, Telegram, 10 сентябрь 2019
It has been a difficult day. A day which, without doubt, will go down in Udmurtia's history. The next generations of Udmurts will talk about the act of Albert Razin as they now talk about those of [the Udmurt poet] Kuzebay Gerd, who fell victim to the Stalinist Gulag. Much more will be said and written. But a full reckoning with this tragedy lies ahead. In the short term, unfortunately, the lessons will not be learnt. Neither by the authorities, nor by the Udmurt community. Today's reactions show this very clearly.
— Ochki Brechalova, Telegram, 10 September 2019
But will the lessons be learnt too late? If so, whatever is said or written about Razin's death in 20 or 30 years, it is unlikely that much of it will be in Udmurt.

author: Maxim Edwards


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Internet shutdowns and the right to access in Sudan: A post-revolution perspective · Global Voices
Mohamed Suliman

A cell phone vendor in Khartoum, Sudan, September 16, 2012. Photo by joepyrek via Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0.
On 3 September, a Sudanese court ordered telecommunications companies Sudani and MTN to apologize to their customers for disrupting access to their networks at the behest of the military authorities in early June.
The shutdown, which went on for weeks, was the longest in Sudan. The Transitional Military Council, which at the time was the de-facto ruler of the country, said it ordered the internet blackout because of security concerns.
However, the blackout was an obvious attempt by the council to disrupt the sharing of footage and information pertaining to the dispersal of a sit-in on 3 June by security and military forces, calling for a civilian-led transitional government. More than 100 protesters were killed as a result of the crackdown on the sit-in.
Protesters and activists used their mobile phones to document and share the human rights violations and killings committed during the Khartoum massacre. The blackout greatly restricted Sudanese people’ rights to freedom of expression and access to information, and their right to assembly, since social media platforms and apps like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter were widely used to organise protests.
There are four telecommunications service providers in Sudan. Zain Sudan, a subsidiary of the Kuwaiti multinational group Zain, is the biggest player with a 48 percent market share. The other players are MTN Sudan, a subsidiary of South African multinational group MTN, Sudani, which is controlled by the government and CANAR.
The Telecommunications and Post Regulatory Authority is the regulator of the telecommunications industry. It is in charge of issuing new licenses, setting internet fees and content blocking.
The shutdown, which affected both mobile and fixed-line connections, and took place on the networks of all providers and was lifted five weeks later.
The 3 September court ruling ordered Sudani and MTN to publish their apologies to customers on the front pages of all newspapers that are published in the capital, Khartoum. It is the latest court decision favouring users’ right to access the internet in response to the June shutdown.
The same court had previously ruled in favour of Mr. Abdel-Adheem Hassan, a prominent Sudanese lawyer, who filed a legal case against Zain, the largest telecommunications operator in Sudan, for the June shutdown. The court forced Zain to restore internet access three weeks after the shutdown started, but only to Hassan. Another case representing a larger number of customers had since been filed and on July 9, the same court ordered all providers to restore access to the internet.
These court decisions serve justice for one-third of the Sudanese citizens who have access to the internet, by granting them the right to sue telecommunication providers and seek a remedy.
These decisions also established that while providers may be required by law to shut down access to their networks, they still have responsibilities toward their users, including transparency. The process used to shut down the internet shows aspects of corruption and a lack of transparency between internet providers and the government. A previous court ruling found that “Zain had been verbally ordered by ‘high authorities’” to shut down the internet after it failed to provide the court with written orders.
Internet shutdowns are not unheard of in Sudan. The military regime, headed by ex-president Omar al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for thirty years before he was deposed by a massive peaceful revolution earlier this year, deployed the tactics of shutting down or throttling access to the internet as a tool to silence and oppress protestors. In September 2013, the government completely shut down the internet for 24 hours, as a measure against the spreading of peaceful protests following the regime’s decision to lift state subsidies from basic food items and fuel. In June of the same year, the government also resorted to slowing down and shutting down internet connections because of protests.
The court rulings represent a serious step toward a freer and fully transparent debate and actions to guarantee Sudanese’ right to access the internet, as the country embarks on a three-year-long transition toward civilian and democratic rule.
On August 21, Abdallah Hamdouk was appointed as prime minister and the members of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan were sworn in, as part of a power-sharing agreement to guide Sudan’s three-year transition toward civilian rule, in accordance with the Constitutional Charter for the 2019 Transitional Period.
The charter, signed by the Transitional Military Council and the political coalition that represents the protesters, Forces of Freedom and Change, repealed the Transitional Constitution of Sudan of 2005.
The right to access, or (freedom to connect and right to broadband) has been recognized by many international bodies as a fundamental human right. The World Summit on the Information Society ( WSIS), that took place in 2003 in Geneva, Switzerland, and in 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia, acknowledged  the internet as “central to the information society’’ and that “everyone, everywhere should have the opportunity to participate and no one should be excluded from the benefits the information society offers.” Also, in July 2016, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution by consensus that condemned internet shutdowns.
Sudanese laws, however, seem contradicted and not consistent with regard to freedom of expression and information online and the right to access communication networks. Some laws cherish these rights, even under the ousted regime of al-Bashir. For example, both the Sudanese Access to Information Act and  Article 39 (1) of the 2005 Sudan Interim Constitution — which was recently repealed — enshrined the right to receive and disseminate information. Article 9 of the Computer Crimes Act of 2007 prescribes a punishment of two years in prison or fine or both against anyone convicted of impeding access to internet services.
On the other hand, the 2018 Telecommunication and Post regulation Act gives the regulatory authority the right to disrupt any communication and telecommunication or broadcasting station if it violates the law. This vague provision does not provide more details, which allows the authorities to interpret it as they see fit to restrict access to services.
Moreover, Article 56 of the Constitutional Charter for the 2019 Transitional Period enshrined the ‘’right to access the internet, without prejudice to public order, safety, and morals, as defined by the law”. The charter, however, did not delineate on these vague exemptions.
If not amended or abolished, these vague and contradictory provisions raise concerns that more shutdowns could be imposed in the future, if the authorities find themselves facing similar unrest or protest movements.
In its first step toward a fully civil-led government, Sudan appointed a new transitional government last August. The transitional period and the aforementioned court rulings offer Sudanese activists an opportunity to advocate for enshrining internet users’ right to access in a new-era Sudan.
Different stakeholders will need to work together to draft and implement a number of measures to amend or abolish problematic laws, improve service contracts by telecommunications companies and initiate government policies and measures to protect freedom of expression. Empowered civil society groups must also be ready to advocate, raise awareness among people and defend digital rights under threat.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Mohamed Suliman


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Street-side vendors of Zanzibar’s iconic ‘kanga’ textiles forced to close up shop after 30 years · Global Voices
Amanda Lichtenstein

Mohammed Abdallah Moody sells kanga, traditional textiles, in Darajani market, Stone Town, Zanzibar. Photo by Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein, used with permission.
Every day in Zanzibar, women and men from all over the islands converge in Stone Town, the historic capital, to purchase kanga — colorful, patterned textiles sold in pairs that usually come with a Swahili message.
In August, kanga customers were shocked to discover that Stone Town authorities had cleared the outdoor kanga stalls in Darajani market. At least 25 active kanga dealers — some with stalls for nearly 30 years —were forced to leave, abruptly halting their street-side businesses.
Kanga are intricately woven into Swahili coastal culture — the dealers who sell kangas in the Darajani market are wordsmiths and philosophers as a job requirement. Why? Kanga are exchanged between and among friends, family and lovers to communicate and express misemo or Swahili “sayings” that are sometimes difficult or taboo; kanga dealers are central to the experience of selecting just the right one to match the need or occasion. Most kanga dealers have memorized hundreds of Swahili messages by heart and can readily identify kanga by its pattern and message.
An array of colorful kanga on display in the market. Photo by Pernille Bærendtsen, used with permission.
According to long-time kanga dealer Mohammed Abdallah Moody, kanga dealers with stalls along Chavda-Mkunazini Street, known as “the kanga market,” received a letter from the Stone Town Conservation and Development Authority (STCDA) on July 26, 2019, explaining that the kanga dealers had two days to pack up their stalls and leave.
Kanga usually come with a message in Swahili and are exchanged to express feelings. This one says “Mimi si mgomvi wako” or “I'm not your enemy” in English.
Moody says some dealers have had no choice but to go underground and sell their kanga from other storefronts while they sort out the details with authorities. If caught selling kanga on the street, they could face fines up to 500,000 Tanzanian shillings (about $250 United States dollars) or up to six months in jail.
A letter from the Stone Town Conservation and Development Authority tells kanga dealers they have two days to leave. Photo by Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein, used with permission.
The letter states that the kanga sellers are being asked to leave to due to their “unauthorized placement of informal businesses on the walls, gates, and inner councils of the [Stone Town] areas.”
It continues:
This has led to the destruction of walls [due to] nailing it to hang products, cluttering of the passageways, and impinging on the charm of Stone Town's original doorways. Similarly, it reduces their original value.
Moody explains that the kanga dealers pay the city 2,000 Tanzanian shillings (.90 USD) per day or approximately 60,000 TZS per month ($29 USD) to run their outdoor kanga stalls. He says they held licenses until STCDA discontinued licensure in 2015.
Said Juma Khamis, another kanga dealer, said that in 2016, their group of 30 kanga sellers established an official association called “The Kanga Sellers of Chavda” to advocate for their rights to sell their goods and strengthen their businesses as a collective. He said:
We've lost a lot of customers since we were told to leave. More than a lot. Some have heard that we can't sell our kangas anymore. Some still come here expecting us to have kanga to sell. It's unsettling.
In 2001, UNESCO designated the historic old city of Stone Town a World Heritage site, elevating it to the same status as Egypt's pyramids, or India's Taj Mahal. Amina Ahmada, with Zanzibar Stone Town Heritage Society, a nongovernmental organization, said the city has gone through a series of changes over the last few years in an island-wide effort to ramp of cultural heritage preservation — with a specific focus on Stone Town as a central tourist hub:
We work with the community to help them understand the value of their collective inheritance. Some of the [Stone Town] residents are living in very valuable, old buildings but have no idea of their historic value.
With a strong emphasis on restoration and preservation of historic architecture and sites, the city has taken measures to crack down on what it considers illegal businesses that impede visual access to the unique architectural charms and cultural heritage of the Old City.
In the 1830s, the kings of Oman shifted their seat of power from Muscat to Stone Town and ruled in the region until 1963, overseeing a lucrative clove trade largely fueled by slave labor.
According to UNESCO, Stone Town architecture — a fusion of Arab, Indian and African structures that reflect thousands of years of Indian Ocean trade between the Gulf, India and the Swahili coast — is protected under the 2002 Ancient Monuments Preservation Act. In 1985, The STCDA was created and later produced the 1994 Stone Town Conservation and Development Act, which led to the development of a master plan to “safeguard, conserve and develop the values” of Stone Town. Today, the STCDA follows the Stone Town Conservation and Development Authority Act of 2010, which provides guidance on compliance, lease revocation, enforcement and other relevant matters.
On Friday, August 23, authorities also issued a letter to ferry ticket agents in the Malindi neighborhood and told them that their shops were “illegal and “dirty.” By Monday, several businesses had been destroyed. Mwanjabu Mohamad, a ticket agent, said she was home when she got a call that her office had been affected, according to her testimony on KTV-TV.
Ahmada said Stone Town is filled with 18th and 19th-century buildings, some of which are inhabited and owned by private residents who are unaware of their historic value. Buildings with “wakf” status, are, according to Islamic law, spiritually designated charitable properties that can not be renovated or changed without strict adherence to laws administered by the Zanzibar Waqf and Trust Commission, along with the STCDA, including privately held family homes.
Buildings with Wakf status can not be sold, bought or inherited for profit. Any repairs or renovations must follow strict guidelines by Stone Town authorities. Photo by Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein, used with permission.
Moody, the kanga dealer, insists that none of the buildings in the kanga market hold Wakf status, as far as he knows, and the privately-owned buildings in front of which they've set up their street-side shops for nearly 30 years have their approval as well. Moody said:
We're hungry. We need to eat. We have families to feed. So, we've had to move back [to the market] little by little.
He said the group wrote a letter to the STCDA asking for a meeting to discuss their situation so that the business of kanga culture continues to thrive.
The hope is that Stone Town authorities recognize kanga sellers as an essential aspect of Swahili heritage and culture and find a solution that benefits everyone.
A kanga hangs on the line to dry. Photo by Pernille Bærendtsen, used with permission.

author: Amanda Lichtenstein


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A day in the life of a bamboo shoot harvester in Myanmar · Global Voices
The Irrawaddy

Ko Pho La shows off his freshly collected bamboo shoots. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy
This article by Htet Wai is from The Irrawaddy, an independent news website in Myanmar, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Bamboo shoots are a popular dish in Myanmar. The shoots appear with the monsoon rains and are in season throughout the rainy season from early June to late September as the rainfall sees them sprout in abundance. Served with a dipping sauce, boiled bamboo shoots make the perfect side dish on dinner tables in most Myanmar households.
However, the life of a bamboo harvester is a difficult one. Ko Pho La is a bamboo shoot harvester living in Kyee Bin Village in Irrawaddy Region. The village is located west of the Pathein-Monywa Road in Ingapu Township, close to the Arakan Mountains.
Though some villagers work on farms, most of them make a living by collecting firewood and harvesting wild bamboo shoots. Ko Pho La works as a tenant farmer, but in the rainy season, after transplanting paddy, he gathers bamboo shoots to make ends meet.
Ko Pho La on his way to harvest bamboo shoots in the forest / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy
In the early days of the monsoon season, bamboo shoots can be found closer to his village, but when the monsoon is in full swing, Ko Pho La has to go deep into the forest in the Arakan Mountains to collect shoots that are good enough to sell.
As the harvesters wade through the bushes and trees, what troubles them most is not the wildlife but the mosquitoes, Ko Pho La said.
Bamboo shoots sprout in the forest / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy
As the sun rises higher in the sky and the army of mosquitoes grows, bamboo shoot collectors have to race against time to collect as many shoots as they can in the morning to finish their job by the afternoon. Besides the mosquitoes, snakes present a frequent threat, Ko Pho La said.
The bamboo shoot harvesters return not on foot, but by water, floating with their bamboo shoots along the Nan Ka Thu creek, which originates in the Arakan Mountains, back to their village at the foot of the mountain.
A bamboo shoot harvester on his way home / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy
They usually try to collect between 10 and 20 viss (1 viss equals approximately 1.6 kg) in one outing. Ko Pho La said he tries to collect 15 viss on average each time. After he gets home, he boils the shoots to ready them for sale.
The bamboo shoots are sold to buyers along the Pathein-Monywa Road for 300 kyats (0.20 US Dollars) per viss, but at the market in Kwin Kauk, the closest town to Kyee Bin, they fetch 800 kyats (0.53 US Dollars) per viss.
A woman prepares bamboo shoots for buyers. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy
Preserved and fermented bamboo shoots are sold in a market in Yangon. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

author: The Irrawaddy


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Indian authorities approve uranium exploration in Nallamala Forest, sparking protests · Global Voices
Anumeha Verma

The Srisailam Dam on Krishna River at Nallamala Forest. Image via Flickr by Subash BGK. CC BY-NC-ND
An in-principle approval given by the central government of India to start exploratory mining in the Nallamala forest, including part of a nature reserve, has sparked protests and resistance from the state government.
Approval was given a few months back for Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) to begin exploration for uranium in the ecologically sensitive region which stretches across the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Although the Telangana government initially agreed with the central government's decision, opposition from environmentalists, concerned citizens, and Chenchu indigenous people led state authorities to change their stance.
Recent news reports quoted the Municipal Administration and IT Minister of Telangana, K.T. Rama Rao, who stating that mining would not be allowed in the region. However, to the chagrin of environmentalists and indigenous communities living in the region, exploration has continued as authorities in these matters fall under the central government’s purview.
The Nallamala forest range is known for its rich biodiversity. Teeming with flora and fauna, the forest lies just 0.5 km from the catchment area of the Krishna River. Chenchus are a hunting-gathering indigenous community that calls the Nallamala forest range home.
Chenchu Huts in Pollepalli, Telengana. Image via Flickr by photosinframes. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The indigenous community traditionally gathers forest produce including honey. They are worried about the loss of their livelihoods, potential forced evacuation from their homelands, and the destruction of the fragile ecosystem in the area. After the uranium exploration approval, Chenchus started to patrol the area more diligently to ward off miners.
The preliminary in-principle approval for exploratory mining has been given to UCIL in about 83 sq. km area inside the Amrabad and Nudigal Reserve forests located in Nallamala. In a time when the population of tigers has already dwindled, this in itself has raised red flags.
The Amrabad Tiger Reserve is the second-largest in India and is home to about 22 tigers and about 100 leopards along with hundreds of other mammals, birds, reptiles and insect species.
Concerned citizens and environmental groups have taken to social media to raise awareness, some of them appealing to both central and state government to withdraw the approval.
#Nallamala its a 2nd largest tiger reserve forest in India but now it's been under excavation to dig for Uranium Mining which causes loss for around 3,00,000 acres of forest land,wildlife habitat and loss to many natives. #SaveNallamala #StopUraniumMining @ncbn @revanth_anumula pic.twitter.com/NueGmIsyI7
— Kiran Chowdary Vemasani (@kiranVEMASANI) September 13, 2019
Uranium mining in the area is also being criticized due to soil and water pollution that can result from these activities. Uranium is mined from the ore found either near the surface or deep underneath the earth’s surface. No matter the procedure used, mining uranium always produces radioactive waste in both solid and liquid forms.
Nallamala Forest. Image from Flickr by Subash BGK. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
If full-fledged mining begins in the area, how would the radioactive waste be disposed of? Environmentalists and NGOs believe that these wastes are going to end up in the River Krishna, polluting the river, which is an important source of drinking water for both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Even if the waste is treated before disposal, uranium mining can still lead to the contamination of water and soil, eventually harming the flora and fauna of the region.
Uranium mining will not just be the end of Nallamala forest but will have hazardous effects on River Krishna, which is the source of drinking water for 10Cr people. Mining will have far reaching dangerous consequences for the generations to come. #SaveNallamalla@Samanthaprabhu2 pic.twitter.com/5QBfYCy31E
— Tirumala Ganesh ♥ (@Tirumala_Sam) September 13, 2019
Apart from on-the-ground agitation, those opposed to the move have started online campaigns and petitions to prevent uranium mining in the region. Concerned parties have initiated a petition on change.org to stop uranium mining in the area and save Nallamala Forest. At the time this story was written, the petition had 17410 signatories. Apart from NGOs and environmental activists, several celebrities and public figures have also lent their support to the campaign. #SaveNallamala and #StopUraniumMining have been trending on social media and garnering further support for the campaign.
#Nallamala its a second largest tiger reserve forest in India but now it's been under excavation to dig for Uranium Mining which causes loss for around 3,00,000 acres of forest land it's wildlife habitat and loss to many natives. It should be stopped. #SaveNallamala #SaveForest pic.twitter.com/Pmjn12sjbq
— Save Nallamala (@SaveNallamala) September 13, 2019
Do we need development? Yes!! But at what cost? Uranium mining will not only destroy the forest,it will contaminate the soil,flora and fauna..the waste will seep into the rivers and spread for miles & affect thousands of #Indians #SaveNallamala #StopUraniumMining @narendramodi ?? pic.twitter.com/p6thNxyiqi
— Randeep Hooda (@RandeepHooda) September 13, 2019
20,000 acre of Nallamala forest was at the risk of being destroyed. “We have destroyed our lakes, flooded our states, caused drought in others and polluted most of our drinking water sources,” . #Nallamala #savenallamala pic.twitter.com/U5NbtQc2vv
— Karthikkumar chevulamaddi (@Karthikkumarch7) September 12, 2019
Despite assurances by the Telegana state government to prevent the mine, there is no guarantee that mining won't begin in the future. India has plans to increase its uranium production tenfold over the next 15 years. If UCIL discovers significant uranium deposits, the Telegana state authorities may be very tempted to change their stance and allow for further environmental exploitation.
As the tussle between Chenchus, civic bodies, environmentalists and authorities continue, the fate of Nalamalla forest, its biodiversity hang in balance.

author: Anumeha Verma


text:
Rediscovering the riches of St Petersburg’s Muslim heritage · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Photo of the Cathedral Mosque in Saint-Petersburg, built in 1913. Author unknown. Photo from Renat Bekkin's archive, used with permission.
Called the “window to Europe” by its founder Peter the Great, the city of St Petersburg is considered to this day the most “European” city in Russia. But as the capital of Tsarist Russia, it was also home to countless ethnic and religious groups from more far-flung areas of the empire.
One such group was the Tatars, a predominantly Muslim Turkic people who today form one of Russia's largest ethnic groups. Tatars — alongside other Muslims such as Afghans, Azeris, Chechens, Daghestanis, Persians, and Uzbeks — lived, studied, and worked in the city and played an important role in its development.
In 2016, the historian Renat Bekkin wrote the first guide to the Muslim and Tatar heritage of St Petersburg. It is a subject particularly close to his heart; Bekkin is himself a Tatar from Russia's “northern capital.” I interviewed Bekkin to learn more about this fascinating but overlooked aspect of St Petersburg history. What follows is an abridged transcript of our conversation.
Ренат Беккин: В детстве я рассматривал семейные фотографии, сделанные в 1910–1920-х гг., и спрашивал маму, кто на них изображен. К сожалению, она не всегда могла обшить мне какие-либо сведения об этих людях.  Я гордился тем, что мы – коренные ленинградцы. Моя прабабушка умерла в блокаду, бабушка была блокадницей, затем участником войны. Когда у меня вызревала идея книги в конце 2000-х гг., я часто встречал в СМИ и в Интернете высказывания о мусульманах в Петербурге в стиле «понаехали тут черные всякие». Как это часто бывает, такие высказывания исходили от людей, приехавших в Петербург в поисках более сытной жизни из российской глубинки, и не имевших никакого представления о том, что такое многонациональный мегаполис. Я понял, что нужна книга, которая бы показала, что мусульмане не только не гости в Петербурге, но самые настоящие хозяева, одни из первых его жителей, участвовавшие в его строительстве. Мусульманский Петербург – это не чужеродное явление для города,  это органическая часть того, что мы понимаем под петербургской культурой.
: As a kid I used to look at the family photo album, with pictures taken in the 1910s and 20s, and ask my mother about the people in them. Unfortunately, my mother couldn’t always tell me much. I took pride in the fact that we were native inhabitants of Leningrad [the official name of Saint-Petersburg from 1924 to 1991]. My great grandmother died during the siege, my grandmother defended the city during the siege and fought in the Second World War. When the idea of writing a book matured in my mind at the end of the 2000s, I often came across media and online comments which referred to Muslims in St Petersburg as “black faces which have invaded the city”. As usual, such comments were made by people who came to the city from provincial parts of Russia in search of a better life, who had no notion of a multiethnic megalopolis. I understood that a book was needed to show that Muslims are not just guests in this city, but were once its masters and some of its earliest inhabitants; they took part in its construction. Muslims are not an alien element for St Petersburg; they are an organic part of its culture.
Изначально я думал, что мы напишем эту книгу вместе с краеведом Альмирой Тагирджановой. Она к тому времени уже несколько лет вела экскурсии по основным объектам мусульманского Петербурга. Прийти к общему знаменателю мы так и не смогли, и я стал писать книгу самостоятельно. Однако в знак благодарности за консультации Альмиры Наимовны я посчитал необходимым указать ее имя на обложке книги. Тот, кто возьмет в руки путеводитель, может подумать, что перед ним компилятивный труд. На самом деле за каждой страницей в книге стоит работа в архивах, как государственных, так и частных. И конечно работа в поле: интервью, поиск надмогильных камней, установление местоположения самих кладбищ и др. Работа над путеводителем сопровождалась целым рядом находок и открытий. Установлено местоположение ряда ныне утраченных мусульманских кладбищ в Ленинградской области.
RB:  Initially, I thought I would write this book with Almira Tagirjanova, an expert on local history. She worked for years as a guide, giving tours of the city's main Muslim monuments. We didn’t come to a common agreement in the end, and I ended up writing the book on my own. Yet I feel grateful for all the knowledge she shared, and consider it necessary to mention her name on the cover of the book. You might think that this guide is merely a compilation. In fact, tremendous work has gone into every page: in state and private archives and of course in the field, with interviews, searches for tombs and cemeteries. Several discoveries were made in the process of writing this guide: the location of now vanished Muslim cemeteries around St Petersburg.
The daughters of imam Khalekov (Samiya in the middle), St Petersburg, 1928. Author unknown. Photo from Renat Bekkin's archive, used with permission.
Например, зодчий Степан Кричинский, который был одним из трех архитекторов, строивших Соборную мечеть. Исследователь Северного Полюса Исхак Ислямов, присоединивший к России Землю Франца-Иосифа. В ресторане «Самарканд», владельцем которого был купец Рахматулла Халитов, бывал Л.Н. Толстой.  В Луна-парке, созданным на деньги другого татарского купца Хабибуллы Ялышева, любил бывать поэт Александр Блок.
Но более всего мне запомнились встречи с живыми людьми, свидетелями эпохи. Так, например, мне посчастливилось общаться с дочерью Якуба Халекова – имам-хатиба Соборной мечети в 1921–1931 гг. Самия апа родилась в 1922 г. и конечно помнила многое из того, что происходило в 1920–1930-е гг. в мечети и вокруг нее.
Однако как я ни пытался разговорить ее, она упорно молчала. Дело в том, что отец ее был репрессирован. Чувствовалась, что она до сих пор не верит, что на дворе другое время, и можно беспрепятственно говорить о тех, кто был незаслуженно отправлен в ГУЛАГ.
For example, there's Stepan Krichinsky, one of the three architects of the city’s Cathedral Mosque. Iskhak Islyamov, who explored the North Pole and claimed the Franz Joseph Land for Russia. Leo Tolstoy used to pay regular visits to the Samarkand, a restaurant owned by Rakhmatulla Khalitov. The Luna-Park, opened with funds from another Tatar tradesman, Khabibulla Yalyshev, was a favourite of the poet Alexander Blok.
But the people I remember most are eyewitnesses of those days who are still alive. I was fortunate enough to meet the daughter of Yabub Khalekov, the imam khatib of the Cathedral Mosque from 1921 to 1931. Samiya was born in 1922, and of course remembers a lot about events in and around the Mosque in the 1920s and 30s.
Yet no matter how hard I tried to make her talk, she remained stubbornly silent. The thing is, her father was deported under Stalin’s purges; I sensed that she still couldn’t believe that times had changed, and that one could talk freely about those sent to the Gulag.
Young Tatar boy. Photo taken in St Petersburg, circa 1905. Author unknown. Photo from Renat Bekkin's archive, used with permission.
РБ: Я бы не сказал, что мусульмане все время пытались чего-то добиться. Первые последователи ислама попали в Петербург не по своей воле – это были пленные турки, привлеченные к строительству города. Есть поговорка, что Петербург построен на костях. Так вот в основание города было положено немало костей мусульман. Что касается признания, то как раз в столице империи добиться его было сложнее, чем в регионах с преимущественно мусульманским населением. С конца XVIII века мусульмане добивались разрешения на строительство мечети в Петербурге, но смогли сделать это только в начале XX столетия. Почти сто двадцать пять лет понадобилось, чтобы мусульмане смогли хоронить своих единоверцев не где придется, а в месте, специально выделенном под мусульманское кладбище.
RB: I wouldn’t say that Muslims were always trying to secure advantages for themselves. The first followers of Islam did not arrive in St Petersburg by choice: they were Turkish prisoners of war brought in to build the city. There is a saying that St Petersburg is built on bones, and the number of Muslim bones beneath the city's foundations is not small. And recognition was harder to achieve in the imperial capital compared to regions with a significant Muslim population. For example, Muslims had been trying to obtain permission to build a mosque in St Petersburg since the late 18th century, but managed only at the beginning of the 20th. It took 125 years before the city's Muslims were able to bury their dead in a designated Muslim cemetery.
РБ: Этим занимаются отдельные энтузиасты. Официальные структуры, в том числе татарские, этими вопросами, к сожалению, не очень интересуются. Например, в 2019 г. в Левашовской пустоши под Петербургом был открыт памятник татарам – жертвам репрессий 1930-х гг.  Инициатива установить памятник принадлежала мне, но она бы так и осталась мечтой, если бы ее финансово не поддержал татарский меценат, коренной ленинградец Шамиль Измаилович Акбулатов. Что касается новых мигрантов – из Средней Азии, Закавказья и Северного Кавказа, – то для них тот мусульманский Петербург, который ассоциировался на протяжении трех веков истории города по преимуществу с татарами, – совершенно чуждое явление. Для них Соборная мечеть – это всего лишь место для совершения намаза, а не культурный объект, не символ национальной гордости как для татар.
RB: A few dedicated individuals. Official organisations, including Tatar ones, are not particularly interested. For example, in 2019 a monument commemorating the Tatar victims of Stalin’s repressions of the 1930s was erected in the suburbs of the city at the Levashovo Memorial Cemetery. The initiative for this project was my own doing, but without the financial support of Shamil Akbulatov, another St Petersburg native of Tatar heritage, it would have never been realised. As for the new migrants from Central Asia or the Caucasus, they have no connection with the city's 300 years of Muslim and Tatar history. For them, the Cathedral Mosque is simply a place to pray, not a symbol of cultural belonging or ethnic pride as it is for Tatars.
Monument to the Tatar victims of Stalin's repressions at the Levashovo Memorial Cemetery, St Petersburg. Photo from Renat Bekkin's archive, used with permission.
Tatar woman. Photo taken in Saint-Petersburg circa 1905. Author unknown. Photo from Renat Bekkin's archive, used with permission.
Можно сказать, что большая часть немусульманского населения города почти ничего не знает о мусульманском Петербурге. О самих же мусульманах господствует представление, что это были либо дворники, либо официанты. Об ученых, просветителях, врачах, меценатах, военных и других слышали совсем немногие. Не случайно в своей работе я уделял внимание не столько зданиям, сколько людям, которые в них жили и работали.
One can say that the majority knows nothing about the Muslim heritage. Most think that Muslim inhabitants were mostly watchmen in yards, or waiters. Very few have ever heard that they were also scientists, educators, doctors, patrons of the arts, and military personnel. It is not by chance that I chose to pay more attention to people in my book than to the buildings in which they lived and worked.

author: Filip Noubel


text:
Cameroon on a path to ‘national dialogue’ as Anglophone crisis continues · Global Voices
Ekonde Daniel

A man in Cameroon wears a shirt featuring President Paul Biya, taken March 20, 2008, via RNW media/Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0.
Cameroon’s leader Paul Biya, in an infrequent outing on Tuesday, September 10, announced talks to put to rest the crisis rocking the country’s English-speaking northwest and southwest regions – an impasse elapsing for the fourth year.
The conflict broke out in late 2016 when English-speaking Cameroonians began to protest the ongoing marginalization from the Francophone majority, who say the French-speaking majority government has consistently oppressed their language, culture and economies.
The protest movement, led mostly by teachers and lawyers, evolved into a militant separatist movement calling for the secession of English-speaking Cameroon. The government clamped down on Anglophone separatists and the conflict led to close to 2,000 people killed and over 500,000 displaced, according to the United Nations.
President Biya, who has been in power for 37 years, said the discussion would pull together people from a vast array of the country and will be chaired by Anglophone Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute.
“The dialogue in question will mainly concern the situation in the northwest and southwest regions. The dialogue will, therefore, rally all the sons and daughters of our beloved and beautiful country, Cameroon, to reflect on values that are dear to us, namely: peace, security, national unity and progress,” President Biya said on public television CRTV.
In view of the National Dialogue, #Cameroon’s PM Dion Ngute will meet the following… pic.twitter.com/o4D2tySHML
— Gina Sondo ?? (@GinaSondo) September 18, 2019
However, there are concerns the dialogue may be limited and remote-controlled by the country’s leadership.
Agbor Nkongho, a human rights lawyer, who was part of the initial protests, wrote on Twitter on September 11, reacting to the President’s speech:
The call for an inclusive dialogue is very appreciated. I urge those who will be attending to call for the release of all those detained in connection with the crisis, the need for constitutional amendment and also to ensure that the form of the state is equally discussed.
— Agbor Nkongho (@AgborNkonghoF) September 11, 2019
After World War I, Britain and France shared control over Cameroon. France ruled French Cameroon and Britain administered a territory then-called British Southern Cameroons.
French Cameroon gained independence in 1961 as La Republique du Cameroun while British Southern Cameroons voted to join La Republique du Cameroun to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon, made up of two states: West Cameroon (English-speaking) and East Cameroon (French-speaking).
However, the first president of Cameroon, Ahmadou Ahidjo, who held power from 1960-1982, abolished the federal system in 1972. Today, there are 10 regions in the United Republic of Cameroon, made of 8 French regions and 2 English regions.
Anglophone Cameroonians have long lamented suppression from Francophone Cameroonians, who have dominated the country’s leadership since inception.
In 1991, efforts made to incise the abscess of the Anglophone problem with a similar call for dialogue fell flat. The All Anglophone Conference in 1993 and 1994 also made no impact:
When Anglophone members of the Committee on Constitutional Reform, set up by @PR_Paul_BIYA in 1993, proposed an alternative Federal Constitution, the President instead convened a “Grand Debat National” to water down & sidestep Anglo demands #AnglophoneCrisis #AmbazoniaConflict pic.twitter.com/4fMSbHbfAs
— Dibussi Tande (@dibussi) September 16, 2019
Nonetheless, President Biya recently announced a national dialogue to take place at the end of September, and several groups have already submitted proposals on how to resolve the crisis.
In one of them, the opposition party, the Social Democratic Front, led by vice-president Joshua Osih called for a neutral personality to chair the talks. Several Anglophone separatists are calling for the release of their leaders from prison after receiving life sentences.
Netizens took to Twitter to express hope as well as doubt about the impact of the national dialogue plan. Solomon Amabo called for the need for a third-party presence to ensure transparency and inclusivity:
Dialogue: ‘Who will I dialogue with? asked Mr Biya? He turns around and calls for National Dialogue, to dialogue with who then? Dialogue with ready-made resolutions-One and indivisible Cameroon? Only negotiations with 3rd party presence (UN,USA,etc) can be binding. We are not in 1961! pic.twitter.com/e74VhtMf6L
— Solomon Amabo (@solomon_amabo) September 12, 2019
Peter Tah also worries about inclusivity and wonders how peace is possible without a clear ceasefire:
Looking at how predialogue talks are unfolding, it's evident that this will be far from being inclusive. The regime seems to be picking & choosing those who would attend. Plus if this is dialogue on a crisis involving two parties, how come one party gets to draw up the agenda?
— Peter Tah (@TFomonyuy) September 18, 2019
However, Biya clarified on Monday, September 16, that the national dialogues will focus on “bilingualism, cultural diversity and social cohesion, the reconstruction and development of conflict-affected areas, the return of refugees and displaced persons, the education and judicial system, but also decentralization and local development,” according to Cameroon Online.
The United Nations says it has taken in the resolve by Cameroon’s leader Paul Biya to settle the armed conflict in the country’s English-speaking regions.
The UN urged inclusive talks to end the conflict that has persisted for nearly four years:
The Secretary-General welcomes the announcement made today by President Paul Biya on the launch of a national dialogue process in Cameroon. He encourages the government of Cameroon to ensure that the process is inclusive and addresses the challenges facing the country. He calls on all Cameroonian stakeholders, including the Diaspora, to participate in this effort.
Still, the September talks are announced amidst ongoing violence and a new surge of refugees fleeing insecure situations — including lockdowns and school closures for the last three years — in the northwest and southwest regions.

author: Ekonde Daniel


text:
Five years after an HIV outbreak in a Cambodian commune, villagers feel forgotten · Global Voices
VOD

HIV-affected women in Battambang’s Roka commune, June 2019. (VOD/Saut Sok Prathna)
This edited article by Saut Sok Prathna is from VOD News, an independent news site in Cambodia, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
The house of Yem Chrin, a local medic now serving a 25-year jail sentence, stands abandoned in Roka commune in Cambodia, located in Battambang’s Sangke district.
In 2015, a provincial court found him guilty of providing treatment without a license. Among a host of other charges, Yem Chrin was found to be responsible, ultimately, for spreading the HIV virus among hundreds of villagers in 2014 by reusing dirty syringes.
For a time, the case drew national and international attention as it was gradually discovered that almost 300 villagers — from young children to 80-year-olds, and monks at local pagodas — tested HIV positive.
With the attention came support: Guidance on learning to live with HIV, the upgrading of local roads and clinics, extra programs to help children’s education.
But five years later, life in the commune has become one of mostly silence and early death. Ray*, a 66-year-old woman living with HIV said
No one pays attention. No one thinks about us. I don’t know why they don’t care.
Saloeun, 34, said she and five family members are HIV positive. She was weak and tired on most days and found she had trouble remembering things.
The children and older people in the commune needed more support, she said.
Some children have lost their mothers. They should be given support to continue their studies.
Samoeun’s 13-year-old son lives with HIV. The 34-year-old mother said she felt isolated as the family faced constant discrimination.
I’m so lonely. Don’t they want to recognize me? I don’t want it to be like this.
Local officials, however, said they were doing what they could for the commune. Su Sanith, the deputy director of Battambang’s provincial health department, said the local government paid close attention to Roka’s plight even as international and national aid dropped off.
When the outbreak of this disease happened, there was an increase in both national and international aid for them. But later on, it seems quiet.
Still, 95 percent of affected villagers were receiving antiretrovirals, with just 10 people who migrated or stopped taking the drugs, Sanith said.
Thirty-one of the 285 HIV-positive villagers had died since the outbreak, he said, though most of them were over the age of 60. One infant and three younger people were also among the deceased.
At least two new cases of HIV had also been discovered in the commune, Sanith added.
Battambang provincial governor Nguon Ratanak touted a newly paved road into the commune and the upgrade of its health center into a hospital with skilled doctors as evidence of the government’s support.
They get [support] from the Red Cross and so on. The people are now less afraid because they understand how to take care of their health.
But for the residents of Roka commune, the dwindling levels of care don’t seem on par with the difficulty of living every day with the disease. These days, it seems they are mostly left to cope alone, they said.
Samoeun, the 34-year-old mother, said she had taken to selling boiled ears of corn on her motorbike and making trips into Thailand to try to earn extra income for her son.
She had not seen any governmental officials visit the area in over a year, she said. A sense of neglect and disappointment was turning into resentment.
“I don’t want to be forgotten,” she said.
*The women’s full names have been withheld.

author: VOD


text:
Popular Twitter thread highlights dozens of examples of Japan’s ‘Bubble-era’ PoMo architecture · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Interior of Kyoto Station, designed by Hiroshi Hara. Photo by Nevin Thompson.
A popular Twitter thread showcases the continuing presence of strikingly whimsical postmodern architecture in Japan.
Adam Nathaniel Furman, an artist and graphic designer based in London, UK, created a Twitter thread with dozens of examples of postmodern architecture from all over Japan, from the megacity of Tokyo to smaller communities on the northern island of Hokkaido and parts in between.
Probably the greatest monument to this era is also one of its last, and I believe the largest, to be completed, Hiroshi Hara’s incomparably spectacular, and overwhelmingly vast Kyoto station, begun in 1990 & finished in 1997
-
Photo courtesy of Linus Yng pic.twitter.com/yFN66iLdZQ
— AdamNathanielFurman (@Furmadamadam) September 11, 2019
The thread has been shared thousands of times so far, and provides a good background to postmodern architecture erected in the heyday of Japan's super-affluent Bubble Era of the 1980s and early 1990s, when everyone, including property developers, had plenty of money to throw around.
Furman introduces his Twitter thread by explaining:
[…] Most people associate Japanese design with either cute kitsch or zen-like minimalism, but its much more diverse, & 1 of my particular fav periods was the architecture of its 80-90s boom era; wild, strange & incredibly diverse, & unique in world architectural history
The thread showcases work by some of Japan's most celebrated architects (some of whom may or may not identify as postmodernists), such as Hiroshi Hara and Toyokazu Watanabe.
Toyokazu Watanabe‘s battleship-like Kamo Culture Hall finished in 1994 pic.twitter.com/OP9GrSqvrP
— AdamNathanielFurman (@Furmadamadam) September 11, 2019
Bunka No Sato, Cultural Centre, Tsushima Island, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, Toyokazu Watanabe, 1990
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Image unknown source pic.twitter.com/lp9xwy0Sap
— AdamNathanielFurman (@Furmadamadam) September 11, 2019
In terms of what postmodern architecture actually is, writing for Japan Policy Forum, architecture critic and historian Igarashi Tarō notes:
In Japan, the trend for postmodern architecture coincided with the bubble economy. This was a period when strikingly bold forms and daring designs flooded Japanese cities, such as Takamatsu Shin’s Kirin Plaza Osaka and Kitagawara Atsushi’s “Rise.” Peter Eisenman, famous for a relatively small oeuvre of constructed works, was able to build several extremely bold works of deconstructivist architecture in Japan during this period, including the Nunotani Building and the Koizumi Lighting Theater.
Shin Takamatsu has also left his mark on Japan's cityscapes:
Shin Takamatsu‘s Imanishi Motoakasaka, Tokyo, from 1991. This one is an absolute mind bender in real life… pic.twitter.com/Q7EO8NGX36
— AdamNathanielFurman (@Furmadamadam) September 11, 2019
Furman demonstrates that every corner of Japan features examples of postmodern architecture, including the remote fishing community of Kushiro in Hokkaido.
Fishermen's Wharf, Kushiro, Hokkaido, Kiko Mozuna pic.twitter.com/gqN0ZbCeSl
— AdamNathanielFurman (@Furmadamadam) September 11, 2019
Furman's Twitter thread has dozens of other examples of postmodern architecture in Japan. He has also written a book, with Terry Ferrell, about postmodern architecture.

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
Once hotbeds of political resistance, Czech secondhand bookstores are slowly disappearing · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

An antikvariát store in Prague. In order to sustain it, the owner runs the store during the day and works as a private security guard at night. Photo by Filip Noubel, used with permission.
In communist Czechoslovakia, authorities considered books a key vector for strengthening socialist values among the population. Soon after 1948, private publishers were either shut down or confiscated by the state — and from then on they could only print or sell party-approved titles. Many books from Czechoslovakia's First Republic were banned, along with anything else that was deemed critical of communism.
Typical atmosphere of an antikvariát in Prague that hasn't changed much since the 1980s. Photo by Filip Noubel, used with permission
But the system had a loophole: authorities tolerated the existence of antikvariát, shops that sold secondhand books, as well as art prints and records. Those shops helped individuals to clear their private libraries — the manager of an antikvariát would typically buy books from individuals looking to get rid of old volumes. Pre-1948 and other “undesirable” titles ended up seeping into those bookstores and then circulating in a sort of clandestine market.
Whenever they came across banned books, antikvariát managers would pass the information to friends and sell them under the counter to trusted individuals only. An underground culture developed around that and soon people were visiting antikvariát not just to buy books but also to mingle with like-minded individuals.
Karel Stránský, a man in his fifties who for decades worked in Prague's used bookstores, recounted the atmosphere in antikvariát shops under communism:
To byla úžasná příležitost. Když ses skamarádil s antikvářem, tak ses dostal k jedinečným knížkám. Byli tam zaměstnáni a zároveň se i kolem toho motali zajímaví lidé. To byl ráj. Jeden můj kamarád třeba viděl ve výloze antikvariátu knížku od Ivana Klímy, tak tam stál dvě hodiny před otvíračkou, aby si to koupil. Bylo to úžasné místo setkání. Mohl ses dát do řeči s člověkem u jednoho regálu o nějaké knížce, a on ti třeba řekl, to mám doma, to ti můžu půjčit. Cenově to bylo dostupný. Nebyli závislí na zisku, byl to totiž státní podnik a antikváři pobírali fixní mzdu.
It was a remarkable opportunity. If you knew the manager, you had access to unique books. The employees and the visitors used to be interesting people. It was paradise. I remember a friend once saw in the window of an antikvariát a novel by Ivan Klíma, who was forbidden back then. He waited two hours before the opening of the store to make sure he would be the one buying it. It was an interesting place to meet people. You could strike a conversation by a bookshelf and this person would say, I have this book at home, I could lend it to you. The books were affordable. People did not depend on earnings, it was a state-owned enterprise and people had a fixed salary.
With the fall of communist censorship in 1989, that underground market lost its purpose. And in the following decades, as internet access became more affordable, private owners of antikvariát began opening online shops too. Stránský recalls:
Vše se uvolnilo, i cizinci měli zájem o naše zboží. Třeba Japonci kupovali ve velkém dětské knihy s ilustracemi, do Japonska jsme občas posílali i tři banánovky knížek. To se rozjel internetový obchod, a třeba dvě třetiny zisku přinášel kamenný krám a zbylou třetinu prodej přes internet. Antikvářům se dost dařilo.
Everything was liberalized. Foreigners got interested, for example Japanese clients would buy children books with illustrations, we would send three boxes of books to Japan. Then the Internet happened, and two-thirds of sales were made in the shop and one third came from online sales. Some antikvariát really made it then.
But then came the 2008 financial crisis, which hit the Czech Republic hard around 2010. As Stránský explains:
Spousta antikvářů zavřela kamenný obchody, aby neplatili drahý nájem, pronajali si levný sklad a prodávali jenom přes internet. To byly jenom výdejny, nikoliv antikvariát, kde se dají potkávat lidi. .
A lot of people abandoned brick-and-mortar shops, in order to avoid paying for rent. They just kept a cheap storage place and sold everything online. They turned into mere providers and were no longer antikvariát where one would interact with people.
One of the largest antikvariát in Prague that has turned into a storage place and where books are no longer physically accessible but can only be purchased online. Photo by Filip Noubel, used with permission.
These days, the internet is where most secondhand books are bought and sold in the Czech Republic. According to Stránský, everything changed irrevocably with the establishment of the site Můj antikvariát (“My antikvariát” in Czech), the largest online marketplace for secondhand books in the country, where both shops and individuals can trade. Today, the site offers over 2 million titles.
Some remaining shops use social media to find customers. The store Staroknih (meaning “old books”), from Slovakia, advertises its rare titles on Instagram. The post below features a Slovak short story published in 1923.
Páči sa vám obálka povesti Jána Kalinčiaka s názvom Orava z roku 1923? ??   Jej autorom je ANDREJ KOVÁČIK (1889-1953), ktorý sa v Budapešti učil za zinkografa a neskôr študoval v tomto meste na VŠVU. ? Keď však prišla prvá svetová vojna, musel tak, ako mnoho iných, narukovať a v rakúsko-uhorskej armáde potom pôsobil ako frontový maliar. ?   Po vojne pôsobil v Turčianskom sv. Martine ako výtvarník ilustrátor Kníhtlačiarskeho účastninárskeho spolku. Práve tento spolok v roku 1923 vydal druhé ilustrované vydanie knihy Jána Kalinčiaka Orava, ktoré by ste si v tom čase mohli zaobstarať za 12 Kčs. ☺???  Príde nám neuveriteľné, že táto knižka za pár rokov oslávi storočnicu. ?  #staroknih #antikvariát  #dnescitam #kalinciak #kalincak #jankalinciak #povesti #orava #turcianskysvatymartin #andrej #kovacik #maliar #starakniha #knjiga #knihovert #knihomolka #knihomol #kniznitip #viaccasunacitanie #copravectu #tipnaknihu #tipnaknizku #knizka #knizky #dnesctu #bratislava_ #antikvariat #antikvariatet
A post shared by  Staroknih (@staroknih) on
As the retail industry moves online, brick-and-mortar antikvariát are also becoming rarer. They now came to symbolize a symbol of the past revered only by a declining number of adepts. Alain Soubigou, a French expert in Czech history, says in an interview to Czech Radio International that the number of shops in Prague is diminishing:
Sur la vingtaine d’antikvariát que j’avais l’habitude de fréquenter dans les années 1990, il n’en subsiste plus qu’une demi-douzaine, mais avec des fonds intéressants et avec lesquels j’ai conservé des liens de sympathie qui leur font mettre de côté des livres qui pourraient m’intéresser.
From the twenty plus antikvariát shops I used to visit in the 1990s, half a dozen are still around, but they have interesting collections and as I maintain a close friendship with them, they put aside books that could interest me.
Ironically, the shop he mentions at the end of the interview is now closed.
Nostalgia for antikvariát culture has made it to popular culture — the song “Antikvariát” song, by the legendary Czech pop band Tata Bojs, being a notable example:
Já tě vítám
V antikvariátě svém
Já tě vítám
V koutku světa zapadlém
I welcome you
In my antikvariát
I welcome you
In a lost corner of the world
This is my antikvariát
Here I have everything I like
Records, books, maps, music sheets
The only thing missing is you
I have also asked Stránský about his most cherished memory of his time in an antikvariát:
Obsluhoval jsem kambodžského krále, koupil tehdy spoustu knih o Praze a tanci.
I served the King of Cambodia, he bought a bunch of books about Prague and dance.
Karel Stránský remembering the golden age of the antikvariát. Photo by Soňa Pokorná, used with permission.
Indeed, Norodom Sihamoni, the current King of Cambodia, grew up and studied classical dance in then-Czechoslovakia. But Stránský is also making a pun: one of the most sought-after books in the antikvariát of old was Bohumil Hrabal‘s novel “Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále” (“I served the King of England“) which used to be banned along with much of his work.
Stránský concludes by acknowledging that it's the pull of nostalgia that keeps driving people to those places:
Za komunistů to bylo exkluzivní místo, pak se to změnilo na fabriku. Já tam pořád chodím, protože žiju postaru. Knihy přes internet nekupuju. Do antikvariátu jdu s tím, že hledám něco konkrétního, ale pak najdu něco jiného a to mě na tom baví. Myslím si, že takoví lidé ještě jsou. Antikvariát, když funguje, tak lidi tam chodí dál, protože to má pořád své kouzlo, i v dnešní době.
It was an exclusive place under communism, then it turned into factories. I still go there because I am a man of the old ways, and I don't enjoy browsing on the Internet. I look for something and and find something else, and that is what I like. I think there are still people like that around. When an antikvariát works out, then people go there because it has magic in it.
The Czech Literary Center compiled a list of the best antikvariát in the Czech Republic.


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Why the Bahamas needs kindness right now · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Screenshot from a YouTube video uploaded by NBC News showing drone footage of the Bahamas’ Marsh Harbour destroyed by Hurricane Dorian.
The Bahamas is struggling to right itself after the passage of Hurricane Dorian, the first Category 5 storm of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season.
The deadly Dorian lingered over The Bahamas from September 1-3, 2019, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, including a steadily climbing death toll, severe flooding, unfathomable damage and, more surreptitiously, serious cases of post traumatic stress.
These are undoubtedly scary times: the heating of our planet has made storms that much more intense and small island developing states have been, thus far, hardest hit and least equipped to deal with them. In fact, The New Yorker came right out and called the whole ordeal “a climate injustice”.
While many Bahamians in some of the worst affected areas have been lamenting what they say is the inadequate response of their government, the country's official website at least, seems well organised, with a page dedicated to hurricane disaster relief. The site contains information relevant to the ongoing relief efforts, including various ways in which to make a monetary donation, or to provide supplies (a handy list of the most needed items appears at the bottom of the page).
Indeed, a recent Facebook update by Trinidadian poet Shivanee Ramlochan eloquently suggested that one of the most effective ways of overcoming fear is by reaching out and giving:
I want you to feel sorry for and give to the people who have lost everything, everything. Because as afraid as I am of everything specifically and nothing in particular, I have lived a greatly privileged life, and I do not know what it is like to rub two rice grains together to see if they might magically make three, […] and I do not know what it feels like to look into the face of a hurricane and know it will take everything from you with everything it has, that it will steal the sound of your voice praying all the prayers and psalms and stotras you know.
Individuals, organisations and governments across the region — and across the globe — have been doing just that.
Some Caribbean nations sent troops to help with relief efforts on the ground. One St. Vincent and the Grenadines non-profit has been shipping safe drinking water and water purifiers to the worst-hit sections of the archipelago. Schools and churches have been putting together care packages. Celebrities have pledged their support. And the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas has partnered with a team of therapists and psychologists to support hurricane survivors through their journey of mental health recovery.
There are so many ways in which to contribute to the relief effort. But where to begin?
The website Charity Navigator is a good start, as it has rated responsible organisations that provide aid to the Bahamas. Even better, they're categorised by location, so people can choose to give to Bahamian-based charities for quicker outreach to those most severely affected.
The United States-based Center for Disaster Philanthropy is also a useful resource for “informed disaster giving”. In anticipation of the adverse effects that storms like Dorian will likely have on the Caribbean and other parts of the Americas this year, it has established the 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Season Recovery Fund, which will focus on recovery efforts in both the medium and long term. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has predicted a 45 percent chance of a more active than usual hurricane season in 2019. Donors also have the flexibility to choose which affected region to their contribution will go.
There are also targeted relief efforts like the HeadKnowles Foundation's drive to get critical supplies to the worst affected areas of Abacos and Grand Bahama, from big items like generators to small necessities like mosquito repellent. As at the time of publishing; this initiative had raised nearly US $1.5 million.
The Bahamas Alliance for Animal Rights and Kindness (BAARK) has a drive aimed at relocating animals from Abaco and Grand Bahama to foster homes in locations that are currently better equipped to care for them.
Well-established and trusted organisations like The Salvation Army, the Red Cross and Rotary also tend to have wide and efficient networks on the ground in countries the world over.
There are so many ways to help and according to Ramlochan, they all serve to cast fears aside and focus on what we can do:
We all have that beaded curtain, don't we? That jangling, petrified partition dividing how we can be strong for others, while we feel our own spine might separate from our own skeleton in front of the world's uncertainty? We all pass through it, praying between those beads. So if you are just as scared as I am, I see that. And I am terribly sorry, but I can't solve it. But I can be good to you. I hope that I am. I hope that when you come to me with all your own terrors rattling behind your bone curtains, that I am thoughtful. That I can listen to what you say and unsay. That I am kind.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Azerbaijanis wary of new ‘morality police’ · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

A police patrol in central Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, 2019. CC BY SA 3.0
On September 2, residents of Baku were informed that a new kind of police force would be patrolling the streets of the Azerbaijani capital. Local media outlets cited a statement by the Baku City Main Police Department according to which the authorities have decided to take “complex preventive measures” against issues “contrary to public moral values and national mentality.” The decision was allegedly taken after several complaints were made by residents to the police department.
Azerbaijan has been ruled by President Ilham Aliyev since 2003. The Aliyev family's business interests are internationally renowned; the glamour and glitz of their lifestyle feature in international magazines and journalistic investigations alike. But back home, appeals to conservative “national values and mentality” remain a widespread method of shaming Azerbaijanis for inappropriate behaviour, whatever that might be.
So it is no surprise that when the capital city's police made this announcement, it caused a backlash from the progressive residents of Baku. What were these moral values that demanded protection from the police? What defined the national mentality in this particular context, and what constitutes a violation of these morals and values?
“Does it mean that a woman wearing a short dress or a couple holding hands is immoral?” asked lawyer Samira Aghayeva in an interview with Azadliq Radio, the Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe. Aghayeva continued that the authorities provided no reference to what exactly constitutes a violation of “national mentality,” which she believes shows that the police themselves do not know how they will handle such cases.
In the absence of a clear legal framework, there are fears that the police could simply harass citizens in the name of “public morality,” on whatever grounds they see fit. This would follow the precedent of the police acting as a watchdog of public morality, as in Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Malaysia.
MeydanTV, an independent media platform operating in exile, published a caricature by Gunduz Aghayev mocking the “morality policemen.” Azerbaijanis were quick to share their scepticism on social media networks:
They are creating “morality police”. They will be measuring the length of skirts on Torgovaya [a major pedestrian street in Baku]
It soon became clear that the introduction of “morality police” was really about monitoring one very specific industry: sex workers and sex tourism in Azerbaijan.
In a September 14 statement, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Internal Affairs appeared to backtrack, announcing that dedicated “morality police” would not appear in Baku after all. Instead, special patrols identifiable by their dress code would be responsible for “removing women of easy virtue who offer tourists sexual services” from the city centre.
The state statistical office does not provide the number of individuals employed by this specific industry. According to UNAIDS database, in 2018 the number of sex workers in Azerbaijan was estimated at 32,000, a rise of over 5,000 since 2011. Over the same period, Baku residents started to actively criticise the perceived rise of prostitution in their city.
But in a country where police are notorious for corruption and past attempts to curb prostitution and other illegal activities have proved futile, the success rates of new special units seem questionable. In authoritarian Azerbaijan, the police have long helped carry out repression and surveillance of dissidents and opposition activists. If anything, the role of Azerbaijan's police has just been upgraded to interfere even more in people’s personal lives — all to resolve a problem which is by no means new.
In fact, many of the experts who have spoken on the recent development agree that introducing morality police is unlikely to lead to a decrease in sex work. Instead, they say, the authorities should be coming up with solutions for the real reasons that drive people into the sex industry; they must address underlying causes such as a lack of good education, wage inequality, and poor economic opportunities.
Which all begs the question: where is the morality in the morality police?
We don't need morality police. We need moral police.

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


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China Central Television urges netizens to doxx Hong Kong protesters and reporters · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Screenshot from doxing site hkleaks.ru.
China's state television broadcaster has urged mainland Chinese netizens to use doxxing site hkleaks.ru to expose Hong Kong protesters and reporters.
The hkleaks.ru site was set up to doxx Hong Kong protesters and reporters by publishing their personal information including photos, residential addresses, birth dates, telephone numbers and social media accounts. It also has an email for people to specifically report on Hong Kong protesters.
What is doxxing?
Doxxing is the practice of publishing someone's personal information without their permission, with the intention to threaten or intimidate. While some of this information may be readily available or easy to find such as a user's own photos posted on their public social media profiles or pages, the intention with doxxing is to harass and threaten the targeted person.
On 18 of September, the China Central Television (CCTV) published a video on its official Weibo account, in which it urged others to use the site to “take off the masks” of the Hong Kong ”rioters”.
The doxing website, was originally registered as hkleaks.org around the end of August and recently moved to a Russian hosting service upon complaint against privacy violations:
Doxxing site hkleaks. ru hosted on Russian domain, using a Russian email (Yandex) & Russian DDOS protection service (ddos-guard) posts personal details of protesters, activists. It recently added info of an HK01 employee & other Apple Daily staff, editorial and non-ed pic.twitter.com/pzwaCgyaUx
— Selina Cheng 鄭嘉如 (@selina_cheng) September 16, 2019
The site has thus far publicized more than 90 individuals’ personal data. The majority of the victims are pro-democracy lawmakers, student activists and journalists from Apple Daily and the Stand News. The site labelled them as ”pro-Hong Kong independence rioters”.
The site also encourages others to submit Hong Kong protesters’ personal information to the site administrator via a Russian email address.
It is illegal to publicize personal data according to local privacy law. So, the Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner could only submit a privacy violation complaint to the Russian domain registry and the hosting company as Russia is outside the authority's jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, details of the website have been systematically spread via mainland Chinese social media platforms. The video posted by the state-run CCTV on Weibo captured contents from the doxxing site and urged Chinese netizens ”to act”:
【转发！认清这些嘴脸！被摘下面罩香港暴徒名单】近日，有网友制作了一个名叫“香港解密”的网站，里面罗列了各种乱港分子和“港独”的名单。网站分成“毒果记者”“港独暴徒”“乱港头目”三类，并按照姓氏排列，方便大家看清楚这些丑恶嘴脸！摘下他们的面罩，一起行动！转！（听港一铜锣湾）
[Repost this! Take a close look at these ugly faces! Take down the mask of Hong Kong rioters] Recently, some netizens have created a “HKleaks” website which have a list of pro-Hong Kong independentists and chaos instigators. The website has three categories: “reporters from poisonous apple”, “pro-Hong Kong independent rioters”, “instigators of chaos in Hong Kong”. It also has a surname index to help the audience to take a closer look at these ugly faces. Take off their masks and let’s act. Repost this! (via WeChat channel: Hearsay from Causeway Bay)
The video was reposted by local media outlets, branches of Chinese Communist Youth League, local police’s weibo accounts and others. It then made its way to Hong Kong via WeChat and Weibo and spread on other social media applications such as WhatsApp.
Many speculated that Beijing has a role in the doxxing of protesters. One of the victims explained to a pro-democracy district councilor Chiu Chu Bong why he believed mainland Chinese police authorities are involved in the doxxing:
有榜上有名的和理非手足向本人透露，自己只是正常參與遊行，非知名社運人士，只擔任普通文職工作，卻被網頁指責為勇武派暴徒，參與多次非法集會，甚至公開個人資料，包括全名、出生日期、Facebook及地址。
早兩個月返大陸過關，被公安扣留5個鐘，期間公安沒收手機檢查，並觀看到相片，指佢參與非法遊行。公安更以USB手指盜取手機內的資料。
事主表示所參與的遊行，全部都有警方發出的不反對通知書。在公安要求填寫的口供紙，地址欄亦刻意寫錯兩處，但上述網頁同樣地照顯示出錯誤的地址。
所以，事主100%肯定係公安將香港人的個人資料洩露。
A peaceful protester told me he was just an ordinary citizen who had joined the protests. He is working as a clerk but was labelled as a “militant protester” who participated in various illegal demonstrations. The site has published his full name, birthday, facebook account and address. He was detained by the mainland Chinese police for 5 hours two month ago and they checked photos on his mobile phone accusing him of participating in illegal protests. The police downloaded information from his phone with an USB.
He defended that all the demonstrations had police permit. The police asked him to fill in a statement and he deliberately wrote a wrong address on the document. The wrong address appeared on the website. Hence he was 100% sure that the leak came from the police authorities.
Another victim told Apple Daily News that his photo on the website was the photo he used in his China travel card. Hence, he suspected that Chinese government-affiliated China Travel Service (Hong Kong) Limited is one of the sources of the leakage. A third source said that the address and phone number he used to apply for his China Travel Visa were published on the site.
While doxxing has also been used by some Hong Kong protesters to publicize information on pro-Beijing mobs who attacked the protesters and police officers who used excessive force during arrests, the related information would usually be quickly taken down from major platforms as they are against the local privacy law. On the other hand, the doxxing of protesters and journalists facilitated by China state run and party affiliated media outlets, could result in a massive political purge.
Hong Kong journalist association has issued a statement expressing concern about the personal safety of the doxxed individuals.
Meanwhile, internet activists are filing a complaint to the website hosting company demanding the takedown of the doxxing site.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
In a Pakistani town, Hindu-Muslim relations are tested after a Hindu temple is vandalised · Global Voices
R Umaima Ahmed

Pakistan has one of the strictest anti-blasphemy laws in the world which is often misued. Image via Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0
On 15 September 2019, protests broke out in the town of Ghotki in southeast Pakistan. Protesters were responding to an alleged incident of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad by a member of the Hindu community. The protestors vandalized a Hindu temple and damaged the Sindh Public School where the alleged blasphemy was believed to have taken place. The local Hindu community remained indoors out of fear as a number of videos surfaced on social media of stick-wielding protesters chanting slogans.
In response to the violent reactions of the protesters, members of both the Muslim and Hindu communities spoke out against the vandals with some netizens pointing out how religious extremists are bolstered by the blasphemy law.
Notan Lal, a member of the Hindu community and the owner of the Sindh Public School, was accused of saying blasphemous remarks to his student Muhammad Ihtisham. Ihtisam's father, Abdul Aziz Rajput, lodged a First Information Report (FIR) under Article 295(c) of the Pakistan Penal Code which deals with “derogatory remarks in respect of the Holy Prophet”.
According to reports, the student Ihtisham admitted to exaggerating the blasphemy accusation because he was angry with the principal Notan Lal for scolding him. Ihtisam went on to ask Notan Lan for forgiveness.
Journalist Bilal Farooqi shared:
A Hindu principal in Ghotki, Sindh has purportedly been accused of committing blasphemy by extremists, who have vandalised his school. Hindu community in the area is in danger. They must be provided with protection immediately! Video & report via Shankar Meghwar pic.twitter.com/Xctf04brli
— Bilal Farooqi (@bilalfqi) September 15, 2019
When videos of the vandalism started circulating on social media there was an uproar over the damage to the temple, with people condemning the incident and demanding the police to arrest the culprits immediately.
Hamza Ali Abbasi wrote:
#Ghotki As a Muslim, a Pakistani, i m ashamed today & i want to apologise to our Pakistani Hindu community. We all must seek forgiveness from Allah for this atrocity. The time has come to launch an organised ideological effort against this mindset which results in such incidents. pic.twitter.com/XpBivehBxl
— Hamza Ali Abbasi (@iamhamzaabbasi) September 16, 2019
It is reported that Hindu teacher has been accused of blasphemy in Ghotki.
We know about how people accuse non-Muslims of committing blasphemy. State has responsibility to protect its citizens and take action against those who misuse blasphemy law
1/2
pic.twitter.com/0VT9ou04IH
— Veengas (@VeengasJ) September 15, 2019
Mob ruined school and then destroyed Hindu Temple over the allegation of blasphemy in Ghotki.
Government ought to arrest those ruined Temple and school, no one has right to harm other religious places. And, state must enact a law to stop misuse of blasphemy. 2/2
— Veengas (@VeengasJ) September 15, 2019
In addition, Inspector General of Police Sukkur Region assured the people:
Yes we are trying to deal with a serious situation in a cool, calculated, impartial and professional manner. Moderate and educated sections of society must fully support our earnest efforts to do justice and maintain peace in Ghotki, please https://t.co/6beA0dgtCx
— Addl IGP Dr Jamil Ahmed (@jahmed95) September 15, 2019
The inspector general kept updating his social media feed with the situation:
Alleged accused in a sensitive case of Ghotki is now in the custody of Police. Situation in Ghotki is back to normal within 12 hours.
Fair investigation is being done after confirming facts & justice ensured. Cases against hooligans are being registered & miscreants being nabbed.
— Addl IGP Dr Jamil Ahmed (@jahmed95) September 15, 2019
According to the latest updates, the police registered three cases against rioters for vandalism, threats and road blockages.
There were speculations that some of the protestors were followers of a local religious leader Pir Abdul Haq alias Mian Mithu, who is widely accused of involvement in forced conversion of Hindu women in Sindh. However according to the police, Mian Mithu was not in the town that day and his son was part of the peace committee that met with the Hindu community later in the day, still, a hashtag was trending on social media to arrest Mian Mithu:
Pakistan Human Rights Activist Kapil Dev tweeted:
Only one demand: #ArrestMianMithoo
Does he need any introduction? He forcibly converts our daughters, misuses religion and incites violence against #Hindus. Such monsters bring a bad name to #Pakistan.
ENOUGH.
Let's #retweet this to make our voice heard & get him arrested. pic.twitter.com/VjTyMzrhh4
— Kapil Dev (@KDSindhi) September 16, 2019
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has condemned the incident and asked the authorities to intervene immediately to bring law and order in the area.
#Ghotki The authorities must take prompt action to quell the violence and ensure the safety of the school principal being targeted. The video circulated earlier is chilling: mob violence against a member of a religious minority is barbaric, unacceptable. https://t.co/0OrxUsO2fV
— Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (@HRCP87) September 15, 2019
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Member of the National Assembly Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, who heads the Pakistan Hindu Council, helped to keep the accused Notan Lal safe. Lal was shifted to an undisclosed location to keep him away from the mobs and to be handed over to the police as needed.
Important Message on #Ghotki incident pic.twitter.com/FbYbye0lZl
— Dr. Ramesh Vankwani (@RVankwani) September 15, 2019
Despite the chaos in the area, a large number of people from Ghotki came forward to support the Hindu community. Some Muslim elders not only stayed up the whole night in the temples to support them, but they also joined peace rallies, helped the police maintain peace, and sent out messages to their followers to respect the sanctity of places of worship.
Yesterday we visited the Sacho Satram Das temple&met the Hindu community, we also met the local Islamic clerics&scholars.We assure that a fair investigation would be conducted after confirmation of the facts.Justice will prevail. Now the situation in #Ghotki is back to normal. pic.twitter.com/U2y2SzmKTs
— Syed Nasir Hussain Shah (@SyedNasirHShah) September 16, 2019
After the murder of the Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer in 2011 for his views on the country's blasphemy law, discussions around Pakistan’s blasphemy law have grown. Pakistan inhertited the blasphemy laws enacted by British colonial authorities and made them severe by including elements from Muslim Sharia law during the 1980s making it one of the strictest anti-blasphemy laws. In the past three decades, thousands have been arrested and dozens of people have been reportedly murdered following blasphemy allegations.
Earlier, people did not talk about it out of fear of backlash but now people openly discuss how Aasia Bibi, Mashal Khan, Junaid Hafeez, Shama Shehzad and others have suffered at the hands of religious extremists and the blasphemy law.

author: R Umaima Ahmed


text:
Trinidad & Tobago government to rethink Sedition Act · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A screenshot of Trinidad and Tobago union leader, Watson Duke, taken from a YouTube video of a news report in which he alleges that Tobagonian firemen face discrimination. Duke was arrested under the Sedition Act on August 26, 2019. Video uploaded by TTT Live Online.
The recent arrest of Watson Duke for statements he made in 2018 has brought the issue of dissidence — and how it is handled — into sharp focus. Duke, president of Trinidad and Tobago's Public Services Association (PSA) and the minority leader of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), was arrested because his statements were deemed in violation of the country's Sedition Act.
Duke himself is a controversial figure, but that aside, his case has prompted public discussion about the legislation itself, and now the government is in the process of reviewing it.
Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, who has already received a white paper on the legislation, has made it clear, however, that review does not mean repeal. Making reference to the country's turbulent history of uprisings (a Black Power revolution in 1970 and an attempted coup in 1990), the AG was firm in his stance that some version of the law must remain in place.
But not everyone agrees. In a letter to the editor at Wired868, Tye Salandy lumped the Sedition Act together with “marijuana laws, anti-loitering laws, vagrancy laws, and obeah laws” as “colonial weapons enacted to control and police black and brown bodies and create a society to mostly suit European and elite interests”.
Originally drafted under colonial rule as a way to quell rebellion and silence iconoclastic publications, the Sedition Act followed Trinidad and Tobago into the post-independence era. Salandy's point is not that the laws are archaic, as many suggested, but rather that they are “abusive”, “ill-conceived” and “have no place in our modern society”:
The Sedition Act, in particular, has been weaponized against the trade union movement, Black Power protestors and other persons who expressed views that challenged the colonial and post-independence authorities. All these laws have contributed to the underdevelopment of our country by denying the public access to a wide range of views, especially from those who have alternative perspectives.
The particular danger of laws such as the Sedition Act is that, given their origins, they are ambiguous and can be selectively activated at any time in ways that are against our democracy and free speech.
The Act defines sedition as “to bring into hatred or contempt, or to excite disaffection against the Government or the Constitution”.
In another post at Wired868, Senior Counsel Martin Daly offered his legal insight. He said he feels “the bar for seditious intention is set far too low”:
Nevertheless, I do not agree that the Sedition Act should be repealed because I support the prohibitions contained in it against engendering or promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility between different ‘classes of inhabitants distinguished by race, colour, religion or employment’.
What is needed is an urgent amendment of the Act to qualify seditious intention by adding a specific requirement that the prohibited acts and statements must be ones that urge forceful or violent action against the state, the government or the constitution.
Citing the example of a citizen who recently disguised himself in order to safely comment on a controversial public sector construction contract, Daly went on to suggest that the Australian model of “good faith” defences to sedition charges would be useful in working out proper parameters for the local model. Daly added:
The Phantom, as he has been called, reportedly disguised himself for fear of being charged with sedition. I loved this piece of theatre precisely because it illustrates the thin line between inciting disaffection and robustly pursuing transparency and accountability—particularly when the Government’s response to concerns about what might be going on behind certain scenes is to shout ‘lies’.
Or as Salandy put it:
The best of the Caribbean has come from the seditious nature of the people […] the most important advances our country has ever made have come from this spirit of resistance. It is the inherent right of human beings to express different views, to question authority and to challenge unjust laws.