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So You Need to Get Around Madagascar? · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

For newcomers, public transportation can be a challenge in Madagascar. There are many reasons why. For its size, at 590,000 km2, the country's road infrastructure is antiquated and underdeveloped. The railroad network is expanding but still is not available in most of cities.
In the urban centers, public transportation is limited to overcrowded buses and minivans and the urban railroad remains a project only for the capital city, Antananarivo.
Public transportation is a well-known issue in the capital city. There are close to two millions inhabitants and an estimated total of 110,000 cars. The urban roads are often congested, as seen on the photo below:
Urban traffic in Antananarivo via Madagascar-aventures. CC-NC-2.0
The impact of traffic on urban commuting is also recorded in a video here by vive Madagascar:
This type of congestion is so unbearable for the residents that the Antananarivo government is evaluating the possibility of installing an urban cable car system between the two most populated hills of the city [fr]:
Cette ligne devra desservir la Haute Ville et Mahamasina. Toutefois, le PDS n’a pour l’instant fourni aucun détail quant au début des travaux ni au coût financier du projet.
En ce qui concerne l’utilisation de téléphérique urbain, la Capitale se dotera de ce mode de transport en commun après la Paz.
This system will link the Upper Town District and Mahamasina District. However, the mayor has yet to provide any details about the start or the financial cost of the project. Regarding the choice of an urban cable system, the capital city will get inspiration from the system developed in La Paz.
Given the estimated cost of such project (estimated at 166 million euros or 230 million US dollars for the system in La Paz) and the rampant poverty in the city, many wonder whether such a project is appropriate. Marc Harmelle wrote [fr] (post has since been deleted):
Plutôt que de penser construire un téléphérique, ne faudrait il pas commencer à raser les bidonvilles , reloger ces gens comme des êtres humains , soigner et scolariser leurs enfants ?
Rather than thinking of building a cable car system, should we not start with cleaning the slums, relocate the people to places that are more in line for human dignity, give them healthcare and educate their children?
Public transportation in Madagascar
If congestion is the main issue inside the cities, the interstate roads are also in need of major maintenance work. Bill on Madagascar Tribune noted that there is a lot left to be done [fr]:
11 700 km de routes à réparer dans tout Madagascar en 6 mois […] l’OTU (Office des travaux d’urgence) va se consacrer aux travaux d‘urgence et aux entretiens provisoires des routes endommagées par les catastrophes naturelles
11,700 km of roads need to be repaired throughout Madagascar in the next six months […] The UTO [Office of Emergency Work] will be in charge of the roads in need of urgent repair and the temporary repairs of the roads damaged by natural disasters.
The NGO Lalana (Roads in Malagasy) alerted readers to the status of the RN2 highway linking the capital with the main port of Madagascar Toamasina [fr]:
Le patrimoine routier du pays se dégrade. La crise politique a complètement chamboulé le mécanisme de financement du programme d’entretien routier et des travaux d’urgence. Des dégâts, laissés par les cyclones qui ont frappé le pays, l’année dernière, ne sont toujours pas réparés à l’heure actuelle. C’est le cas, entre autres, de la route nationale 2, reliant Antananarivo à Toamasina. Plusieurs mini-éboulements, des portions de route emportées par les torrents
Roads around the country are deteriorating. The political crisis has completely messed up the funding mechanism for road maintenance and urgent repair programs. Damages from the hurricanes that hit the country last year are still not repaired at the moment. This is especially true on the National Highway 2 linking Antananarivo to Toamasina where several rockfalls can be seen. Portions of the road were also washed away by water floods.
“Rural taxi” on national roads in Madagascar. Via Tana News. Public domain
Traveling across Madagascar through public transportation is still a unique experience. The most affordable way to travel is via the rural taxi, Taxi Brousse. Taxi Brousse comes in many kinds of vehicles, but mostly as a minivan, as seen on the previous photo. Once in a city outside the capital city, one can travel via “pousse pousse”, the local name for a rickshaw, as seen in the following video:
Ariniaina, a Global Voices author based in Madagascar, pointed out that the legislation has changed in Madagascar regarding rickshaws, but it is still an important means of transportation for many locals:
Rickshaw as a mean of transportation pulled by a human being has been considered a violation of human rights. So the Commune [city hall] of Antsirabe [the second largest city in Madagascar] launched the “cyclopousse” – a rickshaw pulled by a bike.  Yet, “traditional” rickshaws are still the main transportation for many Antsirabe residents.
Ariniana posing with a rickshaw owner and his rickshaw in Antsirabe, Madagascar. Used with permission.
Public transportation is trying to catch up with the rapid evolution of the fast-growing Malagasy population, but given the important economic constraints, it's to be expected – at least for a little while.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Catching Up with the Togolese E-Waste 3D Printer Makers   · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

In 2013, we were introduced to the E-Waste 3D Printer project by Woelab engineers in Togo. My Africa Is gives the genesis of the WoeLab project and what the makers hope to achieve going forward :
The Woelab team has organized conferences with individuals in the medical field in Africa, to get a better understanding of the implications of a tool like a 3D printer in the local health sector and beyond. The vision of the Woelab team is to supply 3D printers to cyber or internet café’s which are widely used in Lome.

source: news-globalvoices

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


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Collaborative Economy Visionaries Gather at OuiShare Fest 2014 in Paris  · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

The OuiShare Fest 2014 will gather thousands of activists for a conference on collaborative economy from May 5 -7 in Paris, France. The objective of the festival is to exchange on a common vision of an economy relying on horizontal networks and communities. Here is a video presenting the festival:


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Colombia: Gustavo Petro Returns as Mayor of Bogotá · Global Voices
Lully

Image by user Arttesano on Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0.
The legal battles continue in the Colombian courts regarding the case of Gustavo Petro, removed from office by President Juan Manuel Santos on March 29, 2014. After President Santos did not abide by the precautionary measures issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), he then reinstated Petro in compliance with the ruling of the Superior Court of Bogotá, which followed the writ of protection filed by a citizen.
Twitter has become the place committed to updating what is happening with this process. Initially, Gustavo Petro’s first reaction was reported, but also the news of the President of Colombia accepting the decision:
Esta vez Tribunal Superior de Bogotá protege derechos políticos, que son derechos humanos de la ciudadanía bogotana, de Bogotá y los míos
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) abril 22, 2014
This time the Superior Court of Bogotá is protecting political rights, which are the human rights of the citizenship of Bogotá—Bogotá’s and mine.
He firmado decreto que restituye al alcalde Petro. Mi deber como presidente ha sido, es y será siempre cumplir con la ley.
— Juan Manuel Santos (@JuanManSantos) abril 23, 2014
I have signed the decree to reinstate Mayor Petro. My duty as President was, is, and will always be to comply with the law.
On Twitter, the supportive messages for Petro continue:
Éxitos @petrogustavo en la gestión. Con seguridad saldrá adelante. La democracia está contenta.
— Horacio Serpa Uribe (@HoracioSerpa) abril 24, 2014
Successes for @petrogustavo in management. He will surely succeed. Democracy is happy.
@petrogustavo gracias alcalde, por ser ese caudillo popular y velar por los menos favorecidos. Dios lo bendiga.
— Edwin Borda Sepúlved (@EdwBorda) abril 27, 2014
Thank you, Mayor, for being that popular leader and looking after the disadvantaged. God bless you.
There are also those expressing their admiration and characterize him as President of Colombia:
@petrogustavo soy de tulua valle y por favor no me defraude usted tiene que ser nuestro presidente! mi presidente .
— Juan carlos montes (@jmontesve) abril 27, 2014
I’m from Tulua Valley and please do not disappoint me, you have to be our president! My president.
We also find messages of reflection and analysis, like the ones expressed by the writer and screenwriter Gustavo Bolivar for his followers:
El mensaje dlas mafias del poder con esta persecución tan descarnada a @petrogustavo es: roben y dejen robar o les hacemos la vida imposible
— Gustavo Bolívar (@GustavoBolivar) abril 24, 2014
The message of the mafias of power with this obvious persecution of Gustavo Petro is: steal and let steal or we will make your life miserable.
On the other hand, other people who do not support Gustavo Petro also spoke up:
Si antes detestaba a Petro ahora si lo odio a el a su partido,a los que lo rodean a su bandera a sus amigos de Cuba pic.twitter.com/mnonL9r7y1
— Patricia P Venturoli (@PatriciaParraV) abril 25, 2014
If I detested Petro before, now I hate him, and his party, those who rally around his flag, his Cuban friends.
Restitución de Petro es una burla a los procedimientos establecidos. Si no sirve que lo acepte y adios
— Enrique Piedrahita (@enpiet) abril 23, 2014
Reinstating Petro is a mockery of established procedures. If it doesn’t work, accept it and goodbye.
However, a weariness in the air can be perceived among the people, as we can see in the opinions of these two users, who question the processes:
Me cansa el tema “Petro”. Esto se convirtió en una guerra de poderes y egos que no prioriza el bienestar ni la estabilidad de los bogotanos.
— Alejandra Ospina V. (@AlejaOspinaV) abril 24, 2014
I’m tired of the “Petro” story. This became a war of power and egos that does not prioritize the welfare and stability of the citizens.
Cansada de ver como juegan con Bogotá, los ciudadanos y su democracia. – ¿Se va, se queda Petro? Merecemos Respeto. #NoMás
— Rocío Infante (@rochy1111) abril 23, 2014
I’m tired of how they play with Bogotá, its citizens and its democracy. Is Petro coming or going? We deserve respect.
Others on Twitter choose to deal with these facts with humor or sarcasm:
Otra vez Petro a la alcaldia…nooo que payasada de justicia….jajaja…que circooo…
— Egarito (@Edetor) abril 22, 2014
Petro for mayor again, noooo what a farce of justice… hahaha… what a circus…
El festival de teatro de Bogotá presenta: Petro otra vez alcalde.
— a sequitas (@Davidasecas) abril 23, 2014
The Bogotá Theater Festival presents: Petro for mayor again.
In his blog “Nueva Era”  [es] Santiago Villareal Cuellar calls these events science fiction:
Como si se tratara de una novela de aquellas en que la novia deja al novio y viceversa, se ha convertido la alcaldía de Bogotá.
As if it were one of those novels where the bride leaves the groom and vice versa, that’s the mayorship of Bogotá
He bluntly concludes:
Así las cosas, de este proceso que más parece ficción que realidad, nuevamente Petro regresará a la alcaldía de Bogotá y ahora tendrá que afrontar de nuevo otro desafío, el de la revocatoria de su mandato por parte del electorado bogotano. En cualquier momento, otro capítulo de esta que parece una novela de ficción.
So, this process that seems more fiction than fact, Petro will return again to the mayorship of Bogotá, and now will have to face another challenge, the revocation of his mandate by the electorate of Bogotá. At any moment, another chapter of this, which seems like a novel.
Ramiro Bejarano Guzmán alerts us to the danger to the injunction because of Attorney General Alejandro Ordóñez when he says in El Espectador [es]:
Lo único que nos falta es que, por cuenta del enredo que se ha creado con el empeño del procurador Ordóñez de tumbar a Petro, salga damnificada la acción de tutela, la única conquista y garantía democrática que vela por los derechos de los ciudadanos de a pie.
The only thing missing is that, because of the mess created by the efforts of Attorney General Ordóñez to overthrow Petro, the writ of protection is the victim, the only conquest and democratic guarantee that ensures the rights of ordinary citizens.
And in his analysis he asserts:
No se nos puede olvidar que el causante de todo este gran galimatías, de un alcalde que un día lo destituyen y otro lo restablecen, no es la acción de tutela, sino el procurador Ordóñez y su siniestro plan de lanzarlo del Palacio Liévano [nota del editor: lugar en donde funciona la Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá]. No hay que confundirse; la acción de tutela ha sido el remedio, no la enfermedad.
We cannot forget that the cause of all this great gibberish, of a mayor who is removed one day and reinstated to office the next, is not the work of the writ, but of the Attorney General Ordóñez and his sinister plan to throw him out of the Liévano Palace [editor’s note: place where the Mayor of Bogotá works]. Make no mistake: the writ has been the cure, not the disease.
In spite of the fact that Bogotá has had three mayors in barely three days -Rafael Pardo, María Mercedes Maldonado and the current Gustavo Petro- the issue doesn’t end here: President Santos and Attorney General Ordóñez will challenge the decision before the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court.
What is true is that with the return of Mayor Pedro, convening a recall in June is certain, at which time the citizens will decide at the polls whether Gustavo Petro remains in office or not.

author: Lully


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Good Enough to Work: Low Pay and No Rights · Global Voices
NACLA

This article, written by Peter Watt, was originally published on the NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America) website. Peter Watt teaches Latin American Studies at the University of Sheffield. He is co-author of the book, Drug War Mexico: Politics, Violence and Neoliberalism in the New Narcoeconomy (Zed Books 2012).
Source of the image: Seattle Times.
Pablo is 14 years old and picks fruit in Eastern Washington State. Recounting how he left Mexico for the United States with his father, he breaks down and begins crying uncontrollably. Once the tears begin, he simply cannot stop. A medical volunteer who works with uninsured “illegals” suggests that Pablo is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition he normally associates with war veterans, but which he increasingly sees among undocumented migrants from Mexico. Pablo had no desire to migrate north, nor did his father, but they are two more among millions of economic refugees who left home out of desperation.
First there was the journey across hundreds of miles, in all weathers, on the roof of a Mexican train. The constant and unremitting fear of being assaulted and kidnapped by armed gangs like the Zetas, who work in collaboration with the police. Then, arrival at the northern border and desperately trying to avoid the unwelcome attention of cartel foot soldiers seeking to recruit by force new drug runners and assassins. Then, crossing the highly militarized border and wandering off into the remote desert for days, knowing that getting lost or running out of water means a hideous death. Even out in the desert, there are criminal gangs on the lookout for hapless migrants. And then there is the largest police force in the United States—the Border Patrol. Beyond the border, it is another 1,500 miles to Eastern Washington to join a few family members who earn a pittance picking grapes for the state’s booming wine industry. Any slip-ups or bad luck along the way will mean deportation, or at least separation from a father who might end up in a privately run detention center for months on end. The invisible, nobody people of Mexico and America’s underclass have rarely been so coveted, but for all the wrong and most perverse reasons.
Grape harvest in Sunnyside, WA. Source: Goodfruit.com.
The United States has the world's largest immigrant workforce. Immigrants constitute 14% of U.S. labor and 20% of the low wage workforce. Mexican immigrants in the United States, who constitute the largest immigrant group, also comprise the highest number of underpaid workers in the world’s most powerful economy. Up to 52% of the 11.1 million undocumented migrants now in the U.S. are born in Mexico.
By 2003, Mexican-born consumers in the United States contributed an estimated $395 billion to the U.S. economy. Nonetheless, the U.S. government has few legal obligations to provide even minimal state benefits to undocumented migrants. So while they may produce and spend billions in the United States, the state does little in return, a situation which rewards both government and employers, but which is disastrous for undocumented labor.
This contribution to the U.S. economy would not be possible without a workforce among whom millions have already risked incarceration, deportation, physical abuse, and death. What is widely deemed one of the most dangerous journeys in the world, through Mexico on top of freight trains, has become a perverse rite of passage to a shattered American dream in which toiling in the fields, working as janitors, or exploitation in the service industries, often for pay below the minimum wage and treatment as a racial underclass, is seen as preferable to even more constrained opportunities in Central America and Mexico.
Migrants, far from being in search of “handouts,” overwhelmingly enter the United States in order to escape the grinding poverty in Mexico. Why else risk the multiple dangers of the journey northward, tolerate humiliating work conditions and low pay, and chance arrest, incarceration, and eventual deportation, if not out of desperation? On the one hand, U.S. policy encourages the integration of markets globally and the free movement of goods, but criminalizes those who attempt to move as freely as foreign capital. In short, much of the story of Mexican migrants in the United States can be seen as a criminalization of poverty.
The recent hunger strike at the privately run NorthWest detention center in Tacoma, Washington is a fitting illustration of this trend. The strike was provoked by the dismal treatment of detainees and the lengthy incarceration of people whose crime is being poor. In the midst of the U.S. financial crisis, the much needed undocumented workforce is now in surplus. In response, President Obama has deported 2 million migrants, more than any other U.S. president. And private detention facilities like the one in Tacoma—in the impeccably cynical logic of late capitalism—can now make enviable profits (courtesy of the taxpayer) on the backs of the disposable and leftover labor force.
Many of those deported to Mexico (and elsewhere) have lived in the United States since they were children and no longer have any connections to their country of citizenship. They have since grown up and had families. Under the Secure Communities law enforcement program introduced by the Bush administration and expanded under Obama, 39% of those detained for immigration offenses have either spouses or children (or both) who are U.S. citizens, resulting in the break-up and often financial ruin of families each time another “illegal” breadwinner is deported.
Nearly 120 years ago, political organizer A. L. Montalvo lamented the racial discrimination suffered by Mexican-American workers, noting that they were treated like “pack animals.” His plaintive claim that they “may be good enough to work but not good enough to exercise any civil rights” resonates today with alarming intensity.

author: NACLA


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The Challenge Of Keeping The Indian Electoral List Updated · Global Voices
Rezwan

The world's largest elections are underway in India and blogger Anuradha Shankar at “A Wandering Mind” blog points to the practical challenges of keeping the huge electoral list of the country updated for ready use.

author: Rezwan


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A ‘Stressful’ Taxicab System in Cameroon · Global Voices
Dibussi Tande

Ghanaian blogger Kuukuwa writes about her experience with the taxicab system in Cameroon:
There are no taxi stations, so taxi drivers move around town all day looking for passengers. And, mind you, this is a shared taxi system. Depot (“dropping” in Ghanaian English), where one person hires a taxi isn’t common. It’s mostly tourists or Kuukuwa :-) that try it.
This is how everyone else does it.
First stand by the road in the loosely demarcated taxi stop areas, making sure you’re facing the general direction of traffic to the area you want to go to. A taxi with empty seats will slow down (sometimes very negligibly) when it approaches you. Now here’s the tricky part. You have to quickly tell him where you are going and make an offer of the fare you wish to pay, and speak fast because he slowed down oh, he didn’t stop.  For example.
*Kay and Em at roadside waiting for taxi. Sees taxi approaching. Kay clears throat*
*Taxi slows down, driver turns to look at Kay and Em*
Kay: Carrefour Etoudi, deux places, trois cent francs [fr]. [“Etoudi junction, two seats for 300 Francs”]
If taxi driver accepts the offer, he stops and honks. Kay and Em get in. If he doesn’t accept, or isn’t going in that direction, he ignores them and drives off. The average cost is 200 francs, but if it’s a very short distance and you have an authoritative voice, you can pay 100.
You can imagine how stressful this system can be for someone who doesn’t speak French well, or know the names of places.

author: Dibussi Tande


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Bangladeshis Are Not Happy With India’s Bharatya Janata Party · Global Voices
Rezwan

Subramanian Swamy speaks in Mangalore, India on 17 December 2013.
The world's biggest elections are underway in India, and so far elections have been completed in 21 out of 28 states. As voting nears its end, the competing political parties are trying to lure voters with lucrative and populist promises they say they will implement if they are elected.
Subramanian Swamy, a leading figure of the conservative Bharatya Janata Party (BJP) whose prime minister candidate is Narendra Modi, caused much outrage in neighboring Bangladesh when he mentioned in an election rally in Assam that Bangladesh should compensate India for its undocumented migrants there by giving the country one-third of its land.
He also claimed that since the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, one-third of Bangladesh's Muslim population migrated to India. According to him, Bangladesh should take them back or hand over one-third of land to India.
There are no reliable figures for how many Bangladeshi immigrants are in India, but a significant number of Bangladeshis do migrate to India to reunite with family members, for job opportunities, to escape environmental crises and other reasons. The wave of people in the past decade has prompted India to step up security along its border with Bangladesh, including the installation of barbed-wire fences.
Bangladeshi newspapers first picked up Swamy's remarks from Assam's Bengali daily Samayik Prasanga on 19 April. Along with Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and China, the country's political analysts are closely following the election as international relations will be shaped by the policies of the parties that win.
Angry reactions soon followed. User Veja Beral on forum projanmo.com commented:
বিজেপি বাংলাদেশ বিদ্বেষী দল। এরা এইবার ক্ষমতায় আসলে বাংলাদেশিদের কপালে শনি আছে। [..] তিস্তা, সীমান্ত কিছুতো হবেই না বরং যেইসব চুক্তি বাস্তবায়নাধীন সেই সব বন্ধ করতে কাজ করবে মোদি সরকার।
BJP is an anti-Bangladeshi party. If it comes to power, it will mean trouble for Bangladesh. The [long] pending issues like the Teesta water-sharing contract and border disputes will remain unresolved and all implemented treaties will be stopped by the Modi government.
The user also wrote:
ভারতে কিছু অবৈধ বাংলাদেশি আছে এটা সবাই জানে কিন্তু সেটা ৫ কোটি (বিজেপির দাবি) এটা বিশ্বাসযোগ্য না। হয়তো ৫ লাখকে ৫ কোটি বলে প্রচার করে ভোট পাওয়ার জন্য।
There are a number of undocumented Bangladeshis in India that everybody knows. But the astronomical figure of 50 million (which is BJP's claim) is illogical and untrue. Maybe BJP is purposefully campaigning the figure 50 million instead of 500,000.
Shamim Sujaet opined on the blog Shobdoneer:
বাংলাদেশ যেন খেলার পুতুল! যা খুশী ভাবতে পারো!
As if Bangladesh is a plaything. You can shape it however you like.
Meanwhile, Bangladeshi hacker group “Bangladesh Cyber 71″ allegedly hacked more than 300 of the Indian government's websites in protest of Swamy's comments. The admin of the group told BanglaNews24.com that they will continue the attacks until BJP withdraws the statement.
Screenshot of a website hacked by “Bangladesh Cyber 71″ in protest of comments made by Indian Subramanian Swamy of Bharatya Janata Party.
In retaliation, the official website of the Bangladesh Cabinet Division was apparently hacked by an Indian hacking group.
Narendra Modi, the prime minister candidate from BJP, doubled down on the comments during a rally in West Bengal:
You can write it down. After May 16, these Bangladeshis better be prepared with their bags packed.
Undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants has been a part of the BJP's agenda, which claims that they are being used as a votebank for the ruling Indian National Congress party. But Modi's comments indicate that this could be a political weapon they would use against their neighbor if the party comes to power.
This isn't a case of one-way migration, however. India would stand to lose its fifth largest source of remittance if relations were to sour. Around half a million Indians work in Bangladesh, and they remitted 3.716 million US dollars to India last year.


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From Igor Sechin to Dick Cheney: the End of Russia’s Zuckerberg · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Durov's solitude: no heartfelt bonding with Ilya Shebovich or Igor Sechin. Images mixed by author.
Pavel Durov—the “Zuckerberg of Russia” who founded the “Facebook of Russia”—is no longer in Russia. According to the newspaper Izvestia (which has published full-blown baloney about Vkontakte’s creator before), Durov fled the country to a five-star hotel in Dubai. The 29-year-old multimillionaire might not stay there long, however, as Izvestia also reports that Durov has exploited a peculiar “citizenship-by-investment” program in the two-island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies. For the small sum of $250 thousand, Durov supposedly purchased himself Kittitian-Nevisian citizenship, which grants visa-free travel to 131 different countries.
Izvestia’s report is still unconfirmed, but Durov does appear to have migrated virtually from Vkontakte, which he created and managed for over seven years, to Facebook, where he writes in English. Durov’s sudden activity on Facebook is rather astounding, given Vkontakte’s longtime competition against the American service. In February this year, Durov even joked in public that nothing would reverse Facebook’s “slow death.” What’s died instead, it seems, is Durov’s opposition to the world’s largest social network. For now, anyway, his fight against adversaries inside Russia has eclipsed the old rivalry with Zuckerberg.
In a short “farewell” message published on April 28, 2014, on his VK page, Durov reposted a short comic that he released in May 2012 (“at a peak of Russia’s citizen activism”) promoting several libertarian political goals for society (economic autonomy for Russia’s regions, lower taxes for the “postindustrial economy,” and so on). Until Russia makes these improvements, Durov says, returning to the country “would be meaningless.”
“Economic autonomy for the regions.” Pavel Durov's cartoon political manifesto.
Since April 24, 2014, Durov has written twice on his Facebook account. First, he asked readers to suggest “a new home” for his team of software engineers. On April 28, he gloated after the United States levied sanctions against Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, a Putin ally, whom Durov has blamed for ousting him from Vkontakte. Rumors of Sechin’s influence over Russia’s largest social network have circulated for over a year, ever since Ilya Sherbovich’s United Capital Partners bought 48 percent of the company in mid-April 2013.
Following Durov’s formal dismissal last week, Vedomosti newspaper began investigating the connection between Sherbovich and Sechin, trying to determine if Vkontakte’s founder is correct when he claims that his website is now under the latter’s “total control.” The results of Vedomosti’s research are inconclusive. The report suggests that Sherbovich may have played a part in legitimizing Rosneft’s acquisition of certain Yukos assets in 2007, but the connection—curious actions by one of Sherbovich’s old schoolmates—is tenuous. Six years later, according to anonymous sources inside Vkontakte, Sechin endorsed Sherbovich’s Vkontakte stock purchase over a rival effort by Konstantin Malofeev, another Russian entrepreneur. Sherbovich, for his part, denies that Sechin had anything to do with UCP’s bid on VK stock.
Vedomosti’s investigation, which begins with bold questions about Sechin’s potential role in Durov’s ouster, ends with a dull account of Sherbovich’s love of fly-fishing. Yes, dear readers, Sherbovich even owns an elite fishing lodge on the Ponoi River in Russia, where on different occasions he’s hosted dignitaries like Dmitri Medvedev and Dick Cheney.
And there sits Pavel Durov, maybe in Berlin, maybe in Dubai, writing in English on Facebook about his homelessness, and cheering sanctions by the United States against the man who apparently defeated him and forced him from Russia. Vedomosti, the country’s leading liberal newspaper, has studied the diabolical alliance that brought down “Russia’s Zuckerberg” and reporters have confirmed that Ilya Sherbovich really likes fishing.
Durov once joked about resigning from Vkontakte by quoting a famous line by Douglas Adams, “So long and thanks for all the fish!” Perhaps Durov could have stayed at his job, had he and Sherbovich ever shared any real fish.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Activists Battle Religion, Tradition in Gambia’s Female Genital Mutilation Fight · Global Voices
Demba Kandeh

Anti-FGM activists marching in the Gambia. Photo released under Creative Commons by GAMCOTRAP
Aja Babung Sidibeh followed cultural tradition and became a female genital mutilation (FGM) practitioner after the death of her parents years ago in her native Janjangbureh in the Central River Region of The Gambia. But she has since “dropped the knife” and taken up the fight against the practice.
“What I know today, if I had known that before, I would never have circumcised any woman,” she explained in an April 23 story in the Standard Newspaper. “We have caused lots of suffering to our women. That's why I told you that what I know today, if my grandparents knew that, they would not have circumcised anyone. Ignorance was the problem.”
Her comments were in response to the declaration by Imam of Gambia's State House Mosque Alhaji Abdoulie Fatty in the same newspaper weeks earlier that there is no FGM in The Gambia. “What we have here is female circumcision. If you know what FGM means, you know that we do not practice that here. We do not mutilate our children. What we have here is circumcision and that is our religion. We do not mutilate our people. FGM is part of our religion.”
Over 90 percent of The Gambia's population is Muslim, but Islamic clerics are divided on FGM according to Unicef report. Whereas some see it as something cultural, others believe that it is a fundamental practice (sunnah). There is no law in the country that prohibits the practice.
The imam's comments prompted website What's On – Gambia to ask its followers on Facebook, “Are we about to see the end of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in The Gambia?”
Isatou Jobis responded, calling on women to unite because they are they know the pain of the practice:
We women have to unite and kick FGM out of our country. Remember all the cutters are women and the victims are also women. How do you expect these selfish men to understand the pain we undergo. 1. They don't follow us when we deliver their children. They stay at home drinking attaye [Chinese green tea popular in low income neighborhoods and at social functions] and talking rubbish /// 2. When it comes to romance, they are zero. Do they even care whether we enjoy sex or not? /// 3. They will do anything to suppress us. NO TO FGM
Mansur Sowe knocked down arguments that FGM is a religious requirement, promotes hygiene and is part of tradition:
IT IS BELIEVED THAT….it is a religious obligation BUT the quran does not mention female genital mutilation nor circumcision.
2.it is more hygienic but fgm may cause urinary and gynaecological infections,tetanus,AIDS,severe anaemia and even death.
3.it is part of customs and traditions BUT the tradition have to change when undermine human rights and endanger the lives and health of people
4.its protects virginity BUT virginity canbe protected without girl's mutilation
5.girls will be able to have more babies BUT fgm may prevent a wowan from havin children and may cause complications during childbirth and some times even the baby and mother's dealth.
If FGM was important in Islam, argued Aisha E. Suso, there would have been a verse about it in the Koran:
Dont mix tradition/ culture with religion. Women should decide wether they want to practice fgm or not. You men who are in for it dont know what we go through in the name of culture/tradition or as some of yous say…sunnah [sayings and practices of Prophet Muhammad]. If fgm was that important to our honour, then there would have been a clear verse in the Holy book.
Aja Babung Sidibeh, the ex-FGM practitioner, is certainly not alone in the fight against FGM. The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices (GAMCOTRAP) is one of the leading organisations fighting against the practice throughout the country. The organisation works to create awareness on traditions for the preservation of beneficial practices as well as the elimination of all forms of harmful ones, including FGM.
The YouTube video below published on February 14, 2013 by GAMCOTRAP shows a call to end violence against women in the Gambia:
But there are those who still support the cutting, such as Fabakary Jammeh who wrote on What's On – Gambia's Facebook page:
FGM is healthy and Islamic. Those whose clitoris is no cut tend grow which then can attract females to catch diseases. There's no genuine scientific basis for its vilification. Is just that the West wanted to robb Africans of their precious value that are so fundamental that any derogation might mislead and cause us generation gap and mental colonialism.
Arguments such as those are swiftly debunked when victims tell of their own experiences. A post on youth organization Activista's Facebook page detailed the barbaric reality of FGM:
I would have never believed FGM really has its health implications, if not for the reason that i was an eye witness to the heart touching story of the very bold victim of not just FGM but the process called sealing. The young activist was brave enough to share her personal experience with everyone present at the [Kanifing Municipal Council] hall. Few of her words were “Mutilated at a very tender age 3 and forced to marry at 13. My rights were violated for i was mutilated and sealed all in the name of protecting me from teenage pregnancy. The marriage could not be consummated and the only option was to take me back ‘ngansing baa’ open my vaginal orifice. Could you imagine waiting your whole life to have sex with the right person just to realise you end up in pain with no feelings during sex? The worst part was during my child birth, i wanted to save a life, just to realize i may lose my precious life. Beware! the most harmful thing that could happen to a girl child is Female Genital Mutilation. #UpwithJustice and #DownWithFGM

author: Demba Kandeh


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South Koreans Accuse Government of Botching Ferry Response · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Yellow ribbons tied along a Seoul street in the hope of miracles following the Sewol ferry disaster. Photo by Lee Yoo Eun.
It's been 14 days since a South Korean ferry capsized with several hundred people on board. Now, 205 people are confirmed dead, with 97 people still missing.
The captain and entire crew of the ferry have since been arrested. Prime Minister Chung Hong-won has resigned amid criticism of the government's delayed response to the disaster. Three people from the Korea Shipping Association's Incheon office have been arrested and accused of destroying evidence.
As details of the South Korean government's botched handling of the sinking were revealed, anger has grown.
Online, users have taken aim at authorities and mainstream conservative media for merely parroting the government's excuses:
위기관리 능력이 전혀 없는 정부의 무능과 거짓, 한술 더 떠서 거짓말만 해대는 미친언론에 분노한 피해자 가족들… 세월호 참사에서 이 나라의 밑바닥이 드러나고 있다. #뉴스타파 pic.twitter.com/I5010osha0
— 미권스 (@afc_4565) April 21, 2014
The government's abysmal risk management skills, their incompetence and lies, and the media that keeps lying non-stop… All of this has enraged the victims’ families. In the wake of the Sewol ferry disaster, this country's rock bottom has been revealed.
뉴스에서 대통령이 사라졌다. 정부당국의 말실수, 집계누락 등 수많은 실책의 최종 책임자가 제일 먼저 언론에서 사라져버림. 마치 좌초한 세월호에서 선장이 제일 먼저 도망친 것처럼.
— 루나 (@fakemommy) April 20, 2014
The president has vanished from the news. The concerned government authorities’ gaffes and numerous mistakes and other failures have disappeared from media reports. Just like how in the sinking ferry Sewol, the ship's captain escaped first.
언론은 세월호 침몰 현장에 장비가 들어간 장면과 전문가들이 구조에 참여한 소식을 보여준다 언론만 보면 구조작업은 활발하다 하지만 현장에서 초기에 구조된 사람 외에 추가로 구조된 사람들은 없다 결과물은 없고 언론은 떠들고..언론보도와 현장은 전혀 다르다
— 임중수 (@js8088hb) April 19, 2014
The media shows footage of devices deployed at the Sewol shipwreck scene and clips of experts during the rescue operation. It seems like the operation is actively under way – if we only look at the media. However, there are no additional survivors besides those initially rescued at the accident scene. There is no progress, but the media keep blabbing. The real scene is totally different than what the media shows.
Outrage has further been stoked by politicians taking advantage of the calamity.
A governing Saeunri party lawmaker is under fire for wrongfully accusing a victim's parent [ko] of being an outsider “who wants to stir up turmoil and grudges against the government”. The lawmaker later explained that she was misled by fake images shared online.
And police are now investigating a writer [ko] who wrote on Facebook that the “Sewol ferry disaster is a scene directed by Pro-North Korean sympathizers who want to spread confusion and chaos in South Korean society.”
이제 국민을 좌빨에서 종북세력으로 몰아 간첩만들기는 일상화 됐다.수틀리면 개나 소나 종북,간첩을 외치는 이 어이없는 상황.세월호 인명구조에 한가닥 희망을 걸고 있는 분들은 이미 유리심장이다.작은상처에도 쉽게 상처받고 깨질 위험한 상황이니 말조심들해라
— 수연낙명(隨緣樂命) 안녕하지 못합니다 (@kriskimera) April 22, 2014
Now the tactic of branding people “red commies” and “Pro-North [Korean sympathizers]” has become a daily thing. How outrageous is this situation? Everyone accuses the other of being “Pro-North” or “North Korean spies” whenever there is a disagreement. Those people who haven't given up the slightest bit of hope in the Sewol rescue operation, those people are very vulnerable and can easily be hurt by such comments. Watch what you say.
세월호로 온 나라가 슬픔에 잠기고, 정부의 무능을 비판하는 소리가 높아지자~여기에도 종북놀이를 해 대는 집권당과 그 지지자들을 보면, 나라가 이렇게 밖에 될수 없슴을 절감케 한다. 모든 잘못을 종북으로 덮는 지배층을 바꾸지 않으면 우린 답이 없다.
— 쟝고 (@shsh7600) April 22, 2014
As the whole country is being engulfed in despair and voices that are critical of the government grow stronger, the governing party and their supporters have started wielding the “Pro-North” rhetoric. This environment made me think about what has lead the country into this kind of disaster. If we cant change the leadership which covers up every flaw with the “Pro-North” tactic, we have no answer.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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MH370: Australian Prime Minister Talks Up Hunt for Missing Airliner · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Australia’s current Prime Minister Tony Abbott is not alone in courting international celebrity status. His predecessor Kevin Rudd loved a global audience. However, the PM’s recent foray into the politically dangerous waters of aircraft search and recovery has attracted many local cynics and critics.
Ocean Shield deploys the Bluefin 21 underwater vehicle
Official U.S. Navy Flickr Page [CC-BY-2.0]
The hunt for missing Malaysian airliner MH370 has been taking place in the ocean to the west of Perth. With the world’s media watching during his visit to China, Abbott gleefully announced on 12 April 2014 that:
We are confident that we know the position of the black box flight recorder to within some kilometres, but confidence in the approximate position of the black box is not the same as recovering wreckage from almost four-and-a-half kilometres beneath the sea.
The Chinese were particularly interested as the majority of the passengers are from China.
It was a big call that he seemed to backing away from when he spoke to the media on 28 April:
Once "V confident" of finding #MH370's black box, Oz Pm Abbott now "baffled & disappointed" as search draws blank http://t.co/WLJo9fnfxE
— Jon Donnison (@JonDonnison) April 28, 2014
Many saw it as a back down:
Why did Tony Abbott tell the world weeks ago he was 'confident' Australian military had found #MH370 plane's black box? #auspol
— Sandra K Eckersley (@SandraEckersley) April 26, 2014
Abbott doesn't think he said in China that Aust had found MH370……. but rest of world took that from his words!
— Agnes Mack (@AgnessMack) April 28, 2014
Not afraid of some more hyperbole, the PM persevered at his media conference:
Abbott: "This is probably the most difficult search in human history." #MH370
— Jenna Guillaume (@JennaGuillaume) April 28, 2014
#MH370 Does Abbott know no shame? Please show some consideration for the families and stop hyping this up?
— Duke of Martin Place (@lightonhill) April 28, 2014
A thread soon emerged on twitter alleging an attempt to distract the local audience from damaging scandals concerning his own Liberal Party colleagues at the Independent Commission of Corruption [ICAC] in New South Wales. The resignation of the State Premier the previous week has been followed by more political heads rolling over money laundering.
Lol Abbott's 14:00 presser about #MH370 What a joke, distraction from money laundering allegations at #icac#auspol
— Quiet_Please (@Quiet__Please) April 28, 2014
Abbott declared hunt for MH370 "the greatest search in the history of man". But ICAC's hunt into the Liberal party might eclipse it #auspol
— Count de Monet (@Gordicans) April 28, 2014
Tony Abbott is prepared to put his money where his machismo is, but some think it’s a waste:
19 days ago Aus officials hoped to find #MH370 wreckage within "a matter of days." Now we're talking months. And $60 million in resources.
— Chico Harlan (@chicoharlan) April 28, 2014
The search area is once again being widened, as the world watches with increasing disbelief:
So Abbott's basically saying they have no idea where the hell #MH370 is. http://t.co/m1VvnS7g4J
— Matt Young (@MattYoung) April 28, 2014

author: Kevin Rennie


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Protesting in Venezuela Will Require Authorization  · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

(All links are in Spanish otherwise noted as [en] for English)
As the protests [en] in Venezuela draw upon 100 continuous days of demonstrations, the Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal of Justice's recent verdict rules that the right to protest “is not an absolute right.” In order to carry out any type of demonstration, one needs to have an express permit from the corresponding mayor's office.
Humberto Decarli writes on the blog, El Libertario [The Libertarian], about a punitive focus of the constitution's consecrated right.
During one of his interminable speeches, the late president asserted that authorization is not needed in order to protest or express opinions in public spaces. Nevertheless, a Copernican twist happens in the “revolution's” military political committee, this being understood that a right as important as this requires a non-existent blessing.
Reactions on Twitter show equal rejection.
Que no se diga mas!!!!! pic.twitter.com/jAyShatcTC RT MASIVO!
— Sergio Contreras B:. (@SContrerasB) April 25, 2014
Enough said!!!!!
When the scroungers ask for permission to KILL, we'll ask for permission to PROTEST.
There are also those who agree with the regulation, even though they have to use false information.
Ey Ciberguarimberos, apátridas, antes de criticar a nuestro TSJ revisen como es eso de la protesta en su amada U.S.A pic.twitter.com/MYMXehqoeI
— Junior ™ (@JunSiztem) April 25, 2014
Hey Ciberguarimberos [cyber guarimberos], stateless ones, before criticizing our TSJ [Supreme Tribunal of Justice], check out how protests are in your beloved U.S.A.
Why don't guarimbas exist in the United States? Sanctions: 30 years jail for attacking security agents or civilians with dangerous weapons. 10 years jail for calling to pressure the government from a public setting. Up to 35 years jail time for causing harm to security agents. 25 years imprisonment for destruction or harm to facilities or vehicles. 10 years jail for supporting or financing an unauthorized demonstration. 6 months detention for foreigners that participate in a protest.
It is worth clarifying that the term “guarimberos” is used for the people that carry out barricades and street blockades as a means of protesting.
Twitter user @ProtestaCivil posts an article of the constitution affected by the tribunal's decision.
arti 350 y 68 Para el que no sepa y para los Sapo que les quede claro RT pic.twitter.com/6grppN29rT“
— Protesta Civil (@ProtestaCivil) April 25, 2014
Article 350 and 68 for those that don't know and so that it's clear for the Sapos.
Article 68: Citizens have the right to protest, peacefully and without weapons, without any other requirements that the law establishes. The use of firearms and toxic substances is prohibited during peaceful demonstrations. The law will regulate police action and the security in control of public order.

author: Juan Arellano


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Spare the Rod, 10 Tips From a Peaceful Parent · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Out for a walk in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Photo provided by author.
I've never hit my child. I don't use threats or humiliation as weapons to control him. We are on the same team.
My parenting approach is along the path of peace.
Peace is a popular concept. It is also an elusive one. It's the buzzword in beauty pageants, the United Nations has an entire department dedicated to it, and 126 very different recipients have been awarded Nobel Peace Prizes, but one look at the news suggests we live in a decidedly un-peaceful world.
I've always tried to embrace the concept of peace beginning with me. So when I edited a story about a video of a mother hitting her own child that went viral last week, I was sad. The story was our most popular published post in April.
I was also surprised – not because it happened in my country, Trinidad and Tobago, which like many other societies isn't exactly child-friendly – but at the number of people who didn't bat an eyelid at the mother's approach. Some didn't even realise they were participating in the abuse by sharing the video.
The controversy could have kickstarted a sensible national conversation about our collective history and cycle of societal violence. Instead, it has degenerated into a bit of a circus.
Modern scientific research shows a direct correlation between violence against children and how their brains, physiology and behaviour are affected. Yet, in my opinion, we continue to rationalise corporal punishment with outdated and irrelevant psychobabble.
So here goes my attempt at disrupting the discourse with ten reasons why I try to be a peaceful parent:
1. I love my child. Real love does not hurt. Instead, it uplifts even as it grounds you; frees you as much as it gives you a place to come home to. Sometimes love means you need to be firm, but you can do so lovingly. I am my child's ally – and so are other key adults in his life.
2. Actions speak louder than words. What does my son learn if I yell while telling him to calm down? To not be calm. What would he learn if I hit him to stop him from doing something? That violence can be used to solve problems. I can't teach my child self-regulation if I haven't mastered it myself.
3. My child is not mine. Well, he is – I've got the birth certificate to prove it – but he's also his own person. Adulthood does not give “big people” the right to belittle childhood. Kids are not in a holding pattern waiting for life to begin once they become self-sufficient; the fact that they are small does not negate the fact that they are people – and all people deserve respect.
4. Punishment is not discipline. There is no merit in telling my child, “Do this, or else.” I much prefer to relate to him; to find out the motivation for his behaviour. Discipline is an opportunity to teach.
5. I refuse to be part of the problem. There are exceptions, but we lean towards being a nation of bullies. The loudest voices are usually the ones that get attention. Journalist Sunity Maharaj said it extraordinarily well: “In our impotence, we resort to the standard weapons of the disempowered: character assassination and personal humiliation. We boo, we spread rake, unable to access institutional tools for initiating change.” She was talking about politics, but it can apply just as easily to parenting.
6. Fear is counter-productive. When kids are afraid, they shut down. When you use it to intimidate children, all they hear is the anger, not anything you might be trying to say. I choose love over fear.
7. I will not compromise our bond. I won't confuse my child by hurting him and trying to demand respect in return. I must earn the respect I get. Talking things out, dealing with powerful emotions, using logic and reason to solve problems, all require a greater effort and time investment than the traditional “because I said so” approach, but the results are more enduring.
8. I believe in the power of “why”? Questions are more important than answers, because they can lead to discovery and understanding. Doing things as they've always been done holds no interest for me. We have access to research that proves how traumatic violence can be for children; buying into the “spare the rod, spoil the child” ideology makes as much sense to me as smoking cigarettes and hoping you won't get cancer.
9. I don't believe in being wrong and strong. When I've made a mistake, I apologise. Yes, to my child. There's nothing wrong with being wrong. There is something wrong with being wrong and not admitting it or worse, refusing to make amends. I won't play the power card just because I'm the parent and I can.
10. I don't have it all figured out. I'm human. Rather than convince myself that I have all the answers, I reach out. I understand that not everyone may have access to the same breadth of resources, but if you seek support you can generally find it.
Sometimes though, my connections are not even far-ranging. I simply listen to my child, realise how much he's teaching me, and I continue to grow into the parent he deserves. And that gives me a tremendous sense of peace.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Army Drafters “Do Not Give a Damn About the President” in Tajikistan · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

In mid-February 2014, the president of Tajikistan ordered [ru] that recruitment offices stop using “illegal practices” in drafting young men into the army. Blogger Rustam Gulov who has written much about illegal drafting techniques in Tajikistan suggests [ru] that the president's order has not really changed anything:
A lot of time has passed since the president issued the order, and we now have enough information to state confidently that army recruitment offices DO NOT GIVE A DAMN about the president and his orders… Recruitment offices have continued using [forceful drafting practices]… Moreover, violations by these offices have become more widespread.

author: Alexander Sodiqov


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Bektau-Ata, Kazakhstan’s “Kingdom of Unearthly Beauty” · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

A group of Kazakhstani bloggers recently returned from a trip to Bektau-Ata mountain tract which has been described as “a kingdom of unearthly beauty, full of grandeur and freedom”. One of the bloggers has posted a video depicting the breathtaking scenery of Bektau-Ata:
Detailed photo reports from the trip can be seen here and here [ru].


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China: Party Mouthpiece Urges Not to Use Non-Chinese Words · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily has been advocating the public to stop the direct use of non-Chinese words such as “iPhone” and “Wi-fi” in the Chinese language. Anthony Tao from Beijing Cream compared such attitude with autism.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Fans in Skopje Gather to Exchange Football Stickers · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Hundreds of people gathered on Sunday afternoon in a downtown park in Skopje to exchange stickers of the official Football FIFA World Cup album on April 28, 2014.
People of all ages exchanging stickers in Skopje City Park. Photo: F.S. (CC-BY)
In Macedonia, as in other countries of the former Yugoslavia, the tradition of collecting stickers is decades long, dating back at least to the 1970s and many vintage sticker albums are now valued collectors’ items. Adults participate in the exchange almost as much as children and popular brands have included Italian Panini and Croatian Kraš (Animal Kingdom). In 2006, local programmer Goran Slakeski founded the website slikicki.com [mk, en, si] which has been the center of an online sticker exchange community, extending its reach with occasional offline events such as this one.

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Does Kyrgyzstan Need A Putin? · Global Voices
Shakhnoza Isakova

Kalnur Ormushev, political analyst. Photo taken from vb.kg
Kyrgyzstan's president, Almaz Atambayev says his people “love” Vladimir Putin, a mountain in the Central Asian republic has been named after the Russian president and the national poet laureate claimed [ru] last week that it is high time the Kremlin strongman got his own street in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
But when it comes to leaders “Kyrgyzstan does not need a Putin” concluded [ru] Kalnur Ormushev, a political scientist, in an interview with the Russian-language Vecherniy Bishkek newspaper. According to Ormushev, a country with a weak multi-party system such as Kyrgyzstan requires a leader who is ‘close to the people’, unlike the ‘God and tsar’ model practiced in Russia. The interview with Ormushev was one of the most read and discussed pieces on vb.kg, Kyrgyzstan's leading online news platform, during the month of April, attracting equal measures of agreement and scorn.
During 22 years of independence Kyrgyzstan has experienced two major revolutions, several attempted seizures of power, and an ethnic conflict in the South of the republic. The violent overthrow of would-be-dictator Kurmanbek Bakiyev in the second revolution in 2010 led to significant constitutional changes that limited presidential powers, although some argue the switchover has come at the expense of security: political demonstrations, either supressed or heavily managed in Kyrgyzstan's Central Asian neigbours and Russia, are a regular feature of political life in the republic. Occasionally they spin out of control. With only one peaceful presidential transition from three, the Kyrgyz head of state is certainly a vulnerable figure compared to his or her Russian counterpart, says [ru] Ormushev:
Между Путиным и массой российской бюрократии, в том числе и федерального уровня, не говоря уже о народе, стоит в прямом и переносном смыслах “бронированный” слой ближайшего президентского окружения…А президент Кыргызстана близок – просто физически близок – не только к бюрократии, но и к простым гражданам. Он воспринимается, как человек, который рядом, до которого рукой подать. Никому не придет в голову в Москве штурмовать кремлевские стены. А попытки “взятия” “Белого дома” в Бишкеке стали уже традицией.
An ‘armored’ layer of presidential entourage separates Putin and the rest of the Russian bureaucracy, let alone ordinary people. […] While the president of Kyrgyzstan is close – physically close – not only to the bureaucracy, but also to ordinary citizens. He is perceived as a man who is always there, within reach. No one comes up with the idea to storm the Kremlin walls in Moscow, while attempts to ‘take’ the White House in Bishkek have already become a tradition.
This “tradition” has led some to call for an arbiter like Putin, or even a more totalitarian figure like Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov to impose order on the fledgling democracy. But Ormushev says this is an impossibility, due to Kyrgyzstan's more openly competitive elite:
The rise of Putin, no matter how high, does not unduly hurt any Russian politicians [within the elite] while the excessive (and even moderate) elevation of any one Kyrgyz politician above the others makes [that person] a subject of discussion, gossip, envy, and eventually an implacable enemy for the majority of participants in political life. To imitate Putin (i.e. be above everyone) in Kyrgyzstan means to resign oneself to inevitable political defeat.
Kyrgyzstan's “street democracy” is thus akin to a game wherein the players can win temporary, “tactical” victories  over their opponents without ever being able to secure a “controlling stake” as Putin has achieved in Russia, Ormushev added.
Russian president Vladimir Putiin and Kyrgyz counterpart Almaz Atambayev take a walk in the wild (kloop.kg)
As a former Soviet country where Russian channels are watched by much of the population, especially during times of heightened international tensions such as those in Ukraine, Putin remains a popular topic. Ormushev's comments were subsequently the cause of much speculation.   PR said [ru]:
Все правильно говорит, Путнин не панацея. У нас в КР уже формируется иммунитет на всяких там избранных свыше ханов или царей. Мы как кость в горле у ближайщих соседей, которые упорно придерживаются авторитаризму
Everything he says is true. Putin is not a panacea. In Kyrgyzstan we have already formed an immunity to all sorts of divinely chosen kings or khans. We are a thorn in the side [lit. “a bone in the throat] for our neighbors who stubbornly adhere to authoritarianism.
While Konsul [Консул] concluded [ru] that a new kind of leader was indeed necessary, but that this leader should be more like the legendary Kyrgyz hero Manas than a Putin copycat:
(1)    “Street democracy” is an indicator of glaring crisis of power. (2)    The main problem of modern political parties is not their ‘obsession with the leaders’, but their low competency in the sphere of politics and economics. A party – is a solid group of people, joined together by a common idea, who have a concrete plan of action in the name of common ideals and prosperity. What we observe now is a rat race of all kinds of mediocrity in the couloirs of the government for the purpose of personal gain. (3)    The political leader should not be a cheap populist, as the honorable political analyst wants to see him. Primarily, a leader must command respect at all levels of society, should be able to unite and lead. Being a leader is a talent. (4)    Putin is good in his place. He is well respected, even among his haters in the West. But Kyrgyz people should find their new Manas – wise, courageous, gracious, and distinctive. Why should the leader be replicate somebody else in his policies?
While Frunze distilled [ru] Kyrgyzstan's political problems in terms of the nation's leading passtime, animal husbandry:
Стадо баранов во главе козла,без надзора пастуха. Такие вот реалии.
A flock of sheep led by a goat herder without supervision. Such are the realities.
A number of other VB.kg readers labelled the interview “бла-бла-бла” (blah blah blah), while one bemoaned [ru] the growing number of Kyrgyz currently employed as “political scientists”:
Каждый мнит себя политологом. Рассуждать о политике за пиалой бозо и быть политологом это не одно и то же.
Every Jack fancies himself as a political scientist. But talking about politics over a bowl of Bozo [Kyrgyz fermented dairy drink] and being a political scientist are not the same things.
Other than analyst fatigue, though, perhaps the most common theme in discussions of the article was that when it comes to politics, Kyrgyzstan can only be Kyrgyzstan [ru]:
Мы смотрим зомбоящик и знаем тамошних политиков лучше чем наших. Надо сконцентрировать внимание политиков и народа на нашей Стране. Нужно учитывать то что мы это не они, у нас свой минталитет…Нужна Национальная идея которая сплотит народ и подтолкнет к прогрессу и желанию работать а не митинговать. Короче  сами знаете а то еще процитируете типо бла-бла-бла.)))))
We watch the zombie box [common slang for Russian state television] and know foreign politicians better than we know our own. We need to focus the attention of politicians and the people on our country. We should consider that we are not them, we have our own mentality…a national idea is needed that can bring the people together and encourage progress andd a desire to work rather than simply hold political demonstrations.

author: Shakhnoza Isakova


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Does the Caribbean Sanction Violence against Children? · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Caribbean's attitude to children continues to capture the attention of the blogosphere. The blog Code Red has been following stories about violence against children in three regional territories – Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago – and begins its post by saying:
Recent stories in Caribbean media have highlighted the systemic rape of boys and girls in state care and the horror houses known as children’s homes.  Getting raped while literally under the care and protection of the state is a reprehensible violation and denial of bodily autonomy.  Fleeing sexual abuse is what gets many girls in juvenile correctional facilities locked up in the first place. The abuse survivors are criminalized and re-victimized. Far from seeking to prevent sexual assault, reports from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana suggest that such violations are widespread.  Support services for sexual assault survivors are non-existent.
What are elected officials doing about this?
The post addresses the situation in each of the countries:
In Jamaica, the Minister responsible has branded the boys as criminals and practically blamed them for the state’s inability to offer adequate care. The media responded by laughing at the sexual assault of boys.  The homophobia and heterosexism which serve to silence boys who are raped is reinforced in the reporting.
In Guyana, the Minister responsible told the public that the girls who say they have been sexually assaulted are ‘no angels’, suggesting they should not be believed.  He challenged the girls to bring proof of sexually assault and to make an official complaint.  He also reminded the public that the ministry had spent money on a new fence for the property where the ‘inmates’ are housed.
In Trinidad, three boys appeared on television to break the silence on the abuse they suffered. They appeared on the exploitative TV show, Crime Watch. Sensationalist and predatory media is the only recourse many Caribbean people feel that they have in their demand for justice.
Code Red places the blame for incidents like these on the shoulders of the countries’ leaders, making the point that by their irresponsible comments and lack of action, they too are part of the engine of violence:
What is to be done about these obnoxious, visionless leaders who refuse to recognize the humanity of all our children?  How do we hold them accountable not only for their vile comments about children but for their lack of effective policies to ensure children are adequately cared for and kept safe?
Our politicians have the guts to call poor boys criminals, to be oblivious and insensitive towards boys who have been sexually assaulted, to call girls who report rape ‘children with problems’ in an effort to silence them.
This is violence against children: brutal, systemic and state-sponsored.


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YouTube Video Series ‘Argumentos’ Offers Insight Into Venezuelan Conflict · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

Argumentos, image taken from its YouTube page
[All links lead to Spanish-language webpages unless otherwise noted.]
Video series Argumentos, which launched a few weeks ago, features the views of journalists, researchers, artists and thinkers who try to shed light on the clashes that have erupted in Venezuela lately.
According to their YouTube channel: “Argumentos seeks to offer insights for understanding the moment that Venezuelan society is going through, […] it portrays the diversity of views of stakeholders and specialists from different backgrounds and disciplines, as a commitment to pluralistic thinking.”
It is an initiative of Automático Films [en] in association with bookseller Lugar Común [es] and artistic group the Nelson Garrido Organization [es]. Views on the causes of the conflict are shared in the videos as well as a bit of the country's recent history. Interviewees share their personal impressions and recommend different readings for those who want to look into the matter further.
Nelson Garrido, the founder of one of the organizations behind the project, explains describes the conflict:
La situación de violencia que se vive en el país era previsible y los síntomas se presentaron mucho antes […]. Estamos sobre una cantidad de capas de frustraciones que de repente explotan […]. Lo que está pasando ahora es simplemente un resultado histórico [que] ni el gobierno ni la oposición [están] capitalizando […]. Por primera vez la sociedad civil, la población en general está explotando […]. Hay una instancia de descontento social masivo […].
The violence that exists in the country was predictable and the symptoms appeared long before […] We are dealing with a number of layers of frustrations suddenly exploding […] What is happening now is simply a historical result [that] neither the government nor the opposition [are] capitalizing on […] For the first time in civil society, the general population is exploding […] There is an instance of massive social unrest […]
As for his views on Hugo Chávez, the charismatic president of Venezuela who died in 2013, he says:
Que ya se defina a Chavez como comandante supremo eterno es una cosa de un carácter tan fascista […]. Las instancias del poder están manejando eso ya casi a nivel religioso […].
What defines Chávez as an eternal supreme commander has to do with having such a fascist character […] The examples of power are driving that to an almost religious level […]
Father Alejandro Moreno, a psychologist, philosopher, theologian, doctor of social sciences and director of Center for Popular Research, talks about how understanding the common Venezuelan identity can help explain the reality in which they live. According to the authors of the interviews:
Para Moreno, gran parte de las interpretaciones […] se alejan de la interpretación del venezolano popular que privilegia la afectividad frente a la racionalidad. Objetivamente, los problemas que viven los venezolanos son los mismos, pero la respuesta y manera de manifestar el descontento son diferentes.
For Moreno, much of the interpretation […] departs from the interpretation of the common Venezuelan which favors affectivity over rationality. Objectively, the problems that Venezuelans are experiencing are the same, but the response and the way of expressing discontent are different.
As far as the protest movement that has shaped the discussions of recent weeks, Moreno says:
Este movomiento es muy auténtico […] lo que se está haciendo es lo que debe llevar a un cambio radical en la política del país. A pesar de todas las represiones […] que en un momento determinado [pueden] aplastar este movimiento […] nunca lo elimina. Esos son carbones encendidos que van a estar siempre debajo de las cenizas…
This is a very authentic movement […] what you are doing is what should lead to a radical change in this country’s policy. Despite all the repression […] that at any given time [can] crush this movement […] it will never be shut down. These coals will always be burning under the ashes …
From the point of view of defending human rights, Rafael Uzcátegui [en] highlights the new elements in the protests. For Uzcátegui, the protests show many elements which until now had not seen in Venezuelan social movements.
Among other things, it is a unique and significant fact that the protest movement comes from the interior of the country and moves toward the capital city of Caracas, contrary to the traditional dynamics of social movements in Venezuela. “Uzcátegui speaks of the political legitimacy of all groups as the principle of a democratic society and highlights the importance of promoting a process of depolarization after recognition of the other.”
[La primera novedad es] expansión en el tiempo […] lo cual de alguna manera contradice la cultura inmediatista del venezolano de querer resultados inmediatos […]. Una segunda novedad es la cantidad de ciudades que están involucradas en esta situación, lo que hace que Caracas haya perdido esa condición que tenía hasta este año de ser el centro de la protesta nacional…
[The first novelty is] the expansion of time […] which somehow contradicts the immediatist Venezuelan culture of wanting immediate results […]. A second development is the number of cities that are involved in this situation, meaning that Caracas has lost the status it had until this year of being the center of the nationwide protest…
Uzcátegui also discusses the reaction of pro-government sectors, as well as the causes of the protests, saying:
Hay una molestia generalizada que se expresa de diferentes maneras […]. Esta expresión de molestia tiene sus referentes en el propio sector de base que ha apoyado al gobierno en los últimos [y puede verse] en que la gente no está apoyando activamente, no está asistiendo a las convocatorias del gobierno a las marchas. [Esta] es una expresión del malestar generalizado producido por una situación aguda de crisis económica, que es el gran telón de fondo de esta situación…
There is a widespread discontent that is expressed in different ways […]. This expression of annoyance has its own benchmarks in the exact base that has supported the government in the past [and can be seen] that people are not actively supporting it now, is not attending the calls from the government to leave. [This] is an expression of malaise produced by an acute economic crisis, which is the great backdrop of this situation…
As for the State's response, he adds:
También la respuesta del Estado ha sido diferente. Hay nuevos patrones en la violación de los derechos humanos que incluyen la participación de grupos paramilitares, el uso de la fuerza desproporcionada por funcionarios policiales y el robo sistemático por parte de los funcionarios a los detenidos.
The State's response was also different. There are new players in the violation of human rights that include the participation of paramilitary groups, the use of disproportionate force by police officers and the systematic theft from detainees by officials.
The use of citizen media was also at the center of many of these conversations, as the journalist Hugo Prieto says, noting how popular participation has taken shape with new technologies:
Para Prieto, todos estamos en capacidad de desarrollar trabajo periodístico apoyándonos en las nuevas herramientas que brinda la Internet y un teléfono inteligente. Sin embargo, se requiere aprender técnicas básicas periodísticas para generar información veraz y pertinente que pueda hacer frente al cerco informativo. [En la opinión del periodista] la división del país es resultado de un proyecto político que ha desconocido sistemáticamente a los que piensan diferente. Esto ha provocado una espiral de violencia que lejos de disminuir, crece alimentándose de los sentimientos de indignación e ira. Recomienda el desarrollo de espacios que den cabida al pensamiento plural y a despojarse de “gríngolas ideológicas” en aras de favorecer el entendimiento.
For Prieto, we’re all able to work as journalists, using the new tools afforded by the Internet and a smart phone. However, it requires learning basic journalistic techniques to generate accurate and relevant information to cope with the siege of information. [In the opinion of the journalist] the country’s devision is the result of a political project that has systematically ignored those who think differently. This has led to a spiral of violence that, far from diminishing, is growing, feeding off of the feelings of indignation and anger. He recommends the development of spaces that accommodate plural thinking and shed “ideological blinders” in order to promote understanding.
In the video in which the journalist Tamoa Calzadilla is interviewed, the conversation revolves around the use of new media and the process of polarization that continues to grow in the country. According to the video’s summary, for Calzadilla:
la crisis de gobernabilidad se agrava ante el secuestro de los cinco poderes públicos por parte del PSUV, la sustitución de los medios oficiales de comunicación por propaganda política, la compra y el cambio de línea editorial de medios privados, así como la dificultad de medios independientes para encontrar papel. La asimetría comunicacional ha llevado a los ciudadanos a buscar información veraz y oportuna en medios alternos como las redes sociales y el aprendizaje progresivo de los ciudadanos a informar de los hechos a los que tienen acceso de primera mano.
The crisis of governance is compounded by the kidnapping of the five public branches by the PSUV [United Socialist Party of Venezuela], the replacement of the official media by political propaganda, the purchase and changes in editorials by private media, as well as the difficulty of independent media to find paper. The communication asymmetry has led citizens to seek accurate and timely information in alternate media such as social networking and the progressive education of citizens to report the facts to those who have first-hand access.
La polarización se ha robustecido en estos últimos 15 años y pareciera irreconciliable … Creo que hay unos grises que no hemos sabido explorar, porque cada vez que hay un problema, se polariza…
The polarization has grown stronger in the last 15 years and it seems irreconcilable … I think there are gray areas that we have failed to explore, because whenever there is a problem, it gets polarized,,,
More and more authors and thinkers get involved in the series. With them come more ideas, more conversations and more reading recommendations. The conversation about citizen participation online, about violence and social crisis is growing, as well as the publishers’ struggles and the paper crisis. The Venezuelan conflict continues, but spaces are also opening for reflection, searching for a solution to the confusion.

author: Laura Vidal


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Fighting “Breast Ironing” in Cameroon  · Global Voices
Dibussi Tande

Josiane Kouagheu wrote a passionated blog post [fr] against breast ironing [fr] practice in Cameroon:
Je n’ai jamais voulu parler de ce sujet trop sensible. Il me touche. Dans tous les sens, j’ai trop de victimes autour de moi. J’ai voulu me taire. Mais, que faire quand autour de toi, la télé, Internet, les magazines et autres qui vantent la beauté féminine, n’ont aucune influence chez certaines personnes qui continuent de se dire : « Les seins de ma fille ne doivent pas pousser très vite ! Il faut tout faire pour les masser..”
Leurs instruments
Une pierre, des épluchures de bananes plantain et les feuilles d’un arbre « ngwollne » (je le prononce en ma langue maternelle) passées sur un feu à bois. Et les serre-seins aussi !
Dès que tout est bien chaud, on les passe sur des seins nus. On masse encore et encore. La petite fille, qui généralement croit que tout est normal, crie de douleur. Elle a mal. Mais, sa maman lui répète que tout va bien et que c’est pour son bien.
Certaines femmes après les massages mettent des serre-seins sur la poitrine de leur fille. Ce tissu, plein d’élastiques, sert à compresser les seins de la jeune fille, à les aplatir…
Je veux juste dire à nos mamans, à nos tantines, à nos grand-mamans, laissez les seins de vos filles, nièces, petites filles, tranquilles. Nous vous appelons toutes mamans :
S’il te plaît maman, laisse mes seins tranquilles !
I did not want to write about this topic because it was too sensitive, too personal for me. Too many of my friends and family are victims of it. I wanted to keep my mouth shut. But what do you do when despite the praise for feminine atttributes all over the media, so many people still say: ” My daughter ‘s breasts are growing too fast ! Everything must be done to massage them in “.
The Instruments They Use
They use stones, plantain peels and leaves of the “Ngwollne” tree ( I say in my mother tongue) that are heated on a wooden fire. And breast clamps too!
Once everything is red hot, they are pushed against bare breasts, again and again. The little girl, who believes this is the norm, screams in pain. It is obviously painful. But her mother tells her that everything is fine and that it is for her own good.
Some women after this procedure put clamps on the chest of their daughter. The fabric is made of elastic material that is used to compress the breasts of the girl, to flatten them.
I just want to tell our mothers , our aunties , our grandmas , leave the breasts of your daughters, nieces, little girls alone. We call on all mothers :
“Please mom, leave my boobs alone!”
A video documentary about breast ironing can be seen here.


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How to Rent an Apartment in China · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Chengdu Living teaches readers how to rent an apartment in China without going through the agent by giving a 5 step-to-step guide.


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‘I Saw You On The Train’: Falling in Love on Portugal’s Public Transport  · Global Voices
Ciberjornalismo - Universidade Lusófona Porto

A Facebook page called Vi-te No Comboio [pt] (I Saw You On The Train) aims to gather and share the stories of anonymous people who meet on the train and take an interest in the passenger next to them.
Image taken from the Facebook page ‘I Saw You On The Train’. Created at the end of January 2014, the page already has more than 67,000 ‘likes’ and dozens of posts.
The stories are sent to the social network's administrators who then post them on the Facebook page and on the website vite.pt [pt]. The posts are organised with ‘hashtags’ which specify the train line where the characters met, facilitating their selection, such as for example the story of the meeting and separation of a man from the Alentejo region and the passenger Amélia [pt] on the #linhaEvora [pt] (Evora line), in one of the most moving texts on the page. In an interview with P3 [pt], the page's creators and administrators, Daniel, Tiago and Pedro (for reasons of privacy, they prefer not to divulge their surnames), admit that they were inspired by the website I Saw You, a platform which was created in 1997 by three friends from the USA who had themselves been inspired by the section of the Seattle Weekly newspaper dedicated to the issue of ‘missed connections’. ‘I Saw You On The Train’ was recently extended to the metro, posting stories of those who met on the Porto or Lisbon metro. Numerous other pages with a similar aim to ‘I Saw You On The Train’ already exist, for example ‘Vi-te No Autocarro’ [pt] (‘I Saw You On The Bus’) and even ‘Vi-te Num Concerto de Metal’ [pt] (‘I Saw You At A Metal Concert’).


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Kyrgyz Parliament Considers Anti-Gay Law · Global Voices
Alexander Sodiqov

The parliament of Kyrgyzstan is considering a bill that criminalizes any activity seen as promoting “a positive attitude toward non-traditional sexual relations”. Very similar to Russia's anti-gay propaganda law, the bill is expected to become law soon. Meanwhile, a Kyrgyz blogger argues [ru] that the bill which is targeting the members of the LGBT community will also impact a much broader segment of the country's population – the younger, heterosexual Kyrgyz who do not always share their parents and grandparents’ views on sexuality.


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Puerto Rican feminist organization Taller Salud Celebrates 35 years · Global Voices
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

The feminist grassroots organization Taller Salud [es] (@tsalud), which focuses on education and prevention in the areas of sexual and reproductive rights in Puerto Rico, is celebrating its 35th anniversary. Thirty-five years of hard work and struggle. The organization now works mostly with women and girls in the northeastern coastal town of Loíza in the areas of HIV/STD, child abuse, sexual aggression, teenage pregnancy and domestic violence prevention “in order to strengthen knowledge and skills related to self esteem, anatomy, sexuality, emotional health, violence prevention strategies, public speaking, and community involvement.”
Here is a video that briefly presents Taller Salud's important work [es]:

author: Firuzeh Shokooh Valle


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Reconstruction of Historical Memory: Voice of Mass Sterilizations Victims in Peru · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

With the aim of collecting 3,000 signatures, the association MujeresMundi just launched a petition in the online platform Change.org requesting the Peruvian State a reconstruction of the historical memory in the voice of the victims of sterilizations:
[…] second period of the government of Alberto Fujimori; it was implemented the National Program on Reproductive Health and Family Planning […] policy aimed at reducing the overall fertility rates. The most recent investigation involved the cases of some 2,000 women. However, statistics and documents show that around 300 000 rural Peruvian women were pressured into being sterilized during this period.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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Robert Antoni Wins 2014 Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaican diaspora litblogger Geoffrey Philp reports that Robert Antoni, author of “As Flies to Whatless Boys”, has won the 2014 One Caribbean Media Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, while Repeating Islands republishes a review of his novel, here.


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Some See a Success Story. Others See a ‘Thieving’ Undocumented Immigrant · Global Voices
Ronald Yick

Betty Wong is young, but her life journey thus far is as dramatic as a Hollywood movie. She was smuggled into Hong Kong from mainland China in 2003 when she was 8 years old to reunite with her parents, who were both Hong Kong residents. According to local media's report, her parents had violated the one-child policy on the mainland and thus did not have the legal document to apply for an entry permit.
As an undocumented immigrant, the local immigration authority only provided her with a “walking paper,” which is a document for refugees. Without the identification card, she had trouble receiving elementary education and medical care.
However, she worked hard and became a medical student at the city's top university – the Hong Kong University – and the immigration department finally issued a Hong Kong resident identity card to her.
She recently wrote all this on Facebook, dedicating about 10,000 words to the story. Accompanying her post was a photo of her taken outside the immigration department. In the photo, she wore a sweater with the word “holy shit” printed on the front, which has been interpreted by many netizens as a disrespectful gesture.
Betty Wong posted a personal narrative of her life journey to Hong Kong from China on Facebook along with photo taken outside the Hong Kong immigration office. The photo has circulated widely online. This one via Housenews.
But that wasn't the only criticism Wong received. A large number of web users attacked her background as an undocumented immigrant and accused her of “stealing” Hong Kong's resources or not showing enough gratitude.
The online sentiment has very much to do with growing social and political conflict between Hong Kong and China. Universal suffrage in Hong Kong remains a deferred dream. Currently, not all legislators and leaders in the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong are elected directly by the people, and communist Beijing exerts much influence over the process.
The rush of speculative capital and mainland Chinese tourists is seen by local residents as eroding their already cramped city. The resentment is on the rise, so much so that a conspiracy has taken hold that immigrants coming from mainland China are being sent by the Chinese government to take over the city.
Following the barrage of attacks online, Wong's post was deleted.
Dadazim's blog post captured netizens’ anger towards her story:
香港人一向天真，給人賣了，還幫人數錢。 剝掉那些賣弄的奮鬥包裝，其實就是一個大 陸女子偷渡、違法，再奪去了一個香港人的 醫科學位；成功變成香港人之後，再上網大 義凜然炫耀一番。
Hong Kong people is always naive. They have been betrayed [by the mainland Chinese government] and now they are paying its debt. Take away the cover of “personal struggle to become successful”, this is a story about a mainland Chinese woman who broke the law, was smuggled to Hong Kong and stole a medical student position which should belong to a Hong Konger. After she obtained her Hong Kong citizenship, she showed off her story online.
好慘？世上好慘的人，何止Betty？非洲很多 人吃不飽，四十歲之前就死，香港為甚麼不 幫？香港有責任為別人的不幸和不幸家庭狀 況埋單？Betty Wong似乎分不清老奉與酌處 理的分別。香港沒有欠她，給她身份證和醫 學院學位，不敢叫她感恩載德，但一個有羞恥心的人起碼不會佔了便宜還覺巧威威，四處宣揚，顧昐自豪的。
Miserable? So many people are miserable in this world. Not just Betty. In Africa, so many are starving, and they die before they are 40. Why doesn't Hong Kong give them assistance? Do we have the responsibility to pay the debt of someone else's misery and family status? Betty Wong cannot distinguish the difference between obligation and discretion. Hong Kong does not owe her anything. We dare not ask her to express gratitude for giving her an identity card and medical school admission. But anyone with a sense of shame should not show off with pride after taking advantage of all this.
In response to users’ emotional comments, Lui Hin Ying wrote on online news platform Housenews:
Betty的爸爸是香港人，而媽媽和姊姊都能從 合法途徑到香港定居，為什麼她不也從合法 途徑來港而要選擇偷渡呢？更有趣的是，我 公公婆婆那一代也是游水偷渡到香港 的，technically speaking，如果我公公婆婆 是賊，那我算不算是賊贓？
Betty's father is a Hong Kong citizen and her mother and sister have migrated to Hong Kong through legal channels. How come she chose to sneak into Hong Kong rather than via a legal route? The funny thing is my grandparents also snuck into Hong Kong. Technically speaking, if they are thieves, am I also a thief?
更更有趣的是，香港貴為國際大都市，思維甚至行為上卻極度排外。本身明明是個移民之都，整座城市都是「賊」打造成的，卻捉 賊喊賊，將所有新移民妖魔化為搶資源，搶學位的蝗蟲。
It is an interesting phenomena that in Hong Kong, an international city, people's behavior and thoughts are so exclusionary. The city is built by immigrants, the so-called “thieves”, now the thieves are accusing others of being thieves and demonizing new immigrants for robbing resources. The locusts which rob university degrees.
Yeung Zi Wah wrote on her blog that she hoped the Hong Kong people can address the policy problem rather than point fingers at an individual:
我們應該透過「批鬥」Betty Wong這個人來 發洩近來中共對香港種種的入侵，還是應該 從這事件中思考本土主義如何脫離族群仇 恨，回歸正路，在公共政策上找出對抗中共 入侵的方法。我想大家心中有數。
Should we “attack” Betty Wong as an individual to express our anger towards the invasion of the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong, or should we reflect upon the correct path for our local agenda, disentangle ourselves from ethnic resentment and work on a policy level against invasion? I think we all have the answer.

author: Ronald Yick


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The Kremlin’s Internet Annexation · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Vladimir Putin speaks to the press at a conference in Minsk, April 29, 2014, Kremlin photo service, public domain.
Over the past two years, the Russian government has armed itself to the teeth with regulatory powers that enable nearly every conceivable form of Internet censorship. In the summer of 2012, the state created a federal registry, where it can blacklist any website or entire web domain for hosting content deemed to be harmful to minors. Earlier this year, the Attorney General gained the right to add to the registry extrajudicially any Web address guilty of encouraging “extremism.” Just this week, on April 29, 2014, the upper house of the parliament passed a series of “anti-terrorist” laws that further expand the authorities’ powers online. After President Putin signs the legislation, anonymous crowd-funding will face stricter regulations, websites like Facebook and Twitter must store data-archives on Russian soil (where the Kremlin can pry more easily), and “popular” bloggers will be registered and subjected to regulations like those imposed on organized mass media.
The RuNet paradox
Today, should the authorities wish to shut down a website or silence an individual blogger, the government has many options. For some reason, however, lawmakers continue to add new powers to the state’s censorship utility-belt, as though the current panoply of Internet controls weren’t enough. In other words, Russian Internet policy is something of a paradox. The parliament keeps passing laws that would pave the way to a wholehearted crackdown, but the scope of actual censorship remains narrow.
Since February, Russia’s Attorney General has added more than a hundred websites to the federal blacklist, including the well-known (but relatively low-trafficked) opposition news portals Grani.ru, Kasparov.ru, and EJ.ru. Additionally, prosectuors have banned several websites belonging to Russia’s most prominent political blogger, Alexey Navalny, who is also under house arrest in the offline world.
There are dozens of more prominent independent websites than the three targeted by the authorities, however, and it’s necessary to study the Kremlin’s wider attack on Navalny, in order to understand why he’s been singled out online. That said, the Russian establishment certainly has not shied from stirring up trouble on the Internet, where Kremlin-friendly oligarchs have interfered with media outlets like Gazeta.ru, Lenta.ru, and DozhdTV, and forced into emigration the creator and CEO of the country’s largest social network. These intrusions on Internet freedom, however, have come in the familiar form of backroom machinations, where meddling shareholders, layoffs, and private phone calls intervene against independent-minded troublemakers.
Yet, despite the apparent reliability of micromanaging the Russian media with traditional pressures, lawmakers this week are signaling their interest in yet another wave of Internet regulations. The new proposals, still in the early development stage, would grant the state powers that are drastic, even in comparison to the recent “anti-terrorism” package.
The Kremlin isn't finished
The first suggestion belongs to Senator Maksim Kavdzharadze, who is calling on Russia to institute its own Internet separate from the United States and Europe. Citing security concerns about Western surveillance, Kavdzharadze warns that “everyone [in Russia] has joined social networks, where they tell where they’ve been and where they’re going.” Kavdzharadze’s proposal has attracted special attention not so much for its outlandishness as what he suggests calling the all-Russian Internet: “Cheburashka,” the name of a beloved Soviet cartoon character. (The next day, clearly unnerved by the public response, the Senator modified his comments to say that he does not support a digital “Iron Curtain.”)
While the public laughed about Kavdzharadze’s dreams of Internet autarky (pausing to visit YouTube and enjoy a few clips of old Soviet animation), Kommersant newspaper published a story about another, seemingly far more serious government initiative. According to the paper’s anonymous sources, a Kremlin working group is drafting new regulations that would grant the state, what reporters describe as, “total control” over the Internet.
The plan would force Internet-providers to use DNS servers located inside Russia, allowing the government to manage the way URL addresses match to IP addresses, making it possible to disrupt the way Internet users access websites. Officials would also institute a tiered system for all online data transfers, barring “local” and “regional” networks from interacting with networks located abroad. At all levels of the Internet, the government intends to “filter content” (though Kommersant’s report does not specify what exactly would be targeted). Finally, the working group proposes transferring the duties of the Coordination Center for the .RU and .РФ domains to an agency inside the Kremlin, laying the foundation for greater state control over what could become privileged domains inside Russia.
All dressed up with nobody to censor?
Last week, Vladimir Putin seemed to endorse the explosion in Internet controls in Russia, telling a group of journalists that the Web “began as a CIA project” and “continues to develop this way.” He also claimed that Yandex, Russia’s leading search engine, faced unfair pressure from Americans and Europeans, when it first emerged, complaining that the company was forced to accept foreigners into its leadership, in order to survive in the tech industry. According to Forbes Russia columnist Leonid Bershidsky, however, Putin’s remarks about Yandex are inaccurate. In fact, Bershidsky says, the Kremlin has bullied Russia’s Internet search giant worst of all.
The Russian government’s accumulation of online censorship tools resembles an arms race. So far, the Kremlin has refrained from unloading its full arsenal on the country’s nearly 100 million Internet users. Yes, there have been isolated attacks on information freedom, as the Attorney General’s persecution of Navalny and several news portals attests, but the RuNet’s general independence survives, for the most part, albeit unsteadily. If this is indeed an arms race, however, the Kremlin might one day soon decide that it’s well enough equipped to snuff out the political threat inherent in a free RuNet.
Should that moment arrive, Russia would become a very different place.


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The Subway: The Arteries of New York City · Global Voices
Robert Valencia

Photo by Flickr user RomanK Photography. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Hurry, get on, now it's coming
Listen to those rails a-thrumming all aboard
Get on the “A” train
Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem
Those are the lyrics of the famous song “Take the A Train,” recorded by Ella Fitzgerald and composed by jazz legend Duke Ellington. This is just one of the many examples of inspiration awakened by the Big Apple's subway system, which extends 1,353 kilometers and one of the most extensive underground networks in the United States and in the world.
Love it or hate it, the New York City subway system is more than a means of transport: it's almost a way of life. Image courtesy of Flickr/sakeeb (CC BY 2.0)
From urban myths like crocodiles in the sewers to loves lost in the sea of commuters, the subway proves to be more than a means of transport; it's almost a way of life.
Among its 5 million daily users are Wall Street executives, homeless people seeking refuge for the night, and aspiring artists, from hip hop dancers to singers performing Mexican pop music.
The cultural bonanza is not only evident in the train cars; there are close to 200 permanent works of art to be found on the walls and floors of the subway stations, all of which are sponsored by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority [MTA] program “Arts for Transit.” Among other missions, this program protects musicians of a variety of genres – from opera to East Asian music – who perform for the millions of commuters frantically running to transfer from one train to another.
But the New York subway system does not always receive praise. Beneath the city's surface are billions of rats that proliferate around the train rails. Recently, a city transit union organized an “Ugliest Rat” contest. The competition called on straphangers to submit a photo of the “most disgusting” rat they could find on their commute.
The goal of this contest was to raise consciousness about the working conditions of many MTA employees. Workers have encountered rats in the staff rooms, offices, and dining halls, all located underground. Although the contest took place in 2012, it is difficult to maintain control over the vermin, which have even gotten into subway cars full of passengers.
Passengers are also taking matters into their own hands when it comes to evaluating subway service. For the past 15 years, the New York City Straphangers Campaign has compiled a “report card” based on a series of factors including on time performance, cleanliness, mechanical breakdowns, chances of getting a seat, and frequency of announcements. In the most recent report card, the Q train got the best scores, while the C train was rated the worst subway line.
And, as usual, users voice their opinions about the subway service on Twitter:
And then I'm late to work which makes me lose money, because I'm hourly, but still I have to give them $112 a month. #MTA
— Timothy Anderson (@timinbklyn) April 26, 2014
Was hoping not to spend my entire Saturday at Myrtle-Willoughby waiting for the G train but I guess the #MTA has other things in mind.
— Thom (@thetomhuntstory) April 26, 2014
#mta. Once again the people of queens would like to congradulate mta on stellar service pic.twitter.com/eAXgRYZp6w
— Leo Reynolds (@lreynolds21363) March 31, 2014
Others, however, praise new technological initiatives:
#MTA is trying out new solar-powered technology, and 1st one is right here in the #Bronx! Hear about it on @News12BX pic.twitter.com/qTKbVNsRov
— Sarah Krueger (@SarahEKrueger) April 23, 2014
Love it or hate it, the New York City subway system is indespensable for many of the city's millions of residents. And there will always be some who want to strengthen this relationship. For example, this video shows a group of people who wanted to surprise train conductors, who are required to point at a black-and-white striped board as a signal that they are safely stopped at the correct spot on the subway platform.

author: Robert Valencia


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Trinidad & Tobago: The Implications of Style · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

When you see your reflection, are you seeing you or an amalgamation of your racial, historical and social complications?
Tillah Willah blogs about the “self-schism that exists [and the] ways that this affects [her] as a black woman living in the west.”