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Introducing the Women’s Rights Campaigning Info-Activism Toolkit · Global Voices
Thalia Rahme

Activists have a wealth of online and offline resources that can assist them in promoting and moving their campaigns forward. There are some resources geared towards a specific target population. The new resource Women's Rights Campaigning Info-Activism Toolkit by Tactical Tech is an example.
Launched initially in January 2014, it is now available in the following languages: Arabic,Kiswahili, Hindi and Bengali and available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, allowing users to adapt the content to make it more relevant for their area.
In an email interview, Lisa Gutermuth, Project Manager at Tactical Tech spoke to us more about the booklet.
Rising Voices (RV): What in the toolkit makes it specifically focused on and addressed to women? Can you provide us with concrete evidence given that sometimes in the examples there are cases studies not necessarily related to women?
Lisa Gutermuth (LG): The toolkit includes 20 women-specific campaigning examples including ‘Women on British Bank Notes,’ ‘Infoladies Project,’ and the ‘Blank Noise campaign,’ to name a few. The toolkit was built off previous content and research that Tactical Tech has worked on over the past 10 years, and some examples have been included because they correspond to or illustrate a specific campaigning tool or strategy. The anti-corruption rupee, for example, is a great example of how print can be used in a creative way. This kind of strategy could be adapted by women's rights campaigners for their own messages and campaign goals. All the case studies are there to offer inspiration in some way.
RV: What explains the choice of languages: English, Arabic, Bangla, Swahili, and Hindi?
LG: The toolkit was created as part of CREA's ‘New Voices / New Leaders: Women Building Peace and Reshaping Democracy project,’ which has a specific focus on women's rights issues in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The languages selected are the ones which could reach larger numbers of people in those regions.
Often toolkits like this are published but are not actually used on the ground by the local grassroots organisations they are created for. There are a number of reasons for this – one is that these organisations don’t feel ownership over the toolkit; another is the simple fact that that when trying to be inventive, working in a language that's not your mother-tongue can be an added challenge. It can make a massive difference if the material is translated into local languages.  Working with partner organisations on the ground also meant that their feedback and experiences could be worked into the final product (our partners are listed here. I should also mention at this point that almost all of Tactical Tech's content is licensed under Creative Commons, so that it can be translated and adapted to different contexts by other groups.
RV: Aside from publishing it, how do you intend to leverage the toolkit?
LG: The printed toolkits will be distributed to our partners, who will use them in workshops with the communities that they engage with. We communicated a lot with our partner organisations to find out what the most useful format for them would be. What was strongly communicated across the board was that the printed version should be workshop material that can be used interactively, so this is how it has been designed.
RV: What monitoring and evaluation do you advocate? Has the toolkit been tested before its launch ?
LG: The creation process was interactive and focused on the needs of our local partner organisations. Before we made the website they reviewed much of the content and gave us their feedback.  Also, before the website was translated, some of the partners tested it out in meetings and workshops to see if there were aspects that would be more or less relevant to their language version.  Further monitoring and evaluation will be done after the toolkits are distributed, after communities have had time to interact with the content more deeply.
RV: Are you getting feedback from toolkit users? Can you give us an example? if yes, which are your favourite campaigns that have used the toolkit?
LG: So far we've had a lot of really positive feedback, especially from online media and groups that deal with women’s rights in some way. We’ve also had many email requests for the print version, which will be out very soon.
RV: Has it been used by groups that are not female-focused?
LG: Not that I know of yet, but as I said it’s really just beginning the outreach phase. That said, much of the content can be applied to any type of campaigning. This is especially true of the ‘basics’ section, which lays out the different factors that need to be considered at the outset of any campaign.
RV: Is this toolkit alone a guarantee for the success of a campaign?
LG: There are so many factors that determine whether a campaign is successful or not that it's an impossible thing to guarantee. What the toolkit offers, though, is a lot of valuable information, and it can serve as a very good reference for campaign planners to find new ideas and inspiration. The point is to stay dynamic and attuned to these factors, and the Women’s Rights Info-Activism Toolkit offers guidance here.
RV: Finally, what haven't I asked you that you would like to tell us?
LG: I think one unique aspect of the Women's Rights Info-Activism Toolkit is the consideration of digital security and privacy while using online tools in an advocacy context.  There is a section in ‘Basics’ dedicated to explaining digital security, as well as many digital tools reviewed, as it is very important to consider your security both offline and
online in any advocacy engagement.

author: Thalia Rahme


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As Polls Close, Brazil’s Once Promising ‘Alternative’ Candidate Shut Out of Run-Off · Global Voices
Taisa Sganzerla

Woman votes at the electronic booth on Sunday, 5th of October. More than 100 million Brazilians took to the polls today. Image by Taisa Sganzerla.
The Brazilian presidential race, one whose outcome hasn’t been so uncertain since 1989, is coming to a close, and incumbent Dilma Rousseff from the Worker’s Party will dispute a runoff with Aécio Neves from the Brazilian Social-Democractic Party. Both had, respectively, 42 percent and 34 percent of the votes.
Marina Silva from the Brazilian Socialist Party, an unexpected name in the campaign who had ranked high in the polls for months, finished with 21 percent, which puts her officially out of the race. Brazilians will also be picking the governors of all 27 states, a third of 81 senators, as well as 513 seats of the lower house of Congress and state legislators.
A first-time presidential candidate and former governor of Brazil’s second most populous state, Minas Gerais, Aécio Neves earned votes from an expressive sector of Brazilian society unsatisfied with the Worker's Party government, who's been in power since 2003. Historically, the Social-Democractic Party has represented conservative sectors of Brazilian's middle and upper classes, as opposed to the Worker's Party, who had its genesis in the working class. However, recently, Rousseff's party has been heavily criticized by progressive sectors, who believe its ideals have been “compromised” by the several alliances it has made with conservative supporters in the last 11 years.
People line up to justify their absence from the ballots. Unlike most democracies, voting in Brazil is mandatory, so whoever is not able to vote has to justify. Image by Taisa Sganzerla.
Marina Silva presented herself as an “alternative” to the long-lasting rivalry between the two main parties and maintained second place in opinion polls since she unexpectedly emerged as the candidate of the Brazilian Socialist Party (after the sudden death of its former runner, Eduardo Campos, in a plane crash on August 13), even reaching 34 percent (against Rousseff's 35 percent) in a Datafolha poll on late August. A prominent environmentalist, Silva got her start in politics by working alongside union leader and activist Chico Mendes, fighting against the exploitation of the Amazon, and served as environmental minister from 2003 to 2008 in Rousseff’s Party.
Her drop in the votes has been attributed, among other factors, by not being able to navigate all the contradictions in her campaign. For instance, Silva’s vice presidential candidate, legislator Beto Albuquerque, has had historical connections with the agribusiness, having been involved in 2004 in the approval of a bill that allowed genetically modified soy to be planted in Brazil. This fact has disappointed many environmentalists and former supporters of Silva. Among them, the Syndicate of Rural Workers of Xapuri in Acre state, founded by Chico Mendes, who released a note on August 28 criticizing Marina’s environmental's proposals. An excerpt:
Os trabalhadores rurais da base territorial do Sindicato de Xapuri (Acre) não concordam com a atual política ambiental em curso no Brasil idealizada pela candidata Marina Silva enquanto ministra do Meio Ambiente, refém de um modelo santuarista e de grandes ONGs internacionais. Essa política prejudica a manutenção da cultura tradicional de manejo da floresta e a subsistência e favorece empresários que, devido ao alto grau de burocratização, conseguem legalmente devastar, enquanto os habitantes das florestas cometem crimes ambientais.
The rural workers of Xapuri (Acre) do not agree with the current environmental policy in progress in Brazil, idealized by presidential candidate Marina Silva while she was minister of environment. This policy is hostage to a preservationist model and to international NGOs. It harms the maintenance of traditional culture of subsistence and forest management and favors big entrepreneurs who, due to the policies’ high degree of bureaucratization, are able to legally devastate the forest while its traditional inhabitants are left with no choice but to commit environmental crimes.
Also, after publishing on her official website a progressive agenda supporting marriage equality, which drew many LGBT rights advocates, Silva stepped back from this position following pressure from religious leaders. Silva is also an evangelist and a significant part of her electorate are connected to evangelical congregations. Silva’s new position on this issue made American actor Mark Ruffalo, a prominent activist on LGBT rights, withdraw his support for Silva, which has had gone viral just a few weeks prior. Marina has been also heavily attacked by leftist sectors, that saw her as a “conservative dressed up as a progressive”. As famous leftist blogger Cynara Menezes pointed out, in early September:
Obviamente, como pessoa de esquerda, me preocupa uma possível guinada neoliberal no governo com sua chegada ao poder assessorada por economistas que seguem esta cartilha. Existe, porém, uma razão mais forte que me impede de votar nela. O projeto de Brasil de Marina não é o meu, mas não voto nela principalmente porque não sinto confiança de que governará, sendo evangélica da Assembleia de Deus, a partir da concepção de um estado laico, como promete.
“As a leftist, it obviously worries me that we might experience a possible neoliberal spring in the government with her election, since she's assisted by a team of economists who follow that philosophy. I have, however, a stronger reason not to vote for her. Marina's project for Brazil is not the same as mine, but I won't vote for her mainly because I don't trust that she'll govern, being an evangelical from the Assemblies of God church, with the conception of a secular state”
Av. Paulista, Sao Paulo's main avenue, on a unusual, busy Sunday — typical of elections day. Image by Taisa Sganzerla.
Luciana Genro and Eduardo Jorge, from the Socialist and Freedom Party and the Green Party, respectively, were the only ones who have openly supported marriage equality and other progressive agendas (decriminalization of marijuana among them). Genro earned 1.47 percent of the votes and Jorge 0.62 percent.
Still, legislator Jean Willys, the first openly gay member of the Congress and advocate of LGBT rights in Brazil, was elected for a second mandate in the lower house of Congress. An active user of social media, with almost 1 million followers on Facebook and Twitter combined, he thanked the 145,000 people who voted for him:
Deu certo, amad@s! Reeleito! O novo tempo começa agora. Obrigado, amig@s, reais e virtuais. Essa… http://t.co/ruevrgGpVZ
— Jean Wyllys (@jeanwyllys_real) October 5, 2014
It worked, guys! Re-elected! A new era starts now. Thanks, friends, both real and virtual
But social media reacted angrily to the presidential results as well as the most voted legislators. In Rio, notorious homophobe Jair Bolsonaro was reelected as the most voted federal deputy. In Sao Paulo, Coronel Telhada, a hard-line former police chief with a violent history, was the second most voted state legislator. Famed independent journalist Bruno Torturra tweeted sarcastically:
Tente ver esses resultados pelo lado bom. E, se conseguir, me conta qual é?
— Bruno Torturra (@torturra) October 6, 2014
Try to see the bright side of those results. And, if you do, please tell me which is it?
Also in Sao Paulo, the Social-Democractic Party candidate Geraldo Alckimin was reelected in the first round with almost 60 percent of the votes, despite the major water crisis the region has experienced (SABESP, the company responsible for the water supply in most of Sao Paulo, is managed by the state government). Journalist Mariele Góes posted on her Facebook page, in a clear reference to a famed hate-speech case following the results of the elections in 2010:
Eu espero sinceramente que todo paulista que está falando que nordestino não sabe votar tome banho com suas próprias lágrimas quando a água da Cantareira acabar dia 27.
I sincerely hope that every ‘paulista’ [someone from São Paulo] who's saying northeasterners don't know how to vote take a shower with their own tears when Cantareira reservoir runs out of water on the 27th <3
It's unclear wether Silva will support Rousseff or Neves in the runoff. In 2010, after also losing the race in the first round, she chose to remain neutral.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Taisa Sganzerla


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Burqa Banished Behind Glass in Australian Parliament · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

There have been strong reactions to a decision on 2 October 2014 by the presiding officers of the Australian parliament concerning the burqa. As counter terrorism expert Nick O’Brien reported at The Conversation academic blog:
Australian House of Representatives
Wikimedia – By Harishrawat11 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0)
[It] would relegate [burqa]wearers to a glass box usually reserved for parties of schoolchildren. The ban, if it is introduced over the prime minister’s belated objection, would include people with any facial coverings and thus the niqab would also be caught under this ruling.
The two links give details of the unfolding controversy.
The Prime Minister Tony Abbott has asked for the decision to be reconsidered, despite his remarks earlier in the week that he finds the burqa “confronting”.
Twitter was ablaze with lots of opposition to and some support for the proposal.
A common response was to see it as a deliberate distraction from government failures:
I doubt if a woman in a burqa has ever entered Parliament House. So why is this non-issue an issue? because it distracts from #libfail
— StopToryTerror (@daveyk317) October 4, 2014
Alex Greenwich drew a scathing contrast with child sexual assault by clergy, an issue currently the subject of The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
I've never heard of a Muslim woman in a burqa assaulting anyone in Australia, but plenty of male priests in their robes have assaulted kids
— Alex Greenwich MP (@AlexGreenwich) October 1, 2014
The current controversy should be seen in the context of:
This tweet reflected the tension:
Muslims wearing burqa/hijab remind Ozzies of threat we face from terrorists & that our men & women r risking their lives 2 keep us safe!
— Terese Dau (@teresedau1) October 4, 2014
There has been plenty of humour and satire. The satirical site The Shovel picked up the distraction theme:
Government’s Budget Problems To Be Covered With Giant Burqa – The Shovel
The GP co-payment, changes to welfare, and a range of other unpopular budget measures will be concealed beneath a fully-enclosed Islamic garment, specially fabricated by the Government, it was revealed today.
Cartoons were being widely circulated:
First Dog on the Moon on … the 'burqa' controversy – cartoon http://t.co/RU2xs0OVXQ via @guardian
— Davo the tyke (@hitinman) October 4, 2014
Not all were against the move behind glass. Helena Sindelar raised another side of the question of rights:
Remarkable all the talk re support burqa/hijab but nothing in support for women in Islamic countries fighting against being forced to cover.
— Helena Sindelar (@Helena_Sindelar) October 4, 2014
Another tweeter responded to a morning television show with her concerns:
@TheTodayShow A person's right to wear a burqa doesn't override a country's right to security. If we can't see your face, we can't trust you
— riekiedplessis (@riekiedplessis) October 2, 2014
Pauline Hanson, a former member of the House of Representatives, has a reputation for divisiveness. Elgar Welch quoted from her article:
'I know not every Muslim is a terrorist but, to the best of my knowledge; every terrorist attack has been by Muslims' http://t.co/31hFYdmuD9
— Elgar Welch (@ewelchau) October 4, 2014
Nevertheless, the majority sentiment online has been to reject the proposed restrictions:
That's a headline http://t.co/oMCMPGuWBZ pic.twitter.com/AnjF2JxgYG
— Rob Stott (@Rob_Stott) October 2, 2014

author: Kevin Rennie


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#FreeSaeed: An Iranian Web Developer’s Sixth Year in Prison · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

#FreeSaeed campaign image.
As of October 4, 2014, Iranian web developer Saeed Malekpour has spent six years in prison for creating an open source software program that others used to upload pornographic images to the Internet. On the anniversary of his arrest, activists and bloggers ran a tweet storm to support his release under the hashtag #freeSaeed.
A permanent resident of Canada, Saeed returned to Iran in 2008 to visit his dying father when he was charged with threatening the nation's Islamic ideals and national security via propaganda against the system. Malekpour has testified that he did not know how his program and code had been used and developed by others, as it was distributed as open source code.
After a trial that reportedly lasted 15 minutes, Saeed was sentenced to death as a “corrupter of the earth.” In December of 2012, Saeed's death sentence was commuted from death to life in prison.
Having spent time in solitary confinement, Saeed gave what he later revealed to be a forced confession, drawn under torture and interrogations by the Revolutionary Guard. In the months following, Iranian state television repeatedly aired his “confession” to the alleged crimes.
Human rights lawyer Gissou Nia and spokesperson for the Campaign to Free Saeed described the broader implications of the case for programmers in Iran in an email to Global Voices:
The arrest and ongoing imprisonment of Saeed Malekpour shows that all Iranian freelance web programmers are vulnerable to potential legal trouble as they cannot know for certain which sites their codes have been used on. Should they face the misfortune of having a code they created used on a website deemed obscene by the Iranian authorities (and where the backend is being monitored by the IRGC) they can face adverse legal consequences.
[…]
In a sense, Saeed is the ‘sacrificial lamb’ of the IRGC's war on the online space. The Iranian Cyber Army was formed in 2008 and Saeed was arrested shortly after its creation, presumably to set a deterrent example for others.
Others close to the case believe the arrest is a result of a lack of knowledge regarding the culture and nature of software programming. Iranian blogger and computer engineer Arash Abadpour (known by the pen name Arash Kamangir) told Global Voices in an email, “Saeed's situation shows how arbitrary the system is. We have definitely seen this before, but his case is one of the most bitter ones. The bureaucracy and machinery of the system knows little about the technical aspects and is on high alert for conspiracy in every activity.”
The continued imprisonment and other recent arrests of bloggers and netizens have undercut the message of a more open society and Internet that dominated western media coverage of current President Hassan Rouhani’s campaign for the office.
Despite this generally upsetting trend, there have been some small victories. This past week the Narenji technology bloggers, arrested in November 2013 on unspecified charges, were released on bail.
While it is hard to gauge the impact that campaigns for the release of those imprisoned has on these arrests, many activists and analysts of Iran's legal system believe international pressure often has an impact on the release of those jailed.
Maryam Malekpour, Saeed's sister who resides in Canada, explained to Global Voices in a phone interview that Saeed has just been transferred to the general ward of Evin prison. He is allowed to make phone calls and have human contact for the first time since his arrest. She explained:
“He has been so alone, held in solitary confinement for so long, that he has a need to talk. To talk about anything, about our childhood, the past, what's going on now, and all I can do is talk to him, and try to give him hope that he will come out one day. I've been telling him about the campaigns for his release, and he cannot believe that people care and are talking about him. He's really grateful for all the efforts people are putting into his release..he's been sentenced to death. Both him and our family have been living with the spectre of his death for so long. All we want is a fair inquiry into his case. There is no incriminating evidence against him except for the forced confessions they took out of him.”
Gissou Nia stressed that Saeed's case should be put under independent investigation. “He has been severely tortured, has never received a fair trial, and has no access to his lawyer. For these reasons, there must be an independent inquiry into the handling of Saeed's case, and in the meantime he should be released on furlough while that investigation is pending.”

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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In Latin America, Discrimination Pits Neighbour Against Neighbour  · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Bogota as seen from Ciudad Bolívar, one of the city's poorest neighbourhoods. Photo by Wolfgang Sterneck on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
This post was originally published on the author's personal blog, Globalizado.
For BBC Mundo's newly settled correspondent in Bogota, Colombia, the rigid socioeconomic classification the government applies to housing in the city has come as an unwelcome surprise. In a recent article, Arturo Wallace detailed how homes and apartments that use basic utilities such as electricity, gas, and water are subject to a municipal ranking system that is perversely exploited by the local population to discriminate amongst themselves.
Housing is ranked between 1 and 6 —with 1 indicating the lowest socioeconomic conditions, and 6, the highest. But with typical Colombian inventiveness, locals further extend the classification to refer to social strata 0 and 10, reflecting the extremes of a society considered one of the most unequal in Latin America and indeed the world.
According to sociologist Consuelo Uribe, who was consulted for the BBC article, “The housing classification system has a powerful effect on the way Colombians self identify, so much so that when people seek out relationships, their social stratum is indicated (in personal ads) alongside gender, physique and age.” Moreover, as she points out, “one of the material consequences of the classification system is that it has contributed to greater socio-spatial segregation, making it increasingly difficult for members of different social classes to inhabit the same physical space.”
En todos los países hay diferencias sociales, pero en Colombia a Ud le marcan el estrato hasta en la factura.
— Juan Esteban Ospina (@EOspinaSr) September 23, 2014
In every country there are social differences, but in Colombia your status is even specified on your bill.
The debate over social stratification, which dates back to the 1990s, has been ingrained in the Colombian intellectual elite for some time. For example; in 2013, Oskar Nupia, blogging for the investigative online journal La Silla Vacía (The Empty Chair), advocated eliminating the rigid system, although he recognized that substituting it for another already existent would be costly. Nupia also commented on the way in which the ranking is used, which he qualified as abusive:
Los estratos socioeconómicos crean mayor segregación social. Hay evidencia al respecto para algunas ciudades (ver aquí). Lo inentendible es que muchos gobernantes locales y nacionales tienen como bandera política la eliminación de la segregación social pero usan intensivamente el estrato socioeconómico para focalizar subsidios y crear polarización política.
Socioeconomic ranking creates greater social segregation. There is evidence of this in some cities (see here). What is incomprehensible is that many local and national political authorities wave the anti-segregation banner all the while actively exploiting socioeconomic ranking to focus on subsidies and foster political polarization.
But Colombia is not the only country in Latin America where discrimination is a common practice. In Mexico, a survey by the National Council for the Prevention of Discrimination (Conapred) points out that “the most common reasons for discrimination are poverty, skin colour, sexual orientation, education and financial situation.”  In that regard, the website Animal Político commented on the ubiquitous trend:
En un país con múltiples orígenes étnicos y una mezcla entre ellos, resulta impresionante el nivel de racismo que puede llegar a darse entre connacionales. La población más vulnerable a sufrir discriminación en México son los indígenas, los homosexuales y las personas con alguna discapacidad física o intelectual. ¿Qué se necesita para sobreponerse a este síntoma presente en la sociedad en pleno siglo XXI?
In a country with multiple ethnic groups and intermarriage, the degree of racism exhibited by members of the same society is striking. The populations most likely to suffer discrimination in Mexico are indigenous peoples, homosexuals, and individuals with some type of physical or intellectual disability. What do we need to do to overcome this symptom so prevalent even in our 21st-century society?
This urge to discriminate against the other and, at the same time, convey that the discriminator is or perceives themselves to be better is obvious in Mexican society with terms such as “mirrey” (literally, my lord), which is used to designate those who have an ostentatious lifestyle that belies their true economic means. There are also “nacos” (hicks), which is applied to people of meagre means, and the “riquillos” or “fresas,” which describe people with money and a snobbish attitude.
In Peru, another multicultural and multi-ethnic country with a long history of racism and discrimination, the situation is similar; but it carries the added sting of being accepted and propagated by the mainstream media. Recently, the satirical website El Panfleto (The Pamphlet), dedicated one of its posts to the media's habit of calling members of a wealthy urban area “neighbours”, while terming those who live in less favourable sectors “pobladores,” which translates as “resident,” but carries a slightly negative connotation. The post lists ten tips for newly minted journalists to help them with the appropriate terminology, including the following:
1. Si es de Huancavelica y protesta (y no es ingeniero de alguna mina): POBLADOR.
2. Si es de La Molina y protesta por un estudiante universitario (y no es empleada del hogar): VECINA.
10. Y para terminar, una regla de oro. Nunca, PERO NUNCA, le digas vecina a alguien que protesta contra la minería… peor si es serrana: POBLADORA.
1. If the person is from Huancavelica and complains (and they do not work as a mining engineer): POBLADOR [resident]
2. If the person is from La Molina and complains on behalf of a university student (and they are not a domestic worker): VECINA [neighbour].
10. And last but not least, the golden rule: Never, NEVER call someone who criticizes mining a ‘neighbour'… especially if they are from the mountains: POBLADORA.
It is important to point out that Huancavelica is one of the richest mining areas in Peru, but also one of the poorest regions with the most primitive infrastructure. La Molina, on the other hand, is a neighbourhood in Lima where the majority of families are from the middle or upper classes.
And then there is the case of Argentina, a more ethnically homogenous country, but one that also offers evidence of discrimination. In October 2013, Micaela Urdinez, who publishes the blog “El vaso medio lleno” (the glass half full) in the newspaper La Nación de Buenos Aires, wrote about the campaign of a foundation whose slogan was “Finding each other in diversity”:
¿Cuántas veces hemos escuchado palabras como “negro”, “puto”, “minita”, “trola”, “bolita”, “mogólico” sin pensar en sus consecuencias? Por eso rescato el mensaje de esta campaña que señala que “La manera de no equivocarnos es preguntar a cada persona cómo quiere ser llamada”.
How many times have we heard words like “black, “fag, “chick,” “skank,” “immigrant,” “retard,” without giving them a second thought? That is why I am underscoring the message of the campaign, which tells us “the best way to avoid making a mistake is to ask each person what they wish to be called.”
In another post, Urdinez emphasized the insidious nature of prejudice and provides some data on discrimination in Argentina:
De acuerdo con el Mapa Nacional de la Discriminación presentado por el Inadi a fines de 2013, los principales motivos de discriminación padecida en nuestro país tienen que ver con el nivel socioeconómico, con la condición de ser migrante, con el color de piel y con el aspecto físico. El estudio también señala que la mayor parte de las conductas discriminatorias no se da en situaciones de crisis, sino en la normalidad de los ámbitos educativos, los laborales y la vía pública.
According to the National Map of Discrimination as published by Inadi [National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism] at the end of 2013, the main reasons for discrimination encountered in our country have to do with socioeconomic status, being a migrant worker, skin colour and physical appearance. The study also notes that most of the discriminatory conduct does not occur in situations of crisis, but in everyday interaction in education, the workplace and public life.
Surely if we investigate the other countries of the region we would find additional ways in which we discriminate against one another. Catalina Restrepo, a social worker and Global Voices author, tries to explain this attitude from the Colombian perspective:
(Esto) tiene sus bases en aspectos contextuales, especialmente culturales, en los que por años uno ha escuchado a las generaciones mayores decir: “mijo, consiga plata. Y si no consigue, consiga”. En Colombia el dinero más que éxito representa poder y se tiene que ser colombiano para comprender lo que tener el poder representa en nuestra cultura. Por más que genere llaga, el conflicto interno armado y el narcotráfico han dejado instalada una idea del dinero fácil y de “soy más entre más tengo”. Puedo ejercer más control si mi familia “es de nombre o no”. No en vano en muchas de nuestras ciudades se pueden ver escenas (diciéndolos sin sesgo discriminatorio alguno) que parecieran el lugar más pobre de un desierto de África, y otras el lugar europeo más ostentoso. Y no en vano, hay un gran número de adolescentes queriendo ser el chico con la moto más lujosa de la cuadra o la chica de la que digan, tiene el mejor cuerpo.
[This] is rooted in specific contexts, particularly cultural, where for years one has heard the older generation say: “My child, make money. And if you can't, get it somehow.” In Colombia money signifies not just success but power; and you have to be Colombian to understand what having power means in our culture. With all the damage the internal armed conflict and drug trafficking have wrought, they have also given rise to the notion of easy money and that “the more I have, the more important I am.” I can exercise more control if my family “has a recognized name.” Not surprisingly, in many of our cities it is easy to observe scenes (and I say this with no bias whatsoever) on a par with the poorest African desert while, in another part of town, scenes of European-style opulence. And it is no coincidence that there are large numbers of teenagers wanting to be the guy with the most expensive motorbike on the block or the girl with the best body.

author: Juan Arellano


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US President Obama Honors Global Voices Author for Her Human Rights Work in Cambodia · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Cambodian activist Sopheap was in the audience when she was honored by US President Obama in New York
“We could not be prouder of you, and we stand with you.”
These were the words of United States President Barack Obama when he recognized Sopheap Chak, executive director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, at the 10th Clinton Global Initiative in New York City. Sopheap is also a member of the Global Voices community since 2009.
Sopheap was present when Obama praised her work in front of world leaders, civil society officials, media executives, and activists.
Obama mentioned Sopheap after he talked about the worrying human rights situation in Cambodia. He specifically mentioned the case of four activists who died after launching a campaign against government irregularities. One of these activists was prominent environmentalist Chut Wutty, who was shot dead in April 2012 while looking into the reported illegal logging operations in Koh Kong province. Obama honored Chut and other martyred activists, as well as those who are still actively promoting human rights in Cambodia. Obama proceeded to honor the brave decision of Sopheap to continue the campaign for justice in Cambodia:
Sopheap saw a fellow human rights advocate hauled off by the police, and she could have fled, too, but she says she’s never thought of leaving Cambodia even for minute. So she keeps organizing and marching and mobilizing youth to demand justice.
We conducted an e-mail interview with Sopheap, who is now back in Cambodia, about the recognition she received in the US and also about the case of Chut Wutty.
Global Voices (GV): What was your reaction to Obama's statement honoring Chut Wutty and recognizing your human rights advocacy?
Sopheap Chak (SC): It was inspiring to be recognized by a famous global leader. And even more inspiring was Obama’s statement about the important role of the civil society. He also emphasized that the most important title is not president or prime minister, but citizen. This should be the attitude of all government officials.
GV: Can you explain further the advocacy of your group which Obama recognized?
SC: The Cambodian Center for Human Rights is a non-aligned NGO that works to promote and protect democracy and human rights – primarily civil and political rights – in Cambodia. We work with ordinary people, grassroots activists, and community-based organizations at a time when the Cambodian government has failed to stop the deterioration of the human rights situation in the country. We assert that what hinders the emergence of true democracy is when authorities only recognize the human rights of the wealthy at the expense of ordinary Cambodians.
Sopheap is executive director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. She joined Global Voices in 2009
GV: How did Cambodian leaders and civil society react to Obama's statement?
SC: Civil society groups welcomed Obama's statement and they noted that it revived interest about the case of Chut Wutty, a martyred environmental activist. May the public never forget that the Cambodian government has failed to bring justice to him and his family. For instance, his death was not independently investigated.
What was doubly disheartening was the statement of a government official who continued to malign activists by calling Chut an illegal logger after Obama honored him. Yet the government could not present an evidence against Chut, and it could also not stop the rapid loss of Cambodia’s remaining forest cover. It could not even name a single illegal logger who had to be made accountable for destroying the environment.
GV: What are your future plans? Are you still pursuing Chut Wutty's case?
SC: We will continue our advocacy work especially the protection of human rights defenders and individuals who are exercising and asserting their fundamental freedoms. We will engage the government as it continues to criminalize the legitimate protest actions of activists and ordinary citizens. We will continue to advocate for real change in the country by raising the people’s awareness about their rights.
Regarding Chut Wutty’s case, we are still appealing for an independent investigation about his death. This is crucial to ensure that the culture of impunity is not tolerated in Cambodia.
GV: What is your message to the Global Voices community?
SC: It is truly inspiring to belong in a group as diverse as ours. Each member has this remarkable passion to contribute to the community and amplify voices neglected by mainstream media. We are motivated by the positive impact of our work. It’s amazing to see and contribute to the global growth of this movement.

author: Mong Palatino


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The Invisible Violence of Cyber War in Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution · Global Voices
inmediahk.net

Protesters face tear gas in Hong Kong, Sept. 28, 2014. Photo by 海彥, released to public domain by Voice of America.
This post was written by Oiwan Lam and originally published in Chinese on 6 October 2014 on citizen media platform inmediahk.net. It was translated by Loki Chu and Ronald Yick and republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
The conflict between citizens and government authorities over suffrage in Hong Kong has been reflected not only at massive sit-ins across the city, but also in attacks on independent media sites and citizen organizing platforms that have been carried out an an unprecedented scale since Sept. 27.
These attacks have thus far gone largely unreported by mainstream media, despite the fact that nearly all the major pro-democracy citizen media have been knocked offline over the past ten days.
Just after students occupied the Civic Plaza at Hong Kong's government headquarters on Sept. 27, several independent pro-democratic websites, including Passion Times, Post852, HKDash and inmediahk.net all suffered a frenzy of attacks by hackers that have left them highly unstable. Some sites have spent long periods of time entirely offline. Even the official website of the civic group behind the massive sit-in action, Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP), was taken down by malicious attackers for over two days.
Pro-establishment sites and organizations have also been disrupted by hacker organization, “Anonymous Asia”. For example, the website of Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), a pro-Beijing political party, was paralyzed for about two days and the Hong Kong government News portal had a latency disruption for about 12 hours. However as the pro-establishment sites have strong influence on mainstream media outlets, the disruption has no effect on their information dissemination.
The impact of cyber war on independent citizen sites are destructive, as they have a small budget and limited staff resources, the attacks have been detrimental to their ability to disseminate information on the latest development of massive protests, making it more difficult to build collective consensus on campaign direction and strategy.
Apart from web servers, these full-force attacks on independent media sites also targeted specific content in their database systems, as well as at the domain name system (DNS).
Inmediahk.net Battles Multi-Pronged Attacks
Over the past week, independent media platform inmediahk.net has faced attacks of an unprecedented scale. On Sept. 27, server lag time escalated and the group's server went offline on a regular basis. Editors could not post new articles to the website, and had to resort to posting full articles to its Facebook page. A technical team was formed first thing the next morning. They worked to migrate the server, setup a service provided by CloudFlare to protect the DNS servers, which helped to alleviate the HTML request attack, though only temporarily.
On October 3, the scale of the attack became much more vigorous. The website received 60MB of queries per second. According to Google Pagespeed service, in-out bandwidth reached 12GB, about 24 times of the normal everyday amount of 500MB. Additional RAM had to be added to upgrade the speed of the CPU.
DNS report from Cloudflare.
On Oct. 4, in addition to attacks coming from overseas IPs, an attack from a Hong Kong local IP address 111.68.15.122 was spotted. Between the start of the attack and the morning of Oct. 6, a total of 2,300,000 queries were sent from this local IP. The DNS server received 10M queries every hour, dragging the response time up to 461 milliseconds (versus around 20-50 milliseconds for a reasonably fast DNS server.) The technical team had to upgrade the site's DNS server, and also contacted CloudFlare for dealing with the DNS query latency problem. Furthermore, some of the attacks were aimed at the database system, e.g. visits to articles relating to the tag “social movement” were intercepted and blocked. The in-out bandwidth of the website quickly jumped to 40GB, 80 times of the amount before the attack.
The bandwidth of inmediahk.net surged to 40 billion on Oct. 3, according a Google pagespeed report.
On Oct. 5, attacks began emanating from various nearby countries including China, South Korea, and Vietnam. Hackers also began attacking the add-on web application used by the inmediahk's content management system, making the website very unstable. In the latest development on Oct. 6, hackers used a latest DDoS attack method known as “http flood” to attack the server, making it hard for a normal defense system to distinguish whether visits are from normal browsing or from malicious attacks.
Since Sept. 27, the technical team has monitored the status of the website around the clock every day and worked hard to customize their defensive methods to fend off attacks.
Mainstream Media Are Silent on Cyberwar
In this cyberwar, several independent news media outlets and the OCLP website have been suffering from a prolonged attacks and been knocked off the Internet. The intention is obvious: to destroy information flow during the movement. However, mainstream media, while witnessing the downfall of these citizen websites, have gone totally quiet, with not a single enquiry or report on the issue. This may be a sign that cyber attacks are being perceived as commonplace and thus not worthy of media attention. This is a terrible development towards Hong Kong's free speech environment.
Counter Attacks by Anonymous Asia Do Not Help the Cause of Democracy
In an attempt to retaliate against police violence towards peaceful demonstrators, “Anonymous Asia” started attacking multiple websites owned by the Hong Kong government and the pro-Beijing political groups. The hacker collectives brought down DAB website from the Internet on October 3 and continued to target at other pro-establishment and Hong Kong government websites. The government's news portal was disrupted briefly on October 4.
Although some were supportive of Anonymous Asia’s action, the counter-attack is not helpful to the struggle for democracy in Hong Kong at all. The pro-Beijing groups and the Hong Kong government mainly depend on television news programs and channels for their press release and pro-Beijing printed newspapers for spreading their opinions, the online disruption has no real effect. On the contrary, the cyber-war declaration by Anonymous Asia seems to have scaled up the attack on local independent news sites since October 3.
In contrast to the relative silence around attacks on pro-democracy and indy media sites, the Anonymous Asia’ attacks on DAB and the government news protal was highlighted in various mainstream news reports and has reflected negatively on the OCLP movement. During the early hours on Oct. 6, police arrested five people in connection with the Anonymous Asia attacks. They may face charges of accessing a computer with criminal or dishonest intent.
While the government and the pro-establishment camp can employ public resources and even the police to fend off invasions, citizen media have no choice but to resist large-scale attacks on their own. The reason for their survival in this increasingly harsh environment is the awareness that online independent platforms are an essential element of a free society and the tireless, round-the-clock work of their technical teams. Without support from citizens who care about free speech and democracy, citizen independent sites will not be able to sustain this level of technical assault in the longer term.
Follow our in-depth coverage: Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution


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The Struggling Free Press in Myanmar  · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

This image, posted in the online magazine Shan Herald, describes the state of the press in Myanmar. Despite the abolition of the censorship board a few years ago, journalists still face a lot of challenges. This year, reporters have been detained for reporting and asking about some government-initiated projects.


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Video Portrays Tender Friendship Between a Brazilian Man and a Hummingbird · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Screenshot of João Silvestrini's video. Starring: a hummingbird chick
“It is a month today since Mother introduced me to this Chick!” That is how João Silvestrini, a retired Brazilian man, named the video he shot to introduce his friend, a hummingbird chick, to Facebook. The footage, which shows João chatting away with the bird and the viewer for two minutes as the animal flies around, emanates enough tenderness to warm the heart of any animal lover:
Oi! Vem! Vamos filmar aqui, venha aqui, aqui! Vamos conversar aqui pertinho, tá vendo? Vem cá, vamos conversar um pouquinho, senta aqui. Vem beber um pouquinho? Vamos na máquina de novo, vamos? Aí, ó! Olha aí! Tá filmando, heim, tá filmando. Isso, assenta no meu dedo, tá vendo? Isso. Olha aí!
O sem-vergonha fica aqui o dia todo me chamando, ele vai lá me rodeia, rodeia, rodeia. Já faz meia hora que tô deixando ele me chamar. Esse é o filhote. A mãe dele me apresentou ele aqui e largou ele aqui na minha janela, no varal ali. E ele tá acostumado assim, olha, toda hora ele vem me chamar aí, toda hora.
Né? Vem então aí, senta no meu dedo. Vem cá! Vem mais um pouquinho. Isso! Aproveitar o filme aqui, ó. Cê viu? Isso, bebe bem pertinho da máquina. Quer mais não? Não quer? Vou guardar. Pronto, tá guardando.
Eu deixo fechado aqui, ele fica me rodeando, rodeando, aí eu venho aqui e atendo ele.
Hi! Come here! Let's make a video here, come here, here! Come close to talk here, ok? Come, let's talk a little bit, sit here. Wanna a little drink? Let's get close to the machine again, shall we? Look there! We're filming. That's it, perch on my finger, that's it! Here.
This little rascal calls me all day long, he goes around, around, around me. I've been letting him do this for half an hour. This is a chick. His mother introduced him to me here in my window, and left him there by the clothesline. He is used to this, he comes to call on me all the time.
Isn't it? Come here, sit on my finger. Come on! Come a little more. There you go! Let's make most of the film. Shall we? That's it, drink very close to the camera. Wanna more? Don't you? I'll save it for later. Okay, okay, saving it.
I leave it here, then he comes around me, circling me, so I get up and serve him.
Published on Facebook on October 1, the video has almost 280,000 shares and many kind reactions. His niece Maria Cristina comments:
TIO O VÍDEO DO SR. JÁ TEM 63.481 COMPARTILHAMENTOS SEM CONTAR OS ACESSOS , TIO O AMOR QUE O SR. TEM POR ESTE BEIJA FLOR É TÃO GRANDE QUE OLHA O RESULTADO , BJS TIO TE AMO
UNCLE, YOUR VIDEO HAS 63,481 SHARES WITHOUT MENTIONING VIEWS, THE LOVE THAT YOU HAVE FOR THIS HUMMINGBIRD IS SO GREAT, THIS IS THE RESULT, KISSES, UNCLE, LOVE YOU.
Flávio Guerra highlights João's spirit of service:
Seu João, parabéns. Primeiro por sua boa vontade em servir um pequeno beija flor e nos dá a linda mensagem de que a a única pessoa responsável por nossa felicidade, somos nós mesmo. Continue assim, feliz e com seu pequeno amigo. Abraços do Amazonas!
Mr. João, congratulations. First for your willingness to serve a small hummingbird and for giving us this beautiful message that a single person is responsible for their own happiness. We are indeed. Keep it up, and be happy with your little friend. Hugs from the Amazon!
Maria Cristina Bisson is moved:
Sr João! Quanta Luz um bichinho tão frágil e pequenino dá a todos que o contempla! E quanta emoção em nosso coração doa a todos quando alguém ama e convive com a natureza como o sr e nos permite sentir e compartilhar um cantinho de seu viver. Muitas alegrias aos dois amigos!Já deu até agora 200.000 compartilhamentos…Abraços de Piracicaba SP.
Mr. João! How much light. Such a fragile and tiny animal gives us all something to contemplate! And how much emotion is given to everyone's heart when someone loves and lives with nature as you do. And you allow us to feel and share a corner of your life. Much joy to these two friends! It has 200,000 shares already so far … Hugs from Piracicaba São Paulo.
Rossana de Almeida is now fan:
O Sr. João ganhou uma legião de fãs com esse vídeo, pudera, é visível e tocante seu amor e carinho p com o beija- flor,visitante tão especial! O Sr é um Querido!!
Mr. João, you have won a legion of fans with this video, not surprisingly, your love and affection for this special hummingbird visitor are visible and touching. You are such a darling!

author: Paula Góes


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Why Singapore Artists Rejected the Government’s Self-Censorship Scheme · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

The Singapore government has banned the public screening of this film because it is deemed as a threat to the national security.
Singapore’s decision to ban the public screening of a documentary that featured an interview with six political exiles has put the spotlight on how the country is regulating and even censoring the arts and entertainment industry.
The film “To Singapore, With Love” was classified by the Media Development Authority (MDA) as “not allowed for all ratings” because it is allegedly a threat to the national security. The MDA later backtracked, declaring that the film can have private screenings but only for educational and non-commercial purposes.
Many Singaporeans have already denounced the MDA for banning a documentary that received favorable reviews and awards in many film festivals outside Singapore. They urged the government to reconsider its decision and allow the public, especially the youth, to listen to the stories of the exiles featured in the film.
Singapore’s ruling party, the People's Action Party (PAP), has been in power for the past half-century. It claims that some of the exiles interviewed in the film are communist leaders who tried to overthrow the government in the 1960s.
Many disagreed, arguing that this is an acceptable reason to ban the film or categorize it as a threat to the national security. Artists who signed an online petition in support of the film have described the rating given by the MDA as a form of censorship which “does nothing to promote a vibrant, informed society.”
Tan Pin Pin, the director of the film, hoped that the film would stir conversations about the country’s past. “We need to be trusted to be able to find the answers to questions about ourselves, for ourselves,” she said in a Facebook statement.
The controversy has revived debate about the policies implemented by the MDA in overseeing the arts. The “not allowed for all ratings” classification may seem harmless, but it is used to ban a work of art that undermines national interest or if it will “cause feelings of ill-will between different racial or religious groups or cause offence to any racial or religious group, glorify lifestyles or behaviors contrary to prevailing social norms, or be excessive and/or exploitative in its depictions.” It is the MDA that decides if an art work or performance is safe for public viewing.
Perhaps recognizing that this mechanism would often lead to clashes between the government and the art community, the MDA proposed the Arts Term Licensing Scheme last May, which would promote “self-classification and “co-regulation” in the arts.
Under the proposed scheme, art groups with a proven track record can self-classify their works. This seemed a better alternative compared to the current practice of requiring an art group to apply for a license two months before a performance.
For Arts Engage, a network of Singaporean artists, the proposed system by the MDA is still restrictive. They argued that it is also misleading to use the term self-classification because MDA “content assessors” will still review the rating. Further, the new regulation specifies that “unscripted performances, or those touching on race, religion or politics, will still have to be submitted to the MDA for an event-based license.”
Arts Engage described the “content assessors” as “essentially MDA officers by proxy.” They also disagreed that artists would have the freedom to self-classify their works since these are still “subject to prescribed guidelines and criteria pre-determined by MDA.”
Since a misclassification will be penalized, the group also warned that it could make “self-censorship more prevalent.” The video below, which featured prominent artists in Singapore, summarized the position of Arts Engage:
After conducting a public consultation, the MDA agreed to withdraw the proposed scheme in August. But a week later, the MDA ordered the banning of Tan Pin Pin’s documentary.
The censorship regime still exists because the Public Entertainments and Meetings Act (PEMA) remains in force. It is the law that mandates the MDA and the Singapore Police Force to “suspend or cancel a public entertainment license if it is contrary to public interest, indecent/immoral/offensive/subversive or improper in nature.”
The law empowers the MDA to approve art works with “acceptable content”:
To ensure that the content regulation system is guided by community views on acceptable content, while not compromising the overarching need to uphold community values, support racial and religious harmony, and safeguard national and public interests.
Perhaps it is time to review the legal framework that undermines the freedom of artists. Arts Engage made this point in opposing the “self-censorship” scheme proposed by the MDA:
The current model of the MDA as gatekeeper and mediator between artists and disgruntled members of the public is deeply flawed. It sets up a false dichotomy of ‘artists versus community’, perpetuating the notion that society needs to be protected from its artists.


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A Culinary Tour of Eid al-Adha Dishes Enjoyed Across the Middle East · Global Voices
Thalia Rahme

Dates, walnut and pistachio-filled maamoul. Photograph taken by the author during Easter in Lebanon
Like in any celebration, food occupies a central place during Islam's Eid al-Adha traditions, which took place over the weekend. Eid al-Adha or the Festival of Sacrifice culminates the Hajj season, which this year attracted 2 million pilgrims from around the world to Mecca.
In Arabic, Adha means sacrifice. During the Hajj ritual, Muslims around the world commemorate the day when Abraham was about to willingly sacrifice his son Ismael, before God asked him to sacrifice a lamb instead. It is therefore more than common to see a lamb meal served on the the lunch tables of Muslims on that day.
Dentist and food blogger Laila shares her recipe for a roasted lamb leg both on her blog and YouTube channel:
But you cannot talk Eid al-Adha in large areas of the Middle East without mentioning maamoul.
Eid al-Adha is often referred to by Muslims as Eid al-Kabir (Eid meaning celebration and Kabir meaning important or big). Christians in the region refer to Easter as Eid al-Kabir too, with maamoul also being their most famous dessert.
Holly S. Warah, an American married to a Palestinian, explains on her website Arabic Zeal how to make maamoul stuffed with dates. “These pastries are all about the dates. Use the best quality dates you can get,” she says before giving the ingredients and the recipe.
On her part, Laila shares a YouTube video of how to make maamoul here:
Speaking of dates, Lebanese Louloua from Pearl's Powder greets her readers with photographs taken during her visit to the dates market in the holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia. She described:
Happy Eid Adha! :)
The dates market in Medina. Photo originally taken by Louloua from the blog “Pearl's Powder” posted under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Some sweets might not be typically intended for Eid al-Adha, but are welcome especially when presented with twist. Take knefeh for instance. Anthony from No Garlic No Onions culinary blog highlights chocolate knefeh and croissant knefeh he sampled in Lebanon.
Lebanese-American Joumana Acad, blog owner of Taste of Beirut, shares another no less eccentric recipe: loukoum ice cream. Loukoum, more commonly known as Turkish Delight, is a sweet paste often mixed with nuts, pistachios and flavored with rosewater, mastic and other ingredients:
4 SERVINGS
2 cups vanilla ice-cream
8 Loukoum, flavor of your choice
1. 30 minutes before serving the ice-cream, cut-up the loukoum and mix it with the ice-cream; place back in the freezer. Serve in individual bowls.
NOTE: I have noticed that the ice-cream ordered at restaurants ends up with the loukoum’s texture being too hard, which is why I’d try to do the mixing as close to serving as possible.
We continue our culinary trip to Morocco with Hasnaa and Lamia, who teach us how to cook Mrouziah, a caramelized meat cooked with dried raisins, on their H&L Recipes YouYube channel:
Egyptians can't imagine their Eid meal without fatta to the extent that some of them have it for breakfast. But take note: the Egyptian fatta is different than the Levantine, made usually with chickpeas, onions, eggplants sometimes and yogurt.
Egyptian fatta. Credits to the Blog “Julia Al Arab”
Under the the nickname Julia, an Egyptian housewife and blogger gives us a step-by-step recipe for an authentic fatta a l'Egyptienne. It requires the following ingredients:
salt, black pepper, cumin to taste
Libyan cookies filled with loukoum. Credit: Libyan Food Blog
The second preferred dessert for Libyans after the famous magroud is the kaak halkoum, or cookies stuffed with loukoum. Both are, according to the blog Libyan Food, a must have on the Eid.
And we finish this round-up of Eid dishes in Oman, with expatriate Antonio Andrade, who got to taste and experiment with homemade shuwa, which consists of an entire goat or cow roasted and cooked for 24 hours in a sand pit.
Happy Eid al-Adha everyone!


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An Interview With Silvia Viñas, True Citizen of the World  · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Silvia Viñas
Silvia Viñas is a journalist and editor with a background in literature and political science who graduated from Brigham Young University in the United States. She was born in Montevideo, Uruguay and grew up in five Latin American countries and Spain, which means she has a special way of seeing the world.
We spoke with her about her background in journalism, her time as Global Voices’ Latin America editor and her transition to radio.
Global Voices (GV): How did you join Global Voices? And how did you eventually become a regional editor?
Silvia Viñas: Llegué a Global Voices en enero del 2010. Me acababa de graduar de la universidad y estaba buscando ampliar mi experiencia como periodista. No me acuerdo cómo, pero llegué a la página y vi que necesitaban colaboradores que escribieran sobre Chile y Uruguay. Yo nací en Uruguay –aunque he vivido en muchos otros lugares– y conocía muy bien lo que pasaba en Chile por mi esposo y por haber pasado ahí casi toda mi adolescencia. Entonces pensé, “¡perfecto! esto es lo que estoy buscando”. Le escribí a Eddie Ávila, que era el editor de Latinoamérica en ese momento, y a los pocos días empecé a escribir.
Ese año fue el Mundial de Fútbol en Sudáfrica, y Eddie me pidió reemplazarlo como editor de Latinoamérica por dos semanas mientras él estaba en Sudáfrica haciendo otras cosas para Global Voices. Las dos semanas se convirtieron en un mes, y después a Eddie le ofrecieron dirigir Rising Voices, un proyecto de Global Voices que ayuda a medios ciudadanos emergentes. Se abrió el puesto de editor para Latinoamérica y decidieron ofrecerme el puesto a mí. Al principio no lo podía creer. No me sentía preparada, pero Eddie y Solana Larsen –editora general de Global Voices en ese momento– me dieron todo el ánimo y apoyo que necesitaba. Trabajé como editora por casi cuatro años, y fue un tiempo inolvidable. Aprendí muchísimo y pude conocer y trabajar con personas que admiro y aprecio muchísimo.
Silvia Viñas (SV): I joined Global Voices in January 2010. I had just graduated college and was looking to expand my experience as a journalist. I don't remember how, but I came across the page and saw that they needed collaborators to write about Chile and Uruguay. I was born in Uruguay — although I have in many other places — and I knew a lot about what was happening in Chile because of my husband and having spent almost my entire adolescence there. So I thought, “Perfect! This is what I'm looking for.” I wrote to Eddie Ávila, who was the editor for Latin America at the time, and a few days later I began writing.
That year, the World Cup was in South Africa and Eddie asked me to fill in for him as the Latin America editor for two weeks while he was in South Africa on business for Global Voices. Two weeks became a month and afterwards, Eddie was offered to direct Rising Voices, a Global Voices project that helps emerging citizen media initiatives. The Latin America editor position opened up and they decided to offer it to me. At first I couldn't believe it. I didn't feel prepared, but Eddie and Solana Larsen — the Global Voices General Editor at the time — gave me all the encouragement and support I needed. I worked as the editor for almost four years and it was an unforgettable time. I learned so much and was able to meet and work with people who I admire and appreciate greatly.
GV: You have lived in a long list of countries, and I suppose that this gives you a very special view of the world. How do you think this influences your life now?
SV: Es difícil describir cómo influye en mí, porque para mí es lo normal, no conozco otra cosa. Pero creo que influye en que ahora no tengo problema con mudarme de un país a otro o de una ciudad a otra. De hecho, después de dos o tres años en un lugar ya siento que necesito un cambio, aunque sea cambiarme de casa en la misma ciudad. Quizás algún día eso cambie, cuando mis hijos estén más grandes –o quizás no. Quién sabe. Pero creo que esos cambios, y conocer a gente de diferentes culturas y países, me ha hecho una persona muy curiosa. Global Voices es el sitio perfecto para los curiosos. Me gusta indagar y tratar de entender cómo se viven ciertos acontecimientos en países lejanos, en los que nunca he estado ni de paso. Supongo que esa curiosidad viene de haber crecido tratando de entender los lugares donde crecí. Y por cierto, sigo tratando de entenderlos.
SV: It's difficult to describe how it influences me because for me this is the norm. I don't know anything else. But I think it has influenced me in that now I don't have a problem with moving from one country to another or from one city to another. In fact, after two or three years in one place, I feel like I need a change, even if it's just switching houses in the same city. Maybe one day this will change, when my children are older — or maybe not. Who knows. But I think that these changes and meeting people from different cultures and countries has made me a very curious person. Global Voices is the perfect place for curious people. I like investigating things and trying to understand how people live through certain events in far off countries that no one has even passed through. I suppose this curiosity comes from having grown up trying to understand the places where I was growing up. And by the way, I continue to try to understand them.
GV: Was journalism your first choice of profession?
SV: Sí, aunque debo admitir que a veces dudé si seguir este camino. Mientras estudiaba en la universidad los medios recién parecían estar cambiando, tratando de adaptarse a internet. Obviamente, ese proceso sigue hasta ahora; pero en ese momento todo era muy nuevo y había mucho temor de que era “el fin” del periodismo. Eso me afectó, claro, pero algo siempre me empujaba de vuelta al periodismo. Una de las razones por las que me atrajo tanto Global Voices era porque estaban mirando hacia el futuro con optimismo y con ideas concretas para informar con todas las herramientas que en ese momento estaban recién surgiendo –blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Ese optimismo fue contagioso, y ahora estoy convencida de que el periodismo está más vivo que nunca.
SV: Yes, although I must admit that sometimes I doubted whether I would continue down this path. While I was studying at university, the media appeared to be changing, trying to adapt to the Internet. Obviously this process continues today, but at that time, everything was very new and there was a lot of fear that it would be “the end” of journalism. This affected me, of course, but something was always pushing me to return to journalism. One of the reasons I was so drawn to Global Voices was because they were looking towards the future optimistically, with concrete ideas about reporting on issues using all of the tools that were emerging at that time — blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. This optimism was contagious and now I'm convinced that journalism is more alive than ever.
GV: You currently work in radio. How is that different from written media outlets, like Global Voices?
SV: Escribir un guion para una crónica radial es muy diferente a escribir un artículo periodístico; pero cuando escribes para radio aprendes a escribir de una manera más natural, en realidad a encontrar tu voz. La radio es más personal. Se crea una conexión entre el oyente y el narrador que en un medio escrito es más difícil alcanzar. Además, la música y los efectos de sonido ayudan a transportar al oyente, y eso me parece fascinante. En Radio Ambulante, donde trabajo ahora como productora y editora, publicamos crónicas radiales de todo Latinoamérica, y me encanta escuchar los diferentes acentos en cada historia. Creo que la radio agrega elementos que hacen que una historia sea más emocionante, más conmovedora, más entretenida, y más personal. Me gustaría ver a más medios escritos de la región haciendo radio, armando un podcast o simplemente complementando sus artículos con audio relevante que ayude a “enganchar” -por decirlo así- al lector.
SV: Writing a script for a radio program is very different from writing a news articles, but when you write for radio, you learn to write in a more natural way, to really find your voice. Radio is more personal. A connection is created between the listener and the narrator that is more difficult to attain in written media. Additionally, music and sound effects help transport the reader and this seems fascinating to me. At Radio Ambulante, where I work as a producer and editor, we broadcast radio programs from all over Latin America and I love listening to the different accents in each story. I think that radio adds elements that make a story more exciting, more moving, more entertaining, and more personal. I would like to see written media from the region doing radio, creating a podcast, or simply complementing its articles with relevant audio that helps get the reader “hooked”, so to speak.
GV: What differences do you see between your work for GV and Radio Ambulante?
SV: En Global Voices me dedicaba más que nada a las noticias del momento. Muchas veces publicamos artículos de cultura y de arte, o entrevistas u otros tipos de contenidos que no eran necesariamente tan noticiosos; pero siempre tenía que estar muy, muy pendiente de lo último que estaba pasando en todo Sudamérica y Centroamérica. Era emocionante, sin duda, estar pendiente de tantas cosas pasando a la vez en la región. Pero ahora puedo mirar temas e historias con más profundidad. Las historias que hacemos en Radio Ambulante las trabajamos a veces durante meses. También estoy produciendo una serie de entrevistas en inglés que estamos haciendo con Radio Ambulante para PRI (Public Radio International), y eso es muy entretenido también, porque tengo que decidir qué contenido dejar para que el oyente no se aburra y no cierre la venta o cambie de podcast.
SV: At Global Voices, I was dedicated more than anything to current events. Oftentimes we published articles about culture and art, or interviews or other types of content that was not necessarily so news-related, but I always had to be very, very aware of the latest events occurring in South and Central America. It was exciting, without a doubt, keeping track of so many things happening at the same time in the region. But now I can look at issues and stories with more depth. At Radio Ambulante, sometimes we work on the stories we discuss for months. I am also producing a series of interviews in English that we are doing at Radio Ambulante for PRI (Public Radio International) and I am really enjoying this because I have to decide which content to keep so that the listener does not get bored and closes the window or changes to another podcast.
GV: By the way, congratulations to the Radio Ambulante team for winning the Gabriel García Márquez prize in the category of innovation from the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation for New Ibero-American Journalism.
Do you have anything to add?
SV: Solo agregaría que, ¡amo Global Voices! Esta maravillosa comunidad que cumple 10 años tiene un lugar muy especial en mi vida. No es solo un sitio de internet que reporta sobre noticias; es una comunidad de gente increíble que regala su tiempo y energía para que el resto sepamos y entendamos lo que está pasando en el mundo. Es un honor ser parte de este grupo tan diverso y a la vez tan único. ¡Gracias por entrevistarme!
SV: I would only add that, I love Global Voices! This wonderful community that turns 10 years old holds a very special place in my life. It is not just a website that reports news; it is a community of incredible people who donate their time and energy so that the rest of us know and understand what is happening in the world. It is an honor to be part of this group, which is so diverse and unique at the same time. Thank you for interviewing me!
Thank you, Silvia.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


text:
Central Asia’s First Ladies: Heard But Not Seen? · Global Voices
Anna Fergana

From left Azizmo Asadullayeva (wife of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon), Raisa Atambaeva, Tatiana Karimova and Sara Nazarbaeva. Images mixed by author.
In Soviet Central Asia, officially at least, women were the comrades and equals of men. Male and female did similar jobs for equal pay and pre-Soviet practices viewed as restrictive to women's rights were banned as reactionary. A famous Soviet movie, Silent Bride, in which a young Turkmen woman is reduced to sign language to communicate with her in-laws, parodied the obedience expected from a new bride in Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen or Uzbek families, portraying it as a barrier to socialist progress.
The Soviet Union itself was never a model for most feminists across the world — only three women ever appeared in the politburo, the most powerful political organ in the union — but most would argue that in terms of gender equality the five former communist republics of Central Asia, all of which have majority Muslim populations, have taken a step backwards since independence.
President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon and family. Image widely shared.
Evidence for this is everywhere. Recently in Tajikistan a group of “medical-legal experts” lobbied for Tajik women having a physical examination to prove their virginity prior to getting married. In Kyrgyzstan, the country with the highest proportion of female parliamentarians, bride-kidnapping has made a fiersome comeback, with some experts arguing the practice is far more widespread now than during the Kyrgyz people's nomadic past. Bridal prices, meanwhile, have reemerged in all five republics, most noticeably in Turkmenistan.
And yet the Soviet legacy is also strong, particularly in terms of female education, which is nearly universal across the region. This leaves powerful women in the five republics in an awkward position: often pursuing successful careers but expected to conform to local gender stereotypes. This contradiction is particularly relevant for the wives of the region's presidents, who must appear traditional before a population that expects them to behave a certain way, but who, by virtue of their positions, are often thought to possess significant informal influence.
First Ladies as “grey cardinals”
In a recent article on the depiction of female public figures in the U.S. for Politico, Sarah Kendzior wrote that American media typecast powerful women into two roles, those of “Machiavellian maneuverer and cupcake-eating cheerleader.” While cupcakes are uncommon in Central Asia, the first label certainly applies to rumours surrounding first ladies of the region's two most powerful countries, Tatiana Karimova of Uzbekistan and Sara Nazarbayeva of Kazakhstan.
An old photo of Uzbek President Islam Karimov and his wife Tatiana. Widely shared.
Referring to her academic specialization, Russian media nicknamed Nazarbayeva “the country's engineer-economist”, suggesting it is because of her connections that a clan from central Kazakhstan, where she was born, has come to control key positions in government and industry. Nazarbayeva has become less visible in the second half of the independence era, as has the wife of Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov, Tatiana Karimova.
Nevertheless, according to the Zamondosh blog:
На самом деле, Т. Каримова – серый кардинал узбекской политики и экономики. Многие источники сообщают, что Татьяна Каримова принимает самое непосредственное участие в управлении страной. Ни одно решение, касающееся кадровых перестановок, политики, или финансово-экономических вопросов, не принимается без ее участия.
In actual fact, T.Karimova is the grey cardinal of Uzbek politics and the economy. Many sources say that Tatiana participates directly in the governing of the country. No single decision concerning staffing, policy or finances is undertaken without her participation.
Mayram Akayeva, wife of neighbouring Kyrgyzstan's first president Askar Akayev, was similarly portrayed by her detractors, who referred to her as the “human resources department” up until Akayev's overthrow in 2005.
First Ladies as “supressed women of the East”
Amid rumours of an unofficial divorce from Sara Nazarbayeva, Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbayev has spent more time appearing in public with a boy believed to be his youngest son. Given Sara's age (73-years-old), the appearances have been surrounded by conjecture as to who the child's mother is. In fact it is not uncommon for rich Central Asian men to take several partners — despite the fact that polygamy is outlawed in all five countries — and few men are richer than the president of oil-rich Kazakhstan.
Commenting on YouTube under a pro-opposition video about Nazarbayev's “other wives”, rkenzh made a crude joke about the alleged corruption of the Nazarbayev regime:
У него три жены. Тогда почему он нас ебет.
If [Nazarbayev] has 3 wives, why does he keep ****ing us?
Similar gossip surrounds Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, president of  gas-rich Turkmenistan. According to a US diplomatic cable leaked by Wikileaks:
There is a rumor among Ashgabat residents that Berdymuhamedov has a mistress, in addition to his Turkmen wife, who is reportedly very conservative. The mistress is supposedly an ethnic Russian by the name of Marina. She was reportedly a nurse at a dental clinic where Berdymuhamedov worked earlier in his career, and has a 14-year old daughter with the president. Berdymuhamedov's wife has reportedly been living in London since 2007.
Berdymuhamedov has never been seen with either his wife or supposed mistress during nearly eight years in power, just as his predecessor, the infamous Sapurmurat Niyazov, was almost never sighted with his wife Muza Niyazova. Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon also keeps his wife away from the public eye.
Commenting on these findings on a popular Russian forum, one user, эльфа notes that presidential daughters seem to have a better life than their mothers:
мда… как говорят ” забитые женщины Востока”, но по крайней мере дочери уже вполне современны.
yeah… the so-called “suppressed women of the East”, but at least their daughters are fairly modern.
The wife of current Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambaev, retired doctor Raisa Atambaeva, is probably the First Lady making the most public appearances in Central Asia.
Встреча в Пекине: первая леди Киргизии Раиса Атамбаева, Президент КР Алмазбек Атамбаев и Председатель КНР Ху Цзиньтао. pic.twitter.com/r3jp0pQn
— Евразия Online (@EurasiaOnline) June 5, 2012
Meeting in Beijing: The first lady of Kyrgyzstain Raisa Atambaeva, President of KR Almazbek Atambayev and the Chairman of the PRC, Hu Jintao.
While the Kyrgyz language press has scrutinized Raisa for her ethnicity — she is Tatar, not Kyrgyz — she seems fairly popular among netizens as a whole, and is able to live an active public life without being depicted as a scheming Lady Macbeth.
Nevertheless, given a modern history in which presidential spouses and other relatives have been perceived as too powerful, too often, many Kyrgyzstanis are cautious in their admiration. As one reader of RFE/RL's Kyrgyz website comments:
Как бы не сглазить ….
I hope she won't be touched by an evil eye…
On the borders of Soviet Central Asia, in Afghanistan, the Christian wife of new Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, Rula Saade, faces perhaps the biggest challenge of all the region's First Ladies in winning acknowledgement across a highly conservative society. Ghani's politically savvy predecessor, Hamid Karzai, hid his wife from the Afghan public throughout his thirteen years in power.

author: Anna Fergana


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France Continues to Attract Investors, but Its Public Debt Worries Economists  · Global Voices
Mathieu Carrere

General government consolidated gross debt as a percentage of GDP via Randam CC-BY-3.0
Five years ago, France's public debt peaked at 80% of GDP, but it is now approaching a debt ratio of 100%. This conjecture puts France at risk of being plunged into a difficult position in the financial markets. Governments usually borrow by issuing securities, government bonds and bills. In layman's terms, the more debt a country holds, the less money it's able to put away in savings and reinvest in the nation's economy.
The burden of debt per capita is 30,300 euros. Last August, French debt exceeded the symbolic threshold of 2 trillions euros, an increase of nearly 90 billion compared to January, a rise of 4.7%. The announcement came one week after the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Research (INSEE) report, showing a second consecutive quarter of zero growth in France.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has already warned of “anaemic growth” and a risk of deflation in the eurozone. And now it seems that French public debt could reach 98% of GDP by 2015. This increase can be attributed to the rising deficit together with afeeble inflation and growth. Laurent Bigorgne, the director of the economic think tank Institut Montaigne, asserts that:
On ne peut anticiper aucune stabilisation de la dette, cette année, et même en 2015, elle devrait continuer de progresser dans les mêmes proportions.
The debt is not expected to stabilize this year, or even in 2015, and is likely to continue to rise at the same rate.
That’s what’s in store for next year. Paris will join the club of countries with three-figure debts. France will overtake Italy as the largest borrower on the international markets, within the eurozone, which means that France will find itself in a very precarious situation. With economic growth at a standstill – tax revenues evaporating, and deficits increasing more than expected – and at the same time almost zero inflation, its economy will take a battering; this is a giant task for the Ministry of the Economy at Bercy to tackle as it is unclear how this debt can be reduced.
Even though it remains a top priority, France is devoting more than 45 billion euros solely to paying back the interest on our loans, meaning that it will take all the income tax revenues, for example, just to pay that interest. Reversing the trend would require a return to robust growth; substantial cuts in public expenditure; and a more dynamic European environment. However, there haven't been many short-term developments in terms of these three issues. Bear in mind that the OECD has just cut its growth forecast for the eurozone, particularly France. In practical terms, therefore, France’s debt will increase even more, probably by more than 70 billion euros next year, ultimately reaching 100% of GDP.
ccommodating
Paradoxically, France is currently borrowing at historically low rates; never before has it benefited from such low borrowing costs. So France continues to accrue debt, even borrowing at negative rates, and on short-term maturities. Just three days ago, France raised €8 billion at negative rates, which is proof of the market confidence in the country.
70% of France’s public debt creditors – banks, pension funds, insurance companies, and sovereign funds – are non-resident. Many of these foreign creditors, however, reside within the eurozone. So 52% of Germany’s and France’s debts are held within the eurozone and are euro-denominated. The fact that the debt is held by foreign operators can be seen as both a strength and a weakness.
On the plus side, it is proof of France's ability to attract investment; the high scores given to France by the major rating agencies are a reflection of market confidence in the country; the down side is that a high level of debt held by non-residents means that the country is susceptible to international conjecture – as with Greece during the sovereign debt crisis – which could lead to an explosion in interest rates and greater problems with borrowing on the markets.
It is true that France is benefiting from an extraordinary financial environment, and borrowing at low rates. But can this last?

author: Mathieu Carrere


text:
In new iOS, Apple Introduces Five Indic Language Input Methods · Global Voices
Subhashish Panigrahi

A comparison of some Indic scripts vs. Latin. Image via wikipedia . CC BY-SA 3.0
In September 2014, Apple has launched the newest version of iOS 8, an operating system for its iPod Touch, iPad and iPhone. Apart from other major additions for better usability, iOS 8 has a very important feature for non-Latin script based languages, native input. This was missing since long and will be a great advantage for the languages – lot many people will easily be able to type in their own languages. Be it microblogging, social media, email or contributing to any platform like Wikipedia, there was a lack of native inputs for a long time after the first iOS was launched. iOS 8 has support for 5 Indic scripts: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu for the first time since the launch of the Apple gadgets in the Indian subcontinent. Apart from language inputs, iOS also allows a user to change the interface language partially/fully to the user's native language which will better usability among many Asian users.
Facebook user Jayanta Nath is excited abut this addition:
After update (of) iOS 8, it has added bengali default keyboards.

author: Subhashish Panigrahi


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Iranians  protest in solidarity with Kobane  · Global Voices
Farid

Iranians held several protest rallies in different cities including Tehran,Tabriz and Mehabad to support Kobane‘s people on Tuesday.Fighting continues to rage in the Syria-Turkey border town of Kobane
Iran protest in solidarity with #Kobane Photos: @NasimMohammadi_ pic.twitter.com/QHu1k1szxB
— Negar Mortazavi (@NegarMortazavi) October 7, 2014

author: Farid


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Macedonian Appellate Court Confirms Defamation Verdict for Independent Magazine · Global Voices
Danica Radisic

A Skopje appellate court ruled on Sept. 27 that independent magazine Fokus must pay a fine of nearly 9,000 euros to a high-level government official who sued the magazine for defamation over an article suggesting that he had engaged in corruption. The court's affirmation of a previous ruling dealt yet another blow to media freedom in Macedonia, a country long plagued by issues of media intimidation and harassment.
Defamation law in Macedonia is notoriously vague, creating a pathway for powerful political actors to take journalists to court over investigative reporting, criticism, and unwanted comments. These have become a common scare tactics in stifling media, and particularly independent outlets like Fokus, known for its critical investigative reporting on political institutions and lawmakers.
Fokus magazine front page from October 3, 2014, featuring the face of Sasho Mijalkov and the stamp “censored.”
The Skopje Court of Appeals confirmed the fine set by a first-degree court that Fokus magazine's editor-in-chief Jadranka Kostova must pay Director of the Security and Counter-Intelligence Directorate Sasho Mijalkov 5,000 euros. Fokus journalist Vlado Apostolov was fined 1,000 euros, and both now also must cover court expenses amounting to an additional 3,300 euros. The total amount that the two media workers owe to Mijalkov is over 8,300 euros (over 10,400 US dollars), Fokus reported on September 27. In addition to his government post, it should be noted that Mijalkov is the elder cousin of Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.
Mijalkov sued Fokus in January 2013 for publishing statements by Igor Ilievski, Macedonia's former ambassador to the Czech Republic, accusing him of corruption. Mijalkov has amassed significant wealth during his political career and had acquired real estate in Czech Republic, where he had a falling out with Igor Ilievski. After abruptly leaving his post in Prague, Ilievski went into hiding and has not been heard of since. Fokus relayed Ilievski's statements with full attribution and invited Mijalkov to deny them on numerous occasions, but he did not grant the magazine an interview.
The court case was marred by various irregularities, ranging from incomplete documentation submitted by the litigant, to a decision that Ilievski’s statements were not relevant to the public interest because he gave them as a private citizen, after he resigned from his post as ambassador.
The case was highlighted as an instance of media intimidation by UN Rapporteur for Freedom of Speech Frank La Rue in June 2013. After lengthy court proceedings, the first court came to what many called a “draconian” decision in January 2014. The initial ruling was then contested by the plaintiffs and went on to the appellate court in Skopje. Individual journalists, the Association of Journalists of Macedonia, the Journalists’ Trade Union, Reporters without Borders, and other organizations interpreted the rulings as a clear warning to media, and many confirmed the “chilling effect” this has had over Macedonian journalists.
The Association of Journalists of Macedonia publicly condemned the appellate court's verdict, calling it unfair and contrary to the Defamation Law in Macedonia. In view of amounts that could spell financial ruin for the publisher and journalists, AJM also pleaded with Mijalkov to waive the 6,000-euro fee and accept only one euro for non-pecuniary damages. The average monthly net salary in Macedonia is roughly 350 euros.
Fokus magazine was established as a weekly magazine in 1995 and later started a daily edition in 2011. Both editions had always assumed a critical stance toward political parties and individuals in power at a given time, seeking to ground their work in investigative journalism demanding transparency and accountability in the country. The daily stopped publication in March 2013 after founder Nikola Mladenov was killed in a car accident that occurred under circumstances that remain murky. The magazine resumed weekly publication in July 2013.
Fokus has continued publishing investigative pieces, but in some cases they refrain from naming the perpetrators, for fear of retaliation. For example, in a story about a series of defective eye surgeries that blinded as many as 50 individual patients, the magazine only described the person allegedly responsible as “a female doctor from the September 8th City Hospital,” despite the fact that the case was well documented with evidence pointing to the culprits. Fokus’ editor-in-chief has publicly stated that the magazine has had to institute self-censorship due to the danger of financial ruin from defamation suits such as this one.

author: Danica Radisic