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China Clamps Down on Another Independent Film Festival · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Poster of the 11th Beijing Independent Film Festival. via @johndjinggang’s Facebook
Chinese authorities shut down the 11th Annual Beijing Independent Film Festival (BIFF) and arrested the festival’s organizers on Saturday, August 23. The festival is organized annually by the Li Xianting Film Fund, which is located on the outskirts of Beijing city, in Songzhuang district’s Xiaobao village.
Chinese leaders have spoken publicly about their desire to promote homegrown culture, but crackdowns such as this one show a reality that is vastly different from the rhetoric.
Promoting culture
The new leadership of the Chinese Community Party under President Xi Jinping vowed to promote China's soft power by pushing forward the cultural industry. In the past few years, state-controlled film corporations have invested in a number of big movies by building partnerships with their Hong Kong and Taiwan counterparts, thus establishing a pan-Chinese film market.
In addition, the quota for imported foreign movies keeps expanding. US and China co-production is encouraged, under the condition that all films produced under this collaboration are subject to China's censorship mechanism.
While China has indeed become the world's biggest market for cultural consumption, the government has no plans to relax its control over cultural output. In fact, the clampdown on independent art activities has never been harsher.
Beijing Independent Film Festival shut down
On August 23, police officers blocked off three roads leading to the office of the Li Xianting Film Fund. The security police mobilized local villagers to raid the office of the Li Xianting Film Fund, pushed over the attendants of the film festival, and confiscated their mobile phones. Below is a video showing the confrontation:
The authorities also cut the electricity of the Li Xianting Film Fund office and confiscated all the festival flyers and film archives that the fund had accumulated over the last decade.
The police arrested three festival organizers – Li Xianting, Wang Hongwei and Fan Rong, and held them in custody until they signed documents stating that they would cancel the festival. So far, police have not pressed any official charges.
Li Xianting is a forerunner of independent art – a critic and curator. He led a group of avant-garde artists in building the Songzhuang community after the Yuanmingyuan artist community was shut down in 1995. Li founded the Li Xianting Film Fund in 2006 and established a film school in 2008 to cultivate a new generation of filmmakers with “a spirit of independent creative production.”
Li Xianting, founder of Li Xianting Film Fund and Film School, was arrested and detained for several hours on the festival’s opening day. Photo from Huang Wehhai's Facebook
“The darkest day in the history of Chinese independent film”
Film director Huang Wehai called the crackdown “the darkest day in the history of Chinese independent film.”
Organizers anticipated some degree of police harassment, since the state security police had disrupted the film festival in years past. In 2012, police cut the electricity supply during the opening ceremony, but the festival survived in itinerancy, holding screenings in various artist workshops in Songzhuang.
This year, organizers tried to negotiate with the police for the right to show the films at a remote venue. To allow for the possibility of guerilla screenings, promotional materials intentionally withheld the exact locations of the venues.
The negotiations failed. The festival faced pressure from multiple government authorities, including the Ministry of Education, Industrial and Commercial Bureau, and the Tax Bureau. Even the Immigration Bureau stepped in, waiting at the airport to question foreign film directors who flew to Beijing for the festival.
After the festival was shut down, Chinese propaganda authorities issued censorship instructions to major news outlets across China to delete any news of the incident.
Festivals fall into a grey area
In China, all films intended for theatrical release must be approved by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. Since the films in the festival were being shown for a niche audience of fans and filmmakers rather than striving for a wide release, film festivals such as the BIFF fall into a censorship grey area. Whether or not the festival is allowed to take place depends on the political climate at the time.
The BIFF raid is not an isolated incident. Two other film festivals – the Yunnan Multi-Cultural Visual Festival and Nanjing Independent Film Festival were shut down in March and November of 2013. Furthermore, Chinese authorities forced the Li Xianting Film School to close its training program in July 2013.
Li Xianting stressed in an interview on August 24 that independent film is an art form, and that the films being shown expressed emotions rather than political stances. “We did not get involved with politics,” said Xianting, “Politics became involved with us.”
schedule of 2014 film festival – 2014 festival selections were mainly experimental films from young directors from the pan-Chinese region which were being screened publicly for the first time.
Yang Lina, an independent documentary maker, told AP that she believed the crackdown was a suppression of individual freedom.
They just want us to make films about food, clothes, entertainment. They don't want people to think, they don't want people to have the freedom to express themselves, they don't want people to have independent and free ideas.
Eye-shut protest. Photo from Zhang Zhen's Facebook
To protest against the crackdown, a number of artists and activists uploaded photos of themselves with their eyes shut. International film festival organizers spoke out against the incident as well.  More than 30 film festival organizers in the U.S, Europe, Asia and Latin Amercia have co-signed a petition expressing deep concern about the police confiscation of the film archives, and urged the Chinese authorities to permit the BIFF to “pursue its mission to nurture and exhibit…alternative cinematic voices in China, to allow the festival to operate without interference, and to allow the Li Xianting Film Fund to continue its vital mission of archiving and supporting independent Chinese filmmakers.
However, so long as the Chinese Communist Party sees culture as an instrument to promote the nation’s image “as a civilized country with rich history, ethnic unity and cultural diversity, and as an oriental power with good government, developed economy, cultural prosperity, national unity and beautiful mountains and rivers,” independent minds that are at odds with this vision will be seen as oppositional forces that need to be suppressed, or, “reformed.” So long as the nationalistic soft power project continues to pursue such a top-down approach, the future of Chinese independent art sector is rather dim.


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Community Media Groups in Guatemala Document Deadly Raid on Indigenous Villages · Global Voices
WITNESS

Photo courtesy @PrensaComunitar via Twitter – https://twitter.com/PrensaComunitar/status/501271337038807040
Written by Madeleine Bair, curator of WITNESS’ Human Rights Channel. This post originally appeared on the WITNESS blog.
Five weeks ago, reports emerged from the highlands of Guatemala documenting indigenous communities under attack by the national police force. Testimony of men beaten and dragged away in front of their families, along with images of homes burning to the ground, are reminiscent of stories from the Guatemalan genocide thirty years ago, when the army used violence against entire Mayan communities. While details are unclear due to grave dangers faced by activists and independent journalists working in the region, online reports from community media outlets paint a picture of a deadly three-day police raid of indigenous villages.
Correspondents from Prensa Comunitaria Km. 169 and other community media groups documented the events, which began on August 14 and took place in several communities along the Rio Dolores river in the Alta Verapaz region of Guatemala. For years, the predominantly Q’eqchí Mayan communities have resisted the proposed Santa Rita hydroelectric dam, which they say has gone forth without their consultation and would destroy natural resources and their territory.
The video above, titled “Eviction in Rio Dolores,” is described as showing the community of Monte Olivo on August 14. It captures a standoff on a dirt road between throngs of Guatemalan police officers and children from the community protesting against the eviction. Monte Olivo is known as the center of resistance to the hydroelectric dam. Last year, two children were shot and killed there by suspected contractors of the company behind the project.
This raw footage is described as showing the community of Semococh the following day. From a vantage point above the streets, it shows dozens of police vehicles blocking a road, and men throwing rocks at them. As the vehicles drive away, tear gas canisters go off, and then officers return suddenly on foot, running in riot gear into the village. The sound of gunfire can be heard throughout the video.
A report published on August 15 by Prensa Comunitaria details the raid that took place that day, including the killing of two Q’ecqhí villagers (a third later died of injuries), the arbitrary detention of five people, and more than 60 injuries.
The video above is described as testimony from a Semococh resident about what happened that day. Speaking in Q’eqchí (a Spanish translation begins at 4:05), she recounts how police officers forced their way into her home. As she tried to cover her children from a cloud of tear gas, they beat her husband with guns and dragged him out of the house. The Spanish translator off-camera adds (at 5:57) that he heard one say they would even kill her. “But another officer said to leave her. It’s bad luck,” they said, “to attack a woman with a baby in her arms.”
The following day, Prensa Comunitaria published photographs of police officers standing by as structures burn down, and a fleet of police vehicles driving along a dirt road for as far as the eye can see. According to the article, the homes of 50 Q’eqchí families were destroyed within hours. The outlet reported that several other nearby communities experienced similar raids by a large contingent of the national police force from August 14 through 16.
The police spokesperson told the press that the three deaths resulted from confrontations between indigenous communities against and those in favor of the hydroelectric project.
The August 15 report by Prensa Comunitaria noted that the two journalists who had been covering the story for the outlet (and who produced the video testimony above, Rony Morales and Alfredo Rax), were notified that the police were looking for them. The Centro de Medios Independientes-Guatemala also denounced direct threats that its reporter covering the story had received. Last week, the Committee to Protect Journalists released a new report about threats against journalists in Central America.
For more videos of the recent campaign of repression against the indigenous communities of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, see this Human Rights Channel YouTube playlist. For more testimony of the raids, this Prensa Comunitaria report from August 23 includes stories from eyewitnesses, survivors, and family members who have since visited detainees in prison.
Stay up to date on the latest videos of human rights abuse by citizens and activists around the world, follow @ythumanrights on Twitter and subscribe to the Human Rights Channel on YouTube.
Featured image courtesy of @PrensaComunitar via Twitter.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: WITNESS


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Cute Cat Theory in Action: Despite Drought, Iranian Users Take the Ice Bucket Challenge · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

An Iranian Facebook users in Tehran does the ALS Ice Bucket challenge, even though Iranians cannot donate to the charity because of sanctions.
As a whole, the Internet has made it possible for us to engage in greater connectedness, collective action, and free expression (depending on where we live in the world.) I choose who I friend and what I like on Facebook, and I choose who I follow on Twitter. But how do we dig through all of this content to find what is relevant?
Image by Stallio via Flickr. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The list of networks we can subscribe to at times seems endless. There is Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, then selected pages and lists on these social networks as well as their news feeds, and timelines. The various nodes of connection seem invariably to open new pathways to new kinds of information.
But how does one digest and filter out what’s relevant in this scenario? Do we have the right expertise to know which news story or post is the most relevant to our lives, work, and studies?
Information overload is a struggle I deal with everyday, as I amass countless tabs throughout my day of things I should read, but often don’t have the time for. In Rewire, media studies scholar (and Global Voices co-founder) Ethan Zuckerman suggests that the challenge before us has less to do with access to information and more to do with “paying attention.”: He continues: “That challenge is made all the more difficult by our deeply ingrained tendency to pay disproportionate attention to phenomena that unfold nearby and directly affect ourselves, our friends, and our families.”
Zuckerman’s thesis in Rewire rests on the notion that in our digital cosmopolitan world, we might be as connected as ever to different cultures and countries through the Internet, but our knowledge of far away places and issues might still remain at the same level as before the World Wide Web connected us to all of this information. That is, we might have Facebook and Twitter feeds to help us connect with things, and be informed on topics we normally wouldn’t be exposed to, but we often find ourselves following things that are naturally interesting to us within our localities, and the updates of our close friends. Thus, an Iranian might prefer to follow his friend’s ice bucket video than to contemplate the growing water crisis a few provinces away.
One culprit at the centre of this milieu may be the tools themselves. That is, we used to blame the traditional sources of mass media, such as CNN, BBC, and the New York Times for the selection of information, or scrutinized authoritarian governments for their control over newspapers, and broadcast reporting. But now, the companies behind the platforms we use are central to our current notions of information control.
While we don’t rely on the traditional media centres to access information, how we extract information is often at the whim of the tools we use to see this free flowing information. Indeed, the algorithms that filter the content in the programs and applications such as Facebook and Twitter shape much of our online transactions. The code inherent in Facebook and Twitter are responsible for how we digest information. The impact of this has been so far-reaching that Facebook has invested resources in understanding how information presented to us can manipulate our emotions.
The rise of the Internet has been hailed by others as a popular ideology that equates technology with empowerment. In some regards this is true. Take Iran, for example. Prior to the Internet, Iranians often relied on state controlled newspapers, radios and sometimes even illegal satellite dishes broadcasting western channels. Regardless of the western, or state origins of the information, it was not free, and under the control of certain authorities. Despite filtering, circumvention technology is ubiquitous in Iran, and Iranians make up one of the biggest populations of Facebook users globally, with an ever growing number of Twitter users adding to the mix (Iran’s Minister of Culture places the number of Iranians on Facebook at 4 million users). That is to say, despite slower Internet speeds, Iran is part and parcel of this case study of global online information interactions.
Ultimately, what we see across platforms and countries with significant proportions of active Internet users, is that just as the Internet has the ability to create this new paradigm of control within a framework of ubiquitous access, it also has the ability to generate conversations that question these systems. The conversation around how the Internet is governed, and the role of corporations in shaping this world is an important one that affects our human right to unfettered, and free flowing information as global citizens.
Indeed, the problems inherent in the code of Facebook and Twitter in breaking relevant news have been covered by major media including the Guardian, and CBC, and have been shared on Facebook and Twitter accounts. What’s left for us to do is recognize the importance of these new forms of control in our new information age, and keep this conversation alive, constantly questioning how this increasingly important realm of the Internet is governed.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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La Respuesta, an Online Magazine by and for the Millions of Puerto Ricans Living in the US · Global Voices
Carlos Esteban Cana

Puerto Rican presence in the United States is growing, be it because of Puerto Rico’s current economic situation or the demographic growth of Puerto Ricans in Florida, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Texas. The truth is that we are finding ourselves before a new wave of immigration, perhaps greater than those of the 20th century.
Many factors can shed light on current migration patterns. The economic downturn plaguing Puerto Rico over the past decade (symptoms of larger problems) has driven 600,000 Puerto Ricans to look for opportunities outside the island. For the first time since the population censuses began to be gathered (in 1899), there has been a decline in the number of residents on the island, according to data from the most recent 2010 US federal decennial census compared to the one from 2000. Alongside this important event, currently more Puerto Ricans live in the United States than on the island, a figure somewhere near 5 million, according to estimates. In Puerto Rico the population consists of approximately 3.7 million people.
Therefore it is not surprising that institutions and media outlets that respond to the Puerto Rican reality are sprouting once again in all the US. This is the case of La Respuesta, an online magazine launched in 2013, based in Chicago and New York.
In the following interview, Global Voices talks to Xavier Burgos Peña, the editor-in-chief and co-founder of the publication.
How did La Respuesta come about? Who is behind this online magazine?
The idea of La Respuesta magazine formed when a small group of Chicago Puerto Ricans went to the Puerto Rican Studies Conference in Hartford, Connecticut in 2010. While there we witnessed the vibrant ways in which the local Puerto Rican population was creating community, similar to what we were doing in Chicago’s “Paseo Boricua” corridor. This sparked a conversation on how we could help develop an accessible, centralized space in which community-building strategies, experiences, and ideas about living in Diaspora could be shared and debated without ever leaving one’s home. Moreover, to offer a platform from which to exhibit the latest in Boricua Diaspora thought and cultural productions from across the United States and beyond.
In early 2013, an Editorial Core formed in Chicago to create an internet-based magazine. Nearly a year later, we’ve expanded our base to New York City with writers and collaborators across the country, from the East Coast to the South and in Puerto Rico.
Is the birth of the magazine related to the growing presence of Puerto Ricans in the United States in recent years?
The fact that there are now more of us ‘here’ than ‘there’ signals the increasing importance of having a space for self-definition. Moreover, a space for internal debate and dialogue about our presence in Diaspora.
Puerto Ricans have historically been seen through the eyes of others who control the media and mainstream cultural productions – an imperial gaze, if you will. As a result, we often see ourselves through essentializing and exoticizing, racist stereotypes. Of course, we have also documented our experiences and histories from our own perspectives. Therefore, La Respuesta is a space to share what we’ve already done and are doing as a community of people across the Diaspora, whether in art and literature, music, and film, essay and activism. La Respuesta is also a space so that we can present new and refreshing voices, discuss the socio-economic status of our communities, and map possible directions as a people.
GV: Being a media outlet that focuses mainly on Puerto Rican issues, why publish articles only in English? I ask because it is a fact that the majority of Puerto Ricans on the island only speak Spanish. Is La Respuesta directed only to the Puerto Rican reader in the diaspora?
We do have some articles in Spanish, but we primarily publish in English. The practical reason is because we want to communicate directly to the Boricuas living in Diaspora; those whose entire or most of their experiences is living in the U.S. For these folks, English is the main language of communication. Although Spanish is the lingua franca of Puerto Rico, I would argue that English and Spanglish are also Puerto Rican languages. Who could argue that the writings of Pedro Pietri or Nicholasa Mohr are not a part of the Puerto Rican literary canon or expressions of a Boricua life – albeit distinct from that of the island?
Another reason to publish in English is to validate the puertorriqueñidad of English-dominant Boricuas in Diaspora, who might feel shame or be disregarded because of not being proficient in Spanish and/ or being from “allá.” The longer Puerto Ricans are in the U.S. and if recent migrants (who are coming in the hundreds of thousands) plan to stay and raise their families here, the more English and living in Diaspora will be a reality. La Respuesta is here to document, engage with, and validate this experience.
GV: I see that La Respuesta also includes other media productions, like the (De)Colonial Subjects radio program. So we can talk about La Respuesta not as an online magazine, but rather a multimedia project…
We want to stimulate and capture the imagination of our readers as much as possible, which is why we cover a range of topics and forms of media, including podcasts and special topic blogs (queer identities, literature, Palestinian solidarity, etc). We also hope to feature more videos, visual art, photography, and other podcasts.
GV: The diversity in points of view on Puerto Rico’s political situation is evident in the different articles published in La Respuesta, but perhaps the editorial team at La Respuesta, as a media outlet, favors a particular vision.
We try to provide as many perspectives and visions for Puerto Rican communities in Diaspora and Puerto Rico as possible. One of our core values is to look critically at oppressive elements such as colonialism, racism, trans/ homophobia, sexism, etc. By default, we get many writers who believe in Puerto Rico’s self-determination in regards to its status.
GV: Why re-imagine the Puerto Rican diaspora?
As I mentioned a little earlier, Puerto Ricans consume mainstream Eurocentric images and media that oftentimes essentializes and denigrates us. Moreover, the narratives out there about the Boricua Diaspora can be simplistic or missing important voices. We are a space to re-think and re-imagine what it means to be Puerto Rican and living in the US.
GV: With consistent editions since June 2013 and a network of 880 followers on Twitter and over 3,000 on Facebook, did the founders envision this kind of support for La Respuesta from readers after barely a year?
We are very humbled by the tremendous response, support, and contributions we’ve received. We run on an all-volunteer staff with no budget. Despite such setbacks (and in other ways, our strength), we’ve published hundreds of original pieces and over 50 writers. It is obvious that La Respuesta is understood by folks in our communities as the central location to read and experience what the Diaspora has to offer, from our own lens and voices. We always knew there was an audience – we just took on the responsibility of making and sustaining such as project.
GV: In times like these, where online information – without a doubt – has a greater presence and importance for certain populations, particularly the younger ones, would La Respuesta’s editorial team explore the possibility of publishing a print version of the magazine?
Online media is the future of journalism, especially grassroots, critical reporting. The Puerto Rican people have and must continue to carve out and claim a space in that.
GV: What are the current and future challenges that La Respuesta has as a media outlet directed to the Puerto Rican and Latino communities in the United States?
To continue to offer engaging, youthful, critical, and organic media by and for the Boricua Diaspora.

author: Carlos Esteban Cana


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ISIS Recruits Fan Bahrain’s Sectarian Flames With YouTube Call to Arms  · Global Voices
Noor Mattar

Three of the four Bahraini ISIS militants who called Bahrainis to take arms. Screenshot taken from the YouTube video shared on social media
Four Bahrainis who have joined the militant group ISIS have called on other Bahrainis to take up arms and join the fight against their ruling “tyrants”, the Sunni Khalifa royal family and the country's majority Shia population, in a YouTube video that surfaced on social media and recently went viral.
Al Qaeda spin-off ISIS has come to control one-third of Syria and a quarter of Iraq, unleashing havoc and horror in its path. It has attracted thousands of youth from around the world, who have been indoctrinated in its extreme ideology, which even the notorious Al Qaeda has found “brutal.”
One of those who appeared in the video threatening the Bahraini regime is Lieutenant Mohamed Isa Al-Binali, whose defection from the Bahrain Defence Forces was reported on Global Voices earlier this year. Alongside, three other Bahrainis, who go by the aliases Abu-Laden Al-Bahraini, Abu-Alfida Al-Salami and Qaswara Albahraini, appear.
Mohamed (abu-Isa) graduated from the Police Academy in 2013 and was supposed to be a prison guard in Bahrain's infamous prisons, which have practiced systematic torture since 2011. Bahrain's Ministry of Interior issued a statement saying that he was sacked from his job because of his absence earlier this month. According to Arabic-language news reports, he had been in the ranks of ISIS for over four months.
Mohamed comes from a famous family in Bahrain, the Binali clan, which is closely affiliated to the Al Khalifa ruling regime. His cousin, Turki Al-Binali, who goes by the alias Abu-Sufyan Al-Salami (Al-Salami refers to the tribe of Sulaim in Arabia), is a high ranking preacher in ISIS. Prior to holding this public position in the terror organisation, he was arrested and released many times before in Bahrain.
In the video that follows, you can see him leading a protest in front of the American Embassy in Bahrain; that protest was not attacked by the authorities like the opposition protests usually are. His books can also still be found in libraries and bookshops around Bahrain in a country which bans hundreds of websites which oppose the government.
The BinAli affiliation with ISIS is longstanding. In May, Turki published information of yet another of his cousins dying while fighting within ISIS.
تأكيد خبر مقتل بحريني في صفوف داعش من عائلة البنعلي (البسيتين) واسمه علي يوسف #المحرق #البحرين #العراق #Bahrain pic.twitter.com/sCBcEFeOqx
— Bahrain Voice (@bhvoice) May 19, 2014
Confirmed news of the death of a Bahraini fighter with ISIS from Al-Binali family in Busaiteen. His name is Ali Yousif
The viral video focused on four major points:
Many feel that the Bahrain government has turned a blind eye on the rise of ISIS sympathizers in the country. Prominent human rights activist Nabeel Rajab doesn't mince his words. His message is clear:
many #Bahrain men who joined #terrorism & #ISIS came from security institutions and those institutions were the first ideological incubator
— Nabeel Rajab (@NABEELRAJAB) September 28, 2014
Bahrain consists of a Shia majority who have been complaining of marginalization for decades under the ruling Sunni royal family. In a response to a popular uprising in February 2011, “the Bahraini regime responded not only with violent force, but also by encouraging a nasty sectarianism in order to divide the popular movement and to build domestic and regional support for a crackdown,” wrote Mark Lynch at Foreign Policy.
While Bahrain has joined the coalition in its airstrikes on ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the environment of discrimination at home couldn't be any worse. As Mr Rajab explains:
Terrorism laws in #Bahrain & #Gulf were not used against #terrorists or #ISIS but against #human_rights defenders & prisoners of conscience
— Nabeel Rajab (@NABEELRAJAB) September 27, 2014
Now that this video is out, with its clear and loud message which has receptive ears in some circles in Bahrain, let's wait and see how the Bahrain regime deals with this new escalation of real terrorism from people within its ranks.
The ISIS threat against Bahrain coincides with similar messages to neighbouring countries, which too have turned a blind eye to the group, allowing it to fester and grow in ranks on their own soil. Mauritanian blogger Nasser Weddady tweeted:
Top #ISIS acct “Green light has given to move the battle to capitals of Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain” #serious pic.twitter.com/oZu0ZfYCS6
— weddady (@weddady) September 24, 2014

author: Noor Mattar


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American Actor Mark Ruffalo Retracts His Viral Endorsement of Brazilian Presidential Hopeful Over Gay Marriage · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

Mark Ruffalo's The Hulk, from The Avengers. YouTube screen capture.
Brazilians head to the polls next Sunday, October 5, to elect their next president. Bizarrely, Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo, best known for portraying the Hulk in 2012 film “The Avengers,” might play an important role in the vote's outcome.
Recent polls indicate that the Social-Democrat Brazilian Party (the country's most prominent right-wing party) won't have a candidate in the final running for the first time in several years. The election is expected to go to a run-off between Brazil's president, Dilma Roussef of the Workers’ Party, and Marina Silva, a prominent environmentalist and former member of Roussef's party, who is now on the Socialist Party's ticket.
Silva got her start in politics by working alongside union leader and activist Chico Mendes, fighting against the exploitation of the Amazon. In 2008, while serving as Brazil's environment minister, the Guardian declared Silva one of the 50 people who could save the world.
Ruffalo is also a prominent environmentalist activist. In a show of support for Silva, he recently recorded an endorsement on YouTube. The video went viral on the Brazilian Web.
In the video, published this week by Silva's campaign, Ruffalo says the Silva is “one of the most interesting and exciting politicians on the world stage today”. This Monday, however, he had a change of heart, formally withdrawing his support for Silva in a note on his Tumblr page. In the note, Ruffalo explains:
It has come to my attention that the Brazilian Candidate for President, Marina Silva, may be against gay marriage. That would put me in direct conflict with her. As you know I have fought for marriage equality in my country and see it as a reflection of the quality of a candidate. I did not know this was her stand on this issue when I made the video supporting her. I only saw her debate where she said she supported gay marriage and have come to find out after the fact that her party has pulled her support of this issue. I can not, in good conscience, support a candidate who takes a hard right approach to issues such as Gay Marriage and Reproductive rights even if that candidate is willing to do the right thing on environmental issues.
Marriage equality is a sensitive issue in Brazil's current presidential race. Only two candidates, Luciana Genro of the Socialist and Freedom Party and Eduardo Jorge of the Green Party, have openly supported samesex marriage. Dilma has indicated some weak support for the idea, but he's made no concrete promises. Silva, an evangelist who has the support of some of the richest pastors in Brazil, has had trouble navigating the issue.
Her campaign platform originally supported marriage equality as a future possibility, but Silva has stepped back from this position, following pressure from her religious supporters. Blaming her initial platform on a printing error, Silva now says she would only support civil unions for gays, which Brazil already recognizes.
Silva's campaign team has reached out to Ruffalo on Twitter, trying to disabuse him on the idea that she opposes gay marriage:
Dear @MarkRuffalo its not true that @silva_marina is against gay marriage. She is a historical human rights advocate. #Equipe40
— Marina Silva (@silva_marina) September 29, 2014
Also @markruffalo, you need to know that this Brazilian election is flooded by lies and this is another lie about @silva_marina. #Equipe40
— Marina Silva (@silva_marina) September 29, 2014
Ruffalo recently portrayed Ned Weeks, a character based on gays rights activist Larry Kramer, in “The Normal Heart,” a film about the first cases of AIDS affecting the gay community in New York in the 1980s. Perhaps with this role in mind, Ruffalo wrote in his Tumblr retraction:
I have to apologize for not doing a better job of vetting this decision. I apologize if I have let anyone down or made them feel somehow I had done an about face on those issues that I clearly have made an effort to confront and fight.
Video of Ruffalo's endorsement, however, is still published on Marina Silva's official YouTube channel.

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Meet Jillian C. York, a Globetrotting Free Expression Activist and Global Voices Volunteer · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón

Photo credit: Asher Wolf. Used with permission.
Jillian C. York is a writer, activist, researcher, and blogger. She serves as Director of International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and writes for several platforms, including Al Jazeera English and The Guardian. She is also a volunteer representative for the Global Voices Board of Directors.
I spoke with Jillian about her freedom of expression activism, her role at Global Voices and her time spent in Morocco.
Global Voices (GV): How and when did you learn about Global Voices?
Jillian C. York (JY): I learned about Global Voices back in 2007 because they quoted my blog! I was looking at my pingbacks and noticed that my blog at the time (The Morocco Report, which I’d started when I moved to Morocco) was quoted, and so after reading the story and checking out the site, I got in touch with the editor (Amira Al Hussaini) and asked if I could volunteer.
GV: What do you do these days for Global Voices?
JY: Right now, it varies greatly from day to day, week to week. I write sometimes about different countries in the Middle East, or the US (where I’m from), and soon perhaps Europe (where I now live). I occasionally write for Advox, and most importantly, I represent community issues to the board and help with board and GV core team tasks.
GV: What were your duties as community representative to the board?
JY: As a community representative to the Board, my main function is to make sure that authors’ concerns and ideas are heard by the core staff and the members of the Board. If an author is unhappy or feels unheard, it can affect the entire community.
GV: What’s your day job outside of Global Voices?
JY: I work for a US-based non-profit organization called the Electronic Frontier Foundation. There, I direct our programs on freedom of expression around the world. One thing that I’m working on right now is a project called OnlineCensorship.org, that aims to collect data on non-state censorship happening on social networks.
GV: You define yourself as an activist. What does that imply and how does this impact the way you see the world?
JY: I’m mainly a free speech activist, although the reasons for that are because I believe that only by enabling free expression can individuals make their voices heard and create change around other important issues. This is not to say that I’m not political, rather, this is the means through which I relate to politics.
GV: Would you like to tell us something about the time you spent in Morocco?
JY: Sure – I really miss it so much. I’ve been fortunate enough to return for visits twice and am hoping to again next year.
Morocco is really a beautiful country – it’s often described, obnoxiously, by travel writers as being at the “crossroads of east and west” or “traditional and modern at the same time.” Although I find these clichés annoying, there’s some truth to them, in that Morocco and its culture are indeed full of what would, on the surface, appear to be contradictions. That said, I didn’t find it too difficult to live there, and I really fell in love with the people.
GV: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
It’s amazing to see Global Voices grow to where it is now. I wasn’t there from the beginning—as I said, I joined in 2007—but even seven years later, we’re the same organization at heart despite our massive growth!

author: Gabriela García Calderón


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Once Banned From the US, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Goes Stateside  · Global Voices
Nikhil Dhingra

Screenshot of Mr. Narendra Modi giving his speech at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, 28 September, 2014.
It was only this past February when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (still a candidate for the position) had his visa ban lifted to be able to visit the United States. And now, less than a year later, Modi has traveled to New York and Washington D.C. in a grand spectacle that included speeches at the UN General Assembly in New York, the Global Citizen Festival in Grant Park, and a gathering of 18,000 Indian-American immigrants at Madison Square Garden.
The original visa ban came in 2005 following Modi’s controversial handling of the Gujarat riots of 2002. The protests, which were set off when Muslims had burned a train filled with Hindu pilgrims in Gujarat, led to thousands of Hindus to riot against the Muslim community and burn many shops and communal buildings to the ground. Following the conclusion of the riots, Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat, was heavily criticized and even accused of allowing the riots to happen. According to a senior official in Modi’s administration during the time of the demonstrations, Modi had said, “The Muslim community needed to be taught a lesson,” following the burning of the train filled with Indian pilgrims.
However, after much debate and controversy, the U.S. government had made the decision to grant Modi permission to visit the United States following his candidacy for Prime Minister.
According to Nancy J. Powell, who was the U.S. Ambassador who met with Modi about lifting the ban on his visa, the move is part of the “concentrated outreach to senior political and economic leaders” of the US.
Now, in an effort to further tighten relations between the US and India, Modi’s five-day visit not only includes public rallies but also organized efforts with top-tier global CEO’s in an effort to increase investment in India. In addition, Modi’s private meeting with US President Barack Obama is expected to boost ties between the two countries after facing rocky relations and troubled economic ties in the past year.
While Modi’s visit comes with a heavy political agenda, his wide popularity throughout the Indian-American community has led to massive gatherings of thousands of Indians and Americans alike during his visit to New York. So far, Modi’s most noteworthy speech has been at Madison Square Garden. Speaking of Indian patriotism and a time to revitalize the job industry to accommodate younger workers, including strengthening ties between the two countries, Modi’s speech flooded Twitter with praise and support from the Indian-American community.
Here is a video of Modi's full speech:
Druva Trivedi, a teenage girl from India, felt that Modi’s speech drew a connection between both the Indian and the American crowd:
There is an indian alive in every american Proved by the crowd #modiatmadison
— Durva Trivedi (@Ddurva_17) September 28, 2014
Overrated Outcast, an account geared towards humor on political issues that gave Modi’s visit much coverage, poked fun at the energy that Modi’s speech had brought to the crowd:
Modi could read the yellow pages and the crowd at MSG would applaud like crazy. #ModiConcert
— Overrated Outcast (@over_rated) September 28, 2014
Kartik Srinivasan, CEO of Vannam Painting Contractors, tweeted that Modi’s speech was powerful enough to even cause him to rethink his views on politicians:
I always believed politicians can only get the uneducated excited with their words…Today I eat my words.#modiatmadison
— Kartik Srinivasan (@kartik111087) September 28, 2014
However, there were some who took their passion for Modi too far. Rajdeep Sardesai, a popular Indian journalist now working for the India Today group, who had sparked wide controversy after his reports on the 2002 Gujarat riots, was assaulted by pro-Modi supporters outside of Madison Square Garden in New York. Sardesai, who had been at the event early in order to cover Modi’s speech, later said he was provoked by the hecklers and that he did not start the altercation.
A 41-second video clip of the assault has surfaced on YouTube, reaching over 100,000 views in less than 24 hours. However, a more detailed clip of the attack was later released by YouTube channel “The Fearsome Indian,” which appeared to show that Sardesai was in fact the one who had started the altercation:
http://youtu.be/tWVN2_WXTH0
Modi’s visit has not come without its fair share of controversy. A federal court in New York issued a summons against Narendra Modi for his handling of the Gujarat riots, following a lawsuit filed by the non-profit human rights organization American Justice Center. The group has even offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who would be able to serve the summons to Modi in person and provide video proof that it had been delivered.
Following the release of the summons, Modi’s Minister of External Affairs Syed Akbaruddin called the court order a mere distraction:
#2 Steps being taken 2 address,frivolous & malicious attempts 2 distract attention from the visit of @PMOIndia 2 US http://t.co/65aS1iwqFA
— Syed Akbaruddin (@MEAIndia) September 26, 2014
While Modi's visit to the US has been very eventful and lively, all eyes are now focused towards his meeting with President Obama. The two are expected to talk about strengthening relations along with increasing trade between the two countries, which could lead to a more elaborate relationship in the coming years. For now though, the world eagerly awaits to see if Modi will make the most out of his opportunity with Obama.

author: Nikhil Dhingra


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One Westerner’s View of the “Global War on Terror” · Global Voices
Flora Thomas

As the United States-led international coalition forges ahead with its fight against ISIS, the Al Qaeda offshoot which has come to control large parts of Iraq and Syria using brutal and violent tactics, Bermudian blogger catch a fire shares his thoughts about this “new war”, which he believes will only compound the problem:
It […] seems rather hypocritical that the West is suddenly taking action against ISIS, but failed to take any actions against Israel with their recent war crimes, but I digress…
Waging a new war only creates new martyrs, fertilising a while new generation of extremists who bastardise Islam. It does nothing to address the causes of this extremism in the first place – a lack of hope, economic and social collapse and the lack of democracy […] If we really wanted to defeat ISIS […] we need to address these root causes; we need to address poverty and stop supporting authoritarian regimes on the basis of Western interests.
The post goes on to list a number of alternative ways in which to handle the situation.

author: Flora Thomas


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Russian Mathematician Aids Hong Kong’s ‘America-Orchestrated Color Revolution’ · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Boris Kustodiev's “Bolshevik,” edited by Kevin Rothrock.
Ever wary of “pro-democracy movements,” Russia’s state-controlled mass media have been quick to describe the protests in Hong Kong as an American-orchestrated color revolution. RIA Novosti says former US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, “one of the authors of a paper about the Soviet threat,” has had a hand in destabilizing China. Channel One speculates that Washington is trying to punish Beijing for refusing to side against Russia in the Ukraine conflict.
American technology is undoubtedly playing a significant role in Hong Kong’s unrest. Initially, pro-democracy demonstrators used Instagram to publicize their actions and coordinate the protest. As tens of thousands have come out to call for freer elections, concerns about clogged cellphone networks have grown. After China blocked access to Instagram on the mainland, fears spread that Hong Kong officials might deliberately shut down data networks that enable users of mobile devices to connect to messaging services like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Thousands in Hong Kong have turned to a unique app called FireChat, which can use Bluetooth to allow communication between iOS and Android devices that aren’t even connected to the Internet. FireChat’s offline function only works when users aren’t far from one another, but this is a fairly surmountable obstacle for protesters banding together in public squares to resist police. Despite privacy concerns, the app already made a splash in Iran and Iraq, earlier this year.
Stanislav Shalunov, CTO and co-founder of Open Garden, FireChat's parent company. Opengarden.com.
Like other online services, Open Garden, FireChat’s parent company, is based in San Francisco. From the Russian perspective, one thing about Open Garden that sets it apart from competitors is that its co-founder and chief technology officer is Stanislav Shalunov, a Moscow native and graduate of Moscow State University’s Mechanics and Mathematics department. Shalunov, now an American citizen, told RuNet Echo that FireChat “is not Russian technology,” though he still values the education he received in Moscow in the 1990s.
Shalunov’s Moscow roots haven’t passed unnoticed in the Russia media, where some outlets have reported how “a messenger by a Moscow State mechanics and math graduate has become a protest instrument in Hong Kong.” Given the popular frame in Russia that the United States is masterminding Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrations, FireChat’s Russian tie-in is awkward for the pro-Kremlin press: where Instagram failed, the invention of a Moscow-born mathematician is aiding China’s most dramatic civic unrest since Tiananmen Square.
In a phone call with RuNet Echo, Shalunov said FireChat is foremost “a tool for communication, not revolution.” He is perfectly aware, however, that the app’s ability to overcome data network congestion (or the absence of a data connection altogether) makes it a powerful tool in the hands of protesters. In a mix of manifesto and self-promotion, he tweeted earlier yesterday:
The tools of the revolution are glasses, respirator, and #FireChat.
— Stanislav Shalunov (@shalunov) September 30, 2014
Because FireChat involves the “exchange of information between users of the Internet,” the service will theoretically be subject to Russia’s new data localization regulations, which require such online services to store all user data on servers inside the Russian Federation. Shalunov says FireChat’s user data is currently housed on servers in the United States, though the contents and even the meta data of all exchanges aren't saved. Regardless, “FireChat will never store data in Russia,” Shalunov answered, when asked what the service would do, if the Russian government approaches Open Garden about complying with the new data localization law.
In comments to the Russian website Snob.ru, Shalunov explains that any form of mass censorship relies on the complacency of the public. “The degree of isolation in Russia today is completely voluntary,” he says. “And it’s much higher than could be achieved on a purely technical level.” Shalunov likens Russian Internet users to their counterparts in China, where homegrown alternatives to Google and Facebook are also more popular. “Russian users want everything to be Russian, Chinese users want everything to be Chinese,” he says with some disapproval, “and in all other countries, people prefer to choose the best.”

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Should Muslims Apologize for ISIS’ Atrocities? · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Screenshot from “#NotInMyName: ISIS Do Not Represent British Muslims” on YouTube.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, US President Barack Obama said that “it is time for the world – especially Muslim communities – to explicitly, forcefully, and consistently reject the ideology of al Qaeda and ISIL”.
Obama mentioned Muslim leaders and initiatives, such as the the #NotInMyName campaign, denouncing the ideology and gruesome atrocities of ISIS, a splinter group of Al Qaeda that has come to control large parts of Iraq and Syria using openly brutal, oppressive and violent tactics.
The Active Change Foundation (ACF) launched the campaign in Britain, in the wake of the beheading of British aid worker David Haines, to prove that “ISIS do not represent British Muslims” and that it “has nothing to do with them.”
ACF said about the campaign on the foundation's website:
Islam teaches peace, respect and love. ISIS is hiding behind a false Islam. It’s nothing to do with what we stand for. Tell ISIS that they can’t murder in your name.
The campaign went viral on Twitter with thousands of tweets published under the hashtag #NotInMyName. Here is a sample of those tweets:
These people (ISIS) have nothing to do with Islam, absolutely nothing to do with our religion. #NotInMyName
— Hamza Yusuf (@hamzayusuf) September 23, 2014
ISIS evil must be removed & Muslims all over the world shall come forward and say #NotInMyName they do not represents any Islamic ideology
— GuRRu (@lGuRRul) September 26, 2014
However, not all Muslims are comfortable with the fact they are somehow expected or pressured to apologize for crimes they have no hands in or on behalf of groups that commit atrocities in the name of their religion.
I do & don't like the #NotInMyName campaign. It's right to speak out but it sends out the message we are to be held accountable every time.
— Wiam (@UncolonisedMind) September 21, 2014
I'm tired of seeing Muslims rip themselves apart in apologies to prove their humanity to Islamophobes with campaigns like #notinmyname
— Selin Kara (@Selintifada) September 23, 2014
After all, they were not the ones who gave ISIS a mandate to kidnap and behead journalists and aid workers, displace and persecute religious and ethnic minorities, execute all those who come in their way and brainwash innocent children into violence and hatred.
Besides, Muslims are themselves victims of this radical group. Only on September 22, lawyer and human rights defender Samira Saleh Al-Naimi was executed by masked men belonging to ISIS when they opened fire at her in a public square in the city of Mosul, Iraq. According to the Gulf Center for Human Rights, ISIS kidnapped Al-Naimi last week from her home after she described the group as ‘barbaric’.
On the Guardian's Comment is Free section, Mehreen Faruqi, a Greens member of parliament in New South Wales Parliament in Australia, wrote that though she knows that ISIS’ actions #AreNotInMyName, she ‘won't be pressured to apologise for them’.
For Faruqi the #NotInMyName campaign implies that ‘Muslims are somehow responsible for the atrocities taking place in Iraq and must speak out against them to prove otherwise’. She adds:
No one can deny that video footage of journalists being beheaded by Isis operatives and ongoing news of vicious massacres are extremely distressing, eliciting a raw emotional response, requiring us to take action. But why should a whole community be compelled to apologise for or distance themselves from despicable actions they have no part in?
On Twitter, the satirical hashtag #MuslimApologies was launched to parody the situation whereby Muslims often find themselves obliged to apologize for and distance themselves from the actions of extremist Islamic groups or individuals.
I'm going to just wear this shirt every day from now on. #MuslimApologies pic.twitter.com/EuKG20tNXP
— Maha Hilal (@mahmooha2013) septiembre 23, 2014
Im sorry young boys are radicalized wen the US nd its allies drone and kill their entire families as collateral damage. #MuslimApologies
— Hamza Al-ayyubi (@Hamza_alAyubbi) September 23, 2014
I'm sorry my beard scares you. It's hormonal, I swear #MuslimApologies
— Raz (@raztweets) September 23, 2014
As a Muslim I apologies for the World War One & World War Two even it has nothing to do with the Muslims but just in case. #MuslimApologies
— الكيلاني مليونة (@elkilanimaliuna) September 23, 2014
I'm sorry for being a white Muslim who doesn't look Arab. It's confusing, and I'm very ashamed. #MuslimApologies pic.twitter.com/dmz6cMBeug
— Liesel Hess (@LieselHess) September 25, 2014
As a doctor, I apologize for saving thousands of non-Muslim lives. Better deal with it as I will do it again and again. #MuslimApologies
— Muslimerican (@FaheemYounus) September 26, 2014
I'm sorry you need me to explicitly tell you I disagree with murder, genocide and rape. #MuslimApologies
— Dalia Mogahed (@DMogahed) September 26, 2014
For many, the contributions of Muslims to humanity seem to have little value in the face of growing Islamophobia. Kam Shaheen reminds us of some of those inventions that have changed the world to make it a better place:
Sorry for Algebra, cameras, universities, hospitals, oh and coffee too. #MuslimApologies
— theconsciousmuslim (@kam_shaheen) September 24, 2014

author: Afef Abrougui


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“We Don’t Need No Governance”: Why the Internet Governance Forum Misses the Point · Global Voices
Ahmet A. Sabancı

Internet Ungovernance Forum poster, used with permission.
Billed as the highlight of the year on the Internet policy conference circuit, the UN-sponsored Internet Governance Forum is a supposedly indispensable annual meeting about the Internet and its future.
Held in Istanbul in early September, IGF 2014 gave hope to many people in Turkey, particularly in the face of the country's deteriorating record on freedom of speech, censorship and digital surveillance. In theory, IGF 2014 offered these people the opportunity to speak out about critical problems in the country hosting the forum, as well as the chance to meet and exchange ideas with other activists, journalists, academics and coders from countries all over the world.
In practice, however, the voices of these activists were drowned out by the voice of the state, with government representatives alone given a platform to talk about the situation in Turkey. The UN, for its part, promotes a discussion that is general in character, shying away from “naming and shaming” individual countries. This year, it afforded Turkish officials the perfect opportunity to show just how “perfect” everything in the country is.
A different kind of forum
These limitations and a painful lack of attention to critical Internet policy topics inspired a small group to create an event that would run parallel to the IGF, held at the same time in the same city. In this way, the Internet Ungovernance Forum (IUF) was born.
The invitation letter for the IUF explains:
Today, it is more imminent than ever to strengthen networks of solidarity and connect struggles across the globe for the Internet we want. For this we envision the Ungovernance Forum to be a space in which we can discuss the problems and solutions of the Internet openly, with courage, and without shying away from conflict. To develop the program of the forum we have relied on our powerful but inevitably limited existing networks. We therefore invite all of you to use this event to expand our collective imagination and circuits of action.
Paticipants at the IUF wore t-shirts with the message “We Don't Need No Governance”, inspired by the Pink Floyd song.
One city, two agendas
IGF 2014 kicked off September 1 with Discotech, an event organized by digital rights organizations APC, Tactical Technology Collective and the World Wide Web Foundation. At the event, activists from around the world shared their insights and experiences about censorship and circumvention tactics.
The session was productive, offering participants the chance to learn more about how censorship is deployed in different settings, and how we can fight against it.
Photo taken by Işık Mater. Used with permission.
Several Turkish activists decided to boycott the IGF entirely, but the organizers of the Ungovernance Forum thought that being there and running a booth calling on people to participate in the Ungovernance Forum was the better option.
Our choice was vindicated by positive reactions to our booth at the IGF. The first two days of the IGF gave the Ungovernance Forum the visibility it needed to attract people who otherwise would not have joined its activities. Thanks in part to the IGF, the Ungovernance Forum became an opportunity to mobilize broad international support and expand networks of solidarity between Turkish activists working in isolation and their counterparts across the planet.
The Ungovernance forum featured a range of discussions designed to help participants focus on current challenges to openness online and future collective strategies for protecting the Internet from corporate and government overreach.
Participants were also able to use the Ungovernance Forum space as a free platform to launch and promote online initiatives:
@dokuz8haber citizens’ news agency network was presented at #ungovForum today @chatgarcia @altbilisim #igf2014 pic.twitter.com/phxTRXWtze
— Burak Arikan (@arikan) September 5, 2014
Photo from the Yaman Akdeniz & Janis Karklins talk from the #ungovForum – we hope to upload the video soon #IGF2014 pic.twitter.com/NqisVvXFqO
— Yaman Akdeniz (@cyberrights) September 5, 2014
There was little in the way of mainstream media attention for any of our events but having Julian Assange as speaker at the forum gave the event the attention needed to make front-page news in at least two Turkish newspapers. Turkey's active social media community remained an engine for spreading word about the Ungovernance Forum throughout the week.
An Internet nation?
Interestingly, one of the most important reactions to the Ungovernance Forum came from across town at the IGF in a speech called “Internet Nation?” delivered by leading Internet governance scholar Milton Mueller at the closing ceremony of the more celebrated event. In addition to thanking the organizers of the Ungovernance Forum — Mueller was one of several speakers that hopped between the two — he made an important point about the Internet as a decentralized organism:
Building on J. P. Barlow's “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace,” Mueller attempted to construct the concept of an “Internet nation”:
So maybe John Perry Barlow’s Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace is worth a second look.
Barlow’s idea that the internet was immune from control by existing governments has been discredited. But remember, Barlow drafted a declaration of independence. Such a declaration does not necessarily mean that existing nations have no power; it means that the residents of cyberspace want a distinct nation of their own.
You might laugh at that assertion. An Internet nation? What does it mean? Surely, everyone knows that nations are territorial, that the physical facilities of Internet service providers are located in a jurisdiction ruled by a government. Jurisdictions and laws are attached to Internet users as well. But these arguments carry much less weight than one might think.
While many of the participants at the IGF might share Mueller's vision, the IGF's focus on equal voice “multi-stakeholderism” — drawn from the language of corporate development — remains fatally flawed. In multi-stakeholderism, the state and the private sector inevitably allocate the biggest stake for themselves, leaving other stakeholders with just a slither. IGF skims over a range of content, without getting to the core issues of power and control that divide the Internet. The forum's “no naming and shaming” policy is in itself a form of censorship, qualifying what activists can and cannot say.
If this is multi-stakeholderism or the closest thing to multi-stakeholderism in the real world, then this concept is useless to us. This doesn't mean that we should stop engaging with the powerful via advocacy and other channels, but we should acknowledge that this alone will not be enough.
Because while we are trying to change legislation, the state is surveilling everything we do, censoring websites and trying to re-erect old barriers. While we are doing our best to force companies to change their behaviour towards us, they are selling our information, entering into secret arrangements with governments, putting back-doors on our technologies and software, and preventing us from owning the tools we have. And when we offer them the opportunity to talk about common problems they do not allow us to talk, or they talk around an issue without really talking about it.
That is why declaring independence and fighting for it is important. As long as we do not put these stakeholders on the back foot, they will never yield to a true discussion. As IUF participant Asli Telli Aydemir noted, quoting Frederic Douglas in her blog piece  “Who is Evil?”:
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Or, to use the more provocative words of Jacob Appelbaum, who delivered a keynote speech at the IUF, in order to achieve the kind of Internet we want, it is necessary first to “conspire”.

author: Ahmet A. Sabancı


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Activists Start Calling Israel #JSIL -the Jewish State of Israel in the Levant  · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

All that remains of 44 homes in Zafer 4, Gaza. Taken by @dancohen3000
Pro-Palestine activists have begun ‘re-naming’ Israel as the Jewish State of Israel in the Levant, or JSIL, in an obvious satirical allusion to the neighboring self-proclaimed ISIS, a splinter group of Al Qaeda that has brutally taken over swathes of Syria and Iraq, mowing residents and particularly minorities in its path.
This was meant to coincide with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the United Nations, a man they're calling the ‘Supreme Leader’ of JSIL. It comes nearly a month after a ceasefire was reached in Gaza following the 50-day offensive, which killed at least 2,137 Palestinians, a majority of whom were civilians, including 577 children, and wounded at least 10,870 others. The attack has also had a noticeable effect on Gaza's economy, with hardly any civilian infrastructure left untouched: over 18,000 homes destroyed, as well as over 100 schools, 50 health-care centers and 17 hospitals damaged or 20 destroyed.
Led by known supporters of the Palestinian cause, the re-naming movement is using the same language ascribed to ISIS by the mainstream media to describe the Israeli government's policies. Independent journalist Rania Khalek, for example, warns of the threat posed by ‘JSIL’ to the Western world:
We have to stop #JSIL before its tactics migrate to our shores. Some already have! http://t.co/izAxuopZKj http://t.co/VGdTVbiNcF
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) September 29, 2014
She also compared the financial and military aid given by the United States to Israel to the ISIS's “Jizya tax” — a tax imposed on those they consider to be non-believers:
#JSIL has already imposed its jizya on American taxpayers forced to pay $3.1 billion/year to Israel in military aid. Scary stuff.
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) September 29, 2014
Another similarity are the executions committed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. Journalist Rania Khalek tweeted an excerpt from Jewish-American journalist and blogger Max Blumenthal recalling for the Russell Tribunal, or the International War Crimes Tribunal, what two International Committee of the Red Cross said they found in the Gazan town of Khuza'a:
.@MaxBlumenthal on executions carried out by the Jewish State of Israel in the Levant (JSIL) http://t.co/4zirsezbDX pic.twitter.com/ooswj6CNBv
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) September 28, 2014
The tribunal concluded that evidence showed Israeli forces had committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of murder, extermination and persecution, and incitement to genocide during the offensive.
Gaza-based American journalist Joe Catron pointed out how ‘JSIL’ also recruits foreign fighters — most of whom end up leading the country:
Many of #JSIL‘s most notorious warlords first joined the terror gang as foreign recruits: http://t.co/VOrXOUN6xz pic.twitter.com/5mYRUWGwTR
— Joe Catron (@jncatron) September 29, 2014
Joseph from the ‘ALeftwingBlog‘ wondered about the ways in which the Jewish community could fight extremists, spoofing the pressure put on the world's Muslims to condemn or apologize for ISIS:
What can the Jewish community do 2 strengthen the moderates? How can we isolate & undermine the Jewish extremists in #JSIL? Tough questions
— JosephⓋ☭ (@JosephIsVegan) September 29, 2014
Of notable and symbolic importance is the number of Jewish activists taking the lead in calling Israel ‘JSIL’ wishing to challenge the Zionist narrative of speaking for all Jews around the world. Gaza-based American journalist Dan Cohen recalls the Zionist recruitment agencies that visited him in his synagogue as a child:
Growing up Jewish in America, #JSIL infiltrated my synagogue and actively recruits from my community to kill for its expansionist aims.
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) September 29, 2014
To which Max Blumenthal responded by accusing Taglit, the ‘birthright’ agency that organizes trips to Israel for young Jewish adults around the world, of being a sectarian training program:
.@dancohen3000 #JSIL‘s private donors paid to send me and 1000's of others to be indoctrinated in a sectarian training program called Taglit
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) September 29, 2014
Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal were both in Gaza during the latest Israeli aggression and described the scenes of horror they saw there. Both Cohen and Blumenthal lead the naming movement on Twitter, citing comparisons between ISIS and ‘JSIL’ policies:
I missed Supreme Leader of JSIL Netanyahu's speech but I assume it involved a lot of sophistry to defend the indefensible.
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) September 29, 2014
#JSIL extremists close in on key Palestinian village, pressuring residents to evacuate http://t.co/x8IlpvQ7DK
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) September 29, 2014
They also accused ‘JSIL’ of using the Holocaust for its own political gain, echoing the letter that was released by Holocaust survivors in August:
.@MaxBlumenthal #JSIL exploits the slaughter of my grandmother's family to provide cover for similar crimes against humanity.
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) September 29, 2014
Finally, Blumenthal and Khalek summarized the point of the naming campaign with the following tweets:
#ISIL falsely claims to embody the true Islam, inspiring Islamophobia. #JSIL falsely claims to represent all Jews, inspiring anti-Semitism.
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) September 29, 2014
#ISIL & #JSIL‘s hijacking of religion leads Muslims & Jews to protest “not in our name” https://t.co/yiyy2OoeIV http://t.co/Fbb3zTx0ig
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) September 29, 2014

author: Elia J. Ayoub


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Against Her Will – Trinidad Newspaper Publishes Details of Slain Attorney’s Estate · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Today's lead story in one of Trinidad and Tobago's most popular newspapers was the contents of slain Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal's will. Seetahal was gunned down five months ago in Port of Spain; no one has yet been arrested for her murder.
The blog Wired 868 could not understand the rationale behind printing such personal information. In a post titled “Will and No Grace”, Mr. Live Wire thought that the daily “pushed the boundaries of good taste”:
At a time when the Budget, a brazen attack on the Besson Street police station, gay rights, Trinidad and Tobago’s stance on ISIS, a missing police file on Junior Sammy’s son, Sean, and the accidental shooting death of 17-year-old Ricardo Mohammed by a lawman all cried out for further probes and analysis; the Express opted to rummage through Seetahal’s gifts to her family, friends and staff members instead.
He continued:
Did Seetahal leave all her earthly possessions left to former insurrectionist Yasin Abu Bakr? Was there an autographed picture with former Iraq President Saddam Hussein? Or maybe a book on conflict of interest bequeathed to Attorney General Anand Ramlogan?
Then how could Express justify this invasion of Seetahal’s private space?

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Aliens Are Running Hong Kong Protests, And The Russian News Is On It · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
Russia has already indicated that it believes the U.S. is involved in the organizing of the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, allegedly wishing to punish China for siding with the Russians on Ukraine. But now a Russian news website claims an alien force might be behind the mass protests in Hong Kong.
The website of Russian federal channel REN-TV published the sensational story and even added a video (tellingly branded with a Sheeple TV logo!), claiming it showed a UFO soaring above the crowds. The evidence, the channel surmised, was incontrovertible.
The RuNet users were equally amused and upset when they discovered the news story, and here is why. At first glance one might think REN-TV is just a marginal conspiracy theory outlet. But in reality it's one of the largest private federal television channels in Russia, with a network of over 400 stations around the country, and a reported audience of 120 million viewers. Understandably, netizens were aghast at the quality of news reporting.
@ponny1 каааак это может быть федеральным каналом???
— Игорь Никонов (@nikonov_igor) October 1, 2014
How can this be a federal (TV) channel???
On the other hand, reasoned some Twitter users, at least the accusations against the West could now be laid to rest.
@tjournalru ну так хоть американцы невиноваты
— Sergey (@fluffyberserk) October 1, 2014
Well, at least it's not the Americans’ fault.
Yet others remembered an earlier REN-TV masterpiece that claimed the U.S. itself was run by extra-terrestrial beings, and wondered if it was all one grand conspiracy.
@tvrain @tjournalru те самые инопланетные нацисты http://t.co/mKcu1noS2a pic.twitter.com/M7aMZAzbAv
— Anisim (@anisim) October 1, 2014
Must be those alien Nazis.
If a popular Russian TV channel with millions of viewers reports on foreign affairs and major pro-democracy protests at such an odd angle, and does so online, it begs the question: how necessary is it really to worry about a kill switch for the Russian web? Flooding RuNet with fakes and conspiracy theories, it seems, might do the job of clogging up the free flow of credible information just as well.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Fears of a Network Blackout Still Loom for Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy Protesters · Global Voices
inmediahk.net

Mobile phones light up the crowd of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong on September 30, 2014. Photo by Flickr user Pasu Au Yeung. CC BY 2.0
This post was adapted in two segments from an article written by Oiwan Lam and originally published in Chinese on 1 October 2014 on citizen media platform inmediahk.net. It was translated by Loki Chu and republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
On September 28, rumors that Hong Kong police had asked mobile phone operators to shut down network services in Hong Kong's Admiralty area spread like wildfire. Tensions were already running high, as police had used tear gas on pro-democracy protesters just hours before.
The Federation of University Student Unions, a key organization that has helped mobilize the massive sit-in dubbed Occupy Central, immediately called for protesters to retreat from the demonstration if network services were cut.
On social media, messages from various sources urging protesters to download and install FireChat, a chat application that can be used over the Internet or via Bluetooth technology, went viral. The FireChat Bluetooth setting allows users within close proximity to one another to communicate without a mobile Internet connection. Scores of protesters downloaded FireChat in an effort to maintain communication during the protest in case of a network shutdown, despite the inherent security vulnerabilities that the app carries. Thus far however, a network shutdown has not taken place.
Many are now wondering if it is even possible for a network blackout to be imposed on Hong Kong. This happens on a regular basis in regions of mainland China like Xinjiang, where authorities use Internet blackouts to contain ethnic unrest among the region's Uyghur minority. Yet network infrastructure and corporate governance is much less tightly controlled in the special administrative region of Hong Kong.
Charles Mok, the legislative councillor for the Information Technology Functional Constituency, believes that the chance of a network blackout is very slim.
Two ordinances regulate the government’s power to impose a network blackout. Hong Kong's Telecommunications Ordinance says in the face of a public emergency, if the chief executive (highest authority in the region) decides that the government must exert control over telecommunication stations, he can sign a warrant to do so and use the networks instead for public messages. Although the warrant cannot remain in effect for more than one week, successive warrants from week to week may be issued. This ordinance, however, does not define “emergency.”
The region's Emergency Regulations Ordinance states that “on any occasion in which the chief executive in Council may consider to be an occasion of emergency or public danger, he may make any regulations whatsoever that he may consider desirable in the public interest.”
In other words, Hong Kong needs to be in a state of (a vaguely-defined) “emergency” for the government to demand Internet providers to shut down their networks, whether throughout the whole territory or in a specific region.
Charles Mok pointed out that the government would have difficulty exercising the power given by these two ordinances because both mobile network services and fixed line network services operate in open markets in Hong Kong. According to data provided by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, there are a total of 20 local fixed line telecommunications network operators as of June 2013, five mobile network operators as of December 2012 and 194 Internet service providers as of June 2013. One can imagine the huge impact should a Cap 106 warrant be issued. Moreover, the warrant must be sent directly to either the CEO or CTO of the service providers, and before overseas operators receive these warrants, the network should remain connected.
Charles Mok added that should the government really want to disconnect the network, it may still be done with the 3G and 4G mobile network operators, but once the network is cut, mobile phone voice services will also be terminated, and the impact will be impossible to measure.


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Hong Kong Protesters Shore Up Mobile Communications Tools in Face of Technical Threats · Global Voices
inmediahk.net

Students gathered in numbers on September 29 outside Sogo Department store in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay to continue the fight for democracy in what being called the Umbrella Revolution. Photo by Pete Walker. Copyright Demotix
This post was adapted in two segments from an article written by Oiwan Lam and originally published in Chinese on 1 October 2014 on citizen media platform inmediahk.net. It was translated by Loki Chu and republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. Read the first segment here.
On September 28, after Hong Kong police unleashed tear gas on protesters, many said that they could not access the Internet with their mobile phones and had to run to Central or Wanchai districts before they could send their messages.
Since then, a large number of protesters have downloaded FireChat to prepare for communication during network outages or network congestion.
The FireChat application can run over a mesh network. As each mobile phone sends out a weak signal, a mesh network turns each mobile phone into a network node and links the nodes together to form a local telecommunication network that enables the exchange of messages between users.
But Internet privacy and security experts warn that this software has security vulnerabilities and its users may become the targets of attacks. Calls may be intercepted and the locations of users may be tracked. The application also lacks a strong authentication system for users’ identities — it is relatively easy to impersonate another user, making the network vulnerable to infiltration by malicious actors.
Are there any tools that are more secure than FireChat and can be used during major network congestion?
President of the Hong Kong Professional Information Security Association Eric Fan bluntly answered, “No.” He urged users not to download applications casually and not to jailbreak their iPhones or iPads because these actions are likely to pose security problems. Indeed, security vulnerabilities abound in this arena, and threats from mainland China are many.
In mid-September, hackers distributed an Android application that was discovered to be spyware capable of stealing information from users’ smartphones and tracking users’ locations on Baidu Maps, a mainland Chinese version of Google Maps. The hackers disguised themselves as Code4HK, a group of tech geeks who support social movements in Hong Kong.
Fan pointed out that, in fact, many applications have security vulnerabilities, and users must be vigilant in protecting their communication tools. In addition, under a good network connection, he recommends the use of Telegram.
Telegram is an application similar to WhatsApp, but all communications are encrypted and users may choose to delete conversation records permanently to prevent old records from being spied upon if a user’s mobile phone or computer is confiscated.
This particular point is important for activists who are targets of political persecution. It is now common practice for Hong Kong police to confiscate protest organizers’ mobile phones, and in some cases, they even obtain search warrants and confiscate personal computers for investigation.
Google Talk is another common communication tools among protesters. It is prudent to develop the habit of choosing the “off-the-record” chat option so that others cannot read the chat history.
Follow our in-depth coverage: Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution


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It’s a Great Time for Student Housing Across France, Except in Paris · Global Voices
Mathieu Carrere

Students watching the sunset by the Seine, Paris by Jorge Royan CC-BY-3.0
While student housing had been growing more expensive for a number of years in France, it appears that the upward trend has finally come to a halt in 2014. This is good news for students—except Parisians. Student housing in Paris remains very expensive, unmoved by the broader movements in costs.
A long-awaited fall in price
While finding the perfect apartment is never easy for students, parents often struggle to stomach the housing costs, which have been a concern for years in France. Prices this year are finally dropping, however, according to a study carried out using data from Location-etudiant.fr, a real-estate website specializing in student housing. Prices decreased in 13 of the 20 cities examined in the study. In Toulouse, for example, prices fell 15 percent, while in Marseille and Nice they fell 12 percent. Brice Boullet, founder of Location-etudiant.fr, commented:
Nous assistons à un phénomène de baisse sans précédent ces dix dernières années sur les petites surfaces. Comparés à leur niveau d’août 2013, les loyers d’août 2014 ont amorcé une baisse qui se généralise dans les grandes villes françaises à l’exception de Paris.
We are witnessing a decline in prices for small apartments that is unprecedented in the last ten years. Compared to August 2013, rents in August 2014 have begun to fall in all big cities except Paris.
“Student Housing Dropping in Most French Cities” – Infographics on student housing in France – via location-etudiant.fr with their permission
Paris bucks the trend
The problem of student rents has not improved in Paris. In fact, unlike the rest of the country, it's become even worse. The average monthly rent for a studio is now at 744 euros (about $940 USD), a 0.5 percent increase over last year. The rent for a one-bedroom apartment averages 1,249 euros (more than $1,500), a 3.7 percent increase over last year.
Housing Office of City Hall in the 13th arrondissement of Paris – via David Monniaux – CC BY-SA 3.0
Ironically, the principal reason for the increase is student grants, which have permitted landlords to raise prices. ALUR, a rent-control law passed this year, has failed to achieve sensible limits on the rent of small apartments. Boullet remarks:
Ces lois ne suscitent aucune inquiétude chez les bailleurs. D’abord parce qu’elles sont inefficaces : l’État n’a pas les moyens d’en contrôler le respect, tout le monde le sait. Et plus un loyer est cher, plus l’étudiant a d’aides.
Landlords aren't losing any sleep over these laws. Firstly, they're ineffective: everybody knows the state doesn't have the means to control rent. And the more expensive the rent is, the more students get help.
The situation in Paris seems to be at an impasse, given that the demand for student housing won't fall anytime soon. Perhaps a radical situation might require a radical solution: the government could lower student grants to dissuade students from living in housing they cannot afford. Confronted with the ensuing drop in demand, landlords would then have to lower rents or risk losing more tenants. This plan, however, risks a revolt among students first, and landlords second.

author: Mathieu Carrere


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It’s Illegal to Hold a Rally in Thailand, but Students Did It Anyway to Support Hong Kong’s Protesters · Global Voices
Khun Somchai

This photo, which has been widely shared on Facebook, shows Thai students expressing solidarity to pro-democracy students in Hong Kong
United through repression, a group of Thai students defied the ruling junta's ban on public rallies and gathered in front of Chinese Embassy in Bangkok to show their solidarity for the pro-democracy student protesters in Hong Kong.
The student protesters, who are reported to be anti-coup activists from the Thai Student Centre for Democracy (TSCD), staged the rally in support of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, which protests the decision of the Chinese government to vet candidates standing in Hong Kong’s leadership election in 2017.
Images of the protesters, which gathered outside the consulate for less than an hour, are being shared widely across social media, such as the image posted on Facebook.
The actions of these students are significant, occurring at a time when the ruling military junta have arrested and detained hundreds of pro-democracy activists, politicians and academics in their relentless attempt to silence any opposition voices. Since May’s coup, the military have cultivated an Orwellian culture of censorship and intimidation in which public demonstrations and political gatherings have been banned, preventing pro-democracy groups from taking to the streets.
There is a natural link between the Hong Kong protesters and their Thai allies. According to the Khasood English-language website, one of the students took a dig at the ruling junta, satirizing a ballad meant to have been written by the controversial junta leader and now Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha: “China will do as promised. We are asking for a little more time, and the beautiful Hong Kong will return”.
Yet unlike their contemporaries occupying Hong Kong’s central business district, the Thai students have had some experience living under democratic rule, having grown up under the popular democratic rule of Thaksin Shinawatra, the first ever democratically elected leader in Thailand to complete a full term in office. (Although Thaksin was later ousted by a coup in 2006 and he was convicted on plunder charges. He is living in exile to avoid detention). With the systematic attack on democracy and the rule of law brought about by the most recent coup, the Thai people have experienced first-hand what it means to regress from democracy to autocracy.
The Hong Kong protests will inevitably raise an important question about what is next for the people of Thailand. Could the protests staged by these courageous students galvanize a more vocal movement for democratic leadership of the country?

author: Khun Somchai


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Macedonians Criticize President Ivanov’s Surprising UN Speech · Global Voices
Danica Radisic

Macedonia President Gjorge Ivanov and his wife, Maja Ivanova, with U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama during a reception at the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 2009. Official White House photo by Lawrence Jackson. This photo is public domain.
Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov kept silent and out of the public eye during the several months of ethnically charged clashes in Macedonia. Then, in September 2014 he presented a speech before the UN Security Council, which touched on ethnicity in the Balkan region and even attempted to connect this to the blocked process of Macedonia's NATO integration, as well as with current global anti-terrorism efforts.
While many social media users commented and followed the conversation that was raised by the speech using the satirical hashtag #Хорхе, legal and political analyst Gjakush Kabashi elaborated on the topic in a more in-depth comment on his blog:
Ivanov opened his speech by saying that “Balkan fighters are grouped in ethno-national units”, contradicting the mission proclaimed by the terrorist groups alike ISIS, that have stated the objective of creating a state based exclusively on the specific religious identity. Western intelligence agencies are on the same page – recruits come from many countries, led by the joint cause of establishing a religious-based state. Therefore, this quote in the highest global forum indicates ignorance of great proportions, but also the tendency of blaming specific ethnic groups by identifying them with terrorism.
Another invention comes later on: the country is under the threat of a “Balkan Caliphate”. It again proves the lack of information – there is no such thing as “Balkan Caliphate”. Those led by caliphate ideas have launched their miserable campaign in order to occupy large and compact territories, paying less attention to the current geographic carving.
The key message was the trickiest, as it linked the foreign terrorists’ issue with the problems faced by Macedonia. It doesn’t suit allies to use blackmails, by saying that keeping Macedonia out of NATO constitutes a vacuum waiting to be filled sooner or later; this also lessens Macedonia’s evident contribution to global security.
Twitter user Andreja Bogdanovski also commented on this part of Ivanov's speech that many social media users from Macedonia have said begs commentary:
Rule no1.You just never say this! President Ivanov @UNSC “Our region and our countries are not prepared for this [#ISIS] threat.” #Macedonia
— Andreja Bogdanovski (@BogdanovskiA) September 26, 2014
Cvetin Cilimanov, a journalist who had served as President Ivanov's public relations aide before working for several years as a US correspondent for the state-owned Macedonian Information Agency and who has always openly expressed his right-wing tendencies, opined without irony that the speech was “historical”, in terms of being the first addressing such issues. Cilimanov also added that it would not contribute greatly to worsening US-Macedonia relations, because at the time of the speech, Obama had already left the UN session and would, even having heard the speech, not care too much about “the reprimand” issued by President Ivanov toward the US and its allies that underlined several parts of the speech.

author: Danica Radisic


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Mobile Apps Put Durga Puja at the Fingertips of Millions · Global Voices
Rezwan

Durga Puja, the annual Hindu festival that involves worship of the Goddess Durga, who symbolizes power and the triumph of good over evil in Hindu mythology. Image by Luit Chaliha. Copyright Demotix (27/9/2014)
During Durga Puja, an annual Hindu festival in West Bengal and other parts of India and Bangladesh, worshippers erect elaborate makeshift structures called pandals. Inside each of these structures, there is a stage on which a statue of the Goddess Durga mounts a lion while wielding ten weapons in her ten hands. The pandals depict Durga's victory over the evil buffalo demon Mahishasura. Afterwards, Durga is invited to visit her maternal home and there is an invocation by “Mahalaya” (chanting and singing devotional songs). Goddess Durga then visits home and Bengalis celebrate, worship, and enjoy the five days of Durga Puja. (Read more about this legend here.)
The highlight of the Puja festivities is viewing the many different displays of Goddess Durga, each of which has a unique theme. “Pandal hopping” has become a part of the popular culture, and people sometimes visit hundreds of pandals in large cities like Kolkata. During the week of Durga Puja, life comes to a complete standstill, as roadblocks, traffic management, and fun-fare to the sound of drums chants and devotional songs take over.
This year, there are several mobile apps available to make pandal hopping better planned and more informed than ever. Indians’ growing tech savviness has brought mobile computing to new spheres of life. Apps that help navigate religious and cultural festivities are now at the fingertips of millions in India.
In this article, Global Voices look at some of the mobile apps related to the Puja festivities. The apps fall into four basic categories:
1. Virtual Puja-hopping experience:
Blogger Agnivo Niyogi writes about the Android App Durga Puja Parikrama:
The lights, pandals, chaos on the streets, hyper-active Kolkata Police, food, and above all the spirit of togetherness – these define Durga Puja in the truest of terms. Sadly, for Probashis (and Bengal-lovers who cannot visit Kolkata during Pujo) often give this opportunity a miss because of the physical distance. [..]
The interactive Durga Puja app will help you to:
-Find out location and other details of Durga Puja Pandals around
-Check ratings and comments by other users
-Check the pictures of the Durga Puja pandal uploaded by other visitors.
-Search Durga Puja pandal by popularity or traditionally well-known.
-Create a wishlist of pandals
-Share which Durga Puja pandals you have visited on social network.
-Upload your picture, make your comment or rate a Durga Puja Pandal you visited.
-Get important news and updates from Kolkata Police and West Bengal Government.
Durgotsava Puja Parikrama is a similar app offering map-navigation features and GPS-tracking to aid users in Puja hopping. It also provides information about nearby services like cash machines, public transport, restaurants, medical services, and so on. Puja Hoppers is another such app.
Durga Puja Pandal Hopper also allows users to add their own pandal information and maintain a travel budget.
Another app in this group is The Puja App, which offers 360-degree interactive virtual tours of pandals. Users can vote for their favourite pandals. Virtual tours are only available for older pujas from before 2013, the app also offers a map with some of the current puja locations.
Bengali House wifes play “Sindur Khala” on the last day of the Durga Puja festival at Kolkata in India. Image by Reporter #7585286. Copyright Demotix (14/10/2014)
2. Puja-related updates:
The Big Green Durga app is an initiative from 92.7 BIG FM Kolkata, a radio channel, which describes it as the perfect way to get around congested streets:
The app is a great utility as during puja this will be your news channel on all the Roads that are blocked, all the awarded Pujas you must see and all the celebrities who are visiting different Puja Pandals so that you can have a real glimpse of them. The data will be live and updated by 92.7 BIG FM Kolkata.
Durga Puja is another app in this group. It educates users about Durga Puja, the importance of each day of the celebration, the legends therein, how puja is performed, what is required for each day, and the datse and proper puja timings according to the Hindu calendar. The Durga Puja Organiser apps, as the name implies, help worshippers plan their puja celebrations.
The Navratri Durga Puja Sangrah app has a collection of puja-related songs, aarti, and mantra (prayers) in both audio and video formats, which can be performed when making puja offerings.
3. Puja locators:
These apps help users find all the nearby pujas.
Available on iOS and Android, Puja Locator was not designed specifically for Durga pujas. It was made for pujas held in the Maharashtra region. Mandapp provides information about the various puja pandals in Kolkata.
Kolkata Puja Guide and Map  makes it easy for people to find a route to select puja pandals. Durga Puja RoadMap 2014 is a similar app with navigation features.
4. Virtual Puja offerings:
These apps allow users to offer virtual pooja (prayers) to Maa Durga Devi. Maa Durga Pooja offers a complete pooja experience to users. Durga Pooja is another app which lets you to worship the lord goddesses through aarti and garland.
There are undoubtedly many other useful apps out there for the Puja festivities. If you know of any not mentioned here, GV invites you to mention it in the comments below this post.
One of the idols of Devi Durga is ready for immersion on the Ganga river in Kolkata. Image by Suman Mitra. Copyright Demotix (14/10/2013)
The Durga Puja ends by immersing Maa Durga's idol in water and chanting “asche bochor abar hobe” (It will happen again next year). Thanks to the the growing supply of Durga Puja apps, however, worshippers don't have to wait a whole year anymore. The virtual experience of Durga Puja is forever at the fingertips of anyone who wants it.

author: Rezwan


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Russian Court Sentences 23-Year-Old Woman to 2 Years for Torrenting Porn · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

The dangerous game of RuNet porn. Edited by Kevin Rothrock.
A court in Russia has convicted a 23-year-old woman of illegally disseminating pornography on the Internet, handing down a two-year suspended sentence.
The woman, whose name has not been released to the public, lives in Kemerovo, more than 2,000 miles east of Moscow, not far from Novosibirsk. A judge ruled that she violated Article 242 of Russia’s criminal code, which bans “illegal distribution of pornographic materials” over the Internet, when she downloaded and shared three pornographic films in November 2012, using the popular peer-to-peer BitTorrent protocol. The conviction does not involve copyright issues.
In court, the accused denied that she knew she was also sharing pornographic content while she downloaded the films, but Kemerovo prosecutors say she admitted this knowledge when they initially seized her computer during their investigation.
A cursory search of “porno torrent” activity on the Russian Internet shows that tens of thousands of RuNet users regularly download and share pornographic films using peer-to-peer technology. Russian websites like “porn-uptracker” and “toptracker,” for example, document that over 100,000 users have viewed the most popular “torrent trackers” for pornographic movies.


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Talking Heads Project Showcases What is Extraordinary About People in Africa · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Talking Heads is a project of the Africa Centre, a non-profit cultural organisation based in Cape Town, South Africa. Talking Heads produces audio casts  and short films, which are freely available on YouTube and iTunes:
The Africa Centre has designed an approach that identifies, showcases and creates opportunities for African “Thought Leaders”. Talking Heads profiles some of the extraordinary Africans making a meaningful and affirmative contribution to their communities, cities, countries, to the Continent and the world. Our approach provides a model that can be easily replicated anywhere in Africa and, with scale, may offer an alternative narrative of who and what we know about our Continent.

author: Ndesanjo Macha