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In Hospital Bombing, Pakistan Lost a Whole Generation of Lawyers in Balochistan · Global Voices
Sana Saleem

Photo from Protest held at National Press Club Islamabad by Awami Workers Party & National Party Islamabad (Federal Unit). Photo Courtesy AWP Facebook Page.
Lawyers around Pakistan are going on strike, following a suicide bombing at a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed 70 people on August 8. At least 30 lawyers are believed to be among the dead. According to a member of the Balochistan Bar Association, the bombing killed an entire generation of lawyers in Pakistan's largest but poorest province Balochistan.
When the bomber struck, dozens of lawyers were gathered at the emergency ward of Civic Hospital Quetta to mourn the assassination of their colleague Bilal Anwar Kasi, the Balochistan Bar Association President. Kasi's body was brought to the hospital after his car came under attack.
The Pakistani Taliban faction Jammat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for Kasi's killing and the bombing.
Quetta is the provincial capital of Pakistan's province Balochistan and is home to a wide array of human rights abuses and security threats. The province shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran. Taliban-linked and sectarian militants operate in the region. Decades of neglect and grievances over lack of development and political representation have fuelled a separatist insurgency. In response, Pakistan's law enforcement have been involved in alleged enforced disappearances, which have further aggravated the political turmoil.
The lawyers, many of whom were their family's first generation to attend college, served as the province's only hope for justice.
Lawyer Barkhurdar who lost many colleagues in the blast shared the magnitude of the loss on his Twitter account:
So my total standing at the bar comes to six years of which I have spent nine months in Quetta. After this incident, all the lawyers in my..
— Barkhurdar Khan (@BarkhurdarAchak) August 8, 2016
Batch are now in the top 100 practicing lawyers both in terms of standing and seniority. Let that sink in for a moment. All, I repeat ALL..
— Barkhurdar Khan (@BarkhurdarAchak) August 8, 2016
Senior practicing lawyers and Barristers died today. My senior Barrister Adnan Kasi passed away and the rest of the associates in our…
— Barkhurdar Khan (@BarkhurdarAchak) August 8, 2016
Chamber are either dead, injured or missing as of yet. That's about the level of loss in terms of body count and professional experience…
— Barkhurdar Khan (@BarkhurdarAchak) August 8, 2016
The number of junior lawyers, who are the sole bread winners of their homes and who are now unemployed runs into hundreds. Most of those…
— Barkhurdar Khan (@BarkhurdarAchak) August 8, 2016
Who died Were first gen educated.
— Barkhurdar Khan (@BarkhurdarAchak) August 8, 2016
Sam Zarifi, Asia Director for the International Commission of Jurists issued a statement condemning the attack:
As such, it constituted a serious loss for the legal community and increases existing pressure on the independence of the bar.
In the aftermath of the bombing, top civil and military leadership issued statements stating that they believed the attack was an attempt to sabotage the ongoing China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. The CPEC is a development scheme with a collection of projects, which includes network of highways, railways, and pipelines accompanied by energy, industrial, and other infrastructure development projects worth $46 billion. Eventually the project will connect the Chinese city Kashgar to Pakistan's Gwadar port.
Comments from the top leadership have spurred an uproar amongst the residents of Balochistan who already feel neglected. Human rights and education campaigner Sajjad Changezi is offended by the statement:
People of #Balochistan have been seriously offended by the ‘CPEC lovers’. Some sanity, some humanity should prevail.#SenselessBastards
— Sajjad H. Changezi (@Changovski) August 9, 2016
Political activist Sikander Bhadera feels that the authorities do not care about the loss of life:
Everyone seems to be worried about the CPEC. The dead bodies somehow don't seem important enough. #Quetta
— Sikander F. Bhadera (@SikanderFayyaz) August 8, 2016
Retired military officer Khalid Munir believes that the law enforcement needs to focus on the real issues of security instead of the CPEC:
Remain focused on terrorists. Such attacks will continue till all are eliminated. CPEC doesn't pass through Quetta hospital. #QuettaBlast
— Khalid Munir (@Khalid_Munir) August 8, 2016
On June 8, principal of Law College Quetta, Barrister Amanullah Achakzai was shot dead after unknown assailants opened fire on his car. Achakzai was known for his principled stance and for ensuring that the law college upheld merit during admissions and did not succumb to political pressure.
Lawyers in Balochistan believe that Achakzai's killing was the first attack on lawyers, who are being targeted:
Target killing of lawyers at verge in #Quetta. Started with a target killing of young Barrister Amanullah Achakzai n still counting…
— Gulalai (@GulalaiJ) August 8, 2016
And last week, a lawyer named Jahanzeb Alvi was shot dead by unknown armed men in the Brewery road area of Quetta.
After the hospital attack on Monday, lawyers have announced a week-long strike to protest killings and demand action as many are still coming to terms with the devastation as news of more deaths keeps coming in:
Associate in our chamber. Ghulam Muhammad. He had been a lawyer's clerk for 12 years. Only recently completed his LLB and joined our ranks..
— Barkhurdar Khan (@BarkhurdarAchak) August 9, 2016
While the legal fraternity mourns, citizens are coming together to help support the families who have lost their loved ones. Activist and writer Usama Khilji is working to set up a scholarship fund for law students from Balochistan, he shared this call for action in a Facebook post:
I would like to set up a scholarship fund for law students from Balochistan in memory of the lawyers who lost their lives in the senseless attack today in Quetta. If they will kill our intellectuals, we will work to multiply them in numbers and power.
We will need to find donors willing to contribute, as well as deserving students from Balochistan that want to study law.


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Learn About Australian Rules Football, Animal Names and More in the Kaurna Language · Global Voices
First Languages Australia

A version of this story, by Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi and Karina Lester, Mobile Language Team, was first published as a case study on First Languages Australia's guide “Warra: Building teams, building resources.”
Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi (KWP), a group of community members, teachers, linguists and language enthusiasts who are teaching the Kaurna language of the Kaurna people, the original inhabitants of the Adelaide Plains area in South Australia, is creating online video lessons for language revitalization.
The Kaurna ‘Lessons’ series currently runs to eight episodes. Two charismatic presenters and members of the Kaurna community, Jack Kanya Buckskin and Taylor Tipu Power-Smith, are the public faces of this project.
In the lessons, Buckskin says some basic greetings, vocabulary words and phrases of the Kaurna language and explains their meanings. He also highlights words around hobbies such as golf, cycling, and Australian Rules Football or “Tidna partnu” — the country's most popular sport — in the Kaurna language. In this video, Buckspin and his friends highlight some of the more commonly used terminology in the sport, such as words for kicking, hand balling, and bending.
Another of the series is targeted at Kaurna youth through the program ‘Kaurna for Kids’, hosted by Power-Smith. It combines video, animation and puppets and is proving very popular. One of the most viewed videos highlights some of the animals that inhabit the Adelaide region with their respective Kaurna names.
Animal puppets also make an appearance teaching words and singing songs in the local language. This program called “Pirltawardl” or “The Possum's House” features characters such as Kuula the Koala and Pirlta the Possum.
When KWP was first looking to create online resources for language vitalization, they settled on video as the medium, since they already counted enthusiastic people with video production skills as part of the group.
With this existing video production knowledge, the language team looked at the different options for video language resources, such as documentary, drama, educational, etc., and decided a series of language lessons would be the most useful community tool.
The project is a collaboration with the Department of Linguistics in the School of Humanities at the University of Adelaide and is funded by the Australian Government Indigenous Language and Arts program.
While the videos are publicly available online and accessible by anyone, KWP hopes that viewers will treat the language with the same reverence that community members do. A statement on the KWP website states:
Kaurna language and culture is the property of the Kaurna community. Users of this site are urged to use the language with respect. This means making every effort to get the pronunciation, spelling and grammar right. Kaurna people reserve the right to monitor the use of the language in public. Users of this site should consult with Kaurna people about use of the language in the public domain.
Accessing fun and interactive videos is an ideal way to reach young and old alike, and the response has been favorable. Karina Lester, from the South Australian Mobile Language Team, said in an interview:
These YouTube clips are a great example of using technology to meet their audience—Kaurna youth in Adelaide. Having young Jack and Taylor presenting these language sessions is inspiring to other young Kaurna kids to take on learning their language.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: First Languages Australia


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Technical Difficulties and Allegations of Corruption Leave Mexicans Concerned About New Transparency Agency · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

Oscar Guerra, one of seven INAI commissioners. Image shared on Flickr by Malova Gobernador, used under Creative Commons license.
Between a malfunctioning website, a poorly received anti-sexting campaign and serious allegations of corruption, Mexico’s new public transparency agency has seen nothing but stormy skies since its official launch in May 2015.
When the constitutional reform regarding access to public information in Mexico entered into force, everyone knew the implementation process would not be smooth. Since its creation up until today, issues continue surrounding the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data, the new watchdog of transparency and protection of personal information (privacy) in the country, known informally as INAI.
The right to access public information in Mexico has been fomented and safeguarded since 2002 when a citizen body (known as IFAI) was created to facilitate citizen access to public data through a semi-autonomous agency. But this was formally dissolved when the new reform began and was substituted by the INAI, which eventually emerged with a new line-up of seven commissioners, originating mainly from the political class.
Like its predecessor, the INAI serves as a protector of the fundamental rights included in its name, promoting public knowledge of those rights and also acting as an authority to resolve disputes that arise, for example between a person requesting access to public information and a governmental office refusing that access.
In May 2016, we reported on the new tool launched by the INAI to allow for any person to access available government information or request information that was not previously available. The intention was that anyone (regardless if they are a Mexican citizen or not) could access government information online, from basic information such as salaries and benefits of public servants, to current and relevant documents such as those related to the investigation of the case of 43 missing students in Ayotzinapa.
Shortly after the new system went online, users and experts pointed to a number of flaws in the platform that seriously hindered transparency. Many of them took to Twitter to demonstrate these system failures.
Compromiso con #Transparencia no se predica, se practica. Graves fallas de #TuPlataformaMX exigen corregir el rumbo https://t.co/d4ZNwmbHrU
— Héctor Rubio (@JxviRubio) June 9, 2016
Commitment to transparency is not just preached, it is practiced. Serious failures in #TuPlataformaMX (Your Platform) require course corrections.
Transparency expert Renata Terrazas denounced the failures of the “modern” tool released by the INAI:
La realidad ha sido otra, la plataforma ha fallado desde el día uno y a dos semanas, muchas personas no han logrado hacer solicitudes, no pueden acceder a las solicitudes que realizaron con antelación por lo que no pueden revisar las respuestas de las autoridades, no pueden meter recursos de impugnación, entre tantas otras fallas que, sin importar sean técnicas o no, obstaculizan el ejercicio de un derecho.
El problema de la falla de la plataforma no es menor. No es un tema tecnológico simple que no permite realizar una actividad, se trata de un error técnico que deriva en la violación de un derecho, y de manera muy lamentable, la violación proviene de aquellas instituciones que tienen como mandato velar por ese derecho.
The reality has been another story, the platform has failed from day one and in just two weeks, many people have not been able to complete requests, they can’t access requests made in advance so they’re unable to review responses from the authorities, they can’t submit resources to challenge requests, among many other failures, regardless if there are technical problems or not, this is impeding the exercise of a right.
The failure of the platform is not a minor issue. It’s not a simple technical error that is prohibiting activity, it’s a technical error that results in the violation of a right, and deplorably, the violation is originating from the institutions that are mandated to ensure that right.
Days before publishing her article, Terrazas shared these images on Twitter:
Venga @INAImexico sin poder acceder a mis solicitudes ni solicitar más información. pic.twitter.com/WQ4TUvqgQY
— Renata (@Renaterra_zas) May 17, 2016
Come on @INAImexico I can't access my requests or solicit more information.
Questions have also emerged regarding the the scope of privacy and protection of personal information, another of the fundamental rights that INAI is responsible for ensuring. In July, 2016, the INAI together with other institutions, launched a campaign against sending and receiving sexually explicit messages between mobile devices, an activity better known as ‘sexting’. The regional newspaper El Debate reported on the initiative:
El Instituto Nacional de Transparencia Acceso a la Información y Protección de Datos Personales (INAI), PantallasAmigas, y representantes de las instituciones públicas y privadas que colaboran, lanzaron la campaña “Pensar antes de sextear. 10 Razones para no realizar sexting”, que tiene como fin alertar sobre los riesgos que implica dicha práctica…
The National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI), PantallasAmigas (Friendly Screens) and collaborating representatives of public and private institutions launched the campaign “Think before sexting. 10 reasons not to sext,” which aims to warn about the risks of this activity…
The INAI spread the campaign via Twitter with the following graphic:
Estás pensando en la posibilidad de hacer #Sexting? Toma en cuenta estas 10 cosas #QueNoTeCapturen pic.twitter.com/RJTkwW1ghW
— INAI (@INAImexico) July 23, 2016
Thinking about sexting? Keep these 10 things in mind.
*On the image:
1. There is another person involved that you now depend on
Shared control
2. People and relationships can change
Forever
3. Protection of digital information is complicated
Stored on your cellphone
4. The distribution of digital information is uncontrollable
A split second
5. An image can provide much information
Anonymous
6. There are laws that criminalize actions linked to sexting
Who cares
7. Sextortion can happen if the sexted image falls into the hands of blackmailers
New friendships
8. Internet is fast and powerful
Without restraint, without limit
9. Social networks facilitate information to people nearby
Closer than farther
10. There is serious risk of cyberbullying if the image of sexting is published on the Internet
With all confidence
The initiative was criticized for containing sexist, chauvinistic overtones and undermining digital rights, as attorney Gisela Perez de Acha warned in the digital publication Horizontal:
“Pensar antes de hacer sexting” es el ejemplo perfecto de una política pública fallida, moralista y desigualitaria. En vez de buscar condiciones de igualdad y sancionar a los que nos agreden sexualmente (sea en casos de violación o por difusión de nuestras imágenes íntimas) reproduce los mismos estereotipos de género. Culpar, castigar o censurar a las mujeres que se salen de los roles, espacios y atributos “apropiados” en función de su sexo; a aquellas que no son “recatadas, sumisas y buenas esposas”, valida la violencia.
“Think before sexting” is the perfect example of a failed moralistic and inegalitarian public policy. Instead of seeking equality and punishing those who sexually assault us (whether in cases of rape or diffusion of our intimate photos) it reproduces the same gender stereotypes. Blame, punish or censor women who break away from the “appropriate” roles, spaces and attributes based on their sex; those who are not “demure, submissive and good wives,” this validates violence.
In an open letter, the author referred to the digital right to share these messages:
Tenemos derecho a sextear. A tomar fotos o videos íntimos, explorar nuestros cuerpos con la cámara de teléfono que nos acompaña a todos lados; a descubrir nuestro mejor ángulo y elegir a quién mandárselo. En la era digital, el sexo es más que un mero intercambio de fluidos. No tenemos que seguir los estándares “eróticos” o “pornográficos.” Si son nuestros desnudos, son nuestras reglas. Y, entonces, el sexting es un ejercicio de autodeterminación que forma parte de nuestros derechos sexuales: el conjunto de derechos humanos que reconocen la capacidad de expresar nuestra sexualidad sin discriminación.
We have the right to sext. To take intimate photos or videos, and explore our bodies with the camera phone that we carry everywhere; to discover our best angle and choose who to send them to. In the digital age, sex is more than a mere exchange of fluids. We do not have to follow the “erotic” or “pornographic” standards. If they are our nudes, then we make the rules. And sexting is an exercise of self-determination that is part of our sexual rights: combined with human rights that recognize the ability to express our sexuality without discrimination.
The website Animal Político gathered expressions of a group of activists regarding the campaign sponsored by INAI:
Tras su difusión en redes sociales, el llamado de las autoridades a no hacer sexting provocó críticas como la de la organización Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales, que considera que la campaña apela a la moralidad, y tiene un enfoque inadecuado.
After being broadcast on social media, the call from authorities to stop sexting provoked criticism such as that from the organization, Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (Network in Defense of Digital Rights) who considers the campaign an appeal to morality with an inappropriate approach.
Lastly, legal professionals have questioned the integrity of the INAI commissioners. Just this past July 2016, the trade magazine El Mundo del Abogado (World Attorney) published an editorial entitled “Something is rotten in the INAI“, focusing on a case of alleged corruption and opacity involving the commissioners.
Algo huele a podrido en el @INAImexico El Mundo del Abogado pone el dedo en la llaga. Podrido huele, podrido está. https://t.co/v4OxUuV2Fn
— Transparencia. (@PoderTranspMx) 4 de julio de 2016
Something smells rotten at the @INAImexico El Mundo del Abogado pins it down. If it smells rotten, it is.
In addition, the magazine referred poor management of budgets at the INAI:
En el nuevo INAI se han realizado más gastos inútiles que nunca: https://t.co/0n91pHlEL1
— El Mundo del Abogado (@mundodelabogado) July 5, 2016
More wasteful spending than ever in the new INAI.
The body responsible for ensuring transparency in Mexico is an essential component in the fight against corruption, but it can only fulfill this duty if it follows the same principles that underpin its existence.

author: Elizabeth Rivera


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China Is Turning Its Once Powerful Communist Youth League Into an Online Campaign Machine · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Image from independent online news outlet iYouPort. Non-commercial use.
The ruling Communist Party of China is set to massively divest and reform its once powerful Communist Youth League. The youth organization's annual budget is being cut by 50%, from RMB 624 million yuan (94 million US dollars) to RMB 306 million yuan (46 million US dollars).
The reform plan, outlined by the Communist Party of China (CPC) on August 2, is based on an internet-focused strategy to turn the bureaucratic organization into an online campaign movement that “reinforces youth belief in the CPC and pumps vigor into the cause of national rejuvenation.”
Since the 1980s, the Communist Youth League served as a launching pad for China’s political elite. Key government positions at the central and provincial levels are often filled by the league's members and alumni, known as tuanpai or the “league faction”.
Under President Xi Jinping the tuanpai have increasingly been marginalized. President Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao and his former chief of staff Ling Jihua were top tuanpai. Jihua was caught in a corruption scandal, and, recently, jailed for life. Ling Jihua's downfall raised scrutiny over the tuanpai and the Communist Youth League.
The reform comes after the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection launched a damning corruption investigation into the league and published a statement earlier this year. It criticized the league for its undesirable work methods, including “formalism, unnecessary bureaucracy, aristocracy [or nepotism] and a focus on entertainment”.
The League has approximately 89 million members between the ages of fourteen and twenty-eight. Half of its members are students. Members of the CPC often start building their career in high school as officers of the Communist Youth League. Students with family members in the party or the government are more likely to be recruited as committee members or in the league's important positions at an early age. These positions make them more likely to receive scholarship opportunities and professional recommendations from the League.
The transformation of the League from a brick and mortar bureaucracy into an online campaigning organization did not happen overnight. In 2015, leaked emails revealed that the League was trying to recruit 20% of its members into online ‘youth civilization volunteers‘ to spread positive energy and “purify” the internet. Under the reform plan, the League will continue to strengthen its “internet engineering” and turn the organization into “internet plus Communist Youth League”. The term “internet plus” is a policy buzzword in China these days.
Reactions to the reform has been quite varied. Some see the reform as an attempt to marginalize the League, but others see it as an opportunity for the league to extend its influence. China Digital Times published some comments from China's Twitter-like platform Weibo. This commenters believe it was about time that the “tiny pink”, a term that refers to members or supporters of the league, were reined in:
原来是要增加临时工减少正式工，有些人的饭碗保不住了，怪不得最近上串下跳闹得不亦乐乎
给大家画个重点：人事缩编、体系内直升通道取消、不再是后备干部团体、沦为群众组织（小粉红明白了吗）
先是中央巡视组批评团中央贵族化娱乐化，然后是削减经费，现在又要求精简机构，但居然还有人抓住一个“网”字，就觉得中央在力挺团中央……
解散最好！共青团和他粉丝小粉红现在越来越像邪教、邪教徒，每天喊打喊杀，到处扣帽子写大字报，太可怕了，还好生活中身边没这种恶心人，有多远躲多远！
现在小粉红知道为啥前段时间没有媒体挺团，还扯啥资本控制媒体，其实是你爹不要你了。
The whole point is to reduce permanent manpower and increase temporary workforces. Some people will lose their rice bowls. That's why some people are jumping up and down these days.
The key is downsizing the personnel structure, the direct promotion channel has been cancelled and members of the league is no longer a reserved cadre club. It has been downgraded to “mass organization”. (Do you understand, tiny pink?)
First, the Central Committee inspection team criticized the League's central committee for being aristocratic and catering to entertainment. Followed by budget cut and now downsizing the organization. Yet some see the word “Internet plus” as a supportive gesture…
The best reform is to abolish the organization! The Communist Youth League and its tiny pinks are like a religious cult. It keeps bullying around and gives out labels. They are so terrible and I am glad that I haven't been surrounded by these kind of folks. Everyone should keep away from them.
Finally the tiny pinks know why the media outlets are not siding with them. They believe the media outlets are controlled by the capitalists, the reality is that they have been abandoned by their father [the party].
But fans of League insist the party's Central Committee is still supportive:
大力发展网上共青团，吸纳更多的有志青年加入共青团。这不是中央在压共青团，这是在抬啊
改革方案中提,及的“大力实施‘网上共青团’工程”，是中央将加大支持共青团、对其委以重任的信号。
To strengthen the development of Communist Youth League in the virtual space and recruit more youth into the League, this is a supportive gesture, not repressive.
The reform proposal mentions a full implementation of internet plus Communist Youth League. It is a signal showing that the Central Committee has assigned an important role to the League and supportive of their work.
What exactly is “internet plus Communist Youth League”? Bai Xin wrote a commentary on iYouPort, an independent online news outlet, on the digital strategy in the future organization of the league's civilization volunteers:
2016年7月13日团中央联合发改委和央行发布的《青年信用体系建设规划（2016-2020）》，算是《方案》的先期文件，要求将两千万青年纳入志愿者体系，并且纳入信用体系，根据志愿工作（如参加小粉红的网络攻击或线下集合）评定、增减青年的信用积分，并与创业优惠、乃至机票优惠等奖惩挂钩。
The document, entitled “The Construction of Youth Credit System 2016-2020″ and published jointly by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, the National Development and Reform Committee and the Central Bank, has laid out the initial framework for the current reform plan. It plans to recruit 20 million youth into a volunteer system which is integrated into a credit system — the credit will be evaluated according to their voluntary work (such as their participation in online attacks or off-line assemblies). The credit will be awarded with a bonus, such as access to start-up funding, airfare discount.
The writer further predicted that the transformation of the League from a bureaucratic organization into an online campaign organization mediated through the credit system will eventual give rise to a form of authoritarian populism centering around party leader Xi Jinping:
在未来的中国政治舞台上，一个更效忠习个人、更活跃、也更具政治进攻性的青年运动组织俨然形成，也就是一个建制化的“小粉红”军团。
In China's future political stage, a more aggressive youth movement organization will enter the scene, it is an institutionalized army of tiny pinks who plead loyalty only to Xi.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Empathy for the Enemy and the Oppressed: Political Pop Songs from the Eighties · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Screen shot from the video for Elton John's “Nikita” (1985).
Themes of love, loss and the other trials of our personal lives have been the mainstay of popular music for centuries. But in every generation there are pop artists who have taken on that other great theme called politics, responding to current events and instances of injustice both domestic and global, and bringing often controversial issues to the attention of the young people who make up their audience.
Growing up in Macedonia in the 1980s, my awareness of global politics was very much influenced by pop music, as a number of A-list artists during that era released huge hits addressing political issues, some of which were considered quite controversial at the time.
Here are a few of the stand-out political songs from the era:
“Sunday Bloody Sunday” – U2 (1983)
One of the most influential and overtly political songs by the Irish rockers, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” describes the horror the Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry, Northern Ireland, in which British troops shot and killed 14 unarmed civil rights protesters and bystanders in 1972.
The sound of the voice of the young Bono, shouting “This is not a rebel song, this is Sunday Bloody Sunday!” can still cause one to feel goosebumps, even for those who for whom he has become very much a part of the establishment.
“Pride (In the Name of Love)” – U2 (1984)
The following year, U2 released “Pride (In the Name of Love)”, about the American Civil Rights movement and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Early morning, April four
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride
“Gimme Hope Jo'Anna” – Eddy Grant (1988)
Guyanese British musician Eddy Grant turned the age-old pop song device of addressing a loved one on its head in 1988’s “Gimme Hope Jo'anna”. The Jo'anna in question is not a woman, but a nickname for the South African apartheid regime, personified by the city of Johannesburg.
Well Jo'anna she runs a country
She runs in Durban and the Transvaal
She makes a few of her people happy, oh
She don't care about the rest at all
She's got a system they call apartheid
It keeps a brother in a subjection
But maybe pressure will make Jo'anna see
How everybody could a live as one
The major political issue of the 1980s was the Cold War that had been simmering between the two giant blocs of East and West since the end of the Second World War, threatening the planet with nuclear destruction. For decades, its influence permeated the daily life of many throughout the word, not to mention all forms of art, not only science fiction. Many of the songs inspired by the Cold War carry antiwar messages, demanding an end to the conflict and promoting empathy for the people “on the other side.”
“99 Luftballons” – Nena (1983)
German band Nena gained worldwide fame with their 1983 hit “99 Luftballons”. The original German version of the song tells the story of a trigger-happy fighter pilot provoking a military incident after shooting at a swarm of children's balloons, starting a 99-year war.
“Nikita” – Elton John (1985)
At the peak of his career in 1985, Elton John sang about “Nikita”, a love interest confined behind the Iron Curtain. The name “Nikita” is given to both boys and girls in Slavic countries. The video for the song featured the beautiful Nikita character, played by British female athlete and model Anya Major, famous for starring in Apple Computer's “1984” commercial.
Do you ever dream of me
Do you ever see the letters that I write
When you look up through the wire
Nikita do you count the stars at night
And if there comes a time
Guns and gates no longer hold you in
And if you're free to make a choice
Just look towards the west and find a friend
“Russians” – Sting (1985)
Another song promoting empathy and humanizing “the enemy” was Sting's “Russians” (1985), which commented on the exchange of warmongering rhetoric and fears of nuclear annihilation.
We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
What might save us, me, and you
Is if the Russians love their children too
In 2010 Sting said that his inspiration for the song were Soviet children's programs like these that he had watched via a “stolen” satelite TV signal.
“Wind of Change” – Scorpions (1990)
The collapse of the Soviet system also inspired several songs. “Wind of Change” by the German rock band Scorpions, released in 1990, became an anthem for the reforms that were underway, with high hopes, all over Central and Eastern Europe.
The world is closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers
The future's in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
in the wind of change
This power ballad remains popular, and was recently used in the closing scene of the controversial political comedy “The Interview.”
This list is just a tiny sampling of a vast tradition that includes hits such as Simple Minds’ “Belfast Child” and “Mandela Day,” (1989), and the somewhat more recent “Zombie” by the Cranberries, released in 1995.
What is your favorite political pop song? Leave us a note in the Comments!

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Ethiopian Authorities Killed 100 Protesters Over the Weekend · Global Voices
Endalkachew Chala

Protest in Ethiopia from Abdi Lemessa's Facebook page. Used with permission.
As hundreds of protesters took to the streets over the weekend in Oromia and Amhara, two of Ethiopia’s largest administrative regions, security forces violently disbanded demonstrators with live bullets. According to news sites and social media reports, about 100 protesters were killed.
The protests in Oromia and Amhara started at different times and for different reasons, but they both stem from identity politics. In both regions, demonstrators are challenging the dominance of elites from one group — the Tigray — in Ethiopian politics. The distribution of wealth and power among Ethiopia's 100 million citizens falls suspiciously along ethnic lines. The Tigray make up 6% of the population but dominate the ranks of the military and government. At 34%, the Oromos are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, but they have only a nominal federal representation in their country. The Amhara represent 27% of the country's population.
Details of the exact number of fatalities were hard to come by before Monday because the government blocked internet services and telephone services in Oromia and parts of the Amhara region. Funerals of the dead took place on Monday and Tuesday in Bahir Dar and numerous towns across Oromia.
Despite the government’s willingness to use lethal force, calls for more protests in Oromia and Amhara regions are already taking place on Facebook. Activists, inside Ethiopia and abroad, claim that protests will not subside unless the government is open to an inclusive political solution in Oromia and Amhara.
The Amhara regional state capital, Bahir Dar, saw the heaviest causalities in decades on Saturday as the residents took to the streets in protest, defying authorities who killed at least 20 protesters in a nearby historical city of Gonder two weeks before. According to Amnesty International, at least 30 people were killed in one day in Bahir Dar.
Similarly, in Oromia at least 50 people were killed and hundreds were arrested. In the capital, Addis Ababa, hundreds of protesters tried to gather at Meskel Square, but were quickly and violently dispersed by security forces. On Tuesday afternoon a 1:40 second video posted on EthioTube shows security forces brutally beating demonstrators. [Click on the screenshot below to watch.]
The protests in Amhara began on July 12, 2016 when security forces attempted to arrest a leader of the Wolqait Identity and Self-Determination Committee, Colonel Demeka Zewdu, on alleged terrorism charges. The protestors in Amhara and their leaders are demanding the repositioning of the provinces of Welkait-Tegede community into the Amhara region from adjacent Tigray Regional State.
News reports and social media reports show that grievances among Welkait-Tegede community members have been building for some time over what activists say is the annexation of their land and forceful assimilation of their identity into Tigray region. Remarkably, disproportionate political, economic and military power is vested in the elites hailing from Tigray region.
Pro-government commentators, however, play down the power of the Tigrayan elites instead blame opposition groups for blowing the question of Welkait-Tegede community assimilation out of proportion.
The demonstrations in Oromia are the continuation of protests that have become a daily occurrence since November 2015.
Initially, the protest started in Oromia when students asked the government to stop its plan to expand the capital city Addis Ababa into surrounding farm lands of Oromia. The students argued that the controversial plan to expand Addis Ababa into Oromia state would result in mass evictions of farmers mostly from the Oromo ethnic group.
The government rejected the accusation, claiming that the expansion was intended only to facilitate the development of infrastructure such as transportation, utilities, and recreation centers.
Although the government has scrapped the plan to expand Addis Ababa, the move has fallen far short of the demands of the protesters, which include greater questions of self-rule, freedom and identity. For example, the students are demanding that Oromo become a federal language. Oromo, the language of the Oromo people, is the most widely spoken language in Ethiopia and the fourth largest African language. However, it is not the working language of the federal government.
In May 2014, the government suspended the plan to expand the capital city in order to abate the students protests that saw at least 12 students were killed and hundreds of ethnic Oromo students were imprisoned. But in November 2015, the government decided to resume plans to expand the capital. It is not clear if the government will revive the plan again.
The arrest of numerous prominent opposition leaders such as Bekele Gerba and Yonatan Tesfaye, the suppression of journalists and bloggers and the brutal crackdown on protesters by security forces, in which at least 500 people have died according to Human Rights Watch have served only to ignite fresh protests in Oromia.
The Ethiopian government spokesperson Getachew Reda frequently says there is no political solution as the government won the latest parliamentary election in May 2015 by 100%.
Observers say that this is the most serious challenge the Ethiopian government has faced since they came to power in 1991. The closest was in 2005 when Ethiopia had its only truly contested election.
But lately questions of self-rule and identity have become one of the sources of political violence. In April there were instances of violent demonstrations demanding self-rule in Southern Regional State, particularly in Konso area. There were also similar conflicts in the South Western State of Gambela in January 2016.
Twitter user Awol echoed similar sentiments saying this is the most significant political mass action since the death of the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi:
#OromoProtests today's nation-wide rally in Oromia is the most significant political developments in Ethiopia since death of Meles Zenawi
— Awol Allo (@awol_allo) August 6, 2016
Following the 2005 election the government gunned down at least three hundred demonstrators after the prime minister at the time, the late Meles Zenawi, declared a state of emergency when supporters of the opposition contested the results of the election.
Showing the level of defiance exhibited by the protestors, Ethiopian Press shared the photo below:
#OromoProtests: Another power scene of defiance. An Elder fighting back security forces in oromia #Ethiopia pic.twitter.com/zVdEZMtPWJ
— Ethiopian Press (@abenezer_a) August 10, 2016
On Facebook, Balcha Mitiku advised protestors not to turn violent:
Please continue the civility you have shown thus far for not putting you hands on civilian properties or civilians.
A Facebook user using the name ‘Fair Man’ noted:
With this momentum removing the regime and working towards the new and fair Ethiopia is very near. I urge activists to focus on constructively helping the ongoing struggle aiming at creating free and fair Ethiopia that we are going to have sooner.
Sanyiikoo Oromoo pointed out the peaceful nature of the protestors:
Oromo people are peace loving people. We are not aggressors. The people marched with religions books and green tree leaves to indicate that their rally is not designed for confrontation. Yet they were savagely attacked.

author: Endalkachew Chala


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Makandal Daaga, Leader of Trinidad & Tobago’s Black Power Revolution, Remembered As ‘A Man Out for Change’ · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Screen grab of a photo of Makandal Daaga, which was included in a tweet about his passing by CNC3 News.
Political activist Makandal Daaga, who led Trinidad and Tobago's 1970 Black Power Revolution, has died. Inspired by Pan-Africanism as well as the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, Daaga (formerly known as Geddes Granger) began agitating for social change in his own country.
Formed in February 1969 on the St. Augustine campus of The University of the West Indies (UWI), Daaga's political party, the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC), sought to challenge the status quo. That year, UWI students would also protest in solidarity with students of Canada’s Sir George Williams University, who staged a sit-in to protest unfair treatment, allegedly because of racism. With the arrival of the police, what began as a peaceful protest in Montreal escalated into one of the largest and most contentious student occupations in Canadian history; several West Indian students were arrested.
Trinidad and Tobago's government of the day, led by the country's first prime minister, Dr. Eric Williams, did not welcome these demonstrations of support, but the local movement was already underway and growing. Marches and protests were happening regularly. The government attempted to assuage the growing discontent over social inequity by introducing measures to relieve unemployment, including the establishment of the first locally-owned commercial bank. But it was too little, too late: the Black Power movement already had the support of the trade unions, as well as disenfranchised youth from poor and rural communities.
“The National Commercial Bank (NCB) was unveiled on July 1, 1970 about four months after the Black Power uprising exploded in Port of Spain.” Photo from flickr user Angelo Bissessarsingh, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
Tensions escalated after police killed a protestor. Sugar cane workers (critical to the country's then economy) went on strike. The prime minister declared a state of emergency and arrested leaders of the movement, including Daaga. This action was met with a mutiny led by certain officers of the country's defence force, who eventually surrendered.
Because of the efforts of Daaga and his compatriots, however, the status quo did change: black Trinidadians were finally being hired for positions based on merit rather than being barred from opportunity because of the colour of their skin. Daaga would later be instrumental in the campaign to have August 1 declared a public holiday, both regionally and globally, to mark Emancipation Day.
“Trinidad, 1970: Smoke billows as the spirit of Black Power rages in Port of Spain, ushering in a new social paradigm and eroding the old colonial establishment.” Photo from flickr user Angelo Bissessarsingh, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
As the news of Daaga's death hit social media, netizens acknowledged his contributions to Trinidad and Tobago society. On Twitter, Patricia Worrell noted:
There is no doubt that his efforts and leadership contributed to significant social change in T&T. We owe him a lot.
— Patricia Worrell (@bytesdog) August 8, 2016
Other Twitter users also paid their respects:
#MakandalDaaga was the definition of blooming where you're planted. Thanks for leaving our country better than you found it. 🙏🏾 #RIP
— Trace (@pacewithtrace) August 8, 2016
RIP #makandaldaaga you have contributed a lot to the african diaspora. Thank you.
— Briele Johnson (@Itsjustbriele) August 9, 2016
Makandal Daaga was a patriot, warrior, intellectual, a man out for change who never left his Laventille. RIP brother pic.twitter.com/DTj1reGICu
— Josanne Leonard (@josanneleonard) August 9, 2016
The prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keith Rowley, also issued a statement, saying:
He was not afraid to challenge the status quo, speak up against injustice and advocate for equality.
Over the years, Daaga continued to align himself with Laventille, the mainly Afro-Trinidadian community where he was born, and where he lived until his death. While having produced some of the country's brightest minds and creative geniuses, the area has also been labelled a criminal “hotspot”.
In fact, under the country's previous People's Partnership (PP) administration, of which Daaga's NJAC was a part, the residents of the area were targeted during a state of emergency that was ostensibly called to deal with the surge in violent crime. Facebook user Rhoda Bharath reminded people of Daaga's deafening silence during that time:
8000 persons, 80% of whom were young black males from single parent homes, were detained and arrested. No charges laid against them.
Daaga remained silent and held on to his position as Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary.
That too has to be part of the narrative when we are examining his contribution.
#BlackPower
#NoSacredCows
#RIP
Hell Yard, Laventille, Trinidad, “one of the most depressed areas of Trinidad and Tobago's capital city”. Photo from flickr user Georgia Popplewell, used under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.
The contrast between the Daaga of the Black Power era and the Daaga who was part of the 2010-2015 PP coalition government was a complete anomaly for Bharath, who longed “to hear someone dissect Makandal Daaga from 2010 to 2015…and make sense of that 5-year period and his activism in the 1970s”. Though Daaga was not vocal during the state of emergency, towards the end of the coalition government's tenure he did give a speech denouncing alleged corruption by elected officials. Upon his death, opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, leader of the PP coalition, called Daaga a “national treasure”.
In a public post, Facebook user Tillah Willah observed:
Lights all the way up Laventille Road for Daaga. They parted ways a long time ago but death has a way of bringing estranged families back together, if just to remember a time when the vision was more clear or at least the passion more strong. It's going to be a long night of many stories.
One of Daaga's proudest achievements was leading a 1970 march through predominantly Indian central Trinidad to unite Afro and Indo-Trinidadians. Then a young trade union lawyer, former prime minister Basdeo Panday took part in that march.
In a telephone interview, Ivan Laughlin, who also took part in the unity march, said that the news of Daaga's death brought back to him the importance of that “time of rebellion”.
“I took part in the Caroni march out of a yearning to discover how I could relate to and anchor myself in this place,” said Laughlin. “Even though sometimes we may have had different views, Daaga and I had to interface as two men seeking their futures; human beings searching for the realisation of what we mean to ourselves as Caribbean people.
As a student at UWI, Laughlin had been “deeply involved in student life—academically, but also politically, in the purest sense—along with other young men and women who were trying to locate themselves as we all sought out a future post-independence.” He was heavily influenced by Daaga, who was president of the student guild, and remembers him as “a powerful orator [who] had a clear grasp of the social situation at the time, and what he stood for.”
Laughlin eventually became a member of The New World Group, a gathering of Caribbean-centric educators, writers, artists and intellectuals, and became deeply involved in searching for his own roots in Caribbean society, “where race is always a major factor”. For Laughlin, this was not easy, for he was first and foremost perceived as a white Trinidadian, but for him Daaga was a person who “took risks and had a deep impact on this country and a strong belief in the way in which it should proceed—with justice and proper political involvement in society.”
In 2013, Makandal Daaga received the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (ORTT), the nation's highest honour. In considering his legacy, one Twitter user hoped that the historians would treat it “thoughtfully and respectfully”. To journalist Achsah Gulston, there was no doubt:
RIP #MakandalDaaga #history #legacy will live on .
— Achsah Gulston (@AGulstonTV6) August 8, 2016

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Racism Almost Made Brazil’s First 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist Quit Judo · Global Voices
Taisa Sganzerla

Rafaela Silva, Brazil's first gold medal at the Rio Olympics. Photo: David Ramos/Getty Images, used with permission from Rio2016.
Brazil is still in awe of Rafaela Silva's victory in judo, which brought in the 2016 Olympic host's first gold medal. But for those outside Brazil, many may have forgotten the racial abuse she suffered in 2012 after being disqualified from the London Olympics.
Rafaela grew up in a poor family in a favela in Rio de Janeiro called Cidade de Deus, made famous by the 2002 film City of God. Along with her older sister Raquel Silva, she started to learn judo at the age of 8 at the Instituto Reação, a social project founded by former Brazilian judoka Flávio Canto, who won a Bronze medal in Athens 2004.
At 19, Rafaela competed in a Olympic games for the first time in London. At the elimination round, she was disqualified during a fight with Hungarian judoka Hedvig Karakas for doing a maneuver that had recently been rendered illegal due to a change in the rules. She left the arena in tears. “I went to my room and got my phone looking for some sort of comfort, some message”, she said in an interview to Globo Espetacular, a local TV channel, in January — only to open her Twitter to find other users slandering racial abuse and offenses at her.
Brazilian website Sensacionalista gathered a couple of those tweets (many have now been deleted).
“This @rafaelasilvaa is an embarrassment for Brazilian judo, she should be banished from sports”.
“Beware of making something stupid in 2016 in Brazil, that is, if you get a spot in the Olympics at all hahaha”
“Olympics are serious. Not a police gunfight”.
“Uh, I'm scared! She should calm herself down, otherwise will take another ippon this time with my whip”
Rafaela also showed her Twitter feed to reporters at that time where one tweet read “a monkey's place is at the cage, not the Olympics”.
After the abuse in 2012, Rafaela was determined to quit judo. Her long time coach Geraldo Bernardes said that for a while she barely wanted to leave the house, fearing she would be recognized in the streets in Rio de Janeiro and would be verbally attacked. Only with a few months of psychological treatment she decided to get back on her feet in 2013, when she decided to compete in the judo world championship — which she won in her category.
After her recent victory four years later, Rafaela gave an emotional interview saying “After my defeat, everyone criticized me. They said judo wasn't for me, that was a embarrassment for my family. Now I'm an Olympic champion in my own home”.

author: Taisa Sganzerla


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The New Orientalism: Iran as a Political Commodity · Global Voices
Hamid Yazdan Panah

“Entrance of a Caravanserai in Isfahan” (1840), by French Orientalist painter Eugène Flandin. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Iran is a hot commodity. Whether it is being sold as a misunderstood land of mystery, or eyed as a potential business or investment opportunity, it is difficult to find a narrative which does not reduce the country to a means to a particular end. Historically, this included the vilification of Iran as an anti-western wasteland, divorced from historical context, geopolitical significance and diversity.
Today, however, that orientalist perspective has shifted: in place of a distorting demonization there is now a new, liberal view that Iran is ripe for profit, if only we have the courage to reach out and grab it. The oversimplified tropes and cultural fetishization remain, but according to this new version, instead of fleeing Iran’s barbarity we must instead “uncover” the truth about Iran through a process of orientalist investigation and a narrative produced not by Iranians, but by those who can profit from them.
The viewing of Iran through an orientalist lens is nothing new. However, this new form of orientalism, in spite of pursuing engagement with Iran instead of war, presents its own troubling aspects. The veneer of liberal enlightenment worn those who hope to “uncover” Iran is in many ways more disturbing than the outright racist discourses seen in the past.
“The Orient that appears in Orientalism, then, is a system of representations framed by a whole set of forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, Western consciousness, and later, Western empire….” – Edward Said, Orientalism, p 202-3
Edward Said noted that one could learn more about the Western psyche through the study of orientalism than from the actual subjects they sought to study. I believe the same could be said about the current Western narratives about Iran.
A prime example of this new form of fetishization is the “Iran: Tales from Persia” tour offered by Times Journeys, the travel arm of New York Times. For US$7,195 the tour offers you the chance to travel with “experts who will help untangle this nation’s complex timeline.”  Because if Iran is anything it’s “tangled”, and mysterious and complex. And of course the New York Times is well equipped to untangle this knot of a country.
The tour description makes no mention of Iran’s long tradition of dissent, of course, nor its current repressive regime, or underground civil society. Providing a voice to Iranian citizens with regard to these issues might muddy up the narrative. Instead we are to be guided by Iran experts like Roger Cohen, who, over the last decade, has presented us with gems like the following:
“Iran, … is full of defiance…But it is equally full of longing. Most people are under 30. Like these soldiers, they thirst for contact with the outside world and, above all, an America that looms with all the power of myth.”  (Iran’s Inner America February 11, 2009 )
Cohen's paternalistic narrative reduces Iran to a childlike cartoon whose main desire is not freedom, independence or actualization, but the desire to see a mythical “America”. Under the gaze of the benevolent American journalist, the Iranian subjects are caricatures, described in simple terms and invested with naïve ideas about politics and the world. The assertion implicit in Cohen’s articles not only pushes engagement with a dictatorship, for the supposed benefit of the United States, but dismisses any hope that Iranians might have legitimate democratic aspirations that could possibly succeed in their country.
In March 2009 Cohen wrote that “The June presidential election…will be a genuine contest as compared to the charades that pass for elections in many Arab states.” In fact the elections that year would be famously mired in fraud, and the world would witness the bloody repression by the theocracy in power—an outcome which apparently shocked Cohen, but was not surprising to Iranians who had lived under 30 years of repression.
In 2016 Cohen has not changed. Iran is still a golden goose ripe for the plucking. Interestingly, he is urging European banks to invest in Iran, making the ludicrous claim that this would undermine the Revolutionary Guard, which by some estimates controls up to half of Iran’s economy. He joins John Kerry in an awkward push to convince international banks that doing business with a theocratic dictatorship is in the interest of everyone.
Cohen's simplistic cheerleading for the Iran Deal stands in contrast to the diverse spectrum of opinions provided by Iranians in another article by the Times. But the latter frames Iranians’ views in only a few brief words, and an accompanying photo. Again, a commodity for consumption.
This trend is apparent across a number of western outlets, in articles like “I Went to a Secret Illegal Party in the Iranian Desert” and “Was this really how women dressed in IRAN before the revolution?” Stories purporting to uncover artifacts from time immemorial to reveal a forgotten and forbidden past.
The problem with the current discourse on Iran has little to do with whether or not engagement is the correct policy. What is concerning are the sweeping generalizations westerners make about the “Iranian psyche” derived from cultural traditions or sayings, or the morally relative justifications for human rights violations they often provide.
“…Orientalism, therefore, is not an airy European fantasy about the Orient, but a created body of theory and practice in which, for many generations, there has been considerable material investment.” - Edward Said, Orientalism, p. 6
What is troubling for myself and other Iranians is what we aren’t seeing in these articles and pictures. This includes the voices and perspectives of Iranians living inside the country. I don’t mean sound bites about their love or hatred for America, or about their hijabs and subversive clothing styles. But rather articles with actual depth and coherent representation. Or just facts, for starters.
Last year Reuters ran an long investigative piece detailing the 95 billion dollar empire controlled by the Supreme Leader Khamenei, including the use of state power to seize assets from ordinary Iranians. The report noted, incidentally, that sanctions relief would directly benefit this empire–a fact so complicating for individuals like Cohen that they simply cut it out of their narrative on Iran, because citing an old Iranian proverb is far more interesting.
There was no lack of irony in the fact that the New York Times organized tours to Iran, while Iranian reporters, including the Washington Post’s Jason Rezaian, remained behind bars in the country. The fact of the matter is that such expeditions would not be possible without the blessing of the theocratic regime. For dissidents and political prisoners, or for refugees living in exile, the tours organized by the Times is a slap in the face.
The fact that New York Times simultaneously controls the narrative on Iran in the mainstream while peddling $7,000 tour packages to experience “beautiful landscapes, arid mountains and rural villages” only adds insult to injury. Never mind the conflict of interest or lack of journalistic integrity. But when your country is little more than a commodity to be bought, sold, and consumed, this is what you come to expect.
Hamid Yazdan Panah is an Iranian-American human rights activist and attorney focused on immigration and asylum in the San Francisco Bay Area.

author: Hamid Yazdan Panah


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Today Moscow Accused Ukraine of Sending Terrorists Into Crimea. Russian Internet Users Have Been Saying It for Days. · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Military confusion has returned to Crimea, where Russian federal officials are making serious allegations against the Ukrainian government, claiming that Ukrainian intelligence agents infiltrated the border in an attempt to stage a series of terrorist attacks on Russian-occupied soil. Details are still hazy about what exactly happened, but Russian officials say there were at least two armed incursions: one on the night of Sunday, August 7, and another the next night.
Vladimir Putin at a press conference in Moscow on August 10, 2016. Photo: Kremlin Press Service
Following the allegations by Russia’s Federal Security Service, Moscow and Kyiv have traded accusations that the other is trying to distract its people from domestic economic problems. Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of “choosing terror” over peace, while Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says the Kremlin is spreading “fantasies” designed to act as a pretext for further Russian aggression.
Curiously, Russian officials waited almost three days before going public with this story. There were earlier unconfirmed reports, however, including an apparent all-points bulletin issued by the Russian Interior Ministry in Crimea. The document was leaked to the Internet within a day, and has been circulating on social media since at least August 8. (Though the hair color of one of the suspects is reportedly differently in different versions of the text.) While the APB’s authenticity is unconfirmed, its content does match much of what Russian officials have reported today.
Leaked document, apparently from the Russian Interior Ministry in Crimea.
For committing serious crimes in the territory of Armyansk, five persons are sought who are now traveling both by automobile and on foot. All are dressed in camouflage uniforms, wearing sleeve patches depicting the Russian national flag located in the bottom of the diamond [insignia].
Distinguishing features of two of the men:
These individuals are armed and dangerous. Take measures to defend yourself when apprehending.
If found, isolate them and report to the Crimean Interior Ministry’s internal control center.
On August 9, the popular pro-Kremlin blogger Boris Rozhin, better known as “Colonel Cassad” (whom RuNet Echo profiled in July 2014), shared the document found above, summarizing his grasp of what happened at the Crimean border on August 7.
Тут достаточно проверенный источник, не раз дававший точную информацию по Донбассу поделился некоторыми деталями ситуации на Перекопе.
1. УФСБ по Крыму получило информацию, что в районе Армянска находится схрон со взрывчаткой. Оперативная группа выехала на место.
2. Когда опергруппа прибыла в указанное место, то обнаружила там  группу из 20 человек, занимавшихся погрузкой взрывчатки, которые практически сразу открыли огонь по опергруппе.
3. Завязался бой, в ходе которой погиб один сотрудник (похороны были вчера). После чего было вызвано подкрепление со стороны военных. В ходе боестолкновения, противник действовал достаточно грамотно.
4. В ходе дальнейшего боя, неопознанная группа раскололась – 14 или 15 человек отошли водой (утащив с собой 1 200-го, насчет 300-х неизвестно) на украинскую территорию, причем в воду (через Сиваш) заходил БТР и оказывал группе поддержку.
5. При этом с с нашей стороны был еще один 1 200-й и 1 300-й. 4 человека из той группы остались на территории Крыма и вот с их поисками и связаны публикуемые в сети бумаги вроде этой (как я понял в рамках плана “Крепость”).
6. В схроне изъято до 500 килограмм взрывчатки (причем не только тротил). Сейчас идет поиск 4(5) человек, потому что их задержание живыми это одна ситуация, а если они смогут выйти из Крыма или залечь на дно – то другая.
Насколько я понял, официальная трактовка всей этой истории будет зависеть от того, поймают этих персонажей или нет.
Сама же ситуация напоминают классику приграничных провокаций.
This comes from a trusted enough source, who more than once has delivered accurate information about the Donbas. He shares some details about the situation in Perekop [a wide strip of land that connects the Crimean peninsula to the mainland of Ukraine].
1. The Russian Federal Security Service branch in Crimea received information about a cache of weapons in the Armyansk region. A task force was deployed to the location.
2. When the task force arrived at the designated area, it discovered a group of 20 men outfitting explosives. The group almost immediately opened fire on the task force.
3. A fight broke out, leading to the death of one FSB officer (whose funeral was yesterday). Afterwards, military reinforcements were called in. During the skirmish, the enemy demonstrated exceptional training.
4. In the ensuing battle, the unidentified group split up: 14 or 15 men retreated by water (they dragged off one casualty, number of injured—unknown) back to Ukrainian territory, plus an armored vehicle came into the water (across the Syvash) and started laying down suppressive fire for the group.
5. At the same time, on our side there was another casualty and one injury. Four members of the [infiltrating] group remained behind in Crimea, and the warrant published and now circulating online is realted to these men (as I understand the framework of “Plan Fortress”).
6. The task force seized 500 kilograms [1,100 pounds] of explosives (which weren’t limited to TNT). Now there’s a search underway for the 4-5 people, because detaining them alive would be one situation, but if they’re able to leave Crimea or go into hiding, that’s something else.
As I understand it, the official take on this whole story will depend on whether or not these persons are caught. The situation itself is reminiscent of classic border provocations.
Given the Ukrainian government's denial that it had any role in a skirmish at the Crimean border, the leaked document from the Interior Ministry, as well as Colonel Cassad's summary of the August 7 incident, remain contentious and unverified. Whatever the truth, the narrative now emerging in Russia, at any rate, appears to coincide with reports that first surfaced on the Russian Internet.

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Tokyo’s first female governor won in a landslide victory, but she faces a rough road ahead · Global Voices
Sarah Lee Stones

Yuriko Koike, Tokyo's first female governor. Screencap from ANN official YouTube channel.
Tokyo elected its first female governor on July 31. The political underdog Yuriko Koike, who was sidelined by her own party, racked up 2.91 million votes in a landslide victory. Despite her popularity at the polls, Koike's battle is far from over.
At her first day on the job, she was snubbed by Tokyo's assembly members.
Koike receives cold welcome – The Japan News https://t.co/Owmb5KrEc3 #都知事選 #Tokyo #小池百合子 #YurikoKoike #LDP #自民党都議連 pic.twitter.com/StT8XVkA0U
— The Japan News (@The_Japan_News) August 3, 2016
Koike also inherits an office plagued by money scandals. The last two governors stepped down after accusations of graft. During her campaign, Koike made big promises to make the management of the metropolitan government more transparent and to introduce policies that would create ‘a Tokyo where everyone — women, men, children, senior citizens and people living with disabilities — could shine’.
To meet these big promises, Koike, the rogue candidate, will effectively have to work with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). That's the party that sidelined her. The LDP runs the metropolitan government and has a majority in the metropolitan assembly.
Officially, 64-year-old Koike is a member of  the LDP. She even had a successful tenure as their environment minister. But after failing to obtain her party's consent, she ran as an independent in the governor's race.
The LDP, instead, backed their former internal affairs minister Masuda against her. Koike's landslide victory came despite threats from the LDP that it would expel members who voted for Koike over Masuda. At the polls, Masuda only got 1.79 million votes; the opposition-backed Shuntaro Torigoe got 1.34 million votes. Koike, the rogue candidate, won by a landslide.
While Koike's emphasis of her underdog status seems to have paid off well for her in the race, on her first day on the job she received a cold shoulder from Tokyo assembly members, possibly due to remarks she made during the campaign that the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly is a hotbed of corruption:
小池百合子知事、初登庁！通例であれば議長以下、各会派の幹部クラスが並んで出迎えるのですが、出迎えた都議はわれわれのみ…。さらに並び順でも都庁役人と一悶着ありました。。
早くも開戦です。詳しくは今日のブログで報告します。 pic.twitter.com/KBvglRRKus
— おときた駿（東京都議会議員 /北区選出） (@otokita) August 2, 2016
Governor Koike arrives at the Tochō (Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building) for the first time! […] We were the only members of the assembly to come out and greet her. And there was discord even among the staff who were lined up for the ceremony this morning. The battle lines have already been drawn. […]
— Otokita Shun (Assembly to Energize Japan), Member of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly
An LDP veteran, Koike has a unusual biography for a Japanese politician. Born in Ashiya, an affluent suburb of Kobe in western Japan, Koike's father ran a company that traded and imported oil and petroleum. This family ties likely instilled the importance of relations with the Middle East in Koike, who went on to study at Cairo University in Egypt during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Koike has said that she learned a lot about international politics from her experience of the war.
“Cool Biz” is an energy-saving campaign initiated by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment from summer 2005. Government employees were encouraged to shed their ties and jackets during the summer, allowing office air conditioner temperatures to be set to higher temperatures. The campaign soon spread to the private sector. Initially the campaign was from June to September, but it was extended to run from May to October following electricity shortages after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
Businessmen dress down for Japan's sweltering summer. Image credit: akaitori on Flickr
Koike first worked as an Arabic interpreter, TV journalist, and news anchor before entering politics.
In politics, she earned herself the unflattering nickname “migrant bird” for her frequent party switching: she held positions with several now-defunct conservative parties before becoming a member of the LDP in 2002. She was appointed environment minister the following year, and was responsible for proposing the successful “Cool Biz” campaign, which encourages businesses to adopt a casual dress code for the summer months.
Koike also became the first female defense minister in 2007, but resigned just 55 days later due to a dispute over the appointment of the vice minister.
As the Tokyo metropolis’ first female governor, Koike is committed to pushing policies that will promote better conditions for women.
After her victory, Koike declared:
I […] will create a Tokyo where everyone can shine – women, men, children, senior citizens and people living with disabilities. I will work with you all to create a new Tokyo government like we have never seen before.
Koike has also vowed to work toward eliminating long waiting lists for childcare centers, as well as improving elderly care and work-life balance. The over 8,000 infants and children on childcare waiting lists in the capital were considered a top priority by all three gubernatorial candidates, and Koike pledged to loosen regulations to increase the number of childcare facilities and early childhood care workers.
“I will create a Tokyo where everyone can shine – women, men, children, senior citizens and people living with disabilities.”
Single since a divorce in her 20s, Koike has positioned herself as a challenger to male-dominated establishment politics. However, some are concerned about what effect Koike's conservatism might have on her goals of establishing a more equal society.
Koike's views are very much in line with the LDP's brand of conservative nationalism. She has also continued Diet visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, where over 1,000 World War II war criminals are enshrined.
Some critics have pointed out Koike's association with ultraconservative organization Nippon Kaigi, which has advocated for textbook revisions to downplay Japan's role in World War II. The group has also been accused of holding misogynistic views. Koike has, however, attempted to distance herself from the organization in recent years, only sending proxies to its gatherings, although she has said that she agrees with its core values of cherishing Japan's national interest, history and tradition.
Residents are looking for a governor who will put their needs first, after the capital's two preceding governors stepped down before the expiration of their respective terms due chiefly to money scandals. Koike's predecessor, Yoichi Masuzoe, was criticized for his extravagant spending of taxpayer money on his overseas business trips, including stays at luxury hotel suites and first-class air travel. He dismissed the criticism by saying, “It is not a problem.” His predecessor, Naoki Inose, resigned following allegations of election fund-raising irregularities.
Already, Koike has come under fire for her use of political funds to purchase copies of a book she wrote, and some commentators are growing suspicious of her promises to clean up Tokyo politics.
【100RT】クリーンさをアピールしていた小池百合子新知事ですが、政治資金で自身の著書を大量購入していたことがわかりました。３年間で１２９０冊、１４５万円分が全て「調査研究費」に分類されています。 https://t.co/3XqQCD7M4i #日刊ゲンダイDIGITAL
— 日刊ゲンダイ (@nikkan_gendai) 2016年8月6日
【100RT】 It has been revealed that Governor Yuroko Koike, who appealed to voters with her squeaky-clean image, used political funds to buy up copies of her own book. In three years, she purchased 1,290 copies for a total of  ¥1.45 million (roughly $14,200 USD), filing the costs under “research funding”.
Koike has also faced scrutiny over the cost of an upcoming business trip to Rio de Janeiro, where she will attend the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. While she acknowledged that some might consider the trip expensive, Koike said that she would listen to the voices of the people and endeavor to cut costs where possible in the future.
【無駄はなし】小池百合子都知事、就任後初の定例会見 リオへの出張費は総額1000万円にhttps://t.co/lOR0KCtPHq
航空機はビジネスクラスを利用し、宿泊するホテルは国際オリンピック委員会から提供を受ける。 pic.twitter.com/TVZ04Ms8V1
— ライブドアニュース (@livedoornews) 2016年8月5日【無駄はなし】
【No Excess】 Governor Yuriko Koike to spend ¥10 million (roughly $98,000 USD) on business trip to Rio for first official meeting as governor. https://t.co/lOR0KCtPHq
She will fly business class and stay at a hotel selected by the International Olympic Committee.
Residents are also looking to Koike to successfully manage the financial burden of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, in addition the the myriad of other challenges she must face in the next four years. There is also the worrisome possibility that the next gubernatorial election will coincide with, or fall just before, the Olympics.
Given the cloud of scandal that hangs over her two predecessors, the criticism Koike has faced so far, particularly in regards to financial matters, is hardly surprising. Tokyo citizens are watching Koike closely to see if keeps her election promises to reduce government spending. On her first day in office, Koike pledged to shake up Tokyo politics, but in order to achieve the kind of reforms voters want, she will have to cooperate with the LDP. Koike must show, over the next few years, that she is worthy of the confidence of Tokyo voters.

author: Sarah Lee Stones


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Australia’s Census Website Was Never Very Popular, And That Was Before Cyber Attacks Crashed It · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Image: Australian Bureau of Statistics website.
Even before Census Night on August 9, the hashtag “#censusfail” was already trending in Australia, where activists calling for privacy, anonymity, and security were leading an effort to boycott this year's national census, or at least refuse to provide the government with names.
At 7:45 p.m. local Eastern Time on Census Night, the Australian Bureau of Statistics shut down the census website following four Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Within minutes, #censusfail was one of Twitter's globally trending hashtags. Olympics references were inevitable:
This is pure Aussie gold https://t.co/yBDWXoRmx4
— Melissa Castan (@MsCastan) August 9, 2016
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull likely regretted this tweet just minutes before the plug was pulled:
We filled in the @ABSCensus tonight online – v easy to do. And so important for planning better Govt services & investment for the future
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) August 9, 2016
“DDos” trended in Australia the next day, introducing many to the term for the first time, and the mainstream media was soon running reports asking, “What is a denial of service attack?”
Conspiracy theories weren't far behind:
I'm not saying it wasn't a DDOS… but… it is the oldest and most used handball of responsibility in the IT book. #census2016
— Shane Miller (@gplama) August 9, 2016
Buzzfeed's Mark Di Stefano was extremely sceptical:
The ABS system probably would have fallen over without the DDoS https://t.co/0WI1c1pVoW pic.twitter.com/wN5ZbayiTI
— Mark:Di-Stefano (@MarkDiStef) August 10, 2016
As was Mount Annan:
By DDoS, you mean asking 24 million people to log into @ABSCensus on one night #CensusFail
— Mount Annan (@MountAnnan) August 9, 2016
There were even tongue-in-cheek suggestions that the Olympic feud between Aussie swimmer Mack Horton and ‘drug cheat’ Chinese rival Sun Yang was the cause of the DDos attacks:
People complaining about the census website crashing, it's revenge by the Chinese #returnofthemack #census
— mark (@voodoorock) August 9, 2016
Another popular meme picked up the classic “The IT Crowd” clip:
Sorry, but I couldn't resist#CensusFail pic.twitter.com/rGUQJGVUHE
— Ben Eltham (@beneltham) August 9, 2016
Given the time required to complete the online form, it was no surprise that others were less amused:
@ABSCensus Just wasted last 35 minutes completing census only to be unable to submit or save. What a joke.
— Gareth Johnston (@gar_j0) August 9, 2016
Prior to Census Day, the online news site the New Daily had explained people's concerns:
The Census will keep the data collected from Australian citizens, including their names and addresses, for four years, up from a previous 18 months in a move the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) says will improve its research.
The longer retention times have been a source of protest, as fears relating to data privacy and security grow.
David Glance, the director of the Centre for Software Practice at University of Western Australia, shared his misgivings at The Conversation:
The @ABSStats hasn’t convinced people their privacy is protected. https://t.co/EuZ1pg8YGW #census2016 pic.twitter.com/iJz8KJgUcw
— The Conversation (@ConversationEDU) August 9, 2016
Glance also examined the risks posed to people's anonymity by the government storing citizens’ names for four years:
With names and addresses, the Census data can be linked to other data sets where we have already allowed our name and address to be used. This includes health, education and other data.
Anna Johnston, the director of Salinger Privacy and a former deputy privacy commissioner, explained why she intended to join the boycott:
[…] the deliberate privacy invasion starts with the use of that data to create a Statistical Linkage Key (SLK) for each individual, to use in linking data from other sources. Please don’t believe that SLKs offer anonymity. […]
So until the ABS reverses its decision to match Census data about individuals with other datasets about individuals, I am not going to answer the Census questions at all.
Anna has been joined by several federal senators who say they would risk fines by refusing to put their names on the form.
Justin Warren at the website EigenMagic pointed out the potential benefits of linking more information, while highlighting certain problems:
I think the ABS… has become arrogant. They are convinced of the benefits of retention, and are dismissive of the risks.
…I remain unconvinced that the benefits of retaining name and address data outweigh the risks.
Matthew Rimmer, a professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation at Queensland University of Technology’s Faculty of Law, looked at the broader issue of privacy laws:
The census rides roughshod over our anonymity, privacy and security without our informed consent or voluntary participation.
Problems with the census’ privacy issues are compounded in an age of big data, cloud computing and hacking which point to an even greater need for privacy protection in Australia.
Another QUT academic, a social media and journalism researcher at their Digital Media Research Centre, Axel Bruns, summed up the credibility problem facing both the ABS and the government:
“We suffered a major attack, but your data are safe.” Sure, @ABSCensus. SUUUUURE. #CensusFail https://t.co/LHpQgzZ4xU
— Axel Bruns (@snurb_dot_info) August 9, 2016
Finally, there is little doubt that the integrity of both the census data and the ABS has taken a major hit:
No serious person is gong to trust the ‘integrity’ of the outcome of this census in terms of data quality, surely
— Nick Casmirri (@ncasmirri) August 10, 2016
Brenden Wood put it bluntly on Twitter:
How @ABSCensus was “Hacked” #CensusFail pic.twitter.com/2XSVFAIVnb
— Brenden Woody Wood (@woody_m15f17) August 10, 2016

author: Kevin Rennie


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Filmmaker Digs Up the History and Controversy Beneath ‘100 Years of Beauty’ in the Dominican Republic · Global Voices
Natali Herrera Pacheco

Inspired by the Cut.com series “100 Years of Beauty,” Lala Films explores the history of dominant trends over the last 100 years in the Dominican Republic. Image: YouTube.
If you spend much time on the Internet (wink, wink), you've perhaps discovered the Cut.com series “100 Years of Beauty,” a viral-video complilation of different (mostly women's) fashion trends in various countries over the past century. The series’ first installation, published in 2014 and starring a white actress, is dedicated to women's beauty in the United States.
This January, the filmmaker Kayla Rodríguez released a video modeled on Cut.com's clips, titled “100 Years of Beauty: Dominican Republic.” Produced by Lala Films, the two-minute montage presents several of the biggest beauty paradigms to dominate Dominican society over the past century.
To explain what thinking went into the selection of different beauty aesthetics, Rodríguez also released a companion video presenting the “research behind the looks,” examining the political and cultural dimensions of the different fashion trends over the last 100 years. Rodríguez reviews what people throughout history inspired the ten beauty styles selected for the video's compilation.
In the video, we find women as different as Patria and Minerva Mirabal's sister, María Teresa Mirabal (known for opposing José Leonidas Trujillo's dictatorial regime), and Angelita Trujillo, the dictator’s daughter. In the 1920s, we also see exceptional women, like the schoolteacher Ercilia Pepin, as well as Evangelina Rodríguez, the first Dominican woman to graduate from medical school. For the 1970s and 1980s, the film crew chose styles inspired by the pop culture icons Milly Quezada and las Chicas del Can, known for being an all-women merengue group.
The video isn't entirely about celebrity trends, however. Kayla Rodríguez also explores opposing trends, like the sleek hair of the 1990s and the growing popularity of natural hair in the 2010s, which has also been a source of debate about what constitutes “natural beauty.”
The Dominican Republic is a mixed-race country with a large presence of African descendents, but also with European cultural inheritances that influence ideas about beauty and identity. This heterogeneity has led to some controversies, including dress codes in some offices that forbid “Afro style” hairdos and other restrictions, when it comes to posing for identification-card photos.
“100 Years of Beauty: Dominican Republic” is a film about the transformation of norms and the give and take between society and an increasingly globalized media, when it comes to lifestyle and understanding of beauty.

author: Natali Herrera Pacheco


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Killed in the Quetta Bombing, Mehmood Khan Was a Dreamer and the Best of Pakistan · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

From Mehmood's Facebook page. Photo by Asmat Khan Asmat, a photographer with the Quetta Press Club.
On the week of Mehmood's 26th birthday, Ali Shah's heart is broken, and so is mine.
When I spoke to Syed Ali Shah, my friend and former colleague from Pakistani TV channel DawnNews, last night, he said, “Mehmood left this world and took his dreams with him.”
DawnNews cameraman Mehmood Khan was killed in the Quetta hospital bombing on Monday, two days before his birthday. This is a monumental loss. Mehmood represented the best of Pakistan and Pakistani media, an industry that helped transform him from a security guard into a skilled tech-savvy media professional within seven years.
The media industry has many flaws, but is one of the rare places in Pakistan with strong a tradition of taking in everyone, irrespective of background and education. Everyone takes care of each other. As long as you are willing to learn, it's a place where you can actually grow through pure hard-work and passion.
Mehmood thrived in Pakistani media and Ali Shah mentored him and supported him all along the way.
When I left DawnNews six years ago, DawnNews Quetta Bureau Chief Ali Shah was trying to get Mehmood Khan hired on staff as a video editor. In one of my last editorial calls with Ali Shah, he asked me to put in a good word for Mehmood.
Mehmood Khan with colleagues surrounded by broadcasting vans from a number of news networks in Pakistan.
Mehmood walked into our Quetta bureau by pure chance. A private security company assigned him there. He was young, in his late teens, and already supporting a small family. He always had a newspaper in his hand, and the DawnNews staff were intrigued by him. Mehmood was intrigued by the media world.
Colleagues like Ali Shah and our Quetta reporter Amjad Hussain encouraged his curiosity. They also needed him. When news breaks you make use of everyone around, and the Quetta bureau was a small shop. Some days the reporter was the cameraman and the video editor. Some days the driver was the cameraman. And then one day, Mehmood, the security guard, jumped in to help a reporter edit a video.
Mehmood Khan with Ali Shah in the middle and another DawnNews colleague Zubair Ali Khilji (right to left) at the Quetta DawnNews office. From Mehmood's Facebook page.
Within months he was staying after his guard shift and cutting simple video sequences at the speed that was needed in the chaotic 24/7 cycle. It only made sense to Ali Shah that Mehmood leave his security job and that DawnNews hire him as a video editor. They needed him.
Mehmood editing in the DawnNews Quetta office. From Mehmood's Facebook page.
Soon he was a part of the news team, but he kept learning and acquiring new skills. A couple of years ago, he was promoted to a cameraman. He wanted to be in the field. His dream was to be a reporter, he was saving up to do his Masters in Mass Communications.
Mehmood proved himself every step of the way. He learned everything he knew about Final Cut Pro and video editing, because he showed a curiosity and a willingness to help, and in turn, his DawnNews colleagues taught him what they knew and encouraged him to learn. But you’ll never hear any of his colleagues take credit for him. They say he was a dreamer and on his own path.
Mehmood was always trying to better himself and grow. All while he was supporting his seven kids, three of whom he adopted after a family tragedy.
Mehmood was the best of us. Mehmood was the best of Pakistan.
Sahar Habib Ghazi is the managing editor at Global Voices and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She worked as a broadcast journalist in Pakistan from 2005-2010.

author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


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Russian Officials in Crimea Shut Off the Internet at the Ukrainian Border · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
Russian officials shut off Internet access in northern Crimea, near the border town of Armyansk, where Moscow claims to have prevented an armed incursion by Ukrainian spies, according to Olga Kovitidi, Crimea's representative in the upper house of the Russian parliament and a member of the Federation Council's committee on national defense. Kovitidi told the independent television network Dozhd that Internet access has been disabled in the area to assist police in their efforts to apprehend armed “saboteurs” who allegedly infiltrated from mainland Ukraine.
Shutting off Internet access was “for security reasons,” Kovitidi explained. “This was to ensure that certain special forces… so there would be no infiltration… For security reasons, these measures were necessary, and people understand why.”
As early as August 8, two days before Russian officials publicly accused Kyiv of orchestrating an armed incursion of “saboteurs,” there were reports of widespread Internet outages across northern Crimea, particularly along the border with Ukraine. According to Russia's Federal Security Service, the first of two skirmishes with Ukrainian intelligence agents occurred on the night of August 7, outside the border town of Armyansk, where the Internet reportedly stopped working the next day, along with withdrawals from local ATMs.
On August 9, the telecom “Krymtelekom” responded to reports of Internet-access disruptions in areas along the Crimean border, blaming the outages on regular maintenance work. In a press statement, the company said it planned to restore Web access by August 10, though reports of Internet outages continue.
It remains unclear how exactly the Russian authorities managed to shut off Internet access in Armyansk and the surrounding area, whether Krymtelekom or other telecoms were involved in the decision, and whether the government is still actively disabling the Internet in this region.


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Through Photography, This Bangladesh Pilot Is Sharing One Hell of a View of His Country · Global Voices
Pantha Rahman Reza

Bangladesh is a land of natural beauty and offers spectacular picturesque elegance. Image by Shamim Shorif Susom. Used with permission.
Aerial photographer Shamim Shorif Susom has been capturing stunning views from the sky, offering a completely different perspective on the country.
Bangladesh is one of the world's most densely populated countries, often making international headlines because of its political instability, industrial disasters, and natural disasters. (More recently, you can add terrorism to this list.)
But Bangladesh is home to far more than violence and calamity. As a pilot, Shamim Shorif Susom has access to breathtaking and dramatic bird's-eye views of the country during his flights. His photographs capture the flowing rivers, lush countryside, and rural livelihood of Bangladesh from the air.
He started sharing his photos on Facebook, Flickr, and other social media sites, quickly gaining a wide following. His pictures have so far been featured in many international websites, including Bored Panda, Blaze press, and others. In an interview with the website My Modern Met, Shamim discussed his art:
The way I see it, I am fortunate enough to fly, and fortunate enough to see my root, my village, my urban life from a different perspective… at the end of the day, I’m capturing the memoirs of my reconnection. I am revisiting my country, my past, my childhood.
On Heaven's Door. Pabna. Used with permission.
Two months ago, Shamim Shorif Susom participated in his first solo aerial-based photography exhibition titled “Blackbird’s eYe: Bangladesh & Beyond.” It was the first aerial-based photography exhibition in Bangladesh.
Chilliland. Sirajganj. Used with permission.
Most of Bangladesh lies within the broad delta formed by the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers and is exceedingly flat, low-lying, and subject to annual flooding. A significant portion of the population lives in villages that are close to riverbanks. The flat lands containing numerous villages are criss-crossed with many rivers of different length and width, most eventually pouring into the Bay of Bengal in the country’s south. You can count almost 700 rivers, including the branching streams that make up a 15,000-mile-long river network—one of the largest in the world.
If you look at the country from above, the rivers, canals, and water-based activities are quite a sight. The diversity of this river-related life is also captured in Shamim Sharif Susom's photos that he usually takes from 500-1,000 feet in the air.
Lotus. Keraniganj, Dhaka. Used with permission.
The Family. Manikganj. Used with permission.
Final Masquerade. Dhaka. Used with permission.
Signature. Magura. Used with permission.
Louder Than Words. Manikganj. Used with permission.
Once Upon A Time In Daulatdia. Rajbari. Used with permission.
Bangladesh is predominantly an agricultural country. Almost 48 percent of the population is dependent on agriculture. Currently, the net contribution to GDP in this sector is 19.1 percent. Susom's camera has captured stunning images of the agricultural life in Bangladesh.
Canvas. Manikganj. Used with permission.
Color of Chaos. Bogra. Used with permission.
And there are still more beautiful photos of Bangladesh:
The Heaven Within. Kaptai Lake. Rangamati. Used with permission.
Terracotta. Chittagong. Used with permission.
Tears of the Dragon. Khagrachari. Used with permission.
Shamim Shorif Susom has participated in a total of 19 exhibitions, both at home and abroad. Want to see more images of Bangladesh through his lens? Check out his website, Flickr account, and Facebook page. Be careful! You might find yourself dropping everything to travel to Bangladesh!

author: Pantha Rahman Reza


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Despite Flood Devastation, the Macedonian Government Pours Millions Into a Ferris Wheel · Global Voices
Dona Dzambaska

The Skopje 2014 Panoramic Wheel construction site fills the Vardar river with debris, increasing the risk of further flooding. Photo by F. Stojanovski, CC-BY.
Macedonians are outraged their government is asking for flood relief donations, while spending millions in taxpayers money on a massive ferris wheel, and that they are not diverting critical construction resources and machinery towards flood relief.
At least 21 people died, and dozens are missing and injured, in floods that hit the Macedonian capital Skopje, following torrential rains on August 5. The water level in some areas reached a height of 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) because the drainage systems were faulty or did not exist.
While relief efforts are underway, the government asked for donations from citizens, and also started accepting charity from neighbouring countries. In four days, private citizens donated 427,708 euros by giving money directly to the emergency assistance organisation the Red Cross or through a government hotline.
However, many are outraged that the state continues to spend public money on its vanity project Skopje 2014, which aims to give the capital a more “monumental and visually pleasing image” that promotes Macedonia's grand heritage through the construction and reconstruction of museums, bridges, monuments and government buildings.
Citizens in particular are outraged that the construction of the Panoramic Ferris Wheel at the centre of Skopje, continued on Monday, the declared day of mourning. The ferris wheel costs the taxpayers an astonishing 18,939,723 euros (over 21.2 million US dollars).
Дијаспората собрала 17000 долари. Ние трошиме 1117 пати повеќе од ова на панорамско тркало.
— НиколаСтрез (@NikolaStrez) August 11, 2016
The diaspora gathered 17, 000 dollars. We are spending 1117 times more on this panoramic wheel.
Србија, Бугарија, Албанија, па дури и Турција пратија помош, нашава влада уште дига споменици и панорамско тркало. Стварно не ми е јасно…
— Ранко Србакоски (@Srbak) August 10, 2016
Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania, even Turkey sent aid, while our government still erects monuments and a panoramic wheel. I really don't get this…
Citizens have also pointed out that the construction machinery and workers hired by the government to work on Skopje 2014 and other projects should have been used in the flooded areas, where entire towns and villages including streets and houses are covered in mud.
Twitter user @SeirDotMk referred to the pro-government mantra ,”at least they are building something” when commenting on this issue:
Овој багер не е сликан во поплавените подрачја. Овој багер копа за новото панорамско тркало. #СепакСеГради pic.twitter.com/lK3mTm2lqB
— Дужни 5 милијарди (@seirdotmk) August 10, 2016
This excavator has not been photographed in the flooded areas. This excavator is digging on the construction site of the new panoramic wheel. At least they are building something.
When asked whether he would recommend the budget for the Ferris Wheel to be diverted to flood victims and to build a flood protection system, President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov replied:
Тоа е одлука на Влада, прашањето ќе го упатите до влада. Јас како врховен командант, се што е во моја надлежност досега го преземав и во иднина ќе го преземаме она што е во функција на надлежност на институцијата претседател
“That’s a decision for the government to make, you should ask the government. I, as a commander in chief, did everything in my jurisdiction so far, and will continue taking all actions in my competence as president. “
And then he informed the public that his orders led to 400 members of the army being deployed to deal with flood relief.

author: Dona Dzambaska