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The Endless Conflict That Plagues the Central African Republic · Global Voices
Sylvain Keller

Burundi military personnel in the Central African Republic via Idriss Fall – Public Domain
On August 9th, 2017, Juan José Aguirre, head of the Bangassou Dioceses in the Central Africa Republic (CAR), reported the slaughtering of more than 50 people by Muslim militias in a village 45 miles from Bangassou. This announcement is the latest in a string of violent events which have marked an escalation in tensions between Christian and Muslim militias, leading some to believe that the country may be on the brink of genocide.
The Central African Republic descended into turmoil in 2013 when the mainly-Muslim rebel coalition, or the so-called Seleka, overthrew the then-president, François Bozizé, a Christian. The first purpose of the coalition was to establish a Muslim government, in a country where 80% of the population is Christian. After the coup, some Christian militias known as Anti-Balaka — or “anti-machete” — assembled to fight the Seleka. At the time, the risk of a genocide prompted the United Nations to act. On December 5th, 2013 the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of the operation Minusca, backed by the French operation, Sangaris. Quickly, the military power and well-planned strategy employed by the western forces on the ground lead to a peaceful agreement finally signed in July 2014. However, since then, the situation on the ground has worsened. 2017 marks the beginning of a new start for this conflict. With the withdrawal of French troops last year, the Central African Republic might fall into the same situation as Rwanda did in 1994, with worrisome warnings of insecurity over the last months. As the violence escalates, the efficiency of the Minusca operation is being more and more questioned. Despite the fact that the Seleka were dissolved after 2014, some factions known as ex-Seleka remain very important in the country, notably in areas where the government does not exert control.
The Central African Republic is quite singular in the African landscape, because of the nature of its infighting. While many civil wars — particularly in Africa — stem from cultural and ethnic divisions, the Central African Republic is torn apart by religious differences. Both the Christian Anti-Balaka and the Muslim Seleka militias carry out regular “target killings” on civilians, according to their religious beliefs. From that standpoint, it really differs from Rwanda or Congo, where the ethnic issues always trumped religious differences.
Notwithstanding that aspect of the conflict, the Central African Republic is far from being engulfed in an old religious conflict. Despite the fact that many different people — Christian and Muslims — have to live together, the relationship between the two communities was relatively peaceful until 2013. That point can explain the fact that the country seems overwhelmed by the current events.
The Central African Republic never faced such a conflict before, unlike other neighboring countries. The country had managed to avoid a huge civil war, and many agree that the current conflict is the worst since the country's independence.
After some peaceful months following the election of the country's current president in March 2016, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, violence increased again. Many commentators criticized the withdrawal of the french troops that same year, regarding the security situation on the ground. The situation has even worsened since the beginning of 2017, with new clashes between Anti-Balaka and Ex-Seleka. According to the United Nations, 34 have been killed at the end of July in another part of the country. Six volunteers from the Red Cross were killed on August 3rd in Gambo by Ex-Seleka militias, as part of a reprisal after an attack caused by Anti-Balaka a few days earlier. The peace process, which started in 2013 after the French intervention, is now a distant memory and it is hard to imagine something other than an escalation of the conflict.
Over the last few weeks, Alindao, just like many other cities, has faced a repetition of the bloody conflict that destroyed the country beginning in 2013. The recent slaughtering of civilians was reported in June 2017 — at least 133 civilians — with entire neighbourhoods set alight.
In a tweet by MSF International, the organisation quotes a civilian who survived the attack:
They shot me in the shoulder and I fell down. I played dead; that's how I survived. Elisée R., 27.
This slaughter actually happened in places where the Minusca is deployed. The UN camps are not suitable for the displaced persons, with a lack of organisation and means on the ground. People from attacked cities try to reach neighbouring countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Banguassou, over the last weeks, half of the population fled the city. The Archbishop of Bangui, Dieudonné Nzapalainga, stated:
It is only in Bangui that we have the semblance of a state. Out of Bangui, there is no state. Rebels are in control.
Even if the UN Mission is not efficient enough, it is also important to take into account the rough situation on the ground for humanitarian assistance. The Central African Republic is an extremely poor country that is twice as big as France but with less than 900 miles of paved roads. It is really hard for UN troops to circulate within it and very difficult to reach some areas.
Moreover, the Central African Republic does not have a suitable army, and its government really looks like a shadow cabinet, with no effective power on the ground. One year after president Faustin-Archange's election, large swaths of territory are still beyond the control of the government.
Today, the situation has worsened to such an extent that Stephen O'Brien, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, likened the violence to “early warnings of genocide”. During his visit to the country, O'Brien told the press that he witnessed 2,000 Muslims holed up in a Catholic church in the town of Bangassou. This episode occurred after the Anti-Balaka Christian militias had burnt an entire village, gathering the civilians, who according to O'Brien:
were just lying in wait to kill them if they tried to move. There’s a very deep ethnic cleansing approach.
In reference to the “deep ethnic cleansing approach”, O'Brien called on the Security Council for a relevant increase of funds and “blue helmets” — the UN peacekeepers which currently number a little over 12,700 — on the ground as part of the Minusca Operation. He also pointed out that the number of displaced persons had increased by 40 percent from last year, up to 600,000 people in a country of 4.5 million.
The signs of a foreseeable genocide are present at a moment when little support is available from the international community on the ground. In May, the Red Cross said that 115 bodies had been found following a series of militia attacks. According to Crisis Group violence worsened in the north and east, leaving over a hundred dead. The economic situation has worsened, public debt rose 20 percent, and is now approaching 50 percent of GDP.
Urgent steps need to be taken. The deployment of French military operations on the ground ensured some encouraging results, but they are too brittle to really last, given the insecurity and the absence of solid facilities on the ground. The Central African Republic is a failed state, on the brink of collapse, already facing the beginning of a genocide. The current situation on the ground looks like the 1994 Rwanda, whose final rescue was only made possible by the intervention of other African countries, like Uganda, and the international community.
The future really looks dark and an intervention from the African Union is not on the agenda. Countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone which fall under West Africa and are part of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) experienced military help from the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). Unlike those countries, the Central African Republic is not part of the ECOMOG and cannot pretend to the same kind of help. Most likely, the best hope resides in an awareness from the international community, similar to the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Nonetheless, even for the peacekeeping missions, the situation seems to be a dire one. On May 8, 2017, five blue helmets died in an attack on their convoy, prompting the main blue helmets backers to be cautious.
It is worthy to add that the country does not at all represent a direct threat to Western security. The multiplication of terrorist threats in troubled spots in Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Mali — notably for the French government — means that, in all likelihood, the Central African Republic is no longer a priority for the international community.

author: Sylvain Keller


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The Population of Nepal’s Naumuthe Cow, One of the World’s Smallest Cattle Breeds, Is Dwindling · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

A new-born naumuthe calf. When full grown, this cattle breed measures equivalent to nine closed fists from hoof to hump. Image: Sanjib Chaudhary.
The Achhami or “naumuthe” cow is one of the world’s smallest cattle breeds. Originating from Nepal’s Achham district, this gai (meaning “cow” in Nepali) is called “naumuthe” since it measures only nine muthi (meaning “a closed fist” in Nepali) from hoof to hump.
According to the District Livestock Services Office (DLSO) of Achham, a naumuthe cow’s average height is 88 centimeters at the withers and average weight is 150 kilograms. It normally gives about 1-2 litres of milk daily.
An adult naumuthe cow. Image: Sanjib Chaudhary
On the other hand, the bull’s average height is 97 centimeters at the withers and it weighs around 160 kilograms.
The animal is certainly small, and so is unfortunately its population. As per recent DLSO records, currently, there are only 447 individuals of this breed left in the Jalpadevi, Baijnath, Ghughurkot, Mastamandu, Babla, Khaptad, Budhakot and Devisthan villages of Achham district.
According to research by Surendra Wagle, the Achhami cattle’s population is falling due to cross breeding, illegal trading to Tibet for slaughtering, and neglect from local people due to less economic returns from rearing this breed, among other reasons. However, this breed is more resistant to foot-and-mouth disease and can survive in diverse environments.
It also produces milk that's “more nutritious than a normal cow's,” if you were to believe Dev Raj Upadhyay, the principal of Baidyanath Ved Vidhyashram, a Sanskrit school in Achham, that has been rearing the breed for some time now.
A hoarding board kept by District Livestock Services Office to raise awareness about the naumuthe cow. Image: Sanjib Chaudhary
In his research for the second Organic Animal Husbandry Conference in Germany, Devendra Prasad Bhandari recommended in-situ conservation of the breed, implementation of a policy to reduce its illegal trade to Tibet, and commercialization of the breed and its organic products in the international and national market.
And Surendra Wagle proposes conducting awareness workshops with farmers and providing incentives to groups to rear the naumuthe cow.
Time will tell if the concerned authorities and communities are able to come together and save this breed before it disappears.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


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Azerbaijan Runs $2.9 Billion ‘Laundromat’ but Soros and the ‘Armenian Lobby’ Are to Blame · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

President Ilham Aliyev at the European Games in 2015. Creative Commons.
In a series of new investigations, a network of investigative journalists have discovered the government of Azerbaijan was the driving force behind a $2.9 billion secret slush fund that may have helped it pay off European politicians.
Dubbed “Azerbaijani Laundromat”, the secret slush fund was put in operation between 2012 and 2014, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project:
The Azerbaijani Laundromat is the name given to a complex money-laundering operation that handled US$ 2.9 billion over a two-year period thanks to four shell companies registered in the United Kingdom. Between 2012 and 2014, Azerbaijan’s kleptocratic ruling elites pumped the money through the companies’ Estonian bank accounts. The companies’ true owners were hidden behind unknown offshore shareholders.
The money transfers made into the accounts of politicians in Europe may have helped persuade the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to vote against a critical report of Azerbaijan in 2013 calling for an adoption of the resolution on political prisoners, although that has not been proven.
OCCRP explains:
Money-laundering operations like the Laundromat are common in the former Soviet republics and are often deeply integrated into their economies. They may be used by government officials, organized crime groups, or even ordinary businesses for purposes such as disguising the origins of money, evading taxes or sanctions, paying bribes, bypassing customs fees, moving funds to Europe or other markets, or embezzling funds.
The Azerbaijani operation, too, was likely designed primarily to obscure the origin and destination of dirty money. It was also used as a slush fund to pay off people (both inside and outside the country) who served the interests of the political elite in Baku; to buy luxury goods; or to move money abroad for various purposes.
Crucially, OCCRP allege:
[Azerbaijan] used the slush fund to buy silence and praise from influential European figures during a time when the government in Baku threw around 90 activists, journalists and opposition politicians into prison on politically motivated charges.
Following the release of the OCCRP investigation patriotic trolls stormed online to accuse journalists of spreading unverified information and maintaining ties to an ill-defined “Armenian lobby”.
The patriotic trolls used the same texts when commenting under the OCCRP story shared on Facebook.
The positions of the trolls were mirrored almost exactly by Azerbaijani officials, blocked access to OCCRP's website for good measure.
#Azerbaijan‘s deputy president calls @guardian @occrp @berlingske Laundromat story “biased, provocative, groundless” https://t.co/EvQEPoIAt1
— Luke Harding (@lukeharding1968) September 5, 2017
Authorities in #Azerbaijan have blocked the access to OCCRP website after the #Laundromat publication. If you can't bribe them, close them?
— Isa Yusibov (@Isa_Yusibov) September 7, 2017
While Azerbaijan's MFA spokesperson seethed:
Soros funded #fakenews&disinformation campaign agst Azerbaijan by @guardian @berlingske and some corrupt so-called human rights activists. pic.twitter.com/N9DLEgAFGd
— Hikmet Hajiyev (@HikmetHajiyev) September 5, 2017
The Soros-hatred makes sense in so far as billionaire philanthropist George Soros’ Open Society Foundation has provided grant money to OCCRP in the past. But Hajiyev might have asked the president's media department to remove this picture from its page before embarking on a full-scale offensive.
If the Azeri PR strategy is to go after Soros they should probably get this picture off the president's websitehttps://t.co/CPh3g6P89L pic.twitter.com/kD0r548410
— Mike Runey (@MikeRuney) September 5, 2017
While Azerbaijani authorities were busy refuting any connections with the reports, movers and shakers in Brussels demanded investigations into the deeds of the leaders and politicians named in the investigations.
We want a full investigation into Laundromat scandal. Banks and politicians must be held to account! #Azerbaijan https://t.co/zW9x9dAXEV
— S&D Group (@TheProgressives) September 5, 2017
AZERBAIJAN: @TheProgessives calls for European Parliament investigation into #Laundromat affair @JeppeKofodhttps://t.co/pAEF7UpeKN
— Agence Europe (@AgencEurope) September 6, 2017
Council of Europe @CoE begins internal #corruption probe over Azerbaijan #laundromat https://t.co/TGkI23y4sR via @OCCRP #moneylaundering
— Ewan Sutherland (@sutherla) September 5, 2017
The Legal Affairs committee of the parliantary assembly of Europe lashes out at Azerbaijan today on corruption and laundromat pic.twitter.com/X7umC7ciGB
— Pieter Omtzigt (@PieterOmtzigt) September 5, 2017
Moreover, Bulgaria's state prosecutor ordered an investigation into new information about payments made by Azerbaijani companies into the accounts of Kalin Mitrev, the country's representative on the board of directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
#Bulgaria to investigate $3bn #Azerbaijan #Laundromat claims https://t.co/IjGo0o7Io7 | @Guardian
— Aleksej Demjanski (@ADemjanski) September 8, 2017
“Azerbaijan Laundromat” and Viktor Orban's Hungary https://t.co/tZk2W4Fdr8
— Daniel Antal (@antaldaniel) September 8, 2017
OCCRP published a comprehensive list of reactions to the project's findings on September 8.
Given that corruption provides the basis for the Azerbaijani state and has infested its international relations with the West it is unsurprising that journalists and organisations that draw attention to this problem face serious hurdles and even imprisonment.
Khadija Ismailova, one of the main investigators in the laundromat series, was sentenced to over seven-and-a-half years in prison on trumped up charges in 2015. Although she was released the following year after one-and-a-half years’ jail time in total, the charges against her were not dropped.
Transparency International, perhaps the world's most famous anti-corruption body announced just this month that its Baku office was closing down due to restrictive laws put in place to prevent locally-based civic organisations receiving funding from abroad.
It remains to be seen whether European policymakers will impose similar restrictions on dirty money coming from a certain oil-rich, ex-Soviet state in the South Caucasus.

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


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Irma: A Meditation on Hurricanes and the Bahamas · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Hurricane, Bahamas. Winslow Homer (1898). Image donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
By Nicolette Bethel
This article appeared originally on Blogworld and is republished here with the author's permission.
Anyone who has grown up with me knows that I’m not a person to take hurricanes lightly. When I was 17, I wrote an extended essay on the subject. The essay required me to delve into the science behind hurricanes, and also sent me to the archives in search of the impact of hurricanes on The Bahamas.
I knew about the 1929 hurricane, of course; my grandmothers’ generation had survived it, and they would tell us stories of the bad old days when hurricanes came along every year and pass directly over Nassau. And the history books I had at my disposal (Michael Craton’s 1968 edition of A History of The Bahamas and Paul Albury’s 1975 The Story of The Bahamas) mentioned an earlier hurricane, one from 1866, which also devastated Nassau. I read everything I could get my hands on about both hurricanes. And then, for the next decade or so, I was a hurricane prophet, warning my family (really, anyone who would listen) to get ready every year. Because, although Nassau had not sustained a major hit for a good 20 years or so, I just knew it was going to be a matter of time.
Well, as we can see, it was. New Providence was struck directly in 2001 by Hurricane Michelle, whose eye passed over Nassau, and then almost struck directly by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, whose eye shifted just to the west of our island in the last hours before it struck. But nothing yet has impacted the capital the way the hurricanes of the 1920s and the 1800s did.
There are two things I want to say about this. The first has to do with the past and what it can teach us. The other has to do with the future and how we can use what we have learned.
What the past can teach us
The Bahamas, like the USA, historically sits outside the most common path of hurricanes. The majority of our archipelago lies above the Tropic of Cancer, in the sub-tropical zone, and at least until the end of the twentieth century, most hurricanes tended to form and stay within the tropics, crossing the Atlantic to the Caribbean Sea and then sweeping up the Lesser Antilles. This was disastrous for the Caribbean but fortuitous for The Bahamas, as the Caribbean islands tend to be mountainous, and mountains help to break up hurricanes’ organization. The most common result was that by the time that hurricanes reached The Bahamas, even major ones like Inez and David and Georges, they had dissipated and were reduced to Category 1 or 2 hurricanes, or even to tropical storms.
Every thirty years or so, however, some regular shift in global weather patterns appeared to encourage the formation of hurricanes further north and increase the likelihood that they would affect The Bahamas and US eastern seaboard. These hurricanes would sweep across the Atlantic and not be disrupted by land or mountains until they were well inland in the USA. The 1866 hurricane in The Bahamas was one of these, one of the earliest with a systematic plotting of its location and its intensity (believed to be a powerful Category 4 hurricane). Our primary source of information regarding its intensity comes from the barometric pressure recorded during the passage of the storm (for more details, read Wayne Neely’s book). This was followed by another deadly hurricane in 1899; then a series of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes between 1926 and 1932; then Betsy in 1965; and then Andrew in 1992.
For anyone who wants to learn anything about hurricanes in The Bahamas, look to Wayne Neely. He’s the expert. If you want to know who to listen to on social media, check what he has to say. It’s his hobby; but it’s also his training, and his job.
This meant that it was quite possible, at least during the twentieth century, for a Bahamian adult to live and die without experiencing more than one or two devastating hurricanes. My father was such a person. He was born in 1938, and between then and his death in 1987, he experienced only one major storm: Betsy in 1965. His life during the 1970s was spent putting up hurricane shutters when we were under hurricane warnings, only to find out that the hurricane had either blown out to sea, or was nothing more than some wind and rain. And he complained. Our hurricane shutters were heavy wooden things that were fitted into our window frames and held in place with bars of two-by-four. They were hard to put up and hard to take down, and when he put them up only to be disappointed by some storm or other, he refused to take them down until the end of the season. He would unshutter the common areas of our house, but we would spend our nights in the darkness of the closed-up bedrooms.
I imagine that it’s hard for younger Bahamians to conceive of the possibility of going through one’s life without ever experiencing more than one deadly storm. The past twenty-five years have brought an extended period of hurricanes affecting our archipelago, beginning with Andrew, which was Category 5 when it struck Eleuthera from the east, and continuing through Floyd and Michelle and Frances and Jeanne and Wilma and Irene and Ike and Sandy and Joaquin and Matthew and Irma and potentially Jose.  The historical weather patterns affecting hurricanes have changed; the thirty-year cycle that predominated from the 1780s through the 1990s has been replaced with a cycle that we have not yet found a pattern for.
What is most striking about all of this, to my mind, is not the inevitable argument about climate change. What strikes me about this historical survey of hurricanes in The Bahamas is the one glaring fact that we tend to obscure while we are praying to be spared or engaging in rescue and clean-up: that the modern Bahamas fares better in hurricanes than almost any other territory on the planet.
Part of the reason for this comes from our very geography. We have no rivers to overflow and break their levees, and we have no mountains to engender landslides. These are the two deadliest side effects of hurricanes, and they don’t happen to us. But there are other common ways that people die in hurricanes, and delving into our historical archives can tell us what they were. People are drowned in storm surges (as happened in Andros in 1866 and 1929) and people are killed by falling debris when houses are torn apart, when roofs fly off. And since the 1930s the number of houses that are torn apart in The Bahamas has been a whole lot fewer.
That’s because we have learned how to build for storms. I grew up in a house that was built in the 1930s, when we were rebuilding the city after the 1929 hurricane, and the contractor who built that house intended that it would withstand any storm. It is constructed of poured concrete reinforced with steel, and the roof is anchored securely to the walls. It has breezeways above every door to allow for cross ventilation, and it has withstood hurricanes without structural damage since its erection.
I live in another house, this one built in the 1950s, again from reinforced poured concrete, this one raised some three to four feet off the ground (it is built on uneven ground). My parents were born in wooden houses, one of which is still standing, the other which would still be standing if a bulldozer had not ripped it apart. The one thing we learned after the destruction of our grandmother’s home was that it was built by shipwrights, and that there was not a nail in it; it was held together by wooden pegs which grew more secure over time as they swelled into place. The houses on Harbour Island, which was hammered by Andrew when it was a Category 5 hurricane, still stand, while much of Miami, which was hit after Andrew had weakened somewhat, was destroyed.
I live in another house, this one built in the 1950s, again from reinforced poured concrete, this one raised some three to four feet off the ground (it is built on uneven ground). My parents were born in wooden houses, one of which is still standing, the other which would still be standing if a bulldozer had not ripped it apart. The one thing we learned after the destruction of our grandmother’s home was that it was built by shipwrights, and that there was not a nail in it; it was held together by wooden pegs which grew more secure over time as they swelled into place. The houses on Harbour Island, which was hammered by Andrew when it was a Category 5 hurricane, still stand, while much of Miami, which was hit after Andrew had weakened somewhat, was destroyed.
This is what we learn. Bahamians know how to build for storms. It is part of our adaptation to these islands, where evacuation is a twenty-first century luxury for the most sparsely populated islands, but is usually impossible for most of us. We have developed techniques to build homes that withstand hurricanes, and we have also written several of those techniques into our building codes. True, there is more that we could do today, but do not, possibly because of cost. Our grandfathers knew that we should not only build strong and smart, but that we should also build high: most of our traditional houses are raised on blocks and are three or four feet off the ground, and are far less prone to flooding than what we build today.
And that leads me to the second part of this meditation.
What the future can bring
I’ve watched/studied hurricanes for most of my life now. And while I respect them—deeply—I do not believe that Bahamians should fear hurricanes the way we appear to do. On the contrary. I believe that we should look hard at ourselves and work out why it is that we handle major storms so well. Part of it is, yes, our geographical flatness, our lack of mountains and rivers, our ability to hunker down through the storm and then not worry overmuch about the physical aftermath. But part of it is what we have developed ourselves.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Bahamians are the world’s experts on building to survive hurricanes. This is a critical skill that we can share with the world—especially given the fact that major hurricanes appear to be forming more and more often, and growing larger and stronger, and not following the patterns of the past.
For that reason, I believe that we should be in the global hurricane industry.
I believe:
We are faced with real opportunities. I pray that we have the sense and the courage to take advantage of them.
Nicolette Bethel is a Bahamian teacher, writer and anthropologist. She was the Director of Culture in The Bahamas, and is now a full-time lecturer in Social sciences at the College of the Bahamas. She blogs at Blogworld and tweets at @nicobet.

author: Guest Contributor


text:
An Anonymous Psych Patient Is Now Acclaimed as a Master Artist of the Immigrant Experience · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

This work by Martín Ramírez is known as “Untitled (Train and Tunnels).” Ramírez used crayons and glued together pieces of paper to make his drawings. Credit: Courtesy Ricco/Maresca Gallery
This story by Gisele Regatao originally appeared on PRI.org on August 24 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
A Mexican immigrant who was institutionalized in mental hospitals in Northern California for more than 30 years is now considered by some critics to be one of the best artists of the 20th century. And he’s getting his first major retrospective in Los Angeles.
The Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, or ICA LA, is opening its new home on Sept. 9 with a show featuring about 50 drawings by Martín Ramírez, who died in 1963 at the age of 68.
The show comes at a time when new research is questioning Ramírez’s label as an “outsider” artist and is defining him as a master of the immigrant experience.
“He is an immigrant artist. His art is very important to understand displacement, to understand borders, how people cross borders,” says Victor Espinosa, author of the book, “Martín Ramírez: Framing His Life and Art.”
Espinosa, who teaches at The Ohio State University, spent 10 years researching Ramírez. And he questions whether Ramírez really was schizophrenic. According to Espinosa, Ramírez was diagnosed after a brief psychiatric consultation where there was no translator. But Ramírez didn’t speak English. Espinosa says Ramírez kept saying, “Me no loco” (“I am not crazy”), but the doctors concluded otherwise.
“With this kind of diagnosis, it’s impossible to leave the institution,” Espinosa says. “Ramírez didn’t have anyone on his side to question the diagnosis, to do anything.”
This piece by Martín Ramírez is labeled as “Untitled (Horse and Red Rider).” Credit: Courtesy of Ricco/Maresca Gallery
Ramírez moved to the United States for work in 1925, leaving behind a pregnant wife and three kids in Jalisco, Mexico, to look for work in the railroads and mines in California. A few years later, though, the economy crashed. And he lost his job and started living in the streets.
That’s when the story gets a bit murky. According to Espinosa’s research, Ramírez apparently misunderstood a letter from his family and cut ties with them. He wound up homeless and destitute, and in 1931, he was picked up by authorities. Espinosa says Ramírez was confused and probably depressed and ended up institutionalized.
And he remained in mental institutions for the rest of his life.
While he was there, Ramírez began drawing Madonnas, cowboys, horses, trains and tunnels — inspired by the churches and farms of his native Mexico, as well as his journey to the United States. He didn’t have paint or canvases; he used crayons and glued-together pieces of paper to create large drawings. Sometimes he used collages from magazines. His tracing is figurative, but also modern.
Out of the perhaps thousands of drawings Ramírez made, about 500 have survived.
One of his Madonnas now lies in a vault at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Tracey Barton, a senior archives technician in the manuscripts division, found the drawing in 2009, rolled up in a box of the belongings of American designers Charles and Ray Eames.
“I have worked at the library for 35 years, so that’s pretty much the greatest thing that happened to me here,” Barton says.
Ramírez’s art might never have been seen outside the mental hospital where he lived if it hadn’t been for Tarmo Pasto, a professor who studied art made by psychiatric patients. Pasto became interested in Ramírez’s drawings and helped organize his first art show at the E.B. Crocker Art Gallery in Sacramento, California, in 1952. But the drawings were presented as the work of an anonymous schizophrenic patient, not an artist.
“That narrative is hard for the art world to unabsorb because it’s sexy and enticing, and it reaffirms that the artist is some mythical figure,” says Brooke Davis Anderson, director of the museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and curator of a major show about Ramírez at the Folk Art Museum in New York in 2007. She says it’s time to change that narrative.
This Martín Ramírez drawing of a Madonna was found rolled up in a box of the belongings of Charles and Ray Eames. Credit: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
The fact that Ramírez was seen as a mythical figure also meant nobody looked for his family until Victor Espinosa tracked them down in Mexico in 2000. The family then sued to get the rights over Ramírez’s work. Frank Maresca is the co-owner of the Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York, which now represents the estate for Ramirez’s 20 grandchildren. He says even though Ramírez’s major works sell for a half-million dollars, and his drawings are in the collection of some major New York museums like the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, others such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Whitney Museum of Modern Art don’t own a Ramírez.
“I think they believe it’s less than that which is produced, that comes out of the academy,” Maresca says. “I can’t think of any other reason about why it hasn’t happened. There is no other reason.”
Donna De Salvo, a senior curator at the Whitney, acknowledges the shortcoming. “We probably are behind, frankly,” she says. “There are a number of Latinx artists who are not in our collection, and it’s something we are very aware of and we are working on bringing some consultants who have the expertise.”
Victor Espinosa says you won’t find Ramírez’s work in any museums in Mexico, either. The Regional Museum of Guadalajara, close to Ramírez’s hometown, said they have no information about the artist.
They apparently aren’t aware that the US Postal Service released a set of five commemorative Martín Ramírez stamps in 2015.
The only other Mexican artist believed to have been honored that way was Frida Kahlo.

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
Pioneering Theatre in Azerbaijan Offers a Stage to Actors with Disabilities · Global Voices
Eurasianet

A performance at ƏSA, the first theater in Azerbaijan dedicated to bringing together actors with and without disabilities. Photo by Famil Mahmudbeyli.
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org written by Durna Safarova. Republished with permission.
“Do not be ashamed of your own body. Do not be shy because of your body, no matter what shape it is,” the man says, stripping off his shirt as the audience watches, rapt.
The man on stage, a painter with schizophrenia, is one of the characters in DUMB, a psychological drama performed at ƏSA (“walking stick” in Azerbaijani), the first theater in Azerbaijan dedicated to bringing together actors with and without disabilities.
As in many places, people with disabilities in Azerbaijan face stereotypes and prejudices portraying them as dependent, incompetent and unhappy. ƏSA’s founder, Nihad Gulamzade, said he founded the theater – the first of its kind in the Caucasus – to fight those misperceptions.
“This is not a social project, it’s not a hobby, we are working professionally,” Gulamzade told EurasiaNet.org.
Gulamzade, an accomplished actor, musician, and photographer, does not have a disability. He describes the inspiration for the theater as coming during a period of deep depression. He was contemplating suicide, he said, but imagined what would happen if his attempt were unsuccessful. “I would live my whole life as a disabled person and wouldn’t be able to act,” he recalled thinking.
DUMB, which opened last September, was ƏSA’s first production. The theater also has put on a production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, partially funded by the British Embassy in Azerbaijan, which oversold the theater’s 370-person capacity. “If we had a 1,000-seat hall, I think we could fill it,” said Gulamzade.
The theater’s success is due not just to the novelty of featuring actors with disabilities, but a more creative approach to the stage, Gulamzade said: “The theater scene in Azerbaijan was colorless. We tried to make it lively, and it worked.”
In Baku, where there had been only three independent theater collectives before ƏSA launched, the appearance of a new group was a welcome addition to the city’s cultural life, said Aliya Dadashova, a local theater critic. “The theater scene is not as lively as it was in the early 1990s, when there were more small theater collectives,” she told EurasiaNet.org. “The state theaters don’t have any social or cultural impact, so it’s gratifying to see new initiatives” like ƏSA.
“We unite people from different social groups. You can see government figures and their political opposition watching us. There were people who are theater fans, and people whose first experience was ƏSA,” added actor Orkhan Adigozel. Adigozel is paralyzed as a result of an accident nine years ago, and ƏSA is his first experience with the theater.
“On stage we are just actors,” Adigozel said. “We try to make the audience focus on the play, rather than disability. There is a stereotype that people with disabilities are not able to do anything. We broke this stereotype and try to show that art has no barriers.”
The crew has 15 members, representing a variety of disabilities. Some have cerebral palsy, one does not have legs, another has Down’s Syndrome. A sign language interpreter makes the performances accessible to people who are deaf.
Life for people with disabilities in Azerbaijan has long been full of obstacles, though that is gradually changing. In 2015, the government built a 12-story apartment complex with 132 apartments for visually impaired people. The government also has passed legislation providing accessible transportation, housing, treatment and rehabilitation for people with disabilities. The government operates 16 rehabilitation centers, but advocates for people with disabilities say that is not enough to meet the demand in Azerbaijan.
For ƏSA’s actors, transportation is a particular problem. Roads, buses, and taxis are rarely wheelchair-friendly; the only wheelchair-accessible taxis are operated by the government backed Baku Taxi Company, known for its purple, London-style cabs. But one ride costs 20 manats (about $12). Half of the theater’s production budget is devoted to taxis, Gulumzade said. “If one actor in a wheelchair pays 20 manats and he has to come to at least 30 rehearsals, see how much the cost of transport is for a single person,” he said.
Azerbaijani law requires at least three percent of the workforce of state agencies to be people with disabilities, but this is rarely enforced. Overall, only 5.6 percent of Azerbaijan’s 540,000 people with disabilities are employed.
Gulnar Alfidatli, a 23-year-old actress at ƏSA, has cerebral palsy. She has an accounting degree and had a job at a private company, but was fired, she said, after her bosses realized she had a disability. “ƏSA is my first theatre experience,” she said. She recalled her first performance, which got a standing ovation. “It was like we were in a magical dream,” she said.

author: Eurasianet


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#PotongSteam: Malaysian Gamers Blast Blocking of Website Over ‘Fight of Gods’ Video Game · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Screenshot of ‘Fight of Gods’ video game introduction uploaded on YouTube
Malaysian gamers have criticized the decision of the Malaysian Communications Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to temporarily block the website of game distribution platform Steam which allows downloads of a new game called ‘Fight of Gods’. MCMC deems the game to be offensive and a “threat to the sanctity of religion and interracial harmony in the country.”
MCMC unblocked Steam once the latter removed the controversial game from its website.
‘Fight of Gods’, which was developed by a Taiwanese gaming studio and released earlier this month, features several deities and religious figures such as Odin, Amaterasu, the Buddha, Jesus, Moses, and Zeus among others in a mortal combat game.
For MCMC Minister Salleh Said Keruak, the game might disrupt peace and religious harmony in the country:
“(To ensure) solidarity, harmony and wellbeing of the multiracial and multireligious people in the country are the main objectives of the government. The government will not compromise with any action that can jeopardise these objectives.
So, Steam gets taken down in Malaysia. Over ONE (1). BLOODY. GAME. Seriously. #PotongSteam https://t.co/JdRTCluYFI
— Sharmine Ishak (@sharmineishak) September 8, 2017
Malaysia has a predominantly Muslim population. In recent years, hardline Islamic clerics and other conservative religious leaders have criticized the government for its failure to strictly enforce Islamic teachings.
PQube, the publisher of the ‘Fight of Gods’ game, insisted that it does not aim to offend any religion:
Fight of Gods is a video game that takes a humorous approach to religion in the same way that other entertainment formats have – across television, film, books and theatre.
The game is not promoting any religious agenda and is not designed to offend. The description of the game on the digital platforms through which it is distributed provide clear guidance on the nature of the game and its content so that people can freely choose whether or not to play it.
We are disappointed that such freedom of choice is not given to everyone and in particular that the game has been forcibly removed from sale in Malaysia, although no direct communication has been received by us as to the reasons for this. Nevertheless we respect any rules and censorship imposed in any given territory.
PQube also added that the game does not feature any reference to Islam.
The blocking of Steam, which has some 2,000,000 users in Malaysia, angered gamers who were unable to access their favorite games.
The Facebook page of MCMC was flooded with comments from Steam users demanding the unblocking of the popular gaming website.
Facebook user Shah Rizar is one of those who criticized the MCMC:
Dear MCMC, you should realize that you were blocking access to legal software that Malaysians can purchase, but you also jeopardized the potential revenue and reputation for many Malaysian Game Developers. There are also thousands of students in Malaysia studying game development, and actions like these successfully erode everyone's confidence in an agency that is supposed to be at the forefront in protecting EVERYONE's rights.
Steam became accessible again after MCMC acknowledged that the ‘Fight of Gods’ game had been removed from the website.
steam had disabled the download of the game in Malaysia in accordance with our warning & request last night.Will uplift the blocking today.
— Salleh Said Keruak (@sallehsaid) September 8, 2017
Meanwhile, the power of MCMC to shut down websites was questioned by Malaysian Bar constitutional law committee co-chairman Surendra Ananth:
Some have argued that Section 263(2) [Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Act of 1998] allows the MCMC to block content. However, that section only states that licensees shall assist the MCMC as far as reasonably necessary in preventing the commission or attempted commission of an offence.
It cannot be read in a manner to empower MCMC to block online content. This would be a violation of Section 3(3), which expressly provides: ‘Nothing in this act shall be construed as permitting the censorship of the internet.’
The Twitter hashtag #PotongSteam (Cut the Steam) was used by netizens to link to the controversy. Potong Steam is a Malaysian slang term for killjoy or buzzkill. Many of those who used the hashtag were gamers, who are usually politically apathetic.
Below were some of the tweets that featured the hashtag #PotongSteam:
First they come for the political post, but I am not political. Then they come for the gamers… #PotongSteam #InternetShutDown
— sweemeng (@sweemeng) September 8, 2017
for those who have not registered as a voter, just think what would happen if mcmc is unhappy with posts on fb/instagram #potongsteam
— Choon-Siang Lai (@Jeffrey04) September 8, 2017
Govt treat Msians like kids – forbidding them playing a certain online game, telling them don't be naughty & some people think it's fine.
— Eric Paulsen (@EricPaulsen101) September 8, 2017

author: Mong Palatino


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#TheOccupation of Wikipolitics: A Collective Commitment to Democratic Reinvention in Mexico · Global Voices
Giovanna Salazar

Image from the press kit available at laocupación.org. Reproduced with permission.
The Mexican city of Guadalajara recently hosted a festival called “The Occupation” — one of several initiatives helmed by the pro-democracy collective Wikipolitics Jalisco in order to find collective solutions to problems afflicting society.
Widely assorted local, national, and international organizations, as well as civil society, academia, and citizenry gathered in Guadalajara, Jalisco, from August 30 to September 2 to share their experiences in social and political participation.
Tenemos que hacer que más personas se emocionen por la política y no se sientan solas, para eso hay que organizarnos. #LaOcupación
— Wikipolítica Jalisco (@WikipoliticaJal) August 31, 2017
We have to organize in order to get more people get excited about politics and realize they aren’t alone. #LaOcupación (#TheOccupation)
Such has been the message of #FueroNoJuicioSí (#JurisdictionNoJusticeYes), an expression in support of eliminating constitutional protections from prosecution for serving politicians and #SinVotoNoHayDinero (#NoVoteNoMoney), which seeks to shrink public resources that political parties use and abuse. The Occupation forms part of Wikipolitica’s agenda as a progressive, innovative movement bolstering citizen participation, dialogue exchange, and collective intelligence.
At its forefront is Mexican activist Pedro Kumamoto, who in 2015 became the first independent candidate to win a seat in Jalisco's state congress.
The Occupation emerged amid visible consternation and disappointment about the excesses and general rotten behaviour of Mexico's body politic as a crucial space to bolster a different kind of politics.
Participants are committed to “citizenizing” the public, and exerting public control over places and topics that have been dominated by worn-out political parties and policies.
As Roberto Castillo, member of the Mexico City Wikipolitica chapter, wrote in his article “The Occupation: Why Politics Doesn’t Have to Be Boring, and Why Is It Better if We All Get Involved?“:
Nos alejaron de la política.
La llenaron de corrupción, impunidad y cinismo.
Pero ya volvimos. Y vamos a cambiarla por completo.
Mucho de lo que hacemos es política
La política no es solo aquello que se hace en el congreso desde las curules de los diputados, mucho menos se reduce a discursos de gente trajeada en un atril, que lleva por título “presidente” o “gobernador”. Fuera de ese mundo hemos estado construyendo una gran variedad de formas de participar en la vida política de manera más cercana y útil para todas y todos nosotros.
They took politics away from us.
They filled her with corruption, impunity, and cynicism.
But we came back. And we are going to change it completely.
Most of what we do is politics
Politics isn’t just done from the seats of congressional representatives, much less by suits with job titles like “president” or “governor” who recite speeches from behind lecterns. Beyond that world, we have been amassing an array of ways to participate in political life in a way that is closer and more useful for all of us.
And thus, four festival days passed, filled with workshops, roundtables, conferences, enlightening talks, and artistic and cultural activities revealing a diversity of activism, projects, and resistance all aiming for change.
The following tweets show what was discussed and presented during the festival:
La mejor respuesta a la indignación y el hartazgo es soñar y trabajar por otro futuro.#LaOcupación es un espacio para soñar en colectivo. pic.twitter.com/lUzMZNNQ68
— Armando Sobrino (@Armandosmh) August 30, 2017
The best response to outrage and harassment is to dream and work for another future. #TheOccupation is a place to dream collectively.
Feminizar la politica es dejar de privilegiar la verticalidad de las formas tradicionales de hacer política @Susanaochoach en #LaOcupación pic.twitter.com/ibwTf6wXGd
— Ana Estudillo (@AnaEstudillo) September 1, 2017
Feminizing politics means to stop legitimizing the verticality of traditional politics @Susanaochoach in #LaOcupación
Some made comparisons between The Occupation and the stiff, old-fashioned way in which Mexico's president delivered his fifth governmental report (referenced in the tweet as the “#5toInforme”) on September 2:
El país que perece, en el #5toInforme;
El país que nace, en #LaOcupación pic.twitter.com/fLIjAirmw9
— Alejandro Encinas N (@EncinasN) September 2, 2017
The country that perishes in #5toInforme (#5thReport);
The country that is born, in #TheOccupation
En #LaOcupación nos preguntamos, ¿Por qué reemplazarles? En el #5toInforme nos responden. pic.twitter.com/jHUkKgPn3J
— Damián Carmona (@DamianCarMor) September 2, 2017
In #TheOccupation we ask ourselves, why should we replace them? In the #5thReport [the government representatives themselves] tell us why.
Echoing that message, Wikipolitics Jalisco member Damian Carmona blogged:
Fueron días en los que nos unimos no sólo con el fin de soñar, sino de sentir una necesidad: reemplazarles. Reemplazarles no es una declaratoria de guerra a las personas que habitan los partidos, es una declaratoria contra las formas tradicionales de hacer política -dentro y fuera de los partidos- y les pido no se inquieten ante esta declaratoria, pero si lo hacen, pregúntense si no es porque temen perder el privilegio que les ha otorgado las formas tradicionales de hacer política.
These are the days in which we unite not just to dream, but to sense a need together: Change. Replacing them [politicians] is not a declaration of war against party members, it is a declaration against traditional politics – within and beyond the scope of political parties. I ask you not to be disturbed by this statement, but if you are, ask yourself if it is not because you fear losing privileges granted to you by traditional forms of politics.
The Wikipolitica team and Pedro Kumamoto announced future plans for the movement at the event’s finale, including Kumamoto’s run for the Mexican Senate in 2018, which aims to bring the movement’s agenda inside institutional walls.
Likewise, eight other members of Wikipolitics will contend for independent legislator seats in various congresses:
Qué gran momento para la noticia: @pkumamoto buscará llegar al Senado. ??
Ahí, donde antenoche se reflejó la descomposición política. pic.twitter.com/aSFmpD9QDE
— Alfredo Lecona (@AlfredoLecona) September 2, 2017
What a great moment for news: @pkumamoto will seek a seat on the Senate. There, that right there is where the decay of politics was rejected last night.
The creation of these spaces come as a breath of fresh air in the midst of corruption scandals that have shaken Mexican public opinion in recent weeks. “The Master Scam” (#LaEstafaMaestra) is one example.
As revealed by digital media Animal Político, the government used 128 phantom companies as vehicles to divert public money. In the same way, the organization Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity, brought to light the case of the Attorney General, who registered a Ferrari as a non-profit to avoid taxes.
¡Este muro ya cayó! #LaOcupación #LosMurosSíCaen pic.twitter.com/8gmplMn4A4
— Wikipolítica CDMX (@WikipoliticaCMX) September 3, 2017
This wall has fallen!

author: Giovanna Salazar


text:
An Immigrant, Activist and Attorney’s Hard Truths on DACA · Global Voices
Hamid Yazdan Panah

Franciscan Friars from Holy Name College and Saint Camillus Church join thousands of social justice advocates, immigrants, and faith leaders at the Supreme Court in support of President Obama's DAPA/DACA. PHOTO: Br. Christian Seno, OFM (CC BY 2.0)
The recent announcement by the Trump administration about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy (DACA), was not surprising. Nor was it out of place in the larger context of immigration policies and practices of inclusion both in the United States and abroad.
For me as a refugee and an immigration attorney, the current state of affairs presents significant challenges, but also represents a turning point in the status quo. It is certainly difficult to counsel a client about what the end of DACA means, and sense of betrayal that they must feel. But it is equally important that we demand much more than the continuation of policies that simply provided them with an ID card authorizing employment. Attorneys will go out of their way to try to justify their conduct or limit their culpability in legitimizing this process, but there is no way around it—and I speak as someone who has signed up clients for DACA. Now is the time for hard truths.
The following reflections are not meant to be fatalistic, nor should they be read as in any way downplaying the malicious policies of the current administration. They are simply thoughts that have arisen for me at this precise moment in history.
DACA, which came into being in 2012, was never a route to any meaningful form of status for immigrants. It merely provided temporary work authorization and “deferred status” for certain immigrants, both of which could be terminated at any time at the discretion of the United States Citizen and Immigration Services.
DACA also succeeded in promoting a “good immigrant vs. bad immigrant” narrative that fueled the record-breaking uptick in deportations by the Obama administration, while providing feel-good fodder for those who wanted to give “dreamers”—as the beneficiaries of DACA are known—a chance. A chance, that is, to participate temporarily in the economy and ultimately be used as political pawns.
As an immigrant myself, it's hard to articulate the alienation and subjugation that labels connote, whether the label has positive overtones, like “dreamer,” or deeply negative ones, like “wetback.” The push to humanize can be quite offensive to the targets of those efforts, like when dreamers are asked to talk about how much they want to go to school and to work, or basically, to affirm their humanity for political ends.
All of this is connected to the American Dream and all that it entails. The subtext is: let us admit these poor children to our feasts, at least for a few hours; but don't worry, their parents will still handle the clean-up.
What should be underscored, as well, is how the program was pushed forward on the backs of nonprofits and immigration attorneys who urged their clients to come out of the shadows, put their trust in them and the government, then provide their information in exchange for these supposed immigration benefits. I don't doubt the good intentions of those involved in these efforts, but a degree of the responsibility belongs to those who legitimized these policies—the nonprofits that were funded to do the outreach, and the immigration attorneys who were paid to prepare the cases.
These are the difficult questions that all of us who have occupied a privileged position within this current system should ask ourselves, especially concerning the intersection between profit, funding and the direct or indirect legitimization and reification of the institutions, ideas, and discourses in question. This includes cultivating certain subgroups deemed worthy of assistance, humanization, and support.
Today, immigration has emerged as arguably the most important human rights issue in the world, and immigration laws are in fact the only real and enforceable international laws on the books. They are the only laws that can extend beyond the boundaries of nation states and have real and practical consequences. Identifying and understanding what is at stake should inform our strategies and our priorities.
Change and development within U.S. society continues to be driven by contradictions, and the issue of immigration is an instructive example. This may sound cynical, but one could argue that the Muslim Travel Ban and the end of DACA have drastically increased the public's awareness of the details and nuances of the issue of immigration and its intersection with law and economics. This includes the border-to-prison pipeline that has gone largely unnoticed in this country, and the complex entanglement between incarceration labor and immigration.
Paradigm shifts are often accompanied by immense volumes of human suffering. It took 30,000 children crossing the U.S. border and being placed in removal proceedings before debates began to emerge about whether certain individuals should be afforded legal counsel or some form of due process in these proceedings. The crisis in Europe around migration is no different.
It is helpful, therefore, to understand these crises and challenges not as defeats, but instead as part of an evolving and dialectical struggle for human rights. This means understanding the global impact of these policies and underscoring the need to find solutions which do not divide us, and which take into account the privileges and benefits we have refused to link with the current state of affairs.

author: Hamid Yazdan Panah


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At Twitter’s Tokyo Office, Protesters Stomp on Hateful Tweets · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Protesters tread on printouts of abusive tweets in front on Twitter headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, on September 8. Screencap from IWJ official YouTube channel.
On Friday, September 8, about one hundred demonstrators gathered outside Twitter Japan's Tokyo headquarters to demand that the company do more to rein in harassment and hate speech on its network.
Tokyo No Hate, a volunteer collective of activists, led the demonstration, highlighting Twitter's seeming reluctance to tackle the problem.
The group had reported a series of discriminatory and hateful tweets to the company on September 3 and asked Twitter to remove the tweets by September 7. They pledged to demonstrate the next day in front of Twitter's Japan headquarters if the company failed to do so.
京橋(東京都中央区)。ツイッター社が入るビル前の歩道が「ヘイトスピーチ」で埋められた。 pic.twitter.com/uw36VBBaIo
— 安田浩一 (@yasudakoichi) September 8, 2017
Kyobashi (Chuo-ku, Tokyo). “Hate speech” covers the sidewalk in front of Twitter Japan's head office.
Borrowing tactics from a recent protest in Berlin and organized using the hashtag #0908Twitter社前 (“Meet in front of Twitter on 09/08), protesters gathered in front of Twitter's Tokyo office on September 8 and covered the sidewalk with print-outs of tweets communicating sexist, racist and violent messages.
Ban hate tweets.@Twitter@TwitterJP #0908Twitter社前 pic.twitter.com/43LrxxIFE0
— 木村夏樹 Natsuki Kimura (@_natsukik) September 8, 2017
Sign: “Stop ignoring discriminatory tweets. Every day frightening. Every day unbearable. Every day agonizing. Help us, please.”
Activists displayed hundreds of abusive tweets, some of which were photographed and shared on Twitter itself.
Ban hate tweets.@Twitter@TwitterJP #0908Twitter社前 pic.twitter.com/t7CH1XK0rL
— 木村夏樹 Natsuki Kimura (@_natsukik) September 8, 2017
Tweet: ‘Chon’ (a slur used against Koreans) are savages, aren't they?
ヘイトスピーチは民族差別だけじゃないよ。
#0908Twitter社前 pic.twitter.com/sb1YTsX2lx
— かぱぱん (@kapapanpan) September 8, 2017
Hate speech is not limited to just racial discrimination.
Middle tweet: Women are an inferior species, and therefore must be extinguished.
ミソジニストも対象っぽい pic.twitter.com/MHIAoZV4o1
— ガラスの雨 (@glass_river2222) September 8, 2017
With sex crimes, the victims are the most blame, especially women.
Ultimately, participants were encouraged to tread on the printed tweets, and at the end of the demonstration the tweets were ceremonially deposited in a recycling bin.
More offensive tweets identified by the demonstrators have been translated into English by activist Takahiro Katsumi in this Twitter Moment.
With 40 million active users — accounting for about 30% of the national population — Twitter is one of Japan's most popular and commonly social networks.
While Twitter does take some measures to keep threatening and hateful speech off its network (including the recent suspension of a user who threatened to kill a mosquito), there are complaints that other kinds of threats and harassment on Twitter are ignored.
Toshiki Kino, an internet activist and former chairperson of Tokyo No Hate, told Global Voices that Twitter has been “completely inactive” in regulating hate speech against ethnic minorities in Japan:
Hate speech against ethnic minorities people in Japan—mainly against Korean and Chinese people, but also against the Ainu [indigenous residents of Japan] on the Internet has been a very serious problem in recent years, but Twitter Japan has been completely inactive in terms of regulating such remarks. There is much hate speech on Twitter to choose from, but you'll see lots of serious examples if you search for “朝鮮人” [‘chosenjin’, a derogatory epithet for Korean people.]
Although Twitter does not explicitly prohibit hate speech, their official rules forbid users from attacking or threatening a person on the basis of their identity traits. This rule reads as follows:
You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories.
While Twitter asks users to abide by this and other rules, it has no hard and fast mechanism for enforcing them. If you want a hateful or threatening tweet removed, you may file a report with the company. Then, it is up to Twitter's moderators to determine whether or not the tweet actually violates company rules.
This method can be helpful if you see just a few hateful tweets each day, but such tweets often come by the hundreds and can swiftly become unmanageable for any user. And it is likely that the problem is similarly daunting for people moderating these reports (the company provides almost no public data on the issue.)
Indeed, in many cases, several of which were highlighted by the No Hate protesters, hateful tweets are reported but not removed. The company has long faced criticism that its moderation system is no match for the scourge of hate speech online, but thus far, it has not devised an alternative solution.
Some observers wonder why the activists are targeting Twitter, rather than going after the groups that create abusive content online.
In a series of tweets, researcher Vivian Shaw, who has covered the evolution of the anti-discrimination movement in Japan since 2011, explains that anti-racism activists in Japan have pressured the Japanese government to pass legislation addressing hate speech and worked with local authorities to help address the problem.
Japan's national parliament, the Diet, passed the country's first-ever law addressing hate speech in May 2016. The law defines hate speech in Japan, but it does not criminalize it. Instead, the law compels the central government, prefectures and municipalities, such as the city of Osaka, to devise measures against hate speech.
The challenge now, according to Shaw, is that local governments say they have neither the resources nor the technology to police abusive content online. Because Twitter creates the environment in which these messages are circulated, activists argue that the company should be doing more to combat it. If hate speech were officially a crime in Japan, Twitter would be under greater obligations to mitigate the problem. But the Diet has not taken things this far.
At the end of the protest in Tokyo on September 8, protestors entered the lobby at Twitter's headquarters in Japan, hoping to meet with the company. The activists were unsuccessful, although the protest did generate significant discussion on Twitter itself.
Twitter Japan refused to meet with us.@Twitter@TwitterJP #0908Twitter社前 pic.twitter.com/dqtgY62kwz
— 木村夏樹 Natsuki Kimura (@_natsukik) September 8, 2017
While the protestors did not get to meet with Twitter, the company did acknowledge their concerns in the leadup to the demonstration on September 8. In a tweet made earlier in the week, Twitter Japan did mention it plans to increase the number of moderators “to resolve issues promptly” (早急な問題解決に).
Twitterへの多くのご意見をありがとうございます。すべての方が安心してご自分を表現いただける場にしたいと考えている中、ご期待に添えていない現状を真摯に受け止めています。最近、日本対応チームを拡充し、早急な問題解決に向け動いています。また状況をご案内させてください。
— Twitter Japan (@TwitterJP) September 6, 2017
Thanks to so many of you for expressing your concerns to Twitter. While we wish (to make Twitter a place) where everyone is comfortable expressing their opinions, we'll sincerely take your feedback to heart. Twitter has recently increased the number of moderators in Japan, and is working to resolve issues promptly. Please continue to provide us with your feedback.

author: Nevin Thompson


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The Stories Behind DACA, the Now-Ended Program for Young Undocumented Immigrants in the US · Global Voices
Amanda Lichtenstein

Activists protest the end of DACA in Los Angeles, September 5, 2017. “Deport Hate, Not Dreamers” and “United We Dream/#DefendDACA.” Photo by Molly Adams on Flickr, permission under CC BY 2.0.
United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced that the Trump administration would terminate a program that grants two-year renewable work and study permits to immigrants who were brought to the country as children without papers.
In the days following the policy shift surrounding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, protests, walkouts, petitions, “resistbot campaigns” and calls for impeachment have flooded the internet and the streets of the US. Critics accuse the White House of being cruel, as many DACA recipients self-identify as Americans.
DACA was put in place through executive action by President Barack Obama in 2012. A legislative version of the policy, known as the DREAM Act, has repeatedly failed to pass in Congress.
Nearly 800,000 DACA recipients, who are often called “dreamers” in reference to the DREAM Act, now face the possibility of deportation when their permits expire in six months if Congress does not act.
The decision triggered a renewed debate on the very definition of what it means to be an “American,” in this case referring to a citizen of the United States, with organizations like Define American at the forefront, using stories to put a face to the numbers.
Founded by journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who is himself undocumented, Define American’s mission is to use the power of story to “transcend politics and shift the conversation about immigrants, identity, and citizenship in a changing America.”
Define American also invites undocumented people and their allies to create and upload text and video testimonials about the immigrant experience in the US.
Giovanni Amado, 23, arrived in the US in 1998 from Mexico City when he was just 3 years old. In his video testimonial, published a few days before the Trump administration's announcement, Amado talks about his work as a fraud specialist in a bank and says he does not understand how terminating DACA helps anyone:
The term American should not be defined by a document or the lack of one. It is more so the willingness to contribute to the country and help others out whenever possible.
And Denea Joseph, a 23-year-old woman from Belize who came to the US at the age of 7, says DACA allowed her to finish her university studies. She defines American as:
..an individual — immigrant or otherwise — who has lent their skills, knowledge, education, business acumen as well as labor that lends to this nation’s positionality as a hegemonic power.
In addition to crowd-sourced testimonials, Define American recently launched  #UndocuJoy, a social media campaign designed to combat victimizing representations of undocumented people by “flooding the media with authentic images of happiness.”
The campaign features a video in collaboration with poet Yosimar Reyes who narrates his poem “I Love Us” throughout a series of images of everyday undocumented people getting up, going to work, dancing, making breakfast, and being human:
Reyes writes:
I love us / because we have constantly had to prove our humanity / and constantly done it beautifully / Because to stay human / Under these conditions / you have to have an understanding of / Beauty.
#UndocuJoy has seen declarations of solidarity from US citizens and immigrants to the US. Self-identified undocumented writer Ciriac Alvarez tweeted:
Maybe I can't control the cruelty in this world, but I can control what I spread. #UndocuJoy means spreading kindness & understanding
— Ciriac Alvarez (@ciriacisbeth) 28 de agosto de 2017
In Attorney General Sessions’ speech announcing DACA’s termination, he referred to DACA recipients as “mostly adult illegal aliens.”
His choice of wording recalled Define American's campaign #WordsMatter, launched in 2015, which urges journalists to stop using the word “illegal” to refer to people:
Phrases such as “illegal immigrant” and “illegal alien”  replace complex legal circumstances with an assumption of guilt. They effectively criminalize the personhood of migrants, instead of describing the legality of their actions.
“Being in the US without proper documents is a civil offense, not a criminal one,” the campaign continues.
Given Trump's past disparaging comments about people of Mexican origin, as well as a series of controversial executive orders, pardons, and proclamations that involve minority communities, the move to end DACA and the language used to justify the decision have reinforced accusations that Trump is purposefully stirring mistrust and hatred in society.
Even before Trump's rise to the presidency, the federal government's deportation priorities led certain areas of the country to limit their cooperation with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Currently, four states (California, Colorado, Connecticut and New Mexico), as well as 37 cities and counties, have declared themselves as so-called sanctuary cities.
Following the DACA decision, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel doubled down on his city's commitment to offering sanctuary, going so far as to declare Chicago a “Trump-Free Zone.”
But sanctuary cities aren't a permanent solution for DACA recipients. Their fate now rests with Congress. Perhaps hearing the personal stories published by initiatives like Define American will remind lawmakers that there are real people behind the statistics and that being American is more than just a piece of paper.

author: Amanda Lichtenstein


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Violence in Northwest Myanmar Sparks an Information War Online with Anti-Rohingya Hate Speech and Fake Photos · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

An example of a pro-Rohingya hate speech post disparaging Buddhists in Myanmar, who are accused of committing ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya people. Screenshot from Twitter, September 4.
Myanmar’s internet exploded with hate speech, fake news photos, and racist narratives after the Myanmar military clashed with Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on August 25, 2017, near the Bangladesh border in the northwestern part of the country.
The violence lasted for days with the Myanmar government immediately declaring ARSA a terrorist group while launching aggressive ‘clearance operations’ in the villages of Rakhine state. The government and ARSA blamed each other for civilian casualties caused by the conflict.
As the violence continues, the Myanmar government has tried to assist in relocating non-Muslim ethnic peoples in the area, but Rohingya civilians, of which there are roughly one million, have been less fortunate. Thus, tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees are crossing the Bangladesh border to escape the fighting.
While multiple ethnic groups have been affected by the conflict, the international media has emphasized the Myanmar government's treatment of non-militant Rohingya people fleeing the violence, and there have been many reports of atrocities perpetrated by the military against the Rohingya. Meanwhile, local media outlets have highlighted the deaths of people from other ethnic groups living in the area, reportedly due to the attacks made by ARSA.
The international community has urged the Myanmar government to stop the violence and take action to help the refugees. However, some in Myanmar have criticized the international media, calling them biased for ‘ignoring’ the plight of the local Buddhist population who were also displaced by the fighting between the government and ARSA.
Although the publication of hate speech propaganda and fake news photos has plagued Myanmar’s online space in recent years, it became heavily violent again after August 25. These tensions have generated an “information war” online with a spate of malicious online propaganda seeking to re-frame the dominant international narrative about the conflict.
Heavily present in these images is the mischaracterization of the Rohingya as Bengalis. Rakhine state is home to many minority ethnic groups such as the Rakhine, Mro, Rohingya and Dai-net. In contrast to the other groups, the Myanmar government does not recognize the Rohingya, who are mostly Muslim, as an ethnic group. Instead, they are referred to as “Bengali.”
A widely shared illustration comparing the “world view” or international perspective on the conflict with “reality”. Screenshot from Twitter, September 4.
Bengalis are one of the largest ethnic groups in South Asia. But in Myanmar, Bengali has taken on its own meaning. It has become a derogatory word to refer to the Rohingya as undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh. This designation along with the slur ‘kalar‘ has evolved into racist slander often directed toward the Rohingya in Myanmar, both online and off.
Other images decry international media houses for focusing on the plight of the Rohingya.
A widely shared image on Myanmar's current conflict, implying that international media allegedly are ignoring the deaths of non-Rohingya minorities in Rakhine. Screenshot from Twitter, September 4.
The image below insinuates that the Rohingya have somehow lured international sources into spreading misinformation about the situation:
A widely shared hate speech image on Myanmar's current conflict, implying the Rohingya have too much control over the international media. Screenshot from Twitter, September 4.
Images like the ones above and other far more graphic representations of these ideas have gone viral within social media networks in Myanmar.
In addition to what is clearly organic sharing and re-posting of these images, some observers have noticed trends in sharing that appear to be coordinated.
Independent analyst Raymond Serrato detected a strange spike of 1,500 new Twitter accounts with provocative hashtags that appeared after the August 25 clash. Many of the dubious accounts have spread pro-government messages that also feature hashtags such as #Bengali or #BengaliTerrorists. It is unknown who is behind the accounts, but the trend echoes similar “Twitter brigade” phenomena in a variety of countries including India and the United Arab Emirates.
In another instance, a campaign on Facebook has been urging users to give negative reviews to BBC Burmese Service and Voice of America (VOA) Myanmar pages with one star for reporting on the Rohingya, while urging users to give five stars to the Myanmar State Counselor Facebook page. Identical page reviews from unique accounts (see examples below) indicate that this is a coordinated effort to discredit the media outlets.
BBC Myanmar Facebook page reviews. Screenshot by the author on August 25.
Reviews on VOA page. Screenshot by the author on September 4.
Coordinated online smear efforts have also extended to hacking. Local newspapers also reported that several Myanmar government websites were hacked last week, allegedly in retaliation for the government's treatment of Rohingya refugees.
It is difficult to obtain accurate information about the conflict, as journalists both from the region and from abroad have been struggling to gain access to the conflict areas. This has left a void of verified information and images from the center of the conflict, which too often is being filled by images that have been doctored or that came from other countries altogether. Such photos are being used by both sides to advance their propaganda.
Below are two examples of an anti-Rohingya hate speech posts (note the hashtag terminology):
An example of anti-Rohingya hate speech post. Screenshot taken September 4.
Here are some examples of pro-Rohingya photos that were later proven to have come from Nepal and Indonesia:
An example of a fake news post with reused photos. The image on the upper left side appears on a website reporting Nepal flooding on August 13. The upper right and lower left images need to be confirmed for authenticity as they only appeared on Twitter after the violence. The lower right side image is from Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Screenshot from Twitter, September 4.
The Myanmar government has set up an official Facebook page, known as the ‘Information Committee’ an official Facebook page to serve as a platform offering verified information about the situation in Rakhine, but given the circumstances, this too must be taken with a grain of salt.
With conflicting propaganda and fake news flooding the internet and limited access to conflict zones, post-conflict conditions remain difficult to verify.


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Singaporeans Face Police Investigation After Holding Candlelight Vigil for Executed Migrant Worker · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Police officers arrived during the candlelight vigil on July 13 outside Changi Prison Complex. Photo from Kirsten Han's Facebook page, used with permission.
Singapore police have summoned 17 individuals for participating in a candlelight vigil held on July 13, 2017, accusing the group of activists and journalists of organizing an ‘illegal assembly.’
The group gathered outside Changi Prison in eastern Singapore to show support for the family of Malaysian migrant worker Prabagaran Srivijayan, who was executed on drug trafficking charges on July 14.
Prabagaran insisted on his innocence up until the end of his life, and several human rights groups urged the Singaporean government to spare Prabagaran and revisit the case. But his execution sentence was carried out, and Prabagaran became the fourth person executed by Singapore in 2017 on drug-related charges.
Although many of the 17 individuals who joined the vigil were anti-death penalty advocates, they mainly intended to show solidarity with Prabagaran's grieving family.
During the candlelight vigil, several police officers arrived and confiscated the candles but allowed the vigil to continue as long as candles were not lit.
Two months later, Singaporean police are now probing the individuals who joined the vigil for violating the law on public assembly. It is strictly prohibited in Singapore to hold a gathering without a permit under Section 16(2)(a) of the Public Order Act, Chapter 257A.
Writer Kirsten Han, a Global Voices contributor who attended the vigil and later received the police summons, described the experience on Facebook, and wondered why the vigil was deemed an illegal assembly:
I understand that it is the police’s duty to protect law and order and to uphold the laws of our country. But when a simple, nonviolent, quiet vigil for a man about to be hanged by the state is deemed an illegal assembly worthy of a police investigation, perhaps it is time to think about whether we are striking the right balance between public order, freedom of assembly and compassion.
The police also summoned Terry Xu, editor of The Online Citizen news website, who expressed surprise to learn the vigil was viewed by police an act of illegal assembly:
An “illegal public assembly” to grieve over an individual who was put to death under the state law, and insisted that he is innocent till the point he was hanged at the gallows. It was also an “illegal public assembly” where the police officers turned up at the scene and said it was okay to gather so long there is no candles placed.
The police are apparently preventing those who attended the vigil from leaving the country without clearance from authorities. Terry Xu was stopped by immigration officers while preparing to travel outside Singapore:
Are the police acting as judges to decide whether or not one can leave the country without putting the matter to court?
If this is not harassment, I don't know what else can be considered as one.
Human rights groups have criticized the police for harassing individuals participating in a peaceful vigil. Function 8, a Singapore-based NGO, released a statement describing the case as going “against the spirit of our Constitution and a waste of police resources.”


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Automatic Speech Recognition Project Seeks to Revitalize the Quechua Languages · Global Voices
Gabriela García Calderón Orbe

Screen capture from a YouTube video, published by engineer Luis Camacho Caballero.
Kuélap isn't just an important Peruvian pre-Inca archaeological site of the Chachapoya culture located Amazonas region. It is also the name of a recollection tool for the project QuechuaASR that aims to create an automatic speech recognition system, or ASR, for the Quechua language.
The Quechua language is a whole family of languages spoken by indigenous populations living mainly in the South American Andes, and it has been considered in danger by organizations like UNESCO. The actual number of speakers is difficult to calculate, and the wide domination of Spanish in the region, specially in formal education make it difficult for Quechua speakers to develop their language. The different ways in which the indigenous populations suffer from discrimination are among the most important causes of vulnerability. Some parents avoid teaching Quechua to their children to ensure they can integrate into society, and others who speak it can lose it when they migrate to big urban areas. As recounted by Lorenzo Colque Arias, president of the Academy of Quechua Language in Arequipa:
El habitante arequipeño es muy agresivo cuando escucha a una persona hablar en quechua, lo margina, lo discrimina, y lo peor de todo es que esa misma persona sabe hablar y entiende perfectamente el idioma, es un migrante ya radicado en la ciudad y ahora ya discrimina.
The inhabitants of Arequipa become very aggressive when they hear someone speaking Quechua. They marginalize or discriminate against [those speaking Quechua]. The worst part is that those same people [who reject Quechua speakers] speak and understand the language perfectly. They're migrants residing in the city, and they're now the ones who discriminate.
Luis Camacho is the electronic engineer behind this project. It was driven by his sense of urgency in preventing certain indigenous languages from disappearing entirely before the end of this century. He expressed this on his Facebook page, called Atuq Kamachikuq (“atuq” means fox in Quechua):
Voy detrás de mi mayor sueño: la portabilidad computacional de todas las lenguas andino amazónicas.
I am following my biggest dream: the computational portability of all the Andean Amazonian languages.
In a 2015 post on the same social network, Luis Camacho asked Quechua speakers to participate in recording at least a hundred thousand words, all spoken by at least one hundred people. Moreover, the hundred people in question had to be native Quechua speakers, rather than people who had learned Quechua as a second language.
To achieve this, there was an open call for volunteers who are native speakers of Quechua, regardless of where they live. The first course of action is for volunteers to read the texts compiled.
Secondly, the volunteers are responsible for transcribing the audio. Finally, the focus groups convene with a group of people to talk about different topics of everyday life, and with that they record the audio which will later be transcribed.
The content of the recordings is not the main subject of the research. The central point will be compiling the lexicon as a sort of dictionary of voices. The research seeks to record the existing lexicon of indigenous languages and build a database that can be implemented in the development of computer tools.
Global Voices spoke briefly with Luis Camacho about his project’s progress.
GV: What's the status of the project so far?
Luis Camacho (LC): Ya hemos reunido 100 horas de corpus de voz y texto alineados a nivel de frases. Esto lo hemos conseguido gracias a donaciones de audio de empresas de radio difusión del sur del Perú y también gracias a la contribución de más de 1000 voluntarios.
Luis Camacho (LC): We have already compiled 100 hours of voice [recordings] and [transcribed] text aligned at the sentence level. We've done this thanks to audio donations from radio broadcasting companies in southern Peru and also thanks to the contributions of more than 1000 volunteers.
GV: What is the ultimate goal of the project?
LC: El traductor automático es la meta final. Actualmente, estamos trabajando en la primera etapa, que es el conversor de voz a texto. Estamos comprometidos a lanzar esto a comienzos de 2018 un par de videos.
LC: The automatic translator is the ultimate goal. We are currently working on the first stage, which is the voice-to-text converter. We are committed to launching a couple of videos in early 2018.
GV: What plans do you have after this?
LC: Continuar hasta terminar el traductor. También espero este año con la recopilación de corpus de otros idiomas, aymara y ashaninka en primer lugar. Entre mis planes a largo plazo están realizar portabilidad computacional completa de la mayor parte de nuestros idiomas e incluso de algunos otros idiomas sudamericanos. Para eso se necesita financiación, y estoy en búsqueda permanente de fondos.
LC: To keep going until the translator is finished. I also hope to start building a compilation of other languages, firstly Aymara and Ashaninka. My long-term plans include full computational portability of most of our languages and even some other South American languages. Funding is needed for that, and I am constantly seeking funds.
As if all of that weren't enough, Camacho has also proposed to develop an automatic translator of Quechua/Aymara to Spanish, English and Chinese, and vice versa. In this Spanish-language video, he explains how the Quechua audio transcription tool works.
To be part of the project, you can e-mail engineer Luis Camacho at qichwa@pucp.pe.

author: Gabriela García Calderón Orbe


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China Makes Chat Group Administrators — i.e. Regular Users — Criminally Liable for Unlawful Messages · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The Great Firewall of China. Image from Digital Trends.
New regulations in China will make chat group administrators responsible — and even criminally liable — for messages containing politically sensitive material, rumors and violent or pornographic content.
The regulations also demand that all chat room users in mainland China verify their real identity.
Introduced by the Cyberspace Administration of China on 7 September, the “Regulation on the Management of Internet Chat Group Service” represents a bold policy shift by extending the work of regulating online content beyond government workers and companies to the users themselves. Indeed, chat group administrators are merely users of chat services like WhatsApp, WeChat and QQ who create and manage groups that might chat about anything from childcare to the Communist Party congress.
From 8 October onward, chat group administrators will become a key human resource in China's internet control infrastructure.
Dovetailing with China's new regulation on the management of online comments, the news rules will also force chat service companies (such as WeChat and QQ) to punish users who have not verified their identities or who have violated other terms of use, such as posting scams, rumors or politically sensitive material. Users who violate these rules will have certain account privileges suspended, and have their social credit scores lowered.
The regulations also require that the companies record, monitor and retain users’ chat records for at least six months and notify authorities whenever they spot abusive use of group chats.
The initial regulation, issued by the Cyberspace Administration, stressed that group administrators should be responsible for the contents posted on the chat group. But it did not specify what exactly these responsibilities would be. The Public Security Bureau soon after stepped in, presenting nine types of content that should not be posted on chat groups:
Regulation on the Management of Internet Chat Group Service: Prohibited Content
Effective 8 October, the following types of content will be prohibited in chat groups on China-based messaging platforms:
1. Sensitive political content
2. Rumors
3. Internal documents [of the Chinese Communist Party and government units]
4. Content that is vulgar, pornographic, violent or shows drug-related criminal acts
5. News from Hong Kong and Macau that has not been reported by official media outlets
6. Military information
7. State secrets
8. Videos from anonymous sources that insult or destroy police’s reputation
9. Other illegal information
Chat group administrators who fail to remove prohibited content from chats can face criminal charges or administrative detention.
In addition to the list, the Public Security Bureau also presented a number of past cases, cited below, in which chat group administrators were punished through criminal prosecution or “political consequences.”
Case one: Insulting police officers
A man from Jieshou county of Anhui province was frustrated by traffic police, who had established a late night checkpoint for drunk driving. In a chat room that he created, he wrote: “Are they nuts? Checking in the rain? [They are] a bunch of assholes who just want money.” As the insulting comments created negative social impact within his circle, the man was detained for five days for picking a quarrel.
Case two: Online petition
On 27 June 2016, several party members from Qianjiang city in Hubei province violated the law by illegally using a WeChat group to circulate a petition against a construction plan for a pesticide factory. The incident led to a public rally and obstructed public order. Recently, nine members of the chat group received party discipline, five received discipline warnings and 40 had to be re-educated. The administrator of the group received a discipline warning as he did not stop the petition and channelled the opinions in the chat group.
Case three: Indecent and obscene articles
A young person in Shenyang city created a 100+ member chat group. One of the members in the group kept sending out messages about a “big hit movie” and asked other group members to pay for access to [what turned out to be] a pornographic video. As the group administrator did not stop the member from selling the videos in the group, the police arrested him under the charge of “distributing obscene material.”
Case four: Gambling activities
A man from Fuxin prefecture of Liaoning province abused the “red envelope” function [a way to send money, as a gift] in several chat groups for gambling purposes between June to August 2015. The court sentenced the man to 2.5 years with a three-year suspension and a fine of RMB 50,000 yuan [approximately USD $8,000].
It is not clear whether these users’ activities were observed by chat service companies, chat group administrators, or some combination of the two.
Following the introduction of China's regulation on “rumors” in 2013, many netizens migrated from open social media platforms (such as Sina Weibo, similar to Twitter) to chat services for sharing information, because these tools allowed them to create closed groups and have semi-private conversations.
But in recent years, multiple netizens have been arrested due to the political nature of their comments on private chat groups. These new regulations seem to codify the practices behind these arrests and suggest that censorship over chat group messages will soon be much more robust.
On Weibo, netizens are anticipating how the new regulation might affect group chats that use dark humor:
你好，我想发个红包、加下群…..请填写下申请表格，分管领导签字上级部门盖章
Hi, I want to give a red envelope in my group…. pls fill up a form and ask your leader to sign the approval.
以后餐厅都要改成独立餐桌儿，汽车改成一个座儿的，陌生人认识先登记，从此天下太平
In the future, all resturants should redesign their tables for just one person and vehicles should only have one seat. You should pre-register before you meet a new friend. Then there will be peace on earth.
以后每个群都有地下党
In the future, every chat room who have a undercover CCP member stationed.
强烈支持党和国家出台的新政！群员违法，群主追责！并希望早日推广为村民违法，村长追责，县民违法，县长追责，市民违法，市长追责。依次类推，违法犯罪就能尽快消灭，共产主义就一定会在我们这一代人实现。
Support the party and new government regulations! Group administrators are responsible for group members’ illegal behavior! I hope very soon that village heads will be responsible for villagers’ illegal behavior, that county heads will be responsible for county residents’ illegal behavior, and that city heads will be responsible for citizens’ illegal behavior… all crimes would then vanish and we can fulfill the dream of communism in our generation.
要不直接断网吧 回到石器时代
Why not just cut the internet cable and return to the stone age?
The new regulations will go into force on 8 October.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Journalist Faces Defamation Probe for Comparing Indonesia’s Treatment of West Papua with Myanmar’s Rohingya · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Cartoon in support of Dandhy Dwi Laksono, drawn by Iwan Sketsa/ @Sketsagram on Twitter and Instagram. Published with artist's permission.
Indonesian police in East Java are investigating a veteran journalist for comparing former President Megawati Sukarnoputri to Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi in a Facebook post.
On September 3, 2017, journalist and documentary filmmaker Dandhy Dwi Laksono wrote on Facebook that Megawati and Suu Kyi are alike in many ways, noting that both are former opposition leaders who now head the ruling parties in their respective countries. Dandhy added that if Myanmar’s government is being criticized for its treatment of ethnic Rohingya, the Indonesian government should similarly be held liable for suppressing the independence movement on the Indonesian island of West Papua.
He further compared Suu Kyi’s silence on the persecution of the Rohingya to Megawati’s role as party leader of the government, which has recently intensified the crackdown on West Papuan independence activists.
Rohingya people born and living in Myanmar are not recognized as citizens by the Myanmar government. In recent weeks, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya civilians have been displaced from their homes due to clearing operations of the Myanmar military in response to attacks by a pro-Rohingya insurgent group in northwest Myanmar. Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees, who are mostly Muslim, are crossing into Bangladesh to escape the fighting.
West Papua is a province of Indonesia with a vocal independence movement that has called for the creation of a separate state since the 1960s. Human rights groups have documented many cases of abuse committed by Indonesian state forces against activists, journalists, and other individuals suspected of supporting the independence movement.
Dandhy posted his comments on Facebook following a big rally was organized by Muslim groups in Indonesia, condemning the Myanmar government for its treatment of Rohingya refugees.
The youth arm of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) filed a defamation complaint against Dandhy on September 6:
On the whole, (Dandhy’s) opinion was clearly intended to take advantage of the Rohingya incidents in Myanmar in order to insult and spread hatred of Megawati Soekarnoputri as the chairwoman of PDI-P and Joko Widodo as the president who is backed by PDI-P.
He is now under investigation by the police cyber crime unit. If he is prosecuted for and convicted of defamation, Dandhy could face up to four years in prison.
Reacting to the complaint, Dandhy wrote that it is a minor issue compared to the injustices suffered by Papuan activists and Rohingya refugees.
The complaint is the latest case of how the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law is being used to silence dissent in the country.
According to Indonesian digital rights group SAFEnet, at least 35 activists have been charged with online defamation since its enactment in 2008. Aside from Dandhy's case, the group has documented six defamation charges involving activists and journalists in 2017.
Activists were quick to launch a campaign expressing support to Dandhy. They asserted that Dandhy was simply expressing an opinion which should be considered legitimate criticism and not a criminal act.
SAFEnet is encouraging Indonesian netizens to submit reports and testimonies about how the ITE Law is being abused to silence activists like Dandhy and suppress online free speech in general.
Instead of preventing the public from commenting on Megawati, a local investigative portal suggested that Dandhy's case could in fact trigger greater interest in the former president's legacy as a leader, including some of the issues that led to her defeat in the polls.
Activists showing their support for Dandhy Dwi Laksono. Photo from SAFEnet
The hashtag #KamiBersamaDandhy (We Stand with Dandhy) was used on various social media platforms to call for support for the veteran journalist.
If the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter #KamiBersamaDandhy @repdemjatim pic.twitter.com/0vdSIitagk
— Ari Trismana (@ari_trismana) September 8, 2017
Kami bersamamu mas @Dandhy_laksono #kamibersamadandhy
A post shared by Gendo Suardana (@gendovara) on
#kamibersamadandhy
A post shared by Beni Fuad Ismail (@benifuadi) on