Japan's Japanese-African American Miss Universe Tests the Country’s Changing Attitudes on Race

Ariana Miyamoto. (Photo screen captured from YouTube)

By Matt McClellan
The selection of a half-Japanese, half-American woman as Japan's representative for the 64th Miss Universe pageant this past April has sparked a renewed domestic and international debate regarding what it means to be Japanese.

The Miss Universe Pageant also highlights the problems mixed-race Japanese continue to face in their home country of Japan.

Ariana Miyamoto, the child of a Japanese woman and an African-American man, will be the first half-Japanese contestant in the Miss Universe competition. The selection of Miyamoto as Japan's representative created a flurry of mixed reactions on Twitter.

Some of the comparatively milder reactions on social media express confusion and hesitation toward the announcement.

Interestingly, many even mildly negative tweets have been deleted by their owners, but not before being documented by news aggregation site Matome Naver:

What's up with Miss Universe Japan being half? (lol)

Another tweet, since deleted, said:

At first I thought, ‘oh they chose Japan's Miss Universe!’ But then I took a look at the results and… well, to be honest, I can't help but wonder about a half representing Japan…

Others wondered how such a selection was made in the first place:

Is it okay to choose a hafu as Japan's representative?! The Miss Universe selection process was certainly mysterious this time.

Stronger criticisms called Miyamoto's ethnicity into question:

The Miss Universe Japan representative from Nagasaki is an incredible beauty, but her face doesn't represent Japan does it?

The strongest reactions state Miyamoto is a gaijin, which is an impolite way to refer to foreigners in Japan, and that her selection is a mistake.

Even though she's Miss Universe Japan, no matter how ya look at her face she's an outsider, ain't she!

Despite research and evidence suggesting that the people of Japan are the result of different migrations of people over thousands of years from all over Asia, there is a strong belief among Japanese that the nation is made up of an ethnically homogeneous race.

Historically, mixed-race Japanese children have been subject to bullying and social ostracization ever since the fraternization between American GIs and Japanese women after the end of WWII.

The post-war American occupation resulted in ever-increasing births of multi-racial children in Japan.

In 1952, a government census determined there were 5,013 mixed-race children in Japan, while today, according to Megumi Nishikura's documentary “Hafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan”, 20,000 half-Japanese babies are born every year.

Considering this history and the above reactions, it's little wonder people like Miyamoto who identify as half-Japanese continue to be subjected to social and physical forms of bullying in school.

In an interview with Rupert Wingfield-Hayes of BBC News Tokyo, Miyamoto mentions one of her friends growing up was unable to cope with the treatment he received from his peers and committed suicide.

Not everyone agrees with the sentiment that Miyamoto is not fit to be Japan's representative. In this YouTube video, many interviewees broadly support Miyamoto for Miss Universe.

Support for Miyamoto has been strong on Twitter as well:

何がどうダメなんだろう…。理解に苦しむ。／ ミスユニバースジャパンにハーフの宮本エリアナさん。ネットでは疑問の声も – NAVER まとめ http://t.co/nuDroNdN0n

— お～いし かえる (@h_oishi) March 18, 2015

What's the problem here… I'm having a real hard time understanding objections [being dredged up on Matome Naver].

Another Twitter user revealed a different prejudice while voicing support for Miyamoto:

ニューハーフならミスじゃないけど、ダブルの何が悪いのか？ http://t.co/mWiZ36XidI

— yukioyamaguchi (@yukioyamaguchi) March 14, 2015

If she was transgender I could see the problem, but what's wrong with her being a “double?”

The user uses daburu or “double” to refer to what Japanese people perceive as Miyamoto's mixed-race heritage. “Double” is a less-common but politically correct way to refer to a mixed-race or hafu person in Japan.

Where “half” has the implied meaning of incomplete, “double” implies the different parts of a person's multi-racial background compliment each other.

見た目が純日本人じゃないから何？日本で育ってお母さんが日本人で、日本の文化に馴染んでて。立派な日本人だよ！素直におめでとうって言おうよ！ ミスユニバースジャパンにハーフの宮本エリアナさん。ネットでは疑問の声も – NAVER まとめ http://t.co/rAmq7p7led

— Nami H Lewis (@Nammieolivia) March 14, 2015


So what if Ariana doesn't look like a pure-blooded Japanese? Her mom's Japanese, born and raised in Japan, and she said her daughter's acclimated to Japanese culture. Ariana's an elegant Japanese woman! Let's get out there and give her our congratulations!

In a video from The Hafu Project, an organization that seeks to raise awareness of multi-racial Japanese, people who identify as having both non-Japanese and Japanese heritage were asked to explain how they introduce themselves in Japan.

The responses were enlightening:

The Hafu Project also interviewed Japanese people to find out their views on hafu.

Although the responses indicate that the situation may not as grim as the negative tweets against Miyamoto might suggest, the participant's perspectives are primarily influenced by appearance. The primary words used to describe hafu include “pretty,” “cute” and “beautiful,” which only focuses on physicality and doesn't take personality into account.

However, when the participants were asked if they feel there is a difference between Japanese and hafu, all responded that there is no real difference and they are the same as everyone else.

It is safe to say there is progress being made regarding Japan's attitudes towards multi-racial Japanese; however, the mixed reactions and lack of Japanese media coverage regarding Ariana Miyamoto show that there is still work to be done in order for “halfs” to be considered “whole” Japanese.

The 64th Miss Universe Pageant's will be held later this year or early in 2016 and while a venue has not been chosen yet, possible locations include China and Columbia. Although discussion regarding Miyamoto has largely died down, the debate will likely be reignited once the contest gets underway.

Reprinted with permission from Global Voices.

White Supremacists Are Experiencing Pure Terror and Here's Why: Whites Are Projected to Become a US Minority — And Soon

For the first time, whites are in the minority among children under the age of 5 — What will happen to local, state, and federal governments and US foreign policy when this age cohort becomes of voting age? This is what keeps white supremacists up at night. They believe only a civil war, ethnic cleansing, or population extermination will keep "their kind" in power.—Ronald David Jackson

________________

Whites projected to become a US minority

White supremacists feel like the incredible shrinking man in this poster:
Now they have to deal with that growing cat (minorities) they terrorized,
exploited, and took for granted.

By Haya El Nasser
The nation’s demographics are on a clear trajectory: White people are dying faster than they are being born, which means they are on target to become a minority in the United States in 30 years.

For the third year in a row, deaths of non-Hispanic whites outnumbered births, according to detailed population estimates for states and counties released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

“This is without historical precedent,” said Kenneth Johnson, the senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy. “The minority population is growing, and the non-Hispanic white population is not.”

Whites currently account for 62 percent of the population but 78 percent of deaths, according to Johnson’s analysis.

Their median age — half are older and half younger — has hit an all-time high of 43, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. For the first time, whites are in the minority among children under the age of 5.

“Since 2010, the overall under age 20 population is declining, while working ages and especially seniors are growing,” Frey said.

White populations under 20 declined in 46 states — in all but Hawaii, Utah, South Dakota, North Dakota and the District of Columbia.

RELATED STORY: White Supremacists Sign Up for Military to Train for Race War — With Little Pushback from Pentagon

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Non-Hispanic whites were the only group with a higher death rate than birthrate. As a result, their numbers grew the slowest: up 0.5 percent from 2013 to 2014, compared with 2.1 percent for Hispanics, 1.3 percent for black people, 3.2 percent for Asians, 1.4 percent for American Indians and Alaska Natives, and 2.3 percent for native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders.

Read More

Killings of Migrants in South Africa Reportedly Sparked by Bigoted Statements of Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini

Zwelithini referred to migrants as "lice" and said they should pack up and leave South Africa. His statements were said to have sparked killings and the looting of homes and businesses owned by migrants from other African countries.

 'King' Goodwill Zwelithini. (Screen capture from YouTube video)

By Aljaseera via AllAfrica

Scenes of looted stores are greeting Johannesburg residents in South Africa as police assist foreign nationals to safety in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, following a second day of violence.

Overnight, looting and road blockages by anti-immigrant protesters were reported in Alexandra, Malvern, Thokoza and Cleveland on Saturday.

Colonel Dlamini, Gauteng police spokesperson, told Al Jazeera: "We believe these are pure criminal acts. People are taking advantage of the situation and then they are robbing small businesses."

Late on Friday a group of protesters barricaded portions of the M2 highway with rocks and refuse, and police were forced to fire rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

"There were problems in Cleveland last night where the residents from the informal settlement attacked foreign nationals but police have attended to the situation," Dlamini said.

King Goodwill Zwelithini Says Foreigners Must Go

Dlamini said more than 30 people were arrested on Friday night in the Cleveland and Thokoza policing area, while another five were arrested in Alexandra.

In the port city of Durban, meanwhile, no new incidents of violence against foreigners have been reported.

RELATED STORY: Nigerian Organization Calls for Reprisals Against the South African Government for its Inability to Deal with Xenophobic Attacks on Nigerians in South Africa

Police, however, established overnight that a sixth person had been confirmed dead in the violence

that has plagued the city for over two weeks.

RELATED STORY: Human Rights Commission wants King Goodwill to clarify comments

According to investigations by Durban police, the body of a 58-year-old man found dumped in Verulam, north of Durban, on Wednesday, has been revealed to be a foreign national who was attacked by a mob at his home in the area.

Thousands displaced

The UN Refugee Agency estimates that a total of 5,000 people have been displaced in the current wave of violence.

RELATED STORY: President Zuma faces pressure to end violence in South Africa

Makeshift shelters for displaced foreigners has been set up around Durban, from which many foreigners are now preparing to leave South Africa.

According to UNHCR, some 1,400 people, mostly single men, with few families, are being accommodated in Chatsoworth, while, 300 others are sheltered in Isipingo, and another 450 in Greenwood Park.

Read More

India's Dalit Women’s Rights Under Economic Globalisation — In Many Ways Their Situation is Worse

The economic reforms begun in India in 1991 were couched in the language of ‘modernization’, yet they have done little to challenge the caste and gender discrimination faced by Dalit women (once referred to as "untouchables") — in some ways their situation is worse.

Covering their faces farm hands walk through the mustard field in India. These women
come from dalit communities and suffer various types of gender crimes including
molestation and rape followed by police apathy at the crimes.(Arindam Mukherjee/
Demotix - All rights reserved)

By Rachel Kurian
The Indian government claimed the economic reforms undertaken in India from 1991 would usher in a new era of market efficiency that would lead to a globally competitive economy with increased growth and employment. The reforms were implemented in a context that was highly influenced by patriarchy and caste-based exclusionary practices. The latter resulted in a close match between income inequalities and caste ordering. An important question was whether the reforms – couched in the language of ‘modernization’ - would improve the lot of Dalit women through providing them income and employment opportunities that would allow them to overcome traditional barriers. A study released in 2012, based on interviews in New Delhi and Hyderabad (two of the cities with highest growth rates), but drawing also on nationwide data, produced surprising results. It suggested that while there was little improvement in a few cases, caste and patriarchy continue to influence the work and lives of Dalit women. Further, these problems were made worse in some instances by deteriorating welfare benefits and economic insecurity as a result of fiscal cuts and increasing inequalities.


How did this come about? First, some background: through its hereditary and hierarchical principles, the Hindu caste system has historically enforced occupational and labor market discrimination on Dalits by forcing them to undertake menial, unclean and low-status occupations. The practice of ‘untouchability’ – the prohibition of social and relational interaction between Dalit and other communities – further limited their possibilities for upward mobility. In spite of legal measures that penalized such practices after independence, caste-based exclusion continued to prevail. Dalit women were subject not only to the patriarchal norms and practices prevailing in India, and within their own communities. They were also targets of physical violence and rape by members of the wider society as a means of humiliating the community.

The study looked at how Dalit women experienced economic liberalization in relation to employment in the public, private and NGO sectors, as well as in entrepreneurship.

The public sector had since the 1950s provided an important option for Dalit groups to gain secure employment and to improve their economic and social status. The ‘reservation’ policy allocated a quota of places to Dalits in government educational institutions and in public service employment (based on their proportion in the general population). This policy was supported by special vocational and skills training. These provisions gave confidence to Dalits that they could access government employment.

The study showed that by 2010 these opportunities were under threat or were no longer available. Under pressure to cut government expenditure in line with the liberalization policies, recruitment in the public sector became more irregular. Vacancies allocated for Dalits often were simply not being filled. Ostensibly, the reason was a lack of suitable candidates. Yet these positions were subsequently given to people on temporary contract, the latter often been filled through informal contacts. A majority of educated Dalit women pursuing public sector jobs were only able to access temporary, low paid, work which lacked social security and labour rights. Most of them were employed in typically female jobs, with 50% in New Delhi being employed as teachers in government schools, often below their own skill level.

In the private sector, liberalization did result in increased employment for educated Dalit women. These women, over 70% of whom were between 20-30 years, and 80% of whom were single, had accessed education through the reservation policies. They were improving their technical and computer skills to meet the needs of the business that had started, especially in the growing services sector, and working for sub-contractors of larger companies.

Unfortunately like in many such small subcontracting firms, the Dalit women earned a near-minimum wage, and often lacked security of employment and welfare. Trade unions did not generally exist in these companies. Some of the companies provided benefits. And some of the Dalit women employees did gain some respect from their families and communities, even if patriarchal norms continued their subordination to male authority within the household.

However, the government’s encouragement of privatisation was sometimes at the expense of the existing labour and welfare rights of the workers. For example, while the government of Andhra Pradesh encouraged private sector expansion in many areas of the economy, it let companies monitor themselves on various labour welfare measures, such as minimum wages and maternity benefits. While caste was not often discussed in the private sector, it did not mean that it did not exist. The Dalit women interviewed expressed their fear that their colleagues might get to know their caste leading to social ostracism and even untouchability at the workplace.

In contrast, the NGO sector – which expanded substantially with the government withdrawal from service delivery – proved to be in an important source of employment for urban Dalit women. These organizations also showed greater awareness of caste and gender discrimination. As a result Dalit women in NGOs were able to access new information, improve their education and social awareness, and use their skills in their jobs. Nevertheless, the traditional gender division of labor, with women assuming labor-intensive tasks, often under male authority and supervision, continued to prevail in paid employment as well as in the household. The result was the typical ‘double-burden’ that characterises women’s experiences in patriarchal societies.

Finally, as regards entrepreneurship, both the union and state governments had promoted independent business by the scheduled castes. For example, the Delhi Scheduled Caste Finance Development Corporation runs several schemes to develop scheduled caste entrepreneurship. But the reality was that the majority of the Dalit women who sought to start businesses faced problems due to poor educational levels, a lack of experience and problems in accessing credit or borrowing at affordable interest rates. Most of them were involved in what was really self-employment, and stretching to work longer hours to both manage their businesses and do their ‘normal’ chores in the households.

It was clear for the majority of Dalit women that self-employment was more a distress-driven phenomenon and a survival strategy due to inadequately paid jobs or unemployment. In was not surprising that they set up small-scale shops and undertook activities with low and uncertain incomes, involving a high degree of self-exploitation. Their caste identity sometimes created obstacles; for example, being limited to Dalit customers, or to operate in a primarily Dalit locality.

Overall, the study showed that in the wake of economic growth, global competition and increased privatization, Dalit women remained exposed to hierarchies based on class, caste and patriarchy – in the labor market and in society. The majority of those interviewed were accessing temporary, low paid, contractual jobs, without adequate welfare and security provisions. While some Dalit women have managed to challenge these perceptions and move into better jobs, the realization of their fundamental labor and gender rights remains a challenge in contemporary India. This is especially so in a context of widening inequalities in society, increasing insecurity in employment, and the persistence of patriarchy and caste based discrimination.

Reprinted with permission from openDemocracy

The Upsetting Ethnic Taxonomy of Russia's Richest Businessmen

Images edited by Kevin Rothrock.

By Kevin Rothrock
One of Russia’s most popular news websites, the once vaunted Lenta.ru, finds itself at the center of a scandal today, after publishing an ethnic breakdown of Russia’s 200 richest people. According to the study, 44.5 percent of Russia’s wealthiest citizens are ethnically Russian, 21 percent are Jewish, 12 percent are Ukrainian, followed by smaller percentages of Tatars, Armenians, and a dozen or so other nationalities. “Overall,” the report concludes questionably, “it’s clear how different ethnic groups in a multiethnic country have used a collaborative solidarity and response to the beginning of the ‘capitalist era’ to build a new kind of economic and political life.”

Lenta’s study is based on Forbes’ 2014 ratings of Russia’s “200 Richest Businessmen,” though Elmar Murtazaev, Forbes’ chief editor, has already criticized the ethnic breakdown. On Facebook, Murtazaev questioned Lenta’s judgment, implying that Forbes has considered analyzing the nationalities of its “top 200” list, but rejected the idea every year for the last decade. “What was published isn’t an investigation,” he argued online, calling Lenta’s work “nothing more than pure speculation.” (Indeed, Lenta’s authors themselves admit that many individuals on Forbes’ list don’t advertise their nationality, making it difficult to assign labels.)

Murtazaev isn’t the only one upset about Lenta’s study. Nikolai Svanidze, a media personality and a member of Russia’s Civic Chamber (a consultative body within the Kremlin), says Lenta’s article is racist—even fascist. Natalia Gevorkyan, another prominent Russian journalist, also disliked the piece, asking on Facebook if its publication embarrassed Alexander Mamut, who ranks 42nd on Forbes’ list and owns Lenta’s parent group, Rambler & Co.

Maya Stravinskaya, Snob.ru.

Maya Stravinskaya, a data journalist at Rambler & Co., says she tried to pull the image in the study, after it landed on her desk in the final stages of development, but the article went ahead, regardless. “Lenta didn’t see anything xenophobic about it,” she wrote on Facebook. Stravinskaya told RuNet Echo that her team at Rambler & Co. (which recently migrated from RIA Novosti) created the infographic included in Lenta’s story, but she did what she could to stop its publication. “Ultimately, I can’t influence the site’s editorial policy,” she stressed.

As it happens, this isn't the first time a Russian news site published an ethnic breakdown of Forbes’ top-200 richest men in Russia. Two years ago, Pavel Pryanikov’s website Ttolk.ru posted a nearly identical study (with roughly the same findings) that also looked at businessmen’s class history (tracking their socioeconomic trajectories from Soviet times). On Facebook, Pryanikov reminded readers of his website’s “been there, done that” accomplishment, and pointed out that it is hypocritical for Murtazaev to attack Lenta, as Forbes itself has ranked the world’s richest Jews and Armenians.

There are undoubtedly many reasons for apprehensions about Lenta’s study. Methodologically, it’s nearly impossible to establish the ethnicity of many of Russia’s oligarchs (whose mixed heritage defies classification). Ethically, on the other hand, liberals in Russia are averse to racial taxonomies that threaten to stir ethnic tensions. Indeed, the chief finding in both Lenta’s article and Pryanikov’s study is that ethnic Russians are heavily underrepresented in the Russian elite, relative to their numbers in the general population. Presumably, and perhaps justifiably, Russian nationalists’ critics fear statistics like these could catapult their adversaries to political prominence.

Reprinted with permission from Global Voices.

Will Washington Succeed in Having Northern Syria Ethnically Cleansed?

At Kobané and in its region, where more than 300,000 Syrian Kurds are threatened with extermination by the Islamic Emirate, everyone can take the measure of NATO’s duplicity. As the commander of the US Coalition declares he is fighting against the Islamic Emirate, a NATO member, Turkey, furnishes the latter with the military and medical assistance they need, preventing civilians from fleeing and PKK fighters from coming to their aid.

Street battles in Kobané, Syria.

By Thierry Meyssan 
In ancient Greek theater, every spectator knew the tragic end of the play in advance. The characters, blinded by the gods, continued to act out what they pretended to reject with their words. But the choir revealed the projects of Destiny for the spectators.

The tragedy that is being played out at Kobané (Arabic Ain al-Arab) was written to conclude with the announced genocide of 300,000 Syrian Kurds. The Islamic Emirate has already taken control of several parts of the city and many surrounding villages. If the Syrian Arab Army fails to breach the lines of the Islamic Emirate to save them, they will all be killed.

The Kurdish population is defended by PYG (autonomist party supporting the Syrian Arab Republic), but Turkey has closed its border so that civilians cannot escape and the reinforcements of the Turkish PKK (separatist party linked to PYG) cannot arrive.

Kurdish forces are controlled by Mahmoud Barkhodan, assisted by Narine Afrin (real name Mayssa Abdo). The choice of a woman as second in command has caused panic in the Islamic Emirate, the jihadists being convinced that they cannot enter heaven if they are killed by a woman.

Faced with the Kurdish resistance, the Islamic Emirate has transferred most of its forces to Syria to crush Kobané.

According to our analysis, repeatedly stated in these columns and in many radio and television stations in Latin America, Russia and the Muslim world, the Islamic Emirate is a creation of the United States tasked with ethnically cleansing the region in order to remodel it. Everyone can see that the soothing declarations of US leaders are belied by their military action on the ground, not against, but in favor of the Islamic Emirate.

The Coalition has conducted six waves of bombings in Kobané. It never targeted positions of the Islamic Emirate and has caused it no loss. However, it holds at a distance further south and west, the Syrian Arab Army which fails to open a breach to save the people.

The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (pro-Israeli) refuses to help Syrian Kurds, with whom it has been in conflict for a long time. To justify this passivity, it argues that it does not have direct access to Syria.

Turkey, a NATO member, refuses to assist Syrian Kurds threatened with genocide as long as they do not give up their independent status in Syria and as long as they do not join NATO’s fight against Syria and its elected President Bashar al-Assad.

According to PYG fighters, Turkey daily supplies weapons to the Islamic Emirate and welcomes its wounded into its hospitals, while they themselves have the greatest challenges to transport injured Kurds to Turkey for medical treatment.

In Turkey, the Kurdish Islamic splinter group, Hur Dava Partisi (formerly named Hezbollah in order to create confusion with the Lebanese resistance), went to war against the PKK (Kurdish majority party in the country). The Hüda-Par (abbreviation of Hur Dava Partisi) is supported covertly by AKP chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan both to fight against Kurdish separatism and to support the Muslim Brotherhood.

On August 30th, a leader of the Islamic Emirate, Hikmet, and two of his bodyguards were killed by the PKK in Istanbul where they were staying at the invitation of Hüda-By and under the protection of the Turkish police.

In a text message sent to all its members, the PKK gave the instruction to physically eliminate all members of Hüda-Par, accused of working for the Turkish government and assisting the Islamic Emirate.

On October 10th, making a comparison with the Srebrenica massacre (Yugoslavia, 1995) the special UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, challenged Turkey to open its border to prevent the fall of Kobané and the genocide of its population. He demanded in vain that Turkey open its borders.

The head of the US Coalition, General John Allen, also publicly called upon Turkey to open its border and prevent the genocide of the Kobané Kurds. However, it does not appear that the Turkish refusal has altered relations between Washington and Ankara, on the contrary.

Turkey’s new foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said his country would not intervene as long as the Coalition formed by the United States against the Islamic Emirate (of which Turkey is a part) did not decide to impose a no-fly zone in northern Syria and has not given as its objective the overthrowing of the Syrian Arab Republic.

Moreover, the Turkish parliament authorized the government to fight both the Islamic Emirate and the PKK.

Receiving Mr. Çavuşoğlu in Paris, the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, supported the idea of ​​creating a "security zone" in northern Syria, without specifying exactly what he meant by that, but emphasizing his agreement with Turkey.

France, also a NATO member, is directly providing weapons to the separatist Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, without authorization from the central Iraqi government. The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq expanded its territory by 40% in coordination with the Islamic Emirate when it seized the Iraqi Sunni Arab area. In previous years, France politically supported the Turkish PKK (pro-Syrian), she now provides militarily support to the (pro-Israeli) Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq.

Currently, the airspace in northern Syria is controlled by the coalition led by the United States. The Islamic Emirate has aircraft (MiGs stolen from Syria and F-15s stolen from Iraq), but has few pilots and technical staff to use them. The creation of a no-fly zone by NATO in Syria, in addition to being a flagrant violation of international law, would therefore have no impact on the ongoing fighting.

The idea of ​​creating a no-fly zone in Syria was promoted by Israel, which sees it as a means to dismember this country, along the lines of what was done from 1991 to 2003 in Iraq (in favor the current Kurdistan Regional Government). However, the only valid comparison to be made is with the buffer zone imposed in 1983 during the Lebanese civil war. Felt like an open recolonization of Lebanon, it turned into a fiasco after the elimination of 300 American and French soldiers.

In Turkey, the PKK multiplies demonstrations to force the Erdoğan government to reopen the border. 31 people have already been killed by the police during the suppression of the protests.

The only question is how long will the Syrian Kurds resist alone against jihadi armed and funded by the United States pursuant to a vote of Congress assembled in a secret session in January, 2014. In other words: when will Washington and its allies manage to ethnically cleanse northern Syria by their creature, the Islamic Emirate?

Translation
Roger Lagassé

Reprinted with permission from Voltairenet

'Manual Scavenging': India's 'Lower Castes' Forced Into and Kept In Dirtiest Jobs — Cleaning Excrement (Report)

 

Photo from HRW.

A new report documents the coercive nature of manual scavenging. Across India, castes that work as “manual scavengers” collect human excrement on a daily basis, and carry it away in cane baskets for disposal. Women from this caste usually clean dry toilets in homes, while men do the more physically demanding cleaning of sewers and septic tanks. The report describes the barriers people face in leaving manual scavenging, including threats of violence and eviction from local residents but also threats, harassment, and unlawful withholding of wages by local officials.

"Manual Scavenging": Caste, and Discrimination in India - Full Report

Reprinted with permission from Human Rights Watch.

ISIS, the Yazidis, Kurdistan, and the Threat of Massacres in Iraq — A Friend Flees the Horror of ISIS

"Kurdistan .Yazidis .Judaism . Christianity .Islam" (Photo by jan  Sefti)

By George Packer
A humanitarian crisis that could turn into a genocide is taking place right now in the mountains of northwestern Iraq. It hasn’t made the front page, because the place and the people are obscure, and there’s a lot of other horrible news to compete with. I’ve learned about it mainly because the crisis has upended the life of someone I wrote about in the magazine several weeks ago.


Last Sunday, Karim woke up around 7:30 A.M., after coming home late the night before. He was about to have breakfast when his phone rang—a friend was calling to see how he was doing. Karim is a Yazidi, a member of an ancient religious minority in Iraq. Ethnically, he’s Kurdish. An engineer and a father of three young children, Karim spent years working for the U.S. Army in his area, then for an American medical charity. He’s been waiting for months to find out whether the U.S. government will grant him a Special Immigrant Visa because of his service, and because of the danger he currently faces.

"I LOVE KURDISTAN 4 EVER" (Photo by jan  Sefti)

Karim is from a small town north of the district center, Sinjar, between Mosul and the Syrian border. Sinjar is a historic Yazidi area with an Arab minority. Depending on who’s drawing the map, Sinjar belongs to either the northernmost part of Iraq or the westernmost part of Kurdistan. Since June, when extremist fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham captured Mosul, they’ve been on the outskirts of Sinjar, facing off against a small number of Kurdish peshmerga militiamen. ISIS regards Yazidis as devil worshippers, and its fighters have been executing Yazidi men who won’t convert to Islam on the spot, taking away the women as jihadi brides. So there were many reasons why a friend might worry about Karim.

“I don’t know,” Karim said. “My situation is O.K.” “No, it’s not O.K.!” his friend said. “Sinjar is under the control of ISIS.”

Karim had not yet heard this calamitous news. “I’ll call some friends and get back to you,” he said.

But the cell network was jammed, so Karim walked to his father’s house. His father told him that thousands of people from Sinjar were headed their way, fleeing north through the mountains to get out of Iraq and into Kurdistan. It suddenly became clear that Karim would have to abandon his home and escape with his family.

ISIS had launched its attack on Sinjar during the night. Peshmerga militiamen were outgunned—their assault rifles against the extremists’ captured fifty-caliber guns, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, anti-aircraft weapons, and armored vehicles. The Kurds began to run out of ammunition, and those who could retreated north toward Kurdistan. By dawn, the extremists were pouring into town. Later, ISIS posted triumphant photos on Twitter: bullet-riddled corpses of peshmerga in the streets and dirt fields; an ISIS fighter aiming his pistol at the heads of five men lying face down on the ground; Arab locals who stayed in Sinjar jubilantly greeting the new occupiers.

Karim had time to do just one thing: burn all the documents that connected him to America—photos of him posing with Army officers, a CD from the medical charity—in case he was stopped on the road by militants or his house was searched. He watched the record of his experience during the period of the Americans in Iraq turn to ash, and felt nothing except the urge to get to safety.

By 9:30 A.M., Karim and his extended family were crowded into his brother’s car and his father’s pickup truck. They’d had no time to pack, and for the drive through the heat of the desert they took nothing but water, bread, canned milk for Karim’s two-year-old son, and their AK-47s. At first, Karim’s father refused to go along. A stubborn man, he said, “Let them kill me in my town, but I will never leave it.” Fortunately, the father’s paralyzed cousin, who had been left behind by his family, pleaded with him, and at the last minute the two old men joined the exodus. Karim’s twenty or so family members were the last to get out of the area by car, and they joined a massive traffic jam headed northwest. Thousands of other Yazidi families had to flee on foot into the mountains: “They couldn’t leave. They didn’t know how to leave. They waited too long to leave,” Karim said. Karim drove in a convoy of two hundred and fifty or three hundred cars. They stuck together for safety.

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UN Condemns Iraq's ISIS Jihadists Over Attacks on Yazidi Minority

Refugees flee from the ISIS onslaught. (Screen capture AP video)

By Safin Hamed
The UN Security Council on Tuesday condemned attacks by jihadists in northern Iraq, warning those responsible could face trial for crimes against humanity, amid fears the besieged Yazidi minority could be wiped out.

Iraqi helicopters dropped supplies to thousands of desperate people hiding in mountains from Islamic State (IS) fighters, as officials warned that the Yazidi in the town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border, risked being massacred or starved into extinction.

[...]

The UN Security Council said IS militants posed a threat not only to Iraq and Syria, but to "regional peace, security and stability."

Raw Associated Press video.

"Widespread or systematic attacks directed against any civilian populations because of their ethnic background, religion or belief may constitute a crime against humanity, for which those responsible must be held accountable," said a Security Council statement read by British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant.

He singled out the plight of the Yazidi, a closed community that follows an ancient faith rooted in Zoroastrianism and referred to by jihadists as "devil worshippers".

"Many of these Iraqis have been displaced or forced to flee and seek refuge, while many others have been executed and kidnapped," said the Council statement.

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Genocidal ISIS Fighters May Push Iraq's Yazidis to Extinction

Vian Dakhil, Iraqi Kurdish MP from the ancient Yazidi faith, gave a very
emotional appeal in the Iraqi Parliament for action against the extermination
of Yazidi by ISIS. (Screen capture from YouTube video)

By AFP
Iraqi helicopters dropped supplies on Tuesday to thousands of people hiding from jihadists in desolate mountains, many of them from the Yazidi minority which officials warned risked being massacred or starved into extinction.

A Yazidi lawmaker broke down in tears during a parliament session as she urged the government and the international community to save her community from Islamic State militants who overran the Sinjar region.

"Over the past 48 hours, 30,000 families have been besieged in the Sinjar mountains, with no water and no food," said Vian Dakhil.

"Seventy children have already died of thirst and 30 elderly people have also died," she said.

Dakhil said 500 Yazidi men were killed by IS militants since they took over the town of Sinjar and surrounding villages on Sunday. Their women were enslaved as "war booty", she said.

"We are being slaughtered, our entire religion is being wiped off the face of the earth. I am begging you, in the name of humanity."

The United Nations' Children Fund, earlier on Tuesday, said that at least 40 children had died as a result of the IS onslaught on Sinjar, which was previously under the control of Kurdish peshmerga troops.

ISIS prepares prisoners for mass slaughter in Iraq. ISIS conducts massacres wherever
it goes - killing all those they deem "un-Islamic." (Screen capture from ISIS video)

The town, near the Syrian border, is a hub for Yazidis, a very closed community that follows an ancient faith rooted in Zoroastrianism and referred to by jihadists as "devil worshippers".

Sinjar was also a temporary home for thousands of displaced people from other minorities, such as Shiite Turkmen who had fled the nearby city of Tal Afar when IS launched its offensive on June 9.

The attack on Sinjar sent thousands of people running from their homes in panic, some of them scurrying into the mountains with no supplies.

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The Cossacks: They've Always Been Loyal to Russia — The Crisis in Ukraine Has Only Confirmed that Loyalty

Aleksandr 'Babai' Mozhayev in a YouTube address to the people of Ukraine. (via YouTube)

By Alexandr Litoy
‘Obama, when we reach Kyiv, God willing, we’re going to come visit you in America. And we’ll put an end to all your masonic yid lies,’ Aleksandr Mozhayev threatens in a YouTube message to the American president. Mozhayev, also known as ‘Babai’ (Russian for bogeyman) is a Cossack, and a member of the Novorossiya militia. Mozhayev, a big man just shy of 40, has a long greying beard; and wears fatigues with a St George’s Ribbon on them, black sunglasses, an assault rifle and a striking Kuban Cossack hat, all of which have turned Mozhayev/’Babai’ into ‘the Cossack Che Guevara.’ Like Che Guevara, he yearns to change the whole world, but wants to unite the planet not under the Marxist flag, but a Russian tricolour.

Until the Ukraine crisis, Mozhayev was not a very successful person.

‘Babai’

In his native Kuban town of Belorechensk, Babai has a daughter and a new-born son. Until the Ukraine crisis, Mozhayev was not a very successful person. Having earlier served time for selling cannabis, not long before Mozhayev became ‘Babai,’ he had been charged with ‘threatening murder,’ thanks to a run-in with some Korean migrants; he was also 256,000 roubles (£4,300) in debt. From the very beginning of the crisis, Mozhayev went to help in Crimea; then he relocated in Eastern Ukraine, where he became ‘Babai,’ the YouTube speaker of the Donetsk and Luhansk separatists. Now Mozhayev is a hero in his native Belorechensk. Local Cossacks are trying to come up with ways to help Babai solve his problems with his finances and the law.

According to the latest reports, Babai has left Eastern Ukraine, attempting to save himself from the attack by government forces, but has indicated in his latest video-message that he plans to gather up his own ‘Cossack regiment’ for continuing military actions.

The Cossack community has proved to be one of the main sources of recruits for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. With their history, that is not surprising.

History

The first mention of Cossacks is from the 14th century. The word ‘Cossack (in Russian kazak) is Turkic, and means ‘free person.’ There are a number of theories about the phenomenon of Cossacks, but they all tend to agree that Cossacks are the result of a mix of peoples, living on the Russian borders, including Russian serfs fleeing their feudal masters. Cossacks combined farming and constant participation in military actions (in the overwhelming majority of cases they fought on the side of Russia). Even their communities received the designation voiska meaning an ‘army’ or ‘forces.’ In truth, these structures maintained an element of participatory democracy. The majority of Russian lands were united with the large-scale participation of Cossacks, occasionally fighting, occasionally establishing peaceful relations with local tribes. Cossacks are much like the heroes of American history – the frontiersmen – free adventurers unencumbered by wealth, taming the wild regions of the country. Later, Cossacks braved fighting even in South America. In the Chaco war of 1932-1935, for example, Cossack immigrants fought on the side of Paraguay against Bolivia.

Although the Cossacks were comprised of exiles from the feudal yoke, they continued to associate themselves with Russia. The leaders of a number of peasant-Cossack uprisings in previous centuries, with egalitarian demands, as a rule presented themselves as representatives of a tsarist dynasty. The tsarist government maintained a deliberate policy of including clever and energetic Cossacks in the system of Russian monarchy. By the 20th century, Cossacks were integral to the state machine; they came out as one of the key forces against revolutionaries, which earned them the latter’s hatred. Part of the Cossacks went over to the Bolsheviks in the civil war but after their victory there began a policy of ‘de-Cossackisation’ – the breaking up of their traditional structures of self-government; their resettlement on non-Cossack lands; repression, confiscation of livestock and feed; and limiting their service in the army (removed by Stalin in 1936).

A group of Orenburg Cossacks in 1912. (CC Victor Pogadaev)

In the Great Patriotic War, Cossacks fought both in the Soviet Army, and in the Wehrmacht. After the war, Cossacks were permitted to hold people’s assemblies and have ethnographic museums, but they still had far fewer opportunities than the other numerous national minorities of the USSR.

Cossackia

Are the Cossacks their own separate people or are they only a phenomenon of the Russian Empire? The question is still not closed. Up to 7m Russians have Cossack roots but according to the 2002 census, 140,000 people list their nationality as ‘Cossack,’ quite a lot considering that ‘Cossack separatism’ as a political force is practically non-existent.

According to the 2002 census, 140,000 people list their nationality as ‘Cossack.’

A real chance for Cossack separatism appeared in 1991, when discussions were held on the creation of a Cossack republic in the southern regions, as part of the Union State, which could have quickly led to the appearance of an independent ‘Cossackia.’ But the local elites did not consider this arrangement beneficial for themselves. Quasi-Cossack structures existed in Ichkeria [the Turkic name for an area roughly equivalent to the Republic of Chechya today]; and the famous militant website Kavkaz Centre also put out propaganda on Cossack separatism. A separate country ‘Cossackia’ is mentioned in a 1959 Cold War law in America on the regular holding of ‘Captive Nations Week’ – in support of peoples who were subjugated by the ‘imperialistic policies of communist Russia.’ Cossackia is mentioned along with Armenia, Estonia, Poland, Albania, North Korea and others.

In contemporary Russia, political parties periodically appear that announce that they represent the Cossack community – both pro-Kremlin and oppositionist, but they are entirely marginal. Not one of them could successfully take part in Russian politics.

Present day

The rebirth of the Cossack community started with perestroika, as part of the general dismissal by Russians of Soviet values, and attempts to set a new course. A particularly tumultuous process took place in the southern regions of Russia (Stavropol, Krasnodarsk, Rostov and Voronezh regions as well as the North Caucasus). Part of this was connected with the fact that many Cossack descendants live in these regions; and the occasionally aggressive expression of nationalism among the non-Slavic peoples of the region. Cossacks speak about a so-called Terek Cossack Genocide – acts of violence, resettlement and theft of belongings from Cossacks in Chechnya and Ingushetia at the start of the 1990s.

A Cossack and police officer patrol the streets of Sochi during the 2014 Winter Olympics.
(c) RIA Novosti/Maksim Bogodvid

Some Cossacks today copy the appearance of their ancestors at the start of the 20th century, but there are many who consider them to be playing at ‘fancy dress,’ for their exotic, militarised uniforms. In Cossack areas it is still considered acceptable by a significant portion of the population to take a whip to people who have committed a transgression, although the majority of Russians consider it barbaric.

Some of the suspects in the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 are Cossacks belonging to Mykola Kozitsyn. He figures in recordings that the Ukrainian SBU calls ‘wiretaps of terrorists about the shot-down plane.’ Hetman Kozitsyn ended up on the latest EU list of sanctioned individuals, for the seizure of OSCE observers. Since the early 1990s he has headed the Regional Cossack Council of the Donetsk Force. This is a ‘non-registered’ informal Cossack organisation. In Eastern Ukraine Kozitsyn may have up to four thousand Cossack fighters. He has fought in Yugoslavia, Abkhazia and Transnistria. During the Chechen war, Kozitsyn attracted criticism for attempting to establish independent links between Chechens and Cossacks. Before becoming a Cossack leader, he worked as a prison officer.

When Cossack patrols were introduced in Moscow, St Petersburg or other ‘non-Cossack’ cities, it led to fits of laughter.

When Cossacks manhandled members of Pussy Riot, staging an action in Sochi during the Olympics, it looked so ridiculous that many who saw the video were convinced that Pussy Riot had paid the Cossacks to take part in a sort of art project. Attacks by Cossacks on exhibitions of modern art, and attempts to use the Cossacks against oppositionists have also led to irritation among Muscovites. At the same time, in some cases the police have put a stop to their taking the law into their own hands, other times they do not intervene – depending on the political situation.

When Cossack patrols were introduced in Moscow, St Petersburg or other ‘non-Cossack’ cities, to help the police, it led to fits of laughter among the urbanites, who perceived them as an aggressive circus. And, in reality, Cossack patrols are rarely encountered in Moscow or St Petersburg’s streets. However, judging by a bill currently being discussed in the State Duma, it is possible that attacking a Cossack patrol could soon be considered the same as violence against a police officer.

Official Cossack patrols appeared on Russian streets thanks to the state recognition of Cossack society. This began in the 1990s, but especially increased under Vladimir Putin. Cossack society ‘is part of our culture, Russian culture, moreover not simply part of our culture, but a very important part of our culture. I mean not only Cossack songs and dances; I mean also their well-known tradition of patriotism. And this is not an archaism. Patriotism is today very important for advancing the idea of statehood and the formation of our people in general. In this sense, Cossacks play a unique and overall positive role,’ said the Russian president in 2013. The result of this state support is that Cossack organisations now number hundreds of thousands of Russians, and billions of roubles have been spent on Cossack projects. Cultural centres, schoolbooks, martial arts and firearms clubs, militarised formations – all this to spread ideas of loyalty useful to the Kremlin.

Reprinted with permission from openDemocracy.

Yahoo Details its Mostly-Male Employee Diversity Data for the First Time

For years tech firms like Yahoo have resisted providing data on the diversity of their workforces. Companies like Google and Yahoo hid behind the excuse that such information was a trade secret. The (lack of) diversity data for Google and Yahoo seems strangely similar.
—Ronald David Jackson

By Josh Lowensohn

Yahoo today became the latest tech company to reveal the gender and ethnic demographics of its employees, disclosing that the majority of those workers are white males. Yahoo's broken down both gender and ethnicity profiles for its 12,200 employees globally and in the US where the company is headquartered. It's also detailed those genders and ethnicities across its tech workers, non-tech workers, and leadership group, which comprises predominantly of white males...

RELATED STORY: Geeks and Race - Google Resisted Publishing the Racial Makeup of Its Workforce for Years — Now Expects Kudos For Admitting Only 2% of it's Workforce is Black

Results from the three are difficult to compare primarily because of size. Google employs nearly 50,000 people globally, which is more than four times the size of Yahoo. LinkedIn, meanwhile has about 5,400 employees. Nonetheless, Yahoo and LinkedIn are more similar, with women in both companies coming in at less than 40 percent of overall employees. The two companies also had very close white and Asian ethnicity makeup among its US employees.

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Can Trinidad & Tobago Rise Above Race-Based Politics?

The Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago,
speaking in Washington, D.C., 2013. Photo by Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS

By Flora Thomas
Satnarayan (Sat) Maharaj can be a divisive religious and political figure in Trinidad and Tobago. Statements he has made in his capacity as the Secretary General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, the country's largest and most active Hindu organisation, have often polarised the country's other major ethnic group, Trinbagonians of African descent. (Indo-Trinidadians have historically voted for the party Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar now leads, the United National Congress, while Afro-Trinidadians mainly vote for the People's National Movement.)

Most recently, Maharaj's comments at an event the Maha Sabha hosted to commemorate Indian Arrival Day – and the Prime Minister's silence about them – made headlines. (Indian Arrival Day observes the anniversary of the first arrivals of Indian indentured labourers to the island. The branding of the public holiday – which was once simply called Arrival Day – is controversial, since people from the Indian sub-continent were not the only ethnic group that migrated to work Trinidad's agricultural estates and were just one of the groups that arrived and made valuable contributions to society. The twin island republic, to this day, is one of the most multi-ethnic territories in the region.)

In his speech, Maharaj contended that generations of civil servants loyal to the People’s National Movement (PNM) (a party with an African support base that formed the country's first ever government independent from colonial rule in 1956) have prevented any other political party from getting a second term.

The comments upset a great many people, one of whom is Reginald Dumas, former head of the public service who spoke out about it, asking that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar issue a statement about whether or not she agrees with Maharaj's claim, noting that the implication could racially divide the country and alienate hard working civil servants. According to the Trinidad and Tobago News Blog, Dumas went further, calling Maharaj's statements a “serious assault on the public service.”

Maharaj's comments did not go unnoticed on social media either. Although Twitter users were preoccupied with the festivities of Indian Arrival Day, Facebook was full of discussion about Maharaj's statements, which were deemed to be enough of a hot topic for the Trinidad Express Newspapers Facebook page to make it the day's “big question”:

What do you think of the claim by Sat Maharaj that some pro-PNM public servants are working against the Government?

There was a slew of responses. Kevin Niles suggested that “no one [was] bringing this government besides themselves”, while Allan Joseph asked:

How old is Sat? How long again does he have to be dividing T&T the way he does? He must [cry] when he remembers that his reign must one day come to an end…and in case he didn't know, many jobs changed hands in May 2010, so [it's] probably his own people working against them right now, just saying.

Joy Thompson thought it was just more of the same old tribal politics:

Divide and rule. That's their mantra. Their days numbered.

Sapphire Mohan, however, thought the premise wasn't so far-fetched:

It's true…and as [there] are pro PNM public servants there are also pro UNC/COP/ILP servants as well. It's when they apply their political agenda in the workplace does it become an issue and I am sure it happens because if persons can accuse any govt. of nepotism etc., why can't they accuse those opposed to the govt. of pursuing their own personal political agenda?

Other commenters on the thread, like Nadiyah Sarransingh, found Maharaj irrelevant:

Why does the media give this man so much attention? Time to change the topic.

Changing the topic was one thing that political blog The Eternal Pantomime was not prepared to do, calling the Prime Minister's close association with the Maha Sabha head a sign of political desperation:

Imagine you playing a high stakes game of politics, winner gets all, and the only card in your hand is Sat Maharaj?

That is pretty much the predicament in which Kamla and her government have found themselves.

Both Labour and Jack Warner have abandoned them: so the popular support and the deep coffers Warner (once) had have both disappeared. The COP [Congress of the People, one of the other political parties in the coalition government] we all know, is a dead and riderless horse.

The numerous other civil society groups that sung Kamla['s] praises and supported her have all but disappeared and several of them now march against her in very public rallies. In short, all of the public good will that Persad-Bissessar had garnered…has disappeared.

This, the blogger surmised, leaves the People's Partnership government between a rock and a hard place come national elections, which are due next year:

At this point the PP or UNC, whichever name it chooses to go into election 2015 with, is reliant on two groups: the criminal element and die hard UNC supporters.

Even supporters of Kamla have grown fed up of her style of non-governance. Why else would you need to pull out your trump card of Maha Sabha religious leader, on Indian Arrival Day, in a predominantly Indian electoral seat unless……Sat is your only trump card and things so bad, you need to rally your base?

The post reminded readers about the current government's campaign promises back in 2010:

1. Good Governance, Transparency and accountability. The country still waiting.
2. An end to wastage of public monies and Squandermania. Have you read the last two Auditor General Reports on the spending of Public Monies? We are $30 billion dollars in debt. Yes. $30b.
3. An end to violent criminal activity and white collar crime. Two words: Dana Seetahal.
4. The right to recall MPs if they are underperforming. Cabinets shuffling and reshuffling and realigning every year, but no talk of the right of recall anymore. I wonder why?

The blogger addressed what she called “the criminal element”:

Abu Bakr of 1990 coup fame has often alluded to the role his organization, the Jamaat Al Muslimeen, has played in mobilizing votes for political parties.

As reports on the Life Sport Programme have shown [read more here], Kamla’s government has gotten very cozy with a group that has criminal shadows over it. As an electorate, we have to ask ourselves how many other groups like this is the UNC govt bankrolling and at what cost.

She was dismayed at what the use of Sat Maharaj as a political tool could mean for the nation and hoped that Trinbagonians – Afro, Indo, or Other – would transcend race and put country first:

After running a slick PR campaign in 2010 that pretended to be about issues, Persad-Bissessar has gone back to basics and is going to run a race platform. In reassuring herself of her heartland base Kamla has resorted to reactivating the Race Bogey. We are back in 1961 all over again [when the ruling PNM did pretty much the same thing]. Sat Maharaj remains one of the most polarizing and divisive individuals the country has produced. His racist comments are now being described by the PM as free speech. And the PM is yet to apologize for the many instances she has used race baiting and prejudiced comments on the campaign trail during last year’s 4 elections. When calypsonians and satirists practise the same freedom of speech I hope she is just as openminded.

It is now up to us, right thinking citizens, to reject race rhetoric and force the coming political campaigns to be about the glaring issues that are sinking us daily.

It remains to be seen whether the Prime Minister's United National Congress, whose logo is an image of the rising sun, can rise above playing the race card. The electorate, no doubt, will be watching whether the opposition rises to the occasion as well.

Reprinted with permission from Global Voices.