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March 03 2012
Russia: A Last-Minute Overview of Pre-Election Blogging
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011/12.
On Dec. 31, 1999, as Russians were celebrating New Year's Eve, a holiday that transcends religion and politics, President Boris Yeltsin went on the air and announced that Vladimir Putin would be instated as acting President. Before signing off, he added: “I want to beg forgiveness for your dreams that never came true. And also I would like to beg forgiveness not to have justified your hopes.”
In the aftermath of the devastating apartment bombings that occurred in September 1999 and the launching of the Second Chechen War, Mr. Putin's sole platform for the 2000 Russian presidential election was counter-terrorism in the North Caucasus. Beyond that, Mr. Putin refused to campaign or to join a political party. Nevertheless, he finished first among the 11 candidates with 53% of the vote - and the “Putin Era” began.
Twelve years later, Mr Putin's candidacy seems much more turbulent, as protesters took to the the streets alleging improprieties in the Dec. 2011 parliamentary elections. Still, polling data suggests that he is heading into Sunday's election with the support of the majority of the electorate.
Protesters hold a poster against the Russian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin during a rally for fair elections in St. Petersburg, Russia. Photo by MIKE KIREEV, copyright © Demotix (25/02/12).
For World Affairs Journal Blog, Vladimir Kara-Murza contextualized the March 4 election in a post entitled, “In Sunday's Vote, It's Putin Vs. Russia”:
On Monday, Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki was at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, attending a performance of Rodion Shchedrin’s opera Dead Souls. As the performance was getting underway, spectators noticed Penderecki in the box and started booing. The legendary musician was bewildered, not understanding the reason for such hostility. Only later was it explained to him that the audience mistook him for Vladimir Churov, the chairman of Russia’s Central Electoral Commission — to whom he indeed bears an uncanny resemblance.
As Sunday’s presidential election draws near, the public frustration with Vladimir Putin is becoming increasingly apparent. Over the weekend, thousands of Muscovites formed a human chain alongside the 10-mile Garden Ring Road — inspired by the pro-independence “Baltic Way” of 1989 — to protest Putin’s return to power and demand free and fair elections. In St. Petersburg, thousands of people from across the political spectrum marched through the city center calling for “a peaceful revolution.” Attitudes to the regime are also being expressed in less political ways: a mock Channel One “news report” from the future showing Putin’s arrest and trial in Moscow became an instant online hit, with five million views in one week. […]
Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog provided the background for the candidates running against Mr. Putin:
[…] Indeed, the Russian presidential election has been anything but ordinary. Sure, the official cast of characters remains virtually identical to past contests, save a few additions. Communist Party stalwart, Gennady Ziuganov still plays the role of “loyal opposition in-chief,” the aging face of a Communist Party that has the organizational resources to actually present a political alternative to Putin, but lacks the so-called “Leninist will” to adapt to present political conditions. Part of that adaption, however, would require dumping Ziuganov and forsake its aging electorate, something the KPRF mandarins and rank and file are still unwilling to do. Opposite Ziuganov is Vladimir Zhirinovsky, another perennial “loyal oppositionist.” Zhirik plays the harlequin in this grand performance, adding outrageous, comic relief to a show already thin on drama. In a way, Zhirinovsky reflects the whole process itself, a clown for a clownish spectacle. Then there is Mikhail Prokhorov, the new addition to the cast. Prokhorov serves as a kind of Khodorkovsky-lite (since the real Khodorkovsky is less pliable and, well, in jail for the foreseeable future). An oligarch who “made” the bulk of his wealth in the “loans for shares” scheme that saved Boris Yeltsin from defeat in the 1996 Presidential election, Prokhorov, unlike Khodorkovsky, not only understood the rules of the game, but also played them correctly. But the biggest question that has dogged Prokhorov is not his past, but whether he’s a Kremlin project or not. I suspect that he’s a mixture. One thing is clear to me after reading Julia Ioffe’s profile of him in the New Yorker is that Prokhorov’s biggest obstacle is that he’s a sleazeball. Bringing up the rear is Just Russia’s candidate, Sergei Mironov. His candidacy only inspires one question: Who’s he? […]
Along with the results of the election itself, freedom of expression has been a resounding issue for the past few months.
Committee to Protect Journalists Blog provided details to the backlash the Russian media endured after its coverage of the protests surrounding the controversial Dec. 2011 parliamentary elections:
[…] On December 12, Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov, owner of the Kommersant Publishing House - which produces independent business daily Kommersant and several other news outlets - announced that he was sacking Maksim Kovalsky, chief editor of the popular weekly magazine Kommersant-Vlast. Demyan Kudryavtsev, the publisher's executive director, announced he would resign. The news was a huge blow, as Kovalsky and Kudryavtsev are leading journalists and considered fathers of Kommersant and its publisher.
The magazine's coverage of the parliamentary election was surely the reason for Kommersant's beheading. A week after the vote, most of Kommersant-Vlast's coverage was of the alleged fraud that led to public outrage and protests unprecedented in Russia in the past decade. But Usmanov - believed to be in Putin's close circle - zeroed in on a formal reason to punish the magazine. In its December 12 issue, Kommersant-Vlast published a picture of a ballot cast in London for the opposition Yabloko party; the ballot carried a hand-written insult to Putin across it. Usmanov publicly scolded the magazine for “unacceptable use of coarse language,” and said it was unethical and “on the borderline of hooliganism.” The magazine removed the picture from its website, but it was circulated on social networks, including Kommersant reporter Oleg Kashin's Twitter account.
The removal of Kovalsky and Kudryavtsev angered their colleagues at Kommersant. Two days later, dozens of journalists from Usmanov's news outlets - including independent news website Gazeta - signed and published online an open letter headlined, “We are forced into cowardice.” Veronika Kucyllo, a long-serving deputy editor at Kommersant-Vlast, announced her resignation in protest of Usmanov's decision.
Another important theme this election season has been the role of citizen media as a catalyst of political activism in Russia. Even though they are harder to censor than mainstream news sources, they are not totally immune to censorship, however, as Global Voices discussed in a post entitled, “Why are Russians Protesting Now?”
In a post entitled, “The Man Vladimir Putin Fears Most,” Wall Street Journal Blog predicts that blogger and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny will have an impact on the presidential election:
[…] Anticorruption blogger and activist Alexei Navalny will be in the middle of it — as he has been over the past three months of Russia's unexpected political awakening. By the tens of thousands, Russians shed their fear and apathy to protest December's fraud-ridden parliamentary elections and Mr. Putin's hold on power. From a crowded stage of opposition figures, Mr. Navalny has emerged as the charismatic and fresh face of the movement.
The next phase will test him and the opposition. The series of large demonstrations after December exposed the shallowness of support for Mr. Putin in the large cities and public frustration with the political stagnation and lack of accountability in Russia. Yet the rallies forced no notable government concessions. Though weakened, Mr. Putin gets a new term and possibly energy to reverse his slide or to crack down. […]
Tolik Belenko's Russian-language LiveJounal blog included a link to a “Nashi” announcement [ru] that the pro-Putin youth group has made plans to quash civil unrest in the aftermath of the elections:
On March 5, a few thousand activists from the groups “Nashi” and “Steel” will take to the streets of Moscow in order to prevent any illegal activity aimed at destabilizing society in the aftermath of the Russian presidential election.
LJ user tolik_belenko also shared the link to Nashi's announcement on his ya.ru page [ru]. Readers' comments were somewhat ominous.
Johnny TraHvoltin wrote [ru]:
This has already happened, though not with us, but in China, when [Mao Zedong] occasionally called out the [Red Guards Hóng Wèibīng] troops to the streets in order to maintain order. How did it end? Read history.
Svetlana wrote [ru]:
It's not yet tomorrow. Why guess? We shall see.
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011/12.
Colombia: Chief Prosecutor Viviane Morales Removed from Office
The State Council, a regulatory institution of the Supreme Court, declared the election of Chief Prosecutor Viviane Morales invalid, arguing that in December 2010 the Court's internal rules were violated, causing irregularities in the voting, as La silla Vacía [es] explained. The news became a local trending topic on Twitter with the hashtags and phrases #ChaoFiscal [es], Consejo de Estado [es] y #ApoyoAVivianeMorales [es].
Russia: Pre-Election Summaries
At OpenDemocracy.net, LJ user drugoi (Rustem Adagamov) “outlines how his trust in the outgoing president vanished and sums up the mood in Russia’s capital just days ahead of the country’s presidential election.” Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog examines the “known knowns and unknown unknowns” of the upcoming vote and its aftermath.
March 02 2012
Iran: “Should We Vote Again?”
The Islamic Republic is preparing for parliamentary (Majlis) election on Friday, March 2, 2012. It is the first national election since the controversial 2009 presidential election and subsequent mass demonstrations. While several opposition groups have called for boycotting the election, the Iranian state is employing anti-Western propaganda to bring citizens to the polls.
Setare Iran has published [fa] a poster with an image of Neda, a young woman killed during protests, with a slogan that says, “I do not vote.”
Neda: I do not vote
The blogger says:
Beyond the question of whether taking part in this election is useful or not, how can someone go to the polls after all these martyrs and with thousands of innocents imprisoned? This election on Friday will not honour our votes. It is a test for a regime who considers that the intelligence of the people is non-existant. Neda's innocent gaze does not let us to sell our honour to a dictatorship.
Azarakan says [fa]:
Contrary to the regime's propaganda that says Western countries will attack Iran if people do not vote, boycotting the election makes the regime understand it does not have any legitimacy. It forces them to stop challenging the international community with its nuclear program.
A 1-minute film recalls that members of parliament backed backed the last fraudulent election, and brought economic misery to the country.
The final message of the video questions, “Should we vote again?”
Of course, not all Iranian bloggers share the same opinion on the election. Ahestan considers that problems do not get solved by not taking part in the election because the political participation of the people can be a strong answer to enemies (”a fist to their mouth”). “If they [enemies] encourage people not to vote, then why should the Islamic Republic not encourage them to vote?” he says.
To vote or not to vote, may finally not be the question, since some analysts predict the government will report a turnout of 60 percent or higher, regardless of what happens on Friday.
March 01 2012
Russia: The Early Days of Government Transparency
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011/12.
“Make your work available online.”
It may seem a harmless demand, but in Russia it's more than that.
Such a request led to Alexey Navalny, a famed anti-establishment blogger and activist, scrutinizing public procurement contracts to expose shady practices by officials and private companies.
Navalny's project, RosPil [ru], helped earn him the reputation of Russia's most viable opposition leader — though he says he won't partake in or respect elections that aren't clean (a popular stance these days).
The RosPil project exposes corruption in Russia. Photo: Sven Hultberg Carlsson
That Navalny and other contributors to RosPil were able to examine public procurements — a job that needs doing not only in Russia — is thanks to a small triumph of open governance. At the end of 2005, enough pressure had been laid on the Kremlin for its leaders to make public procurement contracts available to the public.
The simple but insistent demand had come from the Freedom of Information Foundation (FIF) [ru], a non-profit founded in 2004. In a recent interview with Global Voices, Ivan Pavlov, its chairman, argues that open access to government information enbles citizens to act as a check on their rulers:
Everyone agrees that corruption is a huge problem in Russia. But the government's solution has been stronger government control. I believe that public control is much more effective. Government information must therefore be available so that the public can exercise control over it and oversee its actions.
Our demand is that the government and all public institutions make everything that isn't secret available to the public on a website.
The Foundation has made encouraging advances in their field. Early in Dmitry Medvedev's presidency, when his reform initiatives had a semblance of bite to them, work on Russia's Freedom of Information Act began to gain momentum.
With the help of persistent officials at Russia's Ministry of Economic Development — officials who, coincidentally or not, “no longer work there” — the Duma passed what Pavlov deems a “revolutionary” and “very progressive” piece of legislation:
The Freedom of Information Act was Medvedev's greatest achievement as president. I am an optimist and still believe the act will change the whole Russian system. But the government has to use this immense resource as a way to change. So far, that hasn't happened.
The act has been in effect since 2010. Its implementation is lacking. Little if any information is provided when requests are put to authorities, prompting the Foundation to litigate against secretive bodies that, believe it or not, are breaking the law.
Veracity tests have become a daily routine. When Medvedev proclaimed the need for an independent judiciary, Pavlov’s organisation put Russian courts to the test.
Many courts were unwilling to publish short bios and pictures of their judges online, but some reacted positively to the challenge. Pavlov says:
The courts may have published this information because they wanted to take the lead in our ratings. But I hope that these courts also understand how such a decision can contribute to society.
Of course, making information available online does not guarantee transparent governance. Pavlov admits that sensitive information is the hardest to expose.
Very few government agencies, federal or regional, want their financial records in public view. Information on cash flow, which could expose corruption, is kept secret — not only by the authorities, but by non-profit organisations as well.
And in the week of Russia’s presidential elections, there is an elephant in the room. Vladimir Putin, very likely about to enter his third term as president, favours a closed society. Russia’s ministries, reluctant collaborators even during Medvedev’s presidency, are much less prone to cooperation now.
The Freedom of Information Foundation operate from their offices in St. Petersburg. Photo: Sven Hultberg Carlsson
Even historical records, politically less toxic for today's leaders, are off limits. Historians researching the Soviet-era repressions cannot examine victims’ records without explicit approval by each related family.
Why, then, would information incriminating the Kremlin directly be brought to light?
Pavlov explains:
Putin cannot control the whole system. My hope is that the popular demands we have seen increase since the Duma elections last year will bring about change.
We see Russia developing in our research. In 2005 two thirds of Russia's federal executive agencies had no websites. Today all of them do.
But projects like RosPil cannot be alone. Civil activists and NGOs must use the Freedom of Information Act to expose situations where there is no justice.
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011/12.
Azerbaijan: Massive protests in Quba
Emin Milli's blog posts photos and video of massive protests in Quba, a regional center in Northeast Azerbaijan. The blog says the house of the governor of the region has been burned down and that military units are reportedly being dispatched to the city.
Hungary: Tax Administration Investigates Citizen Activists
Véleményvezér blog commented [hu] on the news of the most popular citizen movement's activists being checked by the National Tax and Customs Administration, interpreting it as a sign of fear by the ruling party Fidesz: “Two years after [winning] a two-thirds [majority], they're already catching flies, they're chasing civil activists.” The movement being targeted now started from a Facebook page ‘One Million for the Freedom of Press in Hungary‘ (aka Milla; hu; over 99,000 followers) and organized several rallies against the new media law and the government's politics. On the Hungarian national holiday on March 15, Milla is planning to hold another rally.
February 29 2012
Macedonia: Skopje's Pollution Monitoring Saga Continues
NGO Greenbox is compensating for the lack of web interface for the air pollution measuring system in Skopje by posting photos of the display on their blog.
The system for measuring air pollution in the capital of Macedonia stopped providing online data at the beginning of 2012. The city government, which owns the system, was slow to react, and this fueled the dissatisfaction of the local residents, who expressed doubts about the motives behind the discontinuation of this transparent practice.
Greenbox continued to track the progress of this case, posting regular updates on their blog and Facebook profile. On Feb. 15, the measuring station's display malfunctioned [mk] also, causing a new wave of citizen dissatisfaction.
The message on the Skopje Breathing display declaring that something went wrong on Feb. 15, 2012. Photo: Greenbox blog.
The city finally reacted by hiring a company to repair the display two days later [mk], and after that published a tender for maintenance services [mk] during the year. Greenbox wrote:
According to the documentation published by the City of Skopje on the electronic system for public procurement, the companies should submit offers by March 2, and the cheapest offer will be selected. The available tender documentation does not specify if the tender winner will be obliged to re-activate the webpage “Skopje Breathing”, which published live data feed based on the measurements. This page enabled thousands of citizens to get first-hand information about the air pollution, which at times was up to 10 times higher than the allowed maximum. […]
Screenshot of a post from Greenbox blog with photos of the Skopje Breathing display.
In the meantime, Greenbox declared [mk] that their members will provide the data from the display via their blog, and have been doing that every morning for the past ten days.
They also invite citizens to take snapshots of the display at other times of the day and send them to Greenbox, because the levels of pollution may vary, depending on the intensity of industrial and traffic activity. The recorded measurements published in the “Skopje Breathing” category [mk] of the Greenbox blog showed various levels of air quality in the past few days, from “unhealthy” to “moderately polluted” to “clean.”
Paraguay: An Interview on the Land Conflict in Alto Parana
Landowners are opposing review of land titles in the department of Alto Paraná “to determine if the lands are ‘ill-gotten,' whose title deeds could be forged or faked or simply seized from the times of the Stroessner dictatorship” Ignacio Cirio explains. Upside Down World published a translation of Cirio's interview [es] with Magui Balbuena of the National Council of Organizations of Rural and Indigenous Workers on the conflict in Alto Paraná.
Iran: A pro-animal blog was filtered
Sepehr Salimi writes another pro-animal and pro-environment blog got filtered in Iran.Dadkhahi Heyvanat az Ensanha (animals ask people for justice) used to write about pets.
Russia: An Overview of the Pre-Election Anglophone Blogging
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011/12.
The pre-election month of February has been filled with reports of large-scale gatherings of both the opponents and the supporters of Russia's current regime. On Monday, Feb. 27, however, as the countdown to the March 4 presidential vote entered its final stages, the news of the foiled attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin, the Russian PM and one of the presidential candidates, temporarily succeeded in shifting the spotlight onto the person who may re-enter Russia's political scene as the head of state quite soon - and away from the citizens, their hopes, fears and demands.
Below is a quick overview of what some of the Anglophone bloggers have been writing about the pre-election politics in Russia this past month.
Mark Galeotti of In Moscow's Shadows shared initial thoughts on the Putin assassination plot:
[…] I’m willing to accept that this was a real plot, not some complete fabrication (as some seem to imply). On the other hand, the news was obviously held back with the aim of seizing the news cycle just before the elections. This is not exactly unique to Russians, but considering the wide scale skepticism, even downright disbelief with which the revelation has been greeted in Russia, this does not seem to have been an especially effective tactic. To be honest, how many times can you play the same kind of card? […]
Mark Adomanis wrote this on the same issue:
[…] Discussion has already turned to the political significance of this plot, and it is fully possible that it augurs for a “tightening of the screws” and that Putin will once again use the threat of terrorism as an excuse to tighten political control (recall that the most dramatic re-centralization of political power occurred in the aftermath of the attack on Beslan). However I lean towards a slightly less malign interpretation in which the thwarting of this plot is merely a PR stunt and an opportunity for some (mostly harmless) pre-election chest thumping: Putin will get a chance to play the aggrieved victim of aggression, a role he plays very well, and say a few things about the tenacity and determination of his government in confronting and defeating terror. We’ll see what happens, but given the totality of the political situation in Russia and the obvious weakening of Putin’s position I don’t think a dramatic re-centralization of power is even possible, at least without the widespread use of force. […]
St. Petersburg: "For Putin" banners inside a bus that has brought people to a presidential campaign rally in support of the Russian PM. Photo by YURY GOLDENSHTEYN, copyright © Demotix (18/02/12).
Eugene Ivanov of The Ivanov Report has produced a series of posts on the upcoming election: The Dinosaur (on Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Feb. 9) Putin and the Polls (Feb. 16), Putin and Elites (Feb. 21), and Putin and Protesters (Feb. 26). In the latest post, he put the recent rallies into perspective and explained their significance for Putin's political future:
I’m puzzled when someone begins comparing the number of people participating in pro- and anti-Putin demonstrations in Russia: to me, it’s like comparing the number of apples with the size of oranges. I get even more puzzled when I hear that by putting more people on the streets, the Kremlin “has won” over its opponents. It’s about the same as to say that because the admirers of Yo-Yo Ma can be comfortably accommodated in the Carnegie Hall with its 2,800 seats whereas Britney Spears can easily attract a crowd of 30,000 fans at a sports arena, the pop diva is ten-time better musician than the venerable cellist.
[…]
What the protesters should really pay attention to is their message. Brought together by the power of a single emotion – the outrage at the rigged Duma elections – they now need to transform their “raw feelings” into a set of comprehensive political goals and demands. Far from trying to beat the Kremlin in the game of numbers, the protesters should actually reduce the size of their columns by decisively parting with the nationalists, monarchists and the like. And if they want to broaden their appeal, they would better outreach to industrial workers whose loyalty to Putin is only conditional and may rapidly disappear should Russia’s economic situation deteriorate.
[…]
Yet, the major reason Putin so far hasn’t made any attempt to start a dialog with the protesters is that he doesn’t understand them. Putin seems to be genuinely at a loss to figure out why a bunch of well fed people would go on a protest action, especially if their grievances are caused by such a nuisance as “irregularities” in the parliamentary elections. The concept that some people may value their principles and their dignity over material well-being seems to be completely foreign to Putin. (Apparently, there are no such people in the close circle of Putin’s associates.) That’s why he tries to explain their behavior by something he can comprehend: money, directives from the State Department, or “orange leprosy.” […]
Following the Feb. 4 opposition rallies, Mark Adomanis compared the turnout in Moscow with that in other Russian cities:
[…] One thing that does seem noteworthy, though, is that the protests in other Russian cities seem to have been rather underwhelming. […]
[…]
What does this mean for the future of the protests? Well, probably nothing good. Putin and his team are not going to be easy to displace, and I think only a sustained and truly nation-wide popular mobilization could possibly compel them to do so. As always, the situation is fluid and should be watched closely, but there are certainly indications that Putin’s grip on power remains quite secure in large sections of the country. His image has taken a very big and very noteworthy dent, but at this juncture it seems improper to project the palpable anger and frustration of Muscovites onto all Russians. […]
Kevin Rothrock of A Good Treaty moved a few levels down from the overly familiar nationwide politics story, taking a closer look at the relatively obscure local confrontation that occurred in the town of Lermontov in Stavropol region; not surprisingly, he discovered that the latter shared its most important elements with the former:
Yesterday, the town of Lermontov (located in Russia’s North Caucasus) experienced what some are calling “a small revolution.” As the state municipal building was preparing to close for the evening, a collection of townsfolk and former members of the city council gathered and eventually forced their way into the main lobby. Once inside, reporters accompanying the activists took turns interviewing ex-deputies and disgruntled locals. Acting head of the city’s government Viktor Vasil’ev warned protesters that they were breaking the law by illegally occupying state property. Undeterred, the former deputies announced the beginning of an indefinite hunger strike, promising to occupy Lermontov’s municipal building night and day, until their demands are met: chiefly, the cancelation of the city’s upcoming local elections, which the ex-deputies consider to be illegitimate because they were denied the right to participate.
[…]
The Lermontov ‘crisis’ has something for everyone. If you’re a diehard enemy of the Putin regime, there are former city officials protesting in the open, linking local regional corruption to the Kremlin’s evil influence. Certainly, many aspects of the Lermontov election — barred candidates, political control of the courts, and the squashing of local independence — echo the larger criticisms commonly made of ‘Putinism.’
On the other hand, fans of the Prime Minister seem to find it inspiring that several of the assembled protesters are reaching out to Putin in the tradition of ‘good tsarism,’ hoping that he’ll notice their plight and swoop in to right the city’s wrongs. […]
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011/12.
February 25 2012
Italy: Historic ‘Guilty' Verdict in the Eternit Asbestos Trial
A historic verdict was delivered in Italy in the Eternit trial on the deadly consequences of abestos.
The bosses of multinational Eternit had put the lives of their workers in danger and had committed environmental crimes. However, many people doubted that they would be convicted for their crimes. Yet this is what happened on February 13, 2012 in Turin, northern Italy. The two top senior executives of Eternit were sentenced to 16 years in prison after the legal proceedings began in 2009. The judges indicted [fr] Stephan Schmidheiny, former owner of Eternit, and Louis de Cartier de Marchienne, former director of the Italian branch, responsible for about 3,000 asbestos-related deaths, particularly in Casale Monferrato and its surrounding areas. They are also sentenced to compensate the victims, their families and associations of civil society, and up to tens of millions of euros to some 6,000 plaintiffs. The sentence was welcomed by hundreds of relatives and victims of asbestos, as well as by the representatives of the victims’ foreign associations.
Tribute to those who died from asbestos, in front of the Fibronit establishment in Casal Monferrato - Photo by Ro-buk: 'I' m not there on Flickr', reproduced under a Creative Commons CC-BY license
The website Swissinfo gives some additional details on the verdict [fr]:
Ils devront notamment verser 25 millions d'euros à la commune de Casale Monferrato, 20 millions à la région Piémont et 15 millions à l'Inail, la caisse nationale italienne d'assurance en cas d'accidents. M. de Cartier devra également verser 4 millions d'euros à la commune de Cavagnolo.
Messieurs Schmidheiny et de Cartier devront en outre verser entre 70.000 et 100.000 euros à huit associations, dont des syndicats et l’association écologiste, WWF. Les victimes de l'amiante et leurs familles recevront quant à elles des indemnités s'élevant pour la plupart entre 30.000 et 35.000 euros, selon la liste lue par le président du tribunal.
This will include paying 25 million euros to the town of Casale Monferrato, 20 million euros to the region of Piedmont and 15 million euros to INAIL, the Italian national fund for insurance against accidents. Mr. de Cartier will also have to pay 4 million euros to the municipality of Cavagnolo.
Mr. Schmidheiny and Mr. de Cartier will also have to pay between 70,000 and 100,000 euros to eight associations, including trade unions and the environmental organization, WWF. The victims of asbestos and their families will receive compensation ranging, for most people, between 30,000 and 35,000 euros, according to the list read by the President of the Tribunal.
The website Sanità in Cifre explains [it] why this trial was considered the “trial of the century”:
La sentenza di Torino su Eternit interviene su quello che qualcuno ha definito “il processo del secolo”, per l’impressionante quantità di vittime coinvolte: oltre 2.200 decessi dovuti all’amianto, 700 malati di asbestosi, oltre 6.000 costituzioni di parte civile e una platea di legali composta da 150 avvocati.
The families of the victims of asbestos have started a blog, Asbestos in the Dock and a Facebook page. They think that the importance and the international implications of this trial go far beyond Italian borders:
Also, public prosecutors in other countries may study the Turin trial as a precedent for bringing their own criminal trials against directors of national Eternit subsidiaries.
According to experts, this product will continue to kill for a long time to come. The website Sanita in Cifre shows the extent of this risk [it] in Europe and also in the rest of the world:
La triste contabilità delle vittime in Italia raggiungerà un picco tra il 2015 e il 2018, mentre in Europa occidentale le proiezioni si attestano su 500.000 morti nei primi 30 anni del 2000. E, secondo l’Organizzazione mondiale della Sanità, nel mondo muiono ogni anno 107.000 persone per cancro al polmone, mesotelioma o asbetosi dovuti a esposizione ad amianto, mentre sono oltre 125 milioni gli esposti ai rischi sui luoghi di lavoro.
In an interview with Christian Elia [it], Niccolò Bruna and Andrea Prandstraller, co-authors of the documentary “Polvere – Il grande processo all’amianto“ (Dust: The Great Asbestos Trial) for the monthly online magazine of the NGO Emergency founded by the Italian war surgeon Gino Strada, describe the extent of the issue with asbestos and the anger and pain of the residents of Casale Monferrato [it]:
L’amianto, bandito in Europa, è estratto e lavorato in molti grandissimi paesi del mondo: Russia, Cina, Brasile, India, Thailandia….Mentre i Paesi Europei sono alle prese con costosissimi e quasi impossibili sforzi di decontaminazione il 75 percento della popolazione mondiale usa l’amianto-cemento ed è esposta ai suoi rischi. Perciò il problema amianto è oggi più attuale che mai.
This is what explains the presence of numerous delegations from associations of victims from abroad to attend the verdict reading in Turin. In a statement [fr] released on the same day, ANDEVA [fr] (a National association to protect victims of asbestos) reported that:
Ce jugement était très attendu. Par les victimes italiennes d’abord qui n’ont pu toutes pénétrer dans la salle d’audience dont beaucoup ont suivi la lecture intégrale du jugement à la télévision et à la radio. Mais aussi pour les victimes et les veuves venues apporter leur solidarité du Brésil, des Etats Unis, de Belgique, d’Angleterre, de Suisse, de France, qui ont pu l’entendre en direct en traduction simultanée. Avec l’Andeva, une délégation de 160 victimes et veuves était venue à Turin de toutes les régions de France (Bourgogne, Rhône Alpes, Martigues, Dunkerque, Paris). Parmi eux des anciens d’usines françaises d’Eternit.
Unfortunately, even in the most serious tragedies, the victims’ fate can vary widely. In this case of the killer powders, the victims residing [it] in the towns of Rubiera [it, Reggio Emilia) and Bagnoli (Naples) will not receive any compensation because the crimes were prescribed. Yet, contaminated so that others are getting money, the living victims will be need to support themselves, to feed their family members, and to preserve nature for future generations.
To get an idea of how many people find themselves overlooked, on the blog Suite Valerie Wilson 101 wrote:
The President of Naples Province, Luigi Cesaro, listed the death bulletin from the Bagnoli factory:
- 134 deaths from lung cancer
- 9 deaths from larynx cancer
- 258 deaths from asbestosis
- 65 deaths from mesothelioma
as well as 100 workers still ill from the above illnesses.
Antonio Iaccarino, son of two patients contaminated in the town of Bagnoli wrote on the Facebook page Sentenza Processo Eternit [it]:
I miei genitori sono entrambi malati, sono stati lavoratori di Bagnoli e hanno lavorato dal 1960 al 1984…i loro amici del lavoro con i quali condividevano 3 turni si contano sulle dita di una solo mano, io forse sono un pò più fortunato di altri che hanno avuto i propri cari all'Eternit ma la vita dei miei genitori di sicuro non è stata, per motivi di salute, tutta rosa e fiori….
Pakistan: The Government Tender To Purchase Filtering Tools
Apparently the Pakistani government has invited tender to private and semi-private companies to purchase a tool to block thousands of urls. Awab Alvi and Faisal Kapadia hosts a video podcast at SpeakForChange to discuss why the government is doing this.
Russia: Bloggers' Photo Reports and Reflections on Pro-Putin Rally in Moscow
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011/12.
On Thursday, Feb. 23, ten days before the March 4 presidential election, the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin addressed thousands of people at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. The Guardian's Miriam Elder described the event as “a gathering reminiscent of Soviet spectacle both in rhetoric and style”:
[…] Thousands of workers from the provinces were bussed in or rushed on to trains to attend the event. […]
A rally in support of PM Vladimir Putin took place in Moscow on Feb. 23, ahead of the presidential election on March 4. Photo by Irina Firsova, copyright © Demotix (23/02/12).
A number of Moscow-based bloggers attended the Feb. 23 rally, too. Below is a selection of their photo reports and observations, along with some of the remarks from their audiences.
LJ user mi3ch posted 17 photos and wrote [ru]:
Absolutely ordinary people. Trusting. Good. Like my aunt. Like my next-door neighbor. Students, workers, [state employees], pensioners. Seven out of ten - women. Mothers and grandmothers. And they really like Putin. He is so brave and decisive. […]
Their main distinction from [those who attended the opposition's rallies at Bolotnaya Square] are their faces. At Luzhniki, hardly anyone was smiling. And almost everyone walked silently. […]
LJ user otshellnica rebuked the blogger [ru] in the comments section:
At Bolotnaya, you could find the same [unsmiling] faces in the multi-thousand crowd. Just as there were nice and smiling faces at this rally. You, of all people, shouldn't be playing with such cheap arguments.
LJ user maxsytch offered [ru] a different point of comparison between the anti- and pro-Putin rallies:
The difference was in the percentage of the people who came to Bolotnaya and Luzhniki voluntarily.
Ryazan-based LJ user tamrat elaborated [ru] on the definition of ‘voluntarily,' citing her city's participation in the Feb. 23 rally as an example:
People from Ryazan enterprises came voluntarily - and joyfully. And whether they are for Putin or not is irrelevant. They had a tour of Moscow for free! They were taken there, got fed, listened to a concert. And all this for free! People came back home happy. And nothing will change in our country until a person can be made happy with free food and a trip!
LJ user vova-maltsev posted 14 photos [ru] and recounted his quick conversations with some of the rally's participants:
[…]
- Why are you here?
- We've been brought in here, [damn it].
- Are you for Putin?
- [Screw him], our salary's 17,000 [rubles a month, $580].[…]
There were [Tajik migrant workers] sitting in one of the buses.
- Are you for Putin?
- [We work as cleaners in Izmailovo, damn it, and we are stuck here now. Will have to do our job all night.][…]
Nice [female] school cooks.
- What are you doing here?
- We've been dispatched here.
- To cook porridge [for the rally's participants]?
- Yes.
- Did you go to Bolotnaya?
- No, they didn't send us there.
- Are you for Putin?
- Yes, of course… Are you a journalist?
- Yes. I'm not for Putin.
- (whispering) We are all against him. All our teachers are against, too.
An anonymous reader left this comment [ru] to LJ user vova-maltsev's post:
[They are being drawn there forcefully.] They aren't even getting paid, the motivation is their fear of problems at work + 1 day off. This info is 100% true. Relatives work at a state enterprise, in Moscow.
LJ user panzicov (Alexei Vitvitskiy) posted 48 photos [ru] on his blog. Five of these photos, the blogger claims, show a group of people allegedly being paid for their participation in the rally:
[…] The conscience of the people costs 800 rubles [$27] for two hours, [the money] was being handed out at [Park Kultury metro station] right after the rally. […]
Seven photos in LJ user panzicov's report show a group of young black men carrying handmade banners with pro-Putin slogans on them. Another blogger, LJ user drandin (Igor Drandin), talked with these men, asking them where they were from, and posted the video [ru, en] on his blog and on YouTube; one of the men explained, in English, that they were from Kenya.
LJ user pier_luigi, commenting on LJ user panzicov's post, wrote this [ru] about Putin's Kenyan supporters:
North Korea this is not - not yet… But the representatives of international Putinism are very impressive!
LJ user tushinetc posted 16 photos [ru] taken before most of the rally's participants took their seats at the Luzhniki Stadium. One of the photos shows empty seats with identical plastic bags on them. LJ user tushinetc explained:
[…] Some organizations took good care of their employees, making sure they do not get cold while sitting on plastic [seats]. In each bag placed on the seats there's a blanket, as well as a candy and a tangerine, and on the seat itself, there's [a cloth mat for sitting]. […]
LJ user 2014imeretinka commented [ru]:
How mean! For a candy and a tangerine…
LJ user panfilosoff replied [ru]:
Not mean at all… If you don't attend, you'll have serious problems at work, and if you do attend, you'll get a reward and a tangerine. Everything's simple and logical.
This post is part of our special coverage Russia Elections 2011/12.
February 24 2012
Cuba: Bejerano Against Corruption
“Eliot Ness and his group in Chicago…[have] a female version in Cuba”: Iván's File Cabinet blogs about the country's “Iron Lady”.
Bolivia: Disabled Protesters Clash with Police
Disabled Bolivians marching to demand higher government subsidies clashed with police on Thursday, February 23. Blogger Mario R. Durán [es] shares citizen photos of the clashes. On Twitter, netizens are using the hashtag #discapacitados [es] (”disabled”) to comment and report on the march.
Puerto Rico: Blogosphere Denounces Proposed Cybergag
[All links lead to Spanish language pages except when otherwise noted]
The mayor the city of Mayagüez in the western part of Puerto Rico, José Guillermo Rodríguez, was given the power through a resolution from the Municipal Legislature to investigate anyone who publishes content on social networks that he takes as sullying “the good name and image of the municipal government of Mayagüez, its managers, officials, and employees”, according to the stipulations of the resolution approved by the Municipal Assembly of Mayagüez. The news website Noticel reported that the mayor had decided to not enforce the resolution. Nevertheless, Rodríguez released a warning:
En algún momento muy cercano vendrán más regulaciones para atender la utilización inadecuada de las redes sociales, y eso lo provocarán los que no hacen uso correcto de las mismas, acechando, amenazando, utilizando identificaciones falsas para tratar de mancillar la imagen de gente íntegra y decente. Hemos cumplido con nuestro deber de ser de los primeros en alertarlo.
Resolution 102, approved on February 9, authorized the mayor to contract legal and investigatory services to prosecute anyone who users social networks in a “malicious way”. This includes trying to identify users who prefer to utilize a pseudonym instead of their real name.
Mayor Rodríguez, affiliated with the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), attempting to justify this measure said in statements published by the weekly regional newspaper La Estrella that the use of social networks “should be a privilege in democratic countries”, inciting the Puerto Rican blogosphere to rail against him.
Luis J. Villanueva from the Raciocinio said:
Este sujeto no tiene idea de las reglas que determinan lo que él puede y no puede hacer porque este tipo de actividad está prohibida por la Constitución y las Leyes de Puerto Rico y los EEUU. ¡Más preocupante es la visión de que el uso de las redes sociales es un privilegio!”
Other bloggers also could not wait to react. Mario Núñez Molina on his blog DigiZen expressed his take on the matter:
A mi esto me suena a mordaza, censura y un atentado contra la libertad de expresión ya que la evaluación que se haga de lo que se publique en contra de estos funcionarios será una altamente subjetiva y tendrá como fin el que nadie diga nada malo de Guillito [José Guillermo Rodríguez] y sus seguidores.
On the Puerto Rico Law Blog, lawyer Christian M. Frank Fas confirmed that the municipal measure goes against the laws and principles of a democratic society:
La libertad de expresión es un pilar constitucional por una razón. Es uno de los cimientos de toda sociedad democrática y civilizada, y si al municipio le preocupa tanto que mancillen su estelar desempeño, quizás podrían dedicar esos mismos recursos contratando una firma publicitaria, y no utilizar el afilado intelecto legislativo para investigar y “carpetear” a sus constituyentes y, de paso, suprimir un derecho democrático fundamental.
The Overseas Press Club de Puerto Rico issued the following statements also repudiated Resolution 102:
Amparado en una alegada defensa de la imagen del municipio y sus funcionarios, el Alcalde de Mayagüez y su legislatura municipal intentan censurar a quienes critiquen su gestión. Rodríguez debe recordar que precisamente por ser figura pública está expuesto a las críticas y de ninguna manera puede querer controlarlo. Eso sería dar al traste con el derecho a la libre expresión y la libertad de prensa.
The antipathy toward Resolution 102 has been so widespread that the president of the Popular Democratic Party and candidate for the government through the same party, Alejandro García Padilla, also came out against the measure on Twitter @agarciapadilla:
Estoy en contra de la Resolución aprobada por el Municipio de Mayagüez. Voy a hablar personalmente con el Alcalde para aclarar este asunto.
Among the firestorm of complaints that the measure provoked, the hilarious commentary on the Puerto Rican blog El Ñame could not be missed, highlighting how absurd it would be to implement this measure:
Uno de los blogueros que critican la ley, quien permaneció en el anonimato porque es un cobarde de siete suelas, arguyó: “No entiendo cómo alguien podría determinar la ubicación física del autor de un contenido cibernético ofensivo a los funcionarios municipales. ¿O es que el Alcalde podrá soltarle los perros a cualquier bloguero que hable pestes de él o de su administración, sin importar dónde habite? ¿Quién hubiera podido imaginar que la Sultana del Oeste tuviera tanto poder?”, preguntó sarcásticamente, aunque la respuesta a su pregunta es “nadie, porque la imaginación de nadie podría superar la realidad boricua”.”
Chile: Aysén Region and the Call for Decentralization
Protests, road blocks, and clashes between protesters and police continue as citizens of the Aysén region of Chile demand change. Global Voices contributor Elizabeth Rivera reported on the social movement behind the mobilization earlier this month and summarized their demands:
Their demands have been compiled in a petition list with 10 points [es] which basically ask for subsidies to balance food, water, electricity and fuel costs; quality health and education; employment equity and retirement pensions based on regional needs; greater citizen participation in the decisions that affect the region including natural resources exploitation; better access and infrastructure.
For many, the conflict in Aysén boils down to one problem affecting the whole country: centralization. “Santiago is not Chile,” is a phrase commonly used among Chileans who often feel ignored for living outside of the capital. Many of these Chileans have to move to Santiago to access better employment and basic services like healthcare due to a shortage of doctors in the regions.
As a result of a heavy focus on the capital, Santiago has been developing at a much faster pace than the rest of the country. Even the media's attention focuses on the capital, giving little air time to issues happening in the rest of Chile.
The protests in Aysén have brought centralization to the forefront of the national conversation, prompting several Chilean bloggers to weigh in on the issue.
"Aysén is Chile." Protest in support of Aysén mobilizations, February 20, 2012, Santiago, Chile. Photo by Luis Fernando Arellano, Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Blogger Danae Mlynarz Puig [es] looks ahead to what might happen this year in Chile. She begins her post mentioning the social movement in Aysén:
Seguimos movidos en cuanto a demandas sociales, en estos días, Aysén se moviliza, en el extremo sur de nuestro país exigiendo descentralización, a un país tremendamente centralista, donde parece que todo pasa en Santiago. El estallido de Aysén nos recuerda lo que vivimos anteriormente en Magallanes, Isla de Pascua, Calama y otras ciudades, donde los habitantes de estos territorios se movilizaron exigiendo mayor compromiso del gobierno central por sus problemáticas, develando la enorme desigualdad territorial que vivimos en Chile y la falta casi absoluta de descentralización.
In El Quito Poder [es], Salvador Muñoz says that the problem of centralization is not new:
Los ayseninos afirman que ningún gobierno se ha hecho cargo de sus demandas. Los problemas de Aysén, Coyhaique, Magallanes, Tocopilla, Dichato, Calama y de todos los pueblos y ciudades de Chile son los mismos. Como señala la Asamblea Ciudadana de Magallanes en una declaración de solidaridad con el movimiento de Aysén, “Aysén y Magallanes reclamamos terminar con el centralismo oficial y corporativo, que ahoga a las regiones para beneficio de la capital, que no nos da participación en las decisiones de política pública y nos impide lograr una efectiva regionalización y descentralización”.
On a similar note, blogger and journalist Gabriel Sanhueza Suarez [es] says that the conflict in Aysén reveals a systemic problem:
El problema de Aysén es mucho más profundo que tratar de atender demandas sectoriales… o de acallar las movilizaciones enviando fuerzas especiales.
Es un problema sistémico, que implica repensar radicalmente la forma de entender el país, sacarse para siempre el chip del centralismo. Y sobre todo pensar e implementar políticas audaces que transforme la regionalización de una consigna demagógica a una realidad que nos permita tener un Chile justo en todas las esquinas de su territorio.
The problem of Aysén is much deeper than trying to address sectoral demands … or silencing the protests by sending special forces.
It is a systemic problem, which involves radically rethinking the way we understand the country, removing the centralism chip forever. And above all to think and implement bold policies to transform regionalization from a demagogic slogan to a reality that will allow us to have a fair Chile in all the corners of its territory.
Finally, Kaos en la Red [es] published a post by Patricio Segura from Aquí Aysén [es], a blog written from Aysén that has been covering the movement. Patricio ensures that this social movement wants to influence all Chile, not just Aysén.
[…] el Movimiento Social por la Región de Aysén no debe ser visto sólo como una revuelta por y para los ayseninos. Tiene mucho del país que queremos construir, donde se consideren las particularidades de cada ciudadano, de cada territorio. Nuestro tema es la verdadera descentralización, la verdadera equidad, el verdadero respeto, todo lo cual en el mercado no se puede transar.
Los habitantes de Aysén no queremos cercar con alambres de púas la región para que no llegue nadie más. Queremos ser un aporte para Chile y para el mundo, con lo que somos, con los bienes comunes presentes en este vasto y hermoso territorio, pero no queremos morir en el intento.
[…] the Social Movement for the Aysén Region should not be viewed merely as a revolt by and for the people of Aysén. It involves a lot of the country which we want to build, where the particularities of each citizen, of each territory, are considered. Our issue is real decentralization, true equity, true respect, all of which cannot be compromise in the market.
The people of Aysén don't want a barbed wire fence around the region to keep every one else away. We want to be a contribution to Chile and the world, with what we are, with the common good present in this vast and beautiful land, but we don't want to die trying.
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