After the New Year’s Eve attacks on police and rescue workers in several German cities, the political debate about the causes of the violence and Germany’s integration policy continues to gain momentum. In Berlin, 145 people, most of whom were under the age of 25, were arrested by police in connection with the riots.

Nach den verheerenden Ausschreitungen in der #Silvesternacht berichten Berliner #Feuerwehr|leute, wie sie die Situation erlebt haben – und was sie sich wünschen. pic.twitter.com/74qGivxBsv

— rbb Abendschau (@rbbabendschau) January 3, 2023

Flying bottles and firecrackers, injured first responders and videos of violence — the New Year’s Eve riots in Berlin and other cities across Germany has prompted a heated debate not only about a possible ban on fireworks, but also the root causes of the riots, Germany’s allegedly failed integration policy, racist stereotypes and punishments of the rioters.

« We have a big problem in major German cities with certain young men with an immigrant background who despise our state, commit acts of violence and are hardly reached by education and integration programs, » federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told the Funke Mediengruppe (Funke media group) on Wednesday (January 4), 

Young perpetrators would have to face swift and clear consequences under criminal law, the politician said. However, Faeser warned against stirring up racist resentment, saying « those who exploit the necessary debate in order to exclude do not solve the problem, but intensify it. »

Wir müssen gewaltbereiten Integrationsverweigerern in unseren Städten die Grenzen aufzeigen: mit harter Hand und klarer Sprache. Aber ohne rassistische Ressentiments zu schüren. Wer die notwendige Debatte ausnutzt, um auszugrenzen, löst das Problem nicht, sondern verstärkt es.

— Nancy Faeser (@NancyFaeser) January 4, 2023

Instead of using the attacks on police and firefighters as a reason for an integration debate, the federal government’s integration and anti-racism commissioner believes the focus should be on young men as perpetrators. « What we need is an honest debate about youth violence, » Reem Alabali-Radovan told the dpa news agency on Wednesday. After all, she said, it is « mainly about young men who experience violence in a group. »

« We must judge perpetrators by their actions, not by their presumed origins, as some are now doing, » Alabali-Radovan added.

What happened on New Year’s Eve?

In the night of New Year’s Day, police officers and firefighters on duty in several cities were attacked, including with fireworks. In Germany’s most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia, some 250 mostly young people were temporarily detained, around half of them German citizens.

In Berlin, 41 police officers on duty were reportedly injured. According to a spokesman for the authorities, one policeman who suffered severe burns has since been released from hospital. 145 people were arrested by the police in connection with the riots in the German capital.

According to a police report, the alleged perpetrators in Berlin were almost all male and of 18 different nationalities. 45 of the suspects were German citizens, followed by 27 Afghan nationals and 21 Syrians. All suspects have since been released.

Moreover, about two-thirds of the 145 arrested are under 25 years old, according to police. Of those, 27 suspects are still minors, police said Wednesday (January 4).

Andreas Zick, head of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence at Bielefeld University, warned against blaming people with a migration background. « The fact that New Year’s Eve was so violent is part of an increase in violence throughout society, » he told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).

‘Society-wide’ problem

Echoing Zick’s comments, political scientist Hans Vorländer said repeated outbreaks of violence including attacks on police or firefighters was « a problem of violence in society as a whole, » he told news agency dpa.

According to Vorländer, who is a member of the German Council of Experts on Integration and Migration (SVR), this problem exists not only in neighborhoods with a high proportion of people with a migration background, but has also occurred, for example, around the COVID-19 demonstrations, at right-wing extremist marches and in the violent soccer fan scene.

Problems arise above all, Vorländer added, with young men and in a certain environment, where « there are problems of accommodation, where the level of education is low » and a « widespread street culture of showing off, where the desire for recognition, even through acts of violence, is prevalent. »

Ulrich Wagner, a social psychologist, said that alcohol often plays a role, as well as a mood between cheerfulness and aggression, which then turns as a mixture of « attack and joke » against the rescue forces. At the same time, Wagner pointed to an overall downward trend in violence. However, he added that specific forms of violence — such as those directed at emergency personnel at the recent turn of the year — are on the rise.

Psychologist and migration expert Ahmad Mansour said the topic is also about youth culture. The suspects were people who wanted to understand and live out their masculinity in such a way that they were also prepared to use violence, he told tagesschau24. « It was pure lust for violence, » Mansour said, « but it also has to do with patriarchal structures that lead to these people perceiving our rule of law, our police, our rescue forces as something weak that is allowed to be attacked. »

Psychologe und Migrationsexperte Ahmad Mansour betrachtet eine Lösung zur Reduzierung der Gewalt in der Arbeit mit Eltern. Und er beklagt, dass Moscheen nicht die Werte der Gesellschaft ermitteln. (T+) https://t.co/0JXjKXvKso

— Tagesspiegel (@Tagesspiegel) January 4, 2023

Mansour further said that many mosques were part of the problem. « Of course, these riots on New Year’s Eve have nothing to do with Islam, » he told news outlet Tagesspiegel. However, many mosque associations repeatedly conveyed values « that contradict our fundamental values. »

« If I keep making parents afraid of equality and freedom of opinion and reject the values of this society, then I cannot credibly say the day after tomorrow that they should raise their children without violence, » he said.

What did emergency forces say?

Some responders also joined the debate in the wake of the New Year’s Eve riots. A Twitter user named Martin who says he’s a member of his local voluntary fire brigade, lamented an « increasing aggressiveness, impatience and incomprehension » during operations when people feel restricted by first responders.

« People’s aggression has increased since the #AfD has been dumping their filth all over the media and no, it’s not just migrants and foreigners, » he said, referring to Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party. « The aggression/impatience comes from all sectors of society, » he tweeted, adding that « in this respect, we do not have a specific problem with people of a certain origin (apart from hot spots), but a problem for society as a whole. »

Wir haben diesbezüglich (von Brennpunkten abgesehen) kein spezifisches Problem mit Menschen bestimmter Herkunft, sondern ein gesamtgesellschaftliches Problem /End

— Martin (@ybessal) January 2, 2023

Baris Coban, a fireman on the scene in Berlin on New Year’s Eve described how he and his colleagues were being attacked with stones, bottles and firecrackers by « young adults, » most of whom supposedly had a migration background. « I’m saying that despite having a migration background myself, » he told RBB24. « I’ve been fighting prejudices all my life. » Coban further said he and his colleagues had to stop extinguishing a burning coach and leave the scene to protect themselves.

Nach den verheerenden Ausschreitungen in der #Silvesternacht berichten Berliner #Feuerwehr|leute, wie sie die Situation erlebt haben – und was sie sich wünschen. pic.twitter.com/74qGivxBsv

— rbb Abendschau (@rbbabendschau) January 3, 2023

Conservative politicians criticized for comments

Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative Union party, told the Münchner Merkur newspaper, « The chaotic people, many of them with « migration backgrounds, » are challenging the state they despise with their rampage. »

Markus Söder, Prime Minister of the state of Bavaria, said that « Berlin is unfortunately developing into a chaos city — starting with politics, which can neither organize elections nor guarantee the safety of its citizens, » referring to last year’s flawed election that led to a re-election planned for February 12.

It was « of course without question that emergency forces must never, with any justification, in any situation be attacked, hindered in their mission, » Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on the sidelines of her visit to Lisbon.

The legal policy spokesman for the Greens in the Bundestag, Helge Limburg, condemned the riots. He told the Tagesspiegel that the attempt by some conservative politicians to locate the problems primarily in Berlin was obviously an election campaign maneuver. Racist resentment was being served instead of solutions being presented, Limburg said.

Canan Bayram, a member of Parliament for the Green Party, complained that the discussion about the attacks on New Year’s Eve was serving « racist stereotypes ».

Wenn ein MdB der #CDU nicht in der Lage ist, über Herausforderungen zu reden, ohne rassistische Stereotype zu bedienen, müssen wir wohl endlich über Integrationskurse für Menschen reden, denen die Integration in die Einwanderungsgesellschaft in #Deutschland nicht gelingen will pic.twitter.com/xltqYf21tW

— Canan Bayram (@LieblingXhain) January 3, 2023

Jens Spahn, deputy parliamentary group leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union party, blamed a failed integration policy in part for the escalation. « This is more about unregulated migration, failed integration and a lack of respect for the state rather than fireworks, » Spahn told the portal t-online.

‘Strong state,’ education, parents and mosques as levers

Political scientist Vorländer said counteracting outbreaks of violence like the one on New Year’s Eve didn’t require special projects but « strengthening the regular systems of school, work, housing » as well as law enforcement and justice.

« To stop the violence, » Germany’s commissioner for integration and anti-racism Reem Alabali-Radovan said on Twitter, « we need not only a strong state that shows a presence on the streets and sanctions crimes quickly and severely, but also an interlocking of social work and prevention in schools, as well as the police and the courts. »

Um die Gewalt zu stoppen, brauchen wir neben einem starken Staat, der Präsenz auf der Straße zeigt und Straftaten schnell und hart sanktioniert, auch ein Ineinandergreifen von Sozialarbeit und Prävention an Schulen, aber auch von Polizei und Gerichten. 3/4

— Reem Alabali-Radovan (@ReemAlabali) January 4, 2023

Psychologist and migration expert Ahmad Mansour considers a solution to reducing violence to be working with parents. « Violence is not questioned at all as an educational method; they think that they can educate their children with violence. That’s why we have to have dialogues with the parents. »

Finally, Mansour and other psychologists said the onus is also on mosques, especially when it comes to promoting integration work.

World Opinions – Info Migrants With dpa, tagesschau.de, KNA

L’article Germany: Integration debate following New Year’s violence est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

L’écrivaine impressionne avec « Vers la violence », récit de l’éducation à la dure de sa fille par un père « psychopathe amusant », et de ce qu’elle produit.

Blandine Rinkel avait dédié son premier roman, L’Abandon des prétentions (Fayard, 2017), « Aux pierres ». Sans doute l’adresse avait-elle un sens secret, mais elle pouvait apparaître comme un avertissement : l’écrivaine – née en 1991 –, chanteuse et danseuse dans le collectif Catastrophe, n’a rien contre ce qui peut couper ou blesser. La dureté n’est pas étrangère à celle qui, pour ce livre inaugural très ­remarqué, mettait pourtant beaucoup de douceur dans le portrait d’une femme calquée sur sa propre mère.

C’est d’un père – empruntant ou non au sien, on l’ignore – qu’elle trace aujourd’hui le portrait dans un très impressionnant troisième roman. Celui-ci indique dès le titre la voie suivie : Vers la violence. Cette direction, Gérard n’a cessé de la montrer à sa fille, Lou, la narratrice (« Lou pour l’ailleurs, la forêt et les mammifères »), l’encourageant à devenir comme lui, sans peur, la convaincant que « la douleur n’était pas un obstacle » et que la mort était « un détail ». Gérard n’a pas élevé Lou, il l’a aguerrie. Est-ce que cela a été pour la jeune femme une chance ou une malédiction ? Elle se gardera bien de trancher. A la fois éloignée à jamais de cet homme et loyale pour ­toujours à la « DGSI miniature » qu’ils constituaient ensemble à force de secrets partagés, elle détesterait sans doute qu’on le fasse à sa place. Elle finira d’ailleurs par être fidèle à son géniteur et à ce qu’il lui a transmis en refusant de lui apporter une aide vitale.

L’homme est cinglé et distrayant

Mais n’allons pas trop vite. Qui est ­Gérard ? Un policier allergique à la police, installé en Vendée, que sa moustache ­fièrement arborée pourrait résumer : elle semble celle d’un « psychopathe amusant ». L’homme est cinglé et distrayant. Le livre observe cette dualité de la même manière qu’il étudie la violence sous différentes lumières, sans en faire un objet monolithique méritant seulement condamnation. C’est comme si chaque phrase ou presque, disons chaque situation décrite, lançait la même pièce et voyait de quel côté elle tombe. Pile : la brutalité. Face : la vitalité. Pile : la cruauté. Face : la drôlerie. Pile : la colère. Face : le désir. Pile : l’inconscience. Face : le ­courage.

A tout moment, Gérard peut passer d’une disposition à son envers, et cette permanente réversibilité des états, de l’atmosphère, a fait planer sur l’enfance de Lou une menace tout sauf sourde. D’autant plus que, elle le souligne dès les premières pages de son récit, « la tendresse ne protège de rien » : ce n’est pas parce qu’il l’aime, s’occupe d’elle, est son meilleur (et longtemps unique) camarade de jeu qu’il va l’épargner, la défendre contre quoi que ce soit. Même : il l’expose au tranchant du monde et à ses dangers, comme lorsqu’il lui fait traverser à pied, toute petite, un pont en pleine tempête.

« Vers la violence », de Blandine Rinkel, Fayard, 378 p., 20 €, numérique 15 €.

Par Raphaëlle Leyris – Le Monde

L’article Livre. « Vers la violence », de Blandine Rinkel : portrait d’un monstre de virilité est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

About 1 in 3 (30%) women worldwide have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime, according to the World Health Organization, WHO. .In its annual report of March 2021, the organization finds that  most of this violence is intimate partner sexual violence. But the violence is also committed by non-partners.

Worldwide, almost one third (27%) of women aged 15-49 years who have been in a relationship report that they have been subjected to some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner. These shocking facts show that the intimate partner violence is happening not only in the Third World or in poor/ less educated communities but also in Europe and parts of the Americas.

Most surprising, WHO’s statistics show that: the violence ranges from 20% in the Western Pacific, 22% in high-income countries in Europe, 25% in the WHO regions of the Americas to 33% in the WHO African region, In the Eastern Mediterranean the percentage is 31%, and 33% in the WHO South-East Asia region. On top of this horrifying picture, women also face murder at the hands of their intimate partners with about 38% of all murders of women are committed by intimate partners!

Women Deserve More

    Women have for long proven that their gender is not hindering their abilities and, yes, their brilliance in many jobs. The keyword is education. When both genders are receiving equal opportunities in education, nothing can stop women from their rights to flourish in any job, except that, some men would roll their eyes when a woman is their manager, or when a woman present a pioneer idea in a business meeting!

    Nevertheless, women are not receiving an equal pay with men at the same job in the US.  According to the World Economic Forum’s study, released in October 2021,  about Gender pay gap, women earn nearly 20% less than their male counterparts in the US, i.e., on average, American working women are paid 82 cents for every dollar that working men make in the US. On top of gender inequalities, American women are also facing race-related inequalities regarding their income.

US Voters Not Ready

   Regardless of the American women’s voting rights that were ONLY achieved in June 4, 1919, in the presidential elections 2016, many Americans couldn’t accept to vote for a female presidential candidate! In spite of winning the popular votes, Hillary Clinton lost the elections.

As stated then, Donald Trump won the electoral college vote because America was not YET ready for a female president! Wait a second here. So, is it ok that the electoral college vote went to the candidate who has the most racist comments about women in the history of the US?  Well, that is very ironic and contradicting with all the human rights and gender equality principals that the US is promoting worldwide.

In a sense, the U.S. seems to resemble those Third World countries which it keeps advising to follow! So, when can we have an American version of Margret Thatcher, the Prime Minister of the UK (1979-1990),, or Angela Merckel, the Chancellor of Germany (2005-2021)?

Me Too

    The “Me Too” movement, that was funded by Tarana Burke in 2006 to raise awareness of women, who had been sexually abused, and who found global recognition after a viral tweet by actress Alyssa Milano in October 2017, has revealed a lot of secrets about the sexual harassment that women were facing at some toxic work environments. This movement that dominated the world’s social media has succeeded in fighting gender-based violence by exposing those men who are abusing their power over their fellow women co-workers.

A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that the #Me-too hashtag was used more than 19 million times on Twitter since Milano’s initial tweet. That’s more than 55,000 uses of the hashtag per day.

Bombshell

      The movement at least has changed Hollywood by revealing and exposing those abusive men. Bombshell movie that snapped two Golden Globe and four SAG Awards nominations has handled the sexual harassment scandal that took down Roger Ailes, the former head of Fox News and a kingmaker in the Republican party. In 2016, A total of 20 women accused Ailes of sexual harassment, including Megyn Kelly, the rising star at the network, and he was forced to resign from his position in July of that year.

Biden’s Initiatives

   On the International Women’s Day, October 28^th, 2021, The first official step was taken by the Biden administration in releasing the national strategy to foster gender equality in the U.S. and abroad. The strategy’s priorities include preventing gender-based violence and promoting economic security, health, education, fairness in the justice and immigration systems. It also promotes  human rights and equity in the law by launching several initiatives such as eliminating gender-based violence, expanding access to health care and creating a national paid-family-leave program, In addition, it seeks to improve women’s educational opportunities and access to STEM jobs (in science, technology, engineering and mathematics), It promotes global legal reform to combat gender discrimination in other countries, recruit more women in the  military and leadership positions.

Last but not least, it closes the gender pay gap and improve childcare quality and affordability. We hope to witness these changes in our lifetime. People in America need to believe that gender equality is not a luxury, but it is a must for a better future, by raising the equality in our education, culture, media, and above all, social equality. 

By Jihan Mansour – newslooks.com

L’article Violence Against Women: Gender Equality Is A Must est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Ethiopia is witnessing a first of its kind elections for the People’s Chamber, an experience that some hope will change the face of the country. Others decided to boycott their votes fearing post-election violence.

Although the incumbent Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed boasts that he was the first to initiate unprecedented political reforms, democracy has a long way to go.

The current government aims to boost its regional standing following its election victory. Addis Ababa has always looked up to become a regional hegemon in the Horn of Africa.

Although one of the poorest countries in the world, Ethiopia possesses a well-equipped army considered to be the strongest in the Sub-Saharan region and the third strongest in Africa. With three other regional powers (South Africa, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo) aiming to play similar dominant roles, Addis Ababa has a path filled with obstacles and challenges.

Ethiopia’s ambition to be the hub of this region are not new. With the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, along with other organizations headquartered in the capital, the country sends a message that it can assume leading roles successfully.

Playing the role of an African powerhouse is received with neutrality from some neighbors, including Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda. Others view it negatively such as Eretria, Sudan and Egypt.

Relations with Egypt have deteriorated as it pushes forward with the construction of the $4 billion hydropower Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Tensions between the two nations continues to escalate, but out-right war between the two seems far-fetched because there are too many unknowns with both understanding only that serious repercussions are likely.

International efforts to ease tensions have failed to resolve the dispute.

Relations with Sudan and Eretria have not been positive either. Addis Ababa supported the split of Sudan and its border problems remain a source of friction between the two states.

This frame grab from a video obtained from the Ethiopian Public Broadcaster (EBC) on July 20 and July 21, 2020 and released on July 24, 2020 shows water pouring out of the Renaissance Dam in Guba, Ethiopia, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed hails the historic early filling of the reservoir on the Blue Nile River that has stoked tensions with downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan.

On the other hand, Ethiopia refused the cessation of Eretria. A two-year war erupted between the two countries leading to the loss of thousands of innocent lives. Now relations are normalized, yet, the two states are far from friends.

As it builds its dominance Ethiopia is unlikely to contemplate direct military intervention in countries that grow increasingly worried about this. It will instead follow Iran’s strategy of spreading influence with local proxies.

The surrounding countries own agendas and the changing regional relationships are not conducive for Ethiopia to assume the role of a regional hegemon, regardless of who wins the elections. Of course, if Ahmed’s party holds a sweeping majority, he will persevere to achieve this goal.

Assuming such advanced regional political roles for any country is challenging, but more so when it is one of the poorest and most densely populated countries. In a highly polarized, multi-ethnic patrimonial country, the emergence of a strong central state is not an easy task.

For months now, fighting in Tigray province has led to more than 100 thousand casualties. The 38 constituencies of the province were not in the position to join the election. No specific dates have been assigned to allow this to happen.

From the 110 million population, only 37 million are registered to cast their ballot.

The international community is skeptical about the election. The European Union has refrained from monitoring them after its request to import communications equipment was denied.

The US State Department issued a statement saying that it was “gravely concerned about the environment under which these elections are to be held,” citing “detention of opposition politicians, harassment of independent media, partisan activities by local and regional governments, and the many interethnic and inter-communal conflicts across Ethiopia.”

Building a strong central state, cementing democracy locally, and constructing a strong economy to alleviate poverty and enhance development are essential local prerequisites before assuming regional roles.

For Ethiopia looking inward is the way forward. Only by doing this will it become a regional powerhouse, and one neighboring countries will aspire to.

By Rami Rayess – alarabiya.net

L’article Regardless of the election result Ethiopia’s expansionism is doomed to fail est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Les adolescents « baignent » dans la violence, « ils en parlent tous », a assuré sur franceinfo Serge Hefez, psychiatre et psychanalyste, responsable de l’unité de thérapie familiale dans le service de psychiatrie de l’enfant et de l’adolescent à l’hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière à Paris.

Il est revenu sur la mort d’Alisha, 14 ans, poussée dans la Seine par deux camarades sur fond de harcèlement, le 8 mars. « Je crois qu’il y a pas un adolescent qui n’échappe pas à un moment ou un autre à des inquiétudes, voire à une angoisse très forte autour de ce qui se joue sur les réseaux sociaux », relate Serge Hefez. 

Pour le psychiatre, les adolescents sont confrontés de plus en plus jeunes à la violence mais l’épidémie accentue le phénomène : « On est dans une vague psychiatrique qui est liée à l’épidémie, explique Serge Hefez. Il y a beaucoup d’angoisse et de stress, de dépressions pour les jeunes et leurs parents ». Il évoque aussi « une augmentation extrêmement forte de la violence conjugale et familiale, une augmentation des consommations d’alcool, de tranquillisants, etc. Donc, tout cela est un climat dans lequel baignent les jeunes et ceux qui ont déjà une petite aptitude aux théories du complot ou à la violence, et bien cette violence explose parfois », poursuit le psychanalyste.

Liens entre violence et pandémie

« Au-delà des questions de harcèlement, il y a des explosions de violence de plus en plus fortes qui ont lieu partout. Sans vouloir excuser ces jeunes, cela me paraît difficile de ne pas lier ce climat particulièrement anxiogène à l’épidémie de Covid. On sait depuis le Moyen-Âge et l’épidémie de peste, à quel point les épidémies sont propices à la fois à la violence et à la désignation de boucs émissaires », insiste Serge Hefez.

En parallèle de l’angoisse ressentie à cause de la pandémie, les jeunes se retrouvent moins en contact avec les autres : « Avec les différents confinements et les couvre-feux, les jeunes sont beaucoup plus chez eux et donc beaucoup plus isolés. Ils sont donc beaucoup plus confrontés aux écrans encore qu’en temps ordinaire : ils vont avoir tendance à voir certaines images en boucle et à n’avoir comme liens sociaux que ces liens virtuels », détaille le psychiatre.

Ces contacts virtuels « déshumanisent, parce qu’on n’est pas dans le contact charnel avec l’autre. Et donc l’autre perd un peu sa qualité d’être humain », analyse le psychiatre. Ce contexte favorise « la circulation de secrets, les alliances entre les uns et les autres qui peuvent monter en épingle. Deux personnes peuvent se trouver liées, par exemple, par un pacte extrêmement violent qu’elles vont mettre en acte à l’extérieur », poursuit Serge Hefez.

Améliorer la communication

Loin d’arrêter de faire cas de ces drames dans les médias, le psychiatre suggère plutôt que de simplement rapporter les faits, de « parler quasiment tous les jours des questions de harcèlement : il y a une vraie prévention à faire auprès des jeunes et des établissements pour mettre des mots sur ce que vivent les jeunes au quotidien. Or, on a le sentiment quand même que le harcèlement a un côté encore un petit peu secret, un peu honteux ». En parler davantage permettrait « de mettre beaucoup plus de mots dessus et de permettre aux jeunes de peut-être en parler davantage », conclut Serge Hefez. 

Analyse Serge Hefez / France Tech

L’article Harcèlement, violence : « Pas un jeune n’échappe à des inquiétudes autour de ce qui se joue sur les réseaux sociaux » est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Ye Swan Htet, 23, had joined a sit-down protest on a bridge in west Yangon when he saw police approaching. Officers were carrying guns, he remembered, but he didn’t expect them to actually shoot. The protest was peaceful; crowds were singing and clapping.

Then, gun fire rang out all around him. Bricks burst open and a branch snapped from a tree. “There was a guy who got hit in his thigh by a rubber bullet, so I carried him to an ambulance,” he said.

Ye Swan Htet saw five protesters run frantically towards him. They were carrying his cousin, Nyi Nyi Aung Htet Naing, who had been shot in his lower abdomen.

Doctors in a nearby neighbourhood desperately tried to help, said Ye Swan Htet, but they were unable to save him. A video posted by news outlet Myanmar Now showed his last moments, as he laid motionless outside a school before other protesters, still seemingly under fire, lifted him away.

Nyi Nyi Aung Htet Naing, 23, was one of at least 18 people killed in violence by security forces on Sunday, according to UN estimates. Police, reinforced by notorious military troops, launched their most violent crackdown yet in an attempt to quash protests against the junta.

Streets in downtown Yangon resembled a war zone; the sound of security forces opening fire echoed as live ammunition and stun grenades were deployed against protesters. Footage from various points in the city, shared on social media, showed panicked crowds fleeing to safety. Protesters struggled to breathe as clouds of teargas spread.

World Opinions News / theguardian.com

L’article ‘We have to win’: Myanmar protesters persevere as forces ramp up violence est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Après la diffusion d’une vidéo montrant les mauvais traitements infligés à de jeunes migrants marocains dans un centre d’accueil de Las Palmas, aux Canaries, Rabat a exprimé son inquiétude. L’Unicef a également mis en garde contre une « stigmatisation préoccupante » des enfants non accompagnés et des jeunes migrants sur l’archipel espagnol.

Enregistrée secrètement, une vidéo de 4 minutes 22 suscite de vives réactions depuis sa diffusion. Elle a été filmée le 31 janvier dans un centre d’accueil pour migrants mineurs situé à Las Palmas, capitale de l’île Grande Canarie, dans lequel la police avait été appelée à la suite de menaces proférées contre le responsable de cette structure.

Face à une demi-douzaine de policiers, quatre mineurs assis contre un mur implorent leur clémence et demandent de l’aide, tandis qu’un cinquième gît inanimé, face contre terre, sans recevoir d’attention médicale. La situation est tendue et un policier gifle lourdement l’un des jeunes qui semble terrorisé.

Ces images sont rapidement devenues virales sur les réseaux sociaux, provoquant colère et indignation. Les services policiers et l’antenne locale de la protection des enfants ont annoncé, dans la foulée, l’ouverture d’une enquête sur ces faits. Et les autorités marocaines ont, quant à elles, demandé des éclaircissements à Ricardo Diez-Hochleitner, l’ambassadeur espagnol au Maroc.

« Nous lui avons fait part de notre inquiétude face à ces événements et nous avons demandé aux autorités espagnoles de prendre les mesures disciplinaires nécessaires envers les auteurs de ces actes de violence », a indiqué le ministère marocain des Affaires étrangères au Monde Afrique.

L’enquête doit notamment déterminer si le jeune allongé par terre venait effectivement de menacer avec une arme blanche un éducateur de l’association chargée de gérer cette structure d’accueil. Selon le journal Jeune Afrique, tous deux ont porté plainte.

15 % des migrants arrivés aux Canaries en 2020 sont des mineurs

Sans se référer directement à cette vidéo, la branche espagnole de l’Unicef a manifesté, dans un communiqué diffusé le 5 février, sa préoccupation « au vu de la situation que vivent les enfants migrants et demandeurs d’asile sur les îles Canaries ». Tout en saluant les efforts déployés par cette région face à un afflux massif de migrants, elle demande l’adoption de mesures supplémentaires de protection de l’enfance, à la fois sur cet archipel et dans le reste du pays.

L’urgence est d’autant plus grande que les arrivées de migrants ne cessent d’augmenter. Et selon des chiffres communiqués mardi 9 février par la Croix-Rouge espagnole, 15 % des 23 000 migrants arrivés aux Canaries en 2020 à bord de 745 embarcations sont des mineurs. Les Marocains constitueraient environ la moitié de ces arrivées.

La situation de ces 3 462 mineurs présents sur l’archipel requiert, selon l’Unicef, une attention particulière de la part des autorités locales afin que ces jeunes, une fois majeurs, « ne se retrouvent pas à la rue, sans papiers ni permis à la résidence ». Or, les capacités d’accueil sur place, qui ont pourtant été multipliées par cinq l’année dernière, restent limitées, comme l’a indiqué la Croix-Rouge : 8 400 personnes se trouvent actuellement dans les 49 centres d’accueil gérés par le Ministère des migrations aux Canaries. Soit la capacité d’hébergement maximale.

Sur place, beaucoup de migrants sont livrés à eux-mêmes et tentent de s’en sortir par tous les moyens, certains tombant dans la délinquance. Les relations sont très tendues avec la population locale, certains migrants ayant été victimes d’agressions. Car de nombreux habitants demandent leur renvoi vers leurs pays d’accueil. Des accords ont d’ailleurs été trouvés dans ce sens entre les autorités espagnoles et marocaines, avec pour objectif le retour de 80 ressortissants par semaine. Un avion devrait également être affrété au cours des prochaines semaines vers le Sénégal. Mais les chiffres de ces retours n’ont pas été officiellement donnés par le gouvernement espagnol.

World Opinions – Info Migrants

L’article Îles Canaries : le Maroc « préoccupé » par la violence de policiers contre des migrants mineurs est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Central African Republic is facing serious food shortages as election violence has cut off the country and stranded hundreds of trucks carrying supplies outside its borders.

Food prices have risen steeply since the landlocked country’s main supply route from Cameroon was cut off by armed groups trying to blockade the capital, Bangui, where the government declared a state of emergency on Thursday.

The price of staple foods has risen by more than 50% in rural areas, according to the UN, which said an attack last Monday by rebels on a convoy carrying humanitarian supplies was “totally unacceptable”. Three drivers were injured in the attack.

More than 1,600 trucks have been stuck at the border, a third of them carrying humanitarian aid, including food and medicine.

Under the new umbrella Coalition des Patriotes pour le Changement (CPC), armed groups launched an assault on Bangui ahead of the 27 December election, protesting against the exclusion of former president François Bozizé.

The CPC has seized towns around the country, but has been repelled from Bangui in clashes with government armed forces and the UN peacekeeping mission Minusca.

Hans De Marie Heungoup, senior central Africa analyst for Crisis Group, said the blockade of Bangui was “a deliberate tactic to strangle the capital economically, to force the government to the negotiating table”.

He said Bozizé had met with rebel leaders after his candidacy for the presidential election was thrown out by the constitutional court, his aim to prevent the elections taking place and to march on the capital.

Both the rebels and the traditional opposition groups have rejected the election results, which confirmed the return of incumbent Faustin-Archange Touadéra.Advertisement

“Many trucks of the UN come through Cameroon. Some come by air but most pass on land, through Cameroon,” said De Marie Heungoup.

“It’s not just the usual business activity that has stopped. With the fighting ongoing in several provinces, people are not receiving the assistance they usually do and this is a challenge,” he said, adding that some humanitarian groups had also been looted.

More than 100,000 people have been displaced since violence began last month, including 84,000 who have fled to neighbouring countries, according to the UN. About 10,000 refugees arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 13 January alone.

World Opinions News – agencies

L’article Central African Republic suffers food shortages as rebels cut off capital est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

« Après examen approfondi des tweets récents de @realDonaldTrump et du contexte actuel – notamment comment ils sont interprétés (…) – nous avons suspendu le compte indéfiniment à cause du risque de nouvelles incitations à la violence » de la part du président américain sortant, a expliqué l’entreprise dans un communiqué.

Le compte suspendu de Donald Trump. [Keystone]

Jeudi, Facebook et d’autres services comme Snapchat ou Twitch ont aussi suspendu le profil du locataire de la Maison Blanche pour une durée indéterminée. Mais Twitter compte plus que les autres pour Donald Trump, qui y avait plus de 88 millions d’abonnés.

Le réseau social avait déjà accru les mesures de rétorsion mercredi, en supprimant plusieurs messages du chef d’Etat, au lieu de simplement les masquer avec des notes d’avertissements.

Le républicain n’a pas cessé de contester la validité de l’élection présidentielle, enfreignant donc les règles des principales plateformes sur le respect des processus démocratiques.

Le dernier tweet

Twitter avait ensuite suspendu son compte pendant douze heures avant de le réactiver jeudi, à la surprise générale, le président étant tenu en bonne partie responsable des violences de mercredi, qui ont choqué le pays et à l’étranger.

Probablement sans le savoir, Donald Trump a tiré sa révérence sur son réseau social favori le 8 janvier en annonçant faire l’impasse sur la prestation de serment de son successeur, Joe Biden.

« A tous ceux qui ont demandé, je n’assisterai pas à la cérémonie d’investiture le 20 janvier ».

After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021

Trop tard

Les critiques se sont multipliées toute la semaine contre les réseaux, jugés trop lents ou trop laxistes. Un nombre croissant de personnalités et d’organisations ont appelé à bannir le milliardaire des plateformes, de Michelle Obama au syndicat des employés de Google (pour YouTube, où le compte de Donald Trump est toujours actif).

Les décisions de Facebook et de Twitter, longtemps attendues, ont d’ailleurs été accueillies avec plus de colère et de mépris que de soulagement.

« Quand Twitter et d’autres agissent maintenant, c’est comme tous ces hauts responsables du gouvernement qui démissionnent à quelques jours de la fin (du mandat): c’est trop peu, trop tard », a regretté Angelo Carusone, président de l’ONG Media Matters for America. « S’ils avaient agi plus tôt, les horribles événements de mercredi auraient pu être évités. »

World Opinions News – agences

L’article Twitter suspend le compte de Donald Trump de façon permanente est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

In a global survey of 1,200 media workers, conducted by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), some 20 percent of women journalists and media workers reported being targeted with offline abuse and attacks that they believe were connected with online violence they had experienced.

These preliminary research results also point to a surge in rates of online violence against women journalists. Nearly three-quarters – 73 percent – of participants identifying as women said they have experienced online abuse, harassment, threats and attacks.

Online violence is the new front line in journalism safety – and it is particularly dangerous for women. They – just like women across society – experience higher levels of harassment, assault and abuse in their daily lives. women journalists are also at much greater risk in the course of their work, especially on digital platforms. In the online environment, we see exponential attacks – at scale – on women journalists, particularly at the intersection of hate speech and disinformation.

Alarmingly, the risk extends to their families, sources and audiences. Online attacks against women journalists are often accompanied by threats of harm to others connected to them, or those they interact with, as a means of extending the “chilling effect” on their journalism.

In combination, misogyny and online violence are a real threat to women’s participation in journalism and public communication in the digital age. This is both a genuine gender equality struggle and a freedom of expression crisis that needs to be taken very seriously by all actors involved. We believe that collaborative, comprehensive, research-informed solutions are increasingly urgent.

Our finding that a fifth of the women journalists who responded to our survey reported experiencing abuse and attacks in the physical world that they believed were associated with online violence targeting them is particularly disturbing. It underlines the fact that online violence is not contained within the digital world.

In 2017, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that in at least 40 percent of cases, journalists who were murdered reported receiving threats, including online, before they were killed, “highlighting the need for robust protection mechanisms”. The same year, two women journalists on opposite sides of the world were murdered for their work within six weeks of one another: celebrated Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and prominent Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh. Both had been the targets of sustained gendered online attacks before they were murdered.

Parallels between patterns of online violence associated with Caruana Galizia’s death and attacks being experienced by another high-profile target – Filipino American journalist Maria Ressa – are so striking that the murdered journalist’s sons issued a public statement expressing their fears for Ressa’s safety. “This targeted harassment, chillingly similar to that perpetrated against Ressa, created the conditions for Daphne’s murder,” they wrote.

Likewise, the death of Lankesh, which was associated with online violence propelled by right-wing extremism, also drew international attention to the risks faced by another Indian journalist who is openly critical of her government: Rana Ayyub. She has faced an onslaught of rape and death threats online alongside false information campaigns designed to counter her critical reporting, discredit her, and place her at greater physical risk.

Pointing to the emergence of a pattern, the targeting of Ayyub led five UN special rapporteurs to intervene in her defence. Their statement drew parallels with Lankesh’s case, and called on India’s political leaders to act to protect Ayyub, stating: “We are highly concerned that the life of Rana Ayyub is at serious risk following these graphic and disturbing threats.”

This trend of online attacks against women journalists only appears to be increasing over time. Back in 2014, when these issues first began to attract mainstream media attention, a survey of nearly 1000 women journalists conducted by the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) and the International News Safety Institute (INSI), which was supported by UNESCO, found that 23 percent of women respondents had experienced “intimidation, threats or abuse” online in relation to their work.

A follow-up survey conducted by IWMF and Trollbusters in 2018, involving a smaller but still substantial sample, found that 63 percent of women respondents had been harassed or abused online at least once. And in our survey, 73 percent of women reported experiencing online abuse, harassment, threats and attacks. Although these surveys are not directly comparable, viewed collectively they point to a disturbing pattern.

The COVID-19 pandemic and social media risks

Physical violence against women has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic in what has been called the “shadow pandemic”. At the same time, online violence against women journalists also appears to be on the rise. In another global survey, conducted earlier this year by ICFJ and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, 16 percent of women respondents said online abuse and harassment was “much worse than normal”.

This finding likely reflects the escalating levels of hostility and violence towards journalists seen during the pandemic – fuelled by populist and authoritarian politicians who have frequently doubled as disinformation peddlers. Significantly, one in 10 English-language respondents to the ICFJ-Tow Center’s survey indicated that they had been abused – online or offline – by a politician or elected official during the first three months of the pandemic.

Another relevant factor is that the “socially distanced” reporting methods necessitated by coronavirus have caused journalists to rely more heavily on social media channels for both newsgathering and audience engagement purposes. And these increasingly toxic spaces are the main enablers of viral online violence against women.

This conundrum – the need for women journalists to participate in online communities to do their jobs, even as these spaces grow increasingly unsafe – has become more urgent over time. The 2014 INSI-IWMF survey found that 88 percent of respondents felt their work had grown more dangerous because of the advent of social media and its role in audience engagement and news distribution.

Since then, research has increasingly focused on the role and responsibility (or lack thereof) of social media companies as facilitators of online violence against women journalists. Several studies have concluded that some women journalists are withdrawing from front-line reporting, removing themselves from public online conversations, quitting their jobs, and even abandoning journalism in response to their experience of online violence.

There is even evidence of women journalism students being deterred from pursuing a career in the field because of their experiences of online toxicity, or their knowledge of the risks of exposure to online violence in the course of their work. In parallel, this crisis is making women sources less likely to speak online and we have also seen evidence of the retreat of women audiences from online engagement.

However, there have also been numerous cases of women journalists fighting back against online violence, refusing to retreat or be silenced, even when speaking up has made them bigger targets.

What can be done now to respond to this crisis?

It is vitally important for news organisations to have gender-sensitive policies, guidelines, training, and leadership responses. Together, these measures must ensure awareness of the problem, build the capacity to deal with it, and trigger action to protect women journalists in the course of their work. These strategies also need to be connected and holistic in the sense that they bridge physical, digital and psychological threats, and address them accordingly.

We know that physical attacks on women journalists are frequently preceded by online threats made against them. These can include threats of physical or sexual assault and murder, as well as digital security attacks designed to expose them to greater risk. And such threats – even without being followed by physical assault – often involve very real psychological impacts and injuries.

So, when a women journalist is threatened with violence online, this should be taken very seriously. She should be provided with physical safety support (including increased security when necessary), psychological support (including access to counselling services), and digital security triage and training (including cybersecurity and privacy measures).

But she should also be well supported by her editorial managers, who need to signal to staff that these issues are serious and will be responded to decisively, including with legal and law enforcement intervention where appropriate.

The stigma needs to be removed from feeling and expressing the impacts of online violence. In particular, we need to be very cautious about suggesting that women journalists should build resilience or “grow a thicker skin” in order to survive this work-related threat to their safety.

They are being attacked for daring to speak. For daring to report. For doing their jobs. The onus should not be on women journalists to “just put up with it”. The question that needs to be asked instead is: How do we protect women journalists from exposure to such violence in the course of their work, or at least minimise it?

The answers ultimately lie not in temporary measures like requiring them to retreat from digital journalism practices, including audience engagement. The solutions lie in structural changes to the information ecosystem designed to combat online toxicity generally and exponential attacks against journalists, in particular.

This will require rich and powerful social media companies living up to their responsibilities within international human rights frameworks, which are explicitly designed to protect press freedom and secure journalism safety. It will also require them to deal decisively, transparently and appropriately with disinformation and hate speech on the platforms as they affect journalists.

This will likely mean that these companies need to accept their function as publishers of news. In doing so, they would inherit an obligation to improve their audience curation, fact-checking and anti-hate speech standards. Regulatory work is also likely to be a feature of this process.

Ultimately, collaboration and cooperation that spans big tech, newsrooms, civil society organisations, research entities, policymakers and the legal and judicial communities will be required. Only then can concrete action be pursued.

Authors’ note: The survey results are non-generalisable because they are based on a self-selecting group of journalists and other media workers. The survey is part of an ongoing global study commissioned by UNESCO.

Johann Petrak assisted with data analysis for this article. He is a Research Fellow in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Sheffield. Dr Pete Brown, Research Director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, conducted the quantitative analysis of the data presented from the Journalism and the Pandemic Project.

L’article Women journalists are facing a growing threat online and offline est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.