Democracy & Civics

Thailand: No Free Speech for Critics of Royals

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Thai officials said recently that the government has identified more than 10,000 websites that supposedly insult the country’s monarchy. Insulting Thailand’s king or any members of the royal family is a criminal offense and punishable by time in prison, according to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance. Reports indicate the number of Web sites allegedly insulting the monarchy is increasing, even though the government already blocked 2,300 and has plans to block 400 more. One former Thai minister told The Straits Times that Thailand’s “lese majeste” law — which protects King Bhumibol and his family from criticism — have created the problem, usually spurring court cases that “take up a lot of people’s time.” Media and rights activists are opposed to such protections, and Dr. Tej Bunnag, a former royal advisor, said efforts have been made to amend the law, but did not provide details.

Democracy & Civics

Amid Colombia's Violence, Gandhi's Ghost

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Colombia’s “indigenous guard” is pursuing nonviolence as a means of enforcing justice for the country’s 92 tribal communities, according to The Dominion, an Canadian publication. Hemmed in by violent drug trafficking, and conflict between government soldiers and rebels, around 1.5 million Indians are looking to confront kidnappings, murders and greed with unarmed confrontations and community-based reconciliation assemblies. Rodrigo Dagua, leader of the Jambalo tribe, told the Los Angeles Times: “We forbid violence. All we have is the power to convene.” In late November 2008, when seven villagers were kidnapped from Jambalo, in Southwest Colombia, hundreds of community members banded together, successfully found the hostages and freed them peacefully, despite the rebels’ threat of force, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Democracy & Civics

Tribes Press Obama on Renewable Energy

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Claiming that they will bear a disproportionate burden due to global warming, a coalition of American Indian tribes is requesting the Obama administration to support tribally owned or operated renewable-energy projects. The group represents around 250 tribes and their affiliates, and also hopes the new administration will direct a bevy of green jobs to the native nations, according to Indian Country Today. At present, companies working with renewable energy technologies shy away from joint ventures with tribes because they lose tax credit privileges. Tribal representatives highlighted the energy potential of their lands, saying wind and solar projects could produce billions of kilowatts per year. They also said investments in renewable energy would yield more jobs per dollar than ongoing investments in fossil fuels.

Democracy & Civics

In Azerbaijan, Radio Silence

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At the start of 2009, Azerbaijan enacted a ban blocking international radio stations from using local frequencies, raising fears of censorship and shifting international alliances. The ban targets broadcasts by the British Broadcasting Corporation, as well as the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America, according to the Moscow Times. As of January 1, all Azerbaijan radio frequencies became government property and no foreign broadcasting licenses will be renewed. Although foreign broadcasters will still be able to find an audience using satellite, Internet and cable technologies in Azerbaijan, the ban will eliminate the majority of the stations’ regular audience. Kenan Aliyev, director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Azerbaijan, told the Christian Science Monitor, “If we lose FM, we lose 95 percent of our audience.”

Democracy & Civics

Uganda Court Challenges Anti-Gay Laws

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In a landmark case, a court in Uganda ruled in favor of two women who were arrested and harassed by police on suspicions of being lesbians. Homosexuality is still illegal in Uganda and homophobia is the norm. Gay rights activists Yvonne Oyoo and Victor Juliet Mukasa filed the suit against the Ugandan government after local officials illegally raided Mukasa’s home looking for “incriminating material” in July of 2005, according to a report on Uganda Pulse. In that raid, Mukasa was beaten up while Oyoo was arrested, held and tortured for several days without a formal charge. Oyoo was detained and forced to strip “to prove that she was a woman”; a Ugandan news website reported that both women were beaten, while Radio Netherlands said Yvonne was sexually assaulted.

Democracy & Civics

Year's Top Issues: War Crimes

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The world is full of ghosts and memories of the many war crimes enacted during the last part of the 20th century. But issues and people around the violence remain very much alive. In the Balkans, the high-profile arrest of former Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic, who helped spearhead the region’s genocidal civil wars, brought additional pressure to arrest other, less-well-known Serb leaders who remain on the run. One reader commented on the Newsdesk.org Web site that Croats and Bosniaks are also to blame, and that a focus on Serbs is one-sided. Targeting Rwanda, Spain indicted 40 Army officers as well as Rwandan President Paul Kagame over the killing of aid workers in the 1990s — charges that Kagame fiercely rejected.

Democracy & Civics

Year's Top Issues: Indigenous Peoples

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Control of natural resources, language, education, access to traditional lands — these are just a few of the issues that indigenous activists rallied around in 2008. Armed with a U.N. declaration affirming a variety of rights around these topics, advocacy groups started last year with a push for greater legal protections. This comes at a time for rising political fortunes for leftists in Bolivia and Ecuador, who successfully harnessed the indigenous vote. And in Brazil, activists won a Supreme Court case that affirmed the land rights of tribal communities living in the northern Amazon region. In Guatemala, however, an leftist advocate for Mayans opposed to large-scale mining in their communities was found beaten and hacked to death.

Democracy & Civics

Year's Top Issues: Gay & Lesbian

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Struggles around human rights and sexuality achieved a high profile in 2008, with Prop. 8 in California capturing the bulk of the headlines. Worldwide, the issue saw plenty of give-and-take. In Australia, advocates cheered the establishment of the nation’s first gay- and lesbian-focused retirement home. Elsewhere, a gay Muslim seeking asylum in Britain became a flashpoint of controversy, while the Vatican quietly introduced a psychological screening program to prevent homosexuals from entering the priesthood.

Democracy & Civics

Ghost of Thatcher Past Haunts Royal Mail

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A British plan to sell shares of the state-owned Royal Mail Group to a foreign firm has created a heated dispute among labor unions, members of Parliament and pundits on the U.K.’s media circuit. The Telegraph reports that a set of recommendations for partial privatization was accepted by the British government, provoking a bidding war among overseas investors angling for up to a 33 percent stake in the Royal Mail service. The two leading prospects are the Dutch postal group TNT, and the private equity house CVC, according to The Times. Boosters say the deal will mean an updated, globally competitive, automated mail system to replace a 360-year-old system that often sorts mail by hand. Yet critics say privatization will mean the loss of thousands of full-time jobs, decreased quality of remote mail services, and a slide towards Conservative “Thatcherite” policies, which doesn’t sit well with stalwarts of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour Party.

Democracy & Civics

"Scraper Bikes" Give Kids a Lift

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Oakland, California, is not just the city with the fifth-highest crime rate in the country — it’s also home to the “scraper bike” movement, which according to Wiretap Magazine is giving young people an alternative to the violence plaguing their communities. Scraper bikes are tricked out with unique paint jobs, rims and spinners, and have been modified to resemble “scraper” cars of the late 1980s — American-made sedans decked out with stereo systems, huge rims and imaginative detailing. Tyrone Stevenson, known by friends as Baby Champ and generally acknowledged as the Scraper Bike King, and hopes to make Oakland a little less violent with each customized bike he creates. Scraper bikes came up from the Bay Area’s “hyphy” hip-hop subculture, and gained attention when Stevenson posted a video with his group Da Trunk Boiz on YouTube that highlighted the bikes. Stevenson made his first scraper bikes as a troubled 13-year-old, and now attends adult school and hopes to open a scraper bike shop where young people can learn the craft and meet positive role models.