Women in Tunisia are fighting for their rights

Shortly after they won the right to protest following the January 2011 regime change, the women in Tunisia went back on the streets again, asking for their rights. 

Over 6,000 Tunisian women requested at the beginning of the week against the predicted restrictions against women's rights that might be introduced into the new Constitution, under the influence of the politicians close to Salafi Muslims. 

Let's hope that the proud women in Tunisia will be able to continue enjoying the right to ask for their rights and will not give up the obvious pressures that the Islamist forces are ready to exert against them.

Quo Vadis Pussy Riots?

Sometimes, I feel that people that are not too much in love with democracy are trying to do their best for convincing other people about their disregard for democracy. The more you criticize them, the more they would enjoy doing something bad against those who do not agree with their opinion.

Arts of any kinds are one of the domains that always gave serious headaches to people without too much interest or sympathy for human rights and plurality of opinions in general. Some might remember how much hate the communists had against rock bands and creative arts, and how happy they were to impose their 'standards' on visual representations - by qualifying as 'decadent' everything that failed to meet the simple and anti-artistic standards of the nomenklatura.

This interest towards 'purity' in arts concerns both the ideological and religious based regimes. The Middle East countries is a case apart that will address on another occasion. My inspiration for the above thoughts was represented by the case of the punk rock Russian Band Pussy Riot. Three girls of the band - Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolonnikova and Ekaterina Samutsevitch - are about to be condemned to 3 years of prison for protesting against President Vladimir Putin in a church. They are accused of hooliganism and religious hatred, despite the fact that nothing was vandalized in the church. However, the process in itself could be an inspiration for an absurd novel, in the old style of the good Russian literature. 

For many Western democracies, Vladimir Putin is considered a long-term reliable partner and many EU capital cities prefer stability and avoid spontaneous changes. True is that Russia is a huge country, with so many contradicting realities and interest groups ready to die for a slice of power that someone as Putin is seen as the only one that could control them. He did it in the last 12 years, but the question will be, what could happen after he will assume that his power should end? However, the witch hunt against a punk group and the possible new restrictions imposed to the freedom of speech and human rights in general, might worry the big powers. 

As China demonstrated successfully, you do not need to have democracy for outperforming economically and being considered an important player on the international stage. Russia is a difficult and complicated player, with a long history of problematic democratic developments - if any. The key to change is to have more people committed to democracy and understanding why you should accept that even Pussy Riots have their right to say something against you. 

Daily Media Digest

N. Africa and the Middle East

Another Friday of protest in the region - country by country
Libya: Bribe for freedom, Saif Gaddafi's ties to LSE and Britain, Thousands fear dead, Gaddafi blames Al Qaeda, Where is the EU?
Egyptians call for reform
Moves in Saudi Arabia

Europe

Putin and the people
Ireland votes
The NATO chief meeting EU Defense ministers in Hungary
The battle for euro between the German right and the European left
Greece relying on its own power

Africa

Zimbabwe: Violences ahead of predictable elections

Asia

Will North Korea will be next?
India could be milk importer by 2022
Japan: slowest rate of population growth since 1920s

US and Canada


Black History Month at the White House
Canada: Charges against four officials of the Conservative Party

The crackdown in Bangkok

Photo-feature from Boston Globe.

Lockdown in Lhasa as Chinese police brace for Tibetan protests

Jane Macartney in Beijing
The Times
March 11

A Tibetan monk is arrested after clashes with riot police at the Boudhanath Stupa, Kathmandu

Armed paramilitary police have surrounded Tibetan monasteries across China. Inside, frightened monks have hidden away their illegal photographs of the Dalai Lama.

Officials were determined to avoid any renewed show of anti-Chinese feeling on the anniversary of the start of an insurrection that led to the flight of the region’s god-king into exile half a century ago.

In Lhasa, capital of the restive Himalayan region, the distinctive black vans of the special riot police drove slowly up and down streets around the old city that surrounds the sacred Jokhang Temple. This was the focal point of anti-Chinese demonstrations that spiralled into riots that left 22 people dead on March 14 last year.

Patrols of the paramilitary People’s Armed Police, responsible for enforcing domestic order, have been expanded from five men to thirteen in each squad. Many carried firearms, residents said. Armed police stood guard on street corners, in pairs with their backs to the wall. Others could be seen on rooftops of buildings around the street that surrounds the Jokhang Temple and which is among the holiest routes for pilgrims visiting Lhasa.

Related Links

• Dalai Lama blasts Tibet's 'hell on Earth'

• Tibetan monks taken for 're-education'

• Defiant Tibetans mark New Year with mourning

Multimedia

• Pictures: Tibet

Few pilgrims were to be seen yesterday. Stalls selling marigolds and hunks of yak butter were closed. One Lhasa resident, who declined to be named, said: “The atmosphere is pretty tense. There are more armed police than normal but it isn’t as much as when the Olympic torch was here. Then every road was closed off.”

One hotel employee said: “There are armed police around the temple. You need to keep your ID with you because the police are checking.”

Mobile phones in the city were virtually useless because of signal interference, residents said. China Mobile had notified subscribers that the system would undergo maintenance from March 10 until April 1 — a move seen as intended to prevent Tibetans from sending text messages, thereby spreading word of any unrest.

In the town of Xiahe, home to one of Tibetan Buddhism’s great temples and a scene of protests last March, about 4,000 additional security forces had been deployed, while schools and colleges for Tibetan students were closed. They were told to stay at home for the next five days. One resident said: “Not even a fly could get in here.”

In the small towns scattered across the vast but sparsely populated region — about the size of Western Europe — police have set up numerous checkpoints on major roads. In larger towns, paramilitary troops have thrown up sandbagged positions in the central squares and military-style chicanes on the edge of town.

See also:

Reuters - China denounces US criticism

Washington Times, AP on Dalai Lama critical speech, March 10

Chinese state media reaction

TIME 2008 - feature on Dalai Lama

Protests in Latvia's capital

Riga, hit by anti-government riots.

Youth protests escalating in southern Sweden

The Associated Press, International Herald Tribune

Police say youths in southern Sweden set fires and hurled rocks at police in unrest sparked by the closure of an Islamic cultural center.

Police spokesman Charley Nilsson says no injuries have been reported, but several trailers, containers, garbage bins and at least two cars were set ablaze in Malmo, Sweden's third largest city. One person was arrested.

The violence has escalated every night since Monday, when police removed squatters protesting the eviction of an Islamic group from their basement premises in an immigrant neighborhood. Nilsson says leftist activists from other parts of the city have joined the protests.

Police say there are no immediate signs of a link to the violent protests in Greece.

Faces of a possible new coming anarchy

Six days after the police shooting of a teenager, the anti-government protests widespread in ten Greek cities. In the last days, Greeks also protested in Paris, Berlin, New York, the Hague, Moscow and the opposition socialist party is calling for elections. Also under the influence of the global economic crisis, the Greek economy is likely to continue its decline. On Wednesday, the trade unions were on a 24-hours general strike opposing pensions reform and privatizations. As a movement of solidarity with the Greek youth, Spanish youngsters from Barcelona and Madrid attacked on Wednesday a police station and a bank. The current economic crisis haven't arose just out of the blue; it is the consequence of a long time mix between uncoordinated policies - social, political and economic levels. Bad handled and not explained, these policies lead to protests, by people with an unsecure future. It is too early to consider that we experience now the death of liberal or socialist policies, as long as the crisis is producing effects at the global level, whatever the political orientations of the central governments. Was Argentina's crisis from the beginning of 2000 a warning?

Political turmoil in Thailand

The head of Thailand's army urged today the governemnt to dissolve parliament and call new elections, after yesterday anti-governement demonstrators seized Bangkok's international airport. The protesters are campaignig for six months against the government. In answer to the request, they refused to withdraw, and the chaos continue to affects thousands of passengers. The deepening crisis with dramatic effects on the economy is the manifested consequence of a divided society rotten by corruption and conjunctural applications of the law.