Elena Liski – Pike & Hurricane

Gender Is Bending and We Should Embrace the Change

Elena Liski — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 22:25:33 +0000

Quiz time: Which Nordic country has forced sterilisation for a group of people before they are allowed to have full citizen-rights after a name change? This was a trick question, since both Finland and Norway expect their transgender citizens to prove their inability to reproduce, if they wish to enjoy such luxuries as passports, social security numbers or driver’s licenses. Other Nordics shouldn’t feel too proud, because just a few short years ago, the situation was the same in Iceland (2012), Sweden (2013) and Denmark (2014).

Of course, nobody is collecting passports away from trans people and burning them alongside the Gävle goat. But not everyone feels the need for surgical operations or hormonal treatment that is now enforced on them to make the transitioning complete. To make the matter even more complicated, these procedures have to be started before the gender can officially be corrected. To oversimplify, at this very moment there is several guys in Norway and Finland with bushy beards and manly voices, but with names like Anne and Eva on their legal documents. The situation is confusing for everyone and can be borderline traumatic for those, who have to live through people’s disapproval.

Having a gender that matches the ID card can seem like a small issue, but imagine explaining in your job interview, why you seem to be a girl, but have a boy’s first name. The situation repeats itself in everyday life, when ID has to be shown. This can cause humiliating situations, pain and discrimination for trans people. Even without infertility requirements, it can take years to get assigned to the right gender.

Danes were on the same boat with Norway and Finland until very last year. Now they have set the example for new European trans person law. Denmark doesn’t impose any conditions on person’s body. One can change their gender to match the identity by walking in to a register office. The only requirements for person’s gender are a minimum of age 18 years and a six month waiting period.

Compulsory infertility isn’t the only form of discrimination that trans people can face in front of the law in Europe or even the Nordics. There is also forced divorce, if a person is married, since many states still don’t recognise same-sex-marriage. Very common practice is also receiving diagnosis for mental illness, as World Health Organisation still classifies gender dysphoria as a disorder. 34 countries in Europe, including Germany, UK and France enforce some of these forms of discrimination, although UN and EU have both adopted resolutions to end the violations of transgender rights and encourage it to be viewed as part of normal gender identity instead of something shameful.

In Northern and Western Europe, the common trend seems to be in favour of transgender people obtaining equal status in society. In 2013, 24 countries in Europe required by law that trans people undergo sterilisation before their gender can be legally confirmed. Since then, legislations have been changed in the Netherlands, Croatia and Denmark, and new bills have been addressed in Malta, Finland, Ireland and Portugal. While some of these changes have been dismissed, the issues transgender people face are talked more than ever before.

While north and west are progressing, the east is marching backwards. Just this year, Russia passed a law that makes it impossible for people with ‘mental disorders’ to get a driver’s license. This group includes transgender people, but also compulsive gamblers and pathological liars. And at the meanwhile, Hungary and Moldova have tightened their legislation on gender correction the recent years.

On a more global scale, a new idea has entered the field of gender discussion. Third gender has been recognised in Australia, New Zealand, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Germany as an official gender. Instead of men or women, there can be something else. From Western world point this can seem bizarre, but other forms of gender have existed throughout the time and cultures. More and more companies, organisations and even states have become aware of this limitation of gender, that doesn’t actually serve any purpose. For example, last year Facebook, a company not specifically known for its progressiveness, took a stand and added 50 new different genders for the users to choose from.

But is there something bad about this? Could some pervert just walk to a swimming hall and tell the cashier that today they feel the opposite sex, and then just go to creep on naked strangers? To be honest, this seems highly unlikely. Our society is built around strict gender norms and breaking them won’t happen overnight. Making the transitioning an easier process would mostly improve the quality of life for those, who feel trapped in the wrong body.

‘Gender neutral’ is a term that many feel strongly about. Sweden raised some international headlines, when news about gender-free pre-school cached the attention in 2011. The teachers were not using masculine pronoun “han” or feminine “hon”, but instead a gender neutral “hen” borrowed from the Finnish language. For many this seemed that the Stockholmers were crossing the line, and men and women were not allowed to be their own respective gender anymore. But their weirdness had an actual reasoning behind it. Language can shape the way we view the world. Group of French scientist found out that Hebrew-speaking children learn their own gender a year earlier than Finnish-speaking kids. This is because Hebrew is a very gender-centered language and Finnish isn’t.

Gender identity is cultural. This is evident to us, since the expectations for men and women can vary greatly in different societies. By allowing more variation, we’re also making room for those individuals, who can’t find themselves representing the strict norms of the society. In best case scenario, more tolerant atmosphere could reduce the high number of suicides within gender minorities.

By Elena Liski

Image credit:

Picture 1 & 2: Franziska Neumeister, licensed under CC BY 2.0

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Bring Back Our Votes

Elena Liski — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:35:45 +0000

April 14, 2014, early in Chibok, a remote Nigerian village, families were awoken in the middle of the night by cries and the sound of gunfire. The terrorist group Boko Haram had attacked and the only 15 soldiers stationed in Chibok were trying to hold them back. Eventually the terrorists forced 219 schoolgirls to leave Chibok for a known militant hideout.

Boko Haram, which loosely translates as ”Western education is a sin”, has been terrorising Nigeria since 2002, but the world has paid little to no attention. Last year alone hundreds were killed in attacks on schools with the same number of people thought to have disappeared. The thing infuriating the extremists the most are women like Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, current Finance Minister of Nigeria. Ngozi is one of the most high profile people in Africa and leading politicians of the world. She was listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People (hyperlink?) this year alongside Vladimir Putin and John Kerry. Boko Haram views this as the arrival of Western corruption and fights vigorously against the new trend of the education of the female population.

In April the media coverage of the girls’ abduction was near non-existent. Headlines were occupied by the Ukrainian crisis and the Korean boat accident. Nigeria seemed so distant, and Africa would be the place where these things were bound to happen. Or maybe most of us just couldn’t relate to such terror. What suddenly made the difference?
On the 23rd of April a speech at a Unesco event’s opening ceremony sparked the first tweet: #BringBackOurGirls. Nigerians were fed up with their government’s inability (or unwillingness?) to act and started to spread the message themselves from one person to another. Through the Bring Back Our Girls movement information about the situation finally started circulating in Nigeria, but it also spread beyond its borders. NGO’s and student groups took the hashtag into their own hands and started spreading the word. It all happened over night. The Nigerian struggle seemed to have become closer and the word started to spread like wildfire. The response was huge. In September #BringBackOurGirls had been tweeted more than 5 million times.

Not everyone welcomed the outside pressure in Nigeria. Daily rallies and demonstrations were held in major cities, which eventually led to the ban on protests. CNN reported Commissioner Joseph Mbu as saying, “Information reaching us is that too soon dangerous elements will join the groups under the guise of protest and detonate explosive(s) aimed at embarrassing the government. Accordingly protests on the Chibok Girls is hereby banned with immediate effect”. Nothing unlawful had happened, but officials decided to protect public safety or – as many saw it – themselves. This started another uproar and just a day after Nigerian police made an other statement saying they didn’t mean to ban, but to advise. People and the Bring Back Our Girls movement was allowed back on the streets, where it had stayed all along. The victory was a small one since the government stayed inactive on the matter and Westerners started to lose interest. It seemed that #BringBackOurGirls would become another social media hype with a temporary outburst but little resolution.

The hashtag was revived after 4 months of silence, when the president Goodluck Jonathan announced on Friday 17 October that the government had agreed on a ceasefire with Boko Haram, and were negotiating the terms of the Chibok schoolgirls’ safe return. The big question remains why the sudden change in the government’s agenda?

The Nigerian government has had little talk and even less action in their wait for the fire to burn out. The tables have turned since presidential elections will take place in just 4 short months. The common atmosphere in the country doesn’t seem promising for a peaceful transition and the threat of violence is hanging in the air. Nigerians got a taste at 2011 when post-election violence spread and 800 people were killed. The situation then was very different since a minority of northern people felt that the president shouldn’t have been a Southener as this didn’t honour the unofficial tradition of alternating the presidency between the majority of the Muslim north and mostly Christian south. Now the frustration and anxiety is rising in society and could lead to a bloodier outcome if the government continues to do what it has been doing best – nothing.

I started writing this article last May and back then I already feared that the social media hype would only serve as a platform for Western procrastination. At one point that was exactly what happened, but people in Nigeria were not willing to give up and a group of social activists have shown the Nigerian government the true force of online campaigning. President Jonathan has found himself between a rock and a hard place and at the moment he is only maintaining strong support in the Delta, Nigeria’s oil patch. As the popularity of Jonathan decreases and the possibility of re-election seems further and further away, hopefully his aspiration to deliver on his promise won’t wither and Nigeria will bring back our girls.

By Elena Liski

Image Credit:

Picture 1: Russ Allison Loar, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Picture 2: Michael Fleshman, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

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Bitcoin – Get Rich or Mine Trying

Elena Liski — Thu, 01 May 2014 11:27:01 +0000

In February I wrote my first piece. Then I mostly covered the basics of Bitcoin as a currency and technology. The idea for the second part was to discuss future prospects with some experts and deepen the knowledge. This turned out to be more than a hand-full and getting an actual interview was quite a struggle. Understandable. Bitcoin has been linked to drugs, guns and hiring hitmen to kill a president. It all seems like the plot-line of the next Mission: Impossible movie, but without the sappy romance.

In the end, two Bitcoin users decided to join my quest for more knowledge. Finnish Bitcoin entrepreneur Matti Korhonen*, who has been contributing to the development process since the first steps in 2009, and Swedish Bitcoin miner Lars Johansson*, who has been actively investing since 2011.

So how big are they invested in Bitcoin? Korhonen won’t say, but Johansson is talking about 10 000 dollars. Almost all his bitcoins he has used to by new hardware to mine the coins even faster. Clearly, he has faith in the product, but so does Korhonen.

”Year ago no one had heard about Bitcoin. Now everyone has, but they have no idea what it truly is”, he says.

I ask him, what he means by that.

”Bitcoin is like 1994 Sandra Bullock. She starred beside Keanu Reeves in Speed and everyone could recognise her face well enough, but I don’t think many believed that 20 years later she would be the highest-paid actress in the whole of Hollywood. Bitcoin today is the 94-Bullock. Just give it ten more years and everybody will want a piece of it.”

Johansson is even more optimistic. ”In 5 years, I think, most of the world will know of Bitcoin and at least 40% of the population will have a crypto-currency wallet. The technology of Bitcoin and other crypto-currency has created a lot of new inventions. The one thing about Bitcoin is that it’s a lot more than a currency, there are a lot of other usages for the technology and that is the new prospect of it. In the near future I see a lot of new markets developing by implementing Bitcoin. The market is gonna be into the technology of Bitcoin and not the currency.”

It’s hard to argue with such blind trust. Bitcoin seems to be as much of a religion as it is a currency. Like every cult, the members of this one assure me that there is more to it than meets the surface. And the longer I listen, the better it sounds.

According to Johansson, bitcoins or Bitcoin technology could be used, for example, as a shipping confirmation for more secured shipments or even for voting. Every Swedish citizen could have a Votecoin and that would be impossible to forge like ID’s are. This sounds a bit too good to be true with the recent safety issues with Bitcoin.

Korhonen and Johansson both blame the new technology and its bugs. The voting would work with updating the technology a bit and the process could be based on a completely open format with full anonymity provided. Everyone could trace their own votes to the candidate so no vote could get lost or be forged on the way. At the same time, no one else could see, who voted for who.

I still can’t brush off the feeling that these two are just reciting a storyline from some recent blockbuster.

While both are very eager to talk about the technology, I’m also interested in Bitcoin as a currency. Have they used Bitcoin as money? Korhonen has only bought a couple books which were donated to the The Sri Lanka Campaign, He also hints that there are many sites that convert bitcoins into giftcards that can be used with all the major brands online. Johansson is more of a traditional bitcoin user. He has purchased LSD from the Silkroad, one of the biggest online blackmarkerts that was closed last November by the FBI. Johansson says that Silkroad was more harmless than its reputation. For example, there were no arms dealing. Korhonen says that the assassin market was more of an inside joke since it would’ve been extremely hard for anyone to prove that they had actually done the job.

Drugs are one of the most famous selling items on Silk Road. After its closing, three new websites were put up within the following weeks.This screenshot is from Silk Road 2.0 and aside from drugs, art, books and jewelry are also sold through the website.

Bitcoin has been in the headlines and not because of good customer reviews. The seizing of Silk Road started a vicious media attention that finally brought some bad publicity for the 2013 geek money phenomenon. The shady reputation was sealed this spring, when online trading sites for bitcoins got hacked one after another.

Johansson sees the problem but also solutions. Bitcoin is a relatively new technology with known errors. The biggest trading site Mt Gox had a huge affect on the volatility when coins were lost, but the worth of one bitcoin is still 5 times what it was one year ago and 500 times what it was compared to two years ago.

Korhonen says that the biggest news in the world of Bitcoin at the moment is not the fall of Mt Gox but the exposé story of the technology’s inventor. In the early March, Newsweek published an article, where they claimed to have found Bitcoin’s father. Until this point, the only thing known about the person or the group was the website username Satoshi Nakamoto. Newsweek had found Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a 64-year-old Japanese American living in California.

Korhonen doesn’t think it’s truly important, if Dorian Nakamoto is the man behind the technology, but the story itself is huge. He, as many others, values the anonymity of Bitcoin and thinks that a press chase of this magnitude will make users more suspicious of Bitcoin. After all, Dorian Nakamoto had journalists camping outside on his yard just because they thought he might be the one.

“It steals the idea of anarchy. It takes away some of the appeal of Bitcoin as a currency. I don’t actually believe that Dorian is Satoshi Nakamoto. He was just some unlucky guy, who didn’t fully understand the question the reporter was asking him”, says Korhonen.

And he is not alone. Many bitcoin users are not convinced that the man behind the username is truly Dorian. Questions were raised why Satoshi Nakamoto, who had used anonymous mail boxes and domain registration, would risk getting himself exposed by using his birth name. Dorian’s dire situation with the media hunt evoked some sympathy. Bitcoin entrepeneur Andreas M. Antonopoulos started fundraising for Dorian as an apology for the inconvenience from the whole community. Antonopoulos raised over 2 000 donations from all over the world with nearly 48 bitcoins with the value of the time being over $20.000. The wallet was handed over to Dorian in April.

For Johansson, it’s also the anarchy appeal, but he doesn’t think Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity is that relevant. The important thing is how the power and crypto-currency can’t be controlled.

“Non-governmental crypto-currency is the fifth estate – a political power outside the political system, belonging directly to the people.”

But let’s be truthful here before wrapping it up. Did they start mining bitcoins to rock the power structures or to make some dough.

Johansson admits eagerly that he jumped in because of the prospects of getting fast cash, but he is also interested about other aspects and tells how Bitcoin could be used to transform Africa. Korhonen also says money is the reason he started but not the reason he stayed.

“Usually men make the best innovations when they are motivated by something. And money can be a real good motivator. There is nothing wrong with that. Bitcoin can be so much more than just people exchanging items. It can change the fact that we are the slaves of corporations with white collars. It can change the way we live. It can change the way we think.”

* The names have been changed for privacy reasons.

By: Elena Liski

Image credit:

Picture 1: Zack Copley, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Picture 2: Elena Liski

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Bitcoin – Online Currency with a Future?

Elena Liski — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 13:47:42 +0000

The course of Bitcoin from November 2011 until today

Bitcoin, Litecoin, Peercoin, Dogecoin… So called crypto-currencies are springing up like mushrooms and their estimated value exceeded 7,5 billion€ in the beginning of February. Of this capital, 80% belongs in the hands of the Bitcoin owners. We are talking about 6,000,000,000€. To put this into perspective, that is at par with the valued assets of H&M, and easily tops the GDP of such countries as Macedonia, Laos or Rwanda. Bitcoin would rank 139th right between Malta and the Bahamas.

Crypto-currencies are digital and global mediums of exchange that no group or individual can control. Otherwise, they function in a very similar way to money, but only online. They are not backed by a governmental central bank, but instead, their value is completely based on their market appeal. Simply, the more we want them, the more they will cost. The pioneer of modern crypto-currencies is Bitcoin. It is not only a form of digital money, it’s a new technology that most other cryto-currencies are based on. Bitcoin was designed and introduced 5 years ago by a group, or individual, that we know as Satoshi Nakamoto. The currency itself can’t be dominated by even Nakamoto, but instead its basis lies in highly advanced technology and encryption with a software that is completely open-source for anyone to review.

With centralized money, the authorities decide when to print more notes. But with crypto-currencies new money is found by the users. New bitcoins are found through the process called mining. Bitcoins are mined with powerful computers that solve highly complex math problems. The mining itself is free, but the suitable equipment can be costly. The more bitcoins that are found, the harder the finding process becomes. Some of the users have made a 2-minute-video that explains the basic idea in a way that can be easier to grasp.

There are a few key factors as to why Bitcoin and its followers appeals to the consumers.

They can’t be counterfeited. Some digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, are called crypto-currencies because the basis of their security is military grade cryptography that, for example, the US government uses. The transactions are as protected as any other type of electronic bank transfers. Unlike common money, however, copying bitcoins is not a possibility, because the cryptographic protocol makes it impossible to use the same bitcoin twice. Each one is unique and so is their position in the block chain. The block chain is the ledger for all bitcoins and it shows who has the coin at the moment by openly showing all transactions. Everyone can agree, where the currency is, because they can trace it down from the block chain.
There is only a limited amount ofcoins. The maximum amount of bitcoins is 21 million. This means that 99.9% of the bitcoins will have been found by 2040. Because more bitcoins can’t be produced after all have been found, the assumption is that this will raise their value.
Use is cheap and anonymous.The benefit of using Bitcoin is instantaneous, with global transactions costing very low to zero fees. Paying with bitcoins is as easy and cheap as sending emails. Though all transactions are public, perfect anonymity is provided by using nicknames. The virtual wallet, where bitcoins are stored, works similarly to an email account. Anyone can send you bitcoins, if they know your address. Since, all transactions are public, it is recommended to get a new address for every transaction. This way no one knows how many bitcoins you have. All assets can still be banked into the same wallet. As long as the wallet is encrypted or not connected to the internet, no one can steal your bitcoins. The downside is that the bitcoins can be stolen if safety measures are not taken care of. It is impossible to get them back afterwards since transactions can’t be cancelled.
They can make you wealthy. Some early users of bitcoins have become rich after investing inthem before the sudden increase, and such booms are still possible. Bitcoin’s value is extremely volatile due to two key factors: its young economy and relatively small consumer group. The users are still experimenting with the currency in order to find out how beneficial it can be. In this sudden variation of value, Bitcoin has more similarities with stock markets than with money in the traditional sense. The value of the currency can fluctuate between hundreds of Euros during a day. Many Bitcoin investors hope to profit from this. The extreme changes in market value are one of Bitcoin’s weakest points, as well.

Not all aspects of Bitcoin are just future prospects and sudden success. It has had a rough road trying to attract a wider range of users since the name became synonymous with the internet’s most infamous online black market, called Silk Road. Bitcoin became affiliated with money laundering and drug trafficking, a reputation it has had a hard time abandoning. The original Silk Road, which was closed by the FBI in October 2013, has already had a successor as of early November – Silk Road 2.0.

Although, some believe that Bitcoin isn’t real money, it still possesses real value. And our authorities have become aware of this fact. Central banks throughout the world are jumping in to announce their negative opinion, now that they feel that crypto-currencies are trying to invade their territory. On January, Carl-Ludvig Thiele from the Federal Bank of Germany was one of the latest authorities to warn people of the possible deflation in the value of Bitcoin because the value is not backed by a state. This can be considered ironic, since the hyperinflation of the German mark in 1920s was mostly caused by the poorly performed fiscal policies of German government.

Bitcoin’s image faced another blow quite lately, when China and Jordan banned its use by financial institutes. Also, trading bitcoins is illeagal in Russia, Thailand and Iceland. But these governments are not the only ones that are aiming to control the currency-without-a-nation. Many European nations and, for example, Singapore have issued a tax on Bitcoin since it can be considered an asset. These new regulations have made users wary and have negatively affected the course of Bitcoin, but have also given it some legal status since most Western nations have allowed companies to trade with it.

Lately the headlines have also been screaming Bitcoin’s decrease in value when trading site MtGox, the largest Bitcoin exchange, didn’t function properly. The price of a bitcoin dropped as low as 70€ and was up again by about 200% during the course of last weekend. Similarities to the 2011 can be seen when MtGox faced security problems and Bitcoin spent an entire year gaining back the trust of consumers after 600 wallets were hacked.

Despite the ups and downs, crypto-currencies have a greater user base and more power than ever before. Their status has been somewhat stabilised in Western markets and more people are willing to try them out. In a way, the media hype has served its purpose. There is no bad publicity.

By Elena Liski

Image Credit:

Picture 1: Zack Copley, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Picture 2: scottks, licensed under CC BY 2.0

Bitcoin – Get Rich or Mine Trying

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