10th edition, 1 May 2014 – Pike & Hurricane

Nowhere Home: Stories of Afghan Refugees

EditorChief — Thu, 01 May 2014 19:47:42 +0000

Massieh, Majeed and Zabihalleh are three young refugees from Afghanistan seeking asylum in Sweden. After all their applications being rejected three times by the migration board, they could now be sent back to Afghanistan any day. To protest against the Migration Board’s decision, they have been camping in Malmö’s Jesusparken and Folketsparken for over eight weeks now. On the 11^th of March, they met with Malmö Högskola students at a UF event to share their stories and explain their situation. The Pike & Hurricane spoke to them about why they left Afghanistan, their journeys to Sweden and their hopes for the future.

Massieh Sadigi, 19 years old

Q: Why did you flee Afghanistan?

A: Because I got into trouble with the Taliban. My father was very rich. He had a bus company in Ghazni. That’s why, the Taliban wanted money from him. Around $3000 a month, but my father didn’t pay them. So one day, 5 years ago they came to our house at midnight. They attacked us in our sleep and told us this was our last chance.

After that night, we were scared, so my father decided to go to Kabul to escape the Taliban. We lived there for 5 months, but they found us. We first went to the police, but you know the police can’t do anything in Afghanistan. They told us that the Taliban was too strong and that they couldn’t help us. So my father decided that our family had to leave.

Q: Where did you go?

A: We first flew to Turkey, so that we could travel to Greece from there. We didn’t have a visa though, so we found someone to make fake passports for us. My family however got caught at the airport by the Turkish police. I was the only one who could pass the controls because I spoke English.

Q: So you were on your own? How did you survive?

A: Yes. I spent six months in Greece. During all this time I was living like a homeless person, everyone there was. I got some help from friends, from strangers… I got food from the garbage, every day I would go through the garbage. I was just sleeping in the park… After 6 months I couldn’t take it anymore so I decided to go to Sweden because that is where my mum originally wanted to go.

Because I did not have any money, the only option I had was walking. I checked the route on the map: it was Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, France, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. I had some friends and I told them that they should come too, but they asked me: “Are you crazy Massieh? Are you joking?” They told me it would be impossible to walk all this way, but I did it! I was on the way for two years. The only time I took a train was from Trieste. I simply did not have money for more.

Q: How did you manage to do this?

A: I was again sleeping outside and taking food from the garbage. Some people helped me. A family saw me and asked: “What are you doing here? You are just a child!” So I told them what had happened and that I wanted to go to Sweden. They gave me food, some money and water.

In Slovenia, they caught me once. This is why, when I first got here three years ago, Sweden, because of the Dublin II regulations, wanted to send me to Slovenia. But I told the migration board that Slovenia would send me back to Afghanistan and that it was too dangerous for me.

Q: Does Sweden still want to send you back to Slovenia?

A: No, Sweden is now responsible for my case, but I got my third negative from the migration board already which means they now want to send me back to Afghanistan. The people who work for the migration board told me that they believed the story of what had happened to me in Afghanistan, but they also said: “Afghanistan is now good, it’s safe, you can go back. I asked them: “Then why are Swedish people told not to go to Afghanistan?” The Swedish government and many others tell their citizens not to go, because it wouldn’t be safe for them.

Q: Why did you choose Sweden?

A: Because my family wanted to go there. My father always said: “When we go to Sweden, you can go to school there. Their education system is very good. After the police had caught them in Turkey, I thought maybe they would also come here, but they didn’t. The last time I heard from them was a year ago, when my mum called me from Pakistan. I could only speak to her for two minutes, because she cried and I cried too. She told me that the Turkish police had sent them to Afghanistan, but because they couldn’t stay there, they fled to Pakistan. She said she was going to call me again, but she never did.

Q: Do you know what happened to your family after the call?

A: I don’t, but I hope they are not in Afghanistan because it’s dangerous. To the Taliban it doesn’t matter how old you are or who you are, if they have a problem with you, they will find you. It’s so easy for them.

Q: Have you had any problems with far right groups in Sweden?

A: No the people here are very nice. They helped me a lot. In other countries the people haven’t been this nice.

Q: What do you hope to get out of your protest?

A: I hope immigration gives us another chance to be here. Every night we go to sleep we think about what is going to happen tomorrow or the day after but it is so difficult to live like that. I kept asking the officials: “If I wasn’t in trouble in Afghanistan why would I choose to live like this? Without money, without anything”… Afghanistan is too dangerous for me.

Q: Is there anything you may want to share with the students of Malmö University?

A: You have spent about 20 minutes here in the camp, but this is what the last 5 years of my life have looked like. It is very difficult. Imagine this: You have everything here, friends, family, a job, your school and then you lose everything in the blink of an eye. You close your eyes, you open them again and you have nothing.

Abdul Majeed Niazi, 28 years old

Q: When and why did you leave Afghanistan?

A: I left Afghanistan almost two years ago with my family, so I’m here with my wife and my two children, one of which was born here. I left because I got into trouble with the Taliban. I was working in Kabul International Airport in a duty free shop, as a sales officer. I could go in and out of the airport without any control. Because of this, the Taliban wanted me to help them. They wanted me to take some tools inside the airport, but I already knew that they were up to no good. I didn’t want to put thousands of civilian lives in danger, so the only other option was for me and my family to flee from Afghanistan.

Q: So you suspected that the Taliban was planning an attack on the airport?

A: I know they did. During the Karzai regime nothing happened in the airport. But after we had already left, there was an attack on the airport. You can probably find it on YouTube. It happened on the 10th of June 2013.

Q: Can you tell me about your journey here?

A: Me my wife, who was pregnant at that time, and my oldest daughter got here via Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Germany, Denmark and then Sweden. We entered the EU illegally when we travelled from Turkey to Greece by water in very small boats. In each boat there were about 25 people. One of them sank and my daughter, who was two at the time, almost drowned. She still has health problems because of all the water that she swallowed during that incident.

Q: How long have you been in Sweden and what is the current status of your asylum application?

A: We have been living here for 16 months and we have received the third negative from the migration board. It applies to all of us. So now our case is with the police and we could be deported anytime.

Zabihalleh Neideem, 21 years old

Q: When and why did you leave Afghanistan?

A: It was in 2007. I used to live in a province called Faryab, but my family had problems with warlords there. 20 years ago, during the Mujahadin regime, they killed a brother of my father and two members of his family. When the Karzai government took over my father, who was a judge wanted to bring them to justice. When they found out that my father was going to take them to court, they asked him to stop, but my father didn’t. So they killed my sister. We found her body 10 days later. We knew who did it, but the police couldn’t do anything because these people control everything. My father still didn’t stop the prosecution, so one night they came to our place, killed my father with a gun and attacked me. They stabbed me, close to my heart so they thought I was dead. Fortunately I am still alive, but I lost my family, I lost everything.

Q: What happened after they attacked you?

A: I was only 14, so my mom who was the only one left from my family at that time, told me that we had to leave. She first took me to Kabul, where we stayed in a hospital for 5 days. But it was too dangerous for us there, so she took me to Pakistan. I was there for about a month again in a hospital, and once I was a little better my mother sent me to Iran. From there I went to Turkey and then Greece. I got deported from Greece to Turkey twice. The Greek police was really bad. They took everything from me and then sent me without anything back to Turkey. Because I also lost my phone and everything I lost contact with my mom after that and haven’t talked to her ever since. I have requested information from the Red Cross to help me find her, but nothing so far.

Q: How did you live in Greece?

A: It was very difficult. I didn’t have a home. In the summer we just lived in the park and during the winter I and a few other people would all collect some money to get a spot in a room shared with 20 to 30 people. I was in Greece for a few years, but if you don’t have papers it is impossible to do anything. When the situation for refugees got even worse I decided to leave and have been in Sweden for 14 months now.

Q: If you were allowed to stay in Sweden, what would you like to do?

A: I want to study and to have a safe life, a bright future. When I was a child I wanted to be an economist. But I haven’t gotten the opportunity yet. But I hope I will get the opportunity to continue pursuing my dreams.

Q: Is there anything you would like to share with the students at Malmö University?

A: Yes, I want to ask them to support us. This is something that the Swedish people can’t change. They can change everything if they want to. We are in danger. This is a matter of life and death and nothing else. If Sweden tells their citizens not to go to Afghanistan, what is the difference between the Swedish people and me, between the Swedish people and us? They tell us it is safe, but still, the Swedish embassy remains closed in Afghanistan because of the security situation in the country.

By Jon Miren and Annika Schall

Image credit:

Picture 1: IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Picture 2 & 3: Josh Zakary, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Picture 4: Photo Unit, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Picture 5: Gustave Deghilage, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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Forvo: Language Learning in Times of the Internet

Michael Schätzlein — Thu, 01 May 2014 18:53:50 +0000

It all started back in England. When I was 18, I went there as a representative of the rare species of male au pairs. One day, we had this little survey on our au pair Facebook group – which are the most irritating examples of English pronunciation? Greenwich? Worcestershire? Southwark? I had never heard of Southwark before, so I opened a popular search engine, entered “Southwark pronunciation” and clicked on the first result to show up. It was a Spanish website called Forvo.com. I clicked on the play button and when the recording ended, I had learned the pronunciation of a new word. The next day, when I was teaching myself Swedish – I had only begun learning it a few days earlier – I returned to this website. “Kötbullar”. And again. “Sjuksköterska”. And again.

Forvo, I learned, is the biggest pronunciation dictionary online. With more than 2.3 million pronunciations available in more than 300 languages as of now, you can pretty much look up pronunciations for almost any word in the major languages. Some sections, like the English section, have most of their core vocabulary pronounced by users from different regions of the world. That way, one can even listen to pronunciations of a certain accent, like for example British and American English. If a word is not in the database already, users can request a pronunciation for it. A native speaker can then record a 2.5-seconds-long clip with their pronunciation of the word.

Soon enough, I wanted to be part of this project. I registered, started adding words that were missing and pronounced the ones that other users had requested in my mother tongue. A couple of days later, I was asked if I wanted to oversee the German section. I agreed. Now I am one of a few hundred volunteers helping the users out and cataloguing new additions, scanning them for spelling mistakes and other infringements. It is not only my love for languages that keeps me there, though. I have the firm belief that websites like this one facilitate the exchange of thoughts and help people of different cultures achieve a better understanding of each other.

Of course, crowd-sourced projects like Forvo have their limitations. Their success largely depends on their users and the pronunciations they provide, both in terms of quantity and quality. A website like this can only be as good as its users. While Forvo provides the framework for over 300 languages, there are many that do not feature more than a couple pronunciations and in some others, there are hundreds of words left unpronounced simply because there is no one there to help out.

During my time at Forvo, I have met many new people. American historians with an interest in towns located on former German territory; Japanese waiters studying the names of wines and vineyards for their upcoming sommelier exam; Chinese engineering students preparing for a professional life in Germany. Also, I have seen the project grow and prosper. In 2013, Forvo was even named one of the top 50 websites in TIME magazine. Now, I was able to conduct an interview with Israel Rondón, one of the two founders of the website.

Q: What did you do before Forvo?

A: The same as I do now. I do websites and online projects, mainly design and concept.

Q: What gave you the idea to start with Forvo? When was that?

A: Forvo started as an idea in 2007, I took two other friends, who were developers, to help me in the project. There wasn’t a real motivation behind it, but with hindsight, we can find many examples and conversations where the pronunciation topic was in. From “Bach” and “Goethe”, to “Flickr” and “Mozilla”.

Q: What makes Forvo such a unique project?

A: In the beginning it was the quality, only real human voices. Now also the quantity, with about 2.5 million pronunciations in more than 300 languages.

Félix Vela and Israel Rondón, the founders of Forvo

Q: What are the limitations of Forvo?

A: Our motto is quite naive, “all the words in the world, pronounced”. We were neither language experts back then, nor are we now, so there are a lot of things done based on our language experience, which in a global context is quite small. We have problems with many, many languages just because we do not know the basics of them. Hope to fix some of those problems soon.

Q: Do you have any plans for the future of Forvo? In which areas would you like to expand?

A: We are creating tools around Forvo. Forvo is already the biggest archive of pronunciations, but we are expanding it through mobile applications and overall sharing it with other big projects. We are partners with the no.1 dictionaries in China and Russia plus another big player in the US. Maybe you are using one of their apps, but the audio is from Forvo.

Q: How is Forvo funded?

A: By its original founders. Nothing really exciting here. Forvo is now a sustainable project by itself but there are no people working full-time, just the founders with the help of hundreds of volunteers.

Q: Does Forvo cooperate with other companies or organisations? In which fields?

A: Apart from what I said before, we collaborate with local entities helping to preserve languages, like American native languages, African, or even in our Basque region.

Q: Do you think that Forvo also serves language preservation?

A: Sure, see my previous answer. People even ask us to add languages with only a few dozens of native speakers. Unfortunately, not all of them are getting pronounced. But we are happy to support them.

Q: What do you think about the future of crowd-sourced projects?

A: I personally see them in very good health. There are mainly two big things for the next years: Internet of Things and Collaborative consumption (AirBnB, Uber,…) They don’t have to be on opposite sides, but I will for sure be more interested in the second group.

By Michael Schätzlein

Image credit:

Picture 1 & 2: Forvo Media SL, with permission from the authors

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Tatar: A Language Under Threat

Michael Schätzlein — Thu, 01 May 2014 12:08:24 +0000

Whilst doing some research for my article on Forvo.com, a language learner’s website, I also conducted an interview with Fähim Cihanşin (65 years old), former leading expert in the public relations department of the Russian truck manufacturer KAMAZ, now retired. Fähim is a Volga Tatar from the Republic of Tatarstan, which is part of the Russian Federation and where the Tatar people still hold a majority. With a total 172,000 words added and 129,000 pronunciations recorded, most of them in the Tatar language, he ranks second in both of the contributions rankings of Forvo.com. The interview was conducted in German and then translated into English.

Why do you espouse the Tatar language that much?

I don’t really know why. I am most probably unknowingly and subconsciously motivated to stealthily introduce Forvo’s users to this multilaterally developed and perfect language of the Turkic language family. I think that our language is a very attractive spot on the dark side of the moon of the linguistic world, a place that hardly anyone has seen so far. Furthermore, our language is open for additions to its vocabulary by absorbing loanwords from other, mostly European languages. We even have [invented] a saying due to this circumstance: “Tatars don’t need an interpreter!” (Tatarğa tılmaç kiräkmi!). Also, Tatars are very skilled at understanding both western and eastern mentalities. Our forefathers have been a bridge between the two poles of civilisation for hundreds of years. All of this may have contributed to my stay in Forvo for the last three years.

Is Forvo just a hobby for you?

International linguistic websites (Forvo.com, Rhinospike.com, Tatoeba.org, etc.) are unique media tools that enable even single persons like myself to contribute a lot to the development of peoples’ diplomacy. I am happy to have found many new friends and comrades from many different countries through Forvo.

Do you perceive the Tatar language as threatened?

The UNESCO „Language Vitality and Endangerment“ conception does not count Tatar as a language threatened by slow extinction, since there exist various Tatar diasporas throughout Europe, the USA and Australia which stay true to their mother language. Things are not that easy, though. The Russian fascism doubtlessly seeks new ways nowadays to eliminate non-Russian languages in Russia and subsequently eradicating „alien“ people from its reinstated “deployment zones” in the east and south. We hope for compassion and support from civilised Europe and United States. The peoples of the Great Steppe – Kazakhs, Tatars, Bashkirs, Mari and Udmurts – and their languages are de facto and equally endangered. Moscow rapidly pushes Russia back into the Middle Ages. And the world has never seen a feudal lord with nuclear bombs before…

What is it that threatens the Tatar language? Creeping Russification?

It’s not merely a creeping, but also an aggressive and brutal politics of Russification and annihilation! In the past few years, more than 2000 Tatar schools in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan have been forced to close down. They only teach Russian wherever you go nowadays. In addition, Moscow has denied us the creation of the Tatar University and has forbidden the translation of the existing Cyrillic script [in the Tatar language] into the Zamanälif script (modern Latin alphabet). The Kazan State University (founded in 1804) got renamed into “Volga Federative University” and was brought under direct Moscow control. It features only a small, partially Tatar-speaking faculty.

Does Russia also proceed against the Tatar culture?

In this case, all cultures are equally disadvantaged. After the October Revolution, the Soviets tried to deracinate all peoples from their centuries-old cultural roots. Cultural traditions and customs of the ethnical minorities were step by step driven underground. The dominant Russian national culture (which is beautiful in itself) was transplanted into the soil of the so-called “proletarian culture”. After the fall of the USSR, this pseudo-culture was neglected and discarded completely. The resulting “cultural vacuum” is nothing less than a fertile soil for nowadays’ accelerated fascisation of the predominant Russian people. The western world does still underestimate the possibly devastating results of this phenomenon. This also explains the mistakes made in the Ukraine policy of the EU and the USA, [a policy] which is imprisoned by “economic” stereotypes. The national cultures of the peoples, which have been built up in centuries-long processes, are immune against any kind of extremist ideologies. That is why the globalisation in its current form does not have a positive future.

Has the government’s attitude towards the Tatars changed after the fall of the Soviet Union?

After the fall of the Soviet Union, we’ve had a bit of time to take a breather. In 1990, the Republic of Tatarstan declared its national independence. We even signed a bilateral
agreement with Moscow. Public schools were introduced in all towns and villages. The revival of the national higher education began. This period of grace lasted only for a decade. Today, everything has been lost.

How can the situation of the Tatars be compared to the situation on the Crimea?

In 1992, [after the fall of the Soviet Union,] the Republic of Tatarstan conducted a referendum [on their future] which was timely conducted, respecting all international norms – not at gunpoint, like the Russians did now on the Crimean Peninsula. Almost two thirds of the population voted for the Republic of Tatarstan to become an international legal personality [and thus independent from Russia] and to found their relations with the Russian Federation on the base of bilateral agreements. However, Moscow has not recognised the results of this referendum to this day.

Simultaneously with the occupation of the Crimea in March 2014, then, Moscow imposed the state of siege on Kazan [the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan] by using a whole tank brigade. Why? In order to intimidate the Republic’s leadership and to force them to authorise the annexation of the Crimea! Also, Moscow fears that the Volga Tatars might actively defend their brothers on the Crimea.

How can the Tatar and other minority languages be preserved?

It turns out that the first part of this question has already been answered earlier by Rawil Raxmani, a popular Tatar poet and literary critic:

The mother language

Yuq, kuxnya tele tügel ul –Not just a kitchen language,

Ata-baba tele,From ancient forefathers it descends –

Un meñ yıllıq xikmät anda,Ten millennia’s sapience,

Yöz ğasırlıq belem!Hundred centuries’ knowledge!

Här sınawdan isän çıqtıñ,Enduring woes unharmed,

Kübräk nığıy töşteñ;It becomes richer and even richer;

Ülemeñne kötmäsennär –No need to foretell its death

Tere suı eçteñ!For it drinks the elixir of life!

In order to preserve other minority languages, one needs to do the following without delay:

A) Conduct a deep and multi-faceted political, economic and military reformation of the Empire, so that a true federative (or even partially confederative) multi-layered structure of the country can be reached (up until now, there has not been a role model for Russia)
B) Democratise thoroughly all aspects of societal and political life (like for example in Germany or Sweden); the proponents of the current “federative” structures of all peoples will resist adamantly to these changes;
C) All that shall be accomplished peacefully, if possible (as for example in Czechoslovakia in the 1990s), so that the neo-Soviet regime will not be provoked into physically killing the minorities. That’s the hardest part.

In the turmoil surrounding the crisis on the Crimean peninsula, the West seems to ignore the multiple other smouldering conflicts within Russia’s borders. The media mostly focuses on the occupied parts of Georgia and Moldavia (Transnistria) or picks up the various Nazi references made by politicians throughout the European Union. The fate of the largely Muslim minorities, however, does not seem to attract any attention, even though the Crimean Tatars are now part of the Russian realm.

As it can be seen, the paranoia of the Russian government reaches far. In its efforts to secure its power and to keep away from foreign influences, Moscow is destroying its own roots: A vast, multi-national country with many different cultures and languages. Instead of learning from the past and accepting and embracing this treasure of cultural heritage, the Russian identity envisioned by the government is once again one based on exclusion, rather than inclusion. With its aggressive cultural politics, Moscow risks to damage this heritage beyond repair. According to UNESCO estimates, more than half of the more than 6,000 languages spoken in the world today will have vanished at the end of this century if preservation measures are not taken today. In the Russian Federation, minority languages, which are the lifeblood of their respective cultures, are not merely dying from slow neglect. Their exercise is actively obstructed by laws aiming at the Russification of the minorities. Moscow’s policies will have to be rethought, lest these minorities will cease to exist.

By Michael Schätzlein

Image Credit:

Picture 1: Alex Saureel, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Picture 2: Multicultural SA, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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Human Rights Crisis

Jason Dean Holness — Thu, 01 May 2014 11:52:47 +0000

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” – Nelson Mandela

The world has struggled with the concept of human rights for centuries and sadly it took two world wars encompassing the death of millions of people and the carnages of the Holocaust for it to be initially secured by the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948; which in its preamble acknowledges that “the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world…”.

This however has not prevented some of the governments of today from abusing, ignoring and denying the basic rights of their populations; in fact many governments are just as incongruously tribal as they were in the past, willing to do almost anything – including instigating violence- in their attempt to command power and resources.

This is evidenced by the plenitude of humanitarian crises occurring simultaneously all over the globe; millions of people suffer every day at the hands of their governments who fail to acknowledge or utterly disregard the basic rights of their populations. I speak of the draconian laws against homosexuality passed by Uganda, India and Russia, the helpless women in Afghanistan who are forced to undergo vaginal examinations to prove virginity and the current threats to reintroduce public stoning for adulterers, the mistreatment of Palestinian children in Israel, the ongoing internal conflict in South Sudan, Syria and Mali which has resulted in extrajudicial killings, numerous human rights atrocities and thousands of refugees to name a few.

I find it so ironic that the discourse around human rights is so vibrant yet still its practice is so poorly communicated around the world. What I have discovered is that states are always quick to highlight issues which affect their national interests and which have particular bearings on the achievement of their personal goals, and any other issues detached from that is often considered to be unimportant.

Someone recently told me that after careful reflection they had realised that noone cared about human rights. The fact is that we hear about human rights every day and the various international legal norms, conventions and protocols that have been invested to protect the human rights of people. However, state practice all over the globe and the state of the world today proves that there is rampant and utter disregard for international human rights principles. I find it hard to fathom how cruel we can be to each other and the extent governments will go to protect their interests, all in the name of political ideology, creed and religion.

I do not believe as human beings we are innately inhumane to each other, it is not in our makeup, we are born and shaped with love; however, we are often socialized and programmed to hate. Unequivocally, I believe like any other learnt behavior we can be taught to love. I grew up in a society where I never felt completely free; where from an early age I realized that I would never be able to access the same rights and to lead a healthy normal life because of my sexual orientation. In Jamaica it is completely appropriate and acceptable for people to have negative attitudes towards people of homosexual orientation; most Jamaicans view this intolerance towards homosexuality as a part of the cultural history and national identity. In my experience, the Jamaican society by way of popular music, socialization and by its very legal fabric encourages a culture of violence against homosexuals, especially gay men.

As a result from a young age I faced assaults, scorn, and judgment from people who perceived me to be gay. As I grew older the abuse became more pugnaciously physical; I remember an incident where I was attacked by a young man on my school premises. I had been attacked before, but this one was more extreme; I literally believed he wanted to kill me. The young man wore a mask and accosted me with a cavernous plywood board which shattered as it connected with my shoulder blades. He then began to thrust the now broken and sharp edged plywood to my throat while uttering ‘You are going to die today faggot.’ Fortunately, I was rescued; however, this young man got away scotch free because there was no justice to be sought for me. His actions were celebrated as being patriotic and a warranted punishment for me being who I am, which by society’s standards is simply taboo.

It is inconceivable how abhorrence and the discrimination it fuels can incite people to do very malevolent and unpleasant things. I share this to emphasize that I know what it feels like to be oppressed. It is for this very reason why my soul cries out for the people of the world who are being burdened by the despotic hands of their governments. Nelson Mandela taught us that kindness is at the core of humanity; as human beings we all share this trait and with it we can transcend any conflict.

In short, justice, love and tolerance can overcome even the greatest brutality. We must be reminded of the fact that every man, woman and child on earth are born equal in dignity and rights; we are brothers and sisters of the earth and therefore we have a duty to look after one another. We should be friendly towards each other and respect the rights of everyone to live in freedom and safety. With that said, despite the pessimism that pervades human rights in international politics today, I do have faith that things will change for the better one day. Until then we all need to continue to play our part in promoting and advocating human rights for all.

Photo credits:

ep_jhu, licensed under CC BY 2.0

andres musta, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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Djurens Parti – The New Political Vision?

Charlotta Lahnalahti — Thu, 01 May 2014 11:43:36 +0000

Djurens Parti – Party for Animals was established in late 2013 as an initiative to bring animal rights to today’s politics. What the party wishes to combat is that as animals have no voice of their own but have an equal intrinsic value. Parikka Altenstedt’s stance on the party’s policies: “Our goal in Sweden is to get in the Parliament and to local boards in cities, as well as to regional representative bodies and teach others to become aware of animal perspectives in politics; animal protection, meat- and food industry, city planning, fur industry, trot industry, animal’s working rights, hunting issues, animal testing, animals as pets and the business around that, and the list goes on. Animals have the right to co-exist with humans with their own conditions and should be treated as thinking and feeling subjects and not as objects or raw material in our economy”.

Many individuals find that the above touches could interfere with human rights. For example, with issues such as animal testing and the security it gives. Some of the policies the party has established therefore could potentially clash with human rights. If this happens, which ones are to be followed: human rights or animal rights? Additionally, the party solely advocates policies on animals and their treatment but does not seem to have much to say in other fields. Comparing them to other one-policy parties, such as the Pirate Party in Germany and their respective/counterpart Animal Parties in other countries; one-policy parties have had to collide with other parties in order to get their policies through.

Why was an establishment of a new party needed in Sweden rather than adding more animal friendly policies to other parties’ politics? Parikka Altenstedt: “We waited for seven years for the other parties to get here, to recognise animal rights in their political agendas. Lately, the progress in the Swedish parliament has been negative with the new wild animal legislation from 2013 and even the head of the Swedish Green Party, Gustaf Fridolin, got a hunter´s licence! Some individuals in other parties do a great job but it is not enough to change the legislation significantly and neither is it enough to click “like” on Facebook. We need to active in parliament. What we will battle with now is to sharpen the animal rights legislation and get the state agencies to follow them”.

In November 2013, the Swedish government weakened the protection of wild animals by giving special rights for hunters, which Johanna Parikka Altenstedt calls “the last drop of an outrageous wild life politics of Sweden during the last seven years”. She states that finding more people to work with was easy as many shared Parikka Altenstedt’s thoughts on animal rights, she connected with Jonas Paulsson from Stockholm, and thus establishing a party was just a step away. Animal rights parties are a growing, international trend: the Swedish Djurens Parti points to its Dutch counterpart, Partij voor de Dieren as a successful example, as they have sat in the country’s parliament for the last few years. Interestingly, Turkey, Spain and Portugal are newcomers in the movement and in addition, India has its own Ministry for animal rights. Parikka Altenstedt comments: “We should learn from the other [parties]. In the European Parliament elections, we have two top names from Skåne, who we would like to link with other countries animal parties and work for legislation to protect animals from slaughter transports around the continent”. Animal rights are considerably well taken care of in Sweden compared to Southern Europe and Turkey, where it seems more convenient to establish a party for the sole cause. Before tackling animal rights in the North, should inequality and social welfare be battled first?

Before establishing the party, Parikka Altenstedt herself established a Facebook page, an online petition and is still actively sharing news online. Still in the phase of gathering members, is the party subjected to collecting likes on Facebook what Parikka Altenstedt herself judges as inefficient? So far, the members of the party have come from different areas of society with one sole thing in common; animals. “We have a high diversity within our supporters — Djurens Parti attracts young people who never thought they would vote, gathering people who want change and we give them possibilities to run for elections. Vegans, people with pets, older people, intellectuals who see animal abuse and cruelty as a philosophical and intellectual problem: Many groups and individuals out there understand that animals make people come together.” It is indeed admirable that many different generations are gathered in one party, around a subject that they cherish but is it enough? All levels of society need to be reached for full support in the parliament. People who do not have contact with animals, do not understand the aims of the party and might find it insignificant. The Animal Party needs to find ways to develop their policies more broadly to touch all levels of contemporary politics to attract more members.

In the super election year 2014 here in Sweden, the Animal Party has registered for both national and European Parliament elections. How will the party plead to more voters in order to get to the decision making organs? Parikka Altenstedt states that “the Animal Party’s big agenda is to change minds – the society is not for people only but for all the living creatures and we need to see animals, as part of our environment and life”. In order to change the Swedish and European wide political agendas, more awareness of the party needs to be raised and their own policies must be broadened if they wish to continue without colliding with other parties. Harmony between humans and animals sounds like a futuristic dream in our consumerist world, as well as defeating global warming, but it is essential that someone starts the battle. Due to the steps of Johanna Parikka Alternstedt, a new promising party with benevolent policies has been established, with some aspects that need developing in order to get more voters.

By Charlotta Lahnalahti

Image Credit:

Picture 1: Marji Beach, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Picture 2: Farm Sanctuary, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 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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