12th edition, 30 October 2014 – Pike & Hurricane

The “Boiling Pot” of Identities

Ruzanna Baldryan — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 15:44:05 +0000

The pro-democratic protests in Hong Kong dubbed the “Umbrella movement”, are one of the biggest protests China has seen since the ’89 Democracy Movement in Tiananmen Square. The protestors don’t step down and demand resignation of the city leader Leung Chun-ying as well as Beijing to make democratic concessions on election rules in Hong Kong as they were promised before.. According to some specialists, protests are extremely threatening for Beijing as any violent measures in China’s financial hub may affect its own economy as well as financial markets worldwide.

But the economic crackdown is not the only problem that may occur as a result of the protests. The protests in the country of 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities, 2 special administrative regions, 1 claimed province, and 56 officially recognised ethnic groups may put some administrative units of China in a complicated situation. Although the majority of the population is being classified as “Han”, which roughly can be translated as “ethnic Chinese” or “Chinese native stock”, China is a mixture of many culturally, linguistically, and regionally diverse groups.

According to a Shanghai student Jack*, though “Han” is the largest nation with 90% of the population – more than 1 billion people in China – the province serves a vital cultural role and people better identify with their native province than with China. The protests raised identity issues in a seem-to-be “homogeneous” China proven to be especially true in the case of Tibet and Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous areas or the special administrative regions Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Hong Kong people have a strong feeling of local identity since they have a totally different historic background than those of mainland China: the education they have received is considerably different from the communist one, the difference in law, and the Cantonese being the official language. According to Khaira, who is originally from Guandong province but identifies herself with Hong Kong since she moved there when she was ten, these are the main reasons some of Hong Kong people don’t identify themselves with China. Even if they accept the fact that they are part of China they emphasise that they are different. The majority is not proud to be Chinese and don’t like when other people treat them as such. She explained that it is natural because China has room for development in many aspects.

According to Robert who is among Hong Kong protestors, the cultural differences are so obvious that sometimes the Hong Kong people’s attempts to stop Chinese tourists from disrupting their culture with Chinese tendencies (bargain in every shop, never line up and so forth) makes Chinese people believe Hong Kong people have a sense of superiority.

But Hong Kong student protestors (especially the Hong Kong Federation of Students and scholars who play a key role in the protests) proved that they see themselves as different from other Chinese people and any other protestors of the world. Unlike the protests in Arab countries or in Ukraine – where protests would end up in everything being smashed and burned down Hong Kong student protestors are polite and quiet: they don’t pollute, they recycle their garbage, and they even do their homework in a study area on a main road. This campaign doesn’t have a leader, as the Hong Kong people self-initialised occupying Mong Kok square and the causeway bay.

One other cultural difference is that the student protestors believe in non-violent resistance just like Gandhi and M. Luther King once did. They didn’t fight back when they were attacked with teargas from riot police. They see the protests as the embodiment of the values they should have in their society and this is why they avoid physical confrontation and hatred. The protestors expect to have a universal suffrage that China promised them in the Sino-British joint declaration of 1984. And all they ask for is to have a constructive dialogue with the government, which still refuses to talk to the protestors.

Such cultural differences exist in Xinjiang Uygur, Tibet and other regions as well. It is not only for the sake of “enduringness” of Chinese civilisation and unification against the “Western culture” that ruling elites spread the idea of national unity. Neither is the promotion of the “China dream” (which is about the better Chinese society of tomorrow) by General Secretary of CPC Xi Jinping, done only for him to be imprinted in history books. In a country of so many ethnic groups and of regions with different levels of economic development it is the unification of race that guarantees Communist party to stay in power.

Although China continues its economic and strategic trajectory, Beijing faces a certain dilemma due to the protests. The government can’t repeat the Tiananmen-style methods as the protestors avoid violence as they are far more disciplined than the crowd of the 1989 Democracy movement. On the other hand, as many specialists emphasise, if Beijing agrees to negotiate with protestors it will show their weakness and the protests will spread to other regions with requests for democracy which is a real threat to the ”Middle Kingdom”. But China is a country of honour, which as we know even in ancient times could lead nations to take disproportionate risks.

Even though the events in Mong Kok square change rapidly and it is unknown what will happen tomorrow, one thing is clear: the identity issue won’t solve itself and the risk of escalation will involve other regions of China. The protests were the first steps for the government towards acknowledging the deep rooted issue of identity differences and absence of national unity and are certainly going to be a new test zone for Beijing durability. The protests are now a zero-sum game and the only option to overcome what appears to be a win-lose situation (reached most probably via use of violence) is to make some step-by-step concessions to reach a win-win solution.

*All names were changed to preserve anonymity.

By Ruzanna Baldryan

Image credit:

Picture 1&2: Pasu Au Yeung, licensed under CC BY 2.0

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The Rise of Private Military Companies

Rodrigo de Souza — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 15:09:54 +0000

In the last decades, the reliance on private military companies (PMCs) to accomplish military tasks previously undertaken by regular soldiers has never been so large. Both the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq gave a new dimension to the use of “soldiers for hire.” With the pending withdrawal of most foreign troops from Afghanistan, by the end of 2014, western countries will be relying more than ever on PMCs to do the job that was previously executed by the regular military.

The use of PMCs started during the 20th century when some countries, corporations, and groups started to make use of soldiers for hire in a more professional way instead of regular national armies. They employed companies (the PMCs) that would supply “contractors” (civilians) to do the job of soldiers, mostly in so-called proxy wars or dirty wars, usually in Africa or Asia. This professionalisation of fighting was responsible for the emergence of PMCs. The justification of the use of PMCs came mostly from the reduction in cost, as the price of PMCs is far below the amount necessary to keep standing armies for long periods of time, especially when great battles between states were and still are becoming less and less frequent.

However, during the past century, the knowledge of the existence of PMCs was reserved for insiders or scholars of the subject. Nevertheless, this auxiliary role performed by PMCs changed with the American War on Terror. This gave a completely new dimension to the use of PMCs in the battlefield as in order to be able to fight in two different wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) at the same time, the United States had to start making extensive use of PMCs.

Nevertheless, there are a number of issues that can arise with the use of PMCs. One of these issues was highlighted by an incident in 2007 in Iraq. In this case, Blackwater (now called Academi) contractors killed 17 innocent civilians at Nisour Square in Baghdad. The whole legal process involved in punishing those responsible for the incident was hampered by the fact that PMCs lie in a gray area of the international judicial system.

This legal problem comes first because of the diverse origin of these military contractors. Most of them are former American military serviceman, but some are also former Special Forces from countries like Russia, Poland, or The United Kingdom. Others are veterans from the Balkan Wars, South African officers from the time of the Apartheid, and ex-French Foreign Legionaries. Secondly, since PMCs also are base in locations from all corners of the globe,
some situations in the battlefield can end up outside of international jurisdiction. Imagine a French veteran hired by Academi, an American company, working in Iraq, who kills an innocent civilian. Should he be put on trial in France, the US, or Iraq? So far, the lack of international governance in these situations leaves the use of PMCs in a legal limbo.

There are also moral issues in employing these kinds of companies. On several occasions, they were accused of crossing moral boundaries in the name of profit. One of the first PMCs in the world, Executive Outcomes from South Africa, was accused of engaging in mercenary activities during its actions in the Angolan Civil War in the 90s. These actions would be illegal under the Geneva Convention article 47. Moreover, there was Sandline International, which was accused of atrocities against local native populations in Papua New Guinea when acting for the advancement of big international mining companies’ agendas. Finally, several PMCs have also been accused of orchestrating coups d’états in African countries.

However, these legal and moral issues have not been preventing a growing use of PMCs by countries, corporations, international organizations, and even individuals. Cost benefit and professionalism are the main attractions in the use of contractors. Some argue that PMCs should even be employed in UN missions around the globe, as the UN itself has been criticized several times for employing poorly trained troops from underdeveloped countries.

One example of the massive use of PMCs despite these legal and moral issues can be seen in Afghanistan. PMCs have been present on the ground in Afghanistan since the beginning of the American invasion in 2001. They were there mostly helping in the training of the ANA (Afghanistan National Army) and securing international embassies and authorities. These kinds of activities expose contractors to almost the same kind of risks as regular soldiers. The risks involved can be seen in the number of contractors killed in 2011 in Afghanistan, which reached at least 430 contractors from American PMCs. This number was even higher than the number of American soldiers killed for that same year, 418. With the increasing use of contractors working for PMCs in Afghanistan, this disparity only continue to increase.

In the second part of this article that will be featured in our next month’s issue, we will interview Tim Foxley, an Afghanistan intelligence specialist, about what he believes the future will be of this central Asian country as well as the role that PMCs will play in their future.

By Rodrigo de Souza

Image credit:

Picture 1: Defence Images, licensed under CC BY 2.0

Picture 2: Royal Navy Media Archive, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

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The Future of the Smart Web

Andreas Kechagias — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 15:09:14 +0000

The year is 2024. It’s 6:57A.M and you have just woken up. You feel well-rested, as your watch monitored changes in your breathing and heart rate to detect when you exited deep REM sleep, letting your alarm clock know the optimal time for it to ring. In anticipation of you waking up, and based on your showering habits, your water heater has prepared 100 liters of water at 46 degrees Celsius. While preparing breakfast, your fridge suggests that since you skipped 24% of your workout yesterday, it’d be better if you opted for the skim milk today.

As you leave the house the door locks automatically and the thermostat turns the heating off, to be reactivated when your phone’s GPS shows you are returning home. You enter your car and tell it to calculate the route to work. While completely autonomous cars are still a decade away, an array of sensors allows for an advance form of cruise control, with your car being aware of both its immediate surroundings and traffic conditions along its route in real time and can automatically stir, accelerate and decelerate to avoid collisions.

You are halfway to work, when suddenly you feel a lurch, as your car violently accelerates and throws you in the town’s river. Both your phone and watch register the life-threatening deceleration and alert emergency services with a possible incident profile and GPS coordinates. Emergency services are on the scene in under four minutes and are able to pull you from the river and transfer you to the hospital.

As it turns out, your crash wasn’t an accident. You were randomly targeted by a virus that exploited a vulnerability in the connection between your MP3 player and your car’s stereo speakers to inject malicious code into your car’s navigation system. The police officers that visit you tell you the point of entry was most likely an illegally downloaded song, which makes you contributorily negligent and means your insurance will only cover part of your costs.

How likely is it that this is an accurate depiction of life ten years in the future?

All of the technologies described above already exist, even if not yet widely available. They involve the use of devices that come equipped with a variety of sensors to gather data, the processing power to make sense of the data, and the ability to connect with other “smart” devices to share and improve their capabilities. If current trends hold, we can expect such devices to reach critical adoption levels and become ubiquitous everyday objects

within the next decade. This would bring a variety of subtle and not-so-subtle changes to our daily lives. I try to highlight three of them below.

1. Your devices will start acting like your mother

Or at least like my mother… Smart sensors embedded in electronics gather a treasure trove of data about the user’s habits and uncover patterns in their activity that might not be immediately obvious. This allows for a macro outlook and much better management of one’s routine. A lot of the health trackers on the market today actually use positive and negative reinforcement mechanics similar to those found in video-games, nudging the users towards completing their preset goals. As more and more devices become equipped with such sensors, the picture presented would be increasingly complete. Using this information, everyone that wants to will be able to much better monitor and improve their health habits.

2. Efficiency saves lives, money (and maybe the planet)

Developed states are hard-pressed to continue providing high levels of services while dealing with low growth and aging populations, while developing states are facing challenges stemming from urbanisation and industrialisation, with a rising middle class that starts demanding those same services. In both cases the need to optimise the allocation of resources, both natural and budgetary, will be more important than ever.

Smart systems will be in a position to be a large part of this effort. Devices that micromanage their resource consumption and the parsing of publicly available data to more efficiently manage a variety of municipal services in
large cities are only two examples of the possibilities created by the proliferation of smart devices.

3. Virtual actions, real consequences

Whether the Internet will survive in its current global form remains an open question. But in one form or the other, networks of computers and devices are here to stay. As the increase in the use of networked devices drives our digital and real worlds closer together, risks taken online will have much greater impact offline. A just released Europol report warns that the first “online murder”, a murder committed remotely by exploiting security flaws in networked devices like pacemakers or cars, is going to happen within 2014, if it hasn’t already.

Beyond the physical risk, with so much of our lives cataloged by the various sensor-packed connected devices around us, privacy concerns and the need for data security will multiply a thousand-fold. This in combination with the economics of progressively lower prices for goods and services, will result in the norms of Internet activity starting to mirror those governing our everyday lives. Downloading a pirated movie or song will become equivalent to following a stranger into a dark alley to buy a bootleg CD, only the risk of bodily harm will be compounded by the possibility of exposing your entire life to them. The net effect of the need for more security will be that we will be increasingly held accountable for choices made online.

It is impossible to see a decade into the future with any sort of accuracy. To try is only to invite humiliation ten years down the line, if not much sooner. In the immortal words of Ken Olson, Chairman of Digital Equipment Corp. in 1977, “there is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home”. Despite that, there is value in undertaking this intellectual exercise, if for no other reason than to examine our present in a fresh light, and try to conceive of ways to engineer a future better than the one described above.

By Andreas Kechagias

Image credit:

Picture 1: Sam Howzit, licensed under CC BY 2.0

Picture 2: Nicholas Rumas, licensed under CC BY 2.0

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Consumerism and the Lack of Happiness

Wiebke Arnold — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 15:09:13 +0000

Standing in front of my closet this morning, choosing an outfit for the day, I caught myself thinking “I have got nothing to wear”. Ironically, I had just looked through a selection of shirts, skirts, pants and dresses – there were plenty of eligible outfits – I merely deemed them unsuitable for the occasion. So I did have something to wear, I just wasn’t pleased with the choices – there was nothing new about my clothes. As a woman, I believe this situation is not that rare of an occurrence. However, the fact that I felt the urge to update my already well-stocked wardrobe, got me thinking – why do I feel that I need more, when I already have so much?

In today’s society it can be difficult to distinguish between one’s wants and needs. At times it may even feel as though it is impossible to control the desire to want more. No wonder, with TV shows, social media, newspapers and even toilet stall doors shoving advertisements in our faces every day – more or less subliminally – cajoling us to shop, starting the vicious circle of consumerism.

As early as the 17th century, the consumerist way of life started to implement itself into our society. English historian Keith Thomas describes it as “the gradual emergence of a new ideology, accepting the pursuit of consumer goods as a valid object of human endeavour” increasing the living standards of all classes and providing opportunities previously limited by social ranking. Connecting satisfaction, well-being and, most of all, status to one’s possessions became a way of measuring life’s worth. This doctrine was taken further by economists after the World Wars, especially by Victor Lebow, who in 1955 demanded we seek happiness in consumption, making it our way of life. Though this doctrine might have been beneficial for the economy then, it developed a momentum of its own, with severe consequences for our lives today.

Adapted by our governments and implemented by the media, our society still revolves around consumption, making us believe that it will lead to fulfilment. Consequently, not only have we made consumerism a way of life, we also make our happiness dependent on it – measuring our worth by how much we own compared to others. However, this leaves us eternally unsatisfied – and envious of others who seemingly have more. Despite feeling happier after a purchase, the sensation wears off quickly, shifting our focus back to the things we still do not have. Philosopher Henry David Thoreau once said that “it is the preoccupation with possessions that prevents us from living freely and nobly”. Meaning that what is promised to us through consumerism – happiness and satisfaction – actually keeps us from achieving just that.

The dilemma with the never-ending desire to buy new things is that it is not sustainable; the one thing that the economists failed to tell us. Producing more stuff also means creating more waste – naturally, this cannot go on forever on a finite planet – thus having a negative impact on our planet. Even though, we should be aware of this, living in the 21st century, consumerism still has a tight grip on us. Yet, studies have shown, organising our lives around how much we own, actually, affects our wellbeing in a bad way, leading to depression and anxiety more often than satisfaction and happiness. In fact, consumerism has an impact on our social life and our environment as materialistic values shift our focus from the things that actually matter.

Since not consuming anything is close to impossible in today’s world, the situation may seem helpless. I find myself in a constant struggle of valuing what I have, thus resisting the urge to shop but wanting to buy all the things society suggests I should own. Luckily, there are certain things we can do to move towards a more conscious type of consumerism and with that a more sustainable way of life. One of the causes of consumerist behaviour is insecurity; we buy things to make us feel better about ourselves. Therefore, finding alternative ways to feel better and more secure, such as spending time with friends and family, can help us realise that there is a lot to be thankful for. Another thing we can do is to minimise media exposure; installing ad blocks and muting commercials can be a start to this, with the upside of less annoying ads and pop-ups when streaming movies.

However, to foster a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle on a bigger scale, we need to start pushing for broader societal change and the implementation of intrinsic values in politics. Ecological Economist, William Rees, said that “we need to learn to live within the means of nature”, meaning that we should share and redistribute our wealth. This may seem like a difficult task – still, training ourselves in awareness is something we can do as individuals to contribute to the big picture. For instance, useful tools, such as the Conscious Consumer Shopping Guide, show that conscious consumerism actually adds to our life quality, rather than restricting us in our living standard.

So the next time, I catch myself uttering the words “I don’t have anything to wear”, I will remind myself that I do in fact have a lot to be thankful for – things way more important than a new outfit.

By Wiebke Arnold

Image credit:

Picture 1: David Blackwell, licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

Picture 2: Zohar Manor-Abel, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

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Putin, Oil, AK-47: How Political Stereotypes Rule Our Everyday Lives

Victoria Yantseva — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 15:07:38 +0000

“Swedes are reserved, Russians are aggressive, Estonians are indolent, Spaniards are passionate” – how often do you hear such clichés from people around you and how often do you catch yourself reproducing them in your mind? Do these clichés have any real ground? Is it possible in first place to classify all people belonging to this or that particular nationality as “indolent”, “aggressive” or “reserved”? Myself being originally from Russia, there was one more important question, one that arose several months ago as a reflection on a very strained political situation in my region: how does politics influence the spread of these stereotypes among people?

When we see a group of politicians in one state acting in a certain way towards a neighbouring country, there is a great temptation to classify all citizens of this state in the same way you judge their politicians, especially since the latter are official elected representatives. The mass-media only fuels the flame. Creating an “enemy image”, it only simplifies reality and creates distinctions between “us” and “them”. We, the ordinary people, sometimes forget that mass-media has its own agenda, by expressing interests of their sponsors and supports.

Effective intercultural communication itself is an art that needs to be fostered. When I was planning my stay in Sweden, I was worried the political tensions between Russia and Ukraine would make my everyday communication with people from other countries even more complicated. I just wanted to be sure people felt comfortable when I was around. When I finally arrived in Malmo and started to settle in, getting to know each new person was a struggle because people always asked where I came from. After confessing that I was from Russia, I tried to read people’s thoughts asking myself “will they dislike me for that?”

After becoming familiarized with the city and having made friends at the university and dormitory, I decided to ask what their real thoughts were and if the political situation influenced their first impression of me. I got very different answers, and, even though my little survey does not attempt to be scientific, I suppose I got the whole scale of existing opinions, from positive to suspicious or quite negative. Here are a few:

“I think you are a very nice person and you confirm my opinion that Russians are friendly people. In the West, when people talk about Russia, they often think about Putin. But he is just one person and you cannot generalize...”

Dutch student

“I thought that it will be interesting to get to know someone of my age who is from Russia and to hear an insider’s perspective on Russian politics, which is quite incomprehensive to me partly because of (I suspect) – one–sided Swedish media perspective on Putin and the politics he is making”.

Swedish student

“…I think that sometimes media plays a large role in shaping our opinions which is quite evident in Australia. … On our news pages you can find stories about how bad Russia is almost daily. … Personally I think that Russia has a lot of history and traditions that at times other cultures do not understand and therefore they fear”.

Australian student

“The attitude to Russians in Georgia is actually quite negative. But when I came to Sweden, I understood that Russians are MY people – we have much more in common with them than with people from other cultures”.

Georgian student

“You, Russians, have no feelings, you are inhumane… But actually you are the first Russian I have ever met in my life. So this is more of a stereotype”.

Ukrainian student

So what are these opinions all about? When being asked such complicated and even philosophical questions, people usually admit there are good and bad people in any given country and that you never know what kind of person is standing in front of you. The difficult thing is to remember

this relativity in everyday life and the more difficult thing is to apply this rule to the

citizens of the confronting country. Don’t be too surprised when your neighbour pushes you in a puddle on a busy street, while your supposed-to-be enemy from another country helps you with heavy luggage at a train station.

Politics is complicated and often messy, we can admit it. But let’s not mix politics and our everyday life; let’s be unprejudiced and not let mass-media influence our thoughts and make stereotypes ever more engrained in our brains. Because politicians will finally make a good deal out of crisis under mutually agreed conditions, and ordinary people will end up being enemies with their closest neighbours.

By Victoria Yantseva

Image credit:

Picture 1: Mariano Mantel, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Picture 2: firdaus omar, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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Just a Dead Body?

Aurore Menard — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 15:04:37 +0000

September 14th, 2013 – Lago Atitlan, Guatemala

Today is an important day. Guatemala has been independent for exactly 192 years. I just arrived two days ago in this small village along the magnificent Lago Atitlan. My host mom told me I should go to Puerto San Jose, which is on the pacific coast, with some people from the village to celebrate the Independence. As I am freezing on the bus on the way, I ask myself: what am I really doing over here? This culture is so different from mine but you know what, I love it, I feel at home.

I was a swimmer for many years back in Canada and I always get really excited when it comes to the ocean. As soon as we arrive, I run towards the water like a kid. I am full of enthusiasm.

Suddenly something catches my attention. A lot of people are all looking and pointing at something. My curiosity overrides my excitement to go in the water. As I approach the crowd I see something lying in the sand, something with red on it… Now I am enough close to realise that it is a body, a dead body maybe? I don’t know, nobody is around, why are people not helping the man? His eyes are open, his face is covered with blood and totally destroyed. Why are people not helping him, doing CPR? I walk as fast as I can towards the man. I cross that imaginary line that the other people aren’t crossing but I am not even half way when someone carries me back outside the circle. I try to fight back but the man is really strong. It all happens so fast, but I remember his face. He was mad, so mad at me. Why? I just wanted to help that man, maybe he was still alive? I saw him, I saw his eyes, I saw his body completely not okay. His curly black hair covered with sand and blood.

The man finally explains to me that if I touch the body, I will be the one considered responsible for his death. It is 7:30 in the morning but the body was in the same spot when the man arrived at 6A.M. The police didn’t show until 9A.M to cover up the body.

For an entire week I could not sleep. My host family was laughing at me. Every time we would see a dead body on TV they would cover my eyes and tell me “don’t look Aurora, you will have nightmares again”. I was traumatised. I never saw a dead body like that before. Yes, when I closed my eyes I would still see his face, his eyes wide open. For a few days, I didn’t feel at home at all. This is not my world; I don’t want to live with such images.

I am a privileged white young adult, born and raised in a country where such images are not part of my everyday life. I have seen dead people, at the funeral home. I have seen dead people, on television and in the newspaper. Why was my host family not more shaken? Why was my heart beating fast just by reliving the memories, whilst others see more and more of that kind of violence and don’t question it?

I realised that even in a world where we talk about globalisation and the sharing of cultures, there are concepts that remain culture-specific. Death is one of them.

Guatemalans are in a phase where the consequences of 36 years of war are still visible. Violence perpetrated in the country is televised, without any shyness. They show bloody scenes with dead bodies uncovered. Some barrier about these kinds of horrors must have formed in the mind of Guatemalans. It doesn’t seem to be abnormal to look at those images, especially after so many years of violence. Canada, which is a much quieter country in terms of crime and homicides doesn’t have that kind of past. In 2012, Guatemala had 40 intentional homicides per 100 000 habitants while Canada had 2.

Concerning the fear of what happens after death, there may be a major difference between the two countries. In Guatemala, the majority of the population is still involved in religion; Catholics make up 50-60% of the population while Protestants account for 35-40%. Only 1% are still considered followers of the Indigenous Mayan faith. In Canada, Catholicism is the dominant religion with 43.6% out of a population which is 67% Christian. More than 24% of Canadians consider themselves atheist.

This has implications on the perception of what happens after death. Religion promotes continuity after death. In addition, 95% of the Guatemalan population is considered indigenous. Maya is the culture that they identify themselves as belonging to. For the Mayans, there are strong beliefs about the reincarnation of the dead in the living world. Having such beliefs affects how we approach death. Moreover, lots of ceremonies are still performed today, especially in rural regions. The Kame is the day of celebrating and asking the dead people for strength, as they are believed to be guides that accompany individuals during their earth lives. The objective of this tradition is to avoid all kinds of dangers, diseases and pains and to seek protection while traveling. During the celebration, there is a communication that is created between the superior beings and access is granted to the dimensional gates.

It’s been a year since I came back from Guatemala but I am still shocked by all the dead bodies I saw. The perception of death differs from one culture to another based on history, religion, rituals and many other factors. Each individual is also different and so is the way they perceive death. A painter from the village I was staying in said, “I’m Catholic and I strongly believe in life after death. I never saw a corpse in real life and I wouldn’t want to. Death is the end of this life but the beginning of another one “.

I fell in love with Guatemala and its people and I can’t wait to go back. I know I have to be careful with my reactions and the way I perceive the differences because they all have a history behind them. The last thing I would want is a conflict due to misunderstandings.

By Aurore Menard

Image credit:

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

Picture 2: Guillén Pérez, licensed under CC BY-ND 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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