Laughing in the Face of an Internet Shutdown In Bangladesh

Laughing in the Face of an Internet Shutdown In Bangladesh

Translation posted 22 February 2018 1:37 GMT 

 

Exam time has arrived in Bangladesh. Photo via pxhere (CC0).

Now is the season of school final exams in Bangladesh and the government is trying hard to cope with the issue of exam questions leaking online.

Leaking exam questions have become a regular phenomenon in public examinations like Junior School Certificate (JSC), Senior School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC), medical college and university admission tests, and state-owned bank recruitment exams over the last several years in Bangladesh.

Mostly using Facebook and WhatsApp, people sell exam questions ahead of the nationwide examinations. A few hours before the exam, the questions are often given away for free. The offenders in most of these cases have not been identified. These leaks have cast a shadow over the quality of exams and the process of assessing students.

In January, the Education Minister hinted that Facebook would be shut down during the exams to prevent these leaks.

On February 11, 2018, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission instructed all internet service providers in Bangladesh to shut off mobile internet and reduce broadband speeds to 25 kbps from 8:00am-10:30am on exam days throughout the remainder of February.

But on February 12, 2018 morning, within an hour from the start of the internet shutdown, the government backtracked and ordered ISPs to ensure uninterrupted internet service. It took some hours for the ISPs to implement the new order and things were normal again. The authorities have instead imposed a mobile phone ban near the exam halls.

Netizens criticized the move, using sarcasm and satire to express their dissatisfaction and protest the “rash and whimsical” decision.

Now is the season of school final exams in Bangladesh and the government is trying hard to cope with the issue of exam questions leaking online.

Leaking exam questions have become a regular phenomenon in public examinations like Junior School Certificate (JSC), Senior School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC), medical college and university admission tests, and state-owned bank recruitment exams over the last several years in Bangladesh.

Mostly using Facebook and WhatsApp, people sell exam questions ahead of the nationwide examinations. A few hours before the exam, the questions are often given away for free. The offenders in most of these cases have not been identified. These leaks have cast a shadow over the quality of exams and the process of assessing students.

In January, the Education Minister hinted that Facebook would be shut down during the exams to prevent these leaks.

On February 11, 2018, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission instructed all internet service providers in Bangladesh to shut off mobile internet and reduce broadband speeds to 25 kbps from 8:00am-10:30am on exam days throughout the remainder of February.

But on February 12, 2018 morning, within an hour from the start of the internet shutdown, the government backtracked and ordered ISPs to ensure uninterrupted internet service. It took some hours for the ISPs to implement the new order and things were normal again. The authorities have instead imposed a mobile phone ban near the exam halls.

Netizens criticized the move, using sarcasm and satire to express their dissatisfaction and protest the “rash and whimsical” decision.

Ecuador's Judicial System Leaves Crimes of Torture Against the LGBTQ Community Unpunished

Ecuador's Judicial System Leaves Crimes of Torture Against the LGBTQ Community Unpunished

Judicial entities create great difficulties for LGBTQ organizations in Ecuador, letting those responsible for committing torture in so-called “de-homosexualization clinics” go unpunished by the law. 

The following is the second part of a three-part series, a re-issue of a report written by Carlos E. Flores that was originally published by Connectas and re-edited with the author's help. The full report relates data and case analyses that contrast with the position Ecuador presents before international institutions that protect human rights. The first part of this series features the testimonies of victims of forced imprisonment and can be . This installment is devoted to exposing the legal circumstances that keep LGBTI people vulnerable, leaving them subject to kidnapping and torture by “de-homosexualization clinics”.

Over the course of a decade, La Fundación Causana (The Causana Foundation), an organization dedicated to the defense of the rights of LGTBI people in Ecuador, has documented fifty cases of homosexuals confined against their will. This organization believes that there is not enough information on the judicialization of the cases presented.

The situation has attracted the attention of bodies within the United Nations (UN) in terms of fulfillment of the Ecuadorian State code of law, which punishes torture and hate crimes with imprisonment in accordance with the country’s Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code.

An Alternative Report created in December 2016 by several social organizations for the UN Committee against Torture states that the first documented complaint against so-called “de-homosexualization clinics” dates back to the year 2000.

However, only six cases involving these clinics were processed through the Council of the Judiciary, with only those culpable in one case being sentenced on abduction charges. The punishment consisted of ten days of correctional prison and the payment of a fine (the equivalent of 6 USD).

For this and other reasons, LGBTQ organizations insist that there is no effective response from the law, nor is any conclusive information provided by authorities when information about convictions is requested.

One of the centers closed by the authorities was the same in which Jonathan Vásconez was detained and suffered violent abuse and harassment in 2010 (Vásconez’ testimony was included in the first part of this series).

The center was closed in April of 2012 after government authorities visited and took the measure for “breach of rules and requirements” as published on the website of the Ministry of Public Health. Not a word was said about the crimes experienced by people like Vásconez, who says he endured physical and psychological torture. The only defendant tried in the case, the director of the institution, was dismissed.

The Prosecutor's Office initially tried a torture charge but inevitably settled on a kidnapping charge, according to the sentence issued in court. The court dismissed the case because, among other reasons, the internment of the victim was requested by the family.

Ecuador in the eyes of international human rights organizations

In May 2017, when Ecuador distributed the Universal Periodic Review III (UPR) for the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, Ecuador did not provide any information regarding punishments against those responsible for employing sexual reorientation “therapies”. The same response was given by the Ecuadorian State in the UPR II of 2012 and the UPR I of 2008.

However, the Ecuadorian State did provide information before the Human Rights Committee in August 2016.  It was noted that Ecuador judicialized four cases, although it “[regretted] not having received detailed information about the penal actions taken against those responsible for these ‘treatments’ and their results.”

In January 2017, the UN Committee against Torture said it was:

concerned about allegations of forced internment and ill-treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in private centers where so-called ‘therapies of sexual reorientation or dehomosexualization’ are practiced. Despite the closure of 24 centers of this type, the Committee notes with concern that to date the proceedings initiated by the Prosecutor’s Office have not resulted in any conviction.

At the time of the publication of this report it is not known which 24 centers were closed, the reasons why they were closed, who were the culpable individuals, or if they have continued to offer services under another name.

In June of 2017, the Council of the Judiciary, through information obtained from the Prosecutor's Office of Procedural Management, provided a list of six cases that occurred in the provinces of Pichincha, Napo, Guayas, El Oro and Manabí.

The cases only bear the initials of the aggrieved, and it is evident that half of the proceedings were neglected. The clinics in question were not specifically identified and the reasons for the inquiries were only clarified in three of the cases: two corresponded to bodily torture and one to kidnapping.

Official data on judicial processes are scarce and generate concern among human rights organizations and the LGBTQ community.

According to Ane Barragán of La Fundación Causana, the lack of information on the part of the Prosecutor's Office complicates things:

for us, civil society, it is very difficult to get closer to all these details. The Women's Communication Workshop, according to a document issued in Ecuador’s last UPR, stated that the sanctions against these centers have been ‘mostly administrative in nature, and there is no data on any case that had been prosecuted.’

In an added layer of complication, victims’ direct relatives often support the imprisonment. Generally, the aggrieved do not want to subject their own relatives to legal proceedings. In the end, they decide not to report their crimes, instead choosing to distances themselves from their families.

Advances or setbacks?

A decade ago, addiction treatment centers could force sexual identity change therapies with zero regulations. Efraín Soria of Fundación Equidad (Equality Foundation) explains:

The National Council of Psychotropic Substances and Narcotics used to supervise addiction centers until the Ministry of Public Health took over guardianship and issued Regulation 339 in 2010. This regulation stipulated homosexuality as being a condition to be treated in these clinics, and activists insist this regulation is ambiguous.

The ninth article indicated that the creation of specialized centers would be encouraged for patients including those “people with disorders in their identity or sexual orientations that are primary to their addiction…”

The aforementioned regulation was repealed two years later when Carina Vance, a lesbian activist, took over as health minister. Under her management, Ministerial Agreement 0767 was approved, which eliminated any trace of ambiguity and, furthermore, established a series of procedures for monitoring the clinics with the interaction of different state bodies and the participation of collectives and social organizations.

During Vance’s administration, there were 290 inspections according to a Ministry of Health report, a level of deployment that does not occur these days. According to Patricio Aguirre, Ministry of Health’s National Directorate of Human Rights, Gender and Inclusion, these regulations (the ones pushed by Vance) have helped to supervise these clinics properly, reducing the need for surprise inspections.

However, substantial changes are necessary within a society that continues to view homosexuality and variant gender expressions as behaviors that must be punished or shut away.

Insufficient laws make it difficult to protect the rights of the persecuted, especially when their own family members participate in their persecution under the guise of social conventions.

Homages to Stephen Hawking in Latin America's Media Show How Mourning for the Scientist Transcends Borders

 

                                                                                                                                                           News of Stephen Hawking's death, announced on 14 March 2018, caused sorrow throughout the world, and Latin America was no exception.

Hawking, 76, was known in the scientific community for his advanced theories on the radiation emitted from black holes, as well as for his studies into the origins of the universe and the Big Bang theory.

However, the British theoretical physicist and cosmologist had achieved fame among the public too, through his efforts to bring science to a more generalized audience and raise awareness about various, often little understood, phenomena. These include advances in artificial intelligence and the survival of the human race.

Hawking also dealt with what some would regard as highly controversial subjects, such as the existence of a divine being in the context of the creation of the universe.

The Spanish-language website Sopitas published the news like this, using an interesting wink at the possible existence of parallel universes:

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We don't know about other universes, but in this one at least, the great Stephen Hawking died yesterday. With this sad news, millions of internet users came out to express their admiration for such an amazing person. When we say amazing, we are not just referring to his presence and his personality, but also his work as an astrophysicist that never failed to fascinate, even those who know little or nothing about science.

On another note, Raúl Morales put his reaction to Hawking's death in this way on a Spanish-language site dedicated to climbing, mountaineering and other sports:

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The British physicist and scientific figure died […] after over half a century outliving his prognosis for the illness he suffered from, and taking humanity forward toward the most important discovery to which we aspire: that which explains reality itself.

If we climb to reach a summit, go caving to discover the caves, then we use science to explore the universe, which is no more than the rational systemization of this same human spirit which makes us cross a river, or go see what is on the other side of the mountain. This work is like that of a mountaineer, an explorer, but of different summits, summits which we don't often find on our planet or, in the case of Stephen Hawking, not even within our spacetime.

In a piece entitled “Stephen Hawking's laboratory was the universe”, which appeared on a Puerto Rican newspaper called El Nuevo Día, the complexity of Hawking's theories was described like this:

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Everybody knew about Stephen Hawking's cosmic brilliance, but few understood it. Not even first-class astronomers.

Furthermore, on the same site they created a compilation of some of Hawking's famous phrases, including this one:

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If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans

On Twitter, users reacted like 

Lartenostra@lartenostra

Hemos perdido a uno de los científicos mas brillantes que ha dado la humanidad, comparable quizás solo con Sir Issac Newton; descanse en paz Stephen #Hawking

Información y privacidad de Twitter Ads

We have lost one of the most brilliant scientists humanity has ever seen, comparable perhaps only to Sir Isaac Newton. Rest in peace Stephen #Hawking

Mexican news presenter Carmen Aristegui remembered when Hawking played himself in American TV show “The Big Bang Theory,” quoting one of the lead actresses Kaley Cuoco: