Cheek Terrence

Demonstrators try to march in Rio. Photo of Mauricio Campos dos Santos, used with permission

The “preventative” arrests of activists against the World Cup on the eve of the final match between Germany and Argentina to stop demonstrations during the tournament's close did not succeed in discouraging Brazilians from protesting in Rio de Janeiro. 

One rally gathered hundreds of people, who oppose the lavish spending on the mega-event. As activists have come to expect, the protest was met with tear gas bombs, stun grenades and baton-wielding police officers.

Protesters were unable to walk to the Maracana stadium, where the final match was played, because of police cordons blocking off the area. Attempts to break the blockade was rebuffed aggressively. Even the cavalry, with police officers armed with swords, were used against protesters.

Activists and journalists said they were kicked by the military police, manhandled and beaten. Canadian filmmaker Jason O'Hara was kicked in the head by a passing officer and his GoPro camera that was attached to his helmet was stolen, the alternative newspaper A nova democracia (The New Democracy) reported. The newspaper recorded the assault, and the video is available on YouTube.

Another activist was kicked by military police officer Rogério Costa de Oliveira, who has been accused by social movements of assaulting women in demonstrations in the past, and the moment was captured on film by YouTube user Tandy Firmino:

According to the Union of Journalists of Rio de Janeiro, at least 15 journalists were assaulted during protest by the military police. 

The collective Midia Ninja listed others who were injured:

O jornalista Felipe Peçanha, Mídia Ninja, foi cercado por 8 policiais, teve sua lente quebrada e sofreu agressões enquanto transmitia os cuidados médicos ao Jason O'hara.

A documentarista Aloyana Lemos, MIC, foi detida enquanto registrava as agressões à manifestantes no ato até então pacífico na praça Saens Peña, Tijuca. Aloyana está sendo encaminhada para a 21º DP.

O fotógrafo Bernardo Guerreiro, Mídia Ninja, teve sua lente quebrada e foi agredido com spray de pimenta no olho de curta distância.

Journalist Felipe Peçanha, Midia Ninja, was surrounded by eight policemen, had his camera lens broken and was assaulted while filming Jason O'Hara's ordeal as he was being helped by doctors.

Filmmaker Aloyana Lemos, MIC, was arrested while recording the assaults on protesters who were at that moment demonstrating peacefully at the Saens Peña square, Tijuca. Aloyana was sent to police department 21.

Photographer Bernardo Guerreiro, Midia Ninja, had his camera lens broken and was assaulted with pepper spray in the eye from a short distance.

Protesters try to walk towards the Maracana. Photo from the Mariachi Collective.

In some situations, police blocked protesters and reporters from leaving the area. Journalist Tamara Cardoso summarized the situation:

estou sendo mantida refém pela polícia.

Identificada como jornalista, dentro de um carro identificado como um carro de reportagem, não posso sair da praça Saens Pena.

Ta bom ou precisa mais?

I'm being held hostage by the police.

Identified as a journalist, in a car identified as a reporter car, I cannot leave the Saens Pena square.

That's enough or do you need more?

Photo by Camila Nóbrega – Canal Ibase

The Rede de Comunidades e Movimentos Contra a Violência (Network of Communities and Movements against Violence) posted a photo by journalist Camila Nobrega from the NGO Ibase of protesters using their bodies to spell out “SOS”:

“SOS”. É a mensagem que pessoas encurraladas pela polícia nas imediações do Maracanã acabam de escrever no chão da rua Desembargador Isidro, na Tijuca: um pedido de socorro. Após reprimir de forma truculenta a manifestação que ocorria no entorno da Praça Saens Pena, a Polícia Militar fez um cerco em todas as ruas do local, impedindo a circulação. Cerca de mil pessoas estão “presas” nas ruas da Tijuca, cercadas de policiais.

“SOS”. Its the message that people trapped by police in the vicinity of Maracanã just spelled out at the Desembargador Isidro Street in [the neighborhood of] Tijuca: a distress call. After aggressively suppressing the protest that occurred in the vicinity of the Saens Pena square, military police laid siege to every street their, preventing movement. About a thousand people are “stuck” in the streets of Tijuca, surrounded by police.

Engineer Maurício dos Santos posted a series of photos of the scene and commented on Facebook:

PM fecha metrô, joga bombas, destrói faixas e cartazes, espanca pessoas e transforma a Praça Saens Peña em praça de guerra. Nessa praça jaz a democracia.

The military police close the subway, throw bombs, destroy banners and posters, beat up people and transform Saens Peña Square into a war zone. In this square lies democracy.

At least seven people were arrested, including a minor, the Collective Mariachi reported on Facebook. Activist Paula Kossatz and Anna Baptista Marim posted videos on Facebook of moments when police lashed out at protesters seemingly without provocation. 

 

una publicación de Nana Miram.

Baptista Marim described what she filmed:

PM ataca passageiros no metrô.
Minutos antes deu apanhar:
Durante muitas bombas, prisões e porradarias de PMs com cacetete na praça Saens Pena, eu e meu marido fomos os últimos a conseguir entrar na estação cheia de gás.
Ficamos filmando a caça da polícia que tentava identificar quem era manifestante e quem não era.
Nosso grande crime, merecedor de muita porrada, foi ter ficado filmando a ação da PM. Por isso que é dificil encontar vídeos denunciando a covardia da policia.

The military police attacks passengers on the subway.
Minutes before I was beaten:
Throughout many bombs, arrests and beatings from police with batons at the Saens Pena Square, my husband and I were the last to get into the crowded gas station.
We were filming the police try to identify who was and who was not a demonstrator.
Our greatest crime, none which deserved that much beating, was to have been filming the police's actions. That's why is difficult to find videos denouncing the cowardice of the police.

While the Germans were celebrating their win against Argentina in the Maracana stadium, police and protesters were clashing outside in a scene all too familiar since last year's Confederations Cup. Cartoonist André Dahmer, author of comics Malvados (Evil) characterized what will happen to people who protest nowadays in Brazil: “I wanted to demonstrate my sorrow for the Argentina national team, but whoever demonstrates gets arrested.”

Written by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia · Translated by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia · View original post [pt] · comments (0)
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Runners hide money in suitcases, inside books, or concealed on their bodies. Photo courtesy of Prensa Libre archives.

The original version of this article was written in Spanish by Luis Ángel Sas and published on journalism platform CONNECTAS in May 2014.

Ecuadorean newscaster, psychologist and model María Magdalena Stahl Hurtado, a U.S. citizen of German heritage, strolled through the La Aurora airport in Guatemala one May afternoon in 2010. At almost 5'9″, her elegant figure was a magnet for the eyes.

Carlos, an anti-drug officer, was captured by Stahl's magnetic field; she had almost represented Ecuador in the Miss Universe pageant five years earlier. Carlos approached her for a routine screening for which passengers are randomly selected. Truth be told, his choice of Stahl was based more on her attractive figure than on any grounds for suspicion. But when he looked her in the eyes, he saw the fear characteristic of those who have something to hide.

He was trained for this. He began a barrage of questions; Stahl did not resist. Carlos asked to search her luggage; she objected, but had to give in. After several hours of counting, the Public Ministry calculated that there was $435,762 USD hidden in the luggage that Stahl was taking to Panama. According to the General Subdivision of Anti-Narcotics Information Analysis (SGDAIA), a total of $9.9 million USD was seized from passengers of various nationalities and profiles trying to transport undeclared money out of La Aurora International Airport between 2010 and 2013.

The latest reported case is that of Coatepeque soccer coach Richard Alexis Preza Herrera, who was arrested for transporting $14.6 million USD. At his trial he was fined 600,000 quetzals ($7,750 USD) and was prohibited from leaving the country. Of the past four years, 2011 saw the most money seized: a total of $5.7 million USD. The year before, in 2010, $2.2 million USD was confiscated. The total decreased to $859,000 in 2012 and reached $969,000 in 2013.

How money gets moved

The $9.9 million USD was confiscated from 67 individuals, an average of $147,000 per person. However, the amount carried by each person ranged from $12,000 to $1 million.

Credit: Prensa Libre.

Techniques for transporting hidden money also varied wildly: bills stuck in books and notebooks, hidden in the heels of shoes, stuffed into belts, or concealed on the body and secured with stockings or adhesive tape.

Money has also been concealed in cans of beans, in the false bottoms of suitcases masked with carbon paper, and even in the stomach, after being swallowed in latex capsules. “The only limit is the imagination,” says Rolando Rodenas, head of the·Anti-Money Laundering Prosecutors’ Office.

Rodenas says that there are other forms of getting money out of the country without the need to hide it, although these other methods leave a trail of evidence that may be sufficient to get the perpetrators caught.

“The law states that up to $10,000 USD can be transported without declaration. Thus there are people who travel with $9,700 or $9,800, just barely within the legal limit,” says Rodenas. At least two large groups of runners, each carrying legal amounts of money, have been caught transporting money to Panama, the primary destination for money laundering.

According to Rodenas, another way to transport money was to claim that the runners were managers or employees of businesses who were traveling to make deals or purchases. After months of investigation, it was determined that the businesses were only a cover and that they had no real financial activities. In fact, money launderers continue to use this method.

“That's how they're getting the money out of the country. They're doing what the law permits,” says Rodenas, who will not venture a guess as to the amounts of money that are taken out of the country illegally. “It's difficult to give a figure; a study would have to be performed,” he says.

Élmer Sosa, head of the SGDAIA, declined to be interviewed for this article. However, his staff at La Aurora International Airport estimate that the confiscated money represents only 10 percent of the amount that leaves the country in suitcases: “hidden or declared, but without legal ground,” claims an agent who requested anonymity.

A report from Global Financial Integrity (GFI) states that between 2002 and 2011, Guatemala moved 10 percent of Central America's total dirty money, which may be as much as $14 billion USD. Guatemala's illicit financial flow of $1.3 billion puts it in fourth place after Costa Rica (4.3 billion), Panama (3.9 billion), and Honduras (2.8 billion). El Salvador's illicit financial flow was $1 billion and Nicaragua's was $700 million.

“About two years ago, personnel identified some 45 people who were traveling with $9,800 or $9,700 on the same flight to Panama!” explains the agent.

This number seems believable after the capture of members of a group that the Public Prosecutor has baptized the Pitufos (the Smurfs), led by David Cervantes Urízar. According to the Prosecutors’ Office, this group alone coordinated 20 trips to Panama, laundering approximately $3 million per month.

Another trafficking group caught by the Prosecutors’ Office was one called Véliz-Palomo (the surnames of two members). The Prosecutors’ Office determined that over the course of a year, between 2010 and 2011, the group organized 20 trips per week to bring money to Panama. In 2012, a tribunal sentenced 48 members of the group to terms of 3 to 56 years behind bars.

A presiding court sent María Magdalena Stahl Hurtado to prison, which initiated a penal process for money laundering.

A few days later, judge Adrián Rolando Rodríguez Arana, of the Seventh Court of First Criminal Instance, let Stahl go free while the investigation continued. On March 29, 2011, Rodríguez Arana decided to indefinitely shelve the case and return the money to Stahl. The International Commission against Impunity sought an investigation into this action.

The money laundering route

According to the itineraries of detained runners, there are two clear routes used for transporting money via airports. The first is Guatemala-Panama. According to police records, 37 people transported $7.5 million USD on this route. Some were forced to return to Guatemala, where they were arrested upon arrival. “We cooperate with authorities in that country because people repeatedly try to take money there,” said Rodenas.

The second route is Guatemala-Colombia. Eleven people, carrying $1.2 million USD, tried to take this route.

The third is Guatemala-Costa Rica, where eight travelers were caught transporting $224,000 USD. There was also an attempt to transport more money to Venezuela, but that was only one case.

The authorities in El Salvador issued warnings after capturing various Guatemalans who managed to slip past La Aurora airport security but were detained in El Salvador as they attempted to leave for Panama. Of the 67 detained individuals, 37 percent are Guatemalan, 20 percent Colombian, and 10 percent Mexican.

El Salvador: another key stop for money laundering

More than $3 million USD has been confiscated in El Salvador's international airport in the last five years. Sixty-nine people have been caught.

According to the El Salvador police, 48 of the detained are foreigners, mainly from Guatemala and Mexico.

According to the detained individuals’ flight itineraries, there are two clear routes taken by those trying to take money out of El Salvador. Most frequently, travelers leave from Guatemala, stop in El Salvador, and then leave for Panama. A total of 38 percent of the detained travelers reported Panama as their final destination. The second frequent route starts in Mexico, stops in El Salvador, and ends in Colombia; 11 percent of the detained travelers intended to go to Colombia.

If the money is moving south, that means it's intended to pay for drugs that have already been sent or are going to be purchased. The final destination is Panama because that's the financial center of the world; there are a lot of banks. We think that that's why Panama is the most convenient location for drug traffickers established in Panama or Colombia to receive money and put it in banks,” says Marco Tulio Lima, chief of the Anti-Narcotics Division of El Salvador's National Civil Police.

Money laundering expert Daniel Rico, of the Washington-based think tank The Wilson Center, explains that criminal groups that illegally move cash via border crossings such as airports are “small criminal organizations that need to move cash urgently in order to make payments.”

Rico says that the transport of cash via airports is “the most primitive and vulnerable method of money laundering,” only used by organizations who do not have the financial and logistical means to use more sophisticated systems like the creation of false companies or the laundering of money by means of financial institutions.

The confiscations in El Salvador's airport are grounded in intuition. “We analyze the individual's origin and nationality, the payment method, the duration of stay, the intended destination. Our units study individual profiles; there are no full searches of the plane,” explains the head of the anti-narcotics unit in El Salvador. He adds that no El Salvadorian money laundering structures have been found, and that the existing groups are from other countries.

+ See this Spanish-language publication in Prensa Libre
+ Download diagram in PDF

Written by Connectas .org · Translated by Catherine Randall · View original post [es] · comments (0)
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Image credit: Bullit Marquez/AP

On the morning of July 16, just a night after tropical storm Typhoon Rammasun (also known by the Philippine name Typhoon Glenda) left swathes of the country in devastation with wind speeds of up to 85 miles per hour, a Philippines company launched a relief campaign. It’s being done with a twist – using bitcoin.

People can donate in bitcoin by scanning a QR code on the donations microsite. Then the organizing company sends the collected funds in cash to both the Philippine Red Cross and the ABS-CBN Foundation.

The bitcoin fundraising is run by Satoshi Citadel Industries. It’s an umbrella company for bitcoin ventures in the Philippines, including selfie posting site Bitstars, remittance service provider Rebit and Bitcoin exchange Coinage.

Luis Buenaventura, the head of product at SCI, says that they had to launch the typhoon relief microsite fast because the power went out in their office building and he only had a few hours of battery left on his laptop. “I think it took about three hours from deciding that we wanted to give it a try and actually having something functioning,” Buenaventura explains to Tech in Asia.

Battling a wariness of corruption

Despite the best intentions of SCI with this bitcoin fundraising effort, many people in the Philippines are inherently distrustful of donation campaigns because of a history of corruption in the country. To appease these skeptics, the SCI team has decided to upload receipts from the charities once they forward the cash donations after converting them from bitcoin. “We’re at the point where we’re just starting to introduce ourselves to the community so it’s on us to earn that trust,” SCI COO Jardine Gerodias admits.

Other critics – instead of questioning where the money is going – will question SCI’s reason for launching the Typhoon Rammasun relief campaign in the first place. They might argue that the campaign is more a marketing ploy than true philanthropy. SCI director of marketing Sabina Lopez-Vergara is well aware of this conundrum and has pushed the team to act accordingly:

We’ve been very careful about minimizing the branding on the microsite, but people will think what they like. Obviously if we removed our name completely then people would be extremely wary, so it’s a bit of a catch-22. In the end, marketing ploy or not, what matters most is that this money will end up helping someone.

The SCI team has realistic expectations of just how many people will donate to the relief campaign. “We can’t hope to supplant the more traditional means of donation, but just having another convenient channel is never a bad thing,” Lopez-Vergara says.

For the people who choose to support the relief ops through SCI’s campaign, bitcoin does offer them several advantages.

“Bitcoin is definitely faster, and the low transaction fees allow people to donate even very small amounts – essentially whatever they can afford,” Buenaventura says. “If you look at the donations we’ve received thus far, they run the gamut, from being very modest – less than 25 pesos [US$0.57] – to being fairly generous with over 5,000 pesos US$115. Bitcoin is very ‘equal opportunity’ that way.”

This is their fourth funding campaign since May 2014, and the team only wants to get better when it comes to creating these microsites, as Gerodias explains:

What we would really like to do is create a framework for quickly launching micro campaigns like this. Every little bit helps, and with natural disasters such as [Rammasun], time is always of the essence. Having some kind of framework in place would allow us to react very quickly whenever the need arises.

This was the “hottest” article on Chinese web portal Tencent News at the time of translation…

From QQ:

Photo Story: Hebei “Legless Tough Guy” Becomes Rich Operating Farm

Hebei province Zhangjiakou city Xiyulin village 33-year-old villager Wang Xiaobing had both of his legs amputated because of a burn accident when he was 7 years old. Also, because his family was poor, he only achieved a middle school education before dropping out of school. With the help of the government, friends, and family, the physically handicapped but strong willed Wang Xiaobing learned how to fix shoes, fix locks, make keys and other trades. In 2011, with the support of the village cadre, Wang Xiaobing started a farm to raise sheep, got on the entrepreneurial path to wealth, and is known as the “legless tough guy [a man who doesn't give up]” by the local people. Photo [above] is of July 14, as Wang Xiaobing climbs over into the sheep pen to feed the sheep. Xinhua News Agency journalist Yang Shiyao.

In the winter of 2008, Hunan Changsha young woman Li Chengmei was moved by him [Wang Xiaobing] and came to Zhangjiakou from afar to marry Wang Xiaobing. Now, they son is already 5 years old, and wife Li Chengmei works in Beijing. July 14, Wang Xiaobing (second from right) and his father chop fodder for the sheep, while his 5-year-old son squats beside him watching. Photos by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Shiyao.

July 14, Wang Xiaobing helping dress his just awoken child.

July 10, Wang Xiaobing taking his son to climb the Zhangjiakou Dajingmen Great Wall.

July 10, Wang Xiaobing pruning his apricot tree.

July 14, Wang Xiaobing climbs over into the sheep pen to feed his sheep.

July 14, Wang Xiaobing feeding his sheep.

July 14, Wang Xiaobing feeding his sheep.

Comments from QQ:

家庭煮夫

A life without an arm or leg can also be wonderful, and your lives are truly touching, your bodies handicapped but not your wills/ambitions. For those of us who spend all day complaining about life, what is there for us to complain about now? This tough guy is impressive, and the woman who married him is also the world’s most beautiful.

◈丶☌啈福の約啶゛♬、

In the photo where he is in front of his son helping him dress, his height is shorter than his son, but I believe the image of him must be very tall/lofty in his son’s heart! May this strong and persevering father’s family be happy and blessed!

林浩

What makes life wonderful lies not in material wealth but in one’s attitude towards life! You’ve used your own way to make an an entire family’s life happy, so thank you for reminding me of those who have silently provided for me! Jia you!

辽宁-熊岳

[This] is more persuasive than any speech giver, a living lesson, an extremely infectious inspirational story. I hope this can get more media attention.

普罗旺斯

Praise! Praise! Praise! Because of a car accident in ’09, my left leg was cut off, and as a result, my entire life dithered for two years, at the time feeling my life had come to a complete stop. Fortunately, I eventually got past that period. Every time I see this sort of news and as a disabled person, I am filled with heartfelt admiration. He is a good example, and must be upvoted [praised]!

一笑了之

This guy has no legs and still has lives a wonderful life. Now look at all those complainers who have all four limbs and spend all day holding their mobile phones complaining about the country and complaining about society as if the entire world owes them. Look carefully, a beautiful life is one achieved through one’s own struggles, not through blaming the heavens and other people.

.*.飘*.*雪.*.

There should be more of this kind of positive news, to give people courage and strength in life. Don’t always report about this or that celebrity gossip.

春暖花开

Let’s also give some praise to the Hunan girl.

しsuper巧╭

I am the same age as him, yet do not have the staunch perseverance and spirit he has. Why are there so few people paying attention to this kind of “positive energy” [positive thing] in society??

王

Now this is what a real man is like, that many people of sound and robust body are unable to live up to. Don’t complain about how there are too many manly women. If men get tougher, then there will be less manly women naturally. Men these days are too weak and frail, committing suicide or taking revenge on society the moment they encounter some minor setback or difficulty, not hesitating to get on their knees in the pursuit of women. Look at this legless man and how he lives.

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Currently one of the most commented articles on Chinese web portal Phoenix Online with over 37k comments spanning over 1800 pages and 137k participants…

From Phoenix Online:

Zhejiang: Mother Wakes Up Early and Travels with Carrying Pole to See Son, Who Refuses to See Her Because He Thinks Her Too Ugly

TV Presenter: The next story is about an elderly person, an Auntie Ding from Yuyao. Recently, Auntie Ding’s daughter-in-law gave birth, so today she left home at 4am in the early morning shouldering a carrying pole as she transferred buses twice to travel from Yuyao to Xiaoshan [district in Hangzhou] in order to see her newborn granddaughter. However, when she arrived, her son refused to pick up his phone.

Narrator: We saw Auntie Ding at the Xiaoshan Car Market, her head covered in sweat from the heat, with the many bundles and packages she brought with her this time beside her.

Auntie Ding: He said I’m ugly, that I shouldn’t come, saying I would embarrass him.

Narrator: Auntie Ding is from Yuyao. Her son is 32 years old this year. Last month, her son called home and said [he and his wife] have given birth to a daughter. So Auntie Ding came specifically this time to see her granddaughter.

Auntie Ding: My old man [husband] said not to come, and I said our daughter-in-law has given birth, so I definitely must come, that I’ll bring some stuff to give them. I got up at 4am and got here a little after 9am. Before 10am, I was wandering here and there searching [for her son]. Those two workers asked if I was scavenging garbage [usually for recyclables]. I said I’m not scavenging garbage, I’m looking for my son, he’s a car salesman. The two workers then also helped me look, but my son still hasn’t appeared.

Narrator: Auntie Ding says she left home at 4am in the morning, and rode the bus from the village to Yuyao, then rode another bus from Yuyao to Xiaoshan, shouldering a carrying pole the entire way carrying rice vermicelli, ham, and dried beancurd for her son’s family, as well as baby clothes she had prepared for her granddaughter, all made by herself. A basket of eggs even had a live chicken, but it had already died by this time.

Reporter: Did you give him a call before hand?

I called him yesterday and said I would come, that my body/health has been better these few days, that I was worried for his wife, so much that I couldn’t eat [due to mood]. My husband also said to him, your mom isn’t eating, she wants to visit, so let her visit. He said okay.

Narrator: The merchants nearby also used their mobile phones to help Auntie Ding call her son, but no one answered. Auntie Ding says she only knows that her son works at a company at the Xiaoshan Car Market, but as for which company and what he does, she isn’t clear. A merchant pretended to be a customer and sent a text message to Auntie Ding’s son, only to get a reply saying Chief Xu was on a business trip to Xiamen. Auntie Ding says her son has not been in touch with his family much since graduating from university, had met his current wife about four or five years ago, and the two married last year.

Reporter: Do you keep in touch much normally?

Auntie Ding: I’ll call him, and he’ll talk to me briefly, but he won’t call, he won’t call you [on his own normally]. He hasn’t called/visited after finishing college.

Reporter: He stopped keeping in touch after finishing university?

Auntie Ding: Very rarely, and he doesn’t care to visit.

Narrator: Auntie Ding says her body hasn’t been well lately. Previously, she worked as a housekeeper for others, while her husband does temporary work at construction sites. They had borrowed money from everywhere in order to put this son through college. Their son graduated from a well-known school, and when he got married, he had asked for money from them, because their financial situation was truly very difficult, Auntie Ding had given her daughter-in-law a gold necklace. Auntie Ding says she had specially purchased the clothes she is wearing right now before coming.

The reporter called Auntie Ding’s son one more time, but still no one answered. Finally, Auntie Ding decided to leave, to go back. The things she had intended to give to her son’s family, Auntie Ding could only again shoulder them as she walked into the bus station.

Note: Not included in the transcript above is a brief comment by the TV presenter at the end of the video. The presenter comments that they are willing to believe that there may be a problem (resentment, grudge) between mother and son that outsiders do not know of, but when it comes to a mother who gave birth to us and raised us, and even if she has done something wrong somewhere, what is there that cannot ultimately be tolerated or forgiven?

Comments from Phoenix Online:

凤凰网新浪微博网友：hmYF-吴亦凡是我本命

What’s the use of graduating from university? The knowledge and diploma can’t hide the ugly in his heart.

凤凰网新浪微博网友：徐州比格自助餐厅

Every mother is the most beautiful. This kind of son is bitterly disappointing!

凤凰网新浪微博网友：依贝丝-EBAYS

Let us all despise this kind of unfilial son together.

凤凰网新浪微博网友：醉大宝求原地满血复活

A son never thinks his mother ugly! And this guy graduated from college! His brain is full of shit!

凤凰网新浪微博网友：灰烬中的钻石

Tell me where he is, I want to go beat him up. Afterward, you can call the police, and say it was intentional injury.

凤凰网新浪微博网友：哲学问题

Truly no better than a pig or dog!

凤凰网广东省网友：胡底

A son does not think his mother ugly is something all animals know by instinct. The greatest, most pure and sacred love in the world cannot surpass that of a mother’s! When a son is far away, a mother worries, and will brave all hardships in search of him. This son thinks his mother ugly. This son doesn’t know how beautiful his mother’s heart is, while his own heart is incomparably false and ugly! This son is worthless.

凤凰网新浪微博网友：孙小宁Sunny

Raised an ingrate.

凤凰网福建省网友：Q595655076

China’s traditional virtues has been completely destroyed by you [the son]… Do you know what “of all virtues filial piety is the most important” means…?

凤凰网新浪微博网友：丧尸小强

As it is said, a son does not think his mother ugly, a dog does not think his home [master] poor. To say you are worse than a dog is simply an insult to dogs.

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Poster published by Mothers of May calling for supporters to follow the trial.

São Paulo's Military Police Corporal Alexandre Andre Pereira da Silva was sentenced to 36 years in prison for the deaths of Murilo de Moraes Ferreira, Felipe Vasti Santos de Oliveira and Marcelo Heyd Meres in 2006 during the so-called “Crimes of May.” Journalist Laura Capriglione from the media collective Ponte (Bridge) reported the news on Facebook. 

The conviction came after years of pressure from the Mothers of May Movement, which was created after the death of around 500 young people during police actions in the state of São Paulo in May 2006.

Written by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia · comments (0)
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Masyanya travels to Budapest. Episode 121. YouTube.

When you think of Russia, what springs to mind? Perhaps your head floods with visions of rocket scientists, KGB badges, vodka, borsch, Putin, and so on. Even the culturally inclined are likely to think of ballet or literature before considering Russian Web animation, but it’s in this latter field that the Russian Internet has achieved something brilliant.

For more than a decade, Oleg Kuvaev has produced a Flash-animation cartoon called “Masyanya.” The Web series is named after its main character, a St. Petersburg woman in her early twenties. A punk and an anarchist in her youth, Masyanya is a mother of two by adulthood.

According to Kuvaev, the first installments of his cartoon were meant as a private joke between friends. Then, in September 2002, Leonid Parfenov, a popular television host, approached Kuvaev with the opportunity to broadcast episodes of Masyanya at the end of his TV show. The partnership lasted just one season, but the exposure created a fan base for Masyanya.

It’s difficult to explain Masyanya’s massive popularity in Russia. The cartoon is unique in many ways. It centers on Masyanya and her two friends, Hryundel and Lokhmaty, and provides an offbeat look at familiar, everyday situations. The language spoken on the show is witty and colloquial, and Kuvaev’s animation boasts some impressive graphics.

(Masyanya prepares the morning coffee.)

The show’s protagonist is undoubtedly its greatest appeal. Masyanya is an incurable optimist, prone to making philosophical observations in any situation. Oxana Pobereinaia, an author at Feminismandreligion.com, argues that Masyanya’s lifestyle is a cross between Buddhism and Feminism. Masyanya ignores various social conventions, instead following her own philosophy. She is unorthodox: Masyanya’s wedding is modest, but she celebrates her divorce like a marriage ceremony, bemusing her friends to no end. When money gets tight, Masyanya doesn’t sell her things or find a second job—she invests in a bookshop that has no cashier, where all the books are on sale at whatever price customers name.

(Oops! More misadventures from Masyanya.) 

For a time, Masyanya had a whole production team, with several animators, though the show has returned to its roots, with Kuvaev writing, animating, and voicing everything by himself. New episodes appear on the program’s official website, where visitors can also find comic strips, games, and ringtones based on the Masyanya show.

Written by Gulnara Yunusova · comments (0)
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Cartoonist Kike Estrada is one of several artists that has expressed solidarity with the fight to release Oscar. Image taken from his page, Planeta Kike, used with permission. It reads, “We want him home already!”

The fight to release Puerto Rican independence activist Oscar López Rivera continues to gain momentum and followers.

López Rivera, 71, has been imprisoned for 33 years in the United States charged with “seditious conspiracy” and “conspiracy to escape” for which he received a 70-year sentence. He is a fighter for the independence of Puerto Rico, a colony of the United States. Politicians, artists, and many people across different ideologies have united to ask US President Barack Obama to pardon López Rivera, who has been called the longest held political prisoner in the western hemisphere. 

His case has received attention in recent weeks in various media outlets and at the United Nations from people who support his release.

In a letter to digital magazine 80, blogger, poet, and sociologist Guillermo Rebollo Gil reacted to an editorial published in June in the most circulated newspaper in Puerto Rico, El Nuevo Día, criticizing the way it tried to depoliticize López Rivera's imprisonment. The text in the editorial that Rebollo Gil found objectionable was the following:

Porque Oscar López Rivera, al margen de su ideología y de sus aspiraciones, es un ciudadano que dedicó dos años de su vida al servicio militar activo, en la guerra de Vietnam, y que se sacrificó duramente por el mismo Estados Unidos que ahora se empeña en mantenerlo aislado, tratando de acallar los reclamos para que lo excarcelen e intentando mantenerlo fuera del foco de la atención mundial.

Because Oscar López River, regardless of his ideology and aspirations, is a citizen who dedicated two years of his life to active military service in the Vietnam War, and harshly sacrificed himself for the very United States that now insists upon keeping him isolated, trying to quell claims to release him and trying to keep him out of the focus of the world's attention. 

Rebollo Gil noted the importance of the fact that López Rivera's case is not merely framed as a matter of humanitarian concern, and urged people to remember why it is that he is a political prisoner. El Nuevo Día, the newspaper owned by the politically conservative Ferré Rangel family, published a series of López Rivera's letters from prison. 

Que el Grupo Ferré Rangel, “al margen” de su ideología y sus intereses económicos, interese unirse al reclamo por la excarcelación de Oscar López Rivera, no le da la potestad para despolitizar la figura de Oscar. Su excarcelación no es un mero issue de interés humanitario. Oscar López Rivera es un prisionero político. Preso—es decir, marginado brutalmente—por “su ideología y sus aspiraciones.” Oscar es padre y abuelo y hermano, y escribe cartas preciosas. Es cierto. Son las cartas de un independentista puertorriqueño, injustamente encarcelado cuando era joven y bigotudo y pelú. Hoy es viejo y hermoso. Pero igualmente revolucionario. Sépase.

Even if the Ferré Rangel Group, “on the outside” of their ideology and economic interests, were interested in joining the cry for Oscar López Rivera's release, it doesn't have the power to depoliticize the figure of Oscar. His release is not a mere issue of humanitarian interest. Oscar López River is a political prisoner. Prisoner — meaning brutally marginalized — for “his ideology and aspirations.” Oscar is a father and grandfather and brother, and he writes beautiful letters. It's true. They are the letters of a Puerto Rican who is pro-independence, unjustly imprisoned when he was young, had a mustache and long hair. Now he is old and beautiful. But still the same revolutionary. Let it be known.  

Poet Manuel Martínez Maldonado analyzed in an article for the magazine “Cruce” the injustice of having someone imprisoned for so much time for “seditious conspiracy,” a charge that historically the U.S. government has used to abuse anyone who disagrees with their discourse of power:  

Es difícil ver, cuando no hay una guerra que represente el famoso “clear and present danger”, cómo abogar por la autonomía o independencia de Puerto Rico puede representar un riesgo a la estabilidad de los Estados Unidos. En el caso particular de Oscar López Rivera, encarcelado en 1981, sin haber sido acusado o convicto de ningún delito de violencia, el cargo de conspiración sediciosa es particularmente difícil de entender. [...] ¿Cómo puede ser una amenaza contra el gobierno y sus armas un hombre anónimo y envejecido, no importa lo que diga o lo que piense?

It is difficult to see, when there is no war that represents the famous “clear and present danger,” how advocating for Puerto Rico's autonomy or independence can pose a risk to the stability of the United States. In the particular case of Oscar López Rivera, imprisoned in 1981, without having been accused or convicted of any felony, the charge of seditious conspiracy is especially difficult to understand. [...] How can an anonymous and elderly man, regardless of what he says or thinks, be a threat to the government and its weapons? 

Just outside the United Nations headquarters, there were demonstrations for López Rivera's release while the Decolonization Committee was holding its annual meeting. Inside, Eduardo Villanueva Muñoz, spokesman for the Puerto Rican Human Rights Committee, dedicated his presentation to López Rivera in a talk before the committee, which has considered the case of Puerto Rico each year since 1972: 

Oscar López ha cumplido ejemplarmente su rol de ser símbolo de resistencia y lucha para su pueblo. Por eso sus ideales se mantienen vigentes y en mi país hay lucha comunitaria, lucha ambiental, lucha contra el racismo y la discriminación, lucha por mejores empleos y salarios justos, lucha en defensa del idioma vernáculo (el español) y la cultura que nos distingue como nación. Mil años de encierro no pueden servir para destruir esos ideales que son consustanciales a la naturaleza de las naciones, que aunque no tengan soberanía, culturalmente son naciones claramente diferenciables en el concierto de naciones del mundo. Mantener a Oscar López preso no sirve para disuadir a los que creen en sus ideales, al contrario son un estímulo para continuar la lucha y mantener sus ideales vigentes.

Oscar López has fulfilled his role of being a symbol of resistance and struggle for his people in an exemplary fashion. As such his ideals are still valid and in my country this are community struggles, environmental struggles, the fight against racism and discrimination, the fight for better jobs and wages, the fight in defense of the vernacular language (Spanish) and for the culture that distinguishes us as a nation. A thousand years of confinement cannot serve to destroy those ideals that are inherent to the nature of nations, that even without sovereignty are clearly culturally different nations in the concert of the world's nations. Keeping Oscar López a prisoner serves no deterrent to those who believe in his ideals, but on the contrary encourages them to continue the fight and maintain his ideals in full force. 

Increased activity for López Rivera's release can be expected after the U.S. congressional elections in November, since President Barack Obama, now in his final term, will be able to make more decisions without having to consider their possible political cost. Meanwhile, people around the world are continuing to ensure that López Rivera's case does not become invisible.  

Written by Ángel Carrión · Translated by Marianna Breytman · View original post [es] · comments (0)
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12 women staged an anti-World Cup protest on 7 of July in Shanghai. Photo from Weibo via Offbeat China.

Offbeat China explained why women are so angry and how the World Cup has destroyed relationships in China.

They are primarily pissed about two things: 1) their partners neglecting family responsibilities due to late-night game watching; 2) reckless gambling on games.

Written by Oiwan Lam · comments (0)
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Scores of Indonesians gather in central Jakarta, the country's capital, to light 1,000 candles in protest to the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza Strip. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation.

Indonesians pray for the Palestinians who were killed in the airstrikes launched by Israel. Photo by Abdullah Arief Siregar. Copyright @Demotix (7/11/2014)

Written by Mong Palatino · comments (0)
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Most migraine apps are dumb. They act like glorified notebooks for you to track symptoms and self-diagnose; nothing more. Migraine Buddy, an ambitious Android app developed in Singapore, aims to be far more useful.

Think of it as a doctor who’s always there. The app tries to understand what causes your headaches and how best to stop them from happening. Besides asking questions about your migraine, habits, and medication with a questionaire, it knows what you’re up to by collecting data about sleep and movement patterns using your smartphone’s sensors. This makes sense since doctors say that sleep deprivation and rigorous physical activity could cause migraines.

Once the app collects enough data about you, it creates a report highlighting when the symptoms happened, and what were the top triggers. It even finds out the most effective medication for you by recording when you used them and comparing that information with the severity of the migraines.

“It mimics how a doctor prescribes different medication to patients to figure out what works,” says Veronica Chew, co-founder of Healint, the startup behind Migraine Buddy. “Most other migraine apps are not as comprehensive. We collect data that’s action-driven, so that we can help patients make the right decisions.”

The app is now available in Singapore through several neurologists and neurosurgeons, including Dr Michael Yap. The startup will partner with more physicians in private and public institutions soon. While any Android user can download the app, they’ll need a special access code from a clinician to use it.

And for good reason: the app allows doctors to remotely access live data about the patient. In this way, it’s not designed to replace physicians, but to allow them to do their jobs better.

Users would naturally express concern over data privacy. But Chew says that thieves would not be able to steal the data in the event of phone loss. The app stores your identifier in a different location from the data, which means hackers must crack two servers instead of one to compromise your privacy.

See: 5 innovative healthcare apps from Asia

Migraine sufferers living outside Singapore and not using Android shouldn’t fret: Healint is working on a ‘lite’ version of the app which works even without seeing a doctor. The company plans to develop an iPhone version too, after it figures out how to work with the device’s sensors. Beyond Singapore, the company will engage physicians in Malaysia.

Founded in 2013, Healint has since raised over S$200,000 (US$161,000) from seed investors. It was also a part of JFDI, a premier startup accelerator in Singapore. Migraine isn’t the only problem Healint is trying to solve. It released JustShakeIt, an Android app that allows stroke sufferers to send alerts to their caregivers.

The startup uses its apps to crowdsource data, which it will then analyze to spot patterns. It will eventually develop apps and services targeting conditions like epilepsy, COPD, and asthma.

Co-founder Francois Cadiou started the company for a personal reason. One day, he received a call from a neighbor who did not see Cadiou’s dad for three days. Worried, they searched for him, but to no avail. He was later found in one of the local hospitals, and had been in coma for two days. He eventually  woke up.

“I started searching for solutions that allow patients [to be] followed without making their lives more complex,” he says. That led to an idea for an emergency alert app, which later became JustShakeIt.

Stuff-on-demand startups show no signs of slowing down in Silicon Valley, and that’s the case in China too. 24tidy, a startup that does your laundry for you, just raised a funding round of ‘tens of millions” of RMB from the investment branch of Suzhou-based Oriza Holdings,  according to Technode.

“Tens of millions” of RMB could mean anywhere from roughly US$1.5 million to US$15 million. But funding is funding, and what makes this particular round stand out is how lo-fi 24tidy appears to be. Orders are placed via phone line or online – there’s no sign of a mobile app. The company also currently only serves Shanghai, though it tells Technode it hopes to expand to Beijing, Nanjing, and in cities in Jiangsu following the round. It’s reportedly raking in US$80,000 in monthly revenues.

Beyond that, the service works much like one would expect – users log onto the site and specify what types of items need a wash or a dry-clean, with categories siphoned down to all sorts of fabrics and items.

Technode points out that that a slew of like-minded competitors have popped up in China over the past year. Researching these companies, we’ve yet to find any public information that they’ve been funded by outside investors, but it wouldn’t surprise us if a few of them have seed backing from local entities. In any case, what’s worth paying attention to is how these fledging, sign-of-the-times startups in China measure up to their Silicon Valley analogs – both in terms of funding and in terms of survival. In the case of 24tidy, its California counterpart is Wash.io, which launched late last year and has since raised more than US$10 million in funding.

(Source: Technode)

Editing by Steven Millward; top image via Flickr user thomashawk

This was among the top ten most popular microblog posts on China’s Sina Weibo yesterday and climbed as high as #2…

From Sina Weibo:

@写作JUNDAM读作菌蛋: A lonely Japanese youth transformed his shower head into his girlfriend, and from then on lived a blessed and happy life.

Comments from Sina Weibo:

科科科是我呀：

This young guy has included all of the attributes [stereotypes] of the Japanese. It is scary, pornographic, anime, and perverse/disturbing…

我的闲哉读物：

I feel…like I won’t need to post…any scary reading material tonight…and just reshare…this…

我相公是金大咔：

…I really want to add some red dye to his shower head.

噼里啪啦bongbang：

Am I the only person who thinks this is frightening?

小张MMMM：

Japanese people sure are perverse/disturbed.

zqiii_：

Very likely that there is something wrong with this person.

村口的大姨妈：

…scared me so… If it were me, my pee would flow at the same time as the shower water…

烟蓝Lzz-：

The Island Country [Japan] is teaming with [or possibly "produces"] psychos.

奥仔yami：

Are you trying to scare me to death?!!!!

兔子爱冒险：

Scared me to death!

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July 3, Dongping county Yinshan town Yinyue hotel. Last year on December 23, Qing Qing [pseudonym] claims this is where she was raped by three men.

The following articles (with excerpts) were among the most discussed articles on Chinese web portal NetEase over the past week…

From NetEase:

Multiple Girls Suffer Sexual Assault by Local Ruffians in Shandong, Police: The City Has Already Indicated That It is Difficult to Prosecute

Summary: The media has received reports claiming that a second-year middle school student in Shandong province Dongping county Banjiudian town was forced to have sexual relations with three drug-using young men and that youth in the aforementioned local community preying on junior high school girls is already an open secret, that apart from the aforementioned second year junior high schoolgirl, there are also three other girls who claim to have been forced by these young men into having sex with, with police previously claiming that town has already indicated to the bureau that it is too difficult to investigate and obtain evidence for this kind of case.

[...]

July 3, Banjiudian Town Middle School where the incident occurred. Nearby villagers claim there are often private cars stopped/parked in front of the school luring schoolgirls.

Comments from NetEase:

网易山东省枣庄市手机网友 ip：182.39.*.*

The media can expose something, the people may be arrested, but there is often no sound in the end about how they are sentenced. I hope the reporting can follow this to the very end, and give justice to the victim.

紫衣九天使 [网易辽宁省大连市网友]：

Now that this has made it to the headlines [or front page] of NetEase, which gets several hundred million visitors as traffic, and under the scrutiny of everyone, shouldn’t the local criminal police think that they should do a certain something? Are they [the police] going to die [refuse to do their job] for a ruffian? Or are they going to live [do their job] for the entire country?

阿狗46 [网易天津市网友]：

“They’ve had the city contact the town, and the town contact the department, so there’s nothing we can do about it either.” [This is a detail in the full article about how various levels of government have delegated the matter to lower levels.]
The have the province dispatch people to ferret out and severely punish the people at the city, town, and department level protecting them!!

网易日本手机网友(126.210.*.*)：

It’s obvious that there is something wrong with the girl too! Why would the girl chat with the nearby people [referring to an instant messaging feature that allows you to chat with a random nearby user]? Why did the girl go out people to play just because they drive nice cars? Who is to be blamed for being tricked into unlawful intercourse? First look to yourself for reasons!

网易陕西省西安市手机网友 ip：123.138.*.* (responding to above)

Dumbass! When they are under 14 years old, no matter whether or not they are willing, it is all considered rape!

网易广东省广州市网友 ip：121.33.*.*

Chemical castration is required in this.

网易云南省昆明市手机网友(119.62.*.*)：

The student [girl] had no self-respect [or wasn't careful/prudent].

wuguoxuo [网易湖南省株洲市网友]： (responding to above)

Please read carefully: They are all young girls under 14 years old! I hope your younger sister or daughter will always be safe, because if they are sexually assaulted, it will all be blamed on “having no self-respect” [or not being careful/prudent].

专打装逼精 [网易江苏省淮安市淮阴区网友]：

Public commentators have said that cracking down on rapists is violating human rights. Only in a dark and shadowy society can there not be murderers, rapists, and black society [organized crime, criminal gangs]. In a bright and illuminated society, these are elements that necessarily exist. Whoever dares to severely crack down on murderers, rapists, black society, black lawyers, and ignorant and incompetent people, well that is called persecution and remaining evil elements.

跟帖帝 [懂球帝]：

What should I say? Maybe saying nothing is best: Frightened into silence, only able to express with one’s eyes.

1404711739951 [网易广东省湛江市网友]：

These kind of people should’ve been caught long ago. Otherwise, these little girls will grow up and be like [the prostitutes in] Dongguan. [The government] needs to take care of our women. Severely punish them.

From NetEase:

Shandong Police Publish Sexually Assaulted Girls Investigation Report: What The Four [Accused] Did Does Not Constitute Crime of Rape

CNR.cn Jinan July 7 report — This journalist learned from the Shandong Dongping Propaganda Department that police have reported on their investigation of the incident involving girls being sexually assaulted. The report concludes (1) The current evidence show that there was no force involved when Huang Defeng, Huang Dewu, Lu Daogang, and Zheng Longcai had sexual relations with Jiao XX, that Jiao X at the time was already 14 years old, and thus what Huang and the other three accused did does not constitute the crime of rape. (2) Lu X had the intent and behavior to rape (unsuccessful) Xie X, and has is suspected of the crime of rape.

[...]

Comments From NetEase:

5支持美国和日本剿灭土匪 [美国球迷]：

All the sons of government leaders/officials, so of course it wouldn’t constitute the crime of rape!

盛满金 [阿根廷球迷]：

Even thugs/hooligans are able to drive BMWs and other good cars, talk about having good future prospects!

网易北京市网友 ip：223.223.*.*

This case is being judged incorrectly. Clearly this is a young girl who has taken the wrong step in life [a bad girl] who has seduced good youths [the young men], who has made a false accusation after failing to exact wealth from them. The judgement is as follows: Several youths did a good deed in reporting a wayward young girl, and shall be rewarded with a BMW each, while the wayward girl criminal shall be fined and required to compensate two BMWs for the crime of entrapment and extortion/blackmail. This judgement shall go into effect immediately, to be immediately executed.

越名教任自然 [网易贵州省贵阳市南明区网友]：

The door to the government yamen [feudal government office] opens to the south, those with just cause but not money should think twice about entering.

网易重庆市网友 [我报道亩产万斤不算造谣]：

Didn’t someone at the city level delegate [that this case should be investigated], so how come there is no report?

被和鞋 [阿根廷球迷]： (responding to above)

Other than the children of government officials, who else would dare do this kind of thing…?

網易跟帖总局局长 [德国球迷]：

Clearly it is this girl who raped the four guys, am I right?

From NetEase:

Multiple Shandong Girls Claim to Have Been Sexually Assaulted, Police: The Girls Actively Participated and Did Not Resist

Shandong police recently published their investigation report concerning the “girls suffer Sexual assaulted by local ruffians” controversy, stating that they could not determine that the actions of three involved constituted rape. The police claim that the girl did not resist during the sexual relations and instead actively participated. In response, the victim Jiao X firmly denied this, saying she wanted to flee at the time and had scratched the arm of the other party with all her strength. A family member of Jiao X also accused the police of altering testimony, that the “ripped off my clothes” said by the child had been changed to “the child took off her clothes, and helped Huang X take off his clothes”.

[...]

Comments from NetEase:

网易埃塞俄比亚手机网友 ip：213.55.*.*

Justice may be late, but it will never be absent [fail to come].

网易北京市手机网友(123.121.*.*)：

Four adult males who do drugs against a 14-year-old girl is in fact a kind of coercion itself, where she wouldn’t dare resist [fight back], and couldn’t resist [fight back].

网易山东省潍坊市高密市手机网友 ip：123.133.*.* (responding to above)

This is true.

网易河北省石家庄市手机网友 ip：221.194.*.*

Ah, the news, when there are relations with someone under 18 years old, even in the free United States it is severely punished, but in our country it isn’t considered rape?

e2317b809e017c264dae8c61 [网易美国手机网友]： (responding to above)

Yeah, human flesh search those fabricating in this case, to all be severely punished, to satisfy the people’s [public's] anger.

fjc1957 [网易山东省青岛市网友]：

Should be thoroughly investigated, the truth restored, and circulated throughout all of society.

网易广西贵港市手机网友 ip：121.31.*.*

A disgrace! Should be investigated strictly!

网易河北省石家庄市手机网友 ip：218.11.*.*

This is just like rape not being considered rape because a condom was worn [refers to an infamous case involving this exact reasoning]. These beasts not only raped a young girl, they are also raping society.

把权力关进了笼子 [阿根廷球迷]：

Strongly demand that this case be investigated by the province [provincial level authorities, instead of locals]. The shamelessness is already to an infuriating degree!

懵懂cool [网易山东省淄博市网友]：

These thugs should be severely punished in accordance with the law. At the same time, school safety management should be strengthened, to protect minors, and strengthen students’ safety awareness.

From NetEase:

Mother of Girl Who Suffered Rape by Local Ruffians in Shandong Drank Agricultural Chemical to Commit Suicide, Currently Undergoing Rescue Attempts

The Beijing Times report — This morning around 11am, the mother of the Shandong Dongping town girl Xinin [pseudonym, referring to "Jiao X" above] suspected of having been raped drank agricultural chemicals [possible pesticide] to commit suicide, and is currently being taken to Banjiudian Hospital for emergency medical attention. Xinxin’s uncle says Xinxin’s mother has been under extreme stress recently as local government departments have been investigating this matter.

[...]

Comments from NetEase:

练习曲 [网易山东省青岛市手机网友]：

Justice may be late, but it will never be absent [fail to come].

五道口黄易大厦三楼楼长 [懂球菜鸟]：

There will ultimately be retribution for inverting good and evil, we can only fight over how soon or late it comes.

大鸟五阿哥 [网易湖北省手机网友]：

Society needs fairness ad justice.

omiga228 [懂球菜鸟]：

[The culprits] are too savage, and should be dealt with!

网易河南省郑州市手机网友 ip：223.104.*.*

What people do, god watches. Whoever does evil shall be held accountable!

网易湖北省武汉市网友 ip：111.173.*.*:

Why commit suicide? If you want to kill, you should at least go kill those animals!

Donnytio [网易福建省厦门市手机网友]：

Speechless. I recommend that the Disciplinary Committee [of the Chinese Communist Party, of the central government] get involved, as houseflies should also be killed!

aixuegaoshu [网易辽宁省本溪市网友]：

These people protecting these scum must be severely punished.

网易北京市手机网友 ip：114.247.*.*

I hope you guys will stay strong and continue living on.

大哥的人 [网易山东省聊城市手机网友]：

Those responsible must be plucked out [like weeds] along with their roots [those who facilitate them].

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John Wong, ex-CTO of Catcha.com and co-founder of FaveChic

It’s normal for someone looking to set up a business to look towards ecommerce. It’s a market that will be worth US$525 billion this year. Companies that succeed in ecommerce will rake in cash, like Rakuten and Alibaba are doing in this region. Is there still room for more players in this segment? John Wong believes so. He is running a regional fashion marketplace startup called FaveChic. The twist? The new startup brings in products from multiple marketplace sites in a number of countries, and helps shoppers avoid the hassle of counting in international shipping costs and currency conversions.

Singapore-based FaveChic curates fashion products from overseas marketplaces in Japan (like Rakuten), South Korea (like 11st), and China (like Taobao), and translates these offerings into local languages – so far it’s just English and Indonesian. FaveChic customers in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia can browse and buy the products in their local currencies as if they’re buying the items from within their country, while in fact they’re shopping directly from overseas merchants. Customers can even get refunds.

“We facilitate the cross border payment and logistics so customers do not worry about overseas payment and shipping,” explains Wong. He has a decade-long entrepreneurial journey that began with starting Catcha, a regional internet portal, in 1999. He brought his company to the stock market, went through the bursting of the dot com bubble, and ventured into fashion retail as well as ecommerce. FaveChic is his latest baby.

Surviving the dot com bubble

“The four of us – Patrick Grove, Ken Tsurumaru, Nic Lim and I – graduated about the same time and we co-founded Catcha in 1999,” says Wong. It was a web portal like Yahoo, with a localized approach in each of the Southeast Asian countries where it operated. The team offered news and content like travel, food, and live stock quotes. Catcha also had classifieds, forums, and a dating site.

“During those days, the internet portal business was the hottest dot com business and we were competing with the global players like Yahoo, MSN, and Lycos setting up in the region as well as local players such as AsiaOne [owned by Singapore Press Holdings],” Wong explains. “We were then en route to listing on the Singapore Stock Exchange when the dot com bubble burst in 2000. Our internet portal business took a beating as we had to downsize our team and resources when we did not raise funds as expected in an IPO.” The IPO didn’t happen.

In the end, the co-founders decided to venture into event organizing and the publishing business with magazine titles such as Juice and Stuff. And in 2002, as Catcha’s technology development came to a standstill due to a shift in business focus, Wong decided to leave Catcha and went into a brick and mortar business in retail, which eventually diversified into ecommerce.

A tech guy in the fashion business

Some products sold on FaveChic

Being an entrepreneur, Wong was looking to do something on his own and thought that the retail business was easy to start with a gentle learning curve. “It’s as simple as identifying a product to sell and where to sell it,” he says. According to his research, women shop more than men, and fashion accessories are products sold with high margins. He eventually started selling ladies fashion accessories in 2003 called AboveFashion, and at its peak had 15 sales outlets made up of shops and consigment counters in major department stores.

Although the business recorded good growth, he realized that they were always at the mercy of landlords and department stores. “Rentals in major shopping malls are escalating and management of the malls requires renovation every two years. With this I find it difficult to manage the retail business being a sole proprietor,” he says.

In 2004, the team explored and ventured into ecommerce, where their business – especially on eBay and Amazon – saw demand coming from overseas. In 2008, Wong decided to relocate his business to China, where he could source the products and ship them out to countries like the US, Australia, the UK, and Germany. During this time, Wong also diversified its product offerings to jewelry, and accessories for gadgets and cars.

However, he found another problem when relying on marketplace platforms like eBay and Amazon. “We found our growth was not scalable as we the merchants are deterred by the marketplace owners imposing higher listing and transaction fees, and that they do not promote large scale merchants for the fact that they want to give other sellers, especially new sellers, an equal opportunity to compete for business,” Wong explains.

This is why Wong decided to build his own online fashion marketplace and brand focusing on emerging markets in the region. It took him one year to work on FaveChic right from the idea stage to building the prototype, and finally launching the product in April this year.

Shipping affordable goods from overseas

FaveChic website

“We want to bridge the gaps in ecommerce in the region where we find that supply is not meeting rising demand adequately,” says Wong. The local marketplace sites in emerging countries, being relatively young, may lack in offerings and perhaps do not fulfill as well as the more mature marketplaces abroad. FaveChic is removing the barriers to cross border ecommerce by facilitating the payment and logistics sides. “Merchants in mature marketplaces will have opportunity to grow beyond their countries – and consumers will have easier access to the wide range of product offerings in the competitive overseas marketplaces,” he reasons.

FaveChic is accessible via a desktop website and smartphone apps. Users can browse over 30,000 fashion products – which mostly cater to a female audience – and buy using a choice of payment methods like PayPal, local bank transfers, and ebanking. All prices on FaveChic are inclusive of shipping and delivery charges.

One way FaveChic makes sure the items are still affordable is by consolidating many daily shipments from different customers into one in each country and then making cross border delivery by bulk air freight. Wong explains how the startup processes customer orders:

As and when a consumer places an order, we will then place a subsequent order with the merchant in the overseas marketplace and due to the advanced logistics we will be able to receive the product from the merchant the next day. When we receive the product, we will provide a preliminary QC to ensure the product is ordered according to the customer’s requirements – i.e. size and colour – and thereafter re-package it, and bulk air freight with the other orders to be sent to the country of destination. When it arrives, we work with the local logistics to delivery it domestically. We like to call it JIT [‘just in time’] in ecommerce. Unlike Zalora or BerryBenka¹, we do not incur warehousing and inventory costs.

Targeting three countries at once

Unlike most marketplace sites, which usually focus on making it in one country first as a pilot project, FaveChic immediately set up shop in three Southeast Asian countries. Wong explains that because the startup does not set up warehouses and logistics, it is easy for it to enter multiple markets using the same technology back-end.

The three markets the fledgling startup chose – Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia – are in different phases of ecommerce development. Singapore is a small market with a well developed payment infrastructure. Malaysia’s ecommerce market is growing with consumers being generally comfortable buying and paying online thanks to numerous popular flash sales sites. Being the biggest country of the three, Indonesia is FaveChic’s focus. The market is poised to boom while still struggling to grow out of issues like low credit card and internet banking adoption.

The team has put in equal amounts of expense for online marketing in the three nations, with varying results. The team is seeing the greatest number of registered users from Indonesia as the country has the lowest cost per click-through ad, followed by Malaysia and Singapore. However, Malaysia is the largest paying customer base, while Singapore users make more purchases in a single checkout thanks to the nation’s stronger purchasing power. “This is an interesting observation which we will never be able to get if we just did one country,” says Wong.

Banking on social

Other than shopping, FaveChic has social features inside. Users can upload and share fashion items that they like on FaveChic. And just like Twitter, users can follow each other and see the latest posts from their friends. There are already a few fashion bloggers recruited to the site whom you will automatically follow when you sign up on FaveChic. The team is developing a “shopping together” feature which allows two users on different devices browse on the same screen on FaveChic, as seen in this demo video:

Wong hopes that this social feature can be the difference between them and anyone selling or retailing fashion items, whether that’s on Zalora, Line, or Instagram. “We provide the three ‘C’s.” said Wong. “Content, community, and commerce.” He adds, “We believe user curation and engagement will in turn bring in more users so we believe our app can be a killer product.”

Wong assures consumers they won’t need to worry about import taxes when buying fashion goods for personal consumption, and not in bulk. Items like clothing, shoes, and bags are not known to be taxable in the region according to him.

Wong foresees two big challenges in running FaveChic. First is how they can reach out to people given that marketing will be a costly exercise. Second is how they can convince investors that they can put up a great fight against the bigger boys like Zalora or even Taobao. Wong explains, “Unlike Zalora, we do not build warehouses and hold inventory costs. Unlike Taobao or other marketplaces, they do not facilitate transaction as in the logistics. We hope to build the social community within [the site] so as to differentiate it from the other players.”

Other marketplace sites that are starting to sell items from overseas merchants include Rakuten and Qoo10.

Presently, the team has established a Chinese office and is in the process of setting up an office in Japan. They are embarking on fundraising and are open to strategic local investors to partner with.

At time of translation, this was the #1 most popular microblog post of the past 24 hours on popular Chinese social network Sina Weibo…

From Sina Weibo:

@别过来你胖到我了: In Korea, when a boy pulls the hairband off a girl’s ponytail from behind, the girl will say: What are you so childish, oppa, give it back!” In Japan, when a boy pulls the hairband off a girl’s ponytail, the girl will say: “Does this hairstyle look bad to you? I’ll change my hairstyle then.” In China, when a boy pulls the hairband off a girl’s ponytail, the girl will say: “Motherfucker, do you want to fucking die? You stand right where you are and I guarantee I won’t beat you to death!”

From Sina Weibo:

Cannibal_OwO：

The first boy who pulled off a hairband is Daniel Wu, the second one is Wang Sicong [a fu er dai, the son of Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin], and the third one was Guo Degang?

白蔷公子：

Kimchi girl, sakura girl, and Heavenly Kingdom man.

蘑菇武士：

Soft kimchi girl, cute Nippon girl, and Heavenly Kingdom manly woman.

时不知桑：

Pull off? Getting a rubber band/hairband off is really hard! My hand will have just barely touched her head and a slap is already coming my way! “Who said you could touch my hairdo?!”

Super大七：

What is this about guys who play football being handsome or guys who play basketball being handsome, that’s all bullshit. As long as you’re handsome, you can can TM play marbles and still be handsome, while those who are ugly can play golf and still look like they’re shoveling shit. What is this about girls who are gentle being charming or girls who don’t wear makeup being pure and refreshing, that’s all bullshit. As long as you’re pretty, you TM can sell tofu and still be called the Xi Shi of Tofu, while those who are ugly can be playing the violin and still look like they’re having a seizure. I TM see through/have had enough of this world.

林暮朝-小媒婆：

But often with the third kind, the guy will actually like her even more and insist on pulling her hair tie off, and the more he is beaten/slapped, the happier he is.

元气少女糯米丸：

When I was in primary school, I really did beat up a boy for this, then in shame and resentment, he said: “if you have the guts, don’t leave after school!”, then after school, I beat him up one more time.

masakibaby：

Actually, it doesn’t matter if it is China, Japan, or Korea… how [the girl] responds depends on the boy’s face [looks].

一颗摇滚的苹果：

If it is a handsome: Oh you’re so annoying, you’re so bad, give it back [in a flirtatious whiny voice]. If it is an ugly cunt: What are you doing? What’s wrong with you? I’m going to beat you to death.

沙漠那边是绿洲：

Just goes to show that women in China have higher social status than the women in Korea and Japan.

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