[Originally published here as part of WITNESS’s collaboration with Global Voices Online]
It has been a bumper few weeks on GV for human rights video, so let’s get straight into it…
Bandh of brothers… [via Neha]
[YouTube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvRLmupsVts]
This footage, filmed by Dinesh Wagle, of United We Blog!, shows motorcycle riders being turned backed by members of the National Federation of Nepal Transport Entrepreneurs in Kathmandu. The NFNTE had called a bandh (strike) prohibiting vehicles from running on the streets, after public buses were torched in an earlier protest during the instability in Terai.
I’d love to know what’s actually said in the exchange between the two sides – any offers to post a transcript or to subtitle via dotsub or elsewhere?
Wagle offers a worrying perspective on the unpredictability of life in Nepal at the moment:
“[…] it’s indeed hard to predict the political and other developments in today’s Nepal. The trend of creating anarchy and take advantage of such situation has increased over the past several months. There is a kind of planned competition to exploit the situation. You never know what’s going to happen when. Anyone can call a Nepal banda any time. General public has to face the difficulties caused by such prompt and unnecessary decisions. Public have always become the victim of such bandas in the past. What can they do other than quietly suffer?”
FarsiTube, Alexander Litvinenko, strikes in Lebanon, maids protesting at the beach in Peru, vlogging from UAE, and clashes in Bolivia after the jump…
FarsiTube shows a different side to life in Iran [via Hamid]
Iranian YouTube hommage FarsiTube holds reasonable quality footage of the 2006 Women’s Day march in Tehran that was broken up violently by police.
The site holds a variety of material, including a documentary about the execution of 16-year-old girl Attafeh Sahaaleh.
It’s one of a rash of sites like DocuTube using the “+tube” format – if you’ve come across another one, share it below, or mail me.
The half-life of Litvinenko [via Veronica]
If this video story from Polish newspaper Dziennik is true, the discovery of Alexander Litvinenko’s face on a special forces shooting-range target is pretty embarrassing for the Russian authorities, even if the original video does date from 2002:
[YouTube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J7WzJskNfM]
[Originally from Dziennik]
Russo-phobic blog The Russophobe takes up the story and AP adds more.
Beirut burns as strike leads to clashes [via Moussa]
In late January the Lebanese opposition called a general strike in protest against the government, and finkployd of Blogging Beirut took several videos of the resulting clashes between “Christians of Hazmieh, Beirut, Lebanon and the Demonstrating (with rock throwing and tire burning) Muslims of West Beirut, on January 23, 2007 […]” – the longest of which is below:
[Revver=http://one.revver.com/watch/150083/flv]
Video by finkployd of Blogging Beirut
After these pictures were taken, Sunni-Shia fighting broke out in Beirut, and a fight in a student cafeteria spilled over into wider violence. A curfew was imposed across Beirut in an attempt to restore order. According to Al-Ahram, tensions remained high over the weekend, and neither the government nor the opposition looks likely to back down. An estimated 300,000 citizens demonstrated in support of the government on Wednesday on the second anniversary of Rafik Hariri‘s assassination.
Cleaners take protest littorally [via Juan and David]
Hundreds marched onto the beaches of Asia, a Peruvian resort south of Lima, under the banner “Basta de Racismo” (Stop Racism), after domestic workers were banned from swimming at the beaches before sunset – despite a law which prohibits restricting access to the sea.
There are several videos of the protest – a brief taster of Operativo de la Empleada Audaz (Operation Bold Employee), as the action was called, below:
[YouTube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI2XvDx5BhY]
There’s a longer version here.
David also sent me a video purporting to show two young men in Lima harassing and abusing their family’s domestic worker. In a post at Peruanista, Carlos A Quiroz appealed for any information as to the identity of the domestic worker or the family, and asked readers to visit YouTube, and to flag the video for “graphic and violent content”. The video has now been taken down (“due to terms of use violation”), and Peruanista has posted an update, and a host of videos on the broader issue of violence against women in Peru, at “If you beat your wife, watch these”.
This is the first concrete example I have seen of users being mobilised to flag content of this kind, but I am sure there are others – let me know below, or by email.
UAE students vlog on bloggers [via Amira]
[YouTube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBPl2555asg]
This comes out of, I am guessing, a journalism program in the UAE, as the site is entitled “Broadcasters of Tomorrow”. Please send me more links of this kind, as I’d love to see more examples of local perspectives on human rights stories from around the world.
Cochabamba clashes [via Eduardo]
Finally, Eduardo Avila’s superb overview of Bolivia’s Black January clashes in Cochabamba, which is required reading and viewing (see videos from YouTubers nenamade and estotaweno), ends with these words:
“A witness in the story stated that the cocaleros (coca growers) had filmed the entire incident [of the death of 17-year-old Cristian Urresti] on a camera. That video could provide clues as to who was ultimately responsible for the brutal death, but it is very unlikely that video will ever find its way to sites like YouTube.”
As this tour of recent videos on GV shows, there’s precious little that won’t be on YouTube, Ikbis, DailyMotion and MetaCafe before long…