Digital Rights: Latin America - Part II

              This post is a summary og the same book from last weekend, the book published in 2017 at   https://itsrio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/digital-rights.pdf

             What has been traditionally associated to journalism is now extended to people that elected the internet as their main tool of expression, for instance, bloggers, editors of websites and internet users. There are signs which indicates that freedom of expressions violations have the potential of getting more intense against these communicators, who are generally acting autonomously, without any support from the big companies of the communication sector. Thus, bloggers' and users' rights to protect themselves and to fully assure their right to freedom of expression on internet become an emergent theme concerning web governance. In 2012, Article 19 did the entire registration of the gravest cases of freedom of expression violations on the online environment in Brazil and produced a report called "Threats on the web." Unfortunately, the threats exceed the scope of judicial censorship. Journalists and bloggers are victims of physical aggression, death threats and murders because of what they say on internet. Article 19's research found 16 cases of serious threats to freedom of expression in 2012. It correspond to three homicides, three attempted murders and ten death threats against communicators that disseminated information, ideas and opinions on the web. The right to freedom of expression has been defined as "the fundamental pillar" of the democratic system. Network neutrality ensures that internet will remain open so that dissenting voices may express themselves and gain relevance from the interest of citizens and not by their economic power. The production of independent online content is gaining ground in Brazil to address the broadcasting oligopoly and media concentration in the hands of conservative families. The Civil Rights Framework for Internet Use ensures that requests for removal of content from net should only be imposed when there is a court order. This regulation has proved to be relevant in the case of the 2014 elections. Some politicians have invested against information disclosures, satires and online critiques, but now they need to pass the scrutiny of justice. In the case of privacy, the text states that private communication is inviolable and operators of telecommunications networkd are not allowed to monitor their clients. In dictatorships, surveillance is an essential tool that protects the regime. This is what makes the right to privacy a pillar for freedom of expression, freedom of opinion, and fundamental to democracy. The 8th Internet Governance Forum held in Bali, Indonesia. had as was expected, an intense agenda focused mainly on aspects related to security, privacy and human rights.The need to create workspaces and debates around how we want the internet to be built in the future is not only inevitable but also urgent. It seems unreasonable to think that strengthening the benevolent self-refulation and monitoring by the U.S. government into a multisectoral model full of vices, is the best way of solving the current problems. The role of governments is also important and urgent, but with respect for human rights and multisectoral involvement as a starting point. The internet management, the way in which decisions on its infrastructure, protocols and services are taken, is what is called internet governance. This refers to the development and application of principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the internet. These topics cover the internet entire universe and generally augment tensions between various components, for instance, security and privacy, freedom of expression and the protection of intellectual property, among others. The great advantage of digital activism is that it breaks space and time barriers. You can participate at any given time, at the level of engagement that your time and workload allow for. You can participate from home, from work, from the bus. Online activism is the only way to assure the democratic inclusion of the majority of the working population in political participation. But access to the internet is not enough to include people. It is essential to make good use of the internet. In fact, complaints which don't channel demands, or voice causes, don't generate change. Networks for mobilization such as Avaaz, Change, All Out, etc are able to help people articulate their demands, connect them to decision makers to whom these must be voiced and create a solidary community to deal with several causes. Online activism is what gives Brazil a chance to continually and consistenly democratize political disputes, which, for a long time, remained in the hands of forerunners and elites. This workhelp us deal to dispel the haze of confusion that seems innate to the citizen of the beginning of the 21st century. We can't deny the obvious: we are all confused. The chosen macro themes bring very deep and intriguing questions, starting with the protection of privacy. The world of today is a universe of obvious paradoxes. At first glance, we have more access to information, power of expression and interactivity. As public and private institutions are increasingly exposed, we have the impression of living in a more transparent world, closer to the truth. a lot of information, interaction and transparency leave us stunned by the relativization of everything.The selected articles contained in this book, present us with the current picture of difficult and intense times with controversial, polemic and complex dilemmas. They allow us to better understand how the various issues and problems being discussed in the region take place in the richness of the variety of their contexts. 

Digital Rights: Latin America

               This post is a summary of the book with the incomplete title above published in 2017 at   https://itsrio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/digital-rights.pdf

               In the history of Human Rights, Latin America has been oscillating between defeat and inspiring leadership. Following World War II, the region led the creation of the world's first extensive international human rights instrument, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, in April 1948, months before what would become its greater symbol, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But such commitment to rights was soon replaced by a succession of national dictatorial regimes, state violence and backlashes against freedom and democracy. Finally, a period of intense transformation arose from the ascension to power of governments with repressed plans of more political participation and social equality and freedom of expression. The new wave of hopes blended with the promises of digital rights. Internet and technology invited politics into its core and since then have been delivering a renewed agenda of rights and debates. We live today in a social scene that is largely in the digital world, in which various types of spaces and devices have become vital tools for recording events, news and expression. Digital platforms are used to share information and to promotea greater degree of participation and engagement in issues of public interest. Technology can bring us countless benefits, but it also creates difficult problems which need to be discussed if we aim to solve them. In terms of privacy, there is s growing fear that the development of new technologies might end up increasing the risk of violations in user's privacy. The astounding growth of social networks and connected devices greatly contributes to the expansion of the amount of information made public on the web, and generates some apprehension about its use. Such issues demonstrate how urgent it is for Latin America countries to develop comprehensive regulation regarding privacy. Many have already passed legislation that directly addresses this matter, but others, like Brazil, are falling behind and let serious violations occur. New tech developments also creates issues concerning fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression. Today, anyone can disclose his thoughts, ideas or discoveries through the globe. This constant stream of communication further serves to develop democratic participation. The tech and the way they are being used have transformed individuals into an important source of information, socio-political engagement and control of public power, allowing a greater empowerment of citizens, which triggers processes of social transformation. All these factors are representative of the emergence of a connected public sphere with significant democratic potential yet to be fully explored. In this perspective, we can already begin to see more solid contours of the consideration of this space as a fundamental dedmocratic space. In May 2011, the U.N. advocated the recognition of internet access as a human right, considering it one of the main means through which individuals may exercise their right to freedom of expression. U.N. expresses that the internet is a tool to promote development on several fronts. The deepening of democracy is one of the most remarkable of them. By drastically reducing costs and barriers to participation, the internet enables instantaneous responses,  broadening posibilities for discourse and debates. In promoting citizens engagement and political participation, the doctrine has identified the impact of the internet on the mechanisms of : 1) improving the transparency of the political processes, by monitoring the actions of government officials and public resources. 2) facilitation of direct involvement and active participation in political processes. 3) improving the quality of the formation of public opinion, with the opening of new spaces for imformation and deliberation. In 2013, Brazil experienced a couple of the biggest protests in its history. A raise in bus fares was the catalyst for several national movements demanding better quality of public services, more public transparency, measures for fighting corruption, among other claims. This would not have been possible, or at least would not have taken such magnitude, without the internet. However, it is clear that such mechanisms of democratic participation find limits. Factors such as the unequal distribution of access, the polarization of discourses, and the increasing appropriation of online space by the logic of state power and market capital. Another example of an obstacle to democracy is the increasing use of bots which conduct automatic messaging and posting on social netowrks in elections periods to promote certain political candidates. This practice, known as astroturfing, tries to simulate spontaneous political movements online by employing bots that can operate several profiles and mask their identity. Clearly, astroturfing brings even more complication to the already complex dynamics of an election, with its ability to artificially influence voters. There has also been some criticism of what has been called "couch-activism," referring to the preponderance of support to causes by manifestations that are restricted to the online environment. However, it must also be said that digital activism can break barriers that otherwise could inhibit political participation. Many people often have little time or energy to engage in activities after managing long hours and many time-consuming tasks in their routine. With the internet, citizens can participate in political discussions at any given time. Overall, the digital environment can provide various mechanisms to reduce human rights deficits and strengthen political participation. Sadly, the tech to promote the capacity of citizens to influence the course of politics are still underused. Governments and other institutions could establish different methods to enable the diffusion of the direct participation of its constituents in important decisions that will affect their lives. Brazil has applied great efforts to produce the civil rights framework for internet use. This law was sanctioned in 2014 and it is a large step towards better regulation of digital platforms. Internet governance is another focus, referring to the development and applications of shared principles, rules and procedures that concern the use of the internet. With more than two billion users around the world, the internet calls for a broader dialogue about its consequemces. The strong preference for a decentralized multistakeholder standard derives from the importance of the equal participation between players. Another field that has been the topic of many controversies refers to surveillance and cybercrime. The scandal involving digital espionage committed by the N.S.A. revealed in 2013, raised a red flag about the potential risks to privacy generated by the misuse of tech. This event has not only badly damaged the public's opinion and faith in authorities, but it has also significantly raised peoples' distrust that digital devices can keep users' information protected. This episode helps to stress the importance of the creation of strategies and structures that encourages transparency, especially to prevent such practices. Such activities should be subject to public scrutiny, at least to delineate its purpose and legal limits. Computer crimes have recently grown more sophisticated and consequently, harder to tackle. Therefore, we must develop new mechanisms to prevent those violations and pass legislation that encompasses cybercrime, in order to better deal with those occurrences. Under the advancement of tech, the key question in our countries is to ask how unchecked surveillance practice continue affecting the right to privacy of our populations. Privacy can no longer be reduced to the right of private space, but as one where everyone can take an active part in controlling the existing information of each individual; a legal manifestation of respect and protection which is guaranteed to each and every person, protecting dignity and human freedom, by recognizing within the holder, a power of control over their personal autonomy. The rapid evolution of digital tech has exposed these aspects of the right to privacy to permanent threats from around the world. The 2014 report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, deals specifically with the subject of privacy in the digital age, with a special focus on the problems arising from state surveillance and the lack of state transparency about it. 

Engaging Civil Society: Emerging Trends in Democratic Governance

                  This post is a summary of the book with the title above published at   https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Engaging-Civil-Society%3A-Emerging-Trends-in-Cheema-Popovski/54e99f7abc379218080a1d256c17ae88a4982850

                 Scholars and development practitioners recognize the centrality of governance capacity to achieve sustainable development, including the irradication of extreme poverty, environmental protection, access to basic services and livelihoods and the promotion of economic growth. Consequently, many developing countrieshave aimed to improve governance systems and processes to promote sustainable development. In developing countries, many factors can constrain governance capacity to formulate and implement development policies: elections are not always free, fair and regular; parliamentary processes may be dominated by the ruling elite without adequate interface between parliamentarians and constituents; checks and balances between the executive, judiciary and legislative branches may be inadequate; and weak rule of law may discourage foreign and domestic investments. High levels of corruption can further impede trust in goverment and inhibit the latter's capacity to bring about change. Other challenges can include weak local governments; a lack of inter-agency coordination where cross-sectoral interventions are needed; the magnitude of deficiencies in basic social services; and low levels of participation and engagement by civil society. The most commonly used definition of civil society is a sector of associations, or "a space between the family and the state where people associate across ties of kinship, aside from the market, and independent of the state." In the field of democracy assistance, the professor of political science at University of Stanford, Larry Diamond, defined civil society as "the realm of organized social life that is voluntary, self-generating, self-supporting, autonomous from the state, and bound by a legal order or set shared rules. It is distinct from society in general in that it involves citizens acting collectively in a public sphere to mutual goals, make demands on the state, and hold state officials accountable." The increasing impact of civil society on the governance of global institutions can be partly attribute to the deficiencies of democracy today, especially in developing countries. Several factors have created a vacuum: low levels of citizen participation, inadequate representation and weak mechanisms for accountability. Civil society organizations (CSO) provide information and structure for citizens to become further engaged in governance. For such purposes, CSOs have evolved to work transnationally and focus on specific issues. Often the reform agendas of donor countries and global CSOs are complementary. Both focus on promoting transparency and simplification of processes of global governance. In recent years CSOs have expanded in terms of their role, number, size, activities, areas and influence. The current and upcoming challenges for their continuing contributions to effective democratic governance are: the need for vertical and horizontal coordination; the need to improve legitimacy; trends towards improved organizational accountability; and need for capacity development. The role of CSOs at the global level has changed and are now vital actors in global governance, which includes normative intergovernmental processes that deal with issues of development, security, human rights and disarmament. Global CSOs now play a key role in the definition and establishment of international norms and standards, that are mutually agreed upon by members of international organizations, and then communicated to the national levels, where CSOs can advocate , pressuring governments to improve service delivery and access, as well as monitoring and assessing government policies and practices. CSOs also promote democratic governance by increasing the transparency of actions, promoting anti-corruption and accountability initiatives. Through these roles, CSOs have become increasingly influential in determining the global discourse. They now generate and disseminate data, provide their analysis and allow for a greater heterogeneity of viewpoints to debates. This awareness and coordination must take place both vertically and horizontally in order for CSOs to be most effective in fulfilling their stated policy objectives. Forging mutually reinforcing alliances and partnerships between global and national CSOs has strengthened CSOs engagement. Global civil society has been instrumental in global advocacy of developemnt, security and human rights issues and in increasing funding sources and flows outside government control. Civil society have been playing a vital role in providing an alternative channel of information to citizens and improving access to services. In coming years, a key obstacle to be overcome by CSOs concerns the issue of their legitimacy. As these organizations come to play an increasingly significant role in policy implementation and assessment, the question of their legitimate moral authority will come into play. This book acknowledges an increasing trend towards reinforcing the legitimacy of CSOs through strategies that improve their transparency, accountability and credibility to the public. Six types of legitimacy must be addressed: legal, normative, political, technical, associational and cognitive. Different approaches have been tried to strengthen this legitimacy: transparency mechanisms, annual reports, audited accounts, reporting and disclosure systems, participation mechanisms, evaluation mechanisms, and complaint and redress mechanisms. In conclusion, civil society is now playing a vital role in stimulating democratic change in many ways: direct involvement at different stages of the electoral process, including voter education and electoral monitoring; engagement with parliamentarians to communicate concerns of citizens; the provision of paralegal aid and other support mechanisms for access to justice; access to media to highlight abuses of power; the protection of rights; supporting the independence of the judiciary; and holding officials accountable to improve access to services. However, in order to ensure that they remain effective advocates of the public good, they must strengthen their linkages with other organizations, address issues related to their legitimacy, strengthen accountability and improve capacities.

7º Anniversary of the Protests of June of 2013

              Last 20th of June one of the biggest protests in Brazil history completed seven years. The reason why this protest is studied until now and others are not, it was its character totally spontaneous, unexpected and non-partisan. And this movement called by some as "June Revolution," must be always remembered. The Brazilian people realized that they deserve a better governance, a better return for so many taxes they pay. Besides, we want respect for our basic human rights and justice when they are violated. We want a fair and inclusive electoral and political systems. We want honesty, efficiency and accountability from our politicians and public service. In short, we want a governmental system that make the most of our human and material resources. And so Brazil can reach its true potential and let to be known as 'the eternal Country of the Future' and becomes really what its potential can make for its citizens. This post is a summary of the report published at   https://www.gold.ac.uk/media/documents-by-section/departments/anthropology/Revolutions.pdf

             The June Revolution that shook Brazil in 2013 took everybody by surprise. It started in São paulo as a small gathering protesting a looming rise in the cost of public transport, and in two weeks it spread across 400 cities and towns, bringing millions of people into the streets and forcing President Dilma Roussef to start a process of constitutional reform. For many political observers this "movement of movements" was a new form of working-class articulation of diverse social forces. Fighting for a freedom that encompassed both social and labor demands, slaves infused the labor movement with civic consciouness. But boundaries between freedom and slavery continue to be fluid in Brazil. As in past forms of slavery, the civil liberties of the Brazilian poor are heavily restricted. As a result, economic and civic struggles to struggle for recognition go hand and hand. The June revolution started when the Free Fare Movement led a demonstration against the rise in public transport fare. This small protest quickly escalated and this led to a second phase of the struggle, which reached its apex between June 17 and 20. By now the demands had widened and included health, education and opposition to PEC 37, which would restrict the attorney general's power to carry out independent investigations, de facto eliminating an importanr anticorruption tool. On June 20, one million people marched on Avenida Vargas in Rio. As in other contemporary mobilizations, the Brazilian movement relied heavily on social media to organize gatherings, flash mobs and direct actions across the city. When President Roussef reversed the transport fare increase and proposed a constituent assembly devoted to political reform, more stringent punishments for corruption and investments in transport, health and education, the movement was furiously repressed. As a result of the violence unleashed by the police, the protest entered into a third phase. demands became more dispersed across a wide range of issues including gay rights, legalization of drugs, abortion, lower inflation, public spending and privatization, traffic tolls, etc. For Saad Filho, the movement was now fragmented and captured by a strong anti-left middle class. Another view holds that this was a moment of convergence between the "old" and "new" left. But how did a brooding political discontent become a full-fledged urban revolution? Perhaps more than any other Brazilian cities, the "wondeful city" is an explosive mix of extreme wealth and deprivation, of drug gangs and finance barons, favelas and luxurious real estate, of ancient aristocracies and brutal police, infrastructural decay and stunning natural beauty. The protest was ignited by what was perceived as an unjust planning of major sport events, the World Cup and the Olympic Games, to be held in Rio between 2012 and 2016. Discontent started to rise when the newly formed Olympic Committee announced its plans of investments in the city. Transport and housing improvements focused mainly on Barra da Tijuca, a high-income area, while bus and low-cost train were to be scaled down. So, was "the movement of the movement" led by the middle class or by the precariat? The answer is not straightforward because the political and economic threshold between the precariat and the middle class is fuzzy. For instance, their main common enemies are inflation and corruption. At the beginning of 2013, the 10% increase in prices hit the working class hard. The middle class was hit even more violently by the raise in services. By the time of the demonstrations, a vociferous anti-inflation movement had emerged. Anticorruption movements are also typically cross-sectional. In May, the trials against the PT politicians involved in the vote-buying scandal (Mensalão) had just ended. André Singer's analysis of the June demonstrators socioeconomic profile confirms the porosity between the middle class and the precariat in Brazil. The majority of the demonstrators were young, especially in Rio, where 41% were under the age of 25 and 80% were under the age of 39. Moreover, participants overall had high levels of education. In most cities, no less than 43% of demonstrators had a university degree. Research suggest that 30% of the demonstrators defined themselves as being from the center and adding those who classified themselves as center-left and center-right, the center constituted 70% of the demonstrators. The changes in the electoral system and expansion of public services linked to oil venues announced by Roussef after the protest communicated clearly that the government took seriously the demands of the protesters and felt accountable towards them. In spite of the damaging effect of the events in June 2013, Roussef was re-elected a year later. A investigation in the kickback schemes of Petrobras is triggering a new wave of protests against the president. 35 Petrobras top managers have resigned. In March 2015, half a million Brazilians took the street in anticorruption demonstrations. Because the scandal involved the entire political system, their anticorruption slogans are directed against the political system. How can the events of June 2013 be reassessed in the light of these contemporary developments? The recent proliferation of free-market slogans does show the isolation of the left. Besides, economy does matter. In time of economic prosperity, horizontal forces may turn popular anger into a progressive movement, as it happened in 2013. But in the times of economic downturn, cross-sectionalism may take right-wing turns.

180th Birthday of Thomas Hardy - Part II

                  This post is a summary of three articles. The first was published at   https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291908399_Thomas_hardy_and_realism. The second was published https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgarticle=1117&context=eng_theses. The third was published at file:///C:/Users/Luciano/Downloads/2-5-22-396.pdf

               One distinguished 19th century novelist was bold enough to observe that "realism", though much championed by the most celebrated fiction writers of the century, was "an unfortunate, and an ambiguous word". It had been, he continued, "taken up by literary society like a view-halloo". Plotting Thomas Hardy's realism is to see with unusual clarity the availability of the term for alternative meanings at the end of the Victorian period. He makes its potential visible as he proposes across his life alternatives versions for where the "real" for the literary writer, might lie. The subject of Hardy and realism is not straightforward. And we have Hardy's own warning about this: he was the distinguished novelist. In the period that saw the establishment of the novel as the dominant literary form in British culture, the Victorians gave powerful consideration to the idea of fiction as representing the real. They were theorists about and practitioners of imaginative prose that described itself, in one way or another, as representing the textures and experiences of lived life. Realism is, at least at the headline level, the imaginative counter of romance. Unlike realism, romance does not have its feet on the ground. Realism claims itself as a language of the earth. Realism lives with history and politics; romance with myth and fantasy. Realism, as a literary practice is habitually a discourse of the agnostic because it concerns itself with things empirically knowable; romance readily makes way for the theological, because it admits into its textures the nonoempirical, the extraordinary, the possibilities of what might be beyond the globe.

               The industrial revolution and the agricultural revolution in the 18th century affected communities drastically. Hardy saw a direct relationship between historical processes and individual lives: both, like natural processes, were evolutionary; human character evolved as history evolved. The roles of education, morality and social mobility were also impacted during this time. Characters such as Tess and Jude were limited by their social position. They represent many characters in Hardy's novels struggling to survive in their ever-evolving world. Thomas Hardy wrote his novels in a time of great change and perhaps with great prupose. The literary critic Stanley Hyman writes, "hardy saw himself as time's surrogate not only in illuminating the past but in stimulating his readers to move into the future. His plots imitate the inoxorable movement of time, and his characters reveal varying degrees of ability to adapt to it. His novels not only express his view of the past and the present but attempt to restructure the responses of his readers in such a way as to accomodate them to the only future he believed possible. Henchard in The Mayor of Casterbridge demonstrates a successful moral evolution as he transcends egotism and return to natural morality. His daughter Elizabeth, is another example of successful evolution to natural morality. In Tess of the d'Urbevilles, Tess demonstrated both success and failure. Tess is at once the most natural and most human of Hardy's creations. Alec d'Urberville is a character who best represents the genteel, landed aristocracy who really places no value on morality. The great beauty of this and all literature I believe, is its timelessness. Although written in the 19th century, Hardy's Darwinian message is timeless. If one were to question whether Hardy was a successful character in light of this study, he would be successful. He not only evolved in his belief system, but used the novel to examine the new world and present his observation to society. He grew up in an age of change and was one of the first writers to discuss the ache of modernism.

              Thomas Hardy was glad about the improvement of science, he enjoyed the advance done in global co-operation and comprehension. Truth should be told, he was a genuine organizer and a humanist. This response against the traditional prudery and fake assembled force in the succeeding decades till finally it formed into an revolt and achieved the end of Vistorianism. Following Hardy's novels is a confounding knowledge. In his novels he has fictionalized the key existential clashes of man with the enigmatic universe and the social order. The contentions and strains that definitely go to the truth of human presence are the central of his inventive work. He is an explainer of man's suffering and infinite distance. Like Shakespeare, Hardy demonstrates a consciousness of the unfeeling mindlessness of the states of human life. Most of Hardy's great characters are archetypal. They are engaged into a dual struggle against the forces of the universe and the irrational elements in social traditions. His characters transcend time and place. They are essentially true to life. For him Modernism, in the turn of the 20th century, failed in the cultivation of the fundamental human virtues of concern and kindness for others. Two world wars bears witness to this truth. His greatness consists in bringing to light the wealth of a life of the common people. But Hardy wrote about them more effectively than any English novelist. Hardy's works have some influence upon and affinities with writers such as John Fowles, William Faulkner, Ibsen, Zola and Dreiser. All these writers base the details of their narratives on ordinary life. Their works present the helpless subordination of the individual to peripheral forces. Like Hardy, they too are sympathetic to the individual whose identity and individuality are recognized. When we speak of morality in hardy, we do not mean that hardy wrote his novels to convey any moral lesson. Meanings are not single, but multiple. They are historical and social constructs. Any approach to life that does not respect pluralism in all walks of life is against the very nature of man.

180th Birthday of Thomas Hardy

            Last Tuesday, the British writer Thomas Hardy would complete180 years-old, so this post is a tribute to him. He is one of the main realist writers and tried to expose the injustices and evil of the final of Victorian Era.   This post is a summary of four articles. The first was published at   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy. The second was published at  ngagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1868&context=etdarchive. The third was published at https://writersinspire.org/content/character-environment-thomas-hardys-fiction. The fourth was published at https://mantex.co.uk/thomas-hardy-greatest-works/

               Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot. He was critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining of rural people in Britain. While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of novels such as The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895).  Many of his novels concern tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances, and they are often set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex in Southwest England. Because Hardy's family lacked the means for an university education, his formal education ended at the age of sixteen, when he became apprenticed to a local architect. Hardy trained as an architect in Dorchester before moving to London in 1862. In 1870, while on an architectural mission to restore the parish church of St.Juliot in Cornwall, Hardy met and fell in love with Emma Gifford, whom he married in Kensington in 1874. Hardy was horrified by the destruction caused by First World War. He wrote to John Galsworthy that "the exchange of international thought is the only possible salvation for the world." Hardy became ill with pleurisy in 1927 and died in January 1928, having dictated his final poem to his wife, the cause of death was cited as "cardiac syncope". 

                    Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) contains complex and detailed interrogations of many Victorians values and of the capitalist culture of his time. This novel is a condemnation of the social, ethical, moral, religious, and political values held by the majority of Hardy's elite contemporaries in England. Studying the history of the literary and critical reception of Tess of the d'Urbevilles reveals the breadth and depth of Hardy's cultural criticisms. In 1998 John Paul Riquelme published a detailed study of the past one hundred years of literary analysis and critical history of this novel. "Tess has been a significant stimulus to thinking about moral values". Riquelme gathers a vast amount of Marxist, materialist and feminist literary analysis of Tess from the 1950s to the 1990s. Peter Widdowson's "Hardy and Critical Theory" published in the 1999 also explores in detail the evolution of critical approaches to the analysis of Thomas' literature over the past century. "a intellectual closely familiar with the literary debates of the second half of the 19th century. We may deduce feature of Hardy's involvement in these: one which casts him as ineluctably transitional between Victorian and Modern. It is apparent that Hardy is actually participating in the pan-European debate about Realism, and that he was opposed to a "photographic" naturalism, favoring instead a kind of "analytic" writing which brings into vie other realities obscured precisely by the naturalized version." Within Tess Hardy criticizes Victorian England's moral standards for continuing to validate and legiyimize this specific type of abuse and all other forms of domination and gender inequality. He has his heroine defy the prevailing societal views about the value of women and female purity.  Hardy is careful to show us how Alec destroy his humanity in the process of victimizing Tess. As a member of the possessing class, Alec suffers from what Karl Marx calls "human self-alienation". Alec feels satisfied in this self-alienation, experiences the alienation as a sign of its own power. It prevents him from seeing the hypocrisy of his assertions. Only by simultaneously exploring all of Hardy's value judgments and social commentary within Tess can a reader understand the range of criticisms that Hardy raises about the late Victorian society in which he lived. The professor at the Yeshiva University in N.Y. Linda Shires wrote, "Tess of the d'Urbervilles is not only the richest novel that Hardy ever wrote, it is also the culmination of a long series of Victorian texts which identify and enact the alienated condition of modernity." The richness of the text is revealed by the fact that Hardy included complex critiques of a broad range of ideological conventions within Tess without the novel losing its passionate recounting of Tess's life. The time has come to shift from the tendency of micro focus to a holistic macro focus, so that we can recognize the trenchant social commentary in Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

                  The specific sense of place detailed in Hardy's fiction is very important as it provide a realistic, countrified backdrop against which his many characters live out their lives and struggle against their circumstances. Hardy's intense study and accurate portrayal of 19th century rural society in Dorset, presents a microcosm of human life through which Hardy intended to comment on the universal condition of human existence. Hardy classified his novels into three groups; the biggest section named 'Novels of Character and Environment' includes the Hardy's major novels such as: Tess of the d'Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and Far From the Madding Crowd. This classification clearly show us the importance he placed upon the interaction between human life and immediate surroundings, and the role of environment in determining the lives of the characters that inhabit it.

                   Thomas Hardy is one of the few writers who made a significant contribution to English literature in the form of the novel, poetry, and short story. He creates unforgettable characters and orchestrates stories which pull at your heart strings. Jude the Obscure  is Hardy's last major statement before he gave up writing novels. Hero Jude is intellectually ambitious but held back by his work as stonemason and his dalliance with earthy Arabella. When he meets his spiritual soulmate Sue, everything seems set fair for success, except that she is capricious and sexually repressed. Jude struggles to do the right thing. This novel reveals the deep-seated social and sexual tensions in Hardy, himself a self-made man from a humble background.

The Pro-Free Speech Way to Fight Fake News

              This post is a summary of two articles. The first with the title above was published at              https://pen.org/press-clip/pro-free-speech-way-fight-fake-news/ The second was published at  https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/freedom-of-expression/

               The rise of fraudulent news and the related erosion of public trust in mainstream journalism pose a looming crisis for free expression. The championing of free speech must not privilege any immutable notion of the truth to the exclusion of others. But this doesn't mean that free speech proponents should be indifferent to the quest for truth, or to attempts to deliberately undermine the public's ability to distinguish fact from falsehood. The power of free speech is inextricably tied to the opportunity to be heard and believed. Fake news undermines precisely these. If public discourse becomes so flooded with disinformation that listeners can no longer distinguish signal from noise. They purvey falsehoods to mislead, confuse and to instill a sense of the futility of speech that saps the will to cry foul, protest, or resist. On social media, the problem is not one of control, but of chaos. The ferocious pace with which false information can spread can make defending the truth or correcting seem like mission impossible. The problem of fraudulent news now is compounded by political divisions that undercut the traditional ways in which truth prevails. A significant portion of the population distrust a wide array of sources they perceive as politically hostile. The debate over solutions to fraudulent news has centered on what the government, news outlet, social media platforms, and civil society actors like fact-checking groups can do. Each has an role to play, but they also must respect sharp limits to their interventions. The constitution forbids the government from adjudicating which news is true and which is false. Google and Facebook, as private platforms should monitor their sites to make sure that dangerous conspiracy theories don't go viral, but if they over-police what appears on their pages, they'll create new impairments for edgy speech. Certainly, news outlets should strive to uphold professional and ethical standards, but they alone can't convince cynical readers to trust them. The proliferation of overly partisan media, lower barriers to entry into public discourse, and information flooding across the web and cable news, consumers need new tools to sort through choices and make informed decisions about where to invest their attention. The fight against fake news will hinge not on inculcating trust in specific sources but on instilling skepticism, curiosity and a sense of agency among consumers, who are the best bulwark against the merchants of deceit. A news consumers' movement should include several prongs, it should include an advocacy arm to prod newsrooms, internet platforms, and social media giants into being transparent about their decisions as to what is elevated and how it is marked. It should develop an investigative research arm to expose, name, and shame the purveyors of fraudulent news and their financial backers. And it might provide periodic ranking of, and reporting on, newsrooms and other outlets to hold them accountable to their audiences. Recognizing fake news as a threat to free expression can't be grounds to justify a cure, in the form of new restrictions on free speech, that may end up being worse than the disease. Unscrupulous may never cease in their efforts to infect the information flow to serve their purposes. The best prescription is to inoculate consumers by building up their ability to defend themselves.

              Your voice matters. You have the right to say what you think, share information and demand a better world. You also have the right to agree or disagree with those in power, and to express these opinions in peaceful protests. Exercising these rights, without fear or unlawful interference, is central to living in an open and fair society, one in which people can access justice and enjoy their human rights. Yet governments around the world routinely imprison people for speaking out, even though almost every country's constitution refers to the value of  free speech. Governments have a duty to prohibit hateful, inciteful speech but many abuse their authority to silence peaceful dissent by passing laws criminalising freedom of expression. How governments tolerate unfavourable views or critical voice is often a good indication of how they treat human rights generally. We consider anyone put in prison solely for exercising their right to free speech peacefully to be a prisoner of conscience and call for their immediate and unconditional release. Defending freedom of expression is vital in holding the powerful to account. Freedom of expression also underpins other human rights such as the rifgrfreedom of thought, conscience and religion, and allows them to flourish. It is also closely linked to freedom of association and freedom of peaceful assembly. However, these very freedoms come under attack by governments that want to stifle criticism. For example, in Egypt it is currently dangerous to criticize the government. Over the course of 2018, the authorities arrested at least 113 individuals citing a host of absurd reasons including satire, tweeting, denouncing sexual harassment, editing movies and giving interviews. Detained without trial for months, those who eventually faced trial were sentenced by military courts. A free press reporting on the issues that interest us and shape our lives is a key building block of any rights-respecting society. Yet in Azerbaijan, Turkey and Venezuela to name just a few countries, journalists face repression and attacks. In July 2019, the libel trial began in the Philippines against Maria Ressa, the executive editor of online news outlet Rappler. Ressa, a prominent critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested in February 2019 on trumped up libel charges after Rappler published detailed investigations into some of the thousands of extrajudicial executions committed by police and unknown armed persons, with Duterte's explicit encouragement. Her case is widely seen as an attack by the government on press freedom. Freedom of expression, applies to ideas of all kinds, including those that may be offensive. While international law protects free speech, there are instances where speech can be restricted under the same law, such as when it violates the rights of others, or advocates hatred and incites discrimination or violence. The digital world gives many more of us access to the information we need, including to challenge governments and corporations. Information is power and the internet has the potential to significantly empower the people. Increasingly, some states try to build firewalls around digital communications, or in the case of Egypt, Sudan and Zimbabwe among others, respond to mass street protests with an internet shutdown. Iran, China and Vietnam have all tried to develop systems that enable them to control access to digital information. In India's Kashmir region, mobile internet and communications are suspended in response to any unrest. Governments are also using dangerous and sophisticated tech to read activists and journalists' private emails. In Poland, since 2016, tens of thousands of people have protested against repressive legislation aimed at curbing women's rights and undermining the independence of the judiciary. Protesters have routinely been met with a show of force and restrictive measures that infringe their right to be seen and heard. In parallel with tightening the laws affecting the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, the government has expanded the surveillance powers with evidence that these powers have been used against people engaged in participating in protests.