person:denis

Must we decolonise #Open_Access? Perspectives from Francophone Africa

A long read featuring the recent work of Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou and Florence Piron, on how a truly open and inclusive ‘Open Access’ movement must include those at the periphery

I recently watched the recording of the fantastic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion session at OpenCon, and I was struck by the general theme of how ‘openness’ isn’t necessarily the force for equality that we perhaps think it is, and how issues of power, exploitation, and hierarchy means that it should be understood differently according to the context in which it is applied. In the session, Denisse Albornoz used the expression of ‘situated openness’ to describe how our Northern conception of openness should not be forced on anyone or any group – it needs to be understood first in individual contexts of historical injustices and post-colonial power structures.

What stood out for me most in this session, however, (because it related most to my work) was Cameroonian Thomas Mboa’s presentation, which talked about the ‘neo-colonial face of open access’. The presentation employed some very striking critical terms such as ‘cognitive injustice’ and ‘epistemic alienation’ to Open Access.

I’ve always known that the Open Access movement was far from perfect, but at least it’s moving global science publishing in the right direction, right? Can working towards free access and sharing of research really be ‘neo-colonial’ and lead to ‘alienation’ for users of research in the Global South? And if this really is the case, how can we ‘decolonise’ open access?

Thomas didn’t get much time to expand on some of the themes he presented, so I got in contact to see if he had covered these ideas elsewhere, and fortunately he has, through his participation in ‘Projet SOHA’ . This is a research-action project that’s been working on open science, empowerment and cognitive justice in French-speaking Africa and Haiti from 2015-17. He provided me with links to four publications written in French by himself and his colleagues from the project – Florence Piron (Université Laval, Quebec, Canada), Antonin Benoît Diouf (Senegal), and Marie Sophie Dibounje Madiba (Cameroon), and many others.

These articles are a goldmine of provocative ideas and perspectives on Open Access from the Global South, which should challenge all of us in the English-speaking academic publishing community. Therefore, I decided to share some excerpts and extended quotes from these articles below, in amongst some general comments from my (admittedly limited) experience of working with researchers in the Global South.

The quotes are taken from the following book and articles, which I recommend reading in full (these are easily translatable using the free tool Google Translate Web, which correctly translated around 95% of the text).

Chapter 2 – ‘Les injustices cognitives en Afrique subsaharienne : réflexions sur les causes et les moyens de lutte’ – Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou (2016), in Piron, Dibounje Madiba et Regulus 2016 (below)
Justice cognitive, libre accès et savoirs locaux – Collective book edited by Florence Piron, Marie Sophie Dibounje Madiba and Samuel Regulus (2016) (CC-BY) ▻https://scienceetbiencommun.pressbooks.pub/justicecognitive1
Qui sait ? Le libre accès en Afrique et en Haïti – Florence Piron (2017) (CC-BY) (Soon to be published in English in Forthcoming Open Divide. Critical Studies of Open Access (Herb & Schöpfel ed), Litwinbooks
Le libre accès vu d’Afrique francophone subsaharienne – Florence Piron, Antonin Benoît Diouf, Marie Sophie Dibounje Madiba, Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou, Zoé Aubierge Ouangré, Djossè Roméo Tessy, Hamissou Rhissa Achaffert, Anderson Pierre and Zakari Lire (2017) (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Une autre science est possible. Récit d’une utopie concrète dans la Francophonie (le projet SOHA) – Revue Possibles, 2016 (CC-BY)

Piron et al’s (2017) article starts with a stinging critique of those of us in our Northern scholarly publishing community cliques, and our never-ending open access debates over technicalities:

“… there are many debates in this community, including on the place of open licenses in open access (is an article really in open access if it is not freely reusable in addition to being freely accessible?), on the legitimacy of the fees charged to authors by certain journals choosing open access, on the quality and evaluation of open access journals, on the very format of the journal as the main vehicle for the dissemination of scientific articles or on the type of documents to be included in institutional or thematic open archives (only peer-reviewed articles or any document related to scientific work?).

Viewed from Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa, these debates may seem very strange, if not incomprehensible. Above all, they appear very localized: they are debates of rich countries, of countries of the North, where basic questions such as the regular payment of a reasonable salary to academics, the existence of public funding for research, access to the web, electricity, well-stocked libraries and comfortable and safe workplaces have long been settled.” Piron et al. (2017)

… and their critique gets more and more scathing from here for the Open Access movement. OA advocates – tighten your seatbelts – you are not going to find this a comfortable ride.

“… a conception of open access that is limited to the legal and technical questions of the accessibility of science without thinking about the relationship between center and periphery can become a source of epistemic alienation and neocolonialism in the South”. Piron et al. (2017)

“Is open access the solution to the documented shortcomings of these African universities and, in doing so, a crucial means of getting scientific research off the ground? I would like to show that this is not the case, and to suggest that open access can instead become a neo-colonial tool by reinforcing the cognitive injustices that prevent African researchers from fully deploying their research capacities in the service of the community and sustainable local development of their country.” Piron (2017)

Ouch. To understand these concepts of ‘cognitive injustice’ and ‘epistemic alienation’, it helps to understand this ‘world system’ and the power relationship between the centre and the periphery. This is based on Wallerstein’s (1996) model, which Thomas featured in his OpenCon slides:

http://journalologik.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/thomas-768x432.png

“… a world-system whose market unit is the scientific publication circulating between many instances of high economic value, including universities, research centers, science policies, journals and an oligopoly of for-profit scientific publishers (Larivière, Haustein, and Mongeon, 2015).” Piron et al. (2017)

“… we believe that science, far from being universal, has been historically globalized. Inspiring us, like Keim (2010) and a few others (Polanco, 1990), from Wallerstein’s (1996) theory, we consider that it constitutes a world-system whose market unit is the scientific publication. Produced mainly in the North, this merchandise obeys standards and practices that are defined by the ‘center’ of the system, namely the main commercial scientific publishers (Larivière, Haustein, & Mongeon, 2015), and their university partners are the US and British universities dominating the so-called world rankings. The semi-periphery is constituted by all the other countries of the North or emerging from the South which revolve around this center, adopting the English language in science and conforming to the model LMD (license, master, doctorate) imposed since the Bologna process to all the universities of the world with the aim of “normalizing” and standardizing the functioning of this world-system. The periphery then refers to all the countries that are excluded from this system, which produce no or very few scientific publications or whose research work is invisible, but to whom the LMD model has also been imposed (Charlier, Croché, & Ndoye 2009, Hountondji 2001)”. Piron et al. (2017)

So, the continuing bias and global focus towards the powerful ‘center’ of the world-system leads to the epistemic alienation of those on the periphery, manifesting in a ‘spiritual colonisation’:

“… this attitude that drives us to want to think about local problems with Western perspective is a colonial legacy to which many African citizens hang like a ball.” Mboa (2016).

So where does Open Access fit in with this world-system?

“… if open access is to facilitate and accelerate the access of scientists from the South to Northern science without looking into the visibility of knowledge of the South, it helps to redouble their alienation epistemic without contributing to their emancipation. Indeed, by making the work of the center of the world-system of science even more accessible, open access maximizes their impact on the periphery and reinforces their use as a theoretical reference or as a normative model, to the detriment of local epistemologies.” Piron et al. (2017)

Rethinking Northern perspectives

This should be an eye-opening analysis for those of us who assumed that access to research knowledge in the North could only be a good thing for the South. Perhaps we need to examine the arrogance behind our narrow worldview, and consider more deeply the power at the heart of such a one-way knowledge exchange. Many of us might find this difficult, as:

“The idea that open access may have the effects of neocolonialism is incomprehensible to people blind to epistemological diversity, who reduce the proclaimed universalism of Western science to the impoverished model of the standards imposed by the Web of Science model. For these people, the invisibility of a publication in their numerical reference space (located in the center of the world-system) is equivalent to its non-existence. The idea that valid and relevant knowledge can exist in another form and independently of the world-system that fascinates them is unthinkable.” Piron et al. (2017)

Having spent a little time at scholarly publishing events in the Global North, I can attest that the mindset described above is common. There are kind thoughts (and a few breadcrumbs thrown in the form of grants and fellowships) towards those on the periphery, but it is very much in the mindset of helping those from the Global South ‘catch up’. Our mindset is very much as Piron describes here:

“If one sticks to the positivist view that “science” is universal – even if its “essence” is symbolized by the American magazine Science – then indeed African science, that is to say in Africa, is late, and we need to help it develop so that it looks more and more like the North”. Piron (2017)

And whilst in the North we may have a lot of respect for different cultural perspectives, genuine reciprocal exchanges of research knowledge are rare. We are supremely confident that our highly-developed scientific publishing model deserves to be at the centre of our system. This can lead to selective blindness about the rigorousness of our science and our indexed journals, in spite of the steady drip drip drip of reports of biased peer review, data fraud and other ethical violations in ‘high-impact’ Northern journals, exposed in places like retraction watch.

North/South research collaborations are rarely equitable – southern partners often complain of being used as data-gatherers rather than intellectual equals and partners in research projects, even when the research is being carried out in their own country.

“These [Northern] partners inevitably guide the problems and the methodological and epistemological choices of African researchers towards the only model they know and value, the one born at the center of the world-system of science – without questioning whether this model is relevant to Africa and its challenges”. Piron et al (2017).

These issues of inequity in collaborative relationships and publication practices seem inextricably linked, which is not surprising when the ultimate end goal of research is publishing papers in Northern journals, rather than actually solving Southern development challenges.

“In this context, open access may appear as a neocolonial tool, as it facilitates access by Southern researchers to Northern science without ensuring reciprocity. In doing so, it redoubles the epistemic alienation of these researchers instead of contributing to the emancipation of the knowledge created in the universities of the South by releasing them from their extraversion. Indeed, by making the work produced in the center of the world-system even more accessible, free access maximizes their impact on the periphery and reinforces their use as a theoretical reference or as a normative model, to the detriment of local epistemologies, which generates situations absurd as, for example, the use of a theoretical framework related to wage labor in the Paris region to analyze the work of women in northern Mali” Piron (2017)

“The resulting consequences are, in particular, the teachers of the Southern countries who quote and read only writers from the North and impose them on their students and the libraries of our universities who do everything to subscribe to Western scholarly journals while they do not deal with our problems. (Mboa Nkoudou, 2016 )”

This is also a striking example:

“It is very sad to note that geographers in Ouagadougou are more familiar with European work on the Sahel than those at the Higher Institute of Sahel in Maroua, Cameroon.” Piron (2017)

The lack of equity in research knowledge exchange and collaboration is also caused by another one-way North to South flow: funding. Research in the South is often dependent on foreign funding. Big Northern donors and funders therefore set the standards and agendas in research, and in how the entire research funding system works. Southern partners rarely get to set the agenda, and researchers rarely get to develop the research questions that guide the research. They have to learn to jump through administrative hoops to become credible in the eyes of the Northern donor (for more information see ‘Who drives research in developing countries?‘).

Southern institutions are also compelled, via league tables such as the World Unviersity Rankings, to play the same game as institutions in the North. Institutions are ranked against each other according to criteria set in the North, one of which is citations (of course, only citations between journals in the Web of Science or Scopus, which is overwhelmingly Northern). And so to stay ‘competitive’, Southern institutions need their researchers to publish in Northern journals with Northern language and agendas.
Northern agendas and local innovation

Whilst it is tempting to think that the issues and criticism described above is mostly a problem for the social sciences and humanities, there are also real issues in the ‘hard’ sciences – perhaps not so much in their epistemological foundations – but in very practical issues of Northern research agendas. For example, Northern research, being based in Europe and the US, is overwhelmingly biased towards white people, in diversity of leadership, diversity of researchers, and most importantly in the whiteness of clinical trial subjects. This is problematic because different ethnic populations have different genetic makeups and differences due to geography, that mean they respond differently to treatments (see here, here and here). Are African and Asian researchers informed of this when they read research from so-called ‘international’ journals?

Furthermore, these Northern agendas can also mean that research focuses on drugs, equipment and treatments that are simply not suitable for developing country contexts. I was reminded of a discussion comment recently made by a Pakistani surgeon on the Northern bias of systematic reviews:

“There is a definite bias in this approach as almost all of the guidelines and systematic reviews are based on the research carried out in high income countries and the findings and the recommendations have little relevance to the patients, health care system and many a time serve no purpose to the millions of patients based in low resourced countries. e.g. I routinely used Phenol blocks for spasticity management for my patients which were abandoned two decades ago in the West. Results are great, and the patients can afford this Rs 200 phenol instead of Rs 15,000 Botox vial. But, unfortunately, I am unable to locate a single systematic review on the efficacy of phenol as all published research in the last decade was only on the use of Botox in the management of spasticity.” Farooq Rathore (HIFA mailing list, 2016).

Similarly, I’ve read research papers from the South that report on innovative approaches to medical treatments and other problems that utilise lower-cost equipment and methodologies (in fact, as is argued here, research in low-resource environments can often be more efficient and innovative, containing many lessons we, in the North, could learn from). This point is also made by Piron et al:

“… the production of technical and social innovations is rich in Sub-Saharan French-speaking Africa, as evidenced by the high number of articles on this subject in the Sci-Dev magazine, specializing in science for development, or in the ecofin site, an economic information agency turned towards Africa. But these are mostly local innovations that mobilize local resources and often recycled materials to, for example, introduce electricity into a village, better irrigate fields or offer lighting after sunset. The aim of these innovations is to contribute to local development and not to the development of international markets, unlike innovations designed in the North which, while targeting the countries of the South, remain highly marketable – just think of milk powder or GMO seeds. The issue of open access to scientific publications is a very secondary issue for local innovators in such a context”. (Piron et al. 2016)

These examples of innovation aside, there are many cases where the ‘epistemic alienation’ described above leads to ‘the exclusion or contempt of local knowledge’ (Mboa, 2016), even amongst researchers in the global South.

“In fact, Western culture abundantly relayed in the media and textbooks is shown to be superior to other cultures. This situation is pushing Africans to multiply their efforts to reach the ideal of life of the “white”. This situation seems to block their ability to think locally, or even to be reactive. Thus, faced with a given situation specific to the African context, many are those who first draw on the resources of Western thinking to propose elements of answers.” Mboa (2016)

Free and open access as ‘showcasing products’

The Research4Life (R4L) programme also comes in for criticism from Piron et al. which will come as a shock to Northern publishing people who often use the ‘… but they’ve got Research4Life’ line when faced with evidence of global research inequalities.

“… while pretending to charitably provide university libraries in the Global South with free access to pre-defined packages of paid journals from the North, this program, set up by for-profit scientific publishers, maintains the dependence of these libraries, limits their understanding of the true network of open access publications and, above all, improves the market for the products sold by these publishers.” Piron et al (2017)

“… this program encourages the continued reliance of these libraries on an external program, designed in the North and showcasing Northern products, while it may disappear as soon as this philanthropic desire is exhausted or as soon as trading partners will not find any more benefits.”

Whilst I still think R4L is a great initiative (I know many researchers in the Global South who are very appreciative of the programme), it’s difficult to disagree with the conclusion that:

‘… this program mainly improves the opportunities of Northern publishers without contributing to the sustainable empowerment of university libraries in the South … this charity seems very hypocritical, let alone arbitrary, since it can stop at any time.” Piron (2017)

Of course, the same could be said of Article Processing Charge (APC) waivers for developing country authors. Waivers are currently offered by the majority of journals from the big publishers (provided according to the same HINARI list of countries provided by Research4Life), although sometimes you have to dig deep into the terms and conditions pages to find them. Waivers are good for publishers to showcase their corporate social responsibility and provide diversity of authorship. However, they are unsustainable – this charity is unlikely to last forever, especially as they rely on the pool of Southern authors being relatively limited. It should also be noted that developing countries with the most active, growing researcher communities such as Nigeria, South Africa and India do not qualify for either R4L access or APC waivers.

Speaking of APCs, something I observe regularly amongst Southern researchers is a confusion over the ‘Gold’ OA author-pays model, and this too is noted:

“In northern countries, many researchers, especially in STEM (Björk and Solomon, 2012) [ 7 ], believe (wrongly) that open access now means “publication fees charged to authors” … this commercial innovation appears to be paying off, as these costs appear to be natural to researchers.” Piron (2017)

This also appears to be paying off in the Global South – authors seem resigned to pay some kind of charge to publish, and it is common to have to point out to authors that over two-thirds of OA journals and 99% of subscription journals do not charge to publish (although, the rise of ‘predatory’ journals may have magnified this misunderstanding that pay-to-publish is the norm).

It may be tempting to think of these inequalities as an unfortunate historical accident, and that our attempts to help the Global South ‘catch up’ are just a little clumsy and patronising. However, Piron argues that this is no mere accident, but the result of colonial exploitation that still resonates in existing power structures today:

“Open access is then easily seen as a means of catching up, at least filling gaps in libraries and often outdated teaching […] Africa is considered as lagging behind the modern world, which would explain its underdevelopment, to summarize this sadly hegemonic conception of north-south relations. By charity, Northern countries then feel obliged to help, which feeds the entire industry surrounding development aid [….] this model of delay, violently imposed by the West on the rest of the world through colonization, has been used to justify the economic and cognitive exploitation (Connell, 2014) of colonized continents without which modernity could not have prospered.” Piron (2017)

To build the path or take the path?

Of course, the authors do admit that access to Northern research has a role to play in the Global South, provided the access is situated in local contexts:

“… African science should be an African knowledge, rooted in African contexts, that uses African epistemologies to answer African questions, while also using other knowledge from all over the world, including Western ones, if they are relevant locally.” Piron (2017)

However, the practical reality of Open Access for Southern researchers is often overstated. There is a crucial distinction between making content ‘open’ and providing the means to access that content. As Piron et al. 2017 say:

“To put a publication in open access: is it, to build the path (technical or legal) that leads to it, or is it to make it possible for people to take this path? This distinction is crucial to understand the difference in meaning of open access between the center and the periphery of the world-system of science, although only an awareness of the conditions of scientific research in the Southern countries makes it possible to visualize it, to perceive it.”

This crucial difference between availability and accessibility has also been explained by Anne Powell on Scholarly Kitchen. There are many complex barriers to ‘free’ and ‘open’ content actually being accessed and used. The most obvious of these barriers is internet connectivity, but librarian training, language and digital literacy also feature significantly:

“Finding relevant open access articles on the web requires digital skills that, as we have seen, are rare among Haitian and African students for whom the web sometimes comes via Facebook … Remember that it is almost always when they arrive at university that these students first touch a computer. The catching up is fast, but many reflexes acquired since the primary school in the countries of the North must be developed before even being able to imagine that there are open access scientific texts on the web to make up for the lack of documents in the libraries. In the words of the Haitian student Anderson Pierre, “a large part of the students do not know the existence of these resources or do not have the digital skills to access and exploit them in order to advance their research project”. Piron (2017)

Barriers to local knowledge exchange

Unfortunately, this is made even more difficult by resistance and misunderstanding of the internet and digital tools from senior leadership in Africa:

“Social representations of the web, science and copyright also come into play, especially among older academics, a phenomenon that undermines the appropriation of digital technologies at the basis of open access in universities.” Piron et al. (2017)

“To this idea that knowledge resides only in printed books is added a representation of the web which also has an impact on the local resistance to open access: our fieldwork has allowed us to understand that, for many African senior academics, the web is incompatible with science because it contains only documents or sites that are of low quality, frivolous or entertaining. These people infer that science in open access on the web is of lower quality than printed science and are very surprised when they learn that most of the journals of the world-system of science exist only in dematerialized format. … Unfortunately, these resistances slow down the digitization and the web dissemination of African scientific works, perpetuating these absurd situations where the researchers of the same field in neighboring universities do not know what each other is doing”. Piron et al. (2017)

This complaint about in-country communication from researchers in the South can be common, but there are signs that open access can make a difference – as an example, in Sri Lanka, I’ve spoken to researchers who say that communicating research findings within the country has always been a problem, but the online portal Sri Lanka Journals Online (currently 77 open access Sri Lankan journals) has started to improve this situation. This project was many years in the making, and has involved training journal editors and librarians in loading online content and improving editorial practices for open access. The same, of course, could be said for African Journals Online, which has potential to facilitate sharing on a larger scale.

Arguably, some forms of institutional resistance to openness in the Global South have a neocolonial influence – universities have largely borrowed and even intensified the Northern ‘publish or perish’ mantra which focuses the academic rewards system almost entirely on journal publications, often in northern-indexed journals, rather than on impact on real world development.

“The system of higher education and research in force in many African countries remains a remnant of colonization, perpetuated by the reproduction, year after year, of the same ideals and principles. This reproduction is assured not by the old colonizers but by our own political leaders who are perpetuating a system structured according to a classical partitioning that slows down any possible communication between researchers within the country or with the outside world, even worse between the university and the immediate environment. For the ruling class, the changes taking place in the world and the society’s needs seem to have no direct link to the university.” Mboa (2016)

Mboa calls this partitioning between researchers and outsiders as “a tight border between society and science”:

“African researchers are so attached to the ideal of neutrality of science and concern of its ‘purity’ that they consider contacts with ordinary citizens as ‘risks’ or threats and that they prefer to evolve in their ‘ivory tower’. On the other hand, ordinary citizens feel so diminished compared to researchers that to talk to them about their eventual involvement in research is a taboo subject …” Mboa (2016)

Uncolonising openness

So what is the answer to all these problems? Is it in building the skills of researchers and institutions or a complete change of philosophy?

“The colonial origin of African science (Mvé-Ondo, 2005) is certainly no stranger to this present subjugation of African science to northern research projects, nor to its tendency to imitate Western science without effort. Contextualization, particularly in the quasi-colonial structuring of sub-Saharan African universities (Fredua-Kwarteng, 2015) and in maintaining the use of a colonial language in university education. Considering this institutionalized epistemic alienation as yet another cognitive injustice, Mvé-Ondo wonders “how to move from a westernization of science to a truly shared science” (p.49) and calls for “epistemological mutation”, “rebirth”, modernizing “African science at the crossroads of local knowledge and northern science – perhaps echoing the call of Fanon (1962/2002) for a “new thinking” in the Third World countries, detached from European model, decolonized.” Piron et al. (2017)

For this to happen, open access must be about more than just access – but something much more holistic and equitable:

“Can decentralized, decolonised open access then contribute to creating more cognitive justice in global scientific production? Our answer is clear: yes, provided that it is not limited to the question of access for scientific and non-scientific readers to scientific publications. It must include the concern for origin, creation, local publishing and the desire to ensure equity between the accessibility of the publications of the center of the world system and that of knowledge from the periphery. It thus proposes to replace the normative universalism of globalized science with an inclusive universalism, open to the ecology of knowledges and capable of building an authentic knowledge commons (Gruson-Daniel, 2015; Le Crosnier, 2015), hospitable for the knowledge of the North and the South”. Piron et al. (2017)

Mboa sees the solution to this multifaceted problem in ‘open science’:

“[Cognitive injustice comes via] … endogenous causes (citizens and African leaders) and by exogenous causes (capitalism, colonization, the West). The knowledge of these causes allowed me to propose ways to prevent our downfall. Among these means, I convened open science as a tool available to our leaders and citizens for advancing cognitive justice. For although the causes are endogenous and exogenous, I believe that a wound heals from the inside outwards.” Mboa (2016).

Mboa explains how open science approaches can overcome some of these problems in this book chapter, but here he provides a short summary of the advantages of open science for African research:

“It’s a science that rejects the ivory tower and the separation between scientists and the rest of the population of the country. In short, it’s a science released from control by a universal capitalist standard, by hierarchical authority and by pre-established scientific classes. From this perspective, open science offers the following advantages:

it brings science closer to society;
it promotes fair and sustainable development;
it allows the expression of minority and / or marginalized groups, as well as their knowledge;
it promotes original, local and useful research in the country;
it facilitates access to a variety of scientific and technical information;
it is abundant, recent and up to date;
it develops digital skills;
it facilitates collaborative work;
it gives a better visibility to research work.

By aiming to benefit from these advantages, researchers and African students fight cognitive injustice. For this, open access science relies on open access, free licenses, free computing, and citizen science.” Mboa (2016).

But in order for open science to succeed, digital literacy must be rapidly improved to empower students and researchers in the South:

“Promoting inclusive access therefore requires engaging at the same time in a decolonial critique of the relationship between the center and the periphery and urging universities in the South to develop the digital literacy of their student or teacher members.” Piron et al. (2017)

It also requires improving production of scientific works (‘grey’ literature, as well as peer-reviewed papers) in the South for a two-way North/South conversation:

“Then, we propose to rethink the usual definition of open access to add the mandate to enhance the visibility of scientific work produced in universities in the South and thus contribute to greater cognitive justice in global scientific production.” Piron (2017)

And providing open access needs to be understood in context:

“… if we integrate the concern for the enhancement of the knowledge produced in the periphery and the awareness of all that hinders the creation of this knowledge, then open access can become a tool of cognitive justice at the service of the construction of an inclusive universalism peculiar to a just open science.” Piron, Diouf, Madiba (2017)

In summary then, we need to rethink the way that the global North seeks to support the South – a realignment of this relationship from mere access to empowerment through sustainable capacity building:

“Africa’s scientific development aid, if it is needed, should therefore be oriented much less towards immediate access to Northern publications and more to local development of tools and the strengthening of the digital skills of academics and librarians. These tools and skills would enable them not only to take advantage of open access databases, but also to digitize and put open access local scientific works in open archives, journals or research centers.” Piron (2017)

So what next?

Even if you disagree with many the above ideas, I hope that this has provided many of you with some food for thought. Open Access must surely be about more than just knowledge flow from North to South (or, for that matter the academy to the public, or well-funded researchers to poorly funded researchers). Those on the periphery must also be given a significant voice and a place at the table. For this to happen, many researchers (and their equivalents outside academia) need training and support in digital skills; some institutional barriers also need to be removed or overcome; and of course a few cherished, long-held ideas must be seriously challenged.

“These injustices denote anything that diminishes the capacity of academics in these countries to deploy the full potential of their intellectual talents, their knowledge and their capacity for scientific research to serve their country’s sustainable local development”. Piron et al., (2016).

What do you think…?

▻http://journalologik.uk/?p=149
#édition_scientifique #OA #open_access #Afrique #Afrique_francophone #décolonisation #post-colonialisme

Russian biologist plans more CRISPR-edited babies
▻https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01770-x

https://media.nature.com/lw1024/magazine-assets/d41586-019-01770-x/d41586-019-01770-x_16776064.jpg

Je n’ai pas réussi à extraire une simple partie de ce texte, tant l’ensemble me semble complètement hors-jeu. Je partage l’avis de l’auteur de l’article : la folie et l’hubris scientifiques se serrent la main dans le dos de l’humanité. Choisir de surcroit des femmes en difficulté (HIV positive) est bien dans la lignée machiste d’une science qui impose plus qu’elle ne propose.

La guerre internationale à la réputation, la course à « être le premier » (ici le masculin s’impose), la science sans conscience ne peuvent que provoquer ce genre de dérives. Il faudra réfléchir à une « slow science » et à un réel partage des découvertes, qui permettrait de prendre le temps du recul, et qui pourrait associer la société civile (ici au sens de celle qui n’est pas engagée dans la guerre des sciences).

The proposal follows a Chinese scientist who claimed to have created twins from edited embryos last year.
David Cyranoski

Denis Rebrikov

Molecular biologist Denis Rebrikov is planning controversial gene-editing experiments in HIV-positive women.

A Russian scientist says he is planning to produce gene-edited babies, an act that would make him only the second person known to have done this. It would also fly in the face of the scientific consensus that such experiments should be banned until an international ethical framework has agreed on the circumstances and safety measures that would justify them.

Molecular biologist Denis Rebrikov has told Nature he is considering implanting gene-edited embryos into women, possibly before the end of the year if he can get approval by then. Chinese scientist He Jiankui prompted an international outcry when he announced last November that he had made the world’s first gene-edited babies — twin girls.

The experiment will target the same gene, called CCR5, that He did, but Rebrikov claims his technique will offer greater benefits, pose fewer risks and be more ethically justifiable and acceptable to the public. Rebrikov plans to disable the gene, which encodes a protein that allows HIV to enter cells, in embryos that will be implanted into HIV-positive mothers, reducing the risk of them passing on the virus to the baby in utero. By contrast, He modified the gene in embryos created from fathers with HIV, which many geneticists said provided little clinical benefit because the risk of a father passing on HIV to his children is minimal.

Rebrikov heads a genome-editing laboratory at Russia’s largest fertility clinic, the Kulakov National Medical Research Center for Obstetrics, Gynecology and Perinatology in Moscow and is a researcher at the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, also in Moscow.

According to Rebrikov he already has an agreement with an HIV centre in the city to recruit women infected with HIV who want to take part in the experiment.

But scientists and bioethicists contacted by Nature are troubled by Rebrikov’s plans.

“The technology is not ready,” says Jennifer Doudna, a University of California Berkeley molecular biologist who pioneered the CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing system that Rebrikov plans to use. “It is not surprising, but it is very disappointing and unsettling.”

Alta Charo, a researcher in bioethics and law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison says Rebrikov’s plans are not an ethical use of the technology. “It is irresponsible to proceed with this protocol at this time,” adds Charo, who sits on a World Health Organization committee that is formulating ethical governance policies for human genome editing.
Rules and regulations

Implanting gene-edited embryos is banned in many countries. Russia has a law that prohibits genetic engineering in most circumstances, but it is unclear whether or how the rules would be enforced in relation to gene editing in an embryo. And Russia’s regulations on assisted reproduction do not explicitly refer to gene editing, according to a 2017 analysis of such regulations in a range of countries. (The law in China is also ambiguous: in 2003, the health ministry banned genetically modifying human embryos for reproduction but the ban carried no penalties and He’s legal status was and still is not clear).

Rebrikov expects the health ministry to clarify the rules on the clinical use of gene-editing of embryos in the next nine months. Rebrikov says he feels a sense of urgency to help women with HIV, and is tempted to proceed with his experiments even before Russia hashes out regulations.

To reduce the chance he would be punished for the experiments, Rebrikov plans to first seek approval from three government agencies, including the health ministry. That could take anywhere from one month to two years, he says.

Konstantin Severinov, a molecular geneticist who recently helped the government design a funding program for gene-editing research, says such approvals might be difficult. Russia’s powerful Orthodox church opposes gene editing, says Severinov, who splits his time between Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, and the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology near Moscow.

Before any scientist attempts to implant gene-edited embryos into women there needs to be a transparent, open debate about the scientific feasibility and ethical permissibility, says geneticist George Daley at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, who also heard about Rebrikov’s plans from Nature.

One reason that gene-edited embryos have created a huge global debate is that, if allowed to grow into babies, the edits can be passed on to future generations — a far-reaching intervention known as altering the germ line. Researchers agree that the technology might, one day, help to eliminate genetic diseases such as sickle-cell anaemia and cystic fibrosis, but much more testing is needed before it is used in the alteration of human beings.

In the wake of He’s announcement, many scientists renewed calls for an international moratorium on germline editing. Although that has yet to happen, the World Health Organization, the US National Academy of Sciences, the UK’s Royal Society and other prominent organizations have all discussed how to stop unethical and dangerous uses — often defined as ones that pose unnecessary or excessive risk — of genome editing in humans.
HIV-positive mothers

Although He was widely criticized for conducting his experiments using sperm from HIV-positive fathers, his argument was that he just wanted to protect people against ever getting the infection. But scientists and ethicists countered that there are other ways to decrease the risk of infection, such as contraceptives. There are also reasonable alternatives, such as drugs, for preventing maternal transmission of HIV, says Charo.

Rebrikov agrees, and so plans to implant embryos only into a subset of HIV-positive mothers who do not respond to standard anti-HIV drugs. Their risk of transmitting the infection to the child is higher. If editing successfully disables the CCR5 gene, that risk would be greatly reduced, Rebrikov says. “This is a clinical situation which calls for this type of therapy,” he says.

Most scientists say there is no justification for editing the CCR5 gene in embryos, even so, because the risks don’t outweigh the benefits. Even if the therapy goes as planned, and both copies of the CCR5 gene in cells are disabled, there is still a chance that such babies could become infected with HIV. The cell-surface protein encoded by CCR5 is thought to be the gateway for some 90% of HIV infections, but getting rid of it won’t affect other routes of HIV infection. There are still many unknowns about the safety of gene editing in embryos, says Gaetan Burgio at the Australian National University in Canberra. And what are the benefits of editing this gene, he asks. “I don’t see them.”
Hitting the target

There are also concerns about the safety of gene editing in embryos more generally. Rebrikov claims that his experiment — which, like He’s, will use the CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing tool — will be safe.

One big concern with He’s experiment — and with gene-editing in embryos more generally — is that CRISPR-Cas9 can cause unintended ‘off-target’ mutations away from the target gene, and that these could be dangerous if they, for instance, switched off a tumour-suppressor gene. But Rebrikov says that he is developing a technique that can ensure that there are no ‘off-target’ mutations; he plans to post preliminary findings online within a month, possibly on bioRxiv or in a peer-reviewed journal.

Scientists contacted by Nature were sceptical that such assurances could be made about off-target mutations, or about another known challenge of using CRISPR-Cas 9 — so-called ‘on-target mutations’, in which the correct gene is edited, but not in the way intended.

Rebrikov writes, in a paper published last year in the Bulletin of the RSMU, of which he is the editor in chief, that his technique disables both copies of the CCR5 gene (by deleting a section of 32 bases) more than 50% of the time. He says publishing in this journal was not a conflict of interest because reviewers and editors are blinded to a paper’s authors.

But Doudna is sceptical of those results. “The data I have seen say it’s not that easy to control the way the DNA repair works.” Burgio, too, thinks that the edits probably led to other deletions or insertions that are difficult to detect, as is often the case with gene editing.

Misplaced edits could mean that the gene isn’t properly disabled, and so the cell is still accessible to HIV, or that the mutated gene could function in a completely different and unpredictable way. “It can be a real mess,” says Burgio.

What’s more, the unmutated CCR5 has many functions that are not yet well understood, but which offer some benefits, say scientists critical of Rebrikov’s plans. For instance, it seems to offer some protection against major complications following infection by the West Nile virus or influenza. “We know a lot about its [CCR5’s] role in HIV entry [to cells], but we don’t know much about its other effects,” says Burgio. A study published last week also suggested that people without a working copy of CCR5 might have a shortened lifespan.

Rebrikov understands that if he proceeds with his experiment before Russia’s updated regulations are in place, he might be considered a second He Jiankui. But he says he would only do so if he’s sure of the safety of the procedure. “I think I’m crazy enough to do it,” he says.

Nature 570, 145-146 (2019)
doi: 10.1038/d41586-019-01770-x

Coyote et Waze bientôt interdits de signaler les contrôles routiers ? (Le Figaro)
▻https://www.crashdebug.fr/informatik/93-securite/16107-coyote-et-waze-bientot-interdits-de-signaler-les-controles-routiers

Un avertisseur Coyote. - Crédits photo : DENIS CHARLET/AFP

Un amendement de la loi mobilités, soutenu par la majorité LREM, prévoit de bloquer les avertisseurs en cas de contrôle routier, d’enlèvement ou d’attentat. Une proposition déjà dénoncée par policiers et automobilistes.

Estampillée « boîte à outils » par le gouvernement, la loi d’orientation des mobilités (LOM) comporte bien des surprises. Elle pourrait même contenir bientôt... la cape d’invisibilité d’Harry Potter. Le nom du célèbre sorcier est utilisé depuis un an et demi pour nommer un projet de décret de la Sécurité routière qui permettrait de rendre les policiers invisibles sur les applications comme Waze, Coyote ou TomTom. L’idée : donner aux forces de l’ordre le pouvoir de bloquer, sur une zone donnée, ces modules de plus en plus utilisés par la (...)

En Seine-Saint-Denis, les services publics à la merci de la fracture numérique | Rémi Simonet
▻https://www.bondyblog.fr/enquete/en-seine-saint-denis-les-services-publics-la-merci-de-la-fracture-numeriqu

Ces dernières années, de nombreux habitants de Seine-Saint-Denis se heurtent à une dématérialisation massive des services publics. Dans le département le plus pauvre de France, les travailleurs sociaux s’alarment d’une fracture numérique qui risque de creuser davantage les inégalités sociales. Une enquête du Bondy Blog pour Médiapart. Source : Bondy Blog

N’oubliez pas : ce week-end, c’est la traditionnelle fête de LO. La plus grande fête d’extrême-gauche au monde ! ?

https://journal.lutte-ouvriere.org/sites/default/files/styles/journal_article_small/public/journal/images/Fe_te_2012_K_72.JPG?itok=p9xIVIFJ

https://medias.liberation.fr/photo/1123400-lutte-ouvriere.jpg?modified_at=1527003853&width=960

La fête se déroule dans un grand parc boisé de plusieurs hectares, à Presles, petite ville du Val-d’Oise, à 30 km au nord de Paris, entre L’Isle-Adam et Beaumont.

15 € pour les 3 jours. L’entrée est gratuite pour les enfants de moins de 14 ans accompagnés.

La gare ? de Presles-Courcelles (ligne H) est à 900 m de la fête. Départ : toutes les heures de Paris-Gare du Nord à partir de 6 h 34 (durée : 38 minutes).
Retour : toutes les heures de la gare de Presles vers Paris de 5 h 47 à 23 h 47.
Un minibus fait la navette de la gare de Presles à l’entrée de la Fête (priorité aux personnes à mobilité réduite).

Des bus ? font la navette entre la sortie du métro Saint-Denis-Université (terminus de la ligne 13) et l’entrée de la fête. Ils circuleront les trois jours pendant les mêmes horaires que la fête, avec un départ toutes les 20 mn environ, et le retour est toujours garanti ! Durée du trajet : 45 à 60 minutes.

Pour vous faire une idée du programme des festivités (débats, concerts, librairies, etc.), 2 liens :

 ?Le site de la fête ►https://fete.lutte-ouvriere.org

 ?►https://journal.lutte-ouvriere.org > le pdf avec le plan de la fête (en pages centrales) : ▻https://journal.lutte-ouvriere.org/sites/default/files/journal/pdf/LO2652.pdf ?

#fete_de_LO #feteLO #fetelo2019 #meetings #debats #concerts #fraternite #extreme_gauche #communisme #communiste_revolutionnaire

#Bagnolet (93) : appel à soutien après l’expulsion de l’ex-Transfo
▻https://fr.squat.net/2019/06/03/bagnolet-93-appel-a-soutien-apres-lexpulsion-de-lex-transfo

Les occupants de l’ancien #Transfo ont été expulsés aujourd’hui, lundi 3 juin 2019. Plusieurs sont actuellement au commissariat. En fonction de l’évolution de la situation, un appel à soutien au TGI de #Bobigny à 13h, ou à un #rassemblement devant le commissariat des Lilas à 18h sera relayé mardi matin. Depuis quelques jours, une trentaine […]

#expulsion #Les_Lilas #sans-papiers #Seine-Saint-Denis

#Bagnolet (93) : solidarité avec le nouveau squat du 57 av. de la République
▻https://fr.squat.net/2019/06/02/bagnolet-93-solidarite-avec-le-nouveau-squat-du-57-av-de-la-republique

Depuis 6h30 ce dimanche 2 juin, la police bloque l’entrée d’un nouveau squat occupé par un collectif de jeunes tchadiens, au 57 avenue de la République, à Bagnolet. Ce bâtiment est vide depuis l’automne 2014, précisément depuis le 23 octobre 2014, jour de l’expulsion du squat d’habitation et d’activités le #Transfo. À l’époque, il avait […]

#rassemblement #sans-papiers #Seine-Saint-Denis

Derrida et le féminisme, note de lecture fugace avant la poubelle

Derrida... Qu’est-ce qu’il fout encore dans ma bibliothèque, celui-là ? Il a échappé au dernier grand ménage des bibelots, celui de 2015, ce « éperons sur les styles de Nietzsche ». « Epérons »... Quelle vanité...
Derrida, j’aurai passé mon adolescence, puis mon jeune âge adulte, à le lire docilement, à trouver mille excuses à son indécrottable heideggerianisme, à sa satisfaction « littéraire » (bon sang qu’il y croit, à la littérature, au point d’y articuler toute la lecture possible) et l’autosatisfaction qui en découle (Derrida est toujours assis sur l’épaule de Derrida pour l’encourage à phraser juste, à fond du truc), à pardonner sa ridicule dévotion du poétisme au petit pied (j’ai souvent soupçonné les heideggeriens français de ne succomber qu’à la ligne poétique niaise et si vite contente d’elle des traductions locale de toutes ces bêtises. Il sont pénétrés. Heidegger, c’est pénétrant. D’où la conclusion hâtive qu’on irait profond. Mais pas. Pense-t-on : un philopoète. Quincaillerie qui conduit à l’étrange docilité analogique de trouver plausible le Nietzsche - autre philopoète autrement inouï, lui - de la bûche à moustaches de la Forêt Noire). Aujourd’hui, je suis un grand garçon, j’ai plus besoin de penser avec papa, de trouver du génie à tout ce qui a constitué le socle de l’admiration de mes pairs, de mes aînés. Je supporte sans problème qu’on me trouve con, rapide, infect, miteux, ingrat, et de déclarer sans plus jamais allonger la phrase : ce truc, c’est vraiment de la merde. C’est tout ? Oui, c’est tout. C’est fini. Je cause plus. J’ai passer ma vie à causer, y’a des trucs c’est fini. j’ai arrêté depuis longtemps d’ouvrir la porte aux témoins de Jehovah pour « discuter ». Faut vraiment avoir pas peur de la mort pour passer du temps à discuter avec un témoin de Jehovah. Désormais, c’est l’urgence de chaque minute, adieu aux bavardages. Tu trouves que Heidegger a du sens ? Salut. Non non, on va pas causer. C’est fini, j’y vais, là. Derrida ? Tant pis. Toutes ces années passées à penser intelligemment des grosses conneries...
Pourquoi je dis ça ? Ah bin oui, parce que fatalement, quand je balance des livres, je lis une dernière fois quelques pages, pour voir, pour essayer de comprendre pourquoi c’était là, chez moi, dans ma bibliothèque, par quoi ça s’était imposé à moi etc. Derrida, je suppose que c’est juste la famille intellectuelle, l’entourage, il était là avec le paquet des autres, comme une évidence dans l’idée qu’on pouvait se faire au début des années 80 de « ce qui compte ». J’en ai gardé certains - Lyotard, Oury, Deleuze, Denis Roche, etc. - et balancé d’autres (je dis rien, vous iriez chercher, et peut-être vous aimeriez, et je serais responsable de votre noyade, et je peux pas assumer). Donc, je remet le nez dans ces « couteaux à beurre sur Nietzsche », et qu’est-ce que je lis ? Hé bien ça (que je partage, je résiste pas). J’ai lu ça, j’ai aimé ça. J’ai sans aucun doute même acquiescé à tout ça (j’était un très sale con mysogyne, comme à peu près tout mon entourage intellectuel, opiniatrement, théoriquement, aveuglément). Mais je me soigne. Lentement. Patiemment.

La « femme » s’intéresse alors si peu à la vérité, elle y croit si peu que la vérité à son propre sujet ne la concerne même plus.
C’est 1’ « homme » qui croit que son dis­cours sur la femme ou sur la vérité concerne — telle est la question topographique que j’esquissais, qui s’esquivait aussi, comme toujours, tout à l’heure, quant au contour indécidable de la castration — la femme. La circonvient.
C’est 1’ « homme » qui croit à la vérité de la femme, à la femme-vérité.
Et en vérité les femmes féministes contre lesquelles Nietzsche multiplie le sarcasme, ce sont les hommes.
Le féminisme, c’est l’opération par la­quelle la femme veut ressembler à l’homme, au philosophe dogmatique, revendiquant la vérité, la science, l’objectivité, c’est-à-dire avec toute l’illusion virile, l’effet de castration qui s’y attache.
Le féminisme veut la castration — aussi de la femme. Perd le style.
Nietzsche dénonce bien, dans le fémi­nisme, la faute de style : « N’est-il pas du plus mauvais goût que la femme s’apprête à devenir savante (scientifique : wissen-schaftlich) ? Jusqu’à présent par bonheur,
expliquer (Aufklären) était l’affaire des hommes, le don des hommes (Männer-Sache, Mànner-Gabe) — on restait donc ’ entre soi ’ (’ unter sich ’). » (Jenseits, 232, cf. aussi 233.)
Il est vrai qu’ailleurs (206) — mais ce n’est pas du tout contradictoire —, l’homme de science médiocre, celui qui ne crée pas, qui n’enfante pas, celui qui se contente en somme d’avoir la science à la bouche, dont « l’œil est alors pareil à un lac uni et maus­sade » mais peut aussi devenir « œil de lynx pour les faiblesses des êtres supérieurs auxquels il ne peut s’égaler », cet homme de science stérile est comparé à une vieille fille.
Nietzsche, on peut le vérifier partout, c’est le penseur de la grossesse. Qu’il loue chez l’homme non moins que chez la femme. Et comme il pleurait facilement, comme il lui est arrivé de parler de sa pensée comme une femme enceinte de son enfant, je l’imagine souvent versant des larmes sur son ventre.

Derrida - Eperons, sur les styles de Nietzsche

#derrida #féminisme

#Bagnolet (93) : occupation de l’ex-Transfo par un collectif de jeunes tchadiens
▻https://fr.squat.net/2019/06/02/bagnolet-93-occupation-de-lex-transfo-par-un-collectif-de-jeunes-tchadiens

UPDATE, 2 JUIN À 12h10 : les flics sont entrés dans le bâtiment. Venez en solidarité ! Depuis ce matin, dimanche 2 juin 2019, l’occupation de l’ex-Transfo par un collectif de jeunes tchadiens a été rendue publique. Situé au 57 avenue de la République à Bagnolet, le #Transfo avait été squatté entre novembre 2012 et octobre […]

#ouverture #réoccupation #sans-papiers #Seine-Saint-Denis

Statistiques de la conférence de presse des organisations syriennes et de la défense civile aujourd’hui sur les résultats de la récente campagne sur les zones libérées, #Idlib :
- 600 victimes
- 5 marchés populaires ciblés
- 22 installations médicales ont été détruites
- La fermeture de 55 établissements médicaux
- Utilisation de chlore à Canibiet
- 80 enfants tués
- 50 écoles ciblées
- 45 000 enfants sont sortis de l’éducation
Déplacés 307 000 plus de 50 000 familles
- 27 mosquées détruits
- Destruction de 9 fours de production du pain
- Brûler des cultures avec du Phosphore

#guerre #conflit #victimes #statistiques #chiffres #phosphore #armes_chimiques Canibiet #destruction #écoles #enfants #déscolarisation #morts #décès

Reçu d’un ami réfugié syrien qui vit à Grenoble, via whatsapp, le 01.06.2019

Dans les quartiers populaires, les services publics à la merci de la fracture numérique
▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/010619/dans-les-quartiers-populaires-les-services-publics-la-merci-de-la-fracture

Ces dernières années, de nombreux habitants de Seine-Saint-Denis se heurtent à une dématérialisation massive des services publics. Dans le département le plus pauvre de France, les travailleurs sociaux s’alarment d’une fracture numérique qui risque de creuser davantage les inégalités sociales.

#INTERNET #fracture_numérique,_services_publics,_Seine-Saint-Denis

https://static.mediapart.fr/etmagine/default/files/2019/05/31/img-1430.jpg

Dans les quartiers populaires, la fracture numérique éloigne les services publics
▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/010619/dans-les-quartiers-populaires-la-fracture-numerique-eloigne-les-services-p

Ces dernières années, de nombreux habitants de Seine-Saint-Denis se heurtent à une dématérialisation massive des services publics. Dans le département le plus pauvre de France, les travailleurs sociaux s’alarment d’une fracture numérique qui risque de creuser davantage les inégalités sociales.

#INTERNET #fracture_numérique,_Seine-Saint-Denis,_services_publics

https://static.mediapart.fr/etmagine/default/files/2019/05/31/img-1430.jpg

Avortement : au tour de la Louisiane de restreindre l’IVG | Slate.fr
▻http://www.slate.fr/story/177858/loi-anti-avortement-louisiane-etats-unis-democrates

Ces derniers mois, les lois visant à restreindre l’avortement se sont multipliées dans le Sud des États-Unis. C’est désormais en Louisiane que la Chambre des représentants vient d’adopter une loi interdisant l’avortement dès lors que les premiers battements du cœur de l’embryon peuvent être repérés. Cela revient à interdire l’IVG au-delà de la sixième semaine de grossesse, moment où les battements de cœur commencent généralement à être décelables.
Une loi portée par des démocrates

Adopté à 79 pour et 23 contre dans une Chambre contrôlée par les républicains, le projet de loi a cependant été écrit par un sénateur démocrate et a reçu le soutien du gouverneur John Bel Edwards, autre démocrate candidat à la réélection en cette saison législative. Cette configuration est assez nouvelle, les opposants aux lois restrictives sur l’avortement trouvant habituellement leurs soutiens politiques chez les démocrates, depuis que leur parti avait adopté dans les années 1990 un slogan pour un avortement « sûr, légal et rare ».

Le gouverneur Edwards a cependant un engagement de longue date contre l’avortement, qui avait déjà été un thème mis en avant dans sa précédente campagne de 2015.

À LIRE AUSSI Voici ce qui arrive concrètement lorsqu’un pays interdit l’avortement

C. Denise Marcelle, démocrate membre de la Chambre des représentants a déclaré qu’« il devrait être inadmissible que nous restions assis ici à dicter quoi faire avec le corps d’une femme ».

Le vote a pourtant eu lieu ce mercredi 29 mai, alors qu’une série d’amendements visant à établir des exceptions en cas de viol ou d’inceste ont été rejetés. Seules les femmes présentant un « risque grave » de santé seraient susceptibles d’être autorisées à avorter au-delà de la détection d’un rythme cardiaque fœtal. Les médecins qui pratiqueraient tout de même des avortements risqueraient deux ans de prison.

À LIRE AUSSI Dans l’État de Géorgie, avorter après six semaines de grossesse c’est risquer la prison. Ou la peine de mort
Vers une contestation du Roe v. Wade ?

Les détracteurs du droit à l’avortement espèrent que la vague législative de restriction de l’IVG qui a gagné l’Alabama, la Géorgie, le Kentucky, le Mississippi, le Missouri et l’Ohio, permettra de revenir sur le droit constitutionnel à l’avortement entériné par le Roe v. Wade en 1973, en portant l’affaire devant la Cour suprême.

La loi doit entrer en vigueur en novembre prochain, mais sera contestée par les mouvements de défense des droits civiques.

Au Mississipi, un juge de la Cour fédérale de district a récemment bloqué une loi similaire qui devait entrer en vigueur au premier juillet, estimant qu’elle « empêchait le libre choix d’une femme, qui est essentiel à la dignité et à l’autonomie d’une personne ». Dans l’Arkansas, le Kentucky, l’Iowa et le Dakota du Nord, l’application ce type de loi a également été empêchée, en dépit de l’avis favorable des gouverneurs.

À LIRE AUSSI Je me souviens très bien du comportement de Brett Kavanaugh lorsqu’il buvait

La nomination à la Cour suprême du juge Brett M. Kavanaugh par le président Donald Trump en octobre 2018 a cependant donné une majorité conservatrice à la Cour suprême, ce sur quoi misent les dits « pro-life » pour revenir sur la jurisprudence concernant le droit à l’avortement.

L’initiatrice de #Balancetonporc jugée pour diffamation
▻https://www.liberation.fr/france/2019/05/28/l-initiatrice-de-balancetonporc-jugee-pour-diffamation_1730223

C’était le 13 octobre 2017. Une semaine après l’explosif hashtag #MyHarveyWeinstein, deux jours avant la déferlante #MeToo. Ce jour-là, Sandra Muller, journaliste française installée à New York, lâche sur son compte Twitter : « #Balancetonporc ! Toi aussi raconte en donnant le nom et les détails d’un harcèlement sexuel que tu as connu dans ton boulot. Je vous attends. » Puis, quelques heures plus tard : « Tu as des gros seins. Tu es mon type de femme. Je vais te faire jouir toute la nuit. Eric Brion, ex-patron de Equidia. #Balancetonporc. » Son second message est rediffusé plus de 2 500 fois. Sandra Muller ne le sait pas encore, mais elle vient de créer ce qui deviendra l’emblème de la libération de la parole des femmes victimes de violences sexistes et sexuelles.

Un an et demi plus tard, la voilà poursuivie pour diffamation par l’homme qu’elle avait accusé. Eric Brion l’attaque pour s’offrir « l’occasion de se défendre devant un vrai tribunal » comme l’explique à Libération son avocate Marie Burguburu. Ce mercredi, la créatrice de #Balancetonporc sera jugée devant la 17e chambre civile du tribunal de grande instance de Paris.

A l’époque de la tornade médiatique, l’homme mis en cause par Sandra Muller avait préféré garder le silence, avant de faire le choix de s’exprimer, deux mois plus tard, dans une tribune publiée par le journal le Monde pour réclamer « le droit à la vérité et à la nuance » et présenter ses excuses. « J’ai effectivement tenu des propos déplacés envers Sandra Muller, lors d’un cocktail arrosé très tard dans une soirée, mais à une seule reprise. Elle me plaisait. Je le lui ai dit, lourdement. Et une seule fois, je tiens à le préciser. Je ne veux certainement pas me disculper de ma goujaterie d’alors. Je lui réitère ici mes excuses. » Aujourd’hui, le plaignant réclame 50 000 euros de dommages et intérêts et la suppression du tweet dans lequel son nom apparaît. « #Balancetonporc est un appel à la délation et c’est une délation mensongère », insiste maître Burguburu.

« Quelle mouche a piqué M. Brion pour qu’il change à ce point de stratégie ? » s’offusque de son côté Francis Szpiner, l’un des avocats de Sandra Muller, contacté par Libération. « M. Brion a reconnu avoir eu un comportement grossier et blâmable envers ma cliente. Au lieu de se faire discret, il l’attaque en justice. Ce procès est une "baupinade" ! » « Baupinade » en référence à Denis Baupin, l’ancien député écologiste qui avait décidé d’attaquer en diffamation six femmes l’accusant de harcèlement et d’agressions sexuelles. Et qui avait perdu en avril.

Elections europeenne 2019 Fr

Abstention : 48,7%
RN (ex-FN) : 11,9%
LREM : 11,2%
EELV : 6,6%
LR (ex-UMP) : 4.3%
FI : 3,4%
PS : 3,4%

Via le Groupe J. P. Vernant @gjpvernant sur twitter : ▻https://twitter.com/Gjpvernant/status/1132716306803974144

Le Média : Denis Robert n’exclut pas de licencier Aude Lancelin pour faute lourde
▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/250519/le-media-denis-robert-n-exclut-pas-de-licencier-aude-lancelin-pour-faute-l

Créé par des proches de La France insoumise, Le Média connaît une nouvelle crise : fraîchement nommé directeur de la web-télé, le journaliste Denis Robert pourrait décider de licencier pour faute lourde Aude Lancelin qui occupait avant lui cette fonction. Il assure que « rien n’est décidé encore ». « Plusieurs hypothèses sont à l’étude, dont celle-là », dit-il.

#Confidentiel #Le_Média,_Aude_Lancelin,_sophia_Chikirou,_Denis_Robert

Le Média : Denis Robert n’exclut pas de licencier Aude Lancelin pour faute lourde
▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/250519/le-media-denis-robert-nexclut-pas-de-licencier-aude-lancelin-pour-faute-lo

Créé par des proches de La France insoumise, Le Média connaît une nouvelle crise : fraîchement nommé directeur de la web-télé, le journaliste Denis Robert pourrait décider de licencier pour faute lourde Aude Lancelin qui occupait avant lui cette fonction. Il assure que « rien n’est décidé encore ». « Plusieurs hypothèses sont à l’étude, dont celle-là », dit-il.

#Confidentiel #sophia_Chikirou,_Le_Média,_Aude_Lancelin,_Denis_Robert

LA FACE CACHÉE DU SYSTÈME MACRON - MARC ENDEWELD

Il faut écouter ou réécouter Marc Endeweld, vraiment très très bien.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FGHlHiFq8Y

Denis Robert a reçu Marc Endeweld, qui vient de publier « Le Grand Manipulateur : les réseaux secrets de Macron ».

Un débat entre Étienne Chouard et moi pour « Le Média » ? – Blog YY
▻http://blogyy.net/2019/05/23/un-debat-entre-etienne-chouard-et-moi-pour-le-media

Incroyable :
– alors que mon seul tort est de ne pas encore avoir répondu à son texto reçu hier après-midi ;
– alors que j’ai pris soin de lui adresser en privé ma critique de son choix d’inviter Chouard 48 heures plus tôt (personne d’autre que lui ne l’a lue) ;
– alors que je fus l’un de ses soutiens à l’époque de l’affaire Clearstream il y a quelques années ;
– alors que je ne me suis jamais permis de l’insulter,
je découvre ce matin un torrent d’insultes de Denis Robert à mon encontre et à l’encontre de Jean-Jacques Rue sur le profil Facebook de ce dernier.

Denis Robert prend le soin de me taguer pour attirer mon attention et écrit :
« J’ai fait ce que toi et tes copains confortablement installés dans leur posture d’antifas besogneux n’ont jamais fait et devraient faire s’ils avaient des neurones et des couilles (je pense là à ton pote Yannis Youlountas) : allez voir la bête immonde, parlez-lui, vérifiez avant d’hurler. J’ai proposé à Yannis de se confronter à Chouard publiquement et n’ai eu aucune réponse. Vous pouvez avoir des qualités d’un côté (gros travail de Yannis sur la Grèce, de toi à St-Ouen). Pour le reste vous êtes des parleurs, des blablateurs de réseaux In fine, des sans coquilles. »

De nouvelles insultes virilistes et anti-antifa provenant du fondateur d’Égalité & Réconciliation ? Non, elles proviennent du nouveau directeur du Média.

Je préfère ne pas épiloguer ni répondre à ces insultes. Je me doute que Jean-Jacques a sans doute été rude dans sa déception, lui qui avait beaucoup soutenu Denis Robert il y a quelques années, mais pourquoi ce dernier m’a t-il insulté, moi aussi, ainsi que les antifas en général ?

« En mutiler un pour en terroriser mille »
Documentaire inédit par StreetPress : Gilets Jaunes, une répression d’État
►https://www.streetpress.com/sujet/1558444107-documentaire-gilets-jaunes-une-repression-etat
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MjuoDpKLfI

Depuis six mois une répression inédite s’abat sur le mouvement des Gilets jaunes. À travers les témoignages de blessés, spécialistes et militants, le documentaire inédit de StreetPress décrypte les dérives du maintien de l’ordre.

La réponse policière et judiciaire au mouvement social des Gilets jaunes est un fait politique majeur. Rarement un mouvement social n’a été autant réprimé. Les chiffres officiels, forcément parcellaires, donnent le tournis : 3.830 blessés, 8.700 gardés à vue, 13.460 tirs de LBD 40 et 1.428 tirs de grenades lacrymogènes instantanées explosives selon le ministère de l’Intérieur.

Dans ce documentaire inédit, StreetPress décrypte le tournant opéré dans la stratégie de maintien de l’ordre grâce aux témoignages de blessés, de militants, de sociologues, de journalistes, d’un avocat, d’un policier et d’un ancien ministre de l’Intérieur. Une politique de gestion des foules en gestation depuis près de 50 ans dans les quartiers populaires, les ZAD et aux abords des stades.

Un film de Cléo Bertet, Matthieu Bidan et Mathieu Molard, avec la participation de (par ordre d’apparition) Vanessa Langard, Gilet jaune blessée, collectif des mutilés pour l’exemple – Pierre Douillard, doctorant en sociologie urbaine, auteur du livre L’arme à l’oeil – Adrien Verplancke, Gilet jaune – Cécile Amar, journaliste, L’Obs, co-auteure du livre Le peuple et le président – Youcef Brakni, professeur d’histoire géographie, comité Vérité et Justice pour Adama – Denis Jacob, Alternative Police CFDT – Marion Guémas, Action des Chrétiens pour l’Abolition de la Torture (ACAT) – Aurélien Restelli, doctorant en sociologie, spécialiste du maintien de l’ordre – Daniel Vaillant, ancien ministre de l’Intérieur (PS) – Vitalia, Gilet jaune blessée, collectif des mutilés pour l’exemple – Camille Polloni, journaliste Police/Justice, Les Jours – Nicolas Krameyer, Amnesty International France – Raphaël Kempf, avocat au barreau de Paris.

+ Beaucoup de liens pour aller plus loin à retrouver sur le site...

#violences_policières #maintien_de_l'ordre #militarisation

ÉVASION FISCALE : LES RÉVÉLATIONS D’UN ANCIEN ESPION - YouTube
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvQPb6JbFos

Denis Robert a reçu Maxime Renahy, ancien administrateur de fonds au paradis fiscal de Jersey, devenu espion pour la DGSE. Il revient sur son parcours, mais aussi plus généralement sur les méthodes des plus riches pour se soustraire à l’impôt et piller nos états.

#ÉVASION_FISCALE #Maxime_Renahy

Vinyle party
▻http://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/radio-maritime/vinyle-party-

Anne, Denise, Rama et Latifa font leurs choix musicaux. Malika fait un don à la vinylothèque. Siham est aux manettes. Monsieur Patrick se confond. Medhi se confie. Eduardo prend de la hauteur. Et Walid se réveille après la guerre.

▻http://www.radiopanik.org/media/sounds/radio-maritime/vinyle-party-_06729__1.mp3

Caricature du « juif », obsession des « musulmans », tout ce que la critique cinématographique n’a pas vu dans le film « la lutte des classes »

La Lutte des classes, ou l’obsession de la race - ♀ le genre & l’écran ♂
▻https://www.genre-ecran.net/?La-Lutte-des-classes-ou-l-obsession-de-la-race

La Lutte des classes est une comédie sociale à la légèreté trompeuse et au message politique fort, qui a l’ambition de donner à lire et à comprendre les urgences sociales que vit la banlieue aujourd’hui, telles que les voit le réalisateur Michel Leclerc.

On y traite des menaces que font peser les musulmans et les Juifs sur le vivre-ensemble, de la violence inouïe dont sont capables les Noirs et les Arabes même quand ils sont en maternelle (armés de leur méchant doudou), et surtout du mal-être des Blancs de classe moyenne et supérieure qui essaient de survivre dans une ville populaire de Seine-Saint-Denis, où ils viennent de débarquer.

Ces Blancs, de gauche aiment-ils à préciser, sont confrontés à un terrible dilemme :

Doit-on se résigner à devenir raciste, et risquer de perdre son humanisme de renommée plus que mondiale ?

Ou alors doit-on bêtement rester attaché à des idéaux égalitaires, et risquer d’être attaqué par les hordes de sauvageons en culotte courte du 93 ?

Que faire ? Ô dilemme insoluble !

Ce casse-tête est celui que connait dans le film un couple de parents, Sofia (Leïla Bekhti) et Paul (Edouard Baer), lorsqu’ils décident de vendre leur appartement parisien pour venir vivre dans une maison à Bagnolet.

Casse-tête car ces parents ont un petit garçon de huit ans, Corentin (Tom Levy), menacé par la violence extrême des enfants noirs et arabes de son âge, scolarisés dans la même école que lui. Les parents ne savent plus quoi faire face à cette violence, tous les jours ils pleurent. Faut-il inscrire Corentin dans une école privée ? Faut-il contourner la carte scolaire pour l’inscrire dans une école publique parisienne ? Ou alors faut-il abandonner sa chère petite tête blonde à la violence communautariste des sauvageons ?

La Décroissance, le journal de la joie de vivre ! Dans les Kiosques

http://www.ladecroissance.net/images/journal159_gd.jpg

N° 159 – À mort l’avion
Page 2 : Courriers – dessins

Page 3 : Libérons le ciel, interview de Magdalena Heuwieser – Éditorial : Subordination, par Bruno Clémentin

Page 4 : Chronique d’Alain Accardo : Il n’est pire sourd... - Notre-Dame-des-Landes : une victoire pour rien ?, interview de Jean-Marc Bitaud 

Page 5 : Lectures
Page 6 : Salo­perie : Salo­perie : La croisière, par Raoul Anvélaut – Écotartufe : Écotartufe : Danone, par Pierre Thiesset 

Page 7 : Simplicité volontaire : Le paysan moderne, interview d’Emmanuel par Catherine Thumann – L’action du mois : Rester jeune d’esprit

Page 8 : « C’est un nouveau type de personnalité que le capitalisme produit en série », interview de Cédric Biagini et Patrick Marcolini 

Page 10 : Chronique de d’Alain Gras : Le retour du roi charbon – Bédé : Judge Raide, par Domi et Druilhe

Page 11 : Le petit économiste : Aux jeunes gens qui nous liraien, par Denis Baba – Casseurs de pub : La pub déteste le consommateur

Page 12 : International : Ne pas oublier la bombe, interview de Jean-Pierre Dupuy

Page 13 : Économie circulaire et posthumaniste, par Mikaël Faujour – Professeur Foldingue : Objecteurs de décroissance

Page 14 : Lectures – Débat : Un politique est-il en mesure d’entraver l’expansion du système technique ?, avec Patrick Chastenet, Thérèse Delfel, Matthieu Auzanneau.

Page 15 : Nicolas Bertrand : Leçon de vie

Page 16 : La chronique antinucléaire de Stéphane Lhomme : La farce tranquille 

Dans son livre « Cœur de boxeur » (qui paraît le 8 mai), le journaliste Antoine Peillon raconte l’histoire de Christophe Dettinger, le héros des gilets jaunes, à l’opposé des mensonges du pouvoir qui s’acharne contre lui. Il est l’invité de Denis Robert pour son premier entretien pour Le Média.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSUVFDtiYcc