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20 Established 1961 Monday, June 10, 2019 Lifestyle Features From hippies to hackers: New film tracks saga of Russia’s internet n the early days of Russia’s internet, hip- His travels take him back and forth across demonstrations in 2011-12 and Moscow’s rift who did not witness the early days of the pies founded the first telecoms venture the Atlantic to film the current lives of early with the West after its annexation of Crimea internet in Russia first-hand. “It reminds Iwith Americans, an astrophysicist ran the internet savants, website editors and trolls, in 2014. them that information is not supposed to be country’s most visited website and providers who are now Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, censored or weaponised. It’s supposed to be punished hackers by kneecapping them with cannabis investors and pro-Kremlin politi- ‘Insane laws’ free,” they said in a statement to AFP. The baseball bats. The heady time, which coincid- cians. Although Russia now dominates head- New restrictions of online content are “insane laws” will continue, since the govern- ed with the 1991 break up of the Soviet lines with ever-tougher legislation restricting proposed weekly, while internet companies ment views the internet as a threat, Loshak Union, is the subject of a new documentary internet use, in the 1990s “the internet devel- are now required to store personal data in says. “It’s a battle, and it’s not very clear who that looks back at a very different era as the oped completely freely,” Loshak says. Russia and comply with security services. will come out on top.” Kremlin clamps down on internet freedom in Russia has benefited enormously: internet Many websites and services deemed danger- The restrictions have already taken a toll. present-day Russia. access is cheap and home-grown platforms ous for law and order are blocked, from pro- “There are fewer large internet media outlets Setting the tone, footage from 1990 are more popular than US-based corpora- fessional social network LinkedIn to the in Russia now, they have lost their influence,” shows American Joel Shatz and his Soviet tions like Google and Facebook. “The inter- Telegram messaging app-though the blocks Loshak says. “And new companies stopped partner Joseph Goldin-the duo behind the net was the place where everything devel- are easily circumvented for the moment. appearing. There have been practically no first Soviet-American telecoms venture-dri- oped as it can develop when the government In March, Putin signed laws making it a IPOs” since the Russian internet leader Yandex ving a ballistic missile transporter carrying does not intervene,” he says. In one clip, crime to publish “fake news” or show “disre- went public in 2011. But Loshak believes it’s clowns to Red Square after convincing the Russian President Vladimir Putin is shown spect towards authorities” on social media. In too late for Russia to impose a rigid Chinese- traffic police that the performance had been meeting internet entrepreneurs in 1999 and May he signed a law on “digital sovereignty” style system of censorship because the inter- approved “by the highest authorities”. Andrei telling them that the Internet is a “promising that will provide the Kremlin with the ability net was born in an atmosphere of freedom and Loshak, a former television reporter, tracks initiative” that he would not touch. to cut off Russia, or a particular Russian that cannot be easily undone. “In China, they Russian journalist, documentary filmmaker Andrei the main personalities behind the Russia- “And in fact, he did not touch the internet region, from the global internet. didn’t have the 90s like in Russia, when every- Loshak speaks during an interview with AFP in based internet, known as Runet, for the doc- for 15 years,” Loshak says, adding: “Thanks Russia now slaps fines on users bad- thing was swept away and we had real free- Moscow.—AFP umentary “Holy War. The history of Runet,” for that, curiously.” However, a raft of new mouthing Putin online. Current Time, the dom,” he says.—AFP to be screened Sunday at Moscow’s Beat laws clamping down on internet use were producers of the documentary, say it is par- Film Festival. passed following mass anti-government ticularly pertinent for younger audiences Cedella Marley attends the friendly football match Jamaica vs Panama at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. Jamaica’s players pose for a team group photo before the friendly match between Jamaica and Panama at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica.—AFP photos n Jamaica, the spirit of Bob Marley is inescapable: cer, even if no medical evidence backs up the theory. it permeates the Caribbean island nation, even its “That’s where the toe first gave signs” that something Ifootball pitches-a sign of the reggae legend’s pas- was wrong,” he said. “But we didn’t take it very seri- sion for the sport. After Marley’s death, his children ously then.” picked up the torch-and the country’s women’s team, who have qualified for their first-ever World Cup this In the name of the father summer in France, owe a lot to the musician’s daugh- Marley’s passion for football runs through his Cedella Marley (center bottom) poses with Jamaica’s Women football team ‘Reggae Girlz’ after ter Cedella. “Two things he loved were music and family. In 1998, his eldest son Ziggy recorded the offi- the friendly football match Jamaica vs Panama at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. soccer,” says Allan “Skill” Cole, a one-time local foot- cial anthem of the “Reggae Boyz,” Jamaica’s men’s ball star who befriended the music icon in the 1960s. national football squad, when they qualified for their Cole told AFP that Marley was a football “fanatic”, first World Cup. In 2014, Cedella Marley came to the and liked to organize pick-up matches with his band- rescue of the women’s team when their program was mates between concerts. axed by the national federation and they even slipped Cole, who is now a 68-year-old with fine gray off FIFA’s official rankings list. Thanks to Cedella, the dreadlocks, was a teenager at the time. “He wanted to “Reggae Girlz” quickly regained sponsors and media do everything that we did. We trained together, we attention-and launched themselves right into the race ran in the morning... The only thing he didn’t like was for the 2019 World Cup. “She had a vision from her going to the gym,” Cole said at a hotel in the father. I’m fortunate to be part of it. The players are Jamaican capital Kingston. Just a few minutes away, the same way, they talk about it all the time,” said Jamaica’s Khadija Shaw looks on ahead of the at the Bob Marley Museum, among the portraits of head coach Hue Menzies, with an air of reverence. friendly match between Jamaica and Panama at the musician that line the walls is a photo of him on a “She stuck her neck out for us. She has been here the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. football pitch, chest squared and socks high, 1970s from day one.” style. “If I were to play him on a team, I would put In Jamaica, such a gesture does not go unnoticed. losing squad. him on defense-he was fearless, he loved to tackle,” On May 19, at the team’s last home game before the “They needed help, they are women, they were said Cole, who eventually became Marley’s tour man- World Cup begins, the announcer at the National being told they couldn’t play a sport that they love. ager and even was credited with co-writing some Stadium in Kingston thanked Cedella-a business- So we got involved and here we are!” Even if many of songs, including “War.” woman, singer and fashion designer-at least a half- the players were not even born before Bob Marley’s Football is even intertwined with the story sur- dozen times. Marley, who was in the stands, told AFP death, they are aware of his legacy and the power his rounding Marley’s death in 1981 of skin cancer, which after the game-a 3-1 victory for the home team over name still holds in Jamaica. “To have a Marley behind first developed under his toenail. During a game, Panama-that her passion for the sport came from her us, it’s a great feeling,” said one of the team’s stars, Marley was tackled and injured his toe. A closer look dad. Football “has been in my life since I was born, so striker Khadija Shaw, her eyes lighting up. “Everywhere you go, everybody knows Bob revealed the rare form of melanoma. Many including it was only natural to be a part of it,” the 51-year-old Panama’s Aldrith Quintero (left) pulls the shirt of Jamaica’s Chantelle Swaby during the Marley.”—AFP Cole believe that an initial infection caused the can- said after embracing the players-and consoling the friendly match between Jamaica and Panama at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. smail Kadare draws the curtain to bring a Kadare’s first novel to win international regime, Kadare was spared. In her memoirs, shaft of light into the Tirana apartment acclaim, “The General of the Dead Army”. Hoxha’s widow Nexhmije said the Albanian Iwhere he wrote furiously during the dark The slice-of-life setting honours the author’s leader, who prided himself on a fondness for days of communism-a space visitors can now wishes that the place be a museum and not a literature, saved the internationally- explore first-hand after his former home was “mausoleum”.

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