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Ideas

Topic archive · 927 posts

Featured stories about Ideas

China: In Bo Xilai Saga, Did Social Media Challenge Government?

Political struggle, murder, corruption, espionage and diplomatic conflict - the downfall of Bo Xilai from the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) elite ranks has turned out to be a multi-faceted story. It is also a good example of the disruptive role that social media plays in today’s China.

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Switzerland: An Initiative to Establish Basic Income for All

Russia: Violence Plunges Opposition into Debate About Tactics

Global Voices Podcast: Food for Thought, Food to Eat 2 May 2012
A Global Voices Guide to re:publica Berlin 2012 30 April 2012
Do Arab Men Hate Women? Mona Eltahawy Faces Firestorm 25 April 2012
Global Voices Podcast: The Good and Bad of Online Campaigns 6 April 2012
Video: Surfers, Fishermen and Radiation in Post Earthquake Japan 20 March 2012

Latest stories about Ideas

15 May 2012

Norway: Discussing Latin America at the Oslo Freedom Forum

Written by Robert Valencia · Translated by Marianna Breytman · Latin America

Last week the fourth gathering of the Oslo Freedom Forum was carried out, organized by the Human Rights Foundation in the Norwegian capital. The event covered a series of topics that involved other world regions, including Latin America.

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14 May 2012

Saudi Arabia: May 7 Marked as Saudi Liberalism Day

Written by Salah Almhamdi · Middle East & North Africa

On May 7 Saudi liberal activists gathered online to celebrate Saudi Liberalism Day, an initiative to acquire recognition and acceptance for liberal ideas.

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11 May 2012

Russia: Yavlinsky Stir Reveals Opposition Rift

Written by Kevin Rothrock · Eastern & Central Europe

True to Yabloko's troubled past and present, Yavlinksy's May 10 blog post criticizing protest escalations has upset many and pleased relatively few. Current developments in the opposition have widened the gap between populist dramatics and nuts-and-bolts politics.

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10 May 2012

China: Political Space of the Weibo Blogging Platform

Written by Oiwan Lam · East Asia

Chicago University Sociology Professor Zhao Dingxin recently delivered a speech entitled "Weibo, Political Space and Chinese Development", which has triggered off some debate and reflections amongst Chinese netizens. Oiwan Lam reports.

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9 May 2012

Russia: Charity Crowdfunding

Written by Teplitsa · Translated by Catherine Lawlor · Eastern & Central Europe

There is no lack of successful 'people' projects, financed by private philanthropy. While much activity exists only in cyberspace, the effects of charitable organizations' work is quite tangible and real, and confidence in these groups is undiminished. The proof: the Tugeza ("Together") community

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Russia: Putin's Return Rouses Online Polemics

Written by Donna Welles · Eastern & Central Europe

In the wake of protests against Vladimir Putin's inauguration, the reactions of Russian bloggers demonstrate a wide spectrum of opinion online. That oppositionist activism has suddenly taken on a more radical tone has only further inflamed the passions of already polemicized observers.

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2 May 2012

Lebanon: Demotivational Humour on Facebook

Written by Thalia Rahme · Middle East & North Africa

Recently a number of Facebook pages have been started about specifically Lebanese memes. In this post Global Voices interviews the creator of a page called “Demotivational Lebanon”.

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1 May 2012

Italy: Future of News at Perugia International Journalism Festival

Written by Kasia Odrozek · Western Europe

From April 25-29, Perugia, a charming city in the Italian region of Umbria became a vibrant meeting point for media enthousiasts and journalists from all over the world, with the 2012 International Journalism Festival. Global Voices was present of course, with members discussing participation and citizen journalism - the future of the news.

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26 April 2012

Kenya: Four Young African Men Stand Up to Hollywood Stereotypes

Written by Juliana Rincón Parra · Sub-Saharan Africa

After watching a video featuring a 9 year old boy retelling the movie Commando, 4 young men from Kenya approached MamaHope wanting to make their own retelling of Hollywood movies: in their case, the stereotypes around how movies portray African men.

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20 April 2012

Video: Better Aid and Development Discussions Through Islam Crash Course

Written by Juliana Rincón Parra · South Asia

An ongoing discussion over at the Uncultured Project has been the relationship between the lack of knowledge on what Islam is about and how aid and development organizations relate to the Muslim community. Shawn Ahmed shares a simple and short video explaining what Islam is in an attempt to pave the road to better understanding of a large group of people who could be Aid recipients.

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Updates about Ideas

16 May 2012

Updates

WITNESS, a site advocating for Human Rights Issues has produced a nice analysis of what makes a good Advocacy video, using Aristotle's' Poetic regarding story arcs.

• Juliana Rincón Parra

China

The Presurfer shares a video where we can see how the Beijing Jianbing is made. This large breakfast crepe is made possible thanks to a very steady hand and a motorized wheel that allows a really large and thin crepe to be evenly cooked.

• Juliana Rincón Parra

14 May 2012

China

David Wertime from Tea Leaf Nation blogs about Weibo users' expression of love towards their mothers in May 13 mother's day.

• Oiwan Lam

8 May 2012

Saudi Arabia

Online accounts are frequently hacked and stolen. We often hear of those who hacked someone's email or stole someone's email password. Twitter is no different, so the Saudi tweep and blogger Manal Al-Sherif, who has worked as a Information Security Consultant in an oil company for years, shared her tips on how to protect Twitter accounts from being hacked [ar].

• طارق عمرو

7 May 2012

Belgium

The Impossible texting and driving test is part of a campaign to raise awareness to the dangers of texting using mobile devices while driving in Belgium. Several young people doing their behind the wheel driving test were surprised to know there was a new test section requiring them to text while driving. The dashboard cam tells the story of how these young people faced this new part of the test.

• Juliana Rincón Parra

4 May 2012

Cambodia

Angkor Car, The Peacehammer, Recycled Biodiesel, Affordable Water Pumps, Moonlight. These are some of the unique inventions from Cambodia and Asia Life Guide was able to interview the inventors.

• Mong Palatino

27 April 2012

Jamaica

Nadine, Unscripted, notes that there are three Jamaican writers who have made the shortlists for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize, while ART:Jamaica blogs about an exciting new local space for art.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Chinese

Blogger and artists Lovingpure(黃愛淳) uses contemporary paintings about Taiwan from distinguished painters to create this video as the ultimate travel guide for foreign tourists.

• Portnoy Zheng

26 April 2012

Bulgaria

Various blogs [bg] and mainstream media [bg] were telling [bg] about a student initiative held in the capital city of Sofia on April 24. Many students and members of diverse youth organizations planted trees in the badly-maintained Studentski Grad (”Students City”), a welcome citizen initiative where the leitmotiv was “Big change begins with small steps.” The trees were planted near an abandonned building that has been refurbished by student volunteers who'd like to transform it into a Student center.

• Rayna St.

Comments on "Ideas"

Switzerland: An Initiative to Establish Basic Income for All

Right now it's the bankers who cream off this slice of the wealth of the country, and they should really...
Yep, you got it. Except that maybe those who are doing this kind of jobs won't necessarily leave if their employers...
I think that, for once, Australia is ahead of the Swiss. An Australian organisation, The Foundation for National Renewal has developed...