Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

Blogger and activist Masaki C. has something to say about English media coverage of LGBT politics in Japan, arguing that they simplify the issue down to marriage equality:

They are, in constructing LGBT politics in Japan as such, erasing local history and ignoring dialogues taking place among queers in Japan.

TEDXSão Tomé

TEDXSão Tomé pre-registration is opened. The event has “Islands Connected : São Tomé + Príncipe = África Connected to the World” as a theme and is going to take place on 20 June. Speakers already confirmed include: Dynka Amorim, Ismael Sequeira, Professor Robert Drewes e Aoaní d'Alva. Tickets cost € 20. More on event Facebook and website [links in Portuguese].

In an era where youth…are seen as being dissolute it is truly heart warming to recognise the drive and talent of this young man.

Abeni salutes Kamara Jerome, a 20-year-old Vincentian entrepreneur, who won the Best Environmental Award in the Caribbean Innovation Challenge.

Nora Abdulkarim shares a Saudi-American perspective on the Boston Bombings.

She explains:

I won't try to simplify what is inherently complex. I will simply present and reflect, and nothing more. No fancy theorizing, no overarching message. This post is only meant to be a glimpse at personal identity – that wild thing which one cannot pin down.

At 7:15pm, the low buzz of a drone was heard overheard. Seconds later, an enormous explosion engulfed the area, destroying the boat and several nearby homes. Sources say 46 Watertown residents were killed in the missile strike, including 12 children.

……

Of course, that's not what happened. But if it did, wouldn't we find it unconscionable? If so, then why are Americans okay with our government doing this to people in other countries?

A hypothetical narration of a drone targeting the Boston Marathon bombing suspect in Watertown by an American Facebook user based in San Francisco, has gone viral amongst Pakistani Facebook users. Within 24 hours the post was shared more than 5000 times and generated hundreds of comments.

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This was an event for people in the private and public sector tasked with making sense of fast moving changes in the digital realm.

BitDepth reports on the second Caribbean Digital Expo conference.

Edunation is a volunteer driven non-profit educational initiative whose mission is to provide a complete educational online resource for every Malaysian primary and secondary school student. It has already created and uploaded learning videos on math, science, economics, language and other subjects in the Malaysian school curriculum.

In Peru, Twitter users turned to the hashtag #DNIfeliz [happy ID card] to encourage citizens to smile for their ID document photo, commonly known as DNI. Traditionally, citizens have a serious or even stern expression on their ID picture.

Renewable energy, permaculture and green building, along with local traditions and eco-tourism: welcome to Tribewanted – an online community launched in 2006 based on the idea of “global citizenship” and harnessing the energy of social media to meaningfully connect and practice positive behavior change. Thanks to crowdfunding strategies, the project plans to build 10 eco-villages around the world: after Vorovoro (Fiji Islands) and John Obey (Sierra Leone), a new village just launched in Monestevole [it], in Umbria, the heart of Italy. Connect with Tribewanted people via web, Facebook or Vimeo.

A tweet [ko] directing people to this fake blog post received quite some attention on April Fools’ day. Looking like a legit news article, the post says that North Korea announced that it is now an Islamic state and it includes detailed claims such as:

Kim Jong-un ‘asserted ‘every previous leader of North Korea were actually Muslim prophets, and so is Kim Jong-un himself’ and ‘Islamic leaders were highly offended by Kim Jong-un’s announcement.’

Music for a better future. Screenshot from Mideast Tunes’ Indiego campaign video.

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[G]iving to beggars is a straightforward opportunity to practice generosity in my daily life. So why the resistance to giving? At the time my friend pointed out that I had probably been targeted, I felt ashamed and tried to defend myself. I argued that I would rather risk being tricked by 99 rather than missing the chance to help the one in need.

Mary Ann O'Donnell writes about her experience with a beggar on a subway in Shenzhen city, and reflects upon the reactions of a Chinese friend to her act of charity.

[It] can be seen…as a celebration of full-bodied female sexuality. Especially the substantial structure of the Black working-class woman whose body image is rarely validated…

Jamaica Woman Tongue thinks International Women's Month is the perfect time to put forward a different perspective of dancehall culture.

If we want Nowruz to serve the goal of the [cultural] revival of our nation, the holiday should mark the official beginning of a new year in the country…

Peruvian blog Te voy a contar [es], by Elizabeth Lino Cornejo, posts a short story [es] with a mix of humor and nostalgia, where the narrator recalls when he used to go to school every day in his grandfather's car, where he and his siblings rode “very comfortably, lying down over our bellies, with our legs all elongated and relaxed, and we all exaggerated the jolt the car made upon braking”. He ends up by telling:

Tomorrow we will get him [grandfather] into a car, a roomy and long one, into a funeral hearse very much alike and just as majestic as the one he used to get us into to take us to school.

Ronald Hill, on his blog Sueños del Caribe [es], shares an episode that took place [es] in a restaurant where he saw two traders exchanging opinions about samples of ginger.

Interest for Japan is at its peak among readers in France [fr] despite the Asian nation's gloomy economic outlook. Therefore, French Magazine ZoomJapan [fr] has featured 50 Japanese people that are transforming the archipelago; from architect Kyohei Sakaguchi―who established what he calls “independent government”―, to dancers, activists, business entrepreneurs, and journalists. The compilation is available online in French, Japanese and in English.
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A group of coders and concerned citizens have launched a Where Does My Money Go? [ja] website to explore tax spending in the city of Yokohama. With cooperation from the city, volunteers participated in a hackathon to brainstorm how to creatively showcase the city's tax spending. More »

“This is the difference…So simple…”.
Photo via Facebook timeline.

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Musings on blackness and contemporary Jamaican art, from the National Gallery of Jamaica Blog.

Colombian blog Diario Nocturno wonders “What if Superman had landed in India?” [es]:

We all know that Superman, while he was just a superbaby, fled planet Krypton in a space capsule, just before its destruction and landed (oh, what a coincidence) in Smallville, Kansas. But, what if he had landed, let's say, in India?

Then he presents other new versions of well-known stories made in Bollywood.

A new web game called Reality Drop rewards users for commenting or sharing links about articles related to climate change. It was unveiled in California by former U.S. vice president and environmental activist, Al Gore.

Using his social networks to promote a pirate audio version of ‘The Alchemist', the Brazilian best selling writer Paulo Coelho proposes readers to show the industry “that “piracy” is not a threat to their business”.

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“Kallun”. Image shared on the Facebook page of KALLUN. (used with permission).

The Plataform KALLUN (meaning slang), founded by Leocarpo Mário, is a recent collaborative project with the ultimate goal of gathering in just one place all the slang with Angolan origins. Kallun enables interactive search of terms and their meanings.

In the post titled “Time of the vanquished” [es], the blog Furia raises profound reflections about what happens when quietness comes. It concludes its reflections by saying: “in order to conquer the silence of the serenity, the vanquished ones invent new ghosts that whisper in their ears. To win, to lose, all the same, all useless”.

Many reports have been made about South Koreans’ obsessions with body image, some with shallow understanding of Korean culture. Youtube user durkeeinkorea in this video shares his experience in Korea where people are very ‘open about talking others weight’ and ‘calling someone fat’ in public happens frequently, with no harms intended. 

The Muslim Brotherhood will soon confuse the world, if it decides to go ahead with a name change. Egyptian Bassem Sabry explains:

@Bassem_Sabry: My friend @HaniSabra has just noticed the new name being considered by the MB, “The Comprehensive Islamic Authority,” has the acronym “CIA.”

With a nostalgic touch, the blog El Panameño reviews [es] some 70s and 80s TV series, and challenges readers to see if they can match the titles with the posters included in the post.

Tande blogs about “the relationship between cultural identity and belonging” and recommends a Haitian musician whose work goes beyond the identity politics and “offers a compelling example of how some of these tensions play out.”