Stories from Quick Reads and South Asia
Pakistanis Use Twitter To Raise Their Concerns On The Proposed Cybercrime Bill 2015
The proposed Prevention of Electronic Crimes (PEC) Bill in Pakistan has raised concern among local and international human rights organisations as it could put at risk freedom expression and privacy in Pakistan. Mariam at Catalyst Woman blog reports: After the dedicated efforts of numerous advocacy groups, ngos and private citizens,...
Global Voices Partners With The Balochistan Point
The Balochistan Point was launched in 2010 to highlight the most important news from an area which Pakistan's national online, broadcast and print media, largely ignores.
What Is Really Wrong With Policing in Maldives?
Blogger Kureege Fuluheh is a Maldivian ex-police officer, who writes about issues in policing and the police service in Maldives. The blogger analyses how the Maldives Police Service (MPS) is perceived by people over the last seven years and discusses what is the way forward: Worrying is police’ behaviour towards members...
Real Goats. Real Stories. Bangladesh Delivers.
Read the full interview here at Scroll.in. Bangladesh has now a satirical Facebook page much like Pigeons of New York, which is itself a parody site of the famous Humans of New York project. Goats of Bangladesh is only about six months old, but it boasts of almost 10,000 followers. Sahil Bhalla of Scroll.in interviewed one of the...
A Passenger Ferry Capsizes in Bangladesh. Again.
On Sunday noon a passenger ferry reportedly packed with more than 100 passengers was hit by a cargo vessel 40 kilometres northwest of Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital. It subsequently sank. A rescue vessel located the capsized vessel and attempted to pull it up. According to reports 37 bodies have been found...
A Nobel Prize for All Malalas in the World
The blog MujeresMundi is an infoactivism project run by Belgium-based Peruvian Xaviera Medina “committed to gender as a key to development”. Their most recent post refers to the Nobel Peace Prize that has been awarded to education Pakistani activist, Malala Yousafzai: […] Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that Malala...
Updates on the 18th SAARC Summit On Social Media
The ongoing summit of the The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was covered by international media with different perspectives. However non-official initiatives such as 18th SAARC Summit blog, Facebook account, Twitter and Google+ account are aggregating updates on the summit for easy archiving. Here are some examples: This...
Infographic: 5 Facts About Sri Lanka’s Tamil Community in the North
The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a civil society think tank in Sri Lanka, has recently conducted a top line survey on “Democracy in post-war Sri Lanka 2014“. The results show that difference of opinion on the reconciliation still exists between the Tamil and the Sinhalese people after the Sri...
Too Many Under Trial Detainees in India's Jails
Indian alternative news portal Beyond Headlines sheds light on the darker side of India's judiciary. In India, of all people detained in lockups and state prisons there are more people under trial than convicts. Because of the slow process of the judiciary process, thousands of people suspected or accused of...
Mumbai School Children Have Big Ideas About Technology and Innovation
In a video by non-profit Atma, one girl wants to invent technology that can help a man fly. Another wants to invent a wallet in which the money never ends.
Blogger Argues Corporate Sponsorship Cheapening Bangaldeshi Folk Culture
The first time around, those of us who had been visiting Cheuria for many years, were shocked to find the sponsorship junk.
An Indian Photoblogger's Lone Fight Against Plagiarism
Indian photoblogger Anirban Saha points to a growing problem in India — plagiarism of intellectual property online. A number of his photos were used in a poster for a theatre festival, on a cover of a book, in an advertisement by the state government, in political banners, in magazines in...
Security Risks Exposed at Amusement Park in Dhaka
During the Eid holidays, Carnival Park at Jamuna Future park welcomed a large number of visitors. On October 7, 2014, one of its attractions, the 360-degree shuffle ride, stopped in the middle of a ride. Everyone on-board was stuck in their seats for about an hour. The ride had no emergency...
In new iOS, Apple Introduces Five Indic Language Input Methods
Computer giant Apple in its newest release of iOS8, expands its languages by adding more input methods and interface languages.
The Curious Case Of Marrying Out Of Caste in India
Karthik Shashidhar, a freelance management consultant and data scientist, shares interesting statistics from the National Family Health Survey. Shashidhar discusses the percentage of women in India who are married to someone of their own caste. The caste system in India is based on an order of (predominantly) endogamous groups rendering marriage...
How Entrepreneurship Helped a Bangladeshi Girl Avoid Child Marriage
Bangladeshi blogger Raad Rahman tells the story of a girl in rural Bangladesh who avoided a forced child marriage after she started a grocery shop using a small grant from a local non-government organisation. She was going to be married off to her neighbour's son because her family could no...
Sri Lanka's Slow LLRC Implementation
The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was a commission of inquiry mandated to investigate the facts and circumstances which led to the bloody civil war in Sri Lanka. After an 18-month inquiry, the commission submitted its report to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa almost three years ago, on 15...
Blogger Puts a Naturally Formed Face of Buddha in Bhutan on the Map
Blogger Passang Tshering, a high school teacher from Wangdue, Bhutan, wrote in his blog on 31 August, 2014, about an image of Lord Buddha's face formed out of natural rock located on the elephant shaped hill on which the famous Wangdue Dzong is built. He posted photos of the site...
Pakistan's State Owned TV Under Siege By Protestors
Last update at 7:45PM GMT, September 1, 2014 Hundred of protestors of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) have stormed into the Head Office of Pakistan's state-owned TV channel PTV. On 1st of September at around 11:20 am protesters broke open the main gate of Pakistan...
How To Find Happiness In Democracy
From Bhutan, the land of Gross National Happiness, blogger Passang Tshering shares how people can achieve happiness in democracy. He compares democracy to love marriage and says that there are three groups of people, the lovers, the haters and the concern citizens. The Lovers are the ones who swear by...
A Terrifying Experience at A Mumbai Train Station
Blogger Antarik Anwesan recalls an alarming experience at Goregaon train Station in Mumbai, India. A local train started from the platform without notice and the crowd hurried to get on board. As the train gathered speed quickly, some people fell from the door and two persons were miraculously saved from...
