Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

A civic statement on Col·lectiu Emma (@CollectiuEmma)'s blog criticizes the way the Spanish government is dealing with the political situation in the region of Catalonia, where 55 % of the population favors independence [ca] from Spain, according to an official poll. The statement explains the “strategy of fear” and other “hostile” arguments, and claims for “a friendly separation, preferably under international supervision and with external support for both parties.” The post is available in English, Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch.

“Is Italy ready for an African-born government minister?,” Donata Columbro asks:

Two months after the recent elections, Italy has a new government. And Cécile Kyenge, 48 years old, an eye surgeon and Congo-born Italian citizen, is the new Minister for Integration in the cabinet of Prime Minister Enrico Letta.

Four years after the devastating earthquake that hit L’ Aquila, in Abruzzo, Italy, little or nothing has been rebuilt and the picturesque old town remains largely uninhabited, while many residents live in much debated [it] new towns. On May 5, 2013 almost a thousand art historians rallied together [it] in the historical center of L'Aquila to draw political attention. Despite some intervention made by the Monti government, a much bigger effort is needed to jump-start the reconstruction. The Italian comics activist Gianluca Costantini summarized the issue through the series of pictures “Yes we camp“.

“Yes we camp”, Gianluca Costantini's Political Comics project under CC 3.0 License

The Spanish Constitutional Court just suspended Catalonia's Declaration of Sovereignty, which the regional parliament of Catalonia approved by majority on 23 January, 2013. Amid rising tensions between Spain and Catalonia, the decision has generated strong reactions on offline and online media.

Thanks to a diverse team of collaborators, the online Catalan-language publication Vilaweb [ca] offers the Declaration of Sovereignty in 50 languages.

Flisol 2013 Banner.

From the Patagonia to Havana, hundreds of computer users across Latin America are choosing freedom over control by installing free software on their computers. On April 27th, groups of free software enthusiasts will be installing free software in dozens of cities across Latin America as part of FLISOL [es], the Latin American free software installation festival.
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The International Journalists’ Network, IJNET, recently announced the release of the Spanish translation [es] of The Data Journalism Handbook, “a free, open-source book that aims to help journalists use data to improve journalism.”

Both the original English version and the Spanish translation are freely available online under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license, which means that they can be freely downloaded, shared and built upon.

Explosion at the French embassy in Libya via @Eh4b10 on Twitter

Twitter user @Eh4b10 has posted several photos on twitter of a car explosion near the French Embassy today around 6:50 am local time in Tripoli, Libya.

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Journalist and author Christoforos Kasdaglis started The Diary of an Unemployed [el], a project to collect stories [el] and data [el] on Greek unemployment, consistently driven to record figures for years on end by the debt and austerity crisis. 27% of Greeks were jobless in January, a rate that has tripled since the crisis began in 2009, while youth unemployment is reaching 60%. More than 120,000 Greeks are estimated to have left the country since the crisis began.

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Screw the Troika Protest and Police Agression. Video by Ministério da Verdade on Youtube

An anti-austerity flashmob called by “Screw the Troika” [pt] in front of the the Ritz Hotel in Lisbon, on April 16, 2013, ended with the detention of a 49 year old woman. The protest against the visit of the IMF, ECB and European Comission representatives in Portugal, was recorded in video by the activist platform Ministério da Verdade.
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This month, Rob Martineau, Tom Stancliffe, and Guy Hacking are running 1,000 miles from Odessa to Dubrovnik, via Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Croatia, as part of the Run For Love 1000 campaign, whose aim is to raise funds for Love146, a UK charity that “gives care and hope to trafficked children, and to raise awareness of the scale of human trafficking across Europe.” Follow their run on the RFL1000 website, on Facebook, and on Twitter; support the runners by donating here (215 donations have been made so far, with nearly £12,500 raised).

@northaura: #xa_advertising is about a twitter movement protest by email in #Greece to push advertisers off ever again supporting pro-neonazi TV shows.

Blogger @ypopto_mousi started a campaign to inform the sponsors [el] of a highly controversial SKAI TV panel featuring four neonazi Golden Dawn MPs, that they are sponsoring hate speech. The blogger is urging netizens to email advertising companies, providing sample emails [el] and addresses of advertising companies, while blogging [el] and posting regular updates on Twitter on the campaign's results under the hashtag #xa_advertising.

A leading alternative news site in Greece, Athens Indymedia announced it was being suppressed by Greek judicial authorities, along with two radio stations, and provided a Tor link [el] for alternate access. Potmos asserted on the significance of the site for independent news in Greece:

@potmos: Fast and accurate info posted on Athens #Indymedia led to life sentence for cop who murdered 15yo Alex. Grigoropoulos in 2008.

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Pete DeMola from Beijing Cream reviews Margaret Thatcher's China policy by looking into her five most significant moments and positions in China, including 1. fell down the stairs at the Great Hall of the People; 2. advocated against the Great Firewall; 3. lobbied against serving sea slugs and shark fins to senior-level cadres; 4. bonded with senior-level Chinese officials in 1977 over a shared contempt toward trade unions; 5. lamented sadness at the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China.

Tactical Tech's 2013 Info Activism Camp in northern Italy (23-30 June) will explore how digital technologies, data and visuals can be used to influence society. Only 80 spots available, apply before April 15.

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.

The Journalism School of Lille [fr], in partnership with Canal France International (CFI), set up a website for online resources on journalism: 24 hours in the life of a newsroom. The objective of the site is that anyone who so wishes can learn through the experience of media professionals. The site unpacks the work of a newsroom in 24 steps for four media categories : print, television, radio and web. It is available in five languages​​, including Arabic and Swahili.

The ramification of the Steubeunville rape case has had an impact beyond the US borders.  Following the sentencing of the perpetrators for rape of a minor, CrêpeGeorgette [fr] tries to unpack the rape culture [fr] that has sneaked in in today's society.

The fact is that we are living in societies that find excuses, normalize and tolerate rape.

Martenitsas on a blossoming tree.
Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Μάρτης [el], мартеница [bg], мартинка [mk], mărțișor [ru]…however you call it, an ancient tradition [el] with multiple variations that takes place in the Balkans. So, weave your red-and-white threads for protection against the “evil eye” or to welcome Spring!

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@andriotakis: Στο τρέιλερ του #followme οι @jeffjarvis @evgenymorozov @drandakis @vatraxokoritso @Urfurslaag @constantnos @asteris http://youtu.be/5OD_9oZXlH8 

Videographer and author Manolis Andriotakis namechecks Greek tweeps and acclaimed critics he interviewed for his documentary on Twitter, prior to its’ screening at the 15th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

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Every week, a different Catalan citizen or any person who lives or has lived in Catalonia (regardless of her/his nationality or citizenship) will tweet from the account @CatalanVoices to talk about what she or he likes, feels and thinks about Catalonia. What they share will also be published on the project's blog. This is a project launched by the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (DIPLOCAT) and inspired in existing initiatives like @ScotVoices.The project's goal is to “raise awareness about Catalonia” and boost discussion about “the current democratic political process concerning Catalonia’s political status in Europe and Spain”.

A reportedly peaceful attempt to revive the mass anti-austerity ”indignant protests” of 2011 on the evening of March 10 in Syntagma square, Athens, was met with teargas and police brutality, as shown in this video of an arrest, uploaded by Eleftherotypia daily:

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On January 23, 2013, an excerpt from the annual report of l'ACAT-France, A World of Torture 2013, makes a fresh assessment of the state of torture in the world [fr]:

“A report called A World of Torture in 2013, assesses torture practices that continue to be alarming, from Pakistan to Italy, by way of South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Bolivia. From authoritarian regimes to democratic countries, none are exempt from criticism on the topic. In 2013, torture remains as endemic, omnipresent and multi-faceted as ever”.

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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Journalist Ioanna Iliadi has created a crowdmap to monitor press layoffs in Greece, mounting in numbers and frequency, as an already brewing media crisis has been compounded by the financial crisis.

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

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Photo from the album “Contemporary Portugal with São Tomé e Príncipe” from Pantalassa's Facebook page  (used with permission).

Until March 1, 2013, Pantalassa, a cultural association working with Portuguese language countries, is organizing a multidisciplinary program of artistic residences in the “marvelous islands” of São Tomé and Príncipe, together with CACAU. The mutual sharing of experiences and affections is presented in a photo-album, which is being updated throughout the project [all links in pt].

Here were the nominees for the Public Eye Awards, a contest listing the worst companies of the year, was published by the website Public Eye. Organized by the Berne Declaration and Pro Natura, since 2000, the awards is a counter-summit critique of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. To date, readers have ranked Goldman Sachs at the top of the list.  The reason for this is their actions in Greece :

A scam that amounted to half of Greece's debt, for exorbitant fees, a scam that led to the country's ruin.

Berlin held its second SenseCamp on February 8 and 9, 2013, a barcamp dedicated to social entrepreneurship. The program included workshops, meetings and conferences, to raise the impact of social entrepreneurial start-ups. Creative types, entrepreneurs and those who were interested, were invited to register in order to participate in this event:

Video created by Stanislas Buagev to present SenseCamp 2013 in Berlin – Sous license CC-BY-2.0

Haemus journal Vol.1 (2012)
http://haemus.mk

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