Global Voices

English

The world is talking, are you listening?

Literature

Blog Semióticas [pt] celebrates this year's Camões Award - “the highest honor” for a Portuguese language writer - given to Dalton Trevisan from Curitiba, Brazil, for his “extraordinary contribute in the art of short stories”. Trevisan, “the most misterious of Brazilian writers”, is well known for his mystical reclusiveness, and refuses being photographed, interviewed and participating in ceremonies.

Film

The Next Web  analyzes how the new UK app Vyclone could have helped get more footage of Arab Spring or the Occupy Movement  onto mainstream news channels, and if it could do the same for future newsworthy events.

Technology

The Bavarian broadcasting company, Bayerischer Rundfunk, in Germany recently launched a social TV experiment called “Rundshow” [de] (Roundshow). Viewers are actively incorporated into the show through virtual means such as Google Hangout, videos, an app called “Die Macht” (The Power), and Twitter. The concept of blurring the lines between TV and the Internet can already be seen with Al Jazeera's show The Stream. But Rundshow is the first format of its kind to be attempted in Germany.

Elections

After the 6 May general elections in Greece and the failure of political parties to form even a coalition government, the interim government to be sworn on May 17 under Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos will lead the country to election again on June 17. Netizens are commenting on these events and joking about the chosen PM's surname on Twitter, using the hashtags #pikrammenos and #pikramenos, which means “embittered”.

RuNet Echo

In the final segment of the report [ru] on the May 6 protest in Moscow, which ended in clashes with riot police, the Russian state-owned Channel 1 mentioned, among other things, a Spanish draft law [en] criminalizing online organization of public protests, as an example of the “much tougher” treatment of protesters by the “colleagues” of the Russian law enforcement officials “in the countries with the so-called established democracy.”

Human Rights

Website citizen-nantes.com reported that [fr]: “On the evening of Saturday March 24, 2012, the ‘Collectif du 10 Mai', a group of Afro-Caribbean associations from Nantes, invited the people of Nantes to a ‘Gathering in honour of the victims, the abolitionists and those who fought against slavery' in the little-known Square Toussaint Louverture. The memorial is so little-known in fact that even its location at the foot of the Pont de Cheviré is unfamiliar to most. In fact,do not even try to find it with your GPS as this square does not show up on there!”

Elections

Odessablogger comments on the statements made by Ukrainian political scientists regarding the future of the Franco-Ukrainian relationship following the election of François Hollande as the President of France.

Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture

CHEWYOUROWNFAT reviews Beezzy, a new song by one of Armenia's most well known rock bands, The Bambir. The independent music blog says that the group, now relocated to Ireland, defines original and is definitely an act to catch live.

Ideas

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.