Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2008 October 10

10 October 2008

Daily archive · 9 posts

Stories from 10 October 2008

Moroccans for Obama?

Written by Jennifer Brea · Middle East & North Africa, North America

"When the Americans are getting ready to elect a president, the whole world holds its breath," writes Moroccon blogger, Robin des Blogs [Fr]. It's a sentiment held by many around the world, but some Moroccon netizens aren't sure which outcome--an Obama or a McCain presidency--would be best for Morocco.

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XDR-TB: Photographer Brings Emerging Disease Into Focus

Written by Juhie Bhatia · Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia

In 2007 renowned war photographer and photojournalist James Nachtwey received a TED Prize, granting him $100,000 and one wish to change the world. Nachtwey's wish was to share a vital...

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Latin America: Reporting On, Twitter for journalists gets popular

Written by Jorge Gobbi · Technology, Media & Journalism

Reporting On, a new micro-blogging tool is getting quite popular among Latin American journalists who are using this tool to let others know what they are writing about.

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Tunisia: National Day for Freedom of Blogging on November 4

Written by Lina Ben Mhenni · Middle East & North Africa

Tunisian bloggers are rallying for a National Day for Freedom of Blogging on November 4. The day will coincide with a court hearing for a lawsuit filed by the journalist and blogger Zied El Heni against the Tunisian Internet Agency.

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Brazil: A day in jail for blog comments

Written by Paula Góes · Latin America

The first person to go to jail for commenting on a blog in Brazil was a high rank police officer. See reactions from the very close knit police blogosphere. Not surprisingly, with the intelligence monitoring blogs and comment boxes, most of the police officers decide to blog anonymously.

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Japan: Rikimaru Toho, the first manga narrating cantastoria

Written by Scilla Alecci · East Asia

His stage name is Rikimaru Tōhō, he defines himself a “manga reader”, and for five years he has been enchanting hundreds of passersby with his performances in the suburbs of western Tokyo. A legendary performer, Rikimaru Tōhō's popularity is due not to TV or radio shows, but to his ability to modify his voice and play the parts of the characters in the stories he reads. Read some responses to Rikimaru's performances, and some passages from the manga reader's own blog.

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China: Melamine Inevitable, even for EU Commissioner

Written by Bob Chen · East Asia

Peter Mandelson, European Commissioner for Trade, drank a cup of milk in China. 9 days later, he was found inflicted by a great pain in kidney. Is the association between the two more dramatic than his surprise return to British cabinet? Chinese bloggers gave us their guesses.

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China: Melamine is Inevitable?

Written by Oiwan Lam · East Asia

In Oct 7, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the General Administration of...

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Ukraine: Voting Again - For the New Ones, and Against Them All

Written by Veronica Khokhlova · Eastern & Central Europe

On Oct. 8, president Victor Yushchenko announced the dissolution of the Ukrainian parliament. The snap election - the third parliamentary vote in Ukraine since the 2004 Orange Revolution - has been scheduled for Dec. 7. Here is what some Ukrainian bloggers think of the political situation in their country.

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Updates from 10 October 2008

Honduras

La Gringa points us out to English language blog “I owe so much”, where one man writes in English about his experience trying to get out of credit card debt in Honduras. He writes bluntly and honestly about how much he owes and how he got to that amount, how he now drives his girls to school to save on school bus fees, how he has set up a VOIP business for extra income, and bit by bit he pays back his debt.

• Juliana Rincón Parra

Costa Rica

Cristian Cambronero of Fusil de Chispas writes about the grand finale of Latin American Idol, where Costa Rican Maria Jose was up to the last minute singing for the first place. Much to the national disappointment, she didn't win, ending the three months of nail biting as Panama's singer walked away with the coveted prize.

• Juliana Rincón Parra

Maldives

Think Maldives blog informs that the presidential election of Maldives has gone to a second round as none of the candidates could get 50% of the vote. ArtWork predicts who will win in the runoff.

• Rezwan

Nepal

Bibek Paudal discusses the controversy regarding whether the new Maoist Prime Minister observed Dashain festivities (15 days long national festival of Nepal) or not. He reminds: “Dashain is a Nepalese festival, not a Hindu festival. Calling Dashain anything other than a social-cultural festival is undermining the many unique Nepalese elements it symbolizes.”

• Rezwan

Trinidad & Tobago

Trinidadian blogger Now is Wow Too recounts an interesting conversation she had with an coconut vendor.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuba

Cuban diaspora blogger Uncommon Sense reports that a Cuban human rights activist who was paroled from prison earlier this year because of poor health, now faces up to five years in prison “on a charge of ‘attacking' — which has been used before to silence critics of the dictatorship.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Dominican Republic

Antilles, the blog of the Caribbean Review of Books, notes that “the Caribbean is well represented” among the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award winners: “Three of the four categories were won by Caribbean books.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuba

Generation Y offers encouragement to a rural blogger (whom she refers to as “peasant of agile keys and posts as sharp as machetes”), who paints a picture of what blogging in Cuba is like: “Time is scarce and expensive. You have to resend posts and emails that are interrupted when the line goes down. You can’t read or respond to comments. There is little chance of establishing relationships with other bloggers…”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Jamaica

Jamaican diaspora blogger Geoffrey Philp has been closely monitoring the US Presidential race and thinks that “there is a need for real patriotism on both sides and for the voices of rationality and impartiality to speak up. America used to have them–before she turned over her media to spin doctors, liars, and partisan pundits–to speak the truth to and about each other across the racial divide.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Ukraine: Homophobic Legal Initiatives in Sync with Public Attitudes

Came to find this post after signing the AllOut petition (which already has almost 50k signatures, and needs to grow...
Please sign this if you are pro