Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2008 October 23

23 October 2008

Daily archive · 6 posts

Stories from 23 October 2008

Egyptian Blogger Nora Younis Wins Human Rights First Award

Written by Marwa Rakha · Middle East & North Africa

Egyptian blogger and human rights activist Nora Younis was awarded the Annual Human Rights Award today.

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Climate Change: Increasing The Spread of Diseases?

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

Melting ice caps, rising sea levels and extreme weather patterns aren't the only potential consequences of climate change. Scientists are warning that changes in global climate may also endanger public...

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Brazilian myths and haunts on the Lusosphere - Part 2

Written by Daniel Duende · Latin America

On the first article of this series, we searched Brazilian websites that could tell us some stories about the haunts and the mythical beings of Brazilian folklore. Now, in the second article, we will sit and listen to the tales of myth, legend and fear told by Brazilian bloggers; tales about Cabeça de Cuia and Caboclo D'Água, and about the beautiful and sad tale of the Vitória Régia, and give more details about the mysterious Loira do Banheiro and her terrible death.

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Japan: The Illegal Download Explained, on 2-Channel

Written by Chris Salzberg · East Asia

Over the last years, the sometimes raucous nature of the Japanese Internet has repeatedly come under fire over concerns about issues such as harmful content and copyright infringement. Now the spotlight is back again, with news that legislation to ban downloads of copyrighted content is moving ahead as planned, despite earlier delays.

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Kelele ‘09: African Bloggers' Conference

Written by Ndesanjo Macha · Sub-Saharan Africa

Kelele is the Kiswahili word for noise. It is the name given to a gathering of African bloggers in the tradition of historical African societies where everyone has a voice. With too many voices marginalised or simply ignored in Africa society today for a variety of reasons, the organisers believe that the Internet in general and grassroots media tools such as blogs in particular represent the most powerful way in which to give Africans back their voice.

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Argentina: Government Seeks to Nationalize Private Retirement Funds

Written by Jorge Gobbi · Latin America

The government of Argentina recently announced that they would send a proposal to the Congress by which the Pension and Retirement Plan Administration or AFJP in Spanish (also known as mutual funds in the US) would become nationalized. The AFJP privately manages millions of Argentineans' retirement funds, and under the proposal, their funds would now go to the State. Many blogs have commented on the possible changes.

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Updates from 23 October 2008

Armenia

Unzipped has already speculated that the recent decision by the opposition to halt demonstrations and rallies might have been part of some deal with the government. Now, following demands for an independent inquiry into the post-election 1 March clashes that left at least 10 people dead, the blogger is encouraged by a presidential decree to create a fact-finding body made up equally of pro-opposition and pro-government members.

• Onnik Krikorian

Ecuador

Eduardo Palacios of Technodatum [es] lists the 15 most relevant blogs in Ecuador in his opinion, and invites readers to add to the list.

• Eduardo Avila

Bolivia

Bolivian President Evo Morales recently revealed that the first draft Constitution was originally planned to be used as a way to bargain the opposition in accepting a more moderate document. If that is the case, Miguel Centellas of Pronto* writes that it was reckless, and that Morales, “may have to accept substantial blame for the deaths that occurred in the past several months as government and opposition forces clashed.“

• Eduardo Avila

India

Nirmalya Nag takes a critical look at the development of India in the past sixteen years. The GDP has quadrupled, poverty has declined; but he makes a case that the pace of this positive change could have even been faster.

• Rezwan

Brazil

On introducing his blogs to friends, Brazilian blogger Alexandre [pt] has to continually answer to the question about why he blogs if it brings him no money. His answer is always: “I get a “voice”! It is very cool to be able to debate ideas, share view points, have a contact channel with people from all over the world”.

• Paula Góes

Bangladesh

The Brook Song (ঝর্ণার গান) reports that a Bangladeshi site “Votebd.org” won the Manthan Award 2008 on E-Governance category. The site tracks all the information related to contesting politicians and makes it available to people of Bangladesh.

• Rezwan

Armenia

Social Science in the Caucasus examines the findings of a poll for The Economist which indicates that support for Republican presidential candidate John McCain is stronger than for his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, in the Republic of Georgia. With the poll also showing that support for Obama is stronger in Azerbaijan and Turkey despite his apparent pro-Armenian leanings, the blog explains why this might be.

• Onnik Krikorian

Armenia

Azerbaijani new media specialist Emin Huseynzade (interviewed by Global Voices Online here) has launched a new English-language blog. Caucasus New Media will detail the growth of blogs, as well as video-sharing and social networking sites, in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. In the first post, the blog looks at the impact a recent video showing bullying in the Azerbaijani army had in the country. In the second, the blog examines the introduction of wireless Internet services in the region.

• Onnik Krikorian

Ukraine: Homophobic Legal Initiatives in Sync with Public Attitudes

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