Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2009 February 20

20 February 2009

Daily archive · 8 posts

Stories from 20 February 2009

Worldwide: 2,500 Languages Disappearing

Written by Simon Maghakyan · South Asia, Western Europe

An interactive map of endangered languages, showing 2,500 out of 6,000 tongues at risk, has been released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The international organization asks users to contribute comments to a project that has many bloggers worried about preserving cultures.

· 10

· read »

Indigenous Activists Seek New .indigi Domain

Written by Simon Maghakyan · New Zealand

Marginalized and oppressed for centuries, indigenous peoples – native communities around the world often considered minorities by states – are seeking Internet autonomy. Encouraged by the opportunity to create new...

· 1

· read »

Armenia: Remembering the Budapest Murder

Written by Simon Maghakyan · Central Asia & Caucasus

Yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of the murder of 26-year old Gurgen Margarian, an Armenian officer attending a NATO Partnership for Peace program in Budapest, Hungary. Killed in his sleep with an axe wielded by his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ramil Safarov, some Armenian bloggers made special posts to commemorate the day.

· 9

· read »

Serbia: Protect the Children of Drug Addicts

Written by Ljubisa Bojic · Eastern & Central Europe

Jelena's ex-husband, a drug addict, comes to her home and threatens her child. Jelena divorced him, two years ago. The court ordered that he can see the child, because this can help his therapy to stop drug addiction, and yet he never paid any child support and has become a threat to Jelena and her child. Jelena talked to the class of Serbian Web Journalism School. Her talk was part of a Facebook activism lecture. Students made a cause page on Facebook to promote this and similar cases. More than 250 individuals have joined it so far.

· 3

· read »

China: Riding on Chairman Mao's head

Written by Bob Chen · East Asia

On Feb19，a set of pictures that shows a girl riding on the head of Chairman Mao was circulated around the internet. Of course, what she rides is just a statue...

· 12

· read »

Clinton visits Indonesia

Written by Mong Palatino · East Asia, North America

Aside from meeting the leaders of Indonesia, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton found the time to visit a slum community in Jakarta. She also appeared in a teen-oriented TV show. What are the reactions of bloggers?

· 1

· read »

Updates from 20 February 2009

Egypt

Randa Abu Shakra wrote an article for MENASSAT about an astounding report published by Al Badil newspaper concerning Egypt's drug trade.

• Eman AbdElRahman

Egypt

Ramy Mosad wrote in his blog Egyptian Stories a short biography of Lebanese singer, Princess Asmahan el Atrache, who was mysteriously murdered 64 years ago.

• Eman AbdElRahman

Egypt

Zeinobia comments on the Japanese Finance minister Shoichi Nakagaw resignation, after the criticism he received due to his embarrassing moment in the G7 summit in Italy. She also compares him to Egyptian ministers who are in more deep trouble than Nakagaw and, according to her, insist on embarrassing their country.

• Eman AbdElRahman

Reunion

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has finally met with elected representatives of French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Réunion, regarding the crisis which has been shaking the French West Indies for the last month. Martinican bloggers Imaniyé and blogde[moi] are dissatisfied and note that his TV address raised two questions: Why was the speech exclusively broadcast on RFO: the French overseas media network and why was it only 10 min. long?

• Fabienne Flessel

Egypt

“It is really a very good gesture to have a dedicated channel to air nothing but comic shows all the time and transfer some cheerful vibes. That being said I have to say that most of the material aired is extremely disappointing, and goes beyond disgraceful sometimes,” writes Nermeena, from Egypt.

• Amira Al Hussaini

Algeria

“The April elections in Algeria will lead almost certainly to one result: The re-election of Abdelaziz Bouteflika. While some hailed the 2004 elections as either a step forward or a step backward for democracy and/or stability, the 2009 elections will more resemble the 1999 elections,” notes The Moor Next Door.

• Amira Al Hussaini

Kenya

Take at blogs written by journalist blogging from Africa. The list is compiled by Scarlett Lion, “I'd like to make a sort of ongoing list of foreign correspondents in Africa who blog. Feel free to add to the list in the comments section and eventually I'll put out a revised full list, complete with your suggestions.”

• Ndesanjo Macha