Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2009 December 14

14 December 2009

Daily archive · 9 posts

Stories from 14 December 2009

Canada said what? Phishing Spoof at Climate Change Summit

Written by Solana Larsen · Sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe

The Canadian government supposedly released an angry statement today, denouncing a spoof that supposedly made it as far as the Wall Street Journal, claiming that Canada had shifted its policy and would be agreeing to greenhouse gas reduction targets.

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Guatemala: Stories and Artisan Crafts from The Ixil Triangle

Written by Renata Avila · Latin America

Towns Santa María Nebaj, San Juan Cotzal and San Gaspar Chajul form the Ixil Triangle, located north of the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. Because of its traditional hand-crafted clothing, the Chancol cheese, and its collection of myths and legends from the region, the place is one of the favorite destinations of hikers in Guatemala.

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Caribbean: New Media & Celebrity Fascination

Written by Karel McIntosh · North America, Caribbean

The fascination with celebrities has always been at a fever pitch, but in the current age of new media and consumer-generated content, it’s at an all-time high. While Caribbean bloggers do not tend to overly focus on gossip, they often tune in on the current story at hand.

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Tunisia: Student Jailed for Media Interview

Written by Lina Ben Mhenni · Middle East & North Africa

Tunisian activists have started a Facebook group and a blog in support of Mohamed Soudani, 24, who disappeared on October 22, 2009, in Tunisia, after giving interviews to Radio Monte Carlo International and Radio France International. Friends have since learned he was detained and tortured.

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China: Another elite's suicide - the story of Yang Yuanyuan

Written by Jennifer Cheung · East Asia

YANG Yuanyuan, a 30-year-old postgraduate at Shanghai Maritime University, hanged herself in her bathroom on November 25. She told her mother that knowledge cannot change destiny on the day before she...

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Greece: Riots and Police Brutality Commemorate Teenager's Death

Written by Asteris Masouras · Western Europe

Riots broke out in Athens and Thessaloniki during memorial gatherings for a 15-year old named Alexandros Grigoropoulos who was shot dead by police on December 6, 2008. Ample citizen media evidence of police brutality forced the government to make promises of police reform yet again.

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ICT4D: Past mistakes, future wisdom

Written by Aparna Ray · South Asia

What makes an ICT4D project fizzle out? What are the common mistakes that donors, planners and implementers make when trying to run an ICT4D project? Practitioners discuss in a public Twitter chat.

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Dispatch from Copenhagen: Demands for Climate Justice

Written by Saffah Faroog · Western Europe

Saffah Faroog is one of four Global Voices Authors in Copenhagen during the United Nations Climate Change Summit covering the lively conversations occurring in the blogosphere surrounding COP15.

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Dominican Republic: Goodbye to Composer Luis “Terror” Días

Written by Rocio Diaz · Latin America

The community of Dominican Republic said goodbye to composer and musician Luis "Terror" Días, who died in Santo Domingo on December 8. His legacy includes composing more than 700 melodies, being an influence on artists such as Juan Luis Guerra and Fernando Villalona, as well as contributing to Dominican rock, of which he is considered a founding father.

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Updates from 14 December 2009

Colombia

There have been 100 indigenous children who have died this year of hunger in Colombia, and Valentina Díaz Gómez of Realidades Colombianas [es] writes that the president must do more to address this serious situation.

• Eduardo Avila

Kenya

A health worker from New York, USA, writes about his experience in Africa: “That first stint, a new kind of logic came fast and furious. I learned how the line between urban and beyond is blurred. I discovered that in Swahili umepotea (you have been lost) is what you tell someone when you haven’t seen them in awhile.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Dominica

“The proposal from the United States and China, by far the world’s largest per capita contributors to the global greenhouse gas build-up, has been nothing short of apathetic”: Dominica Weekly thinks there is still lot of work to be done at the Copenhagen Climate Change talks.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Barbados

“Take a walk along any beach in Barbados – and you’ll see the plastic rubbish washed up on the shore”: Barbados Free Press asks whether the sale of plastic water bottles should be restricted, while Trinidadian Keith Francis is also concerned about global plastic pollution.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Saint Lucia

As new technology makes e-books accessible for the blind, St. Lucia's Caribbean Book Blog says: “It remains to be seen how the Caribbean will be able to justify the blind among us being left behind in the global quest for economic empowerment and basic human dignity.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuba

Repeating Islands reports on the Pope's statements that “there are growing signs of religious freedom in Cuba”, while El Cafe Cubano says: “As a practicing Catholic I am troubled and saddened that the Pope…would laud Cuba for openness? Dr. Biscet is currently in prison serving 25 years simply for speaking out against abortion and communism.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

South Korea

The Metropolitician wrote an open letter to Steve Jobs addressing the situation that foreign residents could not register for I-phone because of local foreign resident policy.

• Oiwan Lam