Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2010 January 28

28 January 2010

Daily archive · 9 posts

Stories from 28 January 2010

China: Threatened by American Internet censorship

Written by John Kennedy · East Asia, Latin America

Reactions from Chinese programmers to SourceForge.net's decision to follow American law and block users from several countries include suggestions for how to work around American censorship of the global Internet.

· read »

Trinidad & Tobago: Giving Up the Post?

Written by Janine Mendes-Franco · Caribbean

Despite the devastation taking place in other parts of the region, in Trinidad and Tobago it appears to be politics as usual. On the heels of news that party voting for leadership of the opposition United National Congress had gone in resounding favour of Kamla Persad-Bissessar, former party leader (and founder) Basdeo Panday reacted by refusing to admit defeat. Bloggers discuss the impasse...

· read »

Morocco: A Charter for the Environment

Written by Hisham Almiraat · Middle East & North Africa

The Moroccan government launched an ambitious project on environment involving a series of regional meetings, workshops and conferences that sparked a national debate that aims at establishing a Charter for the environment. Bloggers have been commenting on the development.

· 1

· read »

Egypt: The Right to Speak Up

Written by Marwa Rakha · Middle East & North Africa

Egyptian bloggers and activists held a conference on January 22 in defense of their right to speak up after more than 20 Egyptian bloggers were arrested when their train arrived in the village of Naga Hammady where the Coptic massacre took place. Marwa Rakha sums up their reactions to their detention in this post.

· 2

· read »

Haiti: Security vs. Relief?

Written by Nicholas Laughlin · Caribbean

More than two weeks after the 12 January earthquake in Haiti, and despite an international outpouring of aid, thousands of affected Haitians in and around Port-au-Prince have received little or no relief assistance. Some Haitians and others on the ground suggest that exaggerated concerns about security and violence may be hindering relief efforts.

· 7

· read »

Japan: In Choosing a Job (or Company)

Written by Tomomi Sasaki · East Asia

With limited work experience, how does one make the decision on which company to work for, straight out of university? The question carries weight when you take in the fact that there's a good chance that some of these students might work for that company until they retirement.

· 1

· read »

Video: Call for Aid in the Peruvian South due to Flooding

Written by Juliana Rincón Parra · Latin America

The state of emergency the city of Cusco and surrounding areas has moved many locals to make videos and upload them to the web, trying to get mass media to pay attention to the drama lived by villagers throughout the area who are now homeless, isolated and without food, water or electricity.

· 3

· read »

Russia: Prosecution Against Opposition Blogger Stopped

Written by Alexey Sidorenko · Eastern & Central Europe

The first criminal case against a blogger in Russia with a happy ending unfolded over a long period of time. After two years of investigation and three socio-linguistic assessments, experts didn't find any evidence of "incitement hatred against police and Russian Security Service officers." But the blogger's victory, however, is rather an exception than a rule.

· 9

· read »

Korea: Translating The Tweets Of Novelist Lee Oisoo

Written by Ayesha Saldanha · East Asia

Lee Oisoo is a Korean novelist and artist who has been described as "an eccentric, a genius and a lunatic". When he set up a Twitter account last year he quickly amassed thousands of followers. Now his tweets are being translated into English in order to reach a wider audience. But how did a Bahraini blogger get involved?

· 8

· read »

Updates from 28 January 2010

Russia

Compromat.ru, a notorious Web site that publishes controversial dossiers on various Russian politicians and businessmen, has been allegedly closed following a court order, Elena Tokareva (a.k.a. LJ user elena-tokareva2) reported [RUS]. There are no further details on the issue but a mirror site kompromat.ru has been launched with some of the materials from the previous version of the site.

• Alexey Sidorenko

Sri Lanka

“The short window for freedom of expression is now closed. It is unclear when and to what extent it will open again. #srilanka #lka” reads one Tweet by the Sri Lankan citizen media site Groundviews. Follow the Twitter account of Groundviews for more latest info.

• Rezwan

Saudi Arabia

AltMuslimah reviews the exhibition Breaking the veils: Women artists from the Islamic World, which contains art and literature from women in over 20 countries, including Palestine, Yemen and Morocco. The exhibition, which stated in Jordan, is now touring the US. The review can be read here.

• Katharine Ganly

Pakistan

In a recent survey three quarters of Pakistani youth viewed themselves as Muslims first, Pakistani second. Raza Rumi talks about the identity crisis of the Pakistani younger generation, which deviates from the views of the founding father of the nation.

• Rezwan

Haiti

Real Hope For Haiti reports that rescuers have pulled a 16-year-old Haitian girl alive from the rubble 15 days after the devastating earthquake.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Bermuda

“In three years, the public debt has grown by $480,481,000! And that’s before the economic recession really dug it’s teeth into Bermuda”: Vexed Bermoothes says that “the costs of the constant circus are mounting fast, and only we Bermudians will be left holding the bucket.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

India

Pakistani blogger Raza Rumi attended the SAARC folklore festival held in Chandigarh, India and commented: “It will take years, perhaps decades, but the dream for a visa-less, peacefully coexistent countries of South Asia will be realized. We will wait, but not give up.”

• Rezwan

Belarus

Andrei Khrapavitski writes that Haiti “has become a popular topic” for Belarusian bloggers “to chatter about and for some to sarcastically grin at the pain of Haitians. It hurts to read how my compatriots, some of whom have received foreign aid themselves, seem to be quite cynical about the Haitian earthquake and purely racist hiding under a veil of Internet anonymity.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

Russia

Svetlana Gladkova of Profy writes about a Russian draft law aiming to limit access to explicit online content during daytime: “It is obvious that internet here is taken as some wider analogue of television.”

• Veronica Khokhlova