Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2010 May 23

23 May 2010

Daily archive · 7 posts

Stories from 23 May 2010

Morocco: Discussing a Free Thinker's Legacy

Written by Hisham Almiraat · Middle East & North Africa

The death of Moroccan philosopher and social theorist, Mohammed Abed al-Jabri, has gone with little notice in the media. Yet al-Jabri's contributions over the last decades to the uphill battle between rationality and religious thought has probably never been so relevant as today. Bloggers have been commemorating his legacy.

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Russia: Hacking of Women's Community Raises Gender, Ethical and Privacy Dilemmas

Written by Gregory Asmolov · Eastern & Central Europe

The legendary Russian women blog community "girls_only" with the most sensitive and private discussions was hacked by anonymous hacker and uploaded to a mirror site. The scandal raised a lot of legal, ethical and online security dilemmas. It also showed that men and women are creatures that live on different Internet planets and inspired online discussions about the gender differences.

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Peru: The Preference for Afro-Peruvians at Funeral Services

Written by Juan Arellano · Latin America

The funeral industry in Peru appears to be cornered by Afro-Peruvians, where clients specifically request and prefer their services. Many are wondering whether this might be reverse-discrimination against other ethnicities.

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Kazakhstan: Bloggers condemn the “Leader of the Nation” project

Written by Adil Nurmakov · Central Asia & Caucasus

The parliament in Kazakhstan came out with the initiative to give a “Leader of the Nation” status to incumbent president Nursultan Nazarbayev. The former Kazakh Communist party’s secretary, a strongman...

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South Africa: Zapiro's “Muhammad” Cartoon Controversy

Written by Muhammad Karim · Sub-Saharan Africa

Zapiro, South Africa's premier cartoonist, known for his controversial style in picking on politicians and commenting on societies issues, has come into the limelight in South Africa for jumping on the “Draw Muhammad Day” bandwagon.

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Japan: PacMan, still a hit after 30 years

Written by Chris Salzberg · East Asia

When it was released in 1980, Pac-Man captured the world's attention and transformed the video game industry. Now Pac-Man is back to celebrate his 30th birthday, and he's popping up in unexpected places. In blogs and on Twitter, Japanese reflect on the game that launched their country to the forefront of the global video game industry.

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Japan: Can Twitter help to prevent suicides?

Written by Scilla Alecci · East Asia

Considered the dramatic increase of young victims who decide to commit suicide every year, some bloggers debate on the use of twitter to promote dialogue and help in suicide prevention.

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Updates from 23 May 2010

Azerbaijan

Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines comments on the U.S. State Department “Democracy is…” online video challenge and shares some of the entries with its readers. The blog is especially pleased to see that among the finalists is an entry from Azerbaijan.

• Onnik Krikorian

Russia

Fatalin's Blog informs its readers about Mafia, a group game where some participants take on the role of the mafiosa and kill those who represent citizens while both sides deceive each other. Invented in Russia, and alluding to societies in both countries, the blog notes that the game is especially popular in Armenia and Azerbaijan, perhaps because both nations are similar in their temperament and mentality.

• Onnik Krikorian

Egypt

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani invited her friend Patricia Canfield to write about her tours of Cairo and share the photographs she took. Patricia profoundly wrote about Khan El Khalili, Al Mu’izz Street and other touristic places in the capital city.

• Eman AbdElRahman

Sri Lanka

Serendipity blog questions why the ministers of Sri Lanka are frequently summoned to the presidential secretariat and whether there could be more effective means of communication between the president and ministers in this electronic age.

• Rezwan

Egypt

The current minimum laborer wage, set in the mid-1980s, is LE35. Tabula Gaza reviews the workers strife since the late 90s until today.

• Marwa Rakha

Egypt

Amonsito textile factory owner Syrian-American Adel Agha fled Egypt in 2007 and responsibility for the factory was assumed by Manpower and Immigration Ministry and Bank Misr. Amonisto workers went on strike and Tabula Gaza blogged how they were kicked out of a parliament session, with six workers “kidnapped” and taken to police stations. Arabawy shared the story from the beginning with pictures of the workers. (Witness accounts here)

• Marwa Rakha

Kenya

Moses writes about Mocality, a mobile-based and crowd-sourced business directory operating in Kenya.

• Abdoulaye Bah

Tanzania

Simon of HIV In Kenya blog argues that UNAIDS publishes a list of recent HIV related publications. However, the list very rarely includes papers that discuss non-sexual HIV transmission, concentrating instead on the many articles that look at sexual risk or what is perceived as sexual risk.

• Ndesanjo Macha