Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2010 May 30

30 May 2010

Daily archive · 6 posts

Stories from 30 May 2010

Macedonia: Silly Songs Do Politics

Written by Filip Stojanovski · Eastern & Central Europe

The anthem published by the youth branch of the Socialist Party of Macedonia on YouTube was talk of the town on social networks and beyond as part of ridiculous advertising songs trend.

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Russia: A Study of Local Discussion Boards

Written by Alexey Sidorenko · Eastern & Central Europe

Online forums in Russian cities are in a certain sense a unique phenomenon. It's not blogs that became the major platforms for open discussion in the regions, but discussion boards (called more often forums). Alexey Sidorenko shares some of the results of his study of local forums in Russia.

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Chez Gangoueus: A brilliant blog about African literature in French

Written by Claire Ulrich · Sub-Saharan Africa

A close runner-up for the Best of Blogs in French Award is Chez Guangoueus (fr). Réassi Ouabonzi blogs about African and diaspora literature in French from a reader's perspective since 2007. Here is an interview of him for Global Voices:

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Slovakia: The Fight for Nationalistic Voters

Written by Tibor Blazko · Eastern & Central Europe

Tibor Blazko writes about the growing nationalistic sentiments driven by some Slovak and Hungarian politicians and translates a related satirical video.

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Japan: Monozukuri for the Modern Age

Written by Chris Salzberg · East Asia, North America

The Japanese counterpart of Make Magazine, an American quarterly magazine for DIY enthusiasts, organizes a regular event in Tokyo called Make Tokyo Meeting (MTM). The fifth MTM, held at the Tokyo Institute of Technology on May 22-23, was the largest yet, featuring everything from bicycle wheels with LED lights, to complex wooden ball machines, to mechanical robot birds. Check out reports on the event on blogs, Twitter and YouTube.

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Bangladesh: Facebook Temporarily Blocked

Written by Rezwan · South Asia

Bangladesh has become the second country in Asia after Pakistan to block the entire Facebook domain. Bangladeshi bloggers are expressing their astonishment, anger and protest against this ban.

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Updates from 30 May 2010

Jamaica

Citiizen media initiative On The Ground News Reports creates a Google maps-based “situation map” to record incidents related to the state of emergency in Jamaica.

• Georgia Popplewell

Georgia

Writing on Eyes on Georgia, and also tweeting at @AliResh, Azerbaijani journalism student Resh Ali posts a brief account of voting in a largely ethnic Azeri-populated region of Georgia in today's local elections. While noting some improvements, the blog says that there are problems with the vote and shortcomings in its conduct that still need to be addressed.

• Onnik Krikorian

Pakistan

Raza Rumee at Pak Tea House discusses about the recent attacks on Ahmadi community in Pakistan and what signs it gives.

• Rezwan

Bangladesh

Shada Kalo discusses about the recent ban on Facebook in Bangladesh - and how it gave a kid a ton of publicity.

• Rezwan

Russia

LJ-user Zyalt published [RUS] pictures from Moscow gay pride parade [EN] that took place despite it the ban by Moscow authorities. The event organizers had to change its location several times. Other pictures of the parade, which was just a few minutes long, can be found here, here and here.

• Gregory Asmolov

Russia

Ukraine-based feminist organization “FEMEN” [EN] conducted an action [ENG] in support of the Russian online movement “Little Blue Buckets” [ENG] and against the “unification of Russia and Ukraine under Kremlin patronage.” Activists with their breasts painted in blue tried to rally near the building of the Russian embassy in Kiev, but were arrested (and later released).

• Gregory Asmolov

Georgia

Transparency International Georgia, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, the Georgian Young Lawyers Association, the National Democratic Institute and the Caucasus Resource Research Center have set up an online mapping system for monitoring today's local election in the former Soviet republic. The vote is considered particularly important as a test to assess the level of democratization in the country and especially regarding the election of a Mayor in the capital, Tbilisi. The site is at http://elections.transparency.ge.