Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2010 July 31

31 July 2010

Daily archive · 8 posts

Stories from 31 July 2010

Qatar: Residents survive change to eight-digit phone numbers

Written by Shabina Khatri · Middle East & North Africa

In an effort to meet future demand, Qatar changes most mobile and landline numbers from seven to eight digits. Residents complain, but find the transition to be easier than expected.

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Georgia: Frozen conflicts, frozen happiness

Written by Onnik Krikorian · Eastern & Central Europe, Central Asia & Caucasus

With a little over a week to go before the second anniversary of the short war fought between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia, Evolutsia turns its attention to another one of the country's two frozen conflicts, Abkhazia.

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Kenya: Netizens Discuss Kenya's Referendum

Written by Ndesanjo Macha · Sub-Saharan Africa

Bloggers are discussing Kenya's referendum on the proposed new constitution, which will take place on on August 4, 2010.The campaigns for the referendum involved two camps: “Yes” camp led by the Kenyan President and the Prime Minister and “No” camp led by the church.

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Qatar: Expats Question Future Plans

Written by Amira Al Hussaini · Middle East & North Africa

If you are a long term resident in one of the GCC countries, what are your long-term plans? What will you do when you return home? At Qatar Living, expatriates attempt to answer the inevitable question: What will you do when you return home?

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Egypt: Do Egyptians have a natural aversion towards women?

Written by Marwa Rakha · Middle East & North Africa

Do Egyptians have a natural aversion towards women? Zeinobia is very unhappy with this emerging social trend, Mohaly is wondering where we are going with segregation, Diptychal wonders why they want to shut them up, and Eman Hashim is begging mothers to love their daughters!

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Nicaragua: 2.0 Meeting of Blogs and New Media in Managua

Written by Rodrigo Penalba · Translated by Silvia Viñas · Latin America

On August 12 and 13 the event 2.0 Meeting of Blogs and New Media (2.0 Encuentro de Blogs & Nuevos Medios) will take place in Managua, with the participation of communication and new media experts from various countries in the region, including some Global Voices authors.

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Palestine: A Possibility of Military Conscription?

Written by Ayesha Saldanha · Middle East & North Africa

The Hamas government's Interior Minister, Fathi Hammad, earlier this week announced that he was considering expanding Gaza's military force, initially with volunteers and eventually with conscripts. Bloggers in Gaza have reacted with astonishment to the idea.

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Philippines: Opposition to Rail Transit Fare Hikes

Written by Karlo Mikhail Mongaya · East Asia

Metro Manila commuters of the Metro Rail Transit will be facing fare hikes as the Philippine government plans to abandon subsidies for the public transportation because of rising operation and maintenance costs. Bloggers react

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Updates from 31 July 2010

Iran

Several bloggers reported that the Iranain famous singer, Mohammad Nouri passed away today in Iran. Here is one of his most songs, Jane Maryam.

• Fred Petrossian

Lebanon

Felesteen 2.0 is setting up a series of new blogs as part of their social media project. The new bloggers are residents of the Shatila camp, ranging from 14 – 22 years of age with diverse educational backgrounds.

• Katharine Ganly

Japan

Richard Smart at the Tokyo Digital Journalism blog posted a summarized list of Wikileaks’ Japan data on Afghanistan. Raw data can be found on his blog.

• Tomomi Sasaki

Japan

@MaripoGoda crowd sourced Flickr photos to build Haikyo Tokei, which shows a different photo of broken clocks in abandoned buildings to tell the time every minute. @mazzo shared [ja] his communication with the developer, who acknowledged that the images for 11:02 and 08:15 represent the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively.

• Tomomi Sasaki

Brazil

Altino Machado blogs on the tribe Awá-Guajá, a group of nomad indigenous who emerged from the heart of the Amazon forest to prove their existence [pt] and to demand that their land be protected from invasion. Survival International also reported on the story.

• Diego Casaes

Vietnam

Thuy Vu of Vietnam Reporting Project visited the Danang Airbase where Agent Orange was stored. Agent Orange is the highly toxic herbicide used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War

• Mong Palatino

Vietnam

The OneVietnam.org social network was launched this month to connect Vietnamese expats and young migrants to the culture and history of Vietnam.

• Mong Palatino

South Korea

South Korean Constitutional Court ruled in favor of a law that allows only licensed acupuncturists and Oriental medicine doctors to perform Chinese medical practice of moxibustion. The court dealt with the issue after an unlicensed acupuncturist appealed a conviction on his moxibustion treatments to over 1,000 people, South Korea's Joongang reported.

• Lee Yoo Eun