Global Voices · Citizen media stories from January 2011

January, 2011

Monthly archive · 230 posts

Stories from January, 2011

20 January 2011

Arab World: Copycat Self-Immolation Acts Should Not be Encouraged

Written by Amira Al Hussaini · Middle East & North Africa

Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi burnt himself to death in protest against unemployment, sparking an uprising which brought down the rule of Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year-old regime in less than one month. Since then, up to 10 cases of self-immolation were reported in Mauritania, Algeria and Egypt, where people are protesting against unemployment, the rising cost of living and corruption, among other grievances.

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Blogspot sites blocked in Cambodia

Written by Sopheap Chak · East Asia

Blogspot sites were blocked in Cambodia after the government ordered several ISPs to shut down the popular anti-government blog KI Media. The websites have since then been "unblocked" but netizens are worried about this unprecedented online censorship in the country

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Mexico: The “Sistine Chapel of Crystals”

Written by Andrea Arzaba · Latin America

The "Cave of Crystals" in the Mexican town of Naica houses giant crystals known as "Moon Stones." The cave is a deadly place for humans to visit, but through the Internet bloggers are sharing the story behind this mysterious cave.

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Poland: More Reactions to IAC Report - on Microblogs and via Cartoons

Written by Sylwia Presley · Eastern & Central Europe

The Interstate Aviation Committee's report on last April's Smolensk plane crash has provoked many insightful posts from bloggers, but microblogging platforms - Twitter and Blip.pl - have also become good spaces for Poles to express their opinions, and quite a few of visuals criticising the report have appeared online as well.

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19 January 2011

Middle East: A Closer Look at Tunisia's Uprising

Written by Amira Al Hussaini · Middle East & North Africa

As Tunisians continue to grapple with the fast paced events of the few previous days which saw the fall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his escape, Arab bloggers continue to share their thoughts and reflections on the Tunisian uprising and what it spells for the rest of the region.

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Sudan: Southern Sudan Referendum: Africa (Dis)United?

Written by Ndesanjo Macha · Sub-Saharan Africa

In our latest roundup of Southern Sudan Referendum 2011, Dr. James Okuk offers his “advance billion congratulation” to the people of Southern Sudan for choosing to form a new nation while Leon Nyerere, a Sudanese based in Canada, believes that there is no rational justification for the separation of Southern Sudan. The quest for separation, Leon argues, was informed by emotions than rational thinking.

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Updates from January, 2011

25 January 2011

Cambodia

Anne Elizabeth Moore blogs about the Garment Worker Open University project in Cambodia. It aims to unite factory workers in Phnom Penh and inform them about their legal rights

• Mong Palatino

Cambodia

Blogspot is still being blocked by one ISP even if it has been “unblocked” by other networks in Cambodia. The government was accused of ordering the networks to block Blogspot to shut down an anti-government blog.

• Mong Palatino

Tanzania

Last week Kenyan Gay came across a gay movie produced and shot in Tanzania, which will premier on 4th February 2011.

• Ndesanjo Macha

Cambodia

Preparations are ongoing for TEDx Phnom Penh which will take place on February 5.

• Mong Palatino

Taiwan (ROC)

Citizen journalist Zhu Shu-juan(朱淑娟) reports that even though all reviewers from the Wetland Review Committee of the Ministry of Interior suggested Dacheng Wetland in Changhua County to be listed as national or even international wetland, due to resistance from local politicians and consortia who support petrochemical project to be built there, the wetland was not listed and therefore there is an obvious empty field on the map of Important Wetlands in Taiwan(zht).

• Portnoy Zheng

Brazil

Leonardo Sakamoto refutes [pt] the statement of the foreign affairs adviser to the Brazilian presidency, Marco Aurelio Garcia, that “A neo-colonial relationship is only established if neo-colonizer and colonized are in agreement.” For him, it is necessary to examine the complicity of local elites and the situation of colonized countries instead.

• Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

Serbia: The Media War Against Angelina Jolie

She plagiarized this story from a Croat, who is suing her. His pen name is James Braddock, but his real...
Serbs are showing their true colors with their insane reaction to this film. How shocking. Congratulations, you come off just...
I don't understand how anyone in their right mind would not have known a movie like this would have opened...