Global Voices · Citizen media stories from March 2011

March, 2011

Monthly archive · 316 posts

Stories from March, 2011

4 March 2011

Mozambique: Global Voices and @Verdade Newspaper

Written by Paula Góes · Translated by Paula Góes · Sub-Saharan Africa

Starting this March, the Global Voices gains a space offline in a corner of Lusophone Africa, in the pages of @Verdade Newspaper, Mozambique. In return, the largest weekly in circulation in Mozambique will help to increase our coverage of the country, with a monthly column on news from Mozambique, as seen by its citizens.

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Côte d'Ivoire: Facebook and Twitter, Messengers of Death

Written by Anna Gueye · Sub-Saharan Africa

Seven women supporting elected President Alassane Ouatara were shot dead during a protest on March 3, 2011, in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire by security forces loyal to incumbent President Gbagbo. As violence escalates in the country, Anna Guèye examines the role played by Facebook and Twitter.

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Bahrain: Hamad Town Fight Sparks Rumours and Sectarianism

Written by Yacoub Al-Slaise · Middle East & North Africa

On Thursday night, a fight broke out in Hamad Town, southwest of Manama, between youths which later escalated to larger numbers with reports saying over 200 joined the fight using wood blocks, metal bars, knives and even swords. Here is how the incident played out on social media platforms.

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Jordan: Creative Signs for Change at Amman Protest

Written by Nadine Toukan · Middle East & North Africa

Another Friday protest calling for reforms in Jordan took place in downtown Amman today (March 4, 2011). After a week of generally disappointed reactions at the newly appointed prime minister's speech, and negative, provocative statements from ex-ministers and members of parliament, some Jordanian citizens responded creatively in an ongoing call for reform and inclusive change.

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Russia: Online Ecosystem Case Study of Perm Region

Written by Alexey Sidorenko · Eastern & Central Europe

Alexey Sidorenko shares his observations of the digital activism scene in the city of Perm.

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Uganda: Save The Uganda Museum

Written by Ndesanjo Macha · Sub-Saharan Africa

The Uganda Museum founded in 1908 in Kampala, Uganda, displays and exhibits historical and traditional collections of the country's cultural heritage. With its site recently earmarked by the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry for the construction of a 60-storey building, a group of Ugandan cyberactivists have decided to run a Facebook campaign to save the building.

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Kazakhstan: Little Enthusiasm for No Choice Elections

Written by Adil Nurmakov · Central Asia & Caucasus

The recent announcement of an early presidential election in Kazakhstan has brought little excitement - the opposition will boycott the vote, other candidates are weak, and the incumbent president is sure to secure another term after more than 20 years in office.

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Libya: Death Toll Rises to 6,000, US Mulls Intervention

Written by Antoun Issa · Middle East & North Africa

Human rights groups have put the latest death toll in the Libyan crisis to over 6000, as pro-Gaddafi forces continue to pound opposition-held cities with air strikes. Libyan bloggers and tweeps share their side of the story in this post by Antoun Issa.

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Singapore: Netizens Discuss Election Issues

Written by Mong Palatino · East Asia

As Singapore prepares for the General Elections 2011, netizens are actively commenting on various election issues. Will PAP, the ruling party for more than four decades, remain dominant? What are the demands of voters?

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Libya: High Hopes for the Friday of Liberation

Written by Amira Al Hussaini · Middle East & North Africa

It's already Friday in Libya, and emotions are running high, as more protests are planned after Friday prayers in the capital Tripoli to oust dictator Muammar Al Gaddafi. Libyans are calling Friday's protests as the Friday of Liberation, in the hope that it will see the end of Gaddafi's regime. Both Tunisia's Zein El Abideen Ben Ali and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak's reigns ended on Fridays, after popular uprisings.

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Updates from March, 2011

18 March 2011

Cote d'Ivoire

Khadidjha visits a Senegalese restaurant in Boston, USA: “I ordered Attieke which is a dish that is native to the country of Cote D’ivoire. Attieke is a dish make out of skinned and grounded cassava. The cassava is broken up to make it look like a grain. Its always eaten with some sort of fish either fried or in this case baked.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Nigeria

Monitoring Nigerian General Elections (2011) using ReVoDa Mobile Apps: “ReVoDa allows voters to report as independent citizen observers from their respective Polling Units across Nigeria, having registered to map their mobile number, name and polling unit number to specific locations.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

South Sudan

Maggies blogs about vigilante justice in Juba, South Sudan: “In my experience as a Juba resident for the past year and a half, vigilante justice and citizen’s arrests, confused and often abusive and arbitrary policing, and a general lack of rule of law are par for the course in what will soon be the world’s newest capital.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

South Africa

Free Gender is a blog by a group of 14 young Black Queer South Africans, living in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. The group was started by Funeka Soldaat in 2008.

• Ndesanjo Macha

Tanzania

Tanzanians must get honest about rural water supply: “It's Maji [Water] Week, so a good time for some more analysis of key water supply issues. Several times this blog has presented arguments that the main challenges in rural water supply are political rather than technical or even administrative.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Malawi

Fashion Police blog from Blantyre, Malawi: “Coz we do fashion on a budget in Blantyre, Malawi (however, some people need to be fined!)”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Paraguay

Netizens share information and discuss indigenous issues in a Facebook group called “Por una vida digna para los indígenas del Paraguay” [es] (For a dignified life for the indigenous people of Paraguay), as journalist Sofía Masi reports in Despierta…Paraguay [es]

• Silvia Viñas

El Salvador

Locavore del Mundo reports that El Salvador is investing “on developing productive and profitable agriculture in the northern parts of the country” through funding from the Milllennium Challenge Corporation.

• Silvia Viñas

Japan

The Association of Digital Culture, Taiwan(ADCT) starts to curate and translate latest information from Japanese and English into Chinese[zht] in order to provide worried Taiwanese netizens a trustworthy source of information upon the media turbulence. They have done the same effort in 2009 when Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan. (Disclosure: I am a member of ADCT)

• Portnoy Zheng

Japan

A South Korea's IT company has set up a special web page [ko] which gives real-time data on nuclear radiation levels. The website enlists major cities’ radiation levels by coalescing data gathered from Japanese Ministry of Science and Technology and the IERNet (Integrated Environmental Radiation Monitoring Network). (read more about it here)[en].

• Lee Yoo Eun