Global Voices · Citizen media stories from August 2011

August, 2011

Monthly archive · 173 posts

Stories from August, 2011

8 August 2011

Should Thailand Raise the Minimum Wage?

One of the campaign promises of newly elected Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her Pheu Thai Party was to double Thailand’s minimum wage. The new pay scale will be implemented next year but the business sector is opposed to it. Here are some reactions from bloggers

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Côte d'Ivoire: Abidjan in Mourning After Tragic Bus Accident

Written by Kanigui · Translated by Claire Ulrich · Sub-Saharan Africa

Friday, August 5, was a tragic day for the West African country of Côte d'Ivoire. A bus transporting passengers in the capital city Abidjan, plunged off a bridge into the Ebrié lagoon, killing 40 and injuring 9. The Ivorian government has decreed three days of national mourning as a mark of respect for the victims.

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Mexico's ‘Train of Death'

Written by Deborah Esch · Latin America

Thousands of Central American migrants risk their lives to hop on top of moving freight trains going from southern Mexico to northern destinations along the US border. A new documentary tells the story of the 'train of death' known as 'The beast'.

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China: Taxi Drivers and Railway Workers on Strike

Written by Jennifer Cheung · East Asia

A new wave of strikes are taking place in China. This time it is not among rural migrant workers working in sweatshops, but among drivers and employees in the urban public transportation sector.

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Zimbabwe: Will a Big Brother Winner Unite a Divided Country?

Written by Madalitso Mwando · Sub-Saharan Africa

The Big Brother Africa reality marathon is now over. However, there are mixed views about which of the two Zimbabwean contestants deserved to win. The Zimbabwean chap who took home a cool US$200,000 "happens" to be white, which "inevitably" also became a talking point.

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Trinidad & Tobago: Newspaper Prints “Private” Facebook Comments

Written by Janine Mendes-Franco · Caribbean

In a follow-up story in June about threatening emails to journalists allegedly sent from the home of the Prime Minister's advisor, The Trinidad Express quoted from a private Facebook discussion without permission. Since then, there have been two additional stories where Facebook comments were "lifted" without consent.

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Updates from August, 2011

22 August 2011

Pakistan

The recent floods in Pakistan has displaced over a million people. Beena Sarwar highlights the relief efforts so far and lists the ways you can help the flood victims.

• Rezwan

Nepal

Bangladeshi writer in exile Taslima Nasreen was drawn into a controversy and had to cancel her trip from India to Nepal after she tweeted to her Nepali friends that she didn't consider Nepal a foreign country. Read more about the debacle at Ushaft's blog.

• Rezwan

Bolivia

Sueños para Atar [es] says Bolivians are wondering “Why are indigenous people marching against an indigenous government?” and “Why does an indigenous government refuse to listen to indigenous people?” as indigenous groups march towards La Paz protesting a road threatening the Indigenous Territory National Park Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS).

• Silvia Viñas

Chile

Two Mapuche and a police officer were shot when “on Thursday, August 18th, the police raided sixteen Mapuche homes in search of weapons”, Ryan Seelau reports in Indigenous News. He adds that police “initially would not allow [the Radio Bio-Bio] vehicle to pass [es] in order to view and report on the incidents as they occurred” although other media outlets were allowed through. The police allowed the reporters through after the radio station spoke on the air about the incident.

• Silvia Viñas

Peru

Global Voices author and Spanish Lingua editor Juan Arellano comments [es] on recent reports about the Amazon from Spanish media. He shares Peruvian's reactions to an article from Spanish newspaper La Razón [es] which describes Iquitos as a “brothel city”.

• Silvia Viñas

Ideas

“Is there any artistic medium that raises more ugly questions of representation and power than film?” In the context of this, A Nation or Nobody blogs about film and neo-colonialism.

• Janine Mendes-Franco