Global Voices · Citizen media stories from September 2011

September, 2011

Monthly archive · 162 posts

Stories from September, 2011

29 September 2011

Global: Key Quotes and Tweets from the Internet Governance Forum

Written by Alexey Sidorenko · Sub-Saharan Africa

As the Internet Governance Forum is a truly epic event both online and offline, it's hard to do justice to the complexity of the discussions and debates that are currently taking place in Nairobi, Kenya. Discover with Global Voices some key tweets and quotes from participants, accompanied by short commentaries.

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Cameroon: Calm Before the Storm?

Written by Julie Owono · Sub-Saharan Africa

Cameroon's presidential election will take place on October 9, but the lack of stake in the outcome felt by the general population is leading to a lack of interest. The threat of post-election violence and ethnic tension is also hanging over the country.

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Cuba: A Tireless Defender of Gay Rights

Written by Elaine Diaz · Latin America

Francisco Rodríguez Cruz is a Cuban journalist and activist who for over a year has maintained a controversial blog committed to advancing the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Cuba.

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28 September 2011

Kuwait: After Three Months in Prison, Court Releases Twitter User

Written by Mona Kareem · Middle East & North Africa

Kuwaiti Twitter user Nasser Abul has been released from prison after serving three months for insulting the Bahraini and Saudi regimes. Netizens react after his release.

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Zambia: Netizens Start Countdown to 90 Day Change Promise

Written by Gershom Ndhlovu · Sub-Saharan Africa

Zambia’s new President, Michael Sata, has promised to transform the nation in 90 days including putting more money into people’s pockets. Expectant netizens have started the countdown; a group called the '90 Day Agenda' has opened a Facebook page to push for it.

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Philippines: Creative Protests During Campus Strikes

Written by Karlo Mikhail Mongaya · East Asia

Last week's nationwide campus strikes in the Philippines against education budget cuts saw the lively and creative integration of online tools to mobilize thousands to fight for the right to education. From mass planking, freeze mob, blackboard campaign, fashion show, to Facebook campaigns, activists used various forms of protests to highlight their cause

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Updates from September, 2011

30 September 2011

North Korea

Photographer Sam Gellman took 50 photos of a large-scale Mass Games in Pyongyang during his 4-day trip to North Korea. Although nearly 100,000 North Korean were mobilized for the game which is heavily laden with regime's propaganda, net users left good comments on Gellman who captured these incredible images.

• Lee Yoo Eun

Cameroon

Dibussi looks at how candidates in Presidential Election 2011 in Cameroon are navigating the social media landscape: “President Paul: The president’s relatively recent social media presence is part of a much broader (and reportedly very expensive) PR campaign crafted by Patricia Balme, the most recent in a series of French “communications guru,” who have managed the President's image since 1992…”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Brazil

Brazilian citizens used the hashtag #CidEspancaProfessores (Cid beats teachers) in solidarity with public school teachers who were beaten by the police on September 29. That day, a proposal of the governor Cid Gomes for changes in the career development of teachers was passed in the Legislative Assembly of Ceará. After 54 days of strike, teachers occupied the Assembly on Wednesday (28).

• João Miguel D. de A. Lima

China

Obama Fried Chicken (OFC) is now opened in Beijing. (From Shanghaiist)

• Oiwan Lam

Afghanistan

Nick Fielding writes that the US and other donors have provided 90 per cent of Afghanistan's public expenditures in 2006-2010. With the 2014 target date for the withdrawal of US troops, the question is how the government in Kabul would fund its security forces, who use up the lion's share of this donor income.

• Adil Nurmakov

Uzbekistan

Tomyris reports that two members of an unregistered Uzbekistan’s Human Rights Society were detained by the authorities for photographing schoolchildren picking cotton in the country's southern province.

• Adil Nurmakov

Uzbekistan

Avicenna reports that one of the most active members of the Uzbek opposition in exile Fuad Rustamkhojaev was assasinated in Ivanovo, a Western Russian town where he lived for the last 6 years. The victim's colleagues are outraged by the brutality, blaming the political regime in Uzbekistan for the murder.

• Adil Nurmakov