Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2011 October 24

24 October 2011

Daily archive · 9 posts

Stories from 24 October 2011

Egypt: Catch the Former Regime Remnants

Written by Tarek Amr · Middle East & North Africa

Last April, an Egyptian court ordered the dissolution of the political organization that ruled the nation for decades. Its members are however reinventing themselves, joining the lists of candidates vying for November's parliamentary elections. See how netizens have joined hands to expose them.

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Tunisia: Provisional Results Suggest Islamists Advance

Written by Afef Abrougui · Middle East & North Africa

Provisional results of the October 23 election in Tunisia suggest that the Islamist party Ennahdha took the biggest share of the votes. Counting of the votes is still underway, and the final results are expected to be announced on Tuesday afternoon.

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Macedonia: Million Tweets - an Existentialist Parody Poem

Written by Filip Stojanovski · Eastern & Central Europe

Blogger iskra_iskric has dared to adapt a Macedonian rock classic by the band Arhangel to the new digital reality, creating a new poem on tweetering.

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Zambia: Netizens Divided Over Sata's Apology to Angola

Written by Gershom Ndhlovu · Sub-Saharan Africa

Since he took over as Zambia’s president after the September 20 election, Michael Sata has committed several diplomatic blunders. The biggest talking point is his apology to the Angolan government for former Zambian ruling party MMD's support of the then Angolan rebel movement.

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Colombia: Workers and Students Take to the Streets in Protest

Written by Cati Restrepo · Translated by Jen Fumero · Latin America

Public sector workers and university students have hit the streets of Colombia to express their dissatisfaction. Cati Restrepo explores some of their concerns.

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Argentina: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Re-Elected President

Written by Laura Schneider · Translated by Silvia Viñas · Latin America

Presidential elections held in Argentina on October 23 resulted in a sweeping victory for current President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, according to preliminary results. This post looks at how Argentinians reacted on Twitter.

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Mozambique: Uniting Small Farmers for a Better Tomorrow

Written by Janet Gunter · Sub-Saharan Africa

Mr. Júlio dos Santos Pêssego is one of the principal leaders of the "peasant movement" in Niassa province in Mozambique. He helps organize community groups that work to defend land rights, increase food production and bring prosperity to farming families.

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Cambodia: Worst Flooding in a Decade

Written by Sopheap Chak · East Asia

Cambodia is experiencing the worst flooding in a decade. The government reports that almost a half a million hectares of rice paddies were destroyed by the floods, which could affect food security in the region. Here are more reports about the disaster.

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Turkey: Online Relief Efforts for Van's Earthquake Victims

Written by Kubra · Middle East & North Africa

Eastern Turkey was hit by a large earthquake of magnitude 7.2 yesterday. Kubra sums up some of relief efforts that were spearheaded online, pushing for humanitarian and rescue efforts on the ground.

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Updates from 24 October 2011

South Korea

South Korean citizen media Wiki Tree posted [ko] a video and photos of flash mob encouraging South Korean young voters to participate in the coming election on October 26, 2011.

• Lee Yoo Eun

Hungary

The Contrarian Hungarian live-blogged Sunday's opposition rally in Budapest, which had been organized through Facebook (hu; en) and drew “many tens of thousands” of protesters.

• Veronica Khokhlova

U.S.A.

@Therealpsmst recommends [mk] the talk by anti-corruption activist, law professor and Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig (@lessig): “Republic, Lost” is about the role of campaign contribution racket in the times of crisis and ways to reform the U.S. political and financial system.

• Filip Stojanovski

Honduras

‘La Gringa', from La Gringa's Blogcito, says her Facebook account was disabled because someone filed a complaint about her username ('La Gringa', her internet pseudonym) after she published a series of posts on crime in Honduras. She explains why she uses a pseudonym and points out that an online petition to restore her account has been set up at Change.org.

• Silvia Viñas

El Salvador

The rain has stopped and water is starting to recede in El Salvador; Tim's El Salvador Blog now looks at relief efforts after torrential rains hit El Salvador and other parts of Central America.

• Silvia Viñas

Chile

Robert L. Funk reports on the storming of the former Congress building in Santiago by students during “a Committee meeting to which the Education Minister had been invited”. Protesters refused to leave, and the President of the Senate, Guido Girardi, “declared that as the parliament is a public institution and belongs to the people, he would not have the protesters removed” as Robert explains.

• Silvia Viñas

East Timor

The Movimento Kontra Deve (Movement Against Debt) and East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) have launched a joint petition to “For a Debt-Free Timor-Leste”. The Government of Timor-Leste is currently free of debt. Despite current substantial income from petroleum resources, the government has announced plans to begin borrowing.

• Sara Moreira

Ghana

Critical Point discusses Africa's challenge to Western homosexuality: “I feel disappointment when African leaders immediately submit to a foreign concept in order to be assimilated into an “International Community” whose definition of international is decidedly limited! How is it that a relatively recent understanding of homosexuality has predominated over one which existed in Africa hundreds of years before?”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Zambia

Gershom argues that presidential immunity in Zambia must be limited to the term of office: “With the revelations coming out regarding the conduct of Zambia’s immediate former president Rupiah Banda in his three short years in office, it is increasingly becoming necessary for people to demand that Mr Banda be stripped of his immunity just like it happened to Zambia’s second president, Frederick Chiluba.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Cameroon

Eva Joly, the green party candidate for the French 2012 presidential election, denounced on her blog the re-election of Paul Biya, Cameroon incumbent president. She points out that even the usually prudent US State Department expressed strong reserves with the electoral process. She is surprised that the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs already aknowledged Paul Biya's re-election despite noting many irregularities.

• Julie Owono