Global Voices · Citizen media stories from October 2011

October, 2011

Monthly archive · 215 posts

Stories from October, 2011

15 October 2011

Russia: The Future of LiveJournal's Network Effect

Written by Alexey Sidorenko · Eastern & Central Europe

A newspaper article titled "A Half-Dead Journal," which analyzed the drop in LiveJournal's traffic within the last nine months, provoked a heated discussion on the structure and the future of the Russian blogosphere.

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Hungary: “How Many Policemen Does It Take to Arrest A Homeless Person?”

Written by Marietta Le · Eastern & Central Europe

To protest against a regulation that bans the homeless from public areas in one of Budapest's neighborhoods, one blogger posed as a homeless man and ended up getting arrested by the police, while his friends were filming the incident. Marietta Le reports on the initiative.

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Global Handwashing Day: Changing Behaviors through Song and Dance

Written by Juliana Rincón Parra · Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia

Do you know how to properly wash your hands? Through songs and dances, people from different parts of the world teach others the right way to wash their hands to promote health. October 15 is Global Handwashing Day.

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14 October 2011

Bhutan: Royal Wedding Gifts Country a Queen

Written by Sonam Ongmo · South Asia

The tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan has received a royal gift - a new Queen - after the King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck wed and crowned 21 year old Ashi Jetsun Pema. The excitement of the Bhutanese came pouring out on the Twittersphere as well as on facebook and other social media outlets.

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Zambia: Netizens Bay for Ex-President's Blood

Written by Gershom Ndhlovu · Sub-Saharan Africa

When Zambia’s defeated president in the September 20 elections, Rupiah Banda said in his farewell speech that he never knowingly abused state funds but simply did what was best for Zambia, what citizens did not know was that the revelations and extent of the alleged abuse would come thick and fast.

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Uganda: Heartbroken Ugandans Discuss Failure to Make a Comeback to Continental Tournament

Written by Rosebell Kagumire · Sub-Saharan Africa

Next year’s African Cup of Nations will be missing many giants in African soccer like Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa but last weekend’s deciding match between Uganda and Kenya was much harder for Ugandans to take in.

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Updates from October, 2011

23 October 2011

Egypt

Egyptian Ayman Youssef Mansur has been sentenced for three years with hard labour in Egypt for “insulting Islam” on Facebook, reports Brian Whitaker in Al Bab.

• Amira Al Hussaini

Tunisia

Journalist Yasmine Ryan ~~tweets: “Tunisia's polling booths will be open an extra 2 and a half hours due to such high turnout, until 9.30pm.”~~ She then amended her tweet: “CORRECTION: polls still shut at 7pm, but all those with people still inline are to remain open.”

• Amira Al Hussaini

Tunisia

The Independent Tunisian electoral commission has set up a crowdmap to monitor the voting process in Tunisia, in French and Arabic. Citizens are encouraged to report irregularities they may witness during the October 23 constituent elections. The crowdmap is also accessible from the official homepage of the electoral commission.

• Claire Ulrich

22 October 2011

Hungarian Spectrum and The Contrarian Hungarian write about the Oct. 23 anti-government rally, organized through a Facebook community called Egymillióan a magyar sajtószabadságért [hu; 88,272 ‘likes']/One Million for the Freedom of Press in Hungary [en; 720 ‘likes'] - and about a pro-government rally, which was scheduled to take place on the same day some 700 meters away from the opposition rally, but was cancelled on Oct. 17, allegedly due to PM Viktor Orbán's Oct. 23 visit to Brussels.