Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2011 November 11

11 November 2011

Daily archive · 11 posts

Stories from 11 November 2011

Mexico: Netizens React to Death of Interior Secretary

Written by Andrea Arzaba · Latin America

Fernando Blake Mora, Mexico’s Interior Minister, died today -November 11- in a helicopter crash. Twitter users immediately began discussing the accident, and in a few hours #BlakeMora and 'Secretario de Gobernación' became worldwide trending topics.

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Yemen: Taiz is Bleeding while the UN Envoy is in Sanaa

Written by Noon Arabia · Middle East & North Africa

Yesterday's arrival of the UN envoy Bin Omar to Sanaa didn't seem to deter president Ali Abdullah Saleh or his forces from defiantly committing more violence and atrocities in Taiz. The continuous and random shelling by Saleh forces on Taiz's residential areas has caused many deaths and injuries to civilians and destruction of many homes. Noon Arabia takes us to the heart of the suffering of Yemenis in this post.

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Peru: Farmers' Strike in Andahuaylas

Written by Juan Arellano · Translated by Silvia Viñas · Latin America

Tuesday, November 8, marked six days of a farmers' strike protesting mining activity in the area in Andahuaylas, in the Apurímac region of Peru. Netizens are reporting through Twitter as the strike continues.

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Lebanon: Jeita Grotto… To Vote or Not to Vote

Written by Layal Al Khatib · Middle East & North Africa

Will the Jeita Grotto in Lebanon be named as one of the New7Wonders of Nature today? Layal Al Khatib sums up the discussion between Lebanese netizens in favour and against the voting contest.

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Gabon: Bongo Indulges With Football Match Against Brazil

Written by Julie Owono · Sub-Saharan Africa

The Brazilian national football team came to Libreville, Gabon for a friendlly football match against the Gabonese national team on November 10. The social challenges the team witnessed are in stark contrast with the spending habits of the current Gabonese President Ali Bongo.

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Zambia: Using Social Media to Mobilize Mobile Phone Service Boycott

Written by Gershom Ndhlovu · Sub-Saharan Africa

Whether or not the campaign by mobile phone subscribers in Zambia to boycott Airtel services on Wednesday, November 9 succeeded, a new era of expressing dissatisfaction with poor service delivery has arrived.

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Colombia: Students Gather in Bogotá's Bolívar Square

Written by Cati Restrepo · Translated by Marianna Breytman · Latin America

On November 10, public university students participated in marches throughout the country and gathered in Bolivar Square in Bogota, the principal administrative center of the country. The event aimed to pressure the government to definitively repeal Law 30 for higher education reform.

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Slovakia: Checking Politicians' Facts With Demagog.sk

Written by Jakub Górnicki · Eastern & Central Europe

Demagog.sk is a Slovakian web project that aims to analyze politicians' claims based on facts and ensure they are correct and used in the right context.

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Brazil: Is State-Funded Evangelical ‘Gospel Park' Unconstitutional?

Written by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia · Translated by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia · Latin America

The announcement of the construction of the first ever Brazilian 'Gospel Park' in the state of Acre, caused controversy this October. Public funds will be used for the park that would only benefit members of the Pentecostal evangelical religion, something forbidden by the Federal Constitution.

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Peru: The First 100 Days of Ollanta Humala's Government

Written by Juan Arellano · Translated by Elizabeth · Latin America

Saturday November 5 marked the first hundred days of the Peruvian government of Ollanta Humala. The media and some bloggers took the opportunity to analyze the president's achivements and mistakes.

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Updates from 11 November 2011

India

Soumyadip celebrates 11/11/11 with an incredible snapshot of his digital watches.

• Rezwan

Cuba

Generation Y is shocked at the “arrogance” with which Mariela Castro responded to a question she posed on Twitter, but still believes that “verbal attack is a habit that can be cured. The voice can be trained, tolerance acquired, the ear opened to listening to others. Twitter is a magnificent therapy to achieve this.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuba

“The [glorification of] the standing of our athletes in the medal count and categoris[ing] this ‘as an achievement of the revolution’” gets Ricardo Medina thinking about “Rauler Castellanos Moreno, a black youth from Pinar del Rio who, despite his victory [in the 2007 Special Olympics] now lives in inhuman conditions.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

India

Proloy Bagchi, a retired government official from Bhopal, writes about the citizens of Bhopal who are suffering from the degradation of environment due to massive construction works and cutting down of trees in the city.

• Rezwan

Haiti

Dying in Haiti republishes the desperate pleas of a Catholic priest in Robillard, who says that “several of the family members of the cholera inpatients of [the area] have TB symptoms. The situation of Robilllard is definitely becoming chaotic. We cannot expose an entire population to some TB people.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuba

Pedazos de La Isla reports that “Yris Tamara Aguilera, wife of Jorge Luis Garcia ‘Antunez' and active resistance member herself, has made declarations in regards to the health of her husband who was jailed two days ago during a non-violent sit-in.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Iran

Jaras, an Iranian Green site, was criticized by several bloggers over quoting unidentified sources in Tehran saying: “Since October 22, Mehdi Karroubi [a Green Movement leader] has no spokesperson outside the country.” Meanwhile, Saham News, the website of Mehdi Karroubi's National Trust Party, rejected the report published by Jaras. Farshad Mohammadi says [fa] Jaras continues publishing lies.

• Fred Petrossian

Peru

A farmers' strike [es] against mining activities in Andahuaylas, in the Apurímac region, turned violent on November 10, leaving damages and 38 people injured, according to the latest reports by El Comercio [es]. Juan Arellano gathers citizen reactions and reports via Storify [es].