21 November 2011

Stories from 21 November 2011

Egypt: The Revolution is Back!

  21 November 2011

Up to 100,000 people are said to be in Tahrir Square now, as police and the army continue to battle with protesters calling for an end to Egypt's military rule. Protesters have had running battles with the armed gunmen serving the Egyptian government since Friday.

El Salvador: Calle 13 Performs for Rice and Beans

  21 November 2011

Puerto Rican music duo Calle 13 performed in El Salvador on Saturday, November 19; the ticket fee, as Voices from El Salvador reports, “was a donation of rice, beans or other grains that will be distributed to flood victims.” Hunnapuh [es] blogged about Calle 13 and the controversy around their...

Peru: Rain Causes Flooding in Iquitos

  21 November 2011

Rains have once again caused flooding in the city of Iquitos in the Amazon Rainforest. The blogger behind De la Selva [es] attributes the flooding to sewage works and posts Facebook pictures of the flood.

Peru: Iquitos Against the Chaos Caused by Sewage Works

  21 November 2011

The beautiful and warm city of Iquitos, in the Loreto region, is going through several problems; the most worrying and annoying for the inhabitants is the chaos caused by controversial sewage works. Citizens are using social networks to organize and demand a solution.

Egypt: Revolutionaries Shrug at Cabinet Resignation

  21 November 2011

The Cabinet of Dr Essam Sharaf has just asked if it could resign and the Supreme Council for Armed Forces (SCAF) is yet to decide whether it would accept their resignation or not. For activists and protesters battling police and the army for the third day in and around Tahrir Square, the news does not bring anything new to the table. Their main demand is for SCAF to leave power and hand over authority to a civil government.

Madagascar: Population Grows Tired of Power Outage

  21 November 2011

For the past week, Antananarivo, the capital city of Madagascar, has experienced scheduled daily  power outages [fr]  that lasted on average 2h and 30 minutes in the evening and it seems that it could get worse [fr].  Several bloggers have expressed [fr] increased frustration [mg] with the ongoing situation that was...

Nigeria : Homes made of Plastic Bottles

  21 November 2011

In the village of Yelwa — North of Nigeria — a new style of construction intrigued the curiosity of the locals. Noorinfo publishes photos of rounded huts [fr] built with plastic bottles. These new constructions look like a potential alternative to  the old-fashioned bricks.  

Tanzania: How Not to Launch a Data.gov

  21 November 2011

Mbwana Ally explains how not to lauch a Data.gov: “Checking my twitter stream I saw that the Tanzania Government had launched a Open Data website initiative (Kiswahili)…The complaints on twitter started mounting and I gladly participated. Where is the data? The SMS no. set up does not work. The site...

Africa: Open Doors 2012: Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa

  21 November 2011

Open Doors 2012 focuses on Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa: “Following on from India in 2011, the next edition of Open Doors, the Festival del film Locarno’s co-production lab, will be devoted to francophone Africa…Application forms for Open Doors 2012 are available on www.onopendoors.pardo.ch and are restricted to projects from francophone Sub-saharan...

Kenya: Africa’s Story of Mobile Conquest

  21 November 2011

Africa’s story of mobile conquest & why utility beats ‘coolness’: “Why was MPESA [mobile-phone based money transfer service] such a success? Simply put – it was a necessity. Pre-MPESA (sounds like when someone asks ‘how did we ever survive without Google?’), people still had to do all the things that...

South Sudan/Sudan: Refugee Narrates Her Emotional Story

  21 November 2011

Amanda Hsiao talks to Miriam, a Sudanese refugee in Ethiopia. The post is part of a series based on Enough interviews with Blue Nile refugees in Sherkole refugee camp and Kurmuk, Ethiopia. Details of these testimonies are impossible to verify, but accounts Enough heard have been generally consistent.

Cuba: Ladies Detained Again

  21 November 2011

The Ladies in White were once again attacked this weekend as they tried to attend Mass, babalu reports; two of the group's members are allegedly “still being held in a Castro prison.”

Trinidad & Tobago: The Blame Game

  21 November 2011

Plain Talk is “flabbergasted” by a statement made by the Minister of Works calling for “an end to what he calls the ‘blame’ game because there is…critical work to be done”, saying: “No Jack sorry, we cannot put an end to the ‘blame’ game, it's the only game we have.”