Global Voices · Citizen media stories from December 2011

December, 2011

Monthly archive · 176 posts

Featured stories from December 2011

Brazil: “We Have Overtaken the United Kingdom's GDP. So What?”

Egypt: 2011 in Blog Posts

The year 2011 is coming to an end, and with all the events took place in Egypt, it is important to list the most important or controversial blog posts of the year. Tarek Amr polls Twitter users to decide this year's top blog posts.

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Chile: Neighbors and Netizens Unite to Save Concon Dunes

Russia: AIDS Epidemic - “Shame Russia Shame” 30 December 2011
Indonesia: Activist Dies After Self-Immolation in Front of Palace 29 December 2011
Cape Verde: The Musical Legacy of Cesária Évora 29 December 2011
Bethlehem: Armenian and Greek Clergy Clash at Christmas 28 December 2011
Ethiopia: Swedish Journalists Handed 11-Year Prison Sentence 28 December 2011

Stories from December, 2011

31 December 2011

Philippines: Typhoon Sendong and Social Media

Written by Karlo Mikhail Mongaya · East Asia

Typhoon Sendong victims, their families, and friends, in the Philippines are using social media to look for missing victims, coordinate and document relief efforts, and record images and accounts of the destruction.

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Online Highlights from the Portuguese-Speaking World in 2011

Written by Sara Moreira · Translated by Maisie Fitzpatrick · Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia

2011 has been another year in which bloggers and activists from a number of Portuguese-speaking countries have come together to report, translate and promote blogs and citizen media from all over the world. This article selects the highlights in the coverage of Lusophone countries on Global Voices over the last year.

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30 December 2011

India, UK: Killing of Indian Student in the UK Stirs Up Racism Debate

Written by Aparna Ray · South Asia, Western Europe

On Monday the 26th of December 2011, Anuj Bidve, a 23yr old Indian student from Pune, was shot dead at point blank range in Salford, Greater Manchester, UK. Netizens react to this incident, which has now been labelled as a 'hate crime'.

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Yemen: Should the US Grant Saleh a Visa?

Written by Noon Arabia · Middle East & North Africa

A recent buzz among tweeps following Yemen news has been the issue of Honorary President Ali Abdullah Saleh's plans to travel to the US. Netizens warn against granting a visit visa to Saleh in this round up of reactions from Twitter.

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Singapore: Is it Flooding, or Just Ponding?

Written by Kirsten Han · East Asia

Singapore's Public Utilities Board used the term “ponded” rather than "flooded" when heavy rains caused flash floods in various parts of the city last week. The use of the word has led to much scorn and ridicule from Singaporeans online.

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29 December 2011

Kyrgyzstan: Ravshan Jeenbekov and the Facebook Generation

Written by Chris Rickleton · Central Asia & Caucasus

Of all the divides in Kyrgyzstan’s fractious political society, one too often overlooked is the divide between generations. Unlike the famed North/South schism, which manifests itself in elections and street-protests,...

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China: Dairy Company's Website Hacked by Angry Netizens

Written by Oiwan Lam · East Asia

The latest round of tainted milk scandals broke out last week in China. The country's biggest dairy producer, Mengniu Dairy Co., admitted that some of its milk products contained aflatoxin...

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Colombia: Salsa Song Criticizes Bus Rapid Transport System

Written by Juliana Rincón Parra · Latin America

A salsa song and video documents the suffering that travelling in the Transmilenio public transportation system of Bogota represents for its users.

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Macedonia: Twitter Hashtag for Prime Minister - #Ж

Written by Filip Stojanovski · Eastern & Central Europe

The Macedonian Twitter community is using the hashtag #Ж (uppercase of the Cyrillic letter romanized as Zh or Ž) as the shortcut symbol referring to the Macedonian PM. Filip Stojanovski explains why.

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28 December 2011

Mozambique: On the City of Quelimane, New Epicenter of Politics

Written by Jornal @Verdade · Translated by Janet Gunter · Sub-Saharan Africa

Mayoral by-elections in the city of Quelimane, which opposition candidate Manuel de Araújo won, were enthusiastically debated in social networks. Interest in the electoral process went far beyond the provincial city and its repercussions were felt in the capital, Maputo. We document this unexpected end to 2011, an important political moment in Mozambique.

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Updates from December, 2011

31 December 2011

Iran

Iranian authorities warned web sites and blogs not to publish any content to encourage people to boycot or to protest the March parliamentary elections. The authorities published [fa] 25 categories of criminal content related to the next parliamentary elections. Read more about computer crimes in Iran.

• Fred Petrossian

30 December 2011

Macedonia

Greener, a Macedonian NGO, blogged [mk] about their pilot-project Go Clean [FB page, mk], which aims to grow into a national campaign for proper disposal of used batteries and accumulators.

• Filip Stojanovski

Somalia

In a post published on december, 27th, The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) declares that: “In 2011, 4 journalists were murdered in Mogadishu alone, making it the only place where the utmost repulsive crimes against journalists were committed. A further 7 journalists were wounded, 5 in Mogadishu, while the remaining 2 were wounded in Bossasso and Galkayo.” Furthermore 19 medias worker were arrested and 7 media houses targeted with aggressive, repressive and violent actions.

• Abdoulaye Bah

Jamaica

Active Voice analyses yesterday's general election in Jamaica, explaining how Prime Minister Andrew Holness and the Jamaica Labour Party — who looked, a month ago, set to be returned to office — lost in a landslide to Portia Simpson-Miller and the People's National Party. “Let’s see if the PNP having gained such a huge nod from the electorate will now put its mouth where its money is and really strike a blow for equal rights for all.”

• Nicholas Laughlin

Ghana

This is Boima Tucker's 2011 10 club friendly Afropop tracks: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one song dominate a nation’s psyche like Junior Freeman and African Soldier’s “Dumyarea” did in Liberia this summer. Maybe it was because it was an election season, and all the politicians co-opted the song for their own campaigns…”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Ghana

Fiona reaches a milestone: 52 books in 50 weeks: “With two weeks to spare, today I reached my goal of reading fifty-two books for the year. A week ago I was beginning to wonder whether I would make it and then I discovered The Hunger Games and ploughed through three books in two days.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Ghana

Swedish blogger based in Ghana discusses her blogging year 2011: The year started out on a strong note. In January, I learned about Free and Open Source Software for Academics and analysed the Ghanaian “happiness culture“.

• Ndesanjo Macha

Trinidad & Tobago

When Passion.Fruit sets out to rescue a trapped pigeon, a random encounter with a passing grandmother teaches her a lesson about strength, patience, and wisdom. “She cooed and comforted — nothing weak about her…. An accustomed unbinder of trapped limbs.”

• Nicholas Laughlin

Jamaica

As Girl with a Purpose reports, the governing Jamaica Labour Party was defeated in yesterday's general election, and People's National Party head Portia Simpson-Miller is Jamaica's new prime minister — “a leader whose educational background is not as brilliant as her competitors,” observes Abeni from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, “but one who has that something which draws people.”

• Nicholas Laughlin

Chile

For days, a wildfire has been consuming thousands of hectares in national park Torres del Paine in Chile's Patagonia. Netizens are sharing reports and reacting to the news through #salvemostorresdelpaine [es] (let's save Torres del Paine) and ‘Torres del Paine' [es] on Twitter.

• Silvia Viñas