Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2012 January 03

3 January 2012

Daily archive · 13 posts

Stories from 3 January 2012

Bangladesh: Titas is the Name of a Murdered River

In Bangladesh a long diversion road has been hurriedly built through the Titas river and its tributaries obstructing its flow in many parts. It was done to facilitate transit of Indian over-dimensional cargo lorries through Bangladesh. Netizens are outraged by the developments.

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Georgia: Return of the Meskhetian Turks

Written by Onnik Krikorian · Middle East & North Africa, Eastern & Central Europe

Over 100,000 Muslims were deported from the Meskheti region of Georgia by Joseph Stalin in 1944. Now, more than 60 years later, some are slowly starting to return as part of the country's obligations to the Council of Europe.

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Chile: Wildfire in Torres del Paine Shocks Netizens

Written by Elizabeth Rivera · Translated by Elizabeth · Latin America

A massive fire in national park Torres del Paine has shocked Chilean netizens, who have expressed their concerns, anger, sadness and hope that it will soon be controlled. "Torres del Paine" and #salvemostorresdelpaine have been used to inform and comment this disaster on Twitter.

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Yemen: A Parallel Revolution from the Streets to the Institutions

Written by Noon Arabia · Middle East & North Africa

Over the past few weeks, Yemen's revolution spread from the streets to institutions across the country, calling for an end to corruption in the governmental and public sectors. Netizens react to the new development.

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Caribbean: Looking Back on 2011

Written by Janine Mendes-Franco · Caribbean

The regional blogosphere in 2011 saw a few territories, most notably Cuba, taking front and centre - especially when it came to digital activism. The rest of the Caribbean meanwhile, grappled with everything from homophobia to states of emergency, weathered hurricanes and questioned the boundaries of online privacy.

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Yemen: A Year of Revolution and a Story of Struggle

Written by Noon Arabia · Middle East & North Africa

Yemen's Revolution is the longest ongoing revolution of the Arab Spring. It started with a protest on February 3 and has been ongoing ever since. Noon Arabia lists the posts covering the main events that happened in Yemen throughout this year and features the videos that tell the story of Yemen's struggle for freedom, democracy and justice.

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Brazil: Military Police Strike and Looting Cause Panic in Fortaleza

Written by João Miguel D. de A. Lima · Translated by Melissa Mann · Latin America

On the eve of the New Year's festivities, the population in the state of Ceará, Brazil, was taken by surprise with a strike by the military police and firefighters. Propagating both facts and rumors surrounding the violence, the hashtag #CaosEmFortaleza (ChaosInFortaleza) has brought together general grumbling, formal complaints, ironic musings and misinformation on the social and political atmosphere in the capital city of Fortaleza.

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Philippines: Manhunt for ‘Human Rights Violator' Goes Online

Written by Karlo Mikhail Mongaya · East Asia

A 'people's manhunt' was organized to catch Major General Jovito Palparan who is accused of committing human rights violations in the Philippines. After an arrest warrant was issued by the Court, netizens started uploading “Wanted: Palparan” posters on blogs, Facebook pages, and other social media platforms.

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Southeast Asia in 2011: A Year of Protest

Written by Mong Palatino · East Asia

#bersih, #bersih2, #bersihstories, #occupydataran, #campoutph, #walk4freedom, #sawangsawa. These are the protest hashtags of the year in Southeast Asia. Global Voices reviews several protest movements in the region in the past year that echoed the radical politics of Arab Spring and Occupy.

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Latin America, 2011: A Year Marked by Social Movements

Written by Silvia Viñas · Latin America

Citizens across the world took to the streets in 2011, and Latin America was no exception. In this post we look at the social movements that marked 2011 in South and Central America and how protests, vigils, marches and occupations were covered and analyzed through citizen media.

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Updates from 3 January 2012

South Korea

Naggomsu is a satirical podcast which gained tremendous popularity in South Korea for lampooning the country's President. Even after one of its host was jailed for raising allegations of stock price manipulation against the President, the podcast's popularity continues to grow. The nation's influential blogger IamPeter picked [ko] it as the top news of 2011.

• Lee Yoo Eun

Governance

In his blog Latin American Thought, Alejandro Sánchez looks ahead at what could happen in Latin America in 2012 and argues that “we will see more land-related issues (read protests) in several countries, more so than we have seen already.” Read more about some of last year's land-related demonstrations in our 2011 roundup.

• Silvia Viñas

Mexico

Fred Rosen, from the NACLA blog Mexico, Bewildered and Contested, explains that when it comes to movements that seek an end to violence in Mexico, “there is a major disconnect between, on the one hand, the movements that have arisen from (and remain in) civil society and, on the other hand, movements that seek state power through the organization of political parties.”

• Silvia Viñas

Israel

On Facebook, Elizabeth Tsurkov shares this set of photographs she took during a protest held against the deportation of the children of migrant workers in Tel Aviv, Israel, tonight.

• Amira Al Hussaini

Development

“It’s gotten graphic there – waste that’s piling up in toilets that cannot be flushed; people crawling around in cisterns trying to retrieve a bucket of water to meet a small part of their needs. And this is 2012″: No See Um blogs about the untenable water rationing situation in St. Thomas.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Puerto Rico (U.S.)

Reports of “excessive gun fire” ringing in the New Year in Puerto Rico; Dondequiera comments.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuba

At Havana Times, Alfredo Fernandez blogs about Cuba's “strange form of the Internet” - the flash drive.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Bermuda

Catch-a-fire says that when it comes to race, “there are few issues which are as controversial or fundamental in understanding Bermudian politics and society.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Iran

Several bloggers report [fa] that Iran's Corporate Computer Systems [fa] says that Iran will be cut off from the World Wide Web once the country launches its own national internet network in near future.

• Fred Petrossian

Lebanon

In an end-of-year post, Mustapha compiles a collection of top non-political Lebanese blog posts he wrote during 2011. He introduces the collection by saying: “The Arab spring and the turmoil in Lebanese politics dominated the 1,210 posts in this blog in 2011. But this year also witnessed other stories and off-beat, quirky little Lebanese memes that helped shape the year in their own way.”

• Moussa Bashir