19 January 2012

Stories from 19 January 2012

Pakistan: Another Journalist Assassinated

  19 January 2012

Tazeen comments on the recent assassination of journalist Mukarram Khan Atif: “deaths and journalists’ murders are a sad reality in Pakistan, but what irritates me most is the way local media reports these incidents.”

Iran:”Facebook prisoner” celebrates birthday in prison

  19 January 2012

Hanieh (Sharareh) Farshi Shotorban, an Iranian young woman who was arrested last year, reportedly, for her Facebook activities, celebrates birthday in Evin prison in prison. Hanieh is sentenced [fa] to seven years of imprisonment.

Venezuela: Soledad Ramírez, One of Caracas’ Heroes

  19 January 2012

Ten years ago, Soledad Ramírez created the Rincón Infantil San Edmundo [es], a center that today helps 200 at-risk children from Minas de Baruta in Caracas. Journalist and blogger Mirelis Morales highlights Soledad's work in a video in her blog about Caracas [es].

Bolivia: March Demands Road Through TIPNIS

  19 January 2012

Last year we reported extensively on a march to protest a road that would go through the TIPNIS indigenous territory; on December 20, 2011, a group demanding the building of the road started their own march towards La Paz: “This pro-road march wants the law approved in October by President...

Unhappy Hong Kong Envious of Taiwan's Democracy

  19 January 2012

Having witnessed Taiwan's 2012 presidential election, Derrick Tao, a Hong Kong photographer, made a video (with English subtitles) to contrast democratic development of the two societies. As a prosperous but undemocratic city state, “Hong Kong could either join Taiwan as pioneers of freedom and democracy in the Chinese societies”, or...

Cuba: Fatalities in Building Collapse

  19 January 2012

Fatalities and injuries as a result of a building collapse in “of the worst-maintained neighbourhoods in the Cuban capital” causes Generation Y to comment: “How many others in this capital run the same risk tomorrow? What urgent solution will be applied so that these tragedies won’t continue to be a...

Bahamas: A Belief in Democracy

  19 January 2012

“To date, my country has not put in place anything to serve and build me; to every politician who has served in parliament in the time I have been voting, people like me have been invisible. In our democracy, we do not count”: Hence the reason Blogworld puts forward her...

Trinidad & Tobago: Hopeless to Combat Crime?

  19 January 2012

Jumbie's Watch says that when it comes to crime, “the hopelessness and anguish are all too real”; Plain Talk adds: “The escalating murder toll is once again bringing the government's inability to bring crime under control into sharp focus”, while The Eternal Pantomime, who has been monitoring the crime situation...

Cuba: Hunger Striker in Coma

  19 January 2012

Uncommon Sense posts an update on this Cuban political prisoner, saying: “Courageously taking his protest to the brink of death, Wilman Villar Mendoza tonight remains in a coma brought on by a hunger strike he started in late November to demand his release.”

Venezuela: Childhood, Dance, Folklore… and Propaganda

  19 January 2012

Carmen Helena González shared pictures of a dance rehearsal through a public photo album on Facebook titled "Venezuela dances to the tune of..." The pictures are accompanied by reflections questioning the presence of political propaganda in an educational setting.

Russia: Line to a Drug Dealer in Novosibirsk

RuNet Echo  19 January 2012

YouTube user Pepsick80 publishes a video [ru] of a drug dealer's selling point in Novosibirsk (city in Siberia). Several tens of cars and drug users standing in the line to buy drugs can be seen on the video. The voice behind the camera is utterly surprised and angry that there's...

MENA: Amnesty International's Forecast for 2012

  19 January 2012

“Repression and state violence is likely to continue to plague the Middle East and North Africa in 2012,” forecasts Amnesty International in an 80-page report. It documents the extreme violence deployed by MENA regimes when resisting the unprecedented calls for fundamental reform heard in the region in 2011, as well as...

Russia: Oligarchs Day in Court

  19 January 2012

John Helmer of Dances With Bears accounts for the legal battle over business interests between Russian business tycoons Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich, which is about to be finalised by the London High Court.

Brazil: Movement Claims Right for Public Space During Carnival

  19 January 2012

The Carnival of Salvador, in Brazil, is one of the biggest street parties in the world. People from the city, however, have been fed up by the excess of commercialization and the transformation of public spaces into private provisional balconies. Organizing themselves through Facebook and Twitter protesters took action on January 14 demanding for private companies to withdraw their infra-structures from the streets.

Russia: Kremlin Crisis Management

  19 January 2012

Ania Viver of Foreign Policy Blogs posts an interesting analysis on the Kremlin's attempts at calming down popular protests against the Russian leadership, and tries to explain why they fail in their crisis management.