Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2012 January 23

23 January 2012

Daily archive · 6 posts

Stories from 23 January 2012

Video: One Year, One World and 52 Different Stories

Written by Juliana Rincón Parra · Latin America

Video journalist Maggie Padlewska will travel alone for one year, visiting a country each week for a total of 52 countries. During her journey she'll be recording, editing and producing videos of her interactions with communities, organizations and people under-represented by mass media and uploading them to the web.

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Iran: Sanctions Bite, and the Iranian Currency Falls

Written by Fred Petrossian · Middle East & North Africa

Iranians are facing a financial tsunami as the national currency (Rial) loses value day by day as sanctions against Iranian oil and the banking system get tougher.

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Zambia: Netizens Abuzz Over Senegal's Loss at AFCON 2012

Written by Gershom Ndhlovu · Sub-Saharan Africa

When Zambia beat Senegal at one of the two opening games of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) on January 21, Zambian netizens went abuzz on Facebook and Twitter to celebrate the victory even asking “Demba who?” referring to the Senegalese player, Demba Ba,the second top goal scorer in the Barclays Premier League.

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Madagascar: Exiled Former President Ravalomanana Refused Return

Written by Avylavitra · Sub-Saharan Africa

Since January 18 2012, former president Marc Ravalomanana has announced that he would return to Madagascar soon after being in exile in South Africa for three years. On January 21, the capital city anxiously anticipated his return as thousands gathred on the roads leading to the airport waiting for the plane to land. However, a few minutes after the plane entered the Malagasy airspace, the plane was told to divert from its route and land in a different city. Malagasy citizens reacted in real time to the tumultuous event.

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Indonesia’s Teenage Thief and ‘Sandal Scandal’

Written by Mong Palatino · East Asia

Thousands of Indonesian citizens deposited old sandals in front of police stations across the country to protest the beating of a 15-year old boy accused of stealing a pair of flip-flops owned by a policeman. Netizens react to the 'sandal scandal'

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Costa Rica's Online Community Joins Fight Against SOPA and Censorship

Written by Luis Diego Molina · Translated by Marianna Breytman · Latin America

Following the virtual strike against the United States' Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the subsequent shutdown of the file-sharing website, Megaupload, Costa Rica's online community is no longer staying out of the fight against Internet censorship.

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Updates from 23 January 2012

Guatemala

“On January 21, Under the name of Subida por la vida [”Climb for life”], there were over 8,000 people climbing Volcán de Agua (Water Volcano) to form the largest heart in the world at 12,335 feet as part of campaign to bring awareness and to reduce domestic violence,” Antigua Daily Photo reports, and shares photos and a video of the event.

• Silvia Viñas

South Korea

Sharing food with relatives that had been offered in the ancestral worship is regarded as the essence of the traditional Lunar New Year holiday in Korea and there are strict and complicated rules to follow in offering food. However, some young Koreans have started offering unconventional food, such as pizza, prompting serious controversy.

• Lee Yoo Eun

North Korea

There was once the internet meme named “Kim Jong-il Looking at Things“, a collection of photographs of Kim visiting government facilities the net users have gathered together to mock his authoritative posture. After Kim died last year, net users have launched a new version, “Kim Jong-un Looking at Things” as appeared in Kotaku site.

• Lee Yoo Eun

Russia

A committee of supporters of president Dmitry Medvedev had launched a crowdsourcing citizens-to-government feedback portal “Russia Without Fools” [ru] that allows to submit cases of officials' stupidity or abuse. So far, the cases can be submitted freely and censorship hasn't been reported. Dmitry Ternovskiy, popular photoblogger, however, notes [ru] that the title has been copied from his project “Russia Without Foolishness.” [ru]

• Alexey Sidorenko

Cuba

Bloggers continue to share their thoughts on the death of Cuban dissident and hunger striker Wilman Villar Mendoza.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuba

Cuban bloggers draw attention to Amnesty International's stand on the recent death of prisoner of conscience Wilman Villar Mendoza.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Armenia

The Huffington post, in the launch issue of its Francophone version, publishes a column [fr] listing ”Five retaliations Turkey could take on France” as the French Senate is preparing to vote the final draft of this controversial “memory” law this monday, January 23, 2011. This bill will enforce a fine or even a prison sentence for anyone in France denying that the Armenian genocide actually happened.

• Claire Ulrich

Haiti

“There they were, at the official ceremony: the living, breathing banes of Haiti’s existence”: The Haitian Blogger republishes an article which suggests that Martelly, Clinton and Duvalier's “rubbing shoulders” at a recent event “offer[s] an insight into the prospects for Haiti’s reconstruction and, indeed, into the prospects for Haiti’s political and economic future.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuba

“We are 11 million common criminals, whose misdeeds range from buying milk on the black market to having a satellite dish”: Generation Y says that “now, with the death of Wilman Villar Mendoza, once again the old system of State insult repeats itself…[because] it would be very dangerous if people started to believe that a regime opponent would sacrifice his life for a cause, to be a good patriot and even a decent man.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Barbados

Barbados Underground thinks that “it is time to see crime in a different light. It is not only the victim’s problem, it is society’s and it cannot be solved by giving ready made excuses to thieves and robbers.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco