5 March 2012

Stories from 5 March 2012

Haze in Indochina

  5 March 2012

Thomas Wanhoff links to a satellite image showing the extent of smog and haze in Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos.

Colombia: President Santos’ Performance According to Gallup Polls

  5 March 2012

Jaime Restrepo Vásquez from the blog Atrabilioso [es] compares Gallup poll results for current President Juan Manuel Santos to figures during previous administrations. Specifically, Jaime looks at whether Colombians think that the situation in the country is worse or better, whether they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the...

Trinidad & Tobago: Lack of Confidence

  5 March 2012

“The motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister has been defeated, arguably an outcome predetermined from the start based on the division of numbers in the Parliament”: Plain Talk says that “the biggest losers in this matter has (sic) to be the people of Trinidad & Tobago.”

Cuba: Diaspora, Las Damas & the Pope

  5 March 2012

More discussion about the Pope's visit to Cuba – Havana Times reports that members of the Cuban diaspora plan to come to the island “to participate in Masses that will be officiated over by Pope Benedict XVI”, while Along the Malecon posts a video of the leader of Las Damas...

Cuba: Freedom of Faith?

  5 March 2012

“The pope can go to Cuba, but that doesn't mean Cubans on the island are free to exercise their faith…”: Uncommon Sense blogs about the persecution of a Catholic activist.

Bermuda: Budget & Debt

  5 March 2012

Vexed Bermoothes thinks that the new budget “shows how quickly Bermuda’s economy is coming apart at the seams.”

Saudi Arabia: Tweeting AlBajady's Hunger Strike

Saudi netizens joined forces last night to tweet about the plight of Mohammed Albajady, a Saudi activist who has been imprisoned for a year with no charges and no fair trial and who has been on hunger strike in protest against his detention for almost two weeks. Mona Kareem charts some of the reactions online.

Macedonia: Animated Hitler Meme as a Free Resource

As a reaction to the corporate efforts to enact an even more draconian legislation and in response to the attempts of the distributor of the film Downfall to take down the Hitler meme on copyright grounds, Ribaro published [mk] an animated parody of the iconic scene, free for download and...

Macedonia: ‘Be a News Blogger’ Awards Announced

Diversity Media Production, a non-profit organization whose goal is to advance journalism, freedom of speech and democracy in Macedonia, has announced [en, mk, sq] the winners of the competition for young news bloggers: Novica Nakov, Fatlume Dervishi, and the authors of MK Demokratija blog – Monika Petrovska and Maja Peroska.

MENA: Which Salafist Movie Would You Watch?

Iraqi Lebanese blogger Karl Sharro decided to start a new hashtag where people tweet movie names after putting a Salafist flavour into them. And like most of the humuorous hashtags, this one got spread in no time, when Twitter users in different Arab countries started using it.

Puerto Rico: “Why So Much Fear of an Image?”

  5 March 2012

Photojournalist Ricardo Alcaraz publicly denounced that the University of Puerto Rico censored one of his photos from a photo essay he was preparing for the 25th anniversary edition of the University's monthly newspaper Diálogo, where he has worked since its foundation. Dozens of people have republished the censored photo on their walls on Facebook and distributed the link to the 80grados story on Twitter. There has been an outpouring of solidarity and outrage.

Azerbaijan: Singer-Activist calls for Eurovision Boycott

News and Noise! calls for a boycott of this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan by featuring an interview with activist and singer-song writer Cirttan (Azer Mamedov) seeking asylum in the Netherlands. The post also includes a clip, produced by the NIDA civil movement in Azerbaijan, parodying a promotional video...