Stories from 5 April 2012
Video: Nonprofits Show Their Work Through Award Winning Videos
Winners for the 6th Annual doGooder Non Profit Video Awards were announced on 5 April, 2012. Following, the winning videos for the 4 different categories: small, medium and large organizations and best storytelling, and the 4 winning films in the fearless category.
Video: Firefox Flicks Video Contest
The Firefox Flicks worldwide contest will give awards for short films teaching web browser consumers about online issues such as privacy, choice, interoperability and opportunity, and how the non-profit Firefox brand helps people to face these issues.
Brazil: University Students Make Demands and Question Budget for Aquarium
About 200 students of the Regional University of Cariri [pt], Brazil, protested on Monday, April 2, for state government resources to hire teachers and improve infrastructure. On a video of the demonstration published on Youtube, students question the construction of a 250 million reais aquarium in Fortaleza, state of Ceará:...
Colombia: Nostalgia for 1990s Peruvian TV
In the 1990s, cable television was too expensive for most Colombians, who resorted to cheap satellite dish services colloquially known as perubólicas [es] (a portmanteau of Peru and [antenas] parabólicas), because they carried virtually all Peruvian networks. On the night of April 4, 2012, hundreds of Colombian Twitter users recalled...
South Korea: Illegal Surveillance of Citizens and Entertainers
South Korea's presidential administration has come under fire over its illegal monitoring of civilians. Entertainers who often hosted anti-government protests have revealed that they have been followed and monitored by government intelligence agence officials.
Brazil: Collective Blogging to Uncover Dictatorship Files
Journalist and blogger Niara de Oliveira compiled [pt] the 52 posts published within the fifth collective blogging “DesarquivandoBR” (“Unarchiving” Brazil), urging the opening of files kept secret from Brazil's military dictatorship (1964 -1985) and the repeal of the Amnesty Law.
Mali: An Introduction to the Tuareg Population
The blog of the Tuareg movement Temoust Survie publishes a post (via information from l'Express [fr]) that provides [fr] a brief introduction to the Tuareg culture : “we are a nomadic people living from farming and trade. The Tuaregs are estimated to be about 1.5 million in a region that spans across Mali,...
France: Pirate Party Fields Candidates in Legislative Election
The Pirate Party, which was started in Sweden in 2006, has since spread to other countries in Europe. In Germany, the local elections of Sunday, March 25, 2012, allowed the party to enter the parliament of Saarland after an earlier victory admitted it to the Berlin Parliament. This result has...
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood versus SCAF – the Fall of the Masks?
“A million men march to demand the fall of Ganzouri's cabinet” read the official newspaper of the Freedom and Justice Party after events that have left the Egyptian population baffled. How did the close relationship between Egypt's military council and the nearly controlling political majority lead to a “bad breakup”?
Ukraine: Lukyanivska Prison – “Where People Are Kept Like Animals”
On April 2, the Ukrainian TV channel TVi aired Kostiantyn Usov's documentary about living conditions and treatment of inmates at Kyiv's Lukyanivska prison, as well as widespread corruption among the facility's staff. Many of those who have already watched Usov's documentary were shocked by what they saw, to say the least.
China: Dissident Artist Ai Weiwei Puts Himself Under Web Surveillance
Prominent Chinese artist Ai Weiwei had installed four live webcams at his home in Beijing as a symbolic protest against the police's 24-hour surveillance of him. However, the Chinese authorities ordered Ai to turn off his webcams yesterday.
