Global Voices

English

The world is talking, are you listening?

The city continues to have several positive and unique aspects to it. But what has changed? We are not caught between crossfire, held at gunpoint or witness beheadings on a daily basis, but the difference from years back is that now is the presence of fear for these things actually happening and our conduct adapting accordingly.

Arjan Shahani in the Americas Quarterly blog shares his experience living in Monterrey, Mexico, focusing on “how daily life has changed for middle-class citizens as a result of the violence and how societal interaction today is less regulated by a rule of law and more so by a rule of fear.”

The Association for the Protection of Malagasy Lands and its representative Mamy Rakotondrainibe bemoans [fr] the manner in which the Tozzi Green group is approaching the development of jatropha exploitation over 100 000 ha of lands in Southern Madagascar. Local farmers are quoted as saying [fr] :

We, small farmers, are forced to leave the land by armed people. The lack of lands for our Zebus to feed on have already caused the deaths of our livestock. They have also already desecrated the holy land where our ancestors were born with their tanks.

Tozzi Green Group strongly denies [fr] all the accusations stated by the farmers association.

This is not a coup. The president is still in place but the prime minister was no longer working in the interests of the country

Bakary Mariko, spokesperson for the former military junta, explains why [fr]the army has arrested the former prime minister of Mali Cheikh Modibo Diarra who resigned shortly after along with his government. A diplomat states that: “Sanogo is pulling at the strings. Until we have a real transitional government in place, we will keep having these problems”. Disagreement between the army and the government over international military intervention in Northern Mali was mentioned as part of the reason for the arrest.

Prominent figure in Chinese internet sector Kai-Fu Lee pointed out the problems in China's higher education. He tweeted on Dec 10[zh], translation here:

China doesn't need so many universities. In order to meet the high expectations of parents, schools have expanded the enrollment. Many private universities have developed too fast and only for profit. The current distribution of resources results in a lack of quality teachers in second-rank universities. So of course it's hard for the graduates of underqualified schools to find jobs when they graduate. I think China needs more vocational schools, an increase in college teachers’ funding, as well as to close unqualified universities.

On December 8, foreign consulates in Guangzhou, Southern China held a Christmas charity bazaar to raise funds for disabled children. The event raised 330,000 RMB (about US$53,000), but the Belgian consulate found out that  5,000 RMB turned out to be fake currency. The news led to a heated discussion online. TeaLeafNation covered the news with details.

Lao IT Dev, a startup based in Laos, has won the 1st Asean ICT Award in the Digital Content category. It publishes the e-corner magazine which is the major source of IT-related news in Laos.