February, 2014

Stories from February, 2014

The Sustainable Fishing Practices of Dhivehi Reef Fishermen

  28 February 2014

Maldivian blogger Hani Amir writes about the traditional fishing methods of the reef fishermen of Maldives which include catching tons of fish with their hands, instead of nets or rods. The bloggers also sheds light on how they are being exploited by greedy resort owners who tries to exploit them...

Honduras Launches Online Dictionary of Indigenous Languages

  28 February 2014

A dictionary of Honduran indigenous languages was recently released online [es]. Honduran newspaper Tiempo [es] explains that this dictionary “registers the equivalent [words] in Spanish, chortí, garífuna, isleño, miskito, pech, tawahka and tolupán, languages that make up the country's linguistic heritage.”  For example, a search for the Spanish word for...

27 Brazilian Songs Against Police Violence

  28 February 2014

Brazilian journalist and activist Carlos Carlos posted [pt] a list of the most important “Brazilian songs that denounce the police” on his blog, Bola e Arte. He explains: Now it is trendy to make lists, right? and amid so many useless lists, Bola e Arte blog has prepared a selection of...

Kazakhstan's Charyn Canyon

  28 February 2014

Sergei Terekti presents [ru] a photo essay about his recent trip to Charyn Canyon, Kazakhstan's own smaller version of the Grand Canyon in the United States: The main canyon is about 150 kilometers long; the Charyn River crosses it. Multiple gorges, valleys, and smaller canyons surround the Charyn Canyon. One of the main...

Women Out For The Evening Risk Arrest in Turkmenistan

  28 February 2014

The Vienna-based opposition blog Chronicles of Turkmenistan reports that police in northern Turkmen town of Dashoguz raid cafes and restaurants in search of women out for the evening. According to the blog, single ladies and women dining without their husbands are taken to police stations. Chronicles of Turkmenistan alleged back in...

Trinidad & Tobago: Glitter Glee

  28 February 2014

I have been a hooved La Diablesse, a bolt of lighting, Thumbelina, Blight, and one of the Israelites leaving Egypt, among others. There was always some glitter involved. Glitter is to carnival as mud is to J’ouvert. creative commess explains her love of the sparkly stuff.

It's Music Freedom Day on March 3!

  27 February 2014

19 musicians killed, and 7 abducted. 18 music creators imprisoned. These are just some of the reported cases of injustice against musicians recorded by the human rights organization Freemuse in 2013. On March 3, the annual Music Freedom Day will draw attention to the rights to free expression of musicians...

[Photos]: Kolkata’s Street Dog Doctor

  27 February 2014

Kaushik Sengupta, a self-taught social documentary photographer, is the creator of a photo essay featuring Mr. Sandip Karan of Kolkata, India. Mr. Karan is known in his area as ‘street dog doctor’ because of his caring love for street dogs. Till-to-date, he has rescued and treated around 2500 street dogs...

Chinese Netizens React to Ukraine Revolution

  27 February 2014

While the current Ukraine revolution has many Chinese asking: “When are we going to take to the streets?”, netizens also learned from Ukraine that democracy isn’t the answer to all problems. Law professor Dong Zhiwei, a long-standing advocate of constitutionalism in China, called the anti-government protests in Ukraine a “coup” that is more...

Saving Primate Lemurs

  27 February 2014

A group of researchers from Madagascar, Canada, UK and USA published a detailed report in Science that alerts on the possible extinctions of 90% of the known lemurs of Madagascar following the prolonged political crisis in the country.  One of the researcher, Christoph Schwitzer,  explains to the Scientific American the dire consequences...

One Third of Pregnancies Are Unintended in Burkina Faso

  27 February 2014

Social Researchers at L’Institut supérieur des sciences de la population (High Institute of Population Science) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso published a report entitled “Grossesses non désirées et avortements au Burkina : causes et conséquences” (The causes and consequences of Unintended Pregnancies and Abortions in Burkina Faso). The report highlights a few...

NASA's New Photo of North Korea

  27 February 2014

Any international readers interested in North Korea would probably come across at least once this famous photo of Korean peninsula from NASA demonstrating a stark difference in the light emission of two Koreas at nighttime. NASA finally updated a new satellite image and it is ‘even more dramatic than the monochrome NASA satellite image of...

Caribbean: How the Media Shapes Perception

  27 February 2014

Both Venezuela and Haiti have been facing anti-government protests. However, the international media’s escalation of the Venezuelan crisis and their complete silence when it comes to Haiti, raises some important questions about the United States’ inconsistency in upholding the values of human rights and democracy. Kevin Edmonds calls out the...