Global Voices

English

The world is talking, are you listening?

Pierre Vicari [fr] had this to say about the results of a survey [fr] which appeared on the site Lefigaro.fr, “To the ignoramuses who say that PACS and marriage are the same thing: No! A PACS does not provide any of the same rights as marriage! In addition, you intolerant people who do not want equality for all human beings, please tell us why because so far, despite the years that this debate has been going on, nobody has been able to put forth any real arguments.”

Siriki Moustapha explains on africavox.com [fr] why equal pay for women still is a subject of debate in Ivory Coast: “These are men of varying socio-economic and intellectual levels; they do not think of themselves as old-fashioned, enemies of women, or even anti-feminist. Their logic is that the Ivorian woman demonstrates such immaturity that the question of wage equality shouldn't even come up.”

Two Moroccan actresses, invited to the Cannes Film Festival for Leila Kilani's movie “Sur la planche” [On a Plank]” were turned away at Nice airport on Thursday, May 19. They were authorized to return afterwards. In Morocco, blogger kechmania commented [fr] :
“In a perfect world, official apologies would have been offered to the two artists who were denied entry at the gates of their dreams.”

On Tuesday, 3 May 2011, World Press Freedom Day, representatives from Reporters Without Borders demonstrated in front of the Syrian Embassy in Paris. Video of the demonstration [in French and English].

WebDocu.fr [fr] has announced that the documentary “Gabon : violence d'un coup d'état électoral“[fr] (“Gabon: violence of an electoral coup d'etat”) is the winner of the Jury Prize in the Web-Politique category. The documentary was produced in 2009 after the violence that followed the controversial election of Ali Bongo as president.

A rally instigated by anonymous Facebook users [ fr] to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the  March 19, 1962 cease-fire in Algeria did not take place. The demonstration calling for “an end to the dictatorial system in place for almost 50 years” was initially planned to occur in front of the main post office of Algiers; an impressive security detail prohibited the gathering. Three unemployed young people were arrested by the police before being released two hours later.