Rayna St.

Latest posts by Rayna St.

Bulgaria: The Red Army Supports Pussy Riot

  17 August 2012

On the day of the verdict in the Pussy Riot trial, Russian embassies worldwide are seeing demonstrations in support of the incriminated punk band members. The Red Army Monument in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, has joined in: a picture of it with some of the soldiers wearing Pussy Riot-styled...

Russia: Egyptian Graffiti Artist on Freedom for Pussy Riot

RuNet Echo  13 August 2012

Egyptian political activist and graffiti artist Ganzeer writes [en] about the Pussy Riot case: “[…] the consequences of freeing Pussy Riot may be mistaken for a fair and liberal Russian judiciary system, which is clearly not the case. […] Pussy Riot's actions are all about exposing the reality of Russia's...

Egypt: The President's Son Fails Admission Test

The GUC Insider is the independent student-led media outlet of the German University in Cairo (GUC). In a short article [ar], it announces that the son of the Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has failed one of the admission tests and will not be accepted as a regular student in this...

Bulgaria: Don't Dismantle the Train Services!

  12 August 2012

Bulgarian blog “Работнически глас” (Worker's Voice) publishes [bg] a few photographs of a protest on Sofia's Central Railway Station. Held on August 9, this flashmob gathered around 100 people who chained a “human train” by standing one behind another. This “train” travelled inside the station while the protesters were calling...

Bulgaria: Thousands of Trial Records Go Open

  11 August 2012

The Bulgarian section of the Open Knowledge Foundation announced [bg] the release of 580,049 court decisions and 607,656 additional documents, including motives. Although all those are already publicly accessible in the courts and some of them are browsable in a digital format on the Ministry of Justice website, there was...

Russia: Pussy Riot's Closing Statement

RuNet Echo  11 August 2012

The blog Chtodelat publishes an English translation of the closing statements of one of the defendants in the Pussy Riot trial. Three of the punk group members are charged with “hooliganism” after performing an anti-Putin prayer in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow earlier this year. The prosecutors asked...

Somalia: The Very First Humanitarian “Customer Calling Center”

  10 August 2012

In her blog post about the very first humanitarian customer calling center, Anahi Ayala Iacucci describes “a quick and convenient way for Somali beneficiaries to give feedback about projects funded or services provided by the Danish Refugee Council using an SMS feedback system”: “This project has started in September 2011...

World: “Hackitat” – A Film About Political Hacking

  8 August 2012

Artists based in Sweden have launched a crowd-funding campaign to support and sustain their film project “Hackitat”. The documentary aims to highlight hackers, “the people building a nation on the Internet”, and searches for answers to: “What compels some people to spend a lot of time and energy on setting...

Egypt: Social Justice for All

  8 August 2012

The Egyptian non-profit media collective Mosireen [en, ar] is “born out of the explosion of citizen journalism and cultural activism in Egypt during the revolution”. The group of filmmakers and citizen journalists collects footage and video testimonies from protests in Egypt. Their YouTube channel was the most viewed non-profit channel...

UK: Taking on ‘Brandalism’

  7 August 2012

The collectively maintained website Brandalism presents an ever-growing collection of street art. The project is inspired “from the Dadaists, Situationists and Street Art movements” and its goal is to “see the largest reclamation of outdoor advertising space in UK history as artists challenge the authority and legitimacy of the advertising...

World: Why Rape Jokes Are Not Funny

  1 August 2012

Hannah maintains the blog Afternoon Snooze Button and publishes a rather detailed post aiming at demonstrating “why rape jokes are uniquely bad”. She writes: “People who enjoy rape jokes commonly want to be told that rape isn’t a big deal, that it’s just sex, and that other people think so,...

Israel: Media Learn About Shootings 8 Hours Later

@activestills, “a collective of Israeli, International and Palestinian photographers, united by a conviction that photography is a vehicle for social change”, says on Twitter this morning: “Israeli police informed media about the shooting incident against refugees only 8 hours after it happened”, pointing to a few images from the shooting....

Egypt: Remembering the Abbasiya Events

  12 July 2012

Egyptian blogger Wael Eskandar publishes an extensively documented report on “the most brutal military crackdown” for the last months. Preceeding the presidential elections in Egypt, the Abbasiya events were quickly forgotten by most of the media. Recalling them is important: “those arrested in the Abbasiya events are still in prison...

Bulgaria: How to Become a Prostitute in 1888

The blog “Живот Мой” (“My Life”) published [bg] the 1888 local legislation on how to become a prostitute in the Black Sea coastal city of Varna. The bill contains the requirements for women willing to become prostitutes; regulations on brothels; health requirements before, during and after being a prostitute; and...

Bulgaria: Budget Expenses in Open Access

On July 3, the Bulgarian government voted [bg] for a national roadmap compliant with the Open Government Partnership Initiative requirements. As an integral part of this action plan, the Ministry of Finances launched its transparency plan [bg] and started publishing budget expenses details on an everyday basis.