Global Voices » Solana Larsen

5 Mobile Games for Cultural Understanding

Solana Larsen — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:35:59 +0000

Screen shot from the game Ibn Battuta that teaches facts about Muslim culture.

Apply for World Summit Youth Award

Solana Larsen — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:39:08 +0000

Apply now for the World Summit Youth Award if you produce digital content related to the UN Millennium Development Goals and are under 30 years old.

Tactical Tech's Info-Activism Camp: Apply!

Solana Larsen — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:37:26 +0000

Tactical Tech's 2013 Info Activism Camp in northern Italy (23-30 June) will explore how digital technologies, data and visuals can be used to influence society. Only 80 spots available, apply before April 15.

Global Voices at OECD Global Forum on Development

Solana Larsen — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 11:18:54 +0000

Global Voices bloggers have been commissioned to liveblog the OECD Global Forum on Development in Paris on April 4-5, 2013. Leading up to the meeting, our team is submitting posts about development issues that help serve as weekly online discussion topics on their website.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international economic organisation of 34 countries that supports democracy and world trade. The Global Forum on Development is focussed on poverty reduction and social cohesion and attracts a wide range of participants from governments and civil society to help discuss solutions.

Lova Rakotomalala, Julie Owono, and Rayna St of Global Voices will be attending and blogging the meeting in Paris in their own personal capacity.

The hashtag for the meeting is #OECDgfd.

Tweets about “#oecdgfd”

30 Films That Inspire Activism

Solana Larsen — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:32:16 +0000

Social Impact Media Awards 2013

30 documentary films from around the world have been nominated for the Social Impact Media Awards.

Survey: Sexuality Rights on the Internet

Solana Larsen — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:35:32 +0000

The Association for Progressive Communications is calling on sexuality rights activists to complete a survey describing how internet regulation affects them.

A Hackathon at the White House

Solana Larsen — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:04:48 +0000

Catherine D'Ignazio attends the first hackathon ever held at the White House and writes about it on MIT Center for Civic Media.

Global Voices is Awesomely Gender-Balanced

Solana Larsen — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:26:21 +0000

The Guardian Data Blog shares research by J. Nathan Matias, Irene Ros and Adam Hyland for their Open Gender Tracker that shows Global Voices women have written half of all stories, almost no matter how you slice the data.

Tips On Writing About Demographics

Solana Larsen — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:58:06 +0000

How many people? Demographics Revealed, a new blog of the Population Reference Bureau and the Population Association of America offers advice on how to write about demographics.

Media Tips for Covering Migration

Solana Larsen — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 11:46:26 +0000

Employ more migrants as journalists, is one of several new practical recommendations (pdf) on how to better cover migration by the Global Editor's Network and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.

Free Online Courses in Data Journalism

Solana Larsen — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:28:42 +0000

kdmcBerkeley is offering four free online training courses in data journalism. The one-hour courses demonstrate the basics of working with spreadsheets, maps and data visualization.

New Web Game Targets Climate Skeptics

Solana Larsen — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:17:20 +0000

A new web game called Reality Drop rewards users for commenting or sharing links about articles related to climate change. It was unveiled in California by former U.S. vice president and environmental activist, Al Gore.

Religion Warps Politics as Bangladesh War Crimes Protests Continue

Solana Larsen — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:47:49 +0000

See our special coverage of Bangladesh's #Shahbag Protests

The protesting crowd's demand “We want capital punishment”. Photo by Arif Hossain Sayeed, used with permission.

Since the beginning of February, hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis have been occupying a major intersection called Shahbag in the heart of Dhaka, calling for capital punishment for war crimes committed during the country’s liberation from Pakistan in 1971. But what began as a peaceful civic uprising may be taking a turn in the public’s perception as one that contradicts Islam.

While this moment has been in the making for decades, the current explosion of civic activity has a new and youthful character born out of optimism. The vitality and size of the crowd has surprised and delighted. As Shimul Bashar, a reporter for a private TV channel wrote of the #Shahbag protests on Facebook:

আমি আবার বলছি, শাহবাগের এইসব দিন ইতিহাস হবে। জীবনে এর চেয়ে বড় পাওয়া আমার নেই। মা, আমার চোখে ঘুম আসেনা। আমি শাহবাগের কথা ভাবি। আমার তার মুখ মনে পড়ে।

I reiterate that these days of Shahbag will be part of history. I do not have anything greater than this in my life. Mama, i can't sleep. I keep thinking about Shahbag. I remember the faces.

A movement sparked by bloggers

Shahbag protest in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 21st day. Photo by Zakir Hossain Chowdhury © Copyright Demotix (Feb 26, 2013)

It all began when the Bloggers and Online Activists Network (BOAN) initiated the call to occupy the intersection on February 5, and demand capital punishment for the secretary general of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, Abdul Quader Mollah, only hours after he was sentenced to life in prison by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Bangladesh on 344 counts of murder, rape and torture committed in 1971.

Since then, demands for capital punishment have extended to all war criminals facing trial, and protests have spread across the country in the name of justice for the estimated 3 million people killed and 250,000 women raped during the liberation war. Local political and Islamic militia groups who opposed the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan participated in the killing, particularly targeting Hindus. And like Mollah, a number of indicted war criminals have held public office and lived a life of impunity until 2010, when proceedings were initiated against them by the war crimes court.

The battle for public perception

The main battlefront for detractors of the Shahbag protests is now public perception, and this can have deadly consequences in a society where religious tension is constantly smoldering. In Bangladesh, where 89% of the population is Muslim, many are easily distracted by accusations of atheism.

Supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami have distributed leaflets around the country saying that the bloggers who initiated the Shahbag protests are blasphemous, and have even called for the “death penalty for atheist bloggers“. At least three opposition-led newspapers have supported these claims with further incitements against the Shahbag protesters and individual bloggers.

One blogger at the forefront of the Shahbag protests, Ahmed Rajib Haider, was murdered outside his home in Dhaka on February 15. For years, he had been writing about war criminals and Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh under the pseudonym Thaba Baba (Captain Claw).

The blogger Hasib wrote:

খুন করার জন্য থাবাবাবাকে বেছে নেবার কারণ পরিষ্কার। থাবাবাবা ধর্মবিশ্বাসের নাস্তিক ছিলেন এবং সেটা তিনি উচ্চস্বরে জানানও দিতেন। জামাতের উদ্দেশ্য এখানে এই ধর্মবিশ্বাসকে আশ্রয় করে একটা বিভক্তি টানা। তারা এই বিভক্তি তৈরী করতে সফল।

It is clear why Thaba Baba was picked up and killed. He was an open atheist. The main target of the Jamaat (Islamist party) is to create division among bloggers using religion. They were successful.

Blogger Nir Shandhani writes of the frenzy that ensued after Rajib’s murder when a fake blog full of blasphemy was widely circulated and attributed to the blogger even though it was created after his death. The blog texts were downloaded, printed and distributed to incite hatred against Shahbag bloggers. Jamaat-e-Islami and its allies launched protests across country on February 22 against “atheist bloggers” in which 4 people were killed in clashes with police.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s government is quietly in favor of the Shahbag demonstrations since Jamaat-e-Islami is a political opponent who wishes to introduce Islamic law.

As the protests continue from strength to strength, youth are having their resolve tested by contradictory claims and threats. And less internet-savvy citizens in Bangladesh who may not know what a blog is must have concluded by now that it is something quite anti-Islamic.

On February 28, Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayed was sentenced to death, leading to cheers in the Shabagh intersection, and deadly clashes between Islamists and police in Dhaka and other parts of the country. Jamaat-e-Islami say they will retaliate with a 48-hour “shutdown” of Bangladesh starting Sunday, March 3.

This post was written with contributions from the Global Voices Bangladesh authors team

This post and its translations to Spanish, Arabic and French were commissioned by the International Security Network (ISN) as part of a partnership to seek out citizen voices on international relations and security issues worldwide. This post was first published on the ISN blog, see similar stories here.

Global Voices Seeks Part-Time Developer

Solana Larsen — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:48:42 +0000

Global Voices seeks a part-time web designer and developer to help maintain and redesign our many WordPress and other LAMP-based sites, working closely with our primary developer.

Ideal candidates should have experience with configuring and coding for WordPress, including the theme and plugin APIs.

There is no geographic requirement associated with this position. Global Voices is a virtual organization with no offices. Candidates should be self-driven and able to complete tasks with minimal guidance, as well as able to collaborate remotely with the Global Voices team.

MANDATORY SKILLS

HTML (XHTML/HTML 5)
CSS
PHP
WordPress configuration and management

IMPORTANT SKILLS

Design (Photoshop/Illustrator)
WordPress plugin development
WordPress theme development
Linux/Apache/MySQL adminstration
Fluid/responsive CSS
Version Control (Git/SVN)
Mobile and tablet development integration

We strongly welcome candidates from outside North America and Western Europe, and encourage people currently working on the Global Voices project to apply.

If you're interested, please send a CV and letter of interest explaining why you'd be a good candidate for the job to: adminjob AT globalvoicesonline DOT org by no later than March 4, 2013.

Summer Course: Internet Advocacy

Solana Larsen — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 07:41:31 +0000

The Central European University in Budapest, Hungary is offering an intensive course in Internet Governance, Civil Society and Public Policy Advocacy on July 8-19, 2013 in partnership with the Annenberg School of Communication and Center for Democracy and Technology. Apply online before March 15.