Stories about Arts & Culture from August, 2012
India: Dowry And The Boys
Nitisha Pandey at Youth Ki Awaaz discusses the current market rates for grooms in India and asks:
Does a boy’s parents’ give him good education only to get a handsome dowry?
Ukraine: Taras Polataiko's ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Project
Katherine Brooks of The Huffington Post and Natalia Antonova at the Guardian's Comment is Free write about Taras Polataiko's Sleeping Beauty project, which did open on Aug. 22 at the National Art Museum of Ukraine in Kyiv, despite some initial problems (which the Ukrainian-Canadian artist described on his Facebook page)....
Portuguese, a Global Language?
A community page on Facebook, Língua Portuguesa: Uma Língua Global? (Portuguese Language: A Global Language?) [pt], provides a diversity of materials to promote the debate about the expansion of Portuguese language and its consequences. Several critical issues on the policies of this language of around 200 million speakers are addressed,...
Turkmenistan: Goodbye August, Month of Melons
August is the month of melons in Turkmenistan where expansive steppe lands yield some of the tastiest crop known to mankind. Turkmen Melon Day, celebrated since 1994, is one of the favourite public holidays in the country.
Russia: Moscow's Peculiar Illegal Parking Problem
Russian adventures and misadventures in parking could be a movie plot. But Russia’s parking problems are anything but comedy. It remains to be seen how vigorously the country will deal with illegal parking. If it succeeds, its methods could show what kind of transportation system and cities Russia will have, and even what kind of country it will be.
Venezuela: Preserving the Oral Traditions of the Plains
The oral traditions of the plains are brilliant protagonists of the culture that has spread to other regions of Venezuela. Many natives of the Venezuelan plains use social networks and other Web 2.0 tools to spread, highlight, and preserve these traditions.
South Korea: K-Pop Video ‘Gangnam Style’ Goes Viral Internationally
South Korean singer Psy's tune 'Gangnam Style' has gone viral internationally, with its YouTube video surpassing 70 million hits as of today. This has got many Koreans talking and the scope of such discussions vary from simple praise of Psy's success, reviews of his marketing and social media strategies, to a more detailed analysis of Koreans' deep-seated insecurity about their country.
Russia: Censorship Law Threatens Children's Classics
After news that Russian television will soon be forced to curtail showings of a classic children’s cartoon “Nu, Pogodi!” [wiki] (the Soviet version of Tom & Jerry but with wolf and bunny instead of cat and mouse) because it is too violent for a new law protecting children from the...
Save Syria's Threatened Heritage Sites
Alongside the mounting death toll, a massacre is being perpetrated against Syria's heritage. Little is being said about this issue in both mainstream and social media, writes Thalia Rahme.
Trinidad & Tobago: Theatre Love
All of human emotion is distilled into a couple of hours, brought to life by characters drawn from every imaginable human (and divine) archetype. I love reading it, watching it – and I love performing it most of all. Caroline Taylor resumes blogging by writing about her love of classical...
Russia: Foreign Ministry Looks to Germany to Justify Pussy Riot Verdict
Russia's Foreign Ministry has made a series of comments that further enraging Pussy Riot's supporters. Spokesperson Aleksandr Lukashevich defended the recent verdict and lashed out at the West for ignorance about the band members' pasts and highlighted perceived double standards regarding interferences into religious services and criminal penalties, citing laws in Germany and Austria.
Puerto Rico: Dancing through the Lens of Heriberto Castro
Photographer and blogger Heriberto Castro talks about his blog En la punta del pie, a site dedicated to the world of body movement. He hopes to provide a place to collaborate news and photographs about all dance-related activities in Puerto Rico.
Palestine: A 1920 Eid Celebration in Jaffa
The Facebook page Tradition in Palestine shares a picture which reflects Eid celebration in Jaffa in 1920 with the following comment: as in my parents description to Eid: magic lantern, rope swing and ice cream and juice vendors
Guinea-Bissau: Women, Citizenship and “Mandjuandades”
Informal voluntary associations predominantly made up of women and sustained through solidarity and the sharing of individual and collective interests, may play an important role in strengthening participative democracy in Guinea Bissau: meet "mandjuandades".
Poland: Interview with Adam Dobrzynski, GV Translator and Heavy Metal Musician
An interview with Adam Dobrzynski, a member of the heavy metal band "Wanderer" and a translator for GV Poland.
Russia: Diva Politics Over Pussy Riot
The Pussy Riot trial has caused no small amount of debate among Russia's public figures, including an amusing row between two of the country's best known celebrities.
Puerto Rico: Film “Under My Nails” Wins Award
The film “Under My Nails” directed by the Puerto Rican Arí Maniel Cruz, and starred by Kishina Tikina Burgos (Puerto Rico) and Iván Camilo (Dominican Republic), received the best film award [es] at the International Latino Film Festival of New York.
Puerto Rico: Beautiful Music by “Los Cerezos”
The alternative music blog Puerto Rico Indie has a post on the band from Puerto Rico, Los Cerezos, who have just launched their first EP titled “Dejad que los hipsters vengan a mi” [Let the Hipsters Come To Me]: With a very genuine musical proposal, without pretensions or weaknesses, Los...
Russia: Government Bans Serbian Film for Underage Sex and Drugs
On August 17, Sam Klebanov announced that Russia's Ministry of Culture has banned the release of a Serbian film called "Clip." Klebanov's company owns the Russian distribution rights to the movie, which was honored with a Hivos Tiger Award at the forty-first International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Netherlands earlier this year.
China: Mahjong Obsession
Jing Gao from Ministry of Tofu translates a local news feature on the Chinese obsession with Mahjong, a game of chance.
