March, 2012

Stories from March, 2012

Bolivia: The Wandering Hands of the Santa Cruz Mayor

  31 March 2012

Santa Cruz Mayor Percy Fernández is in hot water because of his apparent inappropriate touching of city council member Desirée Bravo, which was caught on tape by the media during a public event. The behavior may be a repeated pattern of bizarre actions by the controversial mayor.

India: Arresting Tibetan Activists

  31 March 2012

Dilip D'Souza at Death Ends Fun comments on the arrests of Tibetan activists in India: “we gave the Tibetans shelter when they fled from the excesses of China. Now we arrest them when Chinese premiers come visiting.”

Spain: The Faces of the Young and Unemployed 51%

  31 March 2012

Three Barcelona-based journalists, Lucija Stojevic, Jennifer Baljko and Marc Herman, have launched the excellent digital magazine 51percent with the mission “to go beyond the news headlines and put a face to the youth unemployment crisis facing Spain. We’ll be investigating this issue for the next couple of months, on-the-ground around Barcelona.”

Iran: Earth Hour celebrated in Tehran

  31 March 2012

Iranians are going to celebrate the “Earth Hour” today Saturday 31st of March. Here in this Farsi-language website, Iranians are organizing the “Earth Hour” events, including turning-off lights for an hour ‘to protect the planet’. Parham, an Isfahan-based user, tweets: ‘They are going to turn off Si-o-se Pol (historical bridge)...

Zambia: Can Barotseland ‘Seccession’ Hold?

  31 March 2012

South Sudan may hold the record as the newest nation in the world but this may no longer hold if the developing situation in Zambia in which advocates of an independent Barotseland, better known as Western Province, force matters and secede from the rest of the country. Zambian netizens weigh in on latest developments.

Bulgaria: Students Protest Teacher's Dismissal

  31 March 2012

Bulgarian blogger Boyan Pishtikov publishes [bg] images from a students’ demonstration in the north-western city of Vratza [en]. The protest was organized by high school students who disagree with the recent dismissal of one of their teachers. According to the principal [bg], the layoff was caused by alleged libel by...

Chile: Open Letter to Daniel Zamudio Goes Viral

  31 March 2012

Chilean netizens were deeply moved by an open letter to Daniel Zamudio, a young gay man who died after a brutal beating, written by Felipe E. Mercado and published on Tumblr [es]. The letter, with more than one thousand notes on Tumblr, became a local Trending Topic on Twitter.

Georgia: Tongue-in-cheek development forecast

  31 March 2012

A satirical video posted on YouTube takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the development of Georgia ahead of parliamentary elections later this year and a presidential vote in 2013. With the current president, Milhail Saakashvili, unable to run for a third term in office it foresees him following in the footsteps...

East Timor: Early Warning Early Response Mapping System

  31 March 2012

NGO Belun in East Timor has teamed up with Columbia University to establish the Early Warning Early Response mapping system which was designed to increase early responses to conflict and prevent the escalation of violence at the national and community levels.

Human Rights Mapping in Cambodia

  31 March 2012

Human rights advocates in Cambodia have been using online maps to document, monitor, and expose human rights violations across the country. Some of the maps track land conflicts, media killings, freedom of expression violations, and prison overcrowding

India: Is God Now An Industry?

  31 March 2012

Ugich Konitari at Gappa writes about the VIP pilgrims of the famous Hill Temple at Tirupati, who keep the ordinary pilgrims waiting for many hours for their chance to perform rituals. “Should money be the deciding factor in defining classes of worship?” the blogger asks.

India: Media And The State

  31 March 2012

Aagan reports that a recent circular from the West Bengal Ministry of Mass Education Extension and Library Services caused much buzz on mainstream and social media. The West Bengal government has decided that it will not stock any “politically funded” newspaper in government libraries.

India, Bangladesh: Caught In The Cyber War

  31 March 2012

A cyber war between Bangladesh and India broke out last month as Bangladeshi hackers defaced Indian border security Force's website in protest of the recent border killings by BSF. Indian hacker groups retaliated by defacing Bangladesh government ministry websites and a cyber war followed.

Bahrain: Tweeting Against Formula 1

As Bahrain gears up to host the Grand Prix, from April 20 to 22, netizens are rallying for the cancellation of the car race claiming that human rights violations are still continuing against protesters seeking more democratic rights in the Arab country. Mona Kareem sheds light on one Twitter campaign to draw attention to this.