· October, 2008

Stories about Development from October, 2008

South Africa: The Impact of Mobile Active '08

  31 October 2008

A video podcast shot at Mobile Active Conference in South Africa: “In the first interview, David Barnard, Executive Director of the Southern African Non-Governmental Organisation Network (SANGONeT) and organizer of MobileActive08, talks about the event and how it will impact activities at SANGONet.”

Trinidad & Tobago: Building Walls

  31 October 2008

As the government of Trinidad and Tobago begins construction on a wall they say is part of a beautification project, but which many view as a tactic for hiding the squalor of a disadvantaged community, Attillah Springer says: “Build walls because, yes, this is what the nation needs. More division....

Cambodia: Hero of the Year nominee

  31 October 2008

Nuon Phymean from Cambodia is one of the nominees for the CNN Hero of the Year Award. She has helped a lot of children in Phnom Penh by providing free education and job training.

Trinidad & Tobago: The Price of Progress

  30 October 2008

Maximilian Forte, writing at Review of the Indigenous Caribbean Center, posts a video of Trinidadian calypsonian King Austin's song Progress, which he calls “a critique of the ideology and practice of progress, from the vantage points of environmental unsustainability, exploitation, inequality, and the resultant social strife.”

Kazakhstan: Blocked Bloggers Discuss Economics

  30 October 2008

Although LiveJournal, the major blog platform on the post-Soviet space, including Kazakhstan, is still not accessible through the national telecom monopolist Kazakhtelecom, Internet enthusiasts find their way to express their opinions online. The main topic – as, probably, elsewhere these days – is economics.

Rising Voices Nominated World's Best Blog

  29 October 2008

Global Voices’ citizen media outreach project, Rising Voices has been nominated for a “Best of the Blogs Award” (B.O.B.) in the category “Best Weblog”. More than 8,500 weblogs were suggested for nomination and a jury selected the final 11 in each of 16 categories. Anyone can cast their votes online...

Guyana: Social Services

  27 October 2008

“Increasing access to social services is among the priorities identified by indigenous women leaders in the region as key to empowerment”: The Voice of the Taino People Online reports on the Conference on Indigenous Women in the Caribbean, being held in Guyana.

Ukraine: Politics Versus the Economy

  25 October 2008

Ukraine's tumultuous internal politics has long stood in the way of the country's economic development - and even now, at the time of an economic crisis, there seems to be no sign of respite. Below is what some English-language bloggers have to say about the current situation.

India: Could be better

  23 October 2008

Nirmalya Nag takes a critical look at the development of India in the past sixteen years. The GDP has quadrupled, poverty has declined; but he makes a case that the pace of this positive change could have even been faster.

Cape Verde: Crisis? What crisis?

  22 October 2008

After questioning the reasons for a recent wave of prices rise in Cape Verde, bloggers were surprised last week at the news that the country is immune to the economic crisis that has devastated the world. Even petrol prices, which were on the rise three weeks ago, have now been reduced.

Blogging Rural Morocco: Peace Corps Volunteers

  22 October 2008

Morocco has an active and healthy blogosphere. Bloggers write in Arabic, French, English, Spanish, and Amazigh, covering a wide range of topics and issues. The one negative about the Moroccan "blogoma," however, is that the majority of its adherents are clustered within major cities (Casablanca, Rabat, Fez) and abroad; little is blogged about the rural areas. That's where the Peace Corps and Fulbright bloggers come in; as many are stationed in remote areas of Morocco, they are able to paint a picture of the other side of life in the country.