Stories about Development from December, 2009
Bangladesh: Knighthood For Fazle Hasan Abed
Unheard Voice informs that Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder and chairperson of the largest NGO of the world, BRAC, has been awarded with knighthood for his endeavors towards eradicating poverty...
Armenia: Culture vulture
Ianyan interviews Anush Babajanyan, an Armenian photographer who particularly focuses on issues such as gender in Armenia and the homeless in the country's second largest city, Gyumri.
Russia: Kaliningrad's “Contraband Industry”
St Petersblurb writes about Kaliningrad authorities’ failure to deal with the region's flourishing “contraband industry.”
St. Lucia: A Year for the Books
St. Lucia's Caribbean Book Blog reflects on 2009 as “a year that surely has to go down as one of the most disruptive and transformational periods in the world publishing...
Africa: Internet and Mobile Statistics in Africa in 2009
Africa grows fastest in the world according to mobile and internet statistics released by the International Telecommunications Union, writes Erik Hersman.
Azerbaijan: Education, free thought and development
Following a previous post from Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines on European concerns with the situation of freedom of expression in Azerbaijan, and especially following the imprisonment of video blogging...
Zambia: The case for Social Enterprise
Campbell makes the case for social enterprise in Zambia: “I have really been thinking of how Zambians can change Zambia. Social entrepreneurship is something that is foreign to our nation...
Hong Kong: Undemocratic Legco set to approve the world's most costly express train
The Legislative Council (Legco) in Hong Kong is about to approve the funding for the world's most expensive Express Rail Link (ERL)'s construction plan on the coming Friday (Dec 18)....
India: Let's not confuse social respectability with legality
Countering arguments advanced by an MSM article as to why prostitution in India should not be legalized, Nitin at The Acorn points out that we should not confuse social respectability...
ICT4D: Past mistakes, future wisdom
What makes an ICT4D project fizzle out? What are the common mistakes that donors, planners and implementers make when trying to run an ICT4D project? Practitioners discuss in a public Twitter chat.
Dispatch from Copenhagen: Demands for Climate Justice
Saffah Faroog is one of four Global Voices Authors in Copenhagen during the United Nations Climate Change Summit covering the lively conversations occurring in the blogosphere surrounding COP15.
Bangladesh: The slow pace of development
Why is the pace of development so slow in Bangladesh? Is it partly because a generation of intellectuals was wiped off in the Liberation War of 1971 – leaving the...
China: Pessimism, skepticism and concern over Copenhagen
A number of Chinese media and environmental groups have sent people to Copenhagen to cover the climate talks as well as protest; bloggers back home, meanwhile, don't seem too hopeful that leaders there will commit to meaningful action toward reducing carbon emissions.
Constitution building for a new Nepal
Blogger Raktim Nepali hopes that a participatory dialogue will help build a better and more inclusive constitution, thereby fulfilling the promise of a better future for Nepal.
For that acre of green grass
There is no short-cut to a greener planet, writes Masud Karim at Muktangan. He reflects on Bangladesh's need for balancing industrialization with environment protection to preserve that acre of green...
COP15 and the dreams of a Nation
Bangladeshi blogger Fakir Elias writes a moving poem about the indigenous needs of a Nation and how it is perhaps getting overshadowed in the COP15 buzz
Armenia: 21st Anniversary of the 1988 Earthquake
Monday marked the 21st anniversary of the 1988 earthquake which devastated many areas in northern Armenia leaving around 25,000 dead and many more homeless. Bloggers examine conditions in the region more than two decades later.
Kazakhstan: Big city lights, gerontocracy and Photoshop
Kazakhstan’s bloggers continue to monitor the state’s traditionally non-transparent politics and comment on the news. Among their concerns is the government’s announcement that due to the economic crisis, wage increases...
China: Forced Demolition
Two recent cases of forced demolitions have raised attention to the protection of citizens’ rights and fair conflict resolution. Chinese netizens provide plenty of comments and reactions.
Behind the scenes of Kiva's micro-lending
“Kiva is not quite what it seems,” says David Roodman on The Open Book Blog on the Center for Global Development. And Matt Flannery from online micro-lender Kiva.org responds.
Madagascar's forests decimated for $460,000 a day
As the world's nations gather in Copenhagen for the UN Convention on Climate Change, Madagascar, having already lost 90% of its original forest, faces continued threats from black market logging, threatening to destroy what is left of one of the world's most diverse ecosystems.
