· March, 2006

Stories about Digital Activism from March, 2006

Belarus: Prison Journal

  30 March 2006

Ivan Lenin at Rush-Mush links to an English translation of a Belarusian protestor's jail journal. (Written by LJ user forion in Belarusian, translated by LJ user kapitan-tanaka.)

China: Yahoo! in China

  30 March 2006

Today is Pick On Yahoo! Day at Asiapundit with “one of the most-biting attacks on the company and co-founder Jerry Yang that I have yet read,” up first.

Trinidad & Tobago: Technology activism

  30 March 2006

“What is a technology activist?” asks Taran Rampersad. “Perception might lead people to believe that technology activism is limited to a select group, when in fact I believe it isn't,” he says. “I believe that it's a part of the natural course of technology.”

Belarus: Anti-TV Flash Mob

  30 March 2006

LJ user litota_ posts photos from a flash mob that took place at Oktyabrskaya Sq. in Minsk yesterday: to protest the lies of Belarusian state TV, a group of young people put scarves over their eyes and pretended to watch the news broadcast on a huge screen above.

DRC: A Chat with Blogger Tony Katombe

  29 March 2006

Anthony Mica Katombe (Tony for short) is a blogger from the DRC who’ll “turn 39 April 13”. He has a degree in English and African Cultural Studies Education from a Congolese University. He owns Le Blog du Congolais and co-edits Le Prince du Fleuve Congo, a group blog. On the...

Belarus: Election Fraud Video

  28 March 2006

German-language Media-Ocean switches into English to write about a short video from a polling station in Belarus, which conveys repressive atmosphere during the count and shows how one observer, despite being barred from the table with stacks of bulletins on it, catches a violation that could've benefited Aleksandr Lukashenko, the...

China: Detained Activist Released

  28 March 2006

Zeng Jinyan, wife of AIDS activist Hu Jia—detained last month during a nation-wide hunger strike in protest at the government's alleged hiring of thugs in February to beat up a civil rights campaigner in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong—posts on her blog Searching for Hu Jia that after forty...

DRC: Kabila's Rwandan Ties Questioned

  26 March 2006

Renouveau Congolais posts (FR) a picture in which DRC transitional president and presidential candidate Joseph Kabila allegedly stands to the right of Rwandan General Paul Kagame during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Kabila was allegedly General Kagame's bodyguard during the genocide. Blogger Dr. Francois Thsipamba Mpuila and several readers debate whether...

Quo vadis, Philippines?

  26 March 2006

The lifting of Proclamation 1017, or the State of National Emergency, has not done much to quell the political unrest in the Philippines. Joseph Estrada, the president booted out of office in 2001 after a failed impeachment trial, finally took the witness stand in his trial for plunder. Willie Galang...

A new website about DR Congo

  24 March 2006

At Congo Watch there's the announcement of a new website called Friends of the Congo. There is also a Friends of the Congo Blog. Both sites have as their masthead a quotation from famous former Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba: “We are not alone. Africa, Asia, and free and liberated people...

Belarus: Arrests, Courts and Anti-Media Flash Mob

  24 March 2006

French journalist writing for Liberation has just been arrested in Minsk; actually so many people have been arrested that, unprecedentally, Minsk courts will be working on Saturday, reports br23 blog. Andrei Khrapavitski posts a picture from today's flash mob event that took place in Minsk to criticize the performance of...

China: Absent friends

  24 March 2006

ESWN rounds up news from the Chinese blogosphere that has happened during a busy stretch, including the shutdown of the Aegean Sea Web site, the Chinese Angry Youth forum and the Chinese Election and Governance Web.

Belarus: Tent Camp Demolished, Protesters Arrested

  24 March 2006

Riot police began their operation at 3 am Minsk time and after 15 minutes the camp was demolished and the protesters arrested. br23 blog and Rush-Mush have updates on the aftermath: the amazingly slanted coverage on the Russian-language EuroNews; Minsk residents’ approval of the regime's actions; a sample leaflet distributed...

China: Hu Jia, Day 36

  23 March 2006

feng37 translates the latest post from Zeng Jinyan, wife of AIDS activist Hu Jia, who went missing, believed detained, 36 days ago. Original Chinese post here.

Fouad Al-Farhan: We Have to Move On

If you have been following Global Voices for more than six months, then you probably have read the name of Fouad Al-Farhan in this space several times before this one. Actually, one of my posts here back in October 2005 featured a post by Al-Farhan, when he left a meeting...

Belarus: Protest Stories and Conversations

  23 March 2006

For the past four evenings, thousands of people have been gathering at Kastrychnitskaya (Oktyabrskaya) Square in Minsk, Belarus, to protest the fraudulent presidential election, demand a new vote and support the opposition. The crowd thins as the night arrives, but a few hundred young activists stay on in a small...

Belarus: The Purpose of the Protest in Minsk

  22 March 2006

Ivan Lenin at Rush-Mush translates a Belarusian LJ user's eloquent explanation of what the protest in Minsk is about: “The current resistance is a note of protest. A revolution probably won't happen. But there is a hope that the authorities will remember the tents on the square, next time they...