· September, 2011

Stories about Digital Activism from September, 2011

Trinidad & Tobago: Expenditure & Accountability

  30 September 2011

“Discussion is revolving around the country’s earnings from our energy resources and the likely size of the next year’s budget, expected to be delivered in early October”: Afra Raymond warns that “without proper control over expenditure, we will continue to lurch from crisis to crisis.”

Cuba: Inequitable Party

  30 September 2011

Generation Y compares the official distribution of “rental properties, cars, businesses [and] houses” to a pinata at a children's party, saying: “What is most worrying is [that] the…existence of such a mechanism will undoubtedly feed corruption, ‘socialism,’ and put into the hands of government sympathizers the fattest strings for when...

Bahamas: Time to Take Action Against Crime

  29 September 2011

As a missing child is found dead, Weblog Bahamas says: “I would call on Prime Minister Ingraham to not wait until next Monday to make a statement to the nation on crime. The time to act is now… and we must act swiftly and prudently.”

Cuba: Jailed Activists

  29 September 2011

Uncommon Sense continues to keep a close eye on three members of the Damas de Blanco who were arrested recently, as well as political prisoner Sara Martha Fonseca, whose son was allegedly attacked after trying to obtain information about his jailed parents.

Cuba: A Tireless Defender of Gay Rights

  29 September 2011

Francisco Rodríguez Cruz is a Cuban journalist and activist who for over a year has maintained a controversial blog committed to advancing the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in Cuba.

Puerto Rico: Online Forum for Good Dads

  28 September 2011

“Over the years, I've worried about how I'm doing as a father”, says Gil the Jenius – which is why he has nothing but praise for a new website that “bring[s] good Dads together and let[s] them…share what it is to be a father.”

Trinidad & Tobago: Black Power Documentary

  28 September 2011

“You could put all of the scholarship produced by the University of the West Indies and all the newspaper and TV stories done about the 1970 uprising in Trinidad and Tobago on one side and, when you tossed the single DVD of ’70: Remembering a Revolution into the other pan,...

Cuba: Female Prisoner on Hunger Strike

  28 September 2011

Pedazos de La Isla uploads a video showing “what happened on Saturday, September 24th, to Sara Marta Fonseca Quevedo and other dissidents who were peacefully protesting”, while Uncommon Sense notes that Fonseca has since begun a hunger strike.

Philippines: Creative Protests During Campus Strikes

  28 September 2011

Last week's nationwide campus strikes in the Philippines against education budget cuts saw the lively and creative integration of online tools to mobilize thousands to fight for the right to education. From mass planking, freeze mob, blackboard campaign, fashion show, to Facebook campaigns, activists used various forms of protests to highlight their cause

Russia: A New Online Game Might Change Offline Moscow

RuNet Echo  27 September 2011

A graduate of Strelka Institute Andrey Goncharov gave an interview about his final project an online game “Crowdsourced Moscow 2012″. According to the interview the game  can contibute to real democracy and allow people to participate in reshaping the offline public space of their city through online.

Russia: Pro-Kremlin Youth Movement Leader Seeks New Internet ‘Activists’

RuNet Echo  27 September 2011

A journalist  from “Afisha” magazine had succeded to attend a secret meeting in the underground Moscow bunker dedicated to the training of a new generation of pro-Kremlin Internet activists organized by a leader of “Nashi” youth movement Vasiliy Yakemenko. Yakemenko demanded from pariticipants to initiate citizen Internet-based campaigns and argued that the main goal...

Chile: Twitter Trending Topics and #yomarchoel22

  26 September 2011

Students marched in favor of education reform on Thursday, September 22, but surprisingly, the hashtag netizens used on Twitter –#yomarchoel22– did not become a local Trending Topic. Enzo Abbagliati in his blog Cadaunadas [es] reminds his readers that Trending Topics are a legitimate but limited representation of reality.

El Salvador: Digital Newspaper Publishes Wikileaks Cables

  26 September 2011

“Almost 100 US State Department cables from the US Embassy in San Salvador have now been published on the website of El Faro. The collection of cables from WikiLeaks offers a behind-the-scenes look at US diplomacy and assessment of its tiny ally in Central America. Most of the cables come...

Cuba: “Damas” Targeted Again

  26 September 2011

The Ladies in White were once more targeted this weekend for their “planned march to a church to honor Our Lady of Charity on her feast day” – bloggers have a lot to say here, here, here, here and here.