Stories about Digital Activism from May, 2008
Colombian anti-military youth group commemorates 10 years of resistance
Last May 17th marked the ten year aniversary of the Antimili sonoro, an event organized by the Youth Network as a way to spread the word about resistance to the mandatory military service in Colombia through music. The date was celebrated with a concert, and the whole month of May was programmed with conferences, talks and marches commemorating the 10 years of the youth organization's Disobedience and Civil Resistance movement. Showcasing the invitation to the events, the promotional clips and a short video from one of the ska bands playing in the concert.
The Victimization of Egyptian Women and Children
Fantasia's World raises crucial issues that hold back the Egyptian society all together; namely women's rights, violence against women and children, and the general misconceptions of male-female relationships in the Egyptian society and in the Arab world. Marwa Rakha zooms into a new post which discusses how Egyptian women and children are being victimized by traditions, law, and the Muslim Brothers.
Macedonia: Use of New Media in Election Campaign
Authors of the Macedonian media blog Komunikacii.net analyzed the "unprecedented" use of the internet and the new media by the leading political parties in the campaign for the early parliamentary elections, scheduled for June 1, 2008. Filip Stojanovski has translated the post from Macedonian.
St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Government vs. Party
“Silly me to even think that Governments undesrstood the difference between parties and governments”: St. Vincent and the Grenadines blogger Abeni is seeing red.
Cuba, Bermuda: Who Was Che?
A Radical in Bermuda shares his views on who he thinks Che Guevara was, while Child of the Revolution warns that the director and stars of the new feature film Che “have been happily providing plenty of colourful quotes to the media, along with their own versions of the Che...
Tunisia: Carthage Palace under the Spotlight
“Tunisian cyberactivists from Nawaat.org are successful enough in besieging Carthage presidential palace, on Google Earth, with tens of human rights videos,” writes Tunisian blogger Sami ben Gharbia.
YouTube starts citizen journalism channel
Giving citizen journalism videos more airtime has just gotten easier: YouTube video uploading website has opened a new channel exclusively for citizen videos named CitizenNews. Vloggers who specialize in reporting what is going on where they live can now subscribe to the channel and let the world know what is going on.
Iran:A popular site got filtered
Negarakha,an Iranian blogger, says[Fa] that Baznegar,a popular site that covers news about blogs was filtered.Negarakha invites other bloggers to protest against this filtering and talk about it in their blogs.
Iran: Raise Money for Sick Mother
Winston, an Iranian blogger from Canada, writes that he tries to raise money to bring his sick mother to Canada for medical care.
Haiti: Breaking the Law?
Haitian blogger Wadner Pierre shares his thoughts on the philosophy of nonviolence and, in the words of Thoreau, when “it is important for honest men to break the law.”
Anguilla: Culture Shock
“Cultural identity is as equally important as political independence and economic self-sufficiency in the process of nation-building. Cultural development is the bedrock of the creation of a national identity”: Corruption-free Anguilla wonders whether the island has a culture.
Guyana: Looking for Poetry
Signifyin’ Guyana posts a piece by John Agard to illustrate the things to look for in a poem.
Bermuda: Free Press
Vexed Bermoothes says that the ruling party's attacks on the free press are attracting international attention: “The fact is, that despite paying years of lip service to freedom of information, the Bermuda Government is doing little to implement it. Moreover, the PLP is using the offices of Government to punish...
Jamaica: Homophobic Talk?
The Jamaican Prime Minister's comments on BBC‘s HARDTalk programme spur blogger Francis Wade to make a few comments of his own: “Golding…candidly responded that he would not have a gay person in his cabinet. His distaste and contempt seemed palpable to me. I imagined Jamaicans looking on with pride…I imagined...
Guyana: Living Life
News of Guyana-Gyal‘s family and a few presents that they have sent her from abroad cause her to be “simply livin’ and appreciatin’.”
St. Lucia: Effects on Consumers
Blogging from St. Lucia, Looshan Ramblings is concerned about the effect of rising oil prices and the global food crisis on consumers: “We need to know that our leaders are trying their best to put measures that will cushion the fall out from this global food crisis and recession.”
Armenia/Georgia: Online Diasporan Communities
Social Science in the Caucasus examines the Internet presence of Armenian and Georgian communities in Switzerland. The blog of the Caucasus Research Resource Centers says that examining the extent of activity in online communities is one way of tracking how organized migrant communities abroad are.
Egypt: Egyptian Bloggers Union Formed
Egyptian blogger Shokeir [Ar] is surprised that an Egyptian Bloggers Union has been formed.
Serbia: “The Other Serbia”
Gray Falcon writes on “the Other Serbia.”
Russia, Latvia: Young Russia vs Edvīns Šņore
Latvian Abroad writes about Young Russia's protest against The Soviet Story, a documentary by a young Latvian director Edvīns Šņore.
Trinidad & Tobago: Don't Touch My Buddy
Grounding recalls an effective campaign in response to “a surge in racism and racist attacks in France” and wonders: “What would it really be like for us to have a similar campaign here in T & T?”
