· November, 2012

Stories about Digital Activism from November, 2012

Coming out of the Water Closet: Haiti on World Toilet Day

  19 November 2012

Today is World Toilet Day. Of a global population of 7 billion, a staggering 2.5 billion people have no access to clean toilet facilities - that's about 1 in 3 people. Some of them live in the Caribbean; many of these live in Haiti - and the lack of this fundamental human right to sanitation continues to cause unnecessary disease and death.

Chileans Protest in Support of Gaza

  19 November 2012

The latest hostilities between the Israeli government and Hamas in the Gaza Strip prompted an unusual protest in front of the Israeli Embassy in Santiago, Chile. Reactions come from a country that, despite the physical distance, is home to around 350,000 ethnic Palestinians, making it host to the largest community of Palestinians outside the Arab World.

Sierra Leone: Mapping Out Real-Time Election Data

  17 November 2012

Sierra Leone holds its third national election since the end of their civil war on 17 November, 2012. A coalition of monitoring organisations in the country, National Election Watch, will map out real-time election-related data using OneWorld's monitoring technologies. The idea is to help civil society diagnose, anticipate and prepare for immediate action in the event of fraud or violence.

An Invitation to Discuss Reforms to Costa Rica's Cybercrime Law

  16 November 2012

Ticoblogger invites [es] netizens to discuss [es] proposed reforms to Costa Rica's Cybercrime Law. The site calls on bloggers, Twitter users and blog readers to analyze and report any errors in different proposals to reform the law. Participants can leave a comment on the site or send their posts to...

Hungary: Why Do We Have To Pay Attention To China?

  15 November 2012

‘Az igazi Mao’ blog [hu] is trying to draw attention to the contemporary China that Hungarian citizens may not be too familiar with; its title refers to a Hungarian experimental documentary, The Real Mao, which tells a fake story of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong. In a recent entry, ‘Az igazi...

Police Raid Video Blogger's Home in Japan

  15 November 2012

Japan's police raided the house of a video blogger who films anti-nuclear protests, for evidence of charges against a violent protester. Every Friday, anti-nuclear activists gather in front of the Japanese Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo and various places in Japan to carry out protests. While mainstream media rarely covers these anti-nuclear protests, videos from citizen media are crucial to tell the story.

Call For De-weaponization of Karachi

  14 November 2012

Journeys To Democracy reports that some Pakistani activists have sent out a petition for peace and de-weaponization of Karachi city to the Chief Justice of Pakistan. The brutal violence, armed robberies, kidnapping and extortion in this Pakistani port city have claimed lives of around 8000 people in past four years.

Lurkmore or Lurkless? The Russian Internet Blacklist In Action

RuNet Echo  14 November 2012

A new Russian law that threatens Internet censorship came into effect on November 1. This week, netizen outrage followed the blocking of one particularly popular website by Russian ISPs. The site in question was Lurkmore, a Wikipedia-like compendium of articles on Internet culture and memes, written in an irreverent style with heavy use of Internet jargon.

Guinea-Bissau: International Arrest Warrant Against Blogger

  14 November 2012

The most visible face of Guinea-Bissau's blogosphere, António Aly Silva, wrote [pt] that he is being accused of “the crime of incitement to war” and that an international arrest warrant was issued against him by the regime in power since the coup of April 2012. In an interview [pt] for...

Latin American Youth Against Corruption

  14 November 2012

Andrea Arzaba shares a video where she interviews Latin American youth leading projects in favor of transparency and accountability. These young leaders participated in the Third Global Voices Against Corruption Forum, organized by the Global Youth Anti-Corruption Network (GYAC) in Brasilia, Brazil on November 5 and 6.

Brazil: Rio de Janeiro Demands Better Sanitation

  12 November 2012

The initiative Sanitation is Basic, launched by the nonprofit organisation Meu Rio, has served as a slogan for the increase in online campaigns owing to popular online pressure created by citizens and social movements in Rio. According to the organisation, "half the population in Rio de Janeiro is still without mains water and sewerage."