Stories about Ethnicity & Race from May, 2012
Armenia-Azerbaijan: Eurovision Propaganda Fail
Global Chaos takes a look at the government-led publicity and international media attention surrounding this years Eurovision Song Contest held in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Public Diplomacy blog also notes the propaganda deployed by arch-foe Armenia's Public TV against Azerbaijan during the final, including re-inventing elements of Novruz as Christian even...
Brazil: TV Humiliation of Young Man Opens Media Regulation Debate
At the beginning of May, a televised interview of a young man who was accused by the reporter of trying to rape a woman ignited debate over the necessity of regulating the great Brazilian media and of imposing limits on the custom of stereotyping minorities and vulnerable people.
Mali: A President Assaulted, a Nation in Turmoil
A rapidly escalating crisis has taken over Mali, including a recent assault on the interim president in his palace. All indicators seem to point towards a prolonged situation, although voices are calling for unity.
Armenia: US Embassy Condemns Attack on Gay-Friendly Bar
Ararat has more on the firebombing of D.I.Y., a gay-friendly bar in Yerevan, in a post by Global Voices’ Caucasus Regional Editor while Unzipped: Gay Armenia publishes a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Armenia condemning the ultra-nationalist attack.
Video: Defying the Stigma of Speaking Indigenous Languages
Al Jazeera's Living the Language video series brings us the stories of indigenous activists and communities throughout the globe who are standing up against stigma and are proposing solutions to recover the spaces for indigenous languages.
Video: How Societies Work – a Look at Unconventional Arrangements
The VJ Movement has partnered with the London School of Economics to bring us videos and stories that attempt to show how societies in conflict and crisis-affected areas across the globe are facing their futures.
China: Campaign to Clean ‘Foreign Trash’ Out of Beijing
A campaign to rid Beijing of illegal foreign residents has created controversy in China, with Chinese people expressing widely differing viewpoints on social media. A famous television host has labelled a reporter for Al-Jazeera as 'foreign trash' and invited police to run background checks on the blogger who has criticised his xenophobic remarks.
Mali: Protests Call for National Unity in Gao and Timbuktu
Following protests in Timbuktu in April 2012, citizens of the city of Gao have taken to the streets to protest about the demands and orders imposed by the Islamic groups currently occupying northern Mali. Malian bloggers and their readers react to the protests as well as to the current situation in Northern Mali.
Armenia: Nationalists Disrupt Cultural Diversity March
As was the case in 2009 during a rally to mark International Women's Day, nationalists in Armenia infiltrated and disrupted a march in Yerevan on 21 May to commemorate World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.
Peru: How the Achuar People are Saving their Territory from Oil Companies
The movie Chumpi & The Waterfall follows the life of young Chumpi and his community, the Achuar people who live in the Amazon Rainforest in the border between Peru and Ecuador. In the movie, subtitled in English, the Achuar show the richness of their daily life and also the steps they are taking to protect their ancestral lands from Oil Companies.
Guadeloupe: “Political Manipulation”
In a post entitled “On Kalkil Politik” [Cr], Guadeloupean blogger Gwakafwika explains his complete distrust in the recent appointment of 1 Guianese and 2 Guadeloupean-born Ministers in the new socialist French government. He calls it a political manipulation.
French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique: Ministers Appointed for Skills or as Tokens?
With a great majority of voters for candidate Hollande in the French presidential elections hailing from the overseas regions, French-Caribbean bloggers were impatient to see which French Guyanese, Martinican or Guadeloupean politicians would be assigned a key government ministry.
Turkey: Poetic Commemoration of Uludere Airstrike Victims
In December 2011 in southeastern Turkey several Turkish Airforce F-16s bombed a convoy of Turkish Kurds on mules who were engaged in border trade, apparently mistaking them for Kurdish rebels. Thirty-four were killed. Poet Bejan Matur has paid tribute to the victims in words and photos.
Israel: Increase in Racism Against African Asylum Seekers
In the past few weeks two cases of rape of Jewish women by Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers have been reported in the Israeli media, prompting a new wave of racism against asylum seekers in Israel.
Video: Capacity Building in Rising Voices Media Training
In the border between Burma and Thailand, the Rising Voices grantee project Karen Border News has launched their audio podcast workshop. In this short film, the students of the radio journalism course speak about their experience.
Armenia: State Sponsored Fascism
Following support from government officials and representatives of the nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashanktsutyun (ARF-D) for two Neo-Nazis accused of firebombing a gay-friendly bar in Yerevan, Unzipped: Gay Armenia asks if the country is moving towards a form of state sponsored fascism that threatens the rights and well-being of its own...
Armenia: Homophobic Firebombing Controversy Continues as Officials, MPs Promote Hate Crime
Controversy continues to surround the firebombing of a gay-friendly bar in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, as officials and politicians praise the arsonists. Online, however, many are instead speaking out against those nationalists doing so.
Video: Indigenous Video Festival Open for Submissions
The XI International Film and Video Festival of Indigenous Peoples to be held in Colombia during last quarter of 2012 is putting out a call for entries for audiovisual material about indigenous and first people issues and topics.
Armenia: Fears After Nationalist Firebombers Released on Bail
Following the firebombing of of an 'alternative' and gay-friendly bar in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, LGBT and other civil society activists are concerned by the rise of nationalism and hate-speech in the country.
France: The Little-known Abolition of Slavery Memorial in Nantes
Website citizen-nantes.com reported that [fr]: “On the evening of Saturday March 24, 2012, the ‘Collectif du 10 Mai’, a group of Afro-Caribbean associations from Nantes, invited the people of Nantes to a ‘Gathering in honour of the victims, the abolitionists and those who fought against slavery’ in the little-known Square...
Nagorno Karabakh: Cultural Destruction and Preservation in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict
During the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Azeris and Armenians were displaced. With hundreds of settlements also razed, and thousands of monuments destroyed, Conflict Voices looks at the issue of cemeteries, some of which were destroyed, but also...
