Stories about Governance from August, 2011
Cambodia’s Sand Pirates
Residents in a Cambodian province complain against the negative impact of sand dredging in their area. Tons of sand from Cambodia are allegedly shipped to Singapore which are used to...
Russia: Chamber of Accounts’ Leak Exposes Significant Financial Violations
Anti-corruption blogger ipasserby had analyzed [ru] over 100 classified documents of the Russian Chamber of Accounts that had accidentally leaked to the Web in July 2011. According to the blogger,...
Russia: Why We Are Leaving Our Country Behind
Recent months have seen a new spin on the topic of emigration that seems to be ever-present in the Russian online space. Several powerful blog posts written by people from different social groups have become a platform for expressing one's take on the present and future of the country and people's place in it.
China: Real Name Registration Requirement Coming For Weibo?
Bbishop from Digicha blogs about the rumor that the Chinese authorities would demand Weibo (Micro-blog) and other social media users to use real name in registration.
Senegal: Grants for Pilgrimage to Mecca and Rome
Mamadou Sarr on assirou.net reveals [fr] how much money Senegal provides for pilgrimages: “The Senegalese government subsidizes the pilgrimage to Mecca to the tune of 1 billion 350 million CFA...
Chile: Mapuche Youth Takeover Municipal Building
Katie Manning from Mi Voz reports that forty Mapuche teenagers have staged a takeover –toma in Spanish– in Ercilla: “Since August 19, the 11-to-17-year-olds occupied the town’s government center. They’re...
China: Who Could Have Known The Libyans Hate Gaddafi?
One of China's top military analysts at home, has turned the official line on Libya into something of a joke, and abroad, China's nominal support for Gaddafi may end up costing the country oil contracts and much more. Netizens look at the lessons Beijing could stand to learn.
Brazil: Mozambique Cedes Land to Brazilian Agribusiness
Mozambique is ceding 6 million hectares of land to Brazilian farmers. The idea is to draw on the Brazilian experience in the Cerrado, a biosphere similar to the African savanna, where industrial cattle grazing and soy plantations have already devastated 80% of the richest grasslands in the world.
Malaysia: Emergency App Alerts Police
The State of Selangor in Malaysia has launched an emergency app called ‘MyDistress’ which alerts police with a push of a button on mobile phones
Russia: HIV Activists Protest Against Medicine Shortages
Vitaliy Ragulin posts pictures [ru] of HIV activists rallying in front of the President's Staff office. The activists accused the Ministry of Health care in poor HIV/AIDS politics, and, more...
Nepal: A New Prime Minister
United We Blog! for a Democratic Nepal reports that Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has been elected the 35th Prime Minister of Nepal. The previous...
Egypt: Omar Soliman Facebook Army
A poll conducted by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces on their Facebook page to see how much support each of the potential Egyptian presidential elections candidates had on the ground yielded 'fishy' results. Here are reactions online after news emerged that a Facebook army was hired to tweak them.
Singapore Elects New President
Dr Tony Tan was elected Singapore's seventh president on August 27 with a winning margin of only 7,269 votes. This was enough to beat the three other candidates in Singapore’s first presidential election in 18 years.
Cameroon: Deeply homophobic laws
Talking about risk of toughening the law on homosexuality in Cameroon, the bonaberi.com site reveals [fr] that: “While the first paragraph of Section 347-1 of the penal code banned homosexuality,...
Iran: Protests to Save Lake Urmia Reignited
Once again protesters have poured again into streets of Tabriz and Urmia in Iran's Azerbaijan region on Sunday to call on the Iranian government to save the dying Urmia Lake.
Moldova: Twenty Years of Independence Marked with Parade and Disillusion
Moldova's bloggers have marked the country's 20th anniversary of independence with criticism and disillusionment rather than with enthusiasm, Diana Lungu reports.
Trinidad & Tobago: “The Real Reason” for SoETT
Jumbie's Watch reveals that he has been privy to “the real reason” behind Trinidad and Tobago's State of Emergency, saying: “Until an explanation is presented (promised at the opening of...
Cuba: Pseudo-Transparency
Without Evasion considers Raul Castro's pledge “to develop a new brave, honest and transparent journalism during the Sixth Congress of the CCP”, saying: “If the coverage of what happened in...
China: Independent Candidate Disqualified from Preliminary Round
Sophie from China Digital Times reports on how independent candidate from Lijiang Neighborhood in Panyu District of Guangzhou, Liang Shuxin, had been disqualified by the Neighborhood Committee under the pretext...
Cambodia: Prey Sar Prison Blog
Titled “life in 1 square meter”, the blog is allegedly created by a prisoner inside Cambodia's Prey Sar prison. It's no longer online but it has been widely discussed by...
Cambodia: Map of Prison Overcrowding
Licadho creates a map to highlight the overcrowding in Cambodia's prisons. According to the group, Cambodia's prisons are filled to roughly 180 percent of their capacity.
