Stories about Governance from June, 2010
Cambodia: “Development evictions”
Cambodia ranks first among Asian countries in the number of ‘development’ evictions or the act of demolishing urban poor settlements in the name of ‘development.’
Russia: Police Would Like to ‘Cooperate’ With Bloggers
Valery Gribakin, head of the public relations department of the Russian Ministry of Interior, expressed a will to meet with top-ranking bloggers in order to discuss ways of possible cooperation, rsn.ru reported [RUS]. Bloggers have lots of questions to the police but don't expect the answers, sadly comments anti-corruption blogger...
Uruguay: Watching the World Cup from Afar
Nostalgia de Emigrante [es] describes how it feels to watch Uruguay play in the World Cup from the perspective of someone who has emigrated. Considering how well the team is doing, the blogger wonders why the country doesn't work like that: with the president as the coach and the citizens...
Sri Lanka: Targeting Buddha Bar
Indi.ca reports that the Sri Lankan government is investigating the Buddha Bar international chain of restaurants for ongoing LTTE activity abroad.
Taiwan: “When the Excavators Came to the Rice Fields”
Now occupying only 1.8% of total GDP in Taiwan, no one can deny that local agriculture has lost its once highly-respected status and is almost dying under many political decisions that are not in favor of agriculture. Or we can say that farming is no longer regarded as important and...
Iran: Derakhshan's trial started
According to [fa] several sites including Fars News, Hossein Derakhshan‘s trial started today. The Iranian blogger has been in jail for 21 months and he was accused of “collaborating with ennemi states, doing propaganda against Islamic regime, insulting religious sanctities and doing propaganda for anti-revolutionary groups.”
Haiti: Farmers fighting against Monsanto's seeds
Espas Ayisyen Toulouse republishes [Fr] Haitian Peasant Movement of Papaye‘s (PMP) official declaration after their long demonstration against the deal between the Haitian Government and the American firm Monsanto, to provide hybrid seeds to Haitian farmers.
Guadeloupe: Our first soldier killed in Afghanistan
Blogger Gwakafwika expresses [Fr Creole] his sadness with the death of a 27-year-old Guadeloupean native soldier serving in the French Army, in Afghanistan last week.
Russia: Flaws and Pitfalls of the Subsidized “Social” Internet Plan
Gregory Asmolov examines the potential of the Russian government's two new initiatives that aim at reducing the digital divide in the country.
India: The Battle Of The Have-nots
Nila-kantha-chandra at Cuckoo's Call comments on the Maoist insurgency in India: “it seems we are living under the shadow of looming violence. A civil war, where the have-nots finally turn against the haves”.
Ecuador: Bloggers Analyze Truth Comission Report
On May 2007, a Truth Commission (TC) was created by presidential decree; its purpose is to investigate and collect information on human rights violations attributed to the security forces in the last 25 years. This past May 7, after three years, the Truth Commission handed out its report to President Rafael Correa, which included 831 human rights violations affecting 456 victims between 1984 and 2008. Bloggers have analyzed the report from different points of view.
Egypt: And the First Arabic Domain goes to … President Mubarak
Egyptian President, Mohamed Hosni Mubarak registered the first Arabic domain in Egypt: مبارك.مصر . In her post, Zeinobia expects that Mubarak.Misr would be the official Mubarak 2011 campaign website.
China: The citizens’ pledge
C. Custer from China Geek translated a citizens’ pledge written by a blogger, Tiger Temple, and circulated around the Internet. The pledge is a moral statement against social and political corruption.
Singapore: Government steps up anti-littering drive
Despite the strict laws against littering in Singapore, the number of offenders still went up in recent years prompting the government to intensify its anti-litter campaign. A more aggressive shame campaign will be implemented and “litter-free Ambassadors” will be recruited. Bloggers react
Hungary: Sinning with Impunity
Twenty years after the transition to democracy, Hungary is discussing whether those who had committed crimes against citizens during the communist era should be called to account.
Poland: Initial Microblog Coverage of the Presidential Elections
Both on Twitter and on its Polish mirror service, Blip.pl, people are sharing their thoughts about today's presidential election in Poland.
Iran: “9 file sharing sites got filtered”
Conservative Fars News site reported 9 “file sharing sites” including sharingmatrix،rapidshare،megaupload got filtered in one day in Iran.
Iran: A leading weblog service got filtered
Several Iranian bloggers including Persianweblog reported that Blogfa, a leading free Persian weblog service got filtered.
Israel: Dubious Thanks to USAID
JoeSettler posts a photo of a sign he often passes that reads, “This [road] is a gift from the American people to the Palestinian people.” “What I think that USAID overlooked,” he comments, “Is that Jews also use this road regularly.” According to their website, USAID has donated $1 billion...
Russia: Analysis of Hacker Attacks On Bloggers
Over the last five years, more than 40 RuNet bloggers have become targets of hacker attacks, most of which were carried out by a group of hackers named The Brigade of Hell. The hackers' targets have been both political and commercial bloggers.
Bangladesh: Netizens Surprised By Bandwidth Export Move
Bangladesh has one of the slowest and most expensive internet connections in the world and only about a quarter of the bandwidth capacity available is being used. Now the government has issued an international tender to lease out a big chunk of that capacity which irked some netizens.
