Stories about Humanitarian Response from March, 2008
Afghanistan: Hazara People Want Justice
Mohammad writes that representatives of the Hazara ethnic group in Afghanistan arranged a large demonstration in Kabul on March 29, to stop migration of nomadic tribes that threatens agricultural sector in their provinces.
Bahrain: Blogger in Jail for Four Months
Bahraini blogger and human rights activist Abdulla Mohsen (Ar) has been behind bars for more than four months, according to Nido, who calls upon bloggers and online activists to show support for his jailed comrade, who is still awaiting trial.
Tajikistan: Politicized Navruz
Navruz is one of the main celebrations for Tajiks. This time — more than ever — it means end of one of the harshest winter in several decades. People could hardly wait for these warm days that have come with the beginning of spring. Navruz has been celebrated throughout the...
Turkmenistan: Fewer Large Families
Maciula wonders if depopulation is a real problem as the Turkmenistan Chronicle suggests in a recent article, and compares the country’s population growth rate with that of neighbouring states.
Afghanistan: Aid Effectiveness in Afghanistan
Khushal reviews the recent study on international aid effectiveness in Afghanistan, which he says demonstrates the failure of international community in delivering what was promised to the Afghan people.
China: Vlogger helped Child Labor back to School
Xu Alun, a vlogger hammering away at a point that "truth is power", exposed a moving story of three child coal haulers in Biji, a small city in the south of China, and with an effective advocacy of QQ groups, the story tended to circulate immediately, arousing great public concern.
Kosovo, Serbia: Reactions to Del Ponte's Organ Smuggling Story
Douglas Muir at A Fistful of Euros examines former Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte's story on organ smuggling in Kosovo and links to the readers’ reactions at B92 site.
Brazil: Let us be courteous in the blogosphere
Pedro Dória [pt] is aghast with the increasingly aggressive comments in his blog and with no time to moderate them, he proposes the readers help him keeping courteous. “We're not barbarians, we are civilized. This is a democracy. Everyone is welcome no matter their creed, colour, belief, age, sex. In...
Afghanistan: Why Grow Poppy
Joshua Foust analyzes approaches to the problem of opium production in Afghanistan, and says that addressing opium requires a vast, multi-dimensional approach, combining anti-corruption efforts, a massive influx of money, subsidization of food or other cash crops.
Egypt: A Lebanese in Egypt – From Occupation to Liberation
One day, she felt humiliated, and the next, liberated. This is the story of Layal El Katib, a Lebanese Blogger who lived in Egypt for a while, brought to us by Tarek Amr.
China: Patriotism triggered, though under censorship
A brief record of the Chinese public opinion on Tibet unrest. Attention: they are all found inside the Great Firewall. But I believe they stand for a considerable part of us Chinese. Their information sources on which they judge and think might be filtered, but don’t laugh at that---- before the time tells what’s true, you might also be manipulated!
Armenia: Volunteerism
My Stay in Armenia recounts a recent visit to a school where the International Red Cross educated children on humanitarian work and volunteerism. The blog says that the latter in particular remains something “foreign” for most people in the country.
Japan: Support for Tibet
As fires rage on in the streets of Lhasa, bloggers in another part of the world have been anxiously following developments in Tibet with open eyes and open ears. Over the weekend, as mainstream media in Japan presented what many criticized as toned-down coverage of ongoing events in Lhasa, the word "Tibet" climbed to number one on Japanese blog search engines with thousands of entries largely in support of the uprising.
Afghanistan: Women Under Taliban and Now
Hadi1121 says that women in Afghanistan continue to suffer under the blessings of the Taliban, the tribal militias, religious fundamentalists and the government of Afghanistan. She offers a set of HRW's statistical data for 2006, and doubts that the stats for 2007 will be better.
Hong Kong, China and Tibet: You can't do this if you are Chinese
Fai Mao pointed out that the so-called “People's War” in Tibet is against Chinese constitution, and Chinese people should speak against such kind of violence.
Geospatial Technology and Human Rights
Varena at PingMag interviews Lars Bromley, director of the Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), who talks about how his group uses geospatial technology to digitally capture atrocities against civilians in Darfur, Zimbabwe, North Korea, the Gaza Strip and Burma.
Syria: Silence Over the “Bigger Holocaust”
On February 29th, Israel's Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai warned of "a bigger Holocaust" for the Palestinians. Syrian blogger Ayman, from the Damascene Blog, compares between the world's silence to that comment and the fuss made over Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's alleged call to "wipe Israel off the map."
Tajikistan: Hunger to Replace Cold and Darkness
Tajikistan is a small country with big problems. The nation, particularly the rural population, is still suffering from energy crisis, but yet another crisis is going to embrace it very soon. This time it's about food. Neweurasia reports that Barki Tojik – the country's electricity monopolist – promises to solve...
Video HUB: Protecting women activists’ rights around the world
Witness' The HUB Beta brings us three videos recorded at the "Human Rights for Women; Human Rights for All" event, where 3 strong women who defend other women´s rights speak about the International Campaign on Women Human Rights Defenders.
Madagascar: Lessons learned after 3rd severe tropical cyclone in a month
Since late January, 3 severe tropical cyclones have affected Madagascar tremendously, the latest being cyclone Jokwe who made landfall in the northern region of Madagascar, destroying 40 homes and leaving 400 people stranded in Nosy-be. The city of Antsiranana was also affected but not as extensively and Jokwe is now...
Afghanistan: Refugees Clash in Hungary
Peter Marton eyes a rare glimpse into the life of Afghanistani refugees in Hungary, where the Afghan and Georgian refugees clashed twice at the Debrecen refugee camp, fighting each other armed with sticks and steel rods.
