Stories about Humor from May, 2012
India: User's guide to Indian free speech
Nila at Akhond Of Swat lists some controversial subjects the Indians should not write about to avoid offending someone (and going to jail).
Why Are Governments in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan Afraid of ‘The Dictator'?
Tomyris explains why the authorities in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have banned The Dictator, Sacha Baron Cohen‘s latest spoof blockbuster, and writes about Western media's reaction to the ban.
UAE: Some Savoury Questions
Krista, from the collective blog Muslimah Media Watch, shares her family's passion for “ridiculous and tacky” salt and pepper shakers. Their latest acquisition, a gift bought in Dubai, has raised...
Bulgaria: President's Gift to Pope Provokes Questions
Bulgarian netizens are discussing their President's gift to the Pope: a gilded egg that seems "bigger than the President and the Pope combined." Ruslan Trad translates some of the jokes and conversations.
Africa: Regimes Under Attack From Satire and Cartoons
The use of satirical language and cartoons in the media is relatively new in most African countries. Abdoulaye Bah explores the history behind these comic tools.
Russia: The RuNet's Top 10 Political Slang Words
Understanding political discussions in the Russian blogosphere requires a certain fluency in RuNet slang. For anyone interested in grasping the nuances of online satire and blogger arguments (or for those who seek to "troll" their own virtual opponents), the following list of ten popular slang terms should be particularly useful.
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.
Russia: The RuNet's Enduring Tomatoes & Tusovki
To a casual observer, the RuNet and the Russian protest movement seem current and contemporary. It is easy to forget, however, that the core of the RuNet and the protests it's inspired has now existed for almost a decade. Burning questions asked seven years ago about the true nature of major figures are still prominent today, such as questions about a certain Andrei Morozov.
Greece: New Interim Government
After the 6 May general elections in Greece and the failure of political parties to form even a coalition government, the interim government to be sworn on May 17 under...
Video: Robot Shows us How to Stay Safe Online
Online security is a complex issue that is sometimes hard to understand or to know how to face. Using a lovable animated robot, the Tactical Tech Collective is trying to get more people aware on how to stay safe online through short online video animations.
Israel: Mofaz Derided for Joining Unity Government
Israel's biggest news story of recent months happened in the early hours of May 8: the head of the opposition, Shaul Mofaz, agreed to join Benjamin Netanyahu's government, thus postponing the early elections Netanyahu had announced just days before.
India: Online Cartoon Exhibition Protesting Repression
The arrest of Ambikesh Mahapatra, a professor of Jadavpur University, for circulating West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjees's cartoon has enraged many online activists. A cartoon exhibition protesting her acts...
Belgium: Video Shows Campaign to Curb Texting and Driving
The Impossible texting and driving test is part of a campaign to raise awareness to the dangers of texting using mobile devices while driving in Belgium. Several young people doing...
Lebanon: Demotivational Humour on Facebook
Recently a number of Facebook pages have been started about specifically Lebanese memes. In this post Global Voices interviews the creator of a page called “Demotivational Lebanon”.
