· May, 2009

Stories about Ideas from May, 2009

Iran: YouTube, Broadway music and the Election

Campaigners in the Iranian elections have used YouTube in different ways to promote their favorite candidate or discredit their opponents. Four candidates will be on the ballot for the presidency on June 12, including the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

30 May 2009

Egypt: Cairo Refugee Film Festival

Integrating refugees in society is the aim of a film festival with a difference. Marwa Rakha learns about the Cairo Refugee Film Festival, being held from June 16 to 20 from the event's blog through a fellow blogger, and shares her findings in this post.

30 May 2009

Egypt: Anti-Male Circumcision Campaign

In 2008 Egypt passed a law that banned female circumcision (FGM). Today a group of bloggers started a campaign against male circumcision. Marwa Rakha picks up the story in this post.

29 May 2009

Trinidad & Tobago: AG Resigns

Bloggers have their say about the resignation of Trinidad and Tobago's Attorney General. This Beach Called Life: “The AG resigned, bringing with it accusations she wouldn’t tow The Party Line....

28 May 2009

Singapore: First LGBT Rally

More than 2,500 people in Singapore gathered at Hong Lim Park to form a human Pink Dot - a symbol of love and inclusiveness. It was Singapore’s first public rally in support for the Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

28 May 2009

Bermuda: Gang Violence

“I find the gang violence and drive-by shootings this weekend too depressing to write about. WTF Bermuda?”: Still, Vexed Bermoothes manages to throw out some constructive ideas.

27 May 2009

Jamaica: The Calabash Experience

“What was it about this year’s Calabash that still causes its many images and tones and textures to linger in my memory, refusing to leave?”: For Jamaica's Life, Unscripted, on...

27 May 2009

Trinidad & Tobago: Where's the Integrity?

Transparency and good governance have been popular topics in the Caribbean blogosphere of late. The latest debacle over integrity (or lack thereof?) comes from Trinidad and Tobago, where, in the last few weeks, a second attempt to establish an Integrity Commission has come to a crashing halt amidst revelations that the Chair of the Commission, a Catholic priest, had committed acts of plagiarism. To add even more fuel to the fire, the journalist who drew attention to the plagiarism in the first place, appears to have been fired. Bloggers speak out.

25 May 2009

Jamaica: Calabash & Language

Annie Paul blogs about Jamaica's Calabash Literary Festival, at which some folks were offended by the colourful language in authors’ readings: “Does shielding young ears from words like pussy, bombaclaat,...

25 May 2009

Cuba: “Cubans Can Connect”

“I’m coming to believe that the influence of the Internet on our reality is bigger than I thought”: When it comes to limitations imposed on Cubans having online access, Generation...

25 May 2009

Qatar: Abaya, Yes or No?

Qatari blogger Amal Almalki writes about the dilemma she faced when deciding whether to continue wearing the abaya: “I had to question and convince myself of what it means to...

22 May 2009

Bahrain: No Longer Anonymous

Bahraini blogger Hala, who blogs at When it Beeps, has decided Bahrain is too small for a person to try to be anonymous – so she introduces herself to her...

22 May 2009

Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago:

Barbados-based B.C. Pires publishes a column by the journalist who exposed alleged plagiarism by the former Chairperson of Trinidad and Tobago's now-defunct Integrity Commission.

22 May 2009