Stories about Ideas from October, 2011
Russia: Pirate Flag Over Novosibirsk City
LJ-user dedmaxopka publishes [ru] pictures of himself placing a pirate flag over Novosibirsk city administration. “We just wanted to make nice pictures of the city,” explained the blogger to the police that identified him the same day. Blogger was charged with ‘petty hooliganism’ and had to pay a small fine.
Puerto Rico: Bike Messengers Take the Streets
At El Punto Es [es] Mariángel González interviews Rafi Robles [es], co-founder of the first bicycle messenger company in Puerto Rico Ecomensajería [es].
Colombia: Law 30 and “Operation Seventh Ballot” on Regional Election Day
Through the Facebook group “Operation Seventh Ballot” [es], citizens are inviting voters to deposit a paper in the ballot box with the words “NO TO THE REFORM OF LAW 30″ in reference to the education reform launched by the national government. This initiative, which will be carried out during the...
Pakistan: Funding Social Innovation
Jehan Ara at In The Line Of Wire writes how the recipients of the P@SHA Fund for Social Innovation were selected.
Algeria: Thoughts on Gaddafi's Death
American-Algerian blogger Kal, at The Moor Next Door, shares some thoughts on the death of Libya's dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
East Timor: Investing in Creativity and Culture
Barcelona artist David Palazón ended up in East Timor as a break from his career. Now he is coordinating a project to research Timorese culture in hopes of creating a school for the creative industries, to stimulate jobs in the non-oil economy, small businesses, and tourism.
Open Access Africa: Spreading Knowledge, Increasing Collaboration
We celebrate Open Access Week with a special focus on Open Access Africa. As the internet lowers the bar for publishing and disseminating information, print-era publishing models still keep African researchers and students separated from colleagues in different countries and their ideas. How has Open Access changed scholarship in Africa?
Russia: Crowd-Sourced Citizen Lawmaking Platform
The Economist writes about WikiVote (e.g. see projects dedicated to the laws on education, Sberbank, state-owned bank), Russian croudsourcing platform to comment and contribute to the creation of the laws. Pavel Burov, creator of the platform, claims his project can ‘prevent idiocy [in lawmaking] from happening.’
Sri Lanka: Working Towards Uniting the Nation
The 26 year long civil war in Sri Lanka has left many scars and it is an uphill task to bridge all divides and start the reconciliation to unite people. 'Sri Lanka Unites' is engaging the youth across the country to build good leadership with hope and reconciliation who will unite the nation one day.
Bahamas: Economics of the Environment
Bahama Pundit‘s Larry Smith uses a case of environmental destruction from Belize to make a point about “the economic impact of Bahamian protected areas.”
United Kingdom: At Age 77, a Life of Inspiration
Julie Kertesz started blogging and photographing at the age of 70. Now at 77, she has become a role-model to people of all ages who desire to lead full and active lives of learning and doing. Paula Góes reports.
China: New Global Order in Car Ads
Tricia Wang notices the recent Ads of Toyota Highlander showing a white male serving a Chinese couple is reflective of the new global order.
Jordan: Alternative Voices on the World Economic Forum
From October 21 to 23, Jordan hosted the World Economic Forum's Special Meeting on Economic Growth and Job Creation in the Arab World. This year, as the Arab world continues to awaken and reshape its existence, a vocal and alternative narrative is growing online.
Coworking Spaces and Nomad Workers in Japan
Coworking is a growing worldwide movement, and Japan is no exception. Surprising to see in a culture where the idea of physically being in the office at all hours is ingrained in the psyche of the salaried worker? Perhaps not.
Jamaica: I Think, Therefore I Am
Long Bench responds to a newspaper editorial suggesting that the “silent middle class must assert itself”, saying: “The term ‘well-thinking Jamaicans'…smacks of an elitism that is based in the editors’ sense of the moral superiority of some groups over others. Is ‘thinking’ supposed to allude to education level and capacity...
China: Disease of indifference
Annie Lee from China Hush translated an article that examines the cause of moral deficiency in mainland Chinese society.
Bahamas: Visual Poetry
Two new video poems have been posted at tongues of the ocean, here and here.
Japan: We're Losing to Apple, and Here's Why
Blogger Isseki Nagae considers the sorry state of the Japanese personal electronics industry in light of the recent success of Apple in Japan. Through the words of Steve Jobs, Nagae argues that Japanese manufacturers pay too much attention to the views of the average user rather than developing new ideas.
Madagascar: The Birthplace of the “Occupy Wall Street” Philosophy ?
Dan Berrett argues in the Chronicle of Higher Education that the ” Occupy Wall Street's most defining characteristics—its decentralized nature and its intensive process of participatory, consensus-based decision-making—are rooted in other precincts of academe and activism: in the scholarship of anarchism and, specifically, in an ethnography of central Madagascar”.
Jamaica: Cricket & Writing
The game of cricket taught diaspora litblogger Geoffrey Philp how to stay his wicket – in writing and in life.
China: No Clear Solution to the Wall Street Occupation
The occupation of Wall Street has gathered a lot of interest in China, as have three blog posts last week from an investment banker, a columnist and a Yale professor, none of whom seem too optimistic that a new economic vision will arise from the growing global movement any time soon.
