Stories about Ideas from January, 2012
Costa Rica: Young Entrepreneurs Present Mobile Game
Six young Costa Rican entrepreneurs have created a mobile game platform called TweetLand. In the blog Fusil de Chispas [es], Cristian Cambronero writes about the debut of Route 140, the first game in the collection.
China: ‘Anti-American Warrior’ Gets Head Stuck in DC Airport Escalator
One of China's fiercest critics of liberal values hasn't had much to say after he injured his head on an escalator in Washington, DC, on a trip to the US he apparently did not want his followers to know about. John Kennedy reports.
Caribbean: TEDx Shows “Ideas Worth Spreading”
“Ideas worth spreading.” With this simple slogan, TED.com, which began in 1984 as an annual conference devoted to technology, entertainment and design, has infiltrated the Internet and empowered people in various countries to spark discussions in local, self-organised TED-branded events, dubbed TEDx. This sharing of ideas has found its way to the Caribbean - in 2011, five TEDx events were held: two in Jamaica, two in Trinidad and one in Puerto Rico. Here's a look back on the events that helped change the region...
Why do I wish to see Hong Kong's independence
Amid a series of social and cultural clashes between Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong netizen Marie Meow has written an open letter (English translation here) on Facebook exploring the reasons, possibilities and limitations for a Hong Kong independent from China. The letter has gone viral on the Hong...
Russia: The Fake Political Twitter Account Phenomenon
Online anonymity provides perfect conditions for human creativity and humor. In the Russian context this manifests as Twitter accounts belonging either to dead politicians or those that deliberately avoid publicity.
Macedonia: Analyzing Skopje 2014
Jasna Koteska published an analysis of the implications of Skopje 2014 project in the light of the concepts developed by foremost contemporary philosophers and other thinkers. Informative and readable, full of juicy details on the use of history to create a new nationalist ideology.
Chile: Crowd Funding a Mapuche-Inspired Mobile Game
Digital communication and social network consultant Paloma Baytelman [es] explains crowd funding in her personal blog. She shares the experience of “Pewen Collector” [es], a mobile game inspired by the Mapuche indigenous people that was financed using a crowd funding platform.
Video: One Year, One World and 52 Different Stories
Video journalist Maggie Padlewska will travel alone for one year, visiting a country each week for a total of 52 countries. During her journey she'll be recording, editing and producing videos of her interactions with communities, organizations and people under-represented by mass media and uploading them to the web.
Iran: Sanctions Bite, and the Iranian Currency Falls
Iranians are facing a financial tsunami as the national currency (Rial) loses value day by day as sanctions against Iranian oil and the banking system get tougher.
Guatemalans Climb to Raise Awareness About Domestic Violence
“On January 21, Under the name of Subida por la vida [“Climb for life”], there were over 8,000 people climbing Volcán de Agua (Water Volcano) to form the largest heart in the world at 12,335 feet as part of campaign to bring awareness and to reduce domestic violence,” Antigua Daily...
South Korea : Pizza Appears in Lunar New Year's Ancestral Worship
Sharing food with relatives that had been offered in the ancestral worship is regarded as the essence of the traditional Lunar New Year holiday in Korea and there are strict and complicated rules to follow in offering food. However, some young Koreans have started offering unconventional food, such as pizza,...
United Kingdom: You cannot evict an idea
Set in a multimillion pound complex, complete with a 500-seater lecture hall that had been abandoned by investment bank UBS, the Bank of Ideas provides room for community groups and other public services that have lost their space due to UK Government's spending cuts. The project is entering the third month and braces itself for an appeal case against their eviction, expected in Court next week.
Bahamas: A Belief in Democracy
“To date, my country has not put in place anything to serve and build me; to every politician who has served in parliament in the time I have been voting, people like me have been invisible. In our democracy, we do not count”: Hence the reason Blogworld puts forward her...
Lebanon: Her Veil
“And when I made up my mind and ran to my mom screaming ”baddi it7ajab” [I want to wear the veil] she looked at me and said if you wear it now will you ever take it off ? I paused and asked her ”Are you ever going to take...
Bahamas: Need for a Voters’ Manifesto
“It’s 2012 and the silly season is officially upon us”: Blogworld notes that “it’s a rare situation this election. For the first time in 35 years, it’s a proper three-way race…[yet] predictably, and unfortunately so, the discussion is progressing the way football hooligans support their favourite teams.”
South Africa: Braille Burgers and Social Media
A fast food chain in South Africa delivered 15 burgers to organizations for the Blind: through social media, the story of those 15 burgers reached more than 800,000 people, letting them know about the restaurant's new Braille menu. What made that strong impression? The burgers’ buns had messages in Braille...
Competition to Develop Low-Cost Water Purification Device
Inventors, designers, entrepreneurs from developing countries are invited by the University of South Florida's Patel Center to submit ideas for the creation of a “Smart Pot” that can purify water easily and has a similar shape as a traditional jerrycan. Winning proposals will receive up to $8,000 plus the opportunity...
Cuba: Rediscovering “Trova”
Generation Y blogs about the musical genre of Trova, noting that for many Cubans, “those ideological tunes — alluding to the New Man or the society he will inhabit — have been thrown into the well of forgetfulness.”
Cuba: The Blogger Behind “Sin Evasion”
At Havana Times, Yusimi Rodriguez posts an interview with blogger Miriam Celaya, “to learn about her life, her ideas and how much of a mercenary, cyber-terrorist and pro-imperialist she really is.”
China: Promoting democracy means more than exposing darkness
China Media Project has translated prominent Chinese blogger Yang Hengjun's blog post: Democracy is more than fighting against authoritarianism.
Costa Rica: Carmen Naranjo, Writer and Politician, Dies
Carmen Naranjo died on January 4, 2012. In her political and cultural work Naranjo fought for the equality of women and the spreading of knowledge to the wider public. She was a key author that helped change the direction of Costa Rican literature to reflect the realities on an emergent urban society with new rules and views of the future.
