· January, 2012

Stories about Ideas from January, 2012

Caribbean: TEDx Shows “Ideas Worth Spreading”

  25 January 2012

“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

  25 January 2012

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...

Macedonia: Analyzing Skopje 2014

  25 January 2012

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

  24 January 2012

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

  23 January 2012

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.

Guatemalans Climb to Raise Awareness About Domestic Violence

  23 January 2012

“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

  23 January 2012

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

  20 January 2012

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

  19 January 2012

“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

  16 January 2012

“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

  16 January 2012

“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

  13 January 2012

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

  11 January 2012

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”

  11 January 2012

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”

  10 January 2012

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.”

Costa Rica: Carmen Naranjo, Writer and Politician, Dies

  7 January 2012

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.