· November, 2012

Stories about Ideas from November, 2012

China: Top 10 horrible figures of 2012?

  28 November 2012

This week, Chinese internet users come up with their own list of the “10 Most Horrid People of 2012.” The list was shared on Sina Weibo by “Weekly Commentary” [zh]  (每周评论), but was deleted on Nov 26. China Media Project translated the deleted post.  

Mauritania: “Knowledge for All” Campaign to Collect 30,000 Books

  26 November 2012

A group of Mauritanian activists initiated a Facebook campaign entitled “Knowledge for all” [ar], which aiming to gather 30,000 books before Mauritania's Independence day [Nov 28] and hand them to the National Library. The campaign was met by great enthusiasm from Mauritanian intellectuals and figures, who praised the campaign and and donated many books. Hussein Ould...

Ibero-America: Free Software Assessment Report 2012

  19 November 2012

The recently released Free Software Assessment Report 2012 shows the opinion, assessment and preferences of more than 5,000 people from Spain and Latin America. The study published in its fourth edition is promoted by PortalProgramas and supported by a number of experts and collaborators [es]. The report aims to contribute...

Peru: The Real Meaning of Christmas

  15 November 2012

Peruvian blogger Cyrano from Columna 17 [es] rants about the urge [es] some people feel during the last days of the year: It doesn't matter at all the real meaning of the occasion, there is one only goal: to sell the most products, leaving aside what we are celebrating. He...

Brazil, France: Agroecology Helps Reduce Poverty

  9 November 2012

Respecting the soil is fundemental to us. It is where we get our food from and how we will provide for our children Suelia explains [fr] how the agroecology approach (bringing ecological principles to bear in agroecosystems) has helped many in her community grow a sustainable business model by diversifying...

Mending Japan and China Relations

  8 November 2012

Following anti-Japan protests in China, official ties between Japan and China are still at an impasse as of late October. While both governments are struggling to improve relations, some success has been seen among civil society. We take a look at some initiatives in this post.

A Mauritanian Blogging Week Against Foreign Mining

  5 November 2012

For a week, Mauritanian bloggers took part in a campaign entitled "Against foreign mining companies." Ahmed Ben Jedou shares with us blog posts and tweets from the campaign, which aimed at exposing the financial, environment, humanitarian and health toll of those companies.

Bahamas: Banking or Learning?

  5 November 2012

If a school in no way challenges its students to synthesize, analyze, interrogate, I fail to see how that school can produce critical thinkers, educated citizens or nation builders. Blogworld sees the value of displacing the banking concept in education.

What Ever Happened to Russian Nationalism?

RuNet Echo  4 November 2012

Just two years ago, Russians' capacity for street protests seemed limited to soccer hooligans and race riots. This, it appeared at the time, was the most the world could expect from Russia's struggling civil society, a ramshackle patchwork of decidedly unpopular liberals and apparently bloodthirsty nationalists. After last winter's protests, what's changed?

Nicaragua: Nothing Goes to Waste at ‘El Gansito’

  2 November 2012

Adriana Díaz [es] and Gustavo Salinas wrote a guest post for The Nicaragua Dispatch on ‘El Gansito’, a small business in Managua “that makes products out of recycled plastics and rubber.” There is no doubt that this small business is one of the many “green jewels” we can find in Nicaragua....

Jamaica: Creole and Jamaican Identity

  1 November 2012

Our educators don’t seem to understand that as long as we tell children that they ‘chat bad’ when they use their mother tongue, we are planting the seeds of low self-esteem.  And we will reap badness.  Or, perhaps, we do understand and that’s why we refuse to acknowledge Jamaican as...

Trinidad & Tobago: Taking Steps To Combat White Collar Crime

  1 November 2012

This crisis is an important opportunity to decide if we want to do differently. Do we?  If not, crapaud smoke we pipe.  If we really want to do differently, we have to start thinking differently and stop the point-scoring games. Afra Raymond thinks that decisive action needs to be taken to combat...