· January, 2013

Stories about Ideas from January, 2013

‘Planet Asks for Pedalling': Cycling Through Latin America

  30 January 2013

"I understood that travelling like this, without being in a rush, gives you the freedom to get to know cultures more deeply and the simplicity of the people." Meet Beto, from Brazil, and his project 'Planet asks for Pedalling' that will take him on a 2.5 years journey cycling through Latin America.

Critical Mass: Cycling Through Brazil's Salvador City

  29 January 2013

In our attempt to discover the route of Brazilian Critical Masses, we spoke with two organizers of the Salvador Critical Mass (also known as “Bicicletada”), Roque Júnior and Rosa Ribeiro. Here's the second part of the interview, in which we get to know a little more about the city’s urban mobility policies.

Bangladesh: Missed Call – A Tool For Protest?

  25 January 2013

An intentional missed call is a widely used method in developing countries to save money or mobile minutes. In Bangladesh this is being proposed as a way to protest and reduce the price of mobile internet. A Facebook event of a proposed protest by using "miss call" has gone viral.

Blogging for UAE Detainees

  25 January 2013

“UAE Detainees” [ar] sheds light on the plight of more 68 Emirati political detainees who demanded reforms in their country. By doing so, the blog tries to attract solidarity with the arrested activists, to lobby and advocate for their release, in addition to gathering and recollecting everything that has been...

Argentina: Suggestions for a better life

  24 January 2013

Hernán Haines, from blog El espacio de Hernán Haines [es], provides his readers with some suggestions for a better life in Argentina due to “the constant enquiries I get about my proposals, following up you'll find a list, an incomplete one, by the way”. He then presents a 45-item list...

Critical Mass: Wheels of Activism Come to Brazil's Salvador City

  24 January 2013

The international cycling movement Critical Mass - or Bicicletadas as it is been known in Brazilian Portuguese - has won the hearts of Brazilians, since cars have reached a saturation point on the country's congested roads. Visiting the city of Salvador in Brazil, Global Voices contributor, Thiana Biondo talked to Critical Mass local activists Roque Junior and Rosa Ribeiro. Check out the first part of the interview.

A Destitute Women And Her Dogs

  24 January 2013

Jabberwock shares this amazing story about an animal loving old woman living in a small makeshift shanty in Delhi. She has been looking after street dogs for years now, on her meager earnings from collecting and selling reusable garbage.

Parallels Between Religious and Copyright Wars

  24 January 2013

Rick Falkvinge, the founder of Pirate Party, reinterprets the wars of religion that devastated Western Europe in the XVI and XVII centuries in terms of the current struggle to control information through overbearing legislation related to copyright and freedom of expression: The religious wars were never about religion as such....

Jamaica: Handing Over “Calabash”

  15 January 2013

The world can and will run without you. Get over yourselves. Active Voice salutes Colin Channer, the founder of Jamaica's Calabash Literary Festival, whose “exemplary resignation” she thinks “ought to set a precedent in how to love something and yet be able to move on and allow others to continue...

Honduras: Sales in a Bus

  14 January 2013

Fabricio Estrada, the blogger from Bitácora del párvulo [es] summarizes the speech of a trader that uses a bus as sales venue: Allow me, kind travelers, to interrumpt your nap or the conversation held with your companion or newspaper. I'm here just to offer you the so desired health, just...

Peru: Discussing “Gastrofascism”

  12 January 2013

About a month ago, Javier Puente published on Selecting Stones, a critical article about the surge of Peruvian cuisine and, above all, about the role chef Gastón Acurio has in it. According to its author, Peasant and Chef: The Limits of Peruvian Gastro-Fascism, 1994-2012 is an attempt to “contextualize the...

How Many Twitter Users in China?

  10 January 2013

A few months ago, a research marketing company claimed that 35 million people in China used Twitter. Jason from Blocked in Weibo puts forward a more sophisticated estimation. Among the 43,784 active Chinese users, the geographical location is shown in the graph above.

Call for Portuguese Blogs of the Year 2012

  3 January 2013

Around 380 blogs have already registered on the ‘Blogs of the Year 2012′ competition launched by Aventar.eu. The most interesting citizen media initiatives from the Portuguese and Portuguese language blogosphere can register until January 4, 2012. Voting starts on January 7.

Mauritanian Women Speak up against Rape

  2 January 2013

A group of Mauritanian women launched an initiative against rape and all other forms of violence against women in their country. Entitled “Etkelmi or Speak up” [ar and fr], this campaign aims according the blog “Al Tasfera” [ar] to break the wall of silence surrounding rape and encourage victims to demand their...