Stories about Ideas from March, 2014
Why Learning Italian Still Makes Sense
As Italian publishing company Alma Edizioni was busy organizing an event about the Italian language in Rome, they received an unexpected letter [it] from someone who defined himself as a “disappointed student”: Why? What's the point of studying Italian today? […] No one wants to study a language that no...
The “Happy Voting” Project Encourages Young Europeans to Vote
Drawing on the Pharrell Williams worldwide hit “Happy” and the associated equally renown music video (over 143 million views on YouTube), the Brussels-based film company Full Tunes Production has recently launched on facebook an enthusiastic project called “Happy Voting” that strives to encourage voting for the next European elections. The project...
South Korea Singles Out Elderly Drives With ‘Silver Mark’
Seniors must place a special sticker on the back of their car to signify that they are elderly. Rates of fatal crashes involving seniors is on the rise.
Caribbean Literature Festivals Up Their Author Ante
Literature lovers the world over will be interested to hear what the Caribbean's two major lit fests – Jamaica's Calabash and Trinidad and Tobago's Bocas – have planned this year.
Sifting Through Conflicting Versions of India and Pakistan's Shared Past
The History Project compiles narratives from Pakistani and Indian history books to expose biases in the treatment of the 1947 Partition of India.
Jamaica: Little Universes
Our minds are as vast and infinite and creative as the uni—scratch that—multiverse. What does that mean for each of us? For our potential and purpose? A science documentary reminds Jamaican blogger Nadine Tomlinson that she, like every other person on the planet, has unlimited potential.
Is There Anything More Public Than Twitter?
What are the ethics of publishing a tweet without permission? A Buzzfeed report on sexual assaults stirs trouble in the twitterverse.
GV Face: Happy 25th Birthday, Web!
What's the difference between the Internet and the Web? Why is an open web so important? An all-star panel of techies and rights defenders talks it out on GV Face.
Barefoot Lawyers Empowering Rural Bangladeshi Women
In Bangladesh, around 6,000 “barefoot lawyers” have been trained by the country's biggest NGO under its human rights and legal services (HRLS) program, reports Scott Macmillan at BRAC blog. These women act as one-woman mobile legal services clinics for the poor, especially women in rural areas where the traditional justice...
Less “Experts”, More Thinkers Needed in Jamaica
Annie Paul publishes on her blog a tribute to the late Stuart Hall by “three of the younger members of the Faculty of Social Sciences” at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, saying: We ought to use the moment of his passing and the local apathy to it...
Pavel Durov's Seven Reasons to Stay in Russia
As Russia falls under international criticism, the founder of VKontakte gives his reasons for staying at home.
SayIt: Civic Software for ‘Smart’ Transcripts
SayIt is a new software developed to facilitate the almost always taxing job of making transcripts and having them kept as data files.
VIDEO: T20 Cricket World Cup Theme Song Flash Mobs
Bangladesh is hosting the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup and the fever is catching on among cricket-loving Bangladeshis. The official song of the 2014 tournament, “Char Chokka Hoi Hoi”, has become popular, and many universities across the country have started arranging their own flash mobs set to the theme song and uploading...
Our Berlin Wall in Syria
"Syrian Students for a better future" is a blog by Syrian scholarship students, who share their homesickness, hopes, doubts, worries, optimism and wishes for a better Syria.
The Significance Of Celebrating The International Women's Day
Farah Subhan at Amader Kotha, a women-based portal highlighting the unheard voices of Bangladesh, tells how countries like Bangladesh can particularly be positively affected by the celebration of International Women’s Day.
GV Face: What's Next for Ukraine?
What's next for the #Euromaidan movement? Protests and bloodshed led to the fall of a corrupt president. But now, as Russia looms with military might and Crimea considers succession, there are endless unanswered questions about Ukraine's future political moves and relationship to the European Union.
Trinidad & Tobago Carnival in Danger?
By all accounts, Trinidad and Tobago Carnival 2014 was a rousing success, but a couple of bloggers have concerns about the sustainability of the festival in its current form.
Ukraine's Activists Debunk Russian Myths on Crimea
As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalates, Russian mass media attempts to distort events in Ukraine are questioned and fact-checked by online activists.
Selfies or Social Entrepreneurship? What's Your Definition For Success?
Bangladeshi adventurer and social entrepreneur Muntasir Mamun has some advice for the young people, who have not yet decided about their goal, still haven’t found their place; merely figuring it all out: By placing emphasis on new, different and bigger picture things, we change our definitions of success. Experiment, calculate,...
“It Ain't Easy Being Indian” in the USA
Ricey Wild, a Native American blogger at the Indian Country Today, writes about wolf slaughtering in Minnesota, USA. […]My beloved friend Melissa came to get me last month to rally against the wolf hunt in Minnesota and everywhere. We went way up north and joined other people who care and...
K-Pop Music Booms, But Censors Still Loom
K-pop is a success story of music exports and glamour, but a long history of censorship and regulation still affects music markets in South Korea.
