Stories about Ideas from August, 2019
Mass tree-planting in Ethiopia broke world records, but its impact will take time
Mass tree-planting projects are exciting, but the solution is never as simple as it seems. Send a Cow encourages smallholder farmers to plant multi-purpose trees in harmony with the environment.
Tanzania's first and only classic car club pays homage to Remmy Ongala, old school musical legend
Oldschool Rides Tanzania, a club devoted to restoring and celebrating vintage cars in Tanzania and the region, organized a classic car show to honor Tanzanian music legend Remmy Ongala.
Winning a literary award won't set you free: An interview with author and asylum-seeker Behrooz Boochani
Australia's detention camps whistleblower describes conditions as hellish
Moscow’s revolution will be memed, online and on canvas
Eastern & Central Europe25 August 2019An anonymous RuNet user has a found a creative way to criticise recent police violence in Moscow: photoshopping riot police into dozens of famous Russian and foreign artworks.
Here are some of Moldovan pop music's contributions to global meme culture
Few people remember this, but two popular memes known around the world are actually Moldovan in origin.
On activism and the self
East Asia15 August 2019"Behind the instagrammable image of the fierce-looking individual with a clenched fist is a person who is constantly rationalizing and reaffirming their fidelity to radical politics."
Kenyan MP and her baby ordered out of parliament: ‘What was I supposed to do? Miss my duties?’
"I had an emergency, so what was I supposed to do? Miss parliament and my duties — just because I have a baby?"
In Ethiopia, disinformation spreads through Facebook live as political tensions rise
Sub-Saharan Africa7 August 2019Online conspiracy theories, political rants and rumors laced with communal hatred are now common genres in Ethiopian social media.
Tanzanian journalist faces trumped-up charges after abduction and detention
Sub-Saharan Africa7 August 2019Freelance ournalist Erick Kabendera has written critically of Tanzanian President John Magufuli's increasingly repressive administration. Yesterday, authorities charged him with economic crimes, but critics say his only "crime" is journalism.
Three naïve questions about Belarus
Eastern & Central Europe6 August 2019Why do so few people know about Belarus?
Netflix's ‘The Great Hack’ highlights Cambridge Analytica's role in Trinidad & Tobago elections
Caribbean5 August 2019Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie may visit Trinidad and Tobago to talk to a parliamentary Joint Select Committee about campaign election interference — and who hired and paid the company.
Ugandan feminist Stella Nyanzi deploys nude protest to challenge free speech sentence
Censorship2 August 2019Feminist scholar Stella Nyanzi, known for "radical rudeness" as protest, flashed her breasts and shouted obscenities in protest in court after receiving 9 more months in prison for cyber harassment.
