Stories about Law from April, 2011
Ecuador: Twitter Campaign Gives President Correa ‘the Finger’
It started as a Twitter campaign, and now many Ecuadorians are posting photos of themselves showing the middle finger. Why? To ridicule the idea that you could be arrested for something as simple as raising a finger.
India: Kerala’s Debate On Endosulfan
As the debate on the pesticide EndoSulfan is gaining momentum in the Stockholm Convention in Geneva; Kerala, the southern state of India is up in arms online and on the streets for pressurizing the Indian Government to favor the ban.
Guyana: Unsolved Murder
Last week marked five years since Government Minister Satyadeow Sawh was was murdered in Guyana; The Caribbean Camera interviews his family, who are still searching for answers.
Cuba: Ferrer Held
According to Uncommon Sense and Babalu, Dr. Darsi Ferrer and other activists were arrested today “during a protest in which they were calling for the Castro dictatorship to allow Cubans to travel freely, among other demands.”
Cuba: Bosch Dies
Cuban bloggers note the passing of Orlando Bosch, with Machetera saying: “There are good terrorists and bad ones, and clearly the mainstream media have settled on the fiction that Bosch is the former, so he gets to be a ‘militant’.”
Russia: Photoblogger Defends His Constitutional Rights
Popular photoblogger Ilya Varlamov continues to fight the common and unconstitutional ban on taking pictures in supermarkets. He posted a photo essay on his misadventures in Evropeysky, a large supermarket in Moscow, where he was prevented from taking photos.
Kuwait: Blogger Wins a Lawsuit
Congrats are pouring in after Kuwait-based blogger Lebanese Mark won a lawsuit. He was sued by a restaurant for a review he posted in his blog.
Russia: Kidnapping of Ivan Kaspersky
Julia Ioffe of The Moscow Diaries (now hosted on Forbes.com) writes about the kidnapping of Ivan Kaspersky, the 19-year-old son of the founders of the Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab.
Hungary: Hungarian-Roma Tensions Result in Clash in Gyöngyöspata
Last night, four people were injured in a clash between ethnic Hungarian members of the far-right group Véderő and members of the Roma community in the village of Gyöngyöspata. Contradictory accounts have been published in the Hungarian media about how exactly the fight started - and neither of the communities has taken responsibility for the clash.
Cuba: The “Queen of Incredulity”
1Click2Cuba profiles Claudia Cadelo, “one of the best-known members of the Cuban blogging community.”
Macedonia: New Laws to Have an Adverse Impact on Cultural Heritage
An archaeologist blogger reacts to the new legislation that legalizes illegal construction in Macedonia, including buildings that destroy historical heritage sites.
Haiti: Amnesty or Justice?
Toussaint on Haiti shares his thoughts about the possible granting of amnesty to Jean-Claude Duvalier and Jean-Bertrand Aristide by the new President-elect.
Trinidad & Tobago: Destroying Food
B.C. Pires blogs about “the Housing Development Corporation’s bulldozing of several acres of crops ready for harvest in Trinidad.”
India: Corruption Of The Middle Class
Manju categorizes the typical corruptions of the Indian Middle class people in which they engage in their lifetime willingly, for their own benefit.
Hungary: For Gyöngyöspata's Roma, Evacuation – or an Easter Excursion?
First, there were the rumors of a right-wing paramilitary group's plans to hold training in the village of Gyöngyöspata. Then came the local mayor's resignation. Then on April 22, some 300 Roma women and children left the village. While media used the word 'evacuation' to describe what happened, government officials claimed the Roma had been taken on an Easter weekend holiday trip.
Puerto Rico: Petition against Violence
Blogger Verónica RT posts the call to sign the petition [es] of the Movimiento Amplio de Mujeres de Puerto Rico [es] against the dismantlement of the Law against Domestic Violence.
Brazil: LGBT Scene Under Discussion
With recent legal advances and a proposed bill that criminalises homophobia in the Brazilian Senate, cases of violence against LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) groups and expressions of prejudice and heterosexism have come under focus. The online arena has been used to expose many reflections on the right to sexual orientation in the country.
India: Corruption In Mizoram
Paritosh Chakma discusses why fighting corruption in Mizoram, one of the Seven Sister States in North Eastern India, is difficult.
Russia: “Navalny's Nationalism”
A Good Treaty went through the archives of Alexey Navalny's blog and other RuNet sources and wrote about this prominent Russian anti-corruption activist's nationalism.
Brazil: Friends and Advocates of a Street Full of Trees
The Amigos da Rua Gonçalo de Carvalho‘s blog (Friends of Gonçalo Carvalho Street) [pt] explains how a group of people in Porto Alegre, Brazil, mobilized an advocacy campaign against the plan for a new development construction in that street. Gonçalo de Carvalho Street is nowadays considered historical, cultural, ecological and...
Puerto Rico: Debate on Domestic Violence Continues
In Puerto Rico, the public debate on domestic violence has reached a boiling point. Individuals and organizations react online, and offline, to the recent court decisions regarding the application of the Law against Domestic Violence.