· June, 2009

Stories about Politics from June, 2009

Macedonia: Real Life Facebook Event

NGO Youth Educational Forum organized a “real life Facebook event” in Skopje as a creative reaction to the passivity and corruption of the official student organization at the largest state university in Macedonia. The Student Parliament of Sts. Cyril and Methodius University (SPUKM), formerly known as Student Union, was controlled...

Ukraine: “Lady Ethnographer”

Maria Sonevytsky of My Simferopol Home writes on being a “lady ethnographer” in Ukraine and on xenophobia in Crimea: “Ukraine today is caught between two warring accounts of history, as it is caught between two different attitudes towards otherness, be it gendered, ethnic or raced otherness.”

Cuba, U.S.A.: Missed Opportunity

  25 June 2009

Havana Times reports that U.S. President Barack Obama released a statement in which he said he hoped that all Cuban political prisoners would be released, but Uncommon Sense thinks that Cuban activists deserved better: “A busy schedule or confusion about the dates, is not enough of an excuse for President...

Trinidad & Tobago: Police Station Murder

  25 June 2009

Trinidadian bloggers speak out about the country's latest killing – the shooting death of a woman while on the compound of a police station: This Beach Called Life: “No doubt the studying of the latest crime plan…will be fast tracked to give the nation another illusion of care”; Jumbie's Watch:...

Cuba: Unanswered Questions

  25 June 2009

“I am waiting for a clarification about why he hasn’t accepted Obama’s proposal for U.S. telecommunications companies to provide Internet to the Cuban people. I demand, like many around me, a convincing argument for why we are not going to join the OAS…”: Generation Y says that “the list of...

Iran: Art for protest's sake

Bloggers and citizen artists online have been creating designs and cartoons to add a touch of art to the insistent Iranian protest movement that has risen in response the June 12 presidential election results.

China: Internet boycott on July 1st?

  25 June 2009

ESWN translated Ai Weiwei's call for internet boycott on July 1st and some other opposite opinions on the boycott action. There are other actions call, such as this 2009 Declaration of the Anonymous Netizens.

Paraguay: Referendum on Performance of Congress

  25 June 2009

The relationship with the Paraguayan Congress has been difficult for President Fernando Lugo. His recent statements that he is analyzing the possibility of holding a referendum about the legislative branch's performance have raised suspicions about his true intentions. Critics claim that this shows his inability to come to a consensus with the parliament, while the ones who agree with this referendum are those who are far from satisfied with the Congress's performance.

Qatar: Media Freedom Centre Head Resignation Mourned and Celebrated

After a tumultuous eight months as director-general of the nascent Doha Centre for Media Freedom, Robert Ménard announces his resignation. The centre, which will also lose three department heads, will continue to operate. Bloggers from Qatar weigh in. Doha bloggers, many of whom have been closely watching the DCMF's movements for signs that the region is finally moving toward media freedom, are expressing mixed emotions about this outcome - some, utterly delighted, while others, completely dismayed.

Bahamas: Rally Call

  24 June 2009

Womanish Words says that “the city of Nassau…looks as bad as we feel”, adding: “We have to rally. We have to restore Nassau so that we can restore ourselves.”

Dominica, Venezuela: The Motherland?

  24 June 2009

Following Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's visit to the island, Dominica Weekly says: “Many Dominicans have focused narrowly on the lavish developmental aid of Chavez than focusing on the fundamental issue at hand: do we support Chavez’s ideology and his vision of the motherhood of Latin American and the Caribbean.”

Cuba: Hurricane Victims

  24 June 2009

As hurricane season gets underway, Generation Y focuses on the plight of “Caletone, a town near Gibara that doesn’t even appear in the Atlas of Cuba [that] is still deep in destruction.”