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.”
Iran: Green Baloons
IranRiggedElect tweeted that “tomorrow, Friday, at 1pm people all over Iran [and outside] will be airing green baloons and make the sky GREEN.”
Cuba, U.S.A.: Missed Opportunity
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
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:...
Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica: Facebook Fiasco
Trinidadian blogger KnowProSE.com discovers that a “Jamaican politican could lose his post because of Facebook”.
Cuba: Unanswered Questions
“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...
Bermuda, Cayman Islands: Look Who's Blogging
Bermudian Vexed Bermoothes is surprised to learn that “the Governor of the Cayman Islands has a blog.”
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.
Palestine: Open Letter To President Obama
Members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams in the West Bank have posted an open letter to President Obama: “We ask you to demand that Israel stop its campaign of violence against the Palestinian people.”
China: Internet boycott on July 1st?
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
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.
Ukraine: MP Viktor Lozynsky's Case
Ukrainiana writes about Viktor Lozynsky, a Ukrainian MP who has recently been involved in the brutal shooting of a 53-year-old unemployed man.
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.
Iran: Riots police attacked protesters
Lettersoftheliv tweeted that “witnesses say protesters and riot police are clashing in the streets around Iran's parliament in Tehran.”
Israel: Obama's Ratings Plummet in Jewish World
OneJerusalem.com and Jewlicious observe that American President Barack Obama's popularity ratings in the Jewish world have taken a significant dive since his Cairo speech and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's subsequent White House visit, both in May.
Israel: Predicting Iran's Future
Israeli comic strip artist Yaakov Kirschen critiques the world's most unstable element: “Iranium.”
Bahamas: Rally Call
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?
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
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.”
Russia-Poland: History revisionism at large again
The Beatroot comments on a current dispute between Russia and Poland about a Russian state TV-documentary, claiming that Nazi Germany, Poland, and Japan were preparing to invade the Soviet Union during the early stages of World War II.