· August, 2007

Stories about Protest from August, 2007

Brazil: Tired of Philips

  31 August 2007

There is a popular saying in Brazil that goes like this: “Say whatever you want to and you will hear what you don’t”. Paulo Zottolo, the Latin American President of the electronics giant Philips, has learned this the hard way. In a recent interview with Valor Econômico, a newspaper from...

Turkey is Typing….WordPress Still Blocked

Last week Sami Ben Gharbia did an excellent posting about the blockage of the Wordpress blogging platform in Turkey, this week we will examine what Turkish bloggers have to say about it. There is anger, resentment, and sense of utter amazement at the absurdness of the situation. And yet, there is a powerful spirit of strength in combating this ban.

South Korea: E.Land Workers Strike

  30 August 2007

Workers from a local supermarket E.Land has been on strike for two months against the employer's termination of non-regular workers contract. Jamie from Two Koreas has some updates on the latest development.

Lebanon: Uproar at School in NY named after Khalil Gibran

Beirut Spring writes about an uproar surrounding a newly established public school in Brooklyn (NY), that is named after the Lebanese/Arab writer and poet Gibran Khalil Gibran. The school teaches many of its material in Arabic and has some courses on “Arab Culture”. Jewish groups demonstrated and condemned the opening...

Argentina: Protesting Demolishment of Hotels

  29 August 2007

Line of Sight looks in on a protest in the upscale neighborhood of Recoleta, where residents protested the demolishment of a hotel. The amateur protests did little to get others involved and many were there for the photo-ops.

Kuwait: Crazy Week for Bloggers

Kuwaiti bloggers had a crazy week, which started with an earthquake, or rather a small tremor, early on Saturday morning. The next day a blogger was arrested for a comment an anonymous reader left on his online forum. The week culminated with a fire at a local hospital and the resignation of Kuwait's first female minister.

Uganda: Bloggers Respond to Controversial Daily Monitor Articles

  27 August 2007

Uganda’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community has gotten a lot of press recently in the form of a number of articles written by Katherine Roubos, a 22-year-old Stanford student from the United States. Most recently, Roubos covered the first ever LGBTI press conference, a story that prompted an anti-gay rally in Kampala.

Korea: Koreans in UTORO

  26 August 2007

There are 203 Koreans who are in a small village, Utoro in Japan. They have lived in Utoro since their ancestors were drafted for labor during the Japanese colonization period and they couldn’t afford the fare to go back to Korea. More than 60 years later, they are about to...

Malawi: Moving on Despite the Politics of Section 65

  23 August 2007

The phenomenal story of 19 year-old Malawian blogger William Kamkwamba continues to attract attention from around the globe. William began making headlines after his appearance at the TEDGlobal 2007 conference in Tanzania, in June, where he talked about how he built a windmill using locally available resources in a remote part of Malawi where the easiest means of energy is fuel, wood, kerosene and candlelight.

Barbados: Face and Fix It!

  23 August 2007

Cheese-on-bread! lists what she considers to be a few of Barbados’ pressing concerns and wonders whether her fellow Bajans have what it takes to face and fix them.

Trinidad & Tobago: Getting the Boot?

  23 August 2007

The Manicou Report refers to a newspaper story that suggests a government MP will not automatically be nominated to contest his seat in the upcoming Trinidad and Tobago general elections, following a controversial altercation with anti-smelter protesters.

Barbados: Chinese Labour

  23 August 2007

“Our government has obviously made some agreements with the Chinese, but Bajans are still in the dark as to what has been promised and agreed to by whom.” Barbados Free Press tackles the controversial issue of immigrant labour on the island.

Bangladesh: under curfew

  23 August 2007

Civil unrest began in Bangladesh on the 20th of August when a petty dispute broke out concerning comments passed by armed forces personnel during a soccer match at a university gymnasium ground. An army camp has occupied part of the ground since the declaration of a state of emergency on...

Russia: Nashi, BBC, and the Upcoming Elections

  22 August 2007

Mark MacKinnon writes about the recent BBC ban and the Nashi movement's summer camps: “Both the Kremlin's bolstering of “patriotic” youth movements and its crackdown on non-state media outlets are moves directed at heading off any kind of Orange Revolution-inspired uprising in Russia around December's Duma elections and/or next year's...

Tanzania: How to shoot yourself in the foot

  22 August 2007

How to Shoot Yourself in the Foot is the lesson Tanzania’s parliament is delivering, at least for the time being, after its decision to suspend a Member of Parliament for Kigoma North, Zitto Kabwe, has turned into a mini victory for the opposition. Zitto, who keeps a blog, was suspended for allegedly lying to the parliament and humiliating the Energy and Minerals Minister, Nazir Karamagi.

Korea and China: Olympic and Human Right

  22 August 2007

Colin Moore from Ohmynews! reported on a 444 days protest at the Seoul city center organized by Justice for North Korea (JFNK) with the aim of protesting the repatriation of North Korean refugees by Chinese authorities.