· June, 2011

Stories about Youth from June, 2011

Macedonia: Taboo on Protesting Against Police Brutality

Ribaro wrote [mk] that public figures and music “stars” of Macedonia act as if the protests against police brutality are taboo, evidenced by their lack of participation offline and online. Later he reported [mk] that immediately after tweeting about this article, 17 Twitter users unfollowed him (according to FriendorFollow.com).

Jamaica: Child Labour

  29 June 2011

When it comes to Child Labour, says Jamaica Woman Tongue, “traditional practices often clash with the law”, adding that “one of the most violent forms of abuse of children is enforced transactional sex in the home, a hush-hush subject in Jamaica.”

Haiti: Helping to Stop Human Trafficking

  28 June 2011

Stanley Lucas blogs about how the effects of 2010's earthquake have affected Haiti's “significant child trafficking problem” and offers a few suggestions to “guide government officials and organizations working on anti-trafficking initiatives.”

Barbados: Cricket Needs Managing

  28 June 2011

Barbados Free Press publishes the opinion of a reader who cannot rationalise that a psychologist has been hired to advise members of the West Indies cricket team, saying: “It’s about management, the mix and coaching. Management needs the shrink – the men need managing.”

Video: Celebrating the Solstice

The celebrations for Summer and Winter Solstices were full of lanterns, dances, flowers and bonfires. Lets tour around the world to check out the different celebrations: Solstice at Stonehenge, Feast of Saint John's bonfires in Spain, Inti Raymi in Peru, we tripantu in Chile and Kupala Day in Russia or Midsummer's night in Poland.

Azerbaijan: Bakhtiyar Hajiyev Video Campaign

Supporters of Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, the Harvard graduate, parliamentary candidate, Facebook activist and Amnesty International prisoner of conscience recently sentenced to two years in prison on what human rights groups consider to be politically motivated charges, have launched a video campaign calling for his release. Details of how to participate in the...

Trinidad & Tobago: A Case for Children & Computers

  24 June 2011

Lisa Allen-Agostini is irritated by “a call for the dismantling of the Government initiative to give laptop computers to all incoming secondary school students” and explains why “our children…deserve to reap the benefits of progress.”

Macedonia: .mk Twitter Republic

Protests continue in Macedonia, as the authorities keep silent about the people's demands of accountability, political responsibility and an end to police brutality. On Sunday, a new symbol was displayed by some protesters: the Macedonian flag with a Twitter logo on it, homage to the role of the Twitter community.

Colombia: Video Mapping the City to Hip Hop

  24 June 2011

In just four days, a creative cast of characters got together in the city of Medellin, Colombia, where they set out to produce videos and place them on a map of the city to reflect topics that affect their communities: militarization, poverty, forced displacement, crimes of state, resistance movements and more.

Puerto Rico: C-Sections Too Prevalent

  21 June 2011

“48% of Our births are by cesarean section, the highest rate in the world”: Gil the Jenius says that “Our future children–and their mothers–absolutely deserve that We strive for their greatest welfare, rather than settling to merely serve the system.”

Bhutan: Citizenship For Fatherless Children

  21 June 2011

Sonam Ongmo at Dragon Tales argues that the citizenship of Bhutanese children should come automatically by virtue of the fact that one parent is a citizen. Presently for the citizenship of a child the Bhutanese mother have to prove the identity of the man who fathered the child.

Caribbean: Thanks, Dad!

  20 June 2011

Father's Day, that worldwide celebration honouring dads and their important role in the family dynamic, is marked in the Caribbean on the third Sunday of June and regional bloggers posted en masse yesterday for the occasion. From the eloquent to the irreverent, here's what they had to say…

Rwanda: Through the Eyes of Hope

  20 June 2011

Yolande interviews Linda Smith, a photojournalist based in Rwanda, who is the founder of the “Through the Eyes of Hope” (TEOH) Project: “In a tiny, dimly lit room in Mayange, Linda is instructing five students on the “Cards of Hope” postcard project. The students are all boys who have been...

Bahamas: On Fixing the Education System

  17 June 2011

“When a process in the market fails to provide the results people want, they scream for government intervention, yet when a government service fails, people call for more government”: Rick Lowe at Weblog Bahamas thinks that a critical part of the problem with the country's education system is “because of...

Azerbaijan: Jailed activist's mother detained

whatwaswritten translates a RFE/RL Azeri Service report saying that mother of Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, an imprisoned youth activist responsible for a Facebook page calling for pro-democracy protests in Azerbaijan, was detained earlier today after placing her ruling party membership card on the grave of late president Heydar Aliyev in protest. The...