· January, 2012

Stories about Youth from January, 2012

Morocco: Activist Rapper Freed

  15 January 2012

Mouad Belghouat "Al Haked" (The Indignant), a 24-year-old Moroccan rap artist and outspoken critic of Morocco's monarchy, was released on Thursday from prison where he had been held since last September. The announcement of Mouad's release spread like fire on Facebook and Twitter as several supporters rushed to the prison to welcome him.

Brazil: Student Protests Against Bus Fare Increases in Piaui

  14 January 2012

Since the beginning of the year, thousands of students have been protesting against the increase in bus fares in the capital of the state of Piaui. The demonstrators are forcefully kept down by the Military Police. They have reacted by setting fire to at least one bus, and dozens of students have been arrested.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Time for a Slutwalk?

  13 January 2012

CODE RED calls the comments of the deputy Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines “particularly dangerous in the context of such high levels of violence against women and murders of women…for the millionth time, clothing does not invite nor excuse violence against women.”

Guyana: All Kinds of Cowards

  12 January 2012

“I’s afflicted with the kinda cringing-minging-tiptoeing timidity that people don’t take seriously”: Guyana-Gyal “decide[s] to embrace [her] Inner Coward.”

Cuba: Rediscovering “Trova”

  11 January 2012

Generation Y blogs about the musical genre of Trova, noting that for many Cubans, “those ideological tunes — alluding to the New Man or the society he will inhabit — have been thrown into the well of forgetfulness.”

Cuba: The Justice System

  6 January 2012

Laritza Diversent reports on the trial of the former policemen who killed a black teen for stealing fruit from a tree.

South Korea: A Teenage Boy's Anti Suicide Campaign Video

  6 January 2012

A spate of student suicides occurred recently in South Korea due to mindlessly violent school bullying. While some schools hushed up the case for the sake of their reputation, a 18-year-old student made this short video [ko] to raise public awareness. (There is no English subtitle yet)

Puerto Rico: Emigration Nation?

  5 January 2012

“Over a 6-year period, covering 2005 to 2010, more than 178,000 of My Brethren left Our Island, a reported 28,000 in 2010 alone”: Gil the Jenius wonders “what…this historic reversal of Our population dynamic mean[s].”

El Salvador: Blogger Challenges Youth to Transform Country

  5 January 2012

Fernando Marroquin says [es] youth in El Salvador talk too much -about politics, governance, etc.– but do too little or nothing to change the situation: “We don't act, we are spectators with bad seats”. He concludes his post by challenging other young Salvadorans to join him in taking action to...

China: Street Children

  4 January 2012

Annie Lee from China Hush translates a feature story from Sohu.com on the problem of street children in China. Many of the children have been abused by their family while there isn't any functioning social welfare system to deal with the situation.

Lebanon: Non-Political Blog Stories of 2011

In an end-of-year post, Mustapha compiles a collection of top non-political Lebanese blog posts he wrote during 2011. He introduces the collection by saying: “The Arab spring and the turmoil in Lebanese politics dominated the 1,210 posts in this blog in 2011. But this year also witnessed other stories and...

Latin America, 2011: A Year Marked by Social Movements

  3 January 2012

Citizens across the world took to the streets in 2011, and Latin America was no exception. In this post we look at the social movements that marked 2011 in South and Central America and how protests, vigils, marches and occupations were covered and analyzed through citizen media.