Stories about Youth from January, 2012
Video Highlights: Activism, Freedom of Speech, Identity and Culture
A selection of Global Voices' recent and interesting stories including video from Middle East and North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa, Western, Eastern and Central Europe, East Asia and Latin America, selected by Juliana Rincón Parra.
Morocco: Activist Rapper Freed
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
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?
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
“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”
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.”
South Korea: Anger and Suspicion Grows Over Election Rigging
A political scandal is brewing in South Korea over alleged election rigging, despite the police's conclusion that the nation's election commission website was disconnected due to a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack.
Mexico: Human Rights Commission Publishes Preliminary Report on Killing of Guerrero Students
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has published a preliminary report on the investigation around the killing of two students during a protest in Ayotzinapa, in the state of Guerrero, on December 12, 2011. Aguachile summarizes some of the Commission's findings.
COP17: Young Trackers Share Final Thoughts on Climate Change Talks
Adopt a Negotiator Project trackers updated their blogs daily during the two weeks of climate change talks at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, COP17, held from November 28 to December 9, 2011, in South Africa. In this post we share some of their conclusions.
Cuba: The Justice System
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
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)
Hungary: Memories of Barvalipe Roma Pride Summer Camp
Twenty-eight young Roma people came together in the first ever Roma Pride Summer Camp where they learned about their language, history, role models and achievements, in an effort to build their sense of civic duty and social responsibility.
Puerto Rico: Emigration Nation?
“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
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...
Cameroon: Violent Clashes Between Motorbike Taxi Drivers and Douala Citizens
On December 31, 2011 in the popular district of Deido in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon, riots broke out between the inhabitants of the district and motorbike taxi drivers, also know as "benskiners". Here are testimonies and videos from local bloggers.
Paraguay: Children use Computers as Instruments in Christmas Orchestra
The children of Caacupé in Paraguay were part of a unique Christmas concert: they played Silent Night using their special “one laptop per child” program laptops as musical instruments. They learned how to play music on their XO computers during their “Vacations with Technology” program.
Arab World: A Year In Pictures – Our Authors’ Selection
As we bid farewell to 2011 and look ahead to 2012, we asked our authors to share with you pictures that in their eyes have marked the past year in their respective countries. The following selection represents their choices.
China: What do Chinese people envision as the best life?
The Ministry of Tofu translates a documentary video produced by Chinese news portal Net Ease on Chinese people's envision of the best life.
China: Street Children
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
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.