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Stories from and

“Racism is Not an Issue in Latin America” — Seriously?

  16 July 2014

In an opinion piece for the New York Times titled “Latin America's Talent for Tolerance,” Enrique Krauze proposes the notion that Latin America is less prone to racism: […] European-style racism — which not only mistreats and discriminates but also persecutes and, in the very worst cases, tries to exterminate others...

What We Take With Us

  13 July 2014

From Tegucigalpa, capital city of Honduras, Madame Gumbeaux tells she will return to live in the United States in a few weeks, and lists what she will miss… and other things she won't: I will miss…. 1. the guy on the motorbike who rides through the ‘hood twice a day,...

US and China's Strategic and Economic Dialogue

  10 July 2014

China File invited economist William Adams and Political Economy Professor from Peking University, Zha Daojiong, to comment on the upcoming high-level bilateral diplomatic exchange known as the Strategic and Economic Dialogue between the U.S. and China.

When Maya Angelou Lived in Egypt and Ghana

Sean Jacobs writes about American author and poet Maya Angelou, who died at age 86 yesterday May 28, 2014: In 1961, Maya Angelou, already a civil rights worker, and her then partner Vusumzi Make, an exiled activist from South Africa (he was a leading Pan Africanist Congress member), moved to...

Guatemala: Ex President Portillo Sentenced to Five Years in Jail

  23 May 2014

With a historic rule by a federal court in New York on May 22, 2014, former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo was sentenced to five years and 10 months in jail for money laundering and taking bribes from Taiwan. RT @Luisvela_pl: VIDEO: Alfonso Portillo recibe pena de cinco años y diez...

Tips for Being a First World Country

  15 May 2014

Mexican Alfredo Cortés de Café Financiero reflects [es] after a trip to Canada about things and attitudes that in this country mean to belong to the “first world”: I want to mention the simplest things I observed, that we all could accomplish; and as a whole this is what makes...

A 5-Minute Video Could Be Your Ticket to New York

  14 May 2014

The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) invites young people under the age of 25 to submit original 5-minute videos on migration, diversity and social inclusion to the Plural+2014 film festival. Three winning videos will receive $1000 and the makers will be invited to New York City to attend an...

French Economist Piketty Links Inequality to Instability of Democracies

  21 April 2014

French economist and Associate Chair at the Paris School of Economics, Thomas Piketty recently published a book called “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” that has generated quite a buzz among fellow economists and political leaders. Piketty's central thesis is that inequality is not an accident, but one of the consequences of the excess of capitalism. Piketty...

A Kibera Love Story

  7 April 2014

This is a fascinating love story between Sam from Kibera, a slum in the city of Nairobi, Kenya and Alissa from Minnesota, USA: This has to be the love story of the year!!!!! Alissa is from Minnesota while Sam is born & bred from Kibera. So how did these two...

MENA: Hijab and Western Discrimination

Egyptian blogger Nadia El Awady wrote a blog post in which she questions if women wearing Hijab face discrimination in western countries or not. Nadia, as an Egyptian who grew up in the US and lived prolonged periods in Europe, adds from her personal experience in regards to reactions she...

Thrive Show: On Living Well With Chronic Illness

  27 March 2014

Bedridden with a chronic illness called myalgic encephalomyelitis, online media virtuoso Jen Brea is launching a new interactive video series using Google Hangout called Thrive Show on how to live well with invisible and chronic illnesses. The first episode is today, March 27, and features a conversation with Eva Hagberg,...

“It Ain't Easy Being Indian” in the USA

  3 March 2014

Ricey Wild, a Native American blogger at the Indian Country Today, writes about wolf slaughtering in Minnesota, USA. […]My beloved friend Melissa came to get me last month to rally against the wolf hunt in Minnesota and everywhere. We went way up north and joined other people who care and...

China Dissidents Going to the U.S

  12 February 2014

Patrick Lozada from Beijing Cream discussed the phenomena that many dissidents who have left China would turn up joining the Right Wing organizations in the U.S. He pointed out the dilemma of the current situation: I understand why they do it. You can say bad things about China in China...

Iran: “Less” anti-U.S. Atmosphere

  11 February 2014

Iran celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Islamic revolution on Tuesday.Some netizens wrote about what hardliners reported after the celebration.Hadi Nili tweeted Some hardliner #Iran'ian users in social networks shown disappointment about "less" anti-US atmosphere in the annual march of revolution. — Hadi Nili (@HadiNili) February 11, 2014

Guyana, U.S.A.: Aviation Security Threat?

  10 February 2014

Two blogs are reporting that the US has issued a security alert to its citizens about an ‘unconfirmed threat’ to flights from Guyana. Netizens are also sharing the news via Facebook.

China Reports That Snowden Claims Aliens Control America

  5 February 2014

China's Xinhua new agency reported on January 28 that Snowden had claimed aliens controlled America. Although the story was soon deleted, it had spread all over Sina Weibo. Weibo users didn't take the story seriously, they even created an image of Alien Obama.Mitchell Blatt from CHINA TRAVEL WRITER BLOG has translated part of the...

Human Rights Video: 2013 Year in Review

  3 February 2014

A video by WITNESS on the Human Rights Channel of YouTube wrapped up some of the most significant protests and human rights abuses of 2013. Dozens of clips shot by citizens worldwide are edited together to show efforts to withstand injustice and oppression, from Sudan to Saudi Arabia, Cambodia to...

South Korea: ‘Less is More’, Net Users Turn Sour on Typical Movie Poster

  28 January 2014

A massive Disney hit movie, Frozen is rapidly gaining traction also in South Korea. However, more young Koreans are turning sour on typical Korean-style movie poster, which has long been criticized for being either too confusing or overly interrupted [ko] by extra-bold text dropping names or media/net users’ reviews ridden with cliche [ko]....

Facebook Teams Up with Russia's Top Search Engine

RuNet Echo  16 January 2014

Scholars and researchers of the Russian Internet can rejoice this week, for Russia's leading search engine, Yandex.ru, is now the second website in the world, after Bing in the United States, to gain access to Facebook firehose data [ru]. This means that Yandex can now search Facebook's streaming API and provide live...

Hacking Global Voices Special Coverage

  10 January 2014

How could we make Global Voices complex, ongoing stories more beautiful, accessible and useful? MIT Media Lab’s Center for Civic Media invited a diverse group of technology and storytelling mavens to a full day of hacking, using the example of our recent special coverage of the #Shahbag protests in Bangladesh...