Stories from Quick Reads from August, 2012
India: Dowry And The Boys
Nitisha Pandey at Youth Ki Awaaz discusses the current market rates for grooms in India and asks:
Does a boy’s parents’ give him good education only to get a handsome dowry?
Ukraine: Taras Polataiko's ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Project
Katherine Brooks of The Huffington Post and Natalia Antonova at the Guardian's Comment is Free write about Taras Polataiko's Sleeping Beauty project, which did open on Aug. 22 at the...
Macedonia: Demanding Triumphal Welcome for Paralympics Champion
Macedonian social media users are calling [mk] for a state-sponsored celebration for Olivera Nakovska-Bikova, who won a gold medal in shooting at the Paralympic Games finals in London, after setting...
Sri Lanka: The 3rd Annual #TweetupSL is Tomorrow
Indu Nanayakkara informs that the third edition of the annual meet of the Twitter users in Sri Lanka will take place on Saturday, September 1, 2012. Details are here.
Turkmenistan: Hip-Hop Key to Regime Survival
…[Turkmenistan's] young generation literally has got nothing to do. Which is why they love Hip Hop… But the government should not censor Hip Hop… for its own long-term survival. NewEurasia.net's...
Portuguese, a Global Language?
A community page on Facebook, Língua Portuguesa: Uma Língua Global? (Portuguese Language: A Global Language?) [pt], provides a diversity of materials to promote the debate about the expansion of Portuguese...
‘Free’ Kyrgyzstan Marks Independence
…[D]espite being generally underdeveloped as a state, I am the freest of all other countries that were also born in 1991! Blogger Ilya Karimdjanov offers a ‘Monologue of Kyrgyzstan‘ [ru]...
Bolivia: Consultation on Hold as TIPNIS Communities Reject Militarization
[…] the consultation process on the Bolivian government’s proposed highway through the Isiboro-Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS) has ground to a halt. Emily Achtenberg from NACLA blog Rebel Currents...
Thai MP Advice for Women to Marry Foreigners Stirs Controversy
Get a German husband. Get a Swedish husband. Get a Norwegian husband…All you need is a farang husband and their government will pay you to study. This was the advice...
Colombia: Miners Flee from Killings and Attacks
In his blog “El que piensa gana”, [es] Juan Jose Hoyos talks about the precautions that miners, union leaders and others who oppose illegal mining or mining by multinational companies (like...
Central African Republic: Less than 3% have Access to Electricity
Louis Philippe Wallot writes in Journal de Bangui [fr]: According to the statistics of the ministry of energy, only 3% of the capital city Bangui has access to electricity and it is even at...
Brazil: 13 Year-Old Exposes School Problems on Facebook
Diário de Classe [pt], a Facebook page created by Isadora Faber, a 13 year-old from Santa Catarina, Brazil, has already gathered more than 176,000 “likes”. Aiming to “show the truth about...
Russia: “The Sissy Conspiracy”
On his Tumblr blog, Michael Idov, editor-in-chief of GQ Russia, writes that “pop conspirology, a favorite Russian pastime, is a projection of discomfort with slackened gender roles.” He explains: “It’s...
Egypt: Are Tomatoes Christian?
Are tomatoes Christian? Check out Angie Nassar's blog post on Now Lebanon Blog, where she comments on news that a Salafist group in Egypt has posted reservations on tomatoes on...
Morocco: Jail Sentence for Ramadan's Public Eater
A court in Rabat has sentenced a young man to serve three months in jail for failing to fast in public during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. “[Individual freedom,]...
Chinese Weapons Flooding Africa
Deborah Brautigam from China in Africa provided more background information about the importation of Chinese Weapons in African countries and explained the incentive of arms sale is from private sector:...
Vietnam: Gay Marriage and Human Rights
The proposal should be cautiously welcomed as a progressive move which grants equality and official acceptance to members of society who have not felt the benefit of these statuses before...
Myanmar: Reshuffling the Cabinet
In a bold move, Myanmar President Thein Sein reshuffled[my] his cabinet by appointing non-army officers and removing controversial ministers. Among those replaced included the Minister of the Ministry of Electric...
Thailand: Police Collect Wedding Fees from Myanmar Workers
Htoo Chit wrote [my] about the illegal wedding fees collected by Thai police from Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand.
Thailand: Petition to Stop Mae Wong Dam
Please stop this crazy dam project and help maintain valuable tiger habitat in Mae Wong National Park. The statement is from a petition urging the Thailand government to stop the...
