Stories from Quick Reads from April, 2015
At Least 30 People Killled After Heavy Rains in Chile
The heaviest rains to hit Chile's northern region in decades have costed the life of at least 30 people, according to the most recent report by the National Office of Emergency of...
“What Does Freedom of Expression Mean to You?”
The International Media Support (IMS) wants to know what freedom of expression means to you, in the run-up to World Press Freedom Day on May 3. IMS is encouraging bloggers, human rights defenders, and journalists on...
A Chilean Real-Time Video App Launches at the Boston Marathon
The application RhinoBirdTV, developed by the Chilean Felipe Heusser, who founded the NGO Ciudadano Inteligente, allows users to share video experiences in real time. The makers of RhinoBirdTV hope their product will help facilitate a...
The Quest for the Mexican Miracle
Against the backdrop of elections scheduled for 7 June 2015 in Mexico, Fernando Vazquez blogging on Futuros Anticipados reflects on the quest for a miracle in development, growth and honesty, at times hindered...
Parenting 101: How to Raise Children the Arab Way
Satirist Karl Sharro dishes out some parenting advice on Twitter to his 51K followers, on how to bring up children, after reading news today that Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin...
‘Nappies in Adolescence': Alarming Number of Pregnant Teens in Venezuela
Desireé Lozano, blogging for Voces Visibles, urges attention be paid to the extremely high rate of teenage pregnancies in Venezuela, where 25% of the pregnancies are among young people, and the lack...
Chilean Volcano Wakes Up After Four Decades of Inactivity With Violent, Spectacular Eruption
The Chilean government declared a state of emergency caused by the disaster in towns near the Calbuco volcano, in southern Chile and on the border with Argentina, after it erupted violently...
Mexican Rescue Team Asks for Help to Go to Nepal
Urgen donativos para 25 rescatistas paypal:donativos@brigada-rescate-topos.org CLABE Santander:01418092000709294 tel.5554160417 #ToposANepal — Topos México (@topos) April 27, 2015 Donations are needed urgently for 25 rescuers paypal: donativos@brigada-rescate-topos.org CLABE Santander:01418092000709294 tel.5554160417 #ToposANepal (Topos...
Question Time: How Many Jihadists Have Military Backgrounds?
Taking the cue from a Der Spiegel report on the mastermind behind the structure of ISIS, Palestinian blogger Iyad El-Baghdadi tweets: After that Spiegel story about the "mastermind" behind ISIS's...
Mapping Cambodia's Land Concessions
Licadho, a Cambodian human rights group, has released its dataset of land concessions approved by the government in the past years. The group is now urging the government to release...
Colombia's Festival on the Value of Data in Development
The Cartagena Data Festival has just wrapped up in Cartagena, Colombia. The festival is an international event committed to discussing data deployment for human development and related topics, like open data, data journalism,...
Malawian Film Helps Farmers Cope With Climate Change
“Mbeu Yosintha” was made to help farmers and rural communities cope with the effects of climate change, in particular the ever changing rain patterns in South East Africa. The film...
Are Blogs an Endangered Species?
This text is part of the 46th #LunesDeBlogsGV (#MondayBlogsOnGlobalVoices) on March 23, 2015. On #LunesDeBlogsGV (#MondayOfBlogsOnGlobalVoices), we work to preserve blogs as an “endangered species”, confronting the challenges that threaten their existence in today's digital jungle. In...
What Does Hacking Education Mean?
Pedro Muller reflects on the lapse of the school system, an institution he says meant for a different historical context. In this regard, he notes the importance of two similar,...
Bulgaria's First Crowdfunding Journalism Project
Bulgaria, a member of the European Union, has a big problem with freedom of the media. The Balkan country is ranked 106 out of 180 countries in the 2015 World...
Protecting Personal Data in Argentina Is a Work in Progress
In an article for online magazine Digital Rights: Latin America & The Caribbean, No.21, Argentinean lawyer Valeria Milanés explains that even though the United States is a world leader in data processing, it...
Mexican Women Are Being Called on to Help Transform Their Portrayal in Mexican Media
WACC, SocialTIC, WITNESS, La Sandía Digital, and Subversiones have called on women interested in telling the stories of strong women in their communities with the purpose of changing the way women...
Caracas #SmartCityHack Proposes Solutions to People's Problems
The Venezuelan edition of the Hackathon Smart Cities took place in Caracas from 6 to 8 March, 2015. Don't you know what a hackathon is? If so, read this post!...
France Launchs National Campaign to Curb Racist and Anti-Semitic Acts
On April 17, the French government unveiled a national campaign to combat racism and anti-Semitism in France. The objective of the campaign is to fight all prejudices, raise awareness and...
The European Union Won't Give e-Books Reduced VAT
On March 5, 2015, the European Union Court of Justice ruled that the reduced value-added tax (VAT) established for printed books should not apply to digital books, considering everything distributed or delivered...
Ugandan Peace Advocate Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
This is Uganda (ThisIs256) is a platform of talented writers from Uganda who are determined to write positive stories about their country, banishing stories about poverty porn, hunger, Ebola, and...
