Stories from Quick Reads from August, 2013
Kazakhstan Eyes 2022 Winter Olympics
Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city and the former capital, will be bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics. However, blogger Politolog warns [ru] that the event might prove too costly for the oil-rich nation. Another blogger, Ylya, weighs [ru] the country's chances to win the bid to host the Games in nine years.
Young Kyrgyz and Tajiks Learn to Blog
More than 20 young activists from the Central Asian nations of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are learning the basics of blogging at a summer school in northern Tajikistan. Rustam Gulov reports [ru] on Blogiston.tj that participants at the summer school learn to use social media to contribute to public debates on...
Crowdfunding Project in Brazil Seeks to Finance Independent Reporters
Non-profit journalism agency Publica is launching a crowdfunding projecy to support independent investigative jounalism.
Bangladesh: Startling Disaster Stats Of Three Decades
During 1980-2010 Bangladesh faced approximately 234 natural disasters. A shocking number of 191,836 people died in these calamities. PreventionWeb has the detailed statistics.
Prison Overcrowding in Indonesia
Leopold Sudaryono tackles the problem of prison overcrowding in Indonesia. In 2011, there were 144,000 prisoners in the country. Prisons were reported to be overcrowded by 45 per cent on average. Among the factors contributing to the problem are lack of alternative sentencing options at trial and delays in the...
Charges Dropped for South Korean Indicted for Retweeting North Korean Messages
Park Jeong-geun, a photographer/activist who was sentenced to 10 months jail term for satirically re-tweeting messages from a North Korean official account, was found not guilty [ko]. A flurry of tweets congratulating him were sent to Park's Twitter account (@seouldecadence), who tweeted after the verdict [ko] that there is a chance the prosecutor may...
Suspicions Arose Over North Korean Defector-Turned-Lawmaker
During a parliamentary hearing on the spy agency election interference scandal, Cho Myung-chul, a ruling party lawmaker famous for being the first North Korean defector to take a senior government post in South Korea, went under fire for making snide and offensive remarks discriminating against people from certain province. More criticisms mount as...
A Lesson on Dignity from Syria
This post is part of our Special Coverage Surviving in Syria. On his Facebook Page, Rebel Painter of Horan expressed his cynicism towards the silence of Arabs silence following the “chemical weapon attack” on Al Ghouta, a Damascus suburb. He shares a drawing of an Arab giving a Syrian child a pamphlet on...
Syria: Photos of Chemical Weapons
On Brown Moses Blog more evidence illustrating what is believed to be the devices which have been used in the “Chemical Weapons attack” on 21/08/2013 in Damascus suburbs, Syria, has emerged. The blog claims that they are similar to those previously recorded in the conflict and reportedly launched by government...
Brazilian Soccer Team Launches Campaign Against Racism
[All links lead to Portuguese-language pages unless otherwise noted.] In a video released Monday, August 12, the soccer team Grêmio of Porto Alegre brought together some of the key players on its roster, white and black, to talk about racism. The initiative was carried out in support of a new...
Photo: Pro-Morsi Supporters Rally in Cairo
Journalist Evan Hill shares this photograph of supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi from a rally at the Arab League Street in Cairo today.
Pro-Morsi Supporters Rally Across Egypt
Egyptian blogger Zeinobia maintains a live blog here for protests and rallies planned by supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi across Egypt today. (August 23, 2013) She adds: There will be not less than 28 rallies in Cairo and Giza alone. The Pro-Supporters today are not going to street...
Wave of Violence Against Guatemalan Journalists
Guatemalan journalists Carlos Alberto Orellana Chávez was gunned down on Monday, August 19, 2013; he is the fourth journalist killed in Guatemala this year. In an opinion piece [es] published in Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre, UN's special rapporteur for freedom of expression Frank La Rue denounced “the recent wave of...
Bradley Manning's Sentence Could Chill Investigate Journalism
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement after Army Private First Class Bradley Manning's sentence was handed down on August 21, saying that the harsh treatment Manning endured since he was accused of violating the Espionage Act sent a disturbing message to anyone thinking about becoming a whistleblower....
The Walls Can Talk in Puerto Rico and New York City
The alternative music venue La Respuesta, in Santurce, Puerto Rico, presents “Los Muros Hablan NYC” (The Walls Talk NYC), the New York edition of the urban art festival that has put the zone of Santurce on the map of graffiti artists worldwide. The artistic project aims to strengthen bonds between...
Caribbean: Tumbling Into Art
ARC has a list of 21 Caribbean artists you should be following on Tumblr.
Bicycles in Vietnam
Karen Hewell and Marc Forster-Pert featured some of the common bicycles used in Vietnam such as the mountain bike, the Thong Nhat GN-03 model, 1930 Calla, Surly’s ‘Karate Monkey’, Mumar M-2 Sportbike, and the racer.
Jamaica: “Sketch in Stories”
The Caribbean has not been as acutely aware of sequential art/cartoon/ comics as a creative practice. ART:Jamaica interviews one illustrator who is exploring the genre.
VIDEO: “Mermaids of Timor-Leste”
A film about four generations of fisherwomen striving to make a living in the coastal village of Adara, in the small island of Ataúro, Timor-Leste is soon to be released – but you can already have a glimpse on what is coming at the Facebook page Wawata topu (Women Divers): Their daily lives, their...
Egypt: Caught Between a Zombie and a Bloodsucker!
The current situation in Egypt is a challenge for everyone: diplomats, citizens and commentators. The army has used excessive force to disperse sit-ins where Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers were camped to support former president Mohamed Morsi. Illustrating this complex situation, Egyptian artist Ganzeer depicts the army as a vampire...
Amina Leaves Femen Because of “Islamophobia”
Amina, the Tunisian activist released from jail early August, left the Femen movement. She accused Femen of “Islamophobia”. Femen confirmed online that: FEMEN confirms its break with the Tunisian activist Amina Tyler because of differences of opinion on tactics in the Islamic countries (…) FEMEN calls for new heroines who are able to...
