Stories from Quick Reads from September, 2014
Using Mobile Phones to Connect Pregnant Women and Midwives in Timor Leste
Liga Inan is using mobile phones to connect pregnant women and health workers in Timor Leste. The innovative program provides mothers with vital information and health advice to ensure the safe delivery of babies. Since its launch, almost 2,000 mothers have been already enrolled in the program.
Trinidadian Diaspora Blogger Appeals to Domestic Violence Victims After Seeing Rice Viral Video
Once the video of Ray Rice (the American football player for the Baltimore Ravens) hitting his wife went viral, Trinidadian diaspora blogger Afrobella couldn't get the incident out of her mind. “The video where he spits and hits the woman who would go on to be his wife, where he...
About Homeland, Lanterns, Parades and Independence in Costa Rica
On her blog Anchas Alamedas, Solentiname remembers how she used to spend Costa Rica independence day, September 15, when she was a schoogirl, and the parades with lanterns and flags: Teníamos estandarte y era un honor reservado para los mejores estudiantes de todo el colegio y solo tres: el que...
How Entrepreneurship Helped a Bangladeshi Girl Avoid Child Marriage
Bangladeshi blogger Raad Rahman tells the story of a girl in rural Bangladesh who avoided a forced child marriage after she started a grocery shop using a small grant from a local non-government organisation. She was going to be married off to her neighbour's son because her family could no...
Interview With the Author of ‘Chinese Turkestan’, a Photographic Documentary of Xinjiang
Far West China interviewed Ryan Pyle, a Shanghai-based photographer who recently published a photographic documentary of Xinjiang titled “Chinese Turkestan”: The news is so segregated and so focused on conflict areas that places like Xinjiang get left off the map. When the spotlight does turn there, it’s all about the...
Covert Surveillance ‘Project Speargun’ Fires Up New Zealand Election
ANNA MAJAVU of Pacific Media Watch reports for The Daily Blog on an extraordinary event in Auckland on 15 September 2014: NEW ZEALAND Prime Minister John Key has been accused of allowing the secret installation of equipment that would enable spooks to tap into New Zealand’s undersea fibre optic cable...
Migrant Children from Central America Are Not Mere Statistics
In an opinion piece for the American newspaper Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Global Voices contributor Jamie Stark wonders, “What kind of parent would pay $10,000 for a stranger to bring a child 1,400 miles through gangland and hostile border crossings? A good parent, perhaps.” As a concerned citizen about the crisis of...
An Urgent Call for the Protection and Preservation of Tibetan Language
Khenpo Tsultrim Lodoe is an influential Buddhist teacher at Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Tibet. His article which addresses the relation between language and identity and urges for the preservation of Tibetan language was posted on an official educational website for Tibetan middle schools on July 4, 2014. High Peaks...
Why One Trinidadian Father Will Never Hit His Kids
Corporal punishment has, for a long time, been ingrained into the fabric of Caribbean societies, with some making the connection between the region's harsh colonial history and its modern day bent towards violence. In many cases, the recipients of such beatings are the most defenseless members of society – children....
Trinidadians Concerned Over “Largest Ever Budget”
As the Trinidad and Tobago government, in anticipation of national elections next year, serves up a massive budget, two political bloggers take the country's leaders to task. Afra Raymond, whose blog keeps a close eye on politics, corruption and transparency, provided some disturbing financial context: The Minister of Finance has...
Togolese Bloggers Poke Fun at President for Over the Top BillBoard
Someone sure wanted people to know that he was thankful for Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé generosity. This week, a giant billboard was raised in Lomé, Togo that praised the president's action in favor of providing lunch for school children. The billboard seen below reads in french :” Thanks Daddy Faure for...
Bamboo, Launch, Compound and Other English Words Borrowed from Malaysia
Writing for Coconuts KL, Lai Chee Seng listed 10 common English words which have Malaysian roots. For example, bamboo derived from the Malay word mambu or samambu, compound came from the Malay word kampung which means village or a group of buildings, and launch was borrowed from the Malay word...
Unusual Uniform for Colombian Women's Cycling Team Sparks Social Media Chatter
The Bogotá Humana female cycling team's uniform has been the target of criticism and jokes because of its unfortunate color scheme that gives the illusion of a nude body. The red and yellow uniform, to be word at the road bicycle race Giro di Toscana, contains a beige strip that goes from the...
Search and Destroy Mission for the 80 Million “Bombies” in Laos
Al Jazeera's 101 East episode tackles the efforts of women workers in Laos to find and destroy unexploded cluster bombs dropped by the United States during the Vietnam War era. The U.S. dropped 260 million bombs in Laos but about 80 million bomblets did not detonate which posed a continuing...
Building Sustainable Peace in The Central African Republic
As the UN launchs its peace keeping mission with the arrival of 1,500 troops in the Central African Republic (CAR), a few observers were wondering why it took so long given the extent of the casualties. Les Cercles nationaux de Réflexion sur la Jeunesse (CNRJ) is an NGO in Bangui, CAR that...
Sri Lanka's Slow LLRC Implementation
The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was a commission of inquiry mandated to investigate the facts and circumstances which led to the bloody civil war in Sri Lanka. After an 18-month inquiry, the commission submitted its report to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa almost three years ago, on 15...
5 Tips to Prevent Threats of Cyber Snooping in China
Want to prevent threats of cyber snooping in China? See the details of the following five tips given by Sean Maples on ChinaHush: 1. Upgrade your operating system 2. Remove extra data 3. Bring a simple cellphone 4. Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) 5. Reformat your digital device
China's New Regulations on Instant Messaging Tools Explained
Hu Yong, associate professor at Peking University’s School of Journalism and Communication, explained the issue at stake regarding China's latest regulations on instant messaging tools on Chinafile. The regulations forbidden public account holders, except from registered media organizations accounts, to republish articles on current events. The result is a highly...
An NGO in Peru Feeds Pelicans to Prevent Them From Starving
At the estuary of Moche river in the northern Peruvian province of Trujillo, members of the NGO Corazones Bondadosos (Generous Hearts) fed more than 400 pelicans with fresh fish to prevent their starvation. Colectivo ‘Corazones Bondadosos’ alimentan a pelicanos en Trujillo. Noble gesto. Piden apoyo de autoridades @tromepe pic.twitter.com/y4py4NpaYr — Jota...
A Meteorite Causes a Scare But No Damage in Nicaragua's Capital
A strong blast shook the northern area of the Nicaraguan capital city Managua around midnight on Saturday, September 6, 2014. The cause was a meteorite's impact. No one was injured nor was damage caused. The loud noise alarmed the families that live nearby. Some fled from their houses fearing an...
Trinidad & Tobago Needs to Pass the Public Procurement Bill
Trinidad and Tobago's Finance Minister yesterday delivered what many are calling a “welfare budget”, but prior to its unveiling in Parliament, blogger Afra Raymond had hoped that “a more restrained approach might be taken.” In examining the country's national budgets since 2005, Raymond found it telling that “many of the...
