Stories from Quick Reads from October, 2013
Nicolás Maduro's First Six Months as President of Venezuela
Venezuela is sitting on top of the largest oil reserves in the world and has a continual flow of dollars coming in. So they are not on the brink of a collapse. But they are progressively sliding into the swamp of serious economic dysfunction that will make sustained growth difficult...
Egypt: “Morsi is Not Coming Back”
Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi will not return to power, says Egyptian blogger Alya Gad, on Twitter. To make her message clear, she translates it in different languages: مرسي لن يعود – Morsi is not coming back – Morsi no va a volver – Morsi ne reviendra pas – Morsi...
CCTV News Tweets About Zhou Yongkang Corruption Case
China Watch Twitters spotted a news tweets which was quickly deleted about the government's investigation on Zhou Yongkang's corruption case. Is it a rumor? Or a glimpse of the truth? Beijing cream put a spotlight on the discussion.
Walk in a Homeless Person's Shoes via Twitter
October 17 was the international Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Four groups, the Abbé Pierre Foundation, France Inter, Génération réactive et la Fondation Agir contre l'exclusion de Seine-Saint-Denis decided to give four homeless persons a platform on twitter to narrate their everyday lives. They live in different cities of France:...
NSA Hacked Mexican Government, According to Latest Snowden Leak
According to information leaked by Edward Snowden and reported by the German publication Der Spiegel, the NSA (National Security Agency) “has been systematically eavesdropping on the Mexican government for years.” Cory Doctorow explains more at Boing Boing: A Snowden leak, discussed in detail in Der Spiegel, shows how the NSA broke into...
Remembering and Reviving Vietnam's Ca Tru Singing
Đoan Trang interviews Pho Kim Duc, a famous ca tru (sung poetry) vocalist in Vietnam in the 1940s. Kim Duc said ca tru is a very noble form of art. “It’s is not just singing but also poetry. Whoever with a taste for poetry will love ca tru to find...
Thailand Shark Conservation Project
The Thailand eShark Project was launched in light of the reported 95 percent drop in shark sightings in Thailand. The Thailand eShark Project results will be used to bring awareness to declining shark populations in Thailand. Additionally to help improve protected marine park enforcement and reinforce the importance of no...
Nine Signs the Journalism on Africa You’ve Just Encountered is Trash
Imran Garda identifies nine signs of trash journalism on Africa: You may already have accepted that those images of swollen potbellies underneath protruding ribs, those sticky flies sitting on the starving child’s eyebrows and lips, those panoramic views of refugee camps are not the be-all and end-all of Africa. Or...
South Korea: Mass Candlelight Rallies Against the Spy Agency Scandal
More revelations of the spy agency's election manipulation scandal came out, rekindling several month-long protests. Three agents were being probed on Oct 18 for tweeting and re-tweeting political articles to influence pubic opinion. On Oct 19, about 20 thousands[ko] attended a mass candlelight vigil in Seoul protesting the spy agency scandal. @Wjsfree gathered...
Three Reasons Why Young Indians Don’t Become Entrepreneurs
Abhinav Sahai has a theory to explain why young Indian talents do not usually end up as entrepreneurs. They give more priority to marriage, kids and buying own property, he thinks.
Dandin.me: Encompassing the Emerging Talent in the Middle East
October 10 saw the official launch of Dandin.me, a novel independent platform whose founders are based in Egypt. Abdel-Rahman Hussein, one of the people behind Dandin.me, explains what it aims to achieve: The rationale behind it was our desire to create an audio platform that would manage to encompass a...
Sydney Bushfires Spark Climate Change Brawl
Takver Takvera examines the devastating spring bushfires in the Australian state of New South Wales that have destroyed nearly 200 homes so far on his Climate Citizen blog: Raging Bushfires surround Sydney with early start to Fire season: Is there a link and is it appropriate to air the debate...
Gift from French Investing Group Bolloré to Ivorian University Stirs Controversy
French investing group Bolloré [fr] made a donation of 6 electric buses to the University of Felix Houphouët Boigny at Cocody in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. The first two buses were delivered on October 16 under great scrutiny from the Ivorian press and social media. In fact, the donation stirred a...
Declaration on the Future of Internet Cooperation
Representatives of the organizations that manage the technical infrastructure of the Internet meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay, have released a Declaration on the future of Internet cooperation [es], in which they analyze the problems currently affecting the future of the Internet. Among other things, they mention the importance of globally consistent...
Property Bubble In Kathmandu
Chandan Sapkota reports that the rise in the cost of housing in Kathmandu has made them beyond the reach of most of the Nepalese people. Easy bank credits to developers and prospective buyers have possibly triggered the bubble.
Japan: OpenStreetMap Aggregates Typhoon Info
OpenStreetMap users volunteered their time to create a crisis map of Izu Oshima island [ja], a small island to the south of Tokyo where more than a dozen of people were killed by mudslides triggered by this week's deadly Typhoon Wipha. The red dots on the map represent reports submitted by users, which give...
Activists Demand Release of Angola's Youngest Political Prisoner
It has been more than a month since a 17-year-old activist from Angola was detained after allegedly having ordered the print of 20 t-shirts saying “[President] José Eduardo out! Disgusting dictator”. Manuel Chivonde Baptista ‘Nito Alves’ was jailed on September 12, 2013, and is currently at Luanda central prison, after a few days of solitary...
#1book140: Twitter Book Chat on International Poetry
Join readers of The Atlantic and Global Voices for a live Twitter chat with Susan Harris, editor of The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry.
China's Maple Bridge Experience and Local Governance
Qian Gang looks into the political implications of recent state propaganda of “Fengqiao experience” (or Maple Bridge Experience) which took place in Zhejiang province during the Mao's era in early 1960s as a local governance model under the new China leadership.
China: School Forces Students To Participate in Forced Demolition
Joe from ChinaSMACK translated a news story about a middle school in Guiyang city, Guizhou province, that forced students to wear SWAT police uniforms and participate in the demolition of illegal structures. In China, demolition armies are as notorious as Chengguan on account of their violent actions against rural villagers who...
#Humanrights On Blog Action Day: The Ignored Issue Of Disappearance In Nepal
The National Network of Families of Disappeared and Missing Nepal claims that more than 1,400 people were forcibly disappeared during a decade long (1996-2006) civil war. Siromani Dhungana at ‘United We Blog! for a Democratic Nepal’ reports that the issue of disappearance has not been addressed properly by the state...
