Stories from Quick Reads from September, 2014
The Politics of “Pretty” in Jamaica
As Laurie-Ann Chin is crowned this year's Miss Jamaica World – apparently despite the live audience's disapproval – Carolyn Joy Cooper, who blogs at Jamaica Woman Tongue, takes on the ugly underbelly of the country's beauty contests. “If you follow these beauty contests, it’s easy to predict the outcome,” she...
Social Media Users Pick at Hospital Food in Hungary
A blog, ‘Kórházi koszt‘, was launched over the summer of 2014 in Hungary, exposing the poor quality and small rations of food in Hungarian hospitals. The blog rose from the outrage among Hungarians who stayed at hospitals and received not only small portions of food, but often cheap and “disgusting”...
Conversations and Images From Highway Africa 2014
Highway Africa 2014 took place on 7-8 September, 2014 at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. The theme of the conference was Social Media – from the margins to the mainstream. Find images and conversations about the conference here.
Traveling Duo Visits Macedonia for 3 Months
Traveling duo Jürgen Horn from Germany and Mike Powell from the United States wander around the world by picking a country and staying there for three months, or about 91 days. During their three-month stays, the two globe-trotters attempt to experience life in their new location more thoroughly than a...
Celebrating Day of Lunfardo, Port of Buenos Aires Dialect
As has happened every September 5 since the year 2000, Buenos Aires celebrated the Day of Lunfardo, a dialect that originated and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the lower classes of the city. From there, it spread to other cities nearby. Originally, it was slang...
What If 75% of All Cities Were Deprived of Electricity by Design?
There are about 105 cities listed in all of Madagascar. The Minister of Energy Fienena Richard recently announced that 80 cities of Madagascar are curently deprived of electricity because JIRAMA, the public company in charge of providing electricity across the territory is running short on fuel. As a result, JIRAMA...
Blogger Puts a Naturally Formed Face of Buddha in Bhutan on the Map
Blogger Passang Tshering, a high school teacher from Wangdue, Bhutan, wrote in his blog on 31 August, 2014, about an image of Lord Buddha's face formed out of natural rock located on the elephant shaped hill on which the famous Wangdue Dzong is built. He posted photos of the site...
Iran Holds Persian ICT Week
Iran held the first annual Persian ICT week conference in Tehran's Ijlas center between August 30-31, 2014. The two day conference was a cooperative effort between Iran's ICT Guild Organization and the Arab ICT Organization. The theme of the conference was entitled, “Internet for Economic Growth,” and panels were held...
Connecting Istanbul and London to Crowdsource the Web We Want Festival
Twenty-five years ago, Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web and gave it to the world. To mark this anniversary, we are building a major new three-part festival at Southbank Centre, where we will ask all kinds of people to share their ideas of how the Web should develop...
The National Gallery of Jamaica Celebrates 40 Years of Home-Grown Art
The National Gallery of Jamaica is in the midst of celebrating its 40th anniversary and the gallery's blog has been sharing information about its history and accomplishments: When the National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ) opened its doors on November 14, 1974 it was the English-speaking Caribbean’s first national gallery, and...
Fashion Trends in Trinidad's Capital
The way people dress offers a glimpse into the culture of a place; Maya Cozier manages to capture the urban vibe of Trinidad's capital city in a short video which interviews several fashion forward young people who live and work in and around Port of Spain. Blogger Ceola Belix is...
Lesotho Political Crisis Updates on Twitter
Follow @nthakoana (Nthakoana Ngatane) for updates on the political crisis in Lesotho. Nthakoana Ngatane is a writer, speaker, singer, actor and South Africa Broadcasting Corporation correspondent in Lesotho. On 30th August 2014, Lesotho Prime Minister Tom Thabane claimed there was a coup attempt against him. He later flew to South...
Is the Caribbean Education System Dumbing Down Kids?
As the new school year begins in many Caribbean territories today, blogger Guyana-Gyal, who writes in local parlance, questions the new direction education is taking throughout the region. From the practice of making children tote heavy backpacks instead of simply asking them to bring to class only the books they...
The Ebola Truth
The Ebola Truth is a Facebook page that aims to document the situation with the Ebola virus on the African continent.
Was There a Coup in Lesotho?
Listen to a podcast explaining what is really happening in Lesotho following allegations of a military coup: The prime minister has fled to South Africa and says it’s a coup. The Lesotho military says it isn’t. The politics are a bit confusing. African Defence Review talks to SADC Wrap’s KRISTEN...
Iran's President Says Internet Is Vital
Iranian President Hassan Rohani said in a speech on September 1 that the Internet is vital and Iran “cannot close the gates of the world for the younger generation.” The next day, two Grand Ayatollahs defended high-speed Internet a few days after another Grand Ayatollah warned about it. IMPORTANT #Iran president Rouhani made a...
How Bloggers Ended Up in Prison for Writing About Human Rights in Ethiopia
Melody Sundberg analyses freedom of expression in Ethiopia after detained Ethiopian bloggers spent 100 days in prison: Ethiopia is with its almost 94 million population the second most populated country in Africa. Nevertheless, it does not according to an interview with Endalkhachew Chala by Global Voices, have an independent daily...
New Spider Species in Borneo Named After Missing Activist
A new spider species in Borneo discovered by Swiss scientists was named after Bruno Manser, an environmentalist who went missing in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia in 2000. Bruno Manser has been campaigning for the protection of the nomadic Penan people and against the destruction of Sarawak rainforest when...
An Election Film Week in Lebanon to Say #NoToExtension of Parliament Term
What better than the seventh art to mobilize? In another effort to push for Elections in Lebanon and prevent an extension of the Parliamentary term #NoToExtension, Lebanese NGO Nahwa Al Muwatiniya (meaning Towards Citizenship) held an “Election Film Week”. Six works from Chile, Iran, China, Ghana and the US, varying between documentaries...
Pakistan's State Owned TV Under Siege By Protestors
Last update at 7:45PM GMT, September 1, 2014 Hundred of protestors of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) have stormed into the Head Office of Pakistan's state-owned TV channel PTV. On 1st of September at around 11:20 am protesters broke open the main gate of Pakistan...
Beijing Expects Hong Kong People to be Rubber Stamps
David Webbs a finance news commentator concluded that the Beijing decision on the nomination of Chief Executive candidates in 2017 is to turn Hong Kong people into rubber stamps.
