· December, 2008

Stories about Video from December, 2008

Chile: Santa Claus the Bus Driver in Santiago

  31 December 2008

Paloma Beytelman boarded a bus in Santiago, Chile to find the driver dressed as Santa Claus, who continues this tradition every year to entertain passengers [es]. She filmed a short interview with the driver and his wife, who accompanies him on this occasion.

Burning the Year Away: New Year Traditions

  30 December 2008

In many South American countries, it has become a tradition to burn human shaped representations of the previous year, as a way to get rid of everything bad that the year brought, and leave way for the new. The following videos show some of these traditions and some of the controversy soome of them have sparked.

Tanzania: Friends of Ruaha blog

  28 December 2008

Samuel Maina of Theatre of Inconveniences introduces the recently launched Friends of Ruaha blog devoted to the conservation of the Ruaha Park in Tanzania which is “arguably, one of the largest and most beautiful wildlife parks in Africa”, according to him. The post includes a video from the Friends of...

Macedonia Timeless

  25 December 2008

On December 24, 2008, there was a presentation of a promotional video for Macedonia – “Macedonia Timeless.” The video is written and directed by Milcho Manchevski (an Academy Award nominee in 1995), and its purpose is to promote Macedonia as a tourist destination. The video will be aired on CNN, and a dozen countries in eight different languages. Elena Ignatova reviews bloggers' reactions to the video.

Gaza/Sderot: Israel and Palestine together on video

  24 December 2008

The Gaza/Sderot: Life in Spite of Everything Project is one of the prime examples of the variety of ways a bridge between different cultures and world-views can be created through online media. In this project created by ARTE.tv, a French-German cultural television station, twelve people going on their day to day business on either side of a violent border were exposed on a website for ten week project which ended on December 23rd. The two minute videos documented snippets of the lives of 6 characters in Gaza, Palestine and 6 characters on the other side of the border in Sderot, Israel during two months.

Israel: LivniBoy Gives ObamaGirl a Run For Her Money

  20 December 2008

Check out LivniBoy, Israel's answer to ObamaGirl. His YouTube video, “Love Song to Tzipi Livni,” has received over 6,350 views this week alone. Tzipi Livni is the Kadima Party candidate for prime minister in the upcoming winter elections. You'll be able to enjoy the feel of the video even if...

Video: Costa Rican Artist takes on the Fine Art Classics

  20 December 2008

Francisco Munguía, a Costa Rican cartoonist and artist has interpreted the Fine Arts classics and is currently doing a show in the Costa Rican Children's Museum. However, you don´t need to travel to Costa Rica to see his work: it is uploaded on YouTube in a gallery style presentation.

Southeast Asia: The shoe, the shoe

  18 December 2008

Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi will be known for a long time as the shoe thrower. He who succeeded in throwing a pair of shoes at U.S. President George Bush last Sunday. The shoe throwing incident has been hailed as heroic by many people around the world, especially those who opposed the foreign policies of the outgoing leader. What are the reactions of Southeast Asian bloggers and residents?

Costa Rica: Call for Collaborative Christmas Video

  17 December 2008

Costa Rican online humour collective nosedecirlaerre.com which translates into "I can´t pronounce the R" has set out a call for participation from Costa Ricans and those familiar with their culture to create a collaborative video for Christmas. The campaign is called Uniting Ticos for Christmas and the requirements are quite simple: dancing in the Costa Rican style of "swing criollo" the popular end of the year song Jugo de Piña and saying something in Costa Rican slang, on video.

AIDS: Orphans, Marches and Reminders

  16 December 2008

Following up on past AIDS coverage such as the AIDS Conference 2008 and the World AIDS Day 2008, we bring you a video that shows the plight of orphans in South Africa whose parents have died from AIDS, the AIDS day celebrations in Bangladesh, a reminder from Mexico to get tested from SexualidadIntegral podcast and the AIDS impact report from the 2008 Conference in the Mexico City as well.

Cuba: We Shall Overcome

  15 December 2008

Cuban bloggers all link to video of what they say is Generation Y‘s “call to action to all bloggers, a plea for solidarity with the ‘embryonic’ Cuban blogosphere.”

Bangladesh: Bloggers unearth the fake Taj Mahal scam

  15 December 2008

If you cannot visit the Taj Mahal at Agra (India) then the Taj Mahal will have to visit you in your hometown. For the last few days, we have been reading a curious and interesting piece of news from Bangladesh. Apparently, it was first reported by AFP and then quickly...

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Juliana Rincón Parra
Juliana Rincón Parra is the Citizen Video editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.