· December, 2009

Stories about Weblog from December, 2009

South Asia: Looking Back At 2009

  31 December 2009

The year 2009 is ending and its time to retrospect how the year has been for the South Asian region. In a two-part review we will look back at some of the major events which took place this year in the South Asian countries seen through the eyes of the citizen journalists.

Caribbean: 2009 Regional Roundup

  31 December 2009

As Global Voices celebrates its fifth anniversary, the occasion has given us all an opportunity to reflect on why we do what we do and how our work makes a difference.  As my colleague Jillian York so succinctly put it, “We spread stories.  We spread words.”  We manage to do...

Caucasus: 2009 Blog Review

  31 December 2009

If the Armenian and Georgian blogospheres attracted most interest during 2008 after one disputed presidential election in the former and an albeit short war with Russia in the latter, Azerbaijan was the undoubted focus in 2009. In particular, youth activists quickly embraced both new and social media to spread their message online.

China: Akmal's death sentence, a resolute No to memory of humiliation?

  30 December 2009

Akmal Shaikh, a British citizen convicted of smuggling heroine into China, was executed on Tuesday although his families along with the British government had pleaded for reprieve, claiming that he is mentally ill. The supreme court of China however dismissed the request of a mental assessment because the documents provided...

Global Voices needs your support

  30 December 2009

Dear Global Voices Reader, We'd like to ask you to support our work for 2010 with a financial contribution. If you've been following the activity on the Global Voices, Global Voices Advocacy and Rising Voices sites, or on any of our 17 active translation sites, you'll have experienced the incredible...

China: Cui Weiping tweets elite views on Liu Xiaobo

  29 December 2009

Many Chinese public intellectuals take flack for keeping quiet on major social issues. Beijing Film Academy professor Cui Weiping has sought to change that by tweeting her peers' views on the recent sentencing of China's most prominent democrat.

Nicaragua: The Aftermath of the 1972 Earthquake

  29 December 2009

On December 23, 1972, a 6.2-scale earthquake struck Managua, Nicaragua killing 5,000 and leaving 250,000 homeless. Nicaraguan blogger Homero was a young child at the time, but he holds memories of the aftermath, which he describes in a recent post in his blog Ventana de Homero.

Malawi: Bloggers discuss 30 earthquakes in 3 weeks

  29 December 2009

In what some geologists have described as rare occurrences, Malawi's northern district of Karonga has in the past three weeks experienced a total of 30 earthquakes resulting in at least 5 deaths, over 200 people injured and over 3,000 made homeless. Bloggers have been quick to share their reactions.

Japan: Spread the message, translate it

  29 December 2009

A video interview [en] of Kyo Kageura, head of the project Minna no Honyaku (みんなの翻訳, Translation for all) [ja], a new translation platform that helps NGOs and NPOs to spread their messages thanks to volunteer translators. Global Voices Japan asked him about the challenge of Minna no Honyaku [en], the...

Palestine: Twitter accused of silencing Gaza tribute

  29 December 2009

Twitter has been accused of attempting to silence tributes to Gaza one-year after an Israeli onslaught devastated the Palestinian enclave. Pro-Palestinian and human rights activists used the influential Twitter to express support for the besieged territory. Tweets using the hashtag #Gaza flooded in on December 27th, peaking at number 3 on Twitter's top ten Trending Topics list.

Kazakhstan: Journalist murdered, professional motives excluded

  29 December 2009

Sayat Shulembayev, 28, journalist of the news video-portal “Stan” was brutally murdered in Almaty. As “Stan” producer Michael Pak says, Sayat rented a room in the house near bus station. The murderers killed the landlord and the journalist, apparently, to eliminate the possible witness [ru]. The news portal does not...