Stories about Weblog from March, 2010
Brazil: São Paulo State police beat striking teachers
Departing governor of São Paulo José Serra will run for presidency; teachers today marked his final day with another protest. During a previous demonstration calling for pay rises and other benefits, police hit peaceful strikers hard.
Singapore: TwestivalSG 2010
Hundreds of people participated in this year's Twestival Singapore to raise funds for the education of millions of out-of-school children around the world.
Russia: High Taxi Fares And Text Messaging Scams After Moscow Bombings
The aftermath of the recent subway bombings in Moscow is widespread. People mourn victims, looks for answers to numerous questions, contemplate the future of Russia and express anger with... taxi drivers and text message scammers who seem to take advantage of the tragedy.
Chile: The Process of Earthquake Reconstruction
Exactly a month after the devastating earthquake in Chile, President Sebastián Piñera announced a reconstruction plan for the country’s infrastructure and housing, prompting Chileans to provide opinions about how this process should be implemented and monitored.
Sweden: Parliament Recognizes the Assyrian Genocide
The Swedish Parliament has recognized as genocide the massacres that took place within the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1920 against the Armenian, Assyrian and Pontic Greek population - an episode that is also referred to as "Seyfo" by the Assyrian Diaspora. Bloggers react to this development in this post.
China: Kidney Stone Babies’ father on trial
Today, Zhao Lianhai, the founder of “kidney stone babies” whose 4-year old son was poisoned by Sanlu melamine tainted milk in 2008 was put on trial today under the criminal charge of “provoking an incident”. The trial ended at 2:30pm, Zhao pleaded not guilty but the verdict has yet to...
Arab World: Earth Hour Marked Across the Region
Earth Hour is an annual event celebrated on the last Saturday in March. Awareness of Earth Hour has been spreading throughout the world since its inception in Australia in 2007. In this post, Katharine Ganly takes a look at some of the initiatives celebrating Earth Hour in the Arab World.
Russia: Sochi Games and the Circassian Genocide
In 2014, the Russian resort of Sochi will host the Winter Olympic Games, but the 700,000-900,000 of ethnic Circassians living in Russia are trying their best to prevent the country from having its Olympic games in peace.
Puerto Rico: A brief history of a new species, the “Twittericans”
They are calling themselves "Twittericans." They are Puerto Ricans, national and transnational, who absolutely adore Twitter. Computer Science graduate student and digital media savant Miguel Ríos has written a brief history of Twitter in Puerto Rico. Let's see what he found out.
Azerbaijan: DOTCOM arrives in Baku
Late last night, American participants of the U.S. State Department sponsored DOTCOM project to bring Armenian, Azerbaijani and American teenagers together to create socially conscious media arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Russia: Initial Coverage of the Moscow Subway Bombings
Moscow's Monday morning routine was broken today by two subway suicide bombings, which killed at least 38 and wounded at least 70 people. Alexey Sidorenko translates some of the initial reports from the Russian blogosphere.
Kazakhstan: Bloggers claim lack of state aid to flood victims
After a mudflow killed dozens of people in the villages south-east of Kazakhstan on March 11, many fear that other dams across the country may cause much harsher disasters in case of bursting.
Chile: New Government Makes Strong Presence on Twitter
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera and his Cabinet are all on Twitter, which captured the attention of Chilean users of social media, but some are skeptical and cautious about how effective the communication will be.
Russia: Bloggers’ Mockery of Film Poster Upsets Famous Director
The poster for an upcoming movie on World War II by Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov is monumental, tense and grim. But it also became funny, descriptive and nearly offensive after numerous manipulations by several bloggers.
Japan Government: On the Fall of the Employment System
A think tank for Japan's Cabinet, the Economic and Social Research Institute (内閣府 経済社会総合研究所) (ESRI) published a study that quantified the present status of lifetime employment and seniority-based wage (i.e. the Japanese employment system). They used the data (1989-2008) from Basic Survey on Wage Structure (賃金構造基本統計調査) (BSWS) of the Ministry of...
Dominican Republic: Opposition to Barrick Gold Mining Operations
There is increased opposition to the Barrick Gold mining operations in the Dominican Republic because of the terms of the contract and benefits for the State, as well as concerns about environmental impacts.
Japan: Long life to bluefin tuna. The experts’ word.
With 68 countries voting against, CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species that regulates the international trade of wild animals and plants, rejected a ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna, that was slated for listing on Appendix One, i.e. a complete ban.
Paraguay: Rescuing Citizen Experiences Through the Use of Blogs
Paraguayan blogger Carlos Rodríguez has been "rescuing" citizen experiences through the use of his blog RESCATAR and he hopes that highlighting these experiences can help solve the many of the country's problems.
South Africa: The woman who spent 7 months in a male cell
Before she was acquitted of attempted robbery and hijacking in South Africa, Denise Abbah was imprisoned in a male cell for seven months as she waited for her trial. The prison officials mistook her for a transvestite. Ms Abbah is now seeking justice as she is suing the Department of Correctional Services for...
Japan: A whale of a controversy
Only a few days after The Cove was awarded the Oscar as best documentary, drawing public and media attention around the world to the hunting of cetaceans issue, anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd’s leader Peter Bethune was arrested in Tokyo, re-igniting the controversy between Japan and Australia-New Zealand.
The Virtual Choir: Technology, Collaboration and Music
Composer Eric Whitacre , after seeing a Youtube video of a young soprano singing his song "Sleep" wondered: What if he could get people, regardless of where they were in the world, to record themselves signing all the other parts of his a capella choir piece? So he did, and following, you will be able to see the various results of this great experiment of online collaboration with the Virtual Choir.
