Stories from 30 March 2010
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.
Colombia: Hostage Pablo Emilio Moncayo Freed by FARC
After 4,483 days as a hostage in Colombia, Pablo Emilio Moncayo was freed by the FARC guerrillas. The blog Plan Colombia and Beyond provides the details of his release.
Russia: Witness Shares Her Account of Bombings in Moscow Metro
LJ user Karpusha was at Park Kultury metro station at the moment of explosion. She wrote on her blog about what she had seen, the lack of information after the first explosion, the shock and her attempts to help an injured woman.
Russia: Bombings Victims Commemoration; Analysis of TV-channels
Photos from the commemoration action dedicated to the victims of the recentMoscow bombings published by bloggers can be found here and here. Arina Borodina, Russian TV-expert, analyses the role of TV coverage of the bombings.
Russia: Role of Social Media in Coverage of Recent Metro Bombings in Moscow
Paul Globe writes on his blog “Window on Eurasia” about increasing role of the Internet and social media in the coverage of the recent terrorist attacks in Moscow.
Russia: Wikipedia Used to Cover Recent Metro Bombings
A popular Russian blogger Anton Nosik asks bloggers to contribute their content to the chapter of Wikipedia about terror attacks in Moscow metro.
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.
Trinidad & Tobago: Shouter Baptist Liberation Day
“It seems hard to believe or to fully understand the idea that practicing a faith could be considered illegal here in T&T where we pride ourselves on religious tolerance and diversity, however for many decades that was exactly what the Shouter Baptist community endured”: TriniGourmet.com has some ideas for local...
Brazil: “Sao Paulo, shithole of world”
In a post called “Sao Paulo, shithole of world”, Adriano Cintra from the band CSS, publishes a set of amazing pictures showing what happens when it rains in the biggest Latin American city, portraying the chaos the population has lived with since the beginning of the year.
Lebanon: The Adventures of Salwa
Liliane comments on The Adventures of Salwa a new comic-style campaign aimed at combating sexual harassment in Lebanon.
China and Hong Kong: Post 80's Generation
K.E. David from ChinaGeek translated an article written by Yang Hengjun on his encounter with post 80's generation in a talk on democracy. The discussion makes him realize the connection between democracy and young people's future.
China: Google.cn search blocked
Several twitterers, including @williamlong @geekinmedia @aHexie @terryxxy and @mranti, confirmed the blocking of google.cn's search in major cities, such as Beijing and Shenzhen in China. According to @mranti: Google search is blocked in Beijing. Any search will trigger reset.
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.
India: Tribals Using Cell Phones To Publish News
Indian Tribals Blog reports that “dozens of citizen journalists in India’s chronically neglected tribal communities are producing and sharing audio news reports for the first time through an innovative cell phone system.”
Bangladesh: Aktel Becomes Robi
Aktel, one of the leading cell phone service providers in Bangladesh, has renamed its brand as Robi in an attempt to ‘localise’ its branding. Bangladesh Corporate Blog analyzes consumer reactions through netizens’ eyes.
India: Water Crisis Is Man Made
Muriel Kakani writes that India’s recent water crisis is “predominantly a man-made problem”. The blogger opines that ‘water harvesting from rainfalls’ can be a solution.
Sri Lanka: Unbounded Crowd-sourcing Of Human Rights Violations
Sanjana Hattotuwa at ICT For Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace) discusses about the unbounded nature of a new crowd-sourcing initiative in Sri Lanka called Citizens Net. This mapping project records human rights violence on issues regarding “gender-based violence, the rights of children, the elderly and the disabled”.
Bolivia: April 4th Regional Elections
Miguel Centellas of the blog Pronto* previews Bolivia's municipal and departmental elections scheduled for April 4, 2010.
Peru: Alarmist Report on Possible Earthquake in Lima
A recent report by the Peruvian Civil Defense finds that if an earthquake struck the capital city of Lima that 51,000 people would die. Blogger Juan Sheput of Mate Pastor [es] criticizes the report calling it “alarmist” and “incomplete” for not thoroughly explaining its methodology and for not taking into...
