5 October 2010

Stories from 5 October 2010

Sri Lanka: Children And The Race Question

  5 October 2010

Indi.ca opines that although it is common in Sri Lanka to query about other people's race, “for an certain generation of children, however, the race label is becoming completely inapplicable.”

Morocco: Another Magazine Bites the Dust

Morocco's only weekly magazine published in the local Arabic dialect, darija, Nichane is closing shop after a sustained advertising boycott. Bloggers lament the loss of a publication which filled a niche in Morocco's ever-growing publishing industry, covering topics from a point of view usually reserved for the country's many French-language publications.

Mexico: TV Host Threatens Twitter User, #Brozo Becomes Trending Topic

  5 October 2010

TV host and comedian Victor Trujillo, who plays the character of clown Brozo for Televisa, threatened a Twitter user who created a fake Twitter account for Marissa Rivera, a collaborator in Brozo's show. Among other things, Brozo threatens: “You are in danger.” Twitter users are reacting to the video [es]...

Africa: My Trouble With Contemporary African Dance

  5 October 2010

What is the problem with “contemporary African dance”?:”The choice of African in contemporary “African” dance is therefore, with a touch of derision and as well canonical. Aside the fact that it suggests a honest geographical location and a common historical narrative, it also makes the unforgiving blunder of plunging into...

Argentina: Students from Buenos Aires Protest Education

  5 October 2010

Michael Chanan from Putney Debater shares a video (with English subtitles) of last month's student occupation of secondary schools in Buenos Aires and their protests outside the Ministry of Education: “Students […] have taken to the streets in protest against the appalling conditions to be found in many of the...

Zambia: Has Governance Improved?

  5 October 2010

Has governance improved in Zambia?: “Well, sort of but its difficult to be sure. According to the latest Ibrahim Index Zambia has moved up just two places in the rankings. It has moved from position 18 in the 2009 index to position 16 in the 2010 index (2008/9 data).”

Africa: Participate in Digital Natives Workshop

  5 October 2010

Participate in Digital Natives Workshop in South Africa: “The 3-day workshop entitled ‘My bubble, My space, My voice” will focus on how young people use the tools and platforms at their disposal in order to create social change in their environments.”

Burkina Faso: Folk Singer Icon Mahama Konaté Is No More

  5 October 2010

Le Faso.net reports that the Mahama Konaté, icon of the Senoufo traditional music passed away today [fr]. Konaté was the founder of the band “Farafina” and insisted on making his own instruments, arguing that “music is just a way of giving back what nature has to offer”.

Iran: Russians bloggers in the Embassy of Iran

  5 October 2010

According to a Russian blogger last Thursday at the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran held a meeting of Iranian and Russian bloggers in Moscow. During the conversation, bloggers discussed the prospects for Russian-Iranian relations at the present stage. Watch the photo here.

Jamaica: Communities & Climate Change

  5 October 2010

“Where politicians fail to take the threats to our planet seriously, a strong grassroots movement is mobilizing and taking action to fill the void left by political and corporate paralysis”: Labrish notes that Jamaica is among the Caribbean nations that will take action on climate change come October 10.

Barbados: Flooding Issues

  5 October 2010

“More and more areas are now viewing flooding as a ‘normal’ event. We have forgotten that this is not the way it was even five or ten years ago”: Barbados Free Press applauds a gardening blog for reminding Barbadians of how things might be; Jamaican diaspora blogger Grasshopper Eyes the...

Macedonia: Continuing Horror in Mental Health Institutions

  5 October 2010

On her blog Humans Null and Void, journalist Yana Buhrer Tavanier exposes the situation in the “institutions for adults with intellectual and mental health disabilities in Macedonia, where the lack of care, abuse, filth and neglect are all miserably present.” Reacting, Judith Klein asks: “How many more horror stories do...