Stories from December, 2010
Africa: Formal education is not advancing Africa
Nana argues that formal education is not advancing Africa: “Let’s admit it – formal education in Ghana and much of Africa is structured to teach young people to read and write, no more.”
Algeria: What is Happening in Tunisia?
Algerian-American The Moor Next Door comments on the protests taking place in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia. “Police have attempted to block media coverage of the riots (and that the rioting is isolated and being exaggerated by the opposition), but bloggers and activists have posted pictures and video of the disturbances on the Internet,”...
Algeria: Wikileaks and Israel
Khaled Mimoune, from Algeria, tweets (Ar): “Isn't it fishy that there are no Wikileaks documents exposing Israel's scandals?”
Ghana: Who cares about District Assembly Elections?
Who cares about District Assembly Elections in Ghana?: “So is anyone worried about the District Assemble Elections??? Because no one seems to care and still government preaches that it allocates monies for development projects at that level. The public toilets remain same in Osu, a cosmopolitan suburb of Accra.”
Saudi Arabia: The Kingdom in One Sentence
From Saudi Arabia, Mustafa Hussain tweets (Ar): “Unemployment, corruption, tribalism, weak education curricula, state-owned media, full prisons, bad government services, oil which is not its own – all this and more in Saudi Arabia.”
Africa: 15 African Breakout Artists of the Year
Ladybrille's 15 African breakout artists of the year: “2010 has been a terrific year for African music and its music industry. As a quick recap, the first World Cup held on African soil put African music center stage in the homes of millions…”
Nigeria: The Nigerian “eating” class
Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye blogs about the Nigerian “eating” class: “I wanted to make money fast and live big. As I saw on television and newspapers these mostly thirty-something olds and early or mid-forty emergency billionaires who I was so certain I was more intelligent and more hardworking…”
Somalia: How do you solve a problem like Somalia?
Daniel Kalinaki discusses ways to solve a problem like Somalia in global politics: “Somalia is not a new conflict; the country ‘failed’ in 1991 and has since then been a collection of tribes and clans struggling to control the territory and the people.”
Uganda: Why I am not my tribe
UgandanInsoniac explains why she is not her tribe: “They say I am trying to be a mzungu by asserting that I have no tribe. They accuse me of denying my heritage and have called me pretentious, arrogant and stupid. Some have even gone as far as to say I am...
Cameroon Becomes Tourism Destination
Cameroon has officially become a tourism destination: “The country registered more than 500,000 tourists in 2010, a figure required by international norms to become a tourism destination.”
Nigeria: The New Face Of The Niger Delta Insurgency Speaks To SaharaReporters
Sahara Reporters speak to “General” John Togo, the leader of a newly created militant group known as the Niger Delta Liberation Force (NDLF).
Africa: Looted African artefacts belong to Africans
Sign an online petition that has been created to build on a recent petition to stop an auction house, Sotheby’s from selling a 16th Century Benin Mask.
Africa: MDGTagger available in Swahili
MDGTagger, a simple tool to help people track Millennium Development Goals is now available in Swahili: “After quite a bit of searching we found an ‘official’ translation of the the Millennium Development Goals translated into Kiswahilli here. So we now have the MDGTagger available to Swahili speakers!”
Kenya: Internet and mobile to be the future of stock trading
The future of stock trading in Kenya is going to be via the Internet and mobile phone applications: “Kenyans are fast with technology and moved en masse to leapfrog the rest of the world and adopt new technology for mobile money transfers.”
Ukrainian Blogosphere 2010: Still Enough Room for Everyone
Tetyana Bohdanova translates reports on the state of the Ukrainian blogosphere and the situation with other social media tools in Ukraine.
Taiwan: Concerns about press freedom
Media freedom has come into the spotlight in Taiwan recently. Michael Turton has a good summary of the issues. A Taipei Times reporter writes about how the proposed changes to the child welfare law would affect her work.
Latin America: 2010 in Review
An 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile, a police strike in Ecuador and the Nobel Prize in Literature for Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa were some of the news bloggers and citizen media users reported and analyzed this year. Let's take a look at these and other stories the Latin American team covered in 2010.
Nigeria: Controversy Over the Sale of Stolen Benin Mask
Online activists have been protesting against the proposed auction of six pieces of stolen artworks including the mask of Queen Idia – the first Queen Mother of Benin, Nigeria.
Bahamas: Junkanoo colours
Bahamaboy posts images of Junkanoo — the traditional year-end masquerade celebrated in Nassau and other parts of the Bahamas — at Flickr.
Bermuda: bird's eye view
FreshieBlog posts high-resolution aerial photographs of Bermuda from 1940 and 1973, “a valuable tool for seeing how Bermuda has developed over the past 70 years.”
Caribbean: environmantal atlas
Repeating Islands links to a new Latin America and the Caribbean Atlas of our Changing Environment, published by the United Nations Environment Programme, which “uses over 200 images to highlight the region’s diverse ecosystems.”