Stories from 12 January 2011
Important Facebook Addresses in South Korea
South Korean net users have gathered Facebook addresses of important organizations, political figures, businessmen and media people, South Korea's citizen media Wiki Tree posted here[ko].
Nigeria: BarCamp Nigeria 2011
BarCamp Nigeria 2011: “The Barcamp Nigeria team is proud to announce the schedule for 2011 Barcamp events. The event was successfully organized two editions in 2009 and 2010, and having listened to the yearnings of tech professionals for engaging events, we are poised to take it further in 2011…”
Jamaica, U.S.A.: Constitutional Rights & Wrongs
“The constitutional right to bear arms has had another of those unsurprising consequences…”: Grasshopper Eyes The Potomac thinks that the U.S. needs to “again look into its popular mirror.”
Cote D’Ivoire: From grandiose lifestyle to Gbagbo’s madness
What happened to Cote D’Ivoire?: “Back in the late 1990s, one of the popular countries I often heard about, apart from Nigeria, was Cote D’Ivoire. The French speaking West African country was considered a heaven on earth by most Ghanaian women.”
Africa: Visual Representation of Africa
African Lens is a project that seeks to tell the story of Africa through visual elements which captures the essence of everyday lives: “Content is contributed by you and photojournalists who travel across the continent.”
France, Tunisia: Has the Minister of Foreign Affairs Lost Her Mind?
The French and North African blogosphere and twittosphere reacted violently to the statement by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Michelle Alliot-Marie who proposed at the French national assembly that France offers “technical support” and “the know-how of the French police” to the Tunisian police regarding the current uprising in...
Russia: Internet for Tatar Diaspora
Paul Goble writes about the role of the Internet in connecting dispersed Tatar communities both in Russia and abroad. “… the Tatnet is thus serving as a virtual space in which all of them can come together, something Tatars in Kazan have long dreamed of but up until now they...
China: Ai Weiwei's Shanghai studio demolished
After a second day of demolition, little remains of artist Ai Weiwei‘s Shanghai studio. Photo from Twitter user @duyanpili.
Brazil: Still the Guerrilla Against Folha de São Paulo
Update on GV's post Brazil: Newspaper Folha de São Paulo censors satirical blog: Not happy with the newspaper's Ombudsman accusations [pt], saying that the satirical blog was “coarse”, “appealing”, “insulting” and from “guerrilla fighters”, one of its creators, Lino Bocchini, answers back in the blog Desculpe Nossa Falha [Forgive Our...
China and Korea: New Status Quo on the Sino-North Korean Border
Adam Cathcart from Sinologistical Violoncellist looks into the commercial deals between China and North Korea and predicts that a new status quo is setting up in Northeast Asia.
Brazil: Does democracy respect its religious minorities?
Sakamoto reflects [pt] on the news by Folha de São Paulo about Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff's withdrawal of a bible and a crucifix from her office: “State must ensure that all religions are free to exercise their worship”. The news was biased , as Cris Rodrigues explains [pt] in #dilmafactsbyfolha.
China: Propaganda department orders to ban “civil society”
A number of media outlets reported that the Chinese propaganda department has issued directive instructing Chinese media not to use the term “civil society”. China Media Project analyses how the instruction is implemented.
Mozambique: Drugs and open secrets “wikileaked”
Documents made available by Wikileaks reignited scrutiny of a Mozambican businessman earlier accused by the US Treasury of large-scale narcotics smuggling. However the leaked documents also suggest complicity by high-level cabinet officials. Bloggers, activists and parliamentarians reacted strongly.
Armenia: Gay Russia
Unzipped: Gay Armenia reviews a documentary from three years ago on homosexuality in Russia. However, the blog notes, two of the gay men documented in the film are Armenians and concludes that it would be useful to screen the film in Armenia proper.
Tunisia: Whisperings of Coup Just Rumor
Early Wednesday morning, January 12, reports of a coup in Tunisia spread like wildfire on Twitter. The reports have now been confirmed to be a rumor - spread by the wishful thinking of Tunisians, who have been protesting against the Ben Ali regime since the middle of December.
Taiwan: Petrochemical industry pays for blog posts
Michael Turton writes about how the Taiwan Green Party accused the government of paying bloggers to write about a visit to petrochemical plants. Green Party member Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) says the practice is greenwashing [zh-tw] and accused the government and corporations of forming a “$5,000 Party” (五千黨) [zh-tw].
