12 April 2011

Stories from 12 April 2011

Brazil: The Wikicity of Porto Alegre

PortoAlegre.cc [pt] is a platform for “understanding, debating, inspiring and transforming [Porto Alegre]” based on the concept of Wikicity. The platform was designed in the Brazilian university Vale do Rio...

12 April 2011

Belarus: Beyond Bomb or Blast

RuNet Echo

Even before the smoke from Monday's Minsk Metro blast dispersed, the dual question of: "What is to be done? - Who is to blame?" arose in the Belarusian blogosphere. Two major strands of thought dominate, blaming either President Lukashenko or the political opposition, although a deeper sentiment of sympathy for the victims seems to unite the people of Minsk.

12 April 2011

Peru: Reactions Following the First 2011 Electoral Round

After celebrating the elections in Peru, the results indicate a second round between Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori. Bloggers, candidates, and analysts coincide that the result is principally a "vote of punishment" for the economic policies managed by governments in recent years, that have fomented growth and created a new economic prosperity that does not reach everyone.

12 April 2011

Cuba: No Questions Asked

“We have to see Fidel Castro as a piece of living history. A stream of bright ideas…the only comandante. The man who never makes mistakes”: Iván García would like to...

12 April 2011

Colombia: Citizens Reject Proposal to Reform Higher Education Law 30

Colombian President Santos' proposal to reform the Higher Education Law 30 has not been received well. Despite some accepting it, the loudest voices heard, online and in the streets, have been the opposition. This past April 7 a national march was held; at the same time, netizens share their concerns on blogs, videos, web pages and other social media.

12 April 2011

Fukushima: Public Criticism and a Rising Anger

Open protests against Tepco as operator and the government as monitor had been relatively muted until recently, but this has now changed. For many foreigners however, used to much bigger numbers of demonstrators in their own countries, doubts remain. Why do Japanese people seem so reluctant to criticize the company and industry responsible for this man made disaster and the government which let it all happen?

12 April 2011

Zimbabwe: No hope for security sector reforms

Sokwanele has no hope for security sector reforms in Zimbabwe: “Zimbabwe’s security forces comprise the Central Intelligence Organisation, Zimbabwe National Army, Airforce of Zimbabwe, Police and the Prisons, whose commanders...

12 April 2011

Belarus: Reactions to Subway Explosion

RuNet Echo

A bomb blast inside the Oktyabrskaya station of the Minsk metro has so far left 11 dead and wounded hundreds. Ashley Cleek had been collecting information and bloggers' reactions in the chaos that followed the event.

12 April 2011

Uganda: “Mary the elephant” killed

“Window shopping elephant” in Uganda has been killed: “The female elephant, recently risen to fame when pictures were published in the Uganda media about walking along the Katunguru roadside stores,...

12 April 2011

Côte d'Ivoire: Laurent Gbagbo's Fall

On April 11 2011, Laurent Gbagbo was arrested at his residence in Cocody, with his wife, Simone, and their close entourage. The crisis that plagued the country has now seemingly found its epilogue. The sequence of events that led to Ggagbo's arrest was documented in details by online videos and intensely commented on the web.

12 April 2011

South Koreans Baffled By Five Consecutive University Suicides

South Koreans are buzzing over recurring suicides which occurred in one prestigious university. The school's unique penalty tuition system which was adopted by the president of the school also went under fire for driving students to extreme stress, even to the death.

12 April 2011

Egypt: “We are all Maikel Nabil”

The sentencing of blogger Maikel Nabil to 3 years in prison by a military tribunal in closed session for criticizing the army, two days after a bloody crackdown in Tahrir Square, has Egyptian netizens in an uproar, exercising their newfound free speech rights while seeing them being threatened

12 April 2011