Stories from 30 August 2011
India: Reaction To The Kashmir Mass Graves
Dilip D'Souza at Death Ends Fun reacts to the news that more than 2,000 bullet-riddled bodies were found in mass graves in Kashmir.
India: Acid Survivor Denied Access To Mumbai College
Shirin Juwaley, an acid attack survivor, writes in her blog that she was recently denied entry to a Mumbai college. Dheera Sujan writes an open letter to the principal who didn’t want her students to see Shirin's face and get scared of marriages.
Nepal: Live Tweeting Miss Nepal Contest
As the 17th edition of of Miss Nepal 2011 beauty pageant took place in Kathmandu this afternoon, many Nepali Tweeps resorted to the hashtag #MissNepal2011 to live tweet the event, informs Aakar Post.
Senegal: Grants for Pilgrimage to Mecca and Rome
Mamadou Sarr on assirou.net reveals [fr] how much money Senegal provides for pilgrimages: “The Senegalese government subsidizes the pilgrimage to Mecca to the tune of 1 billion 350 million CFA Francs [around 2.8 million USD] on years when no Christian pilgrimage to Rome is organised, and 1 billion CFA [around...
Bangladesh: Coming Home For Eid
Eid is the biggest religious festival in the Muslim majority country Bangladesh, and a key part of the celebration is going home to celebrate with family in distant places. Bijoy has a roundup of Bangla blog reactions on the struggle, frustration and the joy of reaching home to celebrate Eid.
Chile: Mapuche Youth Takeover Municipal Building
Katie Manning from Mi Voz reports that forty Mapuche teenagers have staged a takeover –toma in Spanish– in Ercilla: “Since August 19, the 11-to-17-year-olds occupied the town’s government center. They’re not giving it back, they said, until Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter hears out their grievances over the “constant police presence”...
Latin America: Remembering the Missing on the International Day of the Disappeared
August 30 is the International Day of the Disappeared; The Latin Americanist blogs about current cases of disappearances in Mexico and Argentina.
China: Who Could Have Known The Libyans Hate Gaddafi?
One of China's top military analysts at home, has turned the official line on Libya into something of a joke, and abroad, China's nominal support for Gaddafi may end up costing the country oil contracts and much more. Netizens look at the lessons Beijing could stand to learn.
Cuba: Sixth Sunday vs. Women
“This Sunday August 28th was the 6th consecutive Sunday in which dozens of dissidents -mainly women- have been violently attacked by the regime’s forces. And, each passing day, the methods of repression are more ‘sophisticated’”: Pedazos de La Isla explains.
Jamaica: Collaborative Documentary for Independence
“Next year both Jamaica and I turn 50″: Labrish blogs about “a fabulous idea to celebrate Jamaica's independence.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Missed Opportunity re: Teen Video?
Another blogger weighs in on the Granny Quila video: “Yes this girl did a pile…having said that, it would have been a perfect opportunity to show the compassionate side of the State of Emergency, and used as an chance to reach out to disaffected youth.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Saving a Life
Tattoo puts out a moral test because of recent events that allegedly led to the current state of emergency.
Cuba: Las Damas & the Archbishop
Uncommon Sense says that the fact that the leader of The Ladies in White has had to approach Havana's cardinal “to intercede…to halt the summerlong repression of the Damas and their allies…reveals everything there is wrong with the prelate.”
Iran: Rogue SSL certificate and Iranian dissidents
Internet users and dissidents in Iran are believed to be at particular risk from the rogue SSL certificate, which is used to digitally “sign” HTTPS connections to any google.com site and was issued by a Dutch company called DigiNotar on 10 July. Read more here.
Brazil: Bank Account of Google Blocked Due to “Offensive” Blogs
The courts in the Brazilian state of Ceará blocked access to $140,000 in the accounts of Google Brasil after the company refused to take down a series of blogs deemed offensive toward the mayor of Várzea Alegre, José Máximo de Carvalho, reports the blog Journalism in the Americas .
Brazil: Blogging on Poetry
The Brazilian professor Nelson Souzza, on his blog Literatura & Linguagens (Literature and Languages) [pt], writes literary and historic analyses of lusophone poetry, with a focus on famous Portuguese and Brazilian writers and musicians.
Russia: Bloggers React to the Storming of Tripoli
Compared to April 2011, when Global Voices first analyzed Russian reactions on the conflict, opinions seem to be more polarised now; bloggers had divided into two distinctive groups of supporters and opponents of Colonel Gaddafi. Alexey Sidorenko investigates.
Blog Carnival: Mexico – Citizen Media on the Scene
This second post reporting on the 2011 Blog Carnival, summarizes opinions of Mexican bloggers on the way media covers violence, and above all, on the role of citizen media in this violent context.
Brazil: Mozambique Cedes Land to Brazilian Agribusiness
Mozambique is ceding 6 million hectares of land to Brazilian farmers. The idea is to draw on the Brazilian experience in the Cerrado, a biosphere similar to the African savanna, where industrial cattle grazing and soy plantations have already devastated 80% of the richest grasslands in the world.
Philippines: Human Rights Documentation Project
Testigo is an online human rights documentation system that seeks to monitor and gather human rights related information in the Philippines.
Philippines: Family of Slain Journalist Launches Signature Campaign
The family of slain journalist and environmentalist Dr. Gerry Ortega has launched a one million signature campaign in the internet to protest the recommendation of the government panel to exonerate the main suspects who were implicated in the crime.