15 May 2012

Stories from 15 May 2012

Caribbean: Supporting Our Mothers

Mother's Day, celebrated this past weekend all across the Caribbean, was a hot topic of discussion with regional bloggers - or rather, mothers were. From posts of admiration and thanks to accounts of how women regularly defy oppression, it was a mixed bag, but one that mothers everywhere would have been happy to sample from…

15 May 2012

Africa: Development or Democracy, Which Comes First?

The question of whether Africa needs to sacrifice democracy in order to focus on economic development has become the subject of much discussion online after the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi claimed at the World Economic Forum that there is no relationship between economic growth and democracy.

15 May 2012

China: Propaganda Against U.S. Ambassador Backfires

Since the escape of blind civic rights activist Chen Guangcheng into the U.S embassy, the U.S Ambassador Gary Locke has become the major target for media attack in Bejing. However, so far each piece of political propaganda has resulted in a backfire.

15 May 2012

Brazil: ‘Hands That Cure, Words That Heal’

With their herbs, gestures, prayers and comforting words, folk healing is an important element of Brazilian culture. Although some people believe that traditional healing art is disappearing, folk healers from two Brazilian cities have just had their activities recognised by pioneering laws.

15 May 2012

Latin America: Art from the Colonial Period in 2.0

We present a sample of the numerous blogs, videos and internet sites dedicated to promoting knowledge about colonial period art, a common artistic denominator for the majority of the American continent, the individual indigenous cultures of which first adopted and then adapted as their own.

15 May 2012

Russia: Duma Deputy Wants Criminal Liability for Extremist Tweets

RuNet Echo

Yesterday, on May 14, Aleksandr Khinshtein, a Duma deputy and member of United Russia, wrote a letter to Yuri Chaika, the Prosecutor General of Russia. In that letter, Khinshtein noted emerging extremist trends on Twitter and Facebook, and called on the state to prosecute users who advocate violence and other illegal acts.

15 May 2012

Iran: A blogger was arrested

Iranian cyber police (Fata) announced [fa] a blogger in the northern city of Rasht was arrested. The blogger was accused of writing in his blog against Rasht's authorities and trying...

15 May 2012

India: Cricket Or Wife

Jaspreet discusses how some Indian men have to balance between their love for cricket and obviously for their wife.

15 May 2012

Bangladesh: Economic of Marriage payments

“There are two kinds of marriage payments — dowry and brideprice, with significant differences among their prevalences in time and across societies,” – informs J. Rahman at Mukti.

15 May 2012