17 May 2012

Stories from 17 May 2012

Togo : Presidential Patrimony versus University Facilities

  17 May 2012

Commenting on the declaration of assets of the new French President Francois Hollande, Jeogo  wrote [fr]: “What is certain is that the patrimony of Francois Hollande (..) is no match for the patrimony of the “big shots “of the Togolese Republic (..) yet the crowded university is still without air-conditioned computer rooms; one room...

Georgia: No Sex and the City

No Sex and the City — Georgian Liberal (an oxymoron) blog comments on the physical confrontation between priests accompanying religious parents and LGBT activists marching in Tbilisi, Georgia. The blog details events as they happened, including the alleged inaction of the Georgian police when they were asked to intervene to...

Lesotho: 2012 General Election Date Set

  17 May 2012

Lesotho will hold general elections on 26 May, against a backdrop of political violence. The Lesotho Political Parties Leadership Forum claims that there is a “hit squad” that has been assigned to kill prominent people ahead of the general elections.

Mozambique: Police Chief Sitting Above the Law

  17 May 2012

The intransigence of Jorge Khalau, Commander in Chief of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique, who stated that police forces are governed by his rules and should not comply with any court order, shocked the public opinion in the beginning of May.

Bolivia: Web 2.0 Workshops for Aymara School Teachers

  17 May 2012

In early May 2012, a series of Web 2.0 workshops were held for Education professors from the Teacher Training Superior School (ESFM for its initials in Spanish). The event's objective was to help the professors and their students begin to create digital media content in the Aymara language. Victoria Tinta from Global Voices in Aymara shares a summary of the workshop and its results.

Guatemala: A ‘Guatemaltequismo’ A Day

  17 May 2012

Mario Cordero from Diario Paranoico [es] has opened a wikispace [es] where he posts one ‘guatemaltequismo’ (word that is used in Guatemala) per day. Mario also set up a Facebook [es] page where he shares that day's ‘guatemaltequismo’.

Ghana: Will Parliament Pass Right to Information Before 2013?

  17 May 2012

Cecil Dadzie wonders whether the Ghanaian parliament will pass Right to Information Bill before 2013: “The Rights to Information Bill (RTI), which was laid before Parliament in February, 20I0, has generated controversy, with the RTI Coalition blaming Parliament for feet-dragging in passing the bill into law.”

Africa: The Golden Baobab Award

  17 May 2012

Submit your story for The Golden Baobab Award: “The Golden Boabab Award was established in 2008 to encouraged writers in Africa who specialize in books for children and young adults.”

Greece: New Interim Government

  17 May 2012

After the 6 May general elections in Greece and the failure of political parties to form even a coalition government, the interim government to be sworn on May 17 under Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos will lead the country to election again on June 17. Netizens are commenting on these events...

Lesotho: Touching Tiny Lives

  17 May 2012

Touching Tiny Lives works to mitigate the effect of HIV/AIDS on the most vulnerable infants and children under age five by supporting their health, nutritional, developmental, and emotional needs in Lesotho.

Namibia: 2012 Chess King of Namibia

  17 May 2012

Namibia has a news King of chess: “Candidate Master Charles Eichab won the National Chess Championship 2012. The 9 round National Chess Championship came to a close today, 4 May 2012 and Charles Eichab took the honors with an almost perfect score of 8.5/9 He only conceded 1 draw against...

China, Singapore: Reaction on Ferrari Crash

  17 May 2012

Recently a rich Mainland Chinese man killed three persons (including himself) in a Ferrari car crash in Singapore because of drunk driving. The incident has resulted in anti mainland Chinese sentiment in Singapore, Peter Barefoot from ChinaSMACK translated netizens’ reaction from China.

Russia: NHL Stars Return to 2012 World Hockey Championship

Undefeated after seven games, and boasting an All-Star lineup, the Russian national team will face Norway in the quarterfinal round of the 2012 World Ice Hockey Championship. Many bloggers have framed the story as a homecoming for Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin, with others reflecting on their complicated past in Russian international competition.

Ukraine: Yulia Tymoshenko's Plight and Euro 2012

There must be some corners on the web where football fans are still having apolitical discussions of Euro 2012, scheduled to take place in Poland and Ukraine from June 8 to July 1. For the past few weeks, however, the upcoming sporting event has featured prominently in arguments and discussions among those who seem more interested in the Ukrainian and European politics than sports.