13 August 2012

Stories from 13 August 2012

Nepal: Saving Migrant Workers In The Gulf

In reaction to the recent ban on Nepali female workers to the Gulf, Guffadi thinks that it is just a symbolic ban while the real culprits, the manpower agencies, roam...

13 August 2012

Afghanistan: When Bronze Means More than Gold

"In a year filled with suicide bombings, school poisonings and kidnappings, the bronze for Afghanistan was more than gold." The country celebrates its one and only Olympic winner - Bronze medalist and Taekwondo fighter Rohullah Nikpai.

13 August 2012

Nicaragua: A Blogger's Olympic Dream

Mildred Largaespada from the blog 1001 trópicos [es] shares her “Olympic dream.” In 1984, Mildred was part of Nicaragua's National Junior Basketball Team and participated in the Central American Games...

13 August 2012

Uganda: Against Odds, Gay Pride Events Take Place in Entebbe

Uganda attracted worldwide attention in 2009 when a member of parliament introduced the so-called "Kill the Gays" bill criminalizing same-sex relations, and again earlier this year, when LGBT activist David Kato was found murdered. But that didn't stop Uganda's LGBT community from holding the country's first Gay Pride events earlier this month in Entebbe.

13 August 2012

China's New ‘Black Five’ Categories – Social Threat or Core Strength?

During the Cultural Revolution in China, the term 'Five Black Categories' was used as a political label for cracking down on five social and political groups. Recently Chinese state media revived the political labels to describe human rights lawyers, underground churches and religions, dissidents, online opinion leaders and social minorities.

13 August 2012

Africa: Moving Beyond the Resource Curse

Why is it that African nations endowed with many natural resources such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria or Madagascar to name a few are also plagued with endemic poverty? This is the paradox of the resource curse, which has blighted many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

13 August 2012

Russia: Church, Lies, & Opulence

RuNet Echo

A controversial photo blog post recently documented the 70th jubilee of the director of a Church-owned factory, striking a raw nerve in a society charged by the Pussy Riot trial. The details of the affair speak to the ease of creating a narrative through the withholding of information -- particularly online.

13 August 2012