Stories from 15 October 2012
Indonesia: Setback in the Fight Against Illegal Drugs?
Multibrand questions the sincerity of the Indonesian government in fighting illegal drugs after a drug trafficker was granted clemency by the president.
Controversy over Nobel Peace Prize to European Union
The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union (EU) has sparked a lively debate in the media and on social networks in Europe and the rest of the world.
Portugal: Siege to Parliament Live
Thousands of protesters in Lisbon are gathered in front of the Assembly of the Republic, in response to a call for a “Siege to São Bento [Palace]” [pt], the home to Portuguese Parliament. The protest is being livestreamed on bambuser, on Twitter the main hashtag in use is #OE13 (from State...
Portugal: Global Noise Cultural Protest in Images
In Portugal, October 13's Global Noise pot-banging protests took the form of performing arts and cultural demonstrations in 14 cities, under the motto "Screw the troika! We want our lives". In this post we gather a selection of photos and videos from the protests.
Russia: Lawmaker Wants to Regulate Social Networks
A few days ago several Russian bloggers were incensed by the idea that a Duma committee responsible for legislating the internet was going to propose a new law requiring passport identification for users of social networks.
Russia: Elections to Opposition Coordinating Council Fail to Attract Regional Voters
Leonid Volkov, the brains behind technical aspects of the coming independent opposition elections [ru], has posted an interesting bit of statistics [ru] on his blog. Out of the approximately 90,000 people currently registered to vote, 34.6% are from Moscow and Moscow Oblast, and 11.7% are from St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast....
Argentina: Guarani Leader Wins International Rural Women's Day Prize
Fionuala Cregan reports that Matilde Lucio, an indigenous leader in a Guarani community in Jujuy, in northern Argentina, “will be awarded one of 10 international prizes for her creativity in rural life” on October 15, International Day of Rural Women. Read more about Matilde and her story in Upside Down World.
Mauritania: Confusion Reigns over “Accidental” Shots that Wounded President Aziz
“@weddady: The official version on Aziz being “wounded lightly” was completely nonsense. He is seriously injured à la Dadis Camara.. #Mauritania“ Twitter update from Mauritanian activist Nasser Waddady upon hearing official reports that Mauritanian president Aziz was accidentally shot (video of Aziz at a Nouakchott hospital). Aziz was then airlifted to a...
Barbados: “Modest” Proposals for Political Reform
Instead of adopting policies merely to “keep up” with the rest of the world, we need to adopt a system which enables for maximum prioritization in preemptive motioning for our country’s long term future. “Brudah Bim” offers some proposals to reform Barbados’ political system.
India: Online Video Archive for Performing Arts
Shabda is an unique online archive of videos presenting lecture demonstrations on various Indian art forms. Inspired by the TED talk format, Shabda's creators invite experts in music, dance or theatre to give a lecture on the topic of their choice for twenty minutes.
Montenegro: General Elections 2012
BalkanInsight's live blog [en] of this past Sunday's parliamentary elections in Montenegro ends its coverage with this summary: […] No surprises in the Montenegro elections, if the preliminary results are confirmed. [Milo Djukanovic] looks set to continue to dominate the political landscape as he has done for more than two...
Jamaica: Who's a Minority?
The sad irony of race in Jamaica is that numerical minorities tend to hog the majority of social space in so many arenas. Carolyn Cooper deals with the response to her column dealing with the projection of a multiracial Jamaica.
Costa Rica Advances in Legislation for Wildlife Protection
Costa Rica is advancing in legislation to protect wildlife. On October 10, President Laura Chinchilla signed a decree that strengthens the controls on shark finning in Costa Rican waters. Furthermore, on October 2, the Legislative Assembly approved the first reading of a reform for the Wildlife Conservation Law, which proposes the elimination of hunting sports in the country.
It's Blog Action Day! Celebrate the “Power Of We”
Every year, bloggers around the world join forces and write about one topic, on one day, to reach a collective audience of millions. It's Blog Action Day today, and we're tracking entries by Global Voices bloggers everywhere.
Madagascar: Global Voices in Malagasy Reaches Milestone
Lingua project Global Voices in Malagasy has just published its 5,000th post. The project was started on September 12, 2007 and was one of the first African lingua project. There are currently 16 active Malagasy translators, among them is one of the youngest Global Voices translator, 16-year-old Radifera Felana Candy.
Angola: Elinga Theatre, from Glory to Oblivion
For 24 years the Elinga Theatre kept its doors open to promote and develop theatre and the imagination in Angola. Like other historical buildings in Luanda, the Elinga is also under threat of demolition to give way to modernisation, which has given rise to negative reactions on the Internet.
Blogger's Visit to Tokyo's Rare Korean Book Center
North Korea Tech blogger posted about his visit to a small and rare book center in Japan archiving documents and contents related to North Korea.
Taiwan: Media Workers Act to Save Journalistic Autonomy
In response to the erosion of journalistic autonomy, professional journalists, scholars and independent media workers start to put forward concrete plans and take action to save professional journalism.
China: Is Mo Yan a Stooge of the Chinese Government?
Mo may not be a ‘dissident’ in the model of Liu Xiaobo or Vaclav Havel, but his work is filled with depictions of the venality, cruelty, and stupidity of power and authority. Brendan O'Kane from Rectified.name explains why 2012 Nobel Literature Prize winner Mo yan is NOT a stooge for...
China: Cross-province News Censorship
Jing Gao from Ministry of Tofu explains how the Fujian government extended its black hand to Yunnan to stop the publication of a news story that exposes the corruption of a Fujian government official.
Hong Kong: A Fight between Dogs and Locusts
In reaction to the “locust” label put on mainland Chinese by some Hong Kong people, a mainland Chinese student in Hong Kong recently called Hongkongers “dogs”. Dictionary of politically incorrect Hong Kong Cantonese translated the fight.
