7 May 2013

Stories from 7 May 2013

Crowdsourcing a Fair Election in Bulgaria

In less than five days, on May 12, Bulgarian citizens will elect a new parliament. There are doubts, however, about the fairness of the upcoming vote. To help monitor the violations of the electoral process, Bulgarian activists have created several online tools. Ruslan Trad reports.

7 May 2013

US Invitation to Sudanese Official Draws Wide Condemnation

The United States government faced a wave of criticism when news surfaced about an official invitation it has extended to a senior delegation of the Sudanese government, particularly including Nafie Ali Nafie, Sudan's ruling party controversial strongman and Presidential adviser to President Omar Hasan al-Bashir.

7 May 2013

Yemen: Open Letter to Obama

Yemeni blogger Noon Arabia writes an open letter to US President Barak Obama in which she says: All Yemenis are against terrorism and condemn Al-Qaeda, yet are also against the...

7 May 2013

Remembering Dennis Kimambo

Rising Voices

We're sad to report the untimely death of Dennis Kimambo from the Rising Voices grantee project REPACTED in Nakuru, Kenya. Close friend and colleague Janet Feldman writes this tribute to the life and work of Dennis.

7 May 2013

The Team Tanzania TV Drama Series

The Team Tanzania is a TV drama series about: […] Ms. Wito, a dynamic civics teacher, who turns the world of 3 teenagers upside down when she challenges them with...

7 May 2013

Photos of Modern-Day El Salvador

These are not pictures for tourism purposes — these are pictures to educate and illustrate issues facing modern day El Salvador. Tim's El Salvador Blog links to a collection of...

7 May 2013

Lebanon's Happy Offshore Oil Billboards

Qifa Nabki writes: “Lebanon’s Ministry of Energy and Water has launched a new [billboard] campaign promoting the benefits of off-shore oil exploration for the average citizen. The ads contain shots of...

7 May 2013

Lebanon's Migrant Workers Mark May Day

KAFA (Enough Racism and Violence) posted [Ar] that the migrant domestic workers in Beirut celebrated Labor's Day by holding a demonstration in which they demanded an end to the Kafala...

7 May 2013

Social Media and Sarcasm in Lebanon

The Eleventh Room posted some funny tweets about Beirut’s first Social Media Awards event. They said the Social Media Awards hashtag #SMABeirut was going strong on Twitter days after the event....

7 May 2013

Lebanon's First Social Media Awards

Najib at Blog Baladi won the “Blog of the Year” award in Beirut's first Social Media Awards event. He wrote this post about the ceremony in general with comments on some aspects of its organization. He also includes comments...

7 May 2013

Turf War Brewing in Brazil Over Corruption Investigations

On the heels of a landmark corruption case in Brazil that saw former members of ex-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government convicted of participating in a vote-buying scheme, a proposed constitutional amendment in Brazil would hand over much of the investigative powers of the public prosecutors' office, which prosecuted that case, to police.

7 May 2013

Avoid Mycetism, Mushroom Pickers!

“Never eat overripe, clammy, flabby, wormy or spoiled mushrooms,” writes Ian Claytor, translating advice from Kyrgyzstan's Department for Disease Prevention and Expertise in his blog, Postcard from Bishkek. With the mushroom picking season underway...

7 May 2013

New Captain for West Indies Cricket

The West Indies Cricket Board has announced its team for the upcoming International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy, but what has the region talking is the decision to replace St. Lucian Darren Sammy with Trinidad-born all rounder Dwayne Bravo as captain of the One Day International (ODI) team.

7 May 2013