22 May 2013

Stories from 22 May 2013

Promises of Social Justice for India's Landless

  22 May 2013

As rapid industrialization and development in India snatches up land and livelihoods, activist groups such as Ekta Parishad have loudly campaigned on behalf of the landless and homeless and pressured the government into reform.

Private Plane Trip Rocks Costa Rican Government

  22 May 2013

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla has been questioned for using a private airplane owned by a company linked to a businessman who is allegedly involved with drug trafficking in Colombia. Some of the President's closest officials have had to present their resignations as a result of the incident.

Free Speech and South Korea's Child Porn Law

  22 May 2013

A DeviantART website user wrote how South Korea's Children and Youth Protection law, that cracks down on child porn, can greatly undermine freedom of expression. Rough English translation appears in the latter half of the post. (There soon will be a detailed GV post on this issue)

Video: Mapping North Korea

  22 May 2013

Several months earlier, Google debuted its new crowd-sourced map of one of the most reclusive countries in the world, North Korea. Martyn Williams shared a video on his Youtube channel where Google Maps’ vice president talks about mapping North Korea.

Bahamas: Haitians are our Brothers

  22 May 2013

One of the most dastardly parts of the Atlantic slave trade was how fellow human beings were treated as as if they less than men and women. And it seems that many of us feel the same way about illegal Haitians here in The Bahamas. Weblog Bahamas’ Rick Lowe adds,...

Update on Colombia Peace Process

  22 May 2013

WOLA (Washington Office on Latin America) has published an update on the talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The report concludes: As they pass their six-month anniversary, the talks are proceeding in an atmosphere of increased, though still moderate, optimism. This will grow...

How Social Commerce Tightens China's Grip on the Internet

  22 May 2013

A deal between e-commerce firm Alibaba Group and Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblogging service, has been heralded as a jump-start to the era of social commerce in China. But it could also enable the authoritarian state to tighten its grip on the Internet.

Egypt: “Are you Happy Morsi?”

Egyptian Ahmad Khalil tweets [ar]: الكهرباء قطعت من الساعة 9.5 وبالتالى النت قطع ، لعلك سعيد يا ريس مرسى ؟؟ نحن نعيش فى العتمه والقادم اسؤأ @ahmad_khalil:The electricity has been out since 9.50am and as a result there has been no Internet. Are you happy President Morsi? We are living...

Guinea-Bissau Youth Calls for Peace

  22 May 2013

The Guinean movement Ação Cidadã (Citizen Action) [pt] released an open letter [pdf] on May 8 “from a youth who wants to have their place in their own land in peace, with the freedom and progress they are entitled.” The document calls for young Guineans to mobilize peacefully for peace, democracy...

Cadmium-Laced Rice Found in China

  22 May 2013

Rice contaminated with high levels of the toxic heavy metal cadmium, dubbed "cadmium rice," is the latest food scandal in China to trigger public panic and anger among the country's consumers.

Trinidad & Tobago: “Ordinariology”

  22 May 2013

The backlash, growing quietly by the second, apparently, against the Differentology video isn't that it's a bad video, it's that it's the wrong class of video entirely for the song. Mark Lyndersay explains why he thinks the video for the most transformative soca song of the year is simply ordinary.