27 May 2013

Stories from 27 May 2013

From Guinea to Italy to France and Back: An Interview with Blogger Abdoulaye Bah

Global Voices author and translator Abdoulaye Bah, originally from Guinea, is a retired Italian citizen who has worked for the United Nations. He now splits his time between Rome and Nice. We spoke with Bah about his life, from his experience hiding in a bathroom to enter Italy without the proper papers, to his marriage in the Vatican, from his blog to his multi-belief family.

27 May 2013

YouTube Blocked in Tajikistan After Video of President Dancing Goes Viral

As tensions surrounding elections slated for November continue to poison the political mood in Tajikistan, a video of President Emomali Rahmon singing and dancing at his son's wedding has gone viral, giving opposition figures yet another reason to criticize the excesses of the ruling family and the Tajik authorities yet another reason to block the video-sharing platform YouTube. The wedding took place in 2007, but the video was uploaded to YouTube on May 18, 2013.

27 May 2013

Yemen: Two Men Killed for Overtaking a Sheikh's Wedding Convoy

Two young Yemeni men were killed last week for bypassing a wedding procession of a Sheikh (tribal leader) in Yemen's capital Sanaa. Khalid Al-Khateeb and his friend Hassan Aman were driving in their car when they came across a tribal wedding procession and were shot to death for over-taking the convoy. The wedding convoy belonged to Sheikh Ali Abd Rabo Al-Awadhi, a member in Yemen's Islah party and a member of the National Dialogue. The murder sparked an outrage among netizens and activists.

27 May 2013

Trinidad Startup Weekend

Left & Right: “It was so clear, at that moment, that I had joined a community in a way that can only be described as becoming part of a family.”

27 May 2013

Amnesty Publishes 2013 Report on Angola

Amnesty International annual report on Angola is available online. The NGO highlights cases such as the problem of police repression against the opposition parties during the presidential election last year,...

27 May 2013

Demanding Transparency is Not a Crime

A number of citizen right advocates issued a public statement demanding the release of 10 citizens who were arrested for demanding officials to publicly disclose their personal assets. Seeing Red...

27 May 2013

Indonesia: Gamelan DJ Musical App

Developed by Yogyakarta-based Kowplink Studio, the Gamelan DJ mobile application “mix and mash tight beats, harmonies and melodies of saron.” In addition, “by touching beats pad mix with acapella &...

27 May 2013

‘Illegal” Libraries in Myanmar

The Irrawaddy interviews Ye Htet Oo who has launched four mobile libraries in Myanmar. To avoid censorship and acquire license during the military regime, library owners pretended to operate bookstores....

27 May 2013