Blogs & Ecology

A short video pays tribute to a young activist and nursing graduate who was killed while attending to the heath needs of a rural town in the Philippines.

“To me, a different family means people living on the edge of society. These people may have no home, no jobs. They may be doing drugs, their neighbors may hate them, and they may be banned from entering a theater because of their inappropriate looks. But within such families, love and caring relationship still reign […].”

This is how Irina Popova, a Russian photographer, describes (RUS) the subjects of her “Different Family” project, currently on exhibit in St. Petersburg - and also available online here (23 photos) and on PhotoPolygon.com portal (15 photos).

Tunisian blogger, Sami Ben Gharbia, published a video explaining the role of the Egyptian blogsphere in exposing human rights abuses and the role of the social-networking website Facebook and the micro-blogging platform.

Here's the video:

And here's what Ben Gharbia, who is Global Voices Advocacy editor, wrote:

Word is out that every Egyptian citizen who is over 21 years old will own a part of Egypt's public sector companies and factories. The announcement has been the core topic of talk shows and has made its way to the blogosphere.

Zeinobia wrote a post titled “To sell your country in an auction” saying:

The American University’s School of Communication Center for Social Media posts an entry on the potential to counter a constrained and often politicized or controlled media in the South Caucasus and especially to promote peace-building in the war torn region. Blogs are included as one of five key areas that need to be developed in order to do so.

Brazilian bloggers and netizens took to the streets of São Paulo to protest against the Digital Crimes Bill, which typifies the cyber-crimes punishable by law and stipulates penalties accordingly. They claim the law has so many flaws that, instead of punishing real criminals, it might end up deeming as crime trivial conduct when surfing the Internet. Proposed by senator Eduardo Azeredo, the bill has passed through the Senate, has proceeded to the House of Representatives and has been labeled as urgent, which means that voting might happen at any time.

The crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has flared up once again: 10 years of tension, on-and-off warfare and violence have taken their toll on the population, who are being displaced yet one more time. More than 5 million people have died during this warfare, thousands of women have been raped, and thousands of children have been recruited as children soldiers. On the following videos we bring you calls for action from the DRC citizens pleading with us to take a stand to stop the humanitarian crisis in the DRC.

A group of Iranian professors in cooperation with colleagues at other universities, have launched a blog called [fa] Professors against Plagiarism. They are asking university colleagues everywhere to join and help them in their efforts. Read more here.

With stereotypes and alternate and usually contradictory as well as inaccurate perceptions of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh still prevalent in both societies, a new online youth media project has been set up by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State to be implemented by Project Harmony.

Egypt has launched a fierce campaign against sexual harassment in the aftermath of the recent events here, here, here, here, and here. But people working in the media industry do not seem to get the idea.

Bent Masreya wrote:

I found out the way most Egyptians find things out that there is a lawsuit against Al Azhar calling for devalidating 25,000 Muslim Hadiths. The idea reminded me of the saying that wonders why words should be taken to court?

علمتُ كيفما يعلم المصريون، أن دعوى قضائية على الأزهر قد رفعت لمطالبته بإلغاء 25 ألف حديث نبوي. فتذكرت لتوي قول القائل “لم يؤخذ الكلام إلى المحكمة؟”..

The Egyptian blogger goes on to question the idea

Konbit Pou Ayiti says that “although most of the world has moved on from the tragic stories of the four powerful storms that thrashed Haiti in August and September, Haitians certainly have not. In Gonaives, people are still living on the roofs of homes that are covered in mud. In the south and southeast, hunger that was once a part of daily life is now becoming famine…”

Womanish Words hears “a wonderful sound…the raucous cries of wild Bahama Parrots in (her) Avocado tree. Real, honest-to-the-Goddess, wild parrots, the ones that are highly endangered…but by some miracle there is now at least one flock of these beautiful, rare birds alive and well on New Providence.”

The furor surrounding the Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister's recent radio station visit has not abated.

Blesh Family in Haiti makes a visit to the General Hospital where some of the victims of the Petionville school collapse were taken: “We are glad we went & it was nice to be able to get the kids to smile but the situation is so devastating. Many of the parents had multiple children in the school…it was heartbreaking.