Monthly Archives: September 2015

David Leeming — 1 Comment
26
Sep 15

Tweeting for West Papua during the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum

by David Leeming

Coverage by Radio New Zealand International

Coverage by Radio New Zealand International

West Papua, the western half of the island of New Guinea, is a disputed territory which was annexed by Indonesia from the Netherlands in 1968. West Papua is now a province of Indonesia, and its history parallels that of neighbouring Timor Leste which was also annexed by Indonesia a few years later, but which won independence in 2000 following an epic campaign of resistance during which at least 100,000 people were killed. For West Papua, the struggle continues with worrying incidents reported as recently as March 2015. Continue reading →

Christos Mavraganis — 2 Comments
26
Sep 15

The borders of human dignity

by Christos Mavraganis

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Aylan Kurdi as an angel – Reuters

The historians of the future will probably refer to the year 2015 as the outburst of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The war in Syria is in full swing and as a result thousands of Syrian citizens are playing -on a daily basis- the ‘russian roulette’ of escaping the country, mostly by boats. Italy and Greece are the first destinations, before the big dream of the so called developed Europe. This phenomenon, which is related to multiple development issues, is not of course something new. Continue reading →

David Leeming — 2 Comments
25
Sep 15

Social media activism and international diplomacy

by David Leeming

Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño with freedom technologist Julian Assange [1]

 It is certainly true that the new and social media have transformed our lives in many ways. Whether or not you agree that the new technology has been a net benefit for political movements and activists, or believe in a more complicated, nuanced outcome as Zeynep Tuekci argues, we can’t deny the spectacular way the  Occupy movement was able to mobilise tens of thousands of protesters to symbolically reclaim public spaces and creatively bypass authority. Another recent example of social media put to good use for political mobilisation was the use of the NationBuilder software in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Leadership campaign. Continue reading →

Lidia Naskova — 2 Comments
20
Sep 15

Can new media activism promote social change?

By Lidia Naskova

WordItOut-word-cloud-1111792

Created at www.worditout.com

During the last decades, we have seen how new technologies have altered as well as eased the ways of how we can communicate with each other around the world. This blog, for example, is a perfect sign of what new types of media really enables us to do. We are four people, situated in four different places around the world and we are still able to communicate our thoughts to each other regarding new media, activism and development and we may choose who to share this information with. Continue reading →

David Leeming — 2 Comments
17
Sep 15

Indigenous media as a form of social change activism

by David Leeming

The Australian film Tanna, co-directed by Dean and Martin Butler and made in collaboration with the Yakel people of Tanna, Vanuatu, has won two major prizes at the Venice Film Festival, writes Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian.

I can’t wait to see this film which promises authentic representation of island life portrayed with rich and entertaining drama.The film joins ranks with a growing number of “indigenous” Pacific Islands films:

“Shot entirely in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu ..(the film).. is based on dramatic events that took place on the eponymous volcanic island in 1987 (and) weaves fascinating details of tribal life into a universally accessible and emotionally affecting romantic drama,”

Richard Kuipers, Variety 

Hearing about the film led me to reflect on a critical analysis of an other film in the same genre, Hereniko’s Rotuman film The Land Has Eyes, that I had conducted as part of my studies earlier this year, and to make connections with the subject of this blog; new media and activism. Continue reading →

Uncategorized — Comments Off on Hello [glocal] world!
10
Sep 15

Hello [glocal] world!

Created by Mike Rundberg and edited by Muhammad Al-Waeli

The first blogpost in many blogs doesn’t differ much (in meaning) from this one:

Welcome to Malmö Högskola Blogg Sites. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

I allowed my self to slightly modify the title that traditionally is “hello world” and change it to “hello glocal world”. After starting to study COMDEV, the concept of glocalization has become for me a new way of looking at the world, rather that just thinking of it as a global village. The interaction between global and the local, accelerated through the globalization processes, is what makes our world what it is today.

Continue reading →