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Christos Mavraganis — 2 Comments
26
Oct 15

Māori people: Can the new media make their heritage immortal?

by Christos Mavraganis

If you visit govt.nz and go to the “History, culture and heritage” section, there is a folder, called “Māori language, culture and heritage”. Sometimes there is neither a need for fancy words, nor jazzy introductions to prove how much a country appreciates the historical importance of its heritage. Sometimes just 17 simple words can do the job: “Māori culture is a big part of NZ’s identity, so respecting, preserving and promoting it is vital”.

maori1

Photo by newzealand.com

For those who are not familiar, Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, who as the website describes, “came to Aotearoa (the most widely known and accepted Māori name for the entire country) from Polynesia in the 13th century and created a new language and culture”. Continue reading →

Muhammad Al Waeli — 3 Comments
20
Oct 15

Reflections on the Future of ComDev and Social Action

by Muhammad Al-Waeli

In the 15th Anniversary ComDev seminar that was held from 18-19 of September in Malmö, lot of important points and reflections were made. Tobias Denskus made an interesting talk about the future of ComDev, as a field and as a practice. This post completes the ideas and comments that were made in the Q&A session after the talk.

In general, all experts in the field of ComDev seem to agree that there are no clear boundaries for the field and that what ever could be counted as a boundary, is in fact constantly moving.

Continue reading →

Christos Mavraganis — 1 Comment
19
Oct 15

Social m-INDIA

by Christos Mavraganis

Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi is going… social and he proved that during his trip at the ‘mecca of technology’, Silicon Valley.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speak on stage during a town hall at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California

Narendra Modi with Mark Zuckerberg – Reuters

On September 29th 2015, Modi became the first Indian head of state who visited California since Indira Ghandi in 1982 and he had a meeting with Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, at the headquarters of the world’s most powerful social network.  Continue reading →

Christos Mavraganis — 2 Comments
04
Oct 15

Around the world with a suitcase full of debt – Can endless loans and development coexist?

by Christos Mavraganis 

Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister and president of SYRIZA, which is a left-wind party, has attended the 70th session of the UN’s General Assembly, in the 27th of September 2015, representing his country.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addresses attendees during the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. Headquarters in New York

Alexis Tsipras during his UN speech – Reuters

The Greek Prime Minister gave a speech during the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. This speech could have been the epitome of his political program, but only before he came on power, in January 25th, 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 →

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 →