Quickies

Global Quickies: Lots of Photo Essays, Pink Bikers in Liberia, and Interesting Names in Brazil

It’s Mother’s Day weekend! Check out how people celebrate this holiday all over the world.

AUSTRALIA

Indigenous Australia exhibition tells many stories – “The exhibition contains some of the earliest objects collected from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by British colonists and missionaries after 1770. Most have never been seen in public before. They tell the dual stories of a 60,000-year-old, living culture and the struggle to survive colonisation, along with the contemporary role of museums holding such collections.”

BRAZIL

Richard Nixon arrested! Elvis lives! Why Brazilians insist on a name less ordinary – “Brazil revels in unconventional names: Why call your child Charlotte Elizabeth Diana when it could rejoice in a moniker like Xerox, Fotocópia or Mao Tse Tung?” I agree–interesting names are the best!

CHINA

The Chinese Art of the Crowd – A beautiful series of photos where the theme is “large crowd formation.”

HAITI

Hollywood help comes to Haiti, trying to avoid pitfalls of donor-knows-best – “Film-maker Paul Haggis has marshalled celebrity support for a school and other projects in a country still battling poverty and the effects of the 2010 earthquake.”

INDONESIA

How One Man And His Horse Created A Mobile Library In Indonesia – Check out this article, full of lots of beautiful pictures!

IRAN

Suddenly, Tehran’s Mayor Becomes a Patron of the Arts – “Almost overnight nearly all of Tehran’s billboards, which are owned by the city and are a prime source of income, stopped showcasing South Korean dishwashers and the latest bank interest rates (now 22 percent) and sported still lifes by Rembrandt and images by the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.”

Iran bans ‘homosexual’ and ‘devil worshipping’ hairstyles – “As the desire to make fashion statements spikes each summer, authorities step up their crackdown on ‘un-Islamic’ haircuts and body modifications.”

ITALY

Anger and Wonder on Display at Expo 2015 – “Expo 2015 officially opened in Milan, Italy, on May 1. As visitors had their first views of pavilions and displays from countries and corporations around the world, thousands of ‘NoExpo’ protesters took to the streets.”

LATVIA

The bike brand that helped Latvia rediscover its cycling heritage – “After a 60-year gap following Soviet rule, Erenpreiss bikes are once more being sold – as new or rebuilt from old parts.”

LIBERIA

The Liberian bikers who wear pink to stop getting robbed – “Female motorcycle taxi drivers in Liberia were fed up with being robbed. So they formed a collective, called it the Pink Panthers and donned bright helmets and jackets which made sure they were easy to spot.”

MYANMAR

Through Your Lens: The Many Faces Of Myanmar

NEPAL

The Internet Mapmakers Helping Nepal – “It’s become a regular occurrence: Whenever there’s a natural catastrophe, a team of ‘crisis mappers’ activate around the world. These volunteers use crowdsourcing tools to turn satellite data into digital maps, which are then used to make decisions on the ground.”

PAKISTAN

Pakistani Activist Launches Global Tour To Fight Religious Extremism Back Home – “The Karachi-based activist is currently on a six-week tour of the U.S., where he’s speaking at more than two dozen top colleges and universities from Boston to California. The goal of his tour is to convince young, educated Pakistanis and Pakistani-Americans to combat the religious extremism he believes is ravaging Pakistan. ”

RUSSIA

Russia’s best Twitter parody accounts – “As state regulators block the spoof account of one Kremlin insider, RFE/RL choose five of the best fake feeds satirising the political system.”

SUDAN

The Forgotten Pyramids of Meroë – “In a desert in eastern Sudan, along the banks of the Nile River, lies a collection of nearly 200 ancient pyramids—many of them tombs of the kings and queens of the Meroitic Kingdom which ruled the area for more than 900 years.”

UGANDA

Uganda’s first women-only gym – “Fitness is big business, but in countries like Uganda in East Africa being a woman and going to the gym can be a bit daunting. Women have to battle for space, find ‘socially acceptable’ sports outfits and are sometimes prohibited from doing challenging sports programmes.”

 

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Mary

Mary Brock works as an Immunology scientist by day and takes care of a pink-loving princess child by night. She likes cloudy days, crafting, cooking, and Fall weather in New England.

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