Chinese activists sent to psychiatric hospitals

Chinese activists sent to psychiatric hospitals

Xu Wu escaped from a psychiatric hospital in his home town Wuhan, in central China, and travelled near to 1 000 kilometers to tell his story to a television station in Canton. He claims, in front of the cameras, to have been shut up in an asylum for four years by the local authorities following a pay dispute with his employer. He had taken the state owned company to court, and had even gone to Beijing to plead his case to the central government.

But after his interview on the 27th of April, as he was about to leave the television studios by taxi, the forty three year old man was taken in for questioning by plain clothed men claiming to work for the Wuhan police force. The scene was filmed by surveillance cameras, and has since been circulated all over the Chinese web.

Xu Wu meanwhile has been returned to the psychiatric hospital, locked up with no visiting rights. This amateur footage, available online, appears to show his parents shouting in front of the establishment, in support of their son.

According to this blogger who condemns this form of illegal imprisonment, this is not an isolated case. He says that in Wuhan alone, there are apparently 18 activists currently behind bars in a psychiatric hospital.

Cyber activists think this is a way of silencing petitioners. The petition system, which dates back to the Imperial era, means that citizens can challenge what they consider to be unfair decisions with their local authorities. And certain local administrations appear keen to prevent citizens from expressing their grievances.

Syrian protests go on despite violent repression

The popular uprising in Syria is showing no signs of weakening, and protesters appear determined to continue the anti-government demonstrations, despite the violent and deadly repression. The situation is being widely relayed online.

According to Human Rights Organization, Insan, over 8 000 citizens have been taken in for questioning since the start of the popular uprising in Syria. The NGO says these arbitrary arrests have taken place in many cities across the country and in Deraa and Homs in particular, two cities where the movement has been particularly active.

The tense climate is being highly criticized on sharing sites where videos continue to pour in, bearing witness to the violence. In these images, we see numerous protesters on the ground and handcuffed by security forces, the images were filmed in Deraa, under siege since the 25th of April, before troops started to withdraw from the city on Thursday,. And in these other videos, filmed in Hama, we appear to see the army trying to disperse protesters using water cannons or tear gas.

And as we can see in numerous online videos, the government’s violent crackdown has not stopped the protesters however; they continue to gather in cities across the country, on a daily basis, calling for an end to Bashar al-Assad’s regime. There is footage available from Hama, Qamishlo, Derek, and also Aleppo where students recently joined the protest movement.

And its not just adults fighting for freedom in Syria : well this is what this video leads us to believe. Filmed in Deraa on Tuesday, we see dozens of children appealing to President al-Assad to stop the massacres of his own people.

Webdocumentary about Burkina Faso

An interactive portrait of Burkina Faso, told through the lives of six ordinary citizens. The web documentary ‘Mon Faso’ is a joint project from photographer Anaïs Dombret and film maker Sylvain Pioutaz. It plunges web users into the daily lives of the people of Burkina Faso. Each of the characters raises questions about society, like the role of women and also freedom of the press.

Liz’s 1001 albums

25 year old American women Liz set herself the unlikely challenge of listening to a different album per day, from a selection of 1001 classics, and then share her thoughts on her blog. She began this crazy bet in August 2009 and is still going … the young lady has already reviewed over 530 albums, which in her opinion made their mark on musical history.

Video du jour

For a TV show, a group of Japanese actors decided to transpose the opening credits for the famous Japanese cartoon Captain Tsubasa into real life… The video clip has since been widely relayed on sharing sites and will take fans of this football themed cartoon series back to their childhood.