China: protests against alloy plant project

China: protests against alloy plant project

After three days of protests and violent clashes with police, residents of Shifang in south western China, have finally had their demands met and local authorities have decided to abandon plans to construct a copper alloy plant in the city.

The movement began on social networks with web users sharing concerns over the effects this project would have on the environment and the health of locals.

The protesting soon spread to the streets of the city with residents voicing their opposition to the construction of this polluting factory. As we can see in various pieces of amateur video footage circulating online, the rallies were unceremoniously dispersed with riot police using tear gas.

There has been widespread coverage of the violent demonstrations. This photo of a young police officer giving the one finger salute to the camera has been circulated all over the blogosphere. His gesture has angered web users in China, who have been expressing solidarity with residents of Shifang.

One of the country’s most well-known bloggers Han Han, published an article urging the local authorities to take the people’s concerns into consideration.

And somewhat surprisingly, many of the posts about the protests were not censored online. And while calm has been restored to Shifang, pictures of events in recent days continue to circulate on social networks, with web users celebrating what they consider to be a victory for the people.

Reddit users show solidarity with dying grandma

It has been a wonderful show of solidarity from American netizens. Last month a web user, who goes under the online pseudonym “descarted”, posted a message about her grandmother Halina, on community site Reddit. In the post she explains her 92 year old granny is in the terminal phase of cancer, and asks members of the site to send her a postcard with their well wishes, to offer her support as she battles the disease.

And the Reddit community was quick to oblige. As we can see in these photos taken by her grand-daughter, in the space of just a few weeks, Halina received hundreds of letters, not just from across the country, but from all over the world.

And the story does not end there; one web user, obviously extremely moved by what he had read, has made an extremely generous gesture. As “Descarted” explains in a second Reddit post, one of the sites members, known as “charity the best policy” paid the young woman’s air fare so she could go and visit her grandmother and personally deliver all the mail she had received.

It would appear Halina is extremely grateful for this overwhelming support. In this video she thanks web users for their kindness and the part they played in this incredibly heart-warming story.

Perfectly timed photos

As its name suggests, American participative website “Perfectly Timed Photos”, displays all sorts of shots, snapped just at the right moment! There’s a whole host of equally astonishing and unusual photos, most of them pretty funny, and sometimes a little bit cheeky. This site is great fun and web users can also submit their own offerings.

Now trending on social networks

Each week a different Swedish citizen runs the @sweden account, the country’s official Twitter account. And now other countries are starting to follow suit. A new account called @Netherlanders has been set up, giving the floor to a different Dutch national every week, to approach issues like stereotyping of people from the Netherlands. It does differ from the @Sweden account in that it is not backed by the government but was in fact created by a micro blogger known as Elmer. Whether it will catch on with local web users remains to be seen…

Video of the day

A brief, chronological history of rock and roll told through 100 famous guitar riffs… in this twelve minute long video, American enthusiast Alex Chadwick plays extracts from key tracks that have marked this musical movement. You can check out the entire performance on all good video sharing platforms.