A Home-Grown Campaign in Bhutan Is Giving Refurbished Shoes to Thousands Who Need Them

Volunteers concentrating on how to recycle the shoes accumulated during the collection drive. These will soon be sent to corners of Bhutan for distribution. Image by Help Shoe Bhutan. Used with permission. A campaign in Bhutan led by a Bhutanese entrepreneur is collecting used shoes and cleaning them to distribute the footwear to those who cannot afford a decent pair. Help Shoe Bhutan has so far given shoes to nearly 1 percent of the country's...

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Watch How Conversations Between Strangers Help Bridge the Divide Between Indians and Pakistanis

Screenshot from the AIB Video Over the years, India and Pakistan have seen a number of efforts trying to break the perpetuated animosity between the two countries. On India's Independence Day on Aug. 15, 2014), Indian comedy collective All India Bakchod (AIB) gave it another shot, releasing a video that features ordinary Indians talking over the phone to strangers in Pakistan. In this video strangers from India and Pakistan speak to each...

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Google Is Tracking and Recording your Location

Elizabeth Flux at Junkee.com uncovers a truth many of us smartphone users fail to realize. By allowing our smartphone to find out our location we are letting services like Google maps to record our movements. Here is a typical map of movements you will find from here: Image courtesy Junkee.com If you login at this site with the same Google login you use for your smartphone you will be able to find your Data updated daily. You will be surprised...

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Journalist and Democracy Advocate Ahmed Rizwan Abdulla Missing in the Maldives

Poster for the missing journalist. Image courtesy Facebook page of Minivan News. Click Image to enlarge. Prominent Maldivian journalist, blogger and human rights advocate Ahmed Rizwan Abdulla went missing Aug. 8, 2014. He was last seen waiting for an early morning ferry to travel to Hulhumale Island from the capital Male. It is not known whether he boarded the ferry. The 28-year-old, who works for online news site Minivan News, is...

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Killers Roam Free After Brutally Murdering a Defender of India’s Untouchables

Protesting the authorities' inaction about a rape case of Dalit women in Haryana. Image by Rajeev R Singh. Copyright Demotix, 11 May 2014. Almost 25 percent of the Indian population belongs to the Dalit caste, a stratum regarded as outside the social hierarchy. The country's government has increased its efforts to protect minorities like Dalits and indigenous peoples (known as Scheduled Tribes or Adivasis), but these groups continue to face discrimination,...

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Students in India Have Developed a "SmartCane" for the Blind

Screenshot from the video explaining how SmartCane works The marriage of two technologies can achieve awesome things. Students at IIT Delhi are certainly making an impression with a new invention, the SmartCane, which enhances one of the world's oldest instruments—the walking stick—by adding SONAR, a technique used to navigate and communicate underwater, to help visually impaired people to walk independently. One...

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Overcrowded Passenger Ferry Sinks in Bangladesh; 2 Dead, More Than 100 Missing

Bangladeshi rescue workers search the waters where an overloadedferry capsized in the Padma River in Munshiganj, 30km from Dhaka.Image by Fahad Kaizer. Copyright Demotix (4/8/2014) A passenger ferry capsized in Padma river en route to Mawa in Bangladesh, some 30 kilometres south of the capital Dhaka. Strong currents led to the accident around 11 a.m. Bangladesh time on Monday. The vessel was over capacity at the time with at least 250 people...

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