South America has a long-standing tradition of nude protest, something we’ve reported on from Mexico (I know, central rather than South America), and Argentina, a couple of times.

Now I learn of another ‘topless’ protest in Argentina, for (I think, if my Spanish is good enough) Free the Nipple. I’ve only just discovered this, and the protest took place last February, but what’s interesting is that the reporter, Moreno Pardo, who works for a news(?) organisation called Rosarioplus.com. joins in!

Moreno Pardo

I find that when disseminating the news, the mainstream media adopt an editorial viewpoint and report accordingly, mostly acting as ‘organs of the state’ (including the BBC). It’s unlikely you’ll find a reporter jump off the fence in any radical manner, mostly toeing the broadcaster and government’s line and offering only token ‘opposition’ by perhaps asking one or two soft questions which are intended to be batted back by the government spokesperson with ease, but the questions may still be presented as ‘evidence’ or ‘editorial balance’.

One of the great things about the digital age is that there’s a lot of micro-broadcasting organisations out there who now accurately counter a bland, meaningless version of ‘news’.

Would one of the major news organisations ever consider 19 seconds on a topic -top free equality- that affects half of the world’s population? No. Which is why it’s hugely refreshing to find a news outlet dedicate 19 minutes to the issue, and for the reporter to nail her colours to the mast by coming firmly down on the side of top-free equality herself. You go, girl! If major news outlets were to begin dedicating 19 minutes to top-freedom, how long might it be before the population determined that their governments passed it into law?

Mark my words: top freedom will eventually be like the Berlin Wall, and the entire Eastern (European) Bloc collapsing. The instant one nation opts to make it law, a domino effect will follow.

Ella

Word reaches me that in January Ireland will have its first official naturist bathing/sunbathing place, Hawk Cliff outside Dublin.

I don’t have a lot of detail yet, but what I can say is that until now Ireland was the only country in Western Europe that didn’t have an officially recognised naturist beach, so congratulations to them for making all of Europe now an official naturist zone. Anyone touring Europe can, if they so wish, enjoy naturism in every country in Europe! 🙂

I’ll add more detail about Ireland’s first official beach (there have been several unofficial beaches for years, apparently) as it comes in from my various naturist news aggregator links.

(Note : I don’t plan to do every country in Europe, or elsewhere in the world, as part of this ‘Round the World’ series, rather highlight naturist events such as that just described, or provide a snapshot of naturism in a country or region).

Ella

Liana Klevtsova, a student from the Russian city of Irkutsk, has recently made a protest against cutting down trees for Christmas, saying that we should utilise fake trees instead. To highlight this, she stripped off and posed in a Siberian winter, fully nude.

The story is covered in many news outlets, including Russia Today.

Liana also has a youtube video…

and on her Vkontakte (it’s a Russian social media service, much like Facebook) page, some uncensored photos of her protest turn up.

Certainly, there’s no need to cut down young trees, something she rightly says are ‘the lungs of the earth’, but I was under the impression that of all the earth’s resources that we use, trees are the one thing we’re freely replenishing year on year. Use coal or oil once, and it’s gone from the planet. But we can and are replanting trees at a reasonably impressive rate, and it’s estimated there’s more trees on earth now than there were 100 years ago.

Nevertheless, it was something that persuaded model Amaris (of whom more anon) to get out in SL to express some solidarity with Liana.

Ella