· April, 2007

Stories about Development from April, 2007

Nepal: Violence against Education

  30 April 2007

Nepal Monitor has a summary of a report by UNESCO on violence against education. “In Nepal, 145 teachers and 344 students were killed between 13 February 1996 and 31 December 2006.13 In the 5 years between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2006, the Maoists destroyed 79 schools, one university...

Sierra Leonean Blogosphere 101

  30 April 2007

My name is Vickie Remoe-Doherty. This is my first post as Global Voices author for Sierra Leone. I thought that my first post should introduce you to some notable blogs on Sierra Leonean blogosphere. I hope that my work with Global Voices Online will inspire Sierra Leoneans in Sierra Leone...

Africa: building applications for mobile phones in Africa

  29 April 2007

Building mobile phone applications in Africa, from Ethan Zuckerman's “Geek tracking, African hacking”: Eagle’s new project – EPROM (entrepreneurial programming and research on mobles) – is trying to encourage people in developing nations to learn how to build applications for mobile phones. This involves building a community of mobile developers...

East Timor: Chinese Involvement in East Timor

  29 April 2007

Tumbleweed finds a Chinese petroleum company building a petrol station in Dili, the capital of East Timor. The post also some discussion on other construction projects that the Chinese are involved in.

Kenya: Kenya Investment Forum in Toronto

  28 April 2007

Recently, Kenyan blogger and Global Voices author, Steve Ntwiga, attended the Kenya Investment Forum in Toronto, Canada: “I found it very telling that the Kenyan Government choose to present Vision 2030 to Kenyans in the diaspora at exactly the same time that the plan was being revealed to Kenyan back...

Israel: Traffic in Downtown Jerusalem

Israeli blogger Izzy Bee focuses on traffic problems in downtown Jerusalem here. “Bartov has narrowed traffic lanes downtown so no ambulance or fire engine could possibly get to a medical emergency or a terrorist's bomb site. Concrete pillars prevent vehicles from pulling over to let them pass. Siren, schmiren: it's...

Bulgaria: Escalators Fixed

  27 April 2007

In the early 1990s, the escalators of Sofia's Main Train Station did not work, writes Sofia's Hidden Beauty: “The escalators’ colour became darker and darker, dust and rubbish irreversably damaged the mechanisms and they turned just into dangerous alternative of the stairs.” Now some of them do, again.

Macau: Gambling Disneyland

  27 April 2007

Onemanbandwith has a post about Macau's recent development, 17% growth in GDP. As the writer said, “for someone to win at the tables, someone else must lose“.

Arabeyes: Palestinian Jordanian Anyone?

Jordanian blogger Hareega is furious that people avoid discussing racism in his society. He is particularly angry about the discrimination Jordanians of Palestinian origin go through in a country he claims they have helped build and project to the level it is today. يبدو أن الناس بشكل عام تتفادى الخوض...

Tamil Blogs: Agriculture, Street Threatre and Children

  25 April 2007

187 countries observed ‘Earth Day’ on April 22nd. This month we have a new blogger in Tamil blogosphere whose blog is titled ‘iyarkai vivasaayam‘ or ‘Ecological agriculture’. In this blog Samsari talks about path-breaking, successful farmers, their techniques and issues related to farming in Tamil Nadu(TN), India. He introduces us...

Jordan: Kuwait Planning $5bn Health City in Jordan

Jordanian blogger Naseem Al Tarawneh is excited that Kuwait is building a $5 billion medical city in Jordan. “This is a project I’d like to see implemented in Jordan, especially compared to the other stuff going on. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Jordan’s medical industry, went from 6.1 Million JDs...

Russia: More Reactions to Yeltsin's Death

  24 April 2007

What was the effect of Boris Yeltsin's policies on the people of Germany, Poland and the Baltic states, as well as on the "Russian Bride industry"? While yesterday's post reflected some of what Russian bloggers' thought of Boris Yeltsin's life and death, this one deals with the reactions of predominantly non-Russian observers.

Jordan: Yacoubian Building

Jordanian blogger Natasha Tynes, who lives in the US, had the chance to watch Egyptian movie Yacoubian Building and gives us her thoughts on it here. “The person introducing the movie at the festival said two things of interest. One: The actual residents of the building are suing the author...

Dubai: Ministries Hindering Development

Dubai-based Keefieboy agrees with Dubai strongman Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoom that the Ministries of Education, Justice and Labour “are hindering the development of the UAE rather than helping it and they need a wholesale re-evaluation of what their roles should be and how they should go about doing...

Nigeria: stop criticizing the government from the Diaspora

  24 April 2007

Pause to Ponder defends his opinion about the state of Nigerian democracy: “The above topic was inspired by my last post, which has earned me bashing from 2 fellow bloggers, I bet a lot more are still coming. Their vituperations are long awaited though, because of my own perspectives of...