Stories about Ideas from March, 2008
Angola: A new blog to debate a better country
Plataforma Angola Mais Solidária [pt] is a new blog intended to create a space for reflexion and debate of ideas. They welcome the readers: “If you arrived here it is because you care about our Land! If you arrived here it is because you believe we deserve a better Angola!...
Trinidad & Tobago: A Woman Scorned
“WOMAN's son is murdered by her husband and the first thing that springs to the Trinbagonian mind is that she must have been horning him”: Trinidad and Tobago's latest murder/suicide spurs Andre Bagoo to write a thoughtful post on gender issues, double standards and sexual stereotypes.
Guyana: Walking Trees?
Guyana-Gyal will believe anything…except that.
Japan: Why does Mario move from left to right?
Blogger lastline has drawn over 400 bookmarks on the Japanese bookmarking service Hatena for a detailed investigation of the question: Why does the video game character Mario run across the screen from left to right, and not right to left [ja]? The blogger explains that video tends to prioritize movement...
Middle East and North Africa: Client Number Nine
Eliot Spitzer's fall from grace grabbed the headlines as soon as newsmen caught wind of the scandal. Bloggers followed closely on their heel, including those from the Middle East and North Africa, whose attention was turned to the humiliation his wife must have suffered from and indignation of having her to stand by him as he announced his resignation.
Libya: What makes you love Libya?
Libyan A. Adam posts a photograph of a palm tree in the desert and asks: “this is Libya just like a palm tree in the desert. just one question for libyan people like me, what makes u love Libya???”
Trinidad & Tobago: Politics & Sport
Notes from Port of Spain makes his case for leaving politics out of the upcoming China Olympics: “Once you establish the principle that global sports meetings can be boycotted on political grounds, there's no end to it – no country on earth is 100 per cent virtuous.”
Barbados: Rent vs. Buy
“I think it’s a relatively recent thing in Barbados for grown children to leave home and live on their own in a rented apartment/house,” writes Gallimaufry, as she links to an article “that busts the myths about renting vs. buying.”
Guyana: Baccoo
Guyana-Gyal says that “bandits is the new baccoo” – one of the most feared creatures in Guyanese folklore.
Bahamas: Hot Hot Hot!
“Are Ya Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot?” asks Larry Smith at Bahama Pundit, as he blogs about the impact of climate change on Caribbean tourism.
Brazil: LoveLive podcast
André and Luciana present their first podcast, LoveLive [pt]. The name is self explaining, but Luciana explains: “We do not want to be relationship gurus, no way. We are just people who prefer speaking up to silence”. “To start with, we debated the act of sharing among couples: sharing problems...
Bermuda: Tourist Trap?
After a tourist dies in a road accident, Bermudan blogger IMHO.bm asks: “Are we doing the right thing by continuing to rent auxiliary cycles to tourists?”
Lebanon: Desperate People
“This country is a factory that produces and exports desperate people,” says Tantalus about Lebanon.
Brazil: Haiti, Rio de Janeiro and the UN peacekeeping mission
Aloisio Milani [pt] is promoting an in-depth analysis of “the possibility and feasibility of the blue-helmets’ performance to become a doctrine of intervention by the Army in public safety in violent Brazilian cities, where organized crime is part of the population's routine”. He has heard Army sources, the Ministry of...
Brazil: Mobile Filmmaking
Sérgio Amadeu [pt] is helping to spread the news about the next Filmobile festival happening simultaneously in April 5th in São Paulo and for the first time in London. Participants will talk about Mobile Filmmaking, Mobile Participation and Mobile Stories.
Japan: The New Era of Video
Last Friday, Japan's national broadcaster aired a special on the "New Era of Video" predicting changes in the industry of broadcast television that will shake the foundation of mass media. But why would a broadcaster as big as NHK air a TV special about the end of TV? Wouldn't that be against its own interests? Blogger Kobayashi Akihito asked if there wasn't more to the NHK special than meets the eye.
Dominica: 10 Reasons…
Caribbean Man lists ten reasons to live in Dominica.
Barbados: Middle Class
Notes From The Margin has some thoughts on the Barbadian middle class…
Jamaica: Beauty and Race
“What beauty contests say about women is still an open and now tired debate, but what it says about race, particularly in a country like Jamaica is still up for grabs”: Marlon James explains.
Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, USA: Obama's Vision
Jamaican Geoffrey Philp thinks that Barack Obama “has a deep understanding of America and that he offers a transcendent vision of America that we haven't had in a long time”, while Notes from Port of Spain quotes Obama's “race speech”: “‘I am the son of a black man from Kenya...
Environment: A recipe for seed bombs
Rory of Carbon Copy posts a recipe for seed bombs which can be thrown into “…vacant lots, pavement cracks, long-standing rubbish piles, or anywhere that would benefit from a bit of random greenery.”
