Stories from Quick Reads from March, 2006
Bolovia: Airport Protest Photographs
Indymedia Bolivia has lots of interesting photographs and comments (ES) from Cochabamba's Jorge Wilstermann airport, where airline employees are protesting.
Peru: Presidential Election
Taking a break from the usual tech focus, Patrice introduces his readers to Sunday's elections in Peru, noting that they will probably lead to a second round runoff. Peru Election 2006 links to a three page essay (pdf) by Peter DeShazo entitled, “The Lure of Populism.”
Bolivia, Chile: Who Invented the Potato?
Maria Passo has a long list of what she believes are Peruvian cultural inventions that have been “stolen” by Chile. One commenter, Danica says jokingly, “chile sucks. I'm bitter. gimme my ocean back!”
Venezuela: Op-Ed Translations
Katy of Caracas Chronicles has translated an opinion piece, originally published in Tal Cual by Marino González, a professor at Simón Bolívar University. Venepoetics translates an op-ed, also from Tal Cual, by Oswaldo Barreto.
Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico: Poll Numbers
Punctual as always, Boz has his Friday poll numbers from across Latin America.
Belarus: First Detainees Released
Ivan Lenin of Rush-Mush reports on the first prisoners being released from Belarusian jails.
Czech Republic: Making Brno Cleaner
Jesse of Bored in Brno writes about the city authorities’ somewhat irrational attempts to make the city cleaner and shares his own ideas.
Czech Republic: Flood Updates
Douglas Arellanes posts regular updates from the Czech Republic's “flood front.”
Latvia: Tourism Official's Utopian Plans
All About Latvia writes about one official's utopian plans to turn Latvia into Europe's main tourist center. [A belated update: The official's name is Ola Prilof … April Fool!]
Belarus: Ignore What Seems Like a New “Gas War”
VW at TOL's Belarus Blog advises on how to react to what seems like the beginning of a new “gas war,” this time between Russia and Belarus: “Simply pay no attention. Think about those who suffered these weeks.”
Belarus: Lukashenko's Disappearance and Other News
Andrei Khrapavitski, br23 blog and TOL's Belarus Blog write about reports of the first March 25 casualty, Milinkevich's visit to Poland, Polish ex-ambassador's hospitalization – and Aleksandr Lukashenko's disappearance.
China: trans-Asian oil pipeline
Regarding an oil pipeline planned to link Russia and China, with a branch extending through Pakistan into India, the Our Silk Road blogger suggests the old Silk Road could very well be renamed the new Oil Road. “A lucrative idea with a great deal of wheeling and dealing left to...
Korea: Crime prevention
Robert in The Marmot's Hole questions whether Korea is as dangerous as the Korean National Police Agency's new crime prevention guide for foreigners makes it out to be. “The National Police Agency said it made the pamphlet because crimes against foreigners have been on the rise recently (funny, I didn’t...
Japan: Kawaii culture
The Japundit takes us into a discussion on the aesthetic sensibility of kawaii. (Kawaii translates approximately as “cute“.)
China: Organ trafficking
Lonnie B. Hodge at OneManBandwidth shares his research on organ trafficking in China.
China: Google News
Musing Under The Tenement Palm‘s Davesgonechina questions the people at Google on how they determine what is to be included in Google News and is not satisfied with their response.
China: Democratic diaspora
“Who even knew that the [Chinese Democratic Party] existed?” asks Michael from The Opposite End of China, in the midst of a trip back home. “I returned to the Chinese consulate in New York today to pick up my visa. Somehow – during the hour or so that I was...
Japan: Corporate culture
Japanese corporate culture gets personal for Riding Sun‘s Gaijin Biker when an analyst at his firm receives an e-mail from a disgruntled ex-employee of one of their clients. “Blaming [investor relations] for your company's weak share price is unreasonable enough already. But Komeri's stock, although down from its January high,...
Guinea: currency devaluation
Black Star Journal laments about the devaluation of the Guinean franc relative to the US dollar. In the past 20 years, the Guinean franc appears to have lost almost 18,000% of its value against the greenback.
Positive Nigeria
From its warm and friendly citizens, soccer stars, its community spirit, movie industry and musical tradition, ijebuman’s diary celebrates all that is positive about Nigeria.
Battling HIV/AIDS
The Concoction appears to disagree with former US president Bill Clinton when he calls for mandatory testing for HIV/AIDS. It also tells of what it calls “brave Catholics” in South Africa who are going against Vatican teachings and advocating the use of condoms in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
