· January, 2013

Stories from Quick Reads from January, 2013

Pakistan’s Forgotten Hindu Heritage

  31 January 2013

Shiraz Hassan recently visited dilapidated temples and gurdwaras of Rawalpindi and appeals that these old heritage sites, which depict the secular past of the country, need to be preserved. There are still more than 25,000 Hindus living in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Google Maps of North Korea Has Caught World's Attention

  31 January 2013

Within less than few days since its release, Google's new, crowd-sourced map of North Korea is gaining traction worldwide. There are even fake reviews of North Korean gulags and many bloggers, such as One Free Korea, posted satellite images of the regime's iconic landmarks.

All Side by Side for the Future of São Tomé and Príncipe

  31 January 2013

Originally inspired by the style of the song “We Are the World“, renowned musicians from Sao Tome and Principe unite singing a theme by Kalú Mendes, titled “All Side by Side for the Future of Our Country.” The music covers all creole languages from the islands in order to enforce...

‘Testosterona’ Blog is Out of MTV Brazil

  31 January 2013

MTV Brazil has cancelled its contract with the Testosterona's blog, affirmed the group ‘Nós Denunciamos’ [pt] on Facebook. It is believed that MTV Brazil attitude came as a consequence of the TV network headquarter's decision in the US and social mobilization against the misogynistic program. Global Voices published an article...

Nepal: Wither Democracy?

  30 January 2013

Siromani Dhungana at United We Blog! for a Democratic Nepal opines that recent political events strongly suggest that Nepal is on its way to being ruled by an autocratic political system. Additionally the incumbent Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai has been accused of misusing numerous costly helicopter rides for his...

Bhutan: Security Taken For Granted

  30 January 2013

According to tourists Bhutan is a safe place. But ShyGuard at Writers Association Of Bhutan warns not to take it for granted. The blogger opines that Bhutanese should be more concerned about own security and be vigilant to stop unwanted incidents.

‘Student Hair Revolution’ in Thailand

  30 January 2013

Kaewmala writes about the complaint of many Thai students against the official school hair policy of “crew cut for boys and ear-lobe-length bob for girls.” Some student groups want to scrap the hair policy which is criticized as a violation of children's rights. The author added: “If Thai teachers had...

Indonesian Hackers Strike Again

  30 January 2013

Several Indonesian websites were hacked by individuals who are supporting Wildan Yani Ashari, the person who was arrested by the police for hacking the website of the Indonesian president. Enricko Lukman translates the message left by the hackers in the defaced websites: …unlike corrupt officials, hackers shouldn’t be arrested. The...

First International Urdu Bloggers Conference

  30 January 2013

Mehwish Khan at ProPakistani reports that the first international Urdu bloggers conference was held on January 26, 2013 in Lahore, Pakistan. Over 70 Urdu bloggers from different parts of the country took part in the conference.

Myanmar: Biggest Barcamp in the World

  30 January 2013

At over 6,400 participants on January 19 and 20 this year, BarcampYangon not only dwarfs every barcamp in the region but even exceeds last year’s number by over one thousand attendees. Myanmar is now the envy of every barcamper in Asia. Anh-Minh Do reviews Barcamp Yangon 2013 in Myanmar.

Survey of China's 24 most corrupt officials in 2012

  30 January 2013

Barry van Wyk from DANWEI highlighted a survey conducted by the Crisis Management Research Center at Renmin University which looked into 24 cases of corruption that became public knowledge on the Chinese Internet in 2012. The objective of the survey is to generate some trends and patterns in corrupt behavior...

China: Air Pollution in Major Cities

  30 January 2013

Jacky Huang from China Hush translated a local media feature on the problem of air pollution in major Chinese cities. According to a report published by National environmental analysis of the People’s Republic of China: only 1% of China’s 500 largest cities meet the recommended standard set up by WHO....

Kazakh Quake Sends Tremors through Twitter

  29 January 2013

After an earthquake hit southeastern Kazakhstan yesterday, hundreds of the country's netizens took to Twitter to tell the rest of the world about what they had experienced. Blogger Olzhas Salmurza has collected [ru] the most interesting tweets from all over Kazakhstan. Ravil Abdulov reports [ru] that Twitter has also helped spread rumors...

Google Maps Targets Hermit Kingdom, North Korea

  29 January 2013

Google debuted its Google Maps program for one of the world's most secretive countries, North Korea, as part of its crowd sourcing map initiative. North Korea Tech blog posted several pictures of it with some background information.

“The Un-European Union”

  29 January 2013

GV Author Filip Stojanovski, on his blog Razvigor, has translated into English a mock story [sr] by Njuz.net, “the Serbian equivalent to The Onion,” about the UK striving to join “the Un-European Union”: The Council of Ministers of the countries of the Un-European Union stated today in Skopje that a...