The treaty between Bolivia and Venezuela to build military facilities on the borders with Paraguay, Chile, Perú, and Brasil is being discussed in political blogs from Perú and Chile.
Chilean conservative bloggers writing at El Rincón de Michelle [ES] agree that the treaty should be regarded as evidence of Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez being “a latent threat to the Southern countries”.
On the contrary, participants in the discussion at El Morrocotudo- a citizen daily from Arica - disregard conservative reactions as exaggerations. Ignacio Lozano points out that the polemic may have the goal of weakening Venezuela’s aims of obtaining a seat at the UN Security Council (about such issue listen to the Reporte Duna / podcast [ES]). Emanuel González highlights that the amount of investment on weapons by Chile and Perú is higher than what Bolivia is planning to invest.


“The robots welcome you to Rusted Future World.” - 36 photos from the Ukrainian city of Kherson, by Dan McMinn of Orange Ukraine.
#1: From Chiriqui Chatter: The Vote for the Big Dig
The vote is today for the expansion of the Canal. Voting in Panama is a very serious thing both for referendums such as today’s and for governmental offices. All sides fiercely try to get their vote out. It is interesting that they shut down all alcohol sales midnight before
the voting offices open. No alcohol will be sold all day.
My expectation is for the “Yes” vote to carry. I think expanding the Canal is something that should happen, but I am not sure that all costs
are accurately forecast or all ecological effects are understood.Continue reading…
#2: Quitenle la Camara presents a pictorial review of the people who voted NO for the Referendum: Los que dicen NO! Do not miss up this very impressive report infused with questions, tears and death.
#3: From JArango.com: Some Thoughts on The Panama Canal Expansion Project
I’m very proud of my country tonight. Once again, we have proven capable of taking a major national decision via democratic vote, peacefully and in a very organized manner.
I’ve always thought the phrase “Panama Canal” its a bit of a misnomer. It was US capital, know-how, engineering, equipment, and leadership that built the Canal. (Perhaps a more fitting name would be “The US Canal through Panama”.) As a matter of fact, Panama owes its independence to the fact that Colombia (of which Panama was a province) was hesitant to allow the Americans to build the Canal. Read more…
A heated debate has been raging in the Kenyan blogosphere over the removal of one blog, My Part of the World, from the Kenyan Blog Webring (KBW) aggregator. The aggregator is part of the vibrant community of Kenyan bloggers at home and abroad. The debate has centered around issues of decency, freedom of speech, censorship, social responsibility and has been marked, at times, by personal attacks both subtle and direct.
Thinker’s Room, who noted that the debate was “generating more heat than light,” tried to summarize the events leading to the removal and the subsequent hot debate involving bloggers and readers:
From what I can gather, the facts are as follows:
• Acolyte put up a post on his blog
• Some people objected to the content of the blog
• Acolyte received a mail informing him that he had been taken off the KBW aggregator due to his post
• The KBW admin team put up a post clarifying grounds from expulsion from the aggregator
• Acolyte denies that this was the reason for which he was expelled
• One of the Admin put up a post further clarifying that Acolyte had not in fact been removed from KBW - he had only been removed from the aggregator
Blueheeler goes in search of archives of a newspaper in East Malaysian province of Sarawak and finds that the city does not care about its history.So, in short, the Sarawak Tribune, the most important English newspaper on Sarawak/Bornean issues, with its 60 years of reporting the going-ons in Sarawak, cannot be accessed in Sarawak.When I told this to an academic working at UNIMAS, he said “Don't you know? For Sarawak, history is not important. Not only can you not find the Tribune, there's no history department at the University!”.
Kenny Green of Dominica isn't put off by reports that the Cricket World Cup, which is set to take place next year in the Caribbean, may be moved instead to South Africa: “Hosting any WC is like having a house party for someone else at your home, who pays you to get the place ready, and then proceeds to tear it up and leave you to clean up. The Caribbean needs to improve for itself, not to host some event where the real beneficiaries are already some of the best off people in the region. . . . So help yourselves to South Africa, ICC.“
Belizean canine blogger Nurse Melly reports on the progress of an animal shelter being build on Caye Ambergris and admonishes humans for feeding crocodiles.
Pondering stereotypes of the French, Martiniquan Le Blog de Moi writes (Fr): “When I arrived in the States with a group of people from all over France, … our recruiter explained to us very seriously that because of complaints by American students, he encouraged us to bathe and to change clothes regularly i.e. every two days on average! Faced with the shocked expression of the DOM-TOMers [i.e. people from the French Overseas departments of the Americas and Oceania] in the group, he then proceeded to explain that the remark was for the benefit of the “French from France” who werle ess used to live in tropical climates.”
A new book about the failed West Indies Federation describes Sir Grantley Adams, Barbados's first premier and national hero, as “lazy, lethargic” — sets Barbados Free Press wondering if this could have been true.
A British letter-writer suggests that the Concorde aircraft that Barbados was given by British Airways be relocated to a location where it would receive better treatment, but Titilayo finds evidence to suggest that Barbados's Concorde isn't the only one being housed under less-than-desirable conditions.
Daniel Duquenal interviews Alek Boyd, who left his career and political activism in the UK to follow Manuel Rosales' opposition campaign and cover its daily progress at Vcrisis.