Archive for
November 3rd, 2006
Stories
Russia: Moscow's (In)Accessibility
Perekhod: an underground walkway in Moscow - by Digenis.org
The hype surrounding the Russian blogosphere's fate has subsided, and the collective attention has shifted to the fate of tomorrow's Russian March.
One Moscow blogger, however, is concerned about something quite different: LJ user kmaka (quoted in a recent translation) and her 4-month-old daughter in a pram are doomed to stay on one side of Tverskaya St. only. Here is why (RUS):
My patience is up
People with prams in the city center get abused systematically and quietly. From [Okhotnyi Ryad] to [Mayakovskaya], there is not a single [underground walkway equipped with a] ramp that would allow to cross Tverskaya with a pram. It's okay, though, we are used to it by now and walk on our side of the street.
Voices from Kazakhstan
Welcome to our latest roundup of blog posts and online discussions from Kazakhstan Russian-language blogosphere.
The Oil Business
Kazakhstan boasts having unique oil and gas deposit, Karachaganak, 150 km east from the city of Uralsk in the northeast of Kazakhstan. Having an area of over 280 square kilometres, it holds more than 1,200 million tonnes of oil and condensate and over 1.35 trillion cubic metres of gas, and is the biggest investment project in Kazakhstan. Starting from 1991, Kazakhstan government starting making deals with foreign companies, including AGIP (now ENI), British Gas (now BG group), Texaco (now Chevron Corporation) and Lokoil.
On neweurasia Kazakhstan, Marat reveals the history of Karachaganak, discovered in the 1980s (RUS). Marat shares some curious details: in 1991, for example, at the peak of oil extraction and due to poor safety measures regulation, one of the wellsites started spitting gas in the air as a huge fountain. As in 1991 the country was busy with “putch” and the following collapse of the Soviet Union, no one really cared. Safety rules require burning the gas and hydrogen fountains, so locals could enjoy the vivid scenery of liquid fire shooting up to 300-500 meters. Tungush, a small village 3 kilometers from the field has dissapeared, then the inhabitants were moved to Aksai, a nearby town, by the Soviet Union. After its collapse, the flats were successfully boozed away, and when foreigners arrived to the field, the inhabitants of the village started complaining, and subsequently, each family got one flat in Aksai, one in Uralsk and a car in addition. Other villages started looking at it as an example… In his Livejournal, Marat posts photos from Karachaganak. (more…)
China: Paint the city black
Being winter there aside, can you imagine the capitol of China adorned with a Tarzan theme? The Beijing Summit & Third Ministerial Conference of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is underway this weekend, and here is what some bloggers had to say:
中非合作论坛北京峰会暨第三届部长级会议于11月1日在北京开幕了，坐在车上看着街上那红红的中国结、五彩的旗帜、友好的标语、喜庆的灯笼，突然有种声音自心而起，向每一根毛细血管漫延：我生活在北京，这里是中国的首都。呵呵······看着那相距不足百米即可相视而望的武警官兵，我也告诉自己：这就是北京，一个有着浓浓政治色彩的都市。
Philippines: Honoring the departed
Most Catholic Filipinos celebrate November 1 as the day for honoring both the saints and the dead. Since many Filipinos visit their departed loved ones in cemeteries, November 1 is a holiday in the Philippines.
Touched by an Angel describes the typical November 1 scenery in cemeteries:
“All Saints Day seems more like a school fair to me except there are gravestones, tents, picnic tables all over the cemetery. The mood at the cemetery is festive with children running around, the ice cream man ringing his bell, the taho vendor yelling taho, kids playing with melting candle, teens surfing at the SMART BRO internet booth, food vendors raking in some sales from the crowd. It’s a yearly ritual for our loved one whom we love, miss and remember always. Once a year, we share that common bond with families with a similar loss.”
Confessions of an Expat’s Wife, who now lives in Istanbul, longs for this Filipino family tradition:
“My family and I usually go to the cemetery in the morning and there we meet up with all our relatives. I usually look forward to this because this means I will be meeting up with my cousins and be able to play with them. Normally, for the play part, we wait and collect all the melted candles and sell it to the nearby vendor. The elders would reminisce on the good ol’ times with the departed and at the end of the day, we would pray the rosary for the spirits of our friends and family who passed away.”
Links for Fri, 2006-11
Zarabes.info, the blog of the moslem community in La Reunion, rounds up (Fr) various recent articles about moslems and music and asks: “What is the real relationship between Reunion moslems and music? What will happen during Sharukh Khan's next concert?”
Eduardo of Ocho Cuartos writes jokingly about what a Monterrey Altar de Muertos [ES] would look like: “Our altar would be finely decorated with an ashtray of “the mountain city,” a replica of the faro del comercio monument, a traffic citation for $300 pesos; all of which would be above a flag of the Tigres soccer team. We would also have a toy Hummer with tinted windows and a pirated CD of Reggaeton music.”
Liz Henry adds to the immense amount of commentary and analysis on the continuing violence in Oaxaca by looking at the role women and female bloggers have taken in the movement. Colin Brayton disagrees with the translated verb conjugation of a Washington Post reference to Proceso's Jorge Carrasco. Ana Maria Salaza publishes the first-hand account of Franc Contreras. Mark in Mexico continues with his own first-hand, anti-APPO accounts, concluding that he is “really having trouble coming to grips with what happened here today. It seems obvious to me that if some 5000 or so more riot police do not arrive within the next 24 hours, the city will be lost.” Finally, Ricardo Carreón opines: “this conflict has been growing for some time as the Federal Government was trying to avoid it an make it a local conflict. It is too late now and the APPO has grown too radical and too powerful to be overlooked. Fox is on the last days of his Administration. Will he fix this for once and for all?”
“Certain governments and institutions in the region (especially the international media) are desperate to divide the region into two camps and force everyone to choose sides,” comments Boz in a post that applauds the decision by Guatemala and Venezuela to support Panama as a compromise choice for the UN Security Council.
Journalist and veteran blogger María Pastora Sandoval writes in El Mercurio Online [ES] that Chile became the first country to transmit WiMax internet access last week during a Formula 1 racing event. A commenter named “Onan” disputed the claim [ES], however, when it was mentioned on ALT1040, saying that Colombia has had WiMax for the past six months.
Mariano Amartino applauds the concept [ES] of Mal de Alzheimer [ES[, a weblog which aggregates experiences, resources, and information regarding Alzheimer's Disease.
The latest installment in Geoffrey Philp's “Five Questions” series is an interview with Cuban writer Sandra M. Castillo.
Home of the Mandinmories on the relationship between African and African-Americans, “We failed to take the time to learn enough about each other and end up sticking to preconcieved notions. Thus we end up in isolated communes within the same city.”
In Nigeria, anything can happen.
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