Stories from 28 December 2006
Some lessons about blog attacks in the spanish-language blogosphere
Spanish version here: Algunas enseñanzas sobre los ataques a blogs In the last weeks there have been a series of quite similar attacks to popular blogs in Spanish. The series began at the immensely popular Chilean tech blog FayerWayer [ES], which not only was hacked, but also got all of...
Trinidad, Guyana, South Africa: Book talk
85-year old Guyanese writer Wilson Harris has a new novel and Nobel prize-winning South African novelist Nadine Gordimer's estranged biographer is half-Trinidadian, reports Jeremy Taylor, who also reveals his favourite Caribbean novels of 2006.
Barbados: The other Eid
Titlayo discovers the “other” Eid — Eid al-Adha, when “Muslims who can afford to do so sacrifice domestic animals, usually sheep, as a symbol of Ibrahim’s sacrifice.”
Barbados: Caribbean integration
Barbados Free Press takes issue with an ex-diplomat's comments about Caribbean integration.
Iran:Meeting with Hanieh
Mohammad Ali Abtahi,former Vice President and reformist politician,writes in his blog that he and some other political personalities had been invited to Embassy of Palestine in Tehran when Mr.Hanieh,Palestinian Prime Minister,was there. Abtahi says Hanieh praised financial help coming from Iran and Qatar but it seems Bahrain did not help...
Iran:The Jailed Iranian Christian Converts
Azarmehr reminds us that in this Christmas period there are several Iranian Christian converts who are in the jail, just for their faith.
Lusosphere: Who? Me? You!? Why not Hugo?
TIME Magazine's choice of ‘You’ as the ‘Person of the Year’ has created interesting reactions in Lusophone blogs. The coddling move from the editorial giant towards the new class of content creators among its audience initially seduced the web 2.0 crowds. Many commentators were quick to agree effusively with the...
Ethiopia: angry at Ethiopia-Somali war
Arefaynie Fantahun writes about reaction in Addis Ababa to Ethiopia's war against Somalia, “It is not hard to know how people in Addis are angry at the war with Somalia, which they most say is bizarre and senseless. Many say they haven’t the slightest clue what this war is all...
Africa: “local” is the keyword
“Why not build the next eBay in Africa, then be “partnered” with for $40 million? Why not build the next PayPal, Google, YouTube or MySpace, when the success of such a venture is sure to realize millions of dollars?,” asks White African.
Bahamas, Guyana: Garlic pork and Guyanese politics
The vinegary aroma of garlic pork incites Bahamian Larry Smith to a Proustian meditation on the modern political history of Guyana.
Ukraine: Socialists Against Prosecutor General
Foreign Notes reports on the confrontation between Ukrainian socialists and the Prosecutor General's office.
Argentina: Private Clubs No Longer So Private
Ian Mount, who recently published an article in the New York Times about the rise of private clubs in Buenos Aires describes what he calls the “sausage factory” of how the article came about. Unsurprisingly, blogs played a big role.
Colombia: Lack of quorum sinks same-sex partnership bill
“So the bill was actually brought to the floor for a vote but some cowardly legislators jumped up and left their seats. Incredibly disappointing if not necessarily surprising.” So says Andres Duque who has been covering the proposed legislation to grant legal privileges to same-sex partnerships. The bill died last...
Cuba: The newest threat …
Greg of Two Weeks Notice links to an article on “the newest threat to Cuba” … rock climbing.
Argentina: Rare Rock MP3 Blog
Fernando Casale introduces the newish MP3 blog Incunables Posludios “whose objective is to rescue rare treasures of Argentine rock with the premise that they should be unattainable in record stores.”
Latin America: “The year that was supposed to be awful”
Ricardo Carreón (who is also trying to organize a Latin America Blogroll) begins the first post of an ambitious series: “This post starts a series of articles of Latin America during 2006. The year that was supposed to be many things, most of them negative, but ended up being a...
Hungary: Van Gogh Exhibition
Pestcentric advises against visiting a Van Gogh exhibition in Budapest.
Estonia: A New Republic Piece
Itching for Eestimaa reviews a travel piece on Estonia in the latest New Republic.
Russia: Kalmyk Deportation
Yet another sad anniversary from J. Otto Pohl: “Sixty-three years ago the Stalin regime deported the vast majority of the Kalmyk population from their historic homeland to Siberia.”
Iran:Who is the best Iranian of the year
Thanks to Aroosak Kooki blog, I have discovered a link to Iranian.com where 860 people voted for “the best Iranian of the year.” There are very interesting people on the list such as students who protested President Ahmadinejad's visit to Amir Kabir Technical University or Anousheh Ansari, the first Iranian...
Iran:Remember Bam
Several bloggers remember in their blogs about Bam earthquake,three years after disaster. Shamgahan has published a couple of photos of earthquake . The blogger asks what has been done for Bam population with all the foreign help that government received.The blogger adds, 72 hours after earthquake, government got 8 million...