Archive for
January 17th, 2007
Stories
Ukraine: Hunters Discuss Yevhen Kushnaryov's Death
Evhen Kushnaryov, 55, former governor of Kharkiv region and the deputy faction leader of prime minister Victor Yanukovych's Party of Regions, died today from gunshot wounds suffered in a hunting incident Tuesday.
According to media reports, Kushnaryov and approximately ten other men were on their way home after a day of boar hunting - illegal boar hunting, it looks like, as the season had ended on Jan. 1, according to this State Forestry Committee's decree (UKR); when they spotted a wolf, they jumped out of their cars and began shooting at it; the gun that fired the bullet that hit Kushnaryov allegedly belonged to Dmitry Zavalnyi, deputy director of Tochpribor plant in Kharkiv.
Kushnaryov's long political career began in 1981 in the Communist Party of Ukraine. During the 2004 presidential election, Kushnaryov was one of the politicians who came up with the idea to establish the Southeastern Republic with the capital in Kharkiv; in June 2005, he was charged with promoting separatism, but in Sept. 2006, the case against him was closed.
Kushnaryov's death has caused plenty of conversations on Ukrainian blogs and discussion boards. Below is a selection from the forum of the Ukrainian Hunters' Server (RUS, UKR):
Afghan Whispers: Cock Fighting, Winter, and Insecure Borders
Afghan Lord talks about a new sport in Afghanistan, cock fighting. You can watch a video clip of cock fighting on Afghan Lord's blog.The blogger adds,
Morgh Janngi which means cock fighting is a traditional winter sport as is dog, camel fighting and donkey racing. In Morgh Janngi, men (only) come from all over Afghanistan to enter their prized cocks in the Kabul arena. Morgh Janngi is highly complex in its rules, brutal in its savagery and can be expensive for the gamblers involved. Most competitors have a non-formal support group of men who help raise the stakes in betting and argue for or against a decision of which cock wins. The cocks fight until blood is drawn, then the owner will pull his chicken out of the ring, for repairing the animals wounds and refreshing its vitality with a mouth of water, blown into the cocks face.The competition is not cheap, men risk money on the result of each fight, sometimes betting 100,000 to 200,000Afghanis ($2,000 - $4,000 US). Sometimes the betting exchange becomes so heated that groups will bet amount exceeding $5,000.
You can seeseveral photos of cock fighting here.
Onne Parl is a freelance journalist and blogger in Afghanistan.The blogger says that the cold is the main topic among Afghans and internationals as well.The blogger adds,
We suffer together. Afghans don’t seem to know what are double glazes windows, so we covered our windows with plastic. It is a common tradition here.
Recently both Afghan government and United nations rejected Pakistani plan to plant landmines and build a fence in 'selected places' along its 2,400 km border with Afghanistan. Notes from the West supports Pakistani decision and says only things goes on, in some areas in the tribal zone, are smuggling goods and drugs. You can see several photos of this tribal zone in his blog.
Gandhi and YouTube has India talking
A YouTube clip of Mahatma Gandhi doing a pole dance by Gautam Prashad, a New York-based comedian/clown/yoga teacher of Indian origin created quite a bit of wave on the other side of the continent. The Indian Government was not amused by Prashad's modern day interpretation of Gandhi (India's Father of the Nation) and had the video clip banned in India. Google had to remove the clip. Plus a couple of Indian channels that showed the video clip have been asked to apologize. The original offender in the Indian Government's eye: Gautam Prashad has also apologized.
For the past year Google has had its fair share of challenges in India. First, it was Orkut, and now Google Video. How did Indian bloggers react to this Google video clip of Gandhi? The bloggers reaction covers the whole spectrum from free speech to don't watch to strong disapproval to let us move on, shall we?
Pooja Nair is not amused with Prashad's video clip. Her strong disapproval dissolves into some career advice for Prashad. She writes:
I feel sorry for him. I don't mean to mock him. I am genuinely concerned for the chap. I think he should shift careers. Maybe he'll do better as a pizza delivery guy or a taxi driver.
Shivam Vij has this to say about the video clip: don't watch it if it offends you. Shivam's post also has a response from Prashad, the creator of the Gandhi clip, who says that he used this clip as a marketing tool.
Amit Verma wonders if this whole episode:
Free speech is becoming more and more endangered in this country.
Great Bong, who thinks the video clip was in poor taste has this to say about the Indian government's reaction to the video clip:
Coming back to the main point, the biggest loser in this glorious spectacle is the Indian government, which consistently insists on behaving like the typical crackpot Islamic state in obsessively frothing at the mouth in response to any perceived insult. In its infinite wisdom, it has served show-causes to the Indian channels which carried the news and called for the video to be taken down failing which a ban would be placed on Youtube.
Pass the roti on the left hand side gives an overview of the entire episode (the YouTube does not seem to work) and says that it is time to move on.
West Africa: What is NOSPETCO?, Aid Does Not Work, Dogon Architecture and Tourism As A Therapy
As we delve into the West African blogosphere this week, our first stop is Nigeria. One issue that is attracting so much attention among Nigerians bloggers is NOSPETCO. What is NOSPETCO?
According to the Nigerian blogger Deolu Akinyemi,
If you have never heard of Nospecto before, it is an investment opportunity where you put in 450,000 naira and get 40,000 naira returns monthly, it’s also a joint venture business arrangement, where you share profits with the owners of the company at a rate which makes your share 40 out of every 450 in a month. Nospetco’s arrangement is the standard convinient arrangement for devout muslims, who because of their beliefs in not collecting interests on their money can only be comfortable with sharing profit.
He goes on to ask: NOSPETCO - How much longer!
It is wit to be able to ask the right questions, know when to move in, and know when to move out. If you ask the generation that is between 45-60 today, they’ll tell you about the finance houses of the 70/80s and how in one little sweep, millionaires became paupers. Those who do not know the past are bound to repeat it!
Links for Wed, 2007-01
Bosnia Vault writes: “Over a decade later, the Markale Massacre; and the allegation that the shell was fired upon by the ABiH forces in a ruse to gain public sympathy; has become the lynchpin argument of those in the Balkans and in the West who have unapologetically thrown their support to the likes of Karadzic and his ilk.”
“Lada against Hummer” in Moscow - at Two-Zero's.
B.art hacks an article from the personal productivity blog Lifehacker about ways to become politically involved to make it relevant to a Jamaican audience.
The Golden Road to Samarqand writes about the LDS church in Central Asia.
Tolkun calls a new law on the media in Uzbekistan “high-level hypocrisy.”
Onnik Krikorian examines why it is so difficult to get an accurate picture of unemployment levels in the South Caucasus.
At neweurasia, “night_eulen” discusses a new law governing foreign NGOs in Uzbekistan which he says is a façade to make Uzbekistan look better to the outside world.
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