Archive for
February 8th, 2007
Stories
Music Video On South East Asian Haze
Malaysian blogger Kean-Jim Lim introduced this music video made by some Malaysians protesting the haze brought about by slash and burn agriculture in nearby Indonesian island of Sumatra.
This MV is in Cantonese and Malay. Well, it is so true and so real about what Malaysians have experienced in Malaysia on last October.
According to one of the production team member, who posted it on Youtube, the motivation for making the video was
Slash and burn practices in Indonesia (Sumatra) has raised concern of another 1997 situation. (March 2000). It seems to be happening yet … all again in August 2002 and yet again in August 2005 and now in October 2006. Thank you indonesia to give us a romance enviroment just like london city!!
Russia: Nationalism
Fascists, nationalists, patriots, extremists: in Russia today, these labels seem to be used somewhat indiscriminately.
Chess champion and opposition politician Garry Kasparov calls Vladimir Putin's regime fascist - and the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi reciprocates by accusing the British ambassador in Russia of backing fascists (aka the opposition). The Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) allies itself with other self-described “nationalist patriots” to hold the so-called Russian March - and the National Bolshevik Party (NBP) declares (RUS) that hardly anyone has the “moral right” to be there, because it is their party, the NBP, that is Russia's one and only legitimate, “healthy,” nationalist party. According to the self-described “anti-fascist” Nashi, however, both the NBP and the DPNI are fascists and extremists, along with Kasparov and Russia's other liberal politicians. A young man hits Kasparov on the head with a chessboard - and fingers are pointed in two different directions: Nashi suggest that the culprit could've been a member of the National Bolshevik Party, while the opposition claims that he must've been a nashist (a somewhat derogatory word that derives from both Nashi and Nazi, natsist in Russian).
In short, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, sort of.
Journalist Aleksandr Plushev (LJ user plushev) has recently raised the issue of nationalism (RUS) at his Radio Echo of Moscow work blog:
Nationalism on the march
During our […] daytime show, it turned out that 40 percent of our audience consider themselves nationalists.
Is anyone bothered by it?
Bahrain: Blogger Released on Bail!
Illustrious Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif described a certain minister as 'stupid.' The minister lodged a case against the blogger, who was summoned by the CID yesterday.
Today, he went to the public prosecutor, where he was questioned again for three hours, in the presence of a lawyer, and released on bail.
“It is worth noting that in Bahrain’s law, lawyers present are not allowed to interrupt the public prosecutor during questioning, at all, object to a question nor advise their clients not to answer a particular one! They just sit there until the end of the session at which time they are given the chance to register any complaints and make any demands like asking the prosecutor for a copy of the file and to release the defendant on his own recognizance or on bail, rather than rot in jail over the weekend for instance,” wrote Al Yousif.
“At the end of the 3 hours of questioning, he asked us to adjourn to the waiting room for him to deliberate. He did, and decided that this case should be regarded as a misdemeanor and set bail at BD500 (US$1,325).My lawyer insisted on paying that on my behalf and we walked out.”
Kurdistance: A Medley
Welcome to this week's edition of Kurdistance, where we will roam the world over to see what the Kurds are discussing.
Diaspora News
Most of the Kurdish bloggers are Diaspora, but this week we are going to look at the areas in which they are talking about. Vladimir, who writes for From Holland to Kurdistan, talks about the latest Kurdish Hollywood news from the new film by Hiner Salem, the further success of the film “David and Layla” (described as the Kurdish version of ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding'), Kurdish director Zulli Aladag receiving the “Golden Camera” award, to the making of a new film called Peshmerga:
In other news, it’s confirmed that the movie about Mulla Mustafa Barzani will be named “Peshmerga”. The Kurdish director will be Ali Bedirxan, who resides in Egypt. And the Arabic and Kurdish media reported that it’s a joint venture between Hollywood and Egypt cinema.
Nuclear Crisis and Shadow of War at the Iranian Blogosphere
Several Iranian bloggers, inside country and abroad, have written about their country's nuclear crisis and the anticipated dark future which awaits it. For most, they see the situation becoming worss and the Iranian government moving in the wrong direction.
For Alpar,a very active blogger in Tehran, the situation is one of the worst in Iran's history [Fa]. He says:
Iran is in one of its worst crisis in its history and nobody knows after going through that crisis, whether there will be still an Iran or not. With this pointless political system, incapable government, fragile economy, lost capital, and a united world against us..can we imagine a worse situation? Iran should accept United Nations resolution and stop uranium enrichment.
At least think about war
Majid Zohari, a blogger based in Canada, says we heard a lot that Iran is not like Iraq and Afghanistan and they won't dare to attack it [Fa].The blogger says such arguments are not based on strong rationality and are really challenged by history. He asks who can admit that he wasn't shocked by events which happened in the last five or six years. “In all these years we see the value of predictions is zero. A nuclear or non-nuclear attack is so important that we can at least think about them,” he adds.
Pascua Lama, Chile: Moving Three Glaciers
Can you imagine moving three glaciers covering the driest desert in the world in order to extract gold and silver? Would you approve of a law that allows a private mining company to have economic power over a border between two countries? This is the sad story of Pascua Lama.
To have a clear introduction into the issue, fcadia (ES) explains its relevance in detail:
Pascua Lama es un proyecto binacional minero que pretende realizar la compañía transnacional minera Barrick Gold, en la alta cordillera de Chile y Argentina. En Chile, la zona comprometida corresponde a la Tercera Región (Región de Atacama) y en Argentina a la provincia de San Juan. Con una inversión inicial de 1.450 millones de dólares, busca extraer el oro que se encuentra bajo glaciares milenarios, reservas acuíferas en el desierto más seco del mundo.
Links for Thu, 2007-02
Kevin has a post that argues why the next web killer app won't be developed in Singapore.
B.art and life, Barbados Free Press and the West Indies Cricket blog weigh in on West Indies all-rounder Marlon Samuels' conversation with an Indian bookie.
An encounter with a family friend reminds Guyana-Gyal about the adage about “marrying for conversation.”
The Voice of the Taino People blog solicits support for the Jamaica Maroons.
Egyptian blogger Zeinobia shows no sympathy to the news of Anna Nicole Smith's death.
Egyptian blogger Tareq wrote to Fox News, complaining about what he claimed to be their impartiality.
“We are sandwiched between Saudis lamenting sectarianism and the Shia threat, and Iranians raging war against America and Israel. Instead of finding a united cause to bring us together we became up for grabs for all,” writes Iraqi blogger Hala. She says the division tearing her people apart has taught her that they have “failed in the most important test….the test of Love.”
Iraq Pundit reports on a new book which claims that ex-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's double was hanged.
Omar, at Iraq the Model, is in shock that it is quiet in Baghdad. He feels that there is something out of place but can't pin it down.
This site is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Please read our attribution policy.
Marta Cooper4 posts 
Jennifer Cheung2 posts 
Tolkun15 posts 
Caroline Finlay5 posts 
Keta Haluha3 posts 
.hj barraza7 posts 
Sara Moreira13 posts 
Thiana Biondo11 posts 
Mohammad Azraq22 posts 
Jenny Cascante5 posts 
Filip Stojanovski18 posts 
Solana Larsen102 posts