Archive for
February 8th, 2007


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Music Video On South East Asian Haze 

a small portrait of this author Preetam Rai · 23:49

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!!

3 comments · »»

Russia: Nationalism 

a small portrait of this author Veronica Khokhlova · 19:14
lingua → zhs

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?

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1 comment · »»

Bahrain: Blogger Released on Bail! 

a small portrait of this author Amira Al Hussaini · 18:23
lingua → zhs

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.”

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3 comments · »»

Kurdistance: A Medley 

a small portrait of this author Deborah Ann Dilley · 16:18

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.

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2 comments · »»

Nuclear Crisis and Shadow of War at the Iranian Blogosphere 

a small portrait of this author Hamid Tehrani · 14:56

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.

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3 comments · »»

Pascua Lama, Chile: Moving Three Glaciers 

a small portrait of this author Rosario Lizana · 14:27
lingua → zhs · es

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.

Pascua Lama is a binational mine project that the Barrick Gold transnational mine company hopes to carry out in the high Chilean and Argentinean mountains. In Chile, the zone is in the third region (Atacama Region) and in Argentina in the San Juan Province. With an initial investment of US$ 1.45 billion, they will search to extract the gold that is under millennial glaciers, water reserves in the driest desert in the world.

(more…)

3 comments · »»
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