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Bolivia: Rain, Rain, Go Away … At Least Before Carnaval Starts

lingua → zhs

Carnaval is in the air, as Bolivians enjoy a four-day weekend. Much of the nation’s focus is on the Carnaval of Oruro, perhaps the most well-known in the country and declared by UNESCO as Mankind's Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. During the anticipation of this festival approached, one of the few bloggers in Oruro, Hugo Miranda, worried some of the inter-departmental transport would take advantage and raise prices, even though it was prohibited by law. In addition, heavy rains also have arrived in Oruro, and Miranda worried that the weather would cause grave difficulties for these important dates. In his blog, Angel Caido [ES] he posts some videos of the standing water that had invaded his city.

Heavy rains attributed to the El Niño phenomenon also affected other parts of the country. In Santa Cruz, rains would also affect many citizens as documented by Willy Andres in his flickr account. The rains would also affect one Santa Cruz blogger directly. Claudia Peña Claros writes in her blog Inutil Ardor [ES]:

Mi casa está destruida. Podría ingresar a lo que de mi casa queda, buscar un retazo de nubes en el cielo, y fotografiar los muros derruidos, para decir que alguna vez estuve en la guerra. La semana pasada llovió, y la saliva escurrida de las paredes exacerba ahora el dramatismo de lo inequívocamente roto.

My house is destroyed. I could enter into what remains of my house, look for clouds in the sky and photograph the demolished walls, to say that once I was in war. Last week it rained, and the saliva that drained from the walls exacerbated what is now unequivocally broken.

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Arabisc: Pictorial Tour of the Middle East

Amira Al Hussaini · 10:10 · Middle East & North Africa

qatar tent

Fed up of all the politics in the Middle East? Me too. This week we will take a pictorial tour of the region, making stops in Qatar, Bahrain, Tunisia and Lebanon, to name a few. There are real amazing photographers out there and the scenery and mood quickly changes from one country to the other.

With each picture summing up the worth of more than a thousand words, get ready for the adventure, which can fill the pages of books. Oops.. I mean cyberspace.

Our first stop is in Casablanca, Morocco, where what you see is not all what you think you see. A Moroccan in Washington posts a picture sent to him by a first. At first instance, you would think it is a riot.

“Throngs storming a new phone company shop that offers some great deals on new cellphones.The crowd reminds me of the Black friday sales in the US ,but the latter is a bit more orderly,” observed Adil R.

Still in Morocco, Laila Lalami takes us with her to the Casablanca Book Fair here.
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Deadwood cabinet stokes the fire of public ire in Zimbabwe

Zimpundit · 09:16 · Sub-Saharan Africa

Facing unrelenting pressure for change, Zimbabwe's beleagured leader, Robert Mugabe, reshuffled his cabinet two weeks ago, but did little to aleviate the suffering of a nation that has been ravaged by a porous leadership and failing economy. The reshuffle, which wasn't much of a reshuffle, only saw one minister dismissed, and has now been appropriately dubbed a “deadwood reshuffle.”

Right on cue, Zimbabwe's longsuffering people took their disapproval of the new cabinet and hyperinflation to the streets during valentine's week. First it was the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and their male counterparts that took Zimbabwe's baton happy police by surprise with a demonstration on the eve of Valentine's. The last four times they held their Valentine's day march, it has been on the 14th of February. This was the first time that men joined WOZA in the march.

In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, around a thousand people turned out for the demonstration which went uninterrupted until the end when the police pounced on the demonstrators with their usual brutality. In Harare, where the crowd was twice as large, there was a little more drama.

The peaceful demonstration then moved on to Parliament, singing in Shona, ‘your term is up – you have stayed too long’. As the group neared the entrance, riot police fired tear gas canisters into the crowd. Initially the crowd retreated but then bravely regrouped, stood their ground and threw back the tear gas canisters; hitting the Parliament walls and sending those watching from the parliament balcony scurrying back into the building.

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Touring Libyan Blogs

Fozia Mohamed · 06:48 · Middle East & North Africa

Equality among sexes in Libya? Yes, because now you have to pay attention to Libyan female pickpockets! This is what Khadijateri discovered yesterday when she went into a shop to buy some clothes. But Khadijateri was lucky indeed as she realized what was happening and used common sense.

“Now, I know for a fact that as a rule Libyans like to touch one another. They shake hands and kiss when they meet, but in public, with strangers, they avoid touching as much as possible. I said to Jenna ‘These women are not OK' and I stepped back, immediately looking down at my purse. Of course the zipper was open and my wallet was gone.”

See how she did it here …

On another topic Anglolibyan has written a post about our great Lebanese diva Fairuz, he calls her ‘Ambassador to the Stars'. For you fans out there, he has made an extensive compilation of videoclips and photos and dowloadable mp3 songs. Lucky Anglolibyan, he had the opportunity to see Fairuz in live concerts !

“The concert was held at the Royal Festival Hall besides the river Thames, we arrived on time but there was a slight delay because Fairuz had to be interviewed for the BBC 6 O'clock News because she actually broke the British recorded for the highest price paid for a ticket in British history, the record holder used to be Frank Sinatra who's tickets were sold at £600 each at the black market, Fairuz's tickets at the black market were selling at £1000 each! [sic]”.

Last week was of course Valentine and Libyan blogs were not immune from the love bug. Our literary and beautiful Libyan Sereeb provided us with a touching example from her highschool days. Sereeb went to a mixed school in Libya in the 1980s and that was rare, but what is even rarer is for your teacher to encourage you to fall in love. Yes you heard that right!

“And our teacher says: “the shortest way to heaven is to fall in love. Fall in love kids, fall in love.”
The girls giggle shyly and the boys shout enthusiastically: “Oh yes, oh yes. You are right teacher (as if they really know, hehe), please tell us more.”

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India, Pakistan: 66 people killed on the “Peace Train”

Neha Viswanathan · 03:09 · South Asia

66 people were killed on the Samjhauta Express with homemade bombs last night. According to Wikipedia,

The Samjhauta Express is a bi-weekly train — Tuesdays and Fridays — that runs between Delhi and Attari in India and Wagah and Lahore in Pakistan. Until the reopening of the Thar Express, this was the only rail connection between the two countries.

Both Pakistanis and Indian were killed on the train. Some of the initial and early reactions in the blogosphere appear to indicate that bloggers find themselves confused as it was mostly Pakistanis who died, making it difficult to blame Islamic militants. But this terrorist attack comes at a time when Pakistan is already on high alert because of similar attacks recently. All Things Pakistan says

Pakistan has recently seen a spate of bombings in its major cities, and even before this some in government were pointing towards a ‘foreign hand’ in these bombings. Both countries have long played this game of ‘blame the foreign hand’, including in the recent tragic train bombings in Mumbai. The impulse to do so at the first sign of trouble is a natural one in the sub-continent. Given the deep distrust that exists between the two, it may even be understandable. But irrespective of the short-term political gains such finger-pointing might gain, it is not a very useful way to deal with deep tensions.

Some blogs like Pass The Roti are concerned that the investigation process may not be free of bias, and that the death of the passengers will probably be used for political mileage in both countries. Despite the obvious animosity between the governments of the two countries, there are people who have half their family across the border, or have experienced the other country and are worried about the threats to the relations between the countries. Nothing Adds Up says

This is personally distressing also since I was aboard one of the first Samjhota Express trains to run after it was resumed in January 2004, when I visited New Delhi for an Economics Conference in early February 2004. That train ride was one of the highest points of my life, full of hope and excitement, and I hope they don't cut back or cancel it, just ratchet up security.

Meanwhile, Pacific Empire reminds us that we're increasingly numb to acts of terrorism and (more…)

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