Archive for
March 15th, 2007
Stories
South Asia: Marriage of Convenience, explosion of Hindi blogs, time for a regime change, women in the Middle East
The latest buzz from different South Asian blogs:
Bangladesh:
After a visit to an old age home in Kolkata Sadiq M. Alam of Inspirations and Creative Thoughts thinks just as children, old people are the most beautiful people on planet earth.
Adhunika Blog is vocal against the marriage of convenience, which is common in settled marriages.
Rehan of BangladeshWeb Blogs depicts how Bangladesh is surviving against all odds with its 140 million people and still sustaining a GDP growth over 6 percent.
Bhutan:
JazzyYaris of Kuzu-Bhutan Weblog asks why Bhutan's civil institutions are so poor.
India:
Kafila Blog describes the explosion of Hindi blogs and the impact they are having in Indian blogosphere.
Sudhansu in Desicritics critically analyzes the E-commerce (more…)
China: Neighbors talking on the Net
Things are looking slightly better for China's property owners, but the right to vote has yet to reach the cities. Over the past few years property owners have done their best to pick up the slack, but sometimes have to resort to violence to get their needs met.
Do Chinese cities have residential tenancy acts? If property owner rights are so shaky, who's looking out for those who rent the apartments out? Home owners have begun organizing themselves and, according to a post from indy blogger 50mm, so increasingly are residents in a few communities in southern China's Shenzhen, just across the border with Hong Kong:
深圳房地产信息网为在深圳的每个小区都建立了业主论坛，业主们在自家楼盘的网络空间里交流，增进情感。网络论坛，在一定程度上成为购买商品房的市民们的网络福利。那些住在城中村的人们呢？住城中村的有不少是刚进入深圳的年轻人，收入相对比较低，他们有强烈的网络交流的需求，但深圳却没有相应的城中村论坛，因为城中村的住户们，对自己住的社区缺乏认同感，就像是风吹的沙子，到处流动，四处搬家。所以也没有人来为城中村的住户建立网络论坛。
Arabisc: Egypt - The Home of Thousands of Political Prisoners
Egyptian blogger Ala'a Abdulfatah claims that there are thousands of political prisoners in his country, who are behind bars without trial.
To draw attention to the plight of such prisoners, Abdulfattah and another blogger Malek, interviewed the parents of one prisoner as well as a lawyer involved in similar cases.
Panama: HSBC Sues Customer for Yahoo Postings
#1: From Panama's Noriegaville News: Uproar among expats about HSBC Panama SLAPP suit
If the intention was to silence criticism of its service, the attempt has already miserably failed. A storm of protest and foreigners closing their accounts has so far been the result of a lawsuit HSBC Panama has brought against its client Peter Gordon for damages to the tune of $5,000,000 as a result of the defendant criticizing HSBC's service in two messages on a members-only Yahoo group and in 19 private letters to the bank…Read the complete post!
#2: From Chiriqui Chatter: HSBC vs. Peter Gordon
Once upon a time, a long long time ago, there used to be a contributor in many of the Panama Yahoo groups by the name of Peter Gordon. All of a sudden he quit posting. Recently, Don Winner explained why Peter had become so mute.
Arabisc: Sorting Through Arabic Blogs
With thousands of posts on blogs written in Arabic daily, do you realise how difficult it is to pick a handful for translation for Global Voices Online twice a week?
Moroccan blogger Mohammed Saeed Hjiouij seems to be suffering from the same problem. He is at a loss on which blogs are better than others in the Arabic blogosphere.
However, unlike me, Hjiouij has an ingenious idea to beat the blogging blues. (more…)
Tamil Blogosphere: Reflecting on Women and Gender
International Women's Day evoked quite a lot of posts in the Tamil Blogosphere.
Living Smile Vidya is a transgender blogging from Madurai, South India. Through her posts she has been quite instrumental in making other bloggers understand the trials and tribulations transgenders face in India. Her personal recounts the troubles she took to be where she is now, an executive assistant in a private company. In her latest post she talks about how transgenders are being exploited in Tamil movies. She had earlier, written a post when the movie ‘Vettaiyadu Vilaiyaadu' was released.
Mangai, a social worker from Delhi writes in detail about the ‘Domestic Violence Act' that was made into a law in India in 2005. Unique aspects of the law, according to Mangai are the following: 1. Verbal and economic abuse are also considered along with physical and mental abuse. 2. The judge would make a ruling within 3 months of filing a case. 3. Abused women would be allowed to stay where would like to and the protection offices appointed in each district would be incharge of their protection. Mangai also talks about some women she met in a village camp in Haryana. Couple of women expressed their desire to become a member of the parliament, or the chief minister. The women's understanding of local issues and their knowledge about current affairs makes Mangai feel confident that the issue of female infanticide may be resolved soon.
Thanu, a doctor from Erode, Tamilnadu talks about female infanticide and sex selective abortions. She writes further on the issue of sex ratios in the world, and links sex selective abortions and female infanticide to the trend of lop-sided ratios. She explains how the concept of dowry, society's outlook on female children, traditions and rituals contribute to female infanticide and sex selective abortion. As an example, Thanu talks about a couple who (more…)
Links for Thu, 2007-03
Le Renouveau Congolais posts pictures [fr] of UDPS Belux's (Belgium-Luxemburg branch) celebration of the party's 25th Anniversary. UDPS is the main DRC opposition party.
Matts has a nice post about the Seoul city plan in cracking down street vendors.
Asiapages explained why South Korea’s attempt to create a Chinatown near Incheon is seriously missing the point.
Cameroonian Sanaga Peregrinations writes [Fr] of Nigerian Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Purple Hibiscus: “Important questions are raised in this book, between respect of tradition and conformity to christian teachings, does the fight against sin justify damnation on earth through corporal punishment?”
The government of Uzbekistan has blocked access from Uzbekistan to the blog Registan.net.
At neweurasia Tolkun posts a translation of a post about the meanings of the mahalla (small community or neighborhood) in Uzbekistan.
Safrang discusses the choice between reconciliation and accountability in Afghanistan, asking why the country cannot have both.
Vadim says that Tajikistan's electricity woes are getting worse.
Onnik Krikorian takes readers on a photo tour of a market in Kutaisi, Georgia.
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