21 March 2007

Stories from 21 March 2007

Armenia: Economic Developments

  21 March 2007

Armenian Blog Review reports on various developments in the Armenian economy, including a natural gas pipeline linking Iran and Armenia and poor localization for Windows XP, as discussed on Armenian blogs.

Morocco: El Bicho and Darga Perform April 1st

Chadstoune is happy Moroccan band Darga and Spanish band El Bicho will be performing in Casablanca on April 1. Says the blogger: Says the blogger [Fr}: “El Bicho is one of the best bets of flamenco fusion based on daring mix of music! ” and “Darga is a group united...

Kyrgyzstan: Svetlana Nazarenko

  21 March 2007

Tolkun Umaraliev reports that Svetlana Nazarenko, a native of Bishkek who is the lead singer of the Russian band Gorod 312 (ru), has been awarded the honorary title “Honored Artist of the Kyrgyz Republic.”

Afghanistan: Nowrouz & Signs of Spring

  21 March 2007

Safrang writes that spring has become associated with renewed fighting in Afghanistan in recent years and takes the liberty of changing an old folk song associated with Nowrouz (the holiday celebrated on the first day of spring) to urge a different mullah to come join the festivities.

China: Book banned prior to printing

  21 March 2007

Prior to a recent reprinting, ‘A Narrow Escape From Death: My ‘Right-wing’ Life’, a book from retired Xinhua journalist Dai Huang was banned from being published by order of China's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), in which Dai recounts the years during which he was cast as a...

Serbia: Milosevic and the Internet

  21 March 2007

Belgrade 2.0 predicts a new war, over Milosevic: “Even though the online group of Milosevic-haters is by far bigger than the group of his supporters, it seems as if the supporters are louder and manage to create a balance. How long can this go on i wonder?”

Serbia: “Deveti Mart”

  21 March 2007

Belatedly, a bit of contemporary Serbian history, via Belgrade 2.0: on March 9, 1991, Belgrade became the scene of large protest rallies. “This was the first sign that the citizens were not so satisfied with Milosevic’s rule, already after two years of his reign.”

The Balkans, Japan: War Re-Enactment Games

  21 March 2007

Photos of a group of Japanese men clad in Croatian and Serbian military uniforms has caused a scandal in the Serbian blogosphere, Neretva River reports: “…these men were participating in a re-enactment of the recent wars in a ‘capture the flag’ style game which apparently had different scenarios, one apparently...

Latvia: Ukrainian and Russian Folk Music

  21 March 2007

Dykun posts a video and writes on a Ukrainian and Russian folk music performance in Riga, Latvia: “they performed together a show of russian and ukrainian wedding songs and rituals, with the structure of a ukrainian cossack marrying a russian bride. […] presented are typical wedding songs and a re-enactment...

Russia: “Whack the Blogs”

  21 March 2007

Heribert Schindler of Rossijskaja Federazija “whacks” Russia blogs of a certain category: “My entry ‘Whack the Blogs’ is admittedly inspired by a most rabid and fascinating phenomenon of blogosphere, by a persuasively US based group of spin doctors who vehemently try to convince me of them being one single hateful...

Costa Rica: Cafta, Point of Discord

  21 March 2007

Roy Rojas on the intense protests against the Central American Free Trade Agreement in Costa Rica: “what has happened in countries that have ratified the agreement, for example Nicaragua and El Salvador, is that exports to the US have gone up significantly and there has been no loss of employment...

Chile: Censorship, Victor Jara and Los Tres

  21 March 2007

In his inimitable style, Tomás Dinges ties together the popularity of Mexican Rancheras and American hits, Chile's feudal history, the oppressive days of the dictatorship, the brutal murder of Victor Jara, and the censorship of video images by the producers of the massive concert recently held by Chilean folk-rock superheroes...