22 March 2007

Stories from 22 March 2007

Tajikistan: Chopping -ov

  22 March 2007

Vadim reports that Tajikistan's president wants to remove the Russian -ov from his last name, changing it to Rakhmon. Further, he wants a general return in Tajikistan to traditional national toponymy.

China: Homeowners hold their ground

  22 March 2007

How does China's landmark, much-blogged about new property law relate to the average citizen? An illustration comes with the decision by two residents of central China's Chongqing Municipality to hold their ground when the land upon which the house they purchased had been sold, then dug up, by a developer...

Kyrgyzstan: Military Mars Navruz

  22 March 2007

Gene Daniels says that the heavy police and military presence on the streets of Bishkek marred Kyrgyzstan's Navruz celebrations. There is speculation that the president ordered the heavy security presence to dissuade his opponents from staging protests.

Egypt: A First for Parliament

“In what I think is a first in Egyptian political history, on Sunday 18 March, 102 opposition legislators began a boycott of parliament’s plenary sessions. The sessions are devoted to swiftly passing what the Mubarak regime is calling ‘amendments’ to the 1971 constitution,” writes Egyptian blogger Baheya. “In reality, the...

Egypt: Gamal Faints

Egyptian blogger Ibn Al Dunya links to an article which claims that Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's son and heir-apparent Gamal fainted for five minutes prior to a NDP General Secretariat meeting.

Slovenia: A Roundup

  22 March 2007

The Glory of Carniola writes about the “diabolical” parking meters recently installed in Maribor; a “memorable” birthday gift (memorable in a diabolical kind of way, I'd say); and yet another Slovenia/Slovakia mix-up.

Bulgaria, Libya: Tripoli Six in the Economist

  22 March 2007

The Economist's Edward Lucas reposts his piece on the “Tripoli Six”: “Bulgaria has tried hard to make the scandal an international issue, and has also raised money to help the AIDS-infected children. But Libya appears to want to do a deal, involving freedom for the Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi,...

Part Two: Inside the school of the Egyptian blogosphere

Source: original image from Baheyya (photoshopped), text in Arabic from Misr Digital (Read Part One of this article here) In order to better understand this highly organized Egyptian blogosphere and how bloggers perceive their role in this new, turbulent phase in their country's history, on March 15, 2007, I talked...

Russia: The Turkish Invasion

  22 March 2007

The Turkish Invasion warns readers of the upcoming Turkish invasion: “This weekend you will have a chance to see, meet (and hate) a lot of Turkish guys in Moscow. It is the annual “Operation White Meat: Assault to Moscow” or MITT (Moscow International Tourism Fair) as the foreigners and sensible...

Part One: Inside the school of the Egyptian blogosphere

Source: original image from Baheyya (photoshopped), text in Arabic from Misr Digital It is being made clear almost daily that the dynamism of the Egyptian bloggers isn’t just online; the country's activist bloggers are also highly engaged on the street as well. They've been playing an active part in the...