Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2007 April 05

5 April 2007

Daily archive · 4 posts

Stories from 5 April 2007

Bloggers in India Mourn the Untimely Death of Shakti Bhatt

Bloggers in India have been mourning the untimely death of Shakti Bhatt, who passed away in Delhi last Saturday night after a sudden and unexpected illness. Shakti - who was...

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Panama: Bocas Dolphins Under Threat, and Non-Lethal Personal Security Devices in Panama.

Written by Melissa De León · Latin America

#1: From The Noriegaville News, Bocas Dolphins Under Threat : My own opinion of this project is it is simply a commercial venture using and probably abusing the natural resources...

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Swahili Blogosphere: Blogging against Freedom of Information Bill, African unity, and How many other dictators are out there?

Written by J. Nambiza Tungaraza · Sub-Saharan Africa

The extraordinary summit of the Southern African Development Community leaders in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania is over, but the debate over the Zimbabwe's government's crackdown on opposition still lingers on....

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Arabeyes: Pictorial Tour of the Middle East

Written by Amira Al Hussaini · Middle East & North Africa

American couple BSS and BRN, who live in Al Ain, in the UAE, have been busy clicking photographs of their new surroundings, bringing us up close and personal with the...

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Updates from 5 April 2007

Japan

Adamu reports that Hayao Miyazaki's new animation, “Ponyo on the Chiffs” is scheduled to be released in summer 2008. The production is completely hand-drawn, with no computers used whatsoever.

• Oiwan Lam

Japan

Hisane Masaki from Ohmynews reports on the recent merge of two oil companies into Inpex Holdings to prepare for entering the global market.

• Oiwan Lam

Zimbabwe

Poet Tinashe Mushakavanhu has been compared to Dambudzo Marechera. eshuneutics disagrees: The gaps are more to do with a poet learning a visual syntax whereas the breaks in Marechera are a psychological terrain that has to be crossed with a struggle, with effort, with full engagement by the reader. I find Mushakavanhu’s poetry to be interesting, but to draw comparisons with Marechera is misguided: the obvious comparisons—beyond the fact that both have connections with Zimbabwe—are really quite spurious and detrimental to a developing poetic talent.

• Ndesanjo Macha

Kenya

Kumekucha reveals what he calls “two anti-Kikuyu” constitutional amendments in Kenya, “Moi and his cronies introduced the constitutional amendment requiring a president to garner at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in 5 provinces out of the total of 8 as an extra safety valve and precaution against losing the presidential elections. This amendment was clearly targeted at the feared Kikuyu vote in the opposition. The arithmetic clearly showed that a Kikuyu candidate who could get the support of the entire community was capable of getting enough votes to win the presidency. This is further evidence that Moi must have rigged both the 1992 and 1997 elections in his favor. The truth is that Matiba won in 1992 and Kibaki won in 1997.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

D.R. of Congo

Le Blog du Congolais posts an article by Freddy Lokolongo stating [Fr]: “The events of Bas-Congo and more recently attacks on the homes of ex-Vice President Bemba … with the complicity of [United Nations Mission to the Congo] MONUC, do not even begin to display the extent of the plot originated by the international community … and of which Kabila [and others] are the leaders.”

• Alice Backer

Haiti

Commenting on a news story about GEDIMEX, a food distributor who refuses to halt its alleged sale of rotten rice, Collectif Haiti de Provence writes [Fr]: “One wonders how one can store food to its rotting while thousands starve … No investigation by authorities will uproot GEDIMEX. Favors here, resounding favors there and the story will be quickly forgotten.” The story about GEDIMEX broke amidst a general crackdown on retailers of expired food near destitute violence ridden areas of the capital by the government.

• Alice Backer

Kenya

My Voting Dilemma - A poem by Kenyanpoet:
This paradox of how a piece of paper
With X and ticks marks like an exam paper
To examine my literacy and disarm my prayers
Malcolm X and Nike labels
Tick no and X or cancel yes
No I don’t want yes
My answer is no
And so I will cancel

• Ndesanjo Macha

Russia: The RuNet's Top 10 Political Slang Words

In my opinion, the only slang from this list which is falling out of vogue is the nickname of Medvedev...
I'm from Russia, use internet daily, and I didn't know half of these words. The other slang words are not...