Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2007 June 11

11 June 2007

Daily archive · 4 posts

Stories from 11 June 2007

Ukraine: Kyiv Street Cleaners Get a Raise

Written by Veronica Khokhlova · Eastern & Central Europe

Kyiv street cleaners - all 6,000 of them - will be getting $400 a month from now on. This raise, city administration officials hope, will help hire 3,500 more people needed to keep the Ukrainian capital tidy. Judging by a discussion that erupted after the Ukrainian news website Korrespondent.net ran an item on this salary increase initiative, Kyiv's laborer corps might soon become overstaffed - and many of the new recruits are likely to be overqualified for the humble yet arduous work of a street cleaner.

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Bolivia: Santa Cruz Newspaper Joins the Blogosphere

Written by Eduardo Avila · Latin America

The Santa Cruz newspaper El Deber recently provided coverage to the Bolivian blogosphere and has even joined in the act with the launch of three new blogs of its own. The three blogs may be a catalyst for other newspapers to begin blogging and interacting with its readers.

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Arabeyes: Greedy Doctors, Cheating Spouses and Parliamentary Scuffles

Written by Amira Al Hussaini · Middle East & North Africa

Today's translation of Arabic blogs makes five stops: one each in Libya, Tunisia and Kuwait and two stops in Egypt to give us a gist of what some of the bloggers are writing about. Issues being discussed include how doctors put money before their patients' interests; cheating spouses; why Arabs are not progressing and the latest on why the Kuwaiti Parliament is in a shambles.

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Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome

Written by Salam Adil · Middle East & North Africa

Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God, Thank you God...Marshmallow26 after narrowly missing a roadside bomb this week

What can I say? Another week full of essential reads. There is no need for an introduction they are all important and worth reading so let's begin...

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Updates from 11 June 2007

India

Sepia Mutiny on the sudden relevance of Paris Hilton. “Meanwhile, you have so-called “enemy combatants,” some of them South Asian, who in many cases don’t get a lawyer or even get to hear the evidence against them. They are simply thrown into a cage. Not only do they not receive a get-out-of-jail-free card for mental illness, they get tortured in a manner meant to hasten mental illness. Even children. I know some of you think it might be unfair of me to compare Hilton to Guantanamo inmates. You are quite correct. The Guantanamo inmates have only allegedly committed a crime. “

• Neha Viswanathan

Pakistan

iFaqeer introduces a project - ‘Understanding Pakistan'. “Pakistanis often complain that the history of their country–or the history of the region as it relates to them and their country–is often told from either British or Western eyes, or from a point of view that is sympathetic to India, and dwells too much on a hagiography of Gandhi, and even sometimes Nehru, to the detriment of seeing our leaders as anything more than caricatures (as Jinnah was portrayed in the movie “Gandhi”) and the process, or reason of Pakistan coming into existence as being driven by one man's–Mohammad Ali Jinnah's–ambition or stubbornness.”

• Neha Viswanathan

Bangladesh

Sadiq Alam on the Carnival of Islam in the East. “Inspired by Hakim Abdullah's ‘Carnival of Islam in the West' yesterday it came to me that there is a necessity also to have a focus and brain-storming about the status of Islam in East. In recent time islam has grown considerably in the west, mostly due to migration of muslims and also from the significant number of reverts or converts to Islam.”

• Neha Viswanathan

Bangladesh

black and gray on radio in Bangladesh. “Slowly but surely a silent revolution is taking a shape in Bangladesh. Several private radio stations in Dhaka have gone on-air a few years ago, now along with BBC and VOA on FM, stations like Radio Foorti and Radio Today are changing the country's entertainment scene.”

• Neha Viswanathan

Lesotho

Following the explosion in Nairobi today, Thinkers Room discusses the double edged of personal media: Today has just illustrated the double edged nature of pervasive communication like blogs, email and text messaging. There is no doubt that these platforms are powerful tools for communicating information. There is also no doubt that they are powerful tools for spreading disinformation. The rumours and innuendo that have gotten to me have left me speechless. Some of the accounts have received indicate hundreds dead and the whole block leveled. Blame has been laid at the doors of Al Qaeda, clumsily detonated grenades, Mungiki, time bombs, electronically detonated bombs and mobile phone detonated bombs.

• Ndesanjo Macha

Jamaica

Geoffrey Philp confesses that he had no intention of becoming a Caribbean-American, because he wanted to be known only as a Jamaican writer - but he now realises that Caribbean-Americans “have had a significant role in shaping the conscience of America”.

• Karel McIntosh

Iran

You can see several photos of Daniel Ortega's trip to Tehran in Kamangir's blog.The President of Nicaragua talked with Iranian leaders and gave a speech in the University of Tehran mentioning “the Sandanista’s revolution took over the power in 1979, the exact year that the Islamic revolution succeeded in Iran. These two are twin revolutions which had and still pursue similar goals, such as justice, freedom, sovereignty, and fighting Imperialism.”

• Fred Petrossian

Barbados

West Indies Cricket Blog quotes Sir Gary Sobers and former England captain Mike Arthurton on the decline of West Indies cricket.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Martinique

le blog de [moi] writes about the legislative elections in Martinique [Fr], noting that 65% percent of voters stayed home–nearly the same proportion as voted in the French presidential election. Understandable, [moi] writes, given the mediocrity of the candidates.

• Jennifer Brea