Stories from 7 August 2007
Japan: A Visit to Tokyo's Homeless District
Debito has posted a report about his visit to Sanya, Tokyo's day-labourer and homeless district. He writes that: “unless you have a reason to come here at all (cheap hotels during the World Cup 2002, day laboring), you could possibly spend your life in Tokyo and never know the place...
Japan: The Seikaryo Dormitory
Roy Berman at Mutant Frog Travelogue writes about Seikaryo, a Chinese student dormitory located in Tokyo constructed in 1927 by an organization belonging to the Japanese colonial Governor General in Taiwan.
Iran:Covering Iran's Revolution
In View from Iran, we read an interview with Marie. Marie is an award-winning filmmaker, artist, and teacher who lived in Iran for over a year during the American hostage crisis. Her love affair with Iran did not end when she left the country but rather continued.
Iran:Tortured students
Khorshidkhanoum[Fa] has given a link to an article that explains how three student activists have been tortured in prison.Thier families say Majid Tavakoli,Ahmad Ghasaban and Ehsan Mansouri, have been beaten up and deprived of sleeping.
Ukraine: Lutsenko's Business Ties
Ukrainiana writes about a former Maidan leader, ex-minister of the interior Yuri Lutsenko, currently #2 in the pro-presidential bloc, and his family's alleged involvement in what appears to be a corruption scandal.
Ukraine: Maidan Vendors
uaMuzik writes about Kyiv mayor's attempts to get the street vendors out of Maidan.
Ukraine: Chess Champion and Border Control
uaMuzik writes about a Ukrainian chess champion who, like everyone else, had to wait in line at Kyiv's Boryspil airport on his way out of the country.
Ukraine: “Seeking the Past”
Taras Kuzio writes about his father's recent trip to Germany: a Ukrainian, he was taken there “as a Nazi slave labourer in 1942 and never to return home again until exactly 50 years later in 1992.”
Ukraine: Marushchenko; RA Gallery
Olechko writes about a Ukrainian veteran photographer, his students, and a Kyiv photo gallery trying to survive financially.
Ukraine: Chernobyl Panoramas
Photographer Michael Forster Rothbart and web designer Dave Menninger have created a site of Chernobyl panoramas. Here's why.
Ukraine: Party Conferences
Foreign Notes reports: “The main political players held their party conferences last weekend. They were all very stage-managed, glitzy affairs, clearly revealing serious involvement of Western spin-doctors.”
Ukraine: Election Lists
Foreign Notes writes about a difficult process: Ukrainian politicians selecting candidates that the Ukrainian public is expected to vote for on Sept. 30.
India: Blogs and censorship
Sunny Days on self-censorship and blogs, as some bloggers talk of anonymity and blogging about family.
Sri Lanka: HSBC and References
Indi.ca has a scathing take on HSBC Bank's policies on issuing credit cards in Sri Lanka.
Medellin, Colombia: From Kidnapping Capital to Renaissance City
Medellín Colombia is synonymous with drugs, with Pablo Escobar, Marxist guerilla groups, and violent paramilitarists. But over the past decade it is also becoming well known and well regarded for having one of the most ambitious social experiments in Latin America. In this first part of a two-part podcast we become better acquainted with modern day Medellín.
Pakistan: Blogmeet in Karachi
the olive ream has photographs from a blogmeet in Karachi. Maheeda and Metroblogging Karachi have more.
Nepal: Contemporary Nepali Journalism
Nepal Monitor on Yubaraj Ghimire, the editor of Samay and Newsfront, a new English newsweekly in Kathmandu, discussing contemporary Nepali journalism.
Iraq: Gross Misunderstanding of Reality
Iraqi blogger Alaa, The Mesopotamian, writes about the gross misunderstandings among people in Canada to reality in Iraq.
Humanitarian Crisis in Iraq
Live from Baghdad relates to us the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.
Saudi Arabia: Support Abdulrahman Seddiq
Saudi Jeans writes about a new initiative to show support to a terror suspect detainee, Abdulrahman Seddiq, who was allegedly unfairly arrested.
Palestine: Life in Gaza Under Siege
Palestinian Dr Mona Al Farra links to an article with an interview with her about life in Gaza under siege.
