30 August 2007

Stories from 30 August 2007

Arabeyes: Who is Using the Tunisian Presidential Airplane?

The Tunisian presidential airplane and the 'unofficial' trips it takes to Europe and the fashion capitals of the world has attracted the scrutiny of the country's most outspoken bloggers. Who is using the president's plane? Who approves the trips abroad and how much is it used for official business? These are some of the questions being raised in Arabic and French, which I am translating today into English.

Ugandans and Expats Face Off in the Blogosphere

  30 August 2007

"I can also tell an American blogger when I read one—they are different in a way that neither makes me laugh or angered. See this entry, for example. Well, maybe some aren’t that American, but the Americans—most expats, anyway—tend to lean towards that. To them, Uganda is little more than an experiment in hard living." This quote comes from 27 Comrade’s blog....Read on.

Russia: Sakhalin Travel

  30 August 2007

White Sun of the Desert writes about his recent Sakhalin travel: “The journey back entailed me having to do one of those things I’d always hoped I’d never have to do: enter a 4-berth Russian railway carriage which has 3 people sleeping in it already, and the spare bed is...

Russia: “Anti-Akhmatova”

  30 August 2007

Languor Management writes about Tamara Katayeva's “600-page assault on the literary legacy Anna Akhmatova”: “This reminds me of Emma Gerstein's Moscow Memoirs, which was supposed to have debunked Nadehzda and Osip Mandelshtam's literary legacy, and really just portrayed them as particularly difficult people going through particularly hard times.”

Russia: “Word of Badmouth”

  30 August 2007

Copydude writes about various ways of mistreating foreigners in Russia – and about “word of badmouth,” which certain Russian restaurant owners don't seem to know anything about: “According to customer service research, a dissatisfied customer complains to an average of eight other people about a bad experience. In the blogging...

Palestine: Gul for Turkey

Fayyad from Palestinian blog Kabobfest writes about Abdulla Gul‘s election as Turkey's president. “Ironically, some secular extremists in Turkey, too (have) issue with the fact the Gul’s wife, Hayrunisa, wears a hijab, which is banned from all Turkish public institutions, and (for) some reason terrifies some, especially when Mrs. Gul...

Mauritania : Ignorance and Tradition

  30 August 2007

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Generously endowed women are favored in Mauritania. The fatter the woman, the more beautiful she is thought to be. Being big is also a sign of wealth and the search for beauty and signs of exterior wealth leads to some unorthodox methods...

Ukraine: Animal Shelter

  30 August 2007

On August 19, Ukrainian journalist Tanya Kremen paid a visit to an animal shelter located near a small town just outside Kyiv. Below are her impressions and thoughts, which she has posted on her blog at Korrespondent.net, as well as a couple of comments from her readers.

Iran:US policy and a web site

Azarmehr says that during his visit to US last Novemeber :”we had a meeting at the US State Department. We were told that the US does not have a policy of regime change in Iran, instead the US policy is changing the behaviour of the Islamic regime! So I asked,...

Afghanistan: Errors of Judgment

  30 August 2007

In his first roundup for Global Voices, Joshua Foust takes a tour of mostly Western experts on Afghanistan to see where and how things are changing. This week, he focuses on the newly unveiled American opium eradication campaign.