Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2008 January 14

14 January 2008

Daily archive · 10 posts

Stories from 14 January 2008

World's Eyes on Obama

Written by Amira Al Hussaini · South Asia, Eastern & Central Europe

As his ratings continue to slip in the primaries, US presidential hopeful Barack Obama's popularity is on the rise among bloggers around the world. Global Voices Online editors and contributors joined hands to bring us the reactions of bloggers from Japan, Haiti, Republic of Macedonia, Pakistan, India, Ukraine, Singapore and Chile in this article.

· 2

· read »

FreeAccess Plus!: Web 2.0 Censorship workaround

Written by sami ben gharbia · Middle East & North Africa

Based on Hamed Saber's “Access Flickr” Firefox extension, which enables users to circumvent the filter currently in effect in Iran and in few other countries that block Flickr, the popular...

· 10

· read »

Egypt: Social Responsibilty and the Safety of Individuals

Written by Amira Al Hussaini · Middle East & North Africa

Egyptian blogger Amr Gharbeia (Ar) looks at the ethics of bloggers and the roles they play in exposing torture against victims. Are they victimising the victims even further by exposing their identities in a society which still washes its dishonour with the victim's blood?

· read »

Iraq: Videos of snow in Baghdad

Written by Juliana Rincón Parra · Middle East & North Africa

The unexpected happened in Iraq: Snow fell on the capital city of Baghdad, and citizens grabbed their video cameras to record this once in a lifetime event.

· 6

· read »

Colombia: Uncertain Future for the Hostage Situation

Written by Juliana Rincón Parra · Latin America

In the wake of the release of two women who had been held hostage by the FARC terrorist group for 5 and 6 years, there are mixed feelings regarding the future political situation in Colombia, especially after the request by Venezuela´s President Hugo Chávez to world leaders to consider FARC an insurgent and not a terrorist group.

· 6

· read »

Iraq: Snow in Baghdad

Written by Salam Adil · Middle East & North Africa

Yes, seriously. For the first time in living memory it actually snowed in Baghdad. Salam Adil braves the weather and brings us the latest from the Iraqi blogosphere in this post.

· 11

· read »

Brazil: Should we fear Venezuela?

Written by Paula Góes · Latin America

"Venezuela is due to become the biggest military force in South America. Should Brazilians be worried about it? Is there any need to fear Hugo Chavez?". These were lines on a recent satire TV show in Brazil, which presented the possibility of a Venezuelan invasion in the country. "Rumour Central" was accused by many bloggers of being misleading, manipulating and of inciting hatred against Venezuela among Brazilians. Find a link to see the 8 minute show with English subtitles in this piece.

· 5

· read »

Japan: Turn off the lights

Written by Hanako Tokita · East Asia

Since their introduction in the 1970s, convenience stores, popularly called konbini, have developed into a prominent feature of the Japanese landscape. Now the number has grown to about 45,000 stores, 94 per cent of which are running 24-7, offering everything from food, to beverages, to snacks, to ATMs, to ticketing and utility bill payments, you name it.

· 3

· read »

Maldives: Aftermath of an assassination attempt

Written by Nihan Zafar · South Asia

It looks like a scene out of a Tintin or Asterix comic book. On January 8, during a campaign tour of a northern atoll, while the Maldives dictator Maumoon Abdul...

· 1

· read »

Egypt: America Decides

Written by Tarek Amr · Middle East & North Africa, North America

The United States is a the only Super Power in today's Unipolar World. And that's why it takes people here two years to talk about the Presidential Elections there before it even starts, and they continue talking about it for another two years later, writes Tarek Amr, who brings us the latest buzz from the Egyptian blogosphere on the elections, the presidential race and the candidates.

· 6

· read »

Updates from 14 January 2008

Jordan

Jordan's 7iber discusses the impact of blogging on Jordan here.

• Amira Al Hussaini

Morocco

Three scientists have discovered a 300-million year-old fossil specimen of an invertebrate worm in the southern city of Zagora, Morocco, reports The View from Fez.

• Amira Al Hussaini

Egypt

Troubled pop star Britney Spears converting to Islam? Egyptian Sandmonkey sheds light on the situation here.

• Amira Al Hussaini

Ukraine

Ukrainiana takes a walk around Kyiv and posts pictures of garbage, gloom, holiday decorations and political ads disguised as holiday greetings.

• Veronica Khokhlova

Ukraine

Skippy dot net writes about a trip to Chernobyl and posts pictures.

• Veronica Khokhlova

Belarus

Window on Eurasia writes about a review of a new book on Soviet fartsovshchiki: “In the 1970s and 1980s, ‘fartsovka' grew so large that Vasil’yev suggests there were six different groups involved in acquiring goods — hotel workers, sailors on Soviet cargo ships, long-distance truckers, participants in Interclubs, guides, and those who continued to deal “outside hotels” as well as those who sold these goods to others. Vasil’yev describes each of these in great detail, and his online reviewer helpfully summarizes Vasil’yev’s findings on each of them.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

Russia

Russia Blog believes that if Kremlin could vote in the 2008 election in the United States, Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb) would most likely become the next president: “However, to Moscow’s regret, Hagel is not in the running, though his chances would be reasonably good.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

Russia

Robert Amsterdam and Siberian Light report on the plight of Voice of Beslan, a group of Beslan survivors and their relatives, who are now being accused of breaking the law on extremism.

• Veronica Khokhlova

East Timor

Greater Surbiton writes about East Timorese and Bosnian genocides and the double standards used by some when assessing the human losses: “Unfortunately, many of the same people who highlight the extent of East Timorese suffering, such as Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Edward Herman and David Peterson, actually go out of their way to minimise the extent of Bosnian suffering. For the sake of convenience, such people can be termed Chomskyites. The Chomskyites like to portray East Timor as absolutely the worst crime to have occurred anywhere in the world since World War II, whereas they like to portray Bosnia as something equivalent to a pillow-fight at a children’s party.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

Albania

Living in Shkoder writes about a bank that “was burnt down during the riots in March 1997″ - and about a photo exhibition likely to move into that building, of the work of Pjeter Marubi, an Italian who photographed Albanians in the mid-19th century.

• Veronica Khokhlova