Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2008 February 03

3 February 2008

Daily archive · 7 posts

Stories from 3 February 2008

Russia: Vasily Alexanyan

Written by Veronica Khokhlova · Eastern & Central Europe

Vasily Alexanyan, a jailed Yukos executive, is said to be dying of AIDS and lymphoma cancer, but is being denied life-saving treatment. While most human rights groups in the West are silent about the case, the Russian blogosphere is quite abuzz.

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Jordan: Snowmen, Women and Babes

Written by Amira Al Hussaini · Middle East & North Africa

The contest is heating up among Jordanian bloggers who are vying for the top place in making a snowman, erm, woman - prompting one blogger to call a truce. With the Internet slowing down across the Middle East, it was only natural for Jordan's bloggers to pour their creative juices elsewhere.

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Kuwait: Crazy Month Rolls By

Written by Abdullatif AlOmar · Middle East & North Africa

It's been a 'crazy' period of life at the Kuwaiti blogosphere, reports Abdullatif Al Omar - from crazy weather patterns to nutty Internet connections and price hikes.

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China: Lunar new year approaches with tragedy growing

Written by John Kennedy · East Asia

Crisis looms large across the south part of the country with the 2008 China Snowstorm showing no signs of letting up. Trains are trapped [zh] on tracks, cars stuck on...

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Juliana Rincón: A multi-tasking blogger

Written by Paula Góes · Latin America

Meet Juliana Ricón Parra, a multi-tasking blogger from Peru, now living in Colombia. She has been a Global Voices Author for two years and has just started a new role as Video Editor. Juliana talks about blogging, her participation in the citizen media project HiperBarrio, the new challenges in her professional life and the lovely South American food.

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Japan: Newspapers launch news portal “Aratanisu”, bloggers respond

Written by Chris Salzberg · East Asia

Three of Japan's largest newspapers, Nikkei Inc., Asahi Shimbun Co. and Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings on Thursday together launched a new online news portal referred to as "Aratanisu", aiming to provide side-by-side coverage of news stories from each newspaper to allow readers to easily draw comparisons. Bloggers in Japan have reacted with skepticism to the new service, however, pointing to issues like the absence of RSS feeds and a general lack of understanding among traditional media of the value of content presentation.

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Updates from 3 February 2008

Brazil

There are more than 100 comments showing solidarity with lieutenant blogger Melquisedec Nascimento [pt]. According to him, Rio de Janeiro's Governor Sergio Cabral ordered yesterday that he was arrested immediately. The Police force in charge of the task paid visit to his home this Saturday, but he was nowhere to be found. “What greatly irritated Cabral was a photo composition and a video posted on the blog, in which the governor is depicted as Pinocchio”.

• Paula Góes

D.R. of Congo

A closer look at the peace agreement in the Democratic Republic of Congo: “Average number of signatures per page: 40, Signatories using blue pens: 35, Signatories using black pens: 3 (Alan Doss, new UN SRSG; Dennis Kalume, Interior Minister; Didier Bitaki Wateshe, Kifuafua Mai Mai group), Signatories using green pens: 2 (the acting Governor of South Kivu + an unidentified witness), Most graphically distinctive signature: Didier Bitaki Wateshe, of the Kifuafua Mai Mai group (Ufamundu/Masisi axe), Most expansive signature by surface area: Kibiswa Kwabene Naupess, representing the national civil society delegation, Nicest fountain pen: Alan Doss, UN SRSG…”

• Ndesanjo Macha

D.R. of Congo

Kinshasa based blogger, Fred, writes: “Rory MacLean has done me the honour of responding to my recent post, berating him for writing, in a review of Tim Butcher’s Blood River for The Guardian, that ‘there is little difference between the Congo seen by Stanley and by Butcher’, and suggesting that readers should weep for Congo but not go there.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Armenia

Going Home says that films such as Speed might seem believable in Hollywood, but the reality in Armenia is somewhat different. In particular, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the blogger cites traffic, law enforcement and corruption in the country as just some of the reasons why nobody would ever plant a bomb on a bus in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

• Onnik Krikorian

Brazil

The author of Tordesilhas [pt], a blog by a Brazilian living in Lima, is surprised to discover that there is a beautiful tradition of carnival in Peru. In this post, he explores the Cajamarca, Ayacucho and the Amazon areas carnival.

• Paula Góes