Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2008 July 19

19 July 2008

Daily archive · 11 posts

Stories from 19 July 2008

Bahrain: Obsessed with a Turkish soap opera

Written by Ayesha Saldanha · Middle East & North Africa

A Turkish soap opera, Noor, has become a hit in the Arab world, with reports of fights and even divorces occurring because of the obsession of many women with the handsome male star, Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ, who plays Muhannad. Some Bahraini bloggers have been examining the popularity of the drama series amongst Arabs.

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China: Looking back at a campus shooting

Written by John Kennedy · East Asia, North America

“...the first few days with the cast were really strange, everyone kept whispering to each other wondering if I was a big kung fu master back in China.” Why does it always have to be so awkward when Chinese and Americans get together?

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Saudi Arabia: What if Olive Riley Had Blogged All Along?

Written by Amira Al Hussaini · Middle East & North Africa

The world's oldest blogger, Australian Olive Riley has died at the age of 108. In mourning her death, Mohammed Al Shehri, from Saudi Arabia, wonders what the legacy Riley would have left behind been like, had the Internet and blogging been available all along.

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Global Voices' New Public Health Editor, Juhie Bhatia

Written by Solana Larsen · Announcements

Last month, we announced six new Rising Voices citizen media projects in partnership with the Open Society Institute’s Health Media Initiative. This month, we're pleased to introduce our new Public...

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Brazil: Tears and Cheers for Middle East Prisoner Swap

Written by Paula Góes · Middle East & North Africa, Latin America

Brazilian of Arab descent or bloggers interested in all things Middle Eastern talk about the Israel-Lebanon Prisoner Exchange. Considering that Brazil is the country that arguably holds the largest Arab population outside the Middle East, there are very passionate points of views both for and against the deal, and as much tears as cheers.

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China: Olympics side-effect on industry

Written by Bob Chen · East Asia

What will be the cost of presenting an unprecedented Olympics? A dialogue between a blogger and workers somewhat revealed the predicament met by heavy industry in China during the Games.

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Updates from 19 July 2008

Guinea-Bissau

Commenting on a piece of news about the arrest of a three Venezuelans suspected of being smuggling cocaine into West Africa, Jorge Rosmaninho [pt] asks: “if three were caught, how many of them have passed through unscathed?”

• Paula Góes

Brazil

Brazilian comedian and actress Dercy Gonçalves, famous for irreverent interviews and notorious bad language, died today at the age of 101 years [June 23 1907 - July 19 2008). 365 Dias [365 Days, pt] uploads a collection of films to remember her career.

• Paula Góes

Brazil

Nardol translated the new Brazilian Cyber Crime Bill: “So the World can be made aware of what’s going on in Brazil. I also just sent an email with it to EFF, asking for their help. Not that I think they can do much, but they surely will know one or two strings to pull in order to put more pressure on the Brazilian government.” Read the bill text in English.

• Paula Góes

U.S.A.

Regrets only: An Africa Journal comments on the recent report by Refugees International about “the increased militarization of U.S. foreign aid” and how it “is complicating the achievement of American foreign policy goals in Africa”. He also posts a response from AFRICOM to the report.

• Elia Varela Serra

Saudi Arabia

7alablog [Ar] celebrates his third year as a blogger in Saudi Arabia.

• Amira Al Hussaini

Central African Republic

Brock Boddie at HPDT CAR, a blog by the humanitarian and development organizations in the Central African Republic, writes about Prime Minister Faustin Touadera's emergency appeal for international support after a failure of the country’s power system, as “without electricity, cleaning water, providing minimal health care and maintaining security would all become virtually impossible”. On a different post he speaks about the Dzanga-Sangha nature reserve (including some photos), which “offers some of the most beautiful and pristine wildlife that can be found in Africa and, indeed, the world”.

• Elia Varela Serra

Zimbabwe

Chipo at Sokwanele's This is Zimbabwe blog, expresses his anger about the current inflation situation in the country: “Last week chaos reigned again as the banks were choc-a-block with transfers. Delays became longer and longer. Salaries and wages were not honored. And while the banks were busy “processing”, the value of the money was eroding rapidly”.

• Elia Varela Serra