Stories from 21 July 2008
Israel, Lebanon: Russophone Bloggers Discuss Prisoner Exchange Deal
While some bloggers from the former Soviet Union take interest in the Middle Eastern affairs out of idle (or not so idle) curiosity, for others Israel is home, and so it's not surprising that the July 16 exchange of prisoners between Israel and Lebanon did not go unnoticed in the Russian-language blogosphere.
Brazil: Portugal ratifies Portuguese language agreement
Portugal's President Anibal Cavaco Silva has ratified the agreement to standardise the Portuguese language and its spelling in a move to make the language, spoken in 8 countries, more uniform globally. O Hermenauta [pt] has written a round up of reactions from both sides of the ocean and concludes the...
Malawi: Introduction of female condoms
Stories on Malawi reports the introduction of female condoms in the Malawian market.
Angola: On Africa's oilfields
Pitigrili [pt] retorts to an article about Africa's oilfields on a newspaper which stated that few will benefit from Africa's oil boom: “Of course, the Western multinationals don't like the reconstruction deals between Angola and China, where oil is the currency exchange. But the Angolan people finally see asphalt and...
D.R. of Congo: Ceasefire violations
Accross the divide: Analysis and anecdote from Africa comments on the ceasfire violations of the Goma Peace Agreement, according to a Human Right Watch communique. He says: “civilians continue to die in far greater numbers than before the Goma Agreement was reached six months ago. A serious lack of political...
“La Chinafrique”: A book review
Théophile Kouamouo [Fr] reviews in his blog the book La Chinafrique: Pékin à la conquête du continent noir by Serge Michel and Michel Beuret, about the Chinese presence in Africa. He says: “The Chinese aren't angels sent by the God of South-South cooperation and they are as racist, if not...
Kenya: School fires
In Ritch's World is alarmed by the recent “spate of mysterious fires” in Kenyan schools. He says: “Most of these schools do not have warning systems that would help to deal with fires before the worst comes to the worst. Neither do they have fire fighting equipment”.
India: Iranian queer couple
Iranian Queer Foundation on the case of a gay Iranian couple who are waiting in India to be resettled in Canada.
Sri Lanka: Licenses for Mobile Phones
LirneAsia on the welcome delay in introducing individual licenses for using mobile phones in Sri Lanka.
Pakistan: Violent Investors
A persistent decline in share prices causes investors to turn violent at the Karachi Stock Exchange. More at CHUP!
Pakistan: Water Conservation
Pakistaniat on the issue of water conservation in the cities of Pakistan.
Syria: Nudity and Moral Decay
How much nudity on television can be considered as art, and how much of it contributes to moral decay? Syrian blogger Emad [Ar] tries to answer this question in the following post.
Kuwait: Beware of Thieves
Kuwaiti blogger Frankom [Ar] warns travellers from thieves in this post.
Saudi Arabia: Segregation on the blogroll?
It is well known that segregation of the sexes in Saudi Arabia exists in everyday life - but what about online? Can the names of male and female bloggers exist together on a blogroll? One Saudi blogger is amused at the thought.
Japan: Communist Party gets boost from Nico Nico Douga
It is a long time since the Japanese Communist Party had any luck in Japanese politics, but with help from no other than Japan's popular video sharing site, Nico Nico Douga, this may be changing. A 51-minute video of a February 8th speech by Chairman Kazuo Shii of the JCP registered over ten thousand comments on the video sharing site, and there are now reports that interest in the party among people in their 20s and 30s is way up.
Trinidad & Tobago: Practice Makes Perfect
“Life is a practice rushing at you, overwhelming you, tumbling you to your core. Who is throwing you your lifeline?” Blogging from Trinidad and Tobago, Attillah Springer asks some searching questions.
Haiti: Woman PM?
kiskeácity reports that the woman to be nominated for the post of Haitian Prime Minister is battling “a vicious campaign of innuendo and allegations about her sexual orientation”, but her supporters are hopeful: “The final word is now in the hands of the Senate which will vote on the nomination...
Trinidad & Tobago: Line Up
Trinidadian Andre Bagoo notices that he spends much of his life in a line: “This is the fate of a society dominated by industrial forces, forces that literally turn us into little cogs in a process that sees us as no more than just subjects; subjects who must be made...
Cuba: Nothing is Free
A long wait at a “free” clinic gets Yoani Sanchez thinking about the true cost of freedom: “I imagine that Aladdin’s lamp, rubbed by eleven million Cubans, has succeeded in providing these hospitals, schools and other publicized ‘subsidies.’ But the image of the genie with his three wishes doesn’t last...
Jamaica: Glass Casket
Francis Wade has the strange experience of driving behind a hearse that was transporting “the dearly departed” in a glass casket: “Perhaps this is something that every Jamaican who lives abroad should aspire to return home to accomplish… a fashionable and public exit.”
Kazakhstan: Astana Anniversary
Bloggers discuss how the celebrations of the anniversary of Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan, went. They were so widely advertised and loads of public finance was spent on the tenth anniversary of the capital, that most of the citizens - and bloggers - sighed with relieve when the whole fuss was over.
