19 August 2008
Stories from 19 August 2008
Saudi Arabia: It's all in the name
It is common practice for converts to Islam to adopt Muslim names. But is it necessary - and what kind of name is appropriate? One Saudi blogger ponders the question, while some others are thinking about the use of aliases in the blogosphere - and yet another encourages the government to 'name names'.
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Georgia, Russia: Feeding Looters and Refugees
A number of Tbilisi residents gathered in front of the Russian embassy Saturday for a protest prank against looting. LJ user oleg-panfilov posted photos of the items left by the protesters for the Russian army; LJ user tony-geo called to Georgians to take care of the refugees' needs first, before getting involved in the "information war."
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Egypt: Death of Three Arab Cultural Icons
The Arab world lost three of its cultural icons in the spam of a month. They are Egyptians philosopher Dr Abdelwahab El Mesery and film maker Yousef Chahine and Palestinian poet Mahmood Darwish. Egyptian Blogger, ElGharep, or The Stranger, reflects on the loss in this post [Ar].
North Africa: Bringing Home the Medals
In the run up to the 2008 Olympic Games, there was much speculation on how the Middle East and North Africa would fare. Although Turkey is the only Middle Eastern country to medal thus far (in athletics, weightlifting, and Greco-Roman wrestling), North Africa is enjoying great success. So far, Egypt's Hesham Mesbah and Algeria's Soraya Haddad and Amar Benikhlef have all medaled in Judo (bronze, bronze, and silver, respectively), Morocco's Hasna Benhassi took home a bronze in the women's 800m dash, and Tunisian swimmer Oussama Mellouli scored gold in the men's 1500m freestyle.
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Kazakhstan: Olympic Blogwatch
The Beijing Olympics have moved political debates in the Kazakh blogosphere to the background. Alim Atenbek is upset with the uniform of the Kazakhstani team [ru]: Officials always want to...
Call for video journalists for You Tube Contest
You Tube's Citizen News channel has released a video promo for an upcoming citizen journalism contest. They will be receiving videos of less than 3 minutes in length, in English, of a video profile about someone in your community you believe should be known by the rest of the world. The prizes and other information will be released in September.
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Paraguay: Following Lugo's Inauguration on Flickr
Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo started the use of Flickr in January 2008 as a way to document his appearances during the campaign. After being sworn in as the new president of his country on August 15, he continues to use this citizen's media tool. Nearly 2,500 photos later and all licensed under Creative Commons, Lugo hopes to share his presidency with Paraguayans at home and abroad.
Came to find this post after signing the AllOut petition (which already has almost 50k signatures, and needs to grow...
Please sign this if you are pro