Stories from 16 April 2009
Global: Hijablogging Fashionistas
In March, we caught up with a new crew of “hijabloggers” - women who wear the hijab and blog about it. Such bloggers span the globe, blogging about a wide variety of issues from parenting to fashion to travel to politics. In this post, we will re-visit the “hijablogosphere” to see what's new.
Israel: Can Yoga and Judaism Coexist?
There are potential problems for Jews who want to study yoga, but even its Buddhist teachings and Hindu chants can be justified as humanistic values and modified accordingly. “Hey, whatever floats your boat,” Israelity jests. “We’ve heard of kosher cell phones and kosher sex, so kosher yoga? Why not.”
Bhutan: Finding Yourself
Dorji Wangchuk urges all Bhutanese: “create an opportunity to travel back to your roots. Forget Bangkok or Hong Kong for once. You will not only re-discover your own country but you will also find ‘yourself’.”
Israel: Celebrating Freedom While Serving Army Duty
Yoav, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, writes about celebrating the Passover holiday while on duty. Passover celebrates the freedom of the Jews from oppression. He blogs: “Only when celebrating the festival of freedom, while wearing a uniform and holding a gun, you can understand the importance of IDF's...
Israel: Palestinian Photographer's Death Still Unresolved
The death of 23-year old Palestinian photographer Fadel Shana at the hands of the Israel Defense Forces remains unresolved one year later, Dion Nissenbaum of Checkpoint Jerusalem reports. The case is currently under investigation by the United Nations.
Israel: Sandstorm Photos
Check out The Sandman's photos of Israel's recent sandstorm for a palpable sense of what it feels like to be in the midst of one.
Pakistan: Job Opening At Taliban
Beenish Khan at Kaleidoscope posts a hypothetical job advertisement for recruitment of Taliban members which concludes with: “Come and join us, because we just don't give you a job, we give you a career and a confirmed ticket to heaven.”
Maldives: Quality Of Education
Abdullah Waheed questions the education system in Maldives. Although some students found themselves ranked amongst the world top ten in the Cambridge O’ level exams this year, 73% of the 7000 candidates failed the exams.
Bangladesh: Photo Essay On Child Labour
Photojournalist Zoriahfeatures Bangladeshi photographer G.M.B. Akash and his photo essay on child labor in Bangladesh.
Iran:Delara,Teenage Artist, on Death Row
In Savedelara we read that Delara, who is now 23 years old and jailed in Iran,faces death by public hanging for a murder that took place when she was 17 years old. Watch her paintings here.
Macedonia: Alexander the Great as Media Bait
For several years now, the Macedonian traditional media have have been involved in relentless promotion of all and any claims related to Alexander the Great deemed "positive" in terms of generating public approval and more readers/viewers. Such coverage tends to grow more bizarre, as shown by recent events.
China: Wuhan government building on fire
Here is a twitpic on the fire happened in Wuhan government building today (April 16). A number of tweets said that the news had to be down played, so far all the reports very brief and there are very few photos circulating online.
India Elections ‘09: Netizens react to Political Campaigns – II
In our first post of this series, we had brought to you glimpses of how netizens were reacting to the BJP's online campaign. In this post, we will explore reactions to the election campaign of the Indian National Congress (INC).
India: Why I voted 49-0
Arby K at A View From My Disjointed Laptop explains why the blogger had to vote 49-0 (refused to vote): “By choosing to vote, I will be endorsing the current system of elections. I will be settling to meet my short term objectives sacrificing the long term ones. So, I...
Japan: Hacker Community
Fumi Yamazaki shows a glimpse of Japan Hacker Community in What's happening in Japan right now?
Syria: Syrian Users Kicked off LinkedIn
From Syria, An@s Online [Ar] reports that LinkedIn has suspended all the accounts of its Syrian users. “Syrian users are now afraid that the day will come soon when they are unable to access gmail or Google search itself,” writes the blogger.
Syria: The Excuse for Blocking Facebook
Ahmed Bakdash [Ar], from Syria, remarks on comments made by Syrian media advisor Dr Buthaina Shaaban on the ban of Facebook in her country. She claimed that it was blocked to prevent Israelis from initiating dialogue with Syrian Facebook users. The blogger asks: “What about blocking Arabic Wikipedia?”
Syria: Killing the Intifada
“On this day Khalil al Wazir fell under a hail of bullets as an Israeli death squad attacked his home in Tunis. The Zionist state mistakenly believed that by killing him they would kill the Palestinian Intifada but, more than twenty years later, the Palestinian people are still resisting,” writes...
Japan: Dog poo signs
Englishman blogs interesting pictures of dog poo signs in Japan.
China: A hoax related with gender and race
Fauna from ChinaSMACK translates and explains in detail an Internet hoax that a Zhejiang University Girl rebuking her professor's comment by saying that she likes dating foreigners. The hoax touches upon sensitive issues concern with gender and race and results in hot debate.
French Caribbean: “Les Scoops d'Or” Competition
On the blog Les Scoops d'or, Lagencedecom’ and Scoop announce the launch of a new blog and website competition in the West Indies!
