Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2009 May 14

14 May 2009

Daily archive · 6 posts

Stories from 14 May 2009

MENA: Does Swine Flu Spread from Touching Pigs?

Written by Amira Al Hussaini · Middle East & North Africa

More than 14 centuries after Islam prohibited the consumption of pork, pigs are once again making headlines across the Arab world - this time in the form of tweets. Here's a quick snapshot of some of the messages from Twitter users across the region.

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Arab World Reacts to Jordan's Twittering Queen Rania

Written by Amira Al Hussaini · Middle East & North Africa

After her debut on YouTube, Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan is now courting microblogging service Twitter, allowing the world to catch up with the 140-character messages of the self-described mum and wife “with a real cool day job.” With 41,217 followers so far (she is only following 31), reactions from around the region on the Twittering Queen's adventure pour in.

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Indonesia: Central Bank Chief, the next VP?

Written by Carolina Rumuat · East Asia

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is set to announce the Central Bank chief Boediono as his running mate in a couple of days. Indonesians are divided over the candidacy of Boediono. Some cheered at the decision, but the president's decision is unpopular among some parties.

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Kazakhstan: Turmoil Royale

Written by Adil Nurmakov · Central Asia & Caucasus

Rakhat Aliev, former son-in-law of the Kazakhstani president, former ambassador in Austria and former Kazakh oligarch, sentenced to 40 years in jail for abduction of the people, leadership of the...

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Cambodia: Activist Parliamentarian May Drop Lawsuit Against Prime Minister

Written by Chhunny Chhean · East Asia

Mu Sochua is an internationally recognized activist and member of the Cambodian National Assembly. She recently filed a lawsuit against the country's prime minister, Hun Sen, for defamatory comments he made in April 2009. Subsequently, Hun Sen filed a countersuit against Mu Sochua, also for defamation.

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Fiji: Convicted soldiers freed on supervision plan

Written by Michael Hartsell · New Zealand, Fiji

Fiji’s government admitted that eight soldiers and one policeman who had been found guilty of manslaughter have been released from prison, two months into their four-year sentences. A government spokesman said the Minister of Justice ordered their release under a compulsory supervision order, which allows certain criminals to serve the remainder of their sentences outside of prison

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Updates from 14 May 2009

Sri Lanka

G. Kuganesan at Voices In Exile sheds a light into the background of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka: “The Tamil conflict has deep roots, distant ties that date well beyond the mere formation of a violent LTTE (Tamil Tigers) movement, a history buried in discrimination, segregation, and specific ethnic biases based on the ‘indifference of man'…The Tamils do not fight for ‘an independent state' out of greed. They fight for an independent state for ‘Freedom', for safety.”

• Rezwan

Sri Lanka

Indi.ca from Sri Lanka comments: “This is not the time or the way to establish borders. Right now we need to preserve our common humanity. Then we need to learn to live together in a united Sri Lanka. The LTTE’s Eelam seems to involve sacrificing all the Tamils there. That’s no home for anybody.”

• Rezwan

Maldives

Abdullah Waheed lists some points showing voter preferences and their vision of the future role of the Majlis (parliament) which have emerged through the preliminary results of the parliamentary elections in Maldives.

• Rezwan

Guyana

Reactions to controversial comments made about Test Cricket by West Indies captain Chris Gayle, from Guyanese blogger Imran Khan and Barbados-based Trinidadian B.C. Pires.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Saint Lucia

As St. Lucian Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott withdraws from the race for Oxford Professor of Poetry, Repeating Islands posts an update: “The nearly unanimous response…from newspaper reporters, commentators, and bloggers has been one of regret and of condemnation of the tactics that pushed him to that decision.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidad & Tobago

“It matters not how many skyscrapers, malls, American chain restaurants or chemical plants a country has…if [it] possesses at least five or more of these signs of underdevelopment and tyranny, then it is still a third world country at the very core”: Alien in the Caribbean sees many of those signs in Trinidad and Tobago.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Cuba

Havana Times reports that “Cuba has been re-elected for a second three-year period as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council” in a move that Cuba Journal calls “a rebuff to the policies of the United States” by UN members.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Grenada

As Taiwan takes Grenada to court over the non-payment of a loan, Blah Bloh Blog comments: “Cynical Grenadians like myself are wondering if we can’t offer up former Prime Minister Keith ‘Is me damn money' Mitchell as a form of restitution…”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

India

Let's Put Da deconstructs the election symbols of the Indian political parties to find out what to expect from them.

• Rezwan

India

HarshadOak.com posts a summary of exit poll predictions for India Election Results 2009 which suggests that India could be heading for a weak coalition government. The blogger adds: “however, looking at the dismal record of opinion and exit polls in India, we need to look at these numbers more as entertainment than information.”

• Rezwan

Taiwan: When News is Sold to the Chinese Government

First, let us ignore your assertion that at the time only 1% of young Chinese attended university because its not...

hi, how could i find the english version of this video please? thank you :)
Hello Kasnar, I regret to say that those type of programmes are very common all over Brazil, both on local and...
Wow!!. I'm an American and I do not speak Portuguese well if at all. I did find it strange...

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