Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2009 May 22

22 May 2009

Daily archive · 4 posts

Stories from 22 May 2009

Sri Lanka: Abuse, Disbelief And Bitterness Persist

The Sri Lankan government's civil war for over 25 years against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended a few days ago when the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed. The question remains that "has the dream of many Tamils of having a separate state free from discrimination died with him?". The polarized Sri Lankan Blogosphere is buzzing with a lot of analysis and counter analysis on the stories of celebrating the end of war, human rights abuse, distrust and communal hatred.

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Iran: Blogging against homophobia

Written by Fred Petrossian · Middle East & North Africa

A few Iranian bloggers wrote comments on ‘International day against homophobia' on May 17 and shared their concerns about existing discrimination against homosexuals in Iran.

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China: A turmoil triggered by T-shirt

Written by Bob Chen · East Asia

Lawyer Liu Shihui's T-shirt, on which a quote is printed, seems to have the power to attract police and disturb the social order. Below is a partial translation of Liu's blog entry about his experience in Guangzhou.

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Fiji: Police detain, seize laptops of three suspected bloggers

Written by Michael Hartsell · Fiji

Police in Fiji detained three local lawyers and seized their laptops, supposedly because of a possible connection to a popular anti-government blog. The lawyers, Richard Naidu, Jon Apted and Tevita Fa were taken into custody Tuesday, May 19, held for a few hours and then released

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Updates from 22 May 2009

Sri Lanka

London Lanka and Drums highlights some Sri Lankan blogs and blog posts that have written about the end of the civil war and comments: “Whatever our views, whatever our race and for differing reasons most of us would agree that this is one of the biggest single events in our lives.”

• Rezwan

Bangladesh

Ambassador Serajul Islam's Political Blog posts an analysis of the Indian parliamentary elections 2009 in Bangladesh perspective.

• Rezwan

Russia

IZO links to LJ user rem-lj's photo report on the consequences of president Medvedev's visit to the town of Kirov: “His route crossed a railway track. So someone decided to cover the track with asphalt.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

India

Madhat at Blogbharati informs about an effort by some Indians to collect aid from various Indian cities to help the IDPs (internally displaced people) in Sri Lanka.

• Rezwan

Japan

Unexpected appointment of lawyer John Roos as the next U.S. ambassador to Japan: Blogger namekawa01 gives a high evaluation of Roos's close connections with President Obama and speculates that he must have forgone more visible positions in favor of this one, while Koichiro Mizuochi compares this appointment with that of Utah Governor Jon Huntsman as ambassador to China and finds it lacking. Most bloggers that have commented on this announcement, however, are adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

• Tomomi Sasaki

Qatar

Qatari blogger Amal Almalki writes about the dilemma she faced when deciding whether to continue wearing the abaya: “I had to question and convince myself of what it means to me. Is it a religious or a cultural symbol? Is it used as a cover-up or a statement?”

• Ayesha Saldanha

Barbados

Repeating Islands reports that leading off the readings at Jamaica's Calabash Literary Festival this year will be “Jamaican writers Velma Pollard and Esther Phillips, and Bajan poet Millicent Graham.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco