Stories from 26 July 2010
South Korea: Expectations for New Micro-Finance Loans Rise Among Skeptics
New "Sunshine" micro-finance loans for low income households have just been launched in South Korea. Koreans struggling amidst a financial crisis greeted the news with enthusiasm, although some are also carefully skeptical.
Guatemala: Engineers Work on Green Technology
A blogger for Interactiva Web writes [es] about a group of Guatemalan and North American engineers who are working on technology to help the environment. The group is called Xela Teco [es].
Ghanaian beaches worth exploring
Maameous recommends a few Ghanaian beaches worth exploring.
Bahamas: Race & History
“If…young Bahamians imagine that they can take their twenty-first century notions of black and white and translate them into what they may one day read about the history of this nation, they will never fully understand their country and its rich and difficult past”: Nicolette Bethel explains the significance of...
Cuba: July 26
Cuban bloggers have their say about the observance of the July 26th anniversary of the military action that began the Cuban Revolution.
Bhutan: Equality For Women
Cho at Writers Association Of Bhutan Blog advocates for equality for women in Bhutanese societies and comments: “sad to say but sexism in Bhutan starts from homes and parents yell at their daughters for not cooking a delicious meal till she finally perfects it.”
Bermuda: Media Code
“I do believe that whether we like it or not, blogs are now part of the media. By definition we publish publicly and with that freedom comes responsibility” – which is why Breezeblog has voluntarily adopted the Media Council of Bermuda’s Code of Practice.
Jamaica: Living Vicariously
Annie Paul wasn't at this year's Reggae Sumfest, but thanks to Twitter, she's able to share all the details, here and here.
Dominica: Literary Festival
Caribbean Book Blog is excited about Dominica's upcoming Literary Festival and Book Fair.
Côte d'Ivoire: Journalists accused of document theft are freed
The three journalists of Le Nouveau Courrier d'Abidjan arrested for refusing to reveal their sources have been finally released [Fr] this evening after a two-week ordeal. The journalists were found not guilty of theft but the newspaper is fined and suspended for 15 days for publishing information under legal consideration.
Iraq: Going Back to America
Ice Cold, from the Kirkuk Air Base in Iraq, tweets: “It's official… we're here in Irq another 4 more weeks… Nothing cam be finer than gettin’ back to Carolina!!!”
Lebanon: Tweet Up Date Set
A tweet up (a meeting for Twitter users) will be held in Hamra, Beirut, on July 28, from 7pm to 10pm local time. Here are the details.
Syria: A Sample of Syrian Proverbs
The Arabic language is rich with proverbs. A sample of Syrian proverbs can be found here.
Saudi Arabia: Muttawa in Action
Saudi Woman shows a visitor the Muttawa (religious policemen) in action in one of the malls.
Iraq: Ban on topless women?
After France imposed a ban on the veil, Iraqi Layla Anwar tweeted: “I am looking forward to see a ban on topless Western tourists on Muslim countries beaches…”
Morocco: Horse Riding in Morocco
The View from Fez introduces us to horse riding in Morocco.
Venezuela: Foundation for Urban Culture Shut Down
The Foundation for Urban Culture - a fund that promoted culture through books, photography, music and ideas - was recently shut down, allegedly due to financing from the brokerage firm Econoinvest which was raided by the government in May. Bloggers who support the Foundation, accuse the closing of being illegal and unrelated to the company.
Cambodia: The Official Launch of the First Online Human Rights Portal
Sithi.org, a Cambodian human rights portal that aims to crowdsource and curate reports of human rights violations, officially launched on July 22, 2010 with participation from various institutions including embassies, international and local NGOs, media and university representatives.
Liveblog of global reactions to Wikileaks Afghanistan war logs
More than 90,000 classified U.S. military documents about the war in Afghanistan have been leaked. As an experiment, we are using Google Wave to live blog global blog and citizen media reactions to the war logs (#warlogs) made public today by Wikileaks, Der Spiegel, New York Times and The Guardian.
Russia: Blackout of the Social Network Triggers Twitter Panic
The word “vkontakte“, standing for the name of the Russian social network, found itself among top Twitter trends. It happened after millions of Russian users were not able to access [RUS] the social network because of a failure [RUS] of a local power station. Some bloggers started the online panic...
South Africa: What would you ask God if you had the chance?
Last week, South African blogger Khaya Dhlanga asked people on the “Internets” what they would ask God if he said they could ask him anything. He has posted some of the answers on his blog. One reader, Busi31, for example, would like to ask: "Can you also make me turn water into wine?"
