Rachel Rawlins
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I started blogging in 2003 and it is as a blogger that I joined Global Voices Online as managing editor in 2006. I was seduced by the individual social side of blogging, I'm now wedded to its potential to empower individuals around the world to tell their own stories and shape the future of what we call “news”. I worked for more than 15 years as a radio journalist for the BBC World Service, mostly specialising in news about Africa. I've also worked for various human rights and media freedom organisations. I have a really bad gadget addiction and I love to knit, if I ever get the time.
Latest posts by Rachel Rawlins
19 April 2006
Malaysia
There's no bridge, and a lot of troubled water in Malaysia. It's all about the cancellation of Malaysia's plan to build a bridge to Singapore. Jeff Ooi has been following the fallout and also wondering whether the Malaysian press was gagged over the story.
Singapore
mrbrown emphasises that his most recent podcast does not contain “explicit political content” because that is prohibited during the election period under the Singapore's Election Advertising Regulations. Instead it is about “a galaxy far far away” which happens to contain a complex civilisation holding elections.
Vietnam
Le Bao Tuan at Sticky Rice tells us about his English class, and going for a drink, Vietnamese style.
Thailand
Does Thailand need a Senate? a particularly well-timed question, given that it's being chosen right now, aired on the Senate Elections post at Bangkok Pundit. One of the country's political scientists thinks the Senate is a farce.
Philippines
In the Philippines many bloggers are, understandably, excited by not one but two conferences on blogging and the internet taking place in the capital Manila. In one part of town there is the second Philippine Blogging Summit iBlog2. Blogger disini judges it a success: We had more speakers (5 times more than that original 5 in iBlog), 2 separate rooms, and surprisingly, more attendees (a total of more than 200 sign-ups) than the first Philippine Blogging Summit while Clair found it a great experience but too cramped. And also taking place is Free Expression in Asian Cyberspace: A Conference of Asian Bloggers, Podcasters and online Media - the sessions are being blogged at Inside PCIJ.
Singapore
As election fever heightens in Singapore - speculation is becoming intense that an election date will be announced very soon - opposition political activist and blogger Goh Meng Seng gives a rousing post Time For Battle as he announces blog silence for three weeks.
Thailand
There's a new video blog site in Thailand. In fact it's apparently not just new, it's the first! Called, descriptively, Thailand Video Blogs it is part of the Thai-Blogs.Com group. I found the tattoo festival footage particularly interesting.
24 March 2006
Uganda
Peoplehouse is a recently-started blog which appears to be by Ugandan journalist David Kaiza and consists, so far, of selected pieces of his writing. His most recent post is an appreciation of the novelist V.S. Naipaul written in the year that Naipaul won the Nobel prize for literature.
Nigeria
There are great pictures of Nigerian census-takers on Edward Popoola's Jangbalajugbu-Homeland Stories but he feels the operation, while necessary, could be better organised.
“We do not use the social security number system in Nigeria and I am not sure our births and deaths are perfectly monitored and well documented. It used to be well documented I know, as I still have a copy of my birth certificate.These little things have proved in developed nations to be very good ways of monitoring the population of a country. I hope the government will go a step further to implement proper ways of monitoring the population of Nigeria so we don’t have to count ourselves every 10 years.”
Kenya
Msanii XL has posted a hip-hop podcast which features artists from a range of countries, but if you want your hip-hop in Swahili don't forget to check his radio blog player in the sidebar.
I want to ask, there is not software to change from letter to letter Latin...