Stories about Education from August, 2008
China: gold medals=a great power in sports?
51 gold medals, a comment of "truly exceptional" from IOC, and spectacular images left to the world, China held a real party of sports in 16-day Olympics. But does this achievement necessarily mean China has been a super power in sports, and even common people could fully enjoy the glory and health brought by sports?
Hungary: A First-Grader's Shopping List
Hungarian Spectrum writes about how much it costs to equip a child for the first year at a Hungarian elementary school.
Bahrain: Bogus Degrees
Bogus degrees? Bahraini Mahmood Al Yousif exposes those who helped themselves to some.
Bermuda: Open Access
“Only bipartisan cooperation will make a dent in many of Bermuda’s problems”: Vexed Bermoothes supports public access to meetings of the parliamentary committee that is currently reviewing educational reform.
China: Hacking Tsinghua University Website
The Beijing Tsinghua university website was hacked on 24 of Aug. The hacker wrote a fake interview in the website in which the university president said the university system is spoon feeding “shit” to students’ brain. More from matrix at Solidot.
China: Olympics as a Learning Experience
Nimrod from the Fool's mountain points out that everyone should try to learn from the Beijing Olympics lesson.
Iran: Scandal over Minister's Forged Oxford University Degree
Ali Kordan, Iran's new Minister of the Interior, has recently been under fire for presenting a “fake” Ph.D. degree from the prestigious Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Several websites, including the conservative Alef have published a scan of Kordan's “Oxford Honorary Doctorate of Law Degree”. Alef points out that...
China: Games over
Well we couldn't watch it on YouTube, but there was Twitter so we know the Beijing Olympics closing ceremony involved [note: links to profanity] some sort of [profanity] hot-pot tower of babel that spiderman climbed up…and we heard something about ants and a transformer bus. Anyway, we're very thankful we...
MENA: Refused Gaza Fulbright students speak
A few weeks a group of students from the Gaza Strip who were due to go to the United States on Fulbright scholarships had their visas revoked at the last moment. Two of the students who were denied the chance to pursue their studies have since written heartfelt letters pleading their case.
Grenada: Thinking About Poverty
Letters from Grenada blogs about everything from education to land use as part of Blog Action Day 2008.
Senegal: Students take to the streets over missing stipends
University students in Dakar, Senegal are protesting the government's failure to pay their stipends. Seneblog writes [Fr]: “While athletes from all over the world are vying to break world records in Beijing, the students at Cheikh Anta Diop University are trying to break the record in stone-throwing.”
Vietnam: Literacy education
Vietnam-based writer J. Sturges uploads an article which features literacy education among Vietnam's ethnic population.
Uruguay: 2nd Ceibal Jam for the XO Laptop
Pablo Flores announces the 2nd Ceibal Jam in Montevideo, Uruguay [es], which is an informal get-together of programmers in order to develop open-source applications for the XO laptops.
Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica: Olympic Inspiration
The Caribbean Librarian is inspired by the Olympic performances of the Jamaican sprinters: “What have we learnt? When faced with innumerable problems (our economies, lack of infrastructure, lack of resources etc.), we CAN ACHIEVE!!”
St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Barbados: UWI Sued
A Rhodes Scholar sues the University of the West Indies for failing to give him first-class honours and Abeni from St. Vincent and the Grenadines says: “I really do not know what to make of this.”
Morocco: An American Experience
Hicham, who just returned from a teacher training in the United States, shares his experience living in America.
Egypt: Alone in New York?
Egyptian blogger Eman is leaving to New York, where she will pursue her higher studies. “Right now I’m in the middle of a whirl of emotions, however that is not something I’m bothered with… What bothers me is people’s reaction to the fact that I am traveling on my own,”...
Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago: Stating the Facts
A freelance writer pens an Emancipation Day article for The Jamaica Observer that suggests “slavery was good for the black man”, prompting The Modest Goddess to point out “the staggering amount of evidence that contradicts (his) writing.”
Singapore: Weakness of education system
Ian On The Red Dot wonders if swimmer Michael Phelps would have succeeded if the Olympic gold medalist was born in Singapore. The blogger criticizes Singapore’s education system which pushes students “who don’t do well in academics into a lower stream.”
Haiti: Restavèk
“The restavèk practice essentially throws away the lives of children and along with them Haiti’s future”: jmc strategies maintains that no matter how you slice it, “the practice of ‘lending’ a child away to go and live with well-off families” is still a form of slavery.
Georgia: Students Protest Outside Russian Embassy
My The Caucasian Knot comments on news that Georgian students protested outside the Russian Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia… and have apparently been asked to leave the country.
