March, 2007

Stories from March, 2007

Mauritius: players don't use intelligence

  31 March 2007

Ishtiba on Mauritian soccer following their recent loss agains Sudan, “So much frustration among Mauritian supporters today …but 1 thing that many persons dont understand is that : how can we get good /quality football, how can “we deliver the goods” when there is no effective structure put in place...

Ethiopia: blog blocked

  31 March 2007

Andrew Heavens blog has been blocked in Ethiopia: Surprise, surprise…meskelsquare.com is now out of sight here. Why would they block a blog which publishes stories about Miscalls and Kenyan web watchdogs? Ahunis enezih sewotch cherkavhewin tilew abedu Of course, blogs on blogspot.com have disappeared once again.

South Africa: Busisiwe, Rest in Peace

  31 March 2007

Earlier this month, the South African blogosphere lost a blogger, writer, artist and poet, Busisiwe Sigasa (25). She started her blog, My Realities, at the end of last year with the help of Sokari Ekine. Busisiwe, whose name means “the Blessed One” in Zulu, was also known as Latifah. She...

Bahrain: When ‘moderate’ means ‘acquiescent’

This week some Bahraini bloggers took part in an evening regarding the role of blogging in cultural development, and the literary aspect of online writing in particular. Hisham Khalifa has posted his introduction to the evening: Culture is not created by governments, kings, queens or presidents. It’s not created by...

Thailand: Pro-Democracy Protests

  31 March 2007

Publiuspundit has a post on pro-democracy protest in Thailand and the military appointed prime minister's reluctance to declare a state of emergency in Thailand.

India: Flower-Lane

  31 March 2007

A flower market in photographs at Trivial Matters. “A kaleidoscope for your senses. Dadar Phulgalli [flower-lane] takes your traditional Bombay smells of sweat, toil, paint, iron and turns them into the smell of marigolds.. Wipe your brow and you find petals in addition to sweat.”

India: On the shariah

  31 March 2007

Indian Muslims on the shariah, law, state and culture. “I firmly believe that in this present day world shariah laws cannot be enforced on people because Muslim society in general has diverted away from religion. Concepts which invite death punishment in Islam are now acceptable in many cultures, like live...

Pakistan: On Rawalpindi

  31 March 2007

Light Within on the history of Rawalpindi. “The bustling city of Rawalpindi has a lot more to offer than a traffic mess, broken roads and haze-filled atmosphere. The city’s history spreads over several millennia. Archaeologists believe that a distinct culture flourished on this plateau even 3,000 years ago.”

Bangladesh: On Hizbut Tahrir

  31 March 2007

Rezwan on the Hizbut Tahrir. “Hizbut Tahrir, a global student organization which is very active among UK (including Bangladeshi community there) established their base in Bangladesh a few years ago. They could so far infiltrate in many high profile public and private Universities of the country and could motivate many...

Bangladesh: The death of a Grandfather

  31 March 2007

Sajeeb Wazed (also the grandson of one of Bangladesh's founding fathers – Sheikh Mujibur Rehman) writes an account of the killing of his grandfather and other family members due to political reasons. “Mohiuddin and his cohorts killed the security guards and made their way into the house. They confronted my...

Russia: Photos of Grozny

  30 March 2007

Earlier this week, I linked to LJ user kunstkamera‘s photos from Grozny, Chechnya. (Warning: bandwidth intensive.) Below are some of the comments and kunstkamera‘s own remarks, translated from Russian. gematogen: Was it scary? kunstkamera: It was scary to fly the [YaK-42] plane. […] i_grappa: It's interesting, thank you! In general,...

Afghanistan: 800 Years of Rumi

  30 March 2007

Bonnie Boyd notes that Rumi, the famous poet often associated with Sufism who was born in what is now Afghanistan, was born 800 years ago and she reports on a celebration of his work that took place in Washington, DC.

India: Reservations, Law, Bollywood and Peanuts

  30 March 2007

So far this month the major topic of discussion in virtual India was the world cup cricket match in the West Indies. Now that India was unceremoniously bowled out of the world cup, bloggers have turned their attention to other issues. Yesterday the Indian Supreme Court temporarily stopped the implementation...