Archive for
May, 2005
Stories
May 30th, 2005
Kenyan Blogs Roundup
May 27th, 2005
Glutter: Awaiting A Democratic Hong Kong
May 25th, 2005
Juan Varela: Covering Journalism 3.0 in Spain
May 24th, 2005
Frederick Noronha on Blogger Certification in India
May 22nd, 2005
The World Reacts to Star Wars
May 20th, 2005
Blogger Profile - Jeff Ooi
Links for 2005-05
May 31st, 2005
East Asia
China Daily runs a USA Today article about a Chinese knock-off of American Idol, but, as Asiapundit points out, forgets to remove an embarrassing bit of copy.
CSR Daily uncovers the ironic news that anti-poverty wristbands were probably made in Chinese sweatshops. I suppose it could have been worse, though—they could have come from Chinese prison factories…
Bingfeng Teahouse provides insight into the wacky world of Chinese magazine circulation numbers; circulation of 30,000 is really 25,000, which is really 15,000, which is really…
The Cambodian blogosphere is all aflutter about the revelation that former King Sihanouk has a blog (of sorts). The blog itself can be found at www.norodomsihanouk.info; it’s written mostly in French, with some Khmer and English.
As anyone who’s ever been to Hong Kong knows, shiver-inducing air conditioning is de rigur in the buildings of the SAR. Ordinary Gweilo points us to a South China Morning Post article that reveals what many had long suspected: Hong Kong has the coldest offices in the world.
Photograph by Brooke Yu
Central Asia
Blogrel suggests that not having oil is a blessing in disguise for Armenia.
Nathan at Registan.net looks at the possibility of Kyrgyzstan hosting Chinese troops, and isn’t particularly thrilled by the prospect. He also links to eyewitness accounts of some of the Uzbekistan massacres.
South Asia
According to India Uncut, the police have set up a special ‘cyber-crime’ unit, targeting such crimes as “eve-teasing,” as well as other, more conventional offenses like credit card fraud.
And in sports, The Third World View has sage words of advice for those who would strip Bangladesh of Test status in cricket.
Africa
Jing, of Those Who Dare, looks at local unrest in Zimbabwe and wonders if it could be related to Chinese influence in the country.
Middle East
Silly Bahraini Girl has a meeting with a government official that doesn’t go particularly well. Though she does manage to work an old joke (I’ve heard similar jokes told about various Soviet-Block countries) about Bahraini Hell into the post.
Also in Bahrain, Mahmood follows up on the case of the journalist arrested for writing for a foreign paper without first registering with the government.
In Egypt, the Arabist Network reports on coverage suggesting that a Potempkin school was set up in advance of First Lady Laura Bush’s visit to Alexandria—students and staff of a school were swapped out “in order to present a better image to the visiting dignitary.”
Regime Change Iran is following reports of clashes between pro-regime and secular students at Amir Kabir University.
Eight members of a Syrian anti-goverment group were recently released after being arrested last week. The Syrian blogosphere has been hailing this as a demonstration that “the regime can be successfully opposed.” Other commentators had been wondering if the arrest meant that “hopes for a renewed ‘Damascus Spring’ were over.” And SyriaComment pointed to a newspaper column that points out that the freed dissidents weren’t “the only victims of Syria’s security services.”
Europe
The Czech Prime Minister (Jiri Paroubek) and President (Vaclav Klaus) are squabbling, reports the Daily Czech; apparently, Paroubek is claiming that the Klaus cannot travel abroad without prior authorization from the Foreign Ministry. Naturally, the President disagrees.
A Fist Full of Euros looks at some of the economic reaction to the emphatic non that the EU constitution received in France. In other EU constitution news, Loic Le Meur opened a thread asking his readers what they thought the vote really meant.
Who knew? Budapest is apparently a mecca for health tourism.
Siberian Light notes the case of Andrej Mucic, who is attempting to cycle more than 7,000 miles across the frozen tundra of Sibera to raise $10,000 for anti-slavery groups. He’s trying to do it in 100 days—that’s more than 70 miles per day.
North America
And finally, blogs all over the world have been hailing the selection of Natalie Glebova as Miss Universe 2005. From an internationalist perspective, there’s something satisfying about seeing a Russian-born Miss Canada win a pageant that was held in Thailand. A random sampling of the reaction: a former classmate; another Canadian blog; more Canadian reaction; another Canadian celebrates; a Vietnamese blogger comments (unfortunately, I have no idea what he wrote); an Indian blogger's reaction; and the news even made it onto a chess blog!
May 30th, 2005
It's Memorial Day in the US today, a day dedicated to remembrance of those killed and injured in military conflicts - similar to Remembrance Day in Commonweath Countries, France and Belgium. With that in mind, we begin the day's roundup with a selection of posts from Milbloggers - bloggers who are active or retired military personnel, or military families:
Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette honors the memory of Marla Ruzicka, founder of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflicts, who was killed by a terrorist bomb in Iraq at the age of 28. John Upperman at Who's Your Baghdaddy? remembers six soldiers from his base camp who have been killed in operations in Iraq with photos of base facilities that have been dedicated to the fallen soldiers.
Blackfive points to a number of organizations that support soldiers in the field and groups that help former soldiers find jobs in civilian life.
The Talking Dog interviews US Army Staff Sergeant Shanona Gregozek, stationed in Mosul, Iraq, where she oversees a project - sponsored by Spirit of America - with the Kurdish Women's Union.
SFC Kevin Kelly reports on Memorial Day celebrations in his Engineer battalion, stationed in Iraq. And Lt. R.D. Currie of Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum, is “happy to report that Memorial Day 2005, in Southern Baghdad Iraq was fairly boring“.
Image from John Upperman's blog
Africa
Don't tell Martin that Africa is “suffering” from brain drain - he's got a strong argument that Africans living and working abroad are a key economic force on the continent.
Congo Girl explains why beans are expensive, why beer is cheap, and why this is a very bad thing.
Ethiopundit has a political quiz, of a sort, for you. In a similar spirit (i.e., unsympathetic to the Zenawi government), Friends of Ethiopia is very concerned about the presence of militia forces in Addis Ababa.
Middle East
Mohamed at From Cairo, With Love wrote last week about a friend who was involved with a Kefaya protest last week and who reported that she was stripped, beaten and sexually assaulted by Egyptian authorities. He's now helping call attention to a protest organized by the Association of Egyptian Mothers - Black Wednesday - inviting all Egyptians to wear black to help protest last week's events and to call for the resignation of Egypt's interior minister, Habib al-Adli. (Some background on Wednesday's events from Newsday.)
Big Pharaoh is skeptical that people will participate in this movement, or a parallel white ribbon campaign. Over beers with a friend, he offers a timeline for what might happen over the next few years if the Mubarak government were replaced by an Islamist government.
Hoder wonders whether Iran's supreme leader, Khamenei, has implictly endorsed Rafsanjani, a seventy-year old presidential candidate, and how this aligns with his previous statements that Iran's new president should be someone “young and energetic.” Hoder also has an insightful piece on IranScan, analyzing the fashion decisions of major Iranian politicians and their attempts to appeal to different constituencies. Meanwhile, Babak Seradjeh wonders how 1008 of 1014 possible presidential candidates were disqualified by religious authorities.
Neda at An Iranian Girl calls attention to Akbar Ganji, Iran's longest serving political prisoner. Ganji has been imprisoned for 61 months and is now on a hunger strike. Mr. Behi is trying to organize a “Google Bombing”, trying to get bloggers to link to stories about Ganji's imprisonment.
Image - Black Wednesday banner
Central Asia and the Caucuses
MivPiv - a Danish aid worker in Kabul - shares tips for identifying suicide bombers, and details the “kidnapping kit” she keeps in her purse. Her Flickr photoblog shows some of the prettier sides of life in Kabul.
Raffi of Life in Armenia was in Karabakh (a territory disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan), watching footage of the new Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline - he's surprised that the pipeline has opened before a Armenia/Azerbaijan peace deal.
Nathan at Registan has a nice Global Voices shoutout, and his own world roundup, titled “Carnival of Revolutions”. Plus he's got a link to a new Mongolian blog. Saain bainyuu, New Mongol!
New Mongol is off to a terrific start, with an excellent piece explaining why Mongolia's election of a “communist” president doesn't mean that Mongolians are looking back fondly to Soviet times.
Image from New Mongol. Click to see it in its fully adorable glory.
Latin America
Eduardo at Barrio Flores wonders what happened to the Frente Nacional Anticorrupción, which claimed responsibility for a bombing in Bolovia two weeks back. Miguel points to a recent survey that 6 out of 10 Bolivians would emigrate, if they had the opportunity.
Isidro at Argepundit sees France's vote against the EU constitution as being more about nationalism and traditionalism than “anticapitalismo”.
South Asia
Yazad is trying to spark a debate, asking whether India should invade Nepal. He seems surprised that some Nepali commenters aren't happy about him asking this question…
Truman at Chien(ne)s Sans Frontieres is concerned that Mumbai city authorities are cracking down on “pavement” booksellers.
Amit Varma points to a story about heavy metals in ayurvedic medicines, memorably noting that “Metallica can lead to Megadeath”
Rezwan at 3rd World View celebrates Bengali fashion designer Bibi Russell.
East Asia
Clair talks about the stereotypes that plague Filipina women.
llauren celebrates the opening of a children's playground in Dili, East Timor.
Photo from llauren - Heading to the Independence Day celebrations in Timor/Leste
May 27th, 2005
Middle East
More pictures from the demonstrations in Egypt, from the Arabist Network. From Cairo with Love shares a wrenching anonymous email from a woman who says she was assaulted in the riots.
Nearby in Tunisia, Zizou from Djerba and Subzero blog about Tunisian emigration. The numbers they have are:
- 80% of Tunisian youth would like to emigrate.
- 80.000 to 100.000 Tunisian youth leave Tunisia each year (Some come back of course).
- 25 to 35% of Tunisians abroad are jobless.
According to statistics from 2003, the number of Tunisians abroad is 850,000.
Sabbah is enthused about Israelii, Iranian, Syrian, Bahraini, United Arab Emirates, Egyptian, Palestinian, Moroccan, Saudi Arabian, Lebanese, Algerian, and Jordananian (and many other countries) cooperation the Sesame project – the Jordanian based Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East.
Also in Jordan, Abu Aardvark discusses the political situation facing prime minister Badran.
Africa
Friends of Ethiopia report on thousands of Ethiopian protests in D.C.
And Meskel Square reports that the Sub Saharan reformer has two “scoopettes”:
- The first is that the CUD is calling on its supporters to hold mass prayer protest sessions in mosques today and churches on Sunday
- An interview with Information Minister Bereket Simon over his fight for his seat in Lalibela.
- Ethiopian ministers are on a mission to Somaliland to look into using its Red Sea port Berbera for commerce.
4 Sheezy reflects on stalled government projects in Kenya.
Kenya pundit opens a thread asking for Africa stories -good stories - that people wish were written about more. Help her out here.
South America
Daniel Venezuala talks about the High Court drama going on there – with lots of comments and discussion following.
Europe
A fistful of Euros, despite the sunny afternoon, posts throughout the day, diggin deep into to Euroconstitutional arguments, and predicts greater efforts to enforce the Stability and Growth pact.
Central Budapest talks about the future of digital TV in Hungary.
South Asia
Kiruba asks for help: “Would you know any person or shop which services digital cameras either in Chennai, Hyderabad or Bangalore?” Answer here.
Anyone?
Lazygeek talks about the politics (and marketing) of the saucy posters for the movie Vallavan.
And Anita gives props and the trademark to the Bangalore bloggers bLogout to Suman.
Rich pickings today from Southeast Asia:
The Filipino Librarian has launched a campaign with the Filipino blogging community to correct the online image of Filipinas - women of the Philippines. Click on all these links and support their campaign.
Inside PCIJ blogs a recent report about the state of women on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.
Vietnamese women may attempt an online campaign like the Filipino bloggers someday. Noodle Pie takes a break from his usual Vietnamese food-blogging to reveal a scandal surrounding Miss Vietnam.
Sarasonteh posts on Thailand's “most embarrasing ad contest” and the “fawning correspondents' club” in Bangkok.
In Singapore, Mr. Brown reports on a blogger flash-party. [LINK CORRECTED] There are Flickr pix too.
Another great Globalvoices Star Wars Post: Mystery Tan Lines does Return of the Sith in Singlish!!
Some people are getting a bit too carried away by this Star Wars craze… Mack at Brandmalaysia reports that a man in a Darth Vader suit has been flashing his “sabre” at unsuspecting women in Bandar Baru Nilai.
More seriously, Mack has a guest editorial on the balkanization and compartmentalization of Malaysian society.
East Asia:
The Mask of China reports that while Starbucks is coming to Dalian, their local staff can't spell.
South Asia:
United We Blog in Nepal expresses solidarity between Nepali and Iranian bloggers.
In India, Vantage Point meets a Muslim taxi driver who is investing in his daughter's future high-tech career, while encouraging his son to drive a taxi because the boy is nowhere near as smart.
3rd World View discusses the Bangladeshi rock scene.
Central Asia:
Nathan at Registan.net has a thorough Uzbekistan news roundup.
Latin America:
Devil's Excrement continues his regular criticism of Venezuela's state oil company, the PDVSA.
Venezuela News and Views has more on the PDVSA and allegations of corruption.
Barrio Flores on the protests in Bolivia.
Europe:
Neeka's Backlog recounts how a primary school class in the Ukraine is basically required by their teacher to support Yushenko.
Scraps of Moscow says: “Russia…appears to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with China in its response to the events in Andijan.”
According to Fjordman, Dutch Muslims are encouraged to vote “yes” to the European Constitution.
Middle East:
Spark Armada shares his presentation for the Israeli “Blog Day” in which he talks about “The New People” and the role of blogs in people's identity.
In Syria, Amarji believes the President is bound to fail.
The Syrian News Wire analyzes Syria's admission that foreign fighters have been entering Iraq over the Syrian border.
Crossroads Arabia on how the Arab world is reappraising America.
Rafah Pundits Radio comments on a “blogfight” between semitism.net and Israellycool.
Lebanese Political Journal has details on the first round of parliamentary elections to take place this coming Sunday, and argues that Hezbollah is an international issue, despite the fact that politicians have been claiming the contrary.
Sami at An Iraqi's Thoughts thinks Zarqawi's arrest is “irrelevant”.
Hammorabi comments on a civilian's capture of terrorists.
Raed in the Middle wants Al Arabiya to change its policy of filtering viewer comments on its website when those comments are critical of the U.S. presence in Iraq.
Mr. Behi, Iranian Prospect and Farideh at IranScan are all talking about whether Iran's reformers should or shouldn't boycott the election. Neda calls for a boycott.
“Hello from the Land of Pharaohs” describes a failed attempt to vote.
1 Pissed Arab on why some people have problems with the spread of democracy in the Middle East.
Africa:
Commentary.co.za points out South Africa's mainstream media is having credibility problems.
Chippala has an update on the Nigerian presidential campaign.
Black Looks links to a report on Nigerian police abuse.
Black Star Journal points out Africa's 2004 growth rate was highest this century.
May 25th, 2005
Middle East:
Chan'ad Bahraini is sad about Bahrain's wilting environment. Photo: dead date palms.
Mahmood wonders if recent international media attention will shame the Bahraini government from stifling free speech on the internet.
Linda asks why offices depicted in Arabic soap operas rarely seem to have computers in them.
Mohammed at “From Cairo With Love” describes voting in today'sreferendum on multi-candidate presidential elections, despite calls for a boycott.
Tom at “Shisha and Shawerma” is cynical about the whole thing.
Alaa describes being attacked and having his laptop stolen while attending a protest with his mother.
Ali at “A free Iraqi” continues his argument with Spirit of America.
IRAN'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS:
Free Thoughts on Iran has some sarcastic advice for Iran's “management.”
Hossein Derakhshan (Hoder) discusses the debate raging in the Iranian blogosphere over whether reformist candidate Mostafa Moeen should agree to run now that the Guardian Council has reinstated his candidacy, after first rejecting him.
Mr. Behi also has much to say.
East Asia:
ESWN posts about Chinese online citizen-journalism, blog plagiarism in Hong Kong, and virgins accused of being prostitutes.
Bingfeng has some Chinese “doggerel” jokes.
STAR WARS ALERT: “Musing under the tenement Palm” watched Revenge of the Sith in Urumqi and has some observations about the way it was dubbed into Chinese. (Don't forget to participate in the Globalvoices del.icio.us Starwars tagfest!)
South Asia:
Vantage Point discusses micro-libertarianism, a subject that came up at a recent bloggers' meeting.
Europe: