· December, 2007

Stories about LANGUAGES from December, 2007

Lusosphere: Wishes and hopes for 2008

The new year is inevitably soon arriving and the Lusosphere is booming with posts about traditions, resolutions, wishes, and reflections. Here is a short roundup of Portuguese speaking blogs from Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Mozambique and Portugal - although countries far apart, they share the language and hopes for a better future.

31 December 2007

Hong Kong: Top News in 2007 Blogosphere

As the year end is approaching, local blogger sidekick has her picks of "Top News in Hong Kong 2007 Blogosphere". She also calls for more comments and suggestions for the year end round up. Below is a translation of her selection:

31 December 2007

Egypt: Murad and the Freedom of Speech

Judge Murad lost his case and the court ruled in favour of freedom of speech. The Administrative Judicial Court issued a sentence in Case No. 15575 / 61, which was...

31 December 2007

Peru: Traveling and Photography

Luis Yupanqui Mesías of Peru Viajero [es] recounts some of the sites that he visited and photographed in 2007 and thanks his readers for accompanying him along the way.

31 December 2007

Angola: Welcome to a new blogger

Soba L [pt] is a new blogger from Luanda, Angola, who likes examining carefully daily events. In his first posts, he analyzes the actual situation of the RAP music in ...

30 December 2007

Ethiopia: Queen of Sheba, Now Available in French

Francophone music blog Roots and Culture interviews Samuel Malher, a religious scholar from Strasbourg who has written the first unabridged French translation of the Kebra Negast, a sacred Ethiopian text. It describes the heritage of the Ethiopian monarchs, who trace their lineage to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and how the Ethiopians became God's new chosen people when the Ark of the Covenant was taken from Israel to Ethiopia.

30 December 2007

Japan: Web visionary Umeda Mochio

While famous in Japan as a web visionary, Silicon Valley resident Umeda Mochio, president of Muse Associates, co-founder of Pacifica Fund and board member of the Japanese bookmarking and diary service Hatena, is little-known overseas. His recent book "Web Shinkaron" ("Theory of Web Evolution") sold 370,000 copies and become a national besteller in Japan. Umeda was recently interviewed by the Japanese magazine Central Review (Chuo koron), portions of which are introduced and translated in this post.

30 December 2007

Cuba: The Divorce Rate

Regalado [es] writes about the divorce rate in Cuba, in which it is reported that 6 out of every 10 marriages end in divorce

30 December 2007

Egypt: Bidding Farewell to Bhutto

Egyptian bloggers couldn't stop themselves from writing about the assassination of one of the bravest women in the Muslim world, and may be the whole world. Carmen – Diasporic Discontents...

29 December 2007

China: Official Olympics channel's unveiling ceremony crashed

How did a couple's marital issues become today's top sports story? She's a prominent Beijing television broadcaster, he's one of Chinese sports news' top official faces for the Olympics; she just crashed his high-profile unveiling of China's new Olympics channel, and someone's put the video online.

29 December 2007

Burkina Faso and the Hajj

QuophyBlogeur writes about the perils of Burkinabe muslims [FR] making the pilgrimage to Mecca: “Fortunately Allah is merciful enough to tolerate the late arrival of poor pilgrims at the mercy...

28 December 2007