Stories about LANGUAGES from October, 2008
Japan: Thoughts on Itochu trading scam
On October 10th, Itochu Corporation announced that it had paid close to one hundred billion yen in false transactions valued at nearly 100 billion yen to Mongolian suppliers for construction machinery and materials. One blogger and chartered accountant offers their thoughts on what happened inside Itochu.
Japan: Response to Obama “Put down the Wii Remote” Ad
Comments from Japanese net users respond [ja] to an ad by U.S. presidential nominee Obama in which viewers are told to “put down the remote and go vote“. “Why Wii?” one asks. Another writes: “Anti-Japan policies before even becoming president?” And one person wonders: “Does Obama despise Japan?”
Japan: Spam mail from a chimpanzee
id:crystaline reports [ja] that she discovered a spam mail with the title: “It might seem unbelievable, but I am a chimpanzee”. The ‘chimp’ explains: “At first, I thought I was a human. Like the other humans around me. However, I acquired knowledge, and realized that I was different. And I...
Cambodia: Hero of the Year nominee
Nuon Phymean from Cambodia is one of the nominees for the CNN Hero of the Year Award. She has helped a lot of children in Phnom Penh by providing free education and job training.
Vietnam: Ancient capital as UNESCO heritage site
The ancient capital of Hoa Lu in the Ninh Binh province of Vietnam is being proposed as a possible UNESCO world heritage site.
Indonesia: Parliament approves anti-porn law
Indonesia now has an anti-porn law which critics say will curtail freedom of speech and traditional practices. Via Twitter, Aulia comments: “If only people would read the entire ‘porn’ law and understand its full consequences.”
Ibero-America: Campus Party in El Salvador
This week in El Salvador, hundreds of technology fanatics have assembled to take part in the latest edition of Campus Party. Participants from 22 member states are divided into one of a broad range of areas including: Astronomy, CampusBot (robotics), Innovation, Modding, Campus Create, Digital Leisure and Digital Inclusion. The participation of bloggers have captured the feeling of being in a room with their fellow technology enthusiasts through their blog posts, photos and videos.
Peru: The King of Spain and the Peruvian Congresswoman
Guillermo from Quimeras Seductoras [es] summarizes the encounter of Juan Carlos, the King of Spain, and the Peruvian congresswoman Hilaria Supa, who met outside of the Congress buildings. She confronted the King and asked him to return all of the wealth taken by Spain during the Conquest.
Peru: Preparations for BarCamp Lima
Ventana Azul [es] provides the latest details on
Argentina: Diego Maradona Named New Coach of National Team
Diego Maradona must be the most famous Argentine in the world, and anything that he does usually becomes news. It is even more newsworthy, when he is named the next Coach of the Argentine national football team. Many Argentines are left wondering how the greatest footballer will ensure that the country qualifies for the World Cup 2010.
Nepal: The troubled republic
Maila Baje at Nepali Notebook discusses on the internal rifts between the purists and the pragmatists within the Maoist government.
India: Assam blasts
India's troubled north-eastern Assam state was rocked by a series of coordinated blasts today. Praful reports that 60 people were killed and more than 200 injured. “Although ULFA’s involvement in the serial blasts in Assam is suspected, the intelligence sources believe that Bangladesh-based HuJI could be behind the blasts,” opines...
Haiti, U.S.A.: Death Squad Leader Convicted
Both HaitiAnalysis.com and The Haitian Blogger report that a New York court has sentenced former Haitian death squad leader Emmanuel ‘Toto’ Constant to 12 to 37 years in prison for mortgage fraud.
Cuba, U.S.A.: Voting on the Embargo
The United Nations General Assembly yesterday approved a resolution condemning the U.S. embargo. For the seventeenth year running, the vote went in favor of the Cuba-sponsored resolution and bloggers - from the diaspora and from Cuba herself - have had a lot of say on the subject.
SketchPAN: World without Words
SketchPAN, a service from Korea, aims to create a easy platform for people to express themselves with paintings. In the world without words, language is no longer a barrier for users around the globe.
Trinidad & Tobago, U.S.A.: Eye on the Prize
“Let’s compare politics with sports. You’re in the home stretch. A smart athlete – a well-trained one – would keep his eyes on the prize and concentrate on running his own race. But what is McCain doing? Looking over at the other lane, more concerned about the competition than he...
Trinidad & Tobago: The Price of Progress
Maximilian Forte, writing at Review of the Indigenous Caribbean Center, posts a video of Trinidadian calypsonian King Austin's song Progress, which he calls “a critique of the ideology and practice of progress, from the vantage points of environmental unsustainability, exploitation, inequality, and the resultant social strife.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Book of the Week
Caribbean lit-blog Antilles picks as its “Book of the Week” Ian McDonald's Selected Poems, which it describes as “a long-overdue survey of the career of one of the Caribbean's most admired writers.”
Jamaica: Missing Children
YardFlex refers to “some shocking figures that indicate 65 per cent of the 1,112 people reported missing in Jamaica since January 1st 2008 are children.”
Bangladesh: Banks dominate in DSE listings
Bangladesh Corporate Blog analyzes the capital market of Bangladesh and finds that banks dominate 11 of the top 20 spots of listed companies in the Dhaka Stock exchange (DSE). The blog opines that: “(the) domination of banks goes to show that the SEC (Security and Exchange Commission) has failed miserably.”
Pakistan: Help the earthquake victims
Five Rupees posts some links to charities that are involved in delivering aid and humanitarian relief to the victims of the earthquake in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Please help the victims of this disaster.
