· December, 2006

Stories about Arts & Culture from December, 2006

Russia, Belarus: “Gazilla”

  30 December 2006

There's a distinct sense of deja vu this New Year's Eve: Gazprom, Russia's largest (and state-controlled) company and the world's biggest extractor of natural gas, is in the spotlight again, both locally (due to an ambitious and controversial construction project in St. Petersburg) and internationally (due to a dispute over...

Cuba: Christmas traditions

  29 December 2006

Cuba-based blogger Kaloian Santos Cabrera posts an excerpt from a book on traditional Christmas observances in San Juan de los Remedios, Cuba, plus some photos.

Barbados: The other Eid

  28 December 2006

Titlayo discovers the “other” Eid — Eid al-Adha, when “Muslims who can afford to do so sacrifice domestic animals, usually sheep, as a symbol of Ibrahim’s sacrifice.”

Ukraine: Ruslana Against Human Trafficking

  27 December 2006

The Natashas – “a blog for those interested in fighting the scourge of human trafficking of women and men, girls and boys, especially for purposes of sexual exploitation” – posts a link to an anti-human trafficking video by Ukrainian pop singer and PM Ruslana.

Jamaica: What the country needs

  27 December 2006

Francis Wade grapples with his desire, as a returnee to Jamaica, to find solutions to some of the problems plaguing his homeland: “Certainly, I am sure, a part of the answer has to with where we draw our spiritual wisdom, and how we Jamaicans do not sufficiently engage in our...

Trinidad & Tobago: Trini geography

  27 December 2006

Chennette has an interesting commentary on the average Trinidadian's skewed vision of cardinal points: “Maybe it was growing up in a mathematical family, but I always viewed Trinidad as more or less a rectangle with some squiggly bits at the corners. Which means that I imagined lines bisecting the island...

Trinidad & Tobago: Christmas, credulity and commerce

  27 December 2006

Jeremy Taylor goes over some of the impossible notions about Christmas we have come to accept as fact, concluding “I take some comfort in the thought that the man at the centre of all the fuss would have dismissed it all, just as he furiously ran the bankers off the...

Russia: Moscow Half a Century Ago

  27 December 2006

LJ user fool_4_lifetime found a rare photo album in a Moscow dump – Im Flug nach Moskau, by Erich Einhorn, ARTIA, 1959 – and scanned and posted 60 spreads of Moscow photos from it in the moya_moskva (My Moscow) LJ community. (Warning: bandwidth intensive!) Here is one of the photos:...

India: Music Season in Chennai

  26 December 2006

Suraj is in Chennai (Madras) as the music season peaks in the city. “What expectations would you develop if your first day of the music season starts off with a casual dinner and chat with your favourite artist? :)”

Vietnam: Christmas in Vietnam

  26 December 2006

Chris Harvey has pictures from a Christmas eve service in a Catholic church in Vietnam. “Many of you will be surprised to learn that Christmas in Vietnam is *huge*. And I don't mean the Vietnamese kinda sorta like it. They freaking LOVE Christmas.”

Brunei: Origins of Wedding Rituals

  25 December 2006

The Daily Brunei Resources blog traces the origin of Malay wedding custom of bunga telur. Bunga telur is the token gift presented to the guests who attend a wedding.

Belize: What do Christmas vacationers want?

  25 December 2006

Lee Vanderwalker in Caye Caulker, Belize, wonders: “Why do you think people vacation at Christmas time. Do you think they expect a traditional American Christmas? Do you think that if we play Marvin Gaye they will forget about Christmas?“

Bahamas: “Improving” Junkanoo

  25 December 2006

Nicolette Bethel advises her fellow Bahamians to heed the words of Trinidadian Carnival designer Peter Minshall when considering the “improvement” of Junkanoo, their own national festival.