Stories about Arts & Culture from October, 2006
Japan: American celebrity in Japan
Marie Mockett poses a question in Japundit: Is it true that every American celebrity can find instant success (in Japan)?
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Exploring the Pyramid
“Bosnian Pyramid? – Visocica Hill” – by sjareb It's been over a year since the whole Bosnian pyramid media fuss started. Still, many talk about the possible discovery of Europe’s first step pyramid complex. The event is significant for Bosnia & Herzegovina's recovery, as it brings positive media attention and...
Trinidad, UK: Between two worlds
Trinidad blogger Jeremy Taylor returns to the “quiet corner of the mudder country” (England) where he grew up: “There ought to be a name for this state of mind. (Perhaps there is.) When your head is split between two worlds.“
Jamaica: Chutzpah and politics
Jamaica-based Linguist Ria Bacon uses the example of the Jamaican Minister of Information's statements about a recent political scandal to demonstrate the meaning of the Yiddish word “chutzpah”.
Russia: Thoughts on LiveJournal/ZheZhe
The Second Blog War continues in Russia. Brad Fitzpatrick, the LiveJournal's creator, has now joined the discussion over at sup_ru LJ community: in English, he offers some explanations and apologies here (and receives 248 comments so far) and lists the bloggers’ most common questions and concerns here (123 comments so...
Trinidad & Tobago, UK: Review of “Londonistan”
Trinidad blogger Jeremy Taylor reviews the book Londonistan by British journalist Melanie Phillips: “What causes intelligent people to slither across the political spectrum from left to right (and sometimes the other way) as they get older? When she was a young journalist, Melanie Phillips used to write outstandingly sensible and...
St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Rewriting the anthem
St. Vincent & the Grenadines blogger Abeni wonders whether her country's national anthem could be re-written: “It's clear that verse was written from the perspective of the main island-St Vincent. So,what do the people of the Grenadines do when it gets to verse 3?“
Costa Rica Bloggers on CAFTA and other issues
The Tico Bloggers are posting on two main subjects this past week: the two day long CAFTA protests and the bill the government is writing which would ban weapon production in Costa Rican territory. Other topics are political corruption up high and the power of a musical request.
Arabisc: Secret Meetings and Eid Greetings
It's Eid in the Arab world and Arab bloggers are celebrating the end of the Holy Month of Ramadhan with a riot of activity on their blogs. From Libya, Lona and A.Adam, writing in Flying Birds, wish us all a Happy Eid by posting a picture. The same sentiments are...
China: Good cop/bad cop
A story shared by A-list blogger-journalist Huang Tingzi (黄亭子) about an engineering student recruited by Chinese cops on his campus who—along with four colleagues—one day finds himself quite a bit in over his head: 读大学时,庄警官念的是无线电专业,毕业前,本打算去IT界发展。结果,正好遇上公安局招干,陪同学一块去顺利也报了个名,没想到很快就被录取了。 In university, officer Zhuang majored in wireless communications. Before graduation, he was planning to go...
Laos: Luang Prabhang Night Market
Vietnamese blogger Vietnamese God visits neighboring Lao city of Luang Prabhang and posts pictures of the night market. The blogger has some tips for a good bargain. “Most of the prices that those sellers give to you are up really high and the game starts from 70% off then stop...
Lebanon: Communities and Contradictions
The Lebanese blogosphere is growing like crazy. This means that the following summary is not all inclusive. And in the attempt to cover as many new blogs or newly discovered blogs as possible, other interesting posts and/or blogs are missed. But you can always find links to worthy blogs in...
Peru: Oktoberfest in Lima
Alejandro introduces readers to the recent phenomenon of Oktoberfest in Lima, Peru: “Five years ago, a group of German expats living in Peru decided to celebrate the traditional Oktoberfest. Little did they know that this would turn into an event of such magnitude that in 2005, 10,000 revelers consumed over...
Fiji: Building a Traditional Underground Oven
Peceli blogs about the tradition of building a “lovo” – the traditional underground oven used to cook communal meals in the South Pacific. “In Australia we can’t make a lovo in your back yard without permission from the local council and the Fire Prevention Officer. The ruling is if we...
Nigeria: world-class Nigerian fashion magazine
Dipotepede is humbled after finding out that the editor of Haute, a world-class fashion magazine featuring works of Nigerian designers all around the world, is only 21 years old, ” My dear, I was very humbled when I knew the editor of Haute Magazine was less than 21 years of...
Malaysia: History not Important
Blueheeler goes in search of archives of a newspaper in East Malaysian province of Sarawak and finds that the city does not care about its history.So, in short, the Sarawak Tribune, the most important English newspaper on Sarawak/Bornean issues, with its 60 years of reporting the going-ons in Sarawak, cannot...
Jamaica: Pam Mordecai
Jamaican writer Pam Mordecai is the subject of the second installment in Geoffrey Philp's “In My Words” series.
Belize: Dog's eye view
Belizean canine blogger Nurse Melly reports on the progress of an animal shelter being build on Caye Ambergris and admonishes humans for feeding crocodiles.
Africa: call for Fela centred short stories
Wordsbody announces the call for Fela centred short stories from Reputations Consulting, “Call for Fela centred, fictional short stories,features articles and biographical sketches on “FELA The Folklore: A Peoples’ Biography for all categories of prose writers.”
Nigeria/Cameroon: new African film available online
Collaboration between Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry, and Cameroon's English language film industry has produced a new film, Before the Sunrise. Scribbles from the Den writes about it: “Before the Sunrise, the first major collaboration between Nollywood and Cameroon’s budding English language film industry is now available online. The movie...
Ukraine: Photos from Kherson
“The robots welcome you to Rusted Future World.” – 36 photos from the Ukrainian city of Kherson, by Dan McMinn of Orange Ukraine.