Stories about Arts & Culture from February, 2008
From Morocco, With Love
On this, St. Valentine's Day, the day for lovers, poems, flowers and romance, Moroccan bloggers are sharing their hearts. Few holidays have the ability to inspire both love and blog posts, but today's is certainly one of them.
Japan: Hand Towel Dolls
Lee from Tokyo Times posts a new manga figure called hand towel hero. Apart from this hero, there are some other cute hand towel doll pictures in his post.
China: Politician and Artor
Wang Xiao feng comments on the Edison sex photo scandal and points out that politician and actor shared similar nature, both have a mask on their faces. So there is no reason to expect them to be genuine (zh).
Ukraine: Kyiv-Lviv Marshrutka
Olechko writes about her trip from Kyiv to Lutsk by marshrutka – and posts yet another beautiful sketch (be sure to click on the thumbnail to enlarge it).
In Madagascar, bloggers debate abortion and women's rights
With a Valentine's Day performance of the controversial Vagina Monologues and a human rights committee's decision to call for a review of Madagascar's abortion ban, gender issues are a hot topic in the Malagasy blogosphere.
Serbia: Belgrade for Monopoly
Monopoly is one of the world's most popular board games, and there is voting going on right now for 24 cities that will get included in the World Edition of this game. Serbian bloggers have organized a campaign to get their capital, Belgrade, to win a spot on Monopoly's list.
Trinidad & Tobago: Canboulay
Caribbean Beat Blog gives an account of Canboulay – “one of the foundational elements of Trinidad's modern carnival” – and is amazed to discover that “over 100 years later, with a culture that is ever-changing, it is indeed true that the more things change the more they remain the same.”
Myanmar: Mr & Miss Valentine Photos
Blogger MgHla posted the photos of “Mr & Miss Valentine” competition that he attended on the Valentines’ Day. He also complaint about having to leave the show early and couldn't get to see the winners for the sake of keeping the curfew issued by the Missus back home. One of...
Latvia, Russia: Ambassador Veshnyakov
Latvian Abroad is pleasantly surprised with Russia's new ambassador to Latvia – Aleksandr Veshnyakov, former head of the Central Election Committee: “He was interviewed by Echo of Moscow radio station before leaving for Latvia and he declared that he will learn Latvian because he considers that as a measure of...
Serbia: Rimtutituki
Belgrade 2.0 writes about one Serbian band's antiwar efforts of the early 1990s.
Armenia: Trndez
Today might have been St. Valentine's day, but in Armenia it was also Trndez, an ancient pagan festival now absorbed into the Christian calendar. Posts from Armenia, a Peace Corps blog, posts an account of the festival.
Peru: Blog Devoted to Capital City
Vivir Lima [es] is a new blog site devoted to events, activities and stories about the Peru's capital city.
Serbia: A Tribute to Desimir Tošić
Dejan Đokić posts a tribute to Desimir Tošić at East Ethnia: “He was a unique and somewhat unconventional figure in modern Serbian history. Tošić was a politician who placed ideas and ideals above personal and material gain. He was a contemporary of Yugoslavia’s turbulent life and its death(s), but wrote...
Russia: BBC's Coverage
Upset with BBC's coverage of Russia, Windows to Russia! suggests that “that someone from Russia should do a road trip in England to: ‘set out to try and look at some of the major problems confronting Britain!’ They could: ‘look for the dark underbelly’.”
Hungary: “2ManyBloggas” Party
Briefly, Pestiside is feeling “old”: “…The discovery of a party this coming Saturday partly dedicated to the foreign-language bits of the local blogosphere that completely ignores us, the old daddy of the business, would be more than enough to let us know our time is long over.”
Malawi: How I met my Valentine
Malawian blogger, Victor Kaonga, shares a personal story about how he met his “Valentine”: “I regard myself as someone who does not like sharing much information about myself but for the past few months I have been reflecting over the importance of sharing personal stories and experiences.”
Serbia: Divided Over Eurovision
Reluctant Dragon reports on yet another conflict brewing in Serbia: “But Serbia would not be Serbia if it didn’t find something to be divided about. And I’m not talking about politics or Kosovo independence but Eurovision. It’s the time of the year when we decide who will represent Serbia in…...
Hong Kong: Apologize for What?
One of the victim of the sex photo scandal Gillian Chung finally broke her silence. In her statement she claimed that she was too innocent and she apologized for causing the social damage. Cow wondered what she apologized for. The blogger felt that such gesture implied a victory of conservative...
Bangladesh: On human rights, and people across the border
In this weeks roundup we take a look at what different Bangladeshi blogs are talking about. On human rights- who is a human? Rumi of In the Middle of Nowhere discusses the death under custody of Mr. Qayyum Khan, an elected local government representative and a BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party)...
Bahrain: For sale?
In this post we look at some of things that Bahraini bloggers have been saying during the last month. We start with a complaint about the privatisation of utilities in Bahrain, followed by an opinion about changes at the Ministry of Information, and another about the role bloggers can play...
Albania: Trip to Shkoder
Stepping Stones writes about her trip to Shkoder and posts some pictures: “No trip to Shkodra would be complete without a stop at the Venetian mask workshop where they are busy making almost 80% of the masks which are sold in Venice! Everything is done by hand here, the end...
