Stories about Arts & Culture from April, 2008
Dominican Republic test drives new metro system in Santo Domingo
People scream, yell and cheer as they see it pass: in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, the newest celebrity is the Metro transportation system. The city is buzzing at the new metro system which starting last Saturday began operating tentatively for testing to bring visitors to and from the...
India, Sri Lanka: Temple Festivals on both sides of the Palk Strait
Temple festivals are an integral part of life for Hindu Tamils, across the countries they live in. The following photo essay captures a few moments of these festivals. From Rakwana in Sri Lanka, a temple car festival in photographs by ‘Irakuwanai’ Nirshan. One of the focal points of the festival...
Guyana: Back to the 50s
Guyana Providence Stadium posts a series of photos by Godfrey Chin of 1950s Guyana (you'll have to look in the blog's April archives, as there is no photoset) – including this one of a small section of a Carnival band: “Note the copper hand-beaten copper craft armour…”
Turkmenistan: Dinosaur Footprints
Abdulgamid posts a report on discovered dinosaur footprints in Turkmenistan and opines on the possibility of “paleotourism” development in the country.
Uzbekistan, Ukraine: Tashkent Blacksmith and His Children
A monument to an Uzbek family that adopted 15 children during WWII has recently been dismantled in Tashkent. Below is a Ukrainian blogger's moving story of how her father helped one of these adopted children find his biological family.
Lebanon: Valet Parking
Valet parking provides a luxury service and VIP treatment for customers. This is not so in Lebanon any more, where the practice has become so widespread that it is found even at fast food outlets and career fairs attended by young unemployed people, who are looking for jobs. Moussa Bashir looks into what bloggers are saying about the phenomena.
Olympic torch relay in Southeast Asia
The Olympic Torch has landed in the Southeast Asian region. Bloggers describe how ordinary people, protesters, police forces, sports enthusiasts and politicians are reacting to the arrival of the Olympic Torch in the region.
Lebanon: Show-off all the time
“In Lebanon, everybody live in community. Everything you’re doing have to be known, by your friends, your family, your neighbors… it is show-off all the time,” observes élodie while writing about Lebanese fascination with social networking such as Facebook.
Japan: Shadow Pictures
Edo from Pink Tentacle introduces the traditional Japanese shadow pictures art form to the readers.
Damascus: The Destruction of The Old City
Damascus prides itself on being the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. The history of Damascus goes back well into the 8000BC. In every corner of its ancient alleys there's a taste of every historical era there was to be found. The city that had withstood everything from earthquakes to invasions for nearly 10 millennia, is now crumbling under the threat of... "Modernism", writes Yazan Badran, who brings us the reactions of a Syrian blogger.
Japan: About40, and what next?
Changing times in Japan are opening the door for a new style of television. "About40", aired for the first time on April 11th, has done something novel for a Japanese TV drama: aim at the age bracket of 35 to 45 year old women, and hit it big. The new drama targets the late-thirties demographic of single women who entered the work force during the 80s bubble, captured in the newly-coined term "arafo". Bloggers give their initial thoughts on the show, and provide their perspectives on being "arafo" in modern Japan.
Hyejin Kim: A praised young novelist among GVO authors
Global Voices celebrates, this month, Hyejin Kim's first anniversary as the GVO Korean Language editor. She is also a celebrated young novelist: her debut book, 'Jia: A Novel of North Korea', has been highly praised as a very vivid and moving novel set in 1990’s North Korea. Is this story just fiction? Hyejin lets us know in this interview.
Iran:Cartoons about Persian Gulf
Here are a series of cartoons about Persian Gulf done by several Iranian artists.
Rare books on Southeast Asian histories burned
Andy's Cambodia sadly writes that his colleague, Kent Davis, lost a collection of 2,000 antique books, many of which are rare Southeast Asian histories dating back to the 1830s
Peru: The State of Archaeological Sites
The blog from the television program Presencia Cultural [es] posts a video about the UNESCO-declared “Day of Monuments and Sites,” which falls on April 18. The video shows and discusses the state of many archaeological sites in Peru.
Chilean Shorts: Micro and Mini Movies on the Web
From Chile, three examples of online video creation: first, a Chilean pre-candidate for the presidency takes advantage of online video tools to produce documentaries and interviews for web distribution, next, two independent short film producers with videos which talk about poverty, disabilities, old habits which don't have such a hard time dying and, why not? Love.
Venezuela: The Simpsons Not Welcome Anymore
One of the world's most popular television programs in any language, The Simpsons, was recently deemed inappropriate by the Venezuelan government for being a a bad influence on children, and ordered it off the air. Even though it has been on the air since 1989 and on a daily basis in re-runs, Venezuelan bloggers think that there are worse influences on children, and what makes it worse is that the show was replaced by Baywatch.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Tuzla
Pure Intent writes about Tuzla: “Minus the coal plants and DITA factory, Tuzla would be a pretty groovy place to be.”
Belgium: The Balkan Presence
Tanchi is guest-blogging at Kosmopolit about the Balkan presence in Brussels.
Uruguay: 365 versions of La Cumparsita
Three hundred and sixty five versions of one of the most famous tangoes in the world, La Cumparsita, will be played in Independence Plaza in Montevideo, which is the site where it was played for the first time 91 years ago. Café Montevideo [es] has more details.
Japan: Mona Lisa Mutants
Edo from Pink Tentacle introduces another Japanese artist Naoto Hattori. Edo has selected Mona Lisa Mutants collection in his post.
