Stories about Development from January, 2007
Trinidad & Tobago: A nation unravels
“How do you take back a country that at independence failed to take real responsibility for itself, whose fabric has been slowly unravelling ever since, and which now equates modernisation with a frantic rush towards industrialisation and “developed country status by 2020″?” asks Jeremy Taylor of his country, Trinidad and...
Africa: women's rights, Africa and China
Sociolingo's Africa blog has a post about a new book by Fahamu on Women's rights, Africa and China, “The traditional perception of African women is that they face grinding poverty and harsh cultural, traditional and social prejudices. Yet while it is true that African women are not equal to men,...
Lesotho: institutionalizing development consulting
Idland writes about “institutionalization of development consulting”: You know you've been institutionalized into development consulting when your only concern about your deliverable is how it will look on the bookshelf where you know it will spend 100% of its life.
Nepal: Madhesh Is Burning
Madhesh is the southern plains of Nepal where half of the country lives. Madhesi are the people of Nepal, roughly half of the country. The Madhesi have been discriminated against for centuries. Now they are in a revolt that feels like the second part of the world shaking April Revolution....
China: Out of Libya
It‘s [zh] since been disabled, but there was one especially eye-catching post on Tianya, one of China's most widely-read bbs forum sites last month. ‘Save us!’ it read. ‘We've been stuck in Libya for over a year and we're about to go crazy here!’ Racist attitude, seen further down, might...
China: economic confidence
China Diligence has an article about certain landmarks / issues to look out for as China makes the transition from “from self-loathing acolyte to over-confident preacher.”
China: population policy
Xueyong suggested that by improving rural women's education, China can achieve a better population policy (zh).
Sri Lanka: Life down South
groundviews goes to a village down south to catch glimpses of life and ask a few questions. “On the ethnic conflict, they said they didn’t want to see the country divided and that they believed the LTTE was an inhuman organization due to the acts of terrorism.
Africa: 7 lessons from Africa's entrepreneurs
“One of the topics which we have not touched on yet, here, is what can a entrepreneur in Africa do to find success?,” asks Benin Mwangi and goes on to point out seven lessons from Africa's successful entrepreneurs.
Japan: marriage stats
Adamu highlights some figures in the recent marriage statistics in Japan: In 1995, most internationally marrying Japanese men (35%) took Filipina brides, while a quarter of them married Chinese women. In 2005, the tables were turned, with only 30% marrying Filipinas and 35% marrying Chinese.
Russia: Moscow's High-Rises
Russia Blog drives through Moscow's posh neighborhoods and posts the pictures.
Kenya: courage is not enough
Mental Acrobatics on why courage is not enough, “Courage is not enough. We saw it from the youth, we saw it from Githongo. To succeed in your goals, you need strategy as well.”
Ghana: It's Harmattan again, Re-denomination of Ghanian Currency Looms Large, Why the Ghanian Worker Wants to Leave, and 82 Steps to Renew a Visa
Ghana is currently experiencing a harmattan, and this state of play evidently does not escape the comment of Leanne, of An American in Africa, who explains how the harmattan, which she defines as: a dry dusty wind that blows along the northwest coast of Africa. Its time-frame, she describes as...
South Korea: Hongdae redevelopment
Matt in Gust of popular feelings blogs about his experience of Seoul city culture: eating places, cafes, etc. Such spaces are disappearing with redevelopment plan, the upcoming one is Hongdae redevelopment.
India, Latin America: Bangalore, a Role Model?
Kamla Bhatt, a resident of Bangalore herself, is intrigued by an argument set forth by Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer who calls the Indian tech metropolis a “role model for Latin America.” Boli-Nica, who usually writes in English, this time addressed [ES] his Spanish-speaking readers with a comparison of Oppenheimer's...
Latvia: Border Dispute
Marginalia writes about Latvia's border dispute with Russia and about “putting things in order”: “When a state “puts things in order,” it has a sad tendency to forget real people and real places, methinks.”
Elections in Serbia
The first preliminary results of the Serbian parliamentary poll arrived less than an hour after the ballots closed at 20:00 on January 21. Some started celebration while members of the parties that got less than the required 5 percent of the votes burst into despair. The Democratic Party (whose slogan...
Pakistan: A Nobel for Edhi
All Things Pakistan hopes that Edhi gets a Nobel Prize and urges his readers to contribute to an ongoing initiative. “Irrespective of whether Abdul Sattar Edhi is a Pakistani or not, irrespective of how much most Pakistanis hold his selfless zeal in reverence – and irrespective also of all the...
Cambodia: Paying Fair Wages
Diana at Cambodia Calling compares her life in her former home Singapore to her current home Cambodia. The blogger also describes why her company, a garment manufacturing unit, believes in paying fare wages to the workers.
Uganda: the importance of blogging in Africa
Jackfruity writes about the importance of blogging in Africa, “My thoughts on the impact of blogging in Africa? Many of the blogs that do exist are shaping the way people think and contributing to major debates in their countries — just look at Sub-Saharan African Roundtable or Weichegud. The reason...
Kenya: challenges of being young entrepreneur
An interview on Kenyan Pundit highlighting the challenges of being a young entrepreneur in Kenya.
