Stories about Development from June, 2008
Estonia: Tartu's Snail Tower
AnTyx compares Tartu's Snail Tower to other cities’ modern architecture.
Trinidad & Tobago: Glass Towers
A Trinidadian blogger fears that what sets the island apart is being lost among the tall buildings going up in Port of Spain. Why does the glass have to be half empty or half full? asks why do “we deny our people the right to our waterfront? Where is the...
Kazakhstan: Highway to prosperity
Ben reports on the World Bank’s president, Bob Zoellick, visit to Kazakhstan, which has resulted in a $2.5 billion infrastructure project.
Barbados: Solar Power
Barbados Underground makes the case for solar power, and says for the “first time in history, cost-competitive solar power is now within the planning horizon of every utility in the nation.”
Caucasus: European Integration
Azerbaijan – a part of Europe says that it hopes the countries of the South Caucasus will be close to integrating with Europe in 10 years. However, the blog concludes, it requires a change in the mindset of the local populations and how they think.
Armenia: Regional Supermarket
Blogrel comments on news that a Yerevan-based supermarket chain has opened a store outside of the capital. The blog wonders how such a development will affect small stores and market traders in the regions.
Japan and China: East Sea Deal
Sun Bin blogs about the details of the East Sea oil field deal between Japanese and Chinese government.
China: Beijing subway line 8 opens
China's Olympics are brought to us by the lucky number 8, as you've no doubt heard, so it only makes sense that line 8 of Beijing's subway system will bring us to the Olympics. David Feng at CN Reviews connects us with the details.
Kenya: Notoriety Index
Kenyan Notoriety Index: Members of Parliament- Nothing good can be said of these people. They know how to debate on many issues concerning how to raise their money, how to use their money and how to have money after they leave parliament. Very progressive indeed.
China: Cement Production
Hilary Faxon from Shanghaiist blogs a stats on new cement production in China.
Russia: Poverty
Sean's Russia Blog writes about poverty in Russia: “Apparently living poor isn’t just about surviving, it’s about surviving artfully.”
Belarus: Minsk
Darkness at Noon shares his observations about Minsk.
Armenia: Internet, Telecoms Services Improve
The Armenian Observer says it is happy now that the newly rebranded Beeline company is offering ADSL Internet services at $40 a month. It also reports that 3G mobile telecommunications services have finally arrived in Armenia.
Bulgaria, Romania: Labor Migrants
Nicolaus Mills explains at Comment is Free why Britain hasn't seen the much-feared “‘tidal wave’ of immigrants” from Bulgaria and Romania.
Bangladesh: Meeting Dr Yunus
a bengali in TO attends a talk by Dr Mohammed Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on micro-lending.
Kazakhstan: Living Under Cult
The main discussion this week in Kazakhstani blogosphere was caused by the suggestion that was voiced by a number of MPs to rename the capital city Astana to Nursultan, in the honor of the long-ruling president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who retains power for more than 18 years already. It is worth...
Afghanistan: Toward Genuine “Afghanization”
Barnett R. Rubin offers a guest post by Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, PhD, Director of the Center for Studies of International Relations (CERI) Program for Peace and Human Security, CERI/Institute of Political Science, Paris. Her article was scheduled to appear in Le Figaro on June 12, the day of the International Conference...
Kazakhstan: Petrodollars, English Teachers
Adam links to a blog-post saying that Kazakhstan has decided to attract English-language teachers from abroad and pay tham 2-5,000 dollars a month.
Poland: Housing Market
20 East writes about Poland's housing market.
Bahamas: Microwaveable Minds
Blogger Nicolette Bethel is “operating in a state of low-grade anger”: “The thing that makes me angriest these days is the fundamental disrespect that we offer ourselves as Bahamians…the conviction that far too many of our leaders seem to have that we are really second-rate people.”
Kazakhstan: Astana Construction
Adam shares his photos of the construction sites in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, which will be having a pompous celebration of its 10-year anniversary in early July.
