Ethiopia: Scale of happiness

Ethiopia has been ranked 144th on a 178-nation survey of happiness ratings, writes Ethioblog. The Happy Planet Index measures life satisfaction, life expectancy and ecological footprint.

Uganda: Music downloads

White African and Timbuktu Chronicles both report on the first company in Uganda to offer music downloads, True African. But it doesn't want to stay just doing that. Once more, writes the former, mobile micro-credit for micro-enterprise is emerging as a hot topic among the continent's digerati.

Across West Africa this week

We start this week's blog round-up with Under the Acacias who blogs: Osama bin Laden in Burkina Faso The face of Osama bin Laden glared down at me from his camel, a kalashnikov gun in his hand. Fortunately, he was only on the front of a t-shirt of a young...

Trinidad & Tobago: World's 2nd worse carbon polluter

Jeremy Taylor's worst fears are realised when he digs beneath the surface of the Trinidad & Tobago government's 20-20 Vision website, “where all the plans for making T&T a “fully developed country” by 2020 are laid out.”

The Second Conference of Intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora – II CIAD is being held in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil from 12 to 14 July 2006. The general theme of the Conference is: “The Diaspora and African Renaissance”. Tomorrow participants will be able to choose among 12 Thematic Groups, subdivided...

Nigeria: Power shortages

Black Star Journal picks up on a report in a Nigerian newspaper detailing how many residents of the country's chief oil-producing region, Bayelsa, have little to show for the rape of their natural resources by foreign multinationals. “The state, home to one of Nigeria's largest deposits of crude oil, doesn't...

Barbados: Caribbean Splash brouhaha

There's an interesting situation brewing around the proposed construction of a waterpark called Caribbean Splash on a what is apparently a sensitive watershed in Barbados, with the Barbados Labour Party responding on its own blog to an allegation by Barbados Free Press. This morning the plot thickens, as Barbados Free...

Laos: Foreign Investors

Who are the top foreign investors in Laos? Samakomlao blog has a list of the top 15 investors in Laotian economy.

Emerging markets: Africa or bust

Curious finds sympathizers with his argument that African countries will be the next to witness major inflows of foreign direct investment, because they are the only true emerging markets left now.

Tajikistan: Hot!

Vadim of neweurasia reports on the stifling heat in Dushanbe and discusses some of the ways to deal with the heat.

Children in crises and the role of reporters – tell the media what you think

Where is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child? This is the question asked in a poll by AlertNet, the early warning network for humanitarian organisations, to highlight some of the world's forgotten crises. The results will be featured in a debate about the responsibility of...

Kenya: Mobile micro-banking

White African talks to talented young developers and mobile phone experts. “We talked at length about the need for a mobile/web payment system that could be used by non-techies and those with little internet access. Basically a mobile/web bank that supplies micro-credit to applicants.”

Zambia: Open Source

Robert at CodeZed reports the arrival of Open Source Zambia, a new forum for open source software.

Nigeria: What's wrong?

Musing over a copy of Blaine Harden's book Africa: Dispatches From a Fragile Continent, Yebo Gogo asks what went wrong with Nigeria.

Senegal: Migrant workers

Black Looks posts a poem about the lives of African migrants looking for work and a better life, and Nigeria, What's New? picks it up with a link to a photo-essay on the same subject.

China: yellow earth plateau

Raymond zhou translates a post from China Daily on the environment and livelihood in Yellow Earth Plateau – one of the poorest area in China, Gansu Province.

China: the special ticket to Tibet

HanSong, a science story writer in China posts an excrept of his fiction “the special ticket to Tibet” (zh). Joel Martinsen in Danwei has an introduction and translation.

Martinique: First Caribbean Social Forum

Le Blog de [Moi] is pleased (Fr) to learn that the first Caribbean Social Forum is happening in Martinique this week (July 5-9) but does not think its timing was particularly smart what with the World Cup's final taking place this weekend as well as an annual cultural fair in...

Kenya: Rural-urban divide

Bankelele takes a look at the current Kenyan government–much complained about by urbanites over issues of press freedom and corruption–from the point of view of the country's farmers, and finds a slightly different story.

Nigeria: A PC for all

Grandiose Parlour writes about a the Computers for All Nigerians Initiatives (CANI), a government-private sector collaboration aimed at increasing PC penetration in Nigeria, which is currently only at seven in 1,000.

Voices from Kazakhstan

Welcome to our first roundup of blog posts and online discussions that took place in the Kazakh blogosphere recently. On a World Refugee Day, 20 June, I overviewed the situation with the refugees in Kazakhstan on Neweurasia. Using the data of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kazakhstan and...