· August, 2007

Stories about Development from August, 2007

Hong Kong: Right to Sunshine

  20 August 2007

Ben ng criticized the design of Screen-style buildings in Hong Kong from the view point of right to Sunshine. In recent years, Taiwan and China have passed law to protect such right (zh).

Morocco: An Introduction to Peace Corps Bloggers

Morocco is home to a rather diverse group of English-language bloggers, as I'm sure you have observed. While many are native Moroccans utilizing their English skills and still others are expatriate teachers or workers, there is another unique group obvious from the tagline which their organization requires they post on their blogs: "Any written message or photo provided on this blog site does not represent the views or opinions of the U.S. Peace Corps or any other institution."

Africa: Web 2.0 and African civil society

  18 August 2007

Gathering stories about web 2.0 in African civil society: “As part of this, I wanted to get an update from Kabissa members and others in African civil society about their use of blogging and other social networking tools – remarkably, there are not that many case studies available despite the...

Anguilla: Anti-Referendum

  17 August 2007

“Can I be blamed for suspecting that the people who propose a formal referendum on Anguilla’s new Constitution have a hidden agenda?” asks Corruption-free Anguilla, as he makes a case for not holding a referendum.

Singapore: Meeting Mohammed Yunus

  16 August 2007

Singapore's foreign affairs minister describes his meeting with Mohammed Yunus, the Nobel laureate Bangladeshi banker. The minister also points to a micro-credit initiatives in Singapore.

Afghanistan: Glass half full or half empty?

  15 August 2007

In describing the situation in Afghanistan, Barnett R. Rubin argues that it does not matter if the glass is half full or half empty: “The Afghan glass may be half full, a tenth full, or near to overflowing. But it is standing on a very rickety table in an earthquake...

China: Kidnapped and sent to the mines

  15 August 2007

Joel from DANWEI translated the kidnapped case of a 17 years old boy, Wei Wenlin. He was kidnapped from Hebei on 6 of Aug and sent to a mine in Shanxi, working there as slave. According to Beijing News, in Shanxi Province alone, there were 36,286 unlicensed work units, making...

China: Traffic Jam Fee

  15 August 2007

Shenzhen will be the first city in China to introduce traffic fee to vehicle to increase the cost of driving and avoid traffic jam. Wei Ying-jie from 1510 disagreed with the arrangement and argued (zh) that the cost of driving is not low because of road fee (70% of the...

Africa: debating the role of informal sector

  15 August 2007

What is the role of informal sector in Africa's development?: “Namely, if there was a place that companies, organizations, governments, and individuals should direct there energies and resources for their benefit and for the continent’s where should it be-to Africa’s formal economies or to the continent’s informal economies?”

KenyaUnlimited: Gigabytes of Voices, Opinions, Knowledge and News

  14 August 2007

Any discussions about the rise and future of online communities in Africa will be incomplete without mentioning KenyaUnlimited, the home of the Kenyan Blogs Webring (KBW) and Kenyan blogs aggregator.KBW turned three years last month. Since its birth, KBW has been able to bring to a global audience gigabytes of voices, opinions, news, knoweldge and debates from the Kenyan blogosphere.

Kazakhstan: Building a tent

  14 August 2007

Michael Hancock finds “Khan Shatyr” to be a manifestation of the widening gap between rich and poor in Kazakhstan: the huge tent which is being built in the capital Astana at the moment will mainly cater to a growing, but essentially small elite.

Jamaica: Transformation Nation

  14 August 2007

“What is missing is an understanding of the connection between personal cause and public effect,” writes Francis Wade, as he considers how to go about transforming Jamaica.