· August, 2008

Stories about Ethnicity & Race from August, 2008

Poland: “Polish Enigma”

  29 August 2008

MHahn of the Women's International Perspective (WIP) writes on WIP Talk Blog about “the trials and tribulations of life in a transitioning country” – Poland: “It is full of inconsistencies, bureaucratic mazes, masked faces, false hopes, and intense pride, but also an enchanting aura wafting through the crevices, a sorrowful...

Barbados: Obama's Speech

  29 August 2008

Barbados Underground says that Barack Obama “delivered a high impact speech” at the Democratic National Convention, while Bajan Global Report refers to a story that claims Barbados’ Prime Minister “is…the only high ranking Caribbean official invited to witness the historic first embrace of an African-American as Presidential candidate for a...

Venezuela: Yukpa Indians, Chávez and land disputes

  28 August 2008

Citizen media videos have been uploaded informing of the situation arising in Venezuela between the Yukpa Indians of the Perijá Mountains, landowners and President Chávez. This dispute over land limits is 30 years in the making, when military forces displaced the Indigenous communities of the Yukpa by force and established landowners who have cattle ranches and have been working the lands ever since.

Kuwait: Parading Purchases at the Olympics

Arabs really love shopping, they spend hours after hours in malls, and that's why they wanted to show their shopping skills at this year's Summer Olympics. Unfortunately shopping is not included in the games, but this couldn't stop some Arabs from parading their purchases.

Estonia: Setomaa

  27 August 2008

Itching for Eestimaa writes about a recent trip to Setomaa, “the southeastern most corner of Estonia, the home of the Orthodox, Finno-Ugric Setu people.”

Jamaica: Gustav etc.

  26 August 2008

As Jamaican Annie Paul waits for Hurricane Gustav “to huff and puff and blow our house down”, she blogs about everything from Usain Bolt-inspired dance moves to Michelle Obama: “(She) was impressive, wasn't she? Neither pale, nor male–i can identify with that…”

China: Photos from inside Tibetan Skynet control room

  26 August 2008

Famed she is, though definitely not for her blogging, which is too bad, because there's no doubt that a lot of people would be interested to see the control-room photos and series of Chinese-language sources that Tibetan writer Woeser has just posted which show just how close of an electronic...

Jamaica: Patwa Power

  25 August 2008

Annie Paul gives a rundown of Jamaica's outstanding Olympic achievements, making the point that “the phenomenal performance of the Jamaican athletes is also due to the cultural self-confidence they feel…this is not a confidence manufactured by the abjectly self-conscious, respectability-seeking, hymn-singing English-speaking middle classes but one bred out of the...

Blogger of the Week: Janine Mendes-Franco

  25 August 2008

Today's installment of the Blogger of the Week series is taking us to the beautiful island of Trinidad and Tobago, home to Global Voices regional editor for the Caribbean Janine Mendes-Franco.

Cape Verde: Stolen gold olympic medal

  23 August 2008

Abraão Vicente [pt] on the son of Cape Verde who won a gold medal for Portugal: “Nelson Évora won the gold medal and he is Portuguese. That is it. Did you see any little Cape Verde flag, if he took some symbol to express his Creole tribute? No? I didn't....

South Ossetia: Tskhinvali Photos and Reports

  22 August 2008

On Aug. 21, Columbia Journalism Review published Julia Ioffe's overview of several Russian journalists' blogging from the war in South Ossetia. Featured in her piece are reports by LJ user krig42 (Komsomolskaya Pravda reporter Dmitry Steshin) and LJ user ep-news (Evgeny Poddubny, correspondent for TV Center). Below are a few more blog posts from Russian and North Ossetian journalists, with photos and accounts of what they've seen in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali over the past week.

Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana: Winning Ways

  22 August 2008

“I feel that a lot of people misinterpreted Bolt's gestures, for innocent or malicious reasons. There may be more than one level of culture clash at work–race and class, being obvious, but also the aspirations and motivation of the modern athlete”: Living in Barbados takes no issue with Usain Bolt's...

South Korea: Racism

  22 August 2008

Ask a Korean! discusses about the different stands in racism by using the Spanish basketball players’ photo.

India: All about a block of ice

  21 August 2008

Indian Muslims Blog provides an insight into the ongoing agitation in Jammu region in India telling that its “all about a block of ice“. The blog also posts some pictures of a protest in Kashmir.

Barbados, Jamaica, China: Mistaken Identity

  20 August 2008

A case of mistaken identity in China courtesy a newspaper that could not distinguish between images of Usain Bolt and Dwain Chambers – Barbadian blogger Jdid is not taking the mix-up lightly: “No distinct similarities except skin color you mean. The really sad thing about it is you know almost...

China: Cheering for the race traitors

  20 August 2008

Those thin-skinned cyber-mobsters must have heatstroke; Chinese coach leads US women's volleyball team to victory against China and gets dissed by a chess grandmaster, then: The majority of the netizens disagreed with his view. The American team led by Lang Ping was received with warm cheers of “Coach Lang, we...