Stories about Ethnicity & Race from May, 2006
Central Asia & Caucasus: Nationality
Stavros explains how one determines nationality in the former Soviet Union.
Cartoon, Insecurity & Media
According to news Iran's government has suspended a state-controlled newspaper after it published a cartoon that provoked riots among the country's minority Azeri community. The cartoon shows that a cockroach says in Azeri :” Namana” which means “What?” It is very interesting to see that even Turkish speaking ( Azeri)...
Japan: Korean terrorists interested
I am the Japanese rightist blogger yellowpeep continues her series of posts this month exposing religious and right-wing terrorist groups in Japan with a story that shows the various roles Koreans expats play in the organizations and violence.
China: Discoveries in the desert
Haven't had time to follow the news out of northwestern China's muslim-dominated Xinjiang province over the past three months? Davesgonechina at Musing Under The Tenement Palm rounds up the relevant stories, including two discoveries in the desert; one of a 2,200 year-old peach-shaped city and a 26 year-old mummy, the...
Montenegro: “It Looks Like Europe Has a New Country”
This past Sunday, 55.4 percent of the voters of Montenegro, the smallest of the six former Yugoslav republics (population slightly over 600,000), decided in favor of independence – by a narrow margin of 0.4%, in a heavy turnout. Below are some bloggers’ reactions to the May 21 referendum results. Doug...
Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica: Remembering ancestors
At The Pan Collective, Trinidadian Attillah Springer describes the Ifa ancestral ceremony held yesterday on the third anniversary of her grandmother's death. “We sang for her. Cooked her favourite foods. Cried a bit and missed her dry humour terribly. And in the end the Iya cast the obi. The offering...
France: Disposable immigrants
Sotho comments on immigration chaos in the US and reports that France faces similar chaos with the enacting of a new law “Use them, abuse them, but at election time tell ‘em to go back “home” since they are occupying jobs that real nationals could be holding.”
Francophone Africa: Bloggers On Colonialism's Enduring Influence
In recent weeks, several Francophone African bloggers have grappled with their countries’ colonial legacies and the power history has to shape the present and the future. For them, independence is an illusion and in ways both psychological and material, Africa remains a colony of the old empires. All stress the...
Ukraine: 62nd Anniversary of Deportations of Crimean Tatars
J. Otto Pohl writes about the deportations of the Crimean Tatars, which took place 62 years ago: “In the early hours of 18 May 1944 some 32,000 members of the NKVD and NKGB began the systematic round up the entire Crimean Tatar population. These armed units went from house to...
St. Lucia, Grenada: Kweyol lesson and photos
Georgia Popplewell at Caribbean Free Radio is travelling in the Eastern Caribbean this week; she's struck by “conservative” St. Lucians’ frankness about condoms, and gets an impromptu Kweyol lesson from two women in Castries. She also posts some photos taken in St. Lucia yesterday, and some from Grenada the day...
Kazakhstan: Nazarbaev as Machiavelli
Stavros writes that Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev could write a Central Asian version of Machiavelli's The Prince. The first issue he discusses is Nazarbaev's ethnic policies.
Japan: Questionable new laws
Riding Sun‘s GaijinBiker pokes some big holes first in the Japanese government's new law requiring all foreigners entering the country to have their fingerprints scanned followed by another new law which will see a gradual decrease in the number of free parking spaces for bicycles, scooters and motorcycles in Tokyo.
Russia: Site Devoted to Victims of Racism
Daut of Ufa Blog is starting a memorial site devoted to the victims of racism in Russia. Some help is needed: “I have an incomplete list and very few photos. I have written various organizations and embassies, but so far haven’t received any replies. If anyone can help, particularly with...
DRC Diaspora: DPLC Demonstration in Liege Yesterday
UDPS Liege posts pictures and an account (Fr) of yesterday's Debout Pour Le Congo demonstration in Liege, Belgium. The demonstration was sparked by a journalist's decision to film undocumented Congolese for remuneration. The people filmed fear consequences on behalf of Belgian authorities but also retribution by the Congolese government if...
Japan: Nationalist politicians clarified
Tokyoid at Japundit challenges the perception that Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara is a major source of Japan's nationalist problem with the claim that the blame lies with Foreign Minister Taro Aso: “There are those who view Tokyo Governor Ishihara as the embodiment of resurgent Japanese nationalism. They are wrong. Ishihara,...
Mongolia: Racist Violence
Luke Distelhorst says that racist violence–mostly between Mongols and Chinese–is on the rise in Mongolia.
Indonesia: Remembering May 98
Indocoup remembers the May 1998 riots in Jakarta. “But it doesn’t come as a surprise. It was inevitable really. The economy’s going the drain; the rupiah’s crumbling; inflation’s soaring. And a dictator at the helm for Christ knows how many years. This is it.”
Malaysia: Media Criticises Another Filmmaker
Filmmaker Yasmin is not happy with a Malaysian television channel. The channel televised a discussion on the filmmakers latest movie and the forum participants came out criticising the film maker for her plot that features love between a Muslim girl and a Chinese boy.
Russia: (Fighting) Fascism
Daut at Ufa Blog posts two banners of the Russian Movement Against Illegal Immigration and writes: “Fascists claiming the legacy of the defenders of Leningrad. Child killers declaring themselves protectors of children. These people live in opposite land.” Megan Case writes about swastika graffiti in St. Petersburg and her own...
Russia: Public Transportation and the Roma
Brigid of Laughter in the Dark describes a ride in a Krasnodar tram – “a fast-moving game of Twister inside a sardine can”- and an encounter with two Roma women and their children: “Half-way home, I suddenly hear a young woman whispering in my ear, ‘Young lady, be careful! You...
Poland: Controversial New Minister of Education
Students and teachers protested this week in Poland against the appointment of Roman Giertych – “catholic-nationalist, arch-conservative” – as Minister for Education, the beatroot reports – and then muses on what “Polish education curriculum [would] look like if [Giertych] had a free rein to do what he liked.”
