Stories about Governance from August, 2008
Hungary: Reaction to the Russian-Georgian Conflict
“Hungary's reaction to the Russian-Georgian conflict is in line with that of the European Union,” Hungarian Spectrum reports. “Given Hungary's energy needs and its reliance on Russian gas and oil the country can't afford to lash out against Russia.”
Bulgaria: Institutionalized Children With Disabilities
Maya of Maya's Corner follows up on her earlier posts on Bulgaria's institutionalized disabled children and posts an account by a woman who adopted two Bulgarian Roma children ten years ago and managed to locate her adoptive daughter's twin sister.
Serbia: Belgrade's New Mayor; Monopoly
East Ethnia reports that Belgrade has got a new mayor – and is now featured in the international version of Monopoly.
Ukraine: “Gender Equality and Genuine Democracy”
Mayia guestblogs at The 8th Circle about “gender and democracy” in Ukraine.
Macau: Crime rates on the rise
Leocardo [pt] remarks that crime rates in on the rise in Macao: “In general, crime has increased more than 11% this year compared with the same period last year. We are exposed to professional thieves, many of them from mainland China, which makes it difficult to trace the problem. Authorities...
East Timor: Wikileaks on Ramos-Horta attempted assasination
Timor Online [pt] posts a link to documents related to the attempted assassination of East Timor President Ramos-Horta, in 2008, from Wikileaks. They are in English and the bloggers are now working on translations into Portuguese and French.
Russia, Georgia: Unilateral Recognition of Abkhazia's and South Ossetia's Independence
Russia has formally recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia today. Below are some of the initial reactions from LiveJournal's Cyrillic sector.
China: Photos from inside Tibetan Skynet control room
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...
Iran:President's adviser and negative comments
Ali Akbar Javanfekr, Iranian president's media adviser, publishes comments criticizing government in his blog [Fa]. A rare event in Iran.
China: Weather Intervention
During the Olympics, the Beijing government created artificial rain to secure good weather for the opening and closing ceremonies. Lui Li said that if the government had plan to intervene the weather, it should have forecasted it to the people.
Ukraine: More on Independence Day Parade
Greetings from Kyiv writes about this year's Independence Day in Kyiv: “In the last few years, Ukraine focused on featuring non-profit organizations and cultural groups in their Independence Day parade, but this year, they decided to go back to holding a military parade.”
Ukraine: Independence Day Parade and Tymoshenko
Petro of Petro's Jotter was watching live coverage of the Independence Day parade in Kyiv: “[Yulia Tymoshenko] was not shown in any of the coverage. I wonder where she is celebrating?”
Georgia: Pepsikolka's Dispatches From Poti
OpenDemocracy.net posts translations of posts by LJ user pepsikolka (Samira Kuznetsova), a blogger living in Poti, Georgia: here, here, and here. (Earlier GV translations of pepsikolka‘s posts are here and here.)
Pakistan: A changing Islamabad
All Things Pakistan on how the capital city – Islamabad has changed over the years.
Ukraine: Independence Day Parade
Ukrainiana posts photos and video from the Aug. 24 Independence Day military parade in Kyiv.
India: Minorities and the Government
Indian Muslims on the unequal representation of minorities in the government.
Kyrgyzstan: Kyrgyzs Want to Join Russia
Elena publishes the result of a poll, announced that the majority of Kyrgyzstan’s population thinks that Kyrgyzstan should consolidate with Russia.
Fiji: Draft People's Charter launched
Heavy police presence accompanied the launching of Fiji's Draft People's Charter, which among other things will reform the country's electoral system. It is also alleged that villagers were paid to attend the launching.
Singapore: Harassment against Burmese immigrants
A Burmese activist applying for visa renewal was asked by Singapore immigration authorities about his political activities: “They asked me: ‘Who is the leader of the OBP? How many members do you have? Who are they? What are their names? Where do you usually gather for meetings?’ And they also...
Southeast Asia’s Olympic performance
Southeast Asian countries garnered 12 medals in the recently concluded 2008 Beijing Olympics. Indonesia leads the pack with 5 medals: 1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals.
Iran: Scandal over Minister's Forged Oxford University Degree
Ali Kordan, Iran's new Minister of the Interior, has recently been under fire for presenting a “fake” Ph.D. degree from the prestigious Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Several websites, including the conservative Alef have published a scan of Kordan's “Oxford Honorary Doctorate of Law Degree”. Alef points out that...
