· June, 2006

Stories about History from June, 2006

Brazil: Caetano Veloso's Biography

  30 June 2006

France-based Togolese bloggerKangni Alem writes (Fr): “Even though modesty is not Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso's forte, he has great talent as an agitator. He also exhibits phenomenal memory in the intellectual autobiography that was prompted by the New York Times to recount the birth of the artistic and musical movement...

Venezuela: Translations

  30 June 2006

Francisco of Caracas Chronicles has translated excerpts of a piece by Juan Carlos Zapata, which argues that a new power dynamic is evolving in Venezuela. Another translation comes from Guillermo Parra, who offers the english version of Antonio López Ortega's reflection on Arturo Uslar Pietri and the concept of “mestizaje”...

Japan: PM goes to Graceland

  29 June 2006

Perhaps having realized his trips to the Yasukuni war shrine were losing him votes, as seen on Mutantfrog, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is making a trip to a different, more widely-accepted shrine.

Why No Mention of Slavery in African and Haitian Fiction?

  28 June 2006

Why is there so little mention of slavery in African and Haitian Fiction? That is the question that Togolese France-based blogger Kangni Alem addresses in a prolific and well-thought out blog entry. He deplores that African fiction does not count more passages on the different waves of slavery that have...

Russia: Photographs Critiqued

Wu Wei writes about Simon Roberts’ photos of Russia published in Granta and some of the realities they convey: “I know what he means, but I'm not sure he really succeeds. Where is the dignity in most of these pictures when you know enough about the background.”

Serbia: Search for Mladic, Not For Karadzic

  28 June 2006

Balkan Ghost of Finding Karadzic reproduces an article by Nedim Dervisbegovic on the neglected search for Karadzic: “Pressure on Serbia to capture Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic keeps rising, but his wartime boss Radovan Karadzic seems almost forgotten.”

Singapore: Dragon Boat Race

  28 June 2006

The blogger at Good Morning Yesterday talks about the Dragon Boat Festival in Singapore and posts videos of couple of dragonboat racing training sessions.

Ukraine: Trip to Chernobyl

MoldovAnn posts an account of her trip to the the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone: “…wild land, more or less untouched by humans for the past 20 years. […] It was breathtaking, even, to see the vast expanse of lush green. At the same time, though, you can never forget that you...

Pakistan: Grand Trunk Road

  27 June 2006

Shirazi on the Grand Trunk road that spans South Asia. “Its angles have been yanked and diverted by history. It has witnessed the march of Aryans and victorious advance of Persian and Greek armies. It also saw the Scythians, White Huns, Seljuks, Tartars, Mongols, Sassanians, Turks, Mughals and Durranis making...

India, Pakistan, Bangladesh: Rethinking 1857

  26 June 2006

Sepia Mutiny discusses an article by William Dalrymple that explores the uprising in 1857. “I don’t think Dalrymple is saying that everyone involved in the Rebellion of 1857 was motivated by this kind of religious feeling (indeed, as I understand it there were as many or more Hindu sepoy rebels)....

Poland: Hungary In 1956 Vs Iraq Now

The beatroot writes about “the major difference between Hungary back then and Iraq today”: “Hungarians led the uprising, which was later crushed by a Superpower. In Iraq today, a Superpower has ‘liberated’ Iraq and is now experiencing an insurgency by some Iraqis (and a few cross- border terrorist weirdos).” He...