· October, 2009

Stories about History from October, 2009

Haiti: National Anthem Singing Contest

  30 October 2009

Sammuel from Thanks for loving Haiti has launched [En/Fr/Fr Cr] a video contest for the best Haitian National Anthem singer. The best video will be chosen by the readers and the winner will probably be announced on January 1st 2010, National Independance day in Haiti.

Martinique: Free your mind, free your hair

  30 October 2009

Blogger Imaniyé from Martinique reports the creation of a Facebook group [Fr] by people who are eager to defend the rights of Martinicans to comb their hair as they want and above all to twist it into dreadlocks, without being discriminated against.

Hungary: Budapest

  29 October 2009

Marietta Le of Remainder of Budapest comments on Budapest Business Region's campaign video and on the discussion raging on YouTube and elsewhere – here and here. She also links to a site that lists seven tour routes for those interested in Budapest's contemporary architecture, and posts pictures from a walk...

Hungary: 1956

  29 October 2009

Hungarian Spectrum writes about an online collection of testimony (HUN) on the events of 1956, which “helped the western powers understand the Hungarian situation, not just events that occurred during the revolution but more importantly the reasons for the outbreak of the uprising.” Remainder of Budapest wrote this on the...

Indonesia: Youth Pledge Day 2009

  28 October 2009

Breaking Tweets gathers twitter posts on the commemoration of Indonesia's Youth Pledge Day. The historic day, October 28, 1928, is recognized as an important date for Indonesia's aspiration to become a free and independent republic.

Bahamas: Effects of Colonialism

  27 October 2009

“There’s an affliction that strikes countries whose histories come out of colonialism. It’s the sense that what happens in your space of the world…is not quite real. It isn’t really happening to proper people”: Nicolette Bethel explores one of the effects of the Bahamas’ colonial past, while Weblog Bahamas‘ Rick...

Germany and China: Berlin Twitter Wall

  27 October 2009

berlintwitterwall is a project organized by the city of Berlin to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of Berlin wall. The wall is now filled up with messages from Chinese twitterers against the Chinese Great Fire Wall which blocks Chinese Internet user from connecting with the outside world.

Bangladesh: Conference On 1971 Genocide

  26 October 2009

Mash attended the 2nd conference on the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide organized by the Human Rights Institute and the Bangladesh Genocide Study Group at Kean University and posted about it in his blog Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying. “The focus was on eyewitness accounts, documentation and memorialization of the...

China: Relics of the Old Summer Palace

  25 October 2009

Back in the news again is Beijing’s Old Summer Palace, whose destruction still remains a sensitive topic in China. Built during the Qing Dynasty, it was later sacked by British and French troops in 1860 during the Second Opium War. Countless works of art were also looted from the palace...

Russia: Soviet Legacy and Street Names

  23 October 2009

A few weeks ago, it seemed as if every single Russian blogger took the time to write something about the re-naming of Anti-Soviet Shish Kebab Restaurant in Moscow, a dissident journalist's protest article and a pro-Kremlin youth movement's counter-protest activities. One blogger alluded to the scandal in a post about street names that kept on preserving the questionable Soviet legacy.

Trinidad & Tobago: No Hope?

  22 October 2009

As a legendary Trinidadian artist's sculpture is given a coat of paint to “spruce it up”, Nicholas Laughlin says: “This…is a telling symptom. It tells me how unaware we are, as citizens, of the civic spaces we live and work in, and how irresponsibly we behave towards them. It tells...