Stories about History from December, 2010
Maldives: The Tsunami Monument
Photoblog //Sub/Corpus Photos posts a picture of “the Tsunami Monument, perhaps one the most photographed structure in Malé, built in memory of the Maldivians who lost their lives in the Indian Ocean Tsunami, December 26th, 2004″.
Africa: Looted African artefacts belong to Africans
Sign an online petition that has been created to build on a recent petition to stop an auction house, Sotheby’s from selling a 16th Century Benin Mask.
Nigeria: Controversy Over the Sale of Stolen Benin Mask
Online activists have been protesting against the proposed auction of six pieces of stolen artworks including the mask of Queen Idia – the first Queen Mother of Benin, Nigeria.
Bermuda: bird's eye view
FreshieBlog posts high-resolution aerial photographs of Bermuda from 1940 and 1973, “a valuable tool for seeing how Bermuda has developed over the past 70 years.”
Ethiopia: History of Oromo People
Learn the history of Oromo people from Ethiopia Tribe blog: “The Oromo are a native African ethnic group found in Ethiopia and to a smaller extent in Kenya. They are the largest single ethnic group in Ethiopia, at 32.1% of the population according to the 1994 census, and today numbering...
Wikileaks, Thaileaks, Indoleaks, Pinoyleaks
There are Wikileaks clones in Southeast Asia: Thaileaks from Thailand, Indoleaks from Indonesia and Pinoyleaks from the Philippines. These websites were established/revived this month to support the work started by Wikileaks and to expose secret government documents in their respective countries.
Nigeria: Journey to nationhood
Solomon posts a documentary looking at Nigeria's history and particularly its’ colonial history. The footage belongs to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Bangladesh: Pitha-Pulis As Bengali Christmas Culinary Tradition
Bangladesh, Canada And Beyond shares pictures of the Bengali culinary tradition pitha pulis (rice powder cakes and pastries) which were adopted by the Christians in Bangladesh and West Bengal in India to celebrate Christmas.
Serbia, Albania, Kosovo: More Info on “Yellow House”
Sasa Milosevic has collected some of the available information about the “Yellow House” and human organ trade in Kosovo on his blog, The Bloody Yellow House (ENG).
Cuba: A Cuban Christmas
Iván's File Cabinet says that “although the city does not have a Christmas atmosphere…in their way, Cubans celebrate Christmas.”
Taiwan: Cycling used to construct culture
Taiwan in Cycles looks at an article from CommonWealth magazine and discusses how cycling and leisure activities are used to construct culture and promote an ideology of Chinese nationalism in Taiwan.
Laos: New banknotes
Lao has introduced a new 100,000-kip (US$12.45) banknote and several coins to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the capital, Vientiane. Oliver Tappe, writing for New Mandala, analyzes the design of the banknote.
Nigeria: Stop the auction of stolen Benin mask
Help stop the auction of Stolen 16th Century Benin Mask, which were looted from the palace of the Benin King, Nigeria by the British Expeditionary Force.
Zambia: 1964 Independence Agreement Threatens to Split Nation
Zambia has in recent weeks been faced with clamours of secession by one of its regions with which it merged at independence from Britain in October 1964 to form a unitary state. The region now known as Western Province (formerly Barotseland) was an autonomous region before independence headed by the Litunga, king of the Lozi people.
Hong Kong: Class relations and the democracy movement
Hu Sunzi from China Study Group introduces and comments on sociologist HF Hung's recent writing on the class relation and democracy movement in Hong Kong. The article contextualizes the political movement in the colonial history.
Egypt: Sacred Sinai Peninsula
The following narrative on the Sinai Peninsula by Nick still exhibits people's eternal interest and curiosity in sacred places.
Bahrain: A Bloody Ashura!
chowderchunk shares with us a video of bloody Ashura processions in Bahrain. [Warning: Video contains graphic images.]
Trinidad & Tobago: Give Peace a Chance
How is Trinidad's capital city connected to John Lennon? aka_lol explains.
Panama: Remembering the United States Invasion, 21 years later
In Contrapunto [es], Global Voices author Ariel Moreno [es] remembers the United States invasion of Panama that he experienced as a child on December 20, 1989.
Taiwan: Controversy over history
At The China Beat Paul Katz writes about the controversy that erupted over an online poll to find the most influential figures in the hundred years of the Republic of China (ROC). The poll included Chinese Communist Party leaders such as Deng Xiaoping and Mao Zedong. The case raises key...
Kosovo, Serbia: Kosovo's PM Accused of Human Organ Trade
Allegations of Kosovo leadership's wartime involvement in the trafficking of human organs were first made public in 2008 - and have re-surfaced now, in a report prepared by a Council of Europe investigator. Sinisa Boljanovic translates some of the netizens' reactions, past and current.