Stories about Human Rights from August, 2007
Egypt: Complaining for Change
Something I love about Egyptian blogs is our tendency to complain. Firstly because we're Egyptian and its our nature and secondly because we have so much to complain about. Among our complaints this week: international scandals, intellectual persecution, the Egyptian Legal system (or lack thereof), the question of beauty and as usual, religious persecution rounding out the group, writes D.B. Shobrawy.
Barbados, Cuba, Venezuela: Literacy and Health Care
Individuality1977 weighs in on literacy and health care in Cuba and Venezuela.
Saudi: Support for Jailed Activists
Saudi Jeans updates us on the demands being made by the supporters of Saudi reformists detained since February.
Russia: Politkovskaya Updates
Sean's Russia Blog is posting updates on Anna Politkovskaya's murder investigation – here, here, here (46 comments), and here.
Mauritania : Ignorance and Tradition
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Generously endowed women are favored in Mauritania. The fatter the woman, the more beautiful she is thought to be. Being big is also a sign of wealth and the search for beauty and signs of exterior wealth leads to some unorthodox methods...
Japan: Executed Death-Row Inmate was Mentally-Ill
Asia Death Penalty outlines the results in a report by Amnesty International indicating that one of the death-row inmates killed last week in Japan, Hifumi Takezawa, was mentally ill.
Japan: Life out of a Manga Kissa
Results of a survey just released by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has found that thousands of people across Japan bordering on poverty live their lives out of Internet cafes or "manga kissa". Bloggers this week reflected on the significance of the results.
Bangladesh: Anwar Hossain and the Military
Mash on the disregard for human rights in Bangladesh, and on the specific case of Dhaka University professor Anwar Hossain, who was taken away by the military in the middle of the night.
Israel: Aids Patients Buried Alive in Papa New Guinea
Smooth Stone from Israel links to a story about how Aids patients are buried alive in Papa New Guinea.
Ukraine: Ethnic Russians
Window on Eurasia writes about another way of looking at Ukraine's ethnic Russians and their political preferences.
Morocco: The Death of Butcher Basri
Driss Basri, one of Morocco's most powerful figures during the past 50 years, has died in Paris at age 69. Jillian York brings us the latest reactions from Moroccan bloggers writing in Arabic, French and English.
Bahrain: Egypt Baha'ii Rights Video
A controversial video on Egypt's discrimination against Baha'iis is making the rounds, writes Esra'a from Bahrain.
Russia: Novaya Gazeta in English
Robert Amsterdam and Sean's Russia Blog link to Novaya Gazeta's recently launched English-language site featuring translations of some of their investigative stories. Sean wrote in a reply to a reader: “The more Russian media accessible to English readers the better.”
Kuwait: Crazy Week for Bloggers
Kuwaiti bloggers had a crazy week, which started with an earthquake, or rather a small tremor, early on Saturday morning. The next day a blogger was arrested for a comment an anonymous reader left on his online forum. The week culminated with a fire at a local hospital and the resignation of Kuwait's first female minister.
Sri Lanka: No return to my village
A poignant testimonial at groundviews of a family who were bombed out of their village, and lost a family member to a mine, and whose village was occupied by the Sri Lankan Army.
China: Citizen Not People
Lao Tuzaizi said he is a “citizen” not “people” because the meaning of “people” is very confusing in China. All government bodies claim to be People's institutes, however, no individual can represent “people”, in the end the definition of “people” is up to the authority (zh), while the concept of...
Uganda: Bloggers Respond to Controversial Daily Monitor Articles
Uganda’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community has gotten a lot of press recently in the form of a number of articles written by Katherine Roubos, a 22-year-old Stanford student from the United States. Most recently, Roubos covered the first ever LGBTI press conference, a story that prompted an anti-gay rally in Kampala.
Soviet Union: Female Beauty and Feminism
Natalia Antonova writes about “the Soviet Syndrome” that some of today's feminists seem to be afflicted with.
Croatia: Gračac
Balkan Anarchist writes about his familial ties to and the recent history of Gračac, “a town and municipality located in the south of Lika,” which, before the war, had “a Serbian ethnic majority, the majority of which does not live there anymore.”
Russia: Panyushkin's Detention
Robert Amsterdam writes about a recent detention of journalist Valery Panyushkin under Russia's extremism law.
Russia: Arrests in Politkovskaya's Murder Case
Ten unnamed people have been arrested in connection with last year's slaying of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Sean's Russia Blog writes that she “as ‘political football’ has been dusted off and re-inflated just in time for a new season.” Robert Amsterdam doesn't think Russian prosecutors are capable of getting their jobs...
