· June, 2007

Stories about Humanitarian Response from June, 2007

Palestine: Daily Misery

Palestinian Haitham Sabbah posts videos produced and published by B’tselem (The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) showing the misery Palestinians undergo.

China: Luxurious Buildings and Shanxi Bricks

  29 June 2007

CCTV News investigation team asked the Tianya community to submit information concerning extravagant and luxurious building in China (zh). There were many submission. Cha Jing highlighted one of the comments: Without building all these, where to sell all those bricks (produced by slave labour) in Shanxi? (zh)

China: Victims of slave labour

  29 June 2007

Tan Weishan posted some photos of the victims of slave labour in Shanxi brick kiln, one of them lost his legs because of the supervisor abuse. He was dumped in the middle of the mountain in 2002. Eventhough he had won the court case and the brick kiln had to...

Serbia, Russia: “What About the Russians?”

Jasmina Tešanović guest-blogs at Boing Boing about what may appear as Serbia's misguided trust in Russia: “Back in 1999, Russians didn’t veto the bombing of Serbia. The Russians are using the Kosovo issue in order to reclaim ex-Soviet territories with Russian populations. Serbs know that the Russians have their own...

Russia: Beslan Evidence

A Step At A Time reports on the copies of faxes published by PravdaBeslana.ru, which “show that the local [North Ossetian] authorities were aware of preparations for a major terrorist attack involving the movement of convoys of vehicles, and targeting a public building, most probably a school, on “Knowledge Day”...

Arabeyes: How the Palestinians Defeated Themselves!

What is happening in Palestine? Why have the Palestinians turned against each other? What is fueling the conflict? Who is the victor and who is really being defeated? And what next? Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah sums up his feelings of disgust and attempts to answer these questions in the following...

Lebanon: Almost Non-Political Questions

What are we eating? Why are our banks flourishing? Who are those clearing cluster bombs? How will Brazil help in recycling Lebanese wastes? Where are some of the children who were caught in the crossfire? What about some music? These are some of the questions answered in this week’s selections from the Lebanese blogosphere.

Cambodia: Blogs sharply criticize donor meetings

  24 June 2007

Hun Sen promised to purge his government of corrupt officials, pleaded for more aid, and was granted his wish, without question, by the international donor community. The decision comes directly after a slew of charges against the Cambodian government, which includes evidence of illegal logging and severe human rights violations.

Palestine: A Classic Case of Divide and Rule?

With so much happening on the ground, this week many of the blogs by Palestinians, and those focused on Palestinian issues, have kept their attention on the ongoing events in Gaza. Ayesha Saldanha reviews what Palestinian and other bloggers had to say about the civil war in Gaza, the World Refugee Day and conversations over picking thyme.

D.R. Congo: Who profits from underdevelopment?

  22 June 2007

“A half-century of mistakes and political instability has pulled the rug out from under one of the potentially richest countries on the planet,” Du Cabiau à Kinshasa writes of D.R. Congo. Du Cabiau à Kinshasa blames 30 years of Mobutu and those who benefit from underdevelopment (Fr), namely state monopolies...

Cannibalism in Qatar

After a week of rumours about a case of cannibalism amongst a group of foreign workers in Doha, the story has finally been confirmed. Qatari points to an article in the local press where doctors found a finger in the stomach of a worker who had come in with a...

Tamil Blogosphere: Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India

  22 June 2007

Back in Nov 2006, Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie was in India and had showered praises on India for giving shelter to displaced people from a number of countries. She also said that India's action of providing shelter to refugees from various countries, though it had needy people of its own...

Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome

“To light a candle is much better than cursing the darkness.”
So signed off Ausama on his last video for Hometown Baghdad.
Today I will concentrate my post on reactions to the second bombing of the shrine in Samarra. An event that has provoked much speculation among Iraqi bloggers. The first bombing proved to be a juncture in the ongoing war in Iraq and the second may prove just as critical, so it important to record responses here. That is not all, there is also Iraqi food and if you read to the end, which is the most sectarian blog ever?

Myanmar: Leadership Skill Training Workshop

  21 June 2007

Non-profit organization, The Searchers, has successfully attained the certificates for the first ever Basic Leadership Skill Training program given to them. Melody Maung posted some of the photos of the event.