· August, 2009

Stories about Humor from August, 2009

Israel: For the Love of Food

With the Jewish High Holidays approaching, food seems to be on everyone's minds. The Jewish blogosphere is ripe with sumptuous tidbits and contemplations about the cultural implications of food, food and identity, and the history and culture of our favorite culinary delights.

Israel: When Translations Go Wrong

Literal translations aren't always your best bet when moving between Hebrew and English, explains How to Be Israeli. She writes that the movie title “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” which is Biblical in tone in the native English, is translated in Hebrew as “Achi, Efo Atah?” which sounds a lot...

Arab World: Welcoming Ramadan

Ramadan is an important month in the Muslim calendar. Bloggers writing in Arabic celebrate the month, already in its first week, in this post, where we share some of the artistic creations used to greet their readers on the month.

Trinidad & Tobago: Productivity

  27 August 2009

“So we need to produce more corn curls, Crix and painted stones (aka GDP) per man per hour”: This Beach Called Life takes a tongue-in-cheek look at productivity in Trinidad and Tobago.

Kenyan cartoonists find a home in the blogosphere

  25 August 2009

The older Kenyan generations vividly remember cartoon characters like Bogi Benda, Juha Kalulu and many others who premiered in newspapers. But times are changing and the internet is changing almost everything including the medium that cartoonists are using to share their thoughts.

Ukraine: In Chinese, Yanukovych is Yushchenko?

  21 August 2009

Evgeny Morozov of Foreign Policy's Net.Effect writes: “It turns out that when you use Google Translate to translate (from Chinese to Russian) the expression “Vote for Yanukovych” (Yanukovych was Kremlin's favorite candidate), Google gives you “Vote for Yushenko” in the translated version. Global conspiracy orchestrated by Google!”

Japan: Poop Obsession

  19 August 2009

Mari introduces a poop animation called “Unko-san” (meaning Miss Poop) to show the poop obsession culture in Japan.

Trinidad & Tobago: Raisin in the Sun

  14 August 2009

Diligently studying the contents of his breakfast cereal, Trinidadian B.C.Pires notices some similarities between raisin bran and politicians: “It strikes me we could be talking about governments as easily as cereals here.”

Croatia: Lobsters and a T-Shirt

  14 August 2009

Sleeping With Pengovsky writes about “an entire aquarium of lobsters” liberated by a Slovenian tourist in Croatia, and about a t-shirt that got a Croatian cameraman Ivan Cvirn fired from RTL Croatia.

China: Prostitutes more trustworthy than government officials

  7 August 2009

A startling result of an online survey of more than 3,376 people published by Insight China magazine reveals that China's prostitutes are considered by some to be more trustworthy than its politicians, teachers and scientists! The survey found that 7.9% of the respondents considered sex workers trustworthy, placing them third...

Trinidad & Tobago: Movie-Making

  5 August 2009

“Trinidad and Tobago has many things going for it as an ideal location for making movies apart from rebates and government bureaucracy”: This Beach Called Life lists the twin island republic's unique selling points – and a few of the movies that were made there.