Stories about Ideas from October, 2006
China: Ancient Chinese sex advice
Alan Baumler at China history group blog goes into the text of Sunu jing–The Classic of the White Girl, to discuss about Chinese thought.
Belarus: News Roundup
TOL's Belarus Blog writes about yet another arrest; prize for Milinkevich, and the Belarusian language museum.
Jamaica: Five Questions with Marlon James
The latest installment in Geoffrey Philp's “Five Questions” series is an interview with Jamaican novelist Marlon James.
Dominica, UK: Jean Rhys
Jeremy Taylor's dislike of the new BBC dramatisation of Dominican novelist Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea leads him to consider, among other things, Rhys's struggle to reconcile “her creole and European selves” and the British reception of her work.
China: How blogging has changed my life
The Chinese Blogger Conference will take place in Hanzhou this weekend. To prepare for the conference, the organizers announced a submission of posts on “How blogging has changed my life?” Keso has reviewed the posts and yesterday announced the best two. The two bloggers, Zola and Xiao Mei, were awarded...
Trinidad, UK: Between two worlds
Trinidad blogger Jeremy Taylor returns to the “quiet corner of the mudder country” (England) where he grew up: “There ought to be a name for this state of mind. (Perhaps there is.) When your head is split between two worlds.“
Jamaica, Dominica: Jean Rhys's “remarkably screwed up life”
After seeing a play based on Dominican writer Jean Rhys's “remarkably screwed up life”, Jamaican novelist Marlon James wonders: “Must every great artist have a self hating streak? Didn't Jean Rhys transfer hers to writing and Naipaul to everybody just like him? Is happiness a false goal for an artist?“
Russia: Thoughts on LiveJournal/ZheZhe
The Second Blog War continues in Russia. Brad Fitzpatrick, the LiveJournal's creator, has now joined the discussion over at sup_ru LJ community: in English, he offers some explanations and apologies here (and receives 248 comments so far) and lists the bloggers’ most common questions and concerns here (123 comments so...
Trinidad & Tobago, UK: Review of “Londonistan”
Trinidad blogger Jeremy Taylor reviews the book Londonistan by British journalist Melanie Phillips: “What causes intelligent people to slither across the political spectrum from left to right (and sometimes the other way) as they get older? When she was a young journalist, Melanie Phillips used to write outstandingly sensible and...
Jamaica: Pam Mordecai
Jamaican writer Pam Mordecai is the subject of the second installment in Geoffrey Philp's “In My Words” series.
Serbia, Montenegro: Flag and Constitution
Florian Bieber of East Ethnia has an idea about national flags. Also, he knows the word count of Serbia's new constitution.
China: How to improve Beijing's quality of life
Will from imagethief have ten recommendations on how to improve Beijing's quality of life.
Bahamas: Represent
A blog post by a fellow Bahamian causes Nicolette Bethel to consider questions of representation: “How do we collectively decide who represents our nation? When we choose people to send abroad to represent us, what criteria are foremost? And do we use different criteria for different arenas?“
Singapore: Inspired by the Nobel Prize Winner
Huang Shoou Chyuan in Singapore is inspired by the Nobel Peace Winner for 2006 - Muhammad Yunus. “Yunus and the Grameen Bank is an inspiration to me. I hope that when my life is finally through, I can achieve even a fraction of what they have done for their common...
Trinidad and Tobago: Mobilised or immobilised?
Elspeth at Now Is Wow reflects: “Funny how a statement like ‘I'm mobilised’ (which sounds so positive, proactive and ready-to-go) when condensed into one word, becomes the exact opposite: Immobilised”. She writes about her frustration and anger at the news that an acquaintance has been murdered.
Barbados, Canada: Life's not fair
“Dog luck aint cat luck”, says Jdid at Doan Mind Me, quoting an old West Indian saying. In other words, different strokes for different folks. An encounter with a man “just smokin off some weed out in the open” in Toronto, ignored by the police, makes him wonder how some...
Turkey is Typing…
Two things have been the subject of debate this week in the Turkish blogosphere…Orhan Pamuk being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and the passing of a Armenian genocide law in France. The issue of the Armenian Genocide has always been a hot-topic discussion, with the claims of whether what...
Serbia: Peaceful Reasons for National Pride
Belgrade Blog is looking for peaceful things that would inspire Serbs to feel proud for their country.
Russia: Winter in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
White Sun of the Desert writes about “Toyota Landcruiser with remote control starting,” a must-have for the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk winter: “One of the more surreal side effects of this functionality is walking to your car parked amongst dozens of others in a secure care park and finding several cars sitting seemingly...
Iran: New Research about Iranian Blogs
In Iranian Truth, Celine Petrossian shares her research about Iranian blogs. Researcher says without a doubt, blogs have allowed Iranians to connect with their homeland and cultural traditions and freely discuss political, cultural and social issues on a transnational level.
Syria: Blogger Blocked in Syria
Bloggers in Syria are puzzled by the new move from the Syrian Government to block access to all .blogspot blogs, although access to the main www.blogger.com is still available… The service is blocked through all Syrian ISPs including private one AYA, reports Amr.
