Stories about Ideas from December, 2007
Jamaica: Friends for Life
“Moving home to live in Jamaica has revealed to me that American friends are for a reason, but Jamaican friends are for life”: In Francis Wade‘s experience, West Indians and North Americans approach relationships very differently.
Lusosphere: Wishes and hopes for 2008
The new year is inevitably soon arriving and the Lusosphere is booming with posts about traditions, resolutions, wishes, and reflections. Here is a short roundup of Portuguese speaking blogs from Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Mozambique and Portugal - although countries far apart, they share the language and hopes for a better future.
Cambodia: Social Network For People Living with Disabilities
Cambodian blogger Heng Phan has created a social network for People Living with Disabilities in Cambodia.
Angola: Welcome to a new blogger
Soba L [pt] is a new blogger from Luanda, Angola, who likes examining carefully daily events. In his first posts, he analyzes the actual situation of the RAP music in Angola, the consequences of the civil war, and the recent summit Africa-Europe.
Jordan: Film Festivals, Citizenship Law and More
From a film festival in Dubai, a Jordanian film maker is making his debut at Sundance. Mohammad Al Azraq reports on that as well as the citizenship law in Jordan, babies born out of wedlock and a book feast in the Netherlands.
Uganda: Is Uganda mentally, intellectually and creatively broke?
An interview with a Kampala City Council official has blogger Tumwijuke wondering if Uganda is “mentally, intellectually and creatively broke.”
Bahamas: Theatre and Democracy
Nicolette Bethel agrees with artistic director Oskar Eustis that “The same emotion that is required for theatre to work is the emotion that is required for democracy to work — the idea we need to care about each other’s experience.”
Japan: Learning from the failure of Second Life
Second Life in Japan is virtually dead. While three-dimensional environments such as "meet me" and Hatena World have seen their popularity rise, the most famous virtual environment in the world has seen its virtual space depopulate in Japan. What lessons can be learned from the burst of the Second Life bubble? One blogger offers his thoughts.
Jordan: The Right to Exist
Jordanian blogger Hareega airs his views on the right to exist in this post.
China: Scrap the death penalty?
Was it New Jersey's undoing of the 1976 reinstatement of capital punishment earlier this month, or the United Nations General Assembly's call for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty a few days later that launched prominent Chinese bloggers into their own debate on the subject? NetEase has gotten nearly...
Trinidad & Tobago: Christmas Messages
“I know, its a busy time of the year. It really is. And I understand that you feel the need to share your seasonal feelings with my computer, I do”: The Christmas season has KnowProSE.com thinking about messages.
Japan: Economics of the “Illegal” Download
Following on recent moves by the government to regulate the Internet, plans for regulation in other areas of online communication have been moving ahead apace in Japan. Among these is the plan to revise article 30 of Japan's Copyright Law to make it illegal for individuals to download copyrighted material for personal use, something which up until now had been considered legal. Blogger and economist Ikeda Nobuo delves into the economics of the "illegal download", strongly criticizing the proposed revision.
Russia: Christmas Tree Decorations
Here is a holiday season story that's got very little of the traditional holiday spirit in it. Posted by LJ user souffrante and accompanied by Valeriy Leushev's photos, it's as much about Russian bloggers' childhood memories as it is about globalization, consumer nationalism, bad management, labor rights and the power of blogging.
China: Zuola on how citizen media should work
A fist-chop in the throat and surveillance by secret police seems to have put a swift end to the career of China's most popular investigative blogger Zhou “Zuola” Shuguang, but judging from his post earlier this month ‘Zhou Shuguang's understanding of citizen reporters and citizen media’, if you were to...
Chile: A Gathering of Entrepreneurial Minds
Webprendedor, a gathering of entrepreneurs and those that want to find how they do it, took place in Santiago earlier this year. Many of the topics focused less on the technical aspects of internet businesses, but rather on vision, customer care and fundraising. Bloggers wrote about their experiences are presenters and as attendees, indicating their excitement about the future for these types of projects in Chile.
Egypt: Sunni-Shia Dream
The sectarian rift between the Islamic Sunni and Shia sects is haunting Egyptian blogger D B Shobrawy‘s dreams. Read about that here.
Turkey: Childhood Dreams
Turkish blogger Murat Altinbasak shares his dreams with us in this post.
Barbados: Matters of Race
Barbados-born pop star Rihanna's revelation that she was bullied at school for being “white” causes Barbados Free Press and What crazy looks like to blog about “the intersections of race, colour, class and gender in the Caribbean.”
Barbados: Politics and Unions
Notes From The Margin asks: “Should a Union endorse a political party? Should politicians be union representatives?”
Puerto Rico: Loving Life
“A reminder of My mortality. A memo to Me that nothing is guaranteed”: A close call makes Gil the Jenius appreciate life all the more.
Kuwait: Good Morning
From Kuwait, Fonzy has had a good morning – and here's the photograph as proof.
