Stories about Ideas from May, 2010
Japan: My Eyes Tokyo
Isao Tokuhashi at My Eyes Tokyo interviews foreigners living in Tokyo. The latest interview, the 32nd in the series, is Robert Koch, an audio products manufacturer from Pietermaritzburg in South Africa.
Japan: Those Commonplace, Vinyl Umbrellas
How "temporary" vinyl umbrellas fare in the cities of Japan.
France: Scholar Unpacks the Concept of National Identity
Reflets reposts (Fr) from newspaper Le Monde a review of “L'identité nationale, une énigme“, a book by a specialist in comparative anthology Marcel Detienne, denouncing the “mythideology” of an immanent France, whose brand of nationalism rules out interracial mixing. The author was interviewed in two videos, here and here (november...
[Report] Technology for Transparency
This report is the culmination of four months of research examining the objectives, challenges, successes, and effects of online technology projects that aim to promote transparency, political accountability, and civic engagement. It presents case studies, conclusions, and recommendations toward making the grassroots use of technology more effective in improving governance worldwide.
Trinidad & Tobago: Offering Advice
Raymond Ramcharitar has some advice for the People's National Movement, the political party that now moves from government into opposition.
Jamaica: Resetting the Clock
“Jamaica's bizarre socio-economic clock cannot turn back but it can be reset”: Living in Barbados suggest the current situation “may be the spur to find ways to start dealing with that process.”
Secularism in France from a Foreigner's Perspective
Art Goldhammer, from French Politics blog, links to Eric Fassin‘s article in Le Monde (fr) and the NSAE's blog quotes in extenso from the article that describes French secularism in the style of the Persian Letters (fr).
Bahrain: Time Flies
From Bahrain, ammar456 observes on Twitter: “The days just seem to fly by. Things didn't move this fast when we were kids.”
Egypt: 30 Days of Blogging
Egyptian bloggers are taking part in an initiative called 30 Days of Blogging, where they should write a new blog post every day for one whole month. The drive started on May 1 and here are reactions from the bloggers.
Taiwan: Heavy metal and death penalty
One of the top public issues in Taiwan blogosphere recently is whether Taiwan should abolish death penalty or not. Thus, The Ball Music sorts out and introduces several heavy metal songs that are about death penalty(zht). “…You don't have to support the abolishment of death penalty just because you are...
Trinidad & Tobago: People's Party Position
Afra Raymond thinks that in the context of today's national elections, “with the distinct probability of a victory by the united PP…it is timely to consider the way in which that group might handle the bailout [of the CL Financial group].”
Trinidad & Tobago: Ways of Voting
“YOU COULD vote based on race…You can vote about party and not people…You can vote people…You could vote issues…”, all of which, says Tattoo, “leads us to another method of voting. You can vote to make a point.” Coffeewallah, meanwhile, doesn't care how you vote; she simply wants you to...
Egypt: Fat7enha Forga Launched
Mahmoud Saber announced the launch of Fat7enha Forga, which is a new idea to share movies and independent video projects on the Internet. The debut is a video named “ Let’s Hope”.
Azerbaijan: Democracy is…
Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines comments on the U.S. State Department “Democracy is…” online video challenge and shares some of the entries with its readers. The blog is especially pleased to see that among the finalists is an entry from Azerbaijan.
Uganda: Kids build a radio out of Scraps
Afrigadget brings us a video showing the radio two 12 year olds and one 15 year old in Uganda rigged up in one day using scraps.
Trinidad & Tobago: Changing the Mindset
Barbados-based B.C. Pires says that “nothing good…can emerge in the long run” from Trinidad and Tobago's upcoming elections: “Trinidad's whole problem is that it thinks only in the short term, if it thinks at all; which is exactly why it continually finds itself in the position of having to eject...
Trinidad & Tobago: On the Issues
Know TnT.com blogs about “four issues arising on the campaign trail this year.”
Taiwan: Responses to Thailand's upheaval, if there is any
Taiwan is no stranger in terms of “Red Shirts” and street protests. In September, 2006, the island had its own anti-corruption campaign which also involved about one million red-shirt protesters demonstrating against the former President Chen Shui-bain (who has been still under custody since Nov.12, 2008). And when the first...
Technology for Transparency Review, Part VI
This post concludes the first phase of our research into the role of technology in the transparency and accountability movement by offering conclusions and recommendations related to projects of crime mapping, extractive industry transparency, local government, private sector transparency, and advocacy.
Cuba: Monitoring Arrests
Ever since the February, 2010 death of Orlando Zapato Tamayo, the first Cuban hunger striker to perish in 40 years, the situation in the island appears to have become even more tense.
Egypt: Ask and ElBaradei Will Answer
In the Presidential succession race, and after Gamal Mubarak's Sharek Initiative, Ayman Nour's Facebook activism, Omar Soliman's blog, now you can Ask ElBaradei. From May 17 to 26, you will be able to ask Dr ElBaradei through Google moderator any question and he will reply. Zeinobia asked him two questions.
