Stories about Ideas from March, 2009
Jamaica, U.S.A.: Eye of God
“The folks at AIG are proceeding as if it’s business as usual, paying out, and accepting, large bonuses, and that from public monies…how is it that some people…can’t grasp that we are…between the Devil and the deep blue sea?”: Jamaican blogger Pamela Mordecai says that the Eye of God image...
Guyana: On the Road
“Man can’t stop roaming. So you can imagine what happen when Guyanese discover open borders between here and the rest o’ South America”: Guyana-Gyal ruminates on the probabilities.
Japan: I wanna know America!
Koichi (耕一), a webdesigner living in Oregon (U.S.A.), tells about American culture, people, food, language and much more at his personal website Koichiben: Amerika ga shiritai (コウイチ弁、アメリカが知りたい lit. Koichi dialect: I wanna know America). Writing and video-blogging in Japanese, he proposes every time a new interesting topic with the aim of...
Israel: Plant to Farmer – “I'm Thirsty, Water Me”
“Come on, admit it, sometimes you just have to love Israel,” urges Jewlicious. Israeli researchers have developed sensors for plants that will send text messages to farmers when their water levels get low. Developed for commercial use, the devices are intended to decrease agricultural water costs by 50 percent.
Israel: Israeli Innovations Light the Way in Africa
A Jewish Heart for Africa is providing Israeli technology in the form of solar power and drip irrigation to needy communities in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda. “We are pumping 20,000 liters of water per day — it’s changed the entire economics of the village and the peoples’ health,” says founder...
Bangladesh: Floating Hospital
Bangladesh is inundated with heavy monsoon rain and floods every year. Mikey Leung reports that :”In the face of this rising tide, one organization has developed a novel solution. They’re delivering high quality health care to Bangladesh’s poorest people, in floating hospitals.”
Libya: From Dust to Dust
From Libya, Khadija Teri attends a funeral and writes about it here.
Antigua & Barbuda: Election Lessons
playing with ink is glad the Antigua election is over, but still has a few nagging questions: “How much has been spent and wasted in this election campaign and how much difference could we have made to the lives of our most vulnerable with it?”
Trinidad & Tobago: Lack of Clear Vision
“Trinidad is so small that we can’t find criminals. We can’t find missing children. We can’t find a functional government or a serious opposition”: Attillah Springer is convinced that we are macoing but not seeing.
China: Nature of the State
Inside-Out China has a post discussing the nature of China polity, in particular whether or not the country should be considered a totalitarian state.
Lebanon: Ends blog to delete past
“Over the past four years, sometimes on the pages of this blog, I shed all the broken pieces of the heart that Lebanon broke…It became harder to blog. …My new American dream replaced my Lebanese nightmare…” Abu Kais announcing the end of his blog to end his past after getting...
Jordan: Bloggers Come Together in Celebration
Jordanian bloggers came together to mark the second Blog About Jordan Day on March 12, an initiative started in 2008 by Qwaider. Jordanian and expat bloggers wrote about Jordan's perks and advantages, about its problems and future, and some were inspired to reflect on their personal attachment to the country.
Taiwan: Easilly unfollow your twitter friends
Programmer, blogger, and musician Tzangms(小海) released his latest web tool that lets you unfollow your twtter friends quickly and easilly. “Because twitter was super slow during that time, so I wrote this easy unfollow tool hoping that everyone can unfollow their dearest twitter friends to save twitter from collapse.”(zh)
Guyana: Thoughts on Immigration
“People is people no matter what they do or where they go”: Guyana-Gyal explains.
Puerto Rico: Limited Thinking
Is Puerto Rico poor? Gil the Jenius has his say.
Japan: On Twitter, nobody knows you're a bot
“On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.” -- The words of a well-known adage dating back to a New Yorker cartoon from 1993 capture the anonymity people generally expect from online communication. This week a new take on this adage hit the Japanese blogosphere when a blogger discovered that two of his closest friends on Twitter were actually bots designed as part of a programming contest.
Iran: Hopes, Doubts, Questions over Former President's Candidacy
Former reformist president Mohammad Khatami's announcement on 8 February that he will run in the 2009 Iranian presidential election, attracted a lot of attention in the virtual as well as the real world. Several bloggers shared their hopes, doubts, questions and concerns about Khatami who served between 1997 and 2005.
Barbados: Race Relations
Living in Barbados discusses the issue of race.
Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago: Slumdogs
“To be part of a group of voluble Indians in the diaspora watching the Oscars while contributing to a live, running commentary the year Slumdog Millionaire won 8 Oscars was quite an experience”: From Jamaica, Annie Paul shares her thoughts on the movie, while Jumbie's Watch posts a perspective on...
Jamaica, Barbados: Mentorship
Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp pays tribute to one of his mentors, writer Kamau Brathwaite.
Japan: Making money thanks to the economic crisis.
If on one hand libraries and newspaper kiosks overflow with books and magazines that examine, analyze and comment on the current economic recession hitting Japan, then on the other hand, many people have begun to think that, if there are losers (layoffs and companies in the red), there must also...
