· October, 2007

Stories about International Relations from October, 2007

Cuba: UN Motion

  31 October 2007

Both Child of the Revolution and The Cuban Triangle blog about the outcome of the UN motion for the United States to lift its long-standing embargo against Cuba.

Japan: Chinese spectators boo Japanese team, arouse national debate

  31 October 2007

Ampontan discusses the booing of the Japanese national team by a crowd of Chinese spectators at the Women's World Cup. After losing the game, the Japanese team displayed a banner that read: “Thank you China” in three languages, a gesture which Ampontan describes as “the gold standard for behavior in...

Armenia: Trade with Russia

  30 October 2007

Oneworld Multimedia looks at two conflicting opinions on trade between Armenia and Russia. On the one hand, the Jamestown Foundation says that increasing trade between the two countries is political whereas an Armenian economist blogger believes that it is far from its full potential and cites the example of neighboring...

Azerbaijan: Presidential Preferences

  30 October 2007

TOL's Steady State reports that a possible candidate for the 2008 presidential election in Azerbaijan is accusing the current authorities of “selling out” territory currently under the control of ethnic Armenians. The blog also notes that Eldar Namazov has attacked the Azerbaijani government for apparently not favoring the nomination of...

Azerbaijan: Terrorist Attack Foiled

  30 October 2007

As the international media reports that the Azerbaijani authorities foiled a planned terrorist plot to attack government offices and diplomatic missions in Baku, Carpetblogger says that the U.S. and U.K Embassies were yesterday closed as a precaution. However, the blogger doesn't sound too impressed or convinced by official reports that...

China and Hong Kong: External Power's Video on Olympic

  30 October 2007

Moluiology links to a youtube cartoon on China and Olympic. The blogger said (zh): it is pretty clear that the video reflects foreigners’ impression on China. Of course it is a bit exaggerating, but history did happen (footnote: some still deny such history)…

China and Hong Kong: Netizens Criticize Arrogant CCTV Reporter

  30 October 2007

A CCTV reporter, Zhou Tao, had the company van scratched in a minor car accident in the Hong Kong airport. He called the police and the investigation took 4 hours. He then wrote a blog post (zh) to criticize Hong Kong police for being slow and ineffective; he claimed that...

Poland: Roman Giertych's Out of Politics

  29 October 2007

The beatroot is wondering who he is going to “write about for the next two years,” now that Roman Giertych has been forced out of politics, along with his party, the League of Polish Families, which “got a miserable 1.3 percent in Sunday’s election.”

Brazil: “Haiti is here, Haiti is not here”

  29 October 2007

Haiti has become a regularly commented on issue on the Brazilian blogosphere. The special connection between Brazil and Haiti was initiated in 2004, when Brazilian troops started to participate in MINUSTAH — the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. Last week the UN decided to extend its presence in the...

Turkey: An Armenian in Istanbul

  29 October 2007

Despite warnings from fellow Armenians, Lara Aha at Life in Armenia visited Istanbul in Turkey last week to attend a seminar on women in conflict zones. The Diasporan blogger now resident in Armenia says not only did she feel more at home in Istanbul than Yerevan, but that she also...

China and Japan: Japanese AV in Rural China

  29 October 2007

Japan AV girl, Nonami Takizawa, came to rural China for shooting adult video. The promotion clip is up at Todu, and netizens from China reacted strongly to the “pollution” bought by Japanese to China. Hegelchong comments that the criticisms are nationalistic and have very strange imagination of rural China (zh)....

China: Buying South Africa Bank

  29 October 2007

Jay Sheng from Shanghaiist reports on the buying of South Africa’s Standard Bank Group Ltd by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China(ICBC), a government owned commerical bank.

China: Rules of Olympic engagement

  28 October 2007

Leading Hong Kong Democrat Martin Lee calls for increased dialogue on China's human rights record as the Olympics approach and gets labeled a traitor, quite possibly due mainly to a mistranslation which some are saying is too large to have been an accident.