· March, 2010

Stories about International Relations from March, 2010

Sweden: Parliament Recognizes the Assyrian Genocide

The Swedish Parliament has recognized as genocide the massacres that took place within the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1920 against the Armenian, Assyrian and Pontic Greek population - an episode that is also referred to as "Seyfo" by the Assyrian Diaspora. Bloggers react to this development in this post.

Bangladesh: Aktel Becomes Robi

  30 March 2010

Aktel, one of the leading cell phone service providers in Bangladesh, has renamed its brand as Robi in an attempt to ‘localise’ its branding. Bangladesh Corporate Blog analyzes consumer reactions through netizens’ eyes.

Azerbaijan: DOTCOM arrives in Baku

  29 March 2010

Late last night, American participants of the U.S. State Department sponsored DOTCOM project to bring Armenian, Azerbaijani and American teenagers together to create socially conscious media arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Tajikistan: Bargaining over dams and shipments

  29 March 2010

Tajik and Uzbek officials traded barbs during the security conference in Dushanbe. The argument concerned freight train shipments for Tajikistan that have been stalled on Uzbek territory, but as neweurasia’s Dushanbe explains, the real reason is the Roghun dam project.

Japan: Long life to bluefin tuna. The experts’ word.

  27 March 2010

With 68 countries voting against, CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species that regulates the international trade of wild animals and plants, rejected a ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna, that was slated for listing on Appendix One, i.e. a complete ban.

Japan: A whale of a controversy

  27 March 2010

Only a few days after The Cove was awarded the Oscar as best documentary, drawing public and media attention around the world to the hunting of cetaceans issue, anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd’s leader Peter Bethune was arrested in Tokyo, re-igniting the controversy between Japan and Australia-New Zealand.

Moldova: Fear for a fifth column

  24 March 2010

Zimbru of Morning in Moldova argues that Moldova's centre-right politicians underestimate the power of political forces aligned with Russia and thus put the country's democratization and plans to join the European Union in peril.

Jamaica: Blake Dies

  24 March 2010

Jamaica Salt blogs about the death of Vivian Blake, “the convicted drug boss and reported head of the ’shower posse’”, saying: “This death is all the more relevant right now as Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke is facing an extradition order…”

China: Google.cn migrated to Hong Kong

  23 March 2010

Finally Google has decided to leave China. Soon after the announcement, Google stopped censoring the search result of google.cn by redirecting the site to google.com.hk. In Google's official blog, David Drummond, the corporate's chief legal officer explains that its decision is due to the Chinese government's “non-negotiable legal requirement” in...

Haiti: Debt Forgiveness

  23 March 2010

Repeating Islands links to a Business Week report that confirms the Inter-American Development Bank “has agreed to forgive $479 million in debts owed by quake-ravaged Haiti”.

Haiti: The Real “Slavery”

  22 March 2010

“Exploitation of child domestics is a global problem, not a Haitian ‘slavery’ 
issue”: The Haitian Blogger republishes a piece by Ezilidanto that exposes the real “slavery” in Haiti.

Jamaica, U.S.A.: On Extradition

  22 March 2010

Blogging about Jamaica's refusal to extradite Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke to the US, Active Voice says that “there's no level playing field”, while My View of JamDown from UpSo adds: “The fact is that Jamaica is neither America's weed nor cocaine dealer!”

Russia-US: A Derogatory Dilemma

  21 March 2010

Streetwise Professor reflects upon US Secretary of State's, Hillary Clinton, visit to Moscow and reacts against her not responding to insults from Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, fearing this will become a pattern in US-Russian relations.

Lebanon: Runaway Maids

“When a maid runs away from her employer's house, the police station is unable to act because there's no law criminalizing runaway maids. So the police station officer tells the Lebanese employee to say that she stole money,”  writes Ethiopian Suicides.