Stories about Language from February, 2009
Jamaica: View from Mount Diablo
“Two facts to bear in mind: I am white and I am 80 years old. the first precludes me from using Emancipation or any other black triumph as a poetic epiphany; the second allows me to focus, more or less, on an 80 year span of Jamaican history to which...
Video: Vlogging for the Blind
A Bolivian activist explains how Open Source Software designed for the visually impaired helps him communicate online with chatting, emailing and blogging. Meanwhile, in Ethiopia, an organization trains the blind and those with visual disabilities on how to use computers and communication technologies, and an employee and advocate of the ENOVIB network for the blind speaks to youth about how blindness can be an opportunity instead of a disability. In Spain, a designer comes up with videogames that visually impaired people can play, and in Nigeria and Canada, a young woman blogs and vlogs about life as a deaf person who is rapidly losing her sight.
Russia: More on Putin-Dell Exchange
Anna's Out of Town News writes about Vladimir Putin's exchange with Michael Dell at Davos: “Russia needs her respect. And better translators, apparently.”
Caucasus: Creative Commons
The Creative Commons blog reports that significant progress has been made in adapting and translating the licensing system for Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Supported by the Eurasia Partnership Foundation, an online discussion on the three drafts is now open for all to join.
Russia, Georgia: Chreba and Akua
IZO sums up a post by LJ user rigello (RUS): “One of the upshots of the South Ossetian war has been the degeorgianification, in the Russian media, of the place-names Tskhinvali and Sukhumi. These have been russified to Tskhinval and Sukhum. But this seems a little ridiculous when you know...