· February, 2009

Stories about Politics from February, 2009

Armenia: 1 March Anniversary

Dispatches from Armenia comments on tomorrow's first anniversary of the post-election clashes which left eight opposition supporters and two policemen dead. The blog calls the incident a slaughter at the...

28 February 2009

Japan: Bloggers on the Nakagawa affair

Over a week has passed since now-infamous footage of Japan's former finance minister Shōichi Nakagawa stumbling through a 20 minute speech at the G7 meeting in Rome made world headlines and hit the top of YouTube charts. In this post I feature a handful of responses to the speech by Japanese bloggers.

27 February 2009

Lebanon: Christopher Hitchens’ Beirut Scuffle Sparks Debate

Former leftist turned conservative writer Christopher Hitchens ran into trouble in Beirut last week when he attempted to deface a poster/memorial of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), a Hezbollah ally. Versions of the event claim a heavily intoxicated Hitchens shouted obscenities at the party, ultimately resulting in an altercation with several SSNP members nearby. These allegations have sparked a debate across continents, writes Antoun Issa.

27 February 2009

Nepal: Load Shedding Woes

For a country where there is an average daily power cut of 14 hours it is hard to carry on with normal life. Bibek Paudel discusses the challenges Nepal is...

27 February 2009

Pakistan: Déjà vu 1971?

“Zardari is doing exactly what Bhutto had done in 1971 – eliminating all challenges that may come in his way to become another “Civilian Martial Law Administrator”, comments Teeth Maestro...

26 February 2009

Jamaica, Guyana: Action or Reaction?

Both Active Voice [Jamaica] and Guyanese blogger C.D. Valere (writing at Baiganchoka) continue the discussion about recent attempts by the Jamaican Broadcasting Commission to “clean up” the airwaves.

26 February 2009

Aruba: Calling the Socialists

“Some Arubans are also affected because they invested in Stanford's company and are now, as we say in quaint Dutch, sitting with the baked pears”: Arubagirl examines her government's reaction...

26 February 2009

Taiwan: CECA, economic elixir or poison?

CECA? Neither a new game console from Japan nor another evil science project that is going to bring this world to an end? But according to the Government, CECA is coming to save Taiwan's economy from drowning in global financial crisis and the greatest recession in 50 years. However, most people still have no idea what CECA is, and like all the other issues, it is quickly politicized as a new media battle ground set for the continuous fight between KMT, the ruling party, and DPP, the major opposition party. Bloggers again try to ask key questions and explain the issues deeper on their own.

26 February 2009

Iraq: Predications and Politics

Iraqi Arab Woman Blues discusses ‘predictions’ she had made about the political situation in her country and others in the region – and how they proved to be correct.

26 February 2009