Stories about Politics from March, 2010
Brazil: São Paulo State police beat striking teachers
Departing governor of São Paulo José Serra will run for presidency; teachers today marked his final day with another protest. During a previous demonstration calling for pay rises and other benefits, police hit peaceful strikers hard.
Trinidad & Tobago: On Corruption
“On the day the Uff Report was submitted to a happy looking President, the Prime Minister suddenly realized the people needed more hospitals and Summits”: This Beach Called Life takes a tongue-in-cheek look at Trinidad and Tobago's political landscape.
Bermuda: Overspending
“It’s so simple that only a politician could miss it”: Vexed Bermoothes says that the Bermudian government must reduce its budget.
Philippines: Online and Offline Student Protests for Education
This past week's student protests in the Philippines demanding greater government budget for education and the prevention of tuition and other fee increases for the coming school year also has an online component in the form of the March 29 Blog Action Day for Education. Participating blogs write about the...
Taiwan: Relations with the Pacific Islands and Australia
Michael Turton looks at Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou's recent visit to the Pacific. He analyses how Australia and Taiwan's involvement in the Solomon Islands has been used for political purposes by both countries.
Russia: Bombings Victims Commemoration; Analysis of TV-channels
Photos from the commemoration action dedicated to the victims of the recentMoscow bombings published by bloggers can be found here and here. Arina Borodina, Russian TV-expert, analyses the role of TV coverage of the bombings.
Chile: The Process of Earthquake Reconstruction
Exactly a month after the devastating earthquake in Chile, President Sebastián Piñera announced a reconstruction plan for the country’s infrastructure and housing, prompting Chileans to provide opinions about how this process should be implemented and monitored.
China and Hong Kong: Post 80's Generation
K.E. David from ChinaGeek translated an article written by Yang Hengjun on his encounter with post 80's generation in a talk on democracy. The discussion makes him realize the connection between democracy and young people's future.
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.
Arab World: Earth Hour Marked Across the Region
Earth Hour is an annual event celebrated on the last Saturday in March. Awareness of Earth Hour has been spreading throughout the world since its inception in Australia in 2007. In this post, Katharine Ganly takes a look at some of the initiatives celebrating Earth Hour in the Arab World.
Russia: Sochi Games and the Circassian Genocide
In 2014, the Russian resort of Sochi will host the Winter Olympic Games, but the 700,000-900,000 of ethnic Circassians living in Russia are trying their best to prevent the country from having its Olympic games in peace.
Jamaica: Responding to HIV
Repeating Islands reports that with funding support from the World Bank, the Jamaican government “aims to curb the spread of HIV, improve treatment, care and support for persons living with HIV/AIDS, and strengthen Jamaica’s capacity to respond to the epidemic.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Food Prices
“The basket of items you bought in the grocery in Jan 2010 is just over three times the price of the same basket bought in Jan 2003…Is your salary today three times what you earned in Jan 2003? If not, then, at least for food, you're not winning”: KnowTnT.com looks...
Bermuda: Political Power
Politically, says 21 Square, “Bermuda is on the verge of either destruction or greatness.”
Russia: Initial Coverage of the Moscow Subway Bombings
Moscow's Monday morning routine was broken today by two subway suicide bombings, which killed at least 38 and wounded at least 70 people. Alexey Sidorenko translates some of the initial reports from the Russian blogosphere.
China: The potential of Microblogging
Toadi from interlocals.net has translated a Beijing News’ interview with Hu Yong on the potential of micro-bogging in China.
Russia: Theatre Play Based on Online Conference
Theatre director Pavel Rudnev proposed to stage a play based on the questions of bloggers to the Russian State Duma's Speaker Boris Gryzlov during an online-press conference. Rudnev admits not only high number but also inexhaustible wit of venomous questions asked by Russian netizens.
Russia: Degrees and Dimensions of “Scandalous”
Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog comments on the recent bribes/coke/girls video scandal: “Also, catching them bribing cops is hardly scandalous. If they offered the cops bribes and the cops refused now that would be scandalous! Anyway, isn’t the more important issue not Yashin, Oreshkin, and Fishman giving bribes, but...
Japan: Long life to bluefin tuna. The experts’ word.
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.
Russia: Two Video Scandals
In Russia this week it has been hard to miss the two scandals that, at first, appear to have only one thing in common: both are centered around amateur videos published online. Heated discussions in the blogosphere and in other online venues are taking place on quite different orbits - which nevertheless do have one or two overlap points.
France/Spain: Blog censorship
The Quemando Iglesias [Burning Churches] blog reports [es] on the forced shut down of the zer egin duzue jonekin [What they did to Jon?], a blog that had gathered support for the investigation of the death of the ETA militant Jon Anza, supposedly in the hands of the Spanish State Security Forces in...
