Stories about Youth from August, 2008
Indonesia: Olympic gold and Independence Day
Double celebration for Indonesia last week after its badminton players won a gold medal in the Beijing Olympics; and just in time for the commemoration of the country's Independence Day.
China: He Kexin and “babygate”
Imagethief picks up the debate on the age issue of He Kexin, the golden girl of Chinese gymnastics, and notices a cold-war double standard in some of the mainstream media report with a story plot of Ours=plucky, heroic achievers. Theirs=manufactured robots/slaves/dopers.
Uruguay: 2nd Ceibal Jam for the XO Laptop
Pablo Flores announces the 2nd Ceibal Jam in Montevideo, Uruguay [es], which is an informal get-together of programmers in order to develop open-source applications for the XO laptops.
Cuba: Corrupt Survival
“At his young age, he already understands that it doesn’t matter how many times you cross the line of illegality as long as you keep applauding. For him, if they let him continue to line his pockets, socialism could well be eternal”: Yoani Sanchez blogs about corruption and its strong...
China: Cheering for the race traitors
Those thin-skinned cyber-mobsters must have heatstroke; Chinese coach leads US women's volleyball team to victory against China and gets dissed by a chess grandmaster, then: The majority of the netizens disagreed with his view. The American team led by Lang Ping was received with warm cheers of “Coach Lang, we...
Bhutan: Reduced Maternity Leave?
Recently Bhutan government has proposed reduction of maternity leave from 3 months to 45 days only in a draft revision of the labor act. Tshokey in Kuzu Bhutan weblog builds a case against the reduction stating why the leave is important for the newborn and the mother and what the...
Peru: Children's Play Inside a Moving Bus
Perú Vas? presents Pequito and the Key of Seven Years, which is the first children's play that will take place inside a moving bus, writes Elizabeth Lino of Te Voy a Contar [es].
Egypt's first Septuplets
Egyptian Blogger Zeinobia, writes about an Egyptian woman, from Alexandria, who gave birth to seven babies – even though she claims she did not take any medicine.
China: Pick your truth on He Kexin's age
People are calling for bone testing to find the truth regarding He Kexin‘s age, Life 2.0 blogger Isaac Mao writes: ‘Forget that, we've already won and lost all the face there is to win or lose. The IOC is playing stupid, so let them have it.’ So just what is...
Saudi Arabia: Is a housemaid necessary?
For many who live in the Gulf, employing a housemaid is a normal part of life. One Saudi blogger who prefers not to has been facing much criticism.
China: Fake news plagues Chinese sports reports
So much speculation these past few days on the ages of some of the girls on China's Olympic gymnastics team, specifically He Kexin and a fair amount of references to keep it going. Famous Chinese sports writer and Bullog blogger Wang Xiaoshan has posted a dramatically-titled piece, ‘Fake news kills’,...
Lebanon: Terrorist Attack in Tripoli – II
The terrorist attack that took place in Tripoli, Lebanon, is the most fatal since the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Al Hariri in February 2005. The place and the target of the attack are of serious implications and may have grave consequences on Lebanon as a whole. This may be one of the reasons why the media and the blogosphere is giving it so much coverage, writes Moussa Bashir, who brings us more reactions from Lebanon.
Peru: Photos of Children from the Highlands
Luis Yupanqui of Peruviajero [es] publishes photos of children from the Peruvian highlands. He writes, “I don't take their souls, as is believed in many highland towns, but I do take with me that child's innocence, those smiles and eyes wide open and curious that feed my soul.”
Sabah Bloggers Gathering 2008
Congratulations to the organizers and participants of the successful Sabahan Bloggers Gathering 2008.
Singapore: Weakness of education system
Ian On The Red Dot wonders if swimmer Michael Phelps would have succeeded if the Olympic gold medalist was born in Singapore. The blogger criticizes Singapore’s education system which pushes students “who don’t do well in academics into a lower stream.”
Haiti: Restavèk
“The restavèk practice essentially throws away the lives of children and along with them Haiti’s future”: jmc strategies maintains that no matter how you slice it, “the practice of ‘lending’ a child away to go and live with well-off families” is still a form of slavery.
China: Lip-Syncing. Big deal.
Is the Yang Peiyi incident being blown out of proportion by Western media? See what Kaiser Kuo has to say on that at the Ogilvy8 @ Beijing Olympics blog.
China: Opening ceremony deceptions continue to disappoint
This is starting to get a bit brutal; news today that the children seen in the harmonious 56 ethnic minorities—China's version of a multicultural policy—portion of the Olympics opening ceremony were actually all Han. Writes Twitter user @FrankYu: “China's Opn Cer. is facing a loss of credibility on the scale...
China: How old is He Kexin?
While authorities state she is of Olympic regulation age, China Digital Times‘ Xiao Qiang looks at one of several sources that put He Kexin‘s age at around fourteen.
Haiti: Olympic Potential
“f there are indeed Haitian athletes in Beijing who decide to defect, I could not blame them”: jmc strategies compares China's progress to Haiti's, asking: “Do you think a new Haiti is possible and are you prepared to do what it takes to…get it to a point where it produces...
China: Faking the Olympic opening ceremony, at what expense?
The buzz on Tuesday was that two major components of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony had been faked, leaving a very bad taste in many bloggers' mouths.
