· March, 2008

Stories about Feature from March, 2008

Zimbabwe: Harare is tense after Tsvangirai claims victory

  30 March 2008

Following the presidential and parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe yesterday, bloggers are reporting that the situation in Harare is tense, in Bulawayo MDC supporters are celebrating (MDC candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, has claimed victory) and all over the country there are rumours that Robert Mugabe has left the country for Mozambique.

Armenia: Opposition Protests Continue

  30 March 2008

Despite amendments to the law on public marches, rallies and demonstrations following the recently lifted state of emergency, the opposition continues to hold meetings on the streets of the Armenian capital. In order to circumvent the restrictions, the gatherings are held under the guise of playing chess, reading books or even eating fast food in public.

Brazil: Blogs banned from the 2008 elections

  30 March 2008

Brazil is warming up for local elections later this year, but the Supreme Electoral Court has just passed regulations that have raised eye-brows throughout the blogosphere: only candidates' purpose-built web pages will be allowed. Blogs and 'social web' facilities have not been subjected to a more comprehensive legislation and as a result these are now left in limbo. Will the netizen be silenced?

China: Responses to the Dalai Lama's appeal

  28 March 2008

As Lhasa has supposedly quieted down, the anti-CNN.com crowd has gone off the deep end, that might be worth exploring more. The death threats they've been making towards Western media representatives stationed in China certainly haven't gone unnoticed. On Mutant Palm blogger Davesgonechina's list of links chosen in a move...

Middle East and North Africa: Client Number Nine

Eliot Spitzer's fall from grace grabbed the headlines as soon as newsmen caught wind of the scandal. Bloggers followed closely on their heel, including those from the Middle East and North Africa, whose attention was turned to the humiliation his wife must have suffered from and indignation of having her to stand by him as he announced his resignation.

Kenya Back to Normal

  27 March 2008

Residents of Nairobi, who were adversaries and concerned about their ethnic background, are now united in attacking the local government minister for changing the public transport routes and forcing people to walk long distances. The ethnic hatred seems to have been pushed aside and now people are pushing a common agenda and pursuing economic survival. Online discussions also reflect the diversity, bloggers are concerned about the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of East Africa's largest and most successful Mobile phone company- Safaricom.

Cuba: Blocking Bloggers

  26 March 2008

Want to get the Cuban blogosphere talking? Block access to a popular blog. Ever since Cuban authorities did just that to several less-than-supportive Havana-based blogs earlier this week, the blogging diaspora have come out in full support of Cuban bloggers – especially Yoani Sanchez and her popular Generacion Y blog,...

Ecuador: The Aftermath of the Border Crisis

  26 March 2008

On the outside, it appeared as if the governments of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela reached an agreement over the border conflict that took place earlier this month. However, tensions continue to be high and diplomatic relations have not returned to normal, especially after a photograph was published in a Colombian newspaper claiming that the Ecuadorian defense minister met with the fallen FARC leader Raúl Reyes. However, it was revealed the man in the photograph was not the government official as indicated causing more tension, and bloggers from Ecuador write about this mistake.

World Water Day Ripples Across Videos.

  24 March 2008

Every year since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, on March 22nd has been the World Water Day. In addition, this year it is the United Nation´s International Year of Sanitation and people from all over have started taking action through their video cameras, raising awareness at the importance of this finite resource.

China: Bloggers declare war on Western media's Tibet coverage

  24 March 2008

Once the news of Tibetans slicing children's ears off and burning people alive sunk in, Chinese netizens worldwide seized onto initial misreported details from the situation in Tibet and don't seem willing to let this one go. In fact, they've declared cyberwar on major western media outlets, and anti-CNN.com is campaign headquarters.

Liquid assets: Bloggers on World Water Day

  23 March 2008

It's known as the universal solvent, Adam's Ale, government juice, council pop, H2O, dihydrogen monoxide, hydrogen hydroxide, has a ton of different names in Arabic and yesterday (March 22) the world was called upon to pay it special attention. World Water Day 2008 marked the start of the fourth year of the UN International Decade for Action on Water that began in 2005, and to mark the occasion the bloggers weighed in with insights and commentary from various corners of the world.

India: Between Tibet and China

  22 March 2008

Over the past few day the focus of the international community is on Tibet and Chinese Government's handling of the uprising, but over in India there has been quite a bit of debate over China's actions in Tibet and the role of Tibet in India-China relationship. What should India's stand...

Iraq: Five long years … most of them in tears

For me the whole story of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war can be summed up one post. One post that says nothing about the past five years but implies everything as well. We can talk about the lack of security, the number of deaths, the failure of the occupation, but all this talk has become as meaningless as glib phrases like "Collateral Damage." What really matters is how the war is affecting people's lives, writes Salam Adil.

China: Civilians in violence and conflict

  21 March 2008

Thugs vs. Peacekeepers or Fighters vs. oppressors; Mob vs. Protectors or Martyrs vs. killers? Before I could judge, please allow me to present some recounts of the Tibet unrest from the commons there. (As most western media had sided with Tibetans, I basically pick quotes from common Hans for balance.)

Korea: Independence Movements in Tibet and in Korea

  20 March 2008

As groups in other countries support Tibetans’ rage and criticize the violence of the Chinese government, Korean netizens are also busy making signature-seeking-campaigns or boycotting the Beijing Olympics. The participants who express their opinions on the internet and put their names on the campaigns are more and more. The reasons...

China: Patriotism triggered, though under censorship

  19 March 2008

A brief record of the Chinese public opinion on Tibet unrest. Attention: they are all found inside the Great Firewall. But I believe they stand for a considerable part of us Chinese. Their information sources on which they judge and think might be filtered, but don’t laugh at that---- before the time tells what’s true, you might also be manipulated!

China: Fire on the streets of Lhasa, Tibet

  14 March 2008

With the Tibetan capital now reportedly largely cut off from the outside world, information regarding the ongoing situation in Lhasa slowed to a trickle over the weekend. Some updates, however, having been coming out over blogs and other online channels.

China: Twittering Taiwan's presidential election

  13 March 2008

Venture capitalist and IT guru Isaac Mao had a successful hand in election-blogging this week: on the day prior to a presidential debate in Taiwan, he posed six open questions via Twitter to his Taiwanese readers, then started collecting responses from those who twitted back.

India: Losing Goa and the Scarlett Keeling homicide case

  13 March 2008

My heart cries out that Goa the land of Sex, Drugs, Music, the once land of the hippies and lost Gods, had to be brought under the crime radar as a threat. Although I am partial in judging Goa, the land I spent my childhood and almost every other summer,...