· June, 2009

Stories from Quick Reads from June, 2009

Serbia: History and architecture

Nothing against Serbia discusses Belgrade architecture and its influence by both Byzantine and nationalist heritage, illustrating his point with pictures and plans of the city's former main telephone exchange building.

Russia: Paradoxes of population growth

LJ user about:blank comments on [RUS] recent research comparing Russian population growth with average income in various regions and cities 1990-2009, coming up with the interesting result that the country's second and third cities, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novogorod, are making moderate progress in comparison to many other less developed...

Turkey: Pride March In Istanbul

Elizabeth is currently in Istanbul, and took part in its sixth LGBTT Pride March: “I took a lot of photos and copied down slogans: Susma, haykır, esçinseller vardir! (Don’t be silent, speak up: Queers exist!)”

India, Pakistan: Diplomacy Lesson From A Tennis Duo

  29 June 2009

Kalsoom at CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan highlights the bond between the India-Pakistan Tennis duo Aisam ul-Haq Qureshi and Prakash Armitraj who are playing together in the Wimbledon. They are one of the finest examples of citizen diplomacy in promoting goodwill and improving perceptions between the two nations.

Bangladesh: Sacking Of Army Officers

  29 June 2009

Unheard Voice blog discusses the sacking of seven army officers in Bangladesh and comments: “If army is not kept above political partisanship or at the least not perceived to be above partisanship, we will have a high price to pay in future — just like we have a paid a...

Russia: Stalin visits Voronezh

LJ user Vaziani tells about [RUS] how the local Voronezh communists have wallpapered the city with huge pictures of Joseph Stalin in commemoration of the 22 June 1941 attack on the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany.

China's Stimulus Package and its Effect

  29 June 2009

China elections and governance has a series of article on the China's economic stimulus package and its effect. Part one is An introduction to China's stimulus package. Part two is The green dragon soars on the wind: Chinese stimulus and the environment. Part three is Migrant workers and social unrest....

India: Celebrating Rain

  29 June 2009

Gargi at POV celebrates the rains which have come late this monsoon season. She reminds us that: “the link that India has to rains, is much like the colder nations of the North have towards Spring. A lot of our mental and physical well being is linked to it raining...

Cuba, U.S.A.: Connecting the Dots

  29 June 2009

Call it coincidence, but diaspora blogger Uncommon Sense thinks that in light of news that Cuban human rights activists Jorge Luis García Pérez “Antúnez” and his wife were once again arrested, “it might be best to connect the dots”, particularly “in the wake of the NED ceremony, at which Antúnez...

Cuba: Fear of Change?

  29 June 2009

“Like the seemingly never ending US blockade that attacks Cuba’s economy from without, from the inside a corrosion process is gradually eating away at the relatively young 50-year revolution”: From Havana, Circles Robinson says that “there is a conservative political class of managers at most workplaces and government offices who...

Jamaica: Bloggers on Jackson

  29 June 2009

Michael Jackson's death has Jamaican diaspora blogger Geoffrey Philp ruminating on the meaning of life, while Annie Paul says: “the mainstream media has limited credibility for me now [post Jackson's death] particularly in the wake of the Iraq War which they triumphantly and confidently led us into.”

French Caribbean: Farewell Mickael

  29 June 2009

The news of the death of the King of Pop was like an earthquake felt around the world. The shock wave reached the French Caribbean, where bloggers from Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, all pay homage to the late artist.