· August, 2010

Stories from Quick Reads from August, 2010

Pakistan Flood: Relief Efforts By PKKH Team

  29 August 2010

The team of bloggers of Pakistan Ka Khuda Hafiz (PKKH), Pakistan's leading alternative policy institute, has launched a massive relief effort for the flood victims called ‘Mere Log’ (meaning My People). On Thursday they have reached Thatta and Makli city with food, clean drinking water and medical supplies.

Pakistan: Another Match Fixing Scandal

  29 August 2010

Hamid Abbasi at Chowrangi is shocked by the news of another match fixing scandal of some players of the Pakistan cricket team and opines that “this is nothing less than a betrayal to the nation.”

India: A Message To Pastor Jones

  29 August 2010

Raja Basu from New Delhi is shocked by the heinous plan of Pastor Terry Jones to burn The Quran to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 incident. The blogger has this message to the Pastor: “by instigating people to burn The Holy Quran, you have actually brought yourself down...

India: Uncontrolled Alcoholic Liquor Consumption

  29 August 2010

Ram Bansal at India In Peril informs that growing number of male Indian adults (currently 50%) are taking alcoholic liquors regularly. The blogger discusses the downside of the uncontrolled alcoholic behaviors and its impact on the limited income families.

Guinea-Bissau: An Armored Mercedes Benz

  29 August 2010

António Aly Silva on Ditadura de Consenso [pt] tells of the battles between the widow of assassinated head of state Nino Vieira and the President over an armored Mercedes Benz, given by Muammar al-Gaddafi. He then mentions other security measures taken by politicians – saying “but here, in this country,...

Turkmenistan: WikiLeaks-like service in demand

  29 August 2010

Turkmenistan is a society so veiled in shadows that one wonders whether its own leaders believe in the government’s propaganda. For this reason, the country desperately needs a service like WikiLeaks to help expose the truth, argues neweurasia’s Annasoltan.

Kazakhstan: Prison Riots

  29 August 2010

KZBlog writes about the disturbing news from Kazakhstan’s prisons, where – more and more frequently – inmates mutilate themselves or stage riots, claiming that they are routinely beaten and tortured.

Afghanistan: The Helmand Food Zone Fiasco

  29 August 2010

Joel Hafvenstein writes about the British “Food Zone” program, which was considered to be a better effort comparing to other counternarcotics activties in Afghanistan. But “when examined closely, there’s no reason to think the Food Zone program was effective’, he says.

Guatemala: Attack Against a Blog?

  28 August 2010

Luis Figueroa reports [es] that blogger Guillermo Pineda wrote on Twitter, “My blog in WordPress.com was hacked. Anyone knows if I can recover it? #Hacked #Wordpress.” Luis wonders if this is an attack; in June Guillermo received threats [es] both in person and through email.

South Korea: Extras Went On Strike

  28 August 2010

In South Korea, about one hundred extras from movies and soap operas went on strike, protesting over low pay and verbal abuse in the work place, South Korea's Segye [kr] reported.

Russia: Mari Paganism and Charges of “Extremism”

  28 August 2010

OpenDemocracy.net reports: “In their remote forest republic 400 miles east of the Moscow, the pagan Mari people are once again being harassed by the authorities. […] Ethnically kin to the Finns and Hungarians, their profoundly ecological religious worldview challenges Russian-led designs on their republic’s natural resources.”