Stories about Weblog from May, 2009
Syria: Campaign to boycott telecom companies and demand lower rates begins
Cellular networks were licensed to operate in Syria in 2001 and ever since day one, the media echoed the customers' discontent with service rates. Syrian bloggers decided they have had...
Iran: Khatami answers bloggers’ questions
On Sunday, Mohamad Khatami, the former reformist Iranian president, who is backing Mir Hussein Mousavi's candidacy in the Iranian presidential election, took part in an internet TV programme launched by...
Internet in North Korea, Nokia's Ovi Store, Google Wave and Tech Happenings
Tech events were happening in Thailand, Vietnam and Japan. North Korea got mobile internet and Google released a new product. We have reviews, analysis and links from bloggers in Asia...
Go Farm, Young Man! – How Farming in Japan is Changing
For a country that identifies strongly as being historically agricultural people, the landscape of Japan's agricultural sector is bleak, and has been for some time. Simply put, the workforce is...
Morocco: Campaigning for the Disenchanted
The electoral campaign for the local council (or communal) elections in Morocco, due in June 12 has started amidst widespread apathy and disenchantment. The debate has been raging over the...
Indonesia: Jailed For Complaining
The case of Prita Mulyasari, a mother of two, is currently the hot topic among Indonesian bloggers. Prita shared her experience of being maltreated by a private hospital on a...
Malaysia: Globalization Dilemma – Educational Progress or Preserving Ethnic Identity?
The teaching of science and mathematics in English implemented in 2003 replaced Malay and other ethnic languages as the medium of teaching instruction in Malaysia. It is set for a...
Spain: Wikimovie, created through online participation
In Spain, beverage company Mahou has decided to climb on the online participation bandwagon and have turned to the internet to create and produce a short film where directing, casting...
Russia: Bloggers’ Memories of Soviet Maternity Hospitals
Last year, Sinisa Boljanovic translated a number of heartrending childbirth stories, written anonymously by Serbian women and posted on the "Mother Courage" award-winning site, launched and maintained by Serbian blogger...
Iran: YouTube, Broadway music and the Election
Campaigners in the Iranian elections have used YouTube in different ways to promote their favorite candidate or discredit their opponents. Four candidates will be on the ballot for the presidency...
East Timor: Thoughts on Abortion A Few Days Before Law Approval
A heated debate about the provisions of a new draft penal code pertaining to abortion is taking place right now in East Timor. If the law is passed, abortion will...
Egypt: Cairo Refugee Film Festival
Integrating refugees in society is the aim of a film festival with a difference. Marwa Rakha learns about the Cairo Refugee Film Festival, being held from June 16 to 20...
UAE and Saudi Arabia: “It's Gonna Be a Scorcher!”
The Hollywood film Ishtar, about lounge singers in Morocco who get caught up in an international plot between the CIA and the "Emir of Ishtar" is memorable but for one...
Bahrain: Swine Flu Arrives
Earlier this week the first case of the new H1N1 flu, or swine flu, was confirmed in Bahrain, arriving with a Bahraini student who had been in New York. Bahrain's...
Haiti, U.S.A.: Remembering Fr. Jean-Juste
Blogger tributes are pouring in for the late Fr. Gérard Jean-Juste, a Haitian Roman Catholic priest who was known by his admirers as a champion of the poor and an...
Egypt: Anti-Male Circumcision Campaign
In 2008 Egypt passed a law that banned female circumcision (FGM). Today a group of bloggers started a campaign against male circumcision. Marwa Rakha picks up the story in this...
Africa: Remembering Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
Africa has lost one of its greatest sons, Dr. Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem. He died on the eve of Africa Day in a car accident in Nairobi on his way to launch...
Honduras: Strong Earthquake Shakes Country
Honduras awoke early in the morning of May 28 when an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale shook the country. Five deaths were confirmed, more injured, and slowly there...
Hong Kong: SC group censored June 4th special feature
Daisy, an editor from Esquire, a lifestyle magazine under South China media group in Hong Kong, disclosed in her blog that the top management banned the publication of 15 pages...
Russia: Blogging for Justice in Hit-and-Run Accident Case
On May 13, 2009, a Subaru Forester car hit a pregnant woman who was crossing the street in Moscow. She died in hospital later. The perpetrator escaped the scene of...