Stories about Weblog from October, 2006
Arabisc: Rebellious Behaviour and the Quest for Intellectuals
With the festive season wrapping up in the Arab world, Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer has decided to ‘come out of the closet’ and drop a bombshell – making some of his readers happy and others not so! The Alexandria law student doesn't mince his words when he announces to his...
Torture in Gambia, “Militocracy” in Africa, Press Freedom and Dirty Water and Gold
We begin this week's West African blogs round-up with a post in a Gambian blog, Home of the mandinmories, about a Gambian soldier being “Coerced, and tortured” over an alleged coup plot: Browsing through the Point today, a story on the court martial of Captain Yahya Darbo caught my eye....
DRC, Belgium: Anti-Kabila Demonstration
Congolese demonstrating in Brussels last weekend. Photo by Etienne Ngandu. In anticipation of the presidential runoff taking place this Sunday, October 29 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, opposing Jean-Pierre Bemba to incumbent Joseph Kabila, a demonstration took place in Brussels, Belgium last weekend in qualified support of Bemba but...
Voices from South Asia
Bangladesh: - What does Bangladesh need now for a better future? Angelmorn has a ten point prescription. - Rifat of Close your eyes and try to see is critic about the noise pollution in Bangladesh, especially using the loudspeakers. - Shafiur of imperfect world | 2006 informs that many of...
Russia: Thoughts on LiveJournal/ZheZhe
The Second Blog War continues in Russia. Brad Fitzpatrick, the LiveJournal's creator, has now joined the discussion over at sup_ru LJ community: in English, he offers some explanations and apologies here (and receives 248 comments so far) and lists the bloggers’ most common questions and concerns here (123 comments so...
The Week that Was – Bolivian Blogs
What to do with the precious reserves of natural gas has been on the minds of Bolivians ever since their discovery. Recently, the governments of Bolivia and Argentina arrived at an agreement for Bolivia to sell gas to their neighbor to the south for the next twenty years at a...
Global Voices Delhi Summit: Join us in December!
Please join us for the Global Voices 2006 Summit, December 16th in New Delhi, India! The Global Voices Summit, on December 16th, will be our annual opportunity to take stock, come together and explore our central question: How can we use the Internet to build a more democratic, participatory global...
New Round of Violence in East Timor
In her latest post from East Timor, blogger Timorsunshine writes about the latest incident in Dili. Apparently the gang war ranging in the airport area has become so bad that the Comoro bridge was blocked off and the airport actually shut down, and attacked by the people living in the...
Hong Kong: “zero-charge” tours
The “zero-charge” tours scandal is a distinctive “free-meal” feature in Chinese capitalist society. It happens in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, targeting at Mainland China tourists. How does this “zero-charge” tours come into being? Chong interlocals.net gives some background on the issue: Incredibly low fees or “zero-charge” tours are strategies...
Costa Rica Bloggers on CAFTA and other issues
The Tico Bloggers are posting on two main subjects this past week: the two day long CAFTA protests and the bill the government is writing which would ban weapon production in Costa Rican territory. Other topics are political corruption up high and the power of a musical request.
Albania: Homemade Raki
“…After two weeks, the grapes were ready to be turned into raki. First they were loaded into the still…” – Step by step, Our Man in Tirana shows how a container full of homegrown grapes eventually yields 12 liters of homemade raki.
Arabisc: Secret Meetings and Eid Greetings
It's Eid in the Arab world and Arab bloggers are celebrating the end of the Holy Month of Ramadhan with a riot of activity on their blogs. From Libya, Lona and A.Adam, writing in Flying Birds, wish us all a Happy Eid by posting a picture. The same sentiments are...
China: Good cop/bad cop
A story shared by A-list blogger-journalist Huang Tingzi (黄亭子) about an engineering student recruited by Chinese cops on his campus who—along with four colleagues—one day finds himself quite a bit in over his head: 读大学时,庄警官念的是无线电专业,毕业前,本打算去IT界发展。结果,正好遇上公安局招干,陪同学一块去顺利也报了个名,没想到很快就被录取了。 In university, officer Zhuang majored in wireless communications. Before graduation, he was planning to go...
Lebanon: Communities and Contradictions
The Lebanese blogosphere is growing like crazy. This means that the following summary is not all inclusive. And in the attempt to cover as many new blogs or newly discovered blogs as possible, other interesting posts and/or blogs are missed. But you can always find links to worthy blogs in...
Bolivia: Border Military Bases and Internal Conflicts
The treaty between Bolivia and Venezuela to build military facilities on the borders with Paraguay, Chile, Perú, and Brasil is being discussed in political blogs from Perú and Chile. Chilean conservative bloggers writing at El Rincón de Michelle [ES] agree that the treaty should be regarded as evidence of Venezuelan...
Ukraine: Photos from Kherson
“The robots welcome you to Rusted Future World.” – 36 photos from the Ukrainian city of Kherson, by Dan McMinn of Orange Ukraine.
Panama Canal Referendum
#1: From Chiriqui Chatter: The Vote for the Big Dig The vote is today for the expansion of the Canal. Voting in Panama is a very serious thing both for referendums such as today’s and for governmental offices. All sides fiercely try to get their vote out. It is interesting...
Kenyan Blogosphere: Debate over social responsibility, freedom of speech, and censorship
A heated debate has been raging in the Kenyan blogosphere over the removal of one blog, My Part of the World, from the Kenyan Blog Webring (KBW) aggregator. The aggregator is part of the vibrant community of Kenyan bloggers at home and abroad. The debate has centered around issues of...
Global Warming in Madagascar
Lakes Region, Madagascar. Photo by Claude Springer. After seeing Al Gore's film on global warming, Malagasy blogger Aiky from group blog Madagascar Croissance, reflected this week on the effects of global warming in his country, stirring up debate among commentators to the blog. Rainfall, Hurricane and Letchi Harvest Dans l'état...
What Salvadoran bloggers are saying — about the armed forces
Salvadoran bloggers on the left are writing posts questioning El Salvador's level of military spending, particularly where there are pressing social problems in the country including crime, sanitation, and poverty. This small Central American country of six million people had a military budget in 2005 of $162 million (source: CIA...
The Week That Was in Bahrain
It has been yet another busy week on the Bahraini blogsophere, with some bloggers rallying behind an anti-sectarianism campaign, Just Bahraini; others just back home from a long holiday; and one celebrating his/her (?) birthday! In local politics, Mahmood Al Yousif is keeping us abreast with all that's happening on...