Stories about Weblog from December, 2006
China: Nary Xmas?
A group of PhD students at several of China's biggest and best universities came together last week to release a letter calling for Chinese to boycott Christmas—a holiday they see as representing waning interest in traditional Chinese culture—and all the rest of non-native cultural trends. Presumably not a very popular...
Somali-Ethiopia conflict looms over Ethiopian blogosphere
War and rumours of war dominated the Ethiopian blogosphere this week as reports came in of bloody clashes between Ethiopian and Islamist troops in northern Somalia. Accounts of the conflict from the mainstream media have so far been fragmentary and often contradictory. GlobalVoices’ own Ethan Zuckerman summed up the confusion...
GV Summit Delhi ‘06 Session Two: Outreach
At the Saturday meeting of last weekend's second annual summit, Global Voices’ South Asia editor, Neha Viswanathan, facilitated a discussion about outreach: who is blogging, why some communities aren't blogging and how to make sure that blogospheres represent all voices. (Photo by Jace) The session focused on how to mitigate...
This Week's Saudi Blog Roundup
The Human Rights Watch visit to Saudi Arabia is still making headlines, 80 rats were found on a Saudi Airlines plane, a Bible was denied entry into Saudi, the Quran is now recognized as the second-most wanted Christmas gift in Denmark, and Sheikh Dot is back. Now, for the roundup…...
Chilean Christmas Consumer Behavior
Christmas is coming. This post takes a look at Chileans’ consumer behaviour during holidays. Writing about what Chileans are buying for presents, Luis Alarcon (ES) describes top-selling present: El éxito de esta navidad, poleras (polos, tshirt) con las pólemicas imágenes de Allende y el reciente fallecido Pinochet. Los encargados aseguran...
Turkmenbashi's Death: Bloggers’ Reactions
“The Pres” by Flickr user blogjam Turkmenistan's authoritarian and, to put it lightly, eccentric President Sapurmurad Niyazov died suddenly of a heart attack in the early hours of December 21st. Niyazov renamed himself Turkmenbashi, the Father of the Turkmen, penned a spiritual work called the Ruhnama, which became required reading...
Costa Rica Blog Wrapup: CAFTA, Christmas and arts.
Highlights from Costa Rica's blogs these past weeks. We have more on the CAFTA, complaints on Christmas, and posts on artistic and cultural events. We'll begin with a touch of humour: Lachi in Prueba de Artista posts a video taken during an Anime-manga event where they got an undesired dose...
Arabisc: Moroccan Authorities Lack Humour, says Blogger
In Morocco, a newspaper is being sued for publishing an article on jokes which Moroccans enjoy. Blogger Hjiouij thinks its not discussing religious issues that the authorities object to in print but rather any attempt to ridicule Moroccan King Mohammed the Fifth. قبل دقائق خمس أعلنت التلفزة الرسمية أن الوزير...
Philippines: US Soldier Convicted of Rape
Early this month, US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith was found guilty by a local court of raping a Filipina woman while three other co-accused soldiers were acquitted. This was the first time a US soldier was tried by a local court ever since the government allowed the entry of...
The Shadowy World of 419, Posing With a Crocodile And Santa Claus in Ouagadougou
What happens when scammers go digital? The result is the shadowy world of 419. Scribbles from the Den, a Cameroonian blog, has a post about these scammers “I Go Chop Your Dollar”: 20/20 Goes into the Shadowy World of Nigerian Internet Scammers: The email usually pops unannounced in your mailbox...
Freedom of speech and music celebrations in the Moroccan Blogosphere
Many different subjects were in the spotlight last week, in the Moroccan blogosphere. I'll start with Farid and his interesting numbers (Fr) about blogging in Morocco. Then comes Reda who found out, thanks to Shimon Peres, that there is a connection between laziness and Islam(Fr). The European Union is a...
Brunei Marathon 2006
Brunei Marathon 2006: A Wet Affair From SoulJah's Flickr Photos under CC attribution license On Sunday, the 10th of December, 2006, some very excited Bruneians and non-Bruneians gathered in Bandar Seri Begawan, the sleepy capital city of Brunei Darussalam to participate in the Second Brunei Marathon. The route was expansive,...
Delhi Summit Reflections: We ARE the People of the Year.
As global voices editors, authors, community members, and allies convened our second annual summit in Delhi this weekend, TIME magazine dedicated its “person of the year” to YOU: people around the world who are taking media creation into their own hands. (Photo by Jace. Click to enlarge.) The TIME article...
The World Championship of Brazilian 2.0 Football
Brazilians still have fresh memories of the defeat of the national team in the last World Cup in Germany, when the group of international shining stars was unable to show the needed will to win on the field. As a result, Porto Alegre's Internacional triumph in the Club World Cup...
To hell you f***ing murderer…to hell…go and meet your other chums who are burning in hell now!!!!
(or Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome) These were the words of, normally, mild-mannered blogger Marshmallow26 to the news that her uncle's neighborhood had been blown to pieces by a suicide bomber who had aimed his load at one of the houses but in his hurry killed no one but himself....
Lebanon: Hassan Nassrallah
The secretary general of Hezbollah S H Nassrallah and his speech that was directed to the demonstrators partaking in the sit-in protest in Beirut was the subject of many posts in the Lebanese blogs this week. And as usual, the opinions are as diverse as the political point of views...
GV Summit Delhi '06 Session Four: Tools and Technology
The room is alive with post-coffee buzz, as this session, led by Salam Adil and Preetam Rai, tries to get under the skin of the tools and technology that would broaden out the range of people writing and reading blogs worldwide. In Salam’s twist on GV’s tagline, The world is...
Bangladesh: Remembering genocide and celebrating victory day
Some days are very special for a nation. 16th December is one such day for Bangladesh. Drishtipat Blog remembers the independence of Bangladesh 35 years ago. Time magazine December 20, 1971 named it “the bloody birth of Bangladesh“. For those who do not know why it is called so, Mash...
The Saudis are Still Talking
In this week's roundup: Human Rights Watch's recent visit to Saudi Arabia, a recent poll showing Saudi Arabia to be the fifth least corrupt country in the world, Turki Al-Faisal's resignation from being Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, and much more. Rasheed has done a great job covering...
GV Summit Delhi ‘06 Session Three: Language and Translation
David Sasaki has put together a remarkable session on translation at the Global Voices conference. It begins with a conversation led by John “Feng 37″ Kennedy in Chinese between the half dozen Chinese speakers in the room, then a five-person conversation in Swahili, led by Ndesanjo Macha, then a lively...
A First Round-Up of the Sudanese Blogosphere
Today in the Sudanese blogosphere, we notice a variety of opinions on different topics. Black Kush from South Sudan has 2 posts entitled “How Egypt is woeing South Sudan” where you’ll find an interesting exchange between him and an Egyptian. It was no surprise when the news came out that...