· March, 2008

Stories about Weblog from March, 2008

Tajikistan: Politicized Navruz

Navruz is one of the main celebrations for Tajiks. This time — more than ever — it means end of one of the harshest winter in several decades. People could...

27 March 2008

China: Vlogger helped Child Labor back to School

Xu Alun, a vlogger hammering away at a point that "truth is power", exposed a moving story of three child coal haulers in Biji, a small city in the south of China, and with an effective advocacy of QQ groups, the story tended to circulate immediately, arousing great public concern.

27 March 2008

India: Tata, Jaguar and Rover.

Earlier today it was announced that Tata Motors of India is acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motors, which was once one of three automotive giants of Michigan. Tata’s...

26 March 2008

Cuba: Blocking Bloggers

Want to get the Cuban blogosphere talking? Block access to a popular blog. Ever since Cuban authorities did just that to several less-than-supportive Havana-based blogs earlier this week, the blogging...

26 March 2008

South Africa: We'll argue with our parents and play video games!

Earlier this week, President Thabo Mbeki proposed that an oath be recited by school children every day in a nation-building effort. Breaking News says that the Opposition Democratic Alliance Leader, Jack Bloom, had welcomed the effort. However, South African bloggers have another idea entirely.

26 March 2008

Ecuador: The Aftermath of the Border Crisis

On the outside, it appeared as if the governments of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela reached an agreement over the border conflict that took place earlier this month. However, tensions continue to be high and diplomatic relations have not returned to normal, especially after a photograph was published in a Colombian newspaper claiming that the Ecuadorian defense minister met with the fallen FARC leader Raúl Reyes. However, it was revealed the man in the photograph was not the government official as indicated causing more tension, and bloggers from Ecuador write about this mistake.

26 March 2008

Argentina: Web Entrepreneurs in Palermo Valley

Web 2.0 entrepreneurs from Argentina gathered in a new Buenos Aires neighborhood called "Palermo Valley." The interest in these gatherings demonstrate that there are many projects in development, as well as many others who want to learn what it takes. These get-togethers attracted attendees who heard about the event through blogs and twitter messages, and also motivated others in Costa Rica and Chile to put on their own events for local entrepreneurs.

25 March 2008

Taiwan: Support for Tibet

For Tibetan independence movement, most Taiwanese support and sympathize Tibetans, and many people changed their twitter profile figure to the flag of Tibet which represents Tibetan independence movement. ‘Free Tibet’...

25 March 2008

March Madness in Kuwait

Just as there is March Madness in the US, the phenomena seems to have spread to Kuwait - not for basketball but elections. Abdullatif Al Omar brings us the Kuwaiti bloggers reactions to the resignation of their government, the dissolving of Parliament and the looming elections in June.

25 March 2008

Taiwan: Racial Commercials Everywhere

On Taiwan's TV screens there is a commercial about drawing lots of cars. In this commercial, a woman with south-east Asia look is driving a car, and the subtitle says:”How...

25 March 2008

World Water Day Ripples Across Videos.

Every year since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, on March 22nd has been the World Water Day. In addition, this year it is the United Nation´s International Year of Sanitation and people from all over have started taking action through their video cameras, raising awareness at the importance of this finite resource.

24 March 2008

Tunisia: relentless campaign against imprisoned blogger and journalist Slim Boukhdhir

In the last few weeks, Slim Boukhdhir, the 39-year old imprisoned blogger and journalist, is reported to have been subjected to an unusual level of harassment by prison authorities where he is serving the one-year sentence imposed by a Tunisian court on December 4th, 2007. His wife, Dalenda Boukhdhir, told Global Voices that the prison authorities placed Slim in “dry cell” for three days, from 20-23 March, 2008, turning off the water in his cell so he couldn't wash.

24 March 2008

Japan: The New Era of Video

Last Friday, Japan's national broadcaster aired a special on the "New Era of Video" predicting changes in the industry of broadcast television that will shake the foundation of mass media. But why would a broadcaster as big as NHK air a TV special about the end of TV? Wouldn't that be against its own interests? Blogger Kobayashi Akihito asked if there wasn't more to the NHK special than meets the eye.

24 March 2008

China: Bloggers declare war on Western media's Tibet coverage

Once the news of Tibetans slicing children's ears off and burning people alive sunk in, Chinese netizens worldwide seized onto initial misreported details from the situation in Tibet and don't seem willing to let this one go. In fact, they've declared cyberwar on major western media outlets, and anti-CNN.com is campaign headquarters.

24 March 2008

Paraguay: Candidates Using Blogs to Reach Voters

Paraguay’s Presidential elections will be held on April 20, 2008. Many of the top presidential candidates, such as Fernando Lugo and Blanca Ovelar are using blogs as a way to communicate with potential voters. The blogs are published in one of Paraguay’s mains newspapers called Diario ABC.

24 March 2008

Some additions to the Global Voices home page

Over the course of the four-plus years the project has been in existence, Global Voices has grown into much more than the summaries of global blog commentary which take up most of the space on our home page. In case you haven't already noticed, we recently made a few changes to the Global Voices home page which give greater prominence and allow easier access to the various components of the project.

24 March 2008

Blogger of the Week: Abdulrahman Warsame

Today's Blogger of the Week series features yet another global voice - Abdulrahman Warsame, who amplifies the reactions of Somali bloggers on Global Voices Online. A Somali born in Saudi Arabia, educated in Egypt and Australia, and currently working for Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar, as a Senior Analyst in New Media, Warsame shares his thoughts on blogging in his country and the rest of the Arab world.

23 March 2008