Stories about South Asia from August, 2010
Bhutan's New Dream Town
Bhutan's well planned and executed development of Bajo Town is going to make it a dream town for many Bhutanese and foreign tourists, according to Passu Diary.
India: Tell Your Story With Twitter Tales
Mathew Ingram at Giga Om informs that Twitter has introduced ‘Twitter Tales‘, a collection of stories from users about how the service has helped them or affected their lives. @natashabadhwar, an Indian tweep from New Delhi was featured in the life section.
Pakistan Flood Incident Reporting System Based On Ushahidi
Raza Rumi at Pak Tea House reports in details about the Ushahidi Crowdmap engine powered Pakistan Flood Incident Reporting site, which acts as a crowd-sourcing “data portal designed to gather comprehensive and dynamic information on disaster-related variables”.
Bangladesh made boat reaches France
Bangladesh Watchdog informs that an ‘unsinkable eco-friendly’ boat made of jute fibre has reached the coast of La Ciotat, South of France after an eight month long journey from Bangladesh. The mission of the sail was to highlight the problems Bangladeshi fishermen are facing due to global warming.
Bhutan: Civil Service Examination Needs Revision
Tomlax at Kuzu-Bhutan Weblog opines that the present method of evaluating the candidates in Civil Service Examination is not fair and practical and needs revision.
Maldives: Homosexuality Criminalized
The Rainbow Maldivian reminds tourists that homosexuality is criminalized in Maldives with punishment like 10 to 30 lashes and/or jail terms.
Google assists Pakistan flood relief efforts
Jehan Ara at In The Line Of Fire informs that: “Google has created a crisis response page (Urdu) that hosts a variety of tools and compiles information about the disaster, including the latest news from local media sources, any available satellite imagery of the affected areas, and ways to donate...
India: Monitoring traffic violations on Facebook
A new initiative by the Delhi Traffic Police is highlighting questions of citizen engagement and government use of social media in India.
A Quiet Independence Day for Pakistan
Given all the pain and gloom that surrounds the life of an ordinary Pakistani today, it is no surprise that this year's independence day was a quiet affair. Bloggers assert that the nation is still strong enough to bounce back.
Pakistan: Mobile Operators Respond to Flood Relief Calls
There are a number of international mobile operators in Pakistan who are responding to flood relief requirements. Telecomistan blog highlights that approximately PKR 238 million in funds have been pledged by three Mobile Operators as donation.
Nepal: Indian Policy On Nepal
Dr. Hari Bansha Dulal comments on the recent Indian efforts to broker Nepal's stalemate in choosing a new Prime Minister: “India's policy toward Nepal is seriously flawed. It wants to turn Nepal into a subservient client state like Bhutan”.
Pakistan: Killings In Balochistan
Apart from the recent devastating floods Pakistan has other problems to tackle. Hamid Abbasi at Chowrangi points out to the recent brutal ethnic killings of Punjabis by members of a terrorist/liberation movement in Balochistan.
India: Mumbai Bloggers Meet
Mumbai Metblogs reports about a recent bloggers meet in Mumbai hosted by Indiblogger.in and compiles some Twitter reactions on the event tagged by #indimum.
Sri Lanka: The Sri Lankan Malays
Frangipaniii at 1985 Mosquito Bites shares what it is like to be a Sri Lankan Malay: “the community of between 50,000 – 70,000 people in Sri Lanka currently share a language – a derivative of Malay spoken in South East Asia and a culture that is going through some rapid...
Pakistan: Sluggish Help For The Flood Victims
Osama Bin Javaid criticizes the sluggish response of the Pakistan government and the international community to help the flood victims in Pakistan. The blogger asserts: “the world must DO MORE and do it NOW.”
Pakistan Floods: Why Should We Care?
Ethan Casey tries to widen awareness of the massive devastation of the Pakistan floods beyond stereotypes which are present in the West. The post includes some links to organizations for donations to flood relief for the victims.
Bangladesh: Online Journalism And Multimedia
Mahadi Hasan Talukder, an online journalist, comments on the slow speed internet in Bangladesh and the phenomenon of media portals not using multimedia options properly to assist online journalists.
Bangladesh: International Internet Gateways Do Not Support IPv6
Ahamed Bauani is concerned that the two International Internet Gateways (IIGW) operational in Bangladesh do not support IPv6 and “do not have any plan to do so”. The blogger advocates for creating a group to pressurize the government to take step to connect Bangladesh with IPv6 network via IIGW.
Pakistan: Under-reporting of Non-Muslims
Yasser Latif Hamdani at Pak Tea House says that under-reporting of Non-Muslims is a major problem as “it only paints Pakistan as an intolerant society”.
India: The Blackberry Debate
The Acorn discusses in details about the current dispute with RIM, provider of Blackberry’s messaging system, and the Indian government over encrypted messages and intercepting the communications for state security.
Nepal: Leadership Vacuum Continues
More than a month after the resignation of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, the Himalayan country Nepal is still without a leader. Four rounds of elections have failed to produce a clear winner, another round is scheduled for August 18th.