Stories about Western Europe from June, 2006
Brazil: Caetano Veloso's Biography
France-based Togolese bloggerKangni Alem writes (Fr): “Even though modesty is not Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso's forte, he has great talent as an agitator. He also exhibits phenomenal memory in the intellectual autobiography that was prompted by the New York Times to recount the birth of the artistic and musical movement...
Appreciating Caribbean writing
A New York Times article about a new anthology of Jamaican writing published by a US press gets Geoffrey Philp thinking about why North Americans may not be as open to Caribbean writing as their British counterparts: “The reader has to be willing to shed notions of what is and...
DRC: France-Based UDPS Member Released
UDPS Liege announces (Fr) that “French authorities have come to their senses and freed (…) Yves Muko who was arrested Saturday 6/17/06 at Roissy Charles de Gaulle [airport] by the French police. Through his freeing, French authorities acknowledge the righteousness and nobility of UDPS’ struggle.” The party “nevertheless condemns the...
Spain: Music: CC Licensed Compilation
Eduardo Arcos and Fernando Casale both comment on the release of a Creative Commons-licensed compilation by the Spanish newspaper El País. The album is freely available for download.
Blogs& Beers with José Luis Orihuela
José Luis Orihuela (ES) is visiting Chile invited by International Communication Conference and Workshop (ES) . Taking this unique opportunity, different blogers invite José Luis to talk with Chilean blogers in the meeting Blogs&Beers. José Luis talked about liquid journalism, and other distinctions such as instead of saying participate journalists...
Global Food Blog Report #22
#1: Klephblog, no doubt over-caffeinated, writes "How Coffee changed the Modern World," a great essay about this fruit of the Gods: This wondrous plant is a native of the new world and was sprung on an unsuspecting European public as these shores became colonized in the 15th century. By the...
Lusosphere blogs report the latest political twists in East Timor
Since the last report from the lusophone blogosphere, the crisis in East Timor has evolved with the country now divided between the President Xanana Gusmão and the Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri. Once again, reading about the situation in the Anglophone media tells a quite different story from what appears in...
DRC: Kudos to Le Monde
Le Blog du Congolais points to a recent article by Le Monde on mining in the Katanga and says (Fr): “At last, Le Monde has decided to break from the dominant tendency in western media to report on the Congo what they are dictated by biased high European Commissaries, Belgian...
Poland: “Sex Slaves” Rumor
The beatroot writes that despite the worries of “Polish nuns, green feminists and George W. Bush,” there are no 100,000 East European “sex slaves” servicing the World Cup fans in Germany: “Sex slavery exists, for sure, but 100,000 women being imported into Germany? Surely most of the fans there are...
Russia: Butovo Land Dispute
The recent land dispute between Moscow city authorities and residents of Butovo, a suburb just outside the capital's beltway (MKAD), included such dramatic elements as a tent camp, bulldozers and riot police. Ilya Yashin (LJ user yashin), leader of the youth wing of the Russian social-liberal party Yabloko, writes about...
Sri Lanka, UK: Culture and Bridges
London, Lanka and Drums on the Sri Lankan festivities in London. “Trafalgar Square was buzzing when we arrived at about midday. The band was starting to soundcheck, the usual stuff with a bloke counting into all the different microphones, the drummer doing a bit, the singer poncing around on stage...
France, Various Africa, Middle East: France goes easy on mercenary
“The French again have demonstrated that crimes committed abroad in developing nations shouldn't necessarily be punished,” writes an outraged Fontaine, who reports that a French mercenary, who has also been implicated in several coups or coup attempts in other countries, has received only a five-year suspended sentence after having been...
Belarus: Two Activists Awarded in Sweden
Vilhelm Konnander reports on two Belarusian human rights activists who have been awarded Swedish prizes for their work.
Immigration Checks in French Hospitals
Senegalese blogger Semett posts (Fr) a Medecins du Monde petition protesting the new French policy of conducting immigration checks in hospitals. Excerpt from the petition (Fr): “The right to care is inscribed in the preamble to the French constitution. It is a fundamental human right. It must never be used...
Martinique: Joseph Zobel, Author of Sugar Cane Alley, Dies
Le Blog de [Moi] announces (Fr): “Martiniquan writer Joseph Zobel, author of the novel Rue Cases-Negres [a.k.a Sugar Cane Alley or Black Shack Alley in English] (brought to the big screen by Euzhan Palcy), passed away Saturday (June 17) at the age of 91 (…) in the Gard where he...
World Cup Cultural Treasures from the Lusosphere
All three Lusophone countries, Angola, Brazil and Portugal, are still in the contest for the World Cup. As anyone could guess, there is little chance of finding any relevant blogging outside of the World Cup theme in the always diverse Portuguese speaking blogosphere. As the Lusophone citizen media makes its...
South Korea: France VS Korea in World Cup
Even though the France VS South Korea Match is considered a boring one, there are still 60 plus comments in dissidentdave's match description post in the Marmot's hole. One of the comments goes like this: Dave, I’m korean as well and I admitted i think at least twice in different...
Haiti: Telecom Wars
Digicel billboard, Martinique. By blogger Greg at InternetRapide.com. Jamaica-based Caribbean telecom giant Digicel has a presence in over a dozen countries in the region. Digicel officially launched operations on the Haitian market in May to much resistance from local private telecoms Haitel and Comcel but bloggers and other web commentators...
New Caledonia, Francophones and Cricket
Over at 5 Minutes en Nouvelle Caledonie, Sebastien who lives in New Caledonia but is originally from continental France writes (Fr) a post that shows how little cricket resonates with most of the French-speaking world : “While the world focuses on soccer, I want to introduce you to a less...
Fed Up with Soccer Office Talk
Oliviermr2 writes (Fr): “Thank God for the weekend! I can finally take a break from all my “soccer specialist” co-workers who feel obligated to comment in detail on all of the previous day's 3 matches going: ‘he should have done this, he should have done that’ and blahblahblah… I like...
Indonesia: World Cup Fever & Minister Blog
Despite Indonesia never reaches final round of Football/Soccer World Cup post-1945 of its independence, soccer has always been the most favorite sports ever in the country. So, no wonder then if majority of Indonesian bloggers give one or two postings dedicated to the biggest event on earth now being held...