Stories about Western Europe from January, 2007
Haiti, France: Creole Language Catholic Mass in Marseilles
Collectif Haiti de Provence reports (Kr) on a Creole language mass that took place last Sunday in Marseilles, France for the Haitian community there: “More than 120 people showed up in their Sunday best. Restless young men weren't very excited about the music and hymns but they still showed up…...
Argentina, Spain, USA: Technorati to Launch WTF?
Argentinian native and Spanish citizen Martin Varsavsky writes on his Spanish blog [ES]: “[Technorati founder, David Sifry] showed me what he is really going to do and how he is going to launch it. And I suggested a modification that he liked a lot, but that it will take a...
Kazakhstan: German Relations
Ben Paarmann reports on the meeting between the leaders of Kazakhstan and Germany during which Germany offered support for Kazakhstan's bid to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Palestine: Anti-Semites Increasing in Europe
Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah wonders why anti-Israeli sentiments are on the increase. He quotes Haaretz saying: “…the number of anti-Semitic incidents rose significantly in Europe last year, according to a joint study released Sunday by the Jewish Agency’s Forum for the Coordination of the Struggle Against Anti-Semitism.” He also links...
South Asia: Forced marriages in the UK
A House of Lords discussion in the UK on forced marriages covered at Pickled Politics. “Lord Lester said that on the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery, it was scandalous that we were turning a blind eye to the sexual and domestic slavery of women; he said is was fully...
Swahili Blogosphere: CIA's Role in the Zanzibar Revolution, Bloggers Association, The Wretched of the Earth, and Protesting UK's $12M Secret Payment
Following their virtual conference last November, Tanzanian bloggers are currently discussing the details of the organization they are intending to form. A blog has been set up by the interim committe, to facilitate the process. So far, they have chosen the name for the organization, Jumuiya ya Wanablogu Tanzania (the...
Africa: French Double-Standard Vis-a-Vis China
Says Generation Consciente (Fr): “I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry about the French giving ethics lectures to the Chinese presence in Africa, urging them to encourage democracy and peace, as France itself hasn't ceased doing so for a half century through coups, killings of nationalist leaders and...
Central Asia: European Policy
Registan.net writes about German proposals for a new European Union policy on Central Asia, and neweurasia responds, wondering why we don't hear more on Europe's efforts to renew ties with the region.
Why Independence for Quebec but not Guadeloupe?
Convention pour une Nouvelle Guadeloupe notes (Fr) that French Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal has endorsed the Quebecois party's principle of Quebecois independence. The blog continues: “We notice once more the double standard of socialist conservatives who share the goal of Quebecois Independence but reject the same outcome for Guadeloupe.”...
Martinique: Homophobia and Segolene Royal's Socialist Party
The French Socialist Party's presidential candidate Segolene Royal. Photo by Manuel MC. Le Blog de [Moi], the blog of an out Martiniquan lesbian, tackled a budding controversy in local Martiniquan politics last week. Martinique, though in the Americas, is a French Overseas Department (what the French call a D.O.M.) and...
Nigeria/UK: wishing Big Brother was about racism
“I wish Big Brother was about racism,” writes Akin, “I have convinced myself that I do need to wade into this Big Brother saga because I have not seen much that addresses the fundamental problem that has been blanketed by racism and in doing so absolved us from identifying what...
India: Big Brother and Racism
The racism controversy surrounding the reality TV show in UK – Big Brother finds a lot of blogs picking up the issue. Pickled Politics has a thriving comments thread with reflections on racism and bullying, and Shoefiend says “While they’re definitely being ignorant, stupid and mean, the fact that the...
Senegal: How Wade Tried to Bribe a French Journalist
Kangni Alem writes (Fr):” In a book titled Les Sorciers Blancs [The White Sorcerers] which will be launched Jan.17 by [French publishing house] Fayard, L'Express reporter Vincent Hugeux shows how President Wade tried to bribe Thierry Oberle, a journalist for Figaro.”
Argentina's King Fish, Panama's Year, and Easy Kerala Parotta
#1: Jeremy Shapiro, the Chef behind Stir the Pots, narrates his adventures during his trip to the Ecuadorean Andes: The array of colors and smell was inspiring as a chef.All I needed were my knives, a stove and a kitchen!What surprised me about such a humble town was the cleanliness...
Missing in Cambodia: Eddie Gibson
It was in October 2004, when 19-year-old Eddie Gibson traveled to Cambodia from Thailand and went missing. Until today nobody knows the whereabouts of the English backpacker. The parents are now in Cambodia and they have offered a reward for information on Eddie Gibson. His last email to his mother,...
Serbia: On Travelling to Europe
Anegdote shares a gruelling and humiliating European travel experience that many citizens of the former Soviet bloc can relate to.
Europe: Migration
Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar posts some “more migrating piffle.”
Cuba, Spain: Hotel apartheid
Noticiero Cuba reports (ES) that Fito Cabrales, a rocker from Bilbao, Spain, has publicly criticised the system of “apartheid” which bars Cuban nationals from entering hotels on the island. The post notes that “the majority” of these hotels are run by Spanish hotel operators.
Lusosphere Debate Over Saddam's Last Scene
Despite the dreadful subject, Saddam's execution has become the very symbol of an year that has definitely changed the media as we knew it. The empowered delivery of citizen content through web 2.0 services and news sites is providing a totally new environment for news distribution, and the effects of...
Toward a Francophone Global Voices
Tunisian blogger Sami Ben Gharbia on the Global Voices summit recently held in Delhi, India (Fr): “A will to build a francophone version of Global Voices and to spread the Global Voices China experiment was expressed. The first objective consists in translating in French what is written in English on...
