· July, 2007

Stories about Western Europe from July, 2007

India: Holy Bull and Tuberculosis

  31 July 2007

Pickled Politics has a message from a mailing list, on the recent controversy in the UK, when a bull belonging to a Hindu temple was put down after being diagnosed with tuberculosis.

Madagascar: Community, Identity and the Malagasy diaspora

  27 July 2007

As it is sometimes the case for sub-Saharan African nations, the Malagasy diaspora carries a substantial weight of the cultural, political and virtual activities related to Madagascar. In the World Wide Web, the bandwidth limitation is a major encumbrance to a larger participation of bloggers from Madagascar in the global...

Egypt: Soccer Counters Terrorism, Blogger Helps Drug Addict, Blogging Egypt's History and More

In this week's round-up from Egypt there are so many intertwined stories. One blogger is asking: what is the relation between soccer and terrorism? We also have an interesting story by Isis, (Egypt-The Reality), who is helping a drug addict because of a blog post. Egypt-Napoleon's history is being profiled in a new blog and can a new fatwa (religious opinion) bring imprisoned Egyptian blogger Karim Amer back to life? There is also a follow up on the 11-year-old mother by Zeinobia.

Tanzania: Swiss government removes all tariffs and quotas

  24 July 2007

Gillian writes about the decision by the Swiss government to remove all tarrifs on trade with Tanzania: “The Swiss government has removed all tariffs and quotas standing in the way of Tanzanian exports destined for Switzerland. The new regulations came into force in April 2007, and are expected to benefit...

Poland: Posts on Politics

The beatroot writes about a homophobic gay icon, alcohol consumption data, an “unbelievable new alliance” of two Polish politicians, President Lech Kaczynski's meeting with George W. Bush, and one politician's anti-German rhetoric.

Africa: UNICEF ends “black face” campaign

  22 July 2007

UNICEF has decided to end their “Black Face” campaign: “African American Opinion Pundit decided to write to UNICEF about their “black face” campaign. And their response: Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We agree — these advertisements are not appropriate and run against UNICEF’s mission. They have been...

France: Protest against BNP & Denis Sassou-Nguesso

  22 July 2007

Congopage announces a demonstration (Fr) set to take place Saturday, July 28 in front of the offices of BNP-PARIBAS, Paris to protest the French oil giant's alleged involvement in  Congo-Brazzaville's President, Denis Sassou-Nguesso's theft of millions of dollars of public funds.  Sarkozy and Sassou-Nguesso are quite cozy.

Benin: Debating, feting Voodoo

  22 July 2007

Benninese blogger Blaise Aplogan writes about the upcoming festival of Voodoo, set to take place in Paris this week, and the ongoing Voodoo debate (Fr): “More and more, prophetic religions, notably Christianity, are investing in a dialogue with traditional African religions…[and] traditional African religious leaders are asking themselves what meaning...

Bahrain: Does A PlayStation 2 Gun Count As A Weapon?

Bahrain's bloggers have moved on this week to comment on a protest held outside the Iranian Embassy in protest against an editorial by Iranian editor Hossein Shariatmadari, which started that Bahrain should become a part of Iran. Others talk about Embassy interviews for Visas, the release of a Guantanamo detainee, why Bahrain is vying to build the highest skyscraper and preparing for the new release of Harry Potter.

Eastern Europe: Swedish Blog Update 2007

In his comprehensive review, Vilhelm Konnander writes that, unfortunately, Swedish foreign minister is no longer blogging about Eastern European affairs, but otherwise, "the Swedish blogosphere on Eastern Europe is undergoing expansion and some of the necessary stabilisation to form the dynamic density needed for a blog community. [...] A disadvantage for the international audience is that blogs, with few exceptions, are in Swedish."

Africa: save the dirty little African children

  18 July 2007

A UNICEF Germany campaign that will definitely anger many Africans and friends of Africa: This is an actual ad-campaign by UNICEF Germany! This campaign is “blackfacing“ white children with mud to pose as “uneducated africans“. The headline translates “This Ad-campaign developped pro bono by the agency Jung von Matt/Alster shows...