· December, 2007

Stories about Western Europe from December, 2007

Lusosphere: Wishes and hopes for 2008

  31 December 2007

The new year is inevitably soon arriving and the Lusosphere is booming with posts about traditions, resolutions, wishes, and reflections. Here is a short roundup of Portuguese speaking blogs from Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Mozambique and Portugal - although countries far apart, they share the language and hopes for a better future.

Ethiopia: Queen of Sheba, Now Available in French

  30 December 2007

Francophone music blog Roots and Culture interviews Samuel Malher, a religious scholar from Strasbourg who has written the first unabridged French translation of the Kebra Negast, a sacred Ethiopian text. It describes the heritage of the Ethiopian monarchs, who trace their lineage to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and how the Ethiopians became God's new chosen people when the Ark of the Covenant was taken from Israel to Ethiopia.

Egypt: Rama Yade

  25 December 2007

Rama Yade, France's Secretary of State, has inspired Egyptian blogger Eastern Bird to write the following post, which Tarek Amr translates from Arabic.

Bangladesh: The Musée Guimet affair

  24 December 2007

From January 2008 the Musée Guimet of France is holding an exhibition of the masterpieces of Ganges from the collections of the Bangladesh museums for the first time outside of Bangladesh. From the museum catalogue: “Bangladesh possesses an immensely important cultural heritage, this arising from the fact that the eastern...

Portugal: The best Portuguese blog 2007

  17 December 2007

“Welcome to the best blog in Portugal”. Bitaites [pt] celebrates having been chosen as the best national blog at the MBP07 and explains the reasons why they might have won the prize.

Africa: A balance of the summit

  10 December 2007

“Despite the bad auguries predicted by many, the conference was held. In spite of the bad foreboding of cynics, none of subjects was a taboo, from Zimbabwe to Darfur, from human rights to good governance”. Vital Moreira [pt] analyses the outcome of the summit between the European Union and African...

Lusosphere: Are you hetero?

  8 December 2007

Earlier this week, Global Voices published an article about an advertising campaign in Guatemala which had raised a few eyebrows among local bloggers. More or less at the same time of this publication, some other bloggers in Portugal were celebrating a victory: the day on which a beer company gave...

Out of Africa

  8 December 2007

“Africa needs not only better leaders, human rights, respect for others. It needs a freer Europe, to be more respected by the West and… globalization”. David Dinis talks about the summit that will gather the 7-nation European Union and the 53-member African Union this Saturday in Lisbon at O Insubmisso...