· September, 2009

Stories about Western Europe from September, 2009

Serbia: The Death of a French Football Fan

  30 September 2009

Brice Taton, a 28-year-old French citizen and a fan of the Toulouse football team, was brutally beaten by fans of the Partizan football team in downtown Belgrade on Sept. 17, before the Partizan vs Toulouse game. He died in a Belgrade hospital on Sept. 29.

Poland: Sexual Crimes and Roman Polanski

  30 September 2009

Polandian writes about Poland's plans to legalize chemical castration for those who commit sexual crimes against minors – and about the arrest of Roman Polanski in Switzerland and the Polish foreign minister's intention to ask the U.S. president to pardon the film director: “Now, if the 1977 charge had been...

Czech Republic: Temelín Nuclear Power Plant

  29 September 2009

The Journeys of Captain Oddsocks writes about the Temelín nuclear power plant, which has been in the news recently “because of a controversial and overpriced contract awarded to a shady company whose former director was recently jailed for planning the violent abduction of his replacement.”

People with disabilities and the promise of ICTs

  29 September 2009

More than 600 million people in the world live with disabilities. Oftentimes, poverty and disabilities go hand-in-hand. Can the promise of ICTs help disabled people better integrate socially and economically?

Japan: Homeless World Cup

  26 September 2009

Ikeda-san, at Greenz, uploaded some old and recent pictures and videos [ja] of Nobushi Japan, the football team that represented Japan at the Homeless World Cup, the championship held in Milan at the beginning of September.

Tourism and HIV Infection in Thailand

  22 September 2009

A report titled “Why Japanese and Western people are infected with HIV in Thailand” by Doctor Kyo Taniguchi from NPO Gina covers statistics about sex workers and “Love, Marriage, and Hopeless love”.

Can social media help make microfinance sustainable?

  21 September 2009

Microfinance agencies provide loans to small businesspeople who often can’t meet the strict credit terms of large banks. Either these entrepreneurs don’t have the capital or the cash to back the loan. Or as the large banks argue, their credit needs are too small.

A Halal Search Engine for Muslim Internet Users

  18 September 2009

ImHalal.com, a search engine in English launched earlier this month by a Netherlands-based company, only fetches results that are flagged as “Halal” and safe for Muslim users. Blogger Agharass [Fr] comments.

Azerbaijan: 9/11 and Islam

  11 September 2009

A day before posting, Scary Azeri tweeted that she needed to sleep on today's entry for the anniversary of 9/11. To mark the tragic event, the blogger takes a look at perceptions towards Islam in Azerbaijan and the U.K.

France: Secularity, Required for Democracy and Human Rights

  4 September 2009

The French concept of the secular seems so distinctive that even the English-language Wikipedia's entry on the issue uses the French term, laïcité, worded in French, to describe it. Suzanne Lehn explains the very different ways bloggers in the US and France view the separation of church and state.