Stories from 18 July 2005
Inside The Japanese Blogosphere
Ra, a third-generation Korean resident in Japan, who “has a Japanese name, has the same color of skin, the same way of speaking, and watches the same television” as the Japanese, and even so, is still considered a “foreigner in his home country”, is looking for help translating his popular...
Venezuela: The Sumate Files
A new group blog, The Sumate Files has been set up with the purpose of: “compiling the most important articles appearing anywhere on the net and in English mostly. Our objective is to help Sumate resist the witch hunt that Chavez and his followers want to subject Sumate directors to....
Nicaragua: Virgins, Bulls, and Small Town Living
Picasso Dreams keeps the prolific reflections coming after recently moving to a small town in Nicarugua.
Mexico: Weblog Conference Reflections
ALT1040, Isopixel, and eCuaderno all write their initial reflections on the first annual weblogs.communication conference that took place in Mexico City on Friday evening.
Philippines: Parliament of the streets
The Sassy Lawyer (featuring a nice new redesign) notes that the famed ‘parliament of the street’ has lost its credibility.
Sudan: Rainy Season
Humanitarian Hijinks, the anonymous blog of a relief worker in Darfur, notes that it's only a few weeks into the rainy season but it's already starting to flood–not to mention the increased mosquitoes and the attendant malaria risk.
Brand New Malaysian: Guest Editorial – Dr. Farish Noor
Brand New Malaysian has a great guest post about Islam and terrorism up on his front page.
Iran Scan – The democratic future of Iran
Iran Scan is reporting that hunger striker Akbar Ganji has been transferred from prison to a hospital.
Iran: One Dilemma Too Many
Free Thoughts on Iran looks forward to what a Ahmedinejad presidency might bring and is not encouraged.
Saudi Arabia: Anime Culture
Who knew? Saudi Jeans reports that anime culture is making inroads in the kingdom.
El Salvador: People making a difference
Tim links to people and programs making a difference in El Salvador.
Singapore: Bloggers.SG
Bloggers.sg, the Singaporean blog conference, seems to have been a smashing success. Mr.Brown has his intial reactions and a lengthy list of Singapore blogs commenting on the event; this trackback list from Tomorrow.sg lists more blogs commenting on the very popular event. It even spawned its Wikipedia page! Daryl Sng...
Costa Rica: New forum on Costa Rica debuts
Neville Hobson reports of a new Spanish-language forum on Costa Rica started by his wife, Marie Alden, a Costa Rican living in the Netherlands.
India: Tag Cloud on DesiPundit
DesiPundit has added a tag cloud reflecting recent topics of discussion; apparently they've been talking a lot about Harry Potter…
Colombia: La Ciclovia
Bloggings by Boz explains La Civlovia, a Sunday morning tradition which “shuts down several major roads and allows people to bike, rollerblade and run.” Eduardo of Barrio Flores comments that a “Pedestrian Day” is held once a year in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
France: Fête nationale/Bastille day
In beleated celebration of Bastille Day, Blogging in Paris points to some photographs of Bastille Day fireworks.
Germany: Ebay's German success story by Heiko Hebig | hebig.com
Heiko Hebig points out that 51% of German internet users used Ebay.de in the month of May. That's really amazing.
Egypt: Al-Qimni Surrenders
The Big Pharaoh writes about an anti-fundamentalist author who caved into death threats and repudiated his writings. Did he do the right thing?
Colombia: The Anguish of Living Displaced
John Guzman of Logtar's Blog has translated a poweful piece on what it's like to be displaced from Colombia. Guzman, himself a Colombian living abroad, says he relates to many of the author's observations.
Lebanon: Liberation of Dr. Geagea: A Victory for Lebanon
One of Lebanon's major political prisoners won ammesty in the Lebanese Parliament today; Lebanese Political Journal believes that “Lebanon is on the verge of materializing a huge step towards national unity.”
Tunisa: Comparing civilities
It's the little things: Tunisian blogger Neila Charchour Hachicha wrote the British ambassador after the 7/7 bombings, expressing her condolences; the ambassador wrote back with a short but sincere note of thanks. Were that all western powers so careful about nurturing support in the Arab world…
