Stories from 1 February 2006
Kazakhstan: Reaching West
Ben Paarmann explains how Kazakhstan can take advantage of European fears about the reliability of Russia as an energy supplier.
Poland: Political Alliance
the beatroot reports that the UK's Conservative Party intends to team up with the Polish Law and Justice Party in the EU parliament.
Turkmenistan: Pensions Slashed
neweurasia discusses reports of panic spreading across Turkmenistan following the announcement of drastic pension and disability cuts.
The Week That Was – Bolivian Blogs
Few knew quite what to expect during President Evo Morales’ first week in office. After the worldwide attention of the inauguration had settled, proposed policy decisions would draw the attention and critique from some of the bloggers. Undoubtedly many of the new policies are very different from previous administrations and...
Russia: The land of juice
Russian Marketing Blog says that the every kind of juice imaginable is available in Russia, and that juice makers are still coming up with strange combinations for customers.
Argentina: More Free, Creative Commons Music
Fernando Casale reviews the album (ES), “Eleven Songs Written in the Bathroom” by Argentine singer, Esteban Gómez whose project, Madreocéano (Mother Ocean) has its own weblog and website where the the entire Creative Commons-licensed album is freely available for download. Sebas leaves a comment on Casale's review lamenting the fact...
Mexico, Argentina, Nepal: Cricket, Football, and Globalization
Once again proving the mysterious ways of globalization, Tony Munro writes about cricket in Mexico while Radheshyam Dahal says that Nepal is full of devotees to legendary Argentinean soccer player, Diego Maradona.
Guatemala: Conflict at Nueva Linda Cattle Ranch
Rob Mercatante publishes a bulletin about an ongoing labor conflict at the Nueva Linda cattle ranch in Camperico, Guatemala which recently left four employees injured by private security forces.
Argentina, Spain: Blogs and Translation
Martin Varsavsky, an Argentinean living in Spain, explains why he has six blogs in two different languages. He then adds, “I rarely translate my blogs. I don´t believe in translation. I believe in cultures and I say raise different issues in different languages; something that frequently annoys my Spanish readers...
Chile: Streets Open to Bicycles
Chilean citizen journalist, Ramiro Octavio Garcia Strohm describes the mixed reactions to Chile's recent car-free day of recreation. The festival, copied from a similar event in Colombia, is known as “Ciclorecreovia” and closes streets to cars in favor of bicycles.
India: Music and women
India: Music and women
India: Maxim And India
India: Maxim And India
Bangladesh: Remembering Shah AMS Kibria
Bangladesh: Remembering Shah AMS Kibria
Nepal: More violence
Nepal: More violence
Pakistan: By the sea
Pakistan: By the sea
From the African Union Summit to Darfur—Musings about Sudan
The 6th African Union (AU) summit took place in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum from 16-24 January 2004. Key on the agenda was who should succeed the Nigerian president as the next African Union chairperson. Tradition dictates that the leader of the host country should become the next chairperson. However,...
Trinidad & Tobago: Faux-Westminster
In the aftermath of the Blair government's humiliating defeat over a bill to combat religious hatred, Jonathan Ali compares Trinidad & Tobago's political system with that of Great Britain, calling the former “a faux-Westminster system of government”.
Iran: Dead End?
Mr. Behi, Iran based blogger, writes ” I do not like to write about this nuclear stuff that much because news and media are doing so a lot. I never loved war because I saw a missile exploded 500m from my apartment killing one of my best friends, I was...
China: Exporting Language
What's China's hottest export? Language! says Horse's Mouth. “I always laugh to myself when I speak with fellow business majors and they tell me they're studying a language such as French or Italian for their required second language. What's the point?” Chinese is the tongue of the future.
Taiwan: The World is Not That
Michael Turton picks apart global know-it-all Thomas Friedman's myths, mistaken conclusions and mischaracterizations of Taiwan so as to shoehorn it into his popular theories. “Friedman's uninformed screed highlights a desperate need for newspapers to draw on the writing of recognized experts in their fields, and more importantly, for academics to...
Thailand: Tearjerkers
Brain farts (and other inane crap) spends an afternoon in Thailand watching Korean films that make her cry and asks “Why do we re-watch movies that we know are going to make us cry? Is there some deep psychological reason why we like to revisit sad movies? Or am I...
