Stories from 3 March 2006
Vietnam: Cyclo
Virtual Doug chronicles the increasingly rare xích lô (cyclo, or trishaw), which has almost disappeared in Hà Nội and Sài Gòn but “is still hanging on in Huê.”
Thailand: Cracks in the Foundation
The normally apolitical thai-blogs.com gets more political. This time, vdaniel writes about a political coming of age in Thailand as protests against PM Thaksin Shinawatra continue. “The glaring problem in the “land of smiles” is the small hypocrisies that many people in Thailand are willing to overlook. It’s the small...
Slovenia: Spamfighter
Michael of The Glory of Carniola comments on a Slovenian anti-spam program, Spamfighter.
EU: Aid to Palestine Vs Aid to East European Member States
Michael of The Glory of Carniola analyzes the EU's strange funding priorities: in Dec. 2005, it is decided to cut aid to Eastern European member states by 10% – and on Feb. 27, 2006, following the victory of Hamas in Palestine and despite it, the EU pledges “120 million euros...
Diaspora: Offensive degrading adverts
Molara Wood reports on an advert for a film called “Date Movie”. She asks that “If you view the advert as offensive, degrading, or poor taste please take the time to complain to the Advertising Standards Authority which investigates complaints of taste and decency and has upheld similar complaints in...
Ukraine: Our Ukraine's Rumored Future Alliance With Regions of Ukraine
LEvko at Foreign Notes writes of the comparatively inconspicuous campaigning style of Victor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine Bloc, which alienates potential voters but may prove not harmful to the politicians in the end, if they agree to forge an alliance with Victor Yanukovych's Regions of Ukraine Party, the former archrival. One...
Sudan: reject UN peacekeepers
Sudan Reeves reports that Darfur is held hostage as Sudan rejects UN peace keeping forces.……..”Khartoum’s overwhelmingly dominant National Islamic Front (NIF) has, with growing confidence, aggressively rejected a UN peacekeeping force (itself only a distant and almost certainly inadequate means of protection)
Uganda: blocks website
Africa Blogs writes that Uganda is following in the footsteps of China as they have become the first African country to block a website.
Kenya: Footage of raid on press
Mental Acrobatics posts CCTV footage of the raid on the Kenyan newspaper, the Standard by agents of the Kenyan Government. …..The raid were carried out by a rapid response unit code-named the Kanga Squad, detectives from Nairobi provincial CID headquarters and officers from the General Service Unit. They are wearing...
Russia: Racism
Grandiose Parlor comments on a BBC report on the appalling racism faced by African students in Russia
South Africa: local elections
The Fish Bowl reports on the outcome of South Africa's local elections and the performance of the ANC.
Ghana: Debt Relief
The Trials and Tribulations of a Freshly Arrived Denzian writes that he is sick of the arguments on debt relief in Africa referring to an article on “Make Poverty History“.
Russia: Gorbachev's 75th Anniversary Interview
Sean Guillory translates parts of an interview with Mikhail Gorbachev that appeared in the Russian-language Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Gorbachev turned 75 yesterday.
Immigrants in France
France Watcher posts a response to their blog by a reader from France. The person strongly disagrees with the motives and facts of France Watcher – interesting read.
Russia: American Adoption of Children From Russia
W. Shedd of The Accidental Russophile writes about American foreign adoptions and the excessive coverage of the 12 tragic deaths of Russian children at the hands of their American adopted parents (0.03% of approximately 40,000 children adopted since 1996) in the Russian media.
Belarus: Pre-Election Violations and Violence
br23 blog reports on a politically eventful – and alarming – day in Belarus: an opposition candidate gets beaten, detained and charged with criminal offense after tearing the president's posters off the police station walls, thus endangering his chances to run in the upcoming election; several journalists get beaten; police...
China: Death penalty to a purse thief?
Amnesty International calls on the Chinese authorities to review an announcement by the government in the southern province of Guangdong recently, which warned that drive-by handbag snatchers could face the death penalty.
China: The Party is predictable
“An authoritarian China has been highly predictable. A more open and democratic China could produce new uncertainties about both domestic policy and international relations,” says a new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, entitled In the Balance: China's unprecedented growth and implications for the Asia-Pacific, picked up by China...
China: To peg, or not to peg
Sun Bin summarizes a commentary written by Stephen Cheung in the Hong Kong Chinese-language Apple Daily newspaper, which suggests that the Chinese yuan should not be pegged to any foreign currency, but instead to a basket of commodities.
Hong Kong: Who killed Dai Fei?
Glutter takes a deep breath and dives in to embrace a conspiracy theory surrounding the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in that fateful car chase in Paris. “You will never hear me talk about anything to do with aliens, crop circles, princess grace, how Courtney Love Hired a hit...
China: Freezing Point fallout
ESWN weighs up the points made by Guangdong-based academic Yuan Weishi in his article on the official view of China's recent imperial history, and those made in a critique of his view published in the first issue of Freezing Point to hit the newsstands since its suspension ended. The cutting-edge...