Stories from 9 March 2006
Latvia: President May Be Future UN Secretary General
David McDuff of A Step At A Time reports that Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga might replace Kofi Annan as the U.N. Secretary General at the end of the year.
Korea: Metrosexuals, men, manicures
The Asia Pages rhapsodizes about Korean men, berating herself as a defector and a racist for doing so. “Korean guys do something that absolutely drives me nuts and it is related to their soft hands, skin and groomed nails,” she says in defense of male manicures–and her own predilections.
North Korea: Multiple choice
NKZone picks up a report from the official Chinese Xinhua news agency about changes to middle school testing in North Korea, where authorities are opting for multiple choice test formats as opposed to the traditional essay-based exams used in the past. Includes links to interesting background.
China: Watching Hanoi
Michael Anti posts a long article (ZH) analysing the current debate going on ahead of the Vietnamese 10th Communist Party Congress in April, about the direction the country's socialism should now take. Says one commentator: “Basically this is just a pirated version of China.”
China: Human rights stand-off
The Opposite End of China summarizes and compares the accusations of human-rights violations traded by Beijing and Washington and finds strong similarities.
DRC: Towards elections or turbulence?
At Le Blog du Congolais, blogger Philippe Lomboto Liondjo questions (FR) whether elections will happen as scheduled on June 30, 2006. Liondjo thinks back to the aborted election of June 30, 2005 and fears that the DRC will have to endure another extension. Among reasons for his skepticism, Liondjo cites...
Rolling Stones and U2 in Argentina
The most commented-upon issues of the moment in Argentinean blogs are music related; in the same week The Rolling Stones and U2 visited this country to perform two shows, each band. And, of course, there was a big number of blogs that reconstructed what happened during the shows. On the...
China: Critical Readers Named
Wang Yi's Microphone posts a list of the core members of the Critical Reading Group of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department, and key officials in the secretive Propaganda Department itself. The former includes: Foreign Affairs Ministry News Department officer Song Ronghua; Ministry of Information Industry inspector Song Naiqi;...
Hong Kong: Blogger takes break
Glutter, post-relationship break-up, vows to take a break from blogging, in quest of reality and solidity, as opposed to the disembodiments and shifting perspectives of cyberspace.
China: The Great Blog Hoax
After managing to get some overseas MSM stalwarts to report on their ‘demise’, Massage Milk and MilkPig are back. In this post, entitled ‘Sorry’ (ZH), Massage Milk says this wasn't the intention. Read all about it, here on ESWN.
Tunisia: 11th meetup
It was a nice evening as usual full of funny topics and a lot of laughs like in all the meetups I've attended until now. But to avoid repeating what other bloggers said already, I will choose other topics. I'll start by saying that this meetup was the first one...
United Arab Emirates: Literal pearls of purple prose
Dubai Police had better sharpen their pencils: they are in serious danger of losing this year's Purple Prose Prize. An associate has forwarded a press release of such exquisite floridity that it quite takes ones breath away, or would do if such a fallacious cliché were possible, Secret Dubai said.
Libya: Libyan Berber and a remarkable Laghouat archaism
In case you ever wondered where in Libya Berber languages are spoken, check out this map at Tawalt (Arabic). Note at least two oases that don't get any mention in the Ethnologue – Ubari and al-Fogaha, Lameen Souag said.
Algeria: Vieux Turbans and Algerian National Identity
Where did the Algerian Revolution, or perhaps more importantly, the Algerian national movement come from? It is often debated, mainly among Algerian nationalists and others that the movement arose as soon as the French landed ashore in Algiers, that the Revolution was a continuous process from Abdel Qadir and Ahmed...
Jordan: Replacing Burqa with Surgical Mask
If the Netherlands becomes the first European country to ban the burqa and other Muslim face veils this month, Hope says she’ll resort to wearing a surgical mask to dress in accordance with her religious beliefs, Sabbah said.
Syria: In Baath … who trusts?
Rime Allaf says: “Apparently, the Syrian people do not need human rights (even though this was an approved EU initiative). They do not need freedom of expression either (but such treatment and intimidation of journalists is old news). Apparently, what Syrians really, desperately need (and the entire Arab world with...
Syria: Syria Planet
Syria Planet, the community site for Syrian bloggers, is now online, it features an aggregator of member blogs (Syrian or about Syria), and forums for arranging activities and meetings, and discussing what's going on in Syria and the blogosphere, among the other things, Ayman said.
Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome
These days in Iraq, death is never far away. In this weeks posts several bloggers deal with the different aspects of death. The death of someone close, death of a stranger, the direct threat of death, the danger of dying in random violence and the fearlessness of risking your life...
Africa: Searching for your roots
Ethnic Loft comments about the growth in genealogy in the US amongst African Americans seeking to trace their ancestoral roots. “South African has introduced a different twist to the topic by using geneology to lure tourists to the country. South Africans and international tourists are being invited to test and...
Africa: How to write about it
Idland has a great post on “How to write about Africa for the New York Times. He lists 9 essential criteria such as: Remind us how much the poor little child is suffering: When the facts don't seem grim enough, make them seem worse through thoughtful omission: He gives examples...
Nigeria: Vagina Monologues
Nigeria coments on the showing of the Vagina Monologues in Abuja….”was pleasantly surprised to find that it has come to Nigeria! I was pleased that no riots or protests happened. The enjoyable parts of the show made me giggle, even though it could've been tailored more to the local Nigerian...
