28 March 2006

Stories from 28 March 2006

Caribbean: Books for birders

  28 March 2006

“It's many years now–I might even say decades–since I've considered myself a real birder, and I stopped keeping a lifelist ages ago, but birds continue to have a special fascination for me–their colours, their songs, the effortlessness of their flight,” writes Nicholas Laughlin in the prelude to his overview of...

North Korea: Prison-camp musical

  28 March 2006

The Marmot Hole‘s Robert Koehler fingers North Korean apologists in the South Korean government with a look at the smash new musical Yodok Story, which portray's life in North Korea's Yodok camp for political prisoners.

South Korea: general strike

  28 March 2006

Joshua from The Korea Liberator examines the relevant labor issues leading up to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions’ general strike planned for next week.

China: Detained Activist Released

  28 March 2006

Zeng Jinyan, wife of AIDS activist Hu Jia—detained last month during a nation-wide hunger strike in protest at the government's alleged hiring of thugs in February to beat up a civil rights campaigner in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong—posts on her blog Searching for Hu Jia that after forty...

Hong Kong: Police, Paparazzi and Privacy

  28 March 2006

BigWhiteGuy Randall van der Woning lambasts Hong Kong media following a plea for respect from the wife of the suspect in last week's fatal police-on-police shootout. “Decency? Such as local station ATV airing a rerun of the couple when they appeared on Hong Kong's version of Who Wants to be...

Hong Kong: Private Information Uploaded

  28 March 2006

Simon World‘s namesake criticizes the Hong Kong government for continuing to remain silent two weeks after the discovery earlier this month of the accidental posting online of the names, ages, addresses and ID numbers of the approximately 20,000 people who filed complaints with Hong Kong police from 1996 to 2004.

China: Checking communist vernacular

  28 March 2006

China Confidential‘s Confidential Reporter notices an increasing intolerance of left-wing language on the internet in China. “From Marx to Mao, communist keywords constitute potential red flags in the eyes of the hyper-sensitive e-police—thousands of trained analysts armed with the latest (American made) censor- and spy-ware,” the post says.

China: Growing Nationalism

  28 March 2006

A year after violent anti-Japanese demonstrations swept across China, The Angry Chinese Blogger argues that anti-Japan sentiment is stronger now than ever. “Over the last few years…things appear to have steadily deteriorated, and the rot appears to have filtered down. Spreading beyond the political sphere and into the public domain,”...

Haiti: Music video

  28 March 2006

Filmmaker Frankenbilly posts a music video he created for a lovely reggae-flavoured song by the Haitian singer Belo.

Singapore: a gay party cancelled

  28 March 2006

On the cancellation of Feelin’ Good, a party organised by gay and lesbian media and events company Fridae, Mr. Brown quotes and links to conflicting statements from Fridae and the police. Fridae says the Ministry of Sound informed them that the police demanded the cancellation of the event because it...

Indonesia: the military's business empire

  28 March 2006

Indonesia Today says the armed forces is so powerful that it has amassed its own business empire that include interests in luxury hotels, golf courses and commercial banks. The military has promised to divest itself of such interests. The sale of its share in one of these banks is valued...

Malaysia: gold medals in badminton

  28 March 2006

True-blue Malaysians, not imported talents, won 4 gold medals in badminton in the recently concluded Melbourne XVIII Commonwealth Games. Wormie of A Worm's Perspectives says the way to go is to keep on training Malaysian nationals instead of relying on imported talents.

Malaysia: disturbing survey results

  28 March 2006

A survey conducted by Merdeka Center, a research firm made up of professionals from various social science fields, draws a shuddering reaction from Brand New Malaysian. The survey respondents agreed with the characerterization of the the three largest ethnic groups in Malaysia as follows–Malays are lazy, Chinese are greedy and...

Thailand: cooking school

  28 March 2006

Over at Thai-blogs, Richard Barrow, an English expat living in Thailand for 10 years learns about Thai food and cooking, including the different kinds of rice. He recommends one cooking school in particular.

Myanmar: asylum for refugees

  28 March 2006

Still on the “material support” issue that denies entry to Burmese refugees and asylum seekers to the U.S., Burma Underground writes a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of State, and encourages readers to copy the letter and send...

Singapore: ruling party (dirty) tactics

  28 March 2006

A few disgruntled S'poreans are reacting vehemently over the ruling party's tactic of scaring voters that if the ruling party loses, housing subsidies will be lost and residential areas will eventually become slums.

Tourism, Islamic Vietnam & Blogs

IranMehr (Persian) talks about tourism industry problems in Iran. He writes despite country’s attractiveness such as historical monuments, ancient villages, ecosystems…He talks also about government’s politics to attract 20 million tourists to Iran whose share of global tourism revenue has been less that 1 percent. According to him: “How Iranian...

Jamaica: High school sports teams at war

  28 March 2006

From Leon Robinson, a rather dispassionate discourse on the “war” being waged between rival Kingston high school teams in the “Champs”, the VMBS/ISSA Boys & Girls Athletic Championships. “We even have “territories”, places where rival schools are not welcome, at least not in frequency or numbers. . . . We...

Nepal: Pushing for peace

  28 March 2006

United We Blog! on the hopes of the “April Revolution” which pushes for democracy through peaceful means – surprisingly coming from the top ranks of the Maoists.

Nepal: Maoists and the future

  28 March 2006

Samudaya.org on Maoists in Nepal and their standpoint -“While the Maoists’ end goal remain a full-fledged communist state, their open yet standard rhetoric of transforming a feudal society like Nepal to an ideal communist state apparently involve the process of passing through multiple stages of capitalism and socialism—an idea that...

Sri Lanka: Views from the fence

  28 March 2006

Where are the more balanced views on the conflict in Sri Lanka and the accounts on the impact it has had on civillian life? Moju says – “I’d like to hear from people who think they can give a BALANCED view on what the SL army and LTTE (and also...