Stories from 30 March 2006
El Salvador: Dollars and Donuts
Rob Mercatante, usually based in Guatemala, just got back from a trip to El Salvador. Here are his reflections on dollarization and donuts.
Costa Rica: Global IT Ranking
Uri Ridelman notes that Costa Rica lost eight places in global IT ranking according to the World Economic Forum. Costa Rica was ranked below El Salvador and Panama, but above Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Brazil: Brazil's First Man In Space
Made in Brazil explains why 43-year-old astronaut Marcos Pontes was on the front page of all Brazilian papers today.
Bolivia: “Battle at the Cochabamba Airport”
Eduardo Ávila is covering a developing story at Jorge Wilstermann airport in Cochabamba, where workers of the airline Lloyd Aereo Boliviano are demanding that the indebted airline be nationalized. Writing from Cochabamba, Jim Shultz describes LAB as “one more lab rat in that great IMF-induced economic experiment of privatizing all...
Argentina: Indie Online Radio
unaRadio is an online radio station based in Argentina which describes itself as “a free medium to distribute the work of independent artists in Spanish and other languages.” You can listen to it in any media player by clicking here.
Latin America: Top Sports Blogs
Bar Deportes lists the top thirty sports blogs according to Alexa (ES). They nearly all focus on football.
Mongolia: Reporter in Court
Luke Distelhorst writes about the case of a journalist in Mongolia being taken to court for slander by the country's president and says that the country would greatly benefit from more skilled investigative journalists and greater access to government documents.
Kazakhstan: Wedding
Betsy, author of Stanmenistan, writes about Kazakh weddings.
Georgia: Ethnic Tensions
Raffi K. of Life in Armenia writes about tensions in Georgia between ethnic Georgians and ethnic Armenians.
Kyrgyzstan: Wireless Broadband
David Read, a blogger in Bishkek, writes about the trials and tribulations of getting a wireless broadband connection in Kyrgyzstan.
Armenia: Eclipse
Nessuna writes about seeing yesterday's eclipse from Armenia and posts to some photos and local online discussions.
Belarus: Prison Journal
Ivan Lenin at Rush-Mush links to an English translation of a Belarusian protestor's jail journal. (Written by LJ user forion in Belarusian, translated by LJ user kapitan-tanaka.)
Poland: Singer Turned Politician Tired of Politics
The beatroot writes about a 56-year-old Polish rock musician turned politician and the problems he's facing. “After making a lot of money over the years, he must have got bored – like ageing rock stars do – and thought that he would represent the very un-rock and roll Law and...
Russia: Xenophobia and Racism
Sean Guillory guestblogs at Publius Pundit on racism and xenophobia in today's Russia.
Morocco: Moroccan Saffron – As precious as gold dust
Know anything about Moroccan saffron? Several hundred hectares of flowers grown on light chalky hillsides at an altitude of between 1200 and 2000 metres (4000 – 6500 feet). Each September the bulbs are planted and come into flower towards the end of October when the harvesting takes place. Harvesting is...
Jordan: Stereotypes in the media
The image of a certain society as perceived by other societies is never the same, as human perceptions differ on an individual level, this is one cause of stereotypes, since each human or society have different levels of knowledge and concepts about a certain object applied whenever trying to percieve...
Israel: Sinuses and elections
Apart from the dentist and her really low sinuses story, the elections day ends and Jerusalemgypsy goes home: Back home, my Good Daughter told me her new boyfriend voted for Jewish right-wing extremist Baruch Marzel. “WHAT!!!!???” shrieked I. “Don't worry mom. I'll change him.” said she.
Iraq: Impossible dreams of Arabs
IraqiPundit wonders what NYT is talking about here. Arab influence in Iraq? What influence are these supposed analysts operating under? Arab countries traditionally sided with Saddam against the Iraqi people. And since the removal of Saddam, Arab countries have (unofficially) influenced Iraq only by sending suicide killers into our midst....
Nigeria: Solar Eclipse
Ore’s Notes tells of a Nigerian lady’s excitement at seeing a partial solar eclipse in the city of Lagos.
Burkina Faso: A blogger travels
Voice in the Desert takes a trip back home to York (UK), hoping to be back in Burkina Faso after six weeks.
Africa: Technology to aid the poor
White African firmly believes that technology and the free market can both be used to empower the poor in Africa.