Bahrain: A glimpse of Iraqi art

Mahmood offers a glimpse of Iraqi art in his recent Vlog which he shot during his recent visit to Albareh Gallery. He envy whoever buys any piece from Mr. Al-Bahrani’s exhibit. Mahmood beleives they will treasure it for life and get a lot of enjoyment just for looking at it...

Palestine: Bellydancing out, cinema in!

Sabbah seems to be angry on recent news about Hamas intentions to ban religiously-forbidden practices (from Islam point of view) in Palestine. He is afraid that Hamas is going to be a new Taliban, but elected one by only Palestinians inside Occupied Palestine, which Sabbah does not see fair to...

Israel: Israel Arrests, Frees Palestinian Minister

Richard Silverstein commenting on the detention of the Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs, Khaled Abu Arafa at an East Jerusalem road block set up by Israel’s Border Police, he said: “It shows how completely disorganized the intelligence services are. Is their current mission to be at war with Hamas; or...

Conversation between prisoners

James Wong Wing On of Freedom in Solidarity has an excerpt from the memoirs of Sybil Kartigasu, a member of the resistance movement during the WW II Japanese occupation. The excerpt is a prison conversation between Kartigasu and another resistance fighter, Toh Lung San, who was tortured and later beheaded...

Opposition to Indonesian Playboy magazine

Yosef Ardi of Indonesia Today calls the first issue of the Indonesian edition of Playboy magazine a “smashing success” despite insistence by some quarters that it is pornographic because it is Playboy. Indonesia Matters agrees that the opposition from “predictable quarters” is not necessarily because of the magazine's content (no...

Blogging success

When asked what makes Yugatech click–high traffic, high comment rate, and good ranks from Google and Technorati, blog owner Yuga says he doesn't even use “tools” like wordtracker, database of keyword lists, ebay directories, adsense accelerator and the like. He says it's all about writing what genuinely interests you, “the...

Belarus: Flash-Mobbing in Minsk

White Boats – by Andrei Hrachou On April 4, a small group of young people gathered at the Svisloch River embankment in Minsk, folded origami paper boats, let them out into the water, and left. Most boats were white, but a few were painted the colors of the banned Belarusian...

China: Rural-urban divide

Shak from Chinawhite leaves the city life for a countryside vacation and discovers some differences while out there. “A quick dinner in a local restaurant and then on to experience some nightlife in Hefei [capitol of eastern China's Anhui province], first thing that strikes me is the price. Everything seems...

China: State surveillance

“The mark of the beast,” says the Art of Balance blogger, of China's Public Security Bureau's announcement of the completion of a database which contains details on 1.25 billion of China's 1.3 billion citizens. “Parallel to this,” continues the blogger, “we will be facing the worlds biggest roll-out of RFID...

Hong Kong: Chinese illegal immigration

In ‘This Kind Of Shocked Me,’ Milton J. Madison‘s Glenzo analyzes the plight of the 39,000 illegal Chinese immigrants in the United States whom the Chinese government refuses to repatriate: “What amazes me is that China has refused to accept back their own citizens. How can a country do that?...

North Korea: Regime unstable?

“There is more evidence to suggest that North Korea really is in dire financial straits after all,” writes Joshua at The Korea Liberator. “Some would not call this a novel conclusion to make about a country in which 2.5 million people have starved to death…” “No one will miss Kim...

Taiwan: Police life

Michael Turton reports in his blog The View from Taiwan on a presentation last week by Jeff Martin, Ph.D. who spent three years researching—sometimes drinking with—the Taipei police force. From The View: “Taiwanese substation policemen live a very difficult life, Jeff said, stressing the word ‘very.’ They live at the...

Ore's notes has a complaint about that same old yak yak from men who accost you on the street – like you are really going to jump in their car or go on a date with some fool who stops you on the street? Ore's comment…”do men think so little...

Africa: innovation in emergency care

Timbuktu Chronicles points to an innovative project tested in India that would provide a way of addressing “sustainable emergency care in the developing world.”

Nigeria: Innovative online tools

Oro has been testing some innovative online tools that “can provide alternative income generating strategies (that work) to help combat the scam menace in Nigeria, and a meeting that centered on Social Enterprise”.

Nigeria: No useful opposition

Thots of a Naijaman writes that Nigeria is in a shambles - “There is no opposition anymore. Political parties are now at the mercy of the state controlled “Independent” electoral commission, a commission that awards political office to ‘deserving’ government cronies. Opponents of the Government are hounded night and day...

Kenya: Rape and truths

Gukira writes a comment on rape…”Recently, 10 girls were raped in Kenya, raped by neighborhood residents. We continue to live in the shadow of St. Patrick’s, Kibwezi, where a boys’ secondary school ravaged a girls’ school in one of the most horrifying acts of visible mass rape.” Does rape really...

Ethiopia: Development contradictions

Concoction points to a BBC report which highlights the descrepancies between the Ethiopian government's version of development and that of villagers in the country.

Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere

It's another eventful week in the Saudi blogosphere, so let's get started with our weekly roundup… Providing a proper work environment for Saudi women was one of the major goals of the new labor law that was published few months ago, but the question is: how the employers are going...

Rwanda: historical background

On the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, Rwandan Survivors publishes posts a brief historical background to the genocide and conflict through the eyes of a survivor.

Rwanda: genocide anniversary

Black Star Journal reminds us that yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. …”It was one of the world's worst atrocities of the century and certainly the worst to be covered during the age of cable news television. It occured a year, almost to the week, after politicians...