Stories from 20 April 2006
Cuba, USA: Hip-hop podcast
Episode #4 of the New York-produced ((Mi Barrio Radio)) podcast features tracks from hip-hop artists Orishas, Manu Chao and others.
Trinidad & Tobago: Sounds of burning bush
Caribbean Free Radio posts a short audio clip of the sound of bamboo bursting and other bush fire-related noises.
Political discussions on blogs in Singapore
May 6th will be the polling day in Singapore's general elections this year. Tinkertailor comments on Tomorrow.sg and refers to a clarification by the authorities on the issue of political discussions on blogs and podcasts. There is no outright ban on discussions but the sites that consistantly promote a particular...
Brazil: Free Software Forum
Andy Oram writes about Brazil's unique IT history and explains what a bunch of free software enthusiasts are doing in Porto Alegre.
China: Google's compromises
Shak at Chinawhite, via Imagethief, gives us a sneak preview of Google in China: The Big Disconnect, a feature story to be published in this coming weekend's New York Times Magazine: “Brin's team had one more challenge to confront: how to determine which sites to block? The Chinese government wouldn't...
Guatemala: Francofonía en Guatemala
Francofonía en Guatemala (ES, FR) is the first Guatemalan blog dedicated to the promotion of French culture and language.
Trinidad & Tobago: Smelter news
At the Rights Action Group T&T blog, set up to aggregate the dialogue around a controversial aluminium smelter project in southern Trinidad, an article on the non-attendance of a the National Energy Corporation chairman at an important meeting, a discussion of the environmental impact of a smelter on a community...
China: Prisoners’ organs harvested?
A report mentioned today on the Chinese Law Prof Blog links Chinese prisons, executions and conveniently-timed organ donations. “The first comprehensive report on this issue of which I am aware is Human Rights Watch, China: Organ Procurement and Judicial Execution in China (August 1994). The research behind this report is...
Trinidad & Tobago: Best football fans?
Does Trinidad & Tobago's World Cup football team have the best fans? Stacy-Marie Ishmael thinks so.
St. Lucia: Crime on the rise
“The murder rate in Saint Lucia has risen again. One young man has been gun downed at about 5.30pm near the Bexon Bus Stand by what seems to be a known assailant,” writes Eliminator in an alarming account of the country's escalating crime rate and the efforts to halt it.
China: Economic relaxations ahead
Simon at Simon World looks at two key parts of Chinese president Hu Jintao's economic concession plan announced today in the midst of Hu's visit to the United States. “Will it magically reduce the trade surplus problem? In the longer term it should and will,” Simon says. “In the short...
Haiti: Cattle investments
“Rony was forced to bring the cow to market before it was time. Kind of like dumping all of your Apple shares, prior to the IPOD or all of your 3M shares prior to Scotch tape,” writes the Livesay Haiti Weblog from La Digue, in its account of the trials...
China: Chinese Wikipedia launched
Via Virtual China comes news from China Web 2.0 Review of leading Chinese search engine Baidu's own Chinese-language wikipedia-style encyclopedia service. “Since Wikipedia is blocked in China, we'll see just how creative Baidu writers can actually get,” writes Virtual China‘s Lyn Jeffery, going on to point out that the number...
Cuba: Alternative radio workshop
Perspectivas in Movimiento announces (es) the Latin American workshop on “alternative radio in the fight for the emancipation of humanity”, in Holguín, Cuba, from May 4-7.
Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome
As a postscript to the 1970 Gil Scot Heron poem ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised‘, There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock news… The Revolution Will Not Be Televised The revolution will be no re-run brothers; The revolution will be live. The revolution will be blogged. And...
Haiku competition in the Philippines
Kurokuroatbp pens a haiku in Tagalog and provides details of a Pinoy Haiku competition organised by the Japanese Embassy in Philippines.
Caribbean: The standpipe
At The Pan Collective, Barbadian blogger Titilayo pays tribute to a Caribbean icon: the standpipe.
Barbados: Sugar cane industry
In GS's humble opinion, Barbados's refusal to abandon its sugar industry is a “smart move”.
Barbados: Blood ties and general elections
Reading the Barbados online newspapers in the UK, Neil Benn discovers that his father will be a candidate in the next general election.
Caribbean: The financial realities of the Cricket World Cup
The Caribbean Cricket Blog links to a Jamaica Observer article on one of the realities of the Caribbean's hosting of the Cricket World Cup next year: host countries are unlikely to recoup the massive investments they've been forced to make.
Africa: Working initiatives
Ethiopian diasporan blogger, The Concoction looks at some African initiatives which have failed such as the OAU and Commission for Africa, while ordinary people are taking up their own local initiatives and making them work.
