Stories from 21 April 2006
China: Hu's heckler footage
Chinese media guru Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei links to Youtube footage of Chinese president Hu Jintao being heckled at the White House late last week. “Are you nuts man?,” asks one reader. “You are going to get blocked.”
Vietnam hosts Bill Gates
Bill Gates is visiting Vietnam. Sadgopan, an IT industry veteran, finds lots of excitement in Vietnam for this. He finds strong pro-US sentiment among the people. The blogger also shares some thoughts on Vietnam as a offshore service location.
Quotas in Brazilian Universities: The Online Debate
This post is also available in Portuguese. There is an important public conversation going on in Brazil. Affirmative action quota policies are being implemented in some Brazilian universities*. The debate will heat up in the coming weeks as Congress considers a new law (law project nº 3627/2004) that would establish...
Mongolia: Cleaning the Capital
Luke Distelhorst reports that Ulaanbaatar's governor's office is finally cleaning up the capital for Mongolia's 800th anniversary.
Singapore-Malaysia relations spoof video
Singapore blogger Lancerlord links to a short video made by Malaysian students that pokes fun at some Singapore-Malaysia issues.
Armenia: Indian Student Protests
Nanyaar has a chronology of events around the death of an Indian student in Armenia while Onnik Krikorian has a few updates and more photos.
Mexico, Spain: WordPress.es and Ferca
As they occasionally do, a web2.0 war of words has broken out. When Eduardo Arcos typed in the domain wordpress.es he was redirected (ES) to the weblog of the Ferca Network (ES), a Spanish web company run by David Carrero. Walter of HTML Life defends David (ES) saying that he...
Kazakhstan: Iran Policy
Ben Paarmann reports on Kazakhstan's Iran policy.
Armenia: Being Armenian
Anarchistian writes on the connection between one's beliefs and being accepted by other Armenians.
Russia: NGOs Under Attack, Anti-Fascist Killed
Sean Guillory reports on one day's news out of Russia's capital: “Soldiers’ Mothers, HIV/AIDS NGOs Under Attack & Anti-Fascist Murdered in Moscow.”
Russia: Demographic Situation
W. Shedd of The Accidental Russophile writes about the demographic situation in Russia.
Poland: GM Crops
The beatroot writes that Polish conservatives have joined forces with liberals to fight against GM crops.
Poland: Communist Jokes
According to one Russian historian, about 200,000 people were sent to camps for telling jokes in Stalin's time. The beatroot doesn't find Communist jokes funny: according to him, “the jokes were the serious antidote to the very funny horror of reality.”
Moldova: Corrupt Police and Gang Crime
Jessica of Life in Moldova writes about gang crime and the corrupt police in a small town in Moldova.
Hungary: Opposition Lost
Pestiside.hu reports on how the opposition is taking its defeat in the general elections.
Belarus: “Public Repentance”
Iryna of TOL's Belarus Blog writes about “public repentance” taking place in Belarus now: “Students, who spent 10 to 15 days in prison after being arrested on the Square or during the March 25th demonstrations, are being forced to declare publicly that their legal participation in peaceful protests against election...
Belarus: Meaning of EU Sanctions
TOL's Belarus Blog considers the EU's introduction of entry bans for 30 Belarusian officials slightly more than a symbolic move: it “won’t bring about a revolution, but in situations like that it will help to provide publicity to Belarusian situation, serve as a reminder to the public — those guys...
Belarus: Conference on Mass Media
Edward Lucas, the central and east European correspondent of The Economist, has been invited to an unlikely conference on “integration of Belarus into the world media landscape” in Minsk, sponsored by the Belarusian government, but he doubts he'll be granted a Belarusian visa.
Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela: Poll Numbers
It's Friday and Boz has his now infamous poll numbers from across Latin America including a now tighter race in Mexico.
Brazil: Workers Party Corruption
Luís Afonso Assumpção lists his 40 “corruption nominees” from Lula da Silva's Workers Party.
Bolivia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Colombia: Crisis in the Andes
Explaining that Venezuela has already left and that Bolivia is thinking of following, Miguel Buitrago says that most of the achievements of The Andean Community (CAN) are only observable on paper. Movimiento 13 de Abril, quotes Chavez (ES) in his announcement at the Community's recent summit in Paraguay: “CAN serves...
