Stories from 26 April 2006
Trinidad & Tobago: World Cup football news
Stacy-Marie Ishmael responds to a FIFA news story expressing surprise that the Trinidad & Tobago World Cup team has a white member, with a reminder that it's important to “militate against stereotypes wherever possible”. She also points to some of the commemorative items being produced as tributes to the team,...
Belize: VoIP blocked by local telecom
Melody reports that Belize Telecommunications Limited has been blocking VoIP connections in the country and calls for users’ assistance in surveying the effects of the blocking on their internet usage. “They have gone as far as jamming chat and messenger programs like GoogleTalk, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Voice and other,” Melody...
Barbados: Future of the wetlands
Barbados Free Press posts the first in a proposed three-part series on the future of the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary, “the last remaining, healthy mangrove swamp on Barbados”.
Marriage, Birthday and identity crisis in the Moroccan blogosphere
I'll start today with some good news. The first one: Morocco is among the four African countries which count the biggest numbers of internet users in a continent where only 22 million people use the net, that is 2.5% of the 900 million people living in Africa. But, this number...
Iran: Animal Rights!
Arrianna Matthieus, an American-Iranian blogger based in the United States writes about animal rights in Iran. Blogger says “In present day Iran, the cultural tradition has long overlooked the fact that dogs were highly esteemed in ancient Persia and that animals were protected from harm, and yet, in the Islamic...
Iran: Brain Drain!
ArashKamangir finds an interesting point in Iranian President's recent news conference. Blogger writes “a reporter asked him about the brain drain. He replied “…the Iranian nation is free to go where ever they want and to live there.We are not disappointed that Iranian scientists work for others.”
China: Technorati blocked
Technorati has been blocked. Albeit limited, Technorati used to be the best Chinese-language aggregating one could hope to get.
India: IT, Blogging and BarCamp
Information Technology and India are spoken in the same breath. Bangalore is often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India, and it was therefore not surprising that two IT events were held in the city that hogged quite a bit of bandwidth in the Indian blogging spacee. BarCamp Bangalore...
Nepal: Treading cautiously on democratic grounds
After almost three weeks of protest, King Gyanendra of Nepal has agreed to restore parliament. The King had dissolved the lower house of the Parliament in 2002 because the then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's government had apparently failed in the peacetalks with the Maoists . Events unfold in Nepal...
Kenya: Ministerial perks
You missed this writes on Kenyan ministers whose perks have been increased and asks “what the MPs are going to do with all the extra tax-payers money that they are eager to line their pockets with.”
Nigeria: technology and violence
Chippla writes on terrorism, technology and violence using Bin Laden, Nigerian militants and the Kenyan Mau Mau uprising and the ANC struggle against apartheid as examples of how “one mans terrorist is another man's freedome fighter”
Ethiopia: Blogging media
Ethiopian blogConcoction points to an op/ed in the Economist that claims that news media are “already feeling the heat” from the blogosphere as blogs are changing the media.
South Africa: TRC
Agathon Rwasa points to a report in which Archbishop Desmond Tutu admits that the Truth and Reconciliaiton Commission failed “to meet the needs of apartheid victims”…”Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is dismayed at the “ungenerous reparations” to victims of apartheid who appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and has...
Sudan: genocide
Weichegud!ET Politics comments on Darfur, Rwanda and the failure of the West and Africa to act – in the case of Darfur we have been warned over and over yet still nothing happens. We as Africans also need to take responsibility…”Excuse me. 400,000 people have died. When do we start...
Uganda: Two countries
Black Star Journal points to an IRIN report on Uganda entitled “One country, Different realities”..
South Africa: Writing in indigenous language
Singing SouthAfricaness discusses African writers writing in their indigenous languages…”The idea that African writers should write in native African languages, therefore, is linked to the idea of the tyrany of the trace, as discussed above. Ngugi suggests that African writers should be enriching their own languages through producing work in...
South Africa: Carmen in Xhosa
African Shirts comments on another film from South Africa…U-Carmen eKhayelitsha which is a ” Xhosa language film based on Bizet's opera Carmen, and it won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival last year.
Chernobyl: Facts and Myths
Vilhelm Konnander writes about the facts and myths of Chernobyl: “The first news of the accident actually reached a western audience. High radioactive levels were registered at Swedish and Finnish nuclear plants already on 26 april. It quickly became apparent that the radioactivity emanated from somewhere within the Soviet Union....
Estonia: Land and People
Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa writes about a book about Scandinavia by Joanna Kavenna and his own perception of Estonia and its people: “Kavenna continually points out that Estonians are a simple people who are connected to nature and rocks and lakes. How true. I call my in-laws pakapikud –...
Belarus: Chernobyl Neglect
TOL's Belarus Blog notes that when it comes to Chernobyl awareness and aid distribution, Belarus is neglected: “70% of all the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus. And yet, in mass-media world-wide everyone talks only about Ukraine. Belarus is lucky if it’s getting 5-10% of the coverage and 5-10% of the...
Peru: An Alliance Against Humala?
With more than 99% of the vote counted it is clear that Ollanta Humala will face Alan Garcia in the second round presidential elections. Un Lobo en Peru mentions a column by Mario Vargas Llosa calling for an alliance between APRA and Unidad Popular to defeat Ollanta. Fabiola Bazo of...
