27 April 2006

Stories from 27 April 2006

Sri Lanka: Outside Colombo

  27 April 2006

Portrait comments on how the news focuses on what happens in Colombo and ignore what happens outside of the city. A very interesting discussion is ongoing in the comments space.

Caribbean: Cricket captaincy gamble

  27 April 2006

West Indies star batsman Brian Lara is appointed team captain for a third time. Jeremy Taylor at the Caribbean Beat weblog calls it “an interesting gamble, both for Lara and for the West Indies Board.”

India: Poetry and Blogging

  27 April 2006

Reflections on poetry and blogging at River's Blue Elephants. River talks about identities of poets, the world of hypertextuality and “the permeable boundary between selves and machines”.

DRC: UDPS Predicts “Electoral Comedy”, “Terror”

  27 April 2006

UDPS Liege discourages (FR) the Congolese from taking part in the upcoming “electoral comedy” unless of course certain conditions are met. They predict that “Joseph Kabila will be elected on the first round with 72%. He will be protected by European Union and MONUC [UN Mission to the DR of...

Palestine: Mob like mentality?

In deviantART, the Palestinian artists simply cannot select their country from the dA country list. “Free-Palestine” community asked deviantART to add “Palestinian territories” to the country list. The answer was: “deviantART does not tolerate Mob like mentality…“. dA then banned “Free-Palestine” members, and deleted all of their content, EP said.

Egypt: Judicial System

While the judicial system in Egypt is facing a hard time with the government, the civilian support for the beaten judges are also treated harshly. Baheyya writes about the latest developments and has a link to a video which shows the security forces’ disbanding of the peaceful vigil in support...

Iraq: Where is the opposition?

While the Iraqi government is still under-establishment, Omar remind us that he once was offended when he heard that although the democratic elections toke place, yet democratic government is not established. Omar began to see a lot of truth in these words. But, what about the opposition? For healthy democracy...

Israel: Who are those pensioners?

Batya wonders: During the Israeli election campaign, nobody paid too much attention to the pensioners on the Retirees Party list. It was considered by most to be a “joke” party, but boy were we all surprised when they ended up with a very healthy and youthful seven seats in the...

Belarus: Milinkevich Arrested and Sentenced

  27 April 2006

Belarus bloggers react to the news of Aleksandr Milinkevich's arrest: Andrei Khrapavitski points out that “today practically all the key names of the Belarusian oppositions have appeared on prison rolls;” TOL's Belarus Blog sees this as “the biggest test for Belarusian people after the falsified presidential election;” and br23 blog...

Filipino boxer faces tough challenge

  27 April 2006

Jess at The Postman is following the preparations of Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao for his upcoming fight with Mexican Oscar Larios. Jess writes "While Larios is bothered by only one thing — fighting the PACMAN — Pacquiao is hounded by several things. Personal matters, off-boxing commitments, showbiz buzzes and profit-oriented...

Thai horror movie angers Cambodia

  27 April 2006

Alvin at chlim01 is bored finds the latest Thai horror flick tasteless as it is set in a prison that resembles Khmer Rouge's dreaded concentration camp. People in Cambodia are not too happy with their neighbour. A comment on another post at KI Media is asking the Cambodian people to...

China: Rock festival coming

  27 April 2006

Friend Gram at Holidarity pulls quotes from the organizer of The Midi Festival—China's biggest each year—to be held in Beijing during the Golden Week holiday next week. “Before you could never do a big outdoor festival,” writes organizer Zhang Fan. “We're trying to let the government accept that rock ‘n’...

China: AOL arrives

  27 April 2006

In ‘Congratulations and Controversy‘, AngryChineseBlogger chunlin looks at the arduous road AOL has been down in trying to establish a presence in China. “After months of speculation, anticipation, and a few false starts,” chunlin announces, “AOL has this month announced the finalization of a multi-million dollar partnership deal with SMG...

China: Porn's subversive forms

  27 April 2006

Remember Guangzhou sex blogger Mu Zimei who got shut down and fired in late 2003 after the world took notice? She's in Beijing now, and Jeremy Goldkorn at Danwei has just ‘wrapped’ an exclusive with her: “She is not writing online any more, but is producing a series of her...

Taiwan: Punks still DIYing

  27 April 2006

Sack Be Jim at gotmahmojo finds DIY punk ethic, graffiti and a seldom-seen side of Taiwanese society while visiting a collective of artists squatting in an abandoned building in the island's capitol: “I was really excited to see something positive and creative going on in the city, since its been...

Hong Kong: Japanese retailer leaving

  27 April 2006

With Hemlock's Diary this week comes reminiscing of times gone by with Hong Kong's last Japanese-owned department store, Mitsukoshi, announcing plans to leave the Special Administrative Region. “The name brings back memories of a bygone era—the time before Causeway Bay collapsed under the weight of vehicle emissions and Mainland tourists,”...

Taiwan: Taxi music's passing

  27 April 2006

Rank blog's Dog of the South blogs about the disappearance of a genre of music that used to make cab rides a treat: “For all its obvious flaws, I always thought Taxi Music communicated a bit of credible pathos. And you know what? The women and men who sang those...

Iran: Contractual Workers Fired!

Jomhour (Persian) writes that there are collective firings of contractual workers in all over country. He adds on the other side of story government appointed employees and workers have benefited a sharp raise in their salaries. Blogger says this raise has nothing to do with productivity of these workers. This...

Cuba: Female dissident beaten

  27 April 2006

Pondblog links to an Aljazeera news piece reporting that Cuba's most prominent female dissident, 60 year-old Marta Beatríz Roque, was beaten at her home by a pro-government mob this past Tuesday. The article states that Roque, who leads the Assembly for Promoting Civil Society, was about to leave her home...