Stories from 3 May 2006
El Salvador: No Immigration Debate
Jefferson Morley says that immigration reform is rarely debated in the Salvadoran press.
Haiti: Kevin Sites Sighting
Yon Ayisyen, the only Haiti-based Haitian blogger writes (FR): “When I noticed that [Yahoo war correspondent] Kevin Sites was in Colombia, I understood right away that he wasn't too far. But I also told myself that we had neither a war nor an armed conflict despite the daily gun violence...
Bolivia: Public Pension Political Slush Fund?
Miguel Centallas wonders if a national pension fund could turn into a political slush fund under MAS leadership.
Argentina: Blogs and MSM: Two Distinct Markets
Argentine blogger Mariano Amartino is at the WeMedia conference in London where he says (ES) that the mainstream media still incorrectly views “blogs” as a single entity rather than another way to deliver content. In a followup post (ES) he recounts that, by chance, he was at the same table...
Venezuela: Debt Relief and Fartless Beans
Katy expresses her gratitude (sarcastically … I think) to Hugo Chavez for relieving the debts of former students who studied abroad during the early 90's. Afrael has a gas relaying the news (ES) that the “fartless bean” was invented in Venezuela in his post “Venezuela Keeps Innovating”: “only known for...
Uruguay, Venezuela: Criticizing Mercosur
Steven Taylor writes about Uruguay's discontent with the South American trade bloc Mercorsur. Miguel Octavio (and his faithful readers) try to make sense of Latin America's recent economic realignment.
Argentina: Review of “Crónica de una Fuga”
The cutting edge film reviewers at GoodAirs give two thumbs way up for the new movie Crónica de una Fuga. Brandán comments on his sense that “the movie repeated a lot of stock imagery of torture,” but still calls the story “incredible.”
Armenian Blogs on the Armavia Crash
An Airbus A320 flown by the Armenian airline Armavia crashed into the Black Sea, killing all 113 passengers and crew onboard–the worst air crash in Armenia's history. In early reaction to the story, Christian Garbis said that the crash will be hard for all Armenians as well as for the...
Mongolia: Chinese Judicial Training
Luke Distelhorst says that China will be training Mongolian judges.
Kyrgyzstan: Governmental Reform
The Golden Road to Samarqand discusses political reform in Kyrgyzstan in light of attempts by the country's cabinet to resign.
Kyrgyzstan: Constitutional Reform
Kyrgyzstan's president has set a date for drafts of a new constitution to be finished. Matt Jay discusses this news, saying that it is obviously a reaction to the recent protest against the president.
Uzbekistan: NGO Expulsions
With Counterpart International looking to be the latest victim of Uzbekistan's spree of NGO closures, Elizabeth explains the various reasons by which Uzbekistan justifies the expulsions.
China: Churches compete for Christians
The EastSouthWestNorth blogger does a non-random sample analysis of several blogs’ Google PageRanks and comes up with a completely unreliable conclusion. Further down is the final translation of a very relevant series of reports on Christian-ish churches in rural China.
South Korea: Newspapers add English
The Oranckay blogger tells us why increased English-language news reporting in Korean newspapers might not be such a good thing.
China: Music tour tips
In ‘One Country, Two Rock Scenes‘, Holidarity‘s Friend Gram reveals a mainland China rock star trick of the trade.
China: Cantonese opera
Supernaut Frances D'Ath and her non-demonic friends gear up for Apocalypse Guangzhou later this month in ‘Canton Opera Madness.’
Hong Kong: Zheng He exhibition
sevenyearsinchina‘s Han Girl visits the Zheng He exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of History and comes away flipping Eurocentrism on its head. “What can one expect? We're talking about people who still use the word ‘discover’ to describe the trip to America by Columbus,” she writes. “Columbus discovered a...
Hong Kong: A Communist pod-dream
It didn't take long for Dave and Stefan at Hong Kong's Blog the Talk to get around to podcasting and their most recent release “a meditation on pedestrian behavior, individualism and the appeal of Communism in this capitalist paradise,” doesn't disappoint.
DRC: Bishops Disagree with July 30 Election Date
“[Electoral Council Chief] Rev. Malu-Malu was rebuffed by catholic bishops who claim he does not have the power to prolong the transition period [beyond June 30],” says (FR) Le Renouveau Congolais. Instead, the Church calls for a national dialogue by June 30 to collectively decide what to do beyond June...
China: Intellectual property protection
China Law Blog‘s Dan Harris gives some personal Intellectual Property protection tips in ‘China Customs—Your IP Friend.’
China: Catholics, coal, chemicals
China Confidential‘s Confidential Reporter gives a second look at rapidly-deteriorating relations between the Communists in Beijing and the Catholics in the Vatican, preceded with one long dire post: at least twenty-four dead in a coal mine collapse in the Northwestern province of Shaanxi this past weekend, and toxic dumping in...
