Stories from 4 May 2006
Lebanon: Violence & Democracy
Violence taking over democracy again in Lebanon. This time inside one of the Lebanese universities. Cedar-Guardian has some details.
Cayman Islands: Ignorance and stupidity wash in Grand Court
Cayblogger is outraged at the legal precedent set by a Cayman Islands’ Grand Court which ruled that “that if a man has sex with a 12-year-old girl, the ‘but she looked 16-years-old’. . . a conviction of statutory rape can be avoided.” As the title to Cayblogger's post says, “Ignorance...
Haiti: Kevin Sites Watch
Reporter Kevin Sites is on assignment in Haiti for Yahoo. Alice Backer is prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, but is still keeping a close watch to see whether he lapses into “Christiane Amanpour-style reporting”.
Trinidad & Tobago: Bicycle criminal
Taran Rampersad recounts a story about the good old days in Trinidad and Tobago–when not having a license for your home-made bicycle could land you in court.
Guyana: Plan B for the Cricket World Cup
“Guyana's secret “Plan B” for the 2007 Cricket World Cup has been leaked!” writes Nicholas Laughlin in a post pointing to a Stabroek News humour piece on the country's continency plans for hosting visitors during next year's cricket tournament. “It includes the creation of special DWZs (Designated War Zones) in...
Bahamas: Enviromental impact of naval base
Sir Arthur Foulkes and Larry Smith weigh the environmental impact of the The US Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Centre, an the American naval facility on the Bahamian island of Andros. Sir Arthur: “Experience has shown that neither the Americans nor the British can be trusted to make judgments in...
China: Blind activist disappeared
Celia at China Activist Weekly blogs on the naming by Time Magazine of women's rights activist Chen Guangcheng as one of the one hundred people shaping the world. Following harassment and a severe beating by the Chinese police, Chen Guangcheng disappeared in March. Here‘s what Celia's doing on his behalf.
East Timor: Report from Dili, East Timor
Samantha is writing in from Dili in East Timor where the situation continues to be tense after last week's violence. “Food supplies are running low as people panic buy and fresh fruit and vegetable sellers who normally come in from the districts have stopped bringing in produce. Petrol prices have...
Iran: Ganji & Golden Pen
According to Freedom for Ganji blog, Akbar Ganji, writer and journalist who was released from jail recently, received Golden Pen Prize of Freedom of Speech in Tehran. According to blogger, Ganji said in a county where civil society has no meaning and government has not recognised private sphere, everything becomes...
Singapore: Village Badminton
Singapore's nostalgia blogger Lam Chun See writing at the goodmorningyesterday blog talks about his childhood Kampong(village) badminton playing days.
Indonesia: Wedding Art Exhibition
Indonesian couple Alfa and Aldo are inviting their friends to participate in an art exhibition during their wedding. They feel that such a concept would be more exciting compared to the regular wedding photo shoot. The artwork can feature anything that the participant likes about the couple. The post features...
Hong Kong: Democratic difficulties
In ‘Scenes from a Dysfunctional Democracy,’ Simon at Simon World notes some absurd politicking in Hong Kong's Legislative Council. “With a democracy like this,” he retorts, “who needs voting?”
China: Steps towards aggregation
The fault for the weak link between major blog aggregators and non-English blogs, says China Herald blogger Fons Tuinstra, lies not with the aggregators but with the ignorance of the local bloggers themselves. “It all boils down to pinging the Technorati servers,” writes the Shanghai-based China consultant. “When you cannot...
Philippines: Street protesters are not militants
Mongster's nest does not like the media using the broad term “militant” to identify street protesters. He asks the media to “name groups for what they seek to represent”. The blogger talks about the wrong impression that such reporting might give to a foreigner “Imagine a foreigner reading a news...
China: May Day malcontents
Lyn Jefferey at Virtual China gives some background on China's week-long May Day holiday and translations of comments from an online discussion on the state of laborers in the pseudo-socialist country, including the comments that are quickly being erased.
South Korea: Korean studies congress
A call for papers has been sounded, blogs Hunjangûi Karûch’im‘s Antti Leppänen, for the third world congress of Korean studies set for October this year. “There doesn't seem to be any DPRK involvement this time,” he writes, “which I must tell is fortunate, considering the experiences from the 2nd ‘world’...
China: Anti-spamming tool
China Doll‘s Holly Molly blogs on a new tool which helps fight back against spammers.
Haiti: Telecom Market Threatened by Digicel
As Digicel is expanding its reach in the Caribbean, Haitian telecoms are reacting to Digicel's presence in Haiti. Says (FR) Radio Kiskeya: “The arrival of Caribbean operator Digicel triggers a counter-offensive from its Haitian competitors.” Haitel and Comcel, aided by [local telecom regulatory body] CONATEL are crying foul at a...
China: Chinese Blogger Atop Technorati 100
Today, as the technorati blog pointed out that in its Top 100, Chinese Blogger Xujinglei became NO1 in the chart. It just followed a newly released report from Technorati which claimed that Chinese is the thrid biggest language in the global blogosphere, with explosion of non English blogs. Here is...
We Media conference update
A quick post from London to let you know that one of the speakers here, Nitin Desai, the Special Assistant to the UN Secretary General, who chaired the UN’s Working Group on Internet Governance, will be taking part in a skype and IRC chat with the Global Voices community. We...
DRC: Interview with Presidential candidate
Black Star Journal points to an interview with a DRC presidential candidate broadcast on NPR radio…”Dr. Oscar Kashala. A Congolese ex-pat practicing medicine in Boston, Kashala is running for the poisoned chalice of the presidency of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
