Stories from 15 May 2006
Armenia: Notes from the Armenian Blogosphere
Onnik Krikorian rounds up the Armenian blogosphere.
Uzbekistan: One Family – One Cow
Registan.net discusses Uzbekistan's “one family – one cow” program under which entrepreneurs are coerced into donating livestock or cows to the poor, or as is more often the case, money to bank accounts of local officials.
Mongolia: Protesters Return
neweurasia reports that, a week after being forced out, protesters are returning to Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar.
Armenia: Sharm El
Christian Garbis raves about his favorite Indian restaurant in Yerevan and says that it has been so successful that it is taking over the kitchen at another location.
Armenia: Andres, Pop Culture
Harmick plugs his site, Andre For Armenia, promoting Armenia's entry into the Eurovision contest and rounds up Armenian pop culture news at Blogrel.
Mongolia: Racist Violence
Luke Distelhorst says that racist violence–mostly between Mongols and Chinese–is on the rise in Mongolia.
Interview with Afghan Warrior
Global Voices has started a series of interviews with Afghan bloggers. Our first guest is Waheed from Afghan Warrior. 1 Q: How long have you started to blogging and why an English one? 1 A .I have been blogging since March 8, 2005. I wanted to raise my voice, and...
Bruna Little Surfer: blog turns into book, call girl turns into writer
Bruna Little Surfer is how she became known, the Brazilian blogger named Rachel Pacheco turned celebrity while posting in her online diary details about her job as a call girl. The mainstream media is emphasizing the "tramp-to-celebrity" phenomenon more than the blogosphere which is providing some very interesting discussion.
India: Plagiarism yet again
Saakshi is extremely angry. Her work from her blog appears to have been flicked and plagiarised by a US based magazine website.
India: Reservations Issue, Students take to streets
The quota and reservation issue heats up on the streets of India. Dateline Bombay on why it is that students of medicine who appear to be protesting far more than students studying other subjects.
Sri Lanka: Women and the LTTE
Days Go By… wonders where the women's activists are when it come to the issue of the LTTE using female suicide bombers.
Pakistan: Driving In Lahore
Driving in Lahore seems to be suspended between a nightmare and delight. Metroblogging Lahore takes a closer look at the driving culture in the city.
Bangladesh: Bangla Wikipedia and Open Tourism
Rezwan talks of the Bangla Wikipedia with links on how the content can be improved, and more edits can be achieved. On the same issue of online content generation – imperfect world 2006 links to a community driven site on tourism and the link for Dhaka.
China: Rock star imprisoned
Uleewang at Non-violent Resistance blogs on the hottest story in mainstream Chinese media this past week “involving a popular tabloid, a burned-out rock star, his ex-wife the most famous Chinese singer ever, their daughter and her puppy, his second ex-wife, his erstwhile fellow rock star, some broken computers and TV...
China: Fuel shortage cover-up?
Is there a fuel shortage in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen which lies next to Hong Kong? “The government is claiming there is no shortage,” says Simon of Simon World, “and they're right. There's enough fuel, but thanks to the cap on pricing the station owners are refusing to...
China: Wu Hao's whereabouts
Nina Wu, sister of illegally-imprisoned Beijing or Bust blogger Wu Hao writes of her ongoing push to find out where her brother is: “I still remember the first time I came to Beijing for little brother's affair, freezing to the point of shivering despite wearing an overcoat. Now, it's already...
Barbados: What will happen to drug-bust yacht?
Two US citizens have been arrested in Barbados for attempting to smuggle 135 pounds of cocaine into the country on their yacht, according to media reports. What Barbados Free Press wants to know is “how this seized yacht will be dealt with? Is the system for disposal of seized assets...
China: New political campaign shows sarcasm is alive and well
A strange custom of every Communist Party of China leader is for them to come up with their own theory or “ism”. Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping had their own respective variations of Socialist theory. Jiang Zemin has his Three Represents. And what about the current Chinese president Hu Jintao?...
Suriname: Update on flood relief efforts
At World Wide Help, Angelo Embuldeniya posts a two-part update on the ongoing flood disaster in Suriname from Sharda Ganga, head of Stichting Projekta, an NGO helping to coordinate volunteer relief efforts. “The latest news from Upper Suriname … was that it started raining again. If the rainfall continues, the...
China: Yuan gets stronger
Dawanr at TalkTalkChina posts on the news yesterday of a strengthening Chinese yuan as the rate on the US dollar dipped below 8.0.
Hong Kong: Making fun of news
EastSouthWestNorth blogger Roland Soong translates a blog post which takes a humorous look at the ten hottest news stories on the internet this past week.