Stories from 20 July 2006
DRC: Police Repression at July 11th Demo
Le Blog du Congolais writes (Fr):” Kinshasa, June 3oth Boulevard, Tuesday July 11th 2006. The Congolese police, trained and equipped by the European Union, unleashed itself against the 19 presidential candidates to the July 30 elections and the demonstrators of the Front to Defend the Congo (FDC) led by UDPS....
Pakistan: Another corner in Lahore
Certain cities have so many stories to tell. Metroblogging Lahore on Garhi Shahu. “But who would have ever thought that an area that came up to accommodate a most learned man never kept his name, and a complete scoundrel managed to keep his name alive because he was a genuine...
Sri Lanka: Before we get censored
Greenhornet.lk looks at neighbour India's blogspot block and reflects on lessons for those online in Sri Lanka. “Preservation of free speech should be the Sri Lankan Internet community’s number one priority in the coming months, since the loss of the tool itself is a far greater loss than ANYTHING that...
India: Censorship and the Government
Aishwarya outlines the fundamental problem with the government blocking any site. “What matters is that our government believe they have a right/duty to protect us all from anti-national activities, and “anti-national” covers a wide range of activities and includes both terrorism and whatever offends us.”
Pakistan: To Indian Bloggers
iFaqeer reproduces a letter that went out from a Pakistani blogger to Indian bloggers on a discussion list.
Iran: Speculations about Ganji
Majid Mohammadi, a US based scholar says new wave of imaginative speculations about Ganji's agenda outside Iran reminded me of the literature and approach of Iranian security agents who connect and interrelate everything and everyone, without any evidence or empirical support, to disqualify whoever they do not like or reject...
Ukraine: Old Faces, New Positions
Abdymok updates Ukrainian ‘who is who in politics’ list – old names, new positions. He writes: “there is no point theorizing about coalition configurations and broad coalitions when criminals and political thugs [read: yanukovych, azarov, pyskun, kivalov, dziha, moroz, symonenko, etc.] are running the show.” And: “if the president decides...
Czech Republic: Renaming Brno Streets
Jesse of Bored in Brno writes about renaming of streets in Brno.
Serbia: Government Changes
Doug Muir of A Fistful of Euros writes about changes in the Serbian government looming ahead: “So, elections in Serbia, probably this autumn, almost certainly by early next year.”
Romania: Targu Mures
Owlspotting writes about his native town: “[…] my hometown of Targu Mures (also called Targu-Mures, Tirgu Mures and more recently Tirgu-Mures; the latter is the spelling used by city officials).”
Captive Nations Week
Edward Lucas, the Central and East European correspondent of The Economist, writes about the Captive Nations Week and its relevance today.
Venezuela: Metro Line Number Four
Caracas’ number four metro line is now in service. Oil Wars is a fan of the paint job. Huguito, who posted a couple dozen photos of the new line to his Flickr account, is happy that the stations are well marked (ES).
Mexico: Exposition of Flickr Monterrey
The first Photographic Exposition of Flickr Monterrey will be held this Saturday evening at Café 13 Lunas says Ocho Cuartos.
Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador: Indian Interest
Massimiliano Cali is surprised to read that, shortly after the nationalization of the natural gas sector, “the Bolivian government is set to approve a US$ 2.3bn bid by two Indian companies to extract of one of the world's largest untapped iron ore deposits.” Meanwhile, Boz notes that India also began...
Mexico: The Neverending Election
Professor Matthew Shugart posts an excerpt of his interview with Mexico Watch on the Mexican elections. Professor Michelle Dion is skeptical of a “statistical analysis of the 2000 election votes in Mexico.” Mark in Mexico says that things aren't looking good for Lopez Obrador in the case of a recount....
Argentina: Blog and Book Presentation
Leandro Zanoni, journalist, author, and blogger thanks the attendees who came to the presentation (ES) of his newest book, “Vivir en los Medios: Maradona off the record.”
Ecuador: Petrol Economics
The Wolf Report has reached post number 10 in the series, “The Importance of Being Ecuador.”
Brazil: “The City of Racial Diversity”
Melo Bichuetti calls São Paulo “the city of racial diversity.”
Algeria: Arab American Lobby
Nouri Lumendifi says that this new crisis in Lebanon-Israel has opened a new opportunity for American politicians to attempt to win Jewish votes. He adds that the way that certain American polticians have been using this conflict to advance their own agendas at the expense of the Lebanese people is...
Bahrain: Up and away
Bahraini Rants the new superman movie: “… it was cool, but it brought about a lot of superhero movie talk.. Would it kill Superman to use his powers for a little personal betterment.. if you had superman’s powers, how would you use them? Would you go out and risk your...
Iraq: Freedom!
Mama says, “freedom means free to kill,democracy means you have the right to leave the country.”
