25 July 2006

Stories from 25 July 2006

China: public servant pay-scale

  25 July 2006

Sun Bin discusses about public servant's pay scale: “Instead of arguing against the raise, I would rather argue for a mechanism of firing incompetent staff...”

Taiwan: student in hunger strike

  25 July 2006

A student Li Wen-zhen has been sitting at CKS memorial Hall for more than a month to protest against Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian's suspected corruption. Six days ago, he started hunger strike: “Either ah Bian step down or I fell down”. The incident remind FDL in China times of the...

China: national security

  25 July 2006

ESWN translates a post written by Zeng Jinyan (zh) about civic rights activist ‘Knight Errant’ Peng's experience in dealing with national security people.

Korea: blood donation

  25 July 2006

Ohmynews‘ Citizen reporter Saenam Kim reports about Korean's attitude towards blood donation and its blood donation certificate system.

South Korea: korean farmer family

  25 July 2006

Song Sung-young, a korean farmer and a citizen reporter of Ohmynews hosted his newly met french friends in his house. He has some vivid descriptions of how Childish English vs. ‘Frenglish’ communication worked out.

South Korea: remodel broken house

  25 July 2006

Days in Daechuri shows a series of pictures on how young people are remodelling the broken house in Daechuri: “Korean government said they are planning to drive all of the daechuri people out and tear down their houses soon. Keeping the houses from being destroyed is the most important struggle...

Armenia: Open Source

Nessuna reports that the opening of Microsoft's representative office and the passage of a new copyright law may encourage the adoption of open source software by Armenian companies.

Global Food Blog Report #25

  25 July 2006

#1: From Malaysia, Tham Jiak on Tastes of YesterLife: If one's life can be determine by food preferences, I believe that I might be an Indian in my past life. As much as I love Chinese cuisines, I am strangely drawn towards Indian food, my five senses transfix on the...

Nigeria: Fear of science

  25 July 2006

Of all the science-related fears Chippla has encountered, none seems greater than the fear of mathematics, he writes, among other musings on the discovery of the cause of malaria and Nigeria's Diaspora Day.

Appeal for Ethiopians in Lebanon

  25 July 2006

Ethiopian Politics is in the processes of contacting the Red Cross, Amnesty International and UNHCR regarding the problem of Ethiopian nationals trapped in Lebanon. “We ask all concerned Ethiopians to join us in voicing the plight of our brothers and sisters to anyone who may be in a position to...

Africans in Lebanon

  25 July 2006

Black Looks reports that an estimated 20,000 Ethiopians as well as Nigerians, Ghanaians, Sudanese and Somalis working in Lebanon, many of whom were trafficked there, are being “left to fend for themselves without money or papers.”

African women: Call for poetry

  25 July 2006

African Women Blogs posts a call for poetry from Agenda magazine, 21 years after the Nairobi (Women's) Conference. “Contributions should reflect the contradictions, complexities, challenges and successes for African women two decades after the Nairobi conference,” the announcement says.

Sierra Leone: Economist's tale

  25 July 2006

R.E. Ekosso reviews, and even approves of, The Economist's Tale, written by World Bank consultant Peter Griffiths after a recent research trip to Sierra Leone. “This book”, says Griffiths in his introduction, “shows that it is individuals who cause poverty, underdevelopment and famine, by their actions, by their failure to...

India: Bhopal Tragedy

  25 July 2006

Bhopal Blog posts on a victory for those who have been campaigning on the issue of the Bhopal tragedy. “You: the unyielding anger of compassionate people the world over, burying the government in protest, scorn and shame.”

Pakistan: Women and Life

  25 July 2006

Shirazi on women in Pakistan – choices that are to be made when it comes to career and family, and the lack of support for women who want to test traditional boundaries.

Russia: Disagreements Over Beslan Memorial

Founder of PravdaBeslana.ru Marina Litvinovich (LJ user abstract2001) writes (RUS) about one of the problems that survivors and relatives of those who died in Beslan in September 2004 have to deal with now: Orthodox Christianity in Beslan I've always been amazed by how the local authorities in North Ossetia and...

India: The Corporation

  25 July 2006

Dispatches from Zembla reviews a Canadian documentary, The Corporation – reflecting on trends in business, the market and everything else.