Stories from 25 December 2006
Brunei: Origins of Wedding Rituals
The Daily Brunei Resources blog traces the origin of Malay wedding custom of bunga telur. Bunga telur is the token gift presented to the guests who attend a wedding.
Bermuda: Poison comment debate
A tongue-in-cheek post by the Limey, riffing off of a incident where a chef at a Bermuda resort was thrown off the island after making a joke about putting arsenic...
Belize: What do Christmas vacationers want?
Lee Vanderwalker in Caye Caulker, Belize, wonders: “Why do you think people vacation at Christmas time. Do you think they expect a traditional American Christmas? Do you think that if...
India: Community Video Unit and Dalits
Reflections in a window pane on the power of video and overcoming oppression. “When the use of Video by a team of six Dalits, working for a Community Video Unit,...
Sri Lanka: Preparing for the Tsunami
LIRNEasia is apprehensive about a report in the UK press which claims that Sri Lanka is prepared well if a tsunami strikes. “The best-prepared country is Sri Lanka, one of...
India: The day MGR died
Metroblogging Chennai remembers the Christmas Eve of 1987, when a famous politician died. “The size of the crowd was unimaginable – hundreds of thousands of people. The driver had to...
Barbados: Condoning human rights abuses
Barbados Free Press is horrified that Barbados abstained from a UN vote citing Iran for human rights abuses, then went on to vote to protect Iran against sanctions.
Barbados: Hollywood in the Caribbean
Barbados blogger AirBourne offers a capsule history of Hollywood's interventions in the Caribbean, with a special emphasis on the music featured in the films.
Nepal: Digital Democracy Organization
Democracy for Nepal discusses Humro Nepal. “It has not been registered. It does not have a budget. Both those details are intentional and are to be kept that way. It...
Bahamas: “Improving” Junkanoo
Nicolette Bethel advises her fellow Bahamians to heed the words of Trinidadian Carnival designer Peter Minshall when considering the “improvement” of Junkanoo, their own national festival.
Aruba: A reminder from Suriname
A passage in a book about Suriname received as a Christmas present resonates strongly with ArubaGirl: “While things in Aruba aren't nearly as bad as they were during that time...
Ukraine, USA: North Dakota Ukrainians
Ukraine List writes about Ukrainians of North Dakota.
Ukraine: The New Year's
Carpetblogger posts pictures and writes about the New Year's in Kyiv.
Ukraine, Poland: Traffic Jam
Abdymok writes about a neglected story of “a 20 kilometer-long line of cars, buses, and trucks trying to make it back to ukraine before the new year . . ....
Russia: “No Bears, Only Beauties” in St. Pete
Russian Marketing Blog writes about a St. Petersburg promotion campaign: “It would cost the City Council about 1 million Euros to place 300 billboards in London, Amsterdam and Paris till...
Russia: A Blogger's Short Stories
Copydude is posting short stories – one, two, three, four – he wrote while in Tatarstan: “They come under the category of ‘True Lies’ – or what writers prefer to...
Russia: Litvinovich on Beslan Report
David McDuff of A Step At A Time translates a piece by Marina Litvinovich, an activist and founder of the Truth of Beslan portal; she writes: “Another of the report’s...
Poland: Honorary King
The beatroot reports: “46 members of the Polish parliament have tabled a motion to name Jesus Christ as the ‘honorary King of the Republic of Poland’. […] There is an...
Hungary: Budapest's Poor
Pestcentric writes about Budapest's poor and the problem with videotaping them.
Estonia: Christmas Customs
Itching for Eestimaa writes about Estonian Christmas customs.
Croatia: War Crimes
Neretva River writes: “As exhumations begin at Osijek's central cemetery as part of the Croatian judiciary's investigation of war crimes committed against Osijek's non-Croat civilian population during December 1991, 2006...