Stories from 25 January 2007
Senegal: Flooded by Chinese Products
Blog Politique du Senegal is worried (Fr)about imports from China “flooding” local markets: “China has extremely low production costs … By opening its doors wide to Chinese products, Senegal is preventing itself from developing a national production. Meanwhile, the country's industrialization is the only means of providing work to thousands...
Madagascar: WordPress in Malagasy
Says L'Odyssee de Tattum (Fr): “Our national webmaster, Hery, has struck again! And it's all for the better! He redid and finalized the WordPress in Malagasy project begun by [blogger] Many to come up with: Blaogy.org, a new blogging platform powered by WordPress.”
Chilean Senator Explores World of Warcraft: Scholastic Team Building or Time Wasting?
Online, multi-player games like Second Life and World of Warcraft have attracted some authentic popularity in the form of subscription-paying registered users and a disproportionate amount of hype from techno-utopian bloggers, the-next-big-thing media futurists, and sociology professors turned computer geeks. So much hype as a matter of fact that New...
Puerto Rico: Two poems
Puerto Rican writer Elidio La Torre-Lagares posts two interesting poems in English.
Belize: “Third parties” emerge
Melody at the Belize News Blog encourages readers to download the latest issue of the recently launched Belize Independent Newspaper, which is devoted to the emergence of new political parties in Belize and the challenge they represent for the two-party status quo.
Malaysia: Helping Flood Victims
Kenny Sia is asking his readers to assist in the flood relief efforts in Southern Malaysia. “Getting hit by the flood is bad, but getting hit by the flood twice in a week is even more suay. While we're wondering where to go for a night out drinking, those kids...
Barbados: Calypso for Desmond Haynes
Robert Frische at Cricketwukup.com remembers a calypso written by a Barbadian singer in honour of great West Indies cricketer Desmond Haynes, who, near the end of his career, was both passed up for the captaincy and dropped from the team. You can hear the song as well — an MP3...
Laos: Revisiting Laotian Modern History
The New Mandala links to a story from from the Boston Phoenix about the conflict in Lao between the US backed Lao Army forces and North Vietnamese backed Phathet Lao. The story was first published in 1972 and features a Lao Army officer talking about the lack of morale in...
Trinidad & Tobago: National shutdown organiser arrested
Attillah Springer confesses to a sense of unease as the organiser of today's national shutdown in Trinidad and Tobago is charged under the country's anti-terrorism act.
The Arabist: Saudi Arabia Persecuting Ahmadis
The Arabist reported today a Human Rights Watch plea to the Saudi monarch urging him to stop presecuting Ahmadis. According to the letter, “Saudi Arabia has so far arrested 56 non-Saudi followers of the Ahmadi faith, including infants and young children, and deported at least 8 to India and Pakistan.”
Bahrain: Being Update Man is Not Fun
Bahraini Rants was appointed official Update Man for a day – while his friend's wife was in labour. He was charged with updating colleages and friends with the birth progress, which lasted about 12 hours.
Honduras: It's a contest!
Head over to La Gringa's Blogicito guess what she has posted a photo of, and win something nice.
Bahrain: Authorities Looking for Asian Aids Victim
Bahrain's top CID chief Farooq Al Maawda issued a warning against an Asian woman thought to be inflicted with Aids who may have sneaked back into the kingdom, wrote Mahmood Al Yousif. In a racial slur, the CID official said it was be difficult to find the woman as “people...
Bolivia: 1/11: An Eyewitness Account
Jim Shultz on the violent protests that broke out in Cochabamba two weeks ago: “Since then I have also spoken to a half dozen people who were eyewitnesses to those events. One of those accounts, from a non-participant, Jonas Brown, a US citizen who lives in the exact spot where...
Venezuela: Privatized Vs. Nationalized CANTV
Miguel Octavio of The Devil's Excrement compares the relative successes and failures of telecommunications giant CANTV both as a state run and private company.
India, Latin America: Bangalore, a Role Model?
Kamla Bhatt, a resident of Bangalore herself, is intrigued by an argument set forth by Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer who calls the Indian tech metropolis a “role model for Latin America.” Boli-Nica, who usually writes in English, this time addressed [ES] his Spanish-speaking readers with a comparison of Oppenheimer's...
Arabisc: Hijab-clad Doll Under Fire in Tunisia
This is Fulla, the Hijab-clad Arab Muslim adaptation of the decadent West's Barbie doll. Our Barbie wears the Hijab (head scarf) and Islamic attire – a long dress with long sleeves. While she is a blessing to many parents in the Muslim world who are happy to see their children...
Malaysia: Prime Minister Comments on Blogger's Responsibilities
Unspun posts a part of Malaysian prime minister Abdullah Badawi's recent speech where the prime minister stressed that the bloggers are subject to the laws of the country.
Russia: “Kremlin, Inc.”
Robert Amsterdam scans and posts a 14-page New Yorker article on Russia, which is not yet available online (“Kremlin, Inc.: Why are Vladimir Putin's Opponents Dying“).
Iran:Iranian Journalist and Dissident Akbar Ganji
Nikahang writes that Akbar Ganji, journalist and dissident,Thursday, will accept the prestigious International Press Freedom award from Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) awarded to him in 2000.He could not take award sooner because he was in prison.
The Iranian Nuclear Crisis
The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to impose sanctions against Iran over its failure to halt its uranium enrichment programme on December 23, 2006. Despite the gravity of the situation, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the UN’s decision as unimportant and vowed to continue uranium enrichment. As a result,...
