Stories from 1 February 2007
Bangladesh: Bangla Wikpedia
The Bangla Wikipedia is growing leaps and bounds. Drishtipat on helping the Bangla wiki grow. “Over the last year, we have taken initiatives to draw more contributors to Bangla wikipedia. In December, volunteers of Bangla Wikipedia visited various Mughal-era monuments of Old Dhaka and took more than 300 pictures, all...
Haiti: Turning emigration into a positive
Bryan Schaaf at Haiti Innovation asks how emigration can be turned to Haiti's benefit.
Africa: TradeNet to revolutionize agriculture
Ethan Zuckerman writes about a new project in West Africa, TradeNet, “TradeNet is designed to take advantage of the boom in mobile phones on the African continent, a boom that’s put mobile phones in the hands of 10% of Africans… an amazing growth over the number of people connected via...
Trinidad & Tobago: The Bible, à la carte
A 2007 calypso citing the book of Leviticus in support of its anti-gay message inspires Trinidad blogger Jessica to comment, with considerable light-heartedness, on both freedom of speech issues and the selective use of the Bible to bolster certain viewpoints.
Guyana: Music video kudos
MediaCritic is impressed with two of the latest music videos produced in Guyana, and offers some tips to low-budget videomakers.
Puerto Rico: Trivialisation of Blogs
Eugenio Martínez Rodriguez suggests that the adoption of blogs by the mainstream media in Puerto Rico may have had the effect of “trivialising” the form.
Barbados: Treasures of our heritage
Prompted by the news that the childhood home of Barbadian cricketing legend Sir Frank Worrell is to be restored, Titalyo writes about the lamentable state of other buildings of “historical interest” in Barbados, and wonders “how much substance there is behind the Prime Minister’s recent pledge to “restore the houses...
Venezuela: Organic Urban Gardens in Caracas
The Temas Blog points readers to a BBC photo essay about an experimental urban, organic garden in Caracas’ city center.
Barbados: Cell phone videos
Barbados Free Press raises the issue of the proliferation of pornographic cell phone videos featuring underage students and sparks of a lively comment thread.
Uzbekistan: Blogs and the Law
Registan.net looks at a change to Uzbekistan's media law that now defines all websites, including blogs, as mass media, subjecting them to registration and content submission requirements. The author expects that this will only delay the growth of the Uzbek blogosphere.
Cuba: Dissident update
“Whether Fidel Castro is dead or only partially dead, the last six months have shown that the dictatorship he created is fully capable carrying on his repressive ways,” writes Marc Masferrer in the introduction to a post reporting on the situation of a few key Cuban dissidents and political prisoners.
Kazakhstan: A Long Way to Go
Irene crunches the numbers and points out that even if every single person in Kazakhstan blogged, there would still be far more Chinese bloggers. She looks at possible reasons why Kazakhstan's blogging community is as small as it is.
Cuba: Fidel's Miami farewell party
Val Prieto answers those who believe that the party being planned by Miami's Cuban community to celebrate Fidel Castro's death is in bad taste: “Im going to pop open “la botellita”, wave my flags, honk my car horn, scream at the top of my lungs, dance in the streets, hug...
UXcamp, Information Architects in Panama & 2007 Panama Jazz Festival
#1: Jorge Arango reports on the first UXcamp – an user experience gathering in Panama.Last night BootStudio hosted what is probably the first user experience gathering in Central America: UXcamp. We had a pretty good turnout, and folks (web desigers and developers, for the most part) seemed genuinely excited about...
Pakistan: Blog-o-vacation
I'm back! …or didn't anyone notice I was gone? Anyway, as I was not able to attend the Global Voices summit in Delhi (as I am still waiting for the approval for my Indian visa after three months), I consoled myself with a trip to my homeland, Kingdom of Lesotho....
Lebanon: Violence, Paris 3 and Cluster Bombs
The past week was a violent week for Lebanon. Fighting broke out around one of the universities in Beirut between pro and anti government students. This was two days after a general strike, accompanied by riots, that was staged by the opposition. On the same day of the strike, the...
“Made in Madagascar” Labels in the USA
At group blog Malagasy Miray, US-based contributor Malagasy aty California explains (Fr): “When I go shopping, it is generally to cope with homesickness. So I … look scrupulously for tags that say ‘Made in Madagascar’. When I lived in Cincinatti, I looked for those in vein.. [But .in California] ‘Made...
Pakistan: Visit Pakistan 2007 website
KO has a scathing review of the Visit Pakistan 2007 website, launched to promote tourism to Pakistan. “No tourist cares that the Ministry is working on policy formulation and development, as well as promoting and executing tourism investment projects. The only thing this page is going to do is tell...
Nepal: BLOGBAN
NepaliVoices calls out for a blogmeet for bloggers from Nepal. “This is a gathering of Nepali bloggers to talk various issues (all bloggers are free to talk on any issue they want) plus the formation of Bloggers Association of Nepal (BLOGAN).”
India: MSM and the Blogosphere
Shivam Vij writes on the MSM and Blogosphere, and why the MSM needs to look closer at blogs instead of dismissing them as trash. “What is perhaps most fascinating about the Indian blogosphere is the great presence here of right-wing voices – far greater than is to be found in...
Madagascar: High Speed Internet is Here
Harinjaka had this to say about high speed internet in Madagascar (Fr): “The information technology market is exploding in Madagascar …IT Companies hire a lot here … because high speed internet is now available all over the country. 2006 was marked by the quest for high speed internet. Websurfers of...
