22 February 2007

Stories from 22 February 2007

Singapore: Talking to a Mainland Chinese

  22 February 2007

Diana, a Singaporean meets a person from mainland China on a boat journey in Cambodia and talks about the lives of an overseas Chinese and a mainland Chinese. “Her generation is debating these issues and trying to understand what it means to be Chinese. I told her it’s the same...

Israel: Equality at Western Wall?

  22 February 2007

Israeli blogger Rahel literally shows us where women stand at free bar mitzvah services at the Western Wall, offered by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, here. “The Western Wall Heritage Foundation offers free bar mitzvah services at the Western Wall. Nice of them. What do they offer to girls who...

Israel: Who's Next?

  22 February 2007

Today it is Abdel Karim – tomorrow it could be you!, warns Israeli blogger SnoopyTheGoon. “This is another case when an oppressive regime takes a petty revenge on a blogger. This is another case when all bloggers, no matter of what race, age, gender or political affiliation must spread the...

Israel: A Predictable Misunderstanding

  22 February 2007

Israeli Blogger, from Thoughts from Israel, describes the latest escalation between the Arabs and Israelis over Al Aqsa as a “predictable misunderstanding.” “And so, once again, a stupid and inconsiderate action of some office in the Israeli government is perceived by Arabs as warmongering, thereby causing Arab panic and violence,...

Russia: New Registration Law

  22 February 2007

Sean's Russia Blog posts a transcript of the briefing by a high-ranking Russian migration service official: “As I’ve already indicated, the adoption and enforcement of the January 15 migration law has caused confusion among administrators, police, officials, and foreigners alike. Nothing points to this confusion more than the following transcript...

Eastern Europe: Dubious Architecture

  22 February 2007

Copydude – and Vilhelm Konnander, in a comment – discuss the House of Soviets in Kaliningrad, Russia, the Resurrection Church in Kaunas, Lithuania, and Konstantinov’s Central Post Office in Skopje, Macedonia, as well as a few other “dubious” architectural monuments.

Russia: Ivan Ushkov's Case

  22 February 2007

Ivan Ushkov, a St. Petersburg artist, had his computer and some of his work confiscated by the police; officers threatened to shut down his photo business located on Nevsky Prospekt. Both the Russian blogosphere and the media are abuzz about this ongoing controversy. Ushkov's work can be viewed here; English...

Haiti: Reinforcing Judicial Independence

  22 February 2007

At Ailleurs Vu d'Ici, Roody Edmé cites (Fr) a recent International Crisis Group report on the Haitian judicial system as “underlining the weakness of our judicial culture when it comes to judges’ ethics and responsibility” and adds: “Legislative proposals are being announced in the Haitian Parliament that seek … to...

Ukraine: Corruption (Cont'd)

  22 February 2007

A week ago, there were about 200 comments on Yuri Zushchik's post on corruption at the National Bank of Ukraine (including an irrelevant but lively discussion of IKEA – which is yet to open in Kyiv, by the way). Today, there are 320 comments, and the following exchange (RUS, UKR)...

Iran: War and Human Rights Concerns

  22 February 2007

Concerns about a war between Iran and the US are growing in the Iranian blogosphere by the day. While Iran refuses to halt its uranium enrichment programme, despite the United Nation's resolution 1737, it is also being accused by the US of sending bombs to Iraq. Iran considers the enrichment...

Trinidad & Tobago: Moko jumbies

  22 February 2007

Stefan Falke posts some spectacular photos of the moko jumbies–or stilt-walkers–of the Dragon Keylemanjahro School of Arts & Culture's presentation for this year's Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago.