Stories from 15 March 2007
Iraq: Lost in Translation
Issandr El Amrani, writing in The Arabist, links to a story about the recruitment of someone who barely spoke Arabic to work as a translator in Iraq. “Yet another story of greed, corruption and incompetence in the privatization of the US occupation of Iraq,” he exclaims.
Egypt: First Female Judges Named
Writing for The Arabist, Issandr Al Amrani links to a newspaper article which says that Egypt has named its first female judges.
Egypt: How Big a Threat is Militant Islam?
Egypt-based blogger Tom Gara is wondering how big a threat is militant Islam. “For me, it just isn't that big. Islamic terrorists, if they are lucky, will manage a couple of medium profile bombings of tourist sites each year, and maybe something larger (New York, London, Madrid) every few years....
Bahrain: Iranian Artist Refused Entry
Bahraini blogger Silver links to a newspaper article which says that Bahrain refused to grant an Iranian artist an entry Visa into the country here.
Cuba, Venezuela: Castro won't stop calling Chávez
“Chávez and Castro are always on the phone (ever heard of email?). Chávez would never admit it, but I wonder if he gets tired of Fidel constantly calling,” writes Vivirlatino‘s Jennifer in the preface to a post reproducing a portion of the transcript of a telephone conversation between convalescing Cuban...
Bahrain: The Problem with Parliament
“I am quite convinced that this parliament doesn’t know why it was actually voted in. Apart from the sectarian overtones in almost every thing they do, they cannot distinguish between parliamentary work from that of the pulpit,” writes Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif about the way his Parliament functions.
Cuba: How Cubans in exile measure time
Marta Darby posts an image of the Cubana Aviación plane ticket that brought her, as a small child, from Cuba to the US in 1961, plus a video comprising home movies set to a Celia Cruz song: ‘When we encounter other Cubans wherever we are, there's always a sweet recognition....
Zimbabwe/South Africa: South Africa is a disgrace
Izzy Mutanhaurwa is utterly disgusted, “I am disgusted, completely utterly sickened by the attitude of South Africa. I do not know why they are against regime change in Zimbabwe? The latest ploy by South African ambassador to the UN is nauseating , its garbage diplomacy that should be laughed at...
Iran:End of a nightmare in Moscow Airport
According to Kamangir, an Iranian family, a mother with two children, who stayed for nine months in Moscow airport,got accepted as refugees in Canada.You can see their photo here.
Tamil Blogosphere: Reflecting on Women and Gender
International Women's Day evoked quite a lot of posts in the Tamil Blogosphere. Living Smile Vidya is a transgender blogging from Madurai, South India. Through her posts she has been quite instrumental in making other bloggers understand the trials and tribulations transgenders face in India. Her personal recounts the troubles...
Indonesia: Tribute to Australian Journalist
Maverick Indonesia writes a tribute to Morgan Mellish, an Australian journalist for a financial newspaper. Mellish lost his life along with 21 other passengers when a Garuda Boeing 737-400 plunged off a runway at Yogyakarta.
Cambodia: North Korean Restaurant
Details are Sketchy reviews a North Korean restaurant in Cambodia.
East Timor: Blogger Counters Newspaper Article on East Timor
An Australian Age story on East Timor argues that East Timor was better off under Indonesian rule. Living Timorously counters the points made by the newspaper. East Timor was a former Portuguese colony that was forcibly integrated into Indonesia in 1976.
Lebanon: Women, Politics and the Zalghouta
This week’s summary of the Lebanese blogosphere has posts about politics, peace activism, internal tourism, tradition, feminism and how to cook moghrabiyeh. So let’s start: In an educational and well prepared historical essay, Mustapha Mond discusses what he sees as the major reasons of the political crisis that Lebanon is...
Japan: Where are the Japanese comfort women?
Ampontan translates a post written by Kiyotani in response to the recent debate about Abe's claim that there was “no evidence” that the recruitment of “comfort women” had been “forcible in the narrow sense of the word”.: I really wonder why no one is talking about the Japanese comfort women....
Hong Kong: ever-worse place for expats?
Simon comments on a recent survey that Hong Kong is becoming an ever-worse place for expats, slipping behind Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney and Sierra Leone as a place to live. What's the reason behind?
China: police post on Shangfang
Ai Weiwei transforms a deleted post in Sinablog into photo files. The post is written by a police Wu Yuo-ming from Wubei, who gave detailed account of his experience in “stopping” people from Shangfang (visiting the higher authority to file complaint). The police pointed out that such kind of practice...
Taiwan: The future of Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall
On March 2, 2007, Executive Yuan, Taiwan, decided to change the name of ‘Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall‘ to ‘Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall’ and to remove the enclosing walls to make the area around the memorial hall a more open public space. To keep the integrity of Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall,...
China: Euthanasia blog
Jeremy Goldkorn from DANWEI introduces an Euthanasia blog written by a 28 years old woman, Li Yan, who has been suffering form cancer since very young age.
