Stories from 5 April 2007
Argentina: A Ride for the Climate Ends
For over a year now we've been following Dave as he has ridden his bike from California through Mexico, Central America, the Andes, and Patagonia as part of his Ride for the Climate. That adventures is now over, writes Dave from Buenos Aires. This last entry is a great look...
Costa Rica, Panama: Nearing Free Trade Accord
Bob Glass says that Panama and Costa Rica will renew talks on April 9 that might lead to a free trade agreement between the neighboring countries.
Ecuador, Spanish: “Guglear” Officially Recognized
Unlike most other languages, Spanish is officially regulated by a governing body. A governing body which, according to Christian Espinosa [ES], has finally accepted the inevitable: everyone's favorite investigative verb, to google. Yo gugleo, tu gugleas, we all gugleamos.
Colombia: Celebrating Internet Week in Medellín
Noting that BlogsColombia recently organized a successful blogger bash in Bogotá, Juliana Parra and fellow Medellín bloggers are now planning their own event to celebrate Internet Week from May 14 – 18. A Medellín metro blog – MedalloBloguero [ES] – has already been set up.
El Salvador: Community Radio
“Radio Sumpul, like other stations in ARPAS, plays a variety of music, news and educational programs for all ages of listeners. The operation at Radio Sumpul is staffed by volunteers. One of the staff explained to me that the volunteers, most of whom are women, work at the station because...
Bloggers in India Mourn the Untimely Death of Shakti Bhatt
Bloggers in India have been mourning the untimely death of Shakti Bhatt, who passed away in Delhi last Saturday night after a sudden and unexpected illness. Shakti – who was in her mid-twenties – was the editor of Indian publishing house IBD’s newly launched Bracket Books and the wife of...
Panama: Bocas Dolphins Under Threat, and Non-Lethal Personal Security Devices in Panama.
#1: From The Noriegaville News, Bocas Dolphins Under Threat : My own opinion of this project is it is simply a commercial venture using and probably abusing the natural resources of Panama. The continued use of the buzzword abundance in their proposal confirms my feeling. How do you increase abundance...
Israel:Canadian Jewish Community Center Bombing
Israeli blogger Yael on Aliyah! criticizes the Canadian government for not considering the bombing of a Jewish Community Center during Passover as a hate crime, “if a church got bombed on Easter or a Mosque got bombed during Ramadan it would also be a good bet that it was a...
Syria: Kurdish Unrest
Kurdish blog From Holland to Kurdistan reports of unrest in the Kurdish region of Syria: “Ciwan Mohammed (25) was killed in a fight in the Assyrian district of Derek by an Assyrian on the 1th of April. Two Kurdish boys were severely wounded and brought to the hospital in Qamishlo....
Turkey: Istanbul Tattooed
Metroblogging Istanbul has now started a Flickr account to document the graffiti art of Istanbul “some of them are great works of art, out of reach of the general public because they are hidden in remote locations in the city”.
Swahili Blogosphere: Blogging against Freedom of Information Bill, African unity, and How many other dictators are out there?
The extraordinary summit of the Southern African Development Community leaders in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania is over, but the debate over the Zimbabwe's government's crackdown on opposition still lingers on. As usual, when Zimbabwe's political crisis dominates news headlines so do the opposing views of the situation. What do Swahili...
Guyana: Every Dawg has its Day
Brown Dawg finally gets his day, managing to slip in a post on Guyana Gyal‘s blog in much the same fashion that he slips into practically every cricket match “more silent than a piece of stew chicken plopsing to the ground.”
Russia, Poland: Auschwitz Dispute
Rossijskaja Federazija reports that the Polish management of the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial museum closed the Russian part of the exposition on the prisoners because of a dispute over the victims’ citizenship.
Latvia: “Adult Playground”
All About Latvia writes about Riga's mayor's proposal to build an “adult playground” for the capital's foreign visitors: “the new district will feature a multi-purpose sports facility, several night clubs, public restrooms, and a brothel.” (Update: it's an April 1 joke!)
Grenada: Drying the Cocoa
t13hman posts a great shot of the cocoa-drying process in Grenada circa 1970, accompanied by a photo stream of slides taken in Puerto Rico in the 1940s.
Cuba: Dissidents Upset at Spanish Snub
Cuban dissidents were insulted that the Spanish Foreign Minister did not meet with them during a recent visit to the island. Blog for Cuba has details.
Belize: Mayan Land Rights
History was made in Belize as Mayans filed a Supreme Court action aimed at forcing the government to recognize their indigenous land ownership rights. Brad Brace calls it “an unusual show in the middle of the morning in the heart of the city, but still, by-standers could be heard shouting...
Barbados: Sky High Airfares
On the heels of both the LIAT/Caribbean Star merger and the re-branding of BWIA to Caribbean Airlines, intra-island airfares are the highest they have ever been. Barbados Free Press worries that “unless this issue is addressed, it will certainly restrict any meaningful growth in travel throughout the region.”
Bahamas: The Evil of Politics
As Bahamian elections are announced, Sidney Sweeting at WeblogBahamas.com laments “the evil that men will do, all in the name of politics.”
Ukraine: A War in the Comments
Siberian Light had to close the comment section on this post about the current events in Ukraine, after minor virtual fighting broke out between a bunch of readers.
Ukraine: Crisis Analysis
“Crisis has become the hallmark of Ukrainian politics since last year's March parliamentary elections,” writes Vilhelm Konnander and explains what the reasons and the perspectives are.
