10 April 2007

Stories from 10 April 2007

Tunisia: Reactions to Seven Pillars Article

Tunisian Subzero Blue reacts to the recent article the Seven Pillars of Middle East Reality: “Arab leaders have no interest in genuine peace with Israel This can't be more wrong; the Arab leaders wouldn't want anything more than to have the whole Israel-Palestine problem solved, a peace established, the ability...

Turkey: A Disconnect in Turkish Class

Carpetblogger recounts some of her learning adventures in her Turkish class: “I have been spending four hours a day, five days a week in a small room with two Korean women, a Argentinian woman, a Turkish/Swiss woman (who speaks German but no Turkish) and two women from “Dogu Turkestan.””

Hungary: Positive Note on Health Care

  10 April 2007

Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar gets a surprisingly good treatment from a Budapest doctor: “… although the inside of the hospitals still look like something from the Crimean War and the doctor wore Moses sandals, how I was dealt with last night was quicker and more efficient than the...

Paraguay: Peculiar Politics

  10 April 2007

“‘An island surrounded by land’ is how novelist Roa Bastos described his native Paraguay, as much in reference to its political and social insularity, as to its landlocked geography.” So begins Teo Ballvé in his post, “Paraguay’s Peculiar Politics.”

Peru: Interview with Photojournalist Jaime Razuri

  10 April 2007

You may recall the happy ending to the kidnapping saga of Peruvian Photojournalist Jaime Razuri while he was on assignment in Gaza. “Freed, unharmed, on Jan. 7 … the incident made him a minor international celebrity and a major one in his home country. But it also overshadows a more...

India: Water and Women

  10 April 2007

A time to reflect on a place where water is everything. “This woman sits just otuside the main gate of the reserve, just off the dusty main road. She has pots of water filled and ready, and fetches them from near her home which is close to the main gate,,...

Pakistan: No Hugs please

  10 April 2007

To each its own on why women in Pakistan cannot get their hugs. “As per the fatwa, “hugging” was an illegitimate and forbidden act and Muslim women are expected to stay at home and never venture out uncovered. The fatwa demanded that Bakhtiar be fired, given another unspecified punishment and...

Kenya: war against corruption goes online

  10 April 2007

Bankelele on war against corruption in Kenya, “A noble step in the war on corruption is this website by the Public Procurement Oversight Authority which list all contracts awarded over 5 million shillings ($71,430) by organs of the kenya government. A step further would be to require/ publish all companies...