Stories from 18 April 2007
Nigeria: state of emergency to be declared?
Will the state of emergency be declared in Nigeria?: “So just like I wasn’t surprised with the handling of the (s)elections last weekend, I will not be staggered in the...
Lusosphere Reports The First Round of East Timor's Elections
Timor-Leste is holding its first national election as an independent nation, and the vote counting now indicates the need for a second round to decide the next President. The voting occurred on April 9 and the counting process has generated some perplexing news, which should be expected in a country with no previous electoral experience. Less expected was the fact that the spokesman for the National Electoral Commission (CNE), Father Martinho Gusmão, delivered his press conferences in four languages one after the other -- Tetum, Portuguese, Indonesian and English. After raising serious concerns by personally expressing doubts about 'illogical' outcomes from the ballot processing, Father Gusmão was removed and explanations were presented by other officials. See what Portuguese sources are reporting...
Trinidad & Tobago: Anamunthodo Freed
Anita Anamunthodo, mother of four-year-old Amy who was raped and beaten to death in Trinidad last year, was yesterday freed on six charges of willful neglect and child abandonment. Francomenz...
Cuba: Vitral Closed Due to Lack of Resources
Further to media speculation that the Catholic magazine Vitral was closed because of pressure from the Cuban government, Uncommon Sense links to a Catholic News Agency statement that attributes the...
Barbados: The Meaning of Being Caribbean
Barbadian blogger Gallimaufry links to BBCCaribbean.com as West Indians the world over answer the question, “What does it mean to be Caribbean?”
Trinidad & Tobago: Naipaul's Visit
Writer (and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 2001) V.S. Naipaul is in Trinidad for a week of celebrations honouring his 75th birthday year. Jonathan Ali shares his thoughts...
China: Community embraces orphan
Late last month, a husband-wife migrant laborer couple from China's poverty-stricken Henan province working in Beijing killed themselves, leaving two teenage children to fend for themselves. Last week, Beijing-based Sohu blogger Li Yuanyuan took her camera and went to the younger child's school to see how the community has reacted.
Jamaica: Elegy for Virginia Tech
“What happened…goes beyond what the mind can fathom, the heart can bear, the soul can possess”: Jamaican Geoffrey Philp posts an Elegy for Virginia Tech.
Guyana: Parent-Child Relationship
“Everyday, in between silly mother-daughter struggles, we insist on taking care of one another…sometimes we appreciate, sometimes resent because it feel so over-protective; other times, we take it for granted.”...
Malawi: If I was a young man, there could have been blood in this country
According to Malawi Politics, the president of New Republican Party (NRP), Gwanda Chakuamba, is a man of many faces: “Mr Chakuamba has a reputation for violent outbursts and has spent...
Japan: US$900 bid scandal
Gyaku has translated some news and documents on a huge scandal of Japanese government in contracting out a new biometric immigration system (finger print identification system) to Accenture Japan Ltd....
Taiwan: DIY media activist workshop
Inertia from Heterotopias announced the DIY media activist workshop to be help in Taipei end of April [zh]. Details can be found here (en and zh Bilingual site): “There will...
China and U.S: Shooter Online Report
Graham Webster from Transpacific Triangle noticed that the online journalistic story about Virginia Tech Shooter has been edited with the same URL without mentioning their previous mistake: The papers apparently...
Election Ploy: Sarkozy Plans to Add Toussaint Louverture to the Pantheon
Alain Mabanckou reposts an article by Haitian radio station Kiskeya discussing French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy's promise to add the names of Toussaint Louverture and Léopold Sédar Senghor to the...
South Korea: The Politics of Pride and Shame
Michael Hurt discussed about the politics of pride and shame in South Korea society. His prediction on the social and media reaction on the recent events at Virginia Tech, with...
Asia: Start Drawing
startdrawing.org is a web resource portal for Asia's artists and drawings. This site was started with the aim of showcasing and sharing drawings from talented artists in Asia, and in...
Nigeria: chaos continues after elections
Chaos continues after state elections in Nigeria last Saturday: * Opposition kicks against PDP’s landslide victory * Protests rock Edo, Benue, Osun, others * Mob razes palace in Nasarawa *...
France: A War of Memory
French Congolese poet Alain Mabanckou posts some reflections by Abdourahman Waberi (Fr), a French Djiboutian writer, on the upcoming French presidential elections. Waberi had thought France had “finally woken up”...
Taiwan: Fabricated News
On March 28th, TVBS, the TV station which has been long mocked as “TV Bull Shit”, broadcast some footage that caught the public's eyeballs. The footage, which showed gangster Chou...
Kazakhstan: Kokpar
It's variously alled buzkashi some places, ulak in others, and “goat polo” to foreigners grasping to understand the sport. In southern Kazakhstan, they call this sport, which involves teams on...
Kyrgyzstan: Bishkek Baby Sales
At The Golden Road to Samarqand, Amira discusses recent reports of the sale of babies from hospital's in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek. Amira, who spent a lot of time visiting a...