18 September 2007

Stories from 18 September 2007

Tunisia: Fifth Wedding Anniversary

  18 September 2007

‘To my sweet and lovely wife: “Love” is but a fraction of the feelings I have for you. Thank you for making my life as beautiful and complete as it is today,’ writes Subzero Blue from Tunisia, in a post dedicated to his wife on their fifth wedding anniversary.

Syria: Corporate BS

  18 September 2007

“Nothing pisses me off more than Corporate Bullshit. I’m not sure why Corporate Bullshit (CBS from here on in) works me up, but then again, people have the weirdest pet peeves. If you worked for a big company then you know what I’m talking about,” rants Syrian blogger Omar in...

Russia: Demography

  18 September 2007

Window on Eurasia writes about the lack of improvement in Russia's demographic situation: “…the small rise in the number of births reflects instead a temporary increase in the number of Russian women of child-bearing age.”

Europe: Romani Culture

  18 September 2007

TOL's Romantic writes about Lojze Podobnik, a Slovenian author whose works focus on Romani culture. Pesha's Blog links to Professor Steve Balkin's compilation of online resources on Romani culture.

Moldova: Transnistria

  18 September 2007

Douglas Muir of A Fistful of Euros writes about Transnistria, “a sort of post-Communist gangster state”: “Travellers unanimously agree that Transnistria is weirdly fascinating for the first hour or two, then just depressing and boring.”

Russia, Ukraine: “Fiddling” With Voters’ Lists

  18 September 2007

Elections approach both in Russia and Ukraine, and politicians start “fiddling” with the numbers of registered voters’ – or accusing their opponents of doing so. Window on Eurasia reports that “members of the entourage of Kaliningrad Governor Georgiy Boos are thinking about combining his district with the Adygei Republic or...

Iranian bloggers stirred over cockroach cartoon

  18 September 2007

About a week ago, a Chicago newspaper, The Colombus Dispatch, published a cartoon that depicts Iran as a sewer with cockroaches crawling out of it. The cartoon has created intense discussion among Iranian bloggers, especially those living in North America. Iranians as cockroaches Iranian Truth says, it is no small...

India: On “Movements”

  18 September 2007

Siddhartha Shome on new social movements that “claim to represent the “people” – the downtrodden Indian masses, without, however, subjecting this claim to the test of democratic elections”

Internet Governance, Global Privacy and IGF-Rio

  18 September 2007

The global debate on Internet governance will once again gather people from all over the world at UN's IGF, this time in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The process was started last year in Athens, when more than 1,200 participants focused on discussion of the overarching issues tied to the future...

Iran:Iranians have access to Google and BlogFa again

  18 September 2007

Accroding to[Fa]Free Keyboard,Iranians have access to Google,Gmail and Blogfa,a leading Perisan provider of blogs,again.The blogger says “it seems that people who blocked these sites,found out that they did a stupid thing!” These three sites were blocked for 24 hours.The blogger informs us how we can go beyond filterting and read...