Stories from 28 October 2007
China: Rules of Olympic engagement
Leading Hong Kong Democrat Martin Lee calls for increased dialogue on China's human rights record as the Olympics approach and gets labeled a traitor, quite possibly due mainly to a mistranslation which some are saying is too large to have been an accident.
Brazil: Reforming Abortion Laws
Cecilia Sardenberg, in “The right to abortion: briefing from Brazil” at OpenDemocracy.net, tells about the heated debate over reforms to Brazil's outdated abortion laws that has intensified across the country in 2007.
Argentina: Did She Win Already?
El Opinador Compulsivo [ES] thinks that the election of Cristina Kirchner as President of Argentina is merely a formality and why the country “takes the trouble and cost to organize an election.”
China: Romance with the Moon
Joel Martinsen from DANWEI has collected and translated various feelings, comments and observations from journalists about China moon travel. Han Song (one of the journalist blogger) has pointed to a early science fiction in 1904 about modern China's moon wish.
South Korea: Presidential Poll
Andy Jackson from Marmot's Hole blogs the presidential poll result and the former Seoul major Lee Myung-bak is in the lead.
Armenia: Bad News Day
Raffi K at Life in Armenia says that Friday was a day full of bad news for Armenia. However, he doesn't know which was worse — former president Levon Ter Petrosian running again for office, the postponement of a bill to recognize the Armenian Genocide in the U.S. Congress, or...
Armenia: Doing Business
British ex-pat consultant Bruce Tasker reports from Yerevan on the trials and tribulations facing local businessmen who usually have to maintain close links with senior officials to ensure their livelihood. Go Armenia has more of the story, while on his second blog, Blowing the World Bank Whistle, the self-proclaimed whistle...
Georgia: Homophobia
British journalist Matthew Collin writes in a new blog from Georgia about two recent scandals which illustrate to what extent homophobia has taken hold in what is otherwise still considered to be the most liberal country in the Caucasus. On This is Tbilisi Calling he details both, the most recent...
Turkmenistan: Independence day
Nara opines on the sixteenth anniversary of independence of the Turkmen state, bitterly noting that “Turkmen government is the only institution to enjoy this privilige of independence, being very independent from the people’s voices and lives”.
Uzbekistan: Another Voice Silenced
Beaudi's Blog reflects on the brutal murder of the 26-year-old Uzbek journalist in the town of Osh in the neighboring Kyrgyzstan. He was remarkably well known and respected around Central Asia and openly questioned the policies and human rights violations of the Uzbek government.
Kazakhstan: Helping the Children
KZBlog tells about a seemingly international campaign to sew blankets for the Kazakhstani kids, noting that “it's all to cute”, while the Kazakh government launches series of competitions for the benefit of children.
Afghanistan: Hungarian presence expansion
My State Failure Blog provides an update on the planned expansion of Hungarian troops presence in Afghanistan, saying that the official announcements about it are quite blurred.
China: Chinese Nominees for the BoBs
This year the Best of Blogs voting has started in Oct 22, 2007. You can cast your vote online for the best weblogs, videoblogs and podcasts. According to Deutsche Welle, there were 7,000 nominations around the world this year. 15 Chinese weblogs are in the nominee list. Among which three...
