Stories from 19 January 2008
Iran:Kamran Ashtary's Photos,a world not to miss
Kamran Ashtary,photographer and designer has launched his own site. There are fascinating photos about Iran and Iranians in this site.Kamran and his wife,Tori Egherman,recently published “View from Iran” book.
Iran:Ashura in Photos
Shia Muslims held ceremonies for Ashura,one of the holiest events in the Shia religious calendar. Vahid Gharai has published several photos of Ashura ceremony in Kerman, a city in central south of Iran.
St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Barbados: Elections
Abeni, blogging from St. Vincent & the Grenadines, weighs in on the recently-held Barbados election.
Puerto Rico: Sexual Politics
"Hey mom what’s an abortion? Have you ever had one? Um yeah, and I thought of aborting you." Puerto Rican bloggers grapple with questions of feminism, reproductive rights, and gay marriage in this round up of posts.
Bahamas, USA: Obama's Impact
Mental Slavery puts in his two cents about “the implications of an Obama presidency on black people.”
Barbados: Boys’ Club?
“Last time I looked about half the population were women, so what’s going on here?” asks Barbados Free Press, on realising that “there's only one girl in government”.
Trinidad & Tobago: Lara Hurt
West Indies Cricket Blog reports on Brian Lara's injury in the Carib Beer Series.
Haiti: National Assembly Opens
HaitiAnalysis.com posts photos from the opening of the Haitian Parliament's National Assembly.
Kenya: Artists help to heal wounds
Sociolingo post an article about local Kenyan artists healing a wounded nation: “Politicians have plunged the country into chaos but local artistes can help to heal the wounds caused by an election gone awry and the resultant lawlessness and suffering.”
Kenya: Mapping the dark and the light
Ethan Zuckerman blogs about Ushahidi: “One way to measure the continuing protest and unrest is to follow the story through Ushahidi, a citizen media site put together by friends of mine to allow Kenyans to post news about post-election unrest and violence. Each incident is added to a map, giving...
Kenya: From ODM to Icarus
In “From ODM to Icarus” Bankelele writes: “If ODM’s goal is to grind the country to a halt, it may take a while. With tax collections significantly down, the pending Safaricom IPO which I thought will be an election winner could turn out to be a (one time) budget lifesaver...
Central Africa Republic: Prime Minister resigns
HDPT blog reports: “Prime Minister Elie Doté of the Central African Republic resigned, together with his government, on Friday 18 January 2008, following two weeks of strikes by unions and government workers over salary arrears.”
Bloggers discuss the sacking of the Governor of Bank of Tanzania
Tanzanian Swahili bloggers are discussing the sacking of the Governor of the Bank of Tanzania and the brutal attack on two investigative journalists.
Armenia/Turkey: Remembering Hrant Dink
Today marks the first anniversary of the murder of ethnic Armenian newspaper editor and journalist Hrant Dink in Istanbul, Turkey. Marilisa Lorusso's blog remembers Dink by dedicating an albeit short post to him.
Armenia: Election Symbolism & Slogans
Bekaisa posts an image of what looks like a badge designed and created for the pre-election campaign of former president, Levon Ter-Petrossian. The image of a clenched fists at an opposition rally has provoked an interesting discussion in English and Russian on the use of symbols and slogans for the...
Armenia: Vote Bribes
Bekaisa posts an appeal to the Armenian government as well as the electorate demanding that the former not offer bribes in exchange for votes, and urging the latter not to accept financial incentives for their support. Instead she appeals to voters to protect their votes.
China: The Vagrants behind the Wall
Beijing, the host of 2008 Summer Olympics, is trying to show every bright aspect of its stable and harmonious to the whole world, however, when you are almost convinced by the prosperous night scenes around the Forbidden City, you may never think behind some traditional Chinese-style walls, there is another totally different world.
China: A melee in and out of the college
A physical brawl between a college profeesor and his girl student in class incurred unusually opposite voices. The situation was even more complicated due to the resignation of another professor and was ending in a political debate between the liberal and the left wing.
A “Robot” for Analyzing the Persian Blogosphere
Arash Kamangir, is a very active Canada-based Iranian blogger who has contributed to several internet projects such as Balatarin, an Iranian version of Digg. He just launched an innovative project for analyzing the Persian blogosphere that provides valuable new information about Iranian blogs.
