Stories from 16 July 2008
Cuba: Escaping Reality
From Havana, Generation Y writes a haunting post on “dreams of escape”.
Russia: “The New Elite”
Lyndon Allin translates part of a discussion on how to get a job - and an education - in Russia today.
Bermuda: Communication Breakdown
Bermudian Vexed Bermoothes is amazed at “how Government can have so many communications people yet be so bad at communicating its message.”
China: Olympic Ads
Adrienne Wong from Shanghaiist noticed that the Amnesty International anti-Olympic Ads and Adidas Olympic Ads were designed by the same company (TBWA).
China: Submission Call
Fool's mountain makes a submission call for blog post: one of the objective of our blog is to build bridges between China and the West, to facilitate communication and understandings between Chinese and non-Chinese.
Hong Kong: Buying Money
The Bank of China in Hong Kong has issued a set of commemorative banknotes for Beijing Olympics. Thousands started to line up three days ahead for buying the paper money and resulted in great chaos. Florence from Over the Rainbow has to report about the news and she pointed out...
Hong Kong: Summer T-shirt
Little Oslo collected a variety of Summer T-shirt with printed nude photos. So which one do you like?
China: Interviews with Chinese journalists
The second part in China Digital Times‘ series of interviews with Chinese journalists is now up. First question: “How do you feel about the Olympics being in Beijing? What does that mean for the Chinese people?”
Japan: Cultural Difference
Harvey from Japan Newsbie explains the graphic representation of cultural differences between East and West from the MountainRunner site.
Korea: A South Korean Woman’s Death in North Korea
There is a way that South Koreans can officially and safely go to North Korea at present. It is a special tourist site that was opened for a special zone, Kumgangsan Tourist Region, in North Korea. Young people send their parents on this trip for ‘filial tourism for their parents.’...
China: Noise games
Always a cynic and hardly a hater, humor blogger Wang Xiaofeng posted this today (and only this) with the title ‘noise games’, a play on the Chinese word for the Olympic games:
Nigeria: Football coaching scams
Foreign Policy's Passport Blog comments on the recent BBC story about Nigerian fake talent spotter scam, in which “conmen pose as sports agents and dupe young, would-be soccer players out of thousands of dollars”.
The problem with ‘African Woman’ magazine
Uganda's Scarlett Lion comments on an article titled “From fistula to fab” in the magazine African Woman, a fashion makeover of a woman who was recovering from a fistula. She says: “From Fistula to Fab! trivializes a very serious problem without offering meaningful commentary or insight into things like medical...
Zimbabwe: Of molesters and voters
Marko Phiri at the Kubatana blog draws a parallel between those that justify sexual harrassment to women by the way they look or dress, with the current political situation in Zimbabwe where “women and children have ‘invited’ the wrath of Zanu PF militias by simply voting for a party of...
Ethiopia: Singer Teddy Afro still in jail
Addis Journal reported that singer Teddy Afro (popular for his protest songs) celebrated his 32 birthday yesterday in jail awaiting his trial. Mamá Etiopía [Es] posted the link to an online petition to free him saying: “… we have no idea if Teddy Afro is guilty or innocent. But we...
Google Africa Blog
Ory Okolloh of the blog Kenyan Pundit reports that Google has recently launched an Africa Blog, covering news and stories of the company in Sub-Saharian Africa with all posts both in English and in French.
Russia: Romen Theater
A blog/Wikipedia entry on Romen Theater – “the oldest and the most famous of Romani theatres in the world” – at TOL's Romantic.
