Stories from 8 October 2008
Japan: Web becoming Fifth Estate
Ikeda Nobuo at OpenSpectrum Japan reports on two news stories related to copyright law in Japan: the conditional access system B-CAS has been scrapped (and with it so-called “Dubbing Ten”), and on September 18 the plan to extend copyright from 50 to 70 years was also abandoned. Ikeda observes that...
Trinidad & Tobago: Cricket & Culture
Review of the Indigenous Caribbean Center examines “the relevance of a West Indian culture forged by cricket.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Eye on the Prize
Trinidadian blogger Nicholas Laughlin understands that “literary prizes play a hugely important role in what you might call the literary economy” – which is why he's agreed to be a regional judge for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
Dominica: Reaping What You Sow?
Chris at Dominica Weekly says that young people on the island “are already pleading guilty to some shocking crimes.”
Barbados, U.S.A.: Sorry, I Misspoke
Living in Barbados has a chuckle at the incorrect grammar being used in the media in recent weeks.
Bermuda: Hidden Agenda?
Vexed Bermoothes suspects that the reason Bermuda was involved in last year's World Tourism Summit “was that the event was just a ploy to make sure the Premier was distant and unavailable as the Privy Council met to debate Government’s failed gag order on the ‘Son of the Soil’ papers.”
Jamaica: Quick Picks
Jamaican Marlon James announces his picks for this year's Nobel Prize in Literature: “My money is on Adonis, largely because a poet is overdue.”
China: 40 Missing Children's Parents Petition Journey to Beijing
The news of 40 parents petitioning in Beijing for their missing children has been censored by the mainstream media and major internet news portals in China. Blogger Beifeng re-posts a first-person account from one of the petitioning parents in his blog, and urges readers to spread the news.
Georgia: Journalist's Blog
Following in the footsteps of Matthew Collin's This is Tbilisi Calling, another Western journalist resident in the country has set up a blog from Georgia. Dan Catchpole's Dateline Tbilisi is at http://datelinetbilisi.blogspot.com.
Guatemala: Ex-president Portillo extradited
After hiding from Justice for four years in Mexico, former President Alfonso Portillo was extradited to Guatemala, where he will face serious charges of corruption and other felonies. Bloggers comment on the possible outcomes, and show surprise at how quickly he was put released on bail.
Hong Kong: Who Decides What We Can See On The Internet?
The Hong Kong government suggests to filter the internet in order to “protect” youth from indecent and obscene article. The issue then comes to “Who decides what we can see on the Internet?” – ESWN has translated a local newspapers article on this.
Peru: blog cracking hints at censorship
Fernando from Pepitas.com posts the notice he received letting him know that strangers tried to crack his blog, targetting specifically 3 posts with complaints about two ministers. Luckily the attack was detected and although all the comments were erased by the crackers, the were able to recover most of them.
China: Great Depression?
Ruan Yifeng notices that back in 2004 an economist has predicted the economic situation in China as various figures showed that China was caught in a condition similar to the U.S in 1929, the eve before the great depression [zh].