Stories from 21 November 2008
Nepal: Nepathaya
Popular Nepalese music band Nepathaya has a blog where an interview with its soloist Amrit Gurung was published.
Bangladesh: Slum kids visited Germany
In a blog post of The Dhaka Project, an organization supporting children from the slums of Dhaka, you can read about the experience of some of their kids visiting Germany.
Pakistan: The politics of condemnation
Chowrangi protests the ineffective condemnation by the Pakistan government against the US drone and missile attacks in the tribal areas of Pakistan. The blog suggests that there is more behind this habitual condemnation as these attacks are on the rise.
India: Reason for a strike
Hartal, a blog against the culture of frequent strikes in India shows that even the shifting of a bus terminal to a new wider location in a municipality in Kerala can be a reason to stall an entire district with a day long strike.
Iran:Paintings by Shirin Golestaneh
Nazy Kaviani writes in Iranian.com about Shirin Golestaneh‘s paintings. You can discover her paintings here.
Cuba: Love and Marriage
“With the love nest located in the parents’ house and with a salary that’s not enough to buy any durable or transferable goods, the signed paper and legal stamp that attest to the marriage are of little importance”: Generation Y says that Cubans are experiencing “a loss of the sense...
Anguilla, The Cayman Islands: Children's Rights
“Child abuse and neglect is no less a serious and widespread problem in Anguilla than it is in the Cayman Islands”: Corruption-free Anguilla praises the efforts of a Caymanian woman who is asking that the government implement the recommendations of a report linked to the UN's Convention on the Rights...
St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Getting the Dish
“Growing up I was made to believe that roast breadfruit and saltfish was the national dish of St Vincent and the Grenadines”: Abeni says that local culinary fare is facing some competition.
Trinidad & Tobago: Godliness?
This Beach Called Life suggests that the members of Trinidad and Tobago's government are “Gods of The Good Times”: “The bad and hard times fall squarely on the lap of the real God and the opposition.”
Cuba: “Black Spring” Prisoners
Cuban diaspora blogger Uncommon Sense focuses the spotlight on two of the “Black Spring” political prisoners, here and here.
Religious unity: The Charter for Compassion
As children we may all have heard the Golden Rule expressed in many different ways, but the basic idea is: Treat others as you would like to be treated. This is Karen Armstrong's TED wish, to create The Charter for Compassion, a platform in which the different Abrahamic faiths could focus on what was common to all, the moral backbone of all their faiths towards a greater unity and better communication among people of different faiths.
Russia: PayPal “Still Half Usable For Many”
Svetlana Gladkova writes at Profy that “the difference between a US user of PayPal and a user from Russia is huge.”
Japan: Revision of the Nationality Law
On the 4th of June, on the occasion of cases filed in 2003 [en] and in 2005 whose protagonists were 10 children born out of wedlock to Japanese fathers and Filipino mothers, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional an article of the Nationality Law[en] because it infringes on Article 14 of...
Japan: Economic recession? A dejavue.
id:norikku225 at Let's survive the subprime shock! (サブプライムショックを生き残ろう！) [ja] comments on news that the Japanese economy has entered a recession, as reported by national [ja] andinternational [en] media. The blogger says that there is nothing new in this and that the scenario has been the same for the last 15...
Macau: Say No to Article 23 and White Terror
Macau SAR government issued a draft bill enacting Article 23 of the Macau Basic Law in October. The Law is very sensitive and it would affect every citizen's freedom and rights. Now it is supposed to be the public consultation period, but it seems that the government has been giving...
China: Liberate Taiwan with Sexy PLA
Wang Ning suggested to liberate Taiwan with sexy PLA like these pictures…
China: The Longnan riots and the CCP’s global spin campaign
David Bandurski from China Media Project wrote a report on how the CCP manipulated the mass incident happened in Longnan, Gansu through media. Background about Lungnan protest can be found here.
Hong Kong: Protect University Beacon
The Chinese University of Hong Kong is planning to remove the beacon (a symbol of freedom of speech and intellectual exchange) temporarily to build an underground information center. However, there is no public consultation in the campus. At inmediahk.net (zh) eg9515 wrote a citizen report about the confrontation between the...
Colombia: Indigenous March Arrives to Bogotá
The indigenous march has arrived to Bogotá and Bogotá Subterranea [es] is welcoming them with open arms.
Bolivia: Recent Lynchings Cause Concerns
A string of lynchings around Bolivia has caused concern around the country. The latest case in Achacachi involved 11 accused thieves, who were set ablaze by town residents. Defenders of the indigenous tradition of "community justice" argue that what took place in Achacachi was very different and it should not involve taking another's life, although others see any acts of taking justice into one's own hands can lead to these types of tragedies.
Environment: The Cost of Air Pollution in Arab Countries
The Green Prophet writes: “Air pollution from transportation is costing Arab countries $5 billion in damages, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of Environment and Water recently announced. The cost is calculated based on the number of deaths, medical care for health problems and chronic diseases that are attributed to...
