Stories from 20 January 2009
MENA: Reactions to Obama's Inauguration
Today marked an historic moment in United States history as Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President. While Arab support of Obama has been waning over the past few months following the selection of his cabinet and his silence over Israel's attacks on Gaza, across the Middle East and North Africa bloggers still have plenty to say, reports Jillian York.
Armenia: Azerbaijani Airliner Lands in Yerevan
My The Caucasian Knot comments on yesterday's arrival of an Azerbaijani passenger plane flying directly between Baku and Yerevan. Carrying the American, Russian and French co-chairs charged with the task of mediating between Armenia and Azerbaijan in an attempt to find a solution to the Nagorno Karabakh, such flights have...
The Balkans: “Whose Is This Song?”
Recently several Macedonian bloggers published the documentary “Whose Is This Song” by a Bulgarian director Adela Peeva on their blogs and started discussing the story. The documentary was filmed as an idea that the director got during a dinner in Istanbul with several friends (a Macedonian, a Serb, a Greek and a Turk), when all of them said that the song playing in the background was from their country.
Russia: Train Station, Migrant Workers and Pro-Kremlin Youth
LJ user drugoi posts pictures and video (RUS) from Moscow's Kazansky Train Station, where activists from a pro-Kremlin youth movement held a rally to encourage Central Asian migrant workers to “work legally” and “pay taxes.”
Russia, Ukraine: Gas and Soccer
LJ user dobrokhotov wrote this (RUS) on Jan. 18 about the Russian-Ukrainian gas deal: “What nonsense, it's been, like, two days already since they agreed on the price of gas, but they haven't yet announced officially what the price is. This is unprecedented nonsense, almost like if the Ukrainian and...
Thailand: Australian writer jailed for lese majeste
Australian writer Harry Nicolaides was given a three year prison sentence for lese majeste in Bangkok on Monday. He was charged with the offense of offending the monarchy for a passage in a book he published in 2005 titled Verisimilitude. Only 50 copies of the book were ever printed and...
Sri Lanka: Lack of Tamil Political Voices
Valkyrie writes at Groundviews: “The fundamental crisis of Tamil politics (in Sri Lanka) today is that there is no Tamil political group (except Tamil politico-armed groups) that advocates for the rights of the Tamil people.”
Lessons From Gaza
A Bengali In TO summarizes some lessons from the recent Gaza conflict and says: “The Muslim world has a surplus of martyrs and a deficit of scholars.”
Pakistan: Seeking Donation For A Private School
Kashif Aziz at Chowrangi shares an interesting ‘Pledge Form’ distributed by one private school in Karachi, asking parents to donate money for construction of its main campus.
India: Predictions for The 2009 Elections
Rajesh Jain at Emergic predicts the outcomes of the 2009 elections in India in contrast with the 2004 elections.
Pakistan: Walking on Burning Coal
All Things Pakistan criticizes an inhuman tribal practice in Pakistan in which a person has to walk on burning coal to prove innocence.
Africa: Mobile solution provider for African markets
Nii writes about Afric Xpress (AX), a solution provider for mobile phone-based and other electronic transaction services for African communities in the continent and abroad.
Bangladesh: Photoblog – Kantaji temple, Dinajpur
Munir Uddin Shamim takes us on a photo trip to the famous Hindu temple in Dinajpur, Bangladesh. Known as the Kantaji temple , this is a fine specimen of terracota art from 1752 A.D.
Africa: Banking on African Women
“Women own nearly half of all enterprises in Africa, but have the hardest time securing credit,” writes Guest Author on AfricanLoft discussing African women and entrepreneurship.
Africa: 10 Lessons for African leaders from Obama
According to Paul Usungu, there are at least 10 things African leaders need to learn from Barack Obama
Zimbabwe: Dollarisation is official
At last, dollarisation of the Zimbabwe economy is official as Zimbabwe blogger Denford Magora reports.
Africa: Top Ranked Blogs
Here is a list of top ranked blogs in Africa from Afrigator, an African blog aggregator.
Iran: A popular sport program under fire
Several news sites and blogs reported that '90’ ,a very popular sport program is under fire by government because it criticised Iranian football authorities. Jomhour, an Iran based blogger, says[fa] that Iran Telecommunication sabotaged the system so no one could send any text message to the show. The blogger adds...
Turkey: Hrant Dink Memorial Video
mondoDesperado posts video of yesterday's memorial to commemorate the second anniversary of the murder of Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor and journalist, Hrant Dink, outside his office in Istanbul, Turkey.
Taiwan: Cross-Strait viewpoints
A-gu translates and summarises the key points of a Strait Exchange Foundation forum. The Far-Eastern Sweet Potato criticises a Bloomberg report on cross-strait security.
Iran: A song for Gaza
Several Iranian bloggers wrote about Michael Heart's “we will not go down tonight“, a song for Gaza.
