23 January 2009

Stories from 23 January 2009

Russia: Putin's Painting

Eternal Remont writes about Vladimir Putin's painting: “Hitler would be jealous.” LJ user olegpanfilov2 posts two samples of Photoshopped spinoffs inspired by Putin's painting – one of them features Mikhail...

23 January 2009

Egypt: Bloggers Divided over Geert Wilders

Amsterdam Appeals Court decided that Geert Wilders, Dutch MP, will be put on trial for his views on Islam. Wilders, and his movie had caused a huge anger wave last year, with both sides denouncing each other. While Perwin Ali thought he deserves to be tried, An Egyptian is blogging for his release.

23 January 2009

Angola: Controversy and Contradictions Over New Airports

The construction of new international airports for Luanda, one of them costing seventy-four million US dollars, is a controversial subject that has set bloggers talking in Angola. Does the city really need more than one good international airport?

23 January 2009

African Blogs Nominated for the 2009 Bloggies

Nominations for the Ninth Annual Weblog Awards: The 2009 Bloggies started January 1 and closed January 19. According to the awards, the Bloggies are the Web's longest-running blog awards, and the nominations, finalist selection, are up to the blog reader. The winner of the awards gets 2,009 US cents! So, which African blogs have been nominated for the Best African Weblog category?

23 January 2009

Bolivia: Dealing With Dengue Fever

Heavy rains in the Bolivian Orient help create the breeding ground for mosquitos that spread the virus that causes dengue fever. There is also a much more severe form which causes dengue hemorrhagic fever and has already caused 3 deaths in the country. One blogger writes about firsthand experience with this illness.

23 January 2009

Bermuda, U.S.A.: Ethics & Transparency

Vexed Bermoothes thinks that “it is telling that the first orders issued by President Obama…dealt with ethics and transparency in Government” and that “Bermudians must take note of our inadequacies...

23 January 2009

Armenia: Ultra-nationalists

Unzipped comments on news that an association for ultra-nationalist groups in Armenia was established before the New Year. The blog notes with alarm that the association will collaborate with ultra-nationalist...

23 January 2009

Hong Kong: LGBT content filtered away

Leslovestudy conducted a research on the filtering of LGBT content (zh, pdf) in Hong Kong private and public filters. I have post a summary of the report at GV advocacy.

23 January 2009

China: CyberGhost VPN

GFW Blog introduces a new tool, CyberGhost VPN, for getting around the internet filtering (Great Fire Wall) in China.

23 January 2009

Estonia: Skinheads

Itching for Eestimaa writes about Estonian skinheads – the “purposefully/prematurely bald” young people: “I secretly ponder what is the position of the baldheaded on persons of Mediterranean background. Did we...

23 January 2009

Estonia: Arvo Pärt

Robert Amsterdam's Blog writes about “Estonia's most famous contemporary composer Arvo Pärt,” whose latest symphony is dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky – and whose 2006-2007 works are dedicated to Anna Politkovskaya.

23 January 2009

USA: Blogging their Dreams of Citizenship

More than 655,000 people participated in an online vote about which issues activist website Change.org should focus on in 2009. Thanks to campaigning from bloggers and immigrant activists, passing a law that would create a path for undocumented students to gain legal residence in the United States was selected as one of the top 10 priorities.

23 January 2009