19 July 2009

Stories from 19 July 2009

Armenia: Vardavar

Ianyan marks the much-loved Armenian holiday of Vardavar. The blog examines the roots of a tradition which usually revolves around children dousing complete strangers with buckets of water.

19 July 2009

Russia: Medvedev Murder Mystery

Anna Politkovskaya... The mere name evokes images of Moscow's worst public relations nightmare in years - an ongoing ordeal for Russia's international reputation in the realm of rule of law. Still, the murderers have not been brought to justice, and Politkovskaya turned into a martyr for world voices critical of Russia - for them epitomising everything that is wrong and wretched with the country. So, should President Medvedev's quick reaction to this week's murder of Human Rights' acitivists Natalya Estemirova merely be regarded as lessons learnt from the Politkovskaya assassination? The answer might be more complicated, as voices from the Russian blogosphere have their say.

19 July 2009

India: The Moment of Truth, now in Hindi

Youth Curry watches ‘Sach ka Saamna’, the Indianised version of the American game show The Moment of Truth and realises that we are constantly hiding things, not only from others...

19 July 2009

Mauritania: Election Fraud?

Yesterday, 11 months after a military coup d'état led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Mauritania has elected the General to the presidency, resulting in Abdel Aziz's main challengers denouncing the election as a “charade,” according to BBC News. A quick scan of the Sahelian blogosphere shows that the challengers are in good company.

19 July 2009

Dominican Republic: The Financial Cost of Undocumented Haitian Immigrants

Ever since the Dominican Republic declared independence from Haiti in 1844, the fates of the two have been intertwined. Since economic development in Haiti is low in comparison, approximately 1 million Haitian immigrants have made their way to the D.R. Many are worried about the increasing cost of providing services to undocumented immigrants.

19 July 2009

Nepal: Incentivising widow re-marriage

In the budget for fiscal year 2009-10, the newly elected government in Nepal has proposed an incentive scheme whereby USD625 would be awarded to any groom who married a widow....

19 July 2009

Russia: Did Kadyrov kill Estemirova?

Reactions to the murder of Russian Human Rights’ avtivist, Natalya Estemirova, of Memorial have been frequent in recent days. Sean's Russia Blog discusses accusations against Chechen president Kadyrov of being...

19 July 2009

Syria: Sexual Misconceptions

Syrian blogger Marcelllita [ar] blogs about sexual complexes young people in this part of the world suffer from, such as misconceptions and wrong information.

19 July 2009

Bahrain: Swine Flu Awareness

Bahraini blogger Khalid [ar] blames Bahraini health authorities for not handling the H1N1 or Swine flu virus properly and creating public awareness about the disease. He goes on to provide...

19 July 2009

Azerbaijan: Activists’ support site goes down

Yesterday, as Önər Blog [AZ] reported, the Appellate Court in Baku was to consider again the case of Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade, the recently beaten and detained youth activists and bloggers sentenced last week. Yesterday, however, one of the main websites created in their defense went down.

19 July 2009