Stories from 10 November 2009
Qatar: Anticipation mounts over England vs Brazil football friendly
All eyes are on conservative Qatar, which is bidding for the 2022 World Cup, to see how it handles the upcoming England vs. Brazil football friendly, with residents alternately excited and anxious about the influx of potentially rowdy football fans.
Rape in China: a ‘temporary’ crime?
A prominent topic circulating throughout China’s blogosphere is the light sentencing on 29th October of two civilian police assistants charged with the rape of a young girl in Huzhou, in Zheijang province. What netizens have been rampantly discussing is not the crime itself, but the court’s ruling that the convicts were guilty of a “temporary crime on a whim”, drawing important attention to how rape is dealt with in the People’s Republic and its vibrant online communities.
Lebanon: Operation: Sex Change
Queer Arab Magazine Bekhsoos supports the Operation: Sex Change campaign, aimed to raise awareness about transgender issues across the world. The campaign started on November 8, the International day of action for sexual and bodily rights across Muslim societies, and ends on November 20, the Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Hungary: Comments on the Interview with Imre Kertész
The anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has inspired Hungarian bloggers, too: they are discussing an interview with Imre Kertész, a Nobel Prize-winning Hungarian author living in Berlin, which appeared in the German newspaper Die Welt.
Ukraine: Flu Stats, Panic, Gauze Masks (and Some Lingerie)
According to Ukraine's Health Ministry, 1,031,597 people in Ukraine have fallen ill with "flu, acute respiratory illness and their complications (pneumonia, etc.)" between Oct. 29 and Nov. 9 - and 174 of them have died. In the Ukrainian blogosphere, much of the discussion of the current medical emergency focuses on whether there are enough reasons to panic or not.
