Stories from 11 November 2009
Denmark: Immigrants offered money to leave the country
Denmark is offering immigrants from “non-Western” countries 100,000 Danish kroners (US$20,000) if they volunteer to move “home”. A Facebook group protesting the law has been set up to collect 100,000 kroners to pay the leader of the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party to leave the country instead.
Africa: The UnAfrican African
Is there such a thing as an unAfrican African?: “What is African? What isn't? What defines who we are? Our identity? From our archives is an article by Stephen Wanyama on why he finds little identity with Africa”
Brunei: Searching for E-book devices
The Journey is frustrated that Brunei shops have the latest cameras, laptops, and other hi-tech gadgets but no e-book devices.
Azerbaijan: Bloggers sentenced
As many of their supporters feared, and on the same day as a round table on the case against two detained video blogging youth activists, a court in Baku, Azerbaijan, earlier passed sentence on Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli. The verdict and first reaction spread on Twitter.
Brunei: Youngest woman to ski South Pole
Iantie Safar is happy for Dk Najibah Eradah, Brunei's first and youngest woman to ski the South Pole. The young Bruneian will join the Kaspersky Commonwealth Antartic Expedition.
Vietnam: Food safety
Health authorities discovered that a Vietnamese bottled drinking water is not safe for consumption. Banned food items are also being sold in many market stalls.
USA: Responding to Hate Crimes against Latino Immigrants
The murder of an Ecuadorian man in Suffolk County, New York in 2008 is one of dozens of hate crimes against Latino immigrants in the past 10 years, say Restore Fairness.
China: Death as business
ESWN puts together local reports and commentaries on the tragic case of three university students who died while trying save others. The tragedy involves a moral debate over the business of body retrievers.
Taiwan: Spirit medium
Michael Turton from the View from Taiwan started from the story of a spirit medium in Taiwan and discussed the history and culture of Tang-ki worship.
China: Sino-Indian tension and Dalai Lama
China Matters has an article looking into the Sino-Indian tension against the background of Dalai Lama's recent visits to Tawang and Nepal.
China: Drought and the Three Gorges Dam
Since September this year, China’s Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower scheme, has began a plan to raise its reservoir to its ideal height of 175 metres. In October, there has been severe drought in the provinces of Hunan and Jiangxi provinces along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Is there any co-relation between the Dam and the drought?
Morocco: Islamic Finance Banks
we are watching you [Fr] explains why you won't see any Islamic finance banks in Morocco anytime soon.
El Salvador: The Blog Hunnapuh Moves to New Domain
The blog Hunnapuh [es], which covers many different issues relating to El Salvador, has moved to a new domain Hunna.org [es].
South Africa: Sesame Street's HIV-Positive Muppet Raises Awareness
As the children's show Sesame Street celebrates its 40th anniversary this month, premiering its new season today, one Muppet named Kami, on its South African edition, continues to help combat and raise awareness about HIV/AIDS.