Stories from 22 February 2010
Haiti: Thoughts on Power
Following an incident in which children were reportedly taken from their legal guardians and placed in a UNICEF camp, Tara at The Livesay [Haiti] Weblog says: “I am so sad to have learned (as a result of the earthquake) that most everything in the world is based on money and...
Trinidad & Tobago: Do The Math
Mango Media Caribbean does the Beyonce/bmobile math, following the recent concert in Trinidad: “Great product + poor planning – expert events management + huge advertising spend – marketing thinking = 1 of the most spectacular event/concert failures in recent history…”; while Underground Trini Artiste gives a rundown of his concert...
Barbados: Cricket Industry
From Barbados, Allegiance blogs about the possibilities for a regional cricket sector: “The idea is not for Government to throw money at cricketers or to interfere with the rules of the game. It is about building an industry in which we appear to have a competitive advantage.”
Barbados, Haiti: The Widening Gap
Barbados Underground says that “the recent catastrophic earthquake which rocked Haiti has exposed one of the weaknesses of modern civilization; the failure to narrow the gap between rich and poor countries.”
Bermuda: Accountability
Bermuda's Vexed Bermoothes bemoans the fact that “government’s debt is scratching the ass of $1 billion dollars now”, but takes heart “that some of Bermuda’s institutions are doing their job to blow the whistle and put on the brakes.”
Russia: Keith Gessen's LRB Piece on Khodorkovsky
Robert Amsterdam's Blog and Foreign Policy Association's Russia Blog link to and comment on Keith Gessen's review of Richard Sakwa's The Quality of Freedom: Khodorkovsky, Putin and the Yukos Affair, which appeared in the London Review of Books. On his blog, Gessen explains how to pronounce Mikhail Khodorkovsky's last name.
Ukraine, Russia: The Plight of Chekhov's Yalta Museum
Rosamund Bartlett, Anton Chekhov's English biographer and director of the Anton Chekhov Foundation, writes about the plight of Chekhov's house-museum in Yalta, Crimea, at OpenDemocracy.net.
Russia: Sakha (Yakut) Language on the Internet
AskYakutia.com posts a Q&A item on the Sakha Wikipedia and the use of the Sakha (Yakut) language on the Internet.
China: Mobilizing mothers for censorship
On January 19th 2010, the Beijing Association of online media established a group called Mama Jury to censor obscene and pornographic information online. According to report from Southern Weekend, the idea of organizing mothers to “protect” the children from pornography is originated from Western countries. However, the Chinese mother group...
China: Typology of GFW networks
GFWrev has an article (cn) with a bilingual graph explaining how the Internet censorship works in China.
China: Shanxi earthquake rumor
Ten of thousands people in Shanxi Qingxu evacuated to the street on 21 of February after midnight because of an earthquake rumor. (via ESWN)
Sri Lanka: Censorship And Pertinent Questions
Sanjana Hattotuwa at ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace) blog discusses about the presidential order of “the suspension of a plan by Sri Lanka’s telecommunications regulator to censor anti-government websites” and raises some questions.
India: Fighting For The Forest
Indian Tribals Blog reports about a struggle of the tribal people in the reserved forests of Udaipur district in Rajsthan, India who fighting to avoid displacement from their ancestral land.
Bangladesh: Communal Attack On Jumma Villages
Unheard Voices reports of the attack of Bengali settlers on Jumma indigenous villages in Rangamati district of Bangladesh which left 5 indigenous people dead. The blog is following the developments and the subsequent protests.
Peru: New High School for the Country's Top Students
In early 2009, Peruvian President Alan García announced the creation of a new public high school in Lima that would attract and admit the top students from across the country.