Stories from March, 2010
Pakistan: Prayers For Moscow
“Prayers for #Moscow from #Lahore – there are no words that will lessen your grief.” tweets Mars On Earth from Pakistan as reported in Lahore Metblogs.
Bangladesh: Trial Of War Criminals Begin
After 40 years of independence of Bangladesh, the government has formed a tribunal to prosecute the war criminals of the country. An Ordinary Citizen writes about this long awaited trial.
Puerto Rico: A brief history of a new species, the “Twittericans”
They are calling themselves "Twittericans." They are Puerto Ricans, national and transnational, who absolutely adore Twitter. Computer Science graduate student and digital media savant Miguel Ríos has written a brief history of Twitter in Puerto Rico. Let's see what he found out.
Suriname: Art as a Beacon
At Paramaribo SPAN, Nicholas Laughlin blogs about artist Sri Irodikromo’s “monumentally scaled batik panel”, which, on the night of SPAN's recent exhibition opening, “served as a beacon, drawing visitors to the far end of the DSB Bank garden”. He suggests that the piece “might also be seen as another kind...
Jamaica: Responding to HIV
Repeating Islands reports that with funding support from the World Bank, the Jamaican government “aims to curb the spread of HIV, improve treatment, care and support for persons living with HIV/AIDS, and strengthen Jamaica’s capacity to respond to the epidemic.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Food Prices
“The basket of items you bought in the grocery in Jan 2010 is just over three times the price of the same basket bought in Jan 2003…Is your salary today three times what you earned in Jan 2003? If not, then, at least for food, you're not winning”: KnowTnT.com looks...
Bermuda: Political Power
Politically, says 21 Square, “Bermuda is on the verge of either destruction or greatness.”
Africa: Will France Telecoms dominate East Africa?
Rebecca's advice for France Telecoms whose plans are to dominate the East African telecommunication market.
Azerbaijan: DOTCOM arrives in Baku
Late last night, American participants of the U.S. State Department sponsored DOTCOM project to bring Armenian, Azerbaijani and American teenagers together to create socially conscious media arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Nigeria: The New Afrika Shrine one of top small venues
More kudos to Lagos as [The New Afrika] Shrine is named as one of the top small music venues in the world. I am not sure what the reviewer means “its not for the faint-hearted”…” writes Sokari.
Ghana: Ghana Travel & Living Guide
Gayle writes about Ghana Travel & Living Guide: “If you want to buy the guide for the current price of US$8.15 you have 4 more days to do so! It's not scary. It's not difficult.”
Ghana: Random things I like about Ghana
Diversity is one of the reasons Fiona likes Ghana: “We realised during the afternoon that there were ten nationalities represented – African, Middle Eastern, European, North American, Asian and Australasian.”
Russia: 3G Network Turned Off; Blood Donations Needed
Latest developments in Moscow: 3G networks have been turned off due to high traffic, Openspace reported [RUS]; bloggers call for blood donations [RUS].
Russia: Initial Coverage of the Moscow Subway Bombings
Moscow's Monday morning routine was broken today by two subway suicide bombings, which killed at least 38 and wounded at least 70 people. Alexey Sidorenko translates some of the initial reports from the Russian blogosphere.
Tajikistan: Bargaining over dams and shipments
Tajik and Uzbek officials traded barbs during the security conference in Dushanbe. The argument concerned freight train shipments for Tajikistan that have been stalled on Uzbek territory, but as neweurasia’s Dushanbe explains, the real reason is the Roghun dam project.
Afghanistan: Where all the donor money went
Nick Fielding analyzes the Afghan Finance Ministry's latest Donor Financial Review. The really interesting question is how much of all those billions is still in Afghanistan, he says.
Afghanistan: Government websites review
Nick Fielding reviews the Afghan governmental websites and finds that they are mostly moribund.
Uzbekistan: They Cancelled Navroz
Nathan Hamm informs his readers that public Navroz celebrations were cancelled in Uzbekistan – allegedly because of bad weather, but no official announcements were made about the cancellation.
Uzbekistan: Children infected with HIV
Joshua Foust reports that two hospitals in Namangan have been identified in a newly released documentary as infecting at least 140 children with HIV, resulting in the deaths of at least 14.
Tajikistan: Afghan Refugees in Tajikistan
Christian Bleuer reflects on a video report about Afghan refugees in Tajikistan, saying that this is just one of many issues in the country that it is ill-equipped to handle.
Kazakhstan: Bloggers claim lack of state aid to flood victims
After a mudflow killed dozens of people in the villages south-east of Kazakhstan on March 11, many fear that other dams across the country may cause much harsher disasters in case of bursting.