21 April 2010

Stories from 21 April 2010

Bhutan: The Love For Titles And Designations

Dorji Wangchuk writes about the obsession of the Bhutanese people for titles and designations. “Whereas in the West people are known by their names, half of Bhutan knows the other...

21 April 2010

Sri Lanka: The Idea Of Citizenship

Sanjana Hattotuwa comments on the idea of citizenship in Sri Lankan context: “Citizenship is (thus) anchored not to a secular, liberal ideal larger than the sum of its constituent peoples...

21 April 2010

Bhutan: Perils Of The Smoking Ban

Penstar writes about the perils of the recent ban on smoking in Bhutan as it has proliferated black markets, which led to cancellation of licenses of some shop owners. “I...

21 April 2010

India: The IPL Cookie Is Crumbling

“The collapse of the Indian Premier League (IPL) pack of cards is identical to the unravelling of the Satyam fraud in 2009, from a media perspective. Namely, no media organisation—newspaper,...

21 April 2010

Pakistan: Karachi Music Scene

“This is about a Karachi from a very different time. A Karachi that moved to a very different beat,” – comments Adil Najam at All Things Paksitan while discussing about...

21 April 2010

Russia: Authorities Inspect Major Social Network

RuNet Echo

Russia authorities started inspection of the country's major social network Vkontakte.ru, rbcdaily.ru reported. The authorities claim the social network became popular with neo-Nazi, xenophobic and extremist groups. But the inspection...

21 April 2010

Russia: Internet Development in Regions

RuNet Echo

Yandex.ru published report [RUS, .pdf] on Internet development in Russian regions. Report concludes that the drastic increase in Internet penetration during 2009 was in Russian regions. The average speed of...

21 April 2010

Azerbaijan: Nationalist propaganda

Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines recounts being verbally abused by a fellow countryman after co-presenting with Global Voices Online's Caucasus regional editor at a recent conference. The blogger notes that...

21 April 2010

Malawi: Wedding of Year, Flag Changes and Media Suppression

In what some describe as the wedding of the year, Malawi’s President Dr Bingu wa Mutharika wed his former cabinet minister Callista Chapola Chimombo Saturday April 17, 2010. The officiation took place at Civo Stadium, an open place contrary to Roman Catholic procedure. Over 20 heads of states and governments were among the 4,500 delegates to the ceremony.

21 April 2010

China: Shutting down of NGOCN's website

ngochina blogs about the shutting down of ngo.cn earlier in April. The website was established in 2005 and it offered capacity building training to NGOs, mainly those located in southwestern...

21 April 2010