21 October 2010

Stories from 21 October 2010

Panama: Freedom of the Press

  21 October 2010

The Panama Digest reports that “Panama fell 26 spots on the annual Reporters Without Borders Freedom of the Press Index published Wednesday.” The post also points out that, “just yesterday, on the day the report was published – journalists picketed against government limits on their freedom of expression.”

Bermuda: Open or Closed?

  21 October 2010

Politics.bm calls “presumptive Premier-in-waiting” Paula Cox's recommitment to term limits “economic suicide”.

Shintaro Ishihara’s views on China, Japan

  21 October 2010

Shintaro Ishihara is a politician, author and governor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government since 1999. He is well known for his critical stance on Japan’s dependence under the US-Japan security alliance. In 1989, he co-authored the book The Japan That Can Say No with then-Sony chairman Akio Morita. He is...

China: Maoist worker activist in jail

  21 October 2010

JJ from China Study Group looks into the significance of Zhao Dongmin's arrest and imprisonment. Zhao is a lawyer, labor activist and Maoist. He has been put in jail more than a year after his arrest for trying to setup a workers’ watchdog group to combat corrupt and illegal SOE...

Anguilla: End of a Blog

  21 October 2010

Corruption-free Anguilla decides to shut down its blog over threats of a lawsuit; Barbados Free Press comments: “Don Mitchell CBE QC learns why anti-corruption blogs in small countries must be anonymous.”

China: Dairy Wars

  21 October 2010

ESWN collects and translates reports about the scandal of Mengnui smearing campaign towards its rival Yili and Shengyuan.

Haiti: A Dangerous Balance

  21 October 2010

The Signifyin’ Woman is “intrigued” by Haitian writer Edwidge Danticat's latest “collection of essays on writing (mostly) from the stance of exile, or immigrant”; The Caribbean Review of Books publishes an essay excerpted from the book.

D.R. of Congo: Food Thursday: Pounded Plantains

  21 October 2010

Lituma or pounded plantains can justify a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo: “Lituma is a culinary specialty of the Lokele ethnic group–a tribal cluster of clans of fishers and fishwives along the Congo River and its tributaries in the Orientale Province.That could explain why lituma is usually eaten...

Tanzania: Be Part of a National Election Monitoring Exercise

  21 October 2010

Ben asks Tanzanians to be part of a national election monitoring exercise: “Ushahidi comes to Tanzania! It comes in the form of uchaguzi.or.tz, implemented by TACCEO, a group of 16 Tanzanian civil society organizations that have partnered for election monitoring, with assistance from Hivos.”

Ghana: Ghana's Unique Coffins

  21 October 2010

Do you know Ghanaian unique coffins?: “On the dusty, honk-echoing, chicken-crossing, exhaust-fumed streets right outside of Accra, the capital of the English-speaking West African country, one tribe called the Ga is renowned for their casket masterpieces.”

Nigeria: Remembering Fela

  21 October 2010

Remembering Fela is an interview with the author and close friend of Fela’s, Dr Carlos Moore. Born in Cuba in 1942, Dr Moore is an ethnologist and political scientist.

Kenya: The Golden Voice of Africa

  21 October 2010

Kenyan Poet writes about Salif Keita's tour in Kenya: “He came and with him, brought the message ‘Despite his condition as an Albino, he had beaten all odds to become the Golden Voice of Africa receiving international acclaim'That is why, we had all flocked the Carnivore restaurant to experience his...