Stories from 24 October 2010
Panama loses hosting rights of Bolivarian Games
In May, the Bolivarian Sports Organization (ODEBO) named Panama the host of the XVII Bolivarian Games, but this week the organization decided not to host the games there anymore. The news is causing reactions from authorities and Twitter users.
Bhutan: Increase In Social Media Users
“There are more than 32,000 users of the social networking site in Bhutan,” informs Yasmin Lee Arpon.
India: Community-scale Water Solutions
“Hopefully, one day the soul of India will be rejuvenated with clean drinking water across all of its 638,000 villages,” says Pooja Bhatia.
Maldives: A New Twitter Directory
“#tunaeffect is a Maldivian twitter directory and a platform for Maldivian twitter users to come together as a community,” informs Rhipha.
Bangladesh: Images Of Durga Puja
Sri Lankan photoblogger Chulie De Silva visits a Durga puja festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh and posts a photo essay.
Barbados: A Nation Mourns
Barbados - along with the rest of the region - is in mourning following the untimely death of Barbadian Prime Minister David Thompson, who passed away yesterday from pancreatic cancer. At 48 years old, he was one of the youngest Caribbean heads of state and bloggers across the Caribbean archipelago are paying their respects…
Africa: Engaging Francophone/Anglophone divide in researching Africa
“Engaging Francophone/Anglophone divide in researching Africa” is a panel that invites contributions that attempt to map out specific areas of the Francophone-Anglophone polarisation in African studies as sites of knowledge production that create both opportunities and constraints for research in and on Africa.
Gambia: Harrasment of Women Defenders
Sokari posts a press release by Coalition for Human Rights in the Gambia concerning the arrest of Dr. Isatou Touray, the Executive Director and Amie Bojang- Sissoho, Programme Coordinator for the Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices (GAMCOTRAP).
UAE: Are Taxi Fares Fair?
Fake Plastic Souks, from the UAE, discusses taxi fares in the United Arab Emirates and how taxi drivers are faring.
UAE: Ban on Flickr Lifted
The United Arab Emirates has lifted a ban on photo sharing site Flickr, writes the UAE Community Blog. “According to a report in The National, the TRA has lifted the Flickr ban. Good news for UAE internet users and photographers. Apparently, it's been made possible by Yahoo utilising the same...
Armenia-Azerbaijan: Online campaigns for the return of casualties of war
A campaign represented as being organized by ‘Armenian bloggers’ has been established to demand the return of the body of Manvel Sarinbekyan, an Armenian who reportedly hung himself while in detention after crossing the border with Azerbaijan.The campaign has been launched in both Russian and English. Meanwhile, and as the...
Georgia: Teach and Learn English
Dream is Destiny [GE] posts the addresses of the blogs established by some of the 350 native English-language speakers documenting their stay in Georgia as part of the new official policy to have English replace Russian as the second-language spoken by its citizens.
Armenia: Domestic Violence petition submitted
Following the recent outrage expressed by some Armenian bloggers following the death of a 20-year old woman at the hands of her husband and mother-in-law, Blogian says that the petition it set up to lobby the government to pass a law on domestic violence was signed by 3,196 individuals before...
Armenia: Prolific blogger suspended on LiveJournal
Kornelij Glas [RU] details the case of Pigh, an Armenian blogger prolific in the mutual tit-for-tat online information war with Azerbaijan and Turkey. Speaking to Global Voices, Pigh says that his blog on LiveJournal was suspended on 8 October after some Azerbaijanis made complaints to the site's administration which included...