16 February 2013

Stories from 16 February 2013

Horse is ‘Normal Meat’ in Kazakhstan

Here in Kazakhstan, especially by Kazakhs, horse is considered to be a normal meat/edible flesh, in the same way as chicken, beef or fish is. Although horses bred for eating are treated very differently, and indeed look different, to those destined for racing or transport on the steppe, a horse is just another animal that serves a purpose.

16 February 2013

Tajik Civil War ‘Will Continue’

Unless ALL the sides [that fought against each other in the 1990s] admit their fault and say, "Yes, we did kill, we did start the conflict," the civil war will continue... It looks like we are ashamed of admitting that we are all to blame for the bloodshed.

16 February 2013

Lies, Damned Lies, and Turkmen Statistics

When it comes to statistics, the Turkmen government remains committed to the time-honored Soviet principles of book-cooking, data fudging and avoiding the uncomfortable truth at all costs. 'Good' statistics, such as the rising grain harvests, are triumphantly covered by state-run media, while bad news are never reported.

16 February 2013

Saudi Charged for “Down with the House of Saud” Tweet

Bader Thawab is a Saudi Twitter user who was arrested back in September 2012 after writing tweets calling for the fall of the Saudi monarchy. Journalist Iman al-Qahtani managed to get a leaked copy of the list of charges that he faces, and published them online. Among the charges are following political dissidents on Twitter.

16 February 2013

State-Sponsored Violence in Angola

Blogger Claudio Silva argues on Africa Is a Country that a deeper look at state-sponsored violence (urban evictions and crackdowns on protest) is needed to put into perspective two viral...

16 February 2013

Mozambique: Mouthwatering Zambezian cuisine

Afreaka blog [pt] pays homage to food from central Mozambique, from Zambézia Province. They write, besides spice, the secret is “lots of coconut milk, made fresh, grating coconut into hot...

16 February 2013

Memorable Moments from the Brazilian Carnival

The importance of Carnival in Brazilian culture cannot be overplayed. Love it or hate it, the Party has bestowed joy on its anonymous masses, fired up those with an opportunistic unbridled penchant for the pursuit of fame, and destroyed the reputation of public figures who have lost all reason and personal boundaries. Check out the following for some magical, shameful, irreverent, controversial and entertaining flashbacks from this important Brazilian extravaganza.

16 February 2013