Stories from 16 February 2014
The End of Zimbabwe's Kubatana Blog
Kubatana.net, an online community of Zimbabwe's activists, is discontinuing its blog: Hello everybody and anybody out there! Just a short note to say that we are discontinuing this blog so you won’t see any new posts on it. This isn’t because we’ve fallen asleep over our keyboards, it’s because we...
Revisiting the Era of Foreign Domination in Cameroon
Dibussi Tande revisits the era of foreign domination in Cameroon in the context of the Guiness Mount Cameroon Race: The first three editions of the Guinness Mount Cameroon Race were won by local Bakweri runners. By the time of the 4th edition in 1976, an aura of superstition had already...
Collaborative Translation Project Promotes Civic Tech in Japan
Translators in Japan are volunteering to translate Code for America's "Beyond Transparency" to help promote civic tech there.
Togolese Skier Petitjean, from Facebook to the 2014 Winter Olympics
Mathilde-Amivi Petitjean is a cross-country skier who competes for Togo at the 2014 Winter Olympics Game. The president of the Togolese Ski federation explained that they reached out to Togolese abroad via Facebook to recruit some athletes.After finishing her first olympian race, Mathilde-Amivi Petitjean said[fr]: Merci tout le monde pour...
The Hilarity of Murder Among Russians
Where do you draw the line between a joke and a death threat? That question has been on Russians’ minds this week, after a controversial tweet by blogger Alexey Navalny.
One Nepalese Doctor's Hunger Strike Wins Action From Officials
Dr. Govinda KC, a senior orthopedic surgeon of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Nepal, who has earned the nickname Crusader KC, ended his fourth fast-unto-death on 15 February 2014.
What Happened to Creative Writing in Malawi?
Steve Sharra discusses the reasons behind the fall of quality of creative writing in Malawi: Of the many private universities that are mushrooming across the country, very few offer humanities courses where people can study languages and literature, creative writing and literary criticism. The University of Malawi has been operating...
Japan Slides Further Down in World Press Freedom Index
"To put it bluntly, media is even less believable than a politician."
PHOTOS: Protests Continue Across Venezuela
Protests continue in several cities across Venezuela. Social networks, especially Twitter, have been flooded with images documenting the activities in each region.
Tourists Killed in Terrorist Attack in Sinai, Egypt
A bomb blast ripped through a bus carrying 30 tourists in Sinai, Egypt, today, killing at least two South Korean tourists and the Egyptian bus driver.
South Korea: Being Native English Teacher and Reverse Racism
Geoffrey Fattig of Jeollamite blog shares his brutally honest opinion on reverse and latent racism in South Korea, urging fellow native English teachers who under-appreciate a fairly good working condition to stop whining. Some of the highlights of his post are: On the whole, though, Korea is a pretty easy place...
5 Music Blogs about China's Underground Music Scene
There’s an emerging group of Chinese musicians working outside government-controlled media channels, striving to form an independent voice through musical expression in China.
China Central TV Blames Beijing Government for Air Pollution
Beijing has reached Red Alert Levels of Smog during the past few days. China's state media CCTV wrote some comments on Sina Weibo on Feb 15, 2014, blaming Beijing government's impotency: 连续几天的沉默，说明了一个问题，严重雾霾天气多了，民众自然就会麻木，社会也会熟视无睹，但央视财经提醒的是，政府不能当瞎子，它必须要肩负起自己的责任，守土要有责，莫无知！无畏！无为！所以，央视财经大声的问一句，这里，还有人管雾霾吗？ Several days of silence indicates one problem: with constant smog, people will become numb, the society will turn a blind...
Ex-South Korean Skater Viktor Ahn Wins Two Medals at Sochi for Russia
Star speed-skater Viktor Ahn, formerly a South Korean, runs as a Russian player and won two medals in Sochi Olympics so far. Koreans seem happy for this under-appreciated star's success.
[Photos]: Birds Of Bangladesh
For a foreigner it’s hard to identify birds in Bangladesh as local books often have the wrong names in English, and Western books don’t have the Bangla names. The Face of Bangla blog and Jacob and Sanna's blog tried to help by posting popular birds’ pictures with both Bangla and...
Film Documents America's “Invisible” Drone War in Pakistan
"We speak to journalists, activists and experts inside and outside of Pakistan about the consequences of the strikes in the tribal FATA region."
Why It's Hard to Say “I Love You” in Chinese
Roseann Lake from ChinaFile explores why it's hard for Chinese to say “I Love You” in their own language from historical and sociological perspectives. The piece has also introduced an experiment about Chinese brain and its relation to love and romance.
