Archive for
June 5th, 2006
Stories
World Cup Fever
Temperature is rising. As we enter the World Cup week, ripples are turning into waves and everyone is being caught by the peculiar pulse that cannot be denied. Flags are already waving and those who were until now unaware about the gathering start to feel a strong urge to join, or else leave the planet. This year's edition will surely present a new face, or should I say, hundreds of millions of new faces ready to participate directly. We have never before had so prepared an environment for the expanded internationally networked exchange about the games as we have today.
“There are 186 thousand new websites just created for the world cup in Germany in the last few days. The survey was made by Websense.”
Web and Cup - Blog do Mesquita - Brazil“There will be tens of millions of people around the globe, watching the games at fever pitch during the competition and the internet will provide a valuable outlet for discussion and information. Thousands of blogs will be written, photos of those lucky people at the games will be shared and enquiries to travel companies about the German cities hosting the games will be made.”
Metatags and metatarsals: the internet World Cup - Internet Advertising Bureau“Following the raging popularity of such sites as MySpace.com and Orkut.com in Brazil, Nike executives approached Google with the idea of creating a social-networking site revolving around the world's most popular sport: soccer. Unlike MySpace.com, however, Joga.com will be a community that focuses on one topic and one passion: soccer, or “football,” as it is known outside the U.S.”
Nike, Google Kick Off Social-Networking Site - From Istanbul To Sand Hill Road“As for the overall numbers of people expected to watch the World Cup, 28 billion people in aggregate are expected to tune in at some point during the tournament, with 1.2 billion, or 17 percent of the world’s population, tuning in for the July 9 final. The other 83 percent of will be clicking the remote searching in vain for something more interesting than watching 22 men in shorts kick a ball. I wish them well in their existential efforts.”
Billions of Eyes on the World Cup - World Cup Blog
Inovative news sites mash-ups, collective blogs, live video streamings, videoblogs, contests, online games, online virtual stadiuns, and many other novelties will be launched onto this global stage. All this connecting will help make the 2006 edition not only the most pervasive event ever, but also the most globally shared user experience known to date. What about those few under the sun who do not care about balls and goals? Blogs are talking about those differences as well:
African Vibrations
The football fever is on with the World Cup finals round the corner. As is the tradition different countries have come up with their football anthems to cheer on their national teams. To quote Bob Marley “Football Is Music”. A claim playup.org have taken seriously by releasing An Alternative World Cup Album with 17 brand new football songs exclusively written and recorded for them. Africa is well represented with songs from Daara J, Ayo, Patrice, Badié, Waldemar Bastos, and Ghetto Blaster. With artists from other countries contributing songs to the project football is truely a global cultural phenomenon. Mp3 samples and a short biographies are provided so get listening. Welcome to my tenth African Music roundup.
Matt of Benn loxo du taccu keeps it football blogging live and direct from the media center at the World Cup in Berlin. He talks about the War Child “Help” albums and their importance:
“10 years later the Help compilations are still great and still raising money for a good cause. Originally Help was brought-out by War Child to raise money for war-town Bosnia-Herzegovina. It’s amazing that the Bosnia conflict was only 10 years ago, especially when you consider that some of the countries involved are now vying for EU membership.”
Matt goes on to mention Tinariwen, a Tuareg band featured in the latest album, Help: a day in the life, and provides an mp3. He will be dropping posts on African teams in the World Cup so look out for that.
Generation Nubia answers requests to post pictures of 2Face Idibia, winner of Best African Act at the MTV Music Awards 2005.
“This are pictures from the Mtv music awards last year so why are we posting them,two reasons actually :We didnt see to many full lenght decent pictures of him at the event and secondly this is probablly the only picture that shows him with his ‘baby mama'..so this is one for the history books.”
Generation Nubian also blogs about the recent black eyed peas tour of South Africa to support their aid foundation. Pictures of the Peas and Nelson Mandela are also posted.
Czech Republic: Election Ends in Stalemate
On June 2 and 3, the fourth election to the Chamber of Deputies since the 1993 split of Czechoslovakia took place in the Czech Republic - and ended in stalemate. Below are some bloggers' reports and reactions.
On the day the voting began, Bob Granico of Publius Pundit posted a comprehensive roundup of parties and their platforms, as well as various forecasts:
The likely outcome of the election seems to be a centre-right coalition government of the Civic Democratic Party and the Christian Democrats, but a key factor in the elections will be how well the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia does.
When the voting ended, My Czech Republic Blog noted that a coalition government looked unlikely:
When converting the percentages into the number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies, it looks unlikely that a majority government will be formed. The Civic Democrats/Christian Democrats/Green Party coalition would only get 100 seats, which is the same number the Social Democrats/Communist Party coalition would have.
Lemuel, a Slovak blogger of Deleted By Tomorrow, has been following the election in the neighboring country very closely and with more passion than he felt was necessary:
I have to remind myself, “I am not a Czech, I am not a Czech, this does not concern me”, but it is really hard.
Here is Lemuel's take on the current prime minister Paroubek (and head of the Social Democratic Party):
The truly Faustian thing about this man is that he is willing to break the 16-year-old taboo of not cooperating with the unreformed Czech Communist party. He famously declared “If need be, we will pass the laws that are necessary for the prosperity of this country, for the people of this country, with the help of the Communists. And if Martians were to fall here, then I would pass the laws with their help.”
This Week In Palestinian Blogs: Behind The Walls
From barber shops and strawberry fields to politics and the lives of students behind walls, the Palestinian blogosphere this week has many stories to tell.
Laila El-Haddad, far from the familiarity of her home in Gaza, describes her latest journeys in the suburbs of Maryland as she and her son Yousuf reunite with family. While quick to note the stark contrast between the two places on either side of the world, Laila also sees the social divides in America itself. In the meantime Yousuf seems to be having his own journeys in the midst of strawberry fields of a local farm.
“Yousuf hopes no one is watching as he stuffs his face with fresh-picked
strawberries at a local farm.” (Photo Credit: Laila El-Haddad)
Fadi over at Kabbobfest reports a story about Palestinian barbers in Hebron, who in a symbolic gesture, offered free haircuts to local government employees who have not been paid for two months.
(more…)
Links for Mon, 2006-06
Andrew Biggs in Thailand is reporting that BBC and HBO has upset people in Southern Thailand after they put out posters calling for extras to play corpses.
Cambodian blogger Wanna introduces more Cambodian blogs written in English. The post is in French but the links to the blogs are easy to spot.
At The Pan Collective, ArubaGirl writes a story about dwarves and elephants — or could she be talking about something else?
ICT for Peacebuilding reflects on net neutrality and what it means for peacebuilding processes.
Both Francisco and Daniel Duquenal write with glee that the North American Opinion Research poll - often seen as pro-Chavez - was off by around 28 points in their prediction that Ollanta Humala would win Sunday's Peruvian election. Duquenal can't help but add that “watching [Latin American news network] Telesur this morning trying to put a best face on Humala defeat was a truly exquisite moment.”
The Chilean newspaper El Mercurio has a complete list of Chilean blogs and photoblogs maintained by protesting students throughout the country.
Both Michelle Dion and Greg Weeks examine the word “populism” in a recent New York Times article about Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Chilanga Banda says that the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) will stream tomorrow's presidential debate online (ES) from 6:30 to 8:30.
More reactions after attending the mass meeting organized by the Maoists at United We Blog! . “I have been to all of them held after the 19-day movement (April). And on the stage speakers seem to lose their minds promising everything they can’t even make an attempt to think about. Big talk, always talk and petty actions. The monotony is killing me.”
A.M. Mora y Leon has a nearly exhaustive summary of what anglophone bloggers are saying about Alan Garcia's victory in Sunday's Peruvian presidential elections. Enrique Mendizaba, an international observer during the 2001 elections, takes a look at “the new roles of Peruvian political actors.” Boz has five talking points on Garcia.
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