Global Voices Online

Stories

Turkey is Typing….

Deborah Ann Dilley · 23:04

So let's talk a little football shall we? There are two Turkish blogs in English that focus on the noble game: The Round Ball in Ankara and Gulay, Galatasaray and the Dogs. Of course they are not the only ones writing about soccer and the World Cup, Erkan's Field Diary is another blog this week that has covered that same subject.

Erkan's Field Diary posted an interesting piece about FIFA announcing a campaign to discourage racism at World Cup games, he also provides some great links about various aspects of the game, and gives a great link to a site called Bloggers Ball, which has a lot of info on blogging the World Cup.

The Round Ball in Ankara, while watching a bit on the tipsy side, has taken a very interesting poll on what their readers think which teams that were knocked out of the World Cup in the pre-qualifying rounds should be there. As expected Turkey is running a high showing but is tied with Scotland….but I haven't voted yet, and my vote goes for Turkey all the way.
(more…)

3 comments · »»

China: Blogs for the ladies and the superstars

John Kennedy · 03:45

If a Chinese-language version of something called Blogerati existed, portal website Sina.com would most likely be it. Is it a surprise that two of Sina's three top bloggers are women? At third spot is media mogul Hong Huang (洪晃), ex-wife of Farewell My Concubine director Chen Kaige and daughter of Mao Zedong's former English teacher. Second is young anti-establishment writer Han Han, recently mentioned here on Global Voices, and in first places comes actress, director, author and blogger Xu Jinglei (徐静蕾).

Given China's population, is it surprising their readership numbers are in the tens of thousands, sometimes even the hundreds of thousands? One post of Hong's from May 28 brought in 422,482 views and 2505 comments. Wondering how they do it? Here are some of their most recent posts:

(more…)

0 comments · »»

Truth and Consequences

Elijah Zarwan · 00:47

The first thing that struck me as I passed by the Press Syndicate earlier this week to eavesdrop on a meeting of Egyptian bloggers was the Central Security trucks parked around the corner. The steel police barriers around the sidewalk and steps of the Syndicate were lightly manned by a few cops, who stood facing the doors of the Syndicate. They were there, it seemed, to keep the journalists and computer geeks from getting out. Or to send a message. I received it.

Middle-aged men with walkie-talkies (again, borrowing Issandr's phrase… he's got a knack), loitered across the street. These days I go to the Press Syndicate only when there's something vaguely subversive going on, so I don't know if the trucks and the men with walkie-talkies are there all the time now. That night, the image of the glowering cops manning the barriers around the Syndicate struck me as a nice illustration of the government's attitude toward freedom of expression… and it was meant to.

When I arrived, a couple hundred people were crammed into the main auditorium, watching the recent Al-Jazeera documentary about Egyptian bloggers. Posters calling for Alaa's release and the release of the other prisoners flanked the doors to the hall. So this was my second impression: Here were hundreds of people in an auditorium in the Press Syndicate, watching an Al-Jazeera documentary about bloggers and cheering and laughing all the way though. When I first interviewed Wael Abbas last year, he complained that the Press Syndicate wasn't giving online journalists the time of day. Now the local opposition press, Al-Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, Politiken, Die Welt, and Liberation are doing “the Egyptian blogger story” and the Press Syndicate is hosting a packed event. The opposition weekly is Al-Dostour is syndicating Egyptian blog posts. How times have changed.

(more…)

2 comments · »»

Links for Roundups

Oceania

Over at 5 Minutes en Nouvelle Caledonie, Sebastien who lives in New Caledonia but is originally from continental France writes (Fr) a post that shows how little cricket resonates with most of the French-speaking world : “While the world focuses on soccer, I want to introduce you to a less well known ball sport, which is nevertheless very popular here: cricket! This british sport is played every weekend (…) by Kanak women and was introduced in New Caledonia by British missionaries. (…) A local team even partakes in the Pacific games.”

Americas

Oliviermr2 writes (Fr): “Thank God for the weekend! I can finally take a break from all my “soccer specialist” co-workers who feel obligated to comment in detail on all of the previous day's 3 matches going: ‘he should have done this, he should have done that' and blahblahblah… I like soccer just fine but I'm about fed up [with all the talk].”

Americas

From Haiti, Marcel Salnave of Parlons Peu posts an article written by his father, also Marcel Salnave, in 1946 on the Haitian banking system. Excerpt (Fr): “Banks have become very demanding and ask for each loan a guaranty that surpasses the amount borrowed. Banks in Haiti … have completely suppressed our credit. So poverty has taken hold. (…) In the U.S., public opinion is worried by the 3% interest rate and the financial world has had to do its best to bring interest rates down to 2 to 2.5%. Here, it is impossible to borrow money for less than 20% despite the legal rate of 12%. (…) Our credit institutions only rarely give out loans (…). Very few business deals are made thanks to credit institutions. “