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Ukraine: Politics and Reality

Veronica Khokhlova · 17:54 · Eastern & Central Europe

Ukraine has been without a new government since the March 26 election. A coalition between Victor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko's Bloc and the Socialist Party was finally formed at the end of June, but it didn't last past yesterday, when Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz unexpectedly joined forces with the Communists and Victor Yanukovych's Party of the Regions and received their votes to become the speaker. On Tuesday, the country is likely to get its new prime minister, though much isn't clear yet, and Ukraine-watchers may be in for another surprise or two.

Below are some bloggers' (emotional) reactions to what's now a certainty: the Orange Coalition has collapsed and Oleksandr Moroz is the speaker.

Adrian J. Erlinger of Leopolis calls what's going on in Ukrainian politics “uninterrupted hysteria.” Here's his summary:

Fast forward to yet another election. 3 months after that - no goverment, no constitutional court. Yu, Yulka, and Moroz refuse to speedily form a coalition. Eventually, a virtual orange coalition is formed, but then Yanukovich in snakeskin boots with sovok CPU allies also refuse to work. Like PORA activists, they begin a hunger strike and block the Rada. PR nominates former head of tax Mykola Azarov as speaker of the Rada, even though he cannot speak the state language. Moroz is elected speaker of the Rada by his opponents and former enemies. PR, CPU and SPU form an “anticrisis” coalition.

No end in sight for dramapolytyka in Ukraine.

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The State of the Argentinean Blogosphere: Tucuman

Jorge Gobbi · 17:41 · Americas

Original post in Spanish here.

Following the notes dedicated to Argentinean provinces, this time we'll talk about Tucuman. In this case, I've had more time to prepare everything and I've also had the invaluable contribution of many bloggers, that have helped me build a wiki of Argentinean blogs, arranged by cities and provinces. In the case of this post, we'll use Tucuman's page. Of course, you can always help add all the blogs made in Argentina; the only important thing is to locate them in its corresponding geographic space defined beforehand.

The opinions

One of the most common topics when we talk about blogs of a region is to ask if there is a blogging community or if there's a rather dispersed scene. “I fact I don't know if I would talk about a blogosphere in Tucuman, I'd rather talk about bloggers from Tucuman”, says Carlos Ckozusko, from Ckozus. “I guess our Tucuman background might be what we have more in common than any topic in our blogs”. It's ok. Luckily, the Internet allows us to build affinity networks where geographic location is practically irrelevant”. And Gustavo Coronel says: “It's dispersed, but with experiences such as Tucu Blogs -a Yahoo! mailing list- we will start to bond.”

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Indonesia Double Take to Israel and Looking at the Future

A. Fatih Syuhud · 12:45 · Middle East & North Africa , East Asia

Politics, sport, business towards Israel
Ahmad Qisai at Politics and Society highlights the ever growing tension between Israel and Palestine and Indonesian government decision to boycot the playoff of the World Group II in Tel Aviv later this month but seems to have a double standard in case of economy. He said,

The unjustified ‘collective punishment’ by Israel to the Palestinian people seems to have evoked contradicting responses in Indonesia. Being a staunch supporter of Palestinian cause and statehood, Indonesian leaders think that Indonesia needs to show her sympathy and solidarity to the Palestinian people. But sport and business in Indonesia seem to have different take on this Israel – Palestine political conflict.

Based on the precedence set by Indonesia Chamber of Commerce (Kadin) who had government nod to go to Israel, the Indonesian Fed team should go ahead as they are invited by an independent institution not by Israeli government:

… Showing sympathy and solidarity to the Palestinian people does not mean that we have to sacrifice our national interests. Kadin has given this example. Being able to play more active role in international forums to pressurize Israel to solve the conflict in the region peacefully is more important for Indonesia than boycotting a tennis tournament.

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Blog buzz from India: Religion, politics and Monsoon

Kamla Bhatt · 05:08 · South Asia

I think providence conspired that I write about the two subjects that really don't mix: politics and religion, but mercifully these two subjects are punctuated by rain and travel posts. This week we look at a new and changing India, the monsoons in Bombay, the Sabrimala temple controversy, Tibetan monatries and temples of Karnataka and finally celebrate Mahinder Singh Dhoni's birthday. Dhoni is the current poster boy for India's millions of cricket lovers.

The new and changing India has been widely covered these past couple of months by International Media. Adding his voice to the India changing chorus recently was Pankaj Mishra, who wrote two articles on India: one was published by the Guardian and the other was an op-ed piece in the New York Times. Bloggers had plenty to write about Mishra's articles.

Anthony of Amar Akbar Anthony questions the recent article by Pankaj Mishra in The Guardian and wonder what is Mishra really talking about? He writes:

“As the piece continues I find Mishra to be less persuasive than usual: some of his interpretations of facts are problematic, and his subject is so large as to probably defeat comprehensive treatment in a short essay.”

Read and discover for yourself what else he has to say on this subject.Sharath of The Broad Cast writes that Pankaj Mishra's article is “a good reality check but too much venom that puts one off …”Is India a Superstar aks Madhat in his post? Read and discover what he has say about this new and changing India.

It rained cats and dogs (and continues to rain) in Mumbai/Bombay. Let us start with some before and after pictures of Bombay. Revenge of Smith writes about his trip to Bombay before the rains, and has some great pictures of South Bombay, also known as “town.” Ryan Estrada writes that during the monsoons Bombay turns into the Venice of India and he shows how the city undergoes this watery transformation in pictures.

GS of Chummachumma has visuals of the heavy rains in Bombay and writes;

“it rains in spain mainly in the plains. but in mumbai it rains and rains….it would pour endlessly.sometimes for days together without stop.life would go on.children will put on their overcoats and continue going to school,collegians to their colleges and officegoers would take it in their stride and report for work.in mumbai,life goes on without stop.”

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Voices from Kazakhstan

Leila Tanayeva · 02:08 · Central Asia & Caucasus

Welcome to our first roundup of blog posts and online discussions that took place in the Kazakh blogosphere recently.

On a World Refugee Day, 20 June, I overviewed the situation with the refugees in Kazakhstan on Neweurasia. Using the data of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kazakhstan and media reports, I state that there is no good example of handling the refugees in the region, and the countries tend to cooperate when they see the refugees as a threat to their security. This is the case with Uighurs from China and Uzbeks who fled their country after Andijan.

Adam Kesher was critical about draft media law, which, since then, has been adopted by the Kazakh senate and is currently awaiting the President' approval. Adam says there is a conflict between Dariga Nazarbayeva, the President's daughter and the initiator of the draft law Ertysbaev, which is also a conflict within the Family. Even the broadcasting of the World Cup was an issue in the conflict, according to Adam. He offers a hypothesis that the law was rushed through in order to manage before autumn, when the President visits the US, or before the start of trial of James Giffen, a US citizen who was a former adviser of Nazarbayev and stands accused of bribing Kazakhstani officials.
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The Week that Was - Bolivian Blogs

Eduardo Avila · 00:57 · Americas

Este artículo también está disponible en español en el sitio Blogs de Bolivia

Unofficial results from last Sunday’s election in Bolivia provide a glimpse at how the Constituent Assembly and calls for departmental autonomy may shape up for the rest of the year. Bolivians took to the polls to elect 255 representatives to write the country’s new Constitution, which will convene in early August, as well as determine whether the nine departments (state-like units of government) will receive more autonomy. Unofficial results from a scan of the Bolivian blogosphere also reveals that this election was one of the most blogged about events in recent months.

On a national level, the autonomy question failed, with approximately 53% of the population voting “No.” This figure paralleled the amount of vote that the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) received in the December elections. However, in four of the nine departments, the “Yes” side emerged victorious, some in resounding fashion. This constrast reinforces the position that the country still remains sharply divided. This map, provided by Briegel Busch and his blog Bolivia Eclipse [ES], shows a sharp division between Orient and Occident. Martin P. Gutierrez, living in Buenos Aires, states in his blog Vitrina de Realidad Boliviana [ES] that Bolivia loses once again. The contrast of regions indicates such a divide and that it is unfortunate, that its own President divides the country even more with his statements and rhetoric. Carlos Hugo Quintanilla, who writes at El Quintacho [ES] thinks this division is personally a bit troubling,

“Nationwide, the NO vote won and it seems to me that a NO to a united Bolivia, and now I see my country divided into two and I don’t like it. I am still here in my corner dreaming of a nation where all of us see ourselves and feel equal.”

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