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Turkey is Typing…

Deborah Ann Dilley · 13:53

Ramadan begins this weekend, or Ramazan, if you are Turkish, and I thought that it would be nice to open up this week's article with a link from Binnur's Turkish Cookbook for Ramazan Pide. Let the celebrations begin!

The pope's comments have been a hot topic of dicussion in the Turkish blogs this week. The pope is scheduled to visit Turkey soon and any sort of comments made by him as anti-muslim have been taken very seriously as Aydin.net explains:

The Pope has already been criticised in Turkey for his opposition to it joining the European Union, and his advocacy for a Christian element in the EU constitution. Salih Kapusuz, the deputy leader of the ruling party, which has its roots in Islam, said Benedict's remarks were either the result of “pitiful ignorance” about Islam and its Prophet or a deliberate distortion of the truth. The PM of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was asked if the flap would affect the planned trip to Istanbul, where the pope hopes to meet with Orthodox leaders who are headquartered there, and he left open the possibility of cancellation saying “I wouldn't know' and mentioned that Benedict was speaking “not like a man of religion but like a usual politician.”

Icarus Redeemed discusses the papal controversy as more of a problem with Islam itself:
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Blog Roundup: MIB Forum

Maurina H · 13:18

The Forum was held in Chancellor's Hall, University Brunei Darussalam only a few nights ago, Wednesday night, to be exact. Now, it is already Sunday, yet the noise it made still reverberates all throughout the usually very quiet nation and the even more quiet blogging scene.

The Forum was a star studded event, attended by a number of major figures, ministers, deputy ministers, and most notably His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei, and his brother, His Majesty Prince Sufri Bolkiah, His Majesty Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah, the Crown Prince and a special guest of the Sultan, Raja Nazrin, the Crown Prince of Perak, who was there to act as the keynote speaker.

For those new to the concept of MIB, it stands for the three fundamental elements in Bruneian governance and way of life. M: Melayu, which stands for the majority of the Bruneian population, the Bruneian Malay, and all cultural connotations that comes with the word, I: Islam, which stands for the official religion of Brunei, a religion that affects every single working of the Bruneian governance in all kinds of ways, and B:Beraja, which stands for the power of the Sultan. Together Melayu Islam Beraja, brings the loose translation of “Malay Islamic Monarchy”.

Thus the event was a normal forum, which outlined and rexamined the well known philosophy of Melayu Islam Beraja that Brunei employs in the daily running of the country, and how it can be taken further to advance Bruneian governance. I wrote on my blog, Turquoise and Roses, as a person watching the live feed on the national television station, RTB, thought it should be called the MIB Talk,. (more…)

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Africa: digital citizen indaba controversy

Ndesanjo Macha · 10:47

It is most likely that the organizers of the Digital Citizen Indaba on Blogging in South Africa did not anticipate the controversy that has dominated the African blogosphere for about two weeks now. The controversy, for the most part, has centred around the words, African and indaba. Indaba is a Zulu word, which means a council where indigenous people of Southern Africa meet to discuss important matters.

So, a week before the indaba, a Kenyan blogger, AB&H, in a post entitled, (White) African Blogger Conference in a Week, writes:

From the list of speakers, listed below, it appears to my untrained and possibly quite mistaken eye that their last names are not very black African; at least they wouldn’t be in East Africa. (Whisper: Will it be a roomful of white folks working for the betterment of the African? Please, I beg you, do not tell massa that I asked cause I know how much he is trying to help me speak and develop into a full, happy human being.)

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Links for Roundups

Sub-Saharan Africa

Escaping Sudan is Ben Loxo's post about Emmanuel Jal, “Emmanuel Jal has risen from obscurity to become one of Africa’s most well-known rappers.”

Sub-Saharan Africa

Black Looks remembers Mrs Margaret Ekpo, “Mrs Ekpo, along with the late Fumilayo Ransome Kuti, was one of Nigeria’s most ardent political activists and campaigners for women’s rights.”

Sub-Saharan Africa

Freshlyground, a South African afro-fusion group, deserves the MTV Europe nomination in the Best African Act category, writes Coda.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Kumekucha Kisumu writes about Raila Odinga, the leading opposition politician in Kenya,
“In Luo Nyanza Raila has cultivated a cult of personality that is the envy of many a politician. This cult has spawned myths that elevates Raila almost to the level of luo legends like Gor Mahia and Lwanda Magere.”

Central Asia & Caucasus

Onnik Krikorian has an extensive post on the Yezidi minority in Georgia, which he recently visited together with an ethno-musicologist. Onnik provides exclusive photography, interviews, and compares the minority's situation in Georgia with that in Armenia.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Sotho on the state of politics in Lesotho, “Has the government of Lesotho taken a leave of absence? Are our leaders out of their minds? Instead of acquiring a Toyota Camry, how about doing something for joblessness, for AIDS patients?”

Sub-Saharan Africa

Mshairi announces the 1st Carnival of African Women, which will be held in cyberspace on Monday October 9th, 2006: “To participate in the premier Carnival, we are asking contributors to write a piece on Blogging and Identity and publish it on their blogs. Please feel free to interpret the topic as broadly as you wish - long, short, a poem, a piece of prose or photos.”

Sub-Saharan Africa

Black Looks writes about recycling war in Africa, “The reality is war is big business and Africa is a prime market - sell the weapons, destroy and then rebuild, then sell some more and so on - recycling war.”