Archive for
September 25th, 2006
Stories
Trinidad & Tobago: Blogging the Arts
· 13:51
AS THE Anglophone Caribbean blogosphere grows, so does the number of specialist blogs devoted to specific subjects. For two decades now, Trinidad has been a major site for contemporary art in the Caribbean, rivalling the better known art centres of Cuba and Jamaica, though not enjoying the same amount of international attention. But a recent proliferation of Trinidadian art blogs is beginning to create a significant presence for the island's artists and art institutions on the world wide web.
A handful of Trinidadian artists — such as Edward Bowen — and commercial galleries — such as 101 Art Gallery — set up websites relatively early on, but the first artist bloggers have appeared only within the last two years or so. Christopher Cozier, one of the Caribbean's leading contemporary artists, is also a member of the Small Axe collective, and curates the journal's SXspace, a site for discussing the work of Caribbean artists. He also began a blog, Visual Matters, in April 2006. His posts, thus far sparse, include a conceptual sketch for an artwork subsequently made for a show in Canada, and an essay on the Trinidadian thinker Lloyd Best. (more…)
Bangladesh blog buzz
· 01:14
The latest happenings in Bangladeshi blogs around the world:
* Education: Tanvir of Journal of a Disturbed Mind blog criticizes the new grading system of school final examination -S.S.C. (Grade 10) in Bangladesh. Students in some regions are getting the top GPA 5 grade in greater numbers; however they are not represented in the top universities as they cannot do well in the competitive examinations.
* Politics: Journalist Tasneem Khalil depicts that police brutality on opposition activists can sometimes be an obscene affair.
Some more pictures of the police in action from Suchinta blog.
Share the magic criticizes the acquittal of Ex-dictator Hossain Muhammad Ershad from a graft suit in a political move of the current government as charges against him were dropped by the government lawyers.
* Sexual rights: Tasneem Khalil reports that a British colonial law (Section 377 of penal code) dating 19th century is still being used in the countries of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh) to repress homosexuality.
* Disaster: Dristipat criticizes the rescue efforts of the missing Bangladeshis in the coastal region and high casualties after the September 19, 2006 storm.
* Religion: Shafiur of imperfect|world|2006 reports that the late Theotonius Amal Ganguly, a Bangladeshi Archbishop is set to be first saint of Bangladesh.
* Culture: ‘Shab-e-Barat’ (The night of good luck) is celebrated among Muslims on the 15th day of Shaban (the eighth month of the Islamic lunar calendar) only in the countries of Indian sub-continent (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan) with religious fervor.
Shaon asks whether there is a religious base of celebrating this night, or whether it is a pure cultural tradition.
* Living of the poor: Except from the celebrity people have little idea about how is it to live in Bangladesh. Razib Ahmed of the South Asia Biz portrays Bangladeshi working class people - three rickshawpullars and a banana seller.
* Corruption: Suchinta Blog shares more information about the ongoing corruption in Bangladesh.
* Celebrity: Shafia of People Tree shares her experience of a day with the Buddhist leader Dalai Lama.
* Diaspora: Imtiaz criticizes some Non-resident Bangladeshis, who have no plan to come back home but always are vocal about the country's welfares.
2 comments · »»
Links
Americas
Lee Vanderwalker posts photos of the colourful Independence Day celebrations in Belize.
Americas
Linda Thompkins highlights the career of Guyana-born Barbados artist Karl Brodhagen, sculptor of one of Barbados's most famous public artworks.
Oceania
Sebastien from 5 Minutes en Nouvelle Caledonie deplores (Fr) that Miss Caledonia was recently stripped of her crown and prevented from participating in the Miss France contest because of artistic nude pictures.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sotho opposes the removal of the Basarwa from their ancestral land in Botswana:
“The Basarwa (Baroa in Sesotho) deserve to live on their land, as did the native American, in the same way they have been living on it since the dawn of man.”
Sub-Saharan Africa
Meskel Square on “Moving on from the Digital Indaba“:
“Overall it was a huge success. One way of judging that is to look at all the discussions that are still carrying on in posts and comments and Technorati links. The discussions started with the race debate which I now wish I hadn't joined (there was just something about that pig/hairless-bulldog). But it has now moved on to thinking about what should come next.”
Americas
Barbados Free Press announces that nominations are open for the 1st annual Barbados Piggies At The Trough Awards: “the winner will be the Barbados politician or civil servant who, in the opinion of the judges, best misuses position, political contacts or internal knowledge to benefit self, family or friends.” The nominator of the winning entry will receive US$1,000. Seriously.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Hollywood. Bollywood. What about Nollywood?
Sub-Saharan Africa
Gambia 101, via African Shirts:
“After the 1981 coup attempt, the confederation of Senegambia was established with Senegal. The union didn't last too long, but made a lot of sense. Gambia is the smallest country in Africa, a tiny strip of land around the River Gambia less than 50km wide. It is surrounded on all sides by Senegal, except in the west, where the River Gambia opens out into the Atlantic. Basically, they Gambia is almost like an autonomous part of the Senegal which speaks English.”
Sub-Saharan Africa
Grandiose Parlor asks whether Africa is a dumping site for global toxic waste: “The use of Africa as a dumping site for hazardous waste from industrialized nations is old news. The issue resurfaced again some weeks ago in Ivory Coast.”
Sub-Saharan Africa
And the winner of 2006 Presidential election in Gambia is…
Americas
Better late than never, Colin Brayton has put together and translated some reactions to Creative Commons iSummit 2006 on his latest New Market Machines Radio podcast.
Central Asia & Caucasus
Onnik Krikorian has a roundup of the Armenian blogosphere.
Central Asia & Caucasus
KZblog writes about ways to help Kazakhstani orphans.
Central Asia & Caucasus
Adam Kesher rounds up an eventful week in Kazakhstan's politics.
Central Asia & Caucasus
Yulia of neweurasia rounds up the Kyrgyz blogosphere's discussion of the political scandal involving opposition politician Omurbek Tekebaev.
Americas
Ezequiel Galotti is building Buenos Aires … so to speak. Block by block, building by building, he is constructing the capital in 3D to be viewed with Google Earth. The results are really amazing. You can also view an interview with Galotti from CNN.
Americas
Liz Henry introduces María Gómez's new, bilingual Have Money Will Vlog site as part of the Colombia Migration Project.
Oceania
Sebastien from 5 Minutes en Nouvelle Caledonie posts (Fr) a video of surfers on the beaches of Meridien and Anse-Vata.
East Asia
Timor Online writes about the 1st Lusofonia Games to be held between 7-15 October 2006 in Macau. Portuguese speaking countries and regions will compete for glories in the sports of football, futsal, beach volleyball, volleyball, basketball, taekwondo, table tennis and athletics. Apart from exciting competitions, impressive cultural performances will compose part of the games. The event will be promoted by the recently created ‘Association of the Portuguese-Speaking Olympic Committees' (ACOLOP).
Americas
Cafe Creole posts (Fr) pictures of Friday's lunar eclipse as seen from French Guiana as well as shots of the eclipse watchers who flooded the beaches.
Eastern & Central Europe
The beatroot writes that Poland may be “on the verge on an early election. Again.” Even though things may still change, “it’s a brave person to bet on anything in the weird and whacky world of Polish politics.”
Eastern & Central Europe
Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa generalizes about Latvia: “Plus, if things have been hard for Estonia, Latvia's always gotten it just a little bit shittier.”
Eastern & Central Europe
The Glory of Carniola announces the 4th National Slovenian Blogmeet to be held on October 14 in Ljubljana.
Eastern & Central Europe
Paul of Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar writes that “from Wednesday onwards, the amount of violence has drastically decreased. […] Now, of course, that could be simply because of the fact that most of the original ringleaders are now in custody….or because the outbreaks are now considered embarrassing and counterproductive for not only the radical right ‘politicians', but also those who would be described as being a part of ‘the democratic mainsteam'.”
Middle East & North Africa
Roozmaregiha writes that Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoini, jailed political prisoner and former deputy in Iranian parliament, seized opportunity at his father's funeral where he had found a few minutes of freedom to say he has been under torture in prison.The blogger adds Mousavi is not an ordinary prisoner; he is the leader of a legal political party ( Tahkim Vahdat) and a former deputy in parliament [Fa].
Sub-Saharan Africa
Semett writes (Fr): “Dakar signed the despicable “agreement” whose main point is the (inhumane) expulsion of Senegalese (and probably other Africans) from France to Senegal. In the court if History, we are witnesses to those House Negroes (i.e. African leaders) who, faced with the problems of the continent's youth, have opted to abandon their historic responsibilities.”
South Asia
Being away from home during festivals can be particularly hard. The Great Bong on being away from Calcutta during the wonderful Durga Puja.
South Asia
The revision of History as it's taught in schools can have both an academic and political agenda. Indian Muslims on the character of Tipu Sultan and the revision of how he is perceived.
East Asia
The blogger at Blowin' in the Wind writes about the latest tiff between former Malaysian prime minister Mahatir and former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.
South Asia
What of the people who died or went missing during the insurgency in Nepal. Bahas on the current issue of the status of 174 people disclosed. “The Home Ministry Friday made public the status of 174 people among 776 allegedly disappeared by the state during ten years of insurgency.”
East Asia
J Angelo Racoma blogs the Philippine BlogCon 2006. The blog conference was held in Manila on Monday 25, September.
South Asia
Sajith has wonderful photographs from Kargil. “While being driven down to the town, our driver had also pointed us towards the barren Tiger Hills, where the big artillery battle of 1999 had happened. All of a sudden the nothingness starts to remind of body bags being sent home and teary widows and mothers, of two nations destined to be at each others' neck ever since their very inception.
South Asia
Shirazi on observing the month of Ramadan. “What is particularly troubling is that often the very people who demand tolerance for themselves end up ridiculing and denouncing those who choose to determine the beginning of the month through some other means.”
East Asia
Fringer.org tries to answer just why many Thais while resenting the limits on their freedom of speech are still willing to
Ketablog says a collection of nine short stories from contemporary American writers has been published in Persian in Iran [Fa]. The collection's name is Goodness of God and we can find stories from Gib Hansen or Sherman Alexie.Middle East & North Africa
Middle East & North Africa
Samir says that the Moroccan Minister of the Social Development, Family and Solidarity, has come up with an innovative plan that addresses both needs of unemployed and handicapped people who need work and communication technology. One of the projects is to create 5,000 small companies providing moving “publiphones” on behalf of people living in precarious situations.
Middle East & North Africa
The zionist Left in Israel talks alot…they were never known for their actual actions. Shulamit Aloni was for years a member of the Israeli Knesset. Her voice was loud and clear when pointing out the injustices being done to the Palestinian people, but there was never any real actions to put those words into motion.
She is now calling for Peace talks… great! We need that. But before that can happen we need a situation leading to recognition. Israel does not recognise Hamas as the elected government of Palestine. How can there be talks without the participation of Hamas? DesertPeace said.
Middle East & North Africa
Wael Attili has a sample story of poverty in Jordan. Imagine living on a monthly income that is less than US$ 110 [ar]. Wondering how these people are living between us, unnoticed!
Middle East & North Africa
You kill a terrorist and you have another terrorist. This does not apply to moderates. Every time you kill a moderate you don't have another moderate but you rather contribute to the birth of a radical and a terrorist. Hassan Nasrallah is an exception to this rule. He is becoming a real moderate, Sophia believes so and I will tell you why.
Middle East & North Africa
Libya has changed undoubtedly. But that change is purely opportunistic and economic. The country is still under dictatorship and the fact that the US government and media suffer from some form of amnesia/madness does not take away from this fact, smokey spice said.
Middle East & North Africa
Our safety in the United States and elsewhere will never be guaranteed by force and violence, and certainly not when that violence creates legions of new enemies who have just been given a real reason to realize their new hatred of America when their countries are bombed and occupied and their fellow citizens murdered. Perhaps during earlier times, their “hatred of America” was vocalized over heated discussions in the tea houses, nonetheless an idle and passing utterance and not a call to arms, yet now true personal losses create warriors who are willing to fight to the death to avenge personal or national injustices, the American-Palestinian Salah Al-Dien said.
Middle East & North Africa
Today the airwaves are filled with the Syrian dialect. Syria is once again producing most of the Arab World's Ramadan television. A quick flick through the channels shows Syrian series on almost every channel. From the classical Arabic history dramas on Moroccan TV, to the comedies on Tunisian TV and the challenging socio-political dramas on TV stations in the Gulf, sasa said.
Middle East & North Africa
Going back to the early seventies, companies left Beirut because of the civil war and re-located largely to Cyprus, Athens, Dubai, Bahrain. Many of those which had gone to Cyprus & Athens re-re-located because telecommunications were so bad. Many came on to Dubai because telecommunications were so good. A lesson Etisalat and those who control it need to remember, before it's too late.
It's not the prices, outrageous as they are. It's not the infantile blocking of perfectly valid websites. It's the lack of speed they give us for work on the internet, Seabee said.
East Asia
Monwong at interlocals.net has translated a blog post by Zan Ai Zong concerning the “strike-hard” campaign in China, the article explains how such campaign would easily lead to violation of human rights.
East Asia
The Internet Society Hong Kong has carried out an investigation on the suspected blocking of ntscmp.com website by Nevigator and HGC; Charles Mok blogs the findings: we cannot find any evidence of a block imposed by the accused ISPs on the website in question. Connections from these ISPs to the website are flagged and closed gracefully and this can be caused by any third party who gained sufficient privilege or the endpoint website. But it is also virtually impossible for us to be able to investigate as a third party without such privilege to sniff into all the segments on the network.
East Asia
In order to cope with the shrinking labor force, the Japan Ministry of Justice stressed the need of long-term policies for accepting overseas workers. debito points out that a significant change is that the government has dropped the “3%” upper limit concerning the ratio of foreigners to local population.
East Asia
Ohmynews Korean version had interview with two U.S Korean War vets who planned to join the anti-U.S military base construction rally on Sunday. Robert Koehler summaries their opinions in Marmot's Hole.
Americas
Geoffrey Philp posts the latest in his series of “Five Questions” interviews with Caribbean authors. This week his interviewee is Jamaican dub poet Malachi.
Americas
By making the eradication of the Aedes aegypti mosquito a government priority, Raúl Castro has more or less admitted that Cuba has a dengue fever problem, says Luis M. Garcia, “and yet, the secrecy-obsessed Communist regime refuses to reveal the extent of the epidemic.”
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