Archive for
November 1st, 2006
Stories
Celebrating Eid ul-Fitr the Blogger Way
Some Indonesian bloggers still talk about Eid ul-Fitr, or something to do with it, days after it passed for various reasons. Agus Setiawan at Blogonesia, for example, discusses the recent fatwa (religious decree) made recently by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Indonesian Muslim organisation, in which it stated that watching gossip program on TV is considered haram or ‘unlawful'.
Agus Setiawan agrees to such fatwa on the ground that (a) 80 percent of Indonesians are Muslim and (b) that doing or listening to gossip news are clearly forbidden or highly discouraged in Islam. Besides, he observes, that watching such program is highly time-wasting and unproductive.
Most commenters in the particular post agree with his statement but Hartanto who thinks that gossip culture is as old as human existence; so let it be as human are made of angel and evil:
Biarkanlah gosip, yang sudah ada sejak manusia ada… Kalo gosip dilarang, kasian mahluk yg berasal dari api, susah cari celah…
Muhammad Ali, an Indonesian student in Honolulu, Hawaii in the meanwhile, enjoys the Eid celebration in what he calls as a ‘Multifaith Lebaran Feast', as he celebrates Eid this year along with his brothers and sisters from other faiths. Says he:
For Muslims in Hawaii, a multifaith, multiethnic and multinational lebaran feast (concluding the fasting month of Ramadhan) is not something unusual. As you can see in the pictures, they are mostly Muslims, but some probably Catholics, Protestants, Hindus, Buddhist, Confucians, Agnostics, spiritualists, and possibly atheists too, joined the Indonesia's lebaran feast on Saturday, October 28th, 2006, organized by PERMIAS-H.
The Week that Was - Bolivian Blogs
What would happen with the fast approaching deadline that required all oil companies operating in Bolivia to renegotiate their contracts? This deadline was set in accordance to the decree of nationalization of the hydrocarbons that sought to give back ownership back to the state. Many speculated that the companies would pack up their bags and refuse to make any new investments. Many in the government were confident that it would eventually get done. Over the course of the last week, all of the companies “migrated” their contracts, which, according to the government would generate more revenue for the state. Even Brazilian President Ignacio Lula da Silva, whose state company Petrobras was affected, applauded the new agreements. These contracts have yet to be made public and still must be ratified by the Congress. Many Bolivian bloggers are excited about this news.
Boliviscopio’s [ES] Jaime Humérez Seleme lauds the historical migration of contracts. He also references President Lula’s “what was the big fuss” attitude in regards to this negotiation, when he said to some journalists, “You all perceived that there was a problem with Bolivia and that people that thought that I would be tough with Bolivia. Well, last night we reached an agreement. Why fight when one can have a good negotiation?”
Others who have supported the President Evo Morales in the past, such as Sergio Asturizaga congratulated this accomplishment and that there will be the much needed legal security for the companies.
Russia: “The Abduction of Europa”
LJ user kuzma-diary - Alexei Zimin, editor-in-chief of Afisha-Mir travel magazine, former editor-in-chief of GQ's Russian edition - reports (RUS):
The Abduction of Europa
Afisha-Mir magazine has been receiving alarming signals.
It appears as if consulates of European countries are using the slightest pretext this fall to refuse issuing [Schengen visas] to Russian citizens.
They say that no one is even trying to obtain a one-year, multiple-entry visa anymore. Problems arise even when attempts are being made to request a month-long entry stamp.
They say that the fiercest at it is the consulate of France.
They say that multiple one-year visas in the passport mean nothing to the French anymore, even when they were the ones who issued those visas.
They say that the French are ruthlessly stamping rejections into passports with three earlier one-year Schengens.
Due to this drama, Afisha-Mir has decided to carry out its own investigation of this harmful activity.
Editors are interested in all rejection stories and other recent cases of consulate genocide.
Perhaps someone knows the reasons for this toughening up?
Voices from Ghana: Mobile Internet, “Obruni” in Ghana, and Clash of Cultures
We open Ghana voices this week with a complaints-ridden compilation, which begins with a post about wireless mobile Internet. Proudly African blogger David Ajao has some serious questions for Areeba, the country’s leading mobile phone provider, on its provision of wireless mobile Internet using GPRS: “why is Areeba charging an activation fee for GPRS when they’d eventually make profit from the customer using the service anyway?”
He laments that he made this discovery as a result of having to relinquish his TIGO sim card, whose signal had been “lousy”. TIGO is one of the four mobile phone providers in Ghana.
The process for TIGO for GPRS is a simple one, outweighing by far that of Areeba’s, in the manner in which it includes simply going to their website, and sending a request by text message. David wonders why Areeba is not activating the service “over the air”.
From a complaint about a mobile provider to a service provider, Emmanuel.k.Bensah, of Trials and Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen, decries the performance of Ghana's electricity provider:
Ever since the load-shedding started, the country’s electricity provider ECG, has decided to ride on the back of the “load management programme” by continuing to deliver increasingly execrable service.
Links for Wed, 2006-11
Chroniques de Ndoumbelane dislikes (Fr) the question “If Africa had not been colonized, would it now be developed?“. Instead the blogger prefers to think of an alternative history where “the west would have encountered other civilizations without destroying them.”
Since onion is such a staple of Malagasy cuisine, Aiky at Madagascar Croissance would like to see (Fr) more exploitation of the food for exports.
Abeni no longer believes that hundreds of “jumbies” roam around during the “jumbie leggo” on November 1st and 2nd: “However, I find myself wishing there was some truth to the old tale. It would be so nice to see the dearly departed if only for two days.”
The school bullying in Japan becomes a social problem related with racial discrimination. Debito reports on a recent court case disclosing the details of a nasty bullying of a third-grade female student who has a Chinese father.
According to Alexpappas in Japundit, the battle is between mobile phone companies, NTT DoCoMo and Softbank over “unfair advertising”.
ESWN translates a feature story on the 12 hours working day of a cleaning woman in Hong Kong. On average she earns HKD$10 (USD$1.2) per hour. Yet the government is still hesitated to pass the law on minimum wage protecting cleaning women and security guards.
Fang Jun in mindmeter reports that TCL, one of the biggest electronic appliance producers, is about to withdraw from Europe market. In the first half year, TCL has lost HKD758 millions (USD 1 million) in Europe market. It is not always a good strategy to go global (zh).
Keso comments on Baidu's performance. Even if the company has an increase in profit, its stock price drops. In order to fulfill the estimated stock price in 2 years, the company has to have 100% increase in profit annually (zh).
Tsinghua university architecture department Zhou Rong criticise property developers for promoting luxurious lifestyle in their designs which are very much against people's need - more from sohoxiaobao (zh).
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