Archive for
December 3rd, 2006


Stories

The Week That Was in Bahrain 

a small portrait of this author Amira Al Hussaini · 11:47

Bahrain has just completed round two of its Parliamentary and Municipal Council elections, which saw a majority government-backed Islamist Parliament in place.

According to Mahmood Al Yousif, only one ‘liberal' candidate made it to Parliament.

“All but one of the liberal candidates have not made it into the new parliament, which has a distinct Islamist feel to it: 17 Wefaq (Shi’a), 8 Minbar (Muslim Brotherhood) and 5 Asala (Salafis). That’s 75% of the make-up of parliament, but when you look closely at the rest, only one is liberal, and the rest have distinct Islamist leaning, one of those actually (Jassim Al-Saidi) is so extreme, even the Asala bloc cannot afford to publicly state that he belongs to them!” he wrote.

However, Mahmood is optimistic and thinks that the new Parliament shows a fairer representation of Bahrain.

“What makes me a bit more hopeful this time is that it looks like a proper parliament; the whole of Bahrain - virtually - entered the race and chose their representatives without a call for a boycott other than the Haq party, and they do not account for a big majority. What also makes me optimistic about this parliament is that Wefaq have gone with with a clear and declared agenda, and have chosen their people wisely with a good cross-section of technocrats too. Other than that and by virtue of them being run like a proper political party, they have a full back-office to support their efforts in parliament. That back office has access to political scientists through to businessmen to advise them on proposed legislation and budgetary discussions etc,” he explained.

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Global Food Blog Report #35 

a small portrait of this author Melissa De Leòn Douglass · 10:10

#1: Yulinka Cooks shares her recipe to prepare Sauerkraut. This new food blogger cooks up Russian food, an often-overlooked food from the former Soviet republics, especially Uzbekistan, Armenia and Georgia.

My sauerkraut is currently on day three of fermenting, and I’m excited to think that it could be done as early as Friday. Never having pickled anything besides some super-easy pickles, I approached this first sauerkraut-making venture with trepidation. Read more…

#2: Visit Argentina without a passport! The CookingDiva takes you to: The Butcher Shop, The Belgrano Market, and you will even watch how they bake empanadas in a mud-oven.

#3: From Panama, Chef Elena teaches how to prepare puff pastry (ES), a step by step pictorial guide and a delicious recipe. Head over to her blog and show off your baking gifts!

#4: From the Philippines,  The Pilgrim's Pots and Pans bakes "Muff-cakes"

What are muff-cakes? A cross between muffins and cupcakes (refer to previous post differentiating muffins and cupcakes). Even if I used hard wheat flour (usually meant for yeasty breads) and given the ratio of flour, sugar, oil and eggs, these are definitely cupcakes but since a good amount of the sugar and eggs, not to mention milk, went into the curdled mixture, the batter for this recipe was dough-like and so the finished product looks more like a muffin. Read the complete, very interesting post…

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China: A silent protest 

a small portrait of this author John Kennedy · 05:31

Problems seem to keep coming for residents of Huacao township in the outskirts of Shanghai's Minxing district. Reports in mainland media from over two years ago [zh] show that after years of anticipation, villagers had still yet to be compensated for the sale of their land, despite the local government leaders' claims to the otherwise.

Following that, an open letter to the Huacao township government leaders was posted on a Shanghai bulletin board website [zh] earlier this fall outlining villagers' concerns about a planned highway expansion project into their farmland. Demands are made in the letter first for more information as to which departments and government officials are involved in the project, for preservation of the village farmland, as well as conditions regarding compensation.

Then late last month Hong Kong's Sun Daily newspaper reported that villagers in Huacao had taken their actions a step further, a report that can be found on several bbs forums and overseas Chinese language news websites, most of which are inaccessible from the mainland, and the CNnews MSN Spaces blog [zh], which can be viewed without a proxy.
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Bangladesh: Politics, More Politics and Bloggers 

a small portrait of this author Rezwan · 03:28

Politics: Blogs are said to be the mirror of a society. The recent political uncertainty in Bangladesh is troubling the citizens and taking up much space in the blogosphere.

The nation is divided in two streams of political ideologies and one cannot stand another. Naeem Mohaiemen discusses Bangladesh politics and warns about a third force cashing on the rivalry of the major political parties.

ShahidulNews comments on the recent incident of intervention of the chief justice of the supreme court to prevent a judicial ruling going against a political party. This shows politicization of judiciary which is a bad sign for the country.

The much uttered words of politics are being humored and dissected by the bloggers. Crosses and acrosses mocks the sense of ‘neutrality‘ in politics. ElectricBlues slams the violent politics of ‘demand‘. ‘Fake voters' is another much debated issue and Journal of a Disturbed Mind proposes two solutions to tackle it.

The Nobel Laurate Dr. Muhammad Yunus's solution to the crisis is brewing much debate at Drishtipat blog.

According to Change Bangladesh the voters are facing a dilemma who will they vote for in the coming election. Some are not sure whether the election will take place.

Andrew Morris of Morris the pen caught up with one freedom fighter of Bangladesh, who is disgusted by the way the country's politics is going and commented “this is not the Bangladesh I fought for”.

Meanwhile the election campaign has started and Shahidul Alam of ShahidulNews has posted some photos of the election campaign in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Talk posts a rare picture of Bangladesh Police helping a blind woman. The police has earned a bad name as (more…)

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