Archive for
January 19th, 2007
Stories
Brazilian Blogs on Chávez, Lula and the Mercosur Summit
Presidents from most South American countries are gathered in Rio de Janeiro for a meeting of the Mercosur trading group, and Hugo Chavez is again the attention drawer. Local bloggers have been substantially posting about the Venezuelan president since he announced the move to cancel the broadcasting license to (TV channel) RCTV and also to nationalize telecom and energy companies. The event in Rio seems like the perfect stage where these issues are brought to light as Latin American leaders meet face-to-face, and bloggers are able to follow their exchange through media reports. The enigmas about Lula-Chavez relationship is one of the threads containing diverse perspectives.
E no Brasil? Como o governo Lula reage às investidas de Chávez contra contratos, liberalidade econômica e liberdade política? Lavando as mãos. Do ponto de vista político, há uma questão ideológica. Por mais que façam um governo “comportado”, Lula e os seus torcem para que os avanços socialistas de Chávez dêem certo e se alastrem por Bolívia, Equador ou mesmo Argentina, onde Néstor Kirchner tem se mostrado um bom aliado da Venezuela. Desde que… isso não prejudique os interesses brasileiros nem embace a liderança natural do Brasil no continente. Do ponto de vista econômico, Chávez é o parceiro que o Brasil pediu a Deus. Hoje, o Brasil exporta US$ 1 bilhão a mais para a Venezuela do que para a França e também para o Reino Unido, dois dos principais parceiros comerciais do país. De janeiro a novembro de 2006, foram US$ 3,3 bilhões. Não é pouco. A Venezuela com Chávez virou uma espécie de paraíso para produtos, serviços e empreiteiras brasileiras.
ENQUANTO ISSO… - Comentando a Noticia
ENQUANTO ISSO… - Comentando a Noticia
Russia, Estonia: The Monument
Estonia's parliament voted last week to relocate from the center of the capital Tallinn the Soviet-era monument to the Red Army soldiers who died in World War II. The bronze statue of a soldier was erected in 1947 and is considered by many as a symbol of Soviet occupation. The parliament's decision sparked protests by the country's ethnic Russians (25.6 percent of Estonia's total population of 1,324,333), as well as some officials and lawmakers in Russia, who see the monument as a symbol of liberation from the Nazis.
Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa (who is relocating from New York City to Tartu this month) mentions some other symbols and realities of the conflict:
[…] You see, Estonian men, to Russia, should be grateful eunuchs, kneeling before the “Soldier Liberator” of Tallinn with his tough expression, flowing cape, and leather boots. Any attempt by Estonian manhood to assess their fathers' actions by themselves, without dictation by Moscow, is akin to “glamorization of Nazism” or “glorification of fascism.” […] For those who are scratching their heads over Estonia's latest row with Russia, I would suggest to remember that Russians are not used to being told off by a bunch of roly-poly guys with names like Mart, Andrus, and Urmas. […]
An emotional posting (RUS) by LJ user tukmakov (Denis Tukmakov, journalist for Aleksandr Prokhanov's ultra-nationalist Russian newspaper Zavtra) - titled “Yes, the occupiers we are” - basically confirms Giustino's observations:
Africa: Dancing to soccer moves, Maasai Hip Hop and laughing at wealthy Americans
My name is Steve Ntwiga and this is my first post at Global Voices Online. I will be trying to fill a small part of Obi's huge shoes as I post on bloggers and sites that cover African music.
From soccer moves to a dancing sytle
Lets start with Teju Cole at Modal Minority who looks at drogbacité. This is a new dancing style coming out of Abidjan based on the football moves of Didier Drogba, an Ivorian soccer player who recently won Africa's Footballer of the Year award (that's soccer for those of your who may be in North America).
Teju writes:
The first real explosion of this was in the months leading up to the World Cup, when Drogba’s brilliance steered the Elephants to an unlikely first-ever berth in the tournament. Around that time, the dance style known as Drogbacité emerged in Abidjan, nominally based on Drogba’s moves, and it was soon followed by dance tracks specifically dedicated to it.
The post includes a track, Boucantier, that is representative of the new type of music emerging around the dancing style which is taking clubs in the Ivory Coast and West Africa by storm.
Links for Fri, 2007-01
Says Harinjaka (Fr): “Malagasy forests are like medicine cabinets. You can find 75% of medicinal plants used in Madagascar. A vital ressource for those who, by and large, live tens of kilometers from the closest clinic.”
In the summer of 1987, Jamaican writer Marlon James is saved by The Cure: “I don’t remember 1987 by any sequence of days and dates; I remember it by breaths I lost, gasping at “Just Like Heaven.” I can’t recall any major events but I do remember the sad drum clatter of “Like Cockatoos,” fighting against the thunder strings and the titanic, looping bass. . . . I remember that being the exact point when loving something everybody else hates became the greatest pleasure in the world. . . “
Studies show that although English is a compulsory subject in Puerto Rican schools from elementary level upwards, only 20% of the country's population has a mastery of the language. Eugenio Martínez Rodríguez thinks he knows why.
Keith Francis on the recent discovery of a school porn ring in Trinidad involving videos recorded on cell phone cameras: “The fact is that despite our wilful efforts to ignore the fact, children have been screwing children - indeed adults both male and female have been screwing children - from time immemorial. . . . Perhaps having things like under-aged sex caught on camera and thrust in our faces will make us think more about responsible sex education, and doing more than telling our children, “don't bring home no baby for mih to mind!”
Onnik Krikorian has multiple posts on the murder of Hrant Dink, a journalist who was an ethnic Armenian Turkish citizen who had been given a six month suspended sentence in 2005 for writing on the Armenian Genocide. Be sure to check out his roundup of discussion of the murder in the Turkish blogosphere.
Alexander of neweurasia Tajikistan reports that Tajikistan is set to step up economic cooperation with China.
Vadim takes a look at some of the latest topics being discussed in the Tajik blogosphere.
Zarchka writes a spirited post on love, relationships, premarital sex, safe sex, double standards, and more in Armenia.
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