A British doctor who traveled throughout Libya between 1912-14 is brought back to life by a prolific local blogger with an eye for history. Also, make sure not to miss one Tripoli-based blogger’s description of his interview for the U.S. - Middle East Partnership Initiative and find out why another is irritated with the so-called “Muslim-modern” style in Fozia Mohamed’s wrap-up of the latest Libyan cyber-literature.
Sailing east across the Mediterranean we land in Syria, where bloggers are preparing a joint statement of solidarity with their imprisoned Egyptian peer, Kareem Sulaiman. On a related note, the exiled blogging son of popular actress, Muna Wassef, reveals in an interview why he wasn’t arrested by the government of Syria’s ruling regime.
From Syria, it’s just a hop southwest to neighboring Lebanon, where a group of enterprising bloggers have put together a book titled “A Lost Summer: Postcards from Lebanon,” which features exemplary quotes from emails, blogs, and text messages about last summer’s war with Israel. Even better, all proceeds will be donated to charity.
No red carpet here, but I’ll take Joshua Goldstein’s introduction to the eight nominees for “Uganda Blog of the Year” over the Academy Awards any day. As Goldstein writes, “2006 was the year that the Ugandan blogosphere woke up, with a massive increase in quality of writing and the addressing of public issues.” Here’s your chance to get to know some of the best.
A warning: these descriptions of torture techniques used on detainees and prisoners in the Maldives are not for the faint-hearted; which is all the more reason they need to be exposed and condemned. Writing from the popular tourist islands, Nihan Zafar provides us valuable links, including a list of selected resorts that have links with the ruling regime.
First round elections took place in Senegal this weekend. As most Senegalese bloggers sought the defeat of incumbent Abdoulaye Wade, pessimism abounded following initial results that show his possible first round majority victory. Was there fraud? What went wrong for the opposition? Alice Backer translates key excerpts from Senegalese blogs as the ballots are counted.
Lastly we come to Bolivia where party politics and indigenous symbolism collide. Is Bolivia’s national flag slowly being replaced by the multi-colored indigenous wiphala? And if so, who’s behind the change?
Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections, China to limit the length of “competition shows” on TV, tree huggers and cross huggers face off in Poland, and much more can be found in today’s Global Roundups.