In the previous post (Southeast Asia: Newsmakers of 2008), I wrote about the major events that took place in Southeast Asia. In this article, I will highlight other stories which became controversial as well. Another objective is to gather and categorize the linkposts on the right side of the Global Voices, pertaining to the region.
The big story of the year in Southeast Asia was the global economic downturn. A rice and food price crisis hit the region last summer. It was compounded by the dramatic rise of oil and gas prices. When prices of these commodities began to stabilize, Wall Street announced the crash of several banks and major financial institutions in the United States.
Police authorities in Jakarta have a proposal on how to eliminate cybercrime: Internet cafes would be requested to record their customers' IDs in a guest book to prevent cyber crime.
Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi will be known for a long time as the shoe thrower. He who succeeded in throwing a pair of shoes at U.S. President George Bush last Sunday in Baghdad.
The shoes are now priceless. A Saudi entrepreneur has offered $10 million for one of the pair of shoes.
The shoe throwing incident has been hailed as heroic by many people around the world, especially those who opposed the foreign policies of the outgoing US president. What are the reactions of Southeast Asian bloggers and residents?
Poached ivory being burned in Namibia.
Photo: Jonathan and Angela
Elizabeth, an epidemiologist and advisor to governments on health issues, writes that inspite of funding, the healthcare administration in Indonesia is not able to help people deal with HIV.
Photo from Indonesia: Greenpeace activists working with locals to halt drainage by constructing dams on peatlands. This will prevent the peatland from drying out and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Peat-forming wetlands are an estimated 60% of all the wetlands distributed globally. Do peatlands remain in the "grey zone" seemingly unattractive to the conservation movement? I was reminded of Digging, the poem by Seamus Heaney:...
Image source: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
Isman from Indonesia is shocked to discover a different kind of amenity offered by a hotel in Manado: A TV program airing a direct feed from the hotel's security camera.
Youthful Insight from Indonesia compares next year's elections to used car markets: “Both of them offer nothing but high risk, low return for voters and buyers.”
Five bloggers from different countries have joined Indonesia's Pesta Blogger 2008, a blogging trip and festival.
A 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit north Sulawesi in Indonesia last Monday displacing thousands of residents. A tsunami warning was also issued by the authorities.
Greenpeace Finland protesters targeting the other end of the palm oil chain, photo: Greenpeace Finland
I’m not entirely sure that this is the type of civil disobedience Al Gore was talking about at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting back in September, but maybe I’m wrong...
El Marco returns to Bali and posts pictures of the monument at the site of the 2002 Bali bombings. He also observes: “I found a land and a people painfully changed in the aftermath of the 2002 and 2005 terrorist bombings.”
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