id:Inflorescencia at her blog describes, through the use of pictures, details of the Nationality Law and the process that brought about its revision.

On the 18th of November, after this historical ruling by the Supreme Court, a bill [jp] was passed by the House of Representatives to amend Article 3 of the Nationality Law. However, while the enactment of the bill by the House of Councilors is expected by the 30th of November, many voices have been raised in opposition to it.

Responding to these protests, Hideo Ogura at la_causette posted an entry titled: “Opposing to the revision of the Nationality Law, Clause 1, Article 3 is a waste of energy” (国籍法３条１項の改正に反対することはエネルギーの無駄である). In it he refers to the nationalist movement born on the Internet which opposes the decision of the the Supreme Court [en] and the subsequent amendment of the Law.

　最高裁判所の違憲判決を受けて行われている国籍法改正について，相変わらずの人たちによる反対運動がネットを中心に熱心に行われているようです。
　ただ，なんだか無駄なエネルギーを使っているようにしか私には見えません。というのも，上記国籍法改正を阻止できたところで，彼らが望んでいる社会にはならないからです

　[…] すなわち，上記国籍法改正を阻止してみたところで，法務局を困らせることにしか繋がらないのであって，仮にこの反対運動並び右派国会議員等からの圧力に屈してこの種の国籍取得届に対して国籍取得を認めない旨の通知を発する法務局が現れたところで，子供の親と法務局と裁判所に訴訟のための無駄な費用と労力をかけさせるだけに終わるのです（最高裁の大法廷で下された合憲限定解釈に敢えて逆らおうとする下級審というのもあまりいないように思いますし。）。
　ある種のゼノフォビアのために，国に無駄な仕事をさせようとする人々を，「愛国者」と呼ぶことに，私は大いなる躊躇を感じます。

On May 8th Economy Arabia wrote:

On November 19, 2008 an Egyptian court ruled in favour of Ibrahim Yousri, a lawyer who said that Egypt is losing $9m for each day because of that agreement.

Egyptian Chronicles wrote:

Ok this is a blow to the government , to Hussein Salem and to Israel. The judicial administrative court bans natural gas exports to Israel today. Now the Egyptian Government is obligated to listen to the court order or will they neglect it as usual?? More to come. I am very happy by the way.

And in a follow up post, she wrote:

Economically the Egyptian government made a huge mistake when it signed the agreement to export natural gas to Israel through Hussein Salem’s EMG Co.

It is unacceptable to waste your natural gas for price less than the average price now especially prices are escalating and we are entering an energy crisis era.

It is unacceptable to export your natural gas to Israel without the approval of the people represented in the Parliament.

It is unacceptable to export natural gas to Israel when the people in Gaza got no fuel.

Then she quoted the basis of the court's decision as per the judicial administrative:

The oil ministry has broken the constitution and law with its agreement in 2005 to export natural gas to Israel for 20 years. According to article no. 123 in the Egyptian constitution “ The natural resources are considered a very valuable resources to be owned by the coming generations not only for the current generations and thus the administrative authorities before the exploit of these natural resources should go to the parliament to be grant the permission”

At the end of her post she concluded that:

… the regime could not dare and go to the parliament to get an approval because it knows very well the people would refuse it totally.

As for Israel's reaction, she wrote:

The Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure expressed Israel's confidence that the political agreement between the countries' governments will remain in force in keeping with the memorandum of understanding the two countries signed in 2005!!

 I also will quote their closing line in the same article in Haatrez :

The court's ruling is subject to appeal in a higher administrative court and the Egyptian government sometimes ignores court rulings it does not like.

Egyptian blogger Hanan El Sherif wrote about blogging and bloggers in Egypt (Ar) saying:

El Sherif continues:

Standing up for other people's rights, says El Sherif, has had its consequences:

However, a positive outlook is sometimes just not possible when harsh economic conditions strike. In the past week, Malagasy bloggers could not escape discussing the harsh reality of endemic poverty that affects the vast majority of the population. Here are a few examples of how poverty has cornered many communities into difficult decisions.

Patricia, Foko blogger who recently had the opportunity to speak at the Interdependence day in Brussels, reports cases of teenage girls who are put up for sale by their parents (fr)

Pour certains, les parents et la jeune fille se mettent d’accord pour la personne qui va acheter la jeune fille et pour la somme ou le cadeau en échange. Il faut préciser que la personne qui achète n’est pas forcement un étranger mais c’est seulement ce qui se présente dans la plupart des cas. Pour d’autres, cela se présente sous forme d’ordre, les parents ordonnent et la jeune fille obéit!
Le dernier cas qui a été publie est celui d’une jeune mineure de 15 ans qui a été offerte a un étranger pour 200.000 Ariary. Il lui a meme promis le mariage, mais après avoir ete avec elle une nuit et l’avoir deviergee, il lui a remise entre les mains de son pere.
Cette histoire n’est qu’une parmi les cas identiques qui se présentent dans l’île.

( photo credit to Hebdo de Madagascar and Foko )

News2dago confirms that the dream of trying to wed a foreigner is peaking drastically (mg):

Tonga eto Madagasikara ireo mpanera vazaha ka nampiantso ireo malagasy te hanambady vazaha. Gaga fotsiny aho nahita ity tantitra an-gazety fa mahery ny 4.000 izy ireo no milingilingy te hanambady vazaha. Ary voalaza fa arahan-dranomaso mihitsy oe ireo izay tsy lany. Indrisy tokoa fa dia hitomanina ankehitriny ny hanambady vazaha.

In the comment section, many bloggers reacted to the story. Tritriva notes that it’s not only women who are seeking to wed a foreigner. Sylvie says that marrying a foreigner is not bad but make sure that he does not have children from a previous union because they will never respect you and your spouse will always take his children’s side. Maintikely argues that one should not be too prompt to judge and respect the women’s choices. She warns that life overseas may not be as ideal as they think it would be.

Lomelle, blogger of foko-Mahajanga, witnessed another sad aspect of poverty. She recalls (fr):

On avait été contacté pour faire un reportage à Andralanitra. Rondro et moi y sommes allé sans trop savoir ce qui nous attendait sur place. Tout ce qu’on savait c’est que c’était un reportage sur les ordures [..] Un camion à ordure roulait devant notre voiture au moment où on s’est rapproché de l’endroit. Arrivé à sa destination il a renversé toutes les ordures et à ce moment là une quelque trentaines de personnes se sont ruées sur les ordures [..] Ecœurement, c’est le seul mot qui puisse définir ce que j’ai ressenti à ce moment là. Ecœurement pour toute ces personnes qui n’ont que les ordures pour vivre [..] Ecoeurement pour l’attitude répulsive que j’avais adopté à ce moment là. Je me suis cru être une fille ouverte d’esprit,n’ayant ni préjugé, ni jugement. Pourtant devant ce spectacle je n’avais qu’une seule envie, me tirer de là et me detacher de ces gens.”

Micramia has a different take on the poverty issue and its perception. He explains that poverty is not an incurable disease (fr):

Si vous arrivez encore à manger normalement chaque jour, vous n’êtes pas pauvre. Mais la pauvreté est curable. À mon avis la pauvreté est en faite due au manque d’intelligence. Seul les gens qui n’utilisent pas leur coco n’arrivent pas aller loin. Il sont pauvre intellectuellement et si on n’a rien dans la tête, comment avoir de l’argent pour acheter de quoi manger [..] la solution c’est de se cultiver, augmenter ces connaissances.

But only a handful of local bloggers were on top of the story (perhaps the rest were too busy trying to find a way home). Media Watch thanked the mainstream media “for bringing us on the ground reports of the flooding well before the major newscasts were scheduled to begin”, while journalist/blogger Paolo Kernahan thought that “the devastation across the country and in particular Port of Spain…demonstrates the desperate state of affairs in this country”:

Inclement weather is, of course, beyond anyone’s control. Our response to it is what makes us human.

Trinidadians were forced to revert to a primal state as flood waters predictably rose and swirled around our ankles, then knees, then necks. City Gate on a dry day is like a refugee camp in the Congo, a mass of humanity moving in unison like locusts in a swarm, hither and thither hoping to clamber onto a maxi without losing a shoe or your dignity. Just imagine City Gate this evening after rivers regurgitated their loads out onto South Quay and everywhere else.

People were actually fighting; frustration whittling away at already frayed nerves, men and women reverting to more primal instincts; survival, defense. The predators are lying in wait for them, teeth bared, ready to pounce on this opportunity of weakness. As frazzled city workers try to wend their way home, the killers from the ‘hotspots’ pounce on them, shattering windows and grabbing unguarded purses or cell phones. So the saga of survival plays out in the wetlands of South Quay.

Meanwhile, diaspora blogger Jumbie's Watch wanted to know “what works will be taking place to alleviate this.” Paolo wasn't sure anything would be done as he continued:

We have been turkey-gobbling for years about a disaster management policy and an evacuation plan for the city of Port-of-Spain. There was no coordinated approached to advising members of the public how they should cope with the wide scale flooding, which I again emphasize was quite predictable.

Twitter had a few flood-related entries:

…and blogger Georgia Popplewell, who happened to be on the road during the downpour, posted this photo of a swollen Diego Martin river:

Finally, Paolo had a message for the nation's Prime Minister:

This is what I see Mr Manning, first world money but third world mentality that has our citizens confused and scared in a city that has become a watery prison with bandits waiting in the wings to pounce. Good thing you had three men to hold umbrellas for you. I am still hurting for the young mother soaked to her slip, clutching two terrified children’s hands because she has no answers for the look of fear in their eyes.

So raise your champagne glasses in the Hyatt to all the monuments to your success while our people wade through muddy water, hoping that it is not more of the same in their living rooms, when, or if they finally get home.

You are a sexual deviant, a pariah. When you decided that you wanted to harm an innocent person. A person who did not even know you were attempting to violate them then you doomed yourself to your own demons.

Compounding the situation, young women have also been targeted recently, with an upswing in the number of rapes and abductions in certain areas of Kingston, leading some to suggest the possibility of gang initiation being the underlying cause. Trinifem2 of Transition Sunshine examines her feelings about living in Jamaica, and how her behaviour has had to change in recent times: 

I have often repeated that I refuse to feel caged up or threatened by the crime in Kingston. I face each day with joy and enthusiasm using the same precautions I would utilize in any major city. However, of late I have been coordinating with pals to run, walk and cycle in groups which I must admit has been a first for me as I have always enjoyed the freedom of bolting out solo.

Early morning walks alone and saying, “Howdy!” to people on the streets has been restricted […] I have attempted to stop watching the 7pm local nightly news […] 

[…] I have resorted to reading the newspapers and listening to radio talk shows only. 

Searching for solutions and ways to cope, inspiring herself and her readers with the legendary John Lennon's “Imagine“, she finds herself filled with questions daily:

Will an illiterate, angry, uncaring and unforgiving individual who may have never experienced gentleness or kindness, get up one day and recognize that his daily acts of fighting, stabbing, shooting and raping are wrong?

Whose responsibility is it to teach a man or woman right or wrong? Good or bad?

Email calls for a peaceful protest have begun circulating, with the complete text being shared by several bloggers asking Jamaicans to come out to support. Jamaican blog Long Bench asks their readers to “spread the word widely“, posting the entire email text. Expat trinifem2 of Transition Sunshine also posted the email within minutes of receiving it, expressing optimism through a YouTube video of the Loius Armstrong classic “What a Wonderful World“.

The message, purporting to be from Aloun Ndombet-Assamba, former Minister of Tourism, Entertainment & Culture for Jamaica, invites Jamaicans to join a march on Wednesday November 19th, 2008, which is the International Day for Prevention of Child Abuse. 

So much of us have been talking on the phones, on verandas about what’s been happening in Jamaica these last three weeks. Here is an opportunity to do something more. Each of us need to stop being crippled by fear and do what we can to make a change.

Wear white for peace. Pass it on. Participate. Jamaica can be so incredibly beautiful, but it's currently in crisis.

Jamaican blog Long Bench reserves comment on the event but invites readers to: 

[…] show up at the vigil and then come back and tell me how it was for you.  

Although the impact of this event and its message will not be known until after it takes place, most Jamaicans, like trinifem2 of Transition Sunshine, remain ever “hopeful that things will soon change.”