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Russia: “The Dissenters’ March”  · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Marsh Nesoglasnykh (“The Dissenters’ March” or “The March of Those Who Disagree”) – screenshot from the rally's website, www.namarsh.ru
According to news reports, over 2,000 people showed up at a “rare” anti-government rally in Moscow today.
LJ user rifleman_sa has posted a photo report (RUS) from the Marsh Nesoglasnykh (“The Dissenters’ March” or “The March of Those Who Disagree”):
[…] By my estimates, there were 2,000-2,500 people. I started counting cops’ cars and buses, reached 60 and gave up – there were many more of them. I have mixed feelings about the rally – but the conclusion that's obvious is that the regime is definitely [scared]. [Scared] of any political activity, regardless of which flank it is coming from.
2007-2008 promise to be interesting.
Below are another blogger's quick thoughts on the rally (LJ user sapojnik, RUS):
“The Misanthropes’ March”
A strange action has taken place, really. What does “those who disagree” mean? Disagree with what? Quite a lot of people gathered – if you, of course, measure by today's frail standards, not by the million-strong demonstrations of the late 1980s. But now, 2,500 people is a lot. It means that at least 2,000 people came on their own, without having been paid in any way. With money, it's possible to gather 300-400 people at most, and all the Kremlin media tales, according to which, for example, [the Maidan in Ukraine] had been “bought,” are absolute nonsense.
But – all the worse. Slogans have to be coherent and specific: these are the basics of public politics. So here's the question: why didn't they find anything coherent? “They are sawing Russia.” Who are these “they”?? Why didn't they reveal their last names? It ended up being “the march against bad weather” [it was sunny in Moscow today] […]. […]
Such rallies are actually turning NORMAL people away from public protest, and, on the other hand, they envigorate the “jerks.” If this is a protest “in general” – then why not blow up bombs? Wouldn't that, too, be “protest”?

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Zimbabwe: nothing changes · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Cry Beloved Zimbabwe analyses the latest political and soci-economic situation in arguing that nothing has changed Zimbabwe.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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GV Summit Delhi ‘06 Session Three: Language and Translation · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

David Sasaki has put together a remarkable session on translation at the Global Voices conference. It begins with a conversation led by John “Feng 37″ Kennedy in Chinese between the half dozen Chinese speakers in the room, then a five-person conversation in Swahili, led by Ndesanjo Macha, then a lively conversation in Hindi involving about a quarter of the room. David observes that, during each conversation, he saw about half a dozen people smiling, engaged in the conversation, and everyone else ignoring the larger conversation. This is obviously a useful metaphor for some of the challenges we're seeing at Global Voices – how do we amplify, contextualize and translate conversations from all the languages represented online?
Portnoy Zheng leads a project to translate articles from Global Voices into Chinese. His reason for launching the project was a sense that it was very hard to get relavent international news in the Taiwanese mainstream media. He began translating with a story from Indonesia on Global Voices, talking about a plane crash caused by overloading a plane with durian which killed a number of Indonesian politicians (Durian is an inherently funny fruit, which may explain why Portnoy felt compelled to provide a pan-Asian translation.) After translating about 100 posts, he met Rebecca in Taiwan and decided to formalize the project. There's now a site – maintained by about 10 translators – which translates a subset of Global Voices articles. There's no clear guidelines to which ones are included – usually posts that talk about China or north Asia, and often articles about controversy in the Middle East, which Portnoy feels don't get covered closely enough in Chinese media.
David points out that Global Voices currently translates only a small subset of the languages of the blogosphere – we translate content from Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili, French, Arabic, Persian, Mandarin, Russian and occasionally Serbian and Ukrainian. In other countries, we neccesarily misrepresent the local conversation, showing off only a few people in the country who happen to be bilingual. He points us to a recent blog post titled “Africa, Global Voices y el anglocentrismo cool”, which argues that if you don't speak English, you don't show up on global voices. David's looking for ways to turn critique like this into involvement – what would be involved with getting the author of this post to help translate GV into Spanish and translate Spanish posts on GV?
David starts outlining some of the questions we're facing in dealing with translation on GV:
– How do we encourage blogger translation? How do we get more people doing this?
– Do we need permission from bloggers before we start translating their work?
– Should we translate non-English comments into English to encourage conversation?
– Should we let people translate all our posts, using the Indymedia model which allows people to click a tab, choose a language and offer their own translation?
This last question raises the issue “Why isn't everything put onto the site also put into MediaWiki, letting people translate on the fly?” The simple answer: maybe it should be – we've not spent enough time thinking through how to making the site translatable. One of our community editors points out that we have to make very careful decisions about what we translate – it's an editorial choice as much as the stories we select for the site.
Two suggestions that got widespread applause and enthusiasm:
– finding a way to reward volunteer translators, perhaps with Amazon Rewards dollars or other currency
– making it possible for people to offer their reading of GV posts in translation from a link on the site.

author: Ethan Zuckerman


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Algeria, France: Zidane’s Visit to Algeria · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Cyberkabyle (Fr) deplores the official overtones of French soccer star Zinedine Zidane's visit to Algeria and looks with suspicion at the fact that the visit may have been initiated by the Algerian government.

author: Alice Backer


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Argentina: Buenos Aires Blog Roundup · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Alan Patrick spreads the link love with his second Buenos Aires Blog Roundup.

author: David Sasaki


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Bahamas: Bicentenary of Abolition of Slave Trade  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Why should the 2007 bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade by Great Britain be commemorated?  According to Nicolette Bethel, “the short answer is that it marks the beginning of a process of emancipation that involved all parties — the slaveowners as well as the slaves. The long answer is that Abolition created a culture that provided the foundations of the one in which we live today. If we begin with the question about who enslaved whom and when that ended and who ended it, we begin in the wrong place.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Bahamas: Disclosure of Assets · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Since the Bahamas’ Public Disclosure Act deems that Parliamentarians (along with other “persons in public life”) must report their income, assets and liabilities to the Public Disclosure Commission by December 31 each year,  Rick Lowe is concerned that the latest published disclosures were almost six years ago.


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Bangladesh: Dogs and their licks · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

a bengali in TO on the status of dogs in Islam and how cleaning a utensil with detergent to get rid of a dog's lick will suffice. “Involuntarily I stepped back due to years of training. I was going to go for prayers later and didn't want my clothes to be “dirtied”.”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Bangladesh: Remembering genocide and celebrating victory day · Global Voices
Rezwan

Some days are very special for a nation. 16th December is one such day for Bangladesh. Drishtipat Blog remembers the independence of Bangladesh 35 years ago. Time magazine December 20, 1971 named it “the bloody birth of Bangladesh“.
For those who do not know why it is called so, Mash of Or How I Learned to stop worrying blog shares the history of Bangladesh Liberation war and the Pakistani Armies atrocities:
“In 1971, Bangladesh, then called East Pakistan, was part of a geographical monstrosity created by the British in 1947. Pakistan, as created by the British, consisted of West Pakistan and East Pakistan, separated by the vast expanse of the Indian land mass in the middle. East and West Pakistan spoke different languages and were culturally distinct. East Pakistan accounted for the majority of Pakistan’s population, yet it was economically exploited and politically marginalized by West Pakistan. Bengalis, the people of East Pakistan, were also persecuted for speaking their native language and for being either Muslims who had converted from Hinduism or for being Hindus. Pakistan, translated as “The Land of the Pure”, was intolerant of Bengalis because they were not ‘pure” Muslims.”
……
On March 25, 1971, the Pakistani Army launched Operation Searchlight to “eliminate” the Awami League and its supporters in East Pakistan. The goal was to “crush” the will of the Bengalis.
Then Bangladesh was devasted with genocide by Pakistani army which killed approx 3 million people, raped 40000 women, burned hundreds of villages, brutally murdered intellectuals. It was one of the worst genocides in the history of the world.
“Kill three million of them,” said Pakistan President Yahya Khan , “and the rest will eat out of our hands.”
The US government however supported Pakistan and on April 6, 1971 Archer Blood, a US diplomat based in Dhaka sent a telegram known as the “Blood Telegram“. It was signed by 29 American government officials and strongly dissented from the American government policy toward Pakistan. For his dissent from Richard Nixon’s and Henry Kissinger’s policy, Archer Blood was recalled to Washington. To millions of Bengalis Archer Blood remains a hero.
Millions of Bangladeshis took refuge in neighboring India. Quite contrary to the government policy some peace loving people of US created the forum “Americans for Bangladesh” and arranged a poetry recital program on 20th November 1971 in Saint George Church, New York. Among the poets who performed were Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovski, Ed Sanders etc. Ginsberg wrote and recited the famous poem “September on Jessore Road” which depicted the plights of the refugees.
1st of August 1971 in Madison Square Garden, New York. Some 40,000 people attended the “Concert for Bangladesh” arranged by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar to increase awareness for the Bangladesh's cause and to raise funds to help the refugees.
Bangladeshi freedom fighters resisted the Pakistani Army and India gave shelter to the refugees and helped the freedom fighters.
On December 16, 1971 the Pakistani army in Bangladesh formally surrendered. The world had witnessed a bloody birth of Bangladesh.
Drishtipat also remembers:
Our victory celebrations after 16th December were being overshadowed by grim discoveries of one after another killing field. Most destabilizing discovery was that of Rayer Bazaar. All of our national top doctors, professors, linguists, scientists were among the eviscerated dead bodies found here.
The Liberation war Museum keeps the archive of these periods accessible online.
Bangladesh celebrates this day with festivity. Back to Bangladesh posts  some instances of how Bangladeshi flag is proudly portrayed by the people.
Ershad Ahmed hasmore pictures of the celebrations of the day in Bangladesh.
Angelmorn wants the Bangladeshis to be inspired by the martyrs of the liberation war.
Farhan of Conversations with an optimist remembering the amazing contribution of normal citizens turning freedom fighters in the liberation war urges the Bangladeshi bloggers to raise their voices against all odds.
Truly the Bangladesh liberation war is a source of inspiration to many Bangladeshis.

author: Rezwan


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Barbados: BLP and Stem Cell Clinic? · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Barbados Labour Party  may or may not have received donations from the Institute of Reproductive Medicine – a clinic “embroiled in what appear to be credible accusations that its stem cell supply chain involves kidnapping and murdering healthy newborn infants in Ukraine”.  Barbados Free Press wants full disclosure.


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Belize: Jack and Jill  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Nurse Melly tells the near-tragic tale of two young puppies, Jack and Jill – and she's relieved to report that, “like all good human stories, the good guys won.”


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Benin: Pictures of Schools · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Expat blogger Anne Au Benin posts (Fr) pictures of Benin schools.


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Bolivia: “Sliding down a slippery slope” · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Both Miguel Centellas and Jim Shultz document and analyze the increasing tension between pro-autonomy protesters, government supporters, and the military.


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China: Public manners  · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Granite studio trys to explain Chinese's public manners by looking into the cultural character.

author: Oiwan Lam


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China: The tale of the white dolphin · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Experts believe that the twenty-million year old white dophin in Yangtze River was extinct. Lonnie Hodge puts up a story in Onemanbandwidth.


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China: Wang Xiaofeng is Time magazine person of the year · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Jeremy Goldkorn in DANWEI reports that Wang Xiaofeng, a famous Chinese blogger, is the Time magazine person of the the year.


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Colombia: “Same-sex partnership rights? Not so fast…” · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Andres Duque offers both a short and long explanation to what is happening and not happening with Colombia's same-sex partnership legislation.


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Colombia: “What I’ve Learned” · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Erwin Cifuentes, who normally blogs prodigiously at The Latin Americanist is now in Colombia and has put together a collection of “the many lessons big and small” he's learned so far. Ricardo Carreón also finds himself in Colombia and recommends an English-language website about the capital city.


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Cuba: New Book, “Khrushchev’s Cold War” · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A new book has captured Luis M. Garcia's attention: Khrushchev’s Cold War attributes the decision to place nuclear missiles on Cuban soil at the height of the Cold War to do more with the Soviet Union wanting to be taken seriously by the U.S. and less to do with Khrushchev wanting to protect Fidel Castro.


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East Asia: the East Asian Libraries and Archives wiki · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Frog in a Well announces a project on the East Asian Libraries and Archives wiki. The project will will serve as a central collection site for information about archives, libraries, museums, etc. in East Asia that are of potential interest for anyone doing research on or in East Asia.


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Guatemala: Flor de Pascua · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Chapinadas on the production and exportation of Guatemala's Flor de Pascua or “Easter Flower.”


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GV Summit Delhi ’06 Session Four: Tools and Technology · Global Voices
Sameer Padania

The room is alive with post-coffee buzz, as this session, led by Salam Adil and Preetam Rai, tries to get under the skin of the tools and technology that would broaden out the range of people writing and reading blogs worldwide.  In Salam’s twist on GV’s tagline,
The world is listening. Is GV talking?
Salam puts it in terms of getting the tools and technology out there, and getting a broader range of people to understand and use them.  The next step for GV in particular might be, he suggests, encouraging more local people to blog, which could broaden the range of content on the site.  As steps towards this, he pulls out four key areas: learning to blog, for the young and old; getting your blog noticed – or, as he puts it, “How I became famous”; getting blog content into other media, such as print; and staying safe, secure and anonymous as a blogger.
A blow-by-blow account after the jump…
Learning to blog
Salam and Preetam offer examples of teaching people to blog from opposite ends of the age spectrum.  Salam approached his children's primary school, and offered to teach an after-school class for 9- and 10-year-olds to teach them HTML, to use Blogger, and then to update the school blog by FTP.  One Cambodian organisation builds on the interests of young students – finding scholarships to study, developing the skills to create a website – by helping them use blogs initially as a productivity and project management tool, and then to share their own content.
But it's not just about encouraging younger bloggers.  When you look at your family, says Preetam, it's usually your grandparents who talk the most – they generally have more time on their hands…  Friends of Yesterday of Singapore ran a blogging workshop for senior citizens in Singapore, as a way of capturing and sharing their memories.  There aren't that many contributing at the moment, but they expect this to increase.
Bloggers of all ages need guidance and training on, for example, how to avoid legal and copyright pitfalls when blogging, and Preetam suggests mini BlogCamps as one way of offering bloggers this kind of assistance.
Blogging101.com?
As well as conducting face-to-face training on how to blog, Salam asks whether it makes sense to build a central repository for blogging resources, with tutorials, and technical and other resources – but who will build it, and who will use it?  It could be hosted at GV, as it sees traffic from areas that might find such a resource useful.
Simple web searches can lead to a bewildering amount of information, but building a repository would help direct potential bloggers to resources on more advanced topics like making multimedia content.  There Salam could share resources on vlogging, with step-by-step tutorials on how to capture, encode and upload video and to CC Publisher, which helps users assign different levels of Creative Commons Licenses to the videos they upload.  Preetam mentions that platforms like YouTube are now beginning to incorporate tools that allow users to record direct into the site from a webcam, making the process even simpler.
Jose Murilo Junior offers an alternative view from Brazil's Cultural Hotspots program, in which he says that, rather than making the kids participating in the project follow a set of resources on blogging, the project leaders encouraged the kids to customise the tools they wanted to use.  Whether this might lead some of that content to be left out of global conversations because the platform it's produced on doesn't integrate with global content aggregators, as Jen Brea observes about some West African Francophone blogs, might be addressed by Ben Paarmann‘s call for services like popular global tools like WordPress to roll out in more local languages, such as Russian.
Ethan Zuckerman mentions the excellent In A Box series from the Tactical Technology Collaborative, which offers a set of ready-to-go tools, starting with NGO In A Box, and now including Security In A Box and Audio/Video In A Box.  All packages use open source software and are already or can be localised into various languages.
Getting your blog noticed – or how Salam became famous
Once you have a blog, how do you get it noticed?  In Salam’s case, he started blogging because his friends already had blogs, but his site was pretty much personal until he sparred with other bloggers, got trackbacks, and got picked up by Iraq Blog Count.  His readership went through the roof, and the rest is history…  After a particularly heated exchange between some Iraqi bloggers, Salam also created a space where Iraqi bloggers could share news, discussions and debate – a GoogleGroup called the Iraqi Blogodrome.  This, and other groups like it, could prove a useful model for other ‘spheres.
A print edition?
Throughout the GV community, bloggers are trying to reach out not only to those who aren’t already blogging and want to, but to those who might want to read blogs and can’t, for technical or other reasons.  Could a print edition be the answer?
Some of the very countries where local networks of bloggers or GV might want to publish print editions of blog content, are the same countries where it might be most difficult to do so.  Preetam suggests that samizdat publishing (print, photocopy and pass on) might be a way to stay under any Ministry of Information’s radar.
In countries where publishing openly is less problematic, magazine-style print editions of local blog content might be able to attract income from local advertisers to cover production and distribution costs.  People in the room also seem to feel that books of GV and other blog content could reach a very different and valuable audience.  Could GV publish a book like the recent WorldChanging effort?  But GV is a very different beast to WorldChanging, and Ethan feels that any GV book would need to define its audience pretty clearly before committing to such a potentially costly exercise.
But with a growing willingness among publishers to bring together content from around the world, as with the Sage Keywords Series from India, might there now be an audience to cater to?  Tactical Tech's Open Publishing In A Box offers a comprehensive open-source solution for publishers.  And could POD or print-on-demand technology play a role, allowing users to create their own books of GV content?
Ndesanjo Macha and Ethan remind us that mass media, particularly radio, are still by far how the majority of people consume their media worldwide, and that helping local newspapers and radio stations around the world connect with and cover their local blogosphere might generate more local interest and traffic – and eventually lead more people to blog themselves.
And if none of that works?  Broadcast your podcast yourself…
Staying safe, secure and anonymous
Many bloggers in the GV network do not blog under their real name, whether because they are blogging about sensitive matters, or it might compromise their professional position.  But writing under a pseudonym is rarely enough.  Quinn Norton, at the Summit for Wired Magazine, says that, rather than not having the tools to protect their identity online, the biggest problem for most users is not knowing that you should do so at all.  Sites like ShowMyIP.com can give you a pretty good idea of what people can see about you (in fact, click the link to find out what you're leaking as you read this).  If bloggers genuinely want to stay anonymous, at the very least, says Salam, they need to avoid posting personal pictures that might lead back to them, comments that might identify their workplace, and writing in a way that invites charges of libel.
There are plenty of examples of bloggers suffering from leaking privacy.  One Iraqi blogger didn’t get into trouble for what he had written on his blog, but was picked up by the police after they read the comments under his posts…  Another blogger writing about a political scandal in the face of a press blackout, was gagged by his Ministry of Information.  After international pressure, he was allowed to write again, but only after he agreed to delete the offending posts.  In the process, a whole group of his fellow bloggers were taught how to bypass censors.
Free and simple tools to help more bloggers do this are readily available.  Salam suggests using TOR and proxies to conceal your work and home IP address. This helps bloggers to conceal their identity not just for what they post, but where they comment too.  TOR is a relatively painless install, just download the installer, double-click the file, and it’s added to your browser, from where you can turn it on and off.  Here’s an explanation of how it works.  Privoxy works well as an additional layer of protection to TOR.  It stops sites extracting information about you, and allows users to choose what to show and what to hide.  Priyanka, a local blogger, suggests HTTP Tunnel, although this might be one for the more advanced user.
Ethan rounds up by reiterating that GV will soon have someone employed to do the advocacy on this exact issue, and part of their remit will be to develop guides on how to get around censorship.
And that meaty session took us through to the end of the day…

author: Sameer Padania


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Haiti: High Prices of Flights · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Reacting to news of a new airline to offer Haiti-Dominican Republic flights, Collectif Haiti de Provence complains about the cost of flights to Haiti(Fr): “It is always flabbergasting how expensive flights to Haiti are whether via all powerful American Airlines who holds an unwavering monopoly or via the lines that offer Haiti-Dom. Rep. service. … How long will it take before Haitian skies open up to competition so as to spare customers’ wallets?”


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Hong Kong: Star ferry · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

ESWN blogs about his memories of Star ferry and explains why he did not join the protest to “preserve” the site.


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India: A monastery in Zanskar · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

It isn't has wonderful photographs from Zanskar of a monastery called Phuktal. “The monastery, which belongs to the Yellow Hat Sect of Tibetan Buddhism, has a history which dates back to 15th century. It is carved out of the lime stone mountain wall, with a walled frontage.”


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India, Haiti: Matrimonials · Global Voices
Alice Backer

India-based Haitian blogger NatifNatal ponders (Fr) India's matrimonials. Whereas in the West, she says, people fall in love and then marry, “here you marry the one your parents chose along many parameters such as caste, religion, income, dowry etc… and then, after many years of joint living, you just can't do without him.”


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Jamaica: Kingston on Malaria Alert · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“Everybody who knows me, know that mosquitoes don't bite me,” says Kara – until now – just when Jamaica's capital city is facing a Malaria outbreak.


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Libya, Bulgaria, U.S.: Tripoli Six Verdict Due Next Tuesday  · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Declan Butler reports that the U.S. Department of State refuses to give a straight answer on its position regarding “the death penalty trial in Libya of 5 Bulgarian nurses, and a Palestinian doctor, accused of injecting over 400 children with HIV, even though the verdict is expected next Tuesday.” Also, Butler links to videos of a Geneva press conference on the Libya HIV trial.


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Lithuania, Russia: Book on Vilnius Ghetto; Chekhov’s Stories · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Music and Life – Everywhere! is reading Anton Chekhov's short stories, and also posts a comment on a book about the Vilnius Ghetto.


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Madagascar: No Christmas Songs · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Says Harinjaka, (Fr) Malagasy artists haven't put out any chistmas compilations this year probably because of elections. But the blogger proposes an exploration into a forgotten music form, the zafindraony of which he posts a clip. The key to the proper execution of this music? Sing off key and while drunk.


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Mexico: Christmas Bonus · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Lee Iwan describes Mexico's annual aguinaldo: “This puts added strain on cash flow and accounts payables for Mexican organizations during the month of December.  At the same time it creates a huge burst of economic activity throughout the country.”


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Nepal: The head and tail of the State · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Nepali Netbook on the ambiguity of positions in the interim constitution in Nepal. “The king is no longer head of state. The interim constitution is silent on who is. As political solutions go, Nepalis have strictly conformed to tradition.”


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Nepal: The roads of Khatmandu · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Wagle Street Journal on the chaotic traffic in Khatmandu. “If you want to protest, just go to the road and lie down there. Traveling in the city has become difficult because of these kind of small scale protests, I don’t know how many.”


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Pakistan, Bangladesh: In conversation with Uzma Aslam Khan · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

black and gray in conversation with the author of Trespassing, Uzma Aslam Khan. “The Soviets were in Afghanistan, Pakistan was ruled by its most brutal military dictator, General Zia ul Haq, a United States ally (one Pakistani general referred to Pakistan as the condom through which America entered Afghanistan), billions of dollars worth of arms spread across this country, mostly to Karachi, where a nasty ethnic war ensued..”


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Russia: Oleg Gazmanov’s “Born in the USSR” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

La Russophobe posts “a multi-media presentation with some insights regarding pop music” – featuring Oleg Gazmanov's song “Made in the USSR”: “[…] The Ryuriks, the Romanovs, Lenin and Stalin/They are my country/Pushkin, Yesinin, Vystotsky, Gagarin/They are my country […]”


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Russia: Shpargalki · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Lex Libertas compares U.S. and Russian education and writes about cheating and cheatsheets – shpargalki – in the former Soviet Union.


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Serbia: Discussion on Kosovo’s Future · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

“Breaking news: Kosovo parliament has unilaterally declared the independence of Kosovo,” writes Belgrade 2.0. Whoops, just kidding: the post is an attempt to encourage discussion – “since no politicians here (or in Kosovo as far as i know) never discuss what will happen if/when Kosovo becomes independent. And when i say ‘what will happen’ i refer to the Serbian and other minorities. There are certified fears that this move would cause massive Serb exodus/emmigration from Kosovo to Serbia, and i wonder if Serbia really is capable of giving help to those who may need it.”


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Serbia: Video on CNN · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

In the next four months, a “travel to Serbia” commercial will be broadcast on CNN over 500 times (Serbia has paid half a million dollars for this) – but the country's secretary of tourism hasn't seen the ad yet, reports Belgrade 2.0. Also, Belgrade is updating its tourist maps but city authorities refuse to put up street signs in Latin script.


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South Africa: great year for Mail & Guardian Online · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Mathew Buckland writes about the success story of the South Africa's Mail and Guardian Online, “It’s also been fantastic to see the revenues of the site grow to where we were a profitable division last year for the first time in our 11-year history — and it looks like this year we’ll even beat what we did last year. In fact, revenues have increased four-fold over the last two years after we overhauled our online sales strategy about two years ago.”


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South Korea: Will S. Korea Ratify Migrant Convention? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Koh Ki-bok from Ohmynews discusses about conditions of migrant workers in South Korea and urges the government to ratify migrant convention as soon as possible.


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St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Stacy Wilson · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

In the wake of 21-year-old Stacy Wilson's gruesome murder, Abeni is both angered and saddened: “We are a nation reeling in horror with too many of us having seen the unimaginable. It just cannot be business as usual with our collective psyche so badly damaged. We need to unite, share our grief and see how we can prevent another such horror from occurring.”


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Sudan: should South Sudan separate? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Black Cush writes about the case for South Sudan to form a separate state, “South Sudan has the most untapped resource, in both human and natural. The vast oil reserves in the South could give its economy might that can rival South Africa in growth. There are also other minerals like gold and diamonds. The vast agricultural lands could serve as the breadbasket of Africa. The opportunities are endless.”


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The Saudis are Still Talking · Global Voices
Global Voices MENA

In this week's roundup: Human Rights Watch's recent visit to Saudi Arabia, a recent poll showing Saudi Arabia to be the fifth least corrupt country in the world, Turki Al-Faisal's resignation from being Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, and much more.
Rasheed has done a great job covering HRW's visit in one post:
On Tuesday they visited the safe house run by the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh which houses runaway maids. There they met with many abused maids, including Nour Miyati who was beaten so badly by her Saudi employers that her fingers and toes had to be amputated because of gangrene.
He has also posted an interview with Christophe Wilcke. Still in the light of the recent HRW visit, Khloud wonders in a post why the HRW “Contact Us” page is blocked in Saudi Arabia. In a very unique reaction to the aforementioned post, Aya decided to post the details of the page that KACST's ISU unit doesn't seem to want Saudis to find.
According to a recent poll administered by the Gallup Organization, Saudi Arabia was perceived as the fifth least corrupt country in the world. Bandar finds the result of the poll very interesting, and equally hard to believe; he talks about it in an Arabic post. Lipstick Wahhabi thinks the poll was manipulated. “Oh what a tangled web we weave with the little $$$ [money] we use to deceive,” she exclaimed.
Another major issue the Saudi blogosphere is concerned with is the recent resignation of Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, and his subsequent prompt departure from Washington. Aya has gathered a bunch of speculations justifying Al-Faisal's actions in one of her posts. Also, an article was recently posted on Crossroads Arabia that tries to read between the lines of the resignation.
Now, to wrap up…
Bassem has posted some observations regarding the Diabetes Awareness Program that was held at “Madinat Al-Malek Fahad Al-Sahliyya” from Tuesday 12/12/2006 to Thursday 14/12/2006. Margrave describes Christmas in Saudi, and some funny details about shopping for Christmas decorations in a country where “public practicising of any religion other than Islam is illegal.” Abu Omar talks about an “ex-informant who became a Muslim” and “says his handlers wanted him to frame an Islamic scholar.” A blogging colloquium, recently, described Saudi Arabia's role in Iraq's current civil war. Clueless as to what to gift a special someone this Christmas? In the spirit of Christmas, Dotsson compares Apple's iPod to Microsoft's recently-released Zune as possible choices for an MP3 player as a Christmas gift. Lastly, Abdullah addresses (in Arabic) a social issue that is currently prominent in Saudi Arabia; the lack of hobbies amongst Saudi youth.

author: Global Voices MENA


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Trinidad & Tobago: Christmas Cuisine  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Caribbean Beat blog celebrates the diverse tastes of a West Indian Christmas!


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Aruba: Thank you, Time Magazine! · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

On being nominated Time Magazine's Person of the Year, Arubagirl writes: “Blogging isn't going to replace mainstream media anytime soon. What it is doing right now, and that is hugely important, is keeping it honest. In check.  Technology has caused great, great evil in the world. But this? Computers / Internet / blogging? Is a good thing.”


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Bermuda: Premier’s Dudley Eve Cup · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Bermuda Football Association's decision to have the Government sponsor a well-loved annual tournament, has apparently gone hand in hand with renaming it in honour of the island's Premier – a purely egotistical move, according to Christian S. Dunleavy at Politics.bm.


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Bolivia, Argentina, Chile: A Ride for the Climate · Global Voices
David Sasaki

David of Ride for Climate is nearing the end of his transcontinental bike ride journals his peddling from La Paz through the Atacama desert and into Northern Argentina.


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Bulgaria, Libya: Medics Sentenced to Death · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Declan Butler reports on the death verdict in the Tripoli Six case: “By now, I am sure you all will have heard the grim news from Libya. I’ve written a short factual account here: Medics sentenced to death in Libya. I’ll blog more later, after taking stock. The six health professionals have 60 days to appeal to the Supreme Court — their ultimate chance to obtain justice.”


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Chile:Reactions to Pinochet’s death · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Liz Henrey looks at some of the poetry and photography inspired by the death of Chilean ex-dictator, Augusto Pinochet.


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Costa Rica: Island Fraud · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Uri Ridelma clarifies that Costa Rica's Punta Piedra Island, which has supposedly been sold by a company called Private Islands Online for the price of $1.5 million and is being sold by another company called Tropical Islands at a price of $6 million, is not for sale.” However, that doesn't mean you won't find online ads saying that it is.


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Delhi Summit Reflections: We ARE the People of the Year. · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

As global voices editors, authors, community members, and allies convened our second annual summit in Delhi this weekend, TIME magazine dedicated its “person of the year” to YOU: people around the world who are taking media creation into their own hands.
(Photo by Jace. Click to enlarge.)
The TIME article praises the individual “for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game,” etc. The article concludes: “This is an opportunity to build a new kind of international understanding, not politician to politician, great man to great man, but citizen to citizen, person to person.”
That, in a nutshell, is exactly what Global Voices is all about.
The problem is that the “new kind of international understanding” that TIME describes, a world of true “citizen to citizen” communication, remains a still-distant dream.  The reality is that Web2.0 – and the potential for empowerment that it represents – remains largely inaccessible to large numbers of people on the planet, and is not being accessed by many more, for many reasons.
(Photo by Georgia. Click to enlarge.)
How do we help more people become creators of their own media? What kind of outreach can Web 2.0-savvy citizens provide to the still-uninitiated? How do we bridge massive and endless barriers of language and culture? Are the technical tools accessible enough to the next billion Internet users, or are we in need of new solutions better suited to the developing world? And how about people who are being prevented from speaking – or being heard – by governments, corporations, and other powerful entities?  These were exactly the questions we tackled during our public meeting on Saturday.
Here were some of my own takeaways from Saturday's discussion:
Be sure to read Nathan Hamm's summary of our introductory Session 1, Ethan Zuckerman's account of Session 3 on translation, and Sameer Padania's summary of Session 4 on tools and technology. A summary of Session 2, focusing on outreach, should be coming soon. There is also a conference blog put together by Ange, one of our community members participating remotely from Dubai.
Sunday's meeting was a closed-door session for Global Voices editors and authors only. We rolled up our sleeves and discussed how Global Voices authors and editors can do an even better job at amplifying citizen voices from around the world. Our tech team is working on a major re-design of the site to make it more user-friendly (and less overwhelming). We are also developing a new public aggregator of all the blogs that our editors and authors watch in order to compile their daily links and features, and this aggregator will include a mechanism by which anybody can suggest blogs that we ought to be following and linking to. As we realized last  year, GV is not just a media site but a conversation community. Many of our authors and editors discussed strategies for community building: specifically, how to support communities in their own countries, regions, and language groupings comprised of people who want to communicate with a broader global community of conversation.
People are taking initiative to carry out ideas that we could never have imagined just a year ago.  We've always known that the individuals who work on GV are talented, passionate, creative, and articulate, but spending two days with this diverse collection of characters was humbling.  As co-founders, Ethan and I are excited that the project has grown to the point that others are taking the lead when it comes to leading Global Voices and representing it to the public. We are very happily receding into backstage supporting roles: fundraising and doing the legal groundwork to transform Global Voices from a project under Harvard's Berkman Center to an independent non-profit organization.
This weekend's meeting also drove home the importance of face-to-face meetings even for a virtual organization like Global Voices. The Web has helped us find one another and has enabled us to work together in ways that would otherwise be completely impossible. But for the people who are devoting many hours every week to curating the global conversation on Global Voices, there is nothing like sitting down over curry and beers for building trust, camaraderie, commitment, and a feeling of shared ownership of the project.
People who are not very familiar with what we do often make snyde remarks about how strange it is that bloggers find it necessary to meet in physical space – as if the need for face-to-face meeting somehow proves the limitations or inadequacies of what we do. These remarks completely miss the point, of course. Global Voices may be a virtual organization with no physical headquarters (and no plans to create one), but what we do is ultimately about building understanding – and ideally dialogue – between real flesh-and-blood human beings and physical human communities.
We are not just generating chatter amongst avatars and usernames and online personas. We are not creating an alternative universe or online cyber-utopia into which our members escape from the realities of our daily lives and the problems within and between our countries. We are using the Internet's virtual space – and the creation of online citizens’ media – as a means to a very physical end. The Web connects the physical human beings at the ends of it who are using it as a channel to express themselves and reach out to one another.  When we as individuals can all create our own media, not only do we find each other and organize more easily around common causes. By taking control of our own narratives, our own stories, we gain greater control over how others perceive and define us. This in turn will make it more difficult (we believe) for outsiders to impose unwelcome, unsuitable, unjust or violent policies upon us – all of which are made much easier when mass media is used to stereotype, pigeonhole, and dehumanize us.
We use the Web not to escape our humanity, but to assert it.

author: Rebecca MacKinnon


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Estonia: Amnesty International Report · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

David McDuff of A Step At A Time (and Edward Lucas) – on Amnesty International's “report on Estonia which – almost incredibly – charges that country with “human rights abuses” allegedly committed against its Russian-speaking residents.”


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Guatemalan: Election Preview · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Boz takes an early look at Guatemala's 2007 election.


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Haiti: Millennium Development Goals  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Haiti Justice Blog refers to an article from the New York Times, which examines the ways in which the comfort of rich, developed countries “is, to a large extent the result of unfair extraction of wealth from poor countries; but more important, that wealthy countries could eliminate the worst forms of world poverty without making any real sacrifices.”


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Kenya: local innovation · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

AfriGadget has a picture of a water buoy that has been converted into a water tank.


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Lebanon: Hassan Nassrallah · Global Voices
Moussa Bashir

The secretary general of Hezbollah S H Nassrallah and his speech that was directed to the demonstrators partaking in the sit-in protest in Beirut was the subject of many posts in the Lebanese blogs this week. And as usual, the opinions are as diverse as the political point of views of the writers. The selections here are from the diverse spectrum of opinions. They are stated at random with no particular order or grouping.
Let us start with Perpetual Refugee who returned after a long break with a post about a conversation with a gay friend and supporter of Nassrallah and Perpetual Refugee’s unsuccessful attempt to convince him of his mistake:
This was what freaked me out. An educated man. My friend. Openly gay (except to his mother). Supporting Nasrallah. All because they belong to the same ‘sect’. Nothing else.
He seemed to have forgotten that his fundamental rights as a gay man. A gay Lebanese man. His rights were also being besieged by the demonstrations. The very rights that were struggling to flourish into something real. Starting with the most basic of rights. The right to live. As oneself.
Savonaroll at Remarkz uses wit, sarcasm, and ridicule, to criticize the faults in PM Sanyoura’s reply to Nassarallah’s address to the protestors.
Mustapha at Beirut Spring forsees the failure of the opposition because of what he sees as a misreading by Nassrallah of the Sunni public opinion:
When it comes to the Sunnis, Hassan Nassrallah seems pathetically clueless. By his calculation, the anti American, anti zionist rhetoric should at least have split the Sunnis. It worked with Aljazeera's Sunni Arab readers, why isn't it working with the Lebanese?
Bech at Remarkz explains why it is not in Hezbollah’s interest to destablize Lebanon and criticizes western media for its bias coverage of the protests:
…this party has no interest whatsoever in creating dissensions in Lebanon that would destabilize the country. It always worked in a way to create compromise.
Even while looking at it from the mostly realist-cunning perspective they stand to lose by all counts if they try to either monopolize decision making or impede on the power of other groups. Lock it in your heads for good this time: The weak destabilizes and looks for refuge in fragmentation, the strong is more prone towards unity. That's the strategic advantage of each.
But what’s very shocking is western media coverage of the issue. Only today I ran across an article in some American newspaper, which mentions in the last paragraph that there are “some Christian group” that is allied with Hizbullah.
Marxist From Lebanon wrote an analysis of the events in Lebanon from an economical perspective. In this analysis he mentions the role of leaders like Hariri, Aoun and Nasrallah:
The Shiites from a political – economical perspective have been dedicated (most of them) to Hassan Nasrallah due to the welfare system he provided to the rural areas which are mostly Shiite. Furthermore, he became a powerful voice to represent their demands. Thirdly, the growth of the Shiite community, in comparison to other sects required gave the Shiites incentive to abide with Nasrallah to protect their interests which was forgotten by Lebanese governments from 1943 till 1992. They still are the least to benefit from governmental plans and budgeting.
Sietske in Beiroet has a post and a picture of the extremely large billboard of Hassan Nassrallah on the Airport road:
It’s is one of the biggest billboards I have seen. In Lebanon, size matters. It’s next to the Airport Rd, and can be seen from both sides. Actually, if you look carefully, you can see the left hand going up, and on the other side it goes up as well, so when you see it from a specific angle, the two hands meet, and he looks like a ballerina doing a pirouette.
Nassrallah’s speech is also part of a multi-subject post at Anecdotes from a Banana Republic:
In his speech this evening, which broadcast live on all the major networks except Future TV, Nasrallah commanded his followers not to shoot in the air after he speaks and to stop hurling insults at those hunkered down in Saniora's bunker. He spoke of unity and forgiveness, and swore that Hezbollah would never ever respond to any provocation by turnings its weapons against the Lebanese. He also unleashed hefty accusations, claiming that Saniora ordered the army to cut off Hezbollah's supply lines, while they were under Israeli attack.
Finally, let’s end with Raja at the Lebanese Bloggers who states:
Nasrallah articulated to the Lebanese people what he wanted. He asked all Lebanese, “across sectarian lines,” for support. Why? Because, 1) He wants war against Israel 2) And he wants a “fair, representative and clean national-unity government” with at least a third of the ministers to wage his war against Israel. Period. Everything else he said (and I mean everything), somehow found their way back to those two points.

author: Moussa Bashir


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Puerto Rico: Critical Mass · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“What do We call the moment in which an active mass becomes inert because its size is no longer enough to sustain action/reaction?”  Gil the Jenius explores the concept of critical mass in sociological terms.


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Russia: “Chess Revolution” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Very Russian writes about what could have been Russia's “Chess Revolution”: “This is beginning, just slightly, to look like what’s been the Kremlin’s worst nightmare since the Orange Revolution.” Sean's Russia Blog has more on this weekend's protest – here and here.


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Russia: Ivan the Terrible · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russia Blog – on Ivan the Terrible: “the Stalin of the 16th century.”


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Russia: Marching Towards Christmas · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Turkish Invasion posts a few Soviet New Year's greeting cards and writes about and posts pictures of a weird rally that took place in Moscow: “Now here is how the Moscowites rehearse their record breaking attempt by converging the most amount of Santa Clauses in a a single city […] (Boring detail: Actually, they are commemorating the battle of Moscow (…but being dressed as Santa Claus and the Snowqueens is a bit weird))”


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South Africa: local talent · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Chillibean is blown away by South Africa's local talent, “This is yet another example of local talent that is easily as good as or even better than web design talent found in the more developed world.”


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Syria: Arabic Teaching · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

A new (and only) podcast that teaches Arabic language for English people is here, finally!

author: Haitham Sabbah


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The World Championship of Brazilian 2.0 Football · Global Voices
Jose Murilo

Brazilians still have fresh memories of the defeat of the national team in the last World Cup in Germany, when the group of international shining stars was unable to show the needed will to win on the field. As a result, Porto Alegre's Internacional triumph in the Club World Cup this weekend in Tokyo comes as a meaningful Christmas gift earning for Brazil the unofficial title of having the top global football team. The victory has brought back the pride of being the best in the world. But the special fact of this being achieved by a group of lesser known Brazilians who play in the country, as well as conquering the Barcelona favorite ( Ronaldinho's team) in the final game generated interesting reactions in the blogosphere. Could we say that Brazilians are discovering a more efficient way to play the game?
No final, quem esperava qualquer espetáculo por parte dos espanhóis acabou se frustrando com a eficiência dos brasileiros na contenção de jogadas. Na frente, o Inter viu suas duas grandes apostas – o capitão Fernandão e o novato Alexandre Pato – com atuações tímidas, diminuindo seu poder ofensivo. No final, porém, foi o reserva de Fernandão quem roubou a cena. “Depois de uma bola importante do Iarley no contra-ataque, fiz o gol do título. Todo mundo lutou para conquistar este título para a torcida. Fazer parte de um grupo desses é excelente. Eu estava no banco, mas tentei ajudar meus companheiros”, disse Adriano.
Inter derruba Barça com gol de reserva e é campeão mundial – Blog do Rodrigo Oliveira
Quando me perguntaram para quem eu iria torcer hoje, lógico que respondi o Inter. Eu já disse aqui que eu torço sempre para times do Brasil. Exceto o Vasco, claro. E o Internacional é um clube admirável. Em momento algum baixou guarda diante as estrelas do Barcelona. O Barça ? Infinitamente melhor. Tem as maiores estrelas do mundo. Entre elas o melhor do mundo. Dos 23 inscritos, 14 estrangeiros. Time de riqueza e estrelas. Craques individuais. E a diferença do Inter foi aí. Sem estrelas reconhecidas lá fora, a raça superou o talento do considerado o melhor do mundo, Barcelona. Corrigindo: “Era” considerado. Porque a raça colorada venceu as estrelas. Melhor ainda ver que ainda pode se acreditar no futebol brasileiro e que garra e união contam muito.
Internacional Campeão do Mundo – BlogSport com Lívia Albernaz
Nueve y media de la noche en Japón. La retransmisión de la cadena de televisión Yomiuri termina con unos protagonistas inesperados, los jugadores del Internacional de Porto Alegre celebrando el triunfo con el seleccionador brasileño, Dunga, y el brasileño, exinternacional japonés, Lopes.Minuto 36 de la segunda parte. Marca el Inter para sorpresa de los comentaristas, a los que se les nota a la legua la decepción. Minuto 40. Todavía hay esperanza. Ronaldinho toma carrerilla para tirar una falta y los comentaristas le piden “un regalo de Navidad”. La pelota no entra, pero no es cuestión de terminar en tono fúnebre así que, a medida que se va haciendo evidente que el Barça no tiene tiempo para reaccionar, el barcelonismo de la televisión japonesa se transforma en interismo y la retransmisión termina con los vencedores celebrando el triunfo en el estudio, y con Akashiya Sanma cambiando su camiseta del Barça por una del Internacional.
Sayonara TV – Japon
It is possible to say that Internacional’s victory frustrated some media effects that were expected to produce the big publicity contracts that orbit around Barcelona's main stars. In fact these players are accustomed to winning in the professional circuit and simply won't be desperate or cry about losing a game in Japan against unknown Brazilians. But some mixed meanings that Brazilian bloggers are extracting from Inter's conquest are amazing. They somehow connect Barcelona's defeat with the emergence of collective empowerment to the disadvantage of the typical broadcasting cult of personality.
A VISÃO dos rostos e atitudes de jogadores como Deco, Puyol, Ronaldinho Gaúcho mostram que eles perderam a glória de chorar. São estrelas (e assim tratados no site oficial do clube) que não souberam lidar com um dia em que o sol não as iluminou. Dois troféus foram entregues a jogadores do Barcelona além de um Toyota simbolizado por uma chave gigante banhada a ouro. Deco e o Gaúcho receberam os troféus e menosprezaram-nos. Receberam com descaso e “abandonaram” o prêmio no gramado. As imagens mais marcantes, no entanto, é o retirar a medalha de prata do pescoço. Os grandes jogadores citados e outros também do Barcelona tiveram essa atitude registrada para o mundo pelas telas de TV. Falta de humildade impressionante. Não havia lágrimas, havia apenas caras insípidas. Um deboche estático. Lamentável.
Internacional Campeão e respectivas observações – My Dogness
No Japão, o time do Inter derrota o mítico Barcelona. Nesse momento, ante a escolha da Time, tal vitória do Inter chega a ser um símbolo de um “você” anônimo, de rosto comum, que derrota aqueles cujos nomes próprios — “Barcelona”, “Ronaldinho” — são memes poderosos. No caso do Inter temos a vitória do trabalho de equipe, da garra, da seriedade e da dedicação. No caso do Brasil temos aquilo que inspirou a revista Time: as ações e reações de milhões de pessoas através da Internet sendo suficientemente fortes para superar, em importância e impacto, as ações e reações de uma ou outra pessoa em particular. A força dos Davis da blogosfera ante os Golias da comunicação é a grande e feliz novidade do ano. Acho que a Time teve visão, e acertou na escolha.
2006, o ano no qual os Davis derrotaram seus Golias – Animot
El entrenador brasileño mantuvo lo que dijo en la ruedas de prensa previas y afirmó que por haber ganado al Barcelona no piensa que su equipo sea mejor. “Creo que el Barcelona sigue siendo el mejor equipo del mundo porque casi todos sus componentes son miembros de sus respectivas selecciones nacionales”, afirmó. “Ellos juegan a su mejor nivel si les dejas, por lo que jugar de modo defensivo fue nuestra mejor decisión”, reconoció. Braga también afirmó que se sorprendió por el partido que realizó su rival y opinó que quizás jugó relajado después de la goleada que le endosó al América de México.
¿Se puede ser más humilde? – Simplemente Futbol
Looking at the record we find out the trend is not exactly new. Some bloggers are taking notice that the hegemony of South Americans over European teams in the Club World Cup has been happening across the last several years.
O fato mais curioso da conquista colorada é que a história do Mundial de 2005 repetiu-se em 2006. O campeão sul-americano sofreu para ganhar de seu adversário fraco na semifinal, enquanto o europeu chegou atropelando uma equipe da Concacaf e encantou os sempre deslumbrados japoneses (qualquer jogadinha meia-boca, como um corta-luz, já merece um “oooooh” deles). Favoritíssimo na final e com um elenco cheio de estrangeiros, o europeu sofreu um golzinho e não conseguiu furar a retranca sul-americana. Nós ficamos com o títulos; eles, com as desculpas esfarrapadas.
Tem que respeitar o futebol brasileiro - Onde a coruja dorme
Desde que a Fifa resolveu assumir a organização do Mundial de clubes, os times brasileiros não sofreram sequer uma derrota nos três torneios. São, portanto, 11 jogos disputados por times brasileiros, 9 vitórias e dois empates. Não é pouca coisa, principalmente se avaliarmos que a CBF pouco se importa com os clubes, preocupada apenas com a Seleção Brasileira. A conquista do Inter, selando a terceira conquista seguida dos clubes brasileiros, deve-se, exclusivamente aos seus próprios esforços, a exemplo do que já habia acontecido com o São Paulo no ano passado e com o Corinthians, em 2000. Imagine se nossos clubes fossem mais bem tratados. Porque sendo como são ainda superam potências como o Manchester United, Real Madrid, Liverpool e o Barcelona. E a vitória por 1 a 0 do Inter mostrou mais uma vez que não há esporte como o futebol, capaz de permitir que o mais fraco vença e torne sua conquista maior que o calor do Sol, que ontem se pôs vermelho no Japão e amanhece hoje ainda mais vermelho no Brasil.
Brasil invicto no Mundial de clubes – Blog do Juca
Not everybody in Brazil was for Internacional's victory. A special subplot in this game, which certainly had its effects in the field, was the previous relationship of Ronaldinho with International, or to be more specific, with Inter's archirival Porto Alegre's Gremio. These two clubs are the poles of soccer passion in the capital city of the State of Rio Grande do Sul in the extreme South of Brazil. Ronaldinho started his career in Gremio, and became the greatest player the club ever had. Starting at seventeen,  he helped his club to beat the rival Internacional many times. But his departure to play in Europe was somehow traumatic as the fans felt betrayed and abandoned by their idol. His weak performance in the last World Cup is also something that was not stomached well by the country's passionate fans.
Still, for the Gremio crowd, this final was a good opportunity for him to show that he still cared for his old club. Having been Club World Champion once (1983), one typical joke that ‘Gremists’ have about the ‘Colorados’ since then was that they were not really world champions. The argument had worked well and set an advantage that Gremio fans were very keen of. Ronaldinho would have the mission of maintaining this ‘Gremist’ advantage over Internacional, and we have many reasons to believe that he knew exactly what his former supporters had in mind for him this weekend. But again, the player who is to be considered the best in the world for the third time failed to deliver what was expected of him by his most passionate Brazilian fans.
Quando Ronaldinho Gaúcho deixou o Grêmio, em 2001, muitos torcedores ficaram decepcionados com o craque, pois se sentiram traídos pelo maior ídolo. Mas quis o destino que, cinco anos depois, o jogador tivesse a chance de se redimir com os tricolores. Era simples: na decisão do Mundial de Clubes, bastava dar um jeito de derrotar o Internacional, neste domingo. Ronaldinho tinha de tirar dos colorados o gosto de ser campeão do mundo, para então voltar aos braços da galera gremista. Não deu certo. Agora, o desapontamento é ainda maior. “Ele não é Ronaldinho coisa nenhuma. É “Decepcionaldinho Gaúcho”, isso sim. Tínhamos a esperança de que ele pudesse derrotar o Inter. Nosso sentimento é de enorme frustração” – alega Alexandre Bertolazi, 22 anos. Leandro Sturza, 28 anos, é outro integrante da turma dos gremistas indignados com o camisa 10 do Barça. “Na hora da decisão, ele sempre amarela. Minha decepção já era grande por ele ter saído do Grêmio daquele jeito. E agora foi ainda pior” – lamenta.
No Brasil , nem todos torceram pelo INTER… – Blog Luso-Carioca
És pessoa que me dá várias alegrias desde o início deste século. Ferraste com o Grêmio, mentindo sobre tua permanência no clube onde foste criado. Saíste do Olímpico deixando os bananas de pijamas sem eira nem beira, sem terem recebido um tostão furado por tua transferência para a França. Em 2002, ajudaste, é bem verdade, o Brasil a ser campeão do mundo no Japão. Não posso mentir e tenho que dizer que fiquei feliz com a conquista. Porém, NUNCA apresentaste na Seleção o que sempre vens apresentando na Europa, só para gringo ver. Vide a apresentação na Copa do Mundo deste ano. Agora, vieste de vitória acachapante sobre o ridículo América do México. Aposto que tua nova pátria, a Catalunha, ficou muito feliz tal vitória, e achava que irias repetir, ante o Inter, as mesmas atuações que sempre tiveste lá no Velho Mundo. Mas não deu certo, né? Não consegues jogar com marcação. O Ceará (sabes quem ele é agora??) acabou contigo. O CEARÁ ACABOU CONTIGO, DENTUÇO!
Obrigado Dentucinho Gaucho – O cachorro da vizinha NÃO É biodegradável.
Indeed, the main character of the day was Adriano, not the famous one who plays in Italy and keeps appearing in the weird pictures of European magazines , but a substitute that only 2 months ago was about to leave Internacional. This Adriano embodied the unknown hero, and few could predict that he could be the one to seal the Brazilian supremacy in football on the club level. But as the blogosphere reports, Brazilian channels are open to receive diverse frequencies, and the information comes through unexpected medias.
Ontem, em Garibaldi, após o show no Bar Joe – sou músico, toco na banda Os Daltons -, a conversa não podia ser outra senão a decisão do Mundial Interclubes. Ao entregar uma cerevja, o garçom entrou no papo e revelou: “tive um sonho, o Inter vai ser campeão”. Não levei a sério, visto que a única vez que sonhei antes de uma decisão foi na final da Copa do Brasil de 95, o Grêmio perdeu, no meu sonho havia ganho – também pesou o fato de eu ser ateu, não acreditar em alma e me lixar para o esoterismo. Outro membro da banda, colorado e espírita, interessou-se e perguntou do sonho. O garçom comentou: “esse cara vai dar o passe ou fazer o gol da vitória”, enquanto escrevia algo num papel. Entregou o bilhete ao meu colega. “Abre depois do jogo amanhã e me cobra depois”, concluiu, bastante enfático. Inter marca o gol, toca o meu celular, é o cara da minha banda. “Putz, lá vem cornetear”, pensei. Não atendi. Perto do final do jogo, recebo uma mensagem. “Maia, o papel do garçom trazia o nome ADRIANO escrito”. Sério, me arrepio até agora.
A Conquista Metafisica – Linha Burra
As teamwork is similar to networking perhaps there is nothing mysterious in the fact that a greater efficiency may emerge to triumph over what was once thought to be the exclusive realm of the biggest individual stars. Perhaps it is these magical moments in which peer-to-peer appears to trump personality that has so fascinated the bloggers and freaked out those who have never considered that there may be other possibilities.

author: Jose Murilo


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To hell you f***ing murderer…to hell…go and meet your other chums who are burning in hell now!!!! · Global Voices
Salam Adil

(or Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome)
These were the words of, normally, mild-mannered blogger Marshmallow26 to the news that her uncle's neighborhood had been blown to pieces by a suicide bomber who had aimed his load at one of the houses but in his hurry killed no one but himself. And she describes the scene:
It was about 5:30 pm and as usual it was dark already, all wires and electricity cables melted because of the explosion… smoke, shrapnel and screams in every where, we got into the house finally.
I will never forget how my Uncles’ wife and daughter looked like at that moment, scared to death, quivering so bad, stammering and crying!!!
…I walked into the house, and took a look inside in the kitchen; I found broken glasses, shrapnel, destroyed plants pots, broken dishes, and doors!!! It was so dark that we had to lit candles all over the place.
In TV room, the scene was bloodcurdling!! All curtains and glasses were mixed with each other the way we couldn’t move them, TV and satellite receiver were on the floor… I wanted to go upstairs to check the other rooms, I couldn’t go up, because of the teeny-weeny broken glasses were on the steps and the banister.
Today another post dedicated to the voices from Iraq. You may here on the news that the situation for the ordinary people is going from bad to worse but why not hear from the Iraqis for yourself. But it is not all blood and pain, there is also the experiences of a first year student at University, women complaining about men, a view from the front lines of the civil war and, if you read to the end, Iraqi women discussing *ahem* vibrators.
If you read no other blog post this week read this
Sunshine defines the meaning of “having a bad day” in Iraq.
Yesterday ” Thursday ” I had a very bad day , I was in the garage , waiting for the driver , when my neighbor ” H” , came to say hello , he was standing near me , and talking with my grandma, suddenly he touched his leg and said ” awwwwwwwch “… A bullet entered his leg, he fell down on the floor …  I got panicked and started to cry and shake hysterically, I ran and brought handkerchiefs , and started to put them on his leg , he was bleeding.
… I went to bring my mom I was out of breath , and couldn't talk , I was terrified ” I was , a man , a bullet , the car , blood , neighbor , bandage , cotton, come please ” I couldn't create a sentence , she didn't understand me but she came and brought medical cotton and bandage with her , she ran wearing her pajamas ! anyway she tied his leg so hard , to stop the bleeding , and I kept crying shaking and spreading so many handkerchiefs on the floor to cover the blood, I don’t know why !
… I went to school , and kept crying all the way long , and when I reached there , I was shaking so badly, even the teachers were worried about me , my mom called the headmistress and told her what happened , when I arrived school the headmistress asked me to sit in her room, the teachers were around me , trying to calm me down , after an hour I stopped shaking , but kept crying , …
“R” my dearest friend came while I was in the headmistress room ,she was crying and shaking too , a mine exploded in front of their car , !!!! the car's windows were broken , then US soldiers started to shoot their car !.
Then our friend “Sh” came crying , because she heard about me and “R” .
Then our teacher Mrs. E came to the headmistress with tears in her eyes because her aunt died .
Then Mrs. S she is another teacher came and said quickly ” excuse me , I have to go , 3 of my neighbors were killed “
At last Mrs. “A” came and said “did you know about the Arabic teacher , her nephew was killed” .
Suddenly the headmistress fell down , we ran to her desk to see what happened , she fainted because of all what was going on in her room ,as well as she was tired from taking care of her sick mother ,and from being awake all the night.
Stopping the Universities
Many Iraqi students woke last week to the news that even attending school will be more of a risk to their lives than normal. Fatima translates a not so thinly veiled threat from one of the insurgent groups:
In order to protect your blood from the crimes committed by the Maliki government and its death squads…we have decided … to cancel the rest of the 2006-2007 school year for undergraduate and graduate students at all Baghdad universities and colleges…
[To those who do choose to continue] … We will choose the time and place to attack you, in your homes, and on your beds and in your schools… You will continue to live in fear until your time comes
The result was immediate. Treasure of Baghdad received a call from his sister saying that armed men had distributed leaflets to students in the Baghdad University of Technology and it has been closed for a week already. Fatima adds, “This whole school year has been a joke so far, with students attending less than half of the normal school days (curfews, security situation, etc). … I don't know how authentic this letter is… but I do know that this letter has had its effect on Baghdad university students. Even if they decide to ignore it and go to class, they find that no one else is attending, neither student nor teacher.”
Meanwhile at another university in another city, Aunt Najma is getting used to her first year there…
Universities in Iraq are mixed… unlike secondary schools … which was a bit hard to get used to. We are walking baby steps towards better communication with each other. Some boys just want to start a conversation, which is sometimes really annoying, since they just can't say a whole sentence without making fools of themselves, and sometimes offending us. … Girls can be smarter than them, they will have to see it now.
Hmm, I think this situation is not unique to Iraq. Najma continues:
I left home late today since the neighborhood was surrounded. We were having breakfast when an explosion happened and broke several windows in the house, including the dining room, but none of us was hurt.
I love college, still, but I am under great pressure to prove myself, and the circumstances aren't always helping me. I want to prove myself real hard that I am losing some of the fun in learning and studying. I guess I just need a real exams and knowing who my opponents are to know where I stand and how much work I need to do.. I just do not feel like losing here.
Following on from the story of inept male communication here is another example from Rejected who had a visa interview with a diplomat from an embassy in Iraq. Following her visit to the embassy he called her to, well, flirt. She was outraged:
After hearing his life story and after having the privilege of being called Princess of Iraq.. Not flattered…
I struggle to comprehend how some men push their luck too much when they cheaply shoot way beyond their capabilities. First, not only the guy had a clear lack of education that he could hardly put together a useful sentence that you can make something out of it but had the most hideous looks ever. Did he really think that his disrespectful attitude+ his looks were a good package to offer? I was literally looking down at him, mentally and physically. Some men!
I think I am on a roll here… speaking again about bad habits of men… what would you do when you only get one night a week to spend with your spouse and you want that time to be special. Neurotic Wife finds out what I have to say is an all too common truth..
We go to room and as usual I take my nightly shower. Ofcourse this time I took extra care, like lavishing myself with perfume and body lotion… I get out of the bathroom all smiles and smelling like “beautiful”… I look at the chair and its empty, hmm. I took one look at the bed, and sure enough HUBBY is there tucked in, SLEEPING!!! HUBBY I shake him. HUBBY wake up, Im done. He opens one eye, tells me na3eeman (something we say when we come out of the shower) and smiles. Then he pulls me next to him, hugs me and goes to SLEEP!!! OMG…
Struggle to keep the neighborhood
On the borders of the civil war in Baghdad there is a continuous struggle by various militias to occupy your area. Meemo is unfortunate to live in such a neighborhood. He writes:
Al-Mahdi militia tried to take over our neighborhood, but they couldn't, and I think they will try again later, and the other team that trying to take over the neighborhood is al-Qaida, they don't attack in the same way that Al-Mahdi army use, they are more bloody, like I don't know sidewalk bombs and get inside some house and kill the whole people in it, the both teams are killers, I don't like both of them I want both of them to burn in hell
Meemo is not a political blogger but when he gets started he is as sharp as any pundit:
about the bad things that happen to Iraqis, its not just in Iraq, I've been talking to my friend before few days, he live in Amman Jordain, and he told me how bad the Jordanian police treat the Iraqis … back in Saddam's days not even the KING of Jordain can mess with Iraqis, cause he was afraid of Saddam, I'm not saying that Saddam is a good guy, I'm 100% against him, but the Arabs are jerks, they are rats, they just want Iraq to burn cause they know if Iraq going to be a peaceful and democratic country they will just disappear, they are sending money for the terrorists and sending terrorists everyday they never want Iraq to get back on its feet, they are afraid of democratic Iraq as much as they were afraid of Saddam, so if they want to bring back peace to Iraq, they must destroy the source of all terror in the world which is Saudi Arabia, that's what I think.
And, HNK describes “un normal” life on her own end of the blog..
Time….It's only time that is moving forward, it's the only thing that is making it's Job. It's the only thing that we both share. We both live in the same time…
I am with no power starting my day as usual, Waking up early to study and then taking my breakfast…. Till now it's look like I have a normal life.
But hey… Did you forget that you are reading Hnk's blog ( Iraqi girl blog)?
Here and in this blog nothing is normal. Here people are wearing a thick clothes under thick clothes till they become like a ball. Here people are drinking a dirty water,and take a bath once every week because the water is somehow closer to black colour than white. and if you are going to take a bath, you might possibly became dirty more than you are already.
let's go back to my UN normal life. One day not far along, but about week ago:
I was taking my breakfast, I finished it. I wore my clothes and my shoes and took a look throw the Windows to see if the car that carried me to school is waiting for me…. Yes, yes there was a car, No not a car but an American Tank. The road was closed and everything was calm. Anyway, after a while everybody was a weak even my grandmother and there were taking there breakfast and I was walking between them worry about my exam that I have that day. I sat on the chair and after that I don't know exactly what happened but there was an explosion took part near from us. The type of explosion that YOU will always remember.
And Finally…
Konfused Kid remembers the good old days back in Iraq (about last May) and links to a medley of old Iraqi songs he played with his friend Nabil.
And Neurotic Wife talks vibrators with Iraqi friends that live outside the Green Zone:
if you are below the age of 18 pls do not read further…
L a colleague of mine … came to me yesterday and said, I need to ask you something , but its kinda embarrasing, and you are the only one I can talk to, so lets go out and have a smoke. I followed her out and pulled my cig then said What is it L? Do you need anything? L said, no, then she lowered her voice and said is a vibrator what I think it is??? OMG. I was just startled. I almost choked on my cig. L, I asked shocked, how do you know about vibrators??? L who by now was blushing big time, said well, the American ladies I work with keep whispering to each other about using vibrators. I overheard them the other day, and because I didnt wanna embarrass myself, I googled it. (yup, the joy of the internet). I tried to act as normal as can be and asked, aha, and what did you find out???
L looked at me then came closer, she said, it looks like you know. Like what??? You know, like you know what I'M talking about. Hmm, this time I laughed from the bottom of my heart and said Oh L, yessss, it is what you think it is. She said, but why is it fun??? I said, hmm, hard question, why dont you ask the women you overheard??? She gave me a shocking look, you must be crazy she said. No way, I cant do that. Then I said, well, I dunno L. I cant answer you there. Then L flashed a smile and said, you know, these women keep getting me sweets and chocolates, christmas is coming, do you think maybe I should order something on the net for them??? And here was what I was dreading. Using HUBBYs credit card to purchase VIBRATORS, and umm to have them shipped here. Wont that be just lovely. I patted L's shoulder and said, L dont even THINK about it. Get them ANYTHING, ANYTHING but those.
There is sadness everywhere, but when they come here, they lose themselves in what they see as their freedom. My prison is their freedom, yet the laughter albeit scarce, is there. Can anyone imagine that vibrators will be a subject talked about in this part of the world, and in these circumstances??? No, nor did I until L brought it up. Imagine that. Vibrators. Vibrators in Iraq…

author: Salam Adil


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Trinidad & Tobago: 2006 Murder Rate · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidad and Tobago's Minister of National Security has predicted that the 2006 murder rate will not surpass last year's:  Manicou shares his thoughts on such daring forecasts.


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Tunisia: Sacrifice Animals Online · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Eid Ul-Adha is just around the corner and will be coinciding with the end of the year this time around. This Eid marks the end of the Hajj (pilgrimage) each year to Mecca and is known as the feast of sacrifice. Muslims who can afford it buy and slaughter animals and distribute the meat among the poor and relatives. However, many Muslims in Western countries are unable to perform the ritual because of the laws of the countries they live in. To solve this issue, MMM says that they can scarify animals online.


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Ukraine: Brezhnev’s 100th Birthday · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Carpetblogger marks Leonid Brezhnev's 100th birthday with a Brezhnev joke: “Stalin, Krushchev and Brezhnev were riding on a train. The train comes to a halt in the middle of nowhere. Stalin yells out: ‘kill the engineer!’ Khrushchev calls out: ‘rehabilitate the engineer!’ Brezhnev says: ‘pull down the window shades and pretend we're still moving!'”


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Venezuela: Bloggers Wish the World Merry Christmas · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Venezuelan bloggers wish you a merry multimedia Christmas [ES]. This will definitely get a laugh out of you. You can get a behind-the-scenes look at how the video was put together here [ES].


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Bangladesh: Islam, Bangladesh and Secularism · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Me, Myself and Bangladesh on secularism in the context of Islam, South Asia and Bangladesh. “Now the problem gets even complicated when it comes to Islam and secularism. The first conflict is ideological. Islam is a complete way of life and since most Muslims are Sunnis and to them Islam, historically, is not just spiritual but also political.”


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Bangladesh: Submarine Cables and the Economy · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Drishtipat on the possible impact of submarine cables on the economy. “I think IT offshore work and back-end BPO can really be that much needed strong second industry to textile that our economy is so depended on and narrowly focused on.”


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Barbados: Harold Hoyte Retires · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“After 31 years, Harold Hoyte is retiring from The Nation News…the largest circulation newspaper in the country is still a major influence in Barbados – but it is no longer owned and controlled by Barbados citizens.”  Does that matter?  Barbados Free Press thinks so.


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Bosnia & Herzegovina: Srebrenica Survivor and the Dutch · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Srebrenica Genocide Blog posts “an e-mail from Srebrenica genocide survivor, Mr. Hasan Nuhanovic, who submitted the following opinion on recently awarded ‘medal of honor’ for those in Dutchbat who betrayed Srebrenica.”


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Brunei Marathon 2006 · Global Voices
Maurina H

Brunei Marathon 2006: A Wet Affair
From SoulJah's Flickr Photos under CC attribution license
On Sunday, the 10th of December, 2006, some very excited Bruneians and non-Bruneians gathered in Bandar Seri Begawan, the sleepy capital city of Brunei Darussalam to participate in the Second Brunei Marathon. The route was expansive, the official website explained,
Starting from Jalan Sultan, next to Taman Haji Sir Muda Omar Ali Saifuddin, runners will speed out of town towards Jalan Tutong passing number of Brunei Landmarks, the Royal Regalia Building, the Edinburgh Bridge, the High Court Building and eventually passing by the Royal Palace, Istana Nurul Iman. The 1st ‘U-turn’ will be at 6 km point, going back to the Edinburgh Bridge, before turning towards Kiulap. Runners will than have to make a 2nd ‘U-turn’ at the 13 km point at Jalan Kiulap….
For those not familiar with Brunei, the route was cleverly been designed by the organizers so that it will pass by some of Brunei’s significant historic landmarks, such as the Taman Sir Muda Omar Ali Saifuddin, where the late His Majesty Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien had loudly proclaimed Brunei’s independence in the early 80s, the Royal Regalia Building, where predictably all the gold and glittery Regalia of the Royals is put on proud display for the public, and the Royal Palace, Istana “Nurul Iman”, Arabic for  “Light of Faith”, the magnificent residence of His Royal Highness Sultan Haji Hassanal Bokiah the Sultan of Brunei.
Not surprising. Considering how the event was jointly organised by the Tourism Board of Brunei, and endorsed by the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports, they would naturally try to squeeze in as much Bruneian ‘beauty’ as possible.
And so, people started pouring in with their applications and those like Jewelle waited with bated breath as the Marathon neared. Some had practice runs, again not surprisingly, with the first prize being a big lump sum of BND$25, 000.
But one thing is for sure, the Marathon is a major event. Indeed, some of the national dignitaries dressed down from their black suits and air conditioned offices to take part in the run, some captured on camera by Emma the Good Egg who participated in the Fun Run.
Come Sunday, the weather greeted participants with rain. It was a soaking wet affair but Bruneians and non-Bruneians alike had ran the entire route. Some noted bloggers also took part, such as Nonnie King.
The shutterbugs came out specially to capture the emotions of the day with their expensive cameras, including Ahim Rani, who donated some to my own blog, Turquoise and Roses. However, the run had not been controversy-free.
Only a few hours later, the first blog post giving a review of the Marathon churned out bad publicity for the Organisers. Rano, in his blog had reported that the marathon experience left scars on runners.
Brunei Marathon left a big scar among many especially the foreigners. There was a major controversy that put the 21km results in doubt. Most runners had either shorter routes or longer route. Pol had the run a few extra kilometres to finish off his supposedly 21 km. An Indonesian runner cried foul as she eventually ran the whole 42 km but she registered for a 21 km and amazingly she still finished top 30 for her efforts. One runner had his top 6 finish disqualified because he didn’t use the “chip” for the electronic timing.
Evidently, it was a badly organised event.
Brunei Marathon 2006: The Day After
The day after the Marathon, those who had participated, as organising committee or as runners, started rolling in with angry blog posts.
The Borneo Bulletin reported “the much-touted Brunei Marathon ran into stormy weather”and said what Rano had reported earlier.
While other runners in the 21 km (half-marathon) were also frustrated by the lack of proper signage, race marshals, muddle over the importance of electronic chips or. face disqualification, face in their route, some participants ended up running more than 21 km because they strayed from their route which resulted in their times being off mark.
In his interview, the organiser of the event, Pg Sharifuddin Pg Hj Bakar, manager of Excellence Event Management denied any knowledge of these claims, as reported by The Brunei Times
Pg. Sharifuddin bin Pg. Haji Bakar, manager of Excellence Event Management the race's organisers denied the runners’ claims.
There were motorcycle escorts leading the pack of runners,” refuted Pg. Sharifuddin.Visible markers were placed at strategic points over the route, and we had race officials posted at critical points throughout the route. These officials were supposed to ensure the runners in the different categories Marathon (42 km), Half-Marathon (21 km), 10 km, and Fun Run (six km) followed their respective routes.
Jack of Old Man’s Blog writes that the controversies surrounding this Marathon reminded him of last years
Its almost the same stupid happenings of last year happening again this year. The event organiser is still the same inept group of people, led by the same bloke who oversaw last years mess, and I heard this year he outdid himself.
Jack also said that the Tourism Board made a big mistake by allowing the management of Pg Shariffudin to overlook the event, considering what happened last year. He commented also on the lack of publicity the event had attracted and expressed concern that international events such as this Marathon will reflect what Bruneians are as a people and as a country.
LSM too commented on the event, albeit rather breifly, noted that the Tourism Board’s Director, Sheikh Jamaluddin Sheikh Mohammad, was unhappy with the way the Marathon was organised and the event does not bode well for the nation's tourism effort.
The Brunei Resources Blogger, wasn’t in Brunei at the time of the Marathon, however, after reading everyone else’s blog posts, he was rather surprised at the outcome of the event because firstly, this is not the first time that the event is being held, and secondly, organising events is a Bruneian ‘specialty;. His question was “what happened?”.
Indeed, what did happen?

author: Maurina H


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Brunei: Waking up Librarians · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Jewelle, a former librarian now living in Brunei is asking the librarians to get up to date with what library visitors want. “From working with books and printed matters, we now have multimedia. From providing reading materials we now have to offer information. From being a place to relax and enjoy the air-conditioned room, we now have to provide a library that people can read, do research, find information, get entertain, work on projects and have fun.”

author: Preetam Rai


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Chile: Pinochet & Jara · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Justin Delacour posts an article written by Alexander Billet, which examines Pinochet's legacy as it relates to “radicals” like Victor Jara, “a songwriter and poet; a deadly combination to any iron-fisted regime…”


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Estonia: Lavrov’s (Lack of) Logic · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Itching for Eestimaa doesn't understand the logic of Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: “Because I just can't grasp how outlawing the symbol of fascism makes one part of a fascist revival.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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France, Minorities: Integration v. Identity Politics · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Pondering the tension between integration and now fashionable identity politics, Fenetres Sur/Windows On writes (Fr): “Can we really demand recognition of our “community”, desire to live as such, outside of the common  trunk of citizens and at the same time ask for the same rights as everybody else? We need to frame our demands in terms of equal rights.”


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Freedom of speech and music celebrations in the Moroccan Blogosphere · Global Voices
Farah Kinani

Many different subjects were in the spotlight last week, in the Moroccan blogosphere.
I'll start with Farid and his interesting numbers (Fr) about blogging in Morocco. Then comes Reda who found out, thanks to Shimon Peres, that there is a connection between laziness and Islam(Fr).
The European Union is a great success and a great failure. Why? Because the Europeans have become lazy – they don’t have children […] There is more old age, less youngsters. In Europe there is work, but no workers. In Africa it's the opposite. That is why they brought the Muslims, and Islam made its way into Europe.
Amine, a big fan of Tom and Jerry, like most of us, posts about the legendary cartoon-maker(Fr) Joseph Barbera who died Monday at 95.
A sour laugh?
Nichane is under attack. The reason? A cover story published by the satirical magazine about the most popular jokes in Morocco. Well, it turned out that Moroccans like to laugh about Power, Sex, and Religion. Nothing really specific to Morocco since that's mostly what jokes are about all over the world. Some jokes were about God and the prophets (Ar), and for Khorafa‘s(Ar) visitors, that was worse than the Danish cartoons(Ar).
The Moroccan journalist and blogger Mohamed lachyeb(Ar) is asking his visitors to condemn(Ar) Nichane.
Koweit is also mad at Nichane(Ar), and Driss Ksikes, Nichane's director of publication, may apologize to his readers next week.
A law suit is about to be filed against the magazine, and for M.S.Hjiouj all this is simply ridicilous!(Ar).
What about those who laughed at them?
Muslim Santa!
Laila Lalami posts about a Muslim Santa living in Casablanca! And that is not the only thing that is surprising her.
There is still, fifty years after independence, a persistent association of anything French with “better.” People are driving themselves into the poorhouse trying to send their kids to French lycées. A few department stores and private schools here in Casa also throw Christmas celebrations, complete with trees, trimmings, and multicolored lights. It's bizarre.
Morocco has proposed the construction of a mosque in the Chinese capital, writes Samir one of the authors of the View from Fez.
The mosque, according to the minister, is meant to help revive the symbolic dimension of the journey of famed Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battouta to China.
Do you feel like sharing your thoughts with a very “popular” president? Well, eatbees has exactly the right e-address for you. The blog of the Iranian president is ranked 204th in the world, and it seems that Ahmadinejad reads each message personally.
Is Ahmadinejad sincere in his desire to communicate with the West, or is he just a cunning propagandist searching for ever more innovative ways to pull the wool over our eyes?
Attareq blogs mostly about his daily life, and it's written in a simple yet eloquent style. The post about the death of his unborn baby(Ar) is sad and touching and the latest one about the accident Attareq witnessed in the morning(Ar) is surreal!
Adil R. who usually blogs from Washington D.C is in Morocco for a short visit. He is surprised to witness new “behaviors” taking place in his neighborhood's cozy cyber-cafe.
You can hear some speaking Moroccan while others speak other middle eastern ,Gulf to be more precise, accents.Talked to my friends about this little phenomenon and they even told me about the private cyber sex sessions that often take place.
Gossips…Gossips…Gossips
Abdellatif Mossadeq is celebrating(Ar) his first year of blogging, congratulations.
Label ash is paying a tribute(Fr) to Ibrahim Ferrer and le mythe  is celebrating Al Aloua(Fr), a Moroccan folk genre of music.
Anima is back and happy! She received an email promising her love and passion and…marriage!
Blafrancya is delighted to blog about Sherbel Rouhana(Ar), a singer who does not understand why some Lebanese insist on using French or English words instead of Arabic ones. Congratulations Lebanon, you have your own Blafrancya;)
That's it for today. See you next Wednesday, Inshallah;)

author: Farah Kinani


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Haiti: Saving Local Soccer · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Collectif Haiti de Provence  laments (Fr) that local soccer team The Racing Club d'Haiti is on its way to extinction for lack of sponsorship by both government and alums in the diaspora.

author: Alice Backer


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India: Reservations and Muslims · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Indian Muslims on exclusive spaces in Higher Education for minorities. “I do not support exclusive schools and colleges for a particular community because they just are a blow to the secular ethics of this country.”


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India: The Martial Race · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Amardeep Singh on the myth of martial races in colonial India. “And recently I've been reading a book on the Gurkha regiments, (Byron Farwell's The Gurkhas), and after reading a number of chapters I'm ready to throw out the designation entirely. “


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Indonesia: From Oil Exporter to Importer · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Indonesia matters looks at the situation that Indonesian oil industry finds itself in. The last couple of years has seen Indonesia become an oil importer.


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Iran:Holocaust Seminar and its Costs · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Abtahi, a reformist politician, writes about Holocaust seminar in Iran.The blogger says :what is the reasoning behind the idea that the Iranian nation should pay for a historical research on a topic that has got nothing to do with Iran?It is really cruel that the people around the world consider Iranians with their great civilization as the accompanies of Nazis and Fascists.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Iran:Kianoosh Sanjari,jailed blogger is under more pressure · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

According to SosSanjari blog, Kianoosh Sanjari, a jailed blogger, was ordered by Islamic judge to accept and confirm all his accusations. Sanajri refused thais order and was sent back to jail. According to the blog judge told  Sanjari: you will stay in the isolated cell until accept it [Fa].


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Jamaica: Citrus under Attack · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

According to Jamaican Blogger, the island's citrus industry is under attack by a new species of butterfly.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Kenya/Tanzania: East Africa’s old songs · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Steve Ntwiga's musical link takes us to East Africa's Orchestra Mangelepa and Jamhuri Jazz Band.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Malawi: how to get Internet access · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Hacktivate has a post about a practical approach for getting Internet access in Malawi.


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Nepal: The Maoists, strikes and ambassadors · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

United We Blog! on the Maoist reaction to a list of names of nominated ambassadors. “Maoists said that they called the instant banda (closure) of the Kathmandu Valley to protest Nepal government’s decision to nominate 14 ambassadors for different countries including the US, India, China and Russia.”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Nepal: The refugees from Bhutan · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Democracy For Nepal on the 100,000 refugees from Bhutan. “The same chauvinistic thinking among the Nepali elite that has kept some five million Madhesis deprived of citizenship papers for decades worked among the Bhutani elite to kick these people out of Bhutan”


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Pakistan: Healthcare in Islamabad · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Metroblogging Islamabad on healthcare in the city. “Although you can get a prompt emergency check up for Rs 5 registration charges, but the medicines are very expensive, and I am wondering how the poor manage it all.”


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Puerto Rico: World Cultural Diversity to be Protected · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Voice of the Taino People reports on the UN-backed international treaty to preserve global cultural diversity, which will come into effect in March 2007.


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Romania: Post Office Problems · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Csikszereda Musings writes about unreliability of the Romanian post office.


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Serbia: Belgrade · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Eric Gordy of East Ethnia lists things he likes about Belgrade – as well as “other things”: “Beogradski radio: Every station, including the ones I don't like, has its individual character.”


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Serbia: Finding Karadzic and Mladic · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Finding Karadzic writes about a Belgrade paper's attempt to help find Karadzic and Mladic: “Belgrade's Glas Javnosti has just outed the top 99 aiders and abettors of Karadzic and Mladic. Such a move will doubtlessly put more pressure on these cronies, most of whom are not well known public figures. I've published the list of 99 names and where they live below.”


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South Africa: remembering Steve Biko · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Sotho remembers South Africa's Steve Biko.


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Sri Lanka: On Chikungunya · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Having affected large parts of India, chikungunya is now in Sri Lanka. indi.ca says “When I first heard of Chikungunya I thought it was a joke. It is a laughable name given to a very serious disease, now an epidemic in Sri Lanka.”


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Sri Lanka: One Soldier · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Manshark's Random Rants on soldiers in Sri Lanka. “In reality then, doesn’t that one soldier, that one person who died forever, or in bits and pieces as he was de-limbed, therefore remain to me forever nameless? Faceless?”


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Trinidad & Tobago: Flickr Photoset · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

See Trinidad & Tobago from some interesting angles in this Flickr photoset by klj_francis.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Parang in Paramin  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Christmas in Trinidad and Tobago is Parang season (from the Spanish Parranda, meaning “the action of merry making” or “group of serenaders”): The Trinidad and Tobago News Blog posts video and pictures from this year's Paramin Parang Festival.