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Lockout for junior gamers? · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Gameshogun counters a Filipino politician's comments that online games produce violent people. Representative Florencio “Bem ” Noel is proposing that internet cafes should not allow minor and student gamers after 6 or 7 PM.


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Malawi: Presidential money laundering · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Anti-Bakili Muluzi – Malawian blog, reports that the ex President Bakili Muluzi is expected to be arrested on his return from the UK for money laundering crimes.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Sokari Ekine


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Mexico, Brazil: Creative Commons Creativity Contest · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Eduardo Arcos introduces (ES) the first contest of “Mexicommons creativity (ES),” which solicits new works of music, video, animation, and podcasts. The top three winners of each category will be included on the DVD of iSummit '06 to take place this June in Rio de Janeiro.

author: David Sasaki


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Mexico: Missing Journalist · Global Voices
David Sasaki

RegioBlogs, >Blog.com.mx, and Ernesto are all seeking information about missing journalist Alfredo
Jiménez Mota who has not been seen since April 2nd.


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Mongolia: Protests Day 6 · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Luke Distelhorst has a report on day six of the protests in Mongolia.

author: Nathan Hamm


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Myanmar’s water festival · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

This week is the Thingyan or Water Festival in Myanmar. Thingyan is the new year according to the Burmese traditional lunar calendar. Sean, a Myanmar citizen living in Singapore, reminisces of home and  takes us to Myanmar to shows us how they celebrate this festival over there.

author: Preetam Rai


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Nepal: Democracy and strikes · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Nepal's political environment heats up further says Bahas -“Enraged with the government’s brutal repression of the Seven Party Alliance movement, SPA has decided to continue the four-day nationwide general strike, which ended Sunday, until further notice”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Palestine: The Earth is Closing in on Us · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Laila writes: The shells keep falling. They’ve gotten inside my head. It’s like someone is banging a gong next to my ear every few minutes; sometimes 5 times a minute, like last night. And just when I savor a few moments of silence, it starts again as if to say “you're not going to get away that easily.”
Today they killed 8-year-old Hadil Ghabin.
A shell landed on her home in Beit Lahiya, killing her and injuring 5 members of her family, including Hadil's pregnant mother, Safia, and her 19-year-old sister.

author: Haitham Sabbah


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Participatory TV and participatory democracy · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

TV reality shows where the audience gets to vote for their favourite idols are gaining popularity across Asia. Are such audience participation based shows a harbinger of true democracy or are they just gimmicks? Blogger niknazmi takes on this question with respect to Malaysia.


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Peru, China: First Round Election Analysis · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Peru Election 2006 and Un Lobo en Perú both have the latest numbers and analysis from yesterday's presidential elections in Peru. China Confidential explains why Chinese officials aren't ecstatic about Ollanta Humala's first round plurality.


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Peru: Women Bloggers on Elections · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Liz Henry summarized what Peru's female bloggers were discussing going into elections this past weekend.


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Podcast ban and regulation of blogs in Singapore · Global Voices
Connie Veneracion

Back in August, 2005 when Dr. Chee Soon Juan, Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), first talked of his political platform in a podcast, the Atypical Singaporean commented in his blog:
There is possibly zero chance for Opposition Parties to be heard on local radio and TV, and Podcasting (and Blogging) is possibly the best way for any person/organization wanting to be heard.
Clearly, the opposition is aware of that fact and it has been utilizing alternative media to do what it cannot in mainstream media. Just recently, Singabloodypore  confirmed Chemical Generation Singapore’s speculations that one of Singabloodypore’s bloggers is, in fact, the President of the Young Democrats in the Singapore Democratic Party.
The government is not unaware of the power of alternative media either. When documentary filmmaker Martyn See produced Singapore Rebel, a 26-minute movie about Chee Soon Juan's acts of civil disobedience, it was banned from the 2005 Singapore International Film Festival and See was placed under investigation for violation of the Films Act for knowingly distributing or exhibiting a “party political film”–and it was not even election season.
Political videocasts have been previously banned. Now, there's the podcast ban and the regulation of political content on blogs.
When Channel News Asia published a report with Singaporean Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts Balaji Sadasivan saying that podcasts were excluded from the “positive list” of allowable election advertising, reactions varied. Asiapundit declared it wasn't exactly a repression of free speech because private citizens could still give their political speeches in the free speech zone. Kevin of Theory.IsTheReason and Bob of Politics in the Zeroes both observe that only the SDP has been using podcasts for political reasons. Singapore Election Watch published a statement of SDP's Chee Jooj Juan saying that the opposition feels it is the only real target of the ban.
Other bloggers do not view the situation as one merely affecting oppositionist political parties. The vague generalizations can be problematic. Mr. Brown is not sure what “explicitly political content” means. Yawning Bread says with the broad definition of “election advertising” under the Parliamentary Elections Act, “there's not a lot that we are allowed to say.”
Deadpoet's Cave reacts to Dr. Balaji's statement that “individual bloggers can discuss politics, but have to register with the Media Development Authority if they persistently promote political views.” He says:
If it is election advertising that is to be specifically (or should I say broadly?) restricted, shouldn’t this be rephrased as promoting political parties?
After all, people have many political views regarding a range of topics. Some views may fall in line with the ruling party. Some views may be more in line with contrary opinion. Some may even be totally off-tangent: original views and analysis which have not been aired anywhere else. Opinionated posts about almost anything could be construed as promoting a political view.
What are bloggers to do? All register?
That would seem so based on Darkholme‘s observation that Dr. Balaji's statement makes it clear that “people… should not hide behind the anonymity of the internet, to manipulate public opinion.” But the anonymity issue is challenged by Mr. Wang who says “the true identities of Singapore's prominent bloggers are hardly ever a secret anyway”. Avalon poses and even bigger challenge by saying there is no such thing as anonymity in Singapore to begin with becuase “Singaporeans are at most three-degrees apart from every other stranger, our paw prints are all over the Singaporean cyberspace…”
Some bloggers respond with action. IZReloaded defies the Singapore government and puts up a link to his own podcast. Cloudywind does the same. But the Solitaire Joker sums up the situation as a dilemma.
But realistically, what would you choose?
The right to shoot your mouth off about virtually anything in Singapore politics?
Or the peace of mind that you get from knowing that you will be undisturbed taking a downtown stroll in Singapore at extremely late hours?
Choose. And choose wisely.

author: Connie Veneracion


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Poland: Commercial Radio · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Following a long bus journey, hgrodsk of Our Man In Gdansk offers a very critical view of commercial Polish radio.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Romania: “Alphabet of Curiosities” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Andy H of Csikszereda Musings comes up with a Romanian “alphabet of curiosities“: “[…] an alphabetical list of things in Romania that amuse, baffle, confound and disturb me.”


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Russia: Gorbachev’s Intentions · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Bob Granico of Publius Pundit points out how the Western media misinterpret Mikhail Gorbachev's intentions: “Gorbachev, in reality, worked hard during his time in power to preserve the Soviet Union, and he never intended for the captive republics to gain independence.”


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Saudi Arabia: Flame War · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Flame-wars are coming to the Saudi blogosphere, and they are coming very fast and furiously. Ahmed advise the bloggers which adopted this task to think in other ways to make a huge success. He suggest that instead of taking on blogs that they take on some of the many stories that appear in their local newspapers everyday.


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Sri Lanka: Abortion  · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A very short post on abortion at Moju provokes an interesting conversations in the comments space.


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Sri Lanka: The Tamil Identity · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Transcurrents.com on Tamil identity, politics, elections and history in Sri Lanka.


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St. Vincent: Open marriages/relationships · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Writing from St. Vincent, Abeni says she is too old-fashioned to understand the reasoning behind open marriages or relationships.


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Sudan: student activism · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

The Passion of the Present reports that students from the University of California have voted to “divest  from companies with ties to the Sudanese government”.


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The Week That Was in Bahrain · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahrain made the headlines worldwide this week after 58 party-goers were killed when a traditional dhow sank, off the Kingdom last Thursday (March 31).
Bloggers were quick to react to the incident, within hours of the tragedy, and continued to update their blogs with developments.
Strav covered the incident in seven posts, with the last update featuring a link to another Bahrain-based blogger Ashish Gorde's site*, whose friend had died in the accident.
Ever so clever with the use of words, Manama Republic comments on the causes of the tragedy, showing how the tilt continues in Bahrain, even after 58 people have lost their lives in the tragedy.
“Ominously enough, the same factors cited as probable causes: overloading, structural failure, tilt and bad captaining, are the very ones giving rise to this sinking feeling that the country has no better cruising chance than that of the capsized ship. (Speaking of tilt, have you noticed that all those representing the sovereign reach of the state at the press conference were exclusively from one end of the sectarian divide?),” he writes.
He also wonders how the government has washed its hands off the tragedy and why no one in power has resigned after the incident.
“There may or may not be safety procedures. The ship may or may not be licensed to sail. The captain may or may not be qualified, or pressured, or guilty. One thing is clear, the state, like your favourite software provider, lets you use any avilable service at your own risk. If it works for you, then fine. If not, then hardluck. The state does not assume any joint or several liability. No employee of the state shall resign therefore, as there is no dereliction of duty. The duty of the employees of the state, high and low, lies evidently elsewhere,” he notes.
Mahmood Al Yousif too reports on the incident, calling for an investigation into its causes and for bringing those responsible for it to justice.
“(I)…fervently hope that government agencies in charge of regulating the tourism, safety and security industries put in sterner laws to protect visitors and residents alike, and mount an honest and transparent investigation of this disaster in order to learn from it and save future lives.
“People who were directly responsible for flouting safety laws should be punished, and this business should undergo an immediate investigation into their operation, training and certification of their staff and their safety measures,” he writes.
Meanwhile, bloggers abroad, like Dr Haitham in Alaska, were glued to their TVs following the news, which has certainly touched the hearts of all those who had heard about it.
Away from Bahrain, Palestine's new Hamas Government antics take a thrashing from Haitham Sabbah, who is annoyed with its intolerant stance towards what liberal Palestinians have no objections against – belly dancers.
“Let me tell you something guys. If Hamas is going to fail (and they will) and get kicked out of office, this is how it is going to happen. Their stupidity and the internal condemnation of pissed enough Palestinians. Palestinians are a famously liberal and secular group of Arabs, and after all this, the vast majority remains so,” he writes.
In worldly matters, Hasan, a Bahraini student in Japan, continues to battle the odds with a new apartment he has moved to after spending a well-deserved holiday in Bahrain. Like the building developer we just bought our apartment from here in Canada, his Japanese landlady has a quick fix-it solution for anything and everything which could crop up.
“I have the COOLEST Landlady in the world, who knows EXACTLY how to trick me into anything,” writes Hasan.
“I moved into the appartment a couple of days ago, and soon after, my ofuro (japanese-style bathtub) stopped working! So, I called some people to fix it, but as soon as they arrived she sent them back, saying that she will have a friend of hers look at it. She then had it checked, and they told her that it was beyond all repair (it was a little old). So, she came back to me, asking for forgiveness by appeasing me with FOOD (which always works with guys).”
* Ashish Gorde's site is only available to subscribers.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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This week in Israel: Passover and a Suicide Bombing · Global Voices
Lisa N. Goldman

I was planning to write this week's post about how Israelis are observing the Passover holiday, which began last Wednesday night with the festival seder meal, but unfortunately there was a suicide bombing this afternoon in Tel Aviv so I'll start with that, followed by some links to posts about the holiday.
The suicide bombing
I happened to be sitting with a friend in a cafe that was quite near the site of the bombing when it occured, and heard the blast. It was a powerful one and sounded much closer than it actually was.  Since I work as a freelance journalist I ran off to cover the story; my post about what I saw is here. I also had my camera with me and posted a set of photos here.
Stephanie Fried wrote a touching post about the phone call she received from her worried father, who lives in the United States. She was reminded of a unique experience she had during the Gulf War in 1991 (read her post for details), when the phone lines to Israel were congested for days and her parents had no idea whether she and her siblings were safe from the Scud missiles launched at Israel from Iraq.
And I hung up the phone realizing: Wow. Here they go again. A child in Israel. The worry is back. And the memory of that videotape returned and tears sprung to my eyes. What we put them through inadvertently.
Allison Kaplan Sommer was on vacation in Eilat, and hadn't heard about the bombing when she called me this afternoon just to chat. “So what's going on in the real world?” she asked. She posted about her reaction to my news here.
Imshin‘s husband, Bish, works right near the site of the bombing. He took some photos with his cameraphone and Imshin posted them, together with some of her own observations.
Chayyeisarah writes that the only thing she cannot become accustomed to in Israel is the suicide bombings.
I can't get used to thinking about the people who were eating a falafel one minute, and were on their way to the emergency room the next . . . not because of a traffic accident, or a fire, or some other tragic event that may have been preventable but was at worst a case of negligence . . . and not because they were involved in a bad crowd or were unfortunately associated with evil or troubled people . . . but because they happened to be eating a falafel in the wrong place at the wrong time, and there are people who hate us just that much.
Karen Alkalay-Gut, who posts every day almost without fail, writes that it's hard to find the words today. (scroll down to the April 17 entry).
Passover
Jerusalem Gypsy  wrote a typically tongue-in-cheek post about the seder she participated in at the home of Orthodox friends. She decided to bring a rather unorthodox Haggada, and her traditional hosts were not terribly amused. But despite their ill-disguised disapproval, the Gypsy enjoyed herself.
It was noisy and fun there. I brought my hand made matzah to the table and read from my Holistic Haggadah by Dr. Michael Kagan. It had alot of touchy-feely stuff to it. Like “feel the salt water as tears running down your cheeks. Free your inner Mitzrayim (Egypt). In Buddhism attachments are the cause of suffering, in Judaism, they are the cause of enslavement…, etc.” And nearly everyone oohh'd and ahh'd at this new Jewish Renewal funky interpretation of the ancient Haggadah, save for about 3 people who clearly weren't interested in all at any interpretations of the text, but preferred to get down to the meal already.
Chayyeisarah writes that she attended the best seder ever this year, at the home of friends who creatively re-enacted the Exodus from Egypt with their small children.
Chanit, who writes a food blog, has posted several gorgeous recipes for traditional Passover dishes, which must – according to Jewish law – be free of any leavened ingredients, or chametz.  Her recipes – with photos, reminiscences, explanations and commentary – are here, here and here.
Over at the group blog Jewlicious, the contributors decided to mark the holiday that celebrates the ancient story of the exodus of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt in a rather unique and touching way. They have written some heart-rending posts about various forms of slavery that still exist today, and explain how you can contribute funds to alleviate the suffering of people who live in bondage in the 21st century. These are the slaves of today, as described on Jewlicious: Boys who are sold into bondage to cocoa bean farmers in Ivory Coast; women who are brought to Israel from the former USSR by the Russian mafia to work as sex slaves (this post includes a clip taken from an Israeli investigative news show that did a segment on white slavery in Israel); and another post (actually a very well-written article) here.
And Ernesto, a Phillipine diplomat who was recently assigned to his country's consulate in Tel Aviv, writes about his joyous anticipation of celebrating his first Easter in Israel at St. Peter's Church in Jaffa.

author: Lisa N. Goldman


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Tunisia: Censorship Ease? · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Sabbah reports via a blogger report from Tunisia that reveals that some censored websites since the WSIS on November 2005 (the website of the Mediterranean Liberal Party and Neila Charchour Hachicha blog)  has become accessible in Tunisia since April 8th, 2006. Nelia consider this act as a first step towards a better political understanding.


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Venezuela: Faddoul Brothers and Blanco Sisters · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Ghost Blogger Jorge Arena compares the kidnapping and subsequent murder of the Faddoul brothers with that of the Blanco-Bandes sisters who were kidnapped a week after the Faddoul brothers and then released. Arena asks if the Faddoul brothers fell victim to back luck or police incompetence.


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Village market in Ondo State Nigeria · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Photo by Fola of Ethnic Loft


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Africa: Responsibilities of journalists · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Yebo Gogo comments on a report in the Christian Science monitor on the responsbilities of Western journalists to help those they cover.  “Where the line falls that reporters shouldn't cross has been debated as long as there have been newspapers. The ethics seem to vary by country”.


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African music (#6) · Global Voices
Obi

Coupé-Décalé? I went blank when my lady friend Tchi asked if I knew about Coupé-Décalé.  A wiki entry for Coupé-Décalé provides a brief definition:
“The Coupe-Decale created by Doucoure during the militaro-political crisis in Cote d'Ivoire,reflects the aspirations of the Ivorian youth.  Coupe-Decale is a very melodious and percussive African samples, deep bases, rythmic and very well accommodated.  It is a unique style.  Coupe-Decale is about happiness,expresses the day life of the Ivorian society, and also gave an insight into the political situation of the country.  The prominent artists of Coupe-Decale are Sagacite (Doucoure), DJ Brico, DJ Arsenal, Papa Ministre with his famous tune “Coupe-Decale Chinois”, and many others talented Ivorian artists.”
I did a quick blog search  which turned up loads of results but all in French!!  The frustration I feel sometimes.  It's one thing not understanding the language to the lyrics of a song (not a big issue because the music vibe plays a big part) and another not being saavy to a huge musical movement because of language barriers.  Like the French say C'est la vie.  Summer language classes calls beckons.  Welcome to the African music Round up.
Hans of Powershot drops a good review of the recent WOMAD festival which took place in Adelaide, Australia in March.  His review mentioned a lot of African acts that performed at the festival:
“Cape Verdean singer Lura‘s second show, in the rain on Sunday, was a revelation. Her sensual dancing and vocal style seemed to fit with the later timeslot, showing the various musical styles of Cape Verde, ranging from slow blues to vivacious funk.”
he goes on to write:
“Kanda Bongo Man‘s Congolese Soukous dance music was a prelude to the glorious Cuban-influenced swing of the legendary Orchestra Baobab from Senegal who kept a mellow, inviting and happy groove. Their version of Coumba, from the classic Pirates’ Choice CD, sang with delight.”
Got a link to Steve Ntwiga Mugiri‘s blog (thanks Sokari) and his latest entry provides an mp3 link to Samba Mapangala‘s song Marina (Listening as I type).  Steve blogs on Kenya, Africa, music and “the world we live in”.  He's also taking taking requests for mp3s to link on his blog so visit and join in the party.
Soul on Ice reflects on the recent death of Nelly, founding member of the Tanzanian hiphop crew X Plastaz.
“I read of the passing of Faza with great sorrow. I discovered the X Plastaz sound through africanhiphop.com and it introduced me to that East African slice of hiphop also known as Bongo Flava. The idea of Masai warriors putting their feelings and inner city plight to wax initially sounded gimicky but when I saw a few videos and heard a few tunes i was impressed. I saw what they were about and read up on the crew.”
Please visit their website and sign the condolence book.  Rest In Peace.
Red Ruin has compiled a mp3 list of hiphop songs from across the world featuring an X Plastaz song, “Nini dhambi kwa mwenye dhiki“:
“In recent years the X Plastaz have become known for being the first hiphop crew to use Maasai music and culture in their performance. Maasai singer Yamat (also known as Merege) is now a full member of the group who has joined on tour and in the recording studio.”
Soi Disantra provides an interesting take on African music classification:
“The second thing I discovered: “African music” as I generally imagined it at least, doesn’t really exist. By that I don’t mean that there isn’t a ton of music from Africa; anything but. Nor am I trying to say that “African” can’t be a fair and accurate descriptor – “Afropop,” I think, is a pretty all right broad classification. What I mean is that to take a continent that’s churned out so much rich, amazing and – dare I say – diverse music, and just sorta imagine that it’s all the same was pretty damn naïve.  Soukous is not mbalax is not afro-funk is not rumba is not Ethio-jazz is not Afrobeat is most certainly not one of the myriad traditional/tribal musics.  Fer example: while they’re both Western forms of music, and pretty closely related ones at that, metal ain’t Merseybeat.”
Lovely Amphibian talks on Ugandan Artist Ragga Dee winning the Pearl of Africa Music Award for best Ragga artiste of the year 2005:
“To give an indication of how monotonous the event is becoming, the man himself, while accepting the award, said the organisers should scrape the raga artiste of the year category, or better still rename it, the Ragga Dee Award.”
Moistworks reviews a few albums by the late South African Jazz musician Johnny Dyani.  On the song “Song for Biko” he writes:
“You know the way that on most CDs the so-called bonus track is not worth listening to – an alternate take that was ditched for quite obvious and audible reasons? Well, in this case the bonus track was the best track: the long, two-part “Lonely Flower in the Village.” It starts with Dyani's amazing bass. You only need to hear a couple of notes to hear that he is a great bass player.”
Mosistworks goes on to  “Witchdoctor's Son” and “Good News from Africa“.  He's also provided mp3 links to the songs reviewed.  Excellent stuff.

author: Obi


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Angola: China moves in · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Chippla writes on China's latest African destination – Angola. “Energy may be what China is really after but by building infrastructure and providing aid to Angola, it increases its relevance on a continent that is undoubtedly the least developed in the world.”


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Argentina: Borges & Judas · Global Voices
David Sasaki

After a month-long blog break to finish a novel, Jeff Barry is back to point out that Borges wrote about Judas’ potential good side long before National Geographic.


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Argentina, Spain: More Music · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Two more Argentine indie groups recommended by musical connoisseur Fernando Casale. Check out sample tracks from Sync Filmico and Alvy Singer. From Spain, 4024 Segundos is a compilation available for download of new songs licensed under the Spanish Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license.


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Armenia: Softened Blow · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Blogrel reports that Armenia has probably avoided anticipated huge gas price increases.


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Aruba: Linguistic prowess · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

“When our tourists find out that those who grew up here can speak at least four languages, there are usually exclamations of wonder and marvel at our linguistic prowess,” says ArubaGirl, in her explanation as to why most Arubans speak Dutch, English, Spanish and Papiamento.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Bangladesh: Getting friendly with Israel · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

imperfect world 2006 on the appointment of Richard Benkin as the PR man for Bangladesh. “In other words, can foreign policy principles be bought? We will have to wait and see. Israel, incidentally, was one of the first countries in the world to recognise Bangladesh.”


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Belarus: “Almost an Open Letter to Hollywood Producers” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Andrei Khrapavitski wonders why there hasn't appeared a single Hollywood movie about Belarus, “the baffling country between Russia and Poland.”


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Belize: Oil · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Simone Elgeln gives an update on Belize's recent oil discovery and the efforts being made by the company which made the find to act the responsible corporate citizen: “The government needed a miracle and hopefully they got it in the form of this black gold,” says Simone. “Of course, we're all worried as to how this will impact the environment & what kind of corruption we're going to witness this time (this government has proven to be terribly corrupt). But all we can do is sit and wait & see how it all plays out.”


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Bolivia: BBC on Morales · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Both Alvaro and Eduardo give their impressions of a recent BBC feature on Bolivian President Evo Morales.


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Caribbean: On mangoes · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

“I'm standing under the cool dark shade of my julie mango tree looking for my breakfast,” writes Attillah at The Pan Collective in her paean to one of the Caribbean's favourite non-indigenous fruit.


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China: Communist bureaucracy · Global Voices
John Kennedy

What did you do this weekend? Roland at EastSouthWestNorth spent his translating The True Life of a Political Worm, a Tianya Club forum post which gives an insider's perspective on Communist Party culture in China.

author: John Kennedy


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China: Media censorship · Global Voices
John Kennedy

The Life After Jiangxi blogger describes life on the media-restricted Chinese mainland.
“I go to these posh hotels, and watch BBCWorld and realise that the situation in Nepal is pretty serious or intense or even godforbid revolutionary. Then I come back to my normal life, with information provided by CCTV [China Central Television] and the internet, and it's as if Nepal has just been blotted out from the surface of the world. Spooky.”


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China: Plagiarism in state-owned media · Global Voices
John Kennedy

An previously well-respected and outspoken Chinese newspaper which was taken over by the government earlier this year has since resorted to copying stories from other publications, says Non-violent Resistance blogger uleewang.
“In the same weekly section, one also finds international stories about the Jordanian queen, the smart red-haired chimpanzees of Sumatra, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin's resignation, and Ukraine's post-election politics. I don't think the Beijing Times has the editorial budget to send its own reporters to do these stories,” he continues.


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China: Satire in the media · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Jason Li from Virtual China translates a post from Linghucong's Blog [zh] which looks at the “increasing amount of feature articles that possess a well-informed, sharp, satirical edge” seen on major Chinese portal website Netease.


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China: Tiananmen update · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Writing from her blog T-Salon, Andrea mentions an upcoming television program which will look at the identity of ‘the Tank Man'—known to many as the Tiananmen square protestor who stood his ground against a line of incoming China's People's Liberation Army tanks on June 5, 1989.
“I remember it was just over Christmas vacation that the tank man slipped into a conversation that I had with a former Beijing resident who is now living abroad. He said both the tank man and the soldier who operated the tank were executed,” she recounts.


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Computer features in real life · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Malaysian blogger Kenny Sia wishes for some computer features to be made available in real life.


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DRC: Resolutions from Belgian UDPS’ Last Meeting · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Under pressure from UDPS sympathizers, UDPS will organize a conference on May 1st to answer questions  and make available documentation on several questioned actions of the party and its leader Etienne Tshisekedi in the 1990s, writes  (FR) UDPS Liege.  The blog also announced that the party's next priority is to figure out what its election strategy should be despite not actually running.

author: Alice Backer


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DRC: UDPS to Take Part in Election After All? · Global Voices
Alice Backer

UDPS spokesperson Jn-Baptiste Bomanza made several revelations on a Congolese talk show, reports  (FR) Le Blog du Congolais.  Bomanza's most surprising comment waa that “[t]here will be no election without UDPS” but he also accused the president of the Electoral Commission  Rev. Malu-Malu of belonging to the same party as  interim president Kabila and claimed that EU commissary Louis Michel was engaging in unfair competition in the  Congolese diamond exploitation industry.


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Early European trader in Bali · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Nick at baliblog writes about a Danish trader in the 1800s who helped put Bali on the trading map.


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Ethiopia: Battle of Adwa · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Ethiopundit remembers the Battle of Adwa which was a victory against colonialism for Ethiopia..“For the victors it was decisive; for the vanquished, catastrophic. The Italian colonialist soldiers were crushed. Their casualty figure was 70%; all their artillery pieces were captured, one out of four of their generals was taken prisoner and two of the remaining as well as almost half of their staff officers were killed on the battlefield.”


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Francophone Journalists who Cover Africa · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Generation Consciente, Une Autre Afrique publishes  (FR) a list of francophone journalists who cover Africa.


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Ghana: Ferry boat accident · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

My Heart is in Accra reports and comments on the ferry accident on Lake Volta in Northern Ghana in which a boat built to carry 70 passengers had at least 150 on board.  So far only 3 bodies have been recovered.


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Guatemala: Film Review · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Blog de Esquipulas has an intriguing review (ES) of the movie Fronteras Sangrientas, which was filmed in rural Guatemala.


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Honduras, El Salvador: The Soccer Wars of 1969 · Global Voices
David Sasaki

“On July 14, 1969, Honduras and El Salvador went to war. The 100 hour war took 6000 lives, 12,000 were wounded, and 50,000 people rendered homeless The cause was ostensibly the World Cup matches between Honduras and El Salvador qualifying for Mexico '70.” Shourin Roy gives context to the tragedy on SoccerBlog.com.


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Hong Kong: Future of China · Global Voices
John Kennedy

SimonWorld links to an article from mainland China-born but American-based political science professor Pei Minxin which, Simon says, contains “brave observations about why we should be pessimistic about political liberalization following on from economic liberalization.”


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Hong Kong: Remains of the war · Global Voices
John Kennedy

BigWhiteGuy Randall posts on the unearthing this week of “a massive stockpile” of leftover World War Two explosives from just three feet below an inner-Hong Kong street.
“From what I understand, the hills around the old West Brigade headquarters at the Wong Nai Chung Gap are still loaded with munitions,” he adds.


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Hong Kong: Spending questioned · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Nathan “n8ma” Madsen writes on his Xanga blog about the controversy surrounding Hong Kong Chief Executive Officer Donald Tsang's plans to relocate government headquarters into a new complex which will also house the Special Administrative Region's Legislative Council.
“I wonder,” Nathan asks, “does Sir Donald want to relocate the HQ to Tamar so everyone in government is forced to look out their windows and gaze on the PLA soldiers next door, doing bayonet practice at the old Prince of Wales Building? Yeah, that's probably the reason.”


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Hungary: Little or No Blogger Reaction to Election · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Henrik of Hungarian Accent comments on the bloggers’ lack of response to the recent general election in Hungary.


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India: More on reservations · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

River's Blue Elephants reflects on personal experiences as someone who has handled admissions process in a college to talk about the reservations issue in the Indian Education System.


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Iran: Journalists Fired! · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Alpar (Persian), Iran based blogger, has informed us that many journalists who work for ILNA ( Iran Labour News Agency) have been fired. It seems that there is no budget. Most journalists worked for political section of Agency.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Jamaica: Homophobic blog? · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Mad Bull wonders if the homophobic agenda of a Jamaican blog called Killbattyman.org is a huge joke — or deadly serious.


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Japan: Private education · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Lee at Tokyo Times ‘pokes’ a little fun at the opening this past weekend of Kaiyo Academy, an all-boys boarding school modeled after Britain's Eton College.


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Japan: Technology overload · Global Voices
John Kennedy

“Laptop computers, mobile phones, hand-held devices, MP3 music players and even the occasional photocopy machine fill the carriage with a cacophony of unpleasantness. It's high-tech gone mad,” writes the Englishman in Osaka blogger of Japanese trains.


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Kenya: air crash · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

4Sheezy writes on the Kenyan air crash in which 14 politicians were killed on Monday. ….”My heart goes out to all of their families. Most of all to Dr Bonaya Godana's family. Dr Godana rose from being a herdsboy to a serious intellectual.He fought tirelessly for pastoralists in the area he represented in parliament.This man represented more than leadership. He was a symbol of hope for his people and indeed the whole citizenry.”


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Kenya: Soccer blog · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Kenyan Soccer is a new blog dedicated to covering the Kenyan soccer scene. More African soccer blogs wanted please!


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Kenya: Yet another rape poem · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Gukira has an excellent commentary on violence against women and rape in particular.  He asks why there are so many rape poems written…”.For these rape poems, whatever their formal merits, suggest how women understand their structural position within gendered norms. The rape poem captures the experience of space and time, in which routes taken during the day may not be traversed at night….And it captures whispered stories told to close friends, often accompanied by binding promises: don’t tell anyone, please. Even now, I do not betray these secrets”.


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Korea: Free trade agreement · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Talks over a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the United States and Korea are seen by many as an opportunity to further an anti-American agenda, writes Joshua from The Korea Liberator, possibly resulting in no FTA and an accelerated deterioration in the U.S.-Korean relations.
He continues: “With key elections approaching at the end of May, the hyenas pounced with a stunning swiftness…even for sleazy Korean politicians. The scavengers are now questioning the deal—which is fine—but the lowest of them are comparing a possible trade agreement to the Japanese colonization of Korea—which isn't. Comparing U.S. trade negotiators to those who forced hundreds of thousands of Koreans into forced labor and sexual slavery is the sort of gutter incitement worthy of men who can't remember which end of the alimentary canal ought to do the talking.”


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Kyrgyzstan: From Such Darkness… · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Larry Tweed, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, writes about the thoughts that follow waking up to the muezzin's morning call to prayer.


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Kyrgyzstan: Trilingualism · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

David Read writes that his young son is speaking three languages–Kyrgyz, Russian, and English–and wonders how he can make sure his son is able to use all three.


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Mexico: Encordados · Global Voices
David Sasaki

León Felipe Sánchez introduces the Mexican rock band Encordados whose latest album is licensed under Creative Commons and freely available for download.


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Mongolia: Paid Protesters · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Luke Distelhorst has an update on the protests in Mongolia and reports that one of the country's political parties has paid students to stage a counterprotest.


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Mongolia: Shadow Government · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Luke Distelhorst of neweurasia writes that Mongolia's Citizens’ Will Party is forming a shadow government and hoping that the Democratic Party will join them.


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Nepal: Roles neighbours play · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

What role does India have to play as Nepal burns even after the strike at Nepali Netbook -“How can the world’s most populous democracy sit by and watch the palace desecrate the democratic aspirations of the Nepalese people?”


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Nepal: Violence in Gongabu · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The strike in Nepal was dotted with violence. United We Blog! on what happened in Gongabu – “Armed police fired more than hundred rounds of real bullets as the bloodiest people-police clash at Gongabu injured more than 130, some of whom are serious”


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Nigeria: Abuse of power · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Ijebuman's Diary discusses abuse of power and asks ” What is it that turns man into a monster when he has power over others?” He points to an op/ed in the UK Guardian “The Last Word on Power” for an answer.


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Nigeria: Book review – The Edible Woman · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Ore's notes reviews “The Edible Woman” by Margaret Atwood.…”it was an interesting concept to me – the idea of our subconcious and our bodies rejecting decisions that we are making or not making (as in Marian's case). The idea of our bodies rebelling by rejecting food was also fascinating.”


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No interest in local music · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Conspiracypenguins lament on the lack of interest in local music in  Singapore.


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Panama: Article on Blogging · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jorge Yau points to (ES) an article (ES) in the newspaper Panamá América about Panamanian blogs including Melissa de León's CookingDiva and the popular tech blog for women, TechnoChica.


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Peru’s First Round Elections · Global Voices
David Sasaki

With about 85% percent of the votes counted, the fate of Peru's second round presidential elections depends largely on the narrow (and narrowing) race between moderate leftist Alan García and pro-business candidate Lourdes Flores who currently trails García by only one percentage point. The University of British Columbia-based weblog Peru Election 2006 has a handy graph of each candidate's percentage share of votes as more and more of the ballots get counted. What started as a tight race between all three candidates gave nationalistic firebrand Ollanta Humala a comfortable first place margin while Lourdes – who many had predicted to win – slipped into third place as more rural votes were counted.
With a touch of comic metaphor, “Inka-Wolfy” of Un Lobo en Perú describes “the race.”
The battle for second place however is as close and competitive as it gets. Alan Garcia, the veteran from Team APRA, delivered a very good race so far, exceeding expectations from the get-go. He was able to keep his car's nose in Flores’ gear box right from the start and waited patiently for his opportunity. And it payed off. Some 40 laps ago he charged ahead into second place in a rather unspectacular move, overtaking Flores in turn 3. The reason may well be his new aerodynamic, wind-channel tested, Armani racing suit that works as his lucky charm. Cameras showed his wife Pilar and his children biting their fingernails in tense excitement.
Lourdes Flores, driving for wealthy Team UN, ran in second for most of the race, keeping Garcia in her rear-viev mirror. However, she has lost her 6th gear in lap 410 and the mechanics crew wasn't able to fix it. To make matters worse, one can notice a little bit of white smoke coming out of her engine… not a good sign. However, she's trying desperatly to stay in Garcia's slipstream and hoping for a late surge. Racing fans are speculating about a secret little red button they saw on her dashboard which many believe will ignite some sort of turbo effect. So far it isn't working and her international sponsors (Starbucks, TGIF, KFC, Nestle, BMW and others) are getting nervous and start wondering if she has it in her.
Of course, by “international sponsors” he is referring to Flores’ overwhelming support by the business class, both in Peru and abroad. A.M Mora y Leon takes yesterday's gains in the Peruvian financial market as a sign that Flores will beat out Humala in the second round, but in a comment Inka-Wolfy says he believes that it is Garcia who has the best chance against Humala in the next round.
Peruvian-American Maria, writing from San Francisco, describes her family's disappointment in the apparent first round win by Ollanta Humala:
Basically, Ollanta Humala is in the lead of the race. With 30% of the popular votes, he has secured his place in the second running (this due to the lack of a majority vote). From a democratic perspective, this is not a good sign. He has promised to ‘share the wealth’ of Peru amongst the excluded population; the non-european descent population. Which ideally, it is a great concept but very unfeasible with a country like mine – Peru. Peru needs foreign investment to boost the economy, provide for more jobs and be able to remain expanding the growth that the country has been going through for the past 52 months. Having a Peru follow the Chavez-Venezulean model just brings more chaos, foreign animosity and he (Ollanta) will most likely overthrow the congress to build a new one to his favor.
This race is becoming to nerve wrecking for my family, my peruvian friends and myself. We are in the midst of a nervous breakdown. This is either the beginning of the end of Peru, or the begining of a more hopeful future.
Maria goes on to mention that Flores still has some hope to make the second round because Peruvian votes from abroad – thought to favor Flores – have yet to be counted. Maxwell A. Cameron does some number crunching in a post titled “Could voters abroad decide this election?” and comes to the conclusion that if Flores gets 65% of the ballots from abroad, it could lift her into second place. But Juan Rodriguez comments that Cameron did not include the remaining domestic votes to be counted and that he sees little chance of Flores making it to the second round. Patrice also notes that the votes from abroad could have an effect on the final results and warns, like many bloggers, that “the suspense will probably only terminate when 100 percent of the votes have been counted.”
Perú Político, a group blog by four Peruvian students and advised by Professor of Philosophy Raúl Valenzuela, also emphasizes the crucial role that votes from abroad could play:
Por tanto, los votos decisivos están en las zonas rurales   alejadas y en el extranjero. Según Transparencia, hay 458 mil peruanos habilitados para votar en el extranjero. Es de suponer que una gran cantidad de ellos no acudieron a votar, pues muchas veces las mesas de sufragio están a varios cientos de kilómetros de distancia del lugar en donde reside el elector del extranjero. Según un comentario de nuestro lector Laslo, se estima que alrededor del 30 % de peruanos residentes en el extranjero acuden a votar. Esto representaría 0,83 % del   electorado total. En vista del margen que separa a García de Lourdes, este pequeño porcentaje bien puede ser decisivo.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to find support for the leading candidate, Humala Ollanta among Peru's blogging class. Meli, clearly a Flores supporter, says (ES):
Si Ollanta y Alan se van a la segunda vuelta, ¿por quién votaremos? Cualquiera sea el ganador de estos dos, yo creo que me voy… sí, me voy, ¡pero al cielo! Como decía mi adorado Bayly ayer: no sé sabe qué sería peor: si cortarte el testículo izquierdo o el derecho. Yo no tengo testículos, pero tengo corazón, y ahora está partío…
In a comment on Meli's post, Diva – a Peruvian living in Colombia – agrees:
Con el mismo corazón partío a la distancia. Yo felizmente sí voté muy tranquilamente. Hubo muchos peruanos en el consulado pero todo estuvo bien. Terrible nuestra situación como peruanos no? Qué pena que sucedan estas cosas. Como lo leí en un blog, parecemos más bien 2 países en vez de uno. Cada lado ve solo sus intereses.
The ever-comical Título del Blog gets a lot of comment applause after stating his own nihilistic interpretation of the vote results:
1.) El 30% de los peruanos está de acuerdo en cagar al país.
2.) El 25% tiene muy mala memoria.
3.) Otro 25% no votó por quien realmente quiso.
Foreshadowing the second round, which will take place in late May or early June, Boz predicts:
Expect an ugly second round. It's already been a very negative campaign from all sides and I expect that to continue into round two. About 45% of Peruvians will not see their round one choice running and will need to vote for their second option. This will lead to each side demonizing the other.
For the very latest results, check the website of the National Office of Electoral Processes (ES). For more reactions from Peruvian bloggers on the election results, visit this thread on BlogsPerú.


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Russia: Grigoriy Oster · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Raffi Aftandelian of maaskva: nashimi glazami translates a few poems by the Russian children's poet Grigoriy Oster, author of the Harmful Advice: A Book for Naughty Children and Their Parents.


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Russia: Sibir Airline Image Revamp · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Konstantin Dlutskiy of Russian Marketing Blog writes about Sibir Airline's new identity – and its new name: S7, or – if you listen to the airline's flight attendants – “Ass Seven.”


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Slovenia: PutFile’s ‘Collective Punishment Policy’ · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Michael of The Glory of Carniola reports on a video hosting site's ‘collective punishment policy’ toward Slovenians.


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Smog in Santiago · Global Voices
Rosario Lizana

Photo by pura naturaleza
Santiago is a very beautiful valley. The mountains are very impressive. That is, if you have the chance to see them.
Smog is a permanent problem that has no solution yet. In winter, between May and August the situation is critical.  We have three statuses for the contamination air levels:  environmental alert, pre-emergency and emergency. This is determined by the “Air quality index” that measures the amount of dust suspended in the air (different grain sizes).
Every contamination status has consequences on citizens. Every year, we have vehicular restriction and no solid combustion is allowed if you don’t have a double-chamber conversion. In the emergency status, schools are prohibited to do sports and some factories have to stop their engines. Fortunately, government environmental plans have been working. The CONAMA (ES), Environment Commission, only has registered 4 alerts and 2 pre-emergencies, the lowest index since 1997.
Smog is in our newspapers’ conversation, but is hardly mentioned in our blogs. Tourists experiences of visiting Santiago, also bring up the smog issue. In  “Charlies Travels,”  Santiago smog is described  “It was like walking through a smoky bar at times, but at least the transportation is efficient.”  Alison posts “the only down side of the city is the smog, its fall here and there´s no wind or rain to clear it away, so you´ll see in the pics its a little dirty”. Anneopreis’ blog has many posts about her experiences in Chile, all good. But, regarding smog:  “There is a lot of smog though, most of the time you can hardly see the andes surrounding entire santiago, it really is very bad”
For details of the contamination plan of Environment Commission click here (ES).

author: Rosario Lizana


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South Korea: Foreign migrant workers · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Occidentalism‘s Matt looks at a recent move by the South Korean government aimed at improving the situation of the country's foreign worker population.
“It is claimed to be so bad that foreign workers returning to their home countries start to actively campaign against Korea,” he notes. “The most well-known case of this is an organisation in Thailand called the Anti Korean Interests Agency’ (AIKA) that threatened terrorist attacks against Korean targets, including Korean citizens in SE Asia, and Korean Air.”


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Sri Lanka: Rehabilitation · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Rehabilitation is an ongoing process in Sri Lanka. Sarvodaya on a project in which “Thirty houses in Galle district were ceremonially handed over to Tsunami-affected families in the villages of Akurala and Kahawa.”


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Taiwan: Cross-straits relations · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Rank Beginner of the Taiwan-based blog Rank pre-empts Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan's visit to China scheduled for Thursday with a look at recent China-Taiwan diplomatic talks and the prediction of a subtle yet important declaration.


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Texting and bad spellings · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Leodini, a Filipino magician and blogger complains about  the  increase in misspellings because of text messaging.


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Traffic In Viet Nam · Global Voices
Tu Van Cong

The traffic can be a nightmare for visitors to Viet Nam for the first time. Believe it or not, there are transport rules but people don't seem really interested in following them. Three or four people on one motor bike is a common sight, particularly with the young and young families.
The traffic is worst during the rush hour when everyone is attempting to get to work or get home quickly. Some people ride their motorbikes on the pavement rather than waiting in the a traffic jam. The people walking are just as likely to get hit on the pavement as they are crossing the roads at such times. It's crazy.  Road users become very impatient, constantly using their horns when there's obviously nowhere to go, even shouting at others to get out of the way. You have to be quite aggressive or you get nowhere.
Another point which is concerning is the increase in the number of cars on the road. People may think that Vietnam is a poor developing country,  but in Hanoi there is an incredible number of cars, a lot owned by the government but increasing numbers owned by private individuals. Recently, the government approved a policy to allow second hand cars to be imported, which is only going to add the the congestion in big cities like Hanoi and Saigon.
Food blogger Noodlepie down in Saigon mentions that “he gave up driving a motorbike in Vietnam about three or four years ago” because it gave him ” zero pleasure and mucho stresso”. To see what the driving conditions are like in Saigon, check out the short video on his post.
While the increase in car use and congestion are serious problems, the most annoying thing about the traffic in Hanoi is the way people use their horns. It's a habit which serves no purpose most of the time. A disturbing trend is the fashion for installing air horns on motorbikes. Of course this is not allowed in the city but the traffic police in Hanoi seem to be so overwhelmed by the volume of traffic that little can be done. This is really annoying for other people and sometimes it causes accidents. To avoid the horns, take Our Man in Hanoi's advice and get some driving music together for journeys on the back of a xe om(motorbike taxi).
Recently departed Hanoi blogger, Hanoi Mark, in a post about his “most vivid images and experiences” of living in Viet Nam, captures another unique side of the Hanoi traffic from “under his big plastic poncho raincoat”.
There is definitely something strangely addictive about the traffic experience in Viet Nam especially for foreigners. However, the traffic conditions are seem to be getting worse, not better. It is really worrying to think about what the situation will be like in the next five years or so.

author: Tu Van Cong


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Travelling in rural Laos · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Scruffydan is travelling through Laos and he encounters the rural life and a river that flows through a 7.5 km cave.


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Trinidad & Tobago: World Cup suggestions & a comic book · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Stacy-Marie Ishmael of the Trinidad & Tobago World Cup Blog posts her answers to the question of how the World Cup can be improved. She also reports that a comic book is being produced in tribute to the Soca Warriors, Trinidad & Tobago's national football team.


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Uganda: Valid but not free or fair? · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Black Star Journal comments  on High Courts decision that the Ugandan elections are “not free or fair but still valid”

author: Sokari Ekine


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Ukraine: Promoting Books in Ukrainian · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A group of Ukrainian LJ users concerned about the sorry state of Ukrainian-language book publishing had a lively discussion on how the situation could be improved. One blogger even drew a parallel with the Aymara language of faraway Bolivia.
Below are just a few snippets of this conversation (UKR):
swalllage-kits: […] A publishing house – Fact, I guess – has declared this year the year of Ukrainian book in Ukraine.
Here's an idea: all conscious citizens should push out Russian-language literature from its position of being the leader of public transportation reading. I've been deliberately reading on the metro for a month, relentlessly trying to show that what I'm reading is a UKRAINIAN book.
So, do read in Ukrainian conspicuously – those of you who support this idea (somewhat marginal for our country): domination of the Ukrainian-language product and information ;)
otar: […] I read books exclusively, or almost exclusively, in Ukrainian :-) I don't read in marshrutkas, though, because I rarely manage to get a seat. In general, this is a wise idea, but I'm afraid it won't be supported by the majority that thinks “it doesn't matter in what language” :(
raw-stick: yeah, it may work. i think each little thing like this is important, because together they create a “cumulative effect.” In marshrutka, though, I can promote only the Lviv Gazette this way :)
swalllage-kits: this proposition is for the active segment of LJ users, who understand the magnitude of the problem. There are quite a few of people like this, as far as I know […]. and when they share it with friends, there'll be everyone :)
otar: I once had a similar idea […]: when you're buying a book in Russian, you first give me its title, and I send you a cheap copy in Ukrainian :)) I'll implement this idea one day, when my salary is at least 500 bucks.
swalllage-kits: […] it's necessary to translate, to organize this at a state level […]. but as I'm writing this, I don't really believe it'll lead to anything.
hey, how about calling publishers and asking them whether they've got such-and-such-and such in Ukrainian? ;) if we do at least 5-6 such pranks a week – maybe it'll get them thinking? ;)
iozhikov: To call publishing houses is a good idea. Also, to ask in bookstores.
didaio: They don't understand Ukrainian in Dnipropetrovsk bookstores. Even when you're asking about Russian books. Any other ideas?
trina-ka: And in Kharkiv [bookstores] they now understand ;-) maybe this will happen in Dnipropetrovsk if you start asking?!
iozhikov: Ask in Russian :-)
trina-ka: No, ask in Ukrainian – and then translate, if they somehow fail to understand ;-) politely, without arrogance ;-)))))
[…]
didaio: I'd like to create an internet shop to sell Ukrainian books. Startup capital for this is available. But it's been five months and I can't get myself to do a business plan. And without one, I doubt it'll work. I'm looking for people with a similar interest. Email: didaio[at]gmail.com
[…]
didaio: Without thinking, I can name ten non-primitive books that are available in Russian but absent in Ukrainian. I can name books that are available in Ukrainian but are impossible to obtain in Dnipropetrovsk.
The problem with the Ukrainian-language literature isn't the lack of demand […], but the lack of publishers, authors and distribution. And reading in public won't solve the problem.
[…]
yacutu: […] The main thing isn't to promote the Ukrainian language to the masses, but to promote respectful attitude toward it. […] The general idea is this: if Ukrainian is esteemed, people will speak it, and learn it, and translate into it. And [swalllage-kits] has been told already: […] do a Whitman translation. You can do it. And post it in LJ. This will be your contribution. And those who cannot translate Whitman, let them do linguistic PR. And that'd be okay, too.
[…]
yacutu: Some more history. During the war for independence in Bolivia, at the beginning of the 19th century, 9o percent of the population spoke Aymara. And these Indians were the chief force directed by the Spanish-speaking Masons – leaders of the anti-Spanish rebellion. And what happened then? Today, some 5-15 percent – don't remember exactly – speak Aymara in Bolivia, and not all of them have a decent knowledge of it. Even though it's one of the richest, most flexible and most expressive languages in the world. It's even used as an intermediary language for computerised translation – as the language most fit to express any idea for further translation from, say, Finnish or Hungarian – into Basque or Ukrainian. That is, specialists think it can recreate nuances of certain phrases without losing any of the meaning, making it possible for the languages with different structures to “understand” an idea with all shades of meaning it carries. In Sweden, as far as I know, there exists such a translation project. And at home the language is neglected, even though it has the official language status. Why? Look at their poetry… well, here [swalllage-kits] is making a good point about [Taras] Shevchenko. There's nothing to read. Shevchenko's cool, that is, but poets like Whitman, Garcia Lorca, Auden are also needed, and there should be prose like that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, because he is being read in Spanish and no one writes like this in Aymara, and from there journalism would appear, etc. Turns out political independence and formal official status don't mean anything. But if they had taken their language to the world level at some point in the past – through translations, even – it would've been different. And if they'd had enough translations of the world classics, their own literature would've emerged. The parallel is obvious, I hope.
***
Here're Wikipedia entries on some of the subjects mentioned above:
Marshrutka: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshrutka
Ukrainian language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Language
Taras Shevchenko: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taras_Shevchenko
Dnipropetrovsk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnipropetrovsk
Kharkiv: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharkiv
Aymara language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aymara_language


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Under Pressure Journalists & Nuclear Crisis · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Saminejad’s, jailed blogger, lawyer said court rejected their appeal and he is supposed to remain in prison for next ten months. ISNA, Iranian Students National Agency, has published this  news (Persian).
A hot issue in blogs is Seymour Hersh, investigative journalist, article and interviews that US may  bomb Iran by nuclear weapons to stop Iran's nuclear project.
Mr.Behi, an Iran based blogger, writes his feeling and thought about this story. Blogger says:
“I am starting to believe that we are living in a haphazard time of human history! Can still not be live what I hear about the talks of using nuclear weapons against Iran's nuclear sites! Hey, do you hear me? We are people down here! Can you understand that?
I just know that when US says something and EU calls it stupid and then UK says it is not probable, it will happen!
That is good way of leading the public, first you say “I will use nuclear weapons or it is a wide speculation” then everyone starts criticising the idea, and after a while you say “OK, OK I will only use the regular bombs” and everyone will be smiling ear to ear!”
Abtahi (Persian), reformist politician & blogger, talks about recent threats against journalists. According to Abtahi, Shargh, a reformist journal, editor says after finishing job at night nobody goes home alone. EtemadeMeli’s which is run by Mr.Karoubi, a reformist  cleric, has been attacked by a  Molotov cocktail. Abtahi says we can not do anything but at least we must write about these events.
Tajzadeh (Persian) considers US public opinion becomes ready for an attack to Iran. He says recent reports by Fox News shows 85 percent consider Iranian nuclear program has military objectives. He adds 16 percent believe Iran is an immediate danger for US and 40 percent considers a danger in near future.
Tajzadeh says Iranian government’s propaganda about Iranian missiles power and declaration that Israel must be wiped off from map, have united all major countries against Iranian nuclear program and now Iranian case is on United Nations Security Council’s desk.


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Why intellectual politicians loose out · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Indonesian blogger A. Fatih Syuhud analyzes why intellectual politicians loose out to the “stupid ones” in elections.


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Zimbabwe: No health care · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

This is Zimbabwe writes a post on the lack of medical care in Zimbabwe and how this impacts on sick children.


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A trip to Brunei · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Saifulrizan from Labuan, Malaysia takes a ferry to nearby Brunei and blogs about his experiences there.


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Afghanistan: Revenue Differences! · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Dialogue 3 (Persian) says that income disparity on the rise in Afghanistan. A soldier can only get 700 dollars per year while a businessman makes 600,000 dollars!


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Africa:Overstating AIDS · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

My Hearts in Accra comments on the presentation of AIDS in Africa and the tendency to misrepresent the actual figures… Africa is hurt in some complicated ways by the reinforcement of the equation “Africa = AIDS”…..How hard will we have to work to get people to understand what the crisis really is… and really isn’t?


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Argentina: Sacrificing the Unthinkable · Global Voices
David Sasaki

“Given my multinational beef eating experiences, I am the first to promote the superior quality of Argentina’s meat” says Diego in Altered Argentina. But find out why his favorite food is under attack in Argentina. Included is a very handy chart of state-regulated prices depending on the cut.

author: David Sasaki


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Armenia: Smile! · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Zarchka writes that she wishes that smiling in public was more acceptable in Armenia.

author: Nathan Hamm


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Belarus: Lukashenko’s Health · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

TOL's Belarus Blog shares rumors of Aleksandr Lukashenko's poor health reported in the German Focus Magazine.


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Benin: New President’s Cabinet · Global Voices
Alice Backer

The blog of recently elected President Boni Yayi publishes (FR)  a decree listing the members of his newly formed cabinet.


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Blogging 101 for librarians · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Filipino Librarian blogs about a presentation titled “Blogging 101 for Librarians” that he gave at a gathering of Southeast Asian Librarians.

author: Preetam Rai


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Bolivia: Remembering Victor Hugo Daza · Global Voices
David Sasaki

With descriptive words and somber reflection, Jim Shultz describes his time in Cochabamba's cemetery, where family and friends gathered to remember Victor Hugo Daza, killed by the military at the age of 17 while protesting against the privatization of local water supplies.


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Botswana: Blogswana funding · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Blogswana explains the  funding strategy of Blogswana (blogging for AIDS project in Botswana)


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Brazil:Varig Airlines Bankruptcy · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Brazil's Varig has joined Mexico's Aerocalifornia and Bolivia's LAB on the growing list of Latin American airlines struggling to get by according to Made in Brazil.


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Call centre outsoursing woes · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Filipino blogger J. Angelo Racoma questions the logic behind a bill that the US Senate Commerce Committee is considering. The bill requires that call centre employees disclose what country they are in.


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China: Documented human rights abuses · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Ten years in the making, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights’ ‘Report on China Mission of Special Rapporteur on Torture‘ came out last month. Donald C. Clarke of the Chinese Law Prof blog gives a review and two links. “It is a sober and comprehensive treatment of many aspects of the criminal justice system that gives credit where credit is due,” he says, “but pulls no punches. For those who don't have Word,” continues Clarke, “here is the report in PDF format.”
Chapter four: ‘Deprivation of liberty for political crimes and forced re-education as a form of inhuman or degrading treatment.’


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China: Foreign involvement in Chinese media · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Danwei blogs—and China Herald too—on China Central Television's newly-revamped English-language website, developed in cooperation with media magnate Rupert Murdoch and designed with help from Fox News.
“Fortunately,” quips Fons from the Herald, “it also has no RSS-feeds, so I can avoid this new tool to fall asleep.”


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China: Qing Ming festival · Global Voices
John Kennedy

An astute observation in a post at The Useless Tree regarding China's Qing Ming festival—which took place last week—in which people go and sweep the graves of their relatives:
“If you go to a graveyard to sweep the tomb of your parents, and if you speak out about how they may have died, you may be telling stories that the current regime does not want to hear, stories that push against a simplistic nationalist narrative of continuous and unsullied national greatness.”


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China: Tiananmen revisited · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Richard from The Peking Duck updates on PBS’ upcoming documentary on the man who on June 5, 1989 stood in the way of a line of China's People's Liberation Army tanks pushing into Tiananmen square, and links to a website PBS has which focuses on that man.
“I've just spent more time scrolling through the site, and all I can say is that it is extraordinary. What a great service,” writes Richard. “Lots of eyewitness accounts from the likes of John Pomfret, Jan Wong, Orville Schell and others. The entire upcoming Frontline program on the Tank Man will be availabe for viewing online at the site as of Friday at 5PM (EST, I presume). To those of you in China, has this site been locked behind the Great Firewall yet?”


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Crime in Johor · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

The blogger at Frus and Fuss asks if something can be done to reduce the rising crime rate in the Malaysian state of Johor.


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Cuba: Birthday blog list · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Regalado.blogia.com celebrates (es) her first anniversary with a catalog of some of the blogs and bloggers with whom she has made connections in the past year.


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Dominica: The role of the Caribs · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Maximilian C. Forte comments on the role to which Dominica's government appears to have relegated the country's indigenous population: “The Caribs seem to be slotted as mere window dressing in a professed strategy of developmentalist diversification, thus reduced to playthings for foreign tourists, and reduced to “resources” in the calculations of economists.”


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Dominican Republic: Deportees and film premiere · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Daily Dominican Republic News reports that the US Immigration and Naturalization Service has deported 942 Dominican ex-convicts so far this year, and that the premiere of the film “The Feast of the Goat”, based on Mario Vargas Llosa's novel about Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, took place in Santo Domingo.


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DRC: Is Tshisekedi an Extremist? · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Over at Le Blog du Congolais, Ben-Clet analyzes  (FR) the “180 degree turn”  in  the international image of UDPS leader Etienne Tshisekedi from sympathetic  Mobutu opponent in the 90s to modern-day extremist. Among factors, Ben-Clet cites the fall of the Berlin wall, the fact that Congolese national interests often clash with international business interests and yes, Tshisekedi's tendency not to engage in compromise. He concludes that  Tshisekedi is an experienced politician who understands the complexities of a unipolar world rather than an Al Qaeda type.


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DRC: Kabila Resigns from Army · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Renouveau Congolais deplores (FR) the fact that interim president Joseph Kabila signed the decree that accepts his resignation from the DRC's army … himself: “How can the one resigning sign his won resignation? Only a PPRD member can accept such a thing.”


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Ecuador: Ecuador in the 60’s · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Mysterious as it is informative, the weblog The Wolf Report continues its series of “The Importance of Being Ecuador.”


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Ethiopia: religion · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Ethiopian blogger, Aqumada posts on Ethiopians and Religion and posts an article called “Soul Searching” by Fasil Yitbarek.


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Guadeloupe: Maryse Condé reading · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Geoffrey Philps reports on a reading by Guadeloupean writer Maryse Condé at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida.


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Hong Kong: Same sex discourse · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Has Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain given homophobia a foothold within the Cantonese language? The flagrant harbour blogger gives us the both the short and long answer in ‘Brokeback Mounting.’


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Hungary: Recycling · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Timbo of The Hungary Years writes about recycling and “not wasting” in Hungary.


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Imagining Ourselves · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Kenyan Pundit writes on a project called “Imagining Ourselves” which is “a platform for young women to create positive change in their lives, their communities, and the world.”


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India: Movements for justice · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Bhopal Blog provides an update on the fight for justice for the victims of the Bhopal Gas tragedy, and comments on the hunger fast, while commenting on the meeting point with the Narmada Movement – “As both enter a very critical phase of respective struggles, we can sense something big is about happen. Something that will determine the fate of these two and consequently many others to whom these serve as inspiration and models.”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Iran: A Model Society? · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Amshaspands (Persian) writes Iranian President in his declaration that Iran has started to enrich uranium, talked about Islamic Republic as a model several times. Blogger says God knows Islamic Republic is a model for whom?


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Jamaica: Peace Corps bloggers · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Francis Wade runs across a few blogs by Peace Corps volunteers working in Jamaica.


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Japan: Yasukuni shrine visits · Global Voices
John Kennedy

The Japundit links to a story in which recently-elected leader of Japan's Democratic Party Ichiro Ozawa suggests “that visits to Yasukuni shrine are the main cause of problems with Japan's neighbors,” a view which Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi rejected.
Next up is a review of writer Hillary Raphael's first novel I [heart] Buddha: “Set in the late 1990s in, yes, Tokyo, the novel tells a very interesting story of a group called “the Neo-Geisha Organization,” and yes, as you might have guessed, it's a kind of sex-and-death cult with hedonist ideology,” which, the blogger writes, “reads like manga, sounds like hard techno, and feels like some kind of fetish. Weighing in at 192 pages and retailing for around US$15, it's a work of postmodern chick-lit literature worth looking into.”


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Kenya: air crash · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Steve Ntwiga Mugiri reports and comments on the Kenyan air crash last Monday...”The death of these citizens is a great loss to the country especially that of Dr. Godana whom I feel was one of the few politicians in the country who used his solid educational and professional as a launch pad to champion the cause of his constituency and Kenyans in general in a very articulate and public way”


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Kenya: Rudeness in the Blogosphere · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Diary of a Mad Kenyan Woman comments on rudeness in the blogosphere.  In particularl she  picks out those who conduct their rudeness annoymously or by using pseudonyms’.. …..”I am thinking of various debates I have been reading in our blog world, and of those who find it necessary especially when leaving comments to use a kind of violence in language that wounds my sensibilities as well as my mind”


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Kyrgyzstan: Instability · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Registan.net writes about the attempted assasination of Edil Baisalov, the president of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society and blogger, arguing that it's yet another sign that the political situation in the country is quickly deteriorating.


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Kyrgyzstan: Legislation · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Sasha writes about the state of legislation in Kyrgyzstan.


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Kyrgyzstan: Yurts for America · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Alan Cordova notes that Kyrgyzstan is offering yurts for $10,000 each for temporary housing for Hurricane Katrina victims. Alan wonders if this is the government's latest get rich quick scheme.


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Malaysia-Singapore bridge  · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

KTemoc discusses the surprise Malaysian decision to halt the construction of a controversial bridge between Malaysia and Singapore.


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Moldova: Russia Bans Moldovan Wine Imports · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Peter Myers of Adventures in Moldova writes about Moldovan wine industry and the potentially disastrous consequences of Russia's ban of wine imports from Moldova.


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Musings from some West African Blogs  · Global Voices
Imnakoya

Chippla’s Weblog muses about nepotism in a prose titled: The Minister’s Son. The setting of his narrative is Nigeria. Here is an extract:
“I asked why the Internet connection at the office wasn't working. They said the contract had been given eight months ago. I asked to whom the contract was given. They said no one really knew, but rumors had it that it went to the Minister's son. “Which Minister?” I asked. “The Minister of Science and Technology,” they replied… I was later able to confirm that the contracts to get the internet connection working as well as lay fiber optic cables across the complex were shamelessly given to the son of the Minister of Science and Technology.”
Christians worldwide will celebrate Easter this weekend.  Easter is a  celebration of death and resurrection of Jesus.  Black Looks discusses the holy week (Semana Santa) in Spain:
“Its Semana Santa here in Spain  (Holy Week).  I love it –  7 days of  processions which last for hours until the early hours of the morning,  the  ritual, the street atmosphere, the people participation, the noise, the music, the rhythm of the swaying pasos de la pasion (floats) with the “imagenes” carried by up to 52 men hidden under red, black or white velvet.  I love the lament to the Virgin Mother of the lone singer, the knocking (martillo) by the guides  on the pasos, the intermittent shouts of “adelante” (forward) and “Valiente” (have courage) as grown men crawl on their knees in penance carrying the paso and imagene up and down ramps in and out of churches and cathedrals – is that perverse, some sort of sadism rearing its head in my  mind? ”
The Black Star Journal gives an update on the Guinean crisis, stating the “political situation in Guinea remains in flux.” This “flux” emanates from the sacking of reformist prime minister Cellou Dalien Diallo hours who ironically was given increased powers via a presidential decree before he was sacked.  The blog states the crisis “appears to be merely the start of what could become a prolonged succession crisis.”
Timbuktu Chronicles discusses land management and food production via a post titled “Garden Africa”  The blogs states the projects “promote practical solutions emphasising the importance of integrating traditional systems of land management and food production as a means of addressing vulnerability and stimulating localised economic development…”
Notes from West Africa, a blog authored by Scott Harrison , a volunteer photo-journalist onboard a hospital-ship Anastasis stationed in Liberia, highlights the ordeal of Marthaline, a woman afflicted with a oral cancer:
“…The offensive mass was removed by Mercy Ship surgeons in a simple hour and a half procedure. We found her on the outskirts of Monrovia. She lives with 12 people in a house about half the size of my last Manhattan apartment. … The tumor took out almost all of her bottom teeth. The volunteer dentist from America took wax molds and chose 8 false teeth. He asked Marthaline how she liked the spacing, and then made adjustments. She practiced smiling in a mirror. We paid $60 for her new smile…”
Ann, a Nigerian student union activist at University of California and a blogger at Culture Riot, rants about her experience running an African/black student union in her school.  She states, in post titled:  On The State of the Black Student Union: “A a card-carrying, badge-wearing, banner-flying,  skintone-proving member of the African/Black student population at UCSC, I am frustrated, angered and hurt by the sheer amount of drama it takes to run an organization that is supposed to represent Black students…”
Many of her problems stem from low attendance and poor participation by her fellow African/black students.  “Last quarter, the numbers of people attending the general meetings dropped to the low teens – sometimes even single digits”, she states.
“I want this community to thrive. I love to be a part of a community that supports its members and makes everyone feel welcome… And I think I've tried. Last quarter, when no one showed up to my event (which I memorized a Yoruba poem for, how tragic!), I was ready to quit. When I my grades were failing, I was ready to quit. But I didn't want to go down without a fight. And I won't let the perpetual self-destructiveness and unwillingness to change stop me now.”
Life in Cameroon authored by Jeniffer, an American teacher living in Cameroon (since August of 2005),  shares her experience (and pictures too !) at a Cameroonian wedding she attends recently:
“Two weeks ago I attended my first wedding in Cameroon… There were actually two ceremonies. The first was the “official” wedding at city hall and the second was at the church. I only attended the lively and colorful church wedding. Many of the attendees dressed in fabric according to whether they were friends or family of the bride or groom… Depending on the tradition of the village, the groom may need to offer gifts to the bride’s family if he has intentions to marry her. These offerings may include wood, wine, money, etc. The family will bless the wedding if they are happy with the groom’s offerings… I was also told that traditionally in Yaounde the bride, after marriage, may dance in the street to celebrate her happiness. Sometimes whole roads will be blocked. I have never seen this, but have seen many people drive around through town honking horns, waving, and screaming. It seems that people are truly celebrating!”
The final post on this week's west African weblog synopsis is on water.  “How can we harvest more rainwater in our cities to serve our drinking water needs and how can we recycle used bathing and washing water(reuse water) to flush our toilets?” This is gist of  the post titled: Reducing reliance on utility supplied water on the African Architecture and Design blog  authored by a Nigerian Architect.
“People might wonder if a borehole is not capable of satisfying all there water needs? Well it could, depending on the quality of the aquifers around where the borehole is located (for Lagos it apparently it has to be more than 250m deep so it can hit the Abeokuta formation), the depth of the bore hole, and the frequency of usage. There have also been a lot of cases especially in Lagos and Port Harcourt, Nigeria were some of the boreholes have been contaminated by seawater or crude oil… In Hong Kong they have a system is some areas that uses strained sea water to flush toilets and urinals. Maybe the municipal authorities of the costal cities in Africa could adopt such a system. I don't see the point in spending so much money to purify water only to have it used in flushing the toilet, what do you think?”

author: Imnakoya


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Nepal: Revolution in pictures · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Violence seems to continue without pause in Nepal - as the protest intensifies, even with the curfew being relaxed. Democracy for Nepal has some visuals.


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Nepal: Us and Them · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A moving account from a person who reflects on what it is to be like in Nepal at United We Blog! – “I am a charlatan that interviews a hungry Chepang woman, forcing her to speak out wasting whatever little chemical energy food has released in her body, when the meager one day meal is all she survives on. I am an imposter who is attempting to voice her thoughts in a platform that is merely for the privileged. That squatter dweller across the river is never going to read this, never going to tell us all what exactly it feels like to be out there.”


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Nigeria: Damilola Taylor · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

REALITY comments on Damiloa Taylor, the Nigerian schoolboy who was murdered outside his home in South London six years ago.…..”For six year now, the killers of this young lad have not be found. Four youths were tried and acquitted of Damilola's murder in 2002. Three other young men were cleared of murder after a second trial at the Old Bailey in 2006.”


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Nigeria: Visit of Diane Abbott · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Naijablog comments on the recent visit to Nigeria by Black British MP, Diane Abbott.  Specifically he responds to an article by Uche Nworah ” Is Dianne Abbot (MP) A Friend Of Nigeria” and writes that it is time for “Its time for Nigerians to stop getting so defensive when a foreigner speaks their truth. Its time for a reality check, and to realise that serious reform (economic and political) has yet to really begin.”


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Pakistan: Islamabad now · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Metroblogging Islamabad on how the city appears to have lost some of its shine. “Now the blue tiled watercourses and cascades at Pakistan Secretariat are lying dry and dirty. We really don't know what became of that ‘clay train’ in Saidpur village or if that water treatment plant there is still working or not.”


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Peru: Fighting for Second Place · Global Voices
David Sasaki

A.M. Mora y Leon hopes that the vote from abroad will carry conservative candidate Lourdes Flores into the second round of presidential elections. Enrique Mendizabal (ES) says that it would be difficult, but possible. In a comment, Giovann Alarcón says that he is doubtful of Flores’ chances.


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Russia: Comedian Mikhail Zadornov · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

W. Shedd of The Accidental Russophile posts a bio of Russian comedian Mikhail Zadornov and supplies a translation of two of his pieces: a Soviet-time “Conversation of a Rest Home Deputy Director with Guests on the Day of Their Arrival” and a more recent one, “Russian business, or the Eighth Wonder of the World.”


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Russia: Protest Over Racist Murder · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

David McDuff of A Step At A Time cites a report on a protest rally that took place in St. Petersburg yesterday, following the recent murder of a Senegalese student.


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Russia: VDNKh · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Snowsquare.com posts pictures and text from the All-Russian Exhibition Center in Moscow, formerly known as VDNKh.


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Slovenia: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Michael of The Glory of Carniola posts a video clip of the Slovenian version of Who wants to be a millionaire?, in which a contestant fails to answer the first question. Also, a past highlight of the Serbian version of the show.


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Songkran fun in Chiang Mai · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Greg at Vagabonding begins! joins the Songkran festivities in Chiang Mai. Songkran is also known as Water Festival and it marks the Thai new year.


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Songkran – the good and the bad · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Bangkok resident Chatchai Kongaut lists the pros and the cons of Songkran  festival.


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Sri Lanka: Setting back the clock · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Popular Economix on setting back the clock in Sri Lanka, more day light to save energy and issues that are the highlights of the decision to reset time.


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Tajikistan: Working in Russia · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

“Tajik Boy” writes about racist attacks on foreigners in Russia, a situation that worries the many Tajiks who work in Russia or have a relative who does. He says that neither the Russian nor the Tajik governments pay enough attention to the situation.


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The Moroccan blogosphere reacts to the threat of laying off one of its member and pays tribute to the late Fadi · Global Voices
Farah Kinani

This week, the Islamic world is celebrating the birthday of the prophet (PBUH). Merry Eid Al Mawlid to all Muslim bloggers.
To fire or..not to fire!
It's a “premiere” in Morocco. A blog  about a misuse of the Moroccan money leads to the resignation of the misuser(French). But, the good news end here, since no good deed goes unpunished. Rachid Jankari(French), the journalist blogger, author of the scoop had to delete the post about the scandal from his blog , or to loose his job! .
The blogger deleted the post only to find it published in many other Moroccan blogs as a form of solidarity.
Othmane Boumaalif(French) who was among the first bloggers to express his support to Jankari(French) received an email from the employer of the journalist blogger stressing that he has never threatened Jankari(French). Still, the boss wrote in his email that blogging is not that private.
As long as your music is not loud , no one would bother disturbing you. The minute it gets out of control, your neighbours will knock at your door asking you to adjust the volume. They're not kicking you out of your place but asking you to respect the neighbourhood.
Hmm..Got it Jankari?
Mohamed Slimani received the same email(French) and he says that the “neighbourhood thing” inspired him for his next post!
Bla francya wonders if the Moroccan blogosphere will have the same fate as the Chinese and Tunisian ones(Arabic) , where bloggers get fired as a punishment of their boldness.
M.S.Hjiouj says  he had a hard time understanding the “problem” since all the posts about it were in French. And he asks his fellow bloggers to start thinking of posting about important matters in Arabic(Arabic) since not everybody in Morocco reads French.
The only positive point of this scandal is that it shows that blogging in Morocco is becoming influential.
United we..blog!
Larbi wrote about the unprecedented solidarity action in the Moroccan blogosphere in a post titled Fresh air(French).
We express our support to Jankari..
Bluesman posted the “scandalous” article(French) to show his solidarity with Rachid Jankari.
Mchicha is very angry about the whole situation(French), she posts the article deleted from Jankari's blog and says:
I'm fed up ! They are chasing the freedom of expression even in the blogs!!
Although she realizes that this whole affair shows the new influence of blogging in Morocco(French), Nadia states that Rachid's family is going through a tough situation.
Adnane says that Jankari's article had a bomb effect, and shows his solidarity by republishing it in his blog(French).
Wadih is waiting for the reaction of the National Union of Moroccan Journalists(Arabic). He writes that the Moroccan journalist works in difficult conditions and needs more juridical protection.
Eulogies to Fadi
The Moroccan blogosphere is still mourning Fadi who died earlier last week.
Loula dedicated her latest post to the late blogger(French).
It was an honour to know you!
Salma cries her friend Fadi and pays him a tribute(French).
Your are the blogger who had the bigest impact on me!
Manal learned a lot from Fadi's wiseness(French). Her latest post was a farewell to a cherished friend.
Coup de coeur
I am definitely under the “charm” of the teacher's blog(Arabic). I find the idea very interesting and even though there is not much to say about the author, since he doesn’t display any information about him, I cannot help thanking him for the services his blog is providing to the Moroccan high school student .
The title of the blog made me smile. The content made me laugh. It's hilarious!
Hamida Mentoufa(French) (Hamida with uncombed hair)  is a Moroccan young woman who's trying to go on with her “normal”  life in the big , noisy and cosmopolit Casablanca. The posts are endless anecdotes about her depressing misadventures. It's really funny especially for those who, like me, used to live in Casablanca and went through “almost” the same misadventures of the one and only Mentoufa. Have a good laugh,everyone!
That's it for this week. See you next Wednesday, Inshallah!

author: Farah Kinani


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Ukraine: Akhmetov’s Botanical Garden Fiasco · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

LEvko of Foreign Notes reports on how Ukraine's richest man Rinat Akhmetov has failed to rob his native idustrial center Donetsk of its botanical garden.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Venezuela: Remembering the Coup · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jorge Arena has an almost comprehensive list of Anglophone Venezuelan bloggers who remarked on the fourth anniversary of the April 11th coup which temporarily removed Chavez from office. Oil Wars also comments on the anniversary including a partial translation of the “Carmona Decree” issued by the ever-so-brief transitional government.


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Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai on the attack · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Zimbabwean Pundit  comments on changes that are taking place in the MDC as leader, Morgan  Tsvangirai holds a series of rallys criticising the Mugabe regime.


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Argentina: Ernesto Sábato · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Cartoonist Bob Row uses his artistic pen to honor the Argentine humanist, Ernesto Sábato. You can learn more about Sábato on Wikipedia.


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Armenia: Safarov Sentenced · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Oneworld Multimedia notes that Azeri military officer Ramil Safarov has been sentenced to life in prison by a Hungarian court for the murder of an Armenian counterpart at a NATO Partnership for Peace training program two years ago. It is not clear whether or not he will serve his sentence in Hungary or Azerbaijan, where many consider him a hero.


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Armenia: The Past & Future · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Christian Garbis writes that Armenians are blinded by their past and do not appreciate that their current problems deserve their full attention. The Basturma Chronicles responds.


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Bahamas: Cultivating tolerance · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Sir Arthur Foulkes assesses tolerance levels in the Bahamas in light of reactions to the docking of a gay cruise ship and the banning of the film “Brokeback Mountain”.


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Barbados, Trinidad: Maritime dispute settled · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Linda Thompkins reports that the maritime boundary dispute between Barbados and Trinidad has been settled by a tribunal convened under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.


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Belize: Iguana season · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

It's iguana season in Belize, writes Simone Engeln: “If you were to drive though Belize these days, you would notice people standing by the side of the road holding up Iguanas. These are not their pets. They are offering them to you to buy. Again, not to keep as a pet….but to have for lunch.”


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Brazil: Bossa Nova Star Normando · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Blog.bossanova.fm introduces Normando Santos, one of the many giants of Brazilian bossa nova.


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Cambodian recipes · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Jojo points to a page with lots of Cambodian recipes.


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Cameroon: Privatization Under Way · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Fojrega provides (FR) an update on plans to privatize certain state-owned enterprises, some of which should be completed as early as  June of this year.


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Caribbean, Venezuela, USA: CARICOM talks with US · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Seeing it as evidence that the Caribbean has begun to resist the overtures of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, A. M. Mora y Leon links gleefully to a Miami Herald article which states that CARICOM is exploring the possibility of holding free trade talks with the US.


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China: Generation gap · Global Voices
John Kennedy

The Bingfeng Teahouse blogger uses subway passengers in Shanghai as a case study on the difference between generations in China:
“As you might find when you live here, the younger generations of china is quite different from the older ones and sometimes regarded as a new ‘race.’ Generally speaking, they are more individualist, independent and hedonistic, have less sense of hierarchy, work ethics and zero-sum mentality. I tend to avoid cooperating with middle-aged partners in business because from my experiences, many of them lack the qualities that are critical to business successes, like a win-win mentality, trust for others, respect for ‘game rules,’ tolerant for different opinions, etc.”


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China: Renewable energy increase · Global Voices
John Kennedy

The chinablawger looks at a law recently passed in China which will see the country's use of renewable energy rise from the current one percent of total energy usage to ten percent by 2010, a move which brought praise from Greenpeace.


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China: Taoist scripture · Global Voices
John Kennedy

The Useless Tree blogger posts a pacifist poem from the ancient Taoist scripture Tao Te Ching and dedicates it to Iranian and American presidents Ahmadinejad and Bush.


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China: Television exported · Global Voices
John Kennedy

In ‘Entertaining or subverting?: Chinese television tries to go global,’ the Angry Chinese Blogger looks at the possibility of nine mainland television stations being offered in Canada.
“In a move that is sure to please Canada's sizable Overseas-Chinese community, the country's largest basic cable provider, Rogers Cable, has announced that it is to push forward with a deal that could bring some of China's best known television stations to North American cable for the first time,” he writes.


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Coinciding festivals · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Toe, a Filipino blogger now living in Cambodia tries to figure out why the holy week, the Cambodian new year and several other events from different cultures coincide around the same time of the year.


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Dolphin watching in the Philippines · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

villageidiotsavant goes Dolphin watching near Cebu in the Philippines.


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DRC: Legal Void after June 30 · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Transitional institutions stop being constitutional after June 30, 2006, writes (FR)  blogger Mafelly-Makombo at Prince du Fleuve du Congo. He suggests that if elections should take place past that date, all of Congolese civil society including political parties and religious groups aided by the international community should be called on to negociate a new electoral calendar. Barring that kind of consensus  the blogger suggests the Congolese people might “take to the streets.”