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Monday Pacific Rim/East Asia Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Mr.Brown reports that Singapore’s most popular Chinese-language broadsheet ran a feature article about Singaporean bloggers and their upcoming conference.
Malaysian blogger Kenny Sia has his own particular take on the personal politics of blogging.
Following up on a piece from last Wednesday’s blog roundup, Danwei passes along the information that China’s latest blogstar, “Hibiscus Older Sister,” wants to be a movie star.
EastSouthNorthWest passes on information about interviews given to the Hong Kong press by Chen Xiwen, the vice-minister of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs. It’s an interesting interview, not least for the fact that Chen praises the Internet for allowing the central government to keep tabs on malfeasance by local officials. He also praises rural farmers for having ‘democratic awareness’, a phrase that probably carries different connotations in Chinese than in English.
Is there a Sino-Vatican thaw in the air? Those Who Dare is reporting that the Chinese government may be willing to acknowledge Rome’s supremacy in running the Catholic Church in China.
Glutter has a healthy roundup of posts and pictures from Friday’s anti-government protest; EastSouthWestNorth also posts pictures, including English translations of many of the Chinese-language signs.
A new group blog focused on civic affairs has launched in Hong Kong,  reports Chatter Garden. Written in Chinese, Civic Express features well-known local writers, including former LegCo member Christine Loh.
ThaRum’s Web writes about the importance of English education in Cambodia.
There’s going to be a Cambodian blogger meetup this Sunday in Phnom Penh. Webbed Feet, Web Log has the full details.
Cambodian blogger Lux Mean has been travelling around the country, leading workshops on “how to blog”. It looks like he’s been teaching them how to create basic blogspot blogs; the post also has links to some of the new blogs his student have been creating.
In another sign that the Cambodian blogosphere is ready for take-off, the Cambodian Information Center is now prominently featuring blogs in its sidebar.  Link via Cambodia4Kids.Org.
Photograph from EastSouthNorthWest


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Monday: Eastern Europe, Russia, NIS & Central Asia · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Afghan Lord has been receiving threats, and discovers they're coming from an IP address associated with the BBC.  (More on this in a separate post coming soon.)
Onnik Krikorian at Oneworld Multimedia reports on Vardavar, an ancient Armenian festival in which people douse each other with water. Sounds a bit like the Southeast Asian Songkran festival…
(Photo by Onnik Krikorian)
In the wake of a bomb blast in Daghestan that killed at least 10 Russian soldiers, A Step at a Time has translated from Russian a statement by Daghestan guerillas. (via Registan)
Digenis.org reports on the Live8 concert in Moscow.
All About Latvia.com explains how mountain peaks in the Pamir mountains which were once given pro-Soviet and Communist names are now getting re-climbed by mountaineers who want to rename them.
Orange Ukraine announces the creation of a new section of the site devoted to suspicious cabinet deaths.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rebecca MacKinnon


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Monday South Asia Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Now that KO’s internet access has finally been restored, he lets his opinion of PCTL, Pakistan’s national telephone company, be known. Hint: it’s not exactly positive.
United We Blog takes a long look at the pressure felt by Kantipur Publications, Nepal’s largest independent media organization.
The Indian blogosphere is starting a weekly “Blog Mela”, or collection of the best posts of the week. This week’s is hosted by Recursive Hypocrisy.
Dilip D’Souza is in South India, looking at tsunami-struck regions six months after the fact.
Photograph by Eileen Delhi

author: Paul Frankenstein


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Americas Roundup · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jeff Barry offers an in-depth reflection on the death of 194 young Argentinians who were caught inside the concert venue Cromagnon as it caught fire on December 30, 2004.
Blog de Viajes links to Argentinian tourism statistics for the year 2004 [es] and then questions if Latin America can quicken its pace in promoting tourism [es] and stop slipping behind the rest of the world.
Argenautas implores fellow ex-pat Argentinians to leave a message on Live 8 List [es] and generates some controversy with a message blaming IMF policy for Argentina's poverty.
Barrio Flores and MABB both write on the Bolivian Congresses agreement to hold general elections on December 4th. Meanwhile, Blog de Bolivia announces a return to regular commentary [es].
Fernando Flores has an excellent (though not complete) list of Latin American blog directories [es]. These (and others) will be added to the Bridge Blog Index soon.
VCRISIS features an article by Marta Colomina comparing Venezuela's Military Intelligence with Pinochet's DINA in Chile during the 1970's and 80's.
Matt Lawrence of Havana Journal writes on the House's decision to block efforts to ease U.S. sanctions against Cuba.
Don Xavier writes up a thorough summary of Ecuablogs 2005[es], which appears to have been a much more formal event compared to other blogger meetups. Complete with links to videos of the conference.
Eduardo Arcos complains of tag spam [es] and asks how to convert a Movable Type blog into Spanish [es] (surprisingly, it appears there is no documentation to be found).

author: David Sasaki


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Eastern Europe, Russia, NIS & Central Asia Daily Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Ben Paarmann is adventuring through the Kazakh immigration bureaucracy, in search of the elusive multi-entry visa.
Alan Cordova points out that, as it transitions from a Soviet state to an independent nation, Kazakhstan isn't just trying to decide between a common law system or a civil law system; they're struggling with what the meaning of ‘law’ is.
Photograph by Larry Tweed


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Global Voices meets the Mainstream Media · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Global Voices bloggers are showing up everywhere in the mainstream media these days! American Public Media's syndicated radio show, “Future Tense”, focuses on our project today. You can listen to the show online (in RealAudio) or, if you're in the US or Canada, tune in for the show. (Future Tense airs as part of “As It Happens” on the CBC).
Global Voices bloggers Rebecca MacKinnon, Hossein Derakshan and Jeff Ooi were featured guests on Boston radio station WBUR's “The Connection” last Thursday, along with our good friend Julien Pain from Reporters Without Borders. The show, on “cyber dissidents”, can be listened to online in RealAudio.
Clark Boyd's interview with Black Looks blogger Sokari Ekine is featured on the BBC's website today.
And Global Voices contributor Ndesanjo Macha is part of the group of African journalists UK NGO Panos has brought to Scotland to cover the G-8 summit. He's reporting on the events in his English blog, his Swahili blog, the Panos group blog and in the Metro newspaper.

author: Ethan Zuckerman


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Middle East and North Africa Daily Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Big Pharaoh uncovers the link between Egyptian tomato exports and Secretary of State Rice's calls for reform in Egypt.
At Iran Scan, Hoder notes that the election of Ahmedinejad has been a godsend for Iranian cartoonists.
Ali of Free Iraqi explains what “independence” means for him.
SubZero Blue brings us the tale of a Tunisian writer who's in the middle of a 10-year walk through the Arab nations.


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Pacific Rim/East Asian Daily Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Danwei reports that a state-owned film company's website has been blocked inside China… because they failed to register the site with the Ministry of Information Industries.
Fons Tuinstra writes about a Chinese-language group blog that's translating articles from English into Chinese.
The Sassy Lawyer announces that she's started writing a regular, dead-tree newspaper column for the Manila Standard. Why? It's simple, she says: “Now I am ready to reach out to the 95 percent of the Filipino population without access to the internet.”
Singabloodypore points to an on-line article that suggests that Lee Kuan Yew should start blogging.
Photograph by Vernon Fowler


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Sohrab Kabuli: Afghan blogger · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Global Voices Online continues to bring you interviews with winners of the Reporters Without Borders Freedom Blog Awards. This week we bring you an interview with Sohrab Kabuli (not his real name), author of two blogs: Shared Pains in Farsi and Afghan Lord in English.
Kabuli answered questions via e-mail rather than by voice due to security concerns. He says he must maintain anonymity for safety reasons. Recently he received threats which, bizarrely, came from an IP address associated with a BBC server.  More on that in the next post. In this post, I'd like to keep the focus on why he blogs and what he blogs about – which, in the long run, is the most important thing.  According to Kabuli, Shared Pains now has more daily readers than many Afghan newspapers. It is increasingly influential – and clearly making some people uncomfortable.
Here are Kabuli's answers to the questions I emailed him last week. They are reproduced here in the un-edited original:
Q: Can you tell us whatever is possible about who you are and what you do for a living?
A: Thanks much for making this opportunity. I am 22 year old, my name is sohrab kabuli, and I am graduated from high school. I born in Kabul and living in Kabul. Beside of writing some articles to news magazine I am writing on the web to my English blog and Farsi Blog.
Q: Why did you start your blog?
Before start blogging I was working with a local weekly which shut down soon due to financial problem. I was trying to get fund for an independent weekly to run in Kabul. I gave some request to some NGOs but did not receive response. Soon, I let down and changed my mind to have a website. After assessment I realized that for a Website I need more than 600$ U.S dollar to setup. So, I was looking to find another way. Finally I found blog. It was a miracle that I entered to this society.
Q: What do you mainly write about, and how often do you post?
A: Mostly critical articles about political and social life in Afghanistan, foreign strategies in Afghanistan, daily reports of happening in Kabul and remote areas, some times involving to literature; poem and critics. Regularly giving the latest news link from English news websites and news agencies plus describing and translating. I am posting daily and some times one day in middle.
Q: Who reads it?
A: As you know three countries are talking in Farsi: Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan. From these three country I have reader. Unfortunately from Afghanistan I have not much reader because there is no Internet. First we do not have power, if we have that is only for a specific part of Kabul not for all. Second people don’t know much computer to use Internet. A few Internet cafés are running in different part of the city I am sure they do not have enough customers. The rate is so high for example per hour they take 100Afg = 2$ u.s dollar. A person who doesn’t have a penny outcome daily how can he pay this amount? Live is very difficult here. People are in struggle to safe their life from hunger. If you come in Kabul to see in the streets, hundreds of people are laying on the street for begging. International countries gave fund to NGOs and NGOs are belong to warlord who were killing the innocent people yesterday but today they run NGOs by help of foreign money.
Q: How many people in Afghanistan actually read blogs?
I can not count but I should say University students, people who work with NGOs that access to Internet but mostly Media.
Q: How many Afghan bloggers are there and how many are actually blogging from Afghanistan?
Unfortunately very rare, I should say there is a few person who recently started blogging, a few others contacted me to help them.
Q: What has been the main impact of your blog?
A: I cogitated more about KAM Air plane which crashed in Chapari Mountain due to miss-responsibility of American force and Afghan authorities involved together. This crash killed 104 passengers. And missing the Black Box.
Another was a critics to government about lack of security in Kabul which the three United Nation workers kidnapped in public. I received lots of threats message they were asking me to which party and groups I am belong. And asked me to stop writing.
Q: Could you cite a couple of examples of specific blog posts that have had an especially big impact? Can you describe what they were about,  and specifically what kind of reaction they created?
I have no information about the others
Q: How is the quality of the Afghan media?
A: Fortunately I should say that media is moving so fast to develop day by day. I see much difference from three years, from last years. In Afghanistan press history we didn’t have a TV channel but we have 22 registered in information & culture and four channel are having live programs. Every day a new magazine a paper coming to Press society. This means Afghanistan press is moving so fast towards development. Unfortunately the quality is so low, presenter, journalist and editors are not professional, and mostly they take imitation view from foreign channel which impact with some Afghan fundamentalists who are very eager to find a gap for these channel to stop their activities.
It is also very hard to judge for whole media. Most of publications are local and provincial. They write the way they like, they write in their native tongue that for other is strange. I think it is very important for media to have something to say and also to have the courage to say the truth. I think most of publication in Afghanistan are just publish to spend the international aid. The media and publications for women are very weak and insufficient. The publication and magazines about Afghanistan women rights have articles about tailoring, cooking and fashion. These categories are not important and urgent needs of Afghan women. They know how to cook, they know how to make a dress for their self but a few of them have information about new technology. These publications do not have any article about their rights and what they suffer from in Afghan society.
Q: How does a Farsi blog like yours help to make up for the Afghan media's inadequacies?
A: Strongly much! My blog has more than 500 visitor daily but a paper in Kabul does not have more than 200 readers. A paper who running in the capital now is copying my post daily without consulting with me to ask the right. Some times they delete some part of my article and publishing in their paper without fear. All daily news paper get their articles and news from Websites and weblogs.
Q: How do you rate the quality of the international media's recent coverage of Afghanistan?
A: They are good and very affective but there are some which do not have enough information about Afghanistan, then the way of contact and writing is completely different. They write what they like they do not write what are right and what is happening. I think it was better before Iraq War. Now the focus of international media is mostly events in Iraq. Also I am not happy with the picture that international media show from terrorist attacks and insecurity. If they want to be really optimistic, they should report the international conferences and government activities. I think we need more attention of international media to what concern people to. There should be reports on youth movements. Afghanistan people can be also a model for other war-effected countries and people, their inspiring energy and their courage to stand against war should be covered by international media
All together is impressive.
Q: Do you think that if more Afghan people were blogging in English that could help to improve the outside world's understanding of Afghanistan?
A: Of course, but unfortunately we have a few websites with out enough information no regular update nor giving opportunity to others. I am sure if we have at least 10 dynamic English blogger, for foreign media will be a good source of news. I am trying to have a meeting with some journalist and university student to encourage them to join Blog world both English and Farsi but I need fund to run workshops to teach and guide them. Unfortunately, NGOs are lack of such sense of humor to give fund to make an Afghan Blogger association to protect them.
Q:  What are your political affiliations?
A: I do not have any particular political affiliation but I would like to call myself a reformists.
Q: What is your opinion of how Karzai's government has done its job?
A: It is a hard question. If Karzai’s government job is supposed to be the implementing BONN convention we can hardly say yes. Disarmaments has taken place successfully we have drugs problem. Although now we don’t have Warlords in cabinet but still they are strongly active and influential in their own provinces and areas. We have a highly corrupted government system. In many different provinces the peace process doesn’t seems very successful but we did very great achievements too. In three years we have lots reconstructions, we had democratic election and people selected their favorite person for presidential. For the first time in our history warlord lost their political power, we have a new constitution, lots of refugees came back to their homeland, the employment rate grew much more and women were given their basic rights based on constitution.
Q: Has the U.S. done enough to help Afghanistan achieve stability after the fall of the Taliban?
A: they should do their job because in a globalization world, stability of U.S.A is interconnected with stability of Afghanistan. But I am not sure it has done enough.
Q:  Are you disappointed that the international community seems to have lost interest in Afghanistan?
A: Well, we can not depend on international community helps forever. I think that we need to stand on our own feet one day. But before that international community should take our hand to enable us to stand independently. I think the quality is more important than quantity in this case. The money should be spending on building, economic bases and structure not for short term and less useful projects.
Q: Is there anything else you would like the outside non-Farsi speaking world to understand about your work and your blog?
A: Yes, I should say that Afghan youth generation like to have contact with other world, especially Bloggers. and those who thought Afghanistan was a terror place yesterday but they want to say to the world that Afghanistan is not a terror place anymore! Change your mind and take away your glass and look to Afghanistan with your own eyes and judgment! Please take more attention to what is going on in Afghanistan. I am kindly have a request from international media: Please stop writing Afghanistan is a terror place and attacks everyday. Show a real face of Afghanistan to the people, every thing is not that bad. Afghanistan people like to be connected in the world especially young generation. They need help and need your humanitarian assistant please do not forget Afghanistan. We love all of you without racial, regional and religious interest.


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South Asian Daily Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Rohit Gupta, writing in Chien(ne)s Sans Frontieres, is frustrated by writers of Indian decent who've never lived in India calling themselves “Indian writers”; he's delighted to to read an interview with Rana Dasgupta, who refuses to call himself an Indian writer even though he lives there now.
Youth Curry on how asking questions out of left field tests school applicants’ ability to think on their feet.


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Sub-Saharan Africa Daily Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Timbuktu Chronicles passes on some interesting information about a virtual marketplace, enabled by the use of cellphones.
Andrew Heavens of Meskel Square interviews two Addis Ababa university students about Live 8.
Africa Vox is a group blog by African journalists who are covering the G8 summit this year. Via Kenya Pundit.
The BBC has a good roundup of African blog reaction to Live 8; faithful readers of Global Voices Online will note that much of the coverage echoes our own Ethan Zuckerman's ongoing coverage of the same event.
There's a new Lesotho blog directory on the web.
Black Looks laments the fact that W8, a conference about women's rights in Africa, was barely noticed in the mainstream press last week.
This is Zimbabwe posts an article about how the forex market works in Zimbabwe.


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Threats against Afghan blogger · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

This post has been removed at the request of the Afghan blogger involved, as new information has come to light substantially changing the story. The post concerned the following:
“Sohrab Kabuli“, Afghan blogger and winner of the Freedom Blog Award for his Farsi blog, Shared Pains, has been getting death threats. (You can read an interview with him about his blog and its impact here.)
Initial information pointed improperly to the source of the threats.


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Eastern Europe, Russia, NIS & Central Asia Daily Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Russian Dilettante points out that the roots of the Solidarity movement in Poland were profoundly nationalistic and that if it were to rise again, the Western press would probably dismiss it as “right-wing”.
An updated travel warning for Uzbekistan was issued over the weekend, notes Registan. They believe that the updated warning indicates that things in Tashkent has calmed down since the Andijon massacre.
And on the light side, Siberian Light passes along the strange tale of a young man who was disguised as his sister in order to pass a college entrance exam. Apparently the Princeton Review hasn't yet opened their Moscow office…


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More on the BBC investigation of Afghan blogger threats · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

The BBC continues to investigate claims by Afghan blogger Sohrab Kabuli that somebody has been threatening him from within the BBC computer system. Here is the latest statement from the BBC:
“The BBC has been investigating a serious allegation that offensive e-mails were sent from one of its staff members in the Kabul office. We are treating this extremely seriously. We are clear such a communication would contravene BBC guidelines and be unacceptable if they came from any BBC staff member. We are conducting an urgent investigation both in London and in Kabul to ascertain whether the e-mails came from the BBC.
At this stage we have found no evidence of inappropriate or threatening behaviour by our staff towards Mr Sohrab Kabuli who made the complaint. The BBC continues to investigate the complaint further and will communicate the results of our investigation as soon as we have reliable information. But at this stage we can re-affirm that we have so far found no evidence of threatening behaviour toward Mr Kabuli by any BBC staff member.”


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Pacific Rim/East Asia Daily Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Tomorrow.sg announces that Bloggers.sg, the upcoming Singaporean Blogger Conference, has a new venue, as the old one was too small. They also posted an updated conference schedule for the July 16th event.
Also in Singapore, Mr.Brown deconstructs the MRT's fare hike adjustment poster.
Mongolian-North Korean detente? New Mongols points to an interesting interview with North Korea's ambassador to Ulaanbaatar.
Malaysia brings us two automotive-related stories. First, Jeff Ooi looks at how the Malaysian press covered Dr. Mahathir Mohamad's press conference about Proton, Malaysia's national car manufacturer. Dr. Mahathir had been the country's leader for more than 20 years and is still regarded as an important figure. Second, Brand New Malaysian asks his fellow countrymen (and women) to stay rational in the face of impending gasoline price hikes.
Chatter Garden notes that the Chinese-language newspaper Ta Kung Pao featured a story that was very favorable to the Sharks Fin Trade Merchants Assocation; is this the first salvo in a PR offensive by the oft-maligned sharks fin soup industry?
CCTV, China's national broadcaster, has announced that they are going to be broadcasting television versions of the Four Great Classic Novels (Dream of the Red Chamber, Outlaws of the Marsh, Journey to the West, and The Romance of Three Kingdoms) for summer vacation. Danwei wonders, since TV versions of all four classics are being broadcast almost constantly, if CCTV's real motivation is to get kids to turn off the TV.
Riding Sun, a blog by a Westerner living in Tokyo, passes on the news that Japan may join the ranks of countries that monitor and filter the internet. Via Asiapundit.


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South Asia Daily Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Sri Lankan blogger Indi Samarajiva says that the Live 8 manifesto, if implemented, will simply turn the third world into a giant welfare state.
Vantage Point points out that the Delhi water board will start limited privatization of the water supply soon; he hails this as another crack in the wall of state monopolies.
Kiruba Shankar brings us news of Gizmo, a competitor to Skype in the internet telephony market. Two of the biggest distinguishing points is that Gizmo users can receive calls from the traditional phone network without paying a fee, and the Gizmo application has call-recording built-in to the application.
Chapati Mystery takes a crack at trying to figure out ex-cricket star Imram Khan, and also notes that the mainstream press is starting to pay more attention to him.
Photograph by Stephanie Booth


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Sub-Saharan Africa Daily Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Kenyan Pundit introduces the blog Kenya Today, the first blog by a mainstream Kenyan journalist. At the moment, John Kamau, the author, is in Scotland, covering the G8 summit.
On Safari with El Jorgito reports from Kigali that rumors coming out of the Democratic Republic of Congo show a deteriorating situation in the city of Goma. Have any bloggers heard any reports on what the situation on the ground is?
Having been pressured by the United Nations, the African Union has finally sent an observer to Zimbabwe, reports the Zimbabwean Pundit. However, officials in Harare are apparently demanding that the emissary be recalled, placing AU officials in an embarrassing bind.


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The Middle East and North Africa Daily Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Silly Bahraini Girl is more than a little frustrated by Bahrainis who have trouble with the fact that many email addresses in the Kingdom end in ‘.com.bh’.
The Big Pharaoh, in his trademark sarcastic style, finds where Egypt's Christian and Muslim communities have some common ground.
Iranian Prospect posts a long entry on the implications of the Belgian beer fiasco. Some background can be found here and here.
Hoder's article about Iranian youth and Ahmedinejad's electoral victory has been published in English at OpenDemocracy.net. Here's the German original.
Kuwait Blogs reminds its readers that the monthly Kuwaiti bloggers’ meetup is scheduled for tomorrow.


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Americas Daily Blog Roundup · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jeff Barry spreads the word about early 20th century Argentine artist, Xul Solar.
Barrio Flores has an excellent post about Bolivian cinema.
Blog de Bolivia seeks to explain Carlos Mesa's increasing popularity [es] as the December general elections approach.
MABB covers former Bolivian president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's thoughts on both Carlos Mesa and Evo Morales.
Chilean presidential candidate Sebastian Pinera has inspired a long list of thoughtful comments regarding his post on Chilean women in the work place [es].
Both Libardo Buitrago and Fernando Flores [es] write on Chile's relations with China.
Leo Prieto of FayerWayer announces that Hector Vergara has created RSS feeds for seven major Chilean media outlets [es].
Val Prieto of Babalu Blog discusses why he is against lifting the travel restriction to Cuba.
Tim's El Salvador Blog discusses two recently released reports on El Salvador's labor conditions and how things got political during the CAFTA vote.
Isopixel posts a reminder that July 15th marks the first annual Weblogs.Communication Conference in Mexico City [es].
The Peruvian blog, Bitter Sweet Simphony has initiated a storm of commentary over a post (the first in a series, it appears) on gay marriage [es].
Morena discussed the importance of blogs for Latin American politicians [es].
The Devil's Excrement explains the term Magnicidio and why Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez uses it.
Venezuela News and Views gives an incredibly thorough summary of Venezuelan politics in the year 2005. If you ever wanted to clear up any doubts, this is the time and place to do so.


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Americas Thursday Blog Roundup · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Altered Argentina has begun a three part series on Debt for Education swaps in Latin America.
Planetablog asks if Haiti and the Dominican Republic could ever form one single nation [es].
Argenuatas links to the Argentinian version of Post Secret.
Bolivian bloggers MABB, Blog from Bolivia, and Ciao! all write in support of Londoners.
Lawrence Lessig has finally written at lenght about his visit to Chile. A good deal of the post is spent summarizing and flattering Chilean blogger and senator, Fernando Flores [es].
Ticias points to an article about a Latin-Jewish rap duo.
Aventuras de un webmaster discusses e-learning in Guatemala [es].
ALT1040 seems to have the most thorough blog post on the London terrorist attack in Spanish [es].
The Shǐt’ē Place has written a long and insightful post entitled Are Mexicans Racist?


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London blast blogging · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

(Image by “alfie” posted at moblog.co.uk)
Thanks to Erica George for pointing us to this Livejournal Community devoted to information sharing in the aftermath of today's bomb blasts in London.
DoWire.org has put together a “London Responds” wiki.
Metroblogging London has been going all day, as have thousands of other blogs, chatrooms, flickr pages, moblog sites, etc.  Boingboing has an excellent set of links.
The best way to find blog posts and photos as they hit the internet is through technorati and flickr tags.
You can now subscribe to RSS feeds of the following Technorati tags:
London
bombs
July 7
7 July
terrorism
London bomb
London blast
London explosion
On Flickr, see the bomb blast pool and the London explosions pool.
Also the following tags:
London
bomb
blast
On buzznet:
http://www.buzznet.com/buzzwords/london/
Please let us know of any other good sites and tagging systems that are aggregating London blast related blogging.
All major media are putting together tremendous staff resources to aggregate and collect eyewitness stories and images from todays bomb blasts in London. The BBC in particular is doing an excellent job, showing how professionals and citizens can work together to cover a story.   The Wall Street Journal has a useful page here where new links will be updated.  Wikinews is also aggregating a lot of stories – both from professional and citizen sources.


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Eastern Europe, Russian, NIS & Central Asia Thursday Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Blog de Connard reports that the Ukrainian parliament has, after some arm-twisting, passed legislation designed to ease Ukraine's entry into the WTO.
Three malls in Budapest were evacuated after copycat bomb threats were called in, reports Pesticide.
The Daily Czech notes that Mikulas Dzurinda, the Slovak Prime Minister barely survived a no-confidence vote earlier this week; apparently, 22 MPs didn't bother to show up for the vote.
Blogrel points us to a blog written by American teen-aged missionaries in Armenia; for many of these youths, it's the first time they've ever been to a foreign country.
Afghan Warrior has two stories of note: first, he reports that three Afghani journalists were arrested in Kunar province and apparently abused while in custody; the specific charges against the journalists is unclear. On a more optimistic note, twenty Taliban commanders handed over their weapons and signed pledges to support the Afghan government last week in western Afghanistan; they're only the latest former Taliban military troops to pledge allegiance to the government under an amnesty program.


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International Human Rights Funding · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Global Voices has agreed to pass on the following announcement from the International Human Rights Funders Group. This specific grant opportunity may be of special interest to human rights activists and bloggers in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco.
Fund for Global Human Rights
Michael Chertok – 01:00pm Jun 20, 2005 PST
The Fund for Global Human Rights seeks to strengthen the human rights movement globally through grantmaking to local, national, and regional human rights organizations. The Fund seeks to serve as a resource for human rights organizations working to strengthen their institutional capacity, forge new initiatives, and pursue far-reaching strategies to promote human rights.
Proposed activities should contribute to the overall goal of advancing human rights. This includes activities focused on mobilizing popular opinion through human rights skills-building and organizing; exposing abuse through documentation; addressing violations through direct action, policy/legal reform and litigation; networking and coalition building to further the effectiveness of human rights work; and capacity building for organizations engaged in the above work, locally and regionally.
The grants will be for one year (January-December 2006) and may be renewed in 2007. The Fund will consider proposals seeking general support, as well as those seeking support for a particular project. Grants will range from $5,000 to $30,000. First-time applicants are strongly encouraged to apply in the $5,000 to $15,000 range.
To be eligible for funding, applicant organizations must work to defend or promote human rights; be based in India, Bangladesh, or Pakistan and be working, in whole or in part, on human rights issues in the country in which the organization is based; or be based in Algeria, Tunisia, or Morocco and be working, in whole or in part, on human rights issues in the country in which the organization is based.
Proposed activities should contribute to the overall goal of advancing human rights. Grants will range from $5,000 to $30,000.
More information and application materials in English, French and Arabic are
available at: http://www.hrfunders.org/fghr/


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Muslim Blogosphere Reacts to London Blast · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

We hope that multi-lingual bridge-bloggers can help translate more of what bloggers are saying in Arabic, Farsi and other languages.  (If you have done so please let us know in the comments section at the bottom of this post.) Meanwhile, here is what has come through our aggregator in English (and a little French):
Mahmood at Mahmood's Den sends his condolences to the bereaved, and calls the terrorists “animals.” He writes:
The way to beat them is not to give in to them, and more democracy and democratic institutions, a complete overhaul of the education system in the Arab and Muslim worlds and the full separation of Mosque and State.
The time is now. We have to get this done. Otherwise we will be completely left behind and will suffer much more at the hands of these terrorists.
My heart and thoughts go to the people of the United Kingdom in this very difficult time.
Ali Mostashari at Free Thoughts on Iran calls for moderates everywhere to unite against extremism of all stripes:
The choice of the Islamic fundamentalists, the Neocons and Christian Fundamentalists seems clear. What is unclear in this period of time is the role of the progressive peoples representing the multiple civilizations at odds. For long the only thing we have achieved is to condemn acts of wars and atrocities, without an actual and concrete alternative to offer. So how about it? Do we want to sit and watch while the hatemongers in our nations take over the destiny of mankind and steer us towards massive bloodshed? What concrete ways are there to address issues of terrorism and bigotry in the Middle East, the growth of the military-industrial complex and religious fundamentalism and the retreat of rationality and human ideals in the West? Are there ways to address these issues on a global level? What I would like to see is something beyond the conventional intellectual response of demonstrating outside the White House etc. Where do we start? What do we learn? What ways can we propose? What organizations can help get our agendas on the table? I personally don’t have any answers to these, but I believe in collective wisdom. If we think about it together we might be able to do things beyond just empty talk.
Progressives of the World Unite!!!
From Cairo With Love tells the terrorists to go to hell, but has no love lost for the Bush administration's war on terror, either:
Damn. One hell of a terrorist attack in London. Devastating. We already know how mindless sick bastards those terrorists are. But I have one question, what the hell have Bush and Co. been doing for the last few years? Four years fighting that alleged war on terror, making us live hell in the process. And our Ambassador to Iraq has just been executed today. Boy, do I feel safer now!
Iraqi Expat (who lives in London) had a friend who is only alive today because he mistakenly got off at the wrong subway stop and decided to go for a smoke.  A Muslim himself, he describes the “rage” and “irrational thoughts” he and his family experienced all day:
Today's attacks must – and they will – strengthen our commitment to defeat this barbaric hateful terrorism. We will not bow – I will never bow – to these despicable terrorists, even if my life depends on it. What happened to London today was an outrageous evil act by shameless criminals who, sadly, call themselves Muslims. Today, my family and I are ashamed of being Muslims.
Hammorabi in Iraq extends his condolences from a people who understand how Londoners feel today:
We know the pain, sadness and chaos that such inhumane acts may bring to a lot of innocent people and families because we experiencing it on a daily basis from the same thugs, the Wahabi terrorists cockroaches.
We wrote before about cutting the route of such terrorism from the doctrine of the wahabism which gave birth to Al-Qaida and its barbaric groups. Again we repeat the same call here; f the world wants to cut the route of terrorism it has to be done from the wahabism not from the tails.
Jordanian blogger Natasha at Mental Mayhem is horrified.
Pakistani blogger Hardly Innovative writes:
To anyone out there who thinks they can change the world by hurting others: Terrorism is NOT OKAY. Killing people is NOT OKAY. This is NOT ISLAM. This will NOT get you to heaven. Terrorism is SATANIC and barbaric! Islam even forgave the very people who wanted to destroy it from the moment it was brought to the world!
People everywhere, raise your voice against terrorism, dont be intimidated by it! Raise your voices against the crimes of the terrorists, against the state-led terrorist acts, against war, against poverty!! Dont sit back and take whatever your governments give you. Dont just watch CNN and blindly believe whatever they say and not think about what they dont! Make yourselves aware, and make sure you are heard!!!!
We all deserve better leaders and a better world, a more peaceful world. May common sense prevail.
Turkish blogger Serdar Kaya writes at Socioeconomics:
Be it Al-Qaida or not, most people today are suffering from the actions of those who believe to be in the possession of ultimate truth, and do not feel a need to check their premises or try and see the world from other viewpoints.
Tunisian blogger Neila Charchour Hachicha asks: “is condemnation enough?” [fr]


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Pacific Rim and East Asia Thursday Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Bloggers.sg, Singapore's upcoming blog conference, gets a short write-up in the Straits Times, reports Mr.Brown.
Japanpundit reports that, for the first time, an iced green tea beverage will probably beat out Coca-Cola for the number two spot  in Japan's soft-drink wars. The number one spot is held by a brand of canned coffee.
Hong Kong group blog Chatter Garden responds to a comment left by HK blogger Glutter about their commitment to democracy.
Tibetblogger notes that it will be ‘Tibetean Cultural Week’ in Hong Kong from July 15 to the 22nd. No doubt the events and displays will emphasize Tibet's affinity with Chinese culture.
Embattled Philippine President Gloria Arroyo gave a speech today in which she came out swinging, defiantly refusing to resign and attacking her enemies. Unfortunately for President Arroyo, her public support is plummeting, and some blogs are already talking about ‘extraconstitutional options’.


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Seeking “Bridge Bloggers” · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Global Voices Online is looking for “bridge-bloggers.”
What is a bridge-blogger? Somebody who acts as a “bridge” between their blogging community and the rest of the world. Lots of blogospheres are springing up around the world, in lots of languages, but many of them  don't communicate with each other. That's unfortunate, as there is much potential for dialogue across these communities.
We hope you will help us change that. For examples of bridge-blogging, here's a post I did summarizing Chinese blogger reaction to the registration deadline and internet censorship.  Here's one on Mexican blogs by David Sasaki, bridging between Spanish and English.  And here is some bridge-blogging by Ory Okolloh and Ndesanjo Macha about the Kenyan and Kiswahili blogospheres. Ethan Zuckerman has done some great bridge blogging about African bloggers’ views of the G8, which has helped bring media attention to actual African perspectives.
If you're interested in doing this kind of bridge-blogging between your country's or region's blogosphere and the rest of the world, please let us know. The best way to start is by doing some bridge-blogging on your own blog. For example: write a post in English (with links to the original posts) about what the Arabic blogosphere is buzzing about this week, or tell us what the Russian bloggers are concerned about, what the Chinese blogs are discussing lately, or what the Francophone blogosphere is currently reacting to. Once you've done this, please email us with the link at: globalvoices DOT dailylinks AT gmail DOT com, and we'll be sure to point to it.
If you're already doing this and we don't know about it, by all means please let us know.  We are also trying to build an index of bridge blogs on this wiki.  So if you know of blogs not listed there please add them.
Then, after doing this a few times, if you like the response to your work and feel that this is something you have the time and energy to do regularly on the Global Voices site, please let us know at globalvoices DOT online AT gmail DOT com.


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South Asia Thursday Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Nepalese blog United We Blog! covers, with photographs, an anti-monarchy student protest in the city of New Baneshwor that was marked by violent confrontations with the police. The protest was in response to official celebrations marking the King's birthday.
Bangladeshi blogger Rezwan is delighted to find  that his blog is featured in an article about Asian blogs and bloggers published in Asia! magazine, a new in-flight publication for airlines that service the region.
Dilip D'Souza continues his tour of tsunami-devastated south India.


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Sub-Saharan  Africa Thursday Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Thinker's Room posts a gedankenexperiment to explain why he feels the way he does about Live 8.
A new website dedicated to preventing the return of former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida to Nigeria has been launched, according to Black Looks.
Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah, who writes Koranteng's Toli, was interviewed on the radio by Chris Lydon on Wednesday. It's a long post, but it's an interesting read.
The Zimbabwean Pundit suggests that to protest the ‘clean-up operation’, people send faxes President Mugabe's office.


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The Middle East and North Africa Thursday Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The blog Egyptian Person comments on a ruling that requires TV stations to put on hostesses who choose to wear the hijab; he asks what the decision will do to those women and girls who are bullied into wearing the headscarf.
Iranian Truth looks at some of the potential candidates for cabinet positions in President Ahmedinejad's administration and is not encouraged by their resumes.
Mahmood's Den brings us the news that the Kuwaiti Information Minister has made his own unemployment his goal; however, things are hardly the same in Bahrain.
Syria is stopping Lebanese trucks at the border for no apparent reason, reports A Lebanese Abroad.
Beirut Spring is asking for Lebanese writers to express their thoughts on the new government.
The Arabist Network notes that there has been a shake-up at the top of Egypt's three state-owned newspapers and wonders what the motive behind the action was.
Saudi Blogs is a new blog that aggregates posts from around the Saudi blogosphere.
Saudi Jeans notes that Saudi Arabia will soon allow photography in (most) public places.


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Americas Friday Blog Roundup · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Taran Rampersad discusses Wikipedia in the Caribbean and specifically, Guyana. He's also got some good updates on Hurricane Dennis.
Agua Fuertes 2004 starts a long discussion when questioning whether Google Earth respects Argentina's privacy [es].
Nada importante sucedió hoy… writes about the potential future of biotech in Argentina [es].
MABB discusses natural gas and Sino-Bolivian relations in the 21st century.
Pehuen describes a new project [es] on the country wide network, TIC Bolivia [es], which aims to support rural, eastern, indigenous Bolivians in learning computer skills.
Venezuela News and Views continues to beat the major media to the punch.
The Devil's Excrement covers the trial against the Venezuelan opposition movement, SUMATE [es].


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Comments from the Arabic-language Blogosphere on London Blasts · Global Voices
Ahmed Al-Omran

Searching the Arabic-language blogosphere for commentary on the London bombings, I found several brief comments from some bloggers in Egypt and Syria.
Mohammed from Egypt has decided to translate the words of Michael Henning, an eyewitness from Liverpool St. who talked to the BBC website.
Also from Egypt, Lone Wolf, under the title “Nothing New,” wrote: “There is no hope. (…) These people of Jihad and al Qaeda are retarded and barbarians.”
From Syria, Abu Rummana, has written only a few words in a quick comment: “You, thieves! Give me my religion back!”
Commenting on Abu Rummana's post, Rami wrote: “In a few years, those thieves have distorted a civilization and a history that took thousands of years for our ancestors to build. And how much did that cost them? A few kilograms of explosives, and a handful of straying souls.”

author: Ahmed Al-Omran


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Cross-Border Conversation on Race · Global Voices
David Sasaki

The 1940's creation of famed Mexican writer, Yolanda Vargas Dulché and comic book illustrator, Alberto Cabrera, Memín Pinguín was an unlikely candidate at the time to spark a 21st century international debate on racism in Mexico and the United States. But when the Mexican post office decided to release a commemorative series of stamps honoring the comic character, the White House condemned the decision and spokesman Scott McClellan responded with the following:
“Racial stereotypes are offensive, and I would say racial stereotypes are offensive no matter what their origin. The Mexican government needs to take this into account. Images such as these have no place in today's world.”
Eight days later and the blogosphere in both Mexico and the United States has become saturated with opinions about both the Mexican post office's decision to release the stamps as well as the U.S. government's reaction to the decision.
Latino blogger, ngrand78, writing from Tucson, Arizona, was one of the first to post about the issue explaining that he agrees “that Memin Pinguin has exaggerated features thick lips and wide-open eyes. But what people have to take in consideration is that the Mexican culture is different, I am not going to say that discrimination doesn't exist in Mexico, it's just based in other characteristics, social status and wealth being the most notable ones. The truth is that back there the color of the skin is not important and people pay little attention.” ngrand78 has generated a tremendous amount of comments and, like many bloggers writing on the subject, has updated his post to clarify his thoughts.
Mark in Mexico, writing from Puebla, concurs that culture is at play:
By our standards, it is blatatantly rascist. By Mexican standards it is not. Mexican society is a rascist society kind of like that of Japan. Intermarriage, even fraternization, between the mestizos and the indigenous peoples is frowned upon and is rare. Even more rare is intermariage or fraternization with blacks. By mestizos I mean the lighter complected Mexicans of mixed Spanish/Indian or European/Indian descent. In Mexico, the whiter your skin the better. Mexican mestizos see nothing wrong with this and do not consider it rascist at all.
His post has a thorough collection of Memín Pinguín images and links to other blogs discussing the controversy.
Mexican-American blogger, Gustavo Rojo however disagrees:
My problem with the Memin Penguin stamp controversy is that in Mexico it should be a controversy but it is not. Just because Mexico didn’t have a “slavery issue” doesn’t mean that racism hasn’t been a problem. Race has always been a problem in Mexico from its inception.
After reading a post by Blex though, Gustavo updates his own and asks, “Is it so wrong to make fun of one another. It’s not like the mission behind this comic is to spread hate or some other propaganda. It is genuinely good-hearted.”
Michelle's Pink Place seems to disagree. Linking to two posts explaining the cultural differences regarding race in Mexico and the U.S., she points out:
Yes, people perceive race differetly in different countries. I can't speak for how black Mexicans would feel. How about the revolutionary idea that, for those of us here in the US, the stamps represent a racist or racially-charged image, not because anyone says they are wrong, but just because they are?
Grammar.police makes the point that, “it doesn't necessarily follow that Mexico should share this collective shame related to blackface comedy. When complex cultural symbols are imported from one society to another their component antecedents are often lost in translation. (Think of, say, the Christmas tree.) I don't know when blackface comedy arrived in Mexico or how the symbol operates there, honestly, but I imagine it has been stripped it of its original context, which wouldn't have had much meaning for a nation that has a very marginal and localized population of people of African descent and never experienced the tragedies of African American history.”
Negrophile (from whom I stole the title of this post) links to a San Francisco Chronicle article by history professor, Myrna Santiago who, not surprisingly, says the controversy stems from a difference in history between the two nations.
Like Planeta Grenada, Lost Budgie also puts the discussion into a historical frame, but says this time, “Fred and Mexico have it wrong.” DJ Bloodsock agrees:
Now, I’ll grant you that Mexico does not have the same concept of race as we have in the States, arguably due to a significantly different history of race relations. But still, it is naive at best to think that people who identify themselves as Black (or African-American; pick your label) would not be offended by a gross caricature that is more simian than sapien.
Latina Lista says that although American prejudices continue, “it is obvious Mexico is at the stage where America was over 100 years ago when people thought there was nothing wrong in keeping other people as property or selling them like cattle, regardless if they were separating mothers from their children.” And Moonbat Central questions if Reverand Jesse “Jackson is guilty of ‘American cultural imperialism'???”
Webadedios, writing from Mexico, on the other hand, says you can sum it all up to “Gringo paranoia” [es] and that Memin Pinguin is not about race, but rather making people laugh. So agrees Isopixel who recommends that Americans should take a closer look at history [es]. Vidablog, also writing from Mexico, asks [es] “who is the United States to ‘stick its spoon’ into the internal affairs of Mexico?”
The Shǐt’ē Place, written from Monterrey, Mexico says Americans and Mexicans interpret race differently and leaves a list of open-ended questions to “be answered in time.”
African-American blogger, Joy-Ann Reid agrees that a cultural relativist perspective needs to be taken. But she doesn't see the issue going away any time soon:
The bottom line is, the Mexican cartoon isn't seen as racist by Mexicans, and that type of depiction of Blacks is, I would say, fairly uncontroversial in Latin American entertainment. That doesn't sit well with African-Americans, and the Jesse Jacksons of the world may even be able to make enough noise to force the stamps back into the desk drawer, but the cultural issue won't go away so easily.
We'll probably be able to judge by the latest going eBay bid.
In the end, it is probably history professor Myrna Santiago who best sums up the debate:
Thus, rather than condemning Mexico for issuing Memín Pingüín stamps, the federal government and U.S. citizens would be better off encouraging a cross- border conversation about race in all its complexities. Such a conversation might then inspire youth on both sides of the border to ask the questions I never asked, not only about the history of people of African descent in Mexico, but also about the root causes of racism, discrimination and inequality in both nations. Surely, that is a concern people across both countries share — and the reason why we all care about Memín Pingüín.
Venezuelan reader Iria Puyosa points us to Mexican blogger, Alberto Chimal's excellent post on Racismo [es] and writes:
The post provides details on the comic four masin
characters (a black poor kid, a neglected kid who is  the best student
in the school, a rude kid whose mother works in a cabaret, and wealthy
kid who is sent to a public school to teach him about the real world).
Maybe, what is needed is to send U.S. officers and Mexican
Presindent also to a Mexican public school. They may learn about the
real world, then stop talking nonsense, and start working.


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Eastern Europe, Russia, NIS & Central Asia Friday Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Registan.net passes on the news that the Taliban is denying responsibility for the attacks in London, though they're not exactly sorry that they happened either.
The Russian Dilettante points out how opinion polls get deliberately misinterpreted in the Russian press.


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Middle East and North Africa Friday Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Beirut Spring has posted a banner condemning terrorism in both English and Arabic.
Saudi Jeans has been looking on the Arabic blogs for commentary on the London bombings but has not yet found any; if you see any, make sure to pass it on to him.
Chan’ad Bahraini simply asks “May the murdered souls rest in peace.”
Islamicate: “Understand, Al-Qaeda is not only about hatred; they are not only about denying and destroying the Islamic spirit; they are about destroying hope; about destroying the future.”
About Lebanon asks us to “take a moment out of our busy days to think about the victims and pray for peace.”
Mr.Behi has a long, heartfelt post about the bombings; he also links to an influential Persian blog out of London that has first-hand reports.
Iranian Prospect is pessimistic about the western response to these bombings.
The Iraqi blog Ibn Alrafidain flatly condemns the violence, though he adds that “I can imagine the disturbance, chaos & fear caused by the incident since we live this situation here in Iraq daily.”
Iraqi Expat, who lives in London, is beside himself with anger and rage: “What happened to London today was an outrageous evil act by shameless criminals who, sadly, call themselves Muslims. Today, my family and I are ashamed of being Muslims.


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Pacific Rim and East Asia Friday Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Jinja, who writes the Cambodian blog Webbed Feet, Web log notes the irony that his former boss had only recently left Siem Reap, where the international school had a hostage crisis last month, to go to London. More importantly, though, he looks at the disquieting congruity of ‘good times’ and ‘bad times’.
Phil of Flying Chair was interviewed by Singaporean television for his response to the London bombings.
The Ordinary Gweilo points out that “the British government have been saying for a long time that it was a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ there was a major terrorist incident in London, and sadly they have been proved right.”
SimonWorld has a short roundup of Chinese press coverage of the London bombings.
The bombing strikes home for Sushicam, since he had ridden those tube lines and taken those buses.


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South Asia Friday Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

India Uncut: “This isn't just an attack on the UK … they're an attack on a way of life and a value-system, one that is dear not just to Western countries, but to millions in the developing world, like me.”
While bemoaning the loss of life, Chien(ne)s Sans Froniters points out that similar blasts in Ayodhya were overlooked by the mainstream press.
Sepoy, at Chapati Mystery, is taken back to November of 2001, when he was living in London.


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Sub-Saharan Africa Friday Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

African Bullets and Honey was in London on the day of the attack, and concludes that “whenever I think about the scale and importance of the lives of people I love, and then consider those who were killed today, I am forced to conclude that a single human life is far more important than the ideas and hatreds that lead to such violence.”
Thinker's Room has a very long, very thoughtful response to the bombings in London that recalls the bomb attack on the US embassy in Nairobi.
Black Star Journal reports that one of Mugabe's closest allies, the former head of the secret police, has denounced the government's ‘clean-up’ operation.
Congo Girl posts an update on the armed conflict in eastern DR Congo.
Ethiopundit posts a spirited defense of all things British, wrapping up his post with the text of the poem Rule Britianna.
Onyango Oloo of the Kenya Democracy Project asks who stands to gain from the bombings?
The Kenyan blog Mental Acrobatics says “there is no excuse for the cowardly acts. None.”
Pole, the Swahili word for condolences, carries far more weight than Afromusings can properly translate.


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Western Europe Friday Blog Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

A bit of meta-coverage: A Fist Full of Euros notes that “A recurring theme in all the commentary of the attacks is the stoicism, composure and defiance of Londoners.”
Heiko Hebig points out that the bombings occurred even though London has one of the most comprehensive networks of security cameras in the world.
Lenin's Tomb has a long post analyzing the various interpretations and possible consequences of the bombing.
Barcapundit points to an article that details the similarities–and the differences–between the London bombings and the bomb attacks in Madrid a few years ago.


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Zaid Hassan’s response to the London bombings · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Our friend Zaid Hassan – one of the folks behind the Pioneers of Change social entrepreneurship project – posts his reflections as a Londoner and a Muslim on the July 7th bombings:
At the mosque this afternoon there were two police-women standing outside, in fluorescent bright yellow-jackets. One was quite old. I couldn’t help but think “police-women? That’s quite odd. I wonder what that means?” The mullah reminded us that it was for our own good and we should be respectful. I saw a young man talking to them. Later on in the local donar kebab place a young laughing Somali boy put his friend in a head-lock, yelling “you’re under arrest!” White people look on blankly.
Zaid raises the difficult quesion, “Why is no one talking about the cause of the London attacks?”
Why is no one talking about injustice? Surely it’s obvious? Surely we all know that the prime cause of terrorism, of such acts is injustice? Surely we know that if terrorism is madness then it’s a madness caused squarely by being a victim of forces beyond comprehension? By being on the receiving end of an intolerable amount of injustice? Of having no tears left, of being drained of empathy.
I search around me in vain for empathy. I can see courage, bravery, bluster, pain, fear, sadness, but no empathy. No empathy and no justice.


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Is it a Muslim Problem? · Global Voices
Ahmed Al-Omran

After the London blasts, Jeff Jarvis said he is not sure if the Western world is dealing with the problem of terrorism directly. However, he thinks that   Tom Friedman has made it clearer when he said, “it's a Muslim problem, it needs a Muslim solution.” Humoud Abu-Talib, writing for Al-Watan daily, has quoted these words of Friedman:
Either the Muslim world begins to really restrain, inhibit and denounce its own extremists – if it turns out that they are behind the London bombings – or the West is going to do it for them. And the West will do it in a rough, crude way – by simply shutting them out, denying them visas and making every Muslim in its midst guilty until proven innocent.
Abu-Talib wrote: “It is sad that Friedman said ‘every Muslim in its midst guilty until proven innocent’, and it seems that this is what is going to happen.” He also blames the British authorities for being indulgent with the extremists. Abdul Rahman al-Rashed expressed the same idea. “Not only are they admitted to the country, they are also provided with accommodation, a monthly salary, and free legal advice for those who want to prosecute the British government,” he wrote for the English edition of Asharq al-Awsat.
Abu-Talib thinks that what happened will open the gates of hell on Muslims, especially Arab Muslims. “Muslims in Europe will pay the price for the idiocy of lunatics who commit crimes in the name of Islam.”
Is it a Muslim problem so Muslims have to solve it themselves, or is it a global problem and the whole world is responsible to find the solution?


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· Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

T-Salon reports that  the first-ever Chinese blogger's conference will be held this fall in Shanghai.


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BoliviaWiki · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Miguel Centellas has updated “BoliviaWiki – a wikipedia on Bolivia politics” as a way of taking notes for his own research.


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Babalu Blog Becomes Search Blog · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Babalu Blog has become an important resource for anyone seeking information on Huricane Dennis’ impact on Cuba.


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BahrainBlogs :: Comprehensive list of Bahraini sites · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

BahrainBlogs points to a very comprehensive list of Bahraini on-line forums.


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Black Looks: Nigerian man to be stoned to death · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Black Looks reports that a fifty-year-old Nigerian man has been sentenced to be stoned to death for homosexuality. This is a result of Sharia law, which is, apparently, unconstitutional; however, the Nigerian government has done little to prevent outlying states from adopting it.


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Blog de Connard: Who needs that hotel anyway? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Blog de Connard reports that engineers tearing down an old Moscow hotel discovered a huge cache of explosives in the foundation of the building. The metric tonne of explosives were to be used to blow up the building if Hitler's army had taken Moscow.


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Blogrel » Redistricting in Armenia · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Blogrel reports on parliamentary redistricting in Armenia. It is, apparently a somewhat less than perfect system…


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Buenos Aires, City of Faded Elegance » The Irish in Argentina · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jeff Barry discusses the history of the Irish in Argentina as well as the impact of Buenos Aires’ 1871 Yellow Fever Epidemic.


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Chan’ad Bahraini » Blog Archive » Not in my name · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The blog Chan’ad Bahraini has coverage of a well-attended candlelight vigil held outside the British Embassy in Bahrain, with extensive pictures.


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Crossroads Arabia » Blog Archive » Saudi Denunciations Continue · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Crossroads Arabia points out two interesting developments from Saudi Arabia. First, the Grand Mufti of the mosque in Mecca–Saudi Arabia's highest religious figure–has condemmed the London bombings. Second, government officials will apparently start arresting and charging clerics who issue fawtas that justify terrorist acts.


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Democracy in Central Asia :: Alan’s Electoral Observation Report :: July :: 2005 · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Alan Cordova went and observed Kyrgyzstan's recent elections; apparently, they do some things a little bit differently there–including playing “Living la Vida Loca” at the polling places.


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disini · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The latest on the on-going political drama in the Philippines: former president and cultural icon Cory Aquino has called upon President Gloria Arroyo to resign for the good of the country;  President Arroyo has flatly refused to step down. In the meantime, the Papal Nuncio has scolded the Philippine Church for getting “excessive political meddling”.


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Egyptian Person: Egyptians React to Ambassador’s killing  رد الفعل في مصر على قتل السفير · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Egyptian Person surveys Egyptian reaction to the murder of their embassador to Iraq. Most interesting that he's reporting the Mufti said that “killing the ambassador is considered by Allah a far greater crime than demolishing the Kaaba.”


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Iran Hopes 2005 · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Iran Hopes notes that July 9th is the anniversary of a historic student movement in Iranian history: “On this day in 1999, the first, but certainly not the last, popular movement, in the history of Islamic regime took place. It is known as the Student Uprsing of 18th Tir.”


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Iraqi Expat: Muslims Against Terrorism · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Iraqi Expat, in a post titled “Muslims Against Terrorism”, suggests that the anti-terrorist efforts in the Muslim blogosphere should join forces.


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Mahmood’s Den :: The 2002 Constition now in text · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Mahmood's Den has posted the  text of the Bahraini constitution on-line in text form.


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manulite delite: A New day in the life of a Zimbabwean · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Zimbabwean blogger Manulite reports on daily life in Harare in the wake of Mugabe's Operation Clean-Up, or, as local Haraeans are calling it, the tsunami. He starts every day by waking up on the couch in a friend's house because his own cottage was destroyed by the government; it gets worse from there…


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Mao’s lookalike dies, and gets a propaganda nip and tuck (angrychineseblogger.blog-city.com) · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Angry Chinese Blogger notes that an actor famed for playing the Great Helmsman, Chairman Mao died recently. He notes that the Chinese press coverage leaves out a number of less-savory details about his death that have been released in international reports.


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Meskel Square: The Spice Girls, guns and ET-Francs · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Andrew Heavens, who writes Meskal Square, posts a great roundup from around Ethiopia's blogosphere.


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“Mr. Behi” podcasts from Iran · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

The Iranian blogger who calls himself “Mr. Behi” and blogs at The Adventures of Mr. Behi, is now podcasting.  In his inaugural show, he gives his personal perspective about the bombings in London, Iran's presidential election, and his recent misadventures in attempting to get a U.S. student visa upon acceptance to the PhD program of a major U.S. university. Click here fror Mr. Behi Episode One (MP3 19MB).  You can subscribe to his podcast feed here. (The picture at right is the mug Mr. Behi drinks coffee from while blogging.)
In a separate post, Behi responds to somebody who posted a comment on his blog condemning Islam and saying: “Topple your own damned dictators and leave the rest of us alone.”
Mr. Behi's response is worth reading in full but here is an excerpt:
I am sorry that you live in a civil society and still you are not respecting the most principal fact of democracy that is respect for others. Just because some cruel people are out there who do not obey this universal rule, does not make us free from our dedication to the principals of dialogue. We are not living in an Island and by the way, do not point it at me because I am personally am not practicing any religion and have my own big list of questions from Islam.
Read the rest of his response here. Then he concludes:
We humans appeared on the surface of the Earth just some thousand years ago. We divided its united surface and perfectly matched environment into our lands as if they have been divided since beginning. There are lots of things out there that make us united and equal. We are at least residents of one beloved home The Mother Earth.
Amen. As we've been experiencing in our comments threads here , here, here,  and here, emotions on the issue of religion and terrorism run very strong. People have a tendency to make blanket statements about all people who happen to have grown up within particular religious, cultural, and geographical contexts.
Mr. Behi is right. We are all human beings first and foremost. The Muslims and others from predominantly Islamic countries who participate on this blog are here because they share  our belief that all human beings have a right to speak and be heard – no matter where they come from. If we don't maintain respect for people as individual human beings, it's unlikely we're going to win anybody over with our arguments.
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Omeka Na Huria: Don’t the Singapore Police have better things to do? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Singaporean blogger Jacob George writes about how the police broke up a book signing on the pretext that they were showing an unlicensed video in public. The video was a tape of some peaceful protestors in Hong Kong; the book signing was by one of Singapore's leading opposition politicians…


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Registan.net » Election Photos · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Registan.net points to some great photos of the Kyrgyzstan election.


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The 3rd world view · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Following the 7/7 bombings in London, Bangladeshi blogger Rezwan asks us “who's problem is it, anyway”?


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The Beirut Spring: More Banners · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Mustapha, at Beirut Spring, has posted more versions of his “Muslims Against Terrorism” web sticker.


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The Big Pharaoh · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

After the murder of Egyptian embassador to Iraq, The Big Pharaoh compares the reaction of the state-owned press and the opposition press.


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Those who dare: I would like to announce my resignation from the Communist Party of China · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Chinese blog Those Who Dare notes that the banned-in-China newspaper the Epoch Times has been publishing articles that list important people who have resigned from the Communist Party. Unfortunately, for the newspaper, at least six of the ‘resignees’ have been dead for a number of years.


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webbed feet, web log · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Webbed Feet, Web Log has a report from the first-ever Cambodian Blogger's night.


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Welcome to our new look! · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

If you've visited Global Voices before, you'll notice we've changed our look. Hope you like it.
Thanks to Boris Anthony of HelpPush.org for his painstaking work!!
As we fit into our new skin over the next hours and days, you will most likely see a few more adjustments here and there.
As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions.


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Lone Wolf · Global Voices
Ahmed Al-Omran

Lone Wolf says he was expecting to read in detail about the historical events that happen in Sudan now but he did not find any posts about that.


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A Daily Briefing on Iran · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Regime Change Iran has been informed that there is a massive demostration in Tehran going in support of imprisoned dissident Akbar Ganji, who is on a 31-day hunger strike.


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Arroyo’s approval and trust ratings drop anew · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Inside PCIJ is reporting the perhaps predictable news that Philippine President Gloria Arroyo's approval ratings are plummeting. What's interesting is that the approval ratings of her family are even worse.


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Banzeen » British Embassy Vigil Pics · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Jordanian blog Banzeen has posted a set of moving pictures of the candlelight vigil outside the British Embassy in Amman.


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Brush Up Your Shakespeare · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Brush up your Shakespeare: Brooding Persian offers his condolences to Londonders by quoting King Lear: “Wipe thine eyes; The good years shall devour them, flesh and fell, Ere they make us weep. We'll see'em starved first.”


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Chilean Presidential Candidates · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Elecciones Presidenciales 2005 compares the platforms of Chilean candidates  Joaquín Lavín and Michelle Bachelet [es]


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Commentary · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The South African Blog Commentary notes that the ANC is having some cash-flow issues, and does not look approvingly upon the ANC's proposed solution.


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Danwei on Zheng He · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Danwei reports that the Chinese media has been buzzing about Zheng He, the great 15th-century adventurer. For context, here's his Wikipedia article.


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Explosion in Antélias: Minister Elias Murr Targeted · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Lebanese Political Journal has a near-first-hand-account of an attempted assination attempt: outgoing Defense Minister Elias Murr was the target of a bomb attack. Fortunately, Murr escaped with minor injuries.


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Good Days & Bad Times · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Indian blog Good Days & Bad Times reports on the return of the arranged marraige… and the kids who want it that way. Found via Desipundit.


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Hurricane Dennis vs. London Bombing – KnowProSE.com · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Taran Rampersad compares the Caribbean big media and blogosphere's coverage of Hurricane Dennis and the London Bombing.


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Macam-Macam · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Macam-Macam reports that the Australian government has granted Chinese defector Chen Yong Lin permament protection visas. Note that the author highlights the Chinese reaction at the bottom of his post.


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More Bomb Posts … In Trinidad and Tobago · Global Voices
David Sasaki

While the international big press keeps its gaze set on any new developments coming out of London regarding 7/7, the Caribbean blogosphere has done an excellent job covering yesterday's explosion in the Trinidad and Tobago capital city, Port of Spain.
Caribbean Free Radio has a podcast and skype interview discussing the explosion. Christopher Yee Mon, a Trinidad native who posts on Subway Chronicles from New York, has begun a Flickr group to keep track of images related to the blast. Sirius, who was only blocks away from the bomb site at the time of the explosion, reports today that “there were also bomb threats yesterday at Trincity Mall and the Ministry of National Security.” He adds that several more bomb threats have come today and that the FBI is apparently helping in the investigations.
Taran Rampersad, currently on tour throughout the Caribbean, was one of the first bloggers to post about the blast and has the most thorough information including a list of those injured and a hyper-linked summary from around the blogosphere.
Finally, Brian Maloney questions ties to Al-Qaeda while Indira claims it must be a local job.


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Neeka’s Backlog · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Neeka's Backlog is passing on the news that Ukraine's Interior Ministry has dispached troops to a region of the Crimea where a group of Tatars have seized land that was declared a nature preserve.


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New Mongols: China: the 800lb Gorilla · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

New Mongols comments on an interesting article from Transitions Online about Mongolia's “path forward”; one key point is that the Sino-Mongolian relationship will play a huge role in the country's future.


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Flickr Pick from Beijing · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

“Beijing Transport” by Petri


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Podcast: Chinese bloggers interview each other · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Chinese blogger Haxi  (left) has interviewed the Hangzhou-based blogger, Leylop (right), one of the early Chinese bloggers to blog in English.  Here is Leylop's account of the intervew.   You can listen to it here (MP3, 5MB).
UPDATE: Halley Xie points out that the original interview was posted here on Chinastic.com, a site for which she is an editor.
Leylop mainly focuses on her daily life, music, culture, travels abroad, and perspective on the world as a young Chinese woman.  Read her latest blog post about her job working with foreign English teachers employed to teach at summer language camps.  She describes how other Chinese react to non-Chinese visitors, and how her perspective on what it means to be a “foreigner” has changed over time.  As a recent college graduate, work can be an eye-opener onto the real world. She writes:
One month at work already, long enough to see the ugly sides of the society. In the office, we were doing telephone marketing, and we got unwanted calls ourselves all the time too. For instance, the biggest local TV station called us, asking if we want to get a report of the summer camp, they can send a camera man following the first day and edit it into a one-minute news and play it on prime time. Of course we need to pay for it– 8000kuai per minute. We put an ad on a very popular local newspaper, and the bonus is they'd write a 400 words news for us on their educational edition… It's disappointing to see that's how the media works. Now I've got sharper eyes when reading newspaper, I can tell there's many fake news out there. Where's the integrity of the media? The government censors the media for political reasons already, now money and market are making the situations worse.
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Simon World’s Roundup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

It's probably been far too long since we've mentioned Simon World's excellent daily roundups of Hong Kong, China, and other East Asia blogs…


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ThaRum’s web: Local Content for Local People · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

ThaRum's Web on the exploding popularity of internet cafes in Phnom Penh.


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This is Zimbabwe · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

This is Zimbabwe reports that the African Union's human rights emissary to Zimbabwe has left the country under police escort. One wonders what the official AU response will be.


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The SUMATE summary · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Venezuela News and Views gives a detailed summary of the Venezuelan opposition group SUMATE and the current government trial it faces.


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Visiting Kurdistan · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Omar from Iraq the Model spent the past few weekstravelling in northern Iraq; he was particularly impressed by the city of Sulaymaniya.


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Arroyo Scandal · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Sassy Lawyer has an excellent analysis of the latest developments in the vote-counting scandal engulfing Philippine President Gloria Arroyo.


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A Meta Blog on Arab blogs · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

A Meta Blog on Arab blogs notes that the just-birthed Baraka movement in Morocco has spread to the blogosphere.


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A note for users behind ISP firewalls · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Our friend Isaac Mao lets us know that the https://globalvoicesonline.org domain name may not be accessible for our users within China. Our address at Harvard – http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices appears to work within China, and we encourage anyone who is having difficulty accessing our site to try both domain names – both resolve to the same site.
Isaac has a post on the situation on his blog, in Chinese.


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Another Irani Online · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Unfortunately, the blog Another Irani Online has been forced to temporarily shut down the comments because of repeated and continual abuse by a commentor. Hopefully the comments will come back online soon.


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Atlantic City Rough Cuts: Youth Video Blogging for Community Development · Global Voices
Andy Carvin

Yesterday I spent a wonderful day working with a team of nearly a dozen teachers from MLK Elementary School in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The school is located in a low-income, high-crime community, just blocks from the affluence of the local casino district; approximately 95% of the school population comes from African American and Latino households working in service jobs for the casino industry. They're in the third year of a NJ Department of Education grant to use technology to improve student literacy, particularly in the context of exploring causes of bullying and neighborhood violence.
Now in its third year, the project is expanding to student video production, which is why I've come here for a couple of days. I spent the morning introducing the teachers to various documentary production basics, such as the roles of different team members (editors, researchers, producers, etc), a typical documentary production timeline and the mechanics of documentary storytelling. The group kept me on my toes, peppering me with questions all morning.
After lunch, we began brainstorming how the project would unfold over the course of the year. Rather than having students create their documentaries and call it a day, we're going to incorporate video blogging as a key tool in the learning process. The teachers will manage two video blogs, tentatively called Atlantic City Rough Cuts and Atlantic City Final Cuts. The Rough Cuts video blog will be used to premiere student works-in-progress – “rough cuts” of documentaries that need to be critiqued. They'll post them on the video blog as a way of seeking feedback from the public, particularly video bloggers from around the world. The students will then examine these suggestions, decide what's appropriate, and revise the videos, reposting them as necessary to the rough cuts blog. Eventually, when the videos are ready for prime time, they'll be posted to the Atlantic City Final Cuts video blog, for people who simply want to experience the final product.
As far as I know, this will be one of the very first times anywhere in the world that video blogging is integrated into a public school curriculum, let alone an elementary school curriculum. The entire process of documentary production, from concept development to scriptwriting to editing, will be used as a way to meet state standards regarding proficiency in reading and writing. And if all goes well, we'll end up with a sizable collection of video shorts representing a diverse cross-section of life here in Atlantic City. And while Atlantic City may not seem like a very “global” place in terms of the goals of this website, I think it's a microcosm of the challenges that ethnic minorities often face here in the United States. Plagued by poverty, violence and limited job prospects, the community is striving to find opportunities among its obstacles, and improve local prosperity for all residents — a situation that can be seen in so many parts of the world.
In honor of yesterday's marathon training session, I've cobbled together a five-minute video blog of what we accomplished. Please excuse the really crummy narration quality – I forgot my headset mic and had to use my laptop's internal mic while its fan was whizzing away. -andy
Video  of today's documentary and video blogging workshop at Martin Luther King Jr Elementary School in Atlantic City.
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author: Andy Carvin


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avari/nameh: muslim+democracy=kyrgyzstan · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The blog avari/nameh has an insightful post about the democratic example that Kyrgyzstan is setting for the Islamic world. Link via Registan.net.


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Bloggers.SG 2005 – Frequently Asked Questions · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Tomorrow.sg has a list of frequently asked questions about the upcoming Bloggers.SG 2005 blogging conference.


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Bob sweettalking farmers · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Zimbabwean Pundit is reporting that the Zimbabwean government is holding quiet talks with white farmers to return the land that the government seized several years ago. This, of course, raises the question of what to do with the war veterans who've settled on those farms…


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Desde el Congreso · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Chilean senator Fernando Flores blogs directly from Congress where he and others are debating future changes to the Chilean constitution [es]. One commenter congratulates the “cyber-senator” for keeping the people in touch with the politicians.


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Diseñadores Solidarios por Africa (FayerWayer) · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Raimundo Encina of FayerWayer hopes to start an organization of Chilean designers to spread awareness of African poverty in Chile. [es] Response so far seem enthusiastic.


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EastSouthWestNorth: In Praise of Chinese Peasant Riots · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

EastSouthWestNorth has a thought-provoking post on the growing problem of Chinese peasant riots.


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Relativity · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Reacting to the London bombings, Pakistani blogger Zuffar makes the often-overlooked (or perhaps often-ignored?) point that  “a tolerant, moderate Muslim feels as threatened by these as any one not Muslim – or indeed anyone under attack.”


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Flickr Pick from Dominican Republic · Global Voices
David Sasaki


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Podcast Kuwait · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Kuwaiti blog Savoir Machine is trying to get more Kuwaitis podcasting.


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The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Angry Arab News Service notes that the latest attempted assassination attemp is putting a lot of people on edge since it throws the assumption that the Syrians were behind the assassinations into doubt.


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The Bolivian Vote Abroad · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Barrio Flores says Evo Morales is pushing for The Bolivian vote abroad


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The tide is high, higher…. · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Central Budapest notes that heavy summer rains means that the Danube is expected to flood, and Budapest is preparing for the high water.


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Tropical Storm Emily · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Taran Rampersad is keeping tabs on Tropical Storm Emily with great links to other Caribbean bloggers and pocasters.


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Ukraine Visa Update · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Blog de Connard tries to sort through whether or not US citizens need visas to visit Ukraine. See, some government sources say that they do, and some government sources say that they don't…


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Weekly Zeitgeist » Blog Archive » MSN Sapce close its blogger’s account · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Weekly Zeitgeist, a blog that covers the Chinese blogosphere, notes in this article that MSN spaces has unilaterally shut down at least one Chinese blogger's account without explaination nor apology.


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WoW: We Observe the World · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Chinese student group blog We Observe the World has some Chinese reaction to last week's London bombings.


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» Blog Archive » Marriage maintenance · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Tokyo Times highlights the case of a a businessman who turned to his business books to revive his troubled marriage, with great success.


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300-plus dead. But not as important as London blasts? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Chien(ne)s Sans Frontières points to a horrific train accident in Pakistan that killed 300 people and wonders why it doesn't get the same press coverage as the London bombings.


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Black Looks: Ayaan Hirsi Ali · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Black Looks, in the first of a series spotlighting important African women, profiles Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali woman who is also a Dutch MP and the writer of the controversial film Submission.


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Black Looks: Chenjerai Hove · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Black Looks notes the irony in England refusing entry to one of Zimbabwe's most outspoken dissidents.


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Blogging in a time of crisis · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Metacoverage of the President Gloria Arroyo scandal: Inside PCIJ does a roundup of many of the Filipino/a blogs that have been closely tracking the Arroyo scandal, as well as several new blogs that have recently sprung up.


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BlogsMexico: mas que 3 mil registros · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Blogs Mexico, a national blog directory now has more than 3,000 active, registered blogs [es].


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Boz Covers Latin America · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Boz, writing from Bogota, Colombia, has an excellent roundup of (mostly) Latin American links.


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Buenos Aires, City of Faded Elegance » Translating Cortázar · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jeff Barry points out that one of Argentina's most well known novelists, Julio Cortázar, is rarely known in the English literary world where “literature in translation [is] being constantly curtailed to make room for the Da Vinci Codes and Harry Potters.”


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Central America on C.A.F.T.A. · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Several high profile op-ed's have recently been published concerning next week's House vote on the Central America Free Trade Agreement and the North American blogosphere has been quick to respond. What about Central Americans’ opinions you ask?
Victor Rivera, on the bilingual blog, Enlace Noticias from El Salvador, quotes World Bank estimates on CAFTA and tries to weigh out the costs and benefits for all players. Focusing on El Salvador, then then writes:
Our countries are at a commercial disadvantage, this is clear. We have more natural resources than we have manual labor and what we export best are actual Salvadoreans, whose remittances are day by day the most important sector in El Salvador. And this, ladies and gentleman, is the only political explanation of why we should support CAFTA … so that our fellow Salvadoreans working in the U.S. aren't sent back and are able to keep pushing El Salvador ahead.
Dean Córnito from Costa Rica is more straight-forward in his support of C.A.F.T.A. as well as his disgust for former Costa Rican president Rodrigo Carazo who recently visited the U.S. on an anti-CAFTA lobbying trip organized by OXFAM. He is especially frustrated by Carazo's claim at the Carnegie Endowment that 75% of Costa Ricans were opposed to CAFTA without naming a source. Córnito, on the other hand, links to three surveys which all seem to disagree with Carazo's claim.
A March and April poll by the Institute of Social Studies in Population at the National University of Costa Rica found that  41% were in favor of CAFTA, 38% against, and 21% indifferent or undecided.
On June 8th, the Costa Rican newspaper, Al Día published their results which found that 44.3% of Costa Ricans were in favor of CAFTA while 26.7% were against the agreement.
Finally, a poll carried out by Unimer for La Nacion found in May that if a nation-wide referendum was held on CAFTA, 49% would vote in support while 46% would vote against it.
Another Costa Rican blog, the news star, reacts to the recent push by the Citizen Action Party (PAC) to renegotiate CAFTA so it would include open migration like that of the EU:
Are these people stupid or what? How could it occur to them to ask for something of this magnitude, when they know that CAFTA is not going to be renegotiated and much less that the United States would permit a migratory clause of this nature.
And finally Salvadoreños alrededor del Mundo, a new blog for Salvadoreans living outside the country, uses one of its first posts to promote the benefits of CAFTA:
With the approval of CAFTA en the senate of the United States, a new page of hope is opened in the Central American region. The benefits go towards the attraction of investment and consequently a greater number of exports.
Special thanks to Global Voices reader Iria Puyosa who provided several of the links and the idea for the post.


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China Herald · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Fons Tuinstra points out that the South China Morning Post seems to be vastly overestimating the number of bloggers in China.


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Death Ends Fun: Tiny slice · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Dilip D'Souza on the similarities between American and Indian newspapers and what it means to be informed.


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Dina · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Indian blogger Dina Mehta will be on a panel about globalization, blogging, and women at the Blogher conference at the end of the month.


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Egyptian Person: There is No Hope   لا يوجد أمل · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Egyptian Person is dismayed by the public response to a proposal to let women volunteer for the Army draft.


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Flickr Pick from India · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

“Making Things Shipshape” by Eileen Delhi


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Fortunately, It’s a Nice Governmental Gang! · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Raed of Raed in the Middle is relieved to find out that his brother Khalid, who had been missing for several days, is alive; he called from the secret police's jail. Raed explains why getting arrested by the secret police was the best of many possible scenarios.


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Free Iraqi: Answering readers’ questions. · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

A Free Iraqi takes some time out to dip into his mail bag and answer some of his readers’ questions.


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Iran Scan – The democratic future of Iran · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Iran Scan issues a call to action to try to get the word out about imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji.


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My son the fanatic · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Group blog Sepia Munity points out that all the suspects in the London bombings were second-generation: they were born and raised in the country they attacked. In addition Rezwan of 3rd World View has a lengthy post pondering the motiviations of the bombers.


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teleSUR · Global Voices
David Sasaki

El Machete, written by a Mexican studying in Australia, weighs the pros and cons of the future continent-wide television network, teleSUR, in Latin America.


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The Big Pharaoh · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Big Pharaoh says that “it seems that our ‘intellectuals’ and ‘religious’ leaders are so busy laughing their heads off at America's PR while they're doing nothing to proclaim their religion that was hijacked by a group of mass murderers.”


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North Korean Internet Cafe! · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

From The Marmot's Hole comes this Daily NK story–with pictures!–about a North Korean internet cafe. The pictures–judging from the quality, or lack thereof–appear to have been taken by a hidden camera, possibily a cameraphone.


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Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Lebanese Blogger Forum asks a number of Lebanese politicians (and one pop star) “Why did the chicken cross the road?” and compiles their reponses.


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A Free Writer: Some thing to say about Iraqi bloggers · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Iraqi blog A Free Writer looks about the commonalities of all Iraqi bloggers.


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Ambot ah! » The Pinoy Top Blogs Project · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Filipino blog Ambot Ah! has launched a new blog service called Pinoy Top Blogs. It's an attempt to try to quantify what the Filipino/a blogger A-List really is…


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Black Star Journal: Anti-corruption backlash in southern Africa · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Black Star Journal notes that there's an anti-corruption backlash in parts of southern Africa.


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Bolivia: COHA out of touch · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Boz agrees with Blog from Bolivia that Evo Morales doesn't have a chance of winning the Bolivian special elections in December. He calls the Council on Hemispheric Affairs far out of touch with reality for their insistence that he does because of his anti-US perspective.


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Commentary · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Laurence Caromba, writing in the South African group blog Commentary, points out the difficulties that the home-grown London bombers pose for political theory: “it robs the neoconservative explanation of terrorism (in a nutshell: illiberalism) of some of its power… it also destroys the arguments of … the anti-war left and the isolationist right…”


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EastSouthWestNorth: The Evil Dragon Is Abandoned by Heaven · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

EastSouthWestNorth looks at differences in news coverage between the Western press and the Chinese-language press in the case of a gangster brought low by his love of on-line games.


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Ecuador: ¿Avión de transporte de tropas en Manta? · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Eduardo Ochoa points to [es] Édgar Ríos’ new watchdog blog, Manta y las bases de EE.UU [es], which asks why troop transport planes are flying out of a U.S. military base which is supposed to be dedicated to monitoring narco-trafficking.


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Flickr Pick From Argentina · Global Voices
David Sasaki


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Flickr Pick from Indonesia · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Photograph by Kenny Stoltz


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Hotspot@aol.com · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

For our readers aus Deutschland, Heiko Hebig points out that AOL is sponsoring free WiFi every weekend from now until the end of August at more than 300 cafes, bars, and taverns across Germany.


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Iran Scan – The democratic future of Iran · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Iran Scan has the text of the latest letter that imprisioned journalist Akbar Ganji has managed to smuggle out of jail. Ganji is, at this point, well into the second month of a hunger strike.