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Indonesia: Blog aggregators, President’s new site and Prophet Muhammad Cartoon · Global Voices
Enda Nasution

With the growing numbers of blogs it becomes more difficult to find, read and follow and what each other is posting in their blogs. One can simply solve the problem of reading and following blog posting by subscribing to their feeds and read the posts trough RSS clients or readers, but finding a good blogs for reading to begin with is different matter altogether.
For this we usually depends on a blogger authority figure to point out a blog that worth reading.
For others who would want to find new interesting blogs by themselves they now can resort to blog aggregators.
Currently the Indonesian blogosphere has given birth to several blog aggregators. While several of them are sprung from a blog community, there are others that are a fruit of resourceful individual blogger.
Here are the Indonesian blog aggregators and short description about them:
Planet Terasi
Owned and maintained by Ronny Haryanto, a postgraduate student in Sydney, Australia, Planet Terasi (terasi = dried shrimp paste) is the first and oldest Indonesian Blog Aggregator with a preference for original Indonesian related content with pinch technological/geek taste. It currently aggregates about 60 blogs and updated every hour.
Merdeka.or.id
Lead by Andry S Huzain a programmer who lives in Surabaya, Merdeka.or.id (Merdeka = Freedom) strive not only to make it easier for people to find good blogs but also to motivate the bloggers to provides useful informative posts. Not all blog submission will be aggregate; there is a review and voting process that will decide the fate of a blog. Will my blog make the cut? Yes, if as they described, your blog has kick ass and consistent post.
Komunitas Blogger Muslim
In the most populous Muslim country you will expect there will be Indonesian Muslim Blogger community, and you are right. This blog aggregator, aggregate blogs that is a member of Indonesian Muslim Blogger who lives, not only in Indonesia but all over the world, from Qatar to Denmark, from Bosnia to Pakistan. With slogan “For victorious Islam in Cyber World“, the community has more than 400 active members.
ID-Gmail.info
Sprang from Indonesian Gmail mailing list this blog aggregator, aggregates ID-Gmail member's blogs. This highly active (for some people extremely might be more suitable) relatively new avant garde community has now become a base for anything new and advances in regards to Internet, media and social-cultural trends in Indonesia. With 500 members, one of the milestones of the group is when the exchanges reached to a monumental 30,000 email messages in one month (November 2005).
In the future, hopefully there will be more blog aggregators with special niche/by topic that will surface. Where the added value of a “Blog Aggregate Editor” will enhance the signal vs. noise ratio in the blogosphere.
President SBY's new site
Indonesian president, Dr. H. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (or SBY as he familiarly refers to) has a new, quite “innovative” website.
The website, complete with RSS and Podcast feeds, that reporting day to day President's activities has an English section and a special section for the Indonesian First Lady (in Indonesian)
This well designed and maintained website create blogger reaction (and public as well) when it launched and revealed its monthly operational budget of some Rp 42 million (US$ 4,500 per month).
Where the amount seems high in a country with GDP per capita $3,700 (2005), Priyadi argued that that budget is relatively modest (in Indonesian)  for a head of a country website, that has to consider bandwidth usage, hired staff and security and maintenance system.
The other reaction is regarding the domain name chosen: presidensby.info. Why the president site does not use the official Indonesian government domain go.id as what the vice president do.
The decision to select .info domain and putting “sby” on the address raised a question that the site was developed for more a personal SBY's website and less for a head of the country official website.
This conclusion lead to a call by Windede on his post, that President SBY's might as well give blogging a try.
Prophet Muhammad Cartoon
There are many (too many) words have been poured about this one. People killed, embassies burned. In my opinion, what the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, done was analogous with what in Internet known as flamebait. And foolishly the other side takes the bait and feed the troll. And now there's a flamewar going on.
On her blog A pilgrim for life, Eva Muchtar, a PR Professional who took sabbatical leave from her work to study Spanish Language in Sevilla, Andalucia, post about “The cartoons of Muhammad“, she wrote:
People can express whatever they want to express. Shall we express it even at the expense of other people’s privacy and beliefs? … There is also a question of how the Moslem should respond to it. Are they over-reacting? … But if we respond, how should we respond? And if we respond in the same manner as this initial cause of chain reaction, does it mean we are guilty of the same ‘mistake’?
Hopes for a peaceful and productive life, I think, is in order, as she continued:
When will this stop? Why should this unnecessary hatred start?
It is such a difficult subject to discuss. Had we known the answer, perhaps there will be peace on earth. But let us give it a shot anyway. Let us stop having pointless and never-ending cycle of arguments. Let us be more productive, helpful and loving to one another.

author: Enda Nasution


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Indonesia: Electric Growth · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Sarapan Ekonomi critiques John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman: “His self declared crime — inflating the forecast of electrical demand to force Indonesia into bankruptcy — has turned into an important engine of Indonesia’s economic growth since the early 1970s.”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Jose Manuel Tesoro


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Jamaica: Police rap · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Afflicted Yard links to an anti-crime rap song recorded by Jamaican Senior Superintendent of Police Renato Adams.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Jamaica: Sex Bus · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Owen tries to get to the bottom of a press report that high school girls were caught having sex on a bus.


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Kenya: reforestation · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Afromusing comments on the depleted forest lands of Kenya and the need to replant trees.  Would you be willing to spend $5 to replant trees? If so contact Afromusing.

author: Sokari Ekine


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Latin America: TeleSur’s New Website · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Boz convinces the Pan-American news network, TeleSur to redesign their website. OK, so maybe not, but whoever was responsible for the change, it brings a marked improvement.

author: David Sasaki


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Malaysia: Unbalanced Punishments? · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Colors of Life contrasts the sentences in two murder cases in Malaysia: one involving a lover's quarrel, another involving inflamed passions over harsh words. Both were emotional crimes, yet why did the perpetrators of the latter get lighter sentences?


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Nepal: Kantipur Anniversary · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

In the background of the current regime in Nepal – United We Blog! covers the anniversary of the Kantipur Media Group.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Nicaragua: Medical Strike · Global Voices
David Sasaki

¡Pura Vida! posts about the 2,000 doctors and 20,000 health workers currently on strike in Managua, noting that “the average doctor here makes around $300 a month.”


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Nigeria: celebrating Chinweizu · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Molara Wood reports on an evening in Lagos celebrating Nigerian writer, Chinweizu, co-author of Toward The Decolonisation of African Literature…….”Chinweizu was billed to and delivered a lecture on LUGARDISM AND THE PROSPECT OF AFRICAN POWER which ranged over the usual Chinweizu territory – but more concerned about the survival of Nigeria and Africa in a vein more hair-scraping than the usual Afrocentric stuff”


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Pakistan: Blog-o-tracking · Global Voices
Omer Alvie

It is bad enough having my blog routinely reviewed by dot gov and dot mil domains but now I think I am also being followed by some rather unsavory net characters while cruising the internet highway searching for interesting blog posts for GV. I have to publicly declare here, that my critique is not specifically targeting the Bush Administration, as I am an equal opportunity satirist and consider any government fair game but I have to admit that residents of 1600 Pennsylvania provide the most material for banter, burlesque, caricature, causticity, chaffing, irony, lampoonery, mockery, parody, pasquinade, persiflage, play on, put-on, raillery, sarcasm, send-up, skit, spoof, squib, takeoff, travesty, and wit.
As this post is being monitored by suspicious GPS satellites, I shall quickly present my selection of this week's Pakistani blog posts.
Suspect Paki writes a rather eloquent commentary on Evil Ideology; Glasshouse comments on the continuing cartoon protests; Me Here also rants about the protests turning into riots; Organic Brew also takes a stab at the unrelenting protests; Fountainhead explains the state of the earth; and finally, I lighten things up with my Oscar preview.
Well, I better be off, as I am still being watched. I shall return next week, disguised as a hunter who shoots millionaire lawyers for sport.

author: Omer Alvie


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Panama: David’s Newest Supermarket · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Don Ray got exclusive permission to photograph the newest mega-supermarket in Panama's northern city of David.


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Peru: Inequality as an Election Issue · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Fabiola Bazo has a hyperlinked and bilingual analysis of inequality as an election issue as Peruvians get ready to head to the polls.


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Philippines: Two Disasters · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Torn and frayed in Manila reflects on two disasters that have recently hit the Philippines: a stampede at a game show that killed over 70 people and a mudslide that smothered possibly thousands.


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Radio Africa FM · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

The Voice of Africa Radio has been awarded an FM licence.  David Ajao's writes “In a nutshell, VOAR is London’s first African radio station….“The station was launched to act as a true Pan-African voice for the African community…. (it)  has a strong speech commitment, providing phone-in discussion programmes for local residents to discuss issues affecting the African community both within London and internationally. Programmes are broadcast in a range of African languages as well as English, French and Portuguese.”


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Russia: Journalist Anna Politkovskaya · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Raffi Aftandelian of Maaskva: Nashimi Glazami shares his thoughts on one of Russia's most prominent war journalists, Anna Politkovskaya, the nature of her writing, and the practice of reading newspapers in general. (This post is in two languages, English and Russian, as all the posts in this blog are.)

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Russia: Moscow Gay Pride Parade Banned · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Andy Young of Taking Aim explains how the general bias against homosexuality in Russia has led to the cancellation of gay pride parade in Moscow.


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Singapore, Malaysia: Chocolate Love · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

All U Can Eat Buffet discusses MILO, a drink made from chocolate-flavored powder that children all over Southeast Asia have grown to love. He's found at least two types: one made in Malaysia, which is sweeter, and one from Australia, which is creamier.


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South Africa: changing voting patterns.  · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Politics ZA also comments on the coming South African local elections and possible changes in “voting patterns” that may affect the overall success of the ANC.


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South Africa: local elections · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

South Africa is about to have local elections and South Africa blog poses some important questions to local politicians


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South Africa: returning home · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

The Fish Bowl comments on the South African government initiative to encourage citizens to return to SA to fill the skills shortage


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St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Cooking gas war · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Abeni reports that a “gas war” is on the verge of breaking out in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as Texaco pushes to increase the price of a cylinder of cooking gas from EC$30 to EC$43. Abeni wonders “if the Petro Caribe gas that came in from Venezuela a few days before elections is a factor in Texaco's stance”.


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Tajikistan: Destroying a Synagogue · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

A Dushanbe expat writing for Registan.net reports on the impending destruction of  Tajikistan's only synagogue.

author: Nathan Hamm


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Tajikistan: Small Victory · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Alan Cordova reports on a small victory in the case of a jailed Tajik democracy pioneer.


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Thailand: Airport Odors · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

A Daily Dose of Words ridicules a Financial Times travel writer who described inhaling “the smell of mint, of jasmine and perfume” on stepping out of Bangkok's Don Muang airport. Exhaust fumes, perhaps, he and his commenters point out. But no, no herbs and flowers.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Here comes the Son · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Attillah Springer and Nicholas Laughlin are stage-side as the Peter Minshall-designed Carnival king, “Son of Saga Boy”, makes his second public appearance. caribbeanfreephoto has a Flickr photoset.


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Trinidad & Tobago: World Cup Football News · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

The Trinidad & Tobago World Cup Blog summarizes last week's Soca Warriors-related news. The Soca Warriors are Trinidad & Tobago's national football team.


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Turkmenistan: Bouygues’s Sweet Deal · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

neweurasia reports on the massive deals signed by French construction firm Bouygues with the Turkmen government.


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Venezuela: President Chavez Until 2031? · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Analyzing Hugo Chavez's recent proposal of amending the constitution to allow for his indefinite re-election, Oil Wars calls it a tactic to force the opposition to participate in the upcoming elections which they have threatened to boycott. Miguel Octavio, however, argues that the amendment “would essentially fulfill Chavez’ autocratic ambition of perpetuating himself in power.”


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Voices from Zimbabwe and the Great Lakes · Global Voices
Zimpundit

Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), a civic action group looking out for the welfare of Zimbabwean women, held their third annual valentine's day protest march.  This is Zimbabwe blogged that flyers promoting the march brought Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, to a standstill days before the event.
This is Zimbabwe's continued coverage of the march reveals that several hundreds of the protestors, including babies and men, were unjustly arrested and held by Zimbabwe's paranoid police.
Agathon Rwasa reports that the UN is compelling the FNL to disarm unconditionally.  The post also notes that,
Predictably, FNL apologists have attacked the UN for it's new-found resolve, even as the FNL murdered another four people, including a Catholic priest.
The anonymous author of an article on the “African News Dimension” website claims that “many Burundi analysts” believe the UN's comments are “ill advised”, but says nothing about who these analysts are, or what the basis is of their alleged expertise.
The article makes no mention of the August 2004 Gatumba massacre, which is widely believed to have been a joint attack by the FNL and its Congolese and Rwandan Hutu-extremist allies, or of the longstanding evidence offered by Human Rights Watch and other groups of links between the FNL and former members of the Rwandan army implicated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The article appears to suggest that such claims have been fabricated by the Burundian government for the sake of convenience.
Sahara Sarah sattirically describes what she calls “the Nescafe Model of Development,”
Rather than real coffee, most establishments, office coffee areas (if you are lucky enough to have one), etc. have Nescafe – instant coffee. It's just not that great. And rather than just recognize it's inadequacies and replacing it, it's just modified and jazzed up to appear better than it is. This is a nice metaphor for governments and development in many third world countries. Say you have a bad road maintenance system (or a “Nescafe” road system)
Congo Watch's  Ingrid has an intriguing report on the possibility that UN peacekeepers will stop fighting alongside government troops if they continue to commit human rights violations .
Blogger Mike of Hacktivate highlights  rockstar Bono's recent remarks at the prayer breakfast held in Washington responding that,
After reading the transcript from his talk, I am convinced that Bono has a God given role to play. It is a must read for people tired of Christian hypocrisy, for people interested in Africa, for Christians themselves, and for people who love to see George Bush challenged (he was there) on issues of social justice.
“God is with the vulnerable and poor.
God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house? God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives? God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war? God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.”
Mike is also challenging Malawi's open source developers to work on a project for cash.
On the occasion of Heroes day in Rwanda earlier this month, George Conard contemplates the apparent contempt displayed by many in Rwanda towards Paul Rusesabagina, the man on whose life Hotel Rwanda was based.
One of the interesting things that has stood out for me in this coverage has been the number of articles and references to Paul Rusesabagina, the man portrayed by Don Cheadle in the movie Hotel Rwanda as the manager of the Hotel des Milles Collines in Kigali. There is a lot of bitterness and anger toward Rusesabagina, with many writers arguing that he has exaggerated his role and acts during the genocide, that he only really saved a few people, and that he has downplayed the role of others at the time…
I was talking with a friend here in Kigali about this over dinner tonight, and we both agreed that the film was clearly a Hollywood production; more specifically, it wasn't a documentary and didn't try to be, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. While I can understand the desire to educate people about all of the heroic acts during 1994, the fact remains that Hotel Rwanda probably did more to raise awareness in the West, and especially in the US, about what happened here than everything else that was made, shown, or published in the ten years prior to its release, and I can't help but think that's a good thing.
Read more here.

author: Zimpundit


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Zimbabwe:  The unreal lives of the very rich · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

This is Zimbabwe comments on the difference between the lives of the “filthy rich” Zimbabweans and the rest of the population. …”The ostrich syndrome is typical of the filthy rich upper class complacency, those who don’t vote because they don’t want to rock the boat, don’t read the papers because there’s nothing they can do about it, don’t discuss politics because they find it so boring!”


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Democracy on Tabloid? · Global Voices
Tian Yi

On The View from Taiwan, Michael Turton and readers discuss how Apple Daily, the top selling tabloid newspaper in Hong Kong and Taiwan, reflects the regions’ democracy, freedom of speech and cultural spirit.

author: Tian Yi


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Armenia: Armenian Logic · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Christian Garbis writes his thoughts and observations on Armenian logic.


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Barbados: Medical help from Cuba · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Barbados Free Press questions the use of the phrase “world class Cuban medical system” in a article in the local press. In a response to that post, a reader leaves a comment asking what happened to a local eyecare facility for which funding had been received.


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Barbados: Ministers’ assets & politics · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Barbados Free Press takes issue with the fact that public officials in Barbados are not required to declare their assets. And with Barbados a “hotbed of political goings-on” in recent times, Neil Benn can't help but break his self-imposed rule about not blogging about politics.


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Benin: Angelique Kido · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Jangbalajugbu-Homeland Stories  writes about Benin artist, Angelique Kido – in particular her 1994 album, Aye which he says could have been released yesterday…….”I wikied her name and I learnt the 46 year old has been nominated for Grammy three times (1995, 1999 and 2003). She released her latest Album, Oyaya! (Joy) in 2004″  And she is 46 wow!


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Cambodia: Moving Power · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Lux Mean observes that rural Cambodians seeking redress now wait in front of the Prime Minister's residence instead of before the Royal Palace or the Parliament: “Before, people went to the Royal Palace to ask for help from the King. The change may be led by either the frequent absence of King Father from the country or by any level of people’s expectation, which I could not understand, about the Royal Palace’s intervention.”


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Caribbean: Hurricane season · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

“My Caribbean and Florida bloggers, do you realise we are less than 16 weeks away from hurricane season”? asks Cayman Islands-based blogger Ri.


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Chad: Stealing the oil · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Chad's public officials have joined other African leaders in the stealing of oil funds into offshore accounts  – Yebo Gogo points to an article in the NY Times.


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China’s Tiny Step towards Facing Its Past · Global Voices
Tian Yi

The Peking Duck gives China credit for opening up the first Cultural Revolution Museum for the people to remember the past – “Yes, it (China) can do a lot more. But there's no question this is a positive step“.


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Cuba:  Book Fair · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

regalado.blogia.com highlights (ES) a few of the offerings at the Havana International Book Fair.


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Cuba: Century’s end · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Que Bola? posts a photo of an abandoned department store in Trinidad, Cuba called “Fin de Siglo” (the end of the century) and notes: “The 1900s were in fact a final century for a way of life in Cuba. Things have changed for the better and the worse, but they will never return to the way they were in the last mid-century.”


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DRC: Humanitarian crisis · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Black Star Journal reports on the continuing crisis in the DRC and points to three articles on the country's state of affairs.


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Estonia: 1905 Revolution Photo Exhibit · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Was 1905 in Estonia a prelude to 1917 or the year Estonia's independence movement was born? Bonjour l'Estonie links to a review of a photo exhibit capable of shedding light on this neglected and potentially divisive historical period: “Manors are Burning!: The 1905 Revolution in Estonia.”


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Estonia: Taking Responsibility · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Bonjour l'Estonie links to an article in Free Estonian Word about how the choices made more than 60 years ago still reverberate today: “People defend and excuse collaboration with the Nazis while condemning any sort of contact with the Soviets. Others, including prominent members of Estonia's political life, take the opposite view and defend collaboration with the Soviets. And all the while, they all maintain that their collaboration was in fact intended to help Estonia. Perhaps the truth is that it helped only themselves instead.”


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Ghana: markets · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Ghana Journal, NGO worker describes the markets scene in Accra.…….”The market is a swirling mess of people – hawkers shaking t-shirts and pants, calling out for attention or if they’re within reach grabbing my hand or my arm. There’s women carrying bakeries on their heads, young men hefting boxes full of more things to sell and dumping them on sidewalks.”


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Honduras: Telenovelas · Global Voices
David Sasaki

James compares and contrasts Honduras’ telenovelas with the soap operas of the United States commenting that “they both always feature incredibly rich families living in mansions with no discernable jobs or businesses to pay for their opulent dwellings, with nothing better to do with their days than scheme against one another.”


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Hong Kong, Philippines: Right of Abode · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Simon World comments on the possible far-reaching consequences of a recent decision to give two Hong Kong-born children of a Filipino domestic worker “right of abode” in the Chinese territory.


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How Many Parents Can Toby Have? · Global Voices
Tian Yi

So far 10 South Korean have claimed to be either Toby Dawson's birth parents or relatives.  Toby Dawson was born in South Korea, adopted by his American parents at age three, and recently won the bronze medal in the men's mogul ski event.  The Lost Nomad cites two reportings on this issue and pokes hole in one personal statement.


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India: Avian Flu · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Sepia Mutiny provides an update on the Bird Flu breakout in India.


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India: Street harassment · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A collage of written testimonials on street harassment at the Blank Noise Project.


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India: The arranged marriage · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The concept of arranged marriages in India puts an extra pressure on women to not only succumb to being a certian type but also attempt to marry a man who falls into certain “types”. More on the marriage blues by Sakshi.


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Indonesia: Model Returns · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Indonesian model and blogger Tiara Lestari, who controversially posed for a European edition of Playboy and who now lives in Singapore, is returning to Indonesia for a photo shoot. She expresses her trepidation at the trip: “Will they accept me as a model who is trying to be a better person? Or will they reject me as the queen of immorality trying to come back to country she doesn’t belong?”


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Kenya: schools rugby · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

White African comments on the world of Kenyan school rugby and asks readers to tell him which school is the best.


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KenyanSphere this week · Global Voices
Marc

Bankelele is moving house, and is finding it more time consuming and frustrating than he had thought — the ranks of real estate agents are stuffed with crooks and conmen
The number of con people out there also is troubling. I have seen houses, which I later found out, were not available for rent, or which the owner was unknown, or out of the country
Keguro has an interesting take on muscled toned bodies … is there really a difference between one achieved through manual labour and one from several visits to the gym?
The Mad Kenyan Woman reflects on age as a fetish in Kenyan politics, where the older politicians are accorded almost god-like status on account of their age, and are therefore seldom questioned. She then goes on to indicate why this is beginning to unravel
According to most senior officials in Kenyan government, in this administration or any other, anybody under fifty is a mere “kijana.” (Kijana is a young boy or girl in Kiswahili)
Charles at Kenya Beyond 2005 analyses the recent resignations of Kenya’s Finance, Energy and Education Ministers, and asks what next.
In the crackdown yesterday on the vendors (free subscription) and proprietors of a weekly daily over allegations that some of its content inappropriately touched on the President and First Family, the Kenyan Analyst takes the Government Spokesman to task.
In recollection of  all the allegations and denials from State House over the president having two wives, he observes:
The moment Kibaki turned his family woes into a national issue he invited journalists to not only write about his personal life but also speculate about it in the days that have followed.
Mama JunkYard remembers Lynden David Hall
Mshari is urging everyone to eschew unpaid overtime and work their proper hours
Adrian shares pictures of his Safari Walk
Rombo questions the ideal of the beautiful woman

author: Marc


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Kyrgyzstan: A Funeral · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

The Golden Road to Samarqand writes about Kyrgyz funeral customs.


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Latvia: March 16 Controversy · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Aleks at All About Latvia writes about the controversy surrounding March 16 in Latvia: “For the last few years, every year on March 16, Latvian uberpatriots march in Riga and the Western Latvian city of Liepaja. Every year, Russian uberpatriots march to protest against the new found spread of fascism in the Baltic states. Russian TV arrives. Takes the footage. Viewers in Russian cities watch what those Balts think of the grandpappy who died in World War II. The Russian government becomes irate and says that a EU member state should not allow Nazis have any liberty to demonstrate. And eventually, we forget about it.”


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Marxist Class Analysis in Hong Kong · Global Voices
Tian Yi

Simon on Simon World considers that “Marxist class analysis pervades even the world's free-est economy, that darling of laissez-faire economics, Hong Kong”.  He cites the latest budget discussion as evidence.


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Mexico: Bono Sings “Chiapas-Mexico- No More!!” · Global Voices
David Sasaki

León Felipe Sánchez says that the crowd went wild at U2's concert in Mexico City's Aztec Stadium when Bono added the lyrics “Chiapas!!! Mexico!!! NO MORE!!!” – referring to Mexico's longstanding Southern conflict – to the legendary song, Sunday Bloody Sunday.


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Nepal: 5 Point Plan · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Paramendra Bhagat presents a five-point agreement plan to work towards peace and conflict resolution in Nepal.


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Nepal: Layers in trouble · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Legal News From Nepal on the position lawyers find themselves in – at risk from both sides of the conflict in Nepal.


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Nicaragua: “Hail to The Micro Bus!” · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jason has learned to love Nicaragua's micro buses.


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Nigeria: BlogoDrama · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Grandiose Parlour  comments on what he describes as a “Naija BlogODrama”   over at Naijablog this past weekend.  Insults flying left right and center – a display on how to be intolerant and abusive.


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Nigeria: Nigerian NGO – Increase · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Pilgrimage to Self points to a BBC programme on a Nigerian NGO called Increase …… She works with Nigerians who live alternative lifestyles, and educates people on sexual health.


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Non Violence, Conservatism & Human Rights · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Fanousian , a collective blog, has done an interview with Dr. Brian Martin writer in nonviolence, and associate professor in Science, Technology and Society at the University of Wollongong. This blog has already focused on non violence movement for couple of months. It is fascinating that bloggers not only provide information but they take initiatives too.
Andishe No (means New Thought) fears that country was pushed back (Persian) to pre Khatami’s period concerning censorship. He believes that even if many books get banned in twenty first century, government can not stop people getting information. Government wants to control weblogs in Iran and put them in a guideline.
For Abthai  (Persian)  human rights questions are not in contradiction with National Security. He says in Khatami’s period at least oppressed could express themselves but in past few months there is not anymore the case.
The Spirit of Man, Canada based blogger wants to create a list of Iranian conservative blogs. Blogger defines the meaning of Conservatism as follow:
“I am in its classical essence a conservative, a liberal and secular conservative, meaning I believe in smaller government, free trade, less taxes, self governance, believing in traditional values and I do believe in separation of Mosque from State and I ultimately believe in individuals’ freedoms. But let me make it clear that I am not a Conservative in a way that most people think of when it comes to Iran and Iranian conservatisms.”
Behnoud (Persian) says Iranian government by selling gas & oil for 100 Billion dollars to China wants to buy their veto in Security Council to avoid sanctions  related its nuclear activities.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Peru, Panama: Interview with Chef Gastón Acurio · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Elena Hernández posts her interview with Peruvian chef, Gastón Acurio (ES) which appeared in this week's magazine supplement to the daily, La Prensa de Panamá.


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Philippines: Burger Brand · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Howie Severino talks about Jollibee, a local fast-food chain in the Philippines that competes strongly with McDonalds. “Jollibee has since come a long way, and so has our globalized world. But now I'm wise enough to know that it might one day make Filipinos as obese as Americans. Jollibee is far from being my preferred Pinoy culinary ambassador to the rest of the world.”


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Philippines, Thailand: Healthy Food? · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Jessica Zafra writes from Manila about marketing coffee as healthy: “I've been drinking coffee since I was 8, and let me tell you: I don't drink it because it's good for me. Part of the attraction of drinking coffee is knowing that too much of it is bad for you.” Bangkok Mom has a similar bemusement about the advertising of instant noodles.


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Reflections on Blogging with Fernando Flores · Global Voices
Rosario Lizana

Chilean Senator Fernando Flores has been an active promoter of blogs in Chile. He's introduced them in a serious context. In this interview, he reflects about blogs, posts, comments, opinions, and how to build progressive common worlds through language.
Part 1
Fernando, lets talk about your blog and its difference from other types of blogs?
On occasions people write to me and ask, why don’t you give opinions on your blog, others complain about why I “copy and paste”?
The main feature of my blog is to disclose worlds, so I can bring into the blog issues with out making an opinion. My work is to disclose, not to be an opinionated person. My policy is not to give opinions. I choose themes, and even if I have a negative opinion of them, I have selected them because I think them important, worth mentioning to share them with others. I believe other people do other things, they have biased opinions, it’s not the style of my blog and not the style of me as a senator.
I think that I am good at watching what goes on in the world, so I share issues that I discern as important, within a certain line. So, I share 4 or 5 themes such as technology, education, digital vanguard.  I read around 1000 posts per day; where I find a lot to share. I do a selection labour and a lot of readers appreciate it. The other reason for doing “cut and paste” is that I am a Senator and I don’t have time to write five articles per day.
Another phenomenon is that at times I post the complete text, and readers ask me, why don’t you just post the link?  My readers are still in a junior stage of blogs, so if I only post the link, they will not click it, and the link will get lost, therefore, I feel obliged to post the full article.
Blogs must have a purpose, oriented to a community of readers that you are trying to reach. I do not have a diary blog, or a senator news blog, or a senator's opinion blog. I have not used my blog for political issues, even though -I am part of the power structure of the country – its not my way of blogging.
What would be the style of your blog?
Well, it is not only about posting, you need to have a strategy. And in this strategy there is always a permanent question mark, as we do not know which will be the events that will feed this strategy, what things are going to happen in the world.
For me, the blog philosophy is similar to editing a magazine. I have to be at the service of my readers and my potential readers and to write for their mentality, rather than just write for myself. There is a tension between writing for personal interest and writing for the reader’s mentality. That depends on the style that you have. I write for the mentality of my readers.
I would like to ask you about your point of view regarding comments and opinions?
I think people should think about on what is to give an opinion.  Written language is more reflective than oral language. In oral language people tend to give fewer reasons on what they are saying. In the written language people give more reasons, about the things they say. It is a much deeper phenomenon, it is the ontological discussion  between statements and judgments.  People do not know that opinions belong to the family of  judgments and  therefore they cannot ask for evidence to settle them. On the other hand, affirmations can be settled through evidence. Every time we make a judgment we risk something. If you said that a person is talking bullshit, people can ask you, ‘why did you say that? And if you don’t have an answer, you will appear to be the “bullshitter.”
The bullshitter is the person who talks and is not careful with what he or she is saying, but that's not the same as being a liar. Bullshit says things as real without checking if they are true, they don’t care if that is going to affect others; it build castles in the air. The judgment of the liar is different, because the liar does give false statements knowing they are false. This is a failure of sincerity.
An example of this is the Google and China issue. Several people have judged Google, as if judging is the main matter. I believe that what is relevant is the fact itself and the recognition of it as an ethic dilemma. It is not an easy decision to abandon China. China, as any nation, has a principle of sovereignty therefore you have to negotiate trade agreements the best way possible. Anyway that’s good for China. I dare to say this now, as I had formed this opinion through all the discussion. Before, my opinion might have been a quick reaction. Quick reactions can become negative judgment.
The bull shittter makes careless promises, careless statements, (without evidence) but they dont have the deceit of the liars. It also happens with promises which cannot be denied through evidence, there’s always a gap, in the moment a promise is made and in the moment the promise gets achieved. If the gap is not defined ahead, that takes you into a bullshitter attitude. There is also the liar who makes promises knowing beforehand that he has no intention of achieving them.
Language has two components, one part of language represents reality and other part has to do with inventing worlds with  another. The invention of worlds is done through offers, promises, requests, and statements. When a post is written, what the person is really doing is offering, promising, requesting and declaring.  These conversations open the possibilities of building a collective world together. When these four actions are made carelessly (without evidence) and like biased opinions, they do not contribute to build a world together.
The concept of bullshit, is a reference from the book, “On Bullshit”, Harry G. Frankfurt. The book was on the table while the interview was taking place.

author: Rosario Lizana


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Russia: 50th Anniversary of Khrushchev’s Speech · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Nikita Khrushchev began the process of de-Stalinization 50 years ago, with a speech given at the 20th Communist Party Congress, held February 14-25, 1956. Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog discusses the event's significance and reviews the coverage of the anniversary. He also reproduces parts of an interview with Sergo Mikoyan, son of Soviet statesman Anastas Mikoyan. Masha Gessen publishes an excerpt from her own book, in which her grandmother Rozalia, a censor at Glavlit, listens to the speech being read by a Party functionary at a staff meeting.


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Russia: Voice of Beslan and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Louise Arbour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, is in Russia and is expected to arrive in Beslan, North Ossetia, on Wednesday. Women from the Voice of Beslan organization, who spent ten day on hunger strike this month to draw the world's attention to inadequate investigation and unfair trial following the tragedy of Sept. 2004, hope to meet with her. LJ user struwwellpeter has translated their appeal to a prominent Russian human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva, who attended the meeting with Ms. Arbour in Moscow.


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South Africa – far right pt politics · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Moral Fibre reports on the African Christian Democratic Party – the party that refused to accept the SA constitution in 1995 – “Like the Nazi Party abusing the democratic system in early 20th century Germany, the ACDP abuses the organs of our judiciary which it itself has explicitly rejected in its manifesto.”


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South Africa: squatters · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Squatter City gives some facts on squatters in Cape Town  and  country wide South Africa.…260,000 on the waiting list for housing;  1.84 million people nation wide live in shacks – a 26% increase since 1994


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The Law of Love in China · Global Voices
Tian Yi

How to regulate love in China?  A mock law on love has been circulating online in China as early as 2002 and was recently picked up by mainstream media.  Joel Martinsen presents the English translation on Danwei.


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The silencing of Cayman Cop · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Finally — a Caribbean blogging controversy. Involving a blogging policeman, a local newspaper and a witch hunt by an irate constabulary. In — of all places — the mild-mannered Cayman Islands.
On February 18, popular Jamaican blogger Mad Bull, who lives in Grand Cayman, reported that the activities of two Caymanian bloggers had made the front page of the Caymanian Compass, a local newspaper. The article, published on February 16, was entitled “Cayman blogs stir interest” and stated that:
One of [the] blogs, called Cayman Cop, is written by a British police officer with the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service [RCIPS] who calls himself Cayman Bobby, while the other blog is called Cayman Islands Blog Man, and is written by someone who calls himself Rufus T. McGilicutty. . . .
The Cayman Cop blog mixes humour and general interest posts with commentary about the RCIPS and the Cayman Islands. The blog started in October, and had its 100 posting from the author this week.
The author states in his website header that the comments on the site are only his opinions and do not represent the official line of the RCIPS.
“The RCIP[S]. . . ,” the article continued, “does not approve of the blog.” In a written response to the Compass, the RCIPS called Cayman Cop:
. . . one of multiple examples around the world, which exists to criticize the way organizations are managed and operated. . . It is highly unfortunate that this individual has seen fit to operate this site about the RCIPS.
and offered this interpretation of the nature of the “blog culture”:
The essence of blog culture is to be able to make anonymous comments, many of them cynical and destructive which may be considered libellous and are highly derogatory to colleagues, fellow employees and to the institution itself.
The Compass reported that the Commissioner of Police found the blog “insulting”, on the grounds that “it is impossible to determine the genuine from the malicious information.”
At the time of writing, Cayman Cop contains only two farewell posts, though Cayman Bobby doesn't seem to have lost his edge. The blog's header now reads “Cayman Cop has taken early retirement” and the second-to-last post, filed on February 16, says:
Sadly there have been too many loose lips and the service is now on a real witch hunt for my identity. I have no option but to pull the plug on this blog. Afterall, to quote a song from the Italian Job, “It's a self preservation society”
To my regular readers – a big thank you for your support and comments.
To all the bosses of the RCIP – In a way I'm glad you found this site as I hope that you now have a real idea of just how low morale really is within the service.
To all the girls and guys of the RCIP – keep up the good work and don't let the management get you down.
To all the expat Bobby's – keep focused, stay keen and be as professional as you were in Blighty.
To all you non cops out there – Rispek de Babylon
Cayman Bobby's second-to-last post attracted 45 comments, most of them sympathetic and many questioning whether freedom of expression existed in the Cayman Islands. Cayman Bobby noted in the comment thread, however, that he does moderate comments and had discarded about 30%, some of which he deemed likely to “incite racial hatred”.
In his final post, dated February 18, Cayman Bobby takes a swipe at the Compass (“Booo! You whistle blowers!) and provides a list of other sites which have linked the blog. He closes with this warning:
Please be aware of cheap imitations, or bloggers pretending to be Cayman Cop. Whilst I'm aware that imitation is the best form of flattery, please don't use my name on your site. I'm in enough sh*t as it is!
Cayman Cop Returns IS NOT being run by the author of this site.
Meanwhile, Cayman Islands Blog Man, the other site mentioned in the Compass article, is having a field day. Likewise for Little Eye on The World, which — riffing off the gay cruise that recently landed in Grand Cayman amidst much controversy — claims that Cayman Cop “was persuaded to ‘ride the other bus’.”


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Too Many Rights in The Prison? · Global Voices
Tian Yi

Flying Yangban applauds the South Korean government's consideration to officially abolish the death penalty.  However, he shudders at the thought of extending voting rights to prisoners.


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Trinidad & Tobago: Children’s carnival · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Photographer Stefan Falke posts photos the children's carnival in Trinidad, including a few of a band inspired by the Soca Warriors, the national football team.


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Turkmenistan: Demolitions · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Peter at neweurasia reports on the destruction of seaside homes in the city of Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan.


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Turkmenistan, Ukraine: Gas War · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Ukraine, faced with threats now from Turkmenistan that it will raise gas prices, is reacting aggressively, reports neweurasia


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Ukraine: Andrey Kurkov Book Review · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Kevin Kinsella at Languor Management disagrees with Victor Sonkin, a book reviewer who is being too harsh on Andrey Kurkov, a Ukrainian writer whose novels, originally in Russian, have been translated into many languages: “I'd call it ‘pleasantly surreal’ as opposed to Sonkin's ‘without rhyme or reason’ – despite also being a straightforward and, in most respects, realistic portrait of Kiev life (and death) in the 1990s.”


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Ukraine: Boston Diaspora Church · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Greg of Reflections on Ukraine provides a link to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. Andrew in Boston, built in 1954 and serving a Diaspora community whose history goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. The church's calendar has an unlikely feature: an RSS feed.


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Ukraine: Kyiv on a Saturday Night · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Carpetblogger, now in Kyiv (not Baku), describes the feel of the city on a (comparatively) warm Saturday night in February.


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Ukraine: Yanukovych Having an Easy Campaign · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

LEvko at Foreign Notes muses on why no one is really giving Victor Yanukovych and his Party of the Regions a hard time during this campaign, despite him being an easy target.


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Uzbekistan: ICG Reccomendations · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Vilhelm Konnander turns a critical eye to ICG's recent report on Uzbekistan.


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Vietnam: Expats · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Expatriate Mister Morris lists the reasons why he likes living in Vietnam, among them “a really really nice country club swimming pool nearby that is to die for.” Our Man in Hanoi sighs that in his mind, its people like Mister Morris who are “expats” — and that's why he hates being called an “expat” himself. His commenters sympathize.


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Zimbabwe: increasing costs of univeristy · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

This is Zimbabwe reports on the increasing costs of attending university in the country. In January fees went up 400% and now in February they have gone up a further 1000%!


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Arabic Blogs Dreams · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Some disappointment in blogging and Arab blogsphere is floating around. Here, Tarik Abu Ziad from Jordan writes; Running from forums to fall under the overpower of blog aggregators:
بدأت ظاهرية الشللية بالظهور مجددا. الاختيار حسب المعرفة الشخصية أو حسب المزاجية. ولو كانت هذه المجتمعات تمثل جهة معينة او تحمل فكرا معينا لما كانت عملية الاختيار مشكلة . فلو افترضنا وجود مجتمع اسمه: ” ملتقى مصممي الفوتوشوب” لكان الشرط الرئيسي لمشاركة مدونة ما في هذا المجتمع هو ” التصميم بالفوتشوب” ويمكن أن تكون عملية الانضمام والمشاركة في مجتمع مماثل سهلة نوعا ما. على العكس من ذلك هناك مجتمعات تحمل اسم دولة أو مدينة أو منطقة : ” كوكب الأردن ، كوكب دبي ، مدونات سعودية ” هذه المجتمعات يفترض أن تكون مفتوحة لكل شخص منتمي لتلك الدولة او المنطقة ويفترض أن لا تكون هناك جهة أو شخص يتحكم في اختيار المدونات التي يسمح لها بالمشاركة بناءا على نظرته الشخصية – بما ان اسم المجتمع أصلا ينص على أن تحديد المشاركة مرتبط باسم بلد أو منطقة.
Grouping started to show again. Selection of blogs based on personal relation or temperamental decision. If these group of blogs represent an entity or carries a specific ideology, selection would not have been a problem. For example; a group of “Photoshop Designers” means that the precondition to joini this group is “Photoshoping Design”, so joining this type of groups would be relatively easy. Contrary to that is the group of blogs that carries a country or a city or a region name: “Jordan Planet”, “Dubai Planet” and “Saudi Blogs”, are all suppose to be open to any blogger who belongs to that country or region, and no entity or person is suppose to control who might join and who may not, based on his/her personal opinion, since the names of these group blogs originally states that membership is tied with a country or region name.
And Osama from United Arab Emirates, don't think he achived what he aimed for. He write on his entry to his third year of blogging about his personal blogging experience:
أحيانا أقارن نفسي بمدونين آخرين و أحاول تصنيف موقعي بينهم، فلا أجد لي مكانا يناسبني، بل أجد انني حشرت نفسي بينههم حشرا، فذاك الذي يكتب عن التقنيات و آخر مهتم بأخبار البيئة و تلك التي تكتب عن الأدب و آخر يكتب عن أنظمة التشغيل أما أنا فجالس هنا أخربش بقلمي الرصاص و أنا أظن العالم من حولي يقرؤون هذه الشخابيط و ينتظرونها بفارغ الصبر و أنها حديث المجالس و المنتديات، و لكن الحقيقة المرة بالإمكان تلخيصها بكلمتين فقط: ” لا شيء…و لا أحد”!!
Sometimes I compare my blog with others and try to segment my blog between them, but I fail to find the right positions, in fact I find myself squeezing my blog between them, this who writes about technology and that who is interested in environmental issue and other who writes aboutn literature and other who writes on operating systems, but me, only setting here jotting with my pencil and thinks that the world around me is reading and patiently waiting and that everyone in all forums are talking about my blog, but the truth can be summed in two words: “Nothing… and No one.”
On the other han, as many other bloggers, life journals is also popular in many parts of the Arabic blogsphere. Tara from Iraq writes some of her teenage period memories. She says:
أيامها كتبت لحكمت وهبي (اميغو ) اللي كان عنده برنامج (مستمع و مذيع ) كل خميس على اذاعة مونتي كارلو ..
كان المستمع يختار كل محتويات الحلقة من أغاني و كلمات قصيرة و ايضا يكتب معلومات عامة عن مدينته.
كانت تلك اول سنة عودتنا للبصرة بعد انتهاء الحرب العراقية الايرانية مباشرة
كتبت رسالتي في الصيف و انتظرت حتى يأست من ان يذيعها
لكن في ليلة شتوية و في عز امتحانات نص السنة و في عز الكآبة خابرتني صديقتي و قالت لي :افتحي الراديو ،اعتقد رسالتك اليوم بس الصوت مشوّش و ما ينفهم شي ، سمعته يحكي عن البصرة !
فتحت الراديو، و كانت الحلقة في نهايتها لكن تأكدت يا دوب من موسيقى الاغنيات لانها كانت من اختياري ….
Those day, I write to Hekmat Wahbi (Amigo) who was hosting the (Listener and Host) show at Radio Monte Carlo every Thursday.
The listeners used to select all the segments of the show that night, songs, short notes and some general information about his city.
That was the first year we returned to Basra immediately after the Iraq-Iran war.
I wrote my letter on summer and waited to hear it coming on the show until I gave up.
But in a winter night and during the mid-year exams and at the edge of my anxiety, my friend calls me and said: “Open the radio, I think it's your letter on-air tonight, but the sound was disarrayed and could hardly understand anything, I heard him talking about Basra!”
…Opened the Radio, and the show was about to end, but I could confirm from the songs that it was my selection of songs.
From Kuwait, HalfCup writes; “Corruption starts from top“:
أتسائل الآن بيني و بين نفسي .. هل يجوز أكل هذا الربيان (الغير شرعي) !!
On the technology side, Serdal is one of the famous Arabic bloggers. This week he introduced a rare-to-talk about topic in the Arabic Internet world. He invited a blind Saudi teacher to write about his experience with technology and give a guide for those who need to understand how and what tools a blind person can have to utilize the latest technologies available.
Serdal starts with introducing the Saudi teacher, Ali Al Omari and says:
دخل عالم التكنلوجيا قبل ثلاث سنوات بعد أن دفع ما يقارب السبعة آلاف دولار للحصول على تكنلوجيا خاصة تمكنه من استخدام الحاسوب وبالتالي إشباع رغباته المتأججة في الثقافة والتواصل.
دخل ذلك الخضم وكان عليه أن يعلم نفسه بنفسه في ضوء عدم توفر الدورات وغياب الدعم من جهة وانشغال الآخرين عن الإجابة على أسئلته الساذجة أو عجزهم عن ذلك نظرا للطبيعة المعقدة للبرنامج الذي يستخدمه من جهة أخرى، قرأ كثيرا وسهر ليالي طوالا فقط ليتمكن من عمل هذا التطبيق أو ذاك، وهو الآن على أولى درجات السلم يثقل كاهليه طموح كبير أكبر بكثير من إمكانات برنامجه المتواضع بل وحتى من إمكاناته الشخصية المحدودة، والتي يزيد من محدوديتها جهله باللغة الإنكليزية ذلك الحلم الكبير الذي يسكنه ويأرقه ويشعره بالمرارة لعلمه بمدى الأبواب التي يمكن أن تفتح له إن هو أتقن هذه اللغة على الصعيدين الثقافي والتكنلوجي
He started dwelling into the technology world three years ago and spent around US Dollar seven thousand to get a special technology that helps him to use the PC and therefore fulfill his desire for more education and communication.
He entered this multitude and had to educate himself by himself under the absence of training and support from one side, and lack of knowledge from others to answer his innocent simple questions, which they failed to answer due to ignorance in usage of these software. He read a lot, spent long nights trying to execute this application or that, and he is now putting his first steps in climbing the ladder loaded with huge ambitions much bigger than the humble software capabilities, in fact bigger than his personal skills, with lack of knowledge in English adds to the difficulties that makes his dream hard and taste sour because he knows that if he master the language the doors will open wide for him to gain both technological and cultural fronts.

author: Haitham Sabbah


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Argentina: 82nd Child of the Disappeared Recovered · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jeff Barry links to an article in Argentina's largest daily, Clarín about the identification of a 28-year-old man by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo as the son of two kidnapped victims during the country's military dictatorship. Now known as Sebastián, he is the 82nd disappeared child to be identified by the group.


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Argentina, Cayman Islands: Gay Cruise Ships · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Ian writes that South America's first “gay cruiser” has docked in Buenos Aires. Andres Duque has more on the controversial cruise journey – which plans on ending its voyage in Rio for Carnival – as he compares it to a similar cruise which caused an uproar in the Cayman Islands two weeks ago.


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Bangladesh: Free time for politicians · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Mezba reflects on how politicians in Bangladesh seem to have all the time in the world in their hands to spare.


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Bangladesh: The cricket victory · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The game of cricket today has Bangladesh celebrating with quite a spirit. More at Me, Myself and Bangladesh.


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Barbados: Environmentalist remembered & tuk band · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Barbados Free Press pays tribute to the late environmental advocate Dr. Colin Hudson. And Titilayo posts photos of a traditional tuk band.


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Barbados: Hospitality on the bus · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Linda Thompkins at My Barbados Blog receives an e-mail from a visitor who was alarmed at an offer from a young Barbadian woman riding with her on a crowded bus to hold her packages. “Let me say it is quite natural for bus riders that are seated to hold packages,” Linda says, “and even your purse. If you've ever been on a bus in Barbados, you know it takes all your strength to just hold on. On more occassions than I can count, I've had Bajans hold my packages and purse.”


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Bolivia: Visiting Chapare’s Coca Farmers · Global Voices
David Sasaki

As the Bush administration rethinks its policy towards Bolivia's coca farmers, Ben Dangl describes his recent visit to Eterazama in the coca-producing region of Chapare. He visits a market where vendors are surprised to hear that the coca leaf is illegal in the US, talks with two coca farmer organizers, and describes the surreal situation of showing rural villagers a documentary about Bolivia's coca issue on a brand new Apple laptop.


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Caribbean: Cricket shrink · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Ri imagines a conversation between the West Indies cricket team's captain, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and the team's new Irish shrink.


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Caribbean: Music and copyright · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Attorney and writer/blogger Nyashazasha publishes a well-researched article on copyright issues affecting the Caribbean music industry.


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Cartoons & the history of race relations in the West · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Gukira takes a new approach towards Western cartoons and puts the whole thing in an historical context.…”To trace a history of cartoons in Euro-America is to trace a history of race relations.” The conversation develops from there to a journey into ““black critical memory” – a place we all need to visit from time to time lest we forget.


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Colombia, Mexico: Language, Ethnicity, and Idenity · Global Voices
David Sasaki

John Guzman pens his thoughts on language and nationality, commenting that not every Latino in the United States speaks “Mexican.”


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Ethiopia: drought · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Meskel Square reports more on the drought faced by Ethiopians in the Southern region of Moyale.    …”an estimated 737,000 Ethiopians struggling to survive without access to clean water. Beyond Ethiopia, the drought has spread out to affect more than 8.3 million people, including 1.2 million children aged under five, across the Horn of Africa.”


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Found in Translation · Global Voices
David Sasaki

One of the greatest challenges in curating the global online conversation is translation. To present ideas and reflections from one language and culture to another is no easy task and often ends up taking more time than writing the original post. Still, Global Voices is committed to presenting a plethora of voices in as many languages as we can. You may have noticed increased coverage of the Francophone blogosphere by Alice Backer, Arabic-speaking bloggers by Haitham Sabbah, as well as my own translations and those of numerous volunteers from Spanish into English. Likewise, Global Voices posts are frequently translated into other languages such as Portnoy's volunteer translations into Chinese and Miguel Esquirol's weekly translation of Eduardo Ávila's Bolivia coverage.
As chance would have it, yesterday was UNESCO's international Mother Language Day with this year's theme fittingly devoted to “languages and cyberspace.” It stirred little conversation in the blogosphere, but the website is full of interesting and informative resources including links to related projects and the newly revised Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing (how many bloggers do you know writing in Wayuu?)
Another initiative promoting multilingualism online, however, does seem to be gathering some major steam. Liz Henry of the American Literary Translators Association Blog is the driving force behind this year's first annual Carnival of Blog Translation which will take place on Tuesday February 28th.
On the day of the Carnival, a participant translates one post by another blogger, and posts it on her own blog with a link to the original. She would need to email me, or post in the comments right here, and I'll compile one big post on the day of the Carnival with links to all the participants. You can translate any blog entry that was posted in the month of February 2006. It can be your own blog entry, if you like.
Henry says the idea came from a conversation about bilingual blogging at the last BlogHer conference. Among the numerous participants are Patrick Hall who says he will translate a post from Welsh to English and Darren Kuropatwa, a math teacher in Canada who uses weblogs in the classroom and notes “the students in my school collectively speak over 50 different languages so I'm very interested in increasing accessibility to the students work in their parents native tongues.
If you are interested in taking part in the Carnival of Blog Translation, make sure to visit Liz Henry's announcement post. If you are interested in volunteering as a translator for Global Voices, please leave a comment below.


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Hungary: “Beating, Shooting Suggest Renewed Civic Engagement” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Pestiside.hu reports that, contrary to the poll data suggesting “a decline in voters’ interest in the major public issues of the day,” some Hungarians seem to take the election campaign a bit too seriously and act somewhat too violently.


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Hungary: Book Collection To Be Returned by Russia · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Pestiside.hu reports that Russia has finally agreed to return an invaluable Hungarian book collection that was seized during WWII – but will charge Hungary $400,000 for “storing” the books for over 50 years.


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Hungary: Prime Minister’s Blog · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Hungarian prime minister has his own blog now, and Henrik of Hungarian Accent reviews the reactions of Hungarian bloggers to this unlikely development. Pestiside.hu describes it as “a classic blog, offering updates on his personal life and observations and arguments on the political issues of the day” – and thinks that politicians with blogs could actually offer a good alternative to “media bias.”


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Hungary: Spoof Campaign Posters · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Posters have appeared in Hungary imitating one of the opposition party's campaign posters and mocking politicians who are too eager to get back to power, writes Pestiside.hu.


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India: Manjunath Trust · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Manjunath Shanmugam – the young man who was killed for refusing to be corrupt – would have celebrated his birthday on Feb 23rd. The Vantage Point  on a trust that plans to “take up the legal battle and ensure quick justice for the murder case”.


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Iran: Football & Women · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Panahandegi  writes about women & their problem to go watching a football game in Iran. Blogger says did you know that a woman in Iran need to be granted an “authorization” to enter the stadium and watch a live football game? Apparently it would be “unholy” for them to listen to bad language… yeah right! What about the unholiness of the speaker!


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Iraq: Samarra Shrine Destroyed · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Men dressed as Iraqi police commandos slipped into Samarra‘s shrine of Imam Hasan al-Askari last night, set explosive and blew it up this morning, causing the golden dome to collapse and with it, hopes for a national unity.


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Israel: A War of Religions? God Forbid! · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

With all the religiophobia going around, specially when it comes to Palestine/Israel conflict, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, Uri Avnery writes, A War of Religions? God Forbid!


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Japan, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand: Globalization Mini-Stories · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Cafe Salemba has two mini-stories of globalization, both in-flight: one involving an encounter on an American on a plane who works for a Japanese company and another about Japan Airlines practice of hiring Thai stewardesses.


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Kurdistance: · Global Voices
Deborah Ann Dilley

Wow, another week come and gone so quickly…I guess we better get to business then.
A sad week for the Kurdistan Bloggers Union as they call for an official hiatus from their group work for their individual projects. However, not all group blogs are slowing. Roj Bash! has recently started a campaign in support of Marywan Halabjayi, a Kurdish writer who has published a book critisizing women’s status in traditional Islam: “Sex, Sharia, Women in the History of Islam”.
Several Kurdish bloggers have written about a new blog by Michael Totten who has been working in Northern Iraq/Southern Kurdistan including the Is-Ought Problem, From Holland to Kurdistan, Talk About the Passion and Hiwa Hopes. Hiwa writes this week about the role the Iranian Kurds will play if a conflict between the US and Iran occurs and complains about the ineffectiveness of “professional” Kurdish translation services.
Blogger Vladimir From Holland to Kurdistan was interviewed this week by RojTv about his work promoting Kurdish causes. (RojTV also has a blog if you would like to know more about them and their work.) Vladimir's interview has created quite an interest in not only Dutch media but Kurdish media outlets as well. The instances around the “Save Roj TV” campaign are quite varied but this week they have put up a wonderful primer on the work that has been done so far.
On another note: Talk About the Passion has plenty of stories this week about his work in Northern Iraq/Southern Kurdistan including a snow day and a final (maybe) showdown with the rats in his apartment.

author: Deborah Ann Dilley


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Malaysia: Fairness of Freedom · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Ktemoc Konsiders notes the irony of the imprisonment of a British holocaust denier against the background of the Danish cartoon controversy: “The Europeans must now shut their mouths up, and cease their hypocritical pontifications of the ‘freedom of expression’, and accord to Muslims the considerations of sensitivity that they have correctly accorded to the Jews.”


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Nepal: Assembly elections · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Legal News from Nepal reports “Legal experts said that election of the constituent assembly on the basis of the prevailing constitution was the only way out for the country.“


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Nigeria: 3rd term for Obasanjo? · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Grandiose Parlor believes President Obasanjo of Nigeria is “hell bent on going for a third term” as the “Constitutional Committee” commenced hearing this week.


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Nigeria: culture and the modern world · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Nigeria, what's new? publishes extracts from his forthcoming book – here he discusses where does culture meet the modern world?  “Mention female anatomy or clitoral circumcision and our people cringe but the shocking practice of female genital mutilation FGM/C is still being carried out.” hm


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Nigeria: Vagina Monologues · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Naijablog sets the Nigerian blogosphere alight with a commentary on the coming of the Vagina Monologues to the country.


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Pakistan: Role of the Cleric · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Don't burn Pakistan asks a crucial question – “What role have the Muslim leaders (not politicians, not the socalled-jihadis) played to pipe down the negative propaganda forcing people to spread hate?“


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Palestine: Differences in mideast media’s coverage · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Rami writes a comparative study, which looks into how different online mediums covered the Israeli force raid on Balata refugee camp, near Nablus, Palestine. The criteria for choosing the websites under study were based on the largest readership: The two largest Israeli online news services, the two largest Palestinian online news services, and the two largest sources for neighboring Jordanian readers, being the Jordan Times newspaper and Aljazeera TV channel.


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Philippines: Landslide and rescue efforts · Global Voices
Angelo Embuldeniya

The IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) confirmed last Friday afternoon, that an entire village had been buried by a major landslide in the central Philippines following heavy rains. The landslide hit Guinsaugon village in the town of St Bernard on the southern part of the island of Leyte. The Philippine Red Cross responded by flying in a C-130 with response teams, body bags, trauma kits, emergency kits, communication equipment and food. International support is been mobilized as assessment is coming from the field.
The first situation map of the area affected was produced by the OCHA Regional office at Bangkok in Thailand. UNOSAT then requested the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters to be triggered. A few hours later, their request was accepted by the Charter and UNOSAT began to supply satellite imagery derived maps of the situtation starting with a pre-disaster overview zoom of the potentialy affected area in Saint Bernard and more have been made available over the past few days with others in the making. Please go here for further updates on relief mapping efforts.
In terms of rescue efforts, a 24/7 operations centre is supporting the coordination efforts at capital level while the President of the Philippines has been calling for Emergency Meetings occasionally. On the ground, two Battalion Commanders led the relief effort at the mudslide area. At the time there were a total of approximately 250 soldiers on the ground, with 11 officers in leading positions while one battalion commanding officer focuses on retrieval, the second one on the relief operation, with a focus on survivors and established evacuation centres.
On the communications and connectivity front, TSF (Télécoms Sans Frontières) began preparations to send in a crew of logisticians specialized in emergency communications from its Asian Base at Bangkok in Thailand to restore the telecom network that had been affected as well as to strengthen local and international disaster response in St Bernard, Leyte. The crew who where carrying satellite communication facilities such as BGan and RBGan data transmitters, satellite phones and fax equipment departed Bangkok on Saturday morning in order to reach Manilla to liase with the National Disaster Coordinating Council and UN crews.
A reliable source embedded with a UN-OCHA unit indicates that the national disaster relief response is excellent: “Generally, I feel that the national response is professional, organized and focusing on saving as many lives as possible at this stage.” A volunteer with the IFRC mentions that since the media is streaming hints from rescuers on the ground that hope to find survivors alive is fading, other disaster rescue teams have been alerted to consider holding back with sending assets to the site until there is clearer indication regarding the direction of the relief operation.
This week, on Monday, at 5pm (local time) a spokesperson from UNDAC informs other teams, that local coordination of rescuers is going quite well and that there are regular coordination, geographic division of work and adequate communication among teams. In Saint Bernard, TSF has achieved complete Internet connectivity and net facilities are available for active aid agencies and other NGOs responding to the disaster. Meanwhile, the Australian Government, through AUSAID, is said to be fielding an Engineering Advisory Mission, the team consisting of engineers with expertise in geotechnical and structural engineering and water and sanitation, to help the Philippine Government assess the impact of the landslide and the risk of further slides while also helping the survivors.
Officials of Dept. of Health, Dept. of Social Welfare, and Office of Civil Defense in the Philippines have been advised to utilise TSF services to transmit data to Manila while the operation center in Manila have been requested to receive/relay the transmission. Other NGOs/SAR teams are also requested to make use of TSF facilities since road transportation between Manila and the disaster site takes a long time and choppers are focused on rescue. To date, there have been
limited requests from the humanitarian community for US/AFP military assistance other than transport, though as requirements are developing, crews are preparing to handle any requests for provision of water and sanitation at several of the Evacuation Centers.
Four days after the landslide, the discussions with various actors in Tacloban (Philippines Army, US Air Force, Presidential Assistant to Eastern Visayas and the Secretary of Department of Social Welfare & Development who is responsible for evacuation, post-disaster recovery) confirm that supply of relief items including food, water and medicine needs to stop immediately as all these are in abundance. Recovery and rehabilitation therefore need to be focused upon.

author: Angelo Embuldeniya


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Philippines: Talking About Poverty · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

caffeine sparks responds to a post written by Idiot Savant some weeks back on the roots and reasons behind the game show stampede in Manila that cost over 70 poor Filipinos their lives. “Idiot Savant and I should thank our lucky stars our lot in life means we are able to look out our 20th story windows and survey the Makati skyline and rail about the dastardly aspects of the human condition instead of living it.”


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Poland: Iranian Perspective on the Holocaust · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Beatroot corrects Mohammad Taheri, Iran's ambassador to Portugal, who thinks it necessary to reconsider the Holocaust numbers and has been quoted saying this: “When I was ambassador to Poland I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau twice and I did my own calculations. To incinerate six million people you would need 15 years.”


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Poland: “Looking for the Iranian Lech Welesa” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

As the Bush administration intends to use Poland's Solidarity movement of the 1980s as a model for Iran's opposition, Beatroot examines Solidarity's history and explains why such a model may not work in Iran now.


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Russia: Airports and Aerial Views · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Marina Litvinovich (RUS) posts pictures of several Russian airports and pictures of Russia taken from the plane. The airport of the town of Magas in Ingushetia is populated by cows.


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Russia: Fire at Komsomolka · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Following the fire that destroyed one human life and much of the archives of Komsomolskaya Pravda, Sean Guillory recounts the newspaper's history.


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Russia: Moscow Diggers · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Tim Newman of White Sun of the Desert links to a fascinating story in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, about the Diggers of the Underground Planet, a Moscow group formed in 1990 to “study the historical, ecological, and social aspects of the Moscow underground.”


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Russia: Moscow Metro, Honey, Driving and Cinema · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

As part of an ongoing virtual tour of Moscow, snowsquare.com provides a few more glimpses of the capital's landmarks, obvious and not so: male/female voices of Moscow Metro; yet another Honey Fair; Moscow “migalki” and irresponsible driving; and the recent re-opening of Oktyabr Cinema.


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Russia: Photos From “A Day in the Life of Children with Cancer” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Yekaterina Chistyakova links (RUS) to the site that has the 36 winning photos of this year's “Through My Eyes: A Day in the Life of Children with Cancer Around the World” contest, which took place at the Children's Clinical Hospital on Feb. 12.


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Singapore: Cheerleader Sex Tape · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

All over the Singapore blogosphere are commentaries on an unfortunate high school cheerleader, nicknamed “Tammy NYP,” whose cellphone was allegedly stolen by a jealous classmate and whose sex video recorded on that phone is now spreading across the Internet.  A post by Book of Aletheia on the topic now has over 150 comments.  Tinker, Tailor has a few words on the scorn heaped on the poor girl but not on her male partner. Xialanxue has been following the story, communicating with the victim, trying to persuade a blogger to remove pictures posted from the video, and reflecting on the ethics of the traditional media's reporting on a deeply embarrassing story.


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Singapore: Short Film Fest · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Huichieh Loy shares his impressions of the offerings at the First Toronto-Singapore Short Film Festival.


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Somalia: Street battles in Mogadishu · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Fighting continues in the Somalia capital, Mogadishu.  Coalition for Darfur reports that the death toll has now reached 33 as gunmen loyal to local warloads battle with security personnel.


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Southeast Asia: Ten Integration Suggestions · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

the news at 10 lists ten things he thinks the Association of Southeast Asian Nations can do in order to create closer cooperation. No. 2 is “less bickering: for gods sake, stop bickering about islands that have no benefits whatsoever. and no, no country is going to invade any country, its all in jest.”


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The Week That Was – Bolivian Blogs · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Este post también está disponible en español.
The spotlight still remains on the actions of this new government.  Some Bolivian bloggers express their interactions with members of the new team.  For example, Fadrique Iglesias Mendizábal is responsible for the blog El Clavo en el Zapato (The Nail in the Shoe).  He has a familiarity with the Vice-Ministry of Sports, one of the public offices that rarely makes headlines.  He also rejoices that the previous officials are out, yet the questions remain regarding the money allocated for the organization of the  Organization Deportiva Sudamericana (Odesur) games, which was to be held in La Paz, but subsequently cancelled.  The outlook on the new administration in regards to sports is somewhat positive according to Iglesias Mendizábal, which includes the construction of a new football stadium.
Getting to know the new Ministers has not always been easy.  The new President Evo Morales has been criticized for naming some top officials without much of a public sector track record.  The new Minister of Justice, Casimira Rodríguez is a former domestic servant.  However, Elizabeth Peredo Beltrán defends her naming in the Solon Foundation blog.  There have been comments in regards to Rodríguez’ past, such as:
“Do you know why domestic workers aren’t supposed to have Sundays off?  Because they end up becoming government ministers!”
Peredo Beltrán recalls meeting the Rodriguez in 1996, who was working domestically since age 13, and how she fought for the rights of domestic workers through meetings with ministers, members of parliment and household employers.  She ends with the following:
What we should ask ourselves is that in spite of the endless parade of doctors, experts and other notables throughout the administration of justice and in other public institutions, why have the mechanisms of exclusion still remain?  During this new stage, the challenge is still grand, but not only for Casimira Rodríguez or Evo Morales Ayma.  We all should become committed to defeating discrimination, inequality, injustices and other psychological barriers.  Imagining a different world is not so easy, but it still remains possible.
Lucia Rojas writes about Peredo Beltrán’s article in Observatorio Boliviano and adds important links including an interview with the current Minister of Justice and a short C.V. from the Bolivian government website.
Blogs have also served as a medium to publicize and denounce certain actions.  For example, in the city of Santa Cruz, the Federation of the Press Workers Union posted their formal complaint against members of their own federation by claiming that the election of the Election Committee was against the organization’s statutes.  The blogger posted the actual formal complaint complete with signatures in the self-described official weblog of that organization.
Miguel Centellas speculates on a drastic change in relations between Morales and the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.  Much of this shift has to do with a recent announcement by the Brazilian government that Chavez might offer natural gas to Brazil at more than one-third of the price that their Bolivian neighbors are offering.  Centellas’ blog, Ciao! also contains a preview of a chapter from his dissertation in progress.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Trinidad & Tobago: Earth’s magnetic field · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Taran Rampersad speculates on the possible links between the earth's magnetic field and global warming.


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Uganda: Child Soldiers · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Uganda-CAN reports from the Northern region on the plight of child soldiers.  Even after being rescued and returned home, the children still suffer from being stigmatised by their own families and friends.


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Uganda: Election violence · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

My Heart's in Accra reports on tomorrow's Ugandan elections which have been marred by violence and arrests.


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Ukraine: Minor Violence Reported · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

LEvko of Foreign Notes reports several “worrying violent incidents,” which may or may not be related to the upcoming election: the National State Tax Service Academy in Irpen has been stormed, a journalist in Donetsk attacked, and a news agency office in Lviv gutted.


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Zimbabwe: bridges to London · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Zimbabwean Pundit writes on the Zimbabwean media frenzy over reports that Mugabe has extended a gracious welcome to the new British High Commissioner, asking him to please “build bridges to London. Zimpundit concludes…”There's no need for this hullabaloo, it's just glimpses of old glory from a defunct former statesman, not a change of heart.”


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Africa: water & energy solutions · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Timbuktu Chronicles reports on an amazing invention that may provide the water and power to  may people in poor rural areas of the developing world. “To solve the problem, he’s invented two devices, each about the size of a washing machine that can provide much-needed power and clean water in rural villages…”


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Argentina: Are you from Buenos Aires? · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Santiago, an Argentinean living in Brooklyn, New York offers his surefire test of whether or not you are from Buenos Aires.


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Armenia: Evictions · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Christian Garbis reports on evictions for the sake of “progress” in Armenia's capital.


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Armenia: Farewell Kukuruznik · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Zara writes on the destruction of a notable building in Armenia and hopes that its replacement will be but a reconstruction.


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Armenia: Traffickers & Ports · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Ara Manoogian is angry with the Bush Administration's support for turning over US ports to a UAE company because of the country's major ties to human trafficking.


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Bangladesh: Power blues · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Fluctuating power supplies in Dhaka says Rezwan -“A severe power crisis has hit the Dhaka town. Each day, especially at night electric supply goes off for many hours. The power goes off not at a stretch, but in approximately one hour intervals and rotating in areas.”


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Bermuda: Plantation questions · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

A politician's refusal to answer what he considers “plantation questions” disappoints  both the Limey and Christian Dunleavy.


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Bolivia: The “Sound Mobile” · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Eduardo Ávila has posted a video of his friend, Miguel campaigning in Quechua via a giant speaker attached to the roof of his car in the outskirts of Cochabamba. Ávila has also posted a picture of what he calls the “Sound Mobile:” a minivan equipped with booming speakers to get the attention of potential voters.


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Cameroons: prisons · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Adventures of an Armchair Travellers reports on the state of prisons in Cameroons  where TB and AIDS are rampant.


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Catastrophe in Samarra · Global Voices
Salam Adil

I am devoting my Thursday post on Iraqi blogs to the bombing of the Shia Shrine in Samarra and I hope to cover the rest of the Iraqi Blogs in a later report. The subject is serious enough to dominate the Iraqi weblogs. The Shia shrine in Samarra is one of the most revered symbols of Shia Islam and the attack has been designed to cause the greatest shock and repercussions across Iraq.
The general consensus among all the bloggers is that no Iraqi could have been behind the bombing. Some blame foreign terrorists, some blame America, and one even blames Iran. Most are worried that this heralds the start of an all-out civil war.
There are reports from the ground:
Christopher Albritton was in the Green Zone when the news of the bombing broke. He knew something big happened because his interviewee cancelled. Omar of Iraq the Model blames foreign terror groups and reports on the tension in Baghdad: “Sporadic gunfire is heard in different spots in Baghdad but no one knows for sure if the firing meant clashes or mere angry shooting in the air.” Zeyad gives the clearest impression of the atmosphere now:
The situation in Baghdad is bad, bad, bad. I had to flee work early and return home after news of large protests in Shi'ite districts, and several attacks against Sunni mosques in the Baladiyat, Sha'ab and Dora districts by angry rioters. Sunnis are being blamed for the attack against a Shia holy shrine in Samarra, a largely Sunni town.
The streets look empty now, and all stores seem to be closed. I can hear gunfire and American helicopters and jets circling the skies.
Baghdad Treasure also has a strange drive home:
I decided to go back home early and work from there. I expected most of the streets to be blocked by the security forces. I made my driver take me in an armored car this time. I hate to use it but I had to. It was the sunset time. Most Iraqis usually seize the opportunity that it is not too late, so they hang out for shopping and having some fun. Today, Baghdad looked like the city of ghosts. All the way back home, I saw few cars and all were speeding to avoid any danger might happen. It was scary, specially it wasn't fully dark.
Hassan Kharrufa heard about the attack first when a BBC reporter called him out of the blue. “I looked at the number calling me, and it was a private number. It only meant one thing. Someone was calling me from outside Iraq. “Hey I'll get down here if you don't mind”, I said to the driver.”
And opinions from the bloggers:
Raed is sceptical that there will be a civil was as a result of the bombing. He points out that revenge attacks on Sunni mosques were stopped qulckly and goes on to say:
When the Iraqi volcano erupts, it won't burn Iraqis. Unlike what the bush administration is trying to promote and claim, Iraqis never had a civil war, and they’ll never have one unless the occupation troops stay in Iraq… Today’s attack was yet another disaster that will be contained and dealt with by all the different Iraqi religious and social leaders. I hope this incident will not cause any further vioence against anyone, and I hope it'll prove to the world that Iraqis are capable of handling the most tragic crisis without turning against each other.
Truth About Iraqis gives a good summary of the unfolding events updated from a number of sources. He expects a civil war that is to the benefit of America “Day one of Iraq's civil war: Sunnis killed, “dozens” of Sunni mosques attacked… The US plan for the liberation of Iraq has finally entered its final stages. As civil war looms almost inevitably, the US plan for Iraq is bearing fruit.” He adds:
We are being pushed and pulled closer and closer into a civil war by elements that are clearly foreign. No Iraqi would abide by such crimes. No Iraqi would seek to tear the social fabric of our country.
Baghdad Dweller muses on who could be responsible for the attack and narrows it down to Iran or America. Imad Khaduri points to obvious contradictions between news reports on the bombing an the statement issued  by the Interior Minister. Salam Adil points out the irrelevance of the political process and suggests that there needs to be a radical change in American policy before another Samarra forces people to take to the streets.
The final word goes to Baghdad Treasure:
It is hard to see this beautiful and ancient country destroyed. It seems what the Americans have done was not enough. Iraqis should suffer, be killed, watch themselves humiliated, and kill each other just because America wants to remove Saddam from its way to make the world safer. Or let's say to make America safer and hell be with the non-Americans as some of them say. Let the whole world be happy and “safe” now because Iraq's “liberation” made it safe for them, but unfortunately made it a hell for Iraqis.

author: Salam Adil


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Chile: French Indie Musicians Visit · Global Voices
David Sasaki

For all you fans of floating canines and euro-techno, this is one post that can't be missed. The Chilean music blog, Super 45 – Blog System says that various French artists are headed towards Chile including Manu Chao and Pascal Arbez (better known as Vitalic). Included is a video of Vitalic's single, “Poney Part I” – one of the most bizarre and thoroughly awesome experiments in dog cinematography I've ever seen.


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Cuba: Cinema since 1900 · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

regalado.blogia.com publishes an overview of Cuban cinema since 1900.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Darfur: NATO deployment · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Sudan-Reeves believes the presence of a NATO force in Darfur alongside the AU forces would immediately challenge the genocidal actions of the Janjaweed militia and bring security to the region.

author: Sokari Ekine


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Georgia: Dangerous Destination? · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Susan of SueAndNotU takes issue with Forbes listing Georgia as one of the world's most dangerous destinations.


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Ghana: Voting rights to Diasporans · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

The Trials and Tribulations of a Freshly Arrived Denizen comments on demonstrations in Accra, Ghana over the “ Representation of the People's Amendment Bill” which he says would “in effect, give voting rights to those Ghanaian residents overseas”


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Guyana: Artist Donald Locke · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Guyana Diaspora profiles painter and sculptor Donald Locke.


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India: Illiteracy and the road ahead · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Sujatha on the war against illiteracy, and perspectives from one corner of the huge task ahead.


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India: Indian Diplomat Speak · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Recursive Hypocrisy on Indian nuclear power, articles in WSJ and American interests – “What a shift in tone from those days, when an Indian diplomat's opinion piece in an American Newspaper meant a lecture in morality and an embarrassment to anyone from anywhere to the east of the Caspian sea.”


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India: Street Harassment · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Blank Noise Project calls for a blog-a-thon to build testimonials and opinions on the issue of street harassment of women in India.


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Indonesia: Tattoo Culture · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

IndCoup discusses tattoo culture in Indonesia. He explains: “The revival owed much to the popularity in Indonesia during the mid 1990s of US rock bands the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns and Roses, both of which flaunted the sexual appeal of tattoos.”

author: Jose Manuel Tesoro


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Indonesia: Terrorist Blogger · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

A. Fatih Syuhud asks: “Are you the terrorist blogger?” He writes: “Blogging should be made use for advocating peace at heart and mind, not only for the sake of blogging and attracting traffic by making any provocative statements in the name of freedom of expression.”


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Iran: Cutting Trees! · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Hanouz, an Iran based journalist & blogger, talks about cutting thousands trees (Persian) in Levizan forest in neighbourhood of Tehran. According to the blogger, Tehran's municipality is cutting these trees to construct a highway. It is considered disastrous for Tehran and its air pollution.


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Jamaica: PNP leadership race · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Leon posts brief “pros and cons” profiles of the candidates in the People's National Party (PNP) leadership race.


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Kazakhstan: Heads Roll · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Registan.net and neweurasia report on the arrest of five secret service officers in Kazakhstan for the murder of an opposition leader.


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Kazakhstan: Investigation Heats Up · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Registan.net notes that things seem to be heating up in Kazakhstan in the investigation of the murder of an opposition leader. The head of the Senate administration has been arrested in connection with the murder, and the opposition is calling for investigation of the president's daughter and her husband.


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Kazakhstan: Sarsenbaiuly Summary · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Matt Jay has a valuable summary of the murder of the opposition politician Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly in Kazakhstan.


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Kenya: sycophancy & corruption · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Kenyan blogger, The Girl in the Meadow publishes a poem to express her distaste of sycophancy and corruption in high places.


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Kenya:  Ted 2006 · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Kenyan Pundit and Ethan are both at the TED 2006 conference in California.  Both have a number of posts covering the conference.  Kenyan Pundit and My Heart's in Accra.


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Latvia: Hockey Team’s Defeat Coverage · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

All About Latvia sums up coverage by the Russian- and Latvian-language papers of Latvia's hockey team's defeat at the Olympics.


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Malawi: Indigenous language and education  · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Tuesday 21st of February was National Mother Language Day.  Malawi blog Afrika-Aphukira discusses his country's policy on education and language in primary school and concludes that bi-lingualism is the best option.


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Malaysia: Its Own Cartoon Kerfuffle · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Malaysia's paper-of-record, the New Straits Times, has gotten into its own cartoon controversy after running a syndicated strip on its funny pages critiquing the Danish cartoon controversy. The government has demanded an explanation from its editors and demonstrations against the NST are apparently planned. Jeff Ooi's Screenshots has been following and updating the story beginning here.


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Mexico, Brazil: Showing of Brazilian Documentary on Bloggers · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Alfredo Sanchez (ES) and Eduardo Arcos (ES) both post about the free showing of a Brazilian documentary about bloggers and another about cinema clubs this Saturday in Mexico City. More information about both documentaries can be found at Cine Club Bravo, the group hosting the event.

author: David Sasaki


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Mongolia: Japan’s Chingis Khan Craze · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Mongolia Matters has the latest evidence of Japan's Chingis Khan craze.


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Nigeria: Islam & Violence · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Chippla writes on Islam and Violence in Northern Nigeria which has once again escalated this time over the Danish cartoons. He wonders if the violence does not hide divisions in Nigerian society…”Why has the lot of Islam in Northern Nigeria become one of violence and intolerance? Does it actually conceal a much deeper but seldom talked about division in Nigerian society?


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Pakistan: Old Photographs · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Metroblogging Islamabad links to an archive of old photographs of the Indian subcontinent. It's interesting that most of the subcontinent's photographic history is through the eyes of the Raj, and determines largely the subject and the gaze of the camera.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Philippines: Revolutions · Global Voices
Jose Manuel Tesoro

Jessica Zafra reminds readers why the Philippines 1986 “People Power” Revolt, the 20th anniversary of which is ongoing, was so important, despite the subsequent disappointments and political troubles: “We were the opening salvo in the Big Freedom Blasts that began in the late 1980s and continue into this century. The South Koreans overthrew their dictator. The Berlin Wall fell. The protestors stood up to the tanks at Tiananmen Square. The Soviet Union collapsed. The Czechs had their Velvet Revolution, the Ukrainians their Orange. We did not cause these upheavals— most Pinoys had never even heard of these countries—but we gave them the most powerful ammunition in the world. We gave them Inspiration.”


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Puerto Rico: Ice skating · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Vivir Latino reports that the first US Olympics medal in ice dancing since 1976 was won by a Puerto Rican duo.


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Russia: Defenders of the Fatherland Day · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russia marks Defenders of the Fatherland Day today, aka the Men's Day (while March 8 is the Women's Day). Megan Case posts a contemporary greeting card she has found in s store; Katerina at The Accidental Russophile links to the site that has Soviet postcards for the occasion; Russia Blog writes about the posters greeting Moscow veterans with a drawing of a U.S. battleship; journalist Oleg Kashin (RUS) posts a copy of an equally embarrassing greeting to Kaliningrad veterans, with a German tank on it.

author: Veronica Khokhlova