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Zimbabwe: Witness to demolitions · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Mostly Africa appreciates the honesty of Zimbabwean writer Ian Holding's eyewitness account of government-backed demolitions, but thinks he comes across as callous.


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Vietnam: More TV stations · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Viet Nam Television (VTV) will have eight channels by 2010, and broadcasting time will be increased to 168.5 hours per day, with 80% of total broadcasting time devoted to in-house programmes, reports Vietnamese journalist-blogger Le Quoc Minh. His weblog, Vietnam-journalism, provides insight into journalism in Vietnam including ‘personal stories by journalists on their life and work. His English web-and-blog (of sorts) was launched in May.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Jeff Ooi


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Iranian bloggers worried about New President’s Cabinet · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

S'can-Iranic writes that most of President Ahmadinejad's nominees for his cabinet have been members of Islamic Revolutionary Corps or closely worked with it. Revolutionary Guards is considered main faithful force to hardliners. In recent years member of this army have been more and more involved in business and trading.
It is clear sign that country is going to be militarised and Revloutionary army has their word to say on any decision in goverment. Majid Tehranian, a US based Communication Professor, in his interview with WashingtonPrism said this kind of militarization has already happened in country centuries ago. Ancient dynasty Abbasid Khalifa brought at its service Turkish slave soldiers. But after a while these slave soldiers started to control country and become more powerful than Kalifa!!
Dokhtarak from Shiraz reports that in streets there are much more control to check women's makeup or their cloths. In many cases people got arrested and spend  a night or two in prison. There are signs that we go back to pre reform period and people will understand that there was (is) a DIFFERENCE between reformers and conservatives!! By the way good news is that Ganji, jailed journalist, broke his hunger strike after 70 days. Bad news is he is still in jail and other political prisoners such as Manoucher Mohamdai, jailed student leader since 1999, continues his hunger strike after 40 days.

author: Fred Petrossian


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Abaaya at workplace · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Arab Pearl of Chronicles of Life from Oman is discussing the interesting issue of work dress code, of woman at Arab world in general and gulf countries in particular. She asks, why should not dressing Abaya become such an issue especially in countries where the abaya is not enforced upon women? Why do educated people take such offence when a woman decides to dress up in a suit to work, especially when it is respectable attire? Why is it all of a sudden an issue if a woman decides to wear the headscarf at work as her choice to show respect to those who are conservative, yet when she removes it out side of work, they judge her and look down on her? Is it fair to judge a person because of the choices she makes and especially if this individual is one who is respectable, even though, wearing the Abaya or the Hijab was never compulsory for her?!

author: Haitham Sabbah


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Argentina: Thoughts on Afghanistan and Media · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jorge Gobbi, from Buenos Aires, gives his thoughts on the inadequate media coverage of Afghanistan in Argentina and around the world.

author: David Sasaki


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Armenia: View of Yerevan · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Marmot Power‘s travelogue-style view of the Armenian capital, Yerevan, has sparked a lively debate in the comments section of this post.

author: Luisetta Mudie


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Azerbaijan: Women election candidates · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Of the 362 candidates registered so far for November's general election in Azerbaijan, 150 are women, notes Marianna's election monitor blog.


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Bangladesh: Blogspeak on the Blasts · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Hit by over 400 bombs, the Bangladeshi blogosphere provided perspective into the events of August 17 2005.
Bongo Vongo believes this to be the work of fascists. Rezwan asks pertinent questions and attempts to find some answers. ElectrikBlues writes an open letter to all Bangladeshis and asks:
a terrorist attack that involves the explosion of over 500 bombs is an endeavor that requires the involvement of at least 2000 people. chances are, you know someone who was involved in the planning and implementation of this attack. wife, brother, sister, husband, son or cousin – you definitely know someone who had a role to play. the question is not why they  did it, but rather why they did it.
More unanswered questions at A way in the world.
Unheard Voices provides details, gives an insight into the the group blamed through quotes and the leaflets found at the blast sites, and links to an article by Zafar on how Bangladesh cannot claim that it hasn't been warned. Wamy asks, “Why should we expect anything better?” saying,
For we allow the corrupt elite to run the country. Instead of overthrowing them from power, we praise them and nourish them and hope that someday these democratically elected corrupt leaders will do something really good for us, for the country.
The links between political instability and the blasts. Similar reflections on democracy and the responsibilities that come with it at Imtiaz's weBlog. The blog also provides the translations of the leaflets of the Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh group claiming responsibility for the blasts.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Brazil: Lula – the dream is over · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Brazilian International Affairs professor, Arthur Ituassu discusses the political crisis that has stemmed the once enthusiastic support behind president Lula da Silva.


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China:  “Purifying” the Chinese Internet · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

The Chinese newspaper Southern Weekend has a detailed article explaining how the Chinese government goes about censoring and controlling internet speech. EastSouthWestNorth has a full translation.
(More background at Chinadigitaltimes.)

author: Rebecca MacKinnon


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Singapore: The right to vote · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

After the Presidential Elections that never were, here comes the awakening: Straits Times political editor Zuraidah Ibrahim argues that the institution of Elected President is not very important, and blames the citizenry's mixed feelings as being “misguided and misdirected”. Her news analysis has aroused discomfort among Singaporean bloggers such as Mr Wang Says So, Goh Meng Seng (Singapore Alternative) and Xenoboy.  They want their right to vote!


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China: Wife-swapping · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

China is changing. The increasingly popular phenomenon happening in Guangdong is wife-swapping among white collars made up of lawyers, businessmen and administrators, who are generally highly educated. The mantra: “Neo-polygamy” in order to “fill a void”.


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Caribbean: Blog Ring · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Doan Mind Me directs us to a newly created webring for Caribbean bloggers.


text:
Ecuador: New and Old Media Roundup · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Publius Pundit has an insanely thorough update of what is going in Ecuador by dipping into the mainstream media, bloggers, and forums.


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India: Socialism, Free Markets and other Myths · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Dilip has a post questioning the theories that push free markets or socialism as the solution to India's problems, and Vislumbres responds to that post by bringing more perspective into the issue.


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Iraq: Pornography for War · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Sabbah writes about the forum which provides free access to its pornographic content to members of the United States Military who are stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, in exchange for their pictures of war. Pictures from the soldiers themselves rather than the pics the press feeds, as the forum says.


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Israel/Palestine: Gaza Disengagement · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

In her attempt to revisit the issue of house demolitions, to speak again with the thousands of Palestinian who lost their homes in Rafah all in the name of security for the settlers, Lila of A Mother from Gaza Blog discovers that Abo Holi (Israeli checkpoint inside Gaza) is closed, and reports that a day earlier, Gaza settlers continued to disrupt Palestinian life as they attacked villagers near Kfar Darom and burned down their storage sheds, as she says.
On the other hand, Kabbalah for Women says on Gaza Disengagement that everyone in the center is very moved and sad about the current state of affairs but inside they're happy it's happening to someone else and not them.


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Malaysia: Richard Stallman · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Richard Stallman, founder of free software movement, will conduct two seminars on “Software Freedom and Danger of Software Patents” in two Malaysian universities later this week.


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Nepal: Language and Identity · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Language of the land, and the ambiguity of identities. Indian Nepalese and Nepal's Nepalese on International Nepal Solidarity Network.


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Nigeria: President tackles issue of torture · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Human Rights Watch calls for concrete action from Nigeria following an unprecendented statement by President Olusegun Obasanjo, who admitted that Nigerian police officers have committed killings and torture.


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Pakistan: Carpets! · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Metroblogging Lahore has a feature on carpets and the carpet industry in Lahore.


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Pakistan: Makeover for the Anthem · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The Pakistani National Anthem video gets a makeover, and JNS has views on how patriotic videos gloss over hardships of people in certain geographical areas.


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Peru: Shining Path Leader Goes on Trial · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Boli-Nica covers the upcoming trial of Abimael Guzman. the former leader of the Shining Path.


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Philippines: Coconet · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Philippines’ coconut geotextile (coconet) for soil erosion control has been chosen as one of the 12 finalists in Newsweek and BBC World’s World Challenge.


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Jamaica: Inspecting Hurricane Damage · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Fyr has a look around the Saint Thomas river in Jamaica to inspect the damage wrought by hurricanes Dennis and Emily.


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Saudi: Robotics Course not for Females · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

In reference to a course in robotics attended by thirty-nine gifted Saudi students coming from all over the kingdom, Alhamedi of The Religious Policeman Blog asks, Not one of the gifted students is female. The 39 most gifted students are all male? Isn't that strange? When God was handing out the intelligence genes, didn't the girls get any? Or is it just that, as always, we totally ignore the abilities and talents of 50% of our population?


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Software Freedom Day · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Emeka Okafor at Timbuktu Chronicles reports on open source initiatives across Africa on Software Freedom Day.


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Trinidad and Tobago: Crime · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Taran Rampersad continues his discussion of crime in Trinidad and Tobago.


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Tunisia:  Mosques Magnetic Card · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Need magnetic Cards to Enter Mosques in Tunisia? Relax, Meddah, the Tunisian blogger of Subzeroblue says ‘this is not true’.


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Tunisia: World Summit Youth Award · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Marouen from Tunisia is looking forward to attend the World Summit on the Information Society which will be held in Tunis on the forthcoming November to promote the World Summit Youth Award, which is an international competition for youth-led projects that encourage the active participation of young people in the emerging Information Society.


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United Arab Emirates:  You are what you eat · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Lulu of Arabian Adventures writes a lengthy-healthy post; you are what you eat.


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Venezuela: Ballot Machine Software · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Aleksander Boyd does some investigative blogging into the vote software company Smartmatic and concludes, it is “worrying indeed that a company with connections to the Hugo Chavez regime has been selected to run elections in a county of Chicago.”


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Vietnam: Enduring culture · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Vietnamese God is a Hanoi-based Vietnamese who blogs in excellent English and superb photos. Working in the tourism industry, he has grown used to people who choose Wild Rice for the last meal before leaving Hanoi. Recently, he sent off some guests and welcomed new ones. He tells nice pictorial stories with enduring Vietnamese culture. War drums are distant history.


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Africa: Repayments, or reparation? · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Black Looks gives prominence to the view that the combined debt of African countries is a drop in the ocean compared with the profits made by rich countries from slavery, for which reparation has never been made.


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Africa: Wireless technologies · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Timbuktu Chronicles details the impact on African lifestyles and economic activities of wireless technologies.


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Armenia: Dean supports genocide recognition · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Voch Me Ban reacts to Democratic Party National Committee Chairman Howard Dean's support for U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman empire 90 years ago.


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Azerbaijan: New Flickr stream · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Chris Beunis has uploaded a new stream of Azerbaijan photos to Flickr.


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Bangladesh: Responding to the blasts · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Rezwan has a post with an update on the action taken by Bangladeshi government as response to the blasts last week.


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Cambodia: More condoms · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

While Japan is facing a dwindling population, Cambodia needs to increase condom production to protect its sexually active population. Cheang Sokha of Cambodian Morning blog reports that twenty million condoms are not enough and the country's leading distributor plans on increasing production to 23.5 million condoms by the end of 2005.
Stats from Population Services International (PSI) indicate this year's condom sales track closely to match 2004 sales of 21.5 million condoms.


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Cambodia: Water Festival · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Independent nonprofit technology consultant Beth Kanter (blog: Cambodia4kids) has a podcast with Somaly K. Hay, the master Cambodian dance teacher. Beth has been chronicling in her vblog the water festival season in Maine and Massachusetts, USA –  here, here and here.  There is a short video which shows Cambodian dancers talking with their hands.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS


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Chile, Argentina: New Characters in URLs · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Iria Puyosa notes that beginning next Sunday, Chile and Argentina will allow the registration of domains including the characters á, é, í, ó, ú, ü, and ñ. I would assume http://www.méxico.com.mx has already been registered. Un blog con floggera thinks this is a step in the right direction in making the Internet less dominated by English.


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China: Great Firewall strengthens  · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

The time for “using real names on the Internet” is about to come in China, blogs EastSouthWestNorth with a full translation of a Nanfang Weekend article that carries a severe warning: The Great Firewall is gathering force and  fourteen government departments are teaming up to ‘purify’ the Internet.


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China: War Game · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Is mainland China having so much money now that it could pay for the Sino-Russian war game? Bingfeng Teahouse says the People Liberation Army (PLA) should consider hiring Americans from the Seals to help reunify with Taiwan. Meanwhile, Beijing Youth Daily features a frontpage story of the Sino-Russian combat maneuver which starts August 23 after the end of the second-phase of the joint military exercise.


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Czech Republic: Going home · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Petr Bokuvka at The Daily Czech is leaving Bratislava for his native Czech Republic.


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D.R. of Congo: Textile crazy · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

007 in Africa collects brightly printed local textiles, while Congo Girl seems to specialise in cloth with a Catholic theme.


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Ethiopa: Rough guide to Revolutionary Democracy · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Ethiopundit takes us on a whistle-stop tour of “Revolutionary Democracy”, the guiding ideology of Ethiopa's ruling party.


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Hong Kong: Ching Cheong · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Is the arrest of journalist Ching Cheong, formerly ‘detained’ and recently charged with spying for Taiwan, a victim of a power tussle between the Shanghai clique and the Jiang Zemin's? There had been other journalists having similarly-linked run-ins with the government, says Chatter Garden. The blogger wonders whether somebody is mad at Hu Jintao because Ching was formerly working for Hu's think-tank, the Chinese University of Social Sciences. The expressed fear is more arrests and even tighter controls on the media, soon.


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India: Eco 101 · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Aadisht has a piece that challenges an op-ed in a leading English newspaper that claimed that rural poor eating less grains was evidence of an employment crisis.


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India: Sexual Harassment · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Jasmeen rounds up some of the responses heard in Bangalore for the Blank Noise Project. The responses reflect opinions on sexual harassment on the street.


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Iran: Israel Peace Appeal · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

The Brooding Persian is puzzled by the curious silence which shrouds the Israeli President – Mr. Katsav's recent personal peace appeal to Iran, although relations between Iran and Israel have ancient roots.


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Iraq: Democratic lies · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Baghdad Dweller posts the articles of the new Iraq Constitution and says, the political fraud continues, as the lies continues.


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Jordan:  Jordan TV Problems · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Ibrahim Owais thinks that if start talking about problems that needs to be solved in Jordan TVhe will need to write a book for that. So he decides to talk about his area of expertise only, the media graphics.


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Kenya: Best (and worst) stockbrokers · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Bankelele reviews stockbrokers in Nairobi, in a post entitled “Where to buy shares”.


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Kenya:  Quotations from women · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

“As a woman, I have no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world.” For the author of these lines, and for other quotations from influential female writers, see Mshairi.


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Malaysia: ISP meets bloggers · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

One of the earliest agendas the new CEO of Malaysia's largestISP wanted done is to meet blogger Jeff Ooi to resolve quality of service issues raised in his blog, Screenshots, and an issue raised two years ago in his column in Malaysian Business, a business fortnightly with a 32-year history. Jeff has since extended the invitation to include his readers and fellow bloggers.


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Miss Armenia Disqualified · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Oneworld Multimedia reports that Miss Armenia has been disqualified for corruption and is barred from competing in an upcoming contest in Panama.

author: Nathan Hamm


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Mongol: New blog · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Nabetz (New Mongols) updates that Mongolian Matters (Mens in Mongolië), a new Mongolia blog is up and running in English, Mongolian, and, potentially at least, in Dutch.  It covers “life in the land of the blue heaven”. Meanwhile, Mongol Messenger, the website for Mongolia's first English newspaper, is back online.


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Mongolian Barbecue · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Thomo, an Australian in Mongolia, describes authentic Mongolian barbecue, khorkhog.


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My First PC, But For Real · Global Voices
David Sasaki

A well organized group of proactive bloggers and computer enthusiasts have taken the Chilean government to task over it's newly announced program, “My First PC,” which was launched by the Lagos administration on August 2 as a way to help narrow the digital divide in Chile. Wanted or not, president Lagos has found himself hundreds of unpaid, volunteer consultants offering their expert opinion on how the program can be improved. The resulting letter, which already bears the name of more than 11,000 signatories, outlines specific actions the government can take to more effectively promote affordable digital literacy. It is also backed up by comparative case studies from other countries such as Malaysia where 70% of customers in a similar public-private initiative chose Linux powered machines over their more costly Windows counterparts.
Besides offering advice on how to make the software and hardware more efficient and economical, the bloggers also have something to say about the government's own back-patting when it comes to broadband accessibility:
It is inappropriate for the government to congratulate itself for offering broad-band (128kbps) for CLP$11.900 [US $21.73], given that only in May, the Undersecretary for telecommunications Christian Nicolai was bringing attention to the high cost of an internet connection in Chile, which double comparable European services and are higher than those available to our Argentinian neighbors.
The letter goes on to recommend a program similar to PC Conectado from Brazil which offers 15 hours of internet access a month for less than US $3. It even specifies an alternative financing plan which would provide lower interest rates and greater transparency.
Paolo Colonnello, general manager of Blue Company and Director of MundoOS, argues in an interview on Atina Chile why “My First PC” should use open source software like Linux, Firefox, and Open Office. When asked of his thoughts on the program, he replies:
“First, it is important to make clear that this is not a government initiative, it is a private initiative; a group of companies that got together and made an offer which was sponsored, but not developed by the government. In other words,   there are no public interests involved in this campaign and the government is only giving its endorsement to satisfy the minimum goals put forth on the Digital Agenda.
But perhaps the most impressive characteristic of the bloggers’ campaign – dubbed, “My First PC, But For Real!” – is how quickly it has spread and how much support it has garnered. Publicist Roberto Arancibia was the 11th person to sign the letter and has been an ardent supporter of the project. Last Friday, in a post entitled “Good News” he wrote, “from a trustworthy source I now know… the higher spheres haven't just acknowledged the criticism, but also have felt the force of the bloggers’ campaign to improve My First PC and are already trying to fix it.” He then goes on to credit much of the success of the campaign to the fact that several formerly anonymous bloggers left their aliases behind and made appearances in Chile's major media to support their mission to improve the program.
One way in which “My First PC, But For Real” has kept the fire going is by encouraging bloggers to write posts about the campaign and then submitting their post for inclusion in this impressive list. A badge, with the running count of signatures, has also been made available.
It remains to be seen if the bloggers’ collective effort will help actually reform the program. Azaly wrote a post on Atina Chile this morning which calls the government's original program a complete success. “The demand has been so great, that the first stock of computers has already been exhausted. In just the first week, they have sold more than 10,000 units offered by the government and private companies.”
Update: The highly regarded Chilean blogger and senator, Fernando Flores has written five points of reflection on the “My First PC” project and its dissenters:
First: I am happy that the government and private sector have taken on this initiative. For the first time we are realizing that computers are a necessity and that they are making available lines of credit seems excellent to me.
Second: Equally, I love that the Chilean blogosphere produced the movement, “My First PC, But For Real!” because it shows that the blogosphere is beginning to work with the force of the citizens and that technology is beginning to enter politics.
Third: I don't agree with the whiny attitude that [the program] must be made better and that the government and Microsoft are being abusive. This is an attitude of victims, which never produces benefits nor takes the risk of assuming responsibility.
Fourth: We see as an alternative that MIT Media Lab will offer a PC for US$100.
Fifth: It's advisable to create an alternative, which is better, cheaper, and equally available. Here is where GNU/Linux and open source applications could play an important role. But we will have to also worry about training and support.


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Nepal: Unrest in colleges · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

More unrest in Khatmandu, as college students are involved in clashes with the police.


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Philippines: Aquino 22 years after · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Benigno Aquino is remembered 22 years after he was assassinated. August 21, 1983, Aquino was shot dead on the tarmac of the Manila International Airport as he returned from exile to launch an opposition against dictator, Ferdinand Marcos.


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Russia: Kim Jong-il’s visit · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

The Russian Dilettante's four-year-old daughter is spooked by the forthcoming visit of the North Korea's Dear Leader to Russia.


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Slovakia: No more mazurkas, please! · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Lemuel Kolkava at Deleted By Tomorrow shares his taste in Chopin.


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Sri Lanka: Free Education? · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Kusal Perera questions the need for free education in Sri Lanka.


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Sri Lanka: More corruption · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

indi.ca has a post on Tsunami, the LTTE and rampant corruption in Sri Lanka.


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Sudan: A different sort of rescue · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Aid worker Sleepless in Sudan, better known for her concern for the displaced humans of Darfur, tells the story of three young feline refugees and cultural differences in attitudes to animals.


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Travelling Afghanistan… With a Circus · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Islamicate reprints an email from a friend travelling through Afghanistan as part of a circus.


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Venezuela: Pat Robertson and Chavez · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Satisfying his fans, Daniel touches on Rev. Pat Robertson's proposal that somebody assasinate Hugo Chavez.


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Afghanistan: Child scavengers · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Sohrab Kabuli posts a photo of Afghan children apparently scavenging from a rubbish heap.


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Argentina: Writers’ Online Digital Archive · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jeff Barry sums up a government project developing an online collection of audio and video materials featuring Argentine writers.


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Argentina: Yesterday’s Storm · Global Voices
David Sasaki

GoodAirs has a hyperlinked post on yesterday's 22 hour strom which flooded Buenos Aires’ streets.


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Bangladesh: Nabbing the culprits · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

More on the blasts in Bangladesh at Sepia Mutiny. Catching culprits, and the fear that there maybe more to come.


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Bangladesh: What next? · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

DeshCalling links to an article that questions if the recent bombings in Bangladesh are a prelude to an Islamic Revolution.


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Bolivia: Grafitti thoughts · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Nick Buxton compares grafitti in Bolivia and Britain and finds the former tends to be more thoughtful.


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Bolivia: Possible Complications for Elections · Global Voices
David Sasaki

MABB sets forth some plausible complications in December's special elections including voter redistricting to accurately represent the Santa Cruz region's population growth.


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Brunei: Royal wedding bells · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

The Brunei-born Australian who blogs Macam-Macam (meaning all kinds) from Indonesia was watching Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, former World's Richest Man, divorcing his second wife and taking a new bride. “Unsurprisingly, no mention of the Sultan's marriage in the country's compliant national English daily, the Borneo Bulletin.  Wouldn't want to let the citizens know what their ruler is up to after all,  would we?“


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Colombia: Rep. McGovern: The U.S. should change course · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Plan Colombia and Beyond offers an English translation of Representative McGovern's opinion piece in Colombia's daily, El Tiempo last Sunday.


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Egypt: Al Hurra Exposure · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

The exposure to US based Al Hurra channel and Radio Sawa increased in Egypt from 70% last year to 92% this year. Al Hurra received tremendous negative media coverage and skepticism upon its inauguration. The Big Pharaoh blog gives credit to Al Hurra's correspondent in Egypt, Tarek El Shami for this improvement in the channel exposure.


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Ethiopia: Former rebel leaders · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Nazret.com‘s blogging of a BBC program about rebel leaders who win control of African countries stimulates a passionate debate in the comments section.


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India: Dalits in Tamil Nadu · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Despite being a progressive state, Tamil Nadu has a long way to go, given the plight of Dalits in the state says the nanopolitan.


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India: Mother Teresa a saint? · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

More about Mother Teresa and links to MacIntyre's website that offers a different perspective on Mother Teresa's work and intentions.


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Indonesia: Flash memory · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

“Don't ever trust things you buy IN China…” that seems ot be the conclusion of three Indonesian bloggers (Waryaman Wardana blogs in both English and Indonesian) and two online resource sites. They each paid 100 yuan, excluding taxes, for a 4GB SONY flash memory card which turned out to be fake.


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Indonesia: Google Talk · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Google talk was picked up fast by bloggers from Malaysia and Indonesia.


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Iran: Weblogestan Birthday · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Farid says that on September 7th, the Iranian Blogsphere will celebrate their forth birthday. On September 7th, 2001 Salman launched the first weblog in Farsi.


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Iraq: Constitution Law Makers · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Iraq The Model post the latest statements of Iraqi law makers that surfaced after the submission of the draft of the constitution to the National Assembly.


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Japan: Labour pains · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Japan is not a place where fathers are readily allowed to attend the birth of their children. In fact, recounts Cottontimer,  it is against many hospitals’ policies to allow husbands to be with their wives during labor and delivery. On the other hand, due to work culture in Japan, husbands may also be embarrassed or afraid to ask their boss for time off to attend their child's birth.


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Kenya: A blow for civil society? · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

The  Kenya Democracy Project reacts with irony and concern for civil society after the government dissolves an NGO umbrella body.


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Malaysia: The New Blogocracy  · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Jeff Ooi points to a story in Oxford Business Group titled: The New Blogocracy which features the Malaysian blogosphere. It is also the topic of academic study with the recent publishing of a paper entitled “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom: A Malaysian Case Study on Blogging Towards a Democratic Culture” by Tang Hang Wu, assistant professor in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Singapore. Tang says one of the more salient features of the blogging phenomenon is that it allows individuals to bypass the traditional barriers to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.


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Nigeria: Journalists against AIDS · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Black Looks highlights the work of an organization in Nigeria called “Journalists Against AIDS”, and provides a breakdown of HIV/AIDS statistics in that country.


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Pakistan: Go vote! · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Want to change the system? Metroblogging Lahore encourages Lahoris to go vote tomorrow for the local elections.


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Russia: How big is your soul? · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Andy at Siberian Light took the challenge to see if the size of his soul measured up to that of the Russians. It didn't.


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Russia: No more cut-rate oil · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

On a more serious note, Andy (Siberian Light) wonders if reported Russian government plans to stop selling oil at cheap rates to former Soviet states will backfire on the Kremlin.


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Russia: Photo blog · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Veronica at Neeka's Backlog has posted a gallery of photos of Moscow street scenes, the Moscow State University and river.


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Sudan: Aid flights halt as fuel runs out · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Sleepless in Sudan reports that the World Food Programme's aid delivery flights in and out of the troubled region of Darfur are grounded because there's no fuel to run them, leaving local workers unpaid and key equipment languishing in the capital.


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Thailand: · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Thailand's ‘Sangha’ (loosely translated it means Buddhism Body) declared for the umpteenth time that monks producing Buddhist amulets for financial gain are be stopped. Some of the most sought after amulets e.g. ‘Somdet Wat Rakrang’, may fetch mind-boggling prices up to 30 million baht.


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Uganda: The lost generation · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Bruno Stevens, at Human Rights Watch, posts a photo essay from time spent with Ugandan “night commuters”; children who stay constantly on the move and sleep rough to avoid being taken by a rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army.


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Ukraine: Where to buy black lipstick · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Blog de Connard has discovered the Ukraine Gothic Portal for all things Gothic, industrial, dark metal, cyber, fetish, romantic, independent, electro, dark folk, synth and medieval.


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Upset by Pat Robertson’s Remarks · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Some bloggers from Algeria, Kuwait and Jordan are upset by the remarks (or Fatwa, as Mohsan called it) made by Pat Robertson's, the founder of Christian Coalition. Pat calls for the assassination of democratically elected Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.


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Venezuela: Pat Robertson’s Explanation · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Blog from Bolivia comments on Pat Robertson's back peddling away from his comment that Hugo Chavez should be assasinated.


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Venezuela: Run away from Robertson · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Bloggins by boz gives a complete run down of everything related to Pat Robertson and Hugo Chavez.


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Zimbabwe: Growing Chinese influence · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Zimpundit says it took a while to dawn on China that the West's prosperity was built on a network of colonial power, but that Beijing is catching on fast now.


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Zimbabwe: Unreal sense of calm · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Still Here  – Bulawayo, at the Sokwanele Civic Action Group, blogs from amid the comfort of electricity and running water about a growing sense of unreality as “untold suffering” continues.


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Armenia: Refugee photo · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Oneworld Multimedia posts a photo of a refugee from Shahumian in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.


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Azerbaijan: President denies U.S. base rumors · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Blogger Nathan Hamm points out via del.icio.us that China's official Xinhua news agency appears to be the only major media outlet covering a denial by Azeri President Ilham Aliyev of speculative reports that the U.S. will open an airbase in Azerbaijan.


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Bangladesh: Whatever happened to Dhaka · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Unheard Voices links to a tell-all article on Dhaka as a city.


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Botswana: Air travel in Africa · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

M (Thinker's Room)gives an account of his flight from Nairobi to Botswana, including a few tips for the airport authorities in Johannesburg.


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Bulgaria: Bloglines conundrum · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Dimitar Vesselinov, at The World 2 Come, wonders what happened to Bloglines, and shares his feeds with the rest of the blogosphere while he's waiting.


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Chad: Call for prosecutions · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Human Rights Watch reports that the Chadian government has promised to remove all the henchmen of former dictator Hissène Habré, and calls for their prosecution.


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China: Real names required · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

While Shenzhen-based chat service QQ has been ordered to register the real names of all its customers, it's business as usual for Blogcn, one of China's largest weblog hosting companies, said founder and chairman Hu Zhiguang in BusinessWeek.


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D.R. of Congo: Girls in armies · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Congo Girl picks up on a Save the Children report that 12,500 girls are currently involved with both government and non-government troops in the D.R. of Congo, but are seen as “wives” and camp-followers, and are rejected by both their former communities and rehabilitation programs for child soldiers.


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Egypt: Artists Protest · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Baheyya from Egypt posts new photos of ‘Writers and Artists for Change’ while they staged their second protest in the public square at Cairo.


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Egyptian, Bahraini and Iranian bloggers in the Christians Science monitor · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Charles Levinson – Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, writes about Egypt's growing blogger community and mentions Baheyya, The Sandmonkey and The Big Pharaoh. On the Iranian side, he talks about Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian emigrant to Canada, who published directions on how to make a blog in the Farsi. Not to forget to mention that Hossein is one of the Global Voices authors. Last but not least, he talks about how Bahrain's bloggers made a mark, quoting the Silly Bahraini Girl and Haitham Sabbah.


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Ethiopia: Elections criticized · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Nazret.com's Ethioblog compiles a round-up of news reports about criticisms of the Ethiopian elections by EU election observers.


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Honduras: Carbon Trading to Fund Hydropower · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Honduras Last Week explains how carbon trading will fund a new hydroelectric project thanks to new Kyoto Protocol funding.


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India, Pakistan: The goats are back! · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Peace along the border can bring back surprising dividends, even rare goats! Read more at pakistani perspective.


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India: View from the top · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Uma has two posts on leading film actors seemingly clueless on social issues, and with feet in their respective mouths.


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Indonesia: Abortion · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Blogger Ahmad SS Ramadhana estimates that some 2 million Indonesian female undergo abortion every year. Of the number, some 900 of them go through unsafe abortion procedure conducted by untrained personnel. Free sex is said to be one of the main causes of unwanted conception that led to abortion.


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Indonesia: Narcissus · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Blogger Avianto stays on in Berlin, jobless, after finishing his Master of Science in Digital Media degree at ISNM in Lübeck, Germany. Re-reading “Understanding Media” by Marshall McLuhan which briefly touched on Narcissus, he blogs: “Human beings are so simple, we always have extensions when we communicate with the world… The Internet is the latest extension of human as a being and I dare to say that it evolves us into a different level.”


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Malaysia: Gay community · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Malaysians reject Alfred Kinsey's 10% rule-of-thumb but readily admit that 1 to 4%  of the national population are likely to be gay. thecicak.com says official gay organisations are non-existent in Muslim-majority Malaysia. However, there are organizations that support the gay community, such as HIV/AIDS non-governmental organizations like the Pink Triangle. There are also hangout spots, a few bars and clubs throughout Malaysia. But for the most part, the gay community in the country is underground.


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Russia and the former Soviet states · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Registan has an analysis of Russian foreign policy towards the former Soviet states, and the battle for influence in Central Asia.


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Singapire: Anti-Piracy · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

The fight against piracy continues in Singapore. The Recording Industry Association Singapore (RIAS) collaborated with the police to arrest 3 people for sharing their music collections on the net. Under Singapore's new anti-piracy laws, the trio can face up to 5 years jail time or a S$10,000 fine each.


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Singapore: Blog voyeurs? · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Newspaper readers are asked whether they agree that “People who read blogs are basically voyeurs who have no lives of their own.” eGen objects to what they called a sweeping statement. “As with most inventions, blogging can be a helpful tool – it depends on why and how we use it. Blogging can be therapeutic and it allows you to gain awareness of yourself. As you type, you stimulate your thoughts and might formulate good conclusions on your own.


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Sri Lanka: Colombo and cops · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

indi.ca on how Colombo is turning into a Checkpoint city, and cops seem to be found everywhere.


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Sri Lanka: Graveyards for Tigers · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Cemeteries in Sri Lanka on Sepia Mutiny. The tigers of LTTE, and how graveyards help to confer legitimacy to the LTTE.


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Taiwan: Blog Tag & Maslow · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Huitabbychen who blogs at www.wretch.cc links Blog Tag to psychologist Abraham Maslow‘s Hierarchy of Needs theory… “Human being's sense of safety will only come about after their biological needs are fulfilled, which results in a sense of belonging.” Bloggers are said to be following the same pattern of needs fulfilment. Tagging and track-backs flock bloggers together to render each other that sense of belonging.


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Thailand: Forbiddence · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

As floodwater subsided in Chiengmai, a city north of Bangkok, blogger SiamJai goes about exploring the restrictions foreigners have to face in Thailand, and restrictions Thais have to face abroad. He sights this in Laos: “It is prohibited to break in and sleep in the home of a Lao citizen without the owner's consent.”


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The World Reacts to Robertson · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

In the global chatter about U.S. televangelist Pat Robertson‘s remarks calling for the assasination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (for which he later apologized), there is much reflection on religious extremism – and the extent to which it is tolerated in various countries.
Calvin Ng, a Malaysian Christian, condemns “Mad Mullah Robertson” but then concludes: “My challenge to Muslim bloggers to similarly speak out that their own Mad Mullahs are wrong still stands.”
As Haitham blogged in this roundup post yesterday, a number of Middle Eastern bloggers have been commenting. A Kuwaiti Online is unimpressed by the U.S. government's mild reaction to Robertson.
Indian blogger Harini Calamur writes at Point of View: “When Osama asks for Bush and Blair’s head – he is a nasty terrorist. …It would be interesting to see the Bush Administration bring charges of ‘encouraging terrorism’ on Robertson.” (Via Sabbah's Blog.)
U.S. based Indian-born blogger Arnab digs up some of Robertson's past anti-Hindu rants, among other things.
Jewels in the Jungle, who blogs on Africa from Germany, has a long roundup and asks: “What about all of those new anti-terrorism laws Congress passed last year? Isn’t this kind of thing against the law in America?” Jewels also points to discussion of Robertson's ties to Liberian dictator Charles Taylor.
The Devil's Excrement, who is no fan of Chavez, thinks the whole Robertson thing has been blown way out of proportion and didn't deserve the attention it got in the blogosphere. He thinks the Venezuelan government did the right thing by shrugging off Robertson's remarks as a loony rant.
David Sasaki followed regional Latin American reactions in his daily roundup posts here, here, and here.
What do you think? Do you think the Robertson story got way too much attention or does it have broader significance when it comes to how the U.S. is perceived around the world?  Please leave a comment and let us know your thoughts.


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Uzbekistan: Blogging for cotton · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

A number of bloggers have pledged to blog for sanctions on cotton from Uzbekistan, to put pressure on the country's president on Sept. 1 (the country's independence day)  over human rights violations.


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Zimbabwe: Opposition leader goes ‘back to masses’ · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Zimpundit asks if opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has seen the light with his plan to travel around the country soliciting the views of ordinary people on how to remove the government of President Robert Mugabe from power.


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China: BloggerCon · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Organisers of the Chinese Blogger Conference scheduled for November are looking for voluntary English-Chinese interpreters, and those based in Shanghai are preferred. The beta version of bloggercon schdule and preliminary list of speakers has been announced. Topics lined up include podcasting, tags/folksonomy, and blogs and education.


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Africa-focused blogger on Pat Robertson · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Black River Eagle at Jewels in the Jungle comments on reactions to TV evangelist Pat Robertson's comments about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.


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Argentina: Alejandro Rozitchner’s Weblog · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Doug of all-encompassingly points us to the blog of Hora Clave co-host, Alejandro Rozitchner.


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Argentina: Diego Armando Maradona · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Diego of Altered Argentina makes a clever and witty case for why soccer player Diego Armando Maradona symbolizes all that is Argentine.


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Armenia: Foreign minister in apology for son · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Blogrel‘s Hovakim notes the apology of Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian on behalf of his son, who injured a 25 year-old man while driving an official car in the capital, Yerevan. Yet the mea culpa leaves a sour taste, he concludes…


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Azerbaijan, Armenia: Close to Karabakh deal? · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Oneworld Multimedia reports that Armenia and Azerbaijan may be closer than they have ever been to a deal on the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh.


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Bangladesh: All about propaganda · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Propaganda used against Bangladesh by India on DeshCalling.


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Blog Day 2005 · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Sometime in June of this year Israeli blogger Nir Ofir had a realization: the date 3108 (or August 31st) looks suspiciously like the word “Blog.” He had also become increasingly aware that as more weblogs from around the world make their way onto the internet, the more we get stuck in our regular reading habits without searching for new content and new voices from other cultures and viewpoints. Despite the rhetoric of the internet making the world a smaller place, most weblogs still link to bloggers from their same country and with their same political outlook. His solution?
In one long moment on August 31st, bloggers from all over the world will post a recommendation of 5 new Blogs, Preferably, Blogs different from their own culture, point of view and attitude. On this day, blog surfers will find themselves leaping and discovering new, unknown Blogs, celebrating the discovery of new people and new bloggers.
There are specific instructions on how to format your blog post in English as well as 10 other languages.
The idea has certainly caught on and is already making noise around the world. SAJ Shirazi from Pakistan has listed no less than 124 blogs which he fully expects to participate in Blog Day this coming Wednesday.  Satish Talim from Pune, India is encouraging fellow Indians to take part. Aldebarán from El Salvador, Jordi Abad from Barcelona, Spain, naevus’ corner from Italy, David Weinberger from the U.S.A., and Alexis Perrier from Paris, France are just a few examples of the many around the world who will be introducing their readers to new bloggers from other countries.
Unfortunately, it seems that Technorati's lack of support of the Korean standard character set, EUC-KR, will keep most Korean bloggers from participating in the day's events. In a letter to Nir Ofir, the Korean blogger, Hof explained why.
Though Blog Day has garnered less attention here in the United States, the Indianapolis Star did give it mention last week.
We at Global Voices, of course, couldn't be more supportive of the idea. We have long encouraged bridge blogging, where a weblog serves as a bridge between two groups of people, especially from different countries and cultures. August 31st marks a day in which we can all play that role by seeking out new blogs from foreign places and introducing them to our regular readers. If you're looking for a great place to start exploring, there's none better than our Bridge Blog Index.


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Bolivia: Parliament’s Choice For President · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Miguel Centallas sees little chance of any presidential hopeful winning a straight out majority in December's election, which would leave the decision up to parliament.


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Cambodia: Jobless woes · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Young college graduates are in Cambodia are finding hard to get employed while transparency is said to be lacking in employee recruitment. Blogger ThaRum says employers are now seeking talents with additional language proficiency in French, Chinese and Thai besides competency in computer.


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Caribbean: Telecom Industry · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Taran Rampersad covers the telecommunications industry in the Caribbean.


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China: Bokee.com · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Kevin Wen points to a Reuters story that reports on Bokee.com, which claims the biggest share of China’s blogging market with about 2 million registered users. The company set up in 2002, which provides free blogging services, says it is adding 6,000-10,000 daily. Main revenue: Advertising.


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China: Newspaper circulation · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

While Malaysian newspapers conventionally base their advertising rates cards on readership figures, China's base it on both circulation and readership.  As such, disputes often erupt with one newspaper publishes a set of quarterly figures and rival newspaper disputes them, like what happened in Malaysia. In China, the lack of reliable independent bodies to measure circulation and readership figues has led to similar disputes.


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Egypt: 2-3 Million Egyptians In Iraq · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Ritzy is reporting that there are 2-3 million egyptians living in Iraq right now, the majority of which did not report to the embassey since the occupation. She is wondering how many of those have joined the “insurgency” or are training there to inflict their own kind of “insurgency”?


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Egypt: Egyptian presidential elections online polls · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

The Arabist Network posts a roundup of a few Internet polls on the Egyptian presidential elections.  They seem to confirm that the race is indeed between Ayman Nour and Hosni Mubarak, however, one has to keep in mind that the web sites that hosted these polls are opposition web sites!


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Freedom of Speech News · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

According to Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), and Human Rights Watch, here are the latest developments on threats to Freedom of Speech over the past week:
Tunisia: Government bans new journalists’ union from holding founding congress. RSF reports that the Tunisian government has decided to ban the Union of Tunisian Journalists (SJT) from holding a founding congress that had been planned for 7 September.
Libya: Web Writer's Arrest Stifles Debate. HRW reports Libya’s internal security force has detained al-Mansuri since last January in an apparent effort to silence a writer with critical views.   See also the RSF appeal here.
China: Cyber-dissident Ma Yalian released on completing sentence.  According to RSF, “A total of 62 other cyber-dissidents are still currently imprisoned in China for circulating articles and information critical of the authorities on the Internet.”
Maldives: Cyber-dissident Mohamed Zaki freed after two years in prison and 19 months under house arrest. According to RSF “Zaki, who helped run the e-mailed newsletter Sandhaanu, was freed on 18 August, two months after the release of another Sandhaanu staff member, Fathimath Nisreen.”
Belarus: KGB censors satirical Internet cartoons RSF reports on “raids carried out on 16 August by the Belarusian secret police, the KGB, on three apartments in Minsk and the western city of Grodno allegedly belonging to young members of the Third Way opposition movement who create satirical, animated cartoons (in Flash format) for Internet distribution.”


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Hong Kong: Rant TV-blog · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

www.faint.tv looks set to be a blog specifically to rant about Hong Kong Cable TV, observes OrdinaryGweilo.  A worthy subject, but sustainability is suspect, he adds.


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India: Exploring democracy · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Democracy, patriotism and citizenship from a different point of view, when speaking of Democracy Without Borders at CSF.


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India: Rural India · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Death ends Fun offers perspective on two pertinent issues in rural India – Child Mortality Rates and Employment.


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Kyrgyzstan: North-south alliance shaky · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

The strategic north-south political alliance which won a general election in March for Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiev and prime minister Feliks Kulov may already be under threat, blogs Laurence at Registan, citing analyst Ainura Choponkulova.


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Lesotho: Sweet children · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Sotho blogs about the origins of the word “lipompong” among the children of one of the least developed countries in the world.


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Maghreb Blog · Global Voices
Mohamed Marwen Meddah

A group of enthusiastic bloggers from the Maghreb  world; that consists of Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Mauritania; have launched a new project under the name of Maghreb Blog.
This group blog mainly discusses news from across the region, common issues and more, in an attempt to promote the Maghreb blogosphere and bring its people closer to each other.
If you look a bit closer at the blogs from across the Maghreb countries (e.g. Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria), you’ll realize how much they have in common, and how they share so many things; from the issues they discuss, to the problems they face, to the ideas they share, to the goals they aim at; This only goes on to confirm how maghrebian people are very alike in their thoughts, concerns, aims and everything in addition to history, language, geography and race.
This project was created to showcase that, to unite Maghreb bloggers online, to create a meeting point for them where they can interact, discuss, share, talk about what unites them and also understand what unique and enriching differences they have.

author: Mohamed Marwen Meddah


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Mozambique: In memoriam, Abel Nhantumbo · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Ma-Schamba, a Portuguese-language blog, introduces the wood sculptures of the late Mozambique artist, Abel Nhantumba (including several photos).


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Nepal: Press freedom · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

International Nepal Solidarity Network has a post on defence of Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression in Nepal that links to a mission report of twelve international organisations concerned with issues of press freedom in Nepal.


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News from Chinese Blogosphere(Aug 21th-27th) · Global Voices
Frank Dai

1 Firewall Update: From Aug 20th, internet users in mainland China generally began to experience access failures when they tried to browse websites outside China. Even the searching engine Google and its mail service Gmail are both inaccessible while all the websites based in China are normal. Keso pointed out that the major international router may face problem after test. Virushuo guessed that the GFW, mechanism to block websites is undergoing update operation. He said the new system can now block different websites on same URL.
2 Blog Tag Game: A game was spreading among Chinese Bloggers called “Five Weird Habits” with amazing speed. Its rule was that a blogger wrote about five weird habits in his or her daily life then named other 5 bloggers to continue the game on their blogs. It was started on Aug 15th by a Taiwan blogger named Anaislee and reach across the strait almost overnight. Incomplete has a map illustrating how the game was spreading in mainland China and Florahsueh discussed this social behavior using Maslow’s theory.
3 More Female Blogger than Male: In an interview conducted by Businessweek with Hu Zhiguang, CEO of Blogcn, whose company is leading Blog Service Provider in China, revealed that near 60% of blogger are female because they are more emotional to express feeling and males are too busy to blog. Mr Hu also talked about the issues like real name registration and sensitive words.
4 Online Game: New regulation governing online game would be soon approved by legislature body. It requires the game designing must have a system that limits the consecutive playing time no more than 3 hours. Anyone who plays over the limitation would face punishment on their virtual money and scores. Fons Tuinstra discussed its impacts on the profitable market of online game. Also a game called “Anti-Japan War Online” developed by China Communist Youth League was going to begin commercial operation by the end of the year. Joi Ito was very curious about how Japanese history was portrayed in the game.
5 Chinese Blogger Conference: A list of major speakers and panel moderators has been published including their biography. More details are still under way.
6 Nomination for Best of Bloggers: The annual competition initiated by Deutsche Welle called Best of Bloggers began now. Anti, a celebrated right-wing journalist blogger, told his readers that he had became one of the 12 judges in the competition. He asked people to recommend blogs to him for award nomination.

author: Frank Dai


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Pakistan: Nuts and Boltons · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

More on what John Bolton's plans are at the United Nations at the olive ream.


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Palestine: Israeli Settlements · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

In case you are searching for a list of Israeli Settlements in the West Bank, Israeli Watch posts a link to download the list for anyone to print or view. A comprehensive list with information about the settlements population, location and date of establishment.


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Puerto Rico: Taino Protesters · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Roberto Borrero follows up on the arrests of Taino protesters last week in Utuado, Puerto Rico


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Qatar: Disengagement Propaganda · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Friends of Aljazeera reports that Arab satellite news channels Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya have been forced to fend off accusations that they served up Israeli propaganda with their coverage of the historic evacuation of the Gaza Strip settlements.


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South Africa: Sinking together · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

“You are sinking, President Mbeki,” says Africa-related blogger Bosse, of Bosses Blog, regarding the South African government's response to mass demolitions in Zimbabwe.


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Sudan: Day for Darfur · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

The Passion of the Present flags “A Day for Darfur”, an event to be held outside the White House in Washington, DC on Sept 8.


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Ukraine: Quality, not quantity · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Dan McMinn at Orange Ukraine argues that quality is better than quantity when it comes to economic performance by the new Ukrainian government.


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Venezuela: More Reactions to Robertson · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Publius Pundit has more on the Internet's reaction to the Pat Robertson controversy with a special focus on Venezuelan bloggers.


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Egypt: National TV and Elections · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

The Big Pharaoh is stunned because Egypt national TV aired criticisms of Mubarak's regime and the government.


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Iraq: Protesters Carrying Saddam Photos · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Iraqi4ever wonders, is that too much democracy? Who would thought after two years and a half, Ba'athies will go out again carrying Saddam Photos?


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Iraq: The Hard to Write Constitution · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Hammorabi says that writing a constitution for any country with homogenous culture in hard. In Iraq the job is much harder because of the complexity of the Iraqi society and the negative outcomes of the dictator regime policies on the country for the last 30 years.


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Arab Blogging Revolution? · Global Voices
Ahmed Al-Omran

Occasionally, I like to take a break from my blog, and sometimes from the internet as a whole. During my latest break from my blog, I found this website. It is a cultural Arabic website. What impressed me about this website was not the content -although it looks good- but the tool they are using to publish it. They are using WordPress as a content management system (CMS).
WordPress is usually referred to as a blogging tool, and a large number of bloggers from all around the world already use it, including some pioneer Arab bloggers such as Serdal and Subzero Blue. I totally realize that this tool is powerful enough to manage the content of any website of any kind. Global Voices Online is a good example for that. However, I did not think that any Arab website would take this step. I'm glad that the people at Doroob have made that choice, and I think this can give a push to the blogging movement in the Arab World.
Blogging can be a huge success in the Arab World, but we still don't have the required tools. I think a large number of the thousands of members of Arab internet forums would welcome a tool that makes it easy for them to publish their opinions in the form of a personal website (blog), with complete freedom, without the supervision of moderators, and to get rid of the problems they usually face with using forums as a publishing platform.
However, it is too bad that none of the Arab tech companies seems to be ready or even willing, to make this tool. I think we can use a model similar to the one used at Blogsome. We need someone to translate WordPress completely to Arabic (Dashboard, forms, templates, etc.), and then offer to host blogs for free, and maybe coupled with some text ads.
I don't know if this can be profitable, but even if it is not, someone has to do it, sooner or later. I think it is better for users if someone from the Arab World makes it, instead of some international giant that might dominate the whole market. It's been almost a year since we have heard the rumors about Google updating Blogger to fully support languages written from right to left (Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, etc.), but Google did not provide any further information on this since then. Another approach for Arab companies to take is to try to start a partnership with Google to provide an Arabic version of Blogger, the same way it is now in Brazil.
Probably there are more business models, and more opportunities, to spread blogs in the Arab Word, but that is all I could come up with now. I think blogging can lead to a true publishing revolution in the Arab World, where the freedom of expression is a serious matter to everyone. I think the spread of Persian blogs is a good example for what we can achieve.
Unfortunately, when the dot com bubble burst in the West, it affected Arab tech companies that could have been the starting point for Arabic blogging. The likes of Arabia.com, PlanetArabia, and Sakhr, could have done that job. However, both Arabia.com and PlanetArabia now rest in peace, while Sakhr has lost its appeal. Arabia.com, founded in 1995 as the first Arab dot com company, received about US$25m of venture capital in 2000 from the likes of Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal, Intel, Compaq, and HSPC. Today, it no longer exists.
Does any of the current Arab tech companies, or any of the Arab investors, has the courage to take the last step that will open the door to the Arab blogging revolution? I hope so

author: Ahmed Al-Omran


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China: Furong Jiejie’s false claim of Censorship? · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

At my personal blog RConversation.com, I link to a Red Herring article in which journalist Kaiser Kuo concludes that claims of censorship by  Chinese blogger “Sister Hibiscus” are actually false. I would love to know what Chinese bloggers think about this whole issue, and whether anybody has any concrete evidence to the contrary. Since my blog is blocked in China, I'm reproducing the whole post below.
My friend Kaiser Kuo, former Tang Dynasty rockstar and currently Red Herring‘s correspondent in Beijing, has just written an article: China Net Star Cries Censorship. The story describes the rise and likely fall of China's recent blogging sensation Sister Hibiscus (sometimes also known as "Sister Lotus" in the western media though her Chinese nom-de-blog "Furong Jiejie" actually translates to "hibiscus," not "lotus"). Now the important thing to understand about Sister H., who is plain and not very talented, is that her stardom was basically the result of bloggers and chatroom denizens making fun of her – a situation which in her egotism and lack of sophistication she herself failed to understand.  The plot only thickens from there.
Like most people who follow such things (including many snickering bloggers around the world) I had been under the impression – thanks to this Reuters article widely reprinted, re-posted, and broadcast in video and audo versions around the world – that the Chinese authorities had cracked down on her, and that her blog host bokee.com had complied with their request to, er, de-emphasize her on their site. While Reuters quoted Sister Hibiscus herself as claiming to have been cracked-down upon, Kaiser could find no further evidence that this was the case. The people at Bokee.com strongly denied having been asked by the authorities to stop featuring her blog on their front page, and pointed out that Sister Hibiscus’ blog remains one of the most well-trafficked in the Bokee blog constellation.  But the "in thing" had moved on (to "Super Girls", a phenom I'll discuss in a later post).
So anyway, Kaiser called the Reuters correspondent to see where he got his information. Apparently, the reporter had nothing more than Sister Hibiscus’ claims, plus the quote from a Daily Telegraph article about her in which she told the Telegraph reporter  "They
blocked me. The Propaganda Department told the television stations and big newspapers to stop covering me."  Usually, when somebody claims to have been cracked down upon, a responsible journalist will make the effort to get at least off-the-record confirmation from official Chinese contacts (even if indirectly via friends of Chinese officials or people who work in Chinese media organizations who tend to know about crackdowns) that such a crackdown has in fact occurred. When I worked as a journalist in China, I myself ran across situations in which artists and writers claimed to have been censored when the reality was they just weren't very talented – but were trying to salvage their careers by claiming political victimhood and getting buzz with Western journalists. The tactic works surprisingly often, I'm afraid.
Apparently, no effort to confirm Sister H's claims was made by the Reuters journalist. Kaiser's efforts along those lines have turned up total blanks. It appears, indeed, that China's bloggers and chatroom denizens – as fickle as bloggers and chat-roomers anywhere –  have lost interest. Welcome to 15 mintes of fame. It ends. The cyber-herd moves on.  Sister Hibiscus appears to be trying to revive her edge by turning herself into a censorship victim, whether it's true or not. (That said, if anybody out there has evidence that authorities have indeed made deliberate efforts to diminish her fame, please hit the comments section and let everybody know.)
As Kaiser points out in his article, Western reporters can get away with this kind of sloppy reporting because there is so much real censorship happening every day in China. So reports of censorship are always believable – to foreigners as well as to many Chinese. This situation is reinforced by the fact that the Chinese government routinely lies and obfuscates about what it censors, why and how. So denials – even when true – are not believed. Similarly, companies involved with censorship and filtering are generally evasive and un-transparent about what they're up to and what the Chinese government has asked them to do. Bokee, like all Chinese blog-hosting companies, filters and censors the blogs they host. Users know this through their posting experiences, not because Bokee has been publicly upfront with them about what they're doing. So I wonder, when Sister H. cries censorship, and the Reuters article gets cut and pasted around the Chinese blogosphere and chatrooms, do Bokee's users believe their denials or not?
It's an interesting question. I'd love to know what Chinese bloggers out there think.


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China: Homeland Security officer trial · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

The ongoing trial of a U.S. Homeland Security officer charged with the beating of a Chinese tourist at Niagra Falls last year is not well-known to Americans, but it definitely is to people in China. ESWN is following developments on this page.  Zhao Yan, the Chinese tourist, will testify tomorrow (Monday).


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China: “Super Girls” and SMS democracy · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

ESWN has a long, reflective post about Hunan TV's “Super Girls” show, in which viewers voted via SMS for their favorite girl singers. He translates the Chinese-language posts by some bloggers who believe the “Super Girls” phenom could mark the beginning of a more democratic culture in China.  But ESWN ends on a cautionary note about the nature of voting and democracy – and the need for critical thinking.


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English, Bilingual, and Political Bloggers in Tanzanian Blogosphere · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

For reasons that are mainly attributed to Tanzania‘s post independence political ideology of Ujamaa, which emphasized  strong national identity through the extensive use of Kiswahili,  the dominant language in the Tanzanian blogosphere is Kiswahili.  There are new Tanzanian bloggers, however, emerging using either English or both English and Kiswahili.
Until May this year, when an agricultural researcher in Morogoro, Hector Mongi, and an agricultural engineer in Dar Es Salaam, Isaria Mwende, started blogging in English, there was only a single English blog in Tanzanian blogosphere and over 15 Kiswahili blogs.  Hector and Isaria started blogging in order to share agricultural information with their colleagues in Tanzania and elsewhere.
Late last month, a Tanzanian PhD student, Idya Nkya, after meeting Ethan in Cape Town, decided not only to blog in Kiswahili as he has been doing since May this year but also in English.  He has set up an English blog, The Other Side of Africa, hoping to portray positive images of life, hope, and optimism in Africa, which are rarely covered in the global mainstream media.  Early this week, another English blogger, Peter John, who works in the computer industry sector in Dar Es Salaam, entered the Tanzanian blogosphere.  Peter plans to write mostly about computer technology.
Ethan's post on the plight of the bilingual bloggers has made an interesting reading to bilingual bloggers emerging on Tanzanian blogosphere.   Mtafiti is a Tanzanian female student in Texas.  She blogs in Kiswahili and Kichagga, the language spoken by the Chagga.   Florence who works in the public relations industry in Dar Es Salaam writes in both Kiswahili and English.   She writes about different topics ranging from the reconstruction  of Kilwa Ruins  and urban tourism to Tanzanian musicians who behave wildly on stage.   Esther, a schoolteacher in Dar Es Salaam, has set up English/Kiswahili blog, Indigenous Bank.   She plans to write about indigenous knowledge and culture.   However, she has not started posting on a regular basis.   The latest bilingual blogger is  Jeff Msangi,  a graduate student at the University of York in Canada.   Jeff writes about his experience in Canada and socio-political issues in Tanzania and other parts of the world.
Another interesting development in Tanzanian blogosphere is the birth of blogs set up by active politicians.   Early adopters of blogging technology in Tanzanian blogosphere were mostly journalists.   Some of the reasons for this are, firstly, most people in Tanzania associate expression of opinions and ideas in written form for public consumption with traditional journalism, and secondly, most journalists have easier access to computers and the Internet in newsrooms than ordinary citizens.   Even journalists who work in newsrooms without such facilities, the nature of their work forces them to use Internet cafes more often than the general public. Things are changing, though, as more people start to understand that every citizen has a story to tell and that advances in information technology empower ordinary citizens with tools to share their stories and at the same time Internet access in Tanzania is increasingly becoming available  and affordable.
The opposition party, Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) (the Party of Democracy and Development) is one of the few stable and respected political parties in Tanzania.   As part of its campaign strategies,  CHADEMA's chairman and presidential candidate, Freeman Mbowe has set up a blog as well as its Secretary-General, Dr. Wilbroad Slaa, the Director for Foreign Affairs, Zitto Kabwe, and the Director for Youth Affairs, John Mnyika.   None of them has started posting as of yet.
Two of my former students at the School for International Training, Tait Davidson and Jenny Venecek are blogging about their experiences as Peace Corps volunteers in rural Tanzania.   Two of their friends, Jen and Thais, are blogging as well about their experiences as American volunteers in Tanzania.
Although Tanzanian bloggers  at this point do not post as frequently, I anticipate this will change as Tanzanian blogosphere is still in its infant stage.   Tanzanian English and bilingual bloggers are creating new possibilities for conversation within and between cultures that are extremely exciting.    As presidential and parliamentary campaigns  in Tanzania get intense, it is possible that more politicians will adopt blogging as an effective tool for campaigning, particularly for reaching young Tanzanians and drawing media attention.   This might help to get more Tanzanians involved with blogging.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Images From China: Shanghai Subway Scene · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

“Shanghai MRT” by Vampirex
A subway train pulls out of the station in Shanghai.

author: Paul Frankenstein


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· Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) is being pressed to convict masterminds of last year’s murder of acclaimed human rights campaigner Munir, who was killed by arsenic poisoning while on a September 6-7 Garuda flight from Jakarta to Singapore to Amsterdam. Though the suspects , Garuda Indonesia pilot and alleged intelligence operative Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, are being charged, rights groups fear the trial is a whitewash.


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Afghanistan: Taliban killed · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Sohrab Kabuli reports a statement from the Afghan defense ministry, which says that Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces killed 18 militants in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Uruzgan.


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Argentina: Victoria Ocampo’s House · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Buenos Aires, City of Faded Elegance takes a look at the modernist architecture of Victoria Ocampo's house in Bueno Aires while GoodAirs looks at the glass-encased summertime home of ex-president Sarmiento.


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Armenia: Symphony of Silence · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Oneworld Multimedia reviews an Armenian film, Symphony of Silence, and in doing so touches on issues affecting the aspirations of the Armenian diaspora and anyone who has suffered mental illness.


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Azerbaijan: Scenic Sumgayit · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Carpetblogger posts photos of Sumgayit, Azerbaijan, which she describes as possibly the most polluted patch of real estate in the world, and a place where Mad Max would feel at home.


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Bahrain: Arab Top 10 Billionaires · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Mahmood posts the names of the top 10 billionaires of the Arab world according to ITP Business. While Mahmood wishes them all the best, he asks, what contribution to science did they contribute? Do they contribute to charities? Why is there only one royal in the list?


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Bangladesh: Snapshots from Dhaka · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Snapshots of Dhaka in this wonderful photo post that covers  so many facets of this city on this LiveJournal Bangladesh Community post.


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Bangladesh: Terror · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

What really irks the terrorists in Bangladesh? Rezwan has some ideas and links.


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Bolivia: Polling Games · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Blog from Bolivia exposes the urban bias of the latest major public opinion poll in the newspaper, Los Tiempos.


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Bolivia: Things Are Not Going Well for MAS · Global Voices
David Sasaki

MABB argues in two posts why things are not looking up for the leftist Garcia Linera/Evo Morales presidential ticket.


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Brazil, Japan: Samba! · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Though held in Tokyo, Japan, Japundit tells us Samba dancers from Brazil were invited to the capitol city for the 25th annual Asakusa Samba Carnival parade.


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Cambodia: Blogs as university research topic · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Tharum's blogging experience becomes the research topic for Pannasastra University students who study for Fundamentals of Communication. The referral came from an article in the Cambodia Daily.


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Chechnya: Election monitoring · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Chechnya War reports that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is planning to send election monitors to Chechnya for the parliamentary elections in late November.


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Colombia: Alberto Gonzales, meet  · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Plan Colombia and Beyond has the untold story of the “Gordo Lindo” while  U.S. Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales was in Bogotá last week.


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Egypt: Only in Egypt · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

The Egyptian Person is following the Middle East Times, which occasionally has an article called “Only in Egypt“, which has a collection of weird and wondrous news items from Egypt. Chceck some of his collection.


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Estonia: Anniversary of pact · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Shaan at Bonjour L'Estonie remembers the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of August 66 years ago, which paved the way for more than half a century of Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, including the Baltic states.


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Ethiopia: June 8 massacre · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Ethiopundit compiles accounts of the June 8 massacre of civilians in Addis Ababa.


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Guyana: Guayana Night 2005 · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Taran gives his summary of Guyana Night 2005 in Georgetown which celebrates all things Guyanese. Complete with photos.


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Homeless but Online in Paris · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Farid Pouya at Iranian blog Webgardian points us to a story in French on Projet Internet du Rue (The Street Internet Project) about a homeless Internet user in Paris who's been able to complete an online job search despite having no permanent address. Farid offers a partial English translation of the post on his blog.

author: Ethan Zuckerman


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India: Splogged? · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Spam reaching new proportions. Rashmi Bansal has an interesting post on the kinds of spam that blogs receive, and comes up with fitting nomenclature!


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Indonesia: Gus Dur for Christians · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid (aka Gus Dur), an influential Muslim cleric,  has made a stand against the anti-Christian activities of violent Muslim group Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders’ Front).


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Indonesia: New blog · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Former politics and economics website Laksamana.Net has reincarnated into an English blog named Paras Indonesia, though it retains the former URL.  Editorially backed by six columnists, it attempts to present straight news that explains the dynamics and intricacies of Indonesia, like this one – Pressure on President as rupiah hits new low. Via Enda Nasution.


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Iraq: Constitution Dilemma · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Iraq Rising writes ‘A Dangerous Constitution’:
It seems that other than the Kurdish and Hakim’s/Ja3fari alliance, everyone else in Iraq is opposed to this constitution. And the reasons are quite clear. The major issue is the nature and powers of the Federal state visa-ve the Federal regions…
The constitution, if ratified, will allow a very easy path for regional dictators to set up shop in oil rich regions with little right for the democratically elected parliament in Baghdad to challenge these dictators or throw them out of office if need be…
While Baghdad Dweller sees that Bush Continues Misleading His People, and writes:
Why doesn’t he dare to say this constitution is widely unpopular among all Iraqis Shiite, Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Christians, Mandeans and Yezidis, from the far north to the far south?


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Iraq: Death Toll for Journalists · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

In reference to the recent shooting of Waleed Khaled, a soundman for Reuters TV, by US military snipers in Iraq, Ethan writes on how dangerous the war has been not just for military and civilians, but for journalists.


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Israel: Blogging · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Tikun Olam wonders, Blogging and Blog Comments: Freedom to Say Anything or Civil Discourse?


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Jordan: Bataranzi · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Wondering what Bataranzi means? Laith writes the face and reason behind the name “Bataranzi”.


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Kuwait: Calling Sergei Krikalev · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Maryam of q80girl, achieved one of her dreams. She talked to Sergei Krikalev on the International Space Station (ISS) while it was passing over Kuwait.


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Mexico : 9 reglas · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Sergio of Overcaffeinated informs us that the 9rules network will be opening itself up to content in Spanish on September 2nd.


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Mexico, Argentina: A Comparison of Capitols · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Robert of line of sight compares Mexico City with Buenos Aires.


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Nepal: What really is.. · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

The politics and economics behind the royal takeover in Nepal at International Nepal Solidary Network.


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Nigeria: Bloggers unite · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Kazey Journal has set up a new site, nigerianbloggers.com, aimed at bringing Nigerian bloggers together, and calls for volunteers to help run it.


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Nigeria: Follow the money · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Black Looks reports on investigations into the financial affairs of Nigeria's vice-president, Atiku Abubakar.


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Pakistan: And the winner is.. · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Elections in Lahore turn out to be a brainteasing event! The dark irony of what mental muddles democracy means on ballot paper.


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Pakistan: Speed Dating · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

pakistani perspective links to an article on Muslims trying out speed dating.


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Philippines: Arroyo has to go · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

To the members of the Black-and-White Movement, issues surrounding the Presidency and the Impeachment Complaint share no room for shades of gray when it comes to the Truth. There are others who feel the longer President Arroyo stays in power, the more bankrupt government becomes. A rally is being planned for August 30.


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Philippines: Going to the dogs · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

The Socialist opposition has been busy using pets for political propaganda. It's a gimmick to dramatize their stand that the impeachment complaint hearings against President Arroyo in Congress are going to the dogs.


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Singapore: Quitters’ Exodus · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Did Singapore premier Lee Hsien Loong break down during the National Day Rally because today's youngsters would just give up their citizenship so easily for greener pastures without second thought when they could not be satisfied materially?


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South Asia: Main Stream Blogs · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Are blogs by definition nonpartisan? Bhrigu's question poses the issue of MSB (or Main Stream Blogs) and the need for blog readers to sift through blogs and balance the sources.


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St. Vincent: Brock Peters · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Abeni from Saint Vincent and The Grenadines mourns the death of actor Brock Peters.


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Sudan: Shotgun wedding · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Sleepless in Sudan hears about panic and gunfire in the troubled region of Darfur, only to discover that the shots were fired in honor of a newly-wed couple.


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Trinidad: “We Gone International Now” · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Small Island Girl was happy to see “Trini flags” waving during Ludacris’ performance on the MTV Video Music Awards.


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Venezuela: Media Objectivity · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Daniel is concerned about the loss of Radio Nacional de Venezuela's objectivity while Aleksander Boyd says the same of the international press.


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Zimbabwe: Constitutional changes · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Zimpundit foresees further erosion of property rights and other potential abuses resulting from the proposed 17th amendment to Zimbabwe's constitution.


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Afghanistan: More women register to vote · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

More and more women, even in the war-torn southern provinces, are registering to vote in September's parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, reports Afghan Warrior.


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African hunger an established norm · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

African Bullets and Honey‘s MMK reflects sadly on the implications of Plumpy'nut, a famine relief product specifically designed to be shipped in to African countries to avert starvation.


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African Women: At the end of the rainbow · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

All African (Self Help) Bazaar reports on the work of the NGO Rainbo, especially in working against female circumcision/female genital mutilation in African countries.


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Azerbaijan: ‘Cloned’ candidates · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Marianna examines the phenomenon of ‘cloning’ candidates as nominations get under way for Azerbaijan's forthcoming general election in November.


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Blogs of the World, Aggregate! · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Boris Anthony, our good friend and Global Voices’ beloved graphic designer/toolsmith, recently offered this observation: “….In the last 6 months, I have not worked on a single ‘weblog': it's all been various types of aggregators.”
As blogging becomes mainstream around the world and journalists, corporations, politicians and non-governmental organizations join individuals in maintaining blogs, the cool kids are going a step farther and playing with tools that aggregate content from a set of weblogs and publish it on a new blog.
Like the term “weblog”, the term “aggregator” means different things to different people. Over the past two years, many blog fans have been using desktop software aggregators, like NetNewsWire or NewsGator, to subscribe to multiple blogs. Recent versions of the Firefox Browser have included an aggregator, using a feature Firefox calls “Live Bookmarks”.
As well as desktop aggregators, a huge number of web-based blog aggregators have emerged, including Bloglines and NewsILike. (The wikipedia page listing desktop and web-based aggregators is overwhelming, listing several dozen options.)
These aggregators were designed to make it easier for a single user to follow dozens of weblogs she'd decided to subscribe to. The new generation of aggregators Boris refers to have a different purpose – they're single websites that automatically summarize dozens or hundreds of blogs, organized by topic, interest or region, for a wider audience, not just for the person maintaining the aggregator.
At Global Voices, we're particularly interested in aggregators that give a view of a country or a region, like our friend Haitham Sabbah's Arablog, which selectively “reblogs” content from around the Middle East. Isam Bayazidi's Jordan Planet – which just celebrated its first birthday – began as an aggregator of five Jordanian blogs and now covers 39 brilliant bloggers from the Hashemite Kingdom. And our Tunisian friends have a rich, trilingual – French, English and Arabic – aggregator which showcases over sixty blogs from Tunisia and Tunisians living abroad.
Our friends in the Middle East aren't the only ones embracing the aggregator trend.  Across the Atlantic, bloggers in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico have started a regional blog aggregator, MTYBlogs. And complementing the BlogAfrica aggregator, Nigerian bloggers have come together to offer the Nigerian Blog Aggregator, which boasts 600 posts from 64 sources. Let's hope the rich Kenyan blogopshere gets in the act soon…
If you know of other nationwide or regional blog aggregators, please let us know by leaving a comment on this post. And, needless to say, if you're looking for new blogs to link to for World Blog Day, these aggregators are a great place to start.


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Book Review Podcast: The World is Flat · Global Voices
Kamla Bhatt

Thomas Friedman is a Pulitzer Prize winner, who writes extensively for The New York Times.
Friedman's latest book, “The World is Flat: A brief history of the 21st century,”  deals with that top of the mind subject: Globalization. He talks of how globalization is flattening the world, and how quickly this globalization is spreading across the world. He identifies 10 flatteners or factors that led to the flattening of the world, and one of them is that much debated about term: outsourcing.
The book paints a nice, big picture on how the world is changing in fundamental ways, and how and why governments and people need to adapt to these dynamic changes.
Corante has a post on what Freidman has to say about networks and blogging. More concerns at Guiding Rights Blog on what the US should be worried about. Napablogger has an interesting take on what Freidman has to say by disagreeing with what Alam has to say.
You can listen to the podcast here.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

author: Kamla Bhatt


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Cote d’Ivoire: Mr Ziglibithy  · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Benn loxo has a guest blog about a guitarist from the Cote d'Ivoire who brought a traditional musical form called ziglibithy into a musical world dominated by post-independence francophone pop stars.


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Egypt: Egypt bloggers and Mubarak · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

“In a country where most major newspapers are state-owned or affiliated to a party, the Internet is offering an unprecedented freedom and platform for an increasingly bold opposition to the regime.” This is how Agence France-Presse (AFP) described the present status of Egyptian bloggers, who are setting new standards in the Middle East politics and democracy reform. AFP featured some Egyptian Bloggers like Baheyya, Manal and Alaa and Mohammed, who runs a blog entitled “From Cairo With Love.” Mohammed DON'T believes that blogs and the Internet will reform the Arab world and make the people rise up.


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India: Rural India and the Divide · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Conversations with Dina has a post on rural India, marketing and branding that needs to recognize rural India as having unique aspirations and identites and on the kinds of images of rural India that are increasingly prevalent.


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Iran: Regional Civil Society Forum banned by Iranian government · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information reports that a regional civil society forum in Iran, grouping 40 Iranian and international delegates to talk about the Internet and information society was banned a few hours before the start of the event.


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Iran: Woman Rights · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Secular Canuck-Iranic is wondering if Ayatollah Khamenei is beginning to show some moderation on women's position in Islam?


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Iranian bloggers celebrate their fourth Birthday · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

I would like to share with you some important issues about our blogging history. Of course it is a personal way to look to Iranian blogistory:


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Lebanon: Lebanon in Pain · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Mustapha says that you could almost smell the tension in Lebanon. Everyone is afraid, afraid from the unknown, from the harm yet to be caused.


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Malaysia: National Day + Blog Day · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Malaysia's National day falls on the same day we observe Blog Day, August 31. Blogger Minishorts feels the 48-year independence has been taken for granted, TV Smith's heart sank seeing the faded and forlorn fluttering with a few remaining shreds of dignity. Some English bloggers chose to write in the national language just for the day. Belacan Times has 10 items on the wishlist, anti-corruption being one of them.


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Malaysia: Opposition Leader starts a blog · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Even Lim Kit Siang, the Malaysian Parliamentary Opposition Leader, has started blogging. In his sixth entry, he talks about the 1957 Proclamation of Independence, and the gulf between promises and realities.


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Malaysia: Political blog · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Group blog, Politics 101 Malaysia, has been created as a social-political awareness exercise to reach out to young Malaysians who have little or no political knowledge. It's been rated by Yahoo.


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Nagorno Karabakh: A murky independence · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Marmot Power blogs from the disputed–between Armenia and Azerbaijan–territory of Nagorno Karabakh , and anticipates the merger of the quasi-independent republic into Armenia.


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Nepal: Royal Excerpts · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A royal interview in Nepal, and some very interesting views on what the King said at United We Blog!


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Nigeria: Web site hacked by Turks · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Afrotecnik reports on a hacker attack on a Nigerian Web site by suspected Turkish hackers.


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Oman: Salalah Festival · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

WickeD of ‘Paradise in Me’ blog from Oman, writes a review on the annual Salalah Festival. She says that it needs more than the annually repeated concerts, poetry readings, painting and crafts exhibitions.


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Pakistan, India: Cross-Border Prisons · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Innocent people become prisoners of another country because they wander outside their territory, DIP Forum has more on appeals made to release the prisoners.


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Pakistan: What it means to be in the US · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

An Independence Day parade invites much wrath in the New York Post. Sepia Mutiny explores the article and why there is so much wrath in the tone.


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Palestine: Memorable Moments · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

As the Israeli unilateral disengagement from Gaza draws to a close Laila from Gaza lists her top ten most memorable moments moments of the past two years.


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Poland: The women of Solidarity · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

PolNews has a feature article on the women (“Where are they now?”)  at the heart of the Solidarity trade union movement of 1980 in Poland, which eventually toppled the Soviet-backed communist regime.


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Russia: Poetry in popular culture · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

The Russian Dilettante blogs about Vera Lynn, Pink Floyd and taking popular song lyrics seriously in time of war.


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Singapore: Blogs in public exam papers · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Blogs and podcasting are becoming accepted phenomena as bothappeared as the essay question for the General Paper in the 2005 preliminary examination in the junior college.


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Singapore: Migration blues · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Singaporeans thinking about migrating are being reminded that migration is not a bed of roses. “Just get your feet in the door. Other doors will open….” might not be a mantra that works wonders.


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Sri Lanka: LTTE and a Lonely Planet · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A Lonely Planet guide to the LTTE. By which Morquendi means that much like he thinks Lonely Planet guides, the general understanding of LTTE is shaped by cliches and generalizations.


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Sudan: Why the silence over Darfur rapes? · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Sudan: The Passion of the Present posts an open letter to the United Nations from Eve Ensler, asking why the UN has kept so quiet about the systematic use of rape in the troubled region of Darfur.


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Macao: Better air routes · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Budget airlines are adding new routes linking Macao and South-East Asia. Singapore-based Tiger Airways will launch flights between Macao and Manila in late October 2005, in addition to its Singapore-Macao route. Air Asia currently operates Macao-Kuala lumpur and Macao-Bangkok flights.


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Argentina: Conspiracy Theories · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Expat Argentina writes of popular Argentine conspiracy theories which question U.S. intentions.


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Armenia: Grandiose subway · Global Voices
Luisetta Mudie

Naeri posts a series of photos at Flickr of the Soviet-style and rather grand Armenian subway, on the way to an underground bazaar.


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Aruba: Natalee Holloway Reporters · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Lost in Smallness, written from Aruba, compares reporters covering the Natalee Holloway case to hungry donkeys.


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Bahrain: Bahrain is in danger? · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Mahmood talks about the recent bogus religious proclamations in key Shi'a areas at Bahrain.


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Bangladesh: Jihad and Terrorism · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

MBI Munshi on DeshCalling has links on Jihad(isim), Terrorism and the differences.


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Bangladesh: Sun.. bathing!? · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Cultural shades of sunbathing? Bongo Vongo tried his hand at sunbathing in Bangladesh… needless to say, it wasn't taken all that well!


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Barbados: Trip to Rock Hall · Global Voices
David Sasaki

This, that, & Whatever describes a visit to the historic Freedom Monument of Rock Hall, which was the first free village in Barbados founded by a group of ex-slaves from a nearby plantation.