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Belarus: The Language Issue · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

In a perfect world, languages would be nothing but a way for people to communicate with each other – no language would be considered superior or inferior, children would be encouraged to study as many as possible. In the real world, however, languages are being used as political and ideological tools way too often, and in Belarus, for example, this has resulted in the Belarusian language practically vanishing from everyday use, replaced by the Russian language, and Russian being shunned by the politically conscious Belarusians.
LJ user wolny, a Belarusian living in the United States, writes (BEL) about his recent linguistic adventure on a bus in New York City:
Today, something interesting happened to me. On my way back from work, I was talking on the phone with [LJ user] e_ndrus. Because a group of young blacks was on the same bus and they were acting pretty [loud], I was forced to interrupt my conversation. Someone was getting off the bus at the next stop, so I got a chance to sit. I took an empty seat, and a woman sat down next to me and addressed me in Belarusian right away. I was speechless for a moment. =) She had been surprised herself when she heard me speaking Belarusian. It seemed to me that she used to teach in the past because her language was good but slow. She was interested in the Diaspora (said she was trying to look for the people but didn't find anyone), and I recommended [a Diaspora get-together] to her. We'll see if she shows up.
Here's a seemingly unlikely yet unsurprising response to this story (BEL):
slotoviepus: Cool! I think it was only once in my life that I happened to hear in a Minsk tramway how ordinary people were speaking in Belarusian – not during a language class, not in front of a TV camera, without any reason, simply on the tramway… This was nine years or so ago.
LJ user baleslau has reprinted wolny‘s text in his own journal. His reaction (BEL) is very similar to the comment above:
[…]
Here's how it is sometimes! Even in Minsk it's difficult to catch Belarusian being spoken, and wolny lives in America.
In the comments section, there's yet another Belarusian Diaspora language story (BEL):
adelka: And I once had a similar experience at Charles’ Bridge – my friend and I were looking at the paintings sold there, and one of the artists turned out to be from Minsk (even from […] a house next door :) and speaking Belarusian. It was fun to hear this answer to our broken Czech: “How much is this?) – in pure Belarusians – like, “Girls and boys, relax and speak Belarusian, you are being understood perfectly well” :)))
LJ user litota_  describes (BEL) the politics attached to her language use:
Sometimes, when I speak Russian, Belarusian words make their way into my speech, and I think with horror: “God, they are probably thinking I'm the opposition!!!”
LJ user czalex switches to English and posts an entry on the “Russian linguistic chauvinism“. Here's one exchange in the comments section:
bacian: U can't set Russians straight anyway, there's no sense in it, so don't u waist your time on'em! ;)
czalex: that's what I'm talking about. We have our own language to switch to ;)


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Bermuda: Etiquette rules for guest workers · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Bermudasucks.com presents a list of etiquette rules for guest workers. An example: “Ensure that all necessary tasks have been concluded before you give the customer your attention. These could include: filing your nails; talking to your co-workers; taking phone calls from your ace boy/girl; debating whether Shakisha in accounts has the fattest arse in the island. . . .”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Brazil: São Paulo Pride 2006 · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Made in Brazil has an assortment of posts on São Paulo Pride 2006, which ended last week.

author: David Sasaki


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Central Asia: Literary Guide · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Registan.net has a survey of literature from and about Central Asia.

author: Nathan Hamm


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Chile, Argentina: Blogger Reunions · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Two blogger meetups in the Southern Cone. Ariel Vercelli reminds readers (ES) that June 29th is “Weblog Day” (ES) in Buenos Aires with an event at the University of Palermo. Meanwhile, Argentine-Spaniard José Luis Orihuela, author of the recently published “The Blog Revolution (ES),” will take advantage of his time in Santiago to attend tonight's Beers and Blogs meetup (ES).


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Colombia: The UN’s data on Coca-Growing · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Adam Isacson explains why the recently released Andean Coca Survey by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime is required reading for anyone wanting “to know about drug-crop cultivation in Colombia and the rest of the region.”


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Darfur: still waiting for AU troops · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Passion of the Present points to an article on the lack of  AU troops in Darfur – too little and too late!

author: Sokari Ekine


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DRC: Kudos to Le Monde  · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Le Blog du Congolais  points to a recent article by Le Monde on mining in the Katanga and says (Fr): “At last, Le Monde has decided to break from the dominant tendency in western media to report on the Congo what they are dictated by biased high European Commissaries, Belgian ministers and members of the Congolese government and to instead treat information objectively . “

author: Alice Backer


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El Salvador: Gay Pride and Gay Issues · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Observing that “dozens of gay and lesbian protesters marched today in a Gay Pride March in San Salvador,” Tim Muth links to some background context on gay issues in El Salvador. Meg also writes about “Salvadoran Gay Pride.”


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Ethiopia: Hi-tec war against bloggers · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Ethiopian Life comments on Ethiopia's crackdown against bloggers at home and in the Diaspora….”An office is being opened at the old airport area in Addis Ababa to conduct this warfare. Blocking and hacking opposition internet websites, sending spam and viruses, wire-tapping and telephone tapping, tracking money transfers are some of the activities of the office.”


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Geisha Blog · Global Voices
Ching Chiao

Geisha Blog has made a series of great posts to introduce Japanese tradition and culture. The latest entry is about the public bathhouse.

author: Ching Chiao


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Guyana: Amusing umbrella · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Guyana-Gyal's beat-up umbrella becomes a source of amusement for a minibus driver.


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Haiti, Ghana, Brazil: Football allegiances · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Ghana's inspired performance at this year's World Cup raises issues of allegiance for Haitian-American blogger Nightshift and some of his friends.


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India: Startups in India · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Kamla has a podcast interview on doing start-ups in India. “Rene Seifert, Bangalore-based entrepreneur and Managing Director of Level 360 Services discusses in our podcast interview on how to do a start-up, and what it takes to do business in India.”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Iran: A Weird Business with Belgium · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Ship considers recent news about Belgium based Exmar company's deal with  Iranian Sadra company very weird. The bloggers says Belgian company asked Sadra to build ten ships for this company despite this fact that Iranian company has never constructed such a product before. The blogger was surprised when Iranian company instead of hiring people, fired 240 workers! The blogger explains  when a high ranked official in Iran said Belgian Exmar will participate to bid for transporting Iranian LNG ( liquid natural gas) and this company has great chance to become a trade partner, things became clear (Persian)!

author: Fred Petrossian


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Jamaica, Cuba: Med school employment woes · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Jamaicans studying medicine in Cuba fear they won't find employment when they return home, reports Medicina Cubana.


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Jamaica: More meetings with Bob · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

In reponse to a post about his encouters with Bob Marley, Geoffrey Philp receives a note from dub poet Malachi Smith about his own meetings with the reggae superstar.


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Jamaica, USA: The making of a poet · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philp recalls his early days in Miami and his rise from supermarket bag boy to community college student and — eventually — winner of a college poetry prize.


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Lusosphere blogs report the latest political twists in East Timor · Global Voices
Jose Murilo

Since the last report from the lusophone blogosphere, the crisis in East Timor has evolved with the country now divided between the President Xanana Gusmão and the Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri. Once again, reading about the situation in the Anglophone media tells a quite different story from what appears in Portuguese language blogs. There is quite a gap between the two perspectives.
“Australian media news, which influences all the regional and international information on the issue, describes Timor crisis as an internal fight for power where an ‘unpopular’ prime minister is opposed by a popular movement. Although the words ‘oil’ and ‘gas’ are the cause of the Australian intervention, they are rarely mentioned in these news reports.”
East Timor: a new cold war – Informação Alternativa
“The Australians use Ad Hominem arguments in the attacks on Timor's government. In this article published in Australian News — owned by Rupert Murdoch (see wikipedia) — the writer, a neoliberal (as only a neoliberal journalist would be tolerated by Murdoch), demonizes the Timor government using the strategy of using leftist labels. Marxist leaders have failed: it's the ‘label’ (homophobic, fascist, Marxist, etc.) The labeling marginalizes the opposition and avoids better reasoning. As we know, Marxism has not guided the Fretilin party of the Prime Minister for years. But the author resurrects the late 70's ideological language with obvious intentions.”
Timor: hearing the Australian version – Letras com Garfos
“The history of the struggle for independence of East Timor is also a narrative about the Australian political acrobatics in trying to put its hands in the vast amount of oil in the surrounding seas, currently evaluated as worth 30 billion dollars. Nevertheless, Australia always made its support of Timorese independence appear as a humanitarian mission of fostering and protecting ‘human rights’. Today, the media still echoes this storyline.”
East Timor: Australia – Peacekeeper or Petroleum Predator? – Expresso Online
The absence of cross-language reports in traditional media may be the reason for the gap in perspective and in understanding of what's going on. There is a great chasm between what is reported in English and what is appearing in Portuguese. It's the passion for blogging about the East Timor crisis in the Lusosphere that is amplifying and expanding awareness of the many sides of the conflict and bringing the gaps in interpretation within the different language spheres into high visibility.
Last week, President Xanana Gusmao's formal request to Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri to resign was the expected movement in response to the unrest. But the fact that the decision was announced as being triggered by an Australian media piece came as a very interesting political spice in the debate in the blogosphere.
“Xanana decided that Alkatiri could not stay in power based on this documentary (via Pantalassa). ‘Alkatiri is a terrorist, a communist and a Muslim’. That's how the well informed Australian journalist describes the ousted prime minister. That's how she defines the credibility of his work. The President's use of this piece of political propaganda to bring down a prime minister defines his absolute political irresponsibility.”
 A terrorist, a communist and a Muslim – Arrastão
“If more proof is needed for us to perceive the meaning of last week developments in Timor, the political pearl is the letter Xanana Gusmao sent to his Prime Minister, printed in the newspapers today. The East Timor President talks about an ABC TV program — North American, not the Australian network — which supports the thesis that Alkatiri was preparing a counter-revolution. While sending this video as an attached file, Xanana warns of the request for Alkatiri's resignation. It also says that if he fails to step down, he will be fired after the State Council meeting, which comes as a formality as the decision is already taken and delivered to all news outlets in the world. In a two paragraph letter, the political ridiculousness achieves astounding dimensions.”
A country at play – DiárioDigital
The networked conversation is becoming wider and involving more influential actors. The Portuguese deputy Ana Gomes, who is well known for her activism in favor of East Timor's independence and who is President Xanana's close friend, has been posting about the unrest on the blog Causa Nossa. As we would expect, her blogging attracts heated conversations.
“‘Mr. President: do not resign. Fire him!’ This is what I'll send in a sms to President Xanana! Interference in internal affairs is what they will accuse me of. But I am not the government; I am a deputy, a Portuguese citizen and a friend East Timor. I worked a lot to see the Timorese people free and independent and I am not going to passively watch a bunch of totalitarian idiots leading the country to chaos again. I ‘interfered’ a lot in the past, and have no regrets. It's important that we understand in Portugal that Mari Alkatiri has not yet gathered the thousands of Fretilin protesters which he says he is controlling to avoid more unrest — because he doesn't have them.”
Mr. President: do not resign. Fire him! – Causa Nossa
“An example of how the ‘friends of the East Timor people’ can turn out to be their biggest enemies would be right here (Causa Nossa, 25.6.2006). To an already huge fire which is getting out of control, Ana Gomes adds even more gasoline. Instead of calling the parties to a more serene and calm mood, instead of controlling a situation which nobody knows how will end, Ana Gomes does quite the contrary. Ana Gomes — I'm sorry to have to say as I have personal esteem for her — seems to be more of Xanana Gusmão's friend than a friend of the East Timor people.”
Political Piromania – Bloguítica
As personal connections become more transparent through the flow of narratives, it's inevitable that intimate details of the political characters get picked up by the bloggers radar. This is especially true in this case where the already mentioned cultural gap is replicated in the composition of East Timor's first couple.
“A terrible caricature of the Timorese conflict was the interview that Kirsty Sword-Gusmão gave to the Australian radio ABC. Kirsty is Xanana Gusmão's Wife and, as it stands, she doesn't have any institutional legitimacy. Nevertheless, Kirsty feels comfortable playing the President's authorized voice, and she almost fired Mari Alkatiri through the Australian radio microphone.
Kirsty Rules – Diário de Notícias
“The State relations in Timor had already gone down to the lowest level in terms of parochialism when it was broadly perceived that the situation was dependent on the President's domestic life. Now things have gone to the most worrying phase: the common terms with which the institutional relations have been discussed have come from the President's kitchen”.
The letter – Mafalda's World
“Yes, Kirsty Sword Gusmão is Australian, so what? Is it that being Australian a sign of being sold to Canberra's darkest interests? What would the Timorese be today without the support of so many dedicated Australian friends whose militancy against their own government's policy helped in East Timor's fight for independence? They helped more than most of the Portuguese, who only in 1999 opened their eyes to our obligations relative to East Timor. Who knows when this Malay discovered East Timor on the map? Will he continue to distill venom against President Xanana and his combative wife?”
Blue Malay, or the color of a venomous beast? – Causa Nossa
In this last post, the Portuguese deputy Ana Gomes fires an open attack on one of the most active bloggers since the start of the crisis, who signs as ‘Malai Azul’ (Blue Malay). It was interesting how the answer came as a comment in Malai's blog, “Timor-online”, and how dangerous is to engage in an open word battle in the blogosphere.
“We all recognize and are thankful for what Mrs Ana Gomes did for East Timor. I recognize and appreciate also her impulsiveness in defending the causes she thinks are fair. But the truth is that Mrs. Ana Gomes never lived and worked in East Timor — in the country's day-to-day institutional life which is still in development and amongst people who still feel the pain of past traumas. That's why I think she should have been more cautious and avoided rushed conclusions about the character of some Timorese people. It's not appropriate for her to insult Malai Azul the way she did. She has fallen in the same trap she was accusing him of. One more time, it would be much better if everybody would just calm down. This needs to be stressed. I thank the creators of this blog for making available a free space to all those who love and worry about East Timor”.From Readers – Timor Online
Following East Timor tags and linksleads us to some interesting historical perspectives brought forth by some highly motivated bloggers. The evaluation of the geo-political and economic importance of this tiny nation is rarely present in the broadcast coverage. Our blog search on the issue brought forth a much more diverse and informative experience.
“East Timor is just one of the countries in the region caught in the crossfire between two powerful strategic competitors: China and the US . Unfortunately for East Timor, it happens to neighbor some of the Pacific's most crucial waterways – most notably the Ombei Wetar Straits, a deep-water trough between the Indian and Pacific Oceans important for submarine passage, that would be a vital sea ‘choke point’ in any future conflict.”
East Timor: A New Cold War – Alternative Information
“Australia's collusion, wrote Professor Roger Clark, a world authority on the law of the sea, ‘is like acquiring stuff from a thief … the fact is that they have neither historical, nor legal, nor moral claim to East Timor and its resources.’ Beneath them lay a tiny nation then suffering one of the most brutal occupations of the 20th century. Enforced starvation and murder had extinguished a quarter of the population: 180,000 people. Proportionally, this was carnage greater than that in Cambodia under Pol Pot. The United Nations Truth Commission, which has examined more than 1,000 official documents, reported in January that Western governments shared responsibility for the genocide. For its part, Australia trained Indonesia's Gestapo, known as Kopassus, and its politicians and leading journalists frolicked before the dictator Suharto, described by the CIA as a mass murderer.”
East Timor: The Coup the World Missed – Resistir.Info
The East Timor crisis is going through a very delicate moment. It seems the country is really divided, and it is wise to suggest calm and the least interference from external actors. It's fair also to hope that the national hero Xanana Gusmão makes the best use of his well known charisma in order to unite the country around its infant institutions. The whole nation has its eyes turned to him right now.
Tomorrow Xanana Gusmão and his counterparts will ‘find out’, in their State Council, that Mari Alkatiri's resignation leads to the assumption that the government's party has no conditions to continue with an executive  formed by the parliament. Tomorrow, Xanana Gusmão will please his customary followers.  After the meeting of the State Council — a consultative and non deliberative board — he will dissolve the parliament and bring forth a government based on presidential decree until the next elections.
Tomorrow Xanana's supporters will have their prize… – East Timor: Sovereign and Independent State
“The question is not about firing Mari Alkatiri, the person. It is about firing the elected leader of the party because of his responsibility in bringing the country to serious unrest after three years of government. What national alternatives will be created from this situation? Can they go beyond the representation and responsiveness of a political party? If someone is left out of the solution engineered for this moment, we will have a fertile ground for a civil war — something that is closer than some people imagine and than we in Portugal fictionalize. The arrogant and authoritarian ones are not only in the government. The East Timor problem is like the Brazilian soap-shows: the plot is feverish, agitated, made of traps and counter-traps, gluing our attention to the movement of the characters and creating the perfect disguise for what goes on in the background, in a way that we can't perceive well who is making things happen, who works, who creates business projects, who generates wealth.”
Ana Gomes – a shot on the foot – Walker's Exile
East Timor unrest should be closely followed by international observers right now. Thousands of supporters of ousted East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri gathered outside the capital this morning, cheering wildly, and chanting “Viva Fretilin” and “Viva Alkatiri.” Nobody should be predicting the possibility of a particular victory in this politically volatile situation.
“The headlines are madness: ‘Timoreses are with Xanana“. All of them? The majority? The right answer is ‘some’ and that might even be many, the ones who are carried by ‘trucks and cars to the Timorese capital and have joined the 700 people that have spent the night in front of the government's Palace’. More than that, this journalist can't say and probably can't know.”
Reading, watching, hearing, atoms and bits of June 23, 2006 (2ª series) – Abrupto
“Thousands of supporters, more than 15,000 as reported by LUSA, gathered 10 minutes from Dili, in Hera. The protesters went back to Metinaro where they will stay for the night. Alkatiri and Luo'Olo escorted them to Metinaro in order to allow the anti-government protesters to leave the city. The protesters were carrying banners saying ‘Viva Alkatiri’, Viva a Fretilin’, ‘we are not a banana republic’. Among the people there were many Katuas, older men and many old combatants.”
Fretilin appeared – Timor Online
We will be following the news in Timor, hoping for peace.
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author: Jose Murilo


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Malawi: $20 million for corruption · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Anti-Bzkil Muluzi - Malawian blog reports that the US has given $20 million to Malawi to fight corruption!


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Mexico: Un Poco de Todo · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Ana Maria Salazar Slack runs through Mexico's big three stories: the status of negotiations between Oaxacan teachers and the Ministry of the Interior, union strikes by minors, and the campaign trail with less than one week till elections. From Pachuca, Mexico Votes 2006 describes an Institutional Revolutionary Party campaign event.


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Mongolia: Past Crimes · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Luke Distelhorst reports on how the Mongolian government is and isn't redressing the crimes of the communist government.


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Morocco:  Essaouira Gnawa Music Festival · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Samir talks about the huge success of Essaouira Gnawa and world music festival. He said: “Once again Essaouira has turned on a world class music festival. More than 500.000 people attended between June 22 through 25. Last year's record of 450.000 was easily beaten.”

author: Haitham Sabbah


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Nepal: Story of an Internally Displaced Citizen of Nepal · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Stories of tragedy, grief and loss at United We Blog! “Toyanath Poudel, 68, couldn’t stop his tears flowing over the cheeks as he entered inside his rugged home draped under the web of spiders in Duragaun village that was locked by the Maoist rebels for months.”


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News 21 team in Korea · Global Voices
Ching Chiao

News 21 team, formed by a group of students from University of California with the interest of reporting US military abroad, is now visiting South Korea. GI Korea Blog helps summarize the trip.


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Nigeria: Adeniyi-Jones · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Naijablog publishes an article by Nigerian photography, Jide Adeniyi-Jones on his thoughts on Nigeria – he originally sent the article to local newspapers who refused to publish –


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Pakistan: Grand Trunk Road · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Shirazi on the Grand Trunk road that spans South Asia. “Its angles have been yanked and diverted by history. It has witnessed the march of Aryans and victorious advance of Persian and Greek armies. It also saw the Scythians, White Huns, Seljuks, Tartars, Mongols, Sassanians, Turks, Mughals and Durranis making successive inroads into the territories beyond Peshawar Valley and Indus.”


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Pakistan: Rock and the Underground · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Asma covers the rock scene in Islamabad. Watch out for the take on underground rock. “Here, bands remain underground only because financial constraints, lack of contacts, sponsorships and media attention, and discouragement from parents cause them to remain smothered down there. Most Western UG bands prefer remaining proudly unheard of by the larger audience; here, UG bands long for popularity and success.”


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Palestine: Peaceful Resistance in Bethlehem City · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Al Khadr is yet another example of a peaceful village bearing the brunt of the Israeli occupation's policies to annex land while undermining the social and economic viability of the Bethlehem governorate. The soon to be built Apartheid wall near Al Khadr will isolate 95% of the village's lands behind the wall. The result will be to push the people of Al Khadr further towards economic ruin and poverty, Gaialing  from Voices from the Bethlehem Ghetto said.


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Panama: Forgotten Issues . . . reminder · Global Voices
Leon Kadoch

A (very musical) blog called Asi es la Vida en Panama has a short list of forgotten cases and crimes that have not been solved yet, this is probably a wake up call for our Panamanian government's delays. Don't be surprised if there's a James Blunt song in the background.

author: Leon Kadoch


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Panama: The Tree Climber · Global Voices
Leon Kadoch

Irving from Al Aire Libre lists all of the trees that he wants to climb in Panama.


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Philippines: Freshmen in Campus · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

The new school term has started in Philippines and Rex at the King of Chocolates blog encounters freshmen on his campus. The blogger welcomes the freshies and remembers his first day at the campus.

author: Preetam Rai


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Reporters Without Borders: How They Protect Bloggers & How You Can Help · Global Voices
Mary Joyce

Last month, Global Voices launched its Help These Bloggers page, signaling the organization's entry into blogger advocacy. (Find out how to add our advocacy badge to your website here.) Although always part of Global Voices mission, support for jailed bloggers became particularly pressing in the past six months due to the arrests of two bloggers close to the Global Voices community.  Global Voices’ Northeast Asia Editor, Hao Wu, was detained without charge in China in February.  He has still not been granted access to his family or to a lawyer.  The second blogger arrested was Alaa Abd el Fatah, co-creator of the Egyptian blog Alaa and Manal's Bit Bucket.  Fortunately, this blogger's story ends happily.  Alaa's release was announced this week, after six weeks in prison, and he returned home after a horrific night in a police cell.
Nevertheless, as the influence of political bloggers increases so does the persecution they endure from governments who wish to silence all voices of criticism.  In fact, 50% of all people arrested for statements made online are blogger.  It was in order to learn more about this phenomenon that I visited the international headquarters of Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans Frontières), a Paris-based organization dedicated to defending press freedom around the world.  I was there to talk to Julien Pain, head of RSF's Internet Freedom Desk.  I was interested in how Julien and his colleagues protect bloggers.
RSF was founded in 1985 by four French journalists who wanted to defend imprisoned journalists and protect freedom of the press around the world. The Internet Freedom Desk was a natural outgrowth of this goal.  It was founded in 2001 as a direct reaction to the perceived crack-down on media after September 11th.  Explained Julien, “Governments used the fight against terrorism as a pretext for controlling the internet and invading privacy.  This worried us.”  The Internet Freedom Desk at first focused on protecting privacy on the internet.  However, when Julien took over the desk in 2003 he changed the focus to advocating on behalf of people who are jailed or persecuted because of what they write online.
In the beginning, bloggers were not the focus.  The people most often targeted by authoritarian governments were “cyber dissidents,” traditional political dissidents who “went cyber” and started publishing critical material on the internet.  They were not writing in blogs, but rather on traditional websites like Boxun.com, a US-based site advocating for human rights in China.  Even in September 2005, when the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber Dissidents was published, it was cyber dissidents and not bloggers who were most often targeted by repressive governments.  This was because, according to Julien, political blogging was still in its infancy in most of the world and thus bloggers did not pose much of a threat.  Bloggers made up only 7% of all people arrested for statements made online, compared with 50% today.
In the future, Julien expects the situation of bloggers to become more dangerous.  The number of enemies of the internet is increasing.  “There was a time,” he recounted, “when some governments, such as those in Sub-Saharan Africa, did not try to control cyberspace. That isn't true anymore. Governments around the world are realizing that they need to get their hands on the internet.”  This new awareness by repressive governments of the power of cyberspeech does not bode well for people who blog.
So, how does the Internet Freedom Desk protect bloggers?  Every morning, Julien checks to see where blogs are being blocked or bloggers arrested.  He doesn't get his information from traditional media, but rather from a global network of 120 paid correspondents whose job it is to keep an eye on the internet in their respective countries and fact-check reports of blocked sites.  Once a story of a blocked site has been confirmed, Julien's next task is to write a press release describing the situation.  These press releases are sent to members of the traditional media (television, radio, the press) who have an ongoing relationship with RSF and use the press release as a basis on which to write a news story.  Stories in the traditional media further raise awareness of the blogger's situation.  In addition, the Internet Freedom Desk lobbies on behalf of bloggers and for greater internet freedom in general.  Lobbying might take the form of contacting a foreign embassy, asking an official of the European Union to press a foreign government to release a blogger, or trying to influence internet legislation.  Finally, RSF gives money to the families of jailed bloggers so the family can survive financially even though their prime breadwinner is in prison.
You can help the Internet Freedom Desk protect bloggers.  If you become aware of a blog that is being blocked or a blogger that has been arrested, e-mail Julien at internet@rsf.org.  In the case of a blocked blog, you can even go one step further and help RSF confirm the story.  It is highly unlikely that a government will admit to blocking a website, so the blockage will probably never be officially confirmed.  For this reason it is necessary to collect evidence from multiple sources to collaborate the story.  First, have people living in the country where the site is blocked try to access the site from different ISP's (internet service providers).  If people from several ISP's can't access the site, that rules out the possibility that there is a technical problem with one of the ISP's and indicates that the site is being blocked centrally.  Second, try to contact the site's owner.  It is always possible the owner is updating or has taken her site off-line intentionally for some reason.  If the owner believes that her site is blocked, that will also strengthen the argument that a blockage has in fact occurred.   Global Voices’ international network of bloggers and blog-readers can be a powerful force for freedom of internet expression by making themselves the eyes and hears of organizations like RSF.
To add the Global Voices blogger advocacy badge to your own website you can copy and paste the image directly or copy and paste the code below:

author: Mary Joyce


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Syria: Authoritarianism · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Syrian comment on the cultural inclination which was cited by a study that claims that there is no anti-democratic attitude within the Mideast cultures.
Syrian said: “While its true that an individual may not object to a democratic form of government does not explain his acceptance of the alternative. Syrians have been subject to authoritarian rule, with very short periods of semi-democratic government, since the beginning of time and they never seem to have objected to it on a scale that would force a change.“


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Thailand: Street Elephants · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

The blogger at My Thailand Diary encounters elephants in Chiang Mai city and wonders if elephants belong to the jungle or the city.


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The World Cup Online: Discovering Lionel Messi’s Blog or Blognovela · Global Voices
David Sasaki

The anonymous nature of the web is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, everyday citizens living under repressive regimes, can easily learn how to blog anonymously and express themselves without fear of reprisal. On the other hand, it is difficult if not impossible to verify the real identity of the author on any given blog. That doesn't mean, however, that people don't try. Ecuadorean media professor, Christian Espinosa explains the controversy around a weblog purported to be authored by the young, Argentine football celebrity, Lionel Messi (ES).
Whether it really is or isn't the blog of Lionel Messi, we can certainly say that more than 250 people are commenting on the journal that supposedly belongs to the Argentine football player renowned for being one of the world's young players with the greatest promise (he recently turned 19).
I've enjoyed reading how the people try to discover if it is or isn't the very same Messi, checking the time difference between Argentina and Germany, his spelling mistakes (the love and hate attitudes toward the new writing used in text messages is worthy of a study), and other comments which are incredible.
Whoever he may be, he continues posting theoretically from Germany with hundreds of followers reading on and, day after day, making an authentic blog-soap-opera.
Blog or Blognovela?
The blog of Lionel Messi or his impostor is Blog de Lio
Here are some of his categories and you can draw your own conclusions …
Related
Now I remember that, in Chile, something similar happened with the blog created by the ex-president, Ricardo Lagos and those who doubted that it was really his blog. Supposedly there's going to be a book about it. No matter what, the blog medium has become a way to deal with these celebrities on a daily basis.


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Ukraine: Coalition and Gas Agreement · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

LEvko of Foreign Notes writes about the newly-formed coalition and one of the most important issues facing it: re-negitiation of gas agreements with Russia and Turkmenistan.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Ukraine: Party of the Regions vs the Coalition · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Adrian J. Erlinger of Leopolis reports that the Party of the Regions is “preventing the new coalition from getting down to business.”


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Ukraine: Trip to Chernobyl · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

MoldovAnn posts an account of her trip to the the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone: “…wild land, more or less untouched by humans for the past 20 years. […] It was breathtaking, even, to see the vast expanse of lush green. At the same time, though, you can never forget that you are standing on contanimated land. The constant chirp of the dosimeter, clicking off the ever increasing level of radiation, won’t let you forget.” Photos from the trip are here.


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UN Human Rights Council & Presidential Election · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Several bloggers wrote about the presence of Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran chief prosecutor, in the Iranian delegation to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. A few bloggers tried to find out why Iranian government sent such a representative with a very poor human rights record. Some other bloggers try to remind us what Moratazvi did and share their reasons to protest against his visit. Let’s look at some of these blogs.
Upside down world!
Reza Allamezadeh, blogger, writer & movie director, considers Mortazavi's participation in the UN Human Rights Council shows how much our world is upside down. According to the blogger, even the Iranian Parliament considered Mortazavi  was involved in the torture and murder of Zahra Kazemi, Canadian-Iranian journalist. The blogger adds
Now we see him (Mortazavi) promoted by the Leader and become a member of Iranian human rights delegation in Geneva.  The Iranian State is just making fun of the world(Persian).
Iran Emrouz is upset that most Iranian blogs do not protest against Mortazavi’s presence at the UN conference. The blogger says why are so many blogs are silent about Tehran's chief prosecutor's presence in UN council? (Persian) The blogger asks
Was not he, one of the suspects in Zahra Kazemi’s murder? Is not he the one who closed down so many journals?
Message to inside country!
Masoud Behnoud, journalist, writer and blogger tries to find out why Mortazavi was sent. He writes The judiciary has many diplomats & international law academics that know the world and can talk a foreign language (Persian). Behnoud writes the Mortazavi does not know any language other  than his mother tongue. The blogger adds
Mortzavi’s trip might be a political message for inside the country. The people in charge of government wanted to send a message to reformists… that they (the government) do not fear any propaganda against them.
Wanted!
Hanif, blogger & journalist, talks about Manouchehr Motaki , Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister, and his reaction to the Canadian government ‘s request to Germany (Persian) to arrest Mortazavi. Hanif reports what Motaki said in response:
Canada should be careful which country it is talking to! In the Islamic Republic’s opinion a country like Canada is insignificant and this country should  not think somebody is going to pay attention to her requests. This country has made a lot of political mistakes from the victory of Islamic Revolution.
The blogger is quite surprised regarding the reaction of head of Iranian democracy and his inability to use “diplomatic language”.
Meanwhile, at the same time that some bloggers are trying to figure out why Mortazavi was sent to the UN conference in Geneva, some other Iranian bloggers are trying to find out why Ahmadinejad won last year's Presidential election.
Economic Promises
Abtahi, reformist politician & blogger writes in Webnevesht that Ahmadinejad came to power thanks to his promises to solve economic problems and he did not talk about international relations. Abtahi writes about Ahmadinejad after being elected as President he has become a front runner in the nuclear crisis instead of leaving this function to other Iranian diplomats (Persian). The blogger says Ahmadinejad should have concentrated on people’s economic problems rather than playing the role of a radical leader.
Ahmadinejad, the only option to change?
Ofoghe Azadi asks if reformist journalists didn't realise that the most important critic regarding former President Khatami‘s government was his economic failures. So how did they then expect people vote for Mustafa Moin (reformist candidate) who even did not talk about economic problems during the election. Khatami could not pass even legislation bills through Parliament. People wanted something to be changed. May be Ahmadnejad was the only option  (Persian).


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United Arab Emirates: Modhesh · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Dubai Summer Surprises is back, and dubaiwalla has photos of its mascot, Modhesh, but Dubai Sunshine thinks that Modhesh-mania is going a teeny weeny little bit overboard.


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Uzbekistan: Centralized Civil Society · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

neweurasia carries a report from an anonymous Tashkent resident on the Uzbek government's centralization of civil society.


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We Are the Champion! · Global Voices
Ching Chiao

JAINE K1M puts together some fantatic photos showing how Koreans support their national soccer team in Germany 2006 FIFA World Cup.
I know many Koreans  have been down since yesterday and that you are all mad and furious about the game, but I also know you are all proud of our team as I am. I am most extremely proud of our team and hope that they go back to Korea with their head up instead of looking down in shame, because through them, we had something to hope for and myself had a great time cheering for the past few weeks.


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World Cup: Dreams of Ghana again · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Soul on Ice - hoping France trash Spain (remember the racist remarks of their coach about Theirry Henry “black shit”?) Meanwhile Africa hangs on cliff edge as Ghana meets Brazil -


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Yemen: Presidency Next Seven Years · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Omar Barsawad admire and respect his President, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yet, Omar felt both frustrated and relieved at Saleh's decision to run again for presidency. “Frustration, in that: by not standing he would have done an unprecedented, unheard of thing in the Arab World! And become a pioneer and role model! Only Sudan's General Siwar Al-Dhahab, in the Arab World, had peacefully given up power before. I was relieved, in that: Yemen, and I, would still have him leading!” Omar said.


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· Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Remolacha.net reports (ES) that the family of slain 22-year old José Stalin Ortíz Tejada, who was killed by bandits in the Los Guarícanos district of the Dominican Republic, have threated to go on a hunger strike if police do not step up the pace of the investigation. The family believes that the investigation is not being given the same level of attention as that given to other similar cases.


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

Este artículo también está disponible en español en el sitio Blogs de Bolivia
Another election in Bolivia is only four days away.  A dearth of information characterizes this election of 255 Constituents to the assembly that has the task to rewrite the Constitution.   On July 2, Bolivians will take to the polls and Briegel Busch finds the fact that many do not even know their candidates or what exactly is at stake very worrisome.  As he writes in his blog, Bolivia-Eclipse [ES], this lack of information could have an adverse effect on history because indifferent and uninformed voters may only add to the uncertainty that the country currently faces.
In addition to this election, a Referendum on Autonomy will also take place on July 2.  A “Yes” vote is far from a sure thing, as it may have appeared at one time.  Earlier in the year, President Evo Morales openly supported and pushed through Congress the convocation of this Referendum.  However, over the past few months, this positive support turned to neutrality.  Recently, Morales admitted that he will be voting “No”.  Others in the MAS party have not formed a consensus.  Busch also comments about this inconsistency among the ruling party and the lack of clear and solid reasons why some oppose this quest for departmental autonomies.
Some residents of El Alto ( a ever-growing city, located near the capital, La Paz), including councilmember Roberto de la Cruz, participated in a unique protest in support of a “No” vote in this Referendum.  The blog Poco Comun [ES] has a picture of these Alteños in mid-winter.
Sebastian Molina emphatically states that he will support the “Yes” vote.  In his blog, Plan B [ES], he thinks that “increased decentralization is necessary, not only of the resources, but also power in the intermediate levels (Prefectures, governorships or however the Constituent Assembly decides upon) between the central government and the municipalities.”  Another factor that has solidified his vote is that the final decision on what type of autonomy Bolivia would have, should the “Yes” vote win, would take place within the boundaries of the Constituent Assembly and the new Constitution, which will then be voted upon by the public in another referendum.
During this election season, many proposals are being bandied about, including one controversial proposal to eliminate Roman Catholicism as the official state religion.  Sebastián Sánchez Villalpando, who blogs at Palazos a la Piñata [ES], was pleasantly surprised that such a debate could take place in a country like Bolivia, as he sees incongruence that a democratic country could even have an official state religion in the first place.  However, Morales, who earlier stated, in an interview with CNN Español, via a link from the blog Morir antes que esclavos vivir [ES] that traditional religious festivals should be abolished because “they are European colonial symbols and unnecessary economic expenses,” later recanted and publicly stated that he was, in fact, Catholic himself.
Finally, the coldest night of the year has always been celebrated on the day known as “San Juan,” held on June 23.  Bolivians don’t stay inside on this coldest night, but take to the frigid night air with their traditional bonfires.  Each year, the local governments plead to its residents to resist the urge to partake in this tradition citing the ecological and environment damage that these bonfires cause.  Nevertheless, many do not heed this call and the day after is characterized by a heavy haze on the major cities, which causes problems with those with allergies, such as Ceckis who wriges at Lost in Confussion [ES].  She doesn’t see why people have to take part in something just because it is tradition and those who defend it by saying that other countries like the United States contaminate the air even more, which is no justification.  She ends her post because she must look for medicine to alleviate some of the symptoms caused by the heavily-contaminated air.

author: Eduardo Avila


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Africa: Ghana v Brazil · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Africa still blogging on football – today its African Shirts – ” We're still Ghanaian (and partly Brazilian)”  Meanwhile Ethiopian blogger Conconction admits she is a Brazillian fan – oh!!!!


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Albania: “Cellphones Can Seriously Damage Your Pocket” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

No competition between the only two Albanian mobile phone operators makes protesting against high prices ineffective, writes Alwyn Thomson of Our Man in Tirana.


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Albania: World Bank Poverty Report · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Alwyn Thomson of Our Man in Tirana writes about World Bank's conclusions on poverty in Albania.


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Argentina: “Hostile Takeover” · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Why did British Brigadier General William Carr Beresford invade Buenos Aires 200 years ago without approval from his superiors? Robert Wright lays out some theories.


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Armenia: Dutch Dancer · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Myrthe writes on Tineke van Geel, a Dutch woman who has been teaching Armenian dance for almost 30 years.


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Armenia: Vigil Photos · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Onnik Krikorian has photos and a brief report on a candlelight vigil in Yerevan in support of the current US Ambassador to Armenia, who is being removed after publicly calling the 1915-1918 masscre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkey a genocide.


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Bangladesh: Arabs, camels and Bangladeshi trafficked children at imperfect | world | 2006 · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Arabs, camels and Bangladeshi trafficked children at imperfect | world | 2006
“The Kuwait Times today reports that the United Arab Emirates has sent home more than 1,000 smuggled child jockeys. These children had been trafficked from Bangladesh, Pakistan and other places.”


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Bangladesh Blog Buzz · Global Voices
Rezwan

The latest happenings in Bangladesh related blogs around the world:
* Tourism: A tourist in Bangladesh explores Mainamati, where a number of Buddhist archeological sites can be found.
* Pictures: Zev posts photos of Sonargaon, the ancient capital of Isa Khan's kingdom in Bengal. It is located near the current-day city of Narayanganj, Bangladesh. More pictures from Zev of old Dhaka, now capital of Bangladesh.
* Society: Adhunika blog discusses two important issues in Bangladeshi society “When to get married”: Before or after graduation? And on the status of the single women in the society.
* Review:  Journalist Ahmede Hossain does a review of a Bengali film : Ontorjatra (Home-Land) directed by Tareque Masud and Catherine Masud.
* Religion: In his quest for truth and spirituality, Sadiq finds that Jesus travelled also to India.
* World Cup: Shafiur writes how dramatic the symbolism in football can be. Mezba classifies the ubiquitous flag wavers.
* Blogs and business: Razib of the South Asia Biz Blog comments that blogs can help South Asian companies grow.
* Living: Dutch expat Hermie living in Dhaka has had enough with her American neighbor.
* Bangla Blogging:  “Give me a notepad, I will give you a community“- Hasin hayder the man behind the sensational Bangla blogging platform “Somewhereinblog.net” writes how it was born and its latest developments. He has thoughts of expanding it to a wider community.

author: Rezwan


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BarCamp / BlogCamp · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

India is going to have a BlogCamp in September.
“This barcampish event will be India's biggest and most comprehensive blog event ever conducted. This event will aim to push the bar way up. There will be exclusive tracks for blogging, podcasting and videocasting.”


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Bermuda: Say no to independence · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Sean at IMHO.bm doesn't believe independent status is a viable option in Bermuda.


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Bolivia: Lack of Information Regarding Assembly Candidates · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Briegel Busch blames the current administration for the lack of information (ES) regarding candidates running for the new constituent assembly.


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Brazil, Japan: Digital TV to Mobile Devices · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Melo Bichuetti explains the Japanese-Brazilian collaboration to offer digital television, noting that the “Nippon-Brazilian model allows transmission to mobile devices, what is not possible in the case of the European model.”


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Cambodia: NGO Woes · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Vutha in Cambodia writes about conflicts and internal disputes within NGOs operating in Cambodia. HE says “I have worked with NGOs for more than 3 years. I observed that there are more problems happening in those institutions by some factors such as leaders’ poor management, nepotism, lack of transperancy of usining buget (corruption), non-democratic system leadership, taking their own power and personal interest.”


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Cayman Islands: Dogs and responsibility · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Cayblogger runs over a  dog with his car, but don't think for a moment that he's sorry.


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China: Beijing’s black footballers · Global Voices
John Kennedy

With China having been passed over for this year's World Cup, Danwei TV‘s Jeremy Goldkorn takes a closer look at one of Beijing's more visible football teams, Afrika United FC, and asks: “What it is like being black in China?”

author: John Kennedy


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China: Braving breast cancer · Global Voices
John Kennedy

“They meet for tea and chip in,” writes OneManBandwith blogger Lonnie Hodge of a close group of terminal breast cancer patients in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in ‘The China Cancer Report: Ms. Yue and the League of Extraordinary Chinese Women,’ “even though all their resources are meager…They become a riotous cacophony of Cantonese chatter about everything from children to husbands and a future without disease. They have all shed their wigs and decided to proudly run against the social current in China and no longer care that people might find them untouchable because they are sick. “


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China: Free media takeover · Global Voices
John Kennedy

A Communist Party of China's subtler strategy in silencing unsympathetic newspapers? Ex-Massage Milk blogger Wang Xiaofeng, in a rare one-liner post [zh] , says he's heard two major Beijing newspapers will soon be merged. Wang led the bloglash last year when the outspoken The Beijing News was taken over by a state-owned competitor.


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China: Hopes, one day · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Journalist-blogger Taras posts a list [zh] today of all the things he hopes yet to do: 1. Be a foreign correspondent in any country; 2. Find the one thing that he likes most to do in this life; 3. Figure out women's hearts; 4. Learn how to play pizzazzy songs on the clarinet; 5. Travel the silk road twice: first time alone, second time with his wife; 6. Make out with a girl from a different country; 7. Buy a laptop which allows text input through writing on the screen; 8. Take his parents around the world within the next 3-5 years; 9. Find a reason to fight somebody; 10. Die and leave behind writings that make people remember more than his name and face.


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China: Media bill resisted · Global Voices
John Kennedy

According to one of China's most-respected and -feared heavyweight magazines, a controversial bill containing a clause with provisions for heavy fines against media reporting on what the government terms ‘emergency situations’ was not in fact approved at the last National People's Conference, as seen in a summary from Non-violent Resistance blogger uleewang of the magazine's exclusive interview with Tsinghua law professor and member of the bill's drafting committee Yu An, who claims the loaded clause was slipped in later.


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China: When cops tail you · Global Voices
John Kennedy

MSN Spaces blogger Zeng Jinyan [zh], wife of prominent and oft-harassed AIDS activist Hu Jia, has been writing extensively of female reproductive rights activist Chen Guangcheng who was abducted by police earlier this year, the extensive police surveillance and tailing she's since been subject to and her very clever and public protests in response.


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Colombia: Bogota, the Bicycle, and Transportation · Global Voices
David Sasaki

David, a cyclist and blogger who is riding from Central America down to South America explains why we went off route to check out Bogota's public transportation system: “In the 1990s, in the face of horrible road congestion, Bogota did something amazing – it reduced space for cars.”


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DRC: Kishasa on Google Earth · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Kim Gjerstad reports that Google Earth has mapped DRC capital  Kinshasa


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Egypt: World Cup, Monopoly and Islam · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Zeinobia is a defended of Amr Khalid and supported him and his effort to improve the conditions of Muslim youth and youth in general. Yet, she record here anger on Mr. Khalid because of his support to the on going monopoly of Shekih Salah Kamal, the owner of ART Satellite networks, which has the right of broadcasting the World Cup from Germany in the Arab world exclusively for ART satellite network.


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Ethiopia: Somalia a treat · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Ethiopia Watch reports that the Ethiopian dictator, Meles Zenawi has said the new Somali leadership is a threat to Ethiopia…. and all the time we were thinking it was Zenawi himself who was the threat to Ethiopia!


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Ethiopia: Underground children · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Ethiopian Politics posts on the underground children of  Ethiopia's capital, Addis .


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Guatemala: Spanish Investigative Commission Questioning Impunity · Global Voices
David Sasaki

As the Spanish investigative commission arrives in Guatemala to question the impunity of Efrain Rios Montt and others connected to genocide charges, Patrick of the Guatemala Solidarity Network posts an open letter demanding the end of impunity.


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Haiti: World Cup Used for AIDS Outreach · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Collectif Haiti de Provence writes (Fr):  “Showing the Brazil v. Japan Football World Cup match, Gret/Haiti, in collaboration with the ministries of health and culture, UNFPA and the Gheskio Centers, organized an outreach session against STDs and AIDs in the shantytown of Jalousie in Petion-Ville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince.”


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Hungary: Gay Pride Parade · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Paul of Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar writes about the Gay Pride that took place in Budapest this past Saturday – and recommendations on how to remain anonymous while marching.


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Hungary: Lake Balaton Fish Bandits · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Pestiside.hu writes about illegal large-scale fishing on Lake Balaton: “Despite the audacity of the poachers, who left 25 kilometers of nets behind last year, the criminals are largely untouchable, with only one such band being brought to justice.”


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Iran: Free Mossavi blog · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

FreeMossavi is a new blog to support Mossavi Khoeini, a former deputy who was arrested after 12 June demonstration. In this blog we read last night's gathering to call for his release brought many of Iran's dissidents together. This is how unity comes about, not in endless Paltalk chat rooms or in Hotel conferences outside Iran, but on the ground”.


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Iran: Underground Churches · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

Achil, a blogger based in Tehran, was surprised to find a Bible in Persian in the mail box. The blogger says it seems there are more and more Moslem  people who convert into Christianity in Iran (Persian). The blogger was informed by a Christian friend that Churches are afraid of being targeted by security forces and ask the new converts to go underground.


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Israel: Major Israeli websites hacked · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Hundreds of websites were damaged by hackers in recent hours, following the righteous IDF activity in Gaza to go in after one of her citizens. This is the largest, most concentrated attack on Israeli websites in recent years. More than 750 Israeli websites, on a number of different domains, were hacked into and damaged in recent days. Hackers left the message: You’re killing Palestinians, we’re killing servers, Smooth said.


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Japan: Koizumi’s legacy · Global Voices
John Kennedy

“Lost in the frothy trivialities of the debate over Prime Minister Koizumi's Yasukuni Shrine visits,” writes Japundit blogger Ampontan, “is an impressive record of accomplishments during his term in office that should have left the world's media hailing him has Japan's greatest postwar political reformer.”
These accomplishments as listed by the blogger include the destruction of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's faction system, the dismantling of the so-called Iron Triangle—the term used to describe the politically and financially incestuous relationship between politicians, the bureaucracy, and business and industry, and greater participation of people (particularly women) with non-political backgrounds in the political process.


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Kurdistance: · Global Voices
Deborah Ann Dilley

No tricks or wittiness today folks, here is just the straight skinny on the Kurdish Blogosphere.
Hiwa Hopes this week gives a great link to an article about the frustration of a Kurdish immigrant to the UK about the lack of mixer taps.  And honestly, I didn't know that the taps were separate in the UK, because they aren't in the US.  Plus, Hiwa posted a rather funny picture of Slemany traffic.
Vladimir, who writes on From Holland to Kurdistan, gave links this week to articles he has written for Kurdish Media.  The first is about Kurdish Fashion Designer Sohrab Darisiro and the second is about a new page about the Kurds on Al-Jazeera (which I am desperately trying to find).
Iraqi Kurdistan writes this week about the failure of the Al-Maliky government in Iraq for not yet implementing Article 140, which decreases the Arabization of Kirkuk….for a great forum article on this (I found it really helpful) see Kurdish Media.
Roj Bash! has some excellent historical photos of old Kurdistan and a link to a funny little mix-up when a Syrian Ba'ath newspaper inadvertantly published a photo of the World Cup crowd in which a Kurdish flag was shown.
Rather than linking to each individual update, I am just going to ask my regular readers to check Save RojTV for the latest in the news about the 56 Turkish mayors who are facing prison time for signing a letter in support for Roj TV.  The Kurdish world seems to be just waiting breathless for more information as to what is going to happen post-indictment.
Mizgin from Rasti writes an excited and hopeful post about a friend of hers who has recently arrived in the US from Northern Kurdistan (Southeast Turkey):
I am deliriously happy today because today, for me, has been a holiday, my own personal holiday, my own day of rejoicing.
I have learned that a friend from Amed has arrived in the US and he may now begin to work toward his dreams, dreams that were never possible in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan for a Kurd, dreams that now have an equal opportunity to become a reality. No one here will tell him he must forget that he is a Kurd in order to attain his dreams. No one will tell him he can't speak Kurdish or that he must speak Turkish, nor will the police detain and torture him for the crime of being a young, male Kurd.
I hope that the rest of your week is as blessedly happy as Mizgin feels today, till we meet again.

author: Deborah Ann Dilley


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Kuwait: To the Kuwaiti Women · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

It Kuwait parliament elections eve, the first election with women participation. Jelly Belly dedicate a post to the Kuwaiti women who fought for their political rights.


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Laos:  Visiting Luang Prabang · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

The people at Brett & Angie's Asian Adventure blog post pictures of  Luang Prabang, the former capital city of Lao. They write “Having spent 7 days here, I can honestly say that this is our favourite town in SE Asia so far. The beautiful night market, the stunning Wats, the amazing scenery and the extremely friendly and helpful people who have made our stay here so memorable.”


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Malaysia: Cellphone Airtime Scam · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Adam at  ah ok lah! writes about a new cellphone airtime scam that Malaysian are encountering. He also posts a Malaysian version of a popular email scam.


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Mongolia: Amnesty vs. Reform · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Shards of Mongolia argues that, rather than just a simple amnesty of prisoners, Mongolia needs a transparent and trustworthy judicial system.


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Mongolia: Resumed Protests · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Luke Distelhorst notes that protests against the Mongolian government have resumed, and he wonders whether or not, with the large numbers of tourists arriving in the country, the government will view the protests as a black eye to be dealt with by law enforcement.


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More Football and This is Nigeria · Global Voices
Oluniyi D. Ajao

Football fever is hot in the air and Nigerian bloggers share their thought.
Aba Boy is  Identifying with the French
It was so easy (as a black person and an immigrant) to identify with the French team that beat Spain yesterday. The team that played yesterday was made of black players like Thuram, Gallas, Abidal, Makelele, Vieira, Malouda, Govou, Henry, Wiltord and Zidane who by the way is Algerian.
African Shirts identifies with the Ghanaian footbal team: We're still Ghanaian (and partly Brazilian)
The Black Stars acquitted themselves well, but they suffered from the perennial African disease of non-scoring-itis. Brazil, on the other hand were clinical, and 3-0 was a flattering score. Fat Ronaldo scored after being written off by the media, and he has now scored the most World Cup goals ever. Ghana missed Michael Essien desperately, because he would have been the one to check Brazil's marauding midfielders. He must have been bitterly disappointed.
Black Looks gives an overview of the Ghana – Brazil encounter: Ghana keeps pride for 81 minutes!
Ghana had nothing to loose except possibly their pride – they always looked like maybe they could take the game with great play from Appiah, Amoah, Pantsil and Mensah but poor finishing and of course once they had settled down and remembered the D word. Essien’s absense had to be crucial – what with the ref dishing out yellow cards to Ghana like ballons at a kids party but I always felt a goal was possible and even a win. Whatever – I think we can all live with loosing to a not so great Brazil but Gyan’s dive was blatant and shameful – and Thinkers “man” – well he’s still singing – scores a goal and then stands around for 89 minutes waiting for someone to pass him the ball – may be if he did a bit more work……..! but then he doesnt have to I guess.
Just Thinking Out Loud! is full of praises for the Ghanaian team: Life is not fair…for real!
I just got back to my desk after watching that game (though I must say that I saw only the second half) and I just can't imagine any other loss that could be more painful than that. This was a team that everyone thought Brazil would just ride over. But as the game started, Ghana proved that was not going to happen. During the 1st half, I was on IM throughout with a friend that was watching it and he kept me abreast of how the game was going. He kept on telling me how Ghana was playing a great great game! By the time I got to my friend's place to watch the 2nd half, I saw what he was saying. He couldn't have been more on point than that. I mean Ghana plaaaaayed! They played much better than Brazil played. And that was without Michael Essien. They played a great game for sure.
Naijablog shares Jide Adeniyi-Jones’ thoughts on Nigeria
‘This is Nigeria’
It is hard to say precisely when Nigeria lost its way, but soon after the demise of the first republic we lost our self-confidence. In defense, we took refuge behind words like Giant, Great and Excellence as if their forceful proclamation would endow us with the qualities that they define. The very need for these superlatives in the face of our obvious challenges is itself symptomatic of our neurosis. But it is a little too easy to seek the root of our current predicament in military intervention. After all the military were hardly the bastion of the brightest and the best of our pre-independence population. So in the battle for the soul of the nation, they are unlikely to have won such a resounding victory; even with all the instruments of coercion at their disposal. No, I think we have to look a little farther back.

author: Oluniyi D. Ajao


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Nepal : Democracy Textbook · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Nepali Netbook: A Dahlian Wave of Democracy?
“The mechanics of Marxist-Maoist prose could not always be distilled into vernacular appealing enough to become part of the general political conversation Nepalese villagers are famous for.”


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Nigeria: handmade bags · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Pilgrimage to Self publishes the first photos of her Olivegirlthings – handmade bags from Nigerian fabrics - I wish her luck with her new venture.


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Pakistan: Traffic blues · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Crow's Nest… on traffic blues. “The traffic police are non existent. Those that are can be found resting their lives away on a chair by the road side under the shade far removed from the happenings of this material world. “


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Palestine: Palestine: From Gaza, with Love! · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Mona El-Farra, a Palestinian blogger from Gaza, a physician and a human rights and women's rights activist, describe last night's Israeli attck on Gaza in a letter to here freind in UK, Hilary. She said: “I am writing while the jet fighters are in the sky , with their horrible sound , bringing death and horror,it is 10.30pm, I am still like everyone waiting , i hope they will not go ahead with their operation into Gaza, the outcome could be horrible ,the resistance movemet are going ahead with their preperation too,but the balance of power is obvious to wich side…Mohammed and Sondos had a narrow escape during their way home , a car exploded 150 meters from my home…the aeroplanes sound in the sky is geting louder . i shall keep writing , it is big releif for me…the operation against Gaza ,is continuing,it is 1.30 am…i can see a big fire from my window , and hear the sirens of emergency vans,the gun boats started shelling too , i live by the beach…7 am, it was very dangerous for me to reach the computer… i stayed on the floor with my son and daughter, we didnot sleep at all like all the residents in gaza strip.while trying to get some hours of sleep , we didnot manage , the jet fighters sonic bombs started showering us , it is very loud and horrifying voice , they are continuing their attacks.”


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Peru: Wireless Networks in Developing Countries · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Luis Gustavo Lira announces the Spanish translation of “Wireless Networks in Developing Countries,” (ES) a Creative Commons-licensed book which covers “the basic physics of radio and the development of networks, including equipment and troubleshooting … The book hopes to be a useful resource for technicians in developing countries by gathering information they need to build real networks.”

author: David Sasaki


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Russia: Ethnic Profiling on the Metro · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean Guillory writes about the problem of ethnic profiling on Moscow's subway.


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Russia: Four Diplomats Killed in Iraq · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Four Russian diplomats were taken hostage and killed in Iraq, one more died shortly after the attack. Yuri Mamchur of Russia Blog writes about the lack of coverage of the incident and posts a link to the video of the execution. Sean Guillory writes about the connection between these killings and the war in Chechnya.


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Russia: Justice Minister Replaces Prosecutor General & Vice Versa · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

TaliaXianne of Something In The Way She Moves tells “a true ‘only in Russia’ story“: minister of justice replaces prosecutor general – and prosecutor general replaces minister of justice.


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Russia: Moscow the Most Expensive City in the World · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean Guillory writes about the cost of living in Moscow: though it has recently been declared the most expensive city in the world, the locals “know how to cut corners and navigate the city's costs with exactitude.”


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Russia: Photographs Critiqued · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Wu Wei writes about Simon Roberts’ photos of Russia published in Granta and some of the realities they convey: “I know what he means, but I'm not sure he really succeeds. Where is the dignity in most of these pictures when you know enough about the background.”


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Serbia: Search for Mladic, Not For Karadzic · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Balkan Ghost of Finding Karadzic reproduces an article by Nedim Dervisbegovic on the neglected search for Karadzic: “Pressure on Serbia to capture Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic keeps rising, but his wartime boss Radovan Karadzic seems almost forgotten.”


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Serbia: Serbian Radical Party · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Srdjan Cvijic of The TransAtlantic Assembly writes on how the pro-EU parties in Serbia can use “a sharp rise of the populist, ex-Milosevic ally, Serbian Radical Party.”


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Singapore: Dragon Boat Race · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

The blogger at Good Morning Yesterday talks about the Dragon Boat Festival in Singapore and posts videos of couple of dragonboat racing training sessions.


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Singapore: Launching Singapore Angle · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Tomorrow.sg has a post by Kevin on the launch of a new political blog in Singapore called SingaporeAngle.com.  The author of the post hopes that this blog grows into a local version of The Huffington Post.


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Somalia: Last act of desperation · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Voice of Somalialand Diaspora – Ottawa comments on Somalia's “last act of desperation”………….the left over of the Siad Barreâ€™s Nazi government are on a full swing campaign to rewrite the history of the dark ages. The politics of the spleen are on the rise again and in full bloom; there is no shortage of champions of the lost cause; and the vitriolic rhetoric spares none.”

author: Sokari Ekine


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Sri Lanka : LTTE and Tamils · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

How far does the LTTE represents the interests of the Tamils in Sri Lanka? “The LTTE is not at all concerned about the rights, privileges, safety and security of the people in different communities and regions, let alone those of the Tamils living outside the Northern and Eastern Provinces.”


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Sudan: Annan called to account · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Sudanesse Thinker  writes a stongly worded commentary on the the recent antics of the Kofi Annan and the UN in Sudan ….”Mr. Kofi, either you're pretending you don't know or you really are dumb. The troops in the southern and eastern parts aren't there under the pretext of chapter 7. They're not authorized to engage in combat.”


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Suriname, Guyana: Khan’s mother protests · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Propaganda Press publishes a photo of the mother of fugitive businessman Roger Khan, a Guyanese national who was recently arrested and jailed in Suriname following a drug bust, protesting her son's treatment at the hands of the Surinamese authorities in front of the Surinamese Embassy in Washington DC.

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Thailand: Thai Politics · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Thai Politiks talks about the recent happening in Thai politics. Some political parties are facing disbandment because of  election violations. The bloggers asks ” If the major parties are disbanded, there would obviously be almost impossible to have the general election in October as set by the Election Commission. So what's next?”


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Trinidad & Tobago: Anti-smelter lobby gets interesting offer · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Attillah Springer at the Rights Action Group T&T blog discusses the interesting offer of pro bono legal assistance made by former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj to the community of Chatham/Cap de Ville and environs. Members of the community have organised a loby against the building of an aluminum smelter in the area.


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T&T, Venezuela, Bolivia: Emails between friends · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Trinidad-based blogger Jeremy Taylor reproduces an e-mail exchange — real or fictional? — taking place between himself and a former US embassy operative friend. The topics at hand: Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales and blogging. Here are parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.


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West Africa: Football, Science Lag and missed priorities · Global Voices
Oluniyi D. Ajao

We start this week's round-up with the exit of the last African country in this year's FIFA World Cup tournament (Germany 2006).
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen…of Ghana says Ghana's Coming Home, but Brazil Stole Two “Goals”
The Brazilians played a relatively good game, but it was not, according to Barry Lambert the commentator, a Brazilian team that could not be beaten.
Ghana took more shots than the Brazilians, but the latter scored more.
The (wish I was in) Ghana journal was straight to the point:  “elimi-dated”
Here's one good thing about the Black Stars’ elmination at the hands of Brazil — finally I can stop smiling politely at the un-funny slags on Ghana, things like “heh heh, where is Ghana, anyway?” and the always-hilarious rubs on how it's surprising an impoverished nation could find the energy to run up and down the field. Ghana fades back into the African obscurity that envelops most nations from the continent in the eyes of the west, and fades back into my heart as a place I've loved, and hope to love once again.
Ramblings of an African geek blogs about Ghana's earlier permission at the soccer mundial –  You know I had to talk about this: Ghana 2 Czech Republic 0
Saturday was a tense day for most Ghanaians. We had already lost to Italy after playing particularly well except for a couple of defensive blunders and inability to convert our chances in front of the Italian Goal. we'd also seen the Czechs dismantle the Americans. Therefore we knew the chances of our surviving the game were minimum. Nonetheless, our country was playing Whatever happened they would have our support for the entire game. The streets were bare and everyone who didn't have to be out (as well as a lot of people who did) were in front of a TV.
Home of the mandinmories wonders why the Gambian government chooses to spend millions of dollars on building new accomodation for African Heads of State instead of spending same on the country's infrastructure: Priorities messed up
I am not one of those people who think the Gambia shouldn't host the African Union summit. Au contraire. What I have issues with is the governments indulgence in building structures that are not necessary for the successful implementation of the summit at the expense of more pressing infrastuctural needs such as the Brikama-Basse highway.
The goverment spent $5.5 million to build fifty two villas for visiting heads of states. I will argue that these heads of state could stay at the numerous hotels, pay their bills and in the process contribute to the economy of the host country. But Yahya will have none of that and in the pursuit of grandeur and infantile economic thought, he decided to spend that much money to build villas for a two day summit. Here is a snapshot of the villas.
Cameroonian blog Scribbles from the Den is concerned that Cameroon among the World’s Scientifically Lagging Countries – Alongside Chad and Fiji
In an earlier article titled “Stuck on the fringes of the knowledge economy”, I pointed out that although Cameroon had the potential to become a technological power house in central Africa, it had so far failed to exploit this potential because of a lack of leadership and vision. As a result, Cameroon was missing out on the benefits of 21st century technological advances in general and the knowledge economy in particular — both of which held the keys to sustainable socio-economic development and membership in the global economy.
A study by the RAND Corporation released early this month comes to reinforce this argument by painting a rather gloomy and bleak picture of Cameroon’s technological position in the world. According to the report titled The Global Technology Revolution 2020, Cameroon is among the world’s scientifically lagging countries — alongside Fiji, Chad Nepal, etc. — which have “have fewer drivers for, and face many more barriers to, technology implementation,” and are also “burdened by problem-plagued political systems, a lack of resources or infrastructure, and class disparities.”


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What are Indian Bloggers Talking About? · Global Voices
Kamla Bhatt

The recent Readers Digest Survey about which city was polite yielded some rather interesting results: New York topped the list and Mumbai came at the bottom, in other words Mumbai was the rudest city in the world. The results came as a mild shock to many denizens of this chaotic and wonderful city by the sea. Interestingly like NYC, Bombay/Mumbai is also a city if islands and they share a lot of other things in common. Back to Mumbai and the survey. Having spent a year recently in Mumbai, I was a bit taken aback to see that Mumbai was the rudest city in the world. The results underscores an important fact/variable/dimension that the survey failed to take into consideration. And that is that the cultural underpinnings of each country is different and what is polite in one part of the world might be considered impolite in another part of the world. A long time ago Desmond Morris wrote a wonderful book on the same subject and how some supposed universal gestures have different interpretations in different parts of the world. I wonder how the folks at Readers Digest overlooked this important variable?
So, here is what bloggers had to say about Mumbai/Bombay being labeled as the rudest city: So, here is Sheks whose post has an interesting title: Falsely True, Fictionally Factual. Read and discover what his take on this survey. Here is Farzana's take on Mumbai as the rudest city, has love got anything with being rude? Read what Farzana has to say. Vijay Kumar of Bombay Lives pulls no punches and writes that he is considering canceling his subscription to Readers Digest.
Speaking of politeness, hospitality…the city that comes to mind is Lucknow. Lucknow is synonymous and well-known for its leggedary hospitality. Lucknow is the capital of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, and is a city steeped in history, culture and food. Raj, who grew up in Lucknow is happy to discover that the good folks at Google Earth finally added his hometown of Lucknow. Raj has a nice write-up and some shots of Lucknow. Sayantani  Dasgupta writes in her blog on how excited she is to visit Lucknow, which is a city that has figured quite a bit in her research studies. Sayantani shares some tips on Lucknow that she got from Mayuri who writes: “Food is religion, and kababs its elixir.” Sayantani also has some pictures of Lucknow, and of course, there are a couple of food pictures. Read on to discover what else you can learn about Lucknow. Ateesh has a long, reflective post about Lucknow. And if you are in Lucknow, what is the favorite mode of transportation? The cycle rickshaw. And here is Tushar of India Unplugged's post on rickshaws in Lucknow.
The Himalayan State of Sikkim has been in news recently because of the recent India-China talks and the re-opening of the Nathu La pass. An Indian Spirit has some great pictures and write-up about Sikkim.
The SaveKerala bloggers have an amusing, but telling post on marriages in the Southern State of Kerala. called the Big Fat Mallu Wedding. “Tradition, and ego, requires that the bride needs to be covered and anchored to   the ground with gold. Other allied sector businessmen like Biriyani caterers,  Priests, brokers also benefit from this boom. But behind all the glam and   glitter lies a rotten story.”
Reading about weddings reminded me of food. Here is Ashwini of Food For Thought with a simple and tasty recipe for yogurt based dish called Tamboli, a Konkani dish. Ashwini points out that the Konkan coast refers to the west coast of India that includes parts of Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka states.
There is a whole lot of action going in the IT field in India. One of the most visited and quoted techsite is TechCrunch, a Silicon Valley based blog that tracks Web 2.0 technology, trends, companies etc. This is a must-read blog for all the tech geeks in India. The big news in the tech geek world is the unveiling of a new social software called People Aggregator. The software was developed in India and here is Gaurav Bhatnagar talking about being TechCrunched (yep! it is a verb now) the unveiling of People Aggregator.

author: Kamla Bhatt


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Why No Mention of Slavery in African and Haitian Fiction? · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Why is there so little mention of slavery in African and Haitian Fiction? That is the question that Togolese France-based blogger Kangni Alem addresses in a prolific and well-thought out blog entry. He deplores that African fiction does not count more passages on the different waves of slavery that have plagued the continent and while he points out that Haiti's literature does not have much on the topic either, he finds the causes of the ommission by Haitian authors more excusable.
A Thousand Year-Old Phenomenon Ignored
il suffit de parcourir la bibliographie romanesque de quelques pays africains ayant payé un tribut lourd à la saignée esclavagiste pour toucher du doigt l’ampleur du silence quant  au traitement du sujet par la fiction. Qu’il soit togolais, béninois, nigérian ou angolais, l’écrivain de ces contrées semble reléguer aux oubliettes des pans entiers d’un phénomène qui a quand même duré presque mille ans et connu trois phases principales: celle des traites antiques internes à l’Afrique (environ 14 millions de victimes, estiment les historiens), celle de la traite orientale touchant le monde musulman entre le 7e et le 19e siècle, et enfin la traite occidentale, la plus référencée, entre le 16e et le 19e siècle.
Sur le point qui concerne les traites internes ou domestiques surtout, la faiblesse relative du nombre des études consacrées à l’esclavage domestique par les historiens africains contraste fortement avec l’ancienneté du phénomène, sa généralisation à l’échelle du continent, son ampleur variable d’une époque à une autre, le rôle et les fonctions des esclaves dans tous les domaines d’activités, la diversité de leur statut social.
Haiti Does It Too But for Other Reasons
L’amnésie sélective des écrivains d’Afrique rappelle étrangement celle des auteurs d’Haïti, la « première République Noire » où, de manière paradoxale, et peut-être logique, la question de l’esclavage est quasiment absente dans la littérature de fiction. Comment expliquer cette désensibilisation à la question de l’esclavage dans la littérature d’Haïti ? Primo, on peut évoquer ce facteur majeur, c’est dire le fait que l’événement retenu comme acte fondateur de la nation haïtienne soit une épopée libératrice, synonyme d’élimination de l’esclavage, alors que dans la majorité des pays du Nouveau Monde, l’accession à la souveraineté nationale ne s’est pas accompagnée de l’abolition de la servitude. Secundo, l’éradication de l’institution servile dans ce pays s’est effectuée dans un processus de ruptures historiques riches en révoltes symboliques décisives. Ce qui n’est pas le cas de l’Afrique, profiteuse par défaut des Abolitions décidées par les Autres.
Pour peu glorieuse qu’elle paraisse, la thématique de l’esclavage devrait permettre un retour enrichissant sur les mentalités d’époque, les relations socio-raciales, les structures économiques et les représentations identitaires.

author: Alice Backer


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Zimbabwe: Nationwide strikes · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

The Bearded Man reports that Zimbabwean workers are braced for nationwide strikes.


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Armenia: Sunflower Seeds · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

David Underwood writes on sunflower seed consumption in Armenia.

author: Nathan Hamm


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Armenia: Yerevan Dining · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Notes from Hareinik has a guide to Yerevan dining.


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Bahamas: Fight choreography · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Ringplay Productions, a theatre-oriented blog out of the Bahamas, publishes photos from a recent workshop on fight choreography.


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Bangladesh: SWIFT in the US · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying on why the recent controversy about NY Times is as relevant to the developing world.
But, what about Bangladeshis living in Bangladesh? It turns out that SWIFT is quite the marketing tool in Bangladesh. Banks regularly tout their membership in SWIFT to demonstrate their stability and international connections.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Barbados: Enforcing environmental laws · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Forget about the police and employ specialists to enforce environmental laws, suggests Barbados Free Press.


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Bermuda: Draft dodgers · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

A British MP calls the country's policy of compulsory national service for men discriminatory, reports the Limey, only to be informed that over 20% of those called up for service in the Bermuda Regiment this year failed to show or were exempted.


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Blogs& Beers with José Luis Orihuela · Global Voices
Rosario Lizana

José Luis Orihuela (ES) is visiting Chile invited by International Communication Conference and Workshop (ES) . Taking this unique opportunity, different blogers invite José Luis to talk with Chilean blogers in the meeting Blogs&Beers.
José Luis talked about liquid journalism, and other distinctions such as instead of saying participate journalists (as we denominate de bloging act) we should say “social media”. Explaining that not all blogers are journalist and making the metaphor that blogers are similar to DJ, because they don’t create the music they just mix music already made. About this issue, Roberto (ES) writes:
“In my case this definition strikes me as right. My own mix has bits of reality, media information, personal experience and opinions, my judgments and prejudices, some sparks passing through television and the newspaper's front page, books I read, blogs I visit, the comments and the daily conversations. I’m not a journalist, I’m a blogger”
A very good review about this issues con be found in Atina Chile (ES)  and in the post of  Maria Pastora (ES) she also describes Orihuela mood :
“Being with the most famous blogger of Spanish speaking was great: a calm man, open to conversation, very kind, and no arrogance. But overall, we learned a lot from him and he talk of one of the things that passionate us: blogs! “
Alexis (ES) , that attend to Blogs&Beer and the conference,  share their notes:
“The good new is that everyone can publish. The bad new is that everyone can publish.”
Related to liquid journalism writes
“Orihuela speaks about liquid journalism, that difference from the traditional that follows patterns. The journalist should adequate to the new times. Be liquid, shapely. Get specialize in one issue, but get diversification through language.  Blogs have set out challenges: the most important is to hear the readers”.
The invitation was free. Anyone can have the chance to leave a comment to confirm the attendance in: El medio blog, Menudencias, Alfredo Sepulveda, Red de blogs UC, eCuaderno y Sergio Fortuño (that cover the blogers opinions for Radio Concierto).
Photos from Maria Pastora available here.

author: Rosario Lizana


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Brazil: Gilles Peterson’s Podcast · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Claudio recommends the podcast of Gilles Peterson: “Each podcast is 30 minutes long and devoted to a different theme, with interviews and live sessions. Covered are Baile Funk, Roots & Samba, Bossa Nova, The Rodrigues Family, Hip Hop and Electronica.”


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Appreciating Caribbean writing · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

A New York Times article about a new anthology of Jamaican writing published by a US press gets Geoffrey Philp thinking about why North Americans may not be as open to Caribbean writing as their British counterparts: “The reader has to be willing to shed notions of what is and what is not and enter the world of the Caribbean artist where all those crickets are chirping, frogs are croaking, the surf is tumbling, and my God, who knows what kind of Black people will pop out of the bush while you are here on the beach naked as they day you were born.”


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China: Artist-blogger leaves · Global Voices
John Kennedy

“Tomorrow I'm leaving Guangzhou again,” writes choreographer-blogger Frances d'Ath at Supernaut. “I'll be back in October.“


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China: Crazy Football Commentator · Global Voices
Frank Dai

Huang Jianxiang , one of the most popular football commentators of China Central Television, or CCTV, has been in the center of a controversy recently seen in both the mainstream media and the blogosphere, for his overexcited comments during a World Cup playoff game, in which Italy won a 1-0 margin victory against Australia with a penalty kick in the last minute.
In the overtime of the match, when the presiding referee pointed to the pitch for the penalty kick, Huang's voice and tone suddenly became excited. His comments showed preference to Italy over Australia and used strong and emotional phrases like “Long Live Italy” and “Let Them (Australia) Get Lost.” Translation of his comments can be found here, the video here and audio recording here [zh].
Huang began his professional career as a football commentator in 1996, when he gained his reputation for passionate, sentimental and even poetic remarks during matches. His predecessors have all been of more standard, boring and indifferent types, a characteristic found in almost all Chinese state media personnel, especially news anchorpersons . He was suspended from duty for almost half a year in 2001, after he criticized Bora Milutinović, coach of China’s national team at the time, who went on to lead China into the World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea for the first time ever in 2002.
Huang's sudden outburst can be accounted for by two factors: first he is long-time reporter and commentator for Series A game in CCTV and thus a loyal fan to Italian football. At the same time he loathes the Australia team for their inability to play a first-class football game.
In an open letter to CCTV spectators and football fans, read by his colleague and producer during the next day's World Cup-related program, Huang apologized for his mistake, namely “the injustice and prejudice of his comments, which caused discomfort and hurt to some of the audience”. The Chinese text can be found on his own blog:
在昨晚世界杯足球赛意大利队同澳大利亚队的比赛的最后几分钟，我的现场解说评论夹带了过多的个人情绪。今早一觉醒来，又重新看了录像带，再次感受到解说中确有失当和偏颇之处，给大家造成了不适和伤害，在此我向观众郑重道歉！
我对意大利足球相对比较熟悉，内心里比较希望意大利队出线，使后面的比赛更加精彩，但解说中我不恰当地把个人对球队的热爱和自己的岗位角色相混淆了。昨天，我在最后几分钟内的解说不是一个体育评论员应该有的立场，所说的话引起了观众的不满、意见和批评，我再次真诚地表示歉意！
今后，在工作中我将总结经验，时刻提醒自己把握好自己的岗位角色，处理好情感和理智之间的平衡。我们转播的时候总希望裁判公平公正，作为评论员，我也一定会做到公平公正，做好CCTV体育评论员工作。
最后祝各位球迷看球愉快！
Wish all fans great enjoyment of the games.
Rumor has been around on the Internet that an Associated Press story reported that about 30 Australian football fans have protested outside the Australian Embassy in Beijing, demanding the ambassador to ask the Foreign Ministry of China to punish Huang, whose comments have been regarded as insults to the national dignity of Australia. However the story is not confirmed by AP and might not be true. (via Danwei)
In an online poll of the incident, a overwhelmingly popular topic yesterday in the Chinese blogosphere, more than 70% of netizens surveyed supported that Huang should resume his duty in the remaining 10 matches in the World Cup. Despite extreme criticism and advocacy, one viewpoint prevailed among the discussion of blogosphere, as expressed by LaoBai, a former sports journalist on his blog: On one hand resentment over Huang's comments and on the other hand fear for CCTV's potential freezing of Huang's career.
虽然我不喜欢黄健翔最后的表现，但我誓死捍卫他这种歇斯底里的表演。从某种程度而言，比黄健翔的表现更让人窒息的是XX对电视媒体的控制和表达欲望的遏制……
我相信所有人都不希望回到那个年代，当球场上发生了什么，转播镜头立马切到了看台；如果看台上发生了什么，转播镜头立马切到了月亮
Reowned Chinese blogger Wang Xiaofeng, a.k.a Milk Massage, analyzed the would-be psychological reasons for Huang's outburst. He thought the main weakness of CCTV's program host is that all their lack of personality. He also points out that Huang used the word like “Viva Forever” in his comments to reach the effect of free expression of his feelings and emotions, detached from its original denotative meaning of personal worship.

author: Frank Dai


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China: Tips on raising kids · Global Voices
John Kennedy

Shanghai-based Sinosplice blogger John Pasden found a book in a supermarket recently, ‘100 Things Parents Should Not Say To Their Kids,’ and translated a few. Number eleven: “Be careful. If you trip, I'm not going to help you.”