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Saudi Arabia: 2007 Riyadh International Book Fair, Ahmadinejad’s Visit to the Kingdom, and More · Global Voices
Global Voices MENA

This week's roundup includes more on Saudi broken blogs, Ahmadinejad's first visit to Saudi Arabia, a humble letter to the Saudi Minister of Labor, the capture of suspects of the attacks on French citizens in Madain Saleh, male belly dancers, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles’ reassignment as Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, the Saudi victory on MBC's show “Al Tahaddi,” what some bloggers thought of the 2007 Riyadh International Book Fair, and much more.
The Iranian president has recently paid his first visit to the Kingdom a couple of days ago. According to the Yahoo! News article, they “pledged to fight the spread of sectarian strife in the Middle East” and “stressed the importance of maintaining Palestinian unity and bringing security to Iraq.” However, we must realize that this is what the Saudi Press Agency said. Crossroads Arabia posted an article about the Iranian take on the talks with Saudi Arabia. Neal of Arabia has reported on Her Majesty's now-former-Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles’, reassignment to Afghanistan as part of the British attempt to expand diplomatic presence there.
NeeArt posted (in Arabic) her take on the situation of the recently-abandoned Saudi blogs, mentioned in last week's roundup. She thinks that the bloggers’ decisions have more to do with increasing tensions, divisions among Saudi bloggers, and hearsay than governmental or political reasons; it's a very interesting perspective. Raed Al-Saeed has posted (in Arabic) a humble letter to Dr. Ghazi Abdul Rahman Algosaibi, the Saudi Minister of Labor. His letter mainly addresses the issue of Saudization in the job market. His solution is to place Saudis and non-Saudis seeking employment in similiar conditions, instead of forcing policy.
Numerous bloggers have reported on the 2007 Riyadh International Book Fair. Before the actual date of the fair, Saudi Jeans (a.k.a. Ahmed Al-Omran) hoped “it would be a good assortment of brain food” and an opportunity to meet some bloggers. He also posted a list of the events he was planning on attending. As soon as the fair was inaugurated on March 1, Crossroads Arabia posted an article saying that the fair got off to a quiet start:
The opening of the Riyadh Book Fair has gone off quietly. Last year's fair—though not the opening—was disrupted by religious and social conservatives who shouted down a member of the Shoura Council who had tried to raise the issue of women's driving during a Council session. Let's see what happens during the rest of the fair.
Swalfy (translates to “My Chit-Chats”), who blogs in Arabic, thought the fair was a bit more organized than it was in previous years, and said that the number of people at the event was fairly large. He also met blogger Herbaz there. Herbaz, who also blogs in Arabic, also thought that the outcome of the fair was great. Mohammed Al-Shehri has recently posted (in Arabic) about another piece of interesting news, a team of Saudis won MBC‘s show “Al Tahaddi.” He thinks that saying that “the average Saudi has sharp intellect and an ability to address different aspects of a situation, along with a naturally-charismatic nature that aids in dealing with any problem thrown his way” should not be considered exaggeration or self-praise. Also regarding the show, Wireless Visions addressed (in Arabic) concerns that the competition was fixed.
Blogger Rasheed addressed the situation of the French victims of the seemingly-militant attacks in Madain Saleh from a totally different perspective. As a journalist, he addressed the press coverage aspect:
As the French reminded the press this week, they have a policy of not divulging the names of victims of acts of terror. This of course obviously made our jobs as journalists very difficult. Who were these French people, what were their names, ages, why were they near the ancient ruins of Madain Saleh, were some of them Muslim and on their way to Makkah to perform Umrah (the lesser pilgrimage)? These were questions that no one was willing to answer either directly or quickly.
According to Crossroads Arabia, two suspects of the attacks were arrested. An update on the post said that “Saudi authorities were willing to provide a reward of up to 7million SAR for information leading to the rendition of the two individuals.”
Now, to wrap up…
Crossroads Arabia updated on the case of the young Saudi stunt driver, who was sentenced to death. Obviously, the case involved more than just “joyriding,” it had three instances of vehicular homicide. The Observer posted about Arabic male belly dancers and his disappointment in the new Lebanese TV channel, Jaras TV, which specializes in scandalizing celebrities. Bassem posted about his latest encounter with the traffic police in Jeddah. Crossroads Arabia also posted an article about the US Department of State's release of its new report on Human Right in Saudi Arabia. And, finally, Saudi Jeans (a.k.a. Ahmed Al-Omran) posted about the failure of US attempts, including Hi Magazine, “to win the hearts and minds of Arabs.” Towards the end of his post, he suggests some ideas that just might work.

author: Global Voices MENA


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Saudi Arabia: Embassy Emergency Drill · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi-based British diplomatic spouse/blogger Chris Neal says emergency exercises in embassies have their benefits. “I won't go into any more detail than that, but from what I hear the exercise was a very worthwhile activity and the lessons learned will help to further strengthen the emergency plans,” he writes.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Saudi Arabia: In Love With Omar Sharif · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi blogger Reema is in love with Omar  Sharif. Read all about her infatuation here.


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Saudi Arabia: Interacting with the Opposite Sex · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi blogger Khloud links to an article on interacting with members of the opposite sex here. She says it is a must-read article.


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Saudi Arabia: Rectum Scare at LA Airport · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Saudi blogger Yazeez links to a news article which claims: An Iraqi national wearing wires and concealing a magnet inside his rectum triggered a security scare at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday but officials said he posed no apparent threat.


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Soviet History: “Child Ambassadors” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russian Kafe pays tribute to two “child ambassadors” of the 1980s: Samantha Smith and Katya Lycheva.

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Sri Lanka: On Media · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

groundviews on the allegations against media and the comeback. “Stating there were clear attempts to stifle free media and the freedom of expression in Sri Lanka, Sunanda went on to say that journalists were extremely fearful of the hate speech directed against them.”

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Syria: The Destruction of Old Damascus · Global Voices
Yazan Badran

The Syrian government is sponsoring a project that will destroy the last pieces of the Old City of Damascus [World's oldest continuously inhabited city] remaining outside the city walls, including Souqs (bazaars) that date back to the Mamluke period, reports Ammar. “Despite ample protests by civil society advocates, current residents and international NGOs, the Syrian authorities are said to move forward with plans to destroy the last pieces of Old Damascus that remain just outside the Old City Walls, especially the area known as Souq al-Manakhliyyah. Should this indeed take place, thousands of Damascene families will be thrown out of their dwellings with little or no compensation, and a piece of history will perish forever,” he wrote.

author: Yazan Badran


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Trinidad & Tobago: Cricket World Cup ticket woes · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Caribbean Free Radio goes to collect tickets for the Cricket World Cup, and is given number C92: “The saleswoman who handed out the first batch of number-papers did so with the speed and furtiveness of a drug pusher distributing gram-bags on a street corner. . . .“

author: Georgia Popplewell


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Ukraine: Luzhkov in Crimea; Yulia in D.C. · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Taras Kuzio writes about the not-so-peaceful visit of Moscow's Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to the Crimea and about Yulia Tymoshenko's very cozy visit to Washington, D.C.


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Afghanistan: The Suffering of Women · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Afghan Lord marks International Women's Day by describing the suffering of Afghanistan's women.

author: Nathan Hamm


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Africa: China vs US  · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

The Varsjinskij Prophecies sees a possible collision between China and the United States in Africa, “The fact that Hu’s visit and the announcement of AFRICOM coincided was most likely a coincidence. The Pentagon has been planning AFRICOM for years, and China’s involvement in Africa is hardly new. That said, it’s obvious that both powers are sinking more assets into the continent at a time of growing instability and greater competition for resources. Although they may be ultimately drawn to Africa for different reasons, the United States and China could be headed for a collision in the most unlikely of places.”

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Africa: women and smoking · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Jackie Tumwine asks, “Does tobacco empower the African woman?”:
“The low female smoking rates in Africa are due to the social and cultural taboo against women smoking and not due to health awareness. The tobacco industry, in order to maintain profits, is steadily breaking these cultural norms through its aggressive and deceptive promotion of cigarettes as symbols of empowerment, equality, glamour, modernity, sophistication and Western- style independence.”


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Armenia: The Best of YouTube · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Joshua Kucera continues his user-submitted video tour of the Caucasus with the best of Armenia from YouTube.


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Bahamas: Not coming soon to a theatre near you · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Nicolette Bethel speculates on why the film Amazing Grace, which touches upon the abolitionist movement, will probably not be shown in the Bahamas.


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Barbados: Black and white at Royal Westmoreland · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Barbados Free Press takes issue with a luxury resort's portrayal of racial dynamics in the country.


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Belize: A Mayan homeland · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Godfrey Smith outlines some of the complexities underpinning the establishment of a Mayan homeland in Belize.


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Bosnia & Herzegovina: Coffee, Music, etc. · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

London Sevdah writes about the Bosnian way of drinking coffee and other traditions: “In Bosnia everything is fairly special and treated as such by most people – birth of a new baby, a game of football, coffee drinking, fishing and so on.”


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Brazil: Photography: Antonio Mari · Global Voices
David Sasaki

The Travel Photographer introduces Brazilian photojournalist and ethnographer Antonio Mari.

author: David Sasaki


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Cambodia: Prime Minister Uses Scare Tactics for Votes · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Blogs by Khmer takes offense at Cambodian Prime Minister's recent speech where he asked the people not to beg his party for schools and other facilities if the party looses the elections. “Shame on you, Mr. Prime Minister! Improving people's lives by building schools, hospitals, bridges, libraries, roads are the government obligation, sir.”

author: Preetam Rai


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Chile: The Real Voice Behind Ricardo Lagos’ Blog · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Omar Perez Santiago admits on his personal blog [ES] that he in fact was the creator of Diario del Presidente. Blog de un Animal Político [ES], the wildly popular blog that claimed to be written by former president, Ricardo Lagos. “The diffusion of the blog was easy. I announced it on the blog of Senator Fernando Flores who, in that time, was the epicenter of bloggers.” Perez sites Duchamp, Warhol, Wu Ming as earlier pranksters.


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China: The Faults of Qin · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Granite Studio introduces an ancient writing “The Faults of Qin” from Han Dynasty that criticizes authoritarianism of Qin dynasty and conveys idea of balance power between the state and thoughtful people.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Colombia, Latin America: US Aid to LatAm · Global Voices
David Sasaki

As George Bush heads to Latin America, White House officials make the claim that US aid to Latin America has doubled since Bush took office. But is it true? Adam Isacson examines the numbers.


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Cuba, Cayman Islands: Civil disobedience · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

Ziva has high praise for the immigration officers in Grand Cayman who violated the Cayman Islands’ memorandum of understanding with Cuba and offered assistance to a group of refugees fleeing the latter by boat.


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Ecuador: Delfin’s Humble Beginnings · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Christian Espinosa follows the ongoing success of YouTube “techno-folklorist” Delfin. A new YouTube interview reveals that the web2.0 phenomenon grew up in a straw house in the small village of Guano in Chimborazo province.


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Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Bloggers · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Blogger Abu Aardvark (aka Marc Lynch) writes an in-depth article on the Muslim Brotherhood bloggers here. “Over the last few months, young Muslim Brotherhood members have begun blogging in force. This sudden, dramatic development may come as a surprise to western observers, who generally assume that blogging empowers liberal, pro-western voices,” he writes.


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Estonia: Election, etc. · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Economist's Edward Lucas sees the recent election in Estonia as “both important and worrying.” There are 36 comments to the entry so far, many of them about the fate of the Bronze Soldier monument, and some in Estonian.


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Four presidents, schools without teachers, grassroots activism, film on tour and the gay issue · Global Voices
J. Nambiza Tungaraza

Blogs continue to provide a venue for Swahili bloggers and their readers to question every action of political leaders. Sure, there are blog posts devoted to other issues – film, fashion and even socio-political commentary with a light touch, but this week one cannot help but notice a series of posts by Tanzania's leading photoblogger Issa Michuzi.  He has devoted five posts to the four presidents who have ruled Tanzania so far asking his readers to discuss their performance.
The first two presidents, Mwalimu Nyerere  and Ali Hassan Mwinyi escape fairly unscathed from reader's comments  – with exceptions of Nyerere's inability to sack his corrupt lieutenants, a charge that is thrown at Ali Hassan Mwinyi too.
On Nyerere, one reader writes:
alisahau sana mambo ya ndani ya nchi na kusaidia sana majirani, aliwabeba watendaji wake wabovu kwa kuwabadilisha badilisha hao hao tu wakiendelea kuharibu, Alikuwa dikteta kiani lakini wakati ule ilifaa, alikuwa na huruma kwa watendaji wake wabovu ambao ndio walikuwa waharibifu wakubwa wa nji
Some blog readers praise Ali Hassan Mwinyi for liberalising the economy after Nyerere's socialist economic policies, but they are critical of his support for laissez-faire principles:
Aliweza kufungua nafasi za kibiashara baada ya mfumo wa kijamaa ambao ulianzishwa na mtangulizi wake. Ila udhaifu wake alishindwa kuendesha miaka 5 ya mwisho ya uongozi kila mtu alikuwa anajifanyia analotaka bila kufuata na taratibu za nchi, rushwa ilishamiri sana kipindi cha mwinyi, na mwisho mfumuko wa bei ulikuwa katika kiwango cha juu.
Tanzania's third president Benjamin Mkapa who opened the doors wider to foreign investors proves a hard to pigeon-hole. Commenting on a post about him, some of Michuzi's readers think he was a genuine hard worker who oversaw improvements in critical infrastructure, schools and expansion of towns. Critics, however, point to the amount of foreign debt he left behind, depreciation of the shilling, the worsening poverty in the rural areas and his wholesale privatisation policy.
While the account of the current Tanzania's president Jakaya Kikwete is still in the making, his many foreign trips are criticised by readers. Since coming to power in October 2005, Kikwete has visited over 25 countries:
Jamaa ni safari na yeye kasahau kuwa anatakiwa akae na kubuni mipango imara.Ni kweli misaada tu ndio suluhisho la matatizo yetu inashangaza.Jamaa yeye anawa win tu wale watu wa uswazi ambao ndio walimchagua. Hao ndio wakisikia anawaleta Real Madrid wanamfurahia sana,hapa anawakuna. Lakini hajafanya lolote kwa uchumi mkuu… NAONA BADO HATUKUMTARAJIA KUFANYA HAYA TUNAYOYAONA. Pia hata maisha yamekuwa magumu kila kunvyokucha kunanini hapa Je amafeli. UTAONA PIA MAAMUZI YAKE MENGI NI YA KUWA WIN WATU.  TUSUBIRI
Real Madrid is expected to visit Tanzania later this year at the invitation of Tanzania's president, Jakaya Kikwete.
And others plead for patience before forming an informed opinion about his presidency:
Tusi panic na safari zake he is just taking contact mwaka mmoja on business it is too early to say something kuongoza nchi si rahisi. He sounds promising, young, active and simple (like all Tanzanias). I have confidence he will do good work maana kitu kimoja anapenda wananchi. Tukutane hapa after three yrs ya uongozi wake then we can say something.
And, as Tanzania marches forward with its vision of becoming a nation with a high quality of education to meet regional and global challenges, a critical eye of Mtanzania (a teacher by profession) is focused on the implementation of the Tanzania government's 2004 five-year Secondary Education Development Programme (SEDP) under which 1,050 new secondary schools have been built across the country. However, many of these schools do not have enough teachers.
He thinks that fast track, two months training of new teachers from the ranks of high school graduates to teach in the newly built secondary schools may produce enough but not incompetent teachers.
On the same issue of education, Maggid Mjengwa, sees encouraging signs as people are starting to question the government's conduct. He writes:
Katika jamii yetu tumeanza kuona dalili za wananchi kuanza kuamka na kuhoji juu ya masuala mbali mbali yenye kuwahusu. Moja ya masuala hayo ni hili juu ya ubora wa elimu itolewayo kwa watoto wao. Tumewasikia wazazi kule Serengeti wakihoji; iweje watoto wao wafaulu darasa la saba ilihali hawajui kusoma na kuandika?!
Mjengwa goes on to assert that education in Tanzania is in this state because policy makers and other top officials do not have direct interest in the public school system because most of them send their children to private schools either within the country or abroad.
Tujiulize; hivi kweli waziri angelala usingizi huku akifahamu, kuwa shule ya sekondari ya kata anayosoma mwanawe ina walimu wawili, haina maktaba, chumba cha maabara na mengineyo?…
He goes on to plead to the masses to pay tribute to those who fought for Africa's liberation by continuing the fight by concrete action and by questioning the powers that be.
… Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Frantz Fanon na wengineo. Hawa ni wana wa bara hili, wamepigania ukombozi wa Mwafrika. Katika utumishi wao kwa bara hili, kupitia kauli na matendo yao, wamejenga misingi ya maarifa ya kuwakomboa Waafrika, wanyonge walio wengi. Kuwaenzi wanamapinduzi hawa, ni kupigania yale waliyoyapigania, kwa vitendo. Ili kuibadili hali tuliyo nayo ni vema tuanze sasa kudadisi na kuhoji. Tanze sasa kuhimiza
In his fiery delivery, Ndesanjo writes about an article he recently wrote for a Swahili daily newspaper, Mwananchi. He posts a few paragraphs of the article revealing his disgust for government empty slogans. He portrays the Tanzanian society as a one big choir with the press as the lead singers, and the people as the backing vocals; the party cadres are leading vocals, the World Bank and IMF are players of instruments:
Wanatuambia kwenye ripoti zao kuwa serikali yetu inaendesha uchumi kwa ufanisi na imepiga hatua mbele kwenye vita dhidi ya rushwa. Eti nini? Rushwa? Niambie, toka uzaliwe, umemsikia nani kati ya akina nani hii amefikishwa mahakamani kwa rushwa kisha akaenda jela? Niambie ni kesi ngapi unazifahamu za rushwa ya mamilioni?
He briefly touches on what appears to be a cross-border corruption scandal where a UK firm secretly paid a $12m commission into a private Swiss account while selling a military radar system to the government of Tanzania. He urges people to start the process of change from where they are:
Mjadala huu lazima tuuanze hivi sasa. Ni vipi wananchi, ambao ndio wengi kuliko viongozi walaghai, tutakuwa na uwezo, njia, na mfumo imara wa kuhakikisha kuwa hatuibiwi kama watoto wadogo? Kuna wakati niliandika kuhusu mbinu za kuleta mabadiliko kwenye jamii. Nilisema kuwa iwapo hujaweza kumwajibisha mwenyekiti wa serikali za mtaani kwenu, ni vipi utaweza kumwajibisha raisi, mbunge, au waziri? Kama hujaweza kuunda vuguvugu mtaani kwenu kuhakikisha kuwa mnaondoa wezi, mnajenga utamaduni wa kutupa takataka sehemu zinazohusika, mna utaratibu wa kusafisha mtaa wenu, n.k., ni vipi utaweza kuongelea suala la utunzaji wa mazingira kitaifa au kampeni ya kukamata majambazi kitaifa?
And as the dust is beginning to settle after the meeting of Anglican Church leaders in Tanzania where conservative and liberal views on homosexuality were not resolved, Damija  seeks some clarification on what is sin and what is not, and why the issue of gay priests has never been controversial in other religions like Islam:
Watu hawa ambao hujulikana kwa wanaume kama ‘Basha na wasenge’, na kwa wanawake ‘Wasagaji’, wamekuwa wakipigania kukubalika katika jamii na hata kupewa majukumu mbalimbali ya uongozi. Wanataka waongoze nchi, wanataka waongoze makanisa bado sijasikia wanaotaka kuongoza misikiti. Hali imekuwa ni ngumu kwao hasa katika hili la uongozi. Swali langu ni kwamba je wanapaswa kupewa nafasi hizi au hapana?
And elswhere in the Swahili blogosphere, an actress Chemi Che Mponda
writes that the multi-award-winning film in which she acted in, Maangamizi (The Ancient One), will be touring Toronto, Canada.

author: J. Nambiza Tungaraza


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Haiti: Make Women’s Day Matter · Global Voices
Alice Backer

After reminiscing disillusioned early engagements with Haitian feminist groups and an instance where she was not allowed to commission her son's birth certificate without her husband's authorization, Nancy Chapoteau of Notedor.com concludes (Fr): “When will there be concrete and just actions in our country in women's favor? … Haitian women, wake up, you're in the 21st century.”

author: Alice Backer


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Iran:Most jailed women activists were released · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

According to Omid Memarian,all jailed women activists are released except three of them.The blogger adds “one of the women released in the second group told Rooz,an online magazine,: “The interrogators were not impolite; however, conditions inside the prison were not good at all. If we needed something, we had to bang on the door a thousand times and scream.”

author: Fred Petrossian


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The Middle East and North Africa on Women’s International Day · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

While half the world is today celebrating the International Women's Day, the other half seems to be blogging about it I suppose.
Here's a run down of some of the reactions and acknowledgement the day received in the Middle East and North Africa.
Our first stop is in Israel, where blogger Stephanie congratulates women on the occasion and cites some statistics from her country about their condition here.
“The average woman earns $800 less per month than her male counterpart; Women work about 35 hours per week/men work nearly 46; The average marrying age for Jewish women is 25 (and rising, say reports); Most have a first child at age 30; Number of kids per household hovers around 2.69 (where’d the other .31 of that kid go?);  Of a 2.7 million civic workforce, 1.3 million is women; Moslem women in Israel marry at age 22 and average four children and Christian women living in Israel marry at 24 and average 2 children,” she writes.
As Stephanie says, we sure “have our work cut out for us…”
Our next stop is in Syria, where Swedish/Pakistani blogger Shaykhspeara Sha'ira takes us way out of the Middle East to Bogota to share with us an aspect of their celebrations of the day.
“The Mayor of Bogotá in Colombia, Antanas Mockus, introduced a new tradition in 2001 called Women's Night. It was celebrated the night before March 8th and men were asked to stay home with the kids and contemplate over themselves and their women, and the work they do. The women in turn went out to parks and enjoyed themselves with their grandmothers while policeofficers made sure no man disturbed them.
Result: There was not a single murder on the streets of Bogotá, which normally witnesses 15 murders a night,” she writes.
Sure says a lot about who commits crimes out there!
And since everyone is blogging about everyone else and not sticking to their geographical confines, our Englishman in Dubai takes us to Russia and gives us a bite of what he experienced there on the day.
“Whilst in Moscow yesterday it seemed that everyone was carrying flowers, which was nice. Anna in the office explained that it was International Women's Day today. It is a public holiday today in Russia to celebrate but I feel sorry for any man not providing his loved one flowers. Apparently this is viewed very dimly,” he writes.
“So to the women of Russia not only do you get Valentine's day (described by the Moscow Times as a “Western Import”) – I salute you and Happy International Women's Day!”
Being poetic today, Chanad Bahraini, shares with us some Urdu poetry to mark the occasion. He offers:
A couplet from Asrar ul Haq Majaz:
This scarf that covers you is beautiful indeed
It would be better if you made it into a flag of revolt
and a reality check from Kishwar Naheed:
It is we sinful women
Who, when we emerge carrying aloft the flag of truth
Find highways strewn with lies
Find tales of punishment placed at every doorstep
Find tongues which could have spoken, severed.
Still in Bahrain, Silly Bahraini Girl marks the day with a rant.
“Something is amiss.. and I can't put my finger on it. It is because we are celebrating the International Woman's Day yet again in a world so unjust and mean to all the sisters, daughters, mothers, wives, lovers and prostitutes out there? Is it because men .. cannot rest in peace unless their women are shackled? Is it because women are items, pieces of property, with no say in anything in their lives? Is it because we women are yet to be reckoned with as equals, as peers and as real partners in life?” she raves.
From Egypt, Freedom for Egyptians dedicates the day to a special group of friends she has made around the world.
“I am dedicating this blog post to a very special dear group of friends. It happened that this group is all made of the greatest girlfriends I had ever had in my life. Despite places, travel, work, studies, husbands, children and different time zones, we always find a way to connect, communicate and remain together as group. It was very difficult for the eight of us during the past few years to meet together physically in one place. The internet, however, can bring all of us together,” she writes.
From Iraq, Ceasar of Pentra gives us a link which opens a window to the suffering of Iraqi women.
“Happy Women's Day, Ladies! And lemme salute in this occasion every Iraqi woman. They are the real heroes,” he writes.
And last but not least is a post by Achelois, who dedicates the day to the most important woman in her life – her mother.
“I want to celebrate International Women’s Day by thanking the most beautiful woman in the world for giving birth to me. Thank you Mama, and I love you!” she notes.
To all the women out there: thank you and we love you all!
(Note: Do you notice how celebrating International Women's Day has taken us all around the world – the very world men have worked so hard to partition and divide through wars and hate? Just a thought!)


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Jamaica: Debate on marital rape · Global Voices
Georgia Popplewell

A parliamentary committee debate on the Act that governs marital rape in Jamaica proves blogger Ria Bacon's point that “ratifying and adopting are easy; actually implementing change is more of a challenge.” Bacon recounts how a remark by a senior member of a leading women's NGO restores reason to the debate, while setting the stage for the Attorney General to employ some shockingly unscientific terminology.


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Japan and China: changing name of Woman’s Day · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A member of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference suggests to Change the name of Fu-nu's Day (婦女節) to Nu-xin's Day (女性節), following Japan's example. Zhaihua points out(zh) that such change is unnecessary, because Nu-xin according to traditional Chinese, is more discriminative than Fu-nu.


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Latvia: Eurovision · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

All About Latvia writes about the country's Eurovision Song Contest entry this year.


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Lebanon: Egypt’s First Lady · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Lebanese blogger Asad Abukhalil gives us his two cents on what he thinks of Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak here.
‘She has such a natural and unaffected personality. She answered all the questions directly, intelligently, and informatively. In fact, watching the interviews make you realize more how annoying and artificial Khuri (and other Lebanonese TV personalities) are. And she gave a very sensible critique of the methodology of UNDP on surveys on “female genital mutilation”,’ he wrote.


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Lebanon: How Much Will a Porcelain Hand Cost? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“I have a friend who had a wonderful idea: he wanted to have his right hand amputated. Very seriously. Went to see a surgeon, said, ‘How much does it cost, I'm ready to pay.’ He wanted to have a porcelain hand made to replace it,” writes US-based Lebanese blogger JiJ here.


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Lebanon: Saudi’s Marriage Amusing  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Lebanese blogger Asad Abu Khalil is amused that a 76-year-old Saudi has married a 15-year-old girl.


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Lebanon: Special Iranian/Syrian Car · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Lebanese blogger Mustapha posts of a picture driven by Syrian president Bashar Al Assad. The new car was designed in Iran and built in Syria.


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Madagascar: Development and Protection of the Environment: mutually exclusive ?   · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

(courtesy of Tattum)
A recent headline in the news has created a buzz in the world of the environmentalists and among Malagasy bloggers.  The Pan African Mining corporation undertook the creation of a new mining site in the Southern region of Madagascar that many environmentalist groups believe will have a major negative impact on the way of life of the locals and the ecosystem in the region.
The debate has led to the production of a documentary “mine your own business” funded by the mining company blaming environmentalists for obstructing the economic development of the region.
Harinjaka notes that:
Pour l’instant, peu de gens l’ont vu, moi y compris. C’est un documentaire qui fait déjà beaucoup de bruit, car il accuse les écolos d’ètre à l’origine de la pauvreté de nombreux pays, dont Madagascar[…]J’ai remarqué qu’on n’entend pas du tout les réactions des environnementaliste français (qui sont aussi nombreux chez nous ?). C’est peut-être parce que le film n’est pas encore diffusé dans les pays francophones ?
For now, not many people have seen it (the documentary), and I have not either. It's a documentary that is making noise because it accuses  environmentalist groups to be one of the cause  of poverty in many countries, including Madagascar. I noticed that we have not heard anything fro French environmentalists (who are numerous In Madagascar ?). Maybe the reason is because the movie is not yet shown in french-speaking countries?
The debate over development vs protection of the environment has been around forever, especially in Madagascar ; However Tattum wonders if the two have to be mutually exclusive.  Tattum discusses that there are other options. For instance, in the ecology vs tourism paradigm, she says that there is an alternative:
le tourisme solidaire (et durable) est :
– Basé sur le partage
– Axé sur la sensibilisation des populations et du voyageur
– Intégré dans une dynamique solidaire
– Géré par la population locale
– Destiné à un enrichissement mutuel
The conundrum facing Madagascar is not lost on Tattum:
On a ainsi pris l’habitude de parler de richesses biologiques et d’extrême diversité de vies. Mais il ne faudrait pas oublier que Madagascar est l’un des pays les plus pauvres de la planète. Sa conservation demeure un dilemne pour ses 18 millions d’habitants qui doivent trouver comme ils peuvent des moyens de subsistance.
“Best of both worlds”
So what options are there that could address both ecological concerns and development ?
Aiky points to the dynamic market of essential oils as a way to combine the two:
Le secteur des huiles essentielles se développe peu à peu à Madagascar. Le volume et la valeur des exportations de ces huiles essentielles ne cessent d'augmenter depuis les cinq dernières années. Madagascar figure comme le pays exportateur de référence des huiles essentielles d'eucalyptus globulus, du Ravensare aromatica ou encore du Ravintsara (deux plantes différentes).
The sector of essential oils develops little by little in Madagascar. The volume and the value of exports for these essential oils have not ceased increasing for the five last years. Madagascar appears like the exporting country of reference for essential oils, especially for eucalyptus globulus, Ravensare aromatica or of Ravintsara (two different plants).
Nivo approves of initiatives such as Tsara Ketrika (building a franchise around traditional Malagasy eateries) that promotes development without jeopardizing the Malagasy traditional way of life:
L’idée m’a beaucoup interpelée dans la mesure où il s’agit d’un projet de développement original, se basant sur des infrastructures déjà existantes. Non que les autres projets soient utopiques (au contraire !) mais à mon avis mais celui-ci a le mérite de s’attaquer à un des “vestiges”  de la culture quotidienne malgache.
The idea intrigued me because it is about an original project of development based on already existing infrastructures. Not that the other projects are utopian (on the contrary) but in my opinion but this one has the merit to promote one of the “pillars” of the Malagasy daily culture.
Unfortunately, some projects are bound to be not as successful as hoped: A few of them were singled out as either obsolete or downright outrageous by Malagasy bloggers:
1)Madagascan thinks that the project championed by president Ravalomanana that consists of supplying crank radios to farmers is pointless:
Une magnifique initiative du MIT a conduit à la fabrication d'ordinateurs portables à bas coût (on annonce 100 dollars) pour l'éducation dans les pays en voie de développement. Ce projet, nommé OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) […]Pourquoi Madagascar ne s'engagerait-elle pas dans un tel projet, plutôt que fournir des radios à manivelle?
A splendid initiative of MIT led to the manufacture of portable computers at low cost (announced at 100 dollars) for educational program in developing  countries.   This this project is named OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) […] Pourquoi Madagascar begin it in such a project, rather than provide crank radios ?
2)Many is outraged at the fact that Madagascar sold its own fresh water to other countries:
« La signature de la convention pour l’exportation d’eau du fleuve de Mananara vers les pays du Golfe Persique a été signée mardi dernier » [..] J’hallucine ou quoi ???
Last tuesday was the signature of convention for the water export of the river of Mananara towards the countries of the Persian Gulf…” [..] Am I hallucinating or what???
Final words go to Ikoza who directs us to a humoristic note that singled out the irony of a cosmetic company coming to the rescue of an endangered species:
« Merci à Chanel…
Et oui, on doit à Chanel, qui recherchait une espèce de vanille bourrée d'antioxydants afin de créer une nouvelle crème anti-âge, le sauvetage d'une espèce de vanillier en voie de disparition. Merci aux riches et vieilles clientes de Chanel, qui en tentant de repousser les marques du temps sur leurs visages, ont fait en sorte que le Vanilla Plaenifolia n'ai pas disparu de la planète »
Thank you, Chanel…
Yes, we owe to Chanel, who sought out a particular species of vanilla loaded with antioxydants to create a new anti-ageing cream, the rescue of an endangered species of vanilla plant. Thank you to the rich and old clients of Chanel who, by trying to fight back the scars of time on their faces, rescued Vanilla Plaenifolia from total oblivion.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


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Malaysia: Introducing Women Bloggers · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Susan Loone introduces some of the interesting Malaysian women bloggers she has come across. “It’s a man world they say. And that was how I felt when I started blogging. Most of the events by bloggers were headed by men, most of the commentators were men. I knew there were many women out there who are just as interesting, talented and exciting. But where were they? Where were you? So, I ventured out on this journey to seek for them, for you, and look what I found!”


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Mexico: Private Schooling · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Mark in Mexico, who spent the past two weeks in “one of the oldest and best established private schools in Oaxaca City,” hints at his upcoming series on private education in Oaxaca.


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Moldova: Martisor and Diaspora · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Public Policy Watch writes about Martisor, “the celebration of beginning of spring, life and love in Moldova” by the Moldovan Diaspora in the United States.


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Mongolia: Total Eclipse · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Mongolia Matters notes that Mongolia will see a total eclipse of the sun in August, 2008, and says that travel companies are already offering tour to see the eclipse.


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Myanmar: Blogging the Job · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Mayvelous, the Burmese blogger in Fiji gets a new training assignment and she is blogging her training notes “So here I am, sharing my notes. You have a choice to read or ditch them, it’s entirely up to you. I’m still learning and those technologies are very new for me, hence my notes gonna have heaps of errors and wrong information. You are most welcome to correct them, fill somemore in and share you notes with me too. Alrite, so we are set to go.”


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Nigeria: open for business · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Blogging from TED conference, Ethan Zuckerman writes, “As a precursor to the sorts of African thinkers we’ll be seeing in Arusha at the TED Global conference, we’re honored to hear from former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She developed a fantastic reputation for change in Nigeria, stepping down as a vice-president of the World Bank to take on the toughest ministry in sub-Saharan Africa’s largest nation.”


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Palestine: Open Letter to the World · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Palestinian blogger Eman posts an open letter to the world leaders here and urges all Arab bloggers to spread the word. “(W)e demand every person in position of responsibility, every international organization, every satellite channel, every media professional, all those to whom this letter is addressed and all those who read it to immediately demand halting violations, destruction, demolition and digging of the scared sanctities in Al-Aqsa Mosque, and ensure access to it for worshippers to practice their right of worship,” she writes.


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Panama: Red Hibiscus Tea Pops with Yogurt · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Seeking a respite from the rising north-of-the-equator temperatures? Head over to the Cooking Diva Blog and learn how to make popscicles from red hibiscus and yogurt.


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Philippines: More Women Climbing the Corporate Ladder · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Caffeinesparks celebrates the Women's day by digging up statistics that points to Philippines having the most number of women in top corporate positions. “My country tops the list of countries with the most number of senior management executives among 32 surveyed nations (including yours). In the region where wives supposedly walk a few paces behind their husbands and some are required to wear head scarves/veils, 42% of businesses are run by women.”


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Philippines: Visiting the Great Pyramids of Giza · Global Voices
Preetam Rai

Our Awsome Planet shares images from the blogger's recent trip to Egypt. “This is my humble attempt to share the experience with you, and I feel that there are no words to describe accurately the experience. I immediately went over to www.new7wonders.com to vote for The Great Pyramids of Egypt as part of the new 7 wonders of the world which will be announced on July 7, 2007.”


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Russia: February Revolution’s 90th Anniversary · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

“On March 8, 1917 scores of women protested WWI, bread prices, and poverty in Petrograd’s industrial Vyborg district,” writes Sean's Russia Blog about the beginning of the February Revolution whose 90th anniversary is marked this year.


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Russia: Interview With Copydude · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Siberian Light interviews Copydude: “Russia is as democratic, or undemocratic, as anywhere else.”


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Russia: Sergiev Posad Photos · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Anton Verstakov's photos from Sergiev Posad at Russia Blog.


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Russia: Travel Photos · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Wu Wei has posted some of the photos from her old trips to Russia at Flickr, here.


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Russia: Winter/The Thaw · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Darkness at Noon ruminates on the winter and its demise, and a little bit on the Russian politics, too: “Eventually the temperatures rise, the thaw begins, and Muscovites no longer have to worry about the knock in the middle of the street. But as with any regime chage, there is a new landscape that must be navigated.”


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Serbia, Croatia: Another Lawsuit? · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Neretva River writes about Serbia's plans to sue Croatia over the wartime ethnic cleansing of Croatian Serbs – here and here.


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Serbia: “Vampires”  · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

A “no comment” post at East Ethnia: “Man drives stake in grave of Slobodan Milošević.” The post is filed under the “vampires” category.


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South Africa: will you come to lead the Boers? · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A very controversial post about a controversial South African song, De la Rey: “Up goes the cheer, and then comes the song – an Afrikaans folk number about a Boer war general that has become a sensation in South Africa as an anthem for young whites who say they are tired of being made to feel guilty about the apartheid past.”


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South Asia: International Women’s Day · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Today is International Women's Day, and I've been poking my nose a bit to take a look at what the blogs have to say. A post on adhunika blog poses a question asking what the readers would want changed. While this other post doesn't mention Women's Day, adhunika blog talks of wedding related expenses for middle class Bangladeshis. As it is in most cultures, the bride's family has to have the deeper pockets.
My observation reveals that it is mostly women who are the show pieces of the extravagance at the weddings. The brides today have to have 5/6 layers on their neck, heavy earrings, their head covered in different gold items, arms full of bangles, mantashas and rotonchur’s. They are consciously or subconsciously in a contest with their friends or family in wedding expenses and the (often exaggerated) social status of their grooms.
scribble pad on the usual
anyhow. if you think im grumbling about all that, contrary to appearances, im not. i was steeling myself for the absolute inanities that i would inevitably hear about how women dont have those (insert every single very much still contemporary issue here) problems any more. and yaay, who just lost a bet with me? i sure did.
iFaqeer on women in Pakistan.
As I started to say above, even with all the attention focused on Pakistan and Muslims since 2001, these women demonstrate in all they say and do, and in how they say and do it, something no amount of ink–print or electronic–has been able to capture and convey. And that is that one can live in a dictatorship, one can be victimized in the most barbaric way, and yet, even in this day and age, stand up and speak truth to power, demand justice while continuing to have and draw strength from a very strong and personal faith (as Mukhtaran Mai does) and advocate strongly for things like human rights, civil society, and civil rights in the context of, and with respect for, faith, family, tradition, and values.
The Blank Noise Project asks contributors to talk about their experiences with Street Sexual Harassment.
This is an attempt to understand how different women ( across age groups/ cultures/ communities) have dealt with street sexual harassment in their everyday lives. Male bloggers are encouraged to share stories of women in their lives and how they have dealt with street sexual harassment.
Women across the Indian Blogosphere responded to this call by The Blank Noise Project and responded with their experiences. Twilight Fairy shares her thoughts on dealing with harassers. Falstaff makes an interesting point by saying “I'm constantly appalled by how much of what passes for feminism seems to focus almost entirely on establishing victimisation, while paying little or no attention to what can be done about it”. My life, my words on why street sexual harassment is real problem.
I think it is very important. How many women would go to work if they could travel without fear and their fathers/husbands did not impose restrictions on their movements (of course, the fact that they impose restrictions is itself a problem)? How many women are likely to get a quality education when the centre of education – the university or the college – is away from home, perhaps, in another city?
As for me, after a particularly harrowing day, I am not feeling too international or womanly. But, regardless of your sex or gender, have a nice International Women's Day.


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Taiwan: Kevin Lin completed across Sahara · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

After 111 days, Kevin Lin from Taiwan completed the ultra-marathon across Sahara desert, the largest desert in the world, on 2/20/2007 with other two runners.
This ultra-marathon was first proposed by Charlie Engle, who went to Matt Damon's production company (LivePlanet) to persuade them to film a documentary for it.  This film documented not only the endurance to run the ultra-marathon, but also the nomadic people in Sahara desert and their daily struggle to find water.  Another goal of the ultra-marathon is raising awareness for the clean water nonprofit group H2O Africa.
There are three runners, Charlie from USA, Kevin from Taiwan, and Ray Zahab from Canada.  Their original plan was running 50 miles per day for 80 days (4000 miles in total) (the length for regular marathon is 26 miles).  It began in Senegal, went across Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya, and ended in Egypt .  The runners and their support team had to negotiate when they met treacherous terrain, including minefields, as well as risk of disease, war-torn regions and bureaucracy.  A series of detours added more than 500 miles (800 km) to the route.  They finally finished the ultra-marathon in 111 days for 4562 miles (7300 km).
In Kevin's website, 14 supporters from Taiwan went to Egypt and wrote diary about their journey.  Some of them rented a car and met the runners in Salloum, Egypt on 2/12/2007 and ran a few miles with them later.  They were excited about how the documentary group love their yellow T-shorts for this event.  They said, ‘although we only joined their trip for such a short time, we have learned how hard to live without water.  It is great they finished it!’
Kevin is not tall, and his father demanded him to study hard to go to college.  However, Kevin chose marathon, and left home for it.  At the age of 15, Kevin brought a package to visit Ruei-Gen Pan for marathon training.  Later, he entered Taipei physical education college.  During his career in ultra-marathon, Ruei-Gen Pan is his adviser and always provide the greatest support in these competitions.
Kevin's story encourages many Taiwanese.  Confessor's lounge said that through blogging, more people will know their story about how human beings create history.
On the other hand, Schee talked about why Kevin Lin had difficulty to find financial support from our government or our society.  He said ‘ultra-marathon is too complicate to set standards for it.  It is hard to say if IAAF will set a category for it in the future (note made by author: IAAF sanctions ultra-marathons).  If the world governing body of track and field does not recognize it as a competition category, the competitors will face huge difficulty to find financial support.’
Spiritual awakening talked about how Kevin Lin open a window for Taiwan to the world:
We always hope through diplomatic methods Taiwan can be connected to the world.  But now we have seen how Ang Lee in Oscar ceremony, Chien-Ming Wang in Yankee, and Kevin Lin can open a door for Taiwan to the world.  When using diplomatic methods faces huge obstacles, maybe we can try softer ways to reach our goal.  For example, our culture and athelects.
There is a movie about the Taipei 24-hr ultra-marathon in 2000 that many Taiwanese bloggers shared with each other after Kevin Lin came back from Egypt.
If you are interested in how Kevin faces the difficulty of ultra-marathon, he recorded his life in his blog, including running ultra-marathon in Golbi in 2006 and Sahara this year.  Now he is planning for the rock and ice ultra-marathon in Yellowknife, Canada this March.  This time, there will be three Taiwanese run with him.  Good luck and take care!

author: I-fan Lin


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The Balkans: Eurovision · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

“Get ready world the former Yugoslav republics are taking over Eurovision!” writes bganon in a comment to a comprehensive review of this year's entries from the region posted at Belgrade 2.0.


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The Balkans: More on ICJ Verdict · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Eric Gordy of East Ethnia explains the ICJ verdict (“171 pages of pure lawyerese”) in a Q&A format.


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The Balkans: The EU is Getting Closer · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Serbia and Croatia are likely to join the EU real soon, Neretva River reports.


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The Balkans: Yet Some More on ICJ Verdict · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Bosnia Vault analyzes the ICJ verdict's “trends, consequences, and more.”


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Ukraine: Yanukovych’s Prospects · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Party of the Regions’ stronghold, Eastern Ukraine, isn't experiencing its best times – which could possibly mean that the prime minister would have to fight hard to stay where he is: Foreign Notes translates a relevant newspaper article.


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Uruguay: Uncle Sam and Big Brother · Global Voices
David Sasaki

“Everybody is talking about two things this week in Uruguay. The first one is Argentina's 2007 edition of Big Brother, the reality show, and the way Nadia was kicked out :) The second one, is the fact that Bush is arriving this friday to Uruguay along with Condolezza Rice, and all the turmoil this is generating.” More from Gabo.


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Uzbekistan: School Reform · Global Voices
Nathan Hamm

Registan.net says that plans to overhaul Uzbekistan's school system will lead to more corruption in education.


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Africa: International Women’s Day · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Sokari writes about African women bloggers celebrating International Women's Day 2007, “There are probably hundreds of blogs by African women on the continent and in the Diaspora so selecting this list was not an easy task. The ones mentioned here are because they are consistent, have been around for over a year [keeping a blog consistently is no easy task], they are exceptional in content and/or style and because they are blogs I read regularly and always enjoy.”


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Algeria: More Info on Saudi Dialect · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Algerian blogger and linguist Lameen Souag is looking for more information on Arab dialects from Saudi Arabia here.


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Argentina: Inflation · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Robert Wright heads down to his local supermarket and compares costs on basic foodstuffs from March 2002 to March 2007. Take a look for yourself and find out why neither he nor Felisa Miceli are smiling.


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Bahrain: Bloggers Consider Starting Official Society · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Bahrain bloggers restarted their monthly gatherings after a break of some months. This get-together was organised by Mahmood Al Yousif as usual, but with more structure than previous sessions:
It was a good turnout in the end. We had 11 bloggers in there and a good amount of interest in the presentations. The “featured presentation” was to a visiting friend from Ireland – Mohammed Al-Kabour – who talked to us about his experiences in activism and lobbying and showed how we might adapt and adopt some of the tried and tested methods in our own endeavours.
Although it seems that having some structure to the meetings is a good idea, everyone agreed that five presentations were too much to take in.
We ended the session by my floating the idea to form a Bloggers’ Society and register it with the Ministry of Social Affairs. … The basic premise is that we would like to have an infrastructure that legally can support a blogger should s/he fall in trouble because of court cases brought against them and indeed to provide a legal entity that can organise various activities normally not possible outside of that realm.
A number of cases have been brought against Bahraini bloggers and journalists in recent months, and the latest was against Al Wasat newspaper journalist Hussain Khalaf. Mahmood gives his theory of why this has happened:
As young teenagers, we used to joke with each other that we should not drive our cars in the last week of the month, as it is in that week specifically – we naively thought – that the traffic police got to be rather conscientious about their job and handed driving offences left, right and centre. The reason, we surmised, was that they are ensuring that they get paid their salaries for that month from our fines!
If this is the motive behind these continuous harassing techniques by the public prosecution or the government in general, then let’s not waste time with all of this and start a “Writers Kitty” where every writer pays a subscription of a set amount per month and be done with it! That would save the prosecution’s, court’s and the public’s time and efforts and will hopefully get them all to dedicate their time more industriously investigating the myriad of delayed cases that desperately need resolved and fairly decided.
Meanwhile, Hussain Marhoon writes in his blog Madas Ayatallah (‘The Ayatollah's Sandals’) about his experiences – and bad habits – at university:
Finally, Tooners, an American married to a Bahraini, recounts more of her experiences of new motherhood in Bahrain:
We took Naief's documents to the Health Center two weeks ago to get his birth certificate. Well, Hashim went to pick it up yesterday and guess what….. they misspelled his name. … Instead of spelling it the way we wanted, it was spelled Nayef, and since we do not want our baby's name spelled that way, the hubby took it back to the health center and requested a change in the spelling.
All seemed fine until Tooner's husband was asked to go back to the health centre:
Seems their little office can't change the spelling of Naief's name… and you know why?!! Because they don't have the spelling we want in their freakin ass database!!!! … I've never heard of such a ridiculous statement “our database doesn't have that spelling so we can't spell it like that”. Doesn't anyone know how to CHANGE THE DATABASE?????
Good luck to Tooners in her quest, and more news from Bahrain in a week's time!

author: Ayesha Saldanha


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Bahrain: Falafel Recipe · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Silly Bahraini Girl thinks her Falafels rock and gives us her recipe for disaster here.


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Bahrain: Support Orphans Call · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahrain-based blogger Soul Search praises an orphan's sponsorship scheme, run by an Islamic society. “I encourage everybody to try it out, it is a wonderful scheme, very well organized, and you would be aiding in supporting the most vulnerable segment of society. The forgotten victims of wars or poverty and to top it all off, either lost one parent or both, shattering their dreams by disasters and aggression around them,” she writes.


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Bolivia: Profiles of Cochabamba Women · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Commemorating International Women's Day in Bolivia, Leny Olivera guest-posts on Blog from Bolivia to profile three Cochabamba women: Maura—mother, wife, cook, business-woman; Sara—wife, mother, vendor; and Alicia—mother, drink vendor.


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Bush Arrives to Protests in Sao Paulo; Uruguay Gets Ready · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Brazilian photoblogger Tatiana Cardeal was more prepared with her lens than São Paulo's Military Police Force was for the protests against US President George Bush's visit. The photograph's caption:
São Paulo's Military Police Force yesterday, who decide to explode gas bombs in a crowd of almost 10.000 people at the World March of Women and anti Bush protest, causing panic and hurting people, because a few “punks” and protesters, not more than 15 young, tryied to close the avenue lying down in front of some cars and provoking disturbs.
Lots and lots of blog posts on Bush's visit to Latin America. Colin Brayton provides some useful translations from local bloggers and Indymedia. Erwin Cifuentes has compiled a list of various links in “Dubya south of the border – U.S. prez arrives in Brazil to start tour.” Journalism professor Marc Cooper puts down some of his typically polished commentary. Leftside rattles off with some lightly less-polished analysis, including an incredible photograph of a slum in front of the Hilton hotel where U.S. President Bush is now staying. Made in Brazil takes a break from bikinis to mention the arrest of 25-year-old model Janaína Bueno who, according to Brazzil Mag, “ended up being charged with indecent exposure after a suspicious policeman ordered her to show what was under the big green-yellow flag and found very little.”
We can also be sure that Jose Murilo Junior's weekly batch of translations from Portuguese-speaking bloggers tomorrow will include first-hand accounts and analysis of the protests and the outcome of Bush's visit. We can also be sure that Uruguayan police are working overtime.


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Chile: Stop the Groping · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Celebrating International Women's Day, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet tells men to keep their hands to themselves.


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China: 10 blogging mistakes · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Kuang feng blogs about 10 things that should be avoided in blogging (zh), including: 1. seldom update; 2. blogging for money; 3. too rush; 4. not personal blog; 5. copycat; 6. not responding to comments; 7. no full text RSS; 8. no contact with other bloggers; 9. writing for google; 10. not subscribing Kuang feng's blog.


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China and Japan: comfort woman · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Granite Studio comments on Japan Prime Mininister Abe's recent comments on “comfort woman”:  Is history, and especially history education, nothing more than rhetoric and tales in the service of national self-esteem?


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China: casino stock market · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

One of the most outspoken People Congress representatives, Hung Ke-zhu criticised that the Chinese stock market has been a biggest casino, and within China Securities Regulatory Commission, there are members making use of information for their own benefits – more from Xue yong (zh).


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China: property law issue withdrawn · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Caijing (a finance magazine in China) has been forced to withdraw its latest issue on “Property Law” because the special issue had addressed the controversial nature of the Law, Zuo Ai zhong explained in his blog (zh).


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Colombia: University professor murdered in Cartagena · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Andres Duque finds yet another Latin American police investigator who tries to explain a homicide as “promiscuous homosexuality.”


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Egypt: More Blogs to be Blocked · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

The head of the very same Court imprisoned blogger Kareem Soliman will be appealing to next week is launching a lawsuit to get 21 blogs and websites blocked in Egypt, writes Issandr El Amrani in The Arabist.


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Egypt: Turkey Bans YouTube · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey reports that Turkey has blocked YouTube  for hosting videos that insulted Kemal Attaturk.
“The model secular Islamic state everyone,” he remarks.


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Estonia: Demography; “Estophobia” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Itching for Eestimaa corrects Itar-Tass news agency and quotes Pravda.


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Estonia: Elections · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Itching for Eestimaa writes about the recent elections (+32 comments) and their impact.


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Estonia: Music Radio · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Here's what Estonian music radio does to Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa: “One thing that I have noticed since moving to Estonia is the preference of Estonian radio stations to play 1980s-era pop songs, or, more prevalently, 2000s-versions of 1980s pop songs. […] One second I'm a 27-year-old guy shopping for linens with my wife, the next I'm six years old again, in the car on the way to the ocean with my parents.”


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Gargoyle: Channeling the African Blogosphere · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

In November last year, Africa Media blog had a post about the blog, Black Looks, winning Best of Blogs (BOB) award for best English language blog. The post concluded thus:
Sokari's terrific blog is — unfortunately — one of the handful of African blogs to turn up in the top 10 (sometimes top 15) blogs in a Technorati search of their blog directory when using the search word “Africa.”  Instead, get this, what comes up are some white American guys including a rightwing radio talk show host, a couple of Manhattan “media girls” traipsing around the Third World, and my favorite grass-roots African voice, The World Bank. Silly me, why in the world would I expect to find African blogs when searching for “Africa” in a blog directory?
Black Looks reacted to the post with her own observations and suggestions:
So in the first 20 there are actually just 6 blogs from the African blogosphere listed – check out who the remaining 14 belong to!
I am not an expert on how Technorati works but scrolling through the list it seems the more blogs that link to your blog the higher up you will come out in the search – ok that makes sense BUT thats clearly only part of it as “Samurai Soapbox” is listed and he doesnt even have a category “Africa”? As I was saying a couple of weeks ago we in the African blogosphere dont really link to each other and especially do not build on each other’s conversations so its no wonder that we remain relatively invisible in the mass of millions of blogs out there. I am not sure some sort of “TECHNORATI.COM BOMB” (as in google bomb) type exercise with the tag AFRICA + add your country tag irrespective of topic on every single post for the next 6 months might work? Could work but then again maybe it just doesnt matter and who cares a toss anyway?
In a post titled, Thoughts on African media and blogosphere, Grandiose Parlor joined the conversation with two key words: infrastructure and collaboration:
Basically, Africans should not only be able to tell their own stories via several media outlets, but able to fund/build/implement/manage the infrastructure needed to nurture and support these media structures, and the best way to achieve this is through collaboration.
Gargoyle: Channeling the African blogosphere
That was 2006. Here comes 2007: Gargoyle.
Gargoyle is a new African blog search engine coming out of South Africa.
In an email to Mike Stopforth, Peter writes:
Tentatively called Gargoyle, the idea being that a gargoyle channels a gush of water.
The search engine's About page says:
Here at Gargoyle we realised that although there is the excellent Muti for ranking there is no dedicated search engine for South Africa and African Blogs. We decided to rectify that situation.
This is our very early beta.
The plan is to search volutarily submitted Blogs and other sites with a similar type context in a free and fair fashion.
Reacting to news about Gargoyle, Mike Stopforth notes that:
It’s frighteningly quick. Warranted, I’m on a 1Mbps ADSL line at home, but if this is how fast Gargoyle can deliver meaningful (and quality) results, it’ll be my very first stop when searching within the SA blogosphere – something I’ve needed to do before and will most certainly need to do in future…
It’s not pretty, but that will come. It has the bells and whistles – an RSS feed for every search as an example, a feature I simply love (from an online reputation management perspective).
This site could very quickly become the standard alternative (or augmentation) to Technorati indexing for African bloggers. Well done on what seems to be a very solid platform, Peter.
Gargoyle could become a real alternative to Technorati, argues Paul Jacobson
I agree with you Mike. Gargoyle is a great start to what could become a real alternative to Technorati. Feeds are a must for this sort of thing but I wouldn’t want to see Gargoyle follow the same path as Technorati.
Cowboys engines likes the idea:
Here's my 10c (smallest coin we've got I gather). Nice idea – especially when you consider the volume out there. There's just too much – both competitively and in terms of finding what you want. I've always been an advocate of an African conglomeration of content – both for our Social Media Ranking Tools, our sites and our bloggers.
Some comments on the engine itself. Mike is right. It's blindingly fast – helps to be on a local server. The next PING OFF starts to suggest itself… Search Engines.
It only seems to link to the actual article on the blog, some of the time. Which is odd. I searched for '27 Dinner’ for instance – nice keyword, used in many local blogs one would think. It gets all the keyword appearences but only sometimes links through to the target article.
And the “noble open source gesture” blows his non-mathematical hair back:
What really blows my non-mathematical hair back is the explanation of the algorithm. THIS is a noble open source gesture – giving away your index maths. And a decimal point nightmare. Looks cool anyway…
Why I want Localised, Specialised Search
Dennis McDonald questions  the rationale behind such a specialized search engine:
Mike, I love the idea of specialized indexes and search engines. Can you point me to one or more discussions of the situations where they are particularly valuable, i.e., the fact that the objects being indexed and therefore searchable are in some way restricted in advance according to some criteria? Also, how would you explain the value of such search engines to people who have grown up with Google as an all purpose search engine?
Mike responds with a new post, Why I want Localised, Specialised Search:
The answer to the question was worthy of a new post. You see, the idea of a dedicated, local equivalent to Technorati or Google has been on the minds of many connected Africans for some time. We get lost in the sheer volumes generated on those sites. Yes, we are living in a global economy. But geographic boundaries still apply sometime, especially from a business perspective.
1. I want to be able to see Africa’s, and more specifically, South Africa’s blogosphere in one place. I want to be able to quantify it. I want the indexed sites to be reliable sources (moderated either by the community or by a dedicated team) to ensure the sites are indeed African in content or authorship (although this does raise some interesting questions about what would be ‘in’ and what would be ‘out’).
3. I want to be able to tell me clients when their customers are speaking about them, with some degree of reliability. I want to be able to set up watchlists for the SA blogosphere, which includes .com domains and M&G or 24.com blogs… a watchlist for Standard Bank on Technorati will produce 99% irrelevant result, whereas a similar search on a platform like Gargoyle will be 90% effective from a brand reputation management perspective.
A skeptical Dennis McDonald:
Thanks Mike, this is a terrific explanation. We should be able to “slice and dice” the web anyway we see fit — even if it’s just to be able to search a specialized collection of movie reviews or a specialized set of blogs related to social media and social networking. Geographic orientation is an obvious segmentation variable and certainly one of the most important criteria relevant to personal and professional networking.
Two possible caveats arise if we add metadata-based or infrastructure-based identifiers that simplify geographic aggregation of sites:
First, do we risk some “balkanization” of the web if different regions adopt different geographic tagging or aggregation techniques?
Second, do we make it easier for internet-unfriendly governments to track and restrict the free flow of information?
Mike Stopforth responds:
Both very real dangers, but on the first point I believe if enough power is in the hands of users we’ll maintain a global approach to local categorisation, and possibly interface with the existing tools to avoid that issue. In terms of Internet-unfriendly governments – prohibition is guaranteed to do one thing – encourage growth. Ask the US in the 20’s and today, Egyptian bloggers. Same patterns.
We’re Not Cloning, We’re Making It Relevant
South Africa has been at the forefront in developing sites based on established models such as YouTube: MyVideo, Craigslist: YouPost, Digg: Muti, etc.
Is this a form of cyber-cloning? Writing about this trend, Reed Tyler argues that South Africans are not cloning, but making it relevant:
YouTube, Flickr, Technorati and Blogger contain South African content and content from South Africans, but all this content gets lost within the vastness of these sites. They are all international so therefore the content comes from all over the world. South Africa does not produce as much content as the rest of the world, which means the content we do produce needs a home in order to prevent it from becoming lost among the rest of the worlds content. So we do just that, we create sites for our content.
South Africa is starting to boast some really impressive sites based on international models. I prefer not to call them clones, they are built on foreign concepts / models. They are fundamental in the growth of the South African internet. Mike Stopforth has already expressed his need for a South African version of Technorati.
Hash of White African agrees:
Tyler, I couldn’t agree more with your analysis. The simple fact is that much of what Africa needs is already developed, there’s room for customization, but the model is already there.
Tyler Reed lists such sites and Mike Stopforth writes about a new site, an African del.icio.us:
If you explore a bit you’ll also see that Peter is working on an ‘African Hive Mind‘ Knowledge Bank – a sort of semantic search alternative. Brilliant. Looks to be a del.icio.us for Africa-type idea.
delicious.
Is Africa making itself a room in the Second Superpower?


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Hong Kong: clapping banned in election debate · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Simon world talks about the absurdity in Hong Kong, such as banning clap during the Chief Executive election debate between two candidates.


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Hong Kong: IP legislation · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Charles Mok repost his article for computer world on the recent government consultation of “Copyright Protection in the Digital Environment”: the issues raised in the paper are all about strengthening enforcement, with nothing about how consumer rights can be enhanced, or how innovation can be encouraged with these measures beyond a simple-minded assumption.


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Hungary: Pecs · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar writes about the town of Pecs, which has been chosen to be one of the 2010 European Capitals of Culture: “In most other countries, this would be a source of minor pride; in Hungary, of course, the award has caused all manner of back-stabbing, accusations and general, good old-fashioned jealousy from the other wannabes.”


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Iraq: Fooled by the Government · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“We're being fooled by the government.. We know it, and we do nothing about it,” writes Iraqi blogger Aunt Najma here.
She then took us with her on a class picnic, which somehow had an awkward start but a happy ending.


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Iraq: Will the Baghdad Conference Fulfil Iraq’s Aspirations? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Iraqi blogger Mohammed is wondering whether tomorrow's Baghdad Conference will be a “positive contribution to stability in Iraq and to building better relationships with the neighbors and the international community?”
“The public opinion here isn't showing a lot of interest in the event and the subject rarely finds its way to common conversations, actually most people do not know who's going to be here for the conference, that, if they are at all aware it's going to be held tomorrow and in Baghdad—people are tired of watching neighboring countries interfering in Iraq almost always against Iraq's interests,” he explains.


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Iraqi: Saddam Trial Judge Flees · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Iraqi Judge who issued the death sentence of Saddam “Rauf Abdul Rahman” fled Iraq to London and asked for asylum. Rauf came to London mid-December with a tourist visa accompanied by his wife and two daughters, then returned to Iraq and filed a request for asylum to the British embassy claiming that he feared for his life from Saddam’s family,” reports Roads to Iraq here.


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Israel: On Refugees and Settlers · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“The passing of time, it seems to me, the passing of time without resolution, is the greatest evil we face. The passing of time compounds problems beyond measure. The passing of time makes everything more convoluted. This is especially so when it comes to some of the thorniest issues facing palestinians and israelis: refugees and settlers,” writes blogger Yaeli here.


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Kazakhstan and its Women · Global Voices
Leila Tanayeva

International Women's Day is a public holiday in Kazakhstan, and while happy bloggers-office workers get a break from their offices and blogs, congratulate their mothers, wives and daughters, we are presenting the latest roundup of blog entries by women and about them.
On Beauty
Slavoyara, a blogger and photographer from Pavlodar, has won the title of the most beautiful woman among the owners of Livejournal in a competition organised by blogger megakhuimyak. Congratulations!
She writes (RUS):
I am strict when in comes to assessing a woman's beauty: yes, there are physically attractive and non-attractive women. But this is not a criterion for assessing personality… Beauty is just a promise of happiness, as someone said.
On Work
Photo by Kamneed, from People at Work series
There are 2.247 legal migrants from Kazakhstan in the Czech Republic. Leila of neweurasia met a girl, whose family does not comprise the statistics: migrants from Taraz in the South of Kazakhstan, who preferred illegal work abroad to being at home, in a country, which boasts huge economic development.
On Foreign Husbands
Aksai, the city on oil-fields in Western Kazakhstan, is full of Western workers. Some local girls, according to Aiman, hope to get married to one of them in their longing for a better life:more
A girl … was sitting next to me [in a mini-bus]. Like thunder in clear sky she began to chatter with slender voice…: “Foreigners are better than Kazakhs and Russians, they are polite and well mannered, they don’t know how to swear and don’t steal!” To say that I was taken aback isn’t even going to cover it. With astonishment, I was examining her face, and wondering where she came from. I wanted to answer, but she continued: “they even treat women better, than the Soviet men; I wish to marry a foreigner”.
Aiman lists some common myths that surround the foreigners in Kazakhstan, and being married to one herself, Aiman tries to dispel them.
She writes:
For some reason, my relatives decided that I’m getting married to a millionaire and asked him to pay “kalym” (traditional “payment” for a bride) with a helicopter, for grandpa, since he is old and a veteran of World War II and apparently it’s hard for him to take a bus. For you, it may be funny, but it wasn’t funny for my relatives, and especially for my grandpa who really hoped to “sell” his granddaughter for a helicopter. And then I understood that I have to save my future husband from the “claws” of my relatives, or else something bad might happen. When my grandpa found out that he won’t get a helicopter, and that a maximum on what my relatives can count on is a bicycle, they were really upset, and didn’t even try to hide it.
When my aunt found out that a foreigner is coming to visit, she started panicking, and the first question she asked was: “What does he like to eat”. I asked her not to worry about it, and just serve “normal” food. When we came, everybody looked at him like he was some sort of exotic bird or something. Everybody tried to touch and feel him, and what do you expect? It’s the first time they see a live foreigner! They also with curiosity watched him eat foods that were on the table. First thing that my aunt asked me was: “Did you starve him?”
Aiman also writes how Kazakh hospitality proves to be a challenge for an unexperienced foreigner:
My husband didn’t even suspect it was possible to eat, drink and not sleep in such amounts and so often. At first he really liked eating with his hands, say toasts and “cheers”, and just sit there, smile and practice his little knowledge of the Russian language. But just imagine his astonishment when my mom set the table again at 2 o’clock in the morning and once again, they started to say toasts, drink and sing! He was sick a whole week afterwards, from indigestion and a huge amount of vodka.
When Kazakhs and foreigners get really drunk, they can understand each other without a translator. I’ve seen it happen a lot of times, but the funniest time was when my cousins got their brother-in-law really drunk with vodka and beer. When he came home, he could barely stand up, but he could clearly talk and asked me “kal kalai?” (“how are you” in Kazakh) and not waiting for my answer answered himself: “zhaksy!” (“good!”). He also learned a new Russian phrase: “Beer without vodka is wasted money!”
As a word of wisdom to other girls who think life with a foreinger is a paradise, she writes:
There are a lot of myths about foreigners and their lifestyles, and, sadly because of the inability to “see the world” our people look at them as something invincible. There are a lot of stereotypes; a lot of them started a long time ago, at the time of the Soviet Union and you can’t do anything about them. Remembering that girl from the mini-bus, I think about how many young girls coming to Aksay hope to find their happiness with a foreigner, some do, some, find disappointment, and some, like me, understand that in the end it’s important to be happy.”
On Politics
KUB writes about the most influential woman in Kazakhstan: Dariga Nazarbayeva, a daughter of the President (RUS):
Despite the obvious Oriental mentality, there are women in Kazakhstani politics too. The current government has three female ministers. Out of 116 deputies – 10 are women… The most vidid and famous politician is the deputy from the Mazhilis (the lower house of Parliament), Dariga Nazarbayeva.
Nazarbayeva does not miss a chance to underline her “ordinariness”, trying to ignore her status as the “president's daughter”. Though rumour has it, she knows her role in the presidency. Thus, people who know the “behind the scenes” in Astana, say that Dariga managed the election campaign of her father in 2005. In public, she, on behalf of her Asar party, offered all pro-government political parties to create a common coalition to nominate one candidate – Nursultan Nazarbayev.
In the last years they started talking about Dariga as the most likely successor of Nazarbayev in 2012, when his last, according to the Constution, term ends. And though Dariga has repeatedly said that she has no presidential ambitions, more and more often the analysts and even the lobbyists name her as a possible successor. The latter think it is possible that the system of governance would change in a way that all power mechanisms would be held by the Head of the senate. This could be Dariga Nazarbayeva.
On Feminism
LJ user tropical_rat started tutoring for tests of English in Astana, Kazakhstan. He posts his thoughts on feminism and how it is taken in Kazakhstan:
I was talking about feminism with one student and it occurred to me that the highly useful formulation that “feminism is the belief that women are people too” is not accurate. I got grilled on this one; if that's the case then why do anything? Where is the problem? I propose that feminism in fact entails three propositions:
1) Women are people too, and thus entitled to all rights, status, and privileges that every member of society enjoys, including political, social, legal and economic rights.
2) Historically, women have been denied these rights or access to these rights by institutions and/or individuals.
3) This constitutes an injustice which should be addressed.
And it is the last two that many Kazakhstanis have issues getting behind. The 3rd proposition particularly, because what we call injustice, they call the natural order of things.

author: Leila Tanayeva


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Lebanon: Where is Lebanon? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Lebanese blogger Free Cedar meets a girl, in a bar, who is clueless about where Lebanon is. Find out more about their exchange here.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Morocco: Comedian Back Home to Perform · Global Voices
Alice Backer

EspaceMaroc writes [Fr]: “Comedian Gad El Maleh is coming home to present his one man show I am the Other, his latest comedic creation featuring very original sketches. He will be in Casablanca on Marh 12 and 13 and then in Rabat on March 17. The comedian was named one of the funniest men of the year by [French TV channel ]TF1.”


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

I'm writing this post from the confines of my newly acquired underground bunker. The reason for opting for a subterrestrial crib is not because I am paranoid about an impending Middle East conflict turning nuclear (although that is a pretty good reason) but because my blog popularity has soared for measly fan following of two to a colossal following of 3 and half. The half represents a three-legged Dachshund fascinated with my sad attempts at political satire. With such a large group of fanatical admirers of my blog, I have decided to go into hiding in my new secret grotto, so that I shall not be inundated with requests for autographs.
Today's round-up includes an interesting mix of Pakistani blog posts, which includes the written word, podcast and video commentary. We'll start of with the latest hit piece from the Fountainhead detailing the fall of the Roaming Empire.
Nothing can be sadder than the fact that a country that welcomed to its bosom victims of the abuse of other powers for centuries, finally became the greatest abuser of power itself. And in so doing, wrote its own epitaph.
The Glasshouse remains optimistic faced with the seriousness of the US-Iran conflict.
These days I often come across people who seem apprehensive about the possibility of war between the US and Iran. Your Blogger, being a habitual optimist, likes to believe that what we are witnessing is no more than another example of the Bush Administration’s predilection for sabre-rattling.
I have to tell you that my new cavernous residence is rather palatial. It includes an underground lake, two huge power generators, a computer with 24-hour internet access and 2 years supply of spam and Twinkies to address my special  dietary needs.
Suspectpaki, one of my oldest blogger friends, unfortunately due to ill health cannot currently do much writing for his blog due to problems with his eyesight. He has opted to do a podcast instead, providing an off-the-cuff rant which turns out to be a coherent social and political commentary. You must all have a listen.
Another Pakistani blogger, Bring The Funny (aka Sami Shah) whose posts I have closely followed over the last few months, not just because he does extremely witty commentary but because he is also a professional stand-up comic. Finally after much insistence from myself and I'm sure many other fans, he has manage to include audio and video clip links to his stand up act. I highly recommend checking them out because his jokes are very topical.
Finally, I provide my analysis on the Scooter Libby conviction. Not only is this article profound in its content but it was recently nominated for the Best Actor award for satire impersonating as a serious news post.
I'm signing out now and I shall go relax in my new residence, which very closely resembles the Bat Cave. The only difference is instead of Alfred (Batman's butler), I have this very seedy, bearded individual serving as my man servant, who now that I think about it, looks suspiciously like Ossama Bin Laden. Oh damn, help!

author: Omer Alvie


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Peru: Music: Pedro Novoa · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Thank god it's Friday. Time for some relaxing Trova to wind down for the weekend. Fortunately Creative Commons Peru has posted all of the tracks from Pedro Novoa's latest album “La Estación.”


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Peru: Regional Politics and Transnational Markets · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Penelope Anthias on “how the new political map of Latin America is influencing Peru’s integration into transnational markets and what this tells us about the opportunities and challenges facing developing countries when interacting in the global economy.”


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Poland: Anti-Commercials Initiative · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Traveling Life reports on the neo-socialist party's initiative to “forbid Polish television stations from inserting commercials into movies and other programming without the consent of the author.”

author: Veronica Khokhlova


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Poland: College Education · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Our Man in Gdansk writes on how Polish college education works.


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Poland: New Regulation for Journalists · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

“From March 15th all journalists born before 1972 working in Poland will have to sign a declaration that they did not spy for the Polish People's Republic. That includes me: Polish law has a very wide definition of journalism and the bill makes no distinction between Poles and foreigners,” reports Our Man in Gdansk.


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Poland: Politician Against Abortion and Gays · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The beatroot reports on a Polish politician who “wants any new EU Constitution (yawn) to include a ban on abortion and rights for homosexuals.”


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Poland: Simon Moll Wasn’t Political Refugee · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The beatroot continues covering the saga of the African man who infected seven Polish women with HIV: the latest news is that Simon Moll was only pretending to be a political refugee.


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Romania: Autonomy · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Csikszereda Musings writes about the region he lives in and his vision of “a more federal Romania.”


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Russia: Billionaires · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Russia's billionaires are numerous and young, according to the Forbes Magazine and Russian Spy.


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Russia: March 8 · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

The Turkish Invasion writes about how Russians celebrate March 8 – and posts a hilarious Soviet poster on the subject.


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Russia: “The Yabloko of Discord” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

VeryRussianTochkaNet writes about the election scandal involving the Yabloko party in St. Petersburg.


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Russia, U.S.: Specter on Colbert Report · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Sean's Russia Blog writes about a U.S. comedy show whose recent guest was Michael Specter, the author of a lengthy piece on political murders taking place in Russia.


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Senegal: Public Transportation Fare Hike · Global Voices
Alice Backer

Blog Politique du Sénégal [Fr] doesn't understand why some are unhappy with the doubling or tripling of public transportation costs during the Magal, an annual event of the Mouride moslem sect. “Personally, I find logical and normal that the drivers increase the fares as mush as they can. We are after all in a capitalist state where freedom in trade, as in the law of offer and demand, is king. “


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Serbia: Belgrade Airport’s New Security Rules · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Belgrade 2.0 warns travellers about the new safety rules introduced at Belgrade airport.


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Israel: Bedouin Open Season? · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Israeli blogger Desert Peace links to a story about the killing of a Bedouin shepherdess. “It's open season on the Bedouin these days…. either their homes are demolished by the IDF .. or their children are shot for ‘trespassing’,” he writes.


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Africa: help or leave my motherland · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Adefunke is not impressed with pro-Africa charity initiatives, “Ryan announced on the show that he and Simon had already made a trip to ‘Africa’ to witness the poverty and sickness firsthand perhaps to authenticate its existence after all they are serious celebrities who can only lend the ‘weight’ of their ‘serious’ celebrity to real causes. Cowell seemed totally convinced that poverty is real in ‘Africa’ as he stiffly shook hands with children on the obligatory tape made of their fact finding mission. Ryan went further to try and experience this poverty by attempting to balance a basket of bananas on his head.”


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Africa: Hope Raisers, “Da Bomb”, Swahili Hip Hop, & Zimfest  · Global Voices
Ntwiga

In the 4 weeks since my last post on Global Voices, there has been lots of activity covered by bloggers in the African music scene. Here is a roundup of just a small part of that activity.
Pambuzuka, an African news magazine that works to promote social change in Africa has a post about a special broadcast of the conscious music group “Hope Raisers” from Nairobi's slums at the World Social Forum that was held in Nairobi in January 2007. The music on the podacast is from the Hope Raisers and Tanzanian poet, writer, and musician Freddy Macha.
Oluniyi David Ajao carried a post at the end of January about Praye, a Ghanian high life group. When asked about the meaning of the groups’ name, Eugene Baah, one of the group members said:
Well, we chose the name Praye because this in English means a broom and since a broom is a tool for sweeping, we are also here to sweep the social vices through our music
And that they have. Praye first took West Africa by storm during a 2004 talent search contest, Nescafe African Reveleation, sponsored by Nescafe and then went on to win a Kora award, the African equivalent of a Grammy. Praye has a new album out in 2007 named “The Bomb” that has taken Ghanian airwaves by storm and is getting significant airplay. Their videos can be found on Youtube and their music can be purchased from the Big Ben Music label.
In the meantime, there is exciting news for lovers of Zimbabwean music.  Soundroots.org writes that ZimFest 2007, a 3 day Zimbabwean music festival, is coming to Olympia, Washington in the summer of 2007.
The festival runs August 24, 25, and 26 and will be hosted at South Puget Sound Community College (incidentally the same location as the World Sacred Music Festival in February
While billing for the event is still being finalized, the event promises to be a treat to fans living in the Pacific Northwest .
On the other side of  the North American continent, Calabash Music, New York city is home to a new website covering music from African, European and South American with a difference. Boasting Zimbabwean music legend Thomas Mapfumo as one of its staffers, the site aims at bringing Fair Trade practices to the music business.
Quoting the site's “About” page
Calabash Music™ is the ultimate global music destination giving easy access to all the great, but hard-to-find, music from around the world. We’re providing you with the most unique and broadest based international catalog – served the way you like it, via the Internet.
Calabash Music carries a new DRM-free sampler track every week for download for anyone looking to learn a little more about the music they sell.
January has also been a month of multiple new releases including the internet release of the debut album from rapper Muki Garang whose mix tape can be found on his
The obvious question of course is if Muki is any relation to the great Sudanese patriot John Garang. On a comment left by Muki at my blog at ntwiga.net, Muki says
… i am not i son to the Late Hon. Dr. Col. John De Mabior Garang.I am a follower of his,one who identifies with the struggle he went through and sacrifice of all other endevours, inorder to emancipate oppressed southerners.I chose to identify with the struggle.My names originate from mythical work to trace my ancestry and to establish my aspirations as a leader.Hiphop is my guide through that part
You can find the rest of the mix tape at this link. Be sure to listen to the tracks Shida zetu za kawaida (Swahili for “Our everyday problems”) and Upuzi (Swahili for “nonsense”).
SONY Canada has a new site covering world music including some great live performances from African artists that can be found at The Dusty Foot. Among the artists and groups featured in the last week include a coming tour of the group . Dusty Foot also has a blog . While the site's focus is on Somali culture, it covers material from all forms of the arts including poetry and art.
For the hip hop lovers looking to listen to something different, MsaaniXL and the Beneath the Surface (BNTS) crew have a new mix -Anga Banga State of Mind available for download. The collection which includes tracks by artists from Mozambique, Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, the UK and USA among others is definitely worth downloading and listening to for anyone who enjoys African hip hop or rap.
Finally, The Muso is a South African indie/music review blog that has been around since March 2006. Over the last couple of months, the site has reviewed several South African bands including Benguela, a jazz improvisation trio that is now shutting down, Dylan Von Wagner 2006 album Infinity, Clap your hands say yeah's Some Loud Thunder and unit r.'s eat this
In closing, lets all wish Matt over at Matsuli whose blog is a must-read for anyone interested in pre-1990 African music a Happy Birthday as his site turns one this week.
That's it for this roundup. See you all again real soon.

author: Ntwiga


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Africa: new African women magazine · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

My Life blogs about a new African Women's magazine, “Kitu Kizuri is a new quarterly African Women's magazine, which is currently in print, and will be available in April for the public. I'm pretty sure there are lots of other African magazines out there…maybe not, but Kitu Kizuri is very different. Think of it as the Essence of African women, xcept, it is by us, for us, and about us.”


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Bahrain: The Story of a US Deserter · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Bahrain-based Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah links to a story detailing the struggle a US soldier, drafted to Iraq, went through before deserting the army and seeking refugee status with his family in Canada.


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Bangladesh: The Islamic state and practicality · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

a Bengali in TO explains why an Islamic state is impractical. “Today, however, the clerics have dubious motives for issuing edicts – be it money, power, fame or cultural reasons. Thus, we cannot trust our ulemah to interpret Islam in a just manner, and one of the main pillars of an “Islamic” state thus falls.”

author: Neha Viswanathan