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News from the Chinese Blogosphere · Global Voices
Frank Dai

This week, Tencent Company, which own QQ, the most popular IM software in China, decided to comply with local government demanding the creator and administrator of QQ group to hand in their real identity and personal profile. The QQ group was one of the features provided by QQ, which allows people to have a multi-users chat without using any browser. It was generally regarded by Chinese internet users as the first step to adopt the so-called “Real Name Registration” policy. Some bloggers have already called boycott against using the software.
Bokee.com, formerly Blogchina.com, has officially announced release of its new website and system. Blogchina has been the largest BSP in China. It aims to make use of potentially commercial value of blog. There are also some reports that Blogchina delete its blogger's entry though the content is neither politically nor sexually sensitive. It only deals with married women seeking love outside of their family and had been critical with some policies of Blogchina.
RenMinBi, the official currency adopted by China is reevaluated so it instantly becomes a hot topic for bloggers who has intensive interest in China's economy. Here are some good discussions in English bloggers.
The famous searching engine company, Google, set up R&D center in China and hires former Microsoft geek Dr. Kai-Fu Lee as Vice President. MS has sued Google for illegally taking Dr Lee, who was in charge of several leading projects  inside Microsoft. A Chinese blogger thought MS may fear that he will leak some technological secrets outside and hiring Dr Lee was a part of strategy of Google to develop Chinese internet market.
Glutter said that a Chinese hacker managed to invade a Hong Kong human rights activist’s email account and has been monitoring his computer for almost one year. He had reported the case to police and the identity of the hacker is still under investigation. But the hacker’s IP address is from Mainland China.
According to official English newspaper China Daily, China’s internet users reached 103 million and 5 million of them has sign up for a blog account(Blogherald). ZhongBo, a media company in China claims that they would shoot the first movie about Chinese Bloggers.


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Egyptian Bloggers Against Terrorism · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

(Photo from OneArabWorld.)
Karim Eslahy has posted a link to photos of Sunday's demonstration against terrorism organized by Egyptian bloggers. We're still trying to confirm how many people attended, but Karim reports: “Very small turnout and the cops made them leave but proportionally significant coverage nonetheless.”
Attendees included The Big Pharaoh, Sandmonkey, Highlander,  and Mindbleed.
The protest was the maiden activity of a new organization, Pray 4 Peace, which Karim started because he says he is sick of the cycle of violence in which everybody takes sides and obsesses over who started what. He writes:
I no longer care who started what. I only care how it ends.
If enough of us can get together, shed our differences, and unite in the face of violence we can make a difference.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rebecca MacKinnon


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Flickr Pick from Japan · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

“Maikosan in the Heat” by aakaakaakaakaak

author: Paul Frankenstein


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Accra Update #2 · Global Voices
Andy Carvin

My latest podcast from Ghana explaining why I've been offline since Friday afternoon. Music by Ghanaian drummer Obo Addy, from his album Afieye Okropong, used with permission from Alula Records. -andy
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS

author: Andy Carvin


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Argentina: Foreign Debt Museum · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Diego of Altered Argentina continues his Debt For Education Swaps series with a review of the Foreign Debt Museum at the University of Buenos Aires’ School of Economics. He's pretty sure this is the world's first museum devoted to debt.

author: David Sasaki


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Armenia: Localized Armenian Windows XP / Office Under Development · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Oneworld Multimedia is reporting that an Armenian version of Windows XP and Microsoft Office is under development. Apparently one sticking point is that Armenian simply doesn't have the technical vocabulary needed for something like this.


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Bahrain: It’s great to be free.. · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Silly Bahraini Girl asks for a dialogue on what it really means to be free (mildly NSFW picture included).


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Bolivia: A Valuable Look Back at Bolivian History · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Blog From Bolivia offers some excellent reflection on a piece written in 1952 entitled “Democracy in the Andes” by William Rosenberg. In a satirical response to recent comments on the Democracy Center's outsider funding, there is also an announcement that Blog From Bolivia is currently on vacation until August 1st.


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Bolivia: Election Buzzword #1 – Gonismo · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Eduardo of Barrio Flores writes that “Gonismo” – referring to the Neoliberal policies of ex-president,  Gonzalo “Goni” Sanchez de Lozada, has become the Bolivian election buzzword.


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Bolivia: Evo’s Chances · Global Voices
David Sasaki

MABB gives yet another (and probably the definitive) speculation on Evo Morales’ chances of becoming Bolivia's next president.


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Buenos Aires, City of Faded Elegance » Borges, Girondo, & Norah Lange · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jeff Barry has yet another quality reflection and summary of 20th century Argentine literature which he ties in with his own life.


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Buzz from South Asian Blogs · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Metroblogging Lahore captures the spirit of local elections in Lahore in Pakistan, commenting on the almost-indifferent attitude of Lahoris. Continuing the theme of Lahore, pakistani perspective links to a book review on the red-light area in the city called Heera Mandi. And then, there is this post about Europe's first Pakistani Film Fest in the UK.
Sepia Mutiny posts on the killing of an innocent man in London by the police. On Flotsam, KM continues the thought process and questions “Is this the Mistaken-Identity Killing Week?” .
Dilip D'Souza puts up a press release by some women's organisations in Mumbai on his blog. The press release details the nature of debate in the Legislative House on the Dance Bar Bill. Zoo Station has a post discussing Amartya Sen's new book ‘The Argumentative Indian’, and how it scores over previous attempts to explain the idea of India to a Western World. A post on The Acorn on the man who killed Daniel Pearl the journalist.
From Imtiaz's weBlog, a text and photo post detailing a demolition drive in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A collation of three news stories on Deshcalling on reaching out to young Muslims. Sadiq M. Alam links to the only site with scriptures from three religions. Unheard Voices, outlines the controversy surrounding Sarmila Bose's research on allegations on the Pakistani Army in 1971.
Blogging from Nepal, this posts puts forth the idea that the conflict in the country is fuelling the HIV situation. Activists in Nepal are arrested for raising pro-democracy slogans in Nepal.
Days Go By ponders on the fate of nightlife in Colombo in Sri Lanka, following the incidents in the city of late. LIRNEasia  has an excellent post on community meeting in Polonaruwa to discuss disaster response in the context of dam safety. CSR Asia links to a report that examines issues relating to violence against Children in South Asia.

author: Neha Viswanathan


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Cambodia: Photo of Cambodia and Her People · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Tharum's Web points to the Flickr Cambodia feed as a way for foreigners to become more familar with his country.


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Central America: CAFTA · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Boz ponders CAFTA and free trade in general
as the agreement enters a House vote this week.


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China: Has the future tone of Sino-Japanese relations just been set · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Angry Chinese Blogger wonders if the appointment of a new Japanese ambassador to China forshadows slightly strained relations in the future.


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China: Looking for 5 million bloggers · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

China Herald wonders where the 5 million Chinese bloggers figure comes from.


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China: ma-lie-lao-tai mentality · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Bingfeng Teahouse pushes back on the issue of internet filtering, arguing that concerns about Chinese internet filtering are somewhat overblown and spring from an antiquated mindset.


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China: Why The Visitors From Beijing Cried At The Sight Of Bottle Of Remy Martin · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

EastSouthWestNorth translates an article about what  happened when a group of education volunteers were treated to a banquet.


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Ecuador: Former president a wanted man · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jeannette Jalil writes from Chile that “The Supreme Court of Ecuador has issued an arrest warrant for the former president, Lucio Gutierrez.”


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Egypt: A Moral Stand · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Egyptian Person says that “if you are selective in what you call terrorism depending on where it's taking place or who is getting killed, then you are a part of the problem and you need to fix yourself…”


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Egypt: Mona El Tahawy gets it right! · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Rantings of a Sandmonkey says “we are all in this together!”


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Egypt: Reaction to the blasts · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

From Cairo, with Love asks “wouldn't it be wise to close the tap, from its source, that pours so many terrorists into our laps?”


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Ethiopia: From Gonder to Niger · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Andrew Heavens on how hunger crisises are inherently undramatic.


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Flickr Pick from Dominican Republic · Global Voices
David Sasaki


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France: The well known clothing brand Celio starts its blog · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Loic Le Meur reports on the launch of yet another French corporate blog.


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Hong Kong: Activist Says Chinese Hackers Read His E-mails · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Glutter reports that a Hong Kong democracy activist says that his emails have been monitored by an unknown hacker inside China. This is another worrying development for for the future of ‘one country, two systems’.


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How to Make a Three-Hour Drive a Seven-Hour Nightmare · Global Voices
Andy Carvin

Yesterday afternoon, a group of us began the drive back to Accra from Patriensa. As you'll see in a future blog entry, our car broke down and we spent hours hobbling back to Accra, towed by a feed truck whose tow rope kept breaking from the front of the car. In the meantime, you can hear two podcasts I posted from my mobile phone while we were stranded – yes, I managed to have mobile phone access in rural southern Ghana.
First podcast: around 7:15pm, somewhere north of Accra
Second podcast: about two hours later, a bit closer to Accra, but far from anywhere near our final destination
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS


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Indonesia: Learn the language · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Macam-Macam reports that overseas applicants for work permits will be required to learn Bahasa Indonesia if their job requires them to interact with Indonesians.


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Iran: Hero or loser · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Hoder has his own take on Akbar Ganji, both as a man and as a symbol.


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Iran: Persian Coverage of Akbar Ganji · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

webgardian has been following the Akbar Ganji story and what Iranian bloggers have to say about him closely.


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Lebanon: Al-Wadi · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Abu Aardvark notes that the latest hit show to come out of Lebanon is a Big Brother-style reality show set on a farm featuring immensely popular Lebanese pop star Haifa Wehbi as the star. Haifa is pretty much the hook for the show, as she's the ‘permament guest’ while the other celebrities rotate in and out.


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Lebanon: If Syria Really Wanted Lebanon’s Interests… · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

A Lebanese Abroad doubts Syria's assertions that it really wants to have ‘brotherly’ relations with Lebanon.


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Nicaragua: Coffee and Contras · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Boli-Nica has two posts on a recent Miami Herald article about the nexus of organic coffee and politics in Nicaragua. His posts are full of links to other bloggers discussing the issue.


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Nigeria: Going Wireless in Nigeria · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Chippla's Weblog looks at a bright spot for Nigeria: the country's burgeoning wireless revolution.


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Peru: Taxis in Lima, Peru · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Live from Lima has little faith in the capabilities of taxi drivers in Peru's largest city.


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Singapore: “Asia’s Mandela”  · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Singaporean blog  Omeka Na Huria has a lengthy profile of Chia Thye Poh, “Asia's Mandela”.


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Singapore: S$400,000 spent to rename Marina Bay… Marina Bay · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Singabloodypore wonders why the government spent nearly half-a-million dollars (Singapore) to conclude that the best name for the redeveloped Marina Bay area was… Marina Bay.


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South Africa: Interview with a hijacker · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Jo'blog posts an interview with a former car-jacker. It was passed around by email, so the original source is unclear.


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Strolling Through Kumasi Central Market · Global Voices
Andy Carvin

Video montage of a walk through one of the largest open-air markets in Africa. Shot and edited on July 23, 2005. Music by Ghanaian drummer Obo Addy, from his album Afieye Okropong, used with permission from Alula Records.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS


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Sudan: Secretary Rice’s Visit · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Humanitarian Hijinks has some thoughts on Condolezza Rice's visit to Sudan.


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Trinidad: Trains · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Taran Rampersad writes of the former train system in Trinidad and Tobago which was mostly used to transport sugar during British colonial times.


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Uruguay: Tannat Wine · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Don Ball Carbajal discusses the unique flavor of Tannat wine from Uruguay.


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Venezuela: polling · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Daniel of Venezuela News and Views discusses “The difficult art of Venezuelan polling”


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Zimbabwe: The West Must Fix It · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

This is Zimbabwe reports that The Mugabe government is floating the idea that Western governments should help clean up the fallout from “Operation Clean-Up”.


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Argentina: First Impressions, Buenos Aires · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Marisa, from Leander, Texas, writes a spanish and english version of her arrival to Buenos Aires and then this post of her first impressions of the city when she stumbled upon what “felt like … the middle of a COPS episode.


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Argentina: Medical Tourism and Who Benefits · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Expat Argentina has a post in English on “medical tourism” in Argentina while Jorge Gobbi of Blog de Viajes says in Spanish that more studies need to be done to discover just who does benefit from increased tourism.


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Argentina: Text Messaging · Global Voices
David Sasaki

The metablog, weblog.com.ar, reports that 80% of cell phone users in Argentina use text messaging [es]. It often seems like the U.S. is about the only country that doesn't.


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Bolivia: Samuel Doria Medina · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Barrio Flores profiles Bolivian presidential candidate and Burger King magnate, Samuel Doria Medina, who describes his political platform as hot sauce, not ketchup.


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China: Security Guards Attack Street Peddlers · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

China Digital Timespoints to these shocking images of security guards assaulting street peddlers. The site's in Chinese, but the headline reads “Nanning TV night crew took video of an incident in which security guards from a seaside KTV [karaoke w/ private rooms] beat people up”.


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Colombia, Bolivia: Coca buybacks · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Plan Colombia and Beyond writes about a new Colombian initiative to buy back illegal coca harvests in Colombia. The post notes that a similar program in Bolivia a few years ago did not do much.


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Cuba: Hamburgers · Global Voices
David Sasaki

A contributor to A Hamburger Today visited Cuba to get the low down on the Socialist Island's hamburger scene. Though he encountered “the kindest people I've ever met,” the taste of the hamburgers left something to be desired: “The burger stayed in my mind for days. I kept tasting that strange texture and unique blend of zesty seasoning. It started to dawn on me: It was a little pink; could it have been something other than beef?”


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Egypt: SharmRelief.com · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Karim Elsahy of One Arab World has set up a fundraising effort for the victims of last weekend's bombing attacks at Sharm El sheikh.


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El Salvador: Why I oppose CAFTA · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Tim's El Salvador Blog gives a thorough explanation of why he opposes the Central American Free Trade Agreement.


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England: More on the death of Jean Charles de Menezes · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Lenin's Tomb tries to make sense of the shooting death of Jean Charles de Menezes, the young Brazillian man who was killed by British Police in the subway.


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Flickr Pick from Trinidad and Tobago · Global Voices
David Sasaki

22-year old trumpeter Etienne Charles, photographed at the Phase II Pan Groove panyard, home base of one of Trinidad & Tobago’s most celebrated steel orchestras. “This place is my home,” says Etienne, “For me this was a place of dreams. This is where I learnt what music was all about.”


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Ghana: Discussing Podcasts and Video Blogs on Radio Ghana · Global Voices
Andy Carvin

A few days ago at the video blogging/podcasting workshop I conducted near the University of Ghana, I was interviewed by a journalist from Radio Ghana. I checked out various news casts several times, but never heard it, so I figured I must have missed it or that it never aired.
Well, last night I was driving back to my guesthouse in northeast Accra. We got lost while trying to take a short cut, so it took longer than usual. Just before we arrived at the guesthouse, though, I heard the evening news announcer reading the daily headlines, and he began talking about an American “Internet expert” helping Ghanaians create podcasts and video blogs. As I searched frantically for my digital audio recorder, I asked the driver to stop, saying they were about to air an interview me. Though skeptical, he shook his head and pulled over. Then, we heard my voice on the radio. The cabbie started laughing and gave me a congratulatory handshake.
Eventually, I managed to find my audio recorder. Here's what I was able to capture. -andy
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS


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Hong Kong: The Root of All Evil? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Is money the root of all evil? Simon World reports on the case of a 60-year-old woman who was caught smuggling HK$2.2 million (about US$283,000) in cash hidden inside hollowed-out root vegetables.


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India: Accreditation of Engineering Institutes · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Youth Curry hopes for better accreditation of engineering institutes in India and has ideas on how it could happen.


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India: Are all men alike? · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Gaurav Sabnis is offended by the supposed guardians of Indian Culture who think men cannot control themselves.


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Iran: Ganji’s Wife Says Hopsital Worse Than Prison · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The wife of imprisioned Iranian journlaist Akbar Ganji has said that her husband's situation is worse in the hospital than it is in prison. Gangji has been on a hunger strike and is believed to be close to death.


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Iran: Torture in Jails · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Iranian Truth is surprised that the Tehran Justice Administration has admitted that they torture prisoners in jail.


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Iraq: Draft Constitution Fails To Impress · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Omar of Iraq The Model looks at the current draft Iraqi constitution and finds it lacking.


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Italy: Italians targeted in Egypt? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Italian blogger Luca De Biase reports that the Italian media is saying that the targets of the bombings in Egypt were Italians.


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Juanson World: Justice or Impunity? · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Christian of Juanson World gives a survey of criticism and support for the recently-passed Justice and Peace Law in Colombia.


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Kenya: It was inevitable · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

After a fan was killed during a previous World Cup qualifying match, Kenya has been ordered to play its next match in an empty stadium, notes Bankelele.


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Kyrgyzstan: Don’t pack your bags · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Registan.net is reporting that US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld's visit to Kyrgyzstan had its intended effect; the US presence at the airbase in Manas will continue indefinately.


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Malaysia: Proton board ousts Mahaleel: What the news (really) says and what it (really) means to consumers · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Brand New Malaysian has an analyssi of the latest executive shakeup at Proton, Malaysia's national car manufacturer.


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Nepal: Rally in Khatmandu · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A post on a rally in Khatmandu with telling photographs at United We Blog.


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Niger: Yes, it’s True, There are Slaves in Niger… · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

African Bullets & Honey writes about the subject of slavery in Niger.


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Pakistan: Clerics in Karachi · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Jihad Watch has a post on clerics being detained in Pakistan after a crackdown.


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Philippines: State of the Nation Address · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Sassy Lawyer casts her critical eye on President Gloria Arroyo's State of the Nation Address.


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Russia: Spammer Murdered · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Digenis.org reports that Russia's most notorious spammer was found beaten to death in his apartment over the weekend. It's unknown if his brutal murder was connected to his spamming activities.


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Singapore: SG Entrepreneurs · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

A new blog devoted to entrepreneurship has been launched in Singapore. It's actually kinda interesting, since the Singaporean economic model has not been particularly entrepreneurship-heavy, unlike, say the Hong Kong or Taiwanese economic models…


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South Asia: Perven Musharraf Interview · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

An interesting take on McFadden's  interview of Pervez Musharraf at Varnam.


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South Asia: Possible scenarios for the Future · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

DeshCalling links to Global Trends 2015, offering possible scenarios of power and economies.


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Sweden & Denmark: Swedes take time to learn Danish · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Fjordman on some of the differences between the various Scandinavian languages.


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United Kingdom: Muslims, Terrorism and Conspiracy Theories · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Iraqi Expat, who's based in London, on the fear of terrorists that affects overseas Muslims.


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U.S. Virgin Islands: Gas Shortage · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Frank Barnako writes on News of St. John that the island may very soon be down to only one operating gas station.


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Angola: Same old song and dance · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Black Star Journal: “Seems like I write an essay every week on some African leader or another trying to make himself president-for-life.”


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Australia: Australia back-flip · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Macam-Macam addresses Australia's signing of the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Co-operation.


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Azerbaijan: AZ Election Poll · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Blogrel reports that Azerbaijan citizens don't seem to think that fair elections are a priority.


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Balancing Act on African Blogs · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

The current issue of Balancing Act – the leading online newsletter reporting on African telecommunications – leads off with an article on African blogs and features several bloggers who are involved with Global Voices, including Andy Carvin, Kenyan Pundit Ory Okolloh (good luck with the bar exam, Ory!), Sokari Ekine and Ndesanjo Macha. Thanks to Russell Southwood and the Balancing Act team for continuing to provide this excellent resource for everyone who follows African telecoms.

author: Ethan Zuckerman


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Bangladesh: Narrative Journalism · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Planet Bangla links to an article discussing the potential of narrative journalism in Bangladesh.


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Cambodia: E-Khmer Web Counter · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Beth Kanter, of Cambodia4Kids, is trying a novel method for learning Khmer numbers.


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China: Feedburner Meets Bokee · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Feedburner has just announced a partnership with BlogChina Bokee. It should be interesting to see how their offering integrate with each other.


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China: how billionaire stories lead to labor shortage · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Do stories about overnight billionaires cause labor shortages in China?


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China: Irony Lives in China – A Photo Album · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

EastSouthNorthWest has a photo gallery that conclusively proves that irony is not dead in China.


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China: New edition of Modern Chinese Dictionary- Danwei · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Danwei points out that  the Commerical Press has just pushed out the 5th Edition of the Modern Chinese Dictionary. The advent of the new dictionary–which added 6,000 new words and removed 2,000 old ones–allows one to catch up on political slogans that have been introduced since the last edition was published.


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Ecuador: Manta Urban Fire · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Pedro Santana C. has new photos of last week's urban fire in Manta, Ecuador. Eduardo Ochoa of Li-1 blogged and photographed the fire [es] the same day it happened and a photo pool was started on Flickr.


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Egypt: CALL TO ACTION · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

One Arab World has announced a time and place for this Friday's candlelight vigil for the victims of the bombings at Sharm el Sheikh.


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Egypt: Nancy, and others, step up against terror · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Abu Aarvark passes on the news that Lebanese pop superstar Nancy Ajram will be holding a charity relief concert at Sharm al-Shaykh in reponse to this weekend's terror attacks there.


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El Salvador: US children in El Salvador · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Tim's El Salvador Blog writes that there are 15,000 children with U.S. citizenship living in El Salvador and a total of 2.3 million Salvadorans living in the U.S.


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Ethiopia: Victim profile · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Friends of Ethiopia points to an article about a young woman who died in an anti-government protest.


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Flickr Pick from Japan · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Photograph by Mike Connolly
Photographers! We monitor a large number of Flickr feeds every day, looking for photographs that would make good Flickr Picks for Global Voices. If you have a picture that you think would make a good Pick for us and you'd like to make sure we see it, tag it with “globalvoices” and make sure that it has a Creative Commons license. Thanks!


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Hungary: Cabinet Text Mad · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Central Budapest reports that the Hungarian parliament has turned to SMS again, this time to gauge public opinion on the subject of drunk drivers.


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India: Calcutta and Love · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

indianwriting links to a piece on the changing character of Calcutta.


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India: Rainfall in Mumbai · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Arun has a post on Mumbai experiencing record rainfall in a single day.


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India: Wikipedia · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Death Ends Fun has some reflections on understanding the changing entries in Wikipedia articles.


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Iran: More on Ganji · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Iran Scan posts a reponse to Hoder's post about imprisioned Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji.


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Iran: Supporters of Akbar Ganji arrested including bloggers · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

From the Committee to Protect Bloggers:
Some of the young people who had gone to Milad Hospital (on 25 July) following a call by bloggers to show support for Akbar Ganji have been detained by the Law Enforcement Force and plainclothesmen and taken to an unknown location. Based on a report received by Emrouz website, 48 hours after they were detained, their families’ efforts to obtain information about them have proved futile.Some of the detainees were bloggers and young activists who were involved in the youths’ section (known as) Nasim) of Dr (Mostafa) Mo'in's election headquarters.
Source: Emrouz website, Tehran, in Persian 0938 gmt 27 Jul 05
Click here for more information about the jailed and hunger striking journalist Akbar Ganji.
Watch the CPB blog our Iran category, and the Iran folder in the Global Voices aggregator for updates.


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Kenya: Who Will Win the November Referendum? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Kenya Democracy Project asks who will win the November referendum?


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Latin America: Inter-American Development Bank Elections · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Juanson World has an excellent rundown of the candidates to join the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Development. His post was then updated at 1 p.m. to note that Colombian ambassador, Luis Alberto Moreno won the post.


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Malaysia: This is outrageous! · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Jeff Ooi quotes an economist as saying that the Malaysian ringgit could rise as high as RM3.00 to the US dollar within six to twelve months. For comparison's sake, the ringgit is currently trading at about RM3.75 to the dollar.


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Meet ThaRum:  Cambodia’s Second Most Famous Blogger · Global Voices
Beth Kanter

Tharum started his blog in June 2004 while a student at the National
University of Management and working for the Open Forum for Cambodia, a Cambodian NGO devoted to digital divide issues.   He worked as a content editor for the Khmer language portal.
Tharum became a celebrity when his blog was featured on the front page of the Cambodia Daily (the photo above was taken during that interview).    His fame circled the globe a few days later when another article appeared in Wired.
I first "met" Tharum when he left a comment (one of the first!) on my blog in August, 2004.   I plan to get back to Cambodia in 2006 and hope to meet him face-to-face.
1.  A friend described you as an "IT Catcher" – can you explain what that means?
As always, young people are at the forefront of transforming their societies through the information revolution. I am personally interested in technology and I can quickly learn do something with it.
2.  What do Cambodian people think of blogs?  Are they familiar with  blogs? Do your friends and colleagues have blogs?  What do they think of YOUR blog?
A friend believes it is a tool he can publish thoughts, political analysis, and news review. He usually writes letter to the editor of the Cambodia Daily newspaper to voice his concern about the country. Few
people find it important, while the rest think that sleeping is a lot better. Few months after I created my personal weblog, I shared it with some friends. They, as far as I know, were not very interested in this
until my weblog was featured on the front-page of the Cambodia Daily. Since then some of them have created their own blogs. I was elated that some of them expressed support of what I have done so far with blogging.
3.  What benefits has your blog brought to you?
It is quite interesting to interact with people from different places all over the world. Some visitors write email to ask about working and traveling in Cambodia. This is good as I always want my home country,
Cambodia, to be known to the outside world.
4.  Do you think blogging will really take off in Cambodia?  What about the introduction of Khmer-Language software?
Khmer Unicode and Khmer-language software, which KhmerOS project of the Open Forum of Cambodia have done, will be a major boost. People will find it easier in communication.
5.   You worked for the Community Information Web Portal Cambodia for a couple years as content collector.  What was the most interesting part of your job?  What are some lessons learned for providing local content for local people?
People need information. I was one of few others to carry out this work to help them.
6.   In the provinces, people can access Khmer language content via the CICs.  There are tremendous barriers – illiteracy, lack of electricity, etc — how do they get people into the CICS to read the content?  What has been the local response to the content you've developed?
I believe the Community Information Centres project, funded by the Asia Foundation, plays an integral part in connecting provincial people to information at this beginning stage. Government officials and
Non-Governmental Organization workers are the primary target. Students, monks, and ordinary people can be key players in further disseminating information to their villages. After the centres and the portal were
established, we launched a national promotion campaign to inform our  audiences. However, we do believe, great service and content will make people to help this further more. Of course, it is interesting when we
receive email from the center asking for information on how to cultivate productively.
7.   How are Khmer people trained to use computers in Cambodia?
Short training course are available from private schools and some Non-Governmental Organizations throughout Phnom Penh. A trainer with a manual can give an introduction of computer basic skills to as many trainees as it fit in a room. The very first thing to be familiar with computer is learn how to type, typing skill. Only some serious learners find books important to understand more.
8.   What is your biggest hope for the future of technology/Web/Internet in Cambodia and bridging the digital divide?
I do believe appropriate technology deployment will benefit poor and  rural people. Young people are quick learners. The skills will help them find job easily. In another point, it empowers Cambodia to be a
knowledge-based and democratic society.
9.   Finally, since you speak and type in English and Khmer – do you have any advice for me as I attempt to learn to improve my khmer and make it half as good as your English?
It takes some time to be familiar with it. However, it is difficult to learn it as quickly and easily as you first learn to type in English.  With courage, everyone can do it.
(In case you're wondering, the most famous blogger is Cambodia's ex-king)
Photo courtesy of Matt Reed, writer for the Cambodia Daily.  (Note:  Tharum tells me that this is his favorite casual shirt)
Cross-posted on Beth's Blog

author: Beth Kanter


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Nepal: Bloggers, a journalist and tea · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Interaction between bloggers and a BBC journalist, folllowed by opinions on FM regulation on United We Blog.


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Pakistan: Lahore · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A beautiful photo-post of Khayaban-e-Iqbal on Metroblogging Lahore.


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Pakistan: Musharraf’s comments · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Sepia Mutiny has a humourous take on Musharraf's statements.


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Paraguay: Rumored U.S. Military Base · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Benjamin Dangl of Upside Down Blog tries to get to the bottom of a rumored U.S. military base in Paraguay which supposedly doesn't exist.


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Perú: Live 8 · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Diana Zorilla Rios of Lima, Peru says the Peruvian media did a pretty poor job covering Live8, but not to worry because the bloggers had it under contro [es]


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Podcast from Amman with Ahmad Humeid · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Ahmad Humeid is a Jordanian entrepreneur, newspaper columnist, graphic designer, information architect and, to the best of his knowledge, the first Jordanian podcaster, perhaps the first podcaster in the Middle East. He and I took a few minutes after a conference in Amman – “The Future is Open” – to talk about blogging and podcasting in the Arabic-speaking world, why so many Jordanians blog in English, and how technology may be helping to create dialog throughout the Arab world. (Audio file. mp3, 19 minutes, 8.8mb)
You can learn more about Ahmad by reading his weblog, 360east, or by following his column in the English-language daily, the Jordan Times.
Ahmad will be joining us for the Global Voices blogger gathering tomorrow night, at Wild Jordan in Jabal Amman, at 7pm – if you're a Jordanian blogger interested in learning more about Global Voices, please contact Isam Bayazidi (ibayazidi AT gmail DOT com) and let us know you'll be joining us.)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS


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Podcast: Love-blogging in Chinese · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Prof. Charlie Nesson, co-founder of the Berkman Center and enthusiastic Global Voices supporter, recently traveled to China.   He and internet radio journalist Ben Walker made a podcast in which they interviewed a Chinese blogger who uses his blog to communicate with his girlfriend –  who unfortunately lives in another city.  In the podcast, the blogger speaks in English part of the time, but reads his blog posts in Chinese. A young Chinese woman interprets his reading into English. The whole conversational exchange was then included raw in the podcast, with a little bit of narrative from Charlie. He and Ben hope that this kind of bilingual audio blogging can become a new form of “bridge blogging” between languages and cultures.
Click here to listen (MP3).
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS


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Russia: Armenian Spammer Found Murdered in Russia · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Oneworld Multimedia has more details about the spammer who was found murdered in his apartment this weekend.


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Singapore: Bloggers in the news · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Mr.Brown has a great roundup of news stories featuring Singaporean bloggers.


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South Africa: Blacks Only! · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Jo'Blog reports on a new country club in South Africa that is blacks only…


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South Asia: Demographics · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

CSR Asia links to a report on Demographic Challenges in Asia.


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Sri Lanka: Via Dubai · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Andrew Sutton on his experience in the Bandarnaika airport, and his flight to the U.K.


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Sudan: The Humanitarian Air Service · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The author of Humanitarian Hijinks heads out to Khartoum on the Humanitarian Air Service, the world's lowest-budget airline.


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Tunisia: Al-Jawhara FM Hits Airwaves · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Tunisian blog Subzero Blue reports that the country's second privately-owned radio station has started broadcasting.


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United Arab Emirates: No Longer Banned in Dubai · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

An astute reader mentions in the comments to this post that the once-banned blog Secret Dubai Diary has been unbanned by the authorities. As a side note, if you click on the # symbol for any of the roundup links, you'll be able to leave a comment…


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Venezuela: Land Reform · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Tomas Sancio of Baruta, Venezuela talks about land reform and the problems it is causing on the blog, Venezuela Politics.


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Venezuela: New Voting System · Global Voices
David Sasaki

The Sumate Files looks at a controversial new voting system which will be tested out in two states during next month's elections.


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Venezuela: Tulio Alvarez Arrested · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Daniel of Venezuela News and Views is updating a post throughout the day on the reported arrest of Venezuelan opposition lawyer, Tulio Alvarez, by the Venezuelan National Guard.


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Argentina: La Boca – Impressions · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Marisa of It Takes Two to Tango offers up her impressions of La Boca, Argentina.


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Argentina: Stencil Graffiti · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Line of Sight has an excellent collection of stencil graffiti from around Buenos Aires. Most images have captions explaining the significance.


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Bahrain: Look ma, I’m on a Segway! · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Mahmood, who writes the Bahraini blog Mahmood's Den tried out a Segway today. While he was having a blast riding around on it, he also thought that they'd be quite practical for everday use in Bahrain.


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Bangladesh: Revolt of the Privileged · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

DeshCalling points to an article which analyses what it terms as the ‘revolt of the privileged’ and offers other readings to form an opinion.


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Bangladesh: Taslima Nasrin · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

3rd World View has a post on Taslima Nasrin and her experience at a convention in America.


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China: Business in China · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

China Herald examines standard Chinese management practices, to the extent that there are any.


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China: SPY.GOOGLE.COM · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Opposite End of China discovers that Google Maps features hi-res photographs of some PLA Air Force bases.


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China: The Real Story Behind Sister Lotus · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

EastSouthNorthWest on the Sister Lotus phenomenon.


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Denmark: Canada occupies Denmark · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Fjordman points out that Denmark and Canada are headed for a potential showdown over ownership of Hans Island, a tiny, uninhabited speck of land between Greenland and Ellesmere Island. Here's a link to Google Maps, showing exactly where it is.


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Egypt: Blogs and culture · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

From Cairo, With Love writes about the spectacular growth of the Egyptian blogosphere.


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Egypt: SharmRelief.com Banners · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Banners promoting SharmRelief.com are now available, and have started popping up on Egyptian blogs.


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Egypt: Vigil this Friday · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Big Pharaoh reminds his readers that a candlelight vigil for the victims of last weekend's bombings is scheduled for Friday in Cairo.


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Flickr Pick from Guatemala · Global Voices
David Sasaki


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Flickr Pick from Japan · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

“Kimono” by Scott Parish
Photographers! We monitor a large number of Flickr feeds every day, looking for photographs that would make good Flickr Picks for Global Voices. If you have a picture that you think would make a good Pick for us and you'd like to make sure we see it, tag it with “globalvoices” and make sure that it has a Creative Commons license. Thanks!


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Hungary: Budapest Bloggers’ Tag Cloud · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Central Budapest has created a tag cloud for Budapest bloggers (a tag cloud is a list of tags or keywords where the size of the tag indicates how popular it is; we've got one up at the top of this page).


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India: Delhi and Abuse · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Whirlwings has a post questioning if playing safe really does keep abusers away.


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India: Know thy country · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

First Rain ponders about how much he really knows the land he lives in, after his interaction with a fellow-Indian  from a different part of the country.


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India: Mumbai Rainfall · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A blogger's mom finds herself caught in the middle of Mumbai's rains.


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India: Violence in Gurgaon · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Gurgaon, close to the capital of India,  has of late built up a reputation that is most attractive to multinational companies and outsourcing units. Dotted by huge malls and skyscrapers, it probably is more of a symbol of the New Economy than any other city in India.
Events over the last few days, have lead to incidences of violence in the city. A quick tour in the Indian Blogosphere reveals concerns and opinions of bloggers regarding labour reforms, rights of workers, power of the police force, violence and the state of the Indian Economy.
A good place to start is a post on Shashwati's Blog which links to a timeline, and the general background to the events. contrapuntal instrospects on the stands of the media, government and industry representatives. The Motorcyclists point to some more political reactions to the spate of violence.
Victor Serge has a post which attempts to read between the lines, and slaps down the capitalist lines. The incidents highlight the need for immediate labour reforms in India says The Acorn. Media coverage is analysed by MediaWatch India.
Unmitigated Learnings discusses a Media article. Amit Varma introspects 0n India Uncut  in two posts  titled “Barbarism at the gate” and “More thoughts on Gurgaon”. Anurag feels that the Media may have played a part in instigating the violence.


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Iran: Ganji’s Letter From Prison · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Webgardian has summarized imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji's most recent letter from jail.


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Iran: Martyrs Wanted · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Iran Hopes 2005 is reporting that a hard-line magazine in Iran has published an advertisement seeking volunteer suicide bombers.


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Ireland: IRA Disarms · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Irish group blog Back Seat Drivers has a healthly list of links to reaction to the IRA's disarmament statement.


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Kenya: AIDS conference · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Bankelele attended a conference on HIV/AIDS last week and reports back with some facts and figures.


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Kenya: The Slavery in Our Midst: The Nairobi House Maid · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

African Bullets & Honey looks at the plight of the Nairobi house maid.


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Latin America Responds to TeleSur’s Launch · Global Voices
David Sasaki

This past Sunday a small group of 25 journalists in Caracas, Venezuela began pilot-broadcasting a new Pan-American satellite news network called TeleSur which, by September, hopes to be reaching audiences all throughout the Americas with at least nine regional bureaus including Colombia, Argentina, Cuba, Brazil, Washington D.C, La Paz and Mexico. The launch of what just about everyone is calling the Al-Jazeera of Latin America, however, is not without controversy. Over 70% of the network's financing came from Venezuela (Cuba, Uruguay, and Argentina also pitched in) and critics fear the station will become a far-reaching propaganda mouthpiece for Socialist leader, Hugo Chavez.
Responding to the launch of TeleSur, Florida Republican representative, Connie Mack introduced an amendment to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 2005, which allows broadcasting U.S. propaganda into Venezuela much as it does to Cuba via Radio Martí.
Both the commencement of TeleSur itself as well as the reactionary amendment sponsored by Rep. Mack have given plenty of fodder to bloggers throughout the Americas.
Rodolfo of Caracas, Venezuela responds with great wit to a TeleSur representative's characterization of the channel's goal of “endogenous communication,” referring to coverage of Latin America from within Latin America. He goes on after watching the channel's first day of programming:
I should clarify that personally, I think there is an imbalance of coverage regarding the countries of [Latin America], that we know each other very little and what we do know of each other is through the outlook of others. Which is why I think it could be useful to have a television channel that balances the distortion, but if the perspective of TeleSur is like what I saw yesterday, it's evident that this will not be the channel to do it. Because, when we try to examine our own selves it should be with plurality and not partial. And the perspective of Telesur is partial from the moment it begins promoting an inexplicable Socialism where the protesters all have red shirts or with promos full of protests from Colombia.
A post on Atina from Santiago, Chile entitled “Telesur is Born, Creating Controversy” has generated plenty of commentary from fellow Chileans.
Raúl Herrera who blogs at Gestion Holistica responded that “it is the audience that decides what they hear and read. Today with the Internet and blogs, this is even clearer. Chavez's adventure will be a loss of money that won't help resolve the lack of trust that exists today in Venezuela.”
But Atina user SinFronteras is much more supportive of the new network's objective and responds:
If it is real democracy we're talking about, Chavez's initiative tries to achieve this principal because really there are no big media networks inside Latin America. From this perspective, a “new voice” is always welcome because, the more voices that participate, the better the information will be for the audience.
Ramiro Alvarez Ugarte, a journalism student in Buenos Aires writes, “it doesn't seem like a bad idea to have a large Latin American network of news, but in the hands of the state? Never.” But then, responding to Florida Representative, Connie Mack's characterization of Telesur as “a threat to the United States which tries to undermine the balance of powers of the Western Hemisphere” he continues:
A little exaggerated, Mr. Mack. And further, if it's true what he says, CNN is – like so many say – an imperialistic, North American mechanism of colonization which already helps to maintain the balance of powers of the Western world and the hegemony of (North) America!
Blog de Lechpe, written from Peru, has nothing but enthusiasm regarding what the channel has offered so far. He writes:
In the beginning, the programming will have a four hour duration, but later stretch to 24 hours daily. A very good initiative to confront the private conglomerates like CNN and Univision and also a way of to help regional integration.
The transmission began with a video where a group of people were asked if they new where Bill Clinton was from and everyone responded the United States. But when asked if they knew what country president Belisario Betancur was from, hardly anyone knew what to respond and only two people said he was president of Colombia. The future of the project looks very good to me, especially given their board of advisers. We'll see how it goes.
Benjamin Dangl, the editor of Upside Down World, criticizes the Alternet article “El Jazeera” on Upside Down Blog:
Though this article introduces a hopeful new South American initiative many in the US may not yet know about, it did not accurately represent the state of Venezuelan government funded media, and was unfairly critical of state-run media in favor of privately operated media.
And concludes:
After years of CIA sponsored media in Latin America, such as Radio Swan in Cuba, perhaps the Latin American state deserves to be allowed its own voice. Besides, isn’t the idea to have diversity of opinion in the media? The more diverse opinions are publicly expressed, the more citizens have an opportunity to make up their own minds.
Jeff Barry of the weblog, Buenos Aires, City of Faded Elegance, agrees and says in a comment,  “it's interesting how a lot of people are immediately negative about TeleSur because of its state sponsorship. I'm continually amazed at people in the US, even well-educated ones, who regularly watch Fox News without realizing that it's so biased.”
But not all of Latin America is talking about TeleSur. When Eduardo of the blog Barrio Flores wrote to a cable provider Interac.TV in Cochabamba, Bolivia where TeleSur was supposed to start airing, they wrote him back with the following:
… we have no knowledge of this channel, but we will begin investigating its origin and distributor in order to put ourselves in contact with them and get to know the profile of the channel. In this understanding, the said channel will not be part of our selection of channels at the moment until we are able to evaluate its characteristics and costs.
Responding to a piece by the Uruguayan born General Director of TeleSur, Aram Aharonian, which originally appeared in Red Voltaire, the Colombian weblog, Atrabalioso writes,
We see then, the purpose: to harbor guerrillas … and to establish an economic blockade against Colombia while putting a smoke screen in front of the fact that the chancellor of FARC is in [Chavez's] territory with Venezuelan authorization.
Bugs’ Blog, written by a North American unionist living in Venezuela calls Connie Mack's amendment to begin broadcasting U.S. propaganda into Venezuela “hysterical overreaction,” and doubts that TeleSur will ever be allowed by congress to begin transmitting in the U.S.
Economia y Finanzas, written from Caracas, Venezuela has some interesting figures related to TeleSur:
The network has a declared running capital of $10 million. Fifty-one percent is Venezuelan; 24% Argentinian; 19% Cuban, and 10% Uruguayan. There is a total of 160 employees.
Venezuela in the News quotes veteran Venezuelan journalist, Rafael del Naranco, who called it just “more of the same” and wondered “how that collection of trash could be called television.”
Interest in the new initiative extends beyond the Americas as well. Andy from the Dutch blog, Media Network Weblog, follows the story of Venezuelan Information Minister, Andres Izarra, who resigned yesterday to run the network. Meanwhile, Friends of Al Jazeera reports that TeleSur's new head discussed at a news conference the possibility of collaborating with Al Jazeera, a Pan-Arabian media network with similar ambitions.
Special thanks to Ana Toniolli of Argentina, Bolivian-American Eduardo  Avila and Iria Puyosa of Venezuela for their contributions to the post.
The trilingual blog, Steve's Gallery, has a post in Spanish and one in English on Telesur and U.S. reaction.
Eduardo of Barrio Flores says only 6% of Bolivians subscribe to cable and would be capable of watching Telesur.


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Malaysia: Are you GST-ready? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Jeff Ooi asks his fellow countrymen if they're ready for the upcoming national sales tax.


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MUMBAI FLOOD · Global Voices
Rezwan

Dhaka experienced heavy rains (156mm within 24 hours) early this month. The excess downpours inundated nearly a quarter of the cosmopolitan disrupting lives of its 10 million citizens. Streets and roads remained waterlogged, schools were shut down and shopping malls remained closed.
But nothing is close to what Mumbai has experienced in last couple of days. The incessant rains recorded at 896 mm in 24 hours were more than anybody could imagine. The streets looked like rivers, people stuck at workplaces overnight, powers are cut in many places, phone lines are not working, interconnectivity with outside is on halt as flights and trains are suspended. The state government has declared a public holiday for two days.
Indian Blogger Dina Mehta cannot reach San Jose to attend at Blogher conference because her scheduled flight has been delayed indefinitely.
Indian bloggers have updates on the situation here and here.

author: Rezwan


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Nepal: Migration to India · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A post from Nepal on living conditions forcing people in Eastern Nepal to migrate to India.


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Philippines: Parliamentary democracy in the Philippines would be a very bad idea · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Both Torn and frayed in Manila and Tales From Disiniland are unconvinced by President Arroyo's call to change the Philippine form of government to a parliamentary system.


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Report from the Jordan Blogger Gathering · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Tonight's Jordan Blogger Gathering
You never know who'll show up for a bloggers’ gathering. The Jordan blogger meetup – a joint Jordan Planet/Global Voices effort – turned up not only some of Jordan's best bloggers, but superstars from Bahrain and Egypt as well. Representing Amman were Ammar Ibrahim, Roba Assi of And Far Away, Nader Shnoudi, Jad Madi, Ahmad Humeid of 360east, Hind Sabanekh, Rai'da Al-Zu3bi, and Jordan Planet founder Isam Bayazidi. Home for a visit from Utah was Jordanian Iyas Masannat and his wife. Open source activist Mohammed Sameer represented Egypt at the table, and veteran expat Jordanian blogger Haitham Sabbah, who blogs from Bahrain, brought a regional perspective to the group.
Haitham's incredible blogging productivity was one of the major topics of discussion – when I asked bloggers to write down the address of their blogs, Haitham listed six blogs – including palestineblogs.com, arablogger.com and NoToTerrorism.com – before pausing and saying, “I guess those are the major ones. There was a great deal of skepticism that Haitham had a “real” job, until he produced a business card, and an explanation that he works eight hours a day, blogs for 12 hours and sleeps for four.
More serious topics recieved attention as well, including the fact that blogging in Jordan is largely confined to bilingual residents of Amman and hasn't spread beyond the capital into secondary cities or rural areas. A number of Jordanian bloggers are interested in organizing outreach efforts through community internet access centers in rural areas, encouraging people to blog about community events, possibly using audio and photo blogging to make the process more accessible to less literate participants. I talked briefly about how Hossein Derakshan's Farsi-language blogging instructions helped spark a blog revolution in Iran, and there was a general sentiment that there needed to be a good Arabic-language introduction to the hows and whys of blogging, oriented towards a Jordanian audience outside Amman. It will be very interesting to watch what comes out of this conversation over the next few months.
Throughout this trip to Jordan, I've been struck by the extent to which Jordan is a bridge nation between North America and Europe and the Middle East. My plane was filled with pilgrims to Mecca; my hotel is filled with security experts enroute to Baghdad. Amman is rapidly becoming a popular venue for conferences that bring together the region and the world. And Jordanian bloggers are at the leading edge of this phenomenon. The bloggers around the table write largely in English, largely for a global audience. And many of the bloggers acknowledged that they're writing explicitly to combat oversimplified images of the Middle East in mainstream media, to challenge generalizations about the Arab world by talking about the details of ordinary life. Jordan is rich in bridgebloggers, and the rest of us are richer for it.
Thanks to all my friends in Jordan, Egypt and Bahrain who joined me at Wild Jordan tonight, both for coming and for being part of a global project to make the world more interesting, more complicated and more personal. Special thanks to Isam Bayazidi for his hard work in organizing tonight's gathering. And we're all looking forward to seeing more Jordanian voices as part of Global Voices soon.


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Russia: What goes around… · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Registan.net reports on the rumor that Boris Yelstin may make a political comeback. The reasoning is something like he's the only political figure with the authority to challenge Putin, so he may be put up by anti-Putin forces.


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Singapore: New Blog · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Coup de Grâce is a new policy-oriented Singapore blog; so far it looks quite promising. (via From a Singapore Angle)


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South Asia: London Underground · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A dark humoured post on dangerous Underground trips in London  on Sepia Mutiny.


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Sudan: Relief in Khartoum · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Humanitarian Hijinks details the stately pleasures Khartoum has in store for the weary aid worker.


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Syria: Bashar to go on holiday with Israelis · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Syrian News Wire explains how President Al-Assad's upcoming vacation turned into a international incident. And the man hasn't even left Syria yet…


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Tajikistan:: Democracy for Tajikistan :: July :: 2005 · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Alan Cordova looks at the prospects for democracy  in Tajikistan and compares it to Kyrgyzstan.


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Tunisia: Tunisian Blogger Meetup 4 on July 29th · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

It's somewhat short notice, but Subzero Blue has announced that  the next Tunisian Blogger Meetup 4 will be on July 29th.


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Ukraine: Whoops · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Blog de Connard, returning after a brief hiatus, has a good roundup of Ukraining events both pertaining to the author and the country as a whole, including a pretty decent summary of Andriygate, the scandal involving the President's son.


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United Kingdom: IRA Announcement · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Everything Ulster has a quick post about the political reaction to the IRA's disarmament announcement.


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Uzbekistan: Uzbek internet segment faces largest attack · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

T-Moor reports that a large number of Uzbekistan websites were attacked by hackers and defaced recently.


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Bangladesh: Islamic Values · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Sadiq Alam on his reflections after attending a talk on restoring the dignity of Islamic Values.


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BBC statement on Afghan blogger threats · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

The Committee to Protect Bloggers recently received the following statement from the BBC  in response to complaints by Afghan Blogger Sohrab Kabuli that somebody has been using a BBC computer to threaten him. The statement was sent by Mike Gardner, Head of Media Relations at BBC World Service:
The BBC has met with Sohrab Kabuli – the pseudonym for the Afghan blogger – who alleges that offensive e-mails were sent from a BBC staff member in the Kabul office.
At the meeting:
* The BBC reassured Mr Kabuli that he is not under threat from any part of the BBC.
* The BBC confirmed to Mr Kabuli that the BBC found no evidence of threatening behaviour toward Mr Kabuli by any BBC staff member.
* We also stated that the BBC is clear such a communication or behaviour would contravene BBC guidelines and be unacceptable if they came from any BBC staff member.
* We assured him that we will not reveal his true identity.
The BBC also said that it treated this matter extremely seriously and conducted an investigation over a number of weeks both in London and in Kabul to ascertain whether the e-mails came from the BBC.
The BBC has concluded its investigation but has been unable to reach a definitive answer for reasons outlined below.
However we believe that evidence has been brought forward now to question the contents of the complaint and the manner in which Mr Kabuli's website was allegedly accessed from a BBC computer.
The BBC was able to establish the following facts during the investigation:
* The IP address mentioned by Sohrab Kabuli in his blog belongs to a computer located in the BBC’s Kabul office.
* The computer is not assigned to a particular individual and can be used by anybody in the office.
* The BBC is unable to confirm whether the alleged threatening message came from the machine, had a message altered or was altered on the blog to appear to have come from the PC.
* Mr Kabuli has furnished us with evidence that the IP address has been in contact with his computer.
* This contact is undisputed as the BBC had conducted a written interview with Mr Kabuli early in July, prior to the allegation. The BBC was unable to use the article. At this point Mr Kabuli threatened to lodge a complaint against the producer.
* It was at this time that allegations claiming death threats surfaced for the first time.
* The investigation has brought forward evidence that Mr Kabuli has been a frequent visitor to the BBC’s Kabul offices. He is well-known to members of staff, some of whom have a personal relationship with him. Therefore his visits to the building, including the room where the computer in question is situated, have usually been unsupervised.
* The BBC is aware that Mr Kabuli is an expert in computing and his profession has involved managing computer networks.
Despite our best efforts we have found no hard or conclusive evidence that the threat came from a member of the BBC staff. If Mr Kabuli has further evidence it will be gratefully received by the BBC.
Mr Kabuli has called for the dismissal of a particular BBC staff member. The BBC is puzzled how the dismissal of a staff member would diminish, should it exist, any perceived threat to his life. The BBC has information that the staff member worked with Mr Kabuli at a previous place of employment. This, added to the fact that Mr Kabuli is now making wild and unsubstantiated allegations against the BBC staff member, leads the BBC to be concerned at his motivations.
The BBC is now drawing a line on correspondence on this matter, unless further conclusive evidence is forthcoming.
The BBC pledges to investigate future serious complaints immediately, if the complaint is sent promptly.
In the meantime we are taking steps to tighten security on buildings, control access to work areas and ensure that non-BBC staff do not have unsupervised access to its computers.
Thanks to CPB president Curt Hopkins for his persistence on this story.


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Bolivia: The Santa Cruz Vote · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Barrio Flores takes a look at the expanding Santa Cruz region of Eastern Bolivia, which could have a big impact on the December electionst.


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Caribbean: Taran’s Caribbean Blog List · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Taran Rampersad has an unbelievable list of Caribbean blogs which will soon be making its way into the Bridge Blog Index.


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Colombia: Freeing FARC Hostages · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Plan Colombia and Beyond has a thoughtful dissection of the long road awaiting Colombian president Uribe, who is trying to negotiate the release of fifty-nine hostages held by the leftist group, FARC.


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Egypt: Bad News · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Unfortunately, One Arab World has to make the announcement that the candlelight vigil planned for tonight in Cairo has been cancelled. This is because of anticipated protests in reaction to President Mubark's announcement that he will be running for re-election.


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Egypt: Protests against Mubarak nomination · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Arabist Network reports that a large protest against the Mubarak nomination is scheduled for Saturday night.


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India: Public Relations Disaster · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Death Ends Fun  exploring how every calamity in India is treated as a Public-Relations disaster.


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India: Shameless Advert · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Uma has a caustic take on Times of India's (Leading newspaper in India)  shameless advertising in the face of a tragedy in Mumbai.


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Inside the Japanese Blogosphere – The Anti-Korea Wave · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

The ever-useful “Ninki Blog Ranking” lists the most-viewed Japanese blogs in a number of different categories. There are blogs for mothers who wish to help their children study more effectively,  blogs devoted to tracking the movements of celebrities, and blogs that discuss the best way to diet. And, like any other online community, Japan has no shortage of blogs devoted to punditry, with most of the discussion focusing on the deteriorating relationship amongst Japan and its Asian neighbours,  China and the two Koreas.
According to the blog rankings, Japanese bloggers are in no mood for reconciliation. And despite the popularity of all things Korean in Japan, the so-called Kan-ryuu, or Korean Wave, many bloggers are taking aim at Korea.
Choose  (what you believe) Carefully! Information on Korea is the sixth most popular blog in Japan right now, according to Ninki Blog Ranking, and bills itself as an antidote for the Japanese “mass media's tendency to beautify Korea.”
Other popular political blogs include Japan's Outrageous Asian Neighbours (currently the 7th most popular Japanese-language blog),  We Don't Need No Kan-ryuu (ranked at number 11), and The Truth About Asia – what the mass media doesn't tell you about China and Korea (occupying 12th place).
In general, Japanese bloggers are expressing frustration and irritation towards Korea and China in the wake of the anti-Japanese protests that occured in those countries this past spring, as well as in the face of tensions with Korea over the ownership of an island in the Japan Sea (or the East Sea, as called by Koreans) called Takeshima by Japan and Tokdo by Korea.
Japanese political bloggers are discussing one book in particular – Ken-Kan-Ryuu, which loosely translates as the Anti-Korean Wave. According to the publisher's blurb, the book (actually a manga comic book) documents the intellectual development of Nakame Okiayu, an “ordinary” high school student who finds history difficult, but has the “vague understanding that Japan has done bad things to Korea.” All this changes when Nakame becomes a university student and learns the “surprising truth about Korea and its history.”
After being “banned” for two years, the book was finally published on July 24, 2005. Sales are brisk, and Amazon Japan warns that, due to the book's popularity, delivery of Ken-Kan-Ryuu should take four to six weeks (Amazon Japan usually delivers in two or three days).
In the case of Ken-Kan-Ryuu, it is indeed possible to judge a book by it's cover. “This is an extremely dangerous book,” the book jacket warns. “Why did Korea invade Japan's territory, the Takeshima Islands?” screams another blurb. “There is no need to apologize to Korea or offer reparations,” shouts another.
Historical revisionism has gained popularity in Japan over the last decade. While many apologists for Japan's wartime past are simply obnoxious at worst, such as Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, there are other hip, charismatic commentators like Yoshinori Kobayashi, author of the popular Sensou-ron series of manga books, who are adept at arguing that, thanks to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan was a victim rather than a victimizer during the last war.
Other arguments percolating through the Japanese blogosphere state that Japan was pushed into the war by the Unites States, and that Japan was actually liberating Asia from European colonizers with the hopes of fostering autonomy and independence of all nations, economic progress,  and the eradication of racial discrimination.
Much of the tension between Japan and its Asian neighbours has been due to revisionist history textbooks authored by the Japanese Society for Textbook Reform. So far, two school boards have adopted the controversial textbooks  this year, and one of the texts is published online in English, Korean and Mandarin.
The offending textbooks, and the ongoing six-party talks on the fate of the Korean Peninsula, should create plenty of controversy for the rest of the summer, which in turn creates plenty of topics for Japanese pundits to blog about.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Iran: not quite the caricature it is presented as · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Brooding Persian, distressed by the execution of two young men for being homosexual, tries to explain that Iran isn't as simple and as caricatured as it sometimes seems.


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Iraq: Are We Going To Let Them Win? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Iraq the Model asks: “Did Syria and Iran win in their indirect war on Iraq?”


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Iraq: It’s time to call them (OUTSIDERS) · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Iraq blog A Free Writer suggests that the term ‘extremist’ be retired in favor of “outsiders”.


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Iraq: Started to worry .. · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

A mother of three writes about the difficulties of trying to raise her children in Iraq.


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Jordan: Can Jordan be the bridge-blog nation? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Jordanian blogger Ahmad Humeid asks can Jordan be the bridge-blog nation?


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Lebanon: Bad Apples, Good Oranges · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Beiruit Spring on Lebanese attitudes towards their brothers (and sisters) in their armed forces.


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Malaysia: Malaysian Bloggers on IRC · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Brand New Malaysian passes on word that there's now a dedicated IRC channel for Malaysian bloggers.


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Mexican President, Vicente Fox Interviewed by Blogger? · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Last night I came across a post on Bloggings by Boz which linked to a post in Spanish by Goleech mentioning that Mexican president, Vicente Fox, in what must have been a first, was interviewed by a blogger.
I read through the interview, and though it seemed more than sufficiently believable, I was skeptical of the fact that no there were no comments on the post and that none of the major Mexican weblogs had linked to it. So I emailed Eduardo Arcos of ALT1040 to ask what was going on and he said he would investigate.
This morning he posted a link to the Clarin Weblog on Weblogs which said that President Fox did in fact confirm he was “interviewed by a blogger.” But Arcos adds:
The fact is that the interview with Vicente Fox was done for EnterateHoy.com.mx, which was elaborated (with photos and separated into pages) in this article. Amongst the sections of this site, there is something called “The blog of EnterateHoy” that is a link which takes you too enteratehoy.blogspot.com where there is a transcription of the article.
It seems that it's not just the U.S. where “blog” has become a major buzzword for the major media.


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Mexico: Mel Gibson’s Mayan Epic · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Mexicanwave says Mel Gibson is financing a Mayan epic for which he wrote the screenplay and will direct. “Casting of Maya local to the region of Mexico where Gibson will begin shooting in October is apparently already underway.”


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Nepal: Dibyopadesh · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Samudaya  has an interesting post on the ‘Last Counsels of Prithvi Narayan Shah, King of Gorkha’.


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Nepal: Gagan Thapa · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Gagan Thapa is doesn't feel safe in jail says United We Blog.


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Panama, Colombia: Darien Gap · Global Voices
David Sasaki

El Sur links to a moblog which covers that unforgiving space of Panamanian and Colombian jungle which keeps most Pan-American travelers from driving straight through, known as the Darien Gap.


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Peru: Election Preview · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Boz has an early preview of the Peruvian presidential scene.


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Saudi Arabia: The Huge Princely Gift · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Saudi Jeans comments on the huge gift given to the Louvre by Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal.


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South Asia: Advertisements · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Asian Smiles explores what advertisements really sell.


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South Korea: Gotta love those Stalinists · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Marmot's Hole passes along a report that a South Korean academic is arguing the Korean War should be regarded as a “war for the great cause of unification”.


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Spain: Leaking leakers · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Barcepundit reports that Spain has its own leak scandal about embarrassing information that government doesn't want released.


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Sri Lanka: LTTE · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

DeshCalling takes stock of LTTE – One of the world's largest insurgent forces operating in Sri Lanka.


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Trinidad and Tobago: New Podcast · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Both Caribbean Free Radio and Subway Chronicles point out that the Trinidad and Tobago Computer Society now has Creative Commons licensed podcasts. The first podcast is 44 minutes and discusses everything from last week's bomb in Port of Spain to cell phone dependence with lots of nerdery inbetween.


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Zimbabwe: ZW$ further devalued on Harare’s streets · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Zimbabwean dollar continues to sink on the black market, according to The Zimbabwean Pundit. Officially priced at ZWD $17,600 to USD $1, the street exchange rate is more like ZWD $36,000 to USD $1.


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Zimbabwe:Protesting Chinese aid for Mugabe · Global Voices
Frank Dai

Sokwanele wrote a post about a coming demonstration outside Chinese Embassy in London, organized by Zimbabwe Vigil. President Mugabe will be in Beijing this weekend, seeking US$1 billion loan from Chinese government in order to support his dictatorship and  prop up the ailing Zimbabwean economy.

author: Frank Dai


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Bangladesh: British Prisons · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

MBI Munshi on the lure of radical Islam for convicts in Britain's prisons.


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Bangladesh: Terrorism · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Rezwan links to an article on terrorism and reflects on what the roots of terrorism could be.


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India: Cricket Match · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A whole new level of Blogging emerges on Sightscreen  as a post to discuss an India-Sri Lanka cricket match enters conversational commenting, and a single post has a whopping 1200+ comments!


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India: Decline of Times of India · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Reuben on the “The decline and fall of the Times of India”, the leading English daily in India.


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Nepal: Demonstration Photos · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Demonstrations in Nepal as a photo-post on Samudaya.


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News from Chinese Blogosphere · Global Voices
Frank Dai

After Tencent required its QQ  Group users to register their real name, poll shows that near half of people would abandon the use of this popular IM software. Also  65% of them are against the policy of so-called “real name registration” if implemented by government widely.
Another interesting story about real name registration. A citizen named ZhenTao Lee who claimed to be an advocate of the policy published his real name and ID number on one of the major BBS. But other users searched the number by Google and found that this ID was faked on the official website of local government . When they challenged his credibility they found that his profile was changed by his “employer” overnight. It was generally regarded as planned by Internet supervisory body.
This week the six party talk was held in BeiJing trying to resolve North Korea nuclear crisis. Chinese online communities followed up the story closely.
Bill Clinton will be the keynote speaker at the 2005 China Internet Summit at West Lake, to be held on September 10, 2005, organized by Alibaba.com, a famous e-commerce company. People doubt that he would bring any real issues.
Made in June, a Chinese blogger happened to discover the list of prohibited words used in Blogcn.com, the second largest Blog Service Provider. The list include most of the name of the leaders, dissidents and controversially historical events. He used the ADblock plugin in FireFox to find the “Bad Word”.
Bokee, formerly known as Blogchina, announced its partnership with Feedburner. Feedburner would provide Bokee with its first-rated RSS feed management.
TaiWan bloggers called the local blogosphere for action to unite against the corrupted baseball scandal, involving gambling and control of the game by underground operation.
Douglas Kellner, the celebrated right wing blogger arrived at TaiWan for a meeting. He accepted the interview from TaiWan bloggers, talking about the responsibilities of media.


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Pakistan: Wrestling · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

MetroBlogging Lahore has a must-read post on Pehelwani, or Local Wrestling in Lahore.


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Sri Lanka: Dynasty politics · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Indi.ca  explores the hold of the Bandaranaike family over Sri Lanka over the years.


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Sri Lanka: Electricity for Tsunami Hit community · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Sarvodaya has a post on a Tsunami-hit community getting access to electricity through efforts of volunteers.


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USA: Blogger punished for his political remarks over Iraq · Global Voices
Frank Dai

A blogger named Leonard A. Clark, An Arizona National Guardsmen, was punished for his criticism over Iraqi War. He was charged with violating operational security and 11 counts of disobeying orders.


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Afghanistan: Life Condition in Afghnaistan · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Afghan Warrior writes about improvements in daily life in Afghanistan since the Taliban were driven out of power.


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Argentina: From Above · Global Voices
David Sasaki

With a collection of impressive satellite and Google Maps images of Buenos Aires, line of sight, shows you were to find him.


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Argentina: The Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jeff Barry discusses his latest read, “The Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas,” covering the history of Russian Jewish immigration into Argentina. The book was also made into a movie in 1975.


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Armenia: Mashutkas in Armenia · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The travel blog Beckilina goes for an evocative ride in a Mashtuka through the Arminian countryside. (via Blogrel)


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Bangladesh: Sufism · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Sadiq Alam explores Sufism and its elements and links to other sources.


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Bangladesh: Terrorism in Britain · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Links to articles and a brief discussion on the challenge of terrorism in Britain on DeshCalling.


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Cambodia: Blogger Meetup · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Webbed Feet, Web Log announces that the next Cambodian Blogger Meetup will be on August 7 in Phnom Penh.


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Cambodia: The Blog Big Bang · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Tharum's Web outlines the Cambodian blog Big Bang.


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Caribbean: IP and Blog Reflections · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Taran Rampersad goes overintellectual property in the Caribbean and has some reflections on his excellent Caribbean blog list.


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Chile: Female Presidential Frontrunner · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Jeannette Jalil is happy that the front-runner in Chile's upcoming presidential election is a woman.


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Chile: Technorati Star · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Chilean super-blogger, Leo Prieto, finds his name to be the second most searched term on technorati. As I write this, he's still there, right after Jesus.


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China: Banned words on Blogcn- Danwei · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Danwei reports that a chinese blogger has discovered–and published–the list of banned words that China's second largest blog provider maintains. There are no real surprises on the list, though the absence of swear words and sexual content is kinda interesting.


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China: I knew I should have worn my Testaverde jersey · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

An expat in Shanghai ponders the fledgling Shanghai hip-hop scene.


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China & Japan: 60 years of ‘Sino-Japanese friendship’ exhibition opens in Tokyo, but not in Beijing. · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

An exhibition celebrating “60 years of ‘Sino-Japanese friendship'” opened in Tokyo over the weekend. However, Angry Chinese Blogger wonders if it wouldn't have been better to open the exhibition in Beijing…


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Colombia: Putumayo, 5 years later · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Plan Colombia and Beyond takes a look at the Putomayo region of Colombia five years after the implementation of Plan Colombia and concludes, “the lesson of Putumayo should be that temporary surges in military activity, however ambitious, will not bring meaningful results on their own.”


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Colombia: Various Notes · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Juanson World has a good compilation of sources and reflections on Colombia.


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Cuba: Holding on to Television · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Mora at Babalu Blog reports that some government agents tried confiscating a television with an illegal satellite dish, but that the neighborhood resisted.


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Egypt: Anti-Mubarak anyone? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

From Cairo, with love reports from the ground on the police brutality in the anti-Mubarak demonstrations in Cairo.


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Egypt: Vigils & Protests · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

One Arab World announces that the anti-terrorism vigil will be held in early September.


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Egypt: What do we actually want from the west? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Rantings of a Sandmonkey asks: “What do we actually want from the west?”


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Egypt: Why no huge anti-terror demonstrations? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Big Pharaoh asks why the  opposition didn't turn out in force against terrorism, the way they did against Mubarak?


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Ethiopia: What Ethiopia’s bloggers are talking about · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Andrew Heavens of Meskel Square has set up a tag cloud to track what Ethiopean bloggers are talking about.


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Flickr Pick from Ghana · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Photograph by Andy Carvin


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Flickr Pick from Grenada · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Found this one among some old family photos and I’m assuming it’s Grenada because the inscription on the back said “May Day procession on Halifax Street”. No idea what year it was taken, though I’d think the late 1940s would be a safe bet.


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Hong Kong: CCTV Producer to Speak on Weblogs · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

China Herald writes that Hu Yong, a CCTV producer and director of a Chinese-language blog portal, will be giving a lecture on Chinese blogging and the Chinese blogosphere in Hong Kong later this week. The interesting thing is that the talk will be given in Mandarin.


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India: Cricket · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Zigzackly on redefining blogs and live commentary, having seen 1200+ comments on Prem's blog.


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India: GB Road · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A dark glimpse of Delhi's red light district on Synchroni-Cities.


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India: Next big player · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Atanu Dey links to an article on India being the next big player in International Relations.


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Indonesia: A Space of One’s Own · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Jakartass on the need for the space of one's own, or, how do westerners deal with the extended in-law family?


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Iran: Birthday Wishes · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

To celebrate his birthday, The Brooding Persian has some birthday wishes and shares an allegory.


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Iran: Ganji’s Lawyer in Jail · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Iran Hopes writes that Akbar Ganji's lawyer has been arrested.


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Iran: Ganji’s Wife to appeal to UN Mission · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Iran Scan reports that Masoumeh Shafie, the wife of imprisioned journalist Akbar Ganji, will be mounting a strike in front of the UN office this week in an appeal to save her husband's life.


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Iraq: I found myself… · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Khalid Jarrar, the blogger who was arrested and then later released by the Iraqi secret police, writes about his experiences as a prisoner.


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Kenya: The London Visit is at the Heart and Soul of Kenyan Politics · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Kenyan Transportation Minister Chris Murungaru has had his UK visa revoked last week; African Bullets and Honey looks at the psychology of the London visit for Kenyan politicians.


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Latin America: Notes from Beautiful Horizons · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Beautiful Horizons has a good roundup of what's going on in Latin America.


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Lebanon: Tug of war · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

About Lebanon asks why wouldn't a South Africa-style reconciliation commission work in Lebanon?


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North Korea: 6 Way Talks Round Up · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Asiapundit has a round-up on the progress of the North Korean 6-way talks.


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Pakistan: Urbanization · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

On the strain on resources because of urbanization, and the future of the world on Shirazi's blog.


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Peru: Redistricting Voters · Global Voices
David Sasaki

MABB says it's time for the Bolivian Congress to redraw the voting districts to give the Santa Cruz region their fair weight of the vote in the upcoming elections.


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Saudi Arabia: King Fahd · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Angry Arab News Service has a lengthy reaction to the death of Saudi King Fahd.


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Saudi Arabia: Saudi Jeans Meets Mahmood’s Den · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

While on a trip to Bahrain, Saudi Jeans met Mahmood's Den. Or rather, the authors of those two well-read Middle Eastern blogs met…


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Singapore: How to burn a perfectly good Sunday · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Singaporean blogger Mr.Brown spends a day doing reservist exercises. Post complete with its own flickr set.


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Singapore: Newspaper response · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

From a Singapore Angle reponds to a newspaper negative article about blogging that appeared in Sunday's Straits Times.


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Sri Lanka: Paddy Fields · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A look at paddy fields on Billy's Blog.


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Sudan: John Garang Killed · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

New Sudanese Vice President John Garang died in a helicopter accident over the weekend, reports Black Looks. Garang had been a rebel leader and his accession to the Vice-Presidency had been considered a major milestone in the peace process.


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Syria: A Conference in Venice – Part Two! · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Syrian writer and dissident Ammar Abdulhamid heads off to a conference in Venice… and almost everything that can go wrong on a trip does.


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Trinidad and Tobago: 15th Anniversary of Bomb · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Through the Lens, Trinidad and Tobago remembers the 15th anniversary of the bombing of Trinidad and Tobago's parliament and police station by a radical Islamic group.


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Uzbekistan: You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here… · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Voch Me Ban looks at the geopolitics behind Uzbekistan asking American forces to leave.


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Venezuela: New Protests in Caracas · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Daniel of Venezuela News and Views has a very hyperlinked post about the latest protests in Venezuela's capitol.


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Zimbabwe: Minister holds post in breach of constitution · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Zimbabwean Pundit points out that one of Mugabe's cabinet members isn't a member of Parliament, meaning that she's holding office in violation of the Zimbabwean Constitution.


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Argentina: Scenes from Recoleta Cemetary · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Marisa of It Takes Two to Tango has a great collection of photographs from Recoleta Cemetary in Buenos Aires.


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Bangladesh: Profile of terror · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

DeshCalling links to an article on the profile of terror and Muslim groups in Britain.


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Bolivia: Foreign Minister Pushed Out · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Boli-Nica has the low down on Bolivian Finance Minister, Luis Carlos Jemio who was supposedly forced to retire for some anti-leftist comments in what seems to be a ever more leftist Bolivian political atmosphere.


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Bolivia: Los Tiempos Politics Forum · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Eduardo of Barrio Flores recommends Los Tiempos Politics Forum to discuss the upcoming election … at least until the trolls take over.


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Cambodia: Land of Open Source · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Webbed Feet, Web Log provides an excellent overview of open-source attempts to create a Khmer-language software suite.


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China: Cyberwars Of The World · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

EastSouthWestNorth translates a Sing Tao article on how Asian regional rivalries play out in the world of on-line gaming.


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Cuba: Electricity Update · Global Voices
David Sasaki

Matt Lawrence has an .update on Cuba's electricity woes at Havana Journal.


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DR Congo: Human rights activist murdered in DRC · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Black Looks reports that Congolese human rights activist Pascal Kabungulu was murdered this weekend.


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India: Dadru photos · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A wonderful photo-post on It Isn't, capturing Dadru (Himalayas) on lens.


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India: Women’s blogging experiences · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Dina may have missed BlogHer, but is there in spirit and writes on blogging, and women's blogging experiences.


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Indonesia: Alternatives to Extremism: An Indonesian Travelogue · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Ideant visits Indonesia and examines how Indonesians practice Islam compared to the Middle East.


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Iran: Ganji’s judge murdered · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

One of the more surprising twists in the on-going saga of imprisoned dissident journalist Akbar Ganji is the news that the judge in his case was murdered today in Tehran. Iranian blogger Mr. Behi wonders what this turn of events means in the larger scheme of things while webgardian links to a Farsi news account of the killing. Ganji has been on a hunger strike for more than a month; his condition has deteriorated to the point where he was transferred to a hospital last week.


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Japan: Anti-Korean comic book No. 1 bestseller in Japan · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Marmot's Hole reports that an anti-Korean comic book is the #1 bestseller at Amazon Japan.


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Lebanon: Prostitution Under Paint · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

The Lebanese blog Ramzi's Blah Blah looks at the prostitution problem in Beirut.


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Nepal: Student Protestors · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Colleges turn into protest-fields and battleground reports United We Blog!, with photographs that speak a thousand words.


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Pakistan: Identities and Literature · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Sepia Mutiny on the question of identity for Pakistani English writers.


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Philippines: No need for charter change · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Inside PCIJ reports that a recent poll indicate that 70% of Filipinos believe that President Arroyo's call to amend the Constitution is unnecessary. On the flip side, however, roughly the same percentage admitted that they had little or no knowledge of the Constitution.


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Syria: Syria’s first private TV channel · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Syria's first private TV channel is scheduled to go on the air on September 1, reports the Syrian News Wire. It should be noted that the channel's broadcast facilities are actually located in Dubai.


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Taiwan: Taiwanese Double Play · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Taiwan Tiger reports on a gambling scandal that's roiling Taiwanese baseball right now. Unfortunately, it looks like the press is scapegoating foreign players who have been implicated in the scandal while whitewashing Taiwanese involvment.


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Uzbekistan: For rent: One airbase, excellent facilities, lovely view over Central Asia · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Registan.net wonders who'll take over the Karshi-Khanabad airbase in Uzbekistan that the US will vacate shortly.


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Bahrain: Michel Jackson at Seef Mall · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Wondering what Michel Jackson is doing in Bahrain? Well, Silly Bahraini Girl posted a photo of him while shopping at Seef Shopping Mall.

author: Haitham Sabbah


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Bahrain:  Tolerance! · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

scepticMe is shouting for tolerance and a multicultural society, to respect different race, ethnicity and religion and beliefs.


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Bangladesh: On Dhaka and Cities · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Musings on Dhaka and the inarticulate love for a city on the Bangladeshi LiveJournal Community.


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Bangladesh: Tough times ahead · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Life is becoming tougher for Muslims in multi-cultural societies says DeshCalling, linking to stories that reflect the opinions of Media and Politicians.


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China: Shanghai, Meet Mr. Wal-Mart · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

China Herald reports that only 100,000 people showed up for the opening of China's first Wal-Mart.


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China: The Case of Lu Xuesong · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

EastSouthWestNorth looks at the case of Lu Xuesong, a university lecturer who was dismissed from her position without having been given apparent cause. However, as is so often the case in China, there's more to the story than first meets the eye.


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Egypt: New Protest, More Violence · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Nora talks about her black Saturday experience and says that last Saturday's protest was no less violent than the 25th of May.


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Egypt: No wonder Muslim moderates will fail · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

The Egyptian Sandmonkey is not optimistic after he read Sayed Al Qimni’s interview. His conclusion is that Muslim moderates and secularists will never win the ideological war with the Islamists fundamentalist fanatics.


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Flickr Pick from Indonesia · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Photograph by Aart Nicolai


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India: Bollywood speak  · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

A reverse take on Race and Language in the Hindi Film Industry on Sepia Mutiny.


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India: Communal Harmony goes Gastro! · Global Voices
Neha Viswanathan

Respecting one community's wishes, another community shuts down its meat trade for the duration of some days. Synchroni-Cities links to the story and reflects on the tradition of respecting vegetarian wishes!


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Iran: Meaningful Hand-Kissing · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

openDemocracy is reporting on Mr. Ahmadinejad's hand-kisses to the Supreme leader and saying that it is very meaningful.


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Iraq: Ask for Iraqi Detainees Basic Rights · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Raed in the Middle is campaigning to improve the detention and imprisonment system in Iraq and saying that is needs a lot of work before it starts to function in a way that respects Human Rights and local laws.


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Japan: Postal reform, part one · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Japundit has an excellent post on postal privatization in Japan, why it's so controversial, and what's really at stake.


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Lebanon: Arranged Marriage · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

About Lebanon describes the reasons Lebanese families are going for Arranged Marriages and listing it… ingredients.


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Lebanon: Mourning with style! · Global Voices
Haitham Sabbah

Abu Aardvark is summing up the last week of the Arab media's mourning using unpublished cartoon from Imad Hajjaj.


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Malaysia: RHB: Sulaiman in trouble with Bank Negara? · Global Voices
Paul Frankenstein

Jeff Ooi wonders what the delayed re-appointment of a politically-connected bank director really means. Usually directors would get reappointed to the board automatically, so there's probably something going on…