Global Voices Online

Spreading the blog gospel (blogspel?):
Hossein Derakhshan (aka Hoder) posts his recent presentation on How Weblogs are affecting Iran. He also outlines his upcoming talk on how to make a blogosphere.

Mideast:
The Lebanese Blogger Forum points out that Lebanese expatriates outnumber Lebanese in Lebanon, and is supporting a campaign to enable Lebanese expats to come home to vote in elections next month.

Iraq the Model is angry with those who call the resistance “patriotic.”

Southeast Asia:
Cranial Cavity smells a “very big sea-going rat” in the Malaysian government's approach to shipping security in the Malacca Straits.

Reporters Without Borders reports that Singaporean student Jiahao Chen (now studying in the U.S.) was forced to take down his blog, AcidFlask, after he criticized government policies and a research scholarship program.

Our Man in Hanoi reflects on the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Noodlepie says Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) is awash with foreign journalists and has started a Flickr photo pool. Great idea.

Africa:
Sokwanele laments: “We have been reduced from a major sugar exporting country to a country to one that can't even guarantee supplies for its own domestic market!”

Music & culture: Kenyan Pundit is excited about the Sweet Mother Tour.

South Asia: Radio Free Nepal complains of “state vandalism.”

United We Blog describes how schoolchildren got cold and rainsoaked when required to line up on the roadside to greet King Gyanendra when he returned from overseas. UWB also announces a freedom rally in Washington D.C. on May 15th.

Indian blogger AnarCapLib asks: should India invade Nepal?

Central Asia:
Armenian blogger Blogrel has no love lost for the Armenian police.

Next door in Azerbaijan, Registan.net points us to a jazz festival.

East Asia:
Isaac Mao reports that Skype.com seems to be blocked in China.

Food: Joi Ito has a mouthwatering account of a visit to a Japanese-French fusion restaurant near Technorati's Tokyo office.

Sports: Japundit has a long post on sumo and championship wrestling.

Blog activism:

In the wake of recent earthquakes and tsunamis, Brandmalaysia's Mack Zufikli has launched a blog-driven campaign to get the Malaysian government to include the needs of the disabled in their evacuation plans.

Mideast:
Mahmood at Mahmood's Den is defying the new Bahraini government regulations requiring that all websites must be registered with the government, on the grounds that these regulations conflict with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. To the Ministry of Information he says: “I hearby un-libellously brand you morons of the month! “

Palestine Blog has a poem about walls.

Iraq's Raed in the Middle calls Jafari's government a house of cards. Omar at Iraq the Model has a less critical analysis.

East Asia:

ESWN has a very thoughtful post reflecting on the latest anti-Japanese protests in China. He observes: “What is surprising is why anyone would continue to think of the Chinese government as that one undifferentiated block of black steel.”

At T-Salon, Andrea Leung excerpts Xiao Qiang's April 27 Wall Street Journal article on the internet's role in those protests for those who don't have paid access to the WSJ.

Southeast Asia:

Jeff Ooi warns of a possible weeklong strike in Malaysia to start May 1st.

South Asia:

Indian blogger Vantage Point accuses the Mumbai government of acting like the Taliban in the way it handled a recent rape case.

Central Asia:

Afghan Warrior has some thoughts about Afghan refugees and their problems.

Life in Armenia blogs the massive demonstrations marking the 90th anniversary of a major slaughter of Armenians by Turkish troops. Mahdi Ayat has some great photos about this demo on Flickr.

Photo of the day. Sabbah reports that Qatar will replace child camel-jockeys with robots.

We are hoping to make the world blog roundups a regular (and eventually daily) feature of Global Voices. This is still in the experimental stages. We're playing around with format and approach. It will improve as our aggregator and index get better. Interested in helping? Feel free to add blogs you want us to know about in the index Wiki. Are we missing important stuff from the world of blogs today? Please hit the “comments” section and tell us about the links we're missing.

Mideast:

Much discussion at the Lebanese Blogger forum about Syria's withdrawal.

Meanwhile Ya Libnan points out that Lebanese-Syrian cooperation is still going on with a natural gas pipeline from Syria into North Lebanon.

“Forgive me God, for I have blogged!” Facing the latest Bahraini government crackdown, Silly Bahraini Girl can't control herself and hopes God will forgive her even if the authorities won't.

Hammorabi laments Iraq's “vicious cycle.”

Omar points us to a new Iraqi English blog.

Africa:
Last weekend: Subzero Blue and others report on the first Tunisian Bloggers' Meetup.

Sokwanele in Zimbabwe is fed up with lies.

South Asia:
United We Blog has the latest on arrests in Nepal.

Diary of Peace in South Asia points out that history textbook problems aren't the monopoly of China, Japan, and Korea.

East Asia:
Joi Ito has some videoblogger video of a recent anti-Japan protest in China.

ESWN has some crazy pix of Taiwanese protests against the Nationalist politicians‘ visit to mainland China.

Technical ideas: Isaac Mao has some ideas about bit-torrent for video blogs.

Wikinews:
Argentinian workers who've been autonomously runninng a ceramic factory in Neuquén since the government meltdown in 2001, are preparing to defend their autonomous management as the courts start to consider appointing an owner. According to the wikinews article, about 200 factories in Argentina have been autonomously run by workers since 2001.

GlobalTunes:
Rezwan points us to the only existing Bangladeshi Music Portal.