Global Voices Online

We're always looking for new ideas and good stories to write about. If you have a story or a blog post that you think would be a good fit for our daily roundups, email us with the link and a short blurb about what it's about!

Central Asia

Hans from Kaukasus reports the news that travel to Georgia (the country, not the state) is now visa-free for visitors from the EU, the US, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, and Israel, and invites tourists to come and visit the scenic Central Asian republic.

Registan confirms that the Peace Corp has decamped from Uzbekistan. They also note a slightly odd story from Kyrgyzstan; apparently the acting president has decreed that all regional leaders have to take—and pass—a physical fitness test.

East Asia

Little Cart Noodles gets to tour the USS Nimitz when it makes a port call in Hong Kong and takes a whole series of neat photographs.

Over on the Korean Peninsula, the Marmot helpfully points to an article that discusses Kim Jong-Il’s favorite foods.

Photo by noe0712

South-East Asia

Kenny Sia writes about the always touchy subject of racism in Malaysia; he looks at the state-sponsored preferential treatment Malays receive over other ethnic groups and wonders if it’s gone too far.

The latest political imbroglio in the Philippines revolves around a tape of a telephone call that allegedly implicates President Gloria Arroyo in election fraud. Except that there’s another version of the tape that apparently proves that the first tape was doctored. Except that others believe that both versions of the tape have been doctored. The one thing that’s clear, according to The Sassy Lawyer, is that someone needs to be in jail… we’re just not sure who. Inside PCIJ has more background on the scandal.

Latin America

The big story in Bolivia is the resignation of President Carlos Mesa. Publius Pundit has a good general roundup of the situation, while Barrio Flores, MABB, and Ciao! have immediate reaction posts up. MABB also has a more reflective post that worries that the country may be on the verge of breaking up, and Open Veins has photographs of some of the protests.

South Asia

Youth Curry reports that the growing trend of efficient discount airlines (think JetBlue or RyanAir) has reached India, and is changing the way Indians travel.

On the lighter side, Chien(ne)s Sans Frontières has a post covering the very latest in Bollywood rivalries, featuring two of the subcontinent’s biggest glamour queens.

Europe

In an only-in-Ireland stunt, a young man recently embarked on a Guinness-only diet for a week (well, Guinness with bread, and a pint of milk and a vitamin C supplement). This being the internet age, the natural thing to do was blog about the experience.

In the wake of the EU Constitution referendums in France and the Netherlands, Heiko Hebig thinks that he “should start referring to the Draft EU Constitution as the ‘Terri Schiavo Constitution’”.

Despite the fact that Finns are found to be very progressive and broadminded as a group, Phil at Finland for Thought is distressed that Finland is still listed as a “Tier 2” country in the United States’ report on human trafficking.

In Hungary, Vandorlo of Central Budapest notes that Hungarians are abandoning fixed-line phones, with only a third of them using them to place their calls.

Late-breaking Hungarian news: Pesticide.hu reports that Hungary has it’s third president of the post-communist era, though the parlimentary vote is not without controversy.

Africa

Mental Acrobatics asks: “What would you say the single most important event of the 20th century was for Africa/Kenya?”

Chanuka wonders why Africa needs more loans and more aid when its leaders drive around in lavish cars while ordinary citizens can barely afford a bicycle…

The Middle East

The famous “should women drive in Saudi Arabia” debate gets a hearing at Crossroads Arabia. Verdict? Well, since women can drive everywhere else, what’s the big deal?

The Syrian News Wire on the Hezbollah victory in the Lebanese elections: “This is proving to be an even more
predictable election than when Lebanon was under
Syrian influence.” That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?

Subzero Blue is annoucing plans for the third Tunisian blogger meetup. Sounds like fun, though I don’t think that I can get GV to send me there to cover the event. In other news from Tunisia, the first Tunisian blog in Spanish has been sighted.

In reporting on the murder of a Libyan journalist, Abu Aardvark suggests that “if Moammar Qaddafi is going to be drinking tea with Tony Blair, and celebrated in Washington for giving up his non-existent nuclear program in order to vindicate the invasion of Iraq, Libyan journalists who criticize official corruption shouldn’t be showing up dead, riddled with bullets and their fingers cut off.”

Photo by Aaron Schaub

Africa

This Is Zimbabwe reports from the site of a so-called police ‘clean-up’ operation. As the title says, if selling flowers was illegal, then why didn’t they stop it 100 years ago?

“Where are you really from?” asks Black Looks. What’s she’s really asking is, of course, “What makes you the nationality that you are? Where does that line end and where does it begin?”

South-East Asia

The Sassy Lawyer takes wonders why the government, since it’s so intent on censoring TV and film, does nothing about suggestive advertising.

The fact that Singapore has one of the highest numbers of bloggers of any country in the world (on, of course, a per-capita basis) was a topic of much discussion at the first Singapore Indian Blogger’s Meet, according to Kaps of Sambhar Mafia.

South Asia

Over the weekend, Nepalese lawyers staged a rally in Kathmandu, protesting the royal family’s seizure of power. United We Blog! has photos of the protest. The comments are running mostly royalist, however…

India Uncut takes a gander at a badly-abbreviated headline and lets his imagination take over from there.

Europe

In the wake of the French and Dutch defeats of the EU constitution, the group blog A Fistful of Euros notes that this may slow the Turkish drive to enter the EU while also observing that the UK has taken the opportunity to shelve Britain’s vote on the EU constitution. Elsewhere, the site also ponders what impact Kurdish national ambitions might have on Turkey’s EU application.