Global Voices Online

Afghan Lord has been receiving threats, and discovers they're coming from an IP address associated with the BBC. (More on this in a separate post coming soon.)

Onnik Krikorian at Oneworld Multimedia reports on Vardavar, an ancient Armenian festival in which people douse each other with water. Sounds a bit like the Southeast Asian Songkran festival…
(Photo by Onnik Krikorian)

In the wake of a bomb blast in Daghestan that killed at least 10 Russian soldiers, A Step at a Time has translated from Russian a statement by Daghestan guerillas. (via Registan)

Digenis.org reports on the Live8 concert in Moscow.

All About Latvia.com explains how mountain peaks in the Pamir mountains which were once given pro-Soviet and Communist names are now getting re-climbed by mountaineers who want to rename them.

Orange Ukraine announces the creation of a new section of the site devoted to suspicious cabinet deaths.

Now that KO’s internet access has finally been restored, he lets his opinion of PCTL, Pakistan’s national telephone company, be known. Hint: it’s not exactly positive.

United We Blog takes a long look at the pressure felt by Kantipur Publications, Nepal’s largest independent media organization.

The Indian blogosphere is starting a weekly “Blog Mela”, or collection of the best posts of the week. This week’s is hosted by Recursive Hypocrisy.

Dilip D’Souza is in South India, looking at tsunami-struck regions six months after the fact.

Photograph by Eileen Delhi

Mr.Brown reports that Singapore’s most popular Chinese-language broadsheet ran a feature article about Singaporean bloggers and their upcoming conference.

Malaysian blogger Kenny Sia has his own particular take on the personal politics of blogging.

Following up on a piece from last Wednesday’s blog roundup, Danwei passes along the information that China’s latest blogstar, “Hibiscus Older Sister,” wants to be a movie star.

EastSouthNorthWest passes on information about interviews given to the Hong Kong press by Chen Xiwen, the vice-minister of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs. It’s an interesting interview, not least for the fact that Chen praises the Internet for allowing the central government to keep tabs on malfeasance by local officials. He also praises rural farmers for having ‘democratic awareness’, a phrase that probably carries different connotations in Chinese than in English.

Is there a Sino-Vatican thaw in the air? Those Who Dare is reporting that the Chinese government may be willing to acknowledge Rome’s supremacy in running the Catholic Church in China.

Glutter has a healthy roundup of posts and pictures from Friday’s anti-government protest; EastSouthWestNorth also posts pictures, including English translations of many of the Chinese-language signs.

A new group blog focused on civic affairs has launched in Hong Kong, reports Chatter Garden. Written in Chinese, Civic Express features well-known local writers, including former LegCo member Christine Loh.

ThaRum’s Web writes about the importance of English education in Cambodia.

There’s going to be a Cambodian blogger meetup this Sunday in Phnom Penh. Webbed Feet, Web Log has the full details.

Cambodian blogger Lux Mean has been travelling around the country, leading workshops on “how to blog”. It looks like he’s been teaching them how to create basic blogspot blogs; the post also has links to some of the new blogs his student have been creating.

In another sign that the Cambodian blogosphere is ready for take-off, the Cambodian Information Center is now prominently featuring blogs in its sidebar. Link via Cambodia4Kids.Org.

Photograph from EastSouthNorthWest

The prolific Bahraini blogger Mahmood of Mahmood's Den has done an Arabic translation of Reporters Without Borders' 6 Recommendations for freedom of expression on the Internet. (PDF version is here.) He encourages people in the Arab world to: “link to it, replicate it on your site or use it to print and send to your lawmaker.”

Silly Bahraini Girl responds to a commenter who asks her why she stays in a country she complains about so much…

Chan'ad Bahraini has a long post on the local Shia backlash against a cartoon depicting Iran's supreme leader and wishes people would learn to tolerate satire.

From Egypt, Manal and Alaa have a long account (with many pictures) of last week's Zeitun Church protest. Alaa claims that contrary to press reports, the pro-democracy organization, Kefaia, did not organize the protest. (Global Voices recently interviewed Alaa here.)

The Big Pharaoh has views on the kidnapping of Egypt's ambassador to Iraq.

The Free Ganji weblog and Zaneraini have both translated a letter by imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji, who is on hunger strike. (via Iran Scan)

Mr. Behi is worried about the next round of clashes between Iran and the West.

Iran Hopes thinks Americans “need some anger management” in dealing with Iran's new president.

Hossein Derakhshan (Hoder) is annoyed that Apple's new iTunes doesn't support Persian podcasts - which are an important new vehicle for independent, non-regime voices from Iran. He hopes iTunes users will lobby Apple.

Hammorabi writes on Syrian support for terrorism in Iraq.

At Baghdad Burning, Riverbend reacts to Bush's speech last week (in some browsers you may need to scroll down a screen to read the post).

…and on the light side, Desert Kuwaiti Girl describes frustrations of dating familiar to women around the world… how online webchat is the new place for Kuwaitis to meet…and according to some of the comments, at least some marriages have resulted.

Tomas Sancio of Venezuelan Politics explains why Venezuelans trade Bolívares for US dollars in the black market.

Jorge Arena of Arena Space writes on The Devil's Excrement about the recent murder of three engineering students by the Venezuelan police and what must be done to bring forth justice.

Morena discusses the recent explosion of blogging in Peru and links to several valuable Peruvian blog resources [es].

There seems to be some controversy on ALT1040 over whether when one types the letter “M” in the latest Spanish version of MSN messenger, it is the Movistar logo which appears rather than the traditional letter.

Fernando Flores continues his reflections on Lawrence Lessig's recent presentation in Chile [es].

If you'd like to brush up on your history, Uruguay escribe has listed every single Uruguayan President from 1830 to the present.

Babalu Blog asks, “Was Sgt Carlos Lazo offered visas for his sons and family to travel to the US and did Sgt Carlos Lazo refuse said offer?”>was Sgt Carlos Lazo offered visas for his sons and family to travel to the US and did Sgt Carlos Lazo refuse said offer?“

Daniel Duquenal of Vcrisis gives an excellent summary of the latest news items in Venezuela.

Debates over the relevance of Live 8 have kept the African blogosphere jumping this weekend. Andrew Heavens of Meskel Square is amazed that “you can't open a British newspaper (or in my case website) at the moment without reading someone's views on Africa”. Onyango Oloo of Kenya Democracy Project has a long riff on watching TV this weekend, experiencing mixed feelings about the event and wondering what it means that far left critics of the event are finding themselves sympathetic to views on the far right.

Awkete McAlister was at the Philadelphia concert and found herself hoping “that at least half of the million people in the audience would be concerned with what is occurring for many countries on the continent of Africa.”

Watching the London gigs on television, Mambo wonders “Imagine if Femi Kuti had been there. Performing a track like Sorry Sorry. That track alone would have been the most apt song of the whole concert, and Femi is such a performer, everyone would have loved it. Instead we got Mariah Carey. WTF??? If it was in my hands, I would have kicked Mariah up the ass and booted her straight into Kibera.”

Kenyan blogger MMK of Bullets and Honey has perhaps the fiercest response to the events, “Live 8 and Those Who Would Steal African Humanity”. Statements like, “Geldof and company will lay claim to the very last thing so many Africans own: our problems. And it will be terrible and evil beyond imagining for owning your problem is at the heart of what it is to be human,” have been widely quoted and debated, leading MMK to write an additional post on the “combative comments” the post generated.

Sokwanele has an inescapable thought while looking at the pictures of the Live 8 crowds in London - more people than attended the concert have been driven out of Zimbabwean cities by Mugabe's “Operation: Drive Out Trash” and made homeless.

Sokari has another excellent Naija Blog Roundup at Black Looks. She's happy to see Chippla online and blogging again, talking about upcoming elections and the influence of Islamic schools on northern Nigerian youth.

Kenyan Pundit Ory points to an excellent article on the Wabenzi, the social class of African “big men” known for driving Mercedes.

Brian at Black Star Journal is worried that Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni is positioning himself to become Africa's next “President for Life”.

The death of two uncles is an occasion for Tsegasaurus of Satisfy My Soul to reflect on the strength of Ethiopian culture, and the meaning of this year's elections.

Koranteng revels in The Joy of Small Things - evidently, there's joy to be found in Jollof rice, Ikea, bus rides and family, if you know where to look. He's got a soundtrack to go with the trip as well.

Emeka Okafor of Timbuktu Chronicles has the scoop on the Kumasi Institute of Science and Technology's entry in the Mini Baja competition organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Ghana's evidently got quite a DIY car tradition, as documented in this article from ClubGh.com.