Global Voices Online

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Andrew Heavens on how hunger crisises are inherently undramatic.

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

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?”

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…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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'.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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”.

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