Global Voices Online

The Chinese newspaper Southern Weekend has a detailed article explaining how the Chinese government goes about censoring and controlling internet speech. EastSouthWestNorth has a full translation.
(More background at Chinadigitaltimes.)

Aleksander Boyd does some investigative blogging into the vote software company Smartmatic and concludes, it is “worrying indeed that a company with connections to the Hugo Chavez regime has been selected to run elections in a county of Chicago.”

Taran Rampersad continues his discussion of crime in Trinidad and Tobago.

Boli-Nica covers the upcoming trial of Abimael Guzman. the former leader of the Shining Path.

Jorge Gobbi, from Buenos Aires, gives his thoughts on the inadequate media coverage of Afghanistan in Argentina and around the world.

Brazilian International Affairs professor, Arthur Ituassu discusses the political crisis that has stemmed the once enthusiastic support behind president Lula da Silva.

Publius Pundit has an insanely thorough update of what is going in Ecuador by dipping into the mainstream media, bloggers, and forums.

Marmot Power's travelogue-style view of the Armenian capital, Yerevan, has sparked a lively debate in the comments section of this post.

Of the 362 candidates registered so far for November's general election in Azerbaijan, 150 are women, notes Marianna's election monitor blog.

Fyr has a look around the Saint Thomas river in Jamaica to inspect the damage wrought by hurricanes Dennis and Emily.

Human Rights Watch calls for concrete action from Nigeria following an unprecendented statement by President Olusegun Obasanjo, who admitted that Nigerian police officers have committed killings and torture.

Emeka Okafor at Timbuktu Chronicles reports on open source initiatives across Africa on Software Freedom Day.

Doan Mind Me directs us to a newly created webring for Caribbean bloggers.

In her attempt to revisit the issue of house demolitions, to speak again with the thousands of Palestinian who lost their homes in Rafah all in the name of security for the settlers, Lila of A Mother from Gaza Blog discovers that Abo Holi (Israeli checkpoint inside Gaza) is closed, and reports that a day earlier, Gaza settlers continued to disrupt Palestinian life as they attacked villagers near Kfar Darom and burned down their storage sheds, as she says.

On the other hand, Kabbalah for Women says on Gaza Disengagement that everyone in the center is very moved and sad about the current state of affairs but inside they're happy it's happening to someone else and not them.

Metroblogging Lahore has a feature on carpets and the carpet industry in Lahore.

The Pakistani National Anthem video gets a makeover, and JNS has views on how patriotic videos gloss over hardships of people in certain geographical areas.

In reference to a course in robotics attended by thirty-nine gifted Saudi students coming from all over the kingdom, Alhamedi of The Religious Policeman Blog asks, Not one of the gifted students is female. The 39 most gifted students are all male? Isn't that strange? When God was handing out the intelligence genes, didn't the girls get any? Or is it just that, as always, we totally ignore the abilities and talents of 50% of our population?

Dilip has a post questioning the theories that push free markets or socialism as the solution to India's problems, and Vislumbres responds to that post by bringing more perspective into the issue.

Language of the land, and the ambiguity of identities. Indian Nepalese and Nepal's Nepalese on International Nepal Solidarity Network.

Marouen from Tunisia is looking forward to attend the World Summit on the Information Society which will be held in Tunis on the forthcoming November to promote the World Summit Youth Award, which is an international competition for youth-led projects that encourage the active participation of young people in the emerging Information Society.

Sabbah writes about the forum which provides free access to its pornographic content to members of the United States Military who are stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, in exchange for their pictures of war. Pictures from the soldiers themselves rather than the pics the press feeds, as the forum says.

Need magnetic Cards to Enter Mosques in Tunisia? Relax, Meddah, the Tunisian blogger of Subzeroblue says ‘this is not true'.

Arab Pearl of Chronicles of Life from Oman is discussing the interesting issue of work dress code, of woman at Arab world in general and gulf countries in particular. She asks, why should not dressing Abaya become such an issue especially in countries where the abaya is not enforced upon women? Why do educated people take such offence when a woman decides to dress up in a suit to work, especially when it is respectable attire? Why is it all of a sudden an issue if a woman decides to wear the headscarf at work as her choice to show respect to those who are conservative, yet when she removes it out side of work, they judge her and look down on her? Is it fair to judge a person because of the choices she makes and especially if this individual is one who is respectable, even though, wearing the Abaya or the Hijab was never compulsory for her?!

Lulu of Arabian Adventures writes a lengthy-healthy post; you are what you eat.

Philippines’ coconut geotextile (coconet) for soil erosion control has been chosen as one of the 12 finalists in Newsweek and BBC World’s World Challenge.

Viet Nam Television (VTV) will have eight channels by 2010, and broadcasting time will be increased to 168.5 hours per day, with 80% of total broadcasting time devoted to in-house programmes, reports Vietnamese journalist-blogger Le Quoc Minh. His weblog, Vietnam-journalism, provides insight into journalism in Vietnam including ‘personal stories by journalists on their life and work. His English web-and-blog (of sorts) was launched in May.

Vietnamese God is a Hanoi-based Vietnamese who blogs in excellent English and superb photos. Working in the tourism industry, he has grown used to people who choose Wild Rice for the last meal before leaving Hanoi. Recently, he sent off some guests and welcomed new ones. He tells nice pictorial stories with enduring Vietnamese culture. War drums are distant history.

After the Presidential Elections that never were, here comes the awakening: Straits Times political editor Zuraidah Ibrahim argues that the institution of Elected President is not very important, and blames the citizenry's mixed feelings as being “misguided and misdirected”. Her news analysis has aroused discomfort among Singaporean bloggers such as Mr Wang Says So, Goh Meng Seng (Singapore Alternative) and Xenoboy. They want their right to vote!

China is changing. The increasingly popular phenomenon happening in Guangdong is wife-swapping among white collars made up of lawyers, businessmen and administrators, who are generally highly educated. The mantra: “Neo-polygamy” in order to “fill a void”.

Richard Stallman, founder of free software movement, will conduct two seminars on “Software Freedom and Danger of Software Patents” in two Malaysian universities later this week.