Global Voices Online

Do away with the military? Anarchogeek links to a poll which says that 55% of Uruguayans say the military is unnecessary.

The Devil's Excrement, Alex Lanz (ES), and Daniel Duquenal comment from the Venezuelan blogosphere on the recent diplomatic spat between the Venezuelan and Mexican governments while Goleech (ES), World News A La Mexicana, and Eduardo Arcos (ES) comment from Mexico.

Caribbean Free Radio has plenty of links (and a podcast) on reaction to Trinidad and Tobago's latest match against Bahrain.

Tinta Digital by Eugenio Martínez has been selected as the first blog of the week (ES) in Puerto Rico's new blog directory, PuertoBlogs. Cultural Agents describes the first Winter Institute in San Juan.

neweurasia has a roundup of the week's political news from Azerbaijan.

Carpetblogger reports on the need for elivator ettiquette in Baku.

Mirsuljan Namazaliev discusses youth policy in Kyrgyzstan.

A Kazakh official says that his government does not rule out the possibility of bringing charges against Sacha Bara Cohen a.k.a. Ali G because of his character, Borat, who poses as a Kazakh. KZblog discusses the reactions to Borat in Kazakhstan.

Olesya of neweurasia discusses the Sunshine Coalition, an Uzbek opposition party, and a representative of the coalition responds in the comments.

What's it like to run for Senator in the Dominican Republic? Ana Fernandez recounts a harrowing tale of violence and a car chase in her mother's run for Senate.

Arabic Weblog “Manal and Alaa's Bit Bucket“ wins Special Award from Reporters Without Borders. Announcement comes early in light of United Nations World Summit on the Information Society.

Shahram Kholdi says the Centre for the Defence of Human Rights, led by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi , has taken legal action against the ministries of Oil and Energy for the protection of Pasargadae historical heritage site (this is not the actual ruins of the Pasargadae palaces, which includes the ruins the tomb of Cyrus the Great, but a wide largely unexplored area whose artefacts and archeological heritage is yet to be unearthed). Read more on Global Voices.

Ahmad Humeid hopes that the call for a campaign to gather one million signatures against terror and its ideologyidea is taken up by the Jordanian media and NGOs.

Mahmood wondering: Do they think that hosting a forum for the Future in an Arab country was going to get them some results?

The Big Pharaoh quoting his mom on her return from a visit to Syria, she says: “Girls wearing tight jeans and tight tops were walking freely without getting verbally harassed on the street. That reminded me of Cairo back in the 60s when we used to wear whatever we want even in downtown Cairo. It is true that many, if not most, of Syrian girls were wearing the head cover, yet those who chose to wear the tight jeans didn’t get the sexually motivated comments Egyptian men like to spew” she said.

Chippla's Weblog, asks if there will soon be a “United States of AFrica”? “Do these names mean anything to you: Thabo Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo, John Kufuor, Abdoulaye Wade, Meles Zenawi, Ahmed Ouyahia and Alpha Omar Konare? According to this report, they are seven of the most powerful men in Africa and they met in a summit tagged “Africa and the challenges of the global order: Desirability of union government” in the Nigerian capital of Abuja to discuss ways of moving forward with the political unification of their continent.” Chippla concludes that it is doubtful Africa would emerge as one country, at least not in the next 50 years which is a pretty long time.

Nigerian blog, Oro posts his first report from Tunis where he and several other Nigerians are attending the WSIS conference this week. “We left for the airport at about 7pm in two cars and 8 bags. The six of us (Edward Popoola, Deolu Ashaye, Tope Soremi, Timi Kenekayoro and Cyrus Olutayo) had one clear mission — to participate in the WSIS II meeting in Tunis as witnesses to the fact that “great things do come out of Nigeria”. Armed with the materials that would help tell the “Nigeria Rocks!” story in Tunis, we had an early check-in (that afforded the opportunity of ordering food from a location outside the airport without the fear of missing the flight). We met seven other Nigerians at the airport, and were all on the same flight”

Malwai blog, Soyapi Mumba announces two new websites for Malawi. One from the British High Commission and the other Malawi's Daily Times and there is more to come.

South African blog, The FishBowl wonders if the reported rape allegaton on Jacob Zuma is not a “smear campaign.” “The report in the Sunday Times yesterday pinning a rape allegation on Zuma, with no -even circumstantial- evidence, and a “witness” that denies the whole thing anyway.” She fears that the report will further “embolden Zuma supporters galvanised in the face of further evidence of a political conspiracy.”

Ethiopundit reports on the BBC news item stating that the Ethiopian government had released 2,417 who had been detained during last weeks demonstrations. However, Ethiopundit points out that “We only have the word of a murderous dictatorship that these people were released. No one knows how many were arrested to begin with. No one really knows how many were even killed. This is a classic Soviet style maskirovka effort just like the deception operations of an intelligence service……A false layer of pseudo-rational good will is being painted over a bloody massacre and crackdown against innocents. So much we hear from this government is this form of ‘mengist be'ashattir' (government by trickery).

Harare Diary by Fire Pussy is thinking that living in Zimbabwe is like living in a constant state of “maybe” where failure has become a way of life. “When you wake up you don’t know whether you’ll have running water, electricity, or fuel. Whether, on your way to the office, the traffic lights will work. These days a blank traffic light equals green. Go figure. Or whether the bank or building society will be on or offline or whether the ATM will have any cash. At dinner the other night some friends were talking about how we’ve normalised all of these service provision failures. Like we’ve been in a fuel “crisis” for 5 years.”

The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen is in Tunis attending the WSIS conference and from his two reports he seems to be in awe of the city and it's people. “Looks like Tunis is capitalising big-time, as one would do, on its status as the cynosure of the place where information society sits at the cusp of historical change……And it certainly looks to be a big summit. “

Agathon Rwasa reports that outgoing Tanzania president, Benjamin Mkapa, will ask the next government to ensure that Burundian rebel leader Agathon Rwasa of the PALIPEHUTU-FNL does not operate from Tanzania.

Worried that he'd be forced to focus on censorship & politics, Chinese blogger wangpei canceled an interview with the BBC on the Chinese bloggers' conference, and feels thankful that he did. He emailed a friend in Dublin, who responded: “Overall, you need to realise that very few people in the west like to be interviewed for fear of being disgraced…If we want a free and independent media, we have to be prepared to be grilled, twisted and tormented by the media.”

On the often excellent We Observe the World, two profiles of different kinds of courage: a portrait of a migrant fruit seller and a muckraking news program.

EastSouthWestNorth explains why he covers China, Taiwan and Hong Kong the way he does — why he selects the stories he translates and posts and how he approaches each geopolitical entity. The View from Taiwan responds.

Anak Merdeka complains about the chore of attending local Chinese weddings.

Law professor J.J. Disini touches on the things nerve-wracked Filipino law students do and feel before their bar exam.

Vietnamese God notices people have been collecting the dead fish that have been appearing in Truc Bach Lake, and worries about why.

Bombay - the city of millions. Trivial Matters explores a not-so-trivial issue. The breakfast for the millions in the city. The pace of breakfast matches the breathless pace of the city!

Adda on the SAARC summit in Dhaka - wondering if there is a bias in the Western Media given the sparse reports. Even if not a very effective forum, it still represents about one-fifth of the world's population!

Ranil Wickremasinghe has been dealt a terrific jolt by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam organization and its appendage the Tamil National Alliance with the announced neutral stand of these two organisations after months of support says Tamiliana.

Democracy for Nepal makes a valid point that moral support and lobbying alone will not suffice. Fund-raising in the US targeting Nepalis would greatly further the cause. The blog proposes a fund-raising plan to involve the donors as well.

The subcontinent has a rich shared history. Lahore Metroblogging explores some of that history when talking of the tomb of Asif Khan. Asif Khan was the wazir and father-in-law of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in the seventeenth century.

The Organic Brew links to the Degree Confluence Project which aims -

The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location.

United We Blog! shares images of Satyagraha (non-violent resistance) from Khatamandu which had over 3000 people participating.