Global Voices Online

Alien In The Caribbean digs deep to find the roots of homophobia in the Caribbean.

¡Pura Vida! says that festivities for the holiday of La Purísima have already begun to take place.

Tim's El Salvador Blog covers yesterday's approval of an International Law Enforcement Academy, which will “use US personnel to provide training of police, judges and prosecutors from around Latin America.”

Made in Brazil notes that this is the first World AIDS Day to specifically condemn racism's effect on the spread of AIDS.

GoodAirs takes a look at Argentina's current economic status.

Caribbean Free Radio debuts the first 2006 single by musical group 3canal in podcast episode 37 while Sweet Trini reviews the 3canal album, “Jab, Jab, Say …”

Gil C. Schmidt wonders if Puerto Rico is a third world country with a first world veneer.

Unheard Voices on a group of young lawyers who are getting noticed for speaking up.

On World Aids Day, Lives in Focus has a feature on Lambadis - or the community of tribes (who are said to be related to Eurasian Gypsies) whose lives are on the margins, and the plight of those with HIV is heartbreaking.

David say, the friendly soccer match between the joint Israeli-Palestinian soccer “peace team,” and Spanish team Barcelona, went ahead as planned, with Barcelona beating the Israpals 2-1. But the result was not important; the most important thing was the spirit of coexistence on display, a sentiment agreed with by most.

Hoder suggests that there are over 700,000 blogs in Persian out there which doesn't include those hosted on international servers such as Google's blogspot etc.

Zeinobia say that there are other minorities than the Copts “Orthodox Christian Egyptian” that don't have its rights completely. In fact if you compare their conditions with the Copts conditions, we will find that Copts are much more fortunate than them. What are these minorities? Read more…

The earthquake in Pakistan has changed a lot of power equations - given the accusations of mismanagement of the disaster says pakistani perspective.

The diversity of India never ceases to amaze. Vislumbres goes to Arunachal Pradesh (North East India) and offers some insight.

Why is it that a disaster immediately implies a queue of VIPs who go on pointless aerial surveys? Teakada on the current aerial survey boom in Tamil Nadu.

Pasdar (means guard or revolutionary guard) published Mr. Rezai's, former leader of Pasdaran (Revolutionary guards), letter to Iranian President. Rezai said that we now show the west we don't retreat on nuclear issues and he thanked Ahmadinejad for his policy regarding to western countries.(Link in Persian)

World AIDS Day - Pambazuka News roundup…”Also unmentioned is the role played by the capitalist mining industry which sequestered male miners in hostels, away from their wives and families for months or years on end, a situation that facilitated the spread of HIV/AIDS. Thus the dominant ideologies keep framing the HIV-AIDS debate in the same terms of individual responsibility, ordinary villagers as ignorant and needing ‘education’, and Africans as more promiscuous than the rest of humanity.”

World AIDS Day - Interview with Stephen Lewis in Pambazuka News……On World Aids Day 2005, UN Special Envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa Stephen Lewis - answering questions from Pambazuka News - adds his voice to those telling western leaders to keep their promises made on fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic, warning that ‘resting easy' once promises are made is ‘pure folly' and pointing to evidence of backsliding following G8 commitments earlier this year. In the interview, Lewis answers questions on the slow-footed global response to the epidemic, his often outspoken statements and where the ‘big breakthrough' in the fight against HIV/Aids will come from”.

World AIDS Day - Human Rights Watch calls for increase protection of HIV/AIDS activists….AIDS activists around the world face frequent government repression and abuse and need substantially increased support and protections, said Human Rights Watch on World AIDS Day.”

World AIDS Day - Feminist African Sister - asks some serious questions about HIV/AIDS - We need the answers!

World AIDS Day - MentalAcrobatics asks “How do you tackle AIDS as an African writer/writer who happens to be African/blogger of African origin/African blogger? “

World Aids Day - AfroMusing, Kenyan Pundit

Black Star Journal criticises the Italian Soccer Federation for their failure to deal with racism in Italian football.….”England has long had a terrible reputation for racism and hooliganism at their soccer grounds. But this black eye is a holdover from the 1970s ad 1980s when they truly deserved it. While English soccer authorities have made great strides in the last 15 years against the expression of hatred and violence at matches, other European countries have refused to tackle this issue. Racism and hooliganism has diminished in England partly due to efforts by the clubs and partly due to the gentrification of the once strongly working class game. But those illnesses still plague the game not only in Eastern Europe, but in other parts of supposedly sophisticated Western Europe

Kenyan blogger Bankekele posts on a recent report highlighting issues around Women Entrepreneurs in Kenya....”.46% of SME’s in Kenya are owned by women who face numerous constraints in establishing and running their business. The goal of the program is to transform women enterprises from being informal and micro-sized, located on inappropriate premises, operating in feminized sectors & and locally restricted markets, and which are under-capitalized, making minimal use of technology – all of which limit their potential for growth. This will be done through tailored financial and other solutions”

The Coalition for Darfur reports that the Pan African Parliament has “passed a resolution calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the jailed leader of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Col. Dr Kizza Besigye”

This is Zimbabwe reports that for the first time prevention programmes are finally beginning to help bring down the rate of infection in Zimbabwe. “In Harare, HIV prevalence in women attending antenatal or postnatal clinics fell from 35% in 1999 to 21% in 2004. In rural eastern Zimbabwe, declines in HIV prevalence in pregnant women were also reflected in declines among both men and women in the general population (Mundandi et al., 2004). A significant decline in HIV prevalence among pregnant young women (15–24 years)—which fell from 29% to 20% in 2000-2004—suggests that the rate of new HIV infections (incidence) could be slowing, too (p.20)”.

Shaden attended the Online Journalism in the Arab World conference conducted at University of Sharjah, 22nd-23rd Nov. 2005. She write a very comprehensive review of the event and it's outcome.

Rami say, although there are some shiny and splendid official figures such as women enrollment in education, which accounts for a staggering figure in the vicinity of 90 percent, there are somethings that numbers cannot count. Sadly although women represent half of the society, their chances of finding a job is much less than this percentage, and since I dont trust many official figures, I will trust my judegement on this.

On Anti's English Blog, an article translated from Chinese on how only modernized politics can save China's socialist reform.

The Asia Pages comments on Asian critics' negative reactions to Hollywood's choices in bringing the book Memoirs of a Geisha to the screen. “While it would be nice to see a Hollywood production give justice to another culture, it's rarely been seen,” she explains.

As convicted Australian drug smuggler Nguyen Van Tuong enters his last hours before his hanging, Singapore bloggers continue to write about his situation. Says Xeno Boy: It's all about face. Chemical Generation Singapore is sad that a promising discussion about the death penalty was cut short by self-censorship. From a Singapore Angle is collecting links on the case.

Over at Sarasonteh, Tom Vanvanij and his commenter, Post Staffer, have been involved in an informative discussion about the present misadventures of former Thai media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul, whose dreams of an Asia-wide media empire collapsed in the late 1990s.

No Star Where describes being a foreigner riding a rickshaw in Saigon and quotes Pearl S. Buck: “They are such fools they do not know the proper price of anything, and let the silver run out of their pockets like water.”

Sarzamine Aftab ( means Sun land) (link in Persian) writes about jailed blogger, Samininejad (link in English), who must stay in prison for two more years. Sarzamine Aftab says other bloggers were released from prison because they were famous . Samininejad is all alone and we must back him.

neweurasia reports on Uzbek-Kazakh border disputes.

Notes from Hareinik has a lengthy discussion on Armenia and democracy in light of last weekend's constitutional referendum.

Vseuzniy Blog has photos and a short report (in Russian) on new gas shortages in Tashkent. (Background on the situation in English can be found at Registan.net)