Global Voices Online

Hemlock regards the attempt to implement a goods and services tax in Hong Kong as utopian as IMF asking Nepal to restore peace. For “our visionary leaders can’t do anything that’s in the interests of the community, because we’re not a community. We are ‘various sectors’”.

Beijing Loafer defends the role of piracy in media-controlled China. Without piracy, Chinese audiences “would only get the likes of Titanic, Backstreet Boys and Batman with no shoulder exposed, products as mind numbing as the communist propaganda”. The drawbacks? Misleading subtitles.

Jefferson Morley takes a survey of of what the Mexican media is saying about the scandal, “el hotelazo” in which the U.S. Treasury Department told the management of the Sheraton hotel in downtown Mexico City to expel 16 Cuban officials who were meeting with U.S. oil executives. A U.S. spokeswoman said the meeting violated the Helms-Burton Act which prohibits American companies from dealing with Cuban individuals or companies.

The Young Caucasus Women project is in its third week, and a roundup of the initial posts for the week can be found here.

Alan Cordova wonders if there is a message behind the music played when various Central Asian teams made their entrances during the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics.

Christian Garbis has a further report on the continuing destruction of downtown Yerevan.

Oneworld Multimedia has a report on and photos of Diaruntarach/Terendez, an annual holiday with pagan roots centered on fire.

Registan.net reports on Uzbekistan's ban on press mentions of Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day doesn't quite find favour with the moral police in India says Sepia Mutiny, bringing reactions from around the country.

Knowing peace in Sri Lanka is unlikely if you were born after 1982 says Curious Yellow. “If you were born in ‘82, and if you were Tamil and lived in Colombo, or somewhere urbanised, then the chances are your parents had to flee, or take some kind of evasive action in ‘83.”

The controversy over the cartoons refuses to die down. A clash in Lahore reported by Metroblogging Lahore.

Legal News from Nepal on the government -”Prominent legal experts on Tuesday called on the King to immediately dissolve the government under his chairmanship taking in view the yesterday's landmark Supreme Court verdict that disbanded the Royal Commission for Corruption Control instituted by the king following the royal takeover last year.”

Lives in Focus has a feature on the numbers game - “In this audio podcast, Anand Grover, an attorney and project director for the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit in Mumbai, India, addresses the gulf between the Indian government’s statistics and NGOs statistics on the number of people infected with the HIV virus.”

The Beatroot writes that a Swedish “death metal” band has decided to cancel its Polish tour, fearing legal action. A precedent was set two years ago, when a Norwegian “black metal” band was charged with causing “religious offense” after a concert in Krakow.

All About Latvia reports how the Latvian Olympic hockey team couldn't leave the arena for 40 minutes this past Saturday - because Laura Bush was somewhere nearby, watching the U.S.-Switzerland women’s hockey game.

Author of the bilingual (English and Belarusian) br23 blog encounters red tape in the Czech Republic and is forced to cancel his trip to Ukraine, where he was to teach a group of Belarusian NGO activists about the Internet and blogging.

Anna of annasblog shares pictures from a Saturday escape from the capital Tirana to Albanian countryside: sheep, brides, ancient ruins - and modern bunkers, some 700,000 of them scattered all over the country that's slightly smaller than the state of Maryland…

Dave Pentecost links to a transcript of a speech by US General Bantz J. Craddock after flying over Guatemala to inspect what are believed to be drug airstrips.

Daniel Duquenal reports that Caracas' baseball team, the Leones, won the Caribbean baseball series.

Tim Muth recommends to his readers that they listen to an interview with Leslie Schuld, executive director of the Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad.

Bob Row explains an environmental paradox facing three populist heads of state in Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina with his typically clever caricature and bilingual description.

“What’s a Sunday dinner without a some Rice & Bean and Curry Goat?” asks Iriepeople.com in its brief rhapsody on the Jamaican dish, which includes a recipe. And on Saturdays in Trinidad Can Cook, Must Cook says “you'll find a lot of people making soup, usually fish broth or oxtail soup.” Her commenters agree - and salivate.

Caribbean Free Radio posts a humorous tale about a rap video crew's attempts to shoot a music video during Carnival

African HouseIT has three stories on housing crisis in South Africa as floods cause extensive damage to mud houses and shacks.

Koranteng's Toli writes on the creation of Valentines Day in Ghana and points to a painting by one of Ghana's top artists, Wiz, or Wisdom Kudowor.

Titlayo reports that a yacht owned by US billionaire J. Paul Getty III has destroyed a portion of the coral reef off the west coast of Barbados, but she's even more dismayed at this comment: “Well, man, he got a lot o' money. He could afford to build back that reef, no problem.” She also posts a follow up to last week's discussion on Barbados' response to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Soul on Ice discusses racial diversity in London……….”Pakistanis hate Indians for some obscure reason. Jamaicans dislike Nigerians who have nothing good to say about them. People of Jewish extraction are always looked upon with some senseless suspicion. But still we cross-pollinate and a run to my local market in Deptford sees all sorts buying food from lands as far away as Timbuktu”

Matthew Hunte vists the Vieux Fort Technical Institute in southern St. Lucia, “in an attempt to understand a bit more about that nature of this unique school and to truly find out where their students are coming from”.

New blog Ethnic Loft, comments on the numbers of African Women Blogging and points to a roundup on Black Looks “Who says African Women cant blog?” - He also has an excellent photo from Nigeria's Durbar festival in Zaria.

Trinidadian journalist Vaneisa Baksh joins the debate on racism in cricket going on at the Cricinfo - Wicket to Wicket blog with a susbstantial article which concludes that, while racism certainly exists in the Caribbean, it rarely manifests itself these days in the context of West Indies cricket.

Africa Unchained points to an article by Pat Utomi of the Lagos Business School on the “disproportionate focus on politics within Africa and the relatively tepid interest in entrepreneurship and wealth creation”.

The Caribbean Beat Blog notes the presence of Bermudian Patrick Singleton at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino and also the absence the USVI's 52 year-old luge competitor Ann Abernathy, who had to pull out of the games because of an injury.

Ethiopian Politics writes a message to Ethiopian youth asking them not to make the same mistakes as older generations…..”These are the pitfalls my generation has fallen prey to, but you the hope of our new Ethiopia, must avoid at all cost: · Ethnocentric jingoism, Intolerance for political dissent, Cultural insensitivity

Ethiopundit reports on the plight of orphan and street children in Ethiopia…

Eddie Cross writing in Zimbabwean Pundit comments on a recent remark by ZANU-PF that rather that allow white farmers to return under a leasehold agreement, the state was bent on taking over the white farms. He concludes that by denying white farmers their rights, the government undermines the rights of all citizens.

Black Star Journal commenting on the state of African soccer writes that it is not the quality of players that is preventing success at World Cup level but the poor quality of organisation...”From governments meddling in the affairs of soccer federations, to federations meddling in team selection, to often lamentable training conditions for players and coaches, to poor youth development programs.”

Jakartass tries to figure out Indonesia's vice-president Josef Kalla.

Inspired by an Economist article about how the U.S. military hires Hollywood production companies to make their combat training simulations more realistic, Indonesia Anonymus guesses what would happen if the Indonesian military hired local TV soap producers to run their simulations. One possibility: “There will be a lot of screaming, crying, and cat fighting.” Read on: the predictions are priceless.

Peter at Competitive Malaysia looks at the fates of three local businessmen-turned-politicians. His conclusion: “it is better for businessman to remain focus on it core competencies….business rather than enter into politic.”

Filipino bloggers go after an accused “splogger,” i.e. someone who sets up a network of blogs that contain plagiarized content in order to draw traffic for Adsense dollars. Apparently, one of his tactics was to critique high-traffic bloggers so that supporters and friends would link to his site while defending those bloggers. The victims' response? Argue back but not link to the splogger. Read Sassy Lawyer, Manuel Viloria or Yuga if you're interested.

Burma Digest has an interview with Harn Yawnghwe, the youngest son of the last ruler of the Shan State kingdom of Yawnghwe, who now lives in exile and participates in the democracy movement.

Our contributor Vietnamese God gives us a sampling of architecture in Ho Chi Minh City, a.k.a. Saigon.

Stefan from Dykun tells a story of his grandmother, who was kidnapped and brought to Nazi Germany - like many other Ukrainians - to work at a munitions factory at the age of 17. When the war ended, she didn't return to the Soviet Union but escaped to the United States, where she has spent most of her life living in Omaha. Hence her name: Baba Omaha. Stefan writes from a unique perspective of someone who has family both in the United States and in Ukraine - Poltava region in the East and Ternopil region in the West.

Scott W. Clark at Foreign Notes does a roundup of the Ukrainian parties' TV ads: Regions of Ukraine; Our Ukraine; Viche; Pora. Yulia Tymoshenko's Bloc, however, is neglecting the TV campaign, for some reason.

Michael Turton on The View From Taiwan blogs on the political backpeddling of Ma Ying-jeou, the mayor of Taipei and the Chairman of Taiwan's main opposition party, Kuomintang. Ma had stated earlier on his visit to the UK that China must remove the 700 missiles pointing at Taiwan before the two sides could negotiate. He later reneged on that statement.

The Lost Nomad highlights a Los Angeles Times article on Hines Ward becoming an instant national hero in South Korea. Hines, born to a Korean mother and an African American GI father, grew up in the US and suffered discrimination from the Korean community. He was recently elected the most valuable player of the Super Bowl, America's annual football extravaganza.

The blogger at The Asia Pages gets a chuckle out of a report that in the South Korean army, new conscripts have to share chocolates from their girlfriends with their seniors on Valentine's day.

The South Korean government just announced that its foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon, would run for the UN Secretary General post. Fying Yangban discusses the importance of Ban securing backings from other Asian Countries, while Oranckay reminisces on the announcement's effect in boosting national pride.

ESWN translates from the quasi-official Caijing magazine an article that is reputed to represent the views of senior Chinese officials. The article states that many injustices “occurred because the administrative powers intervened in the distribution of production during the marketization“. The author cites the central government's plan to reform “the government's administrative system” as a top priority to push China's reforms forward, which sounds like a veiled call for political reform.

On Wedn Feb 15th, the US Congress will review the roles that US hi-tech firms are playing in China's Internet censorship. In “Truth, Justice or A Near Sighted Attack on The Chinese Way”, Angry Chinese Blogger gives a comprehensive overview of the issues at stake and the motives at play.

Meg photographs her tour of El Mozote, where a tragic massacre took place in 1981 and remembers Rufina Amaya, a villager who escaped the massacre while soldiers killed her husband, son, and three daughters.