Global Voices Online

Aloo Techie attends a blogging panel discussion and brings forth reactions from the panel and the trend (or the lack of it) of corporate blogs and their future in India.

Culture and society demands that women fill certain roles. Resisting these roles is a major challenge and involves a lot of determination says Inkspillz.

Hell's Dire Agent on the peace process in Sri Lanka - “On the verge of peace talks, the first after a hiatus of over a year, we must ask ourselves whether we are prepared for the process of hard negotiations that lie ahead.”

Sumna Inc on elections and apathy - underlining the only determining factor - the promise of a free lunch.

neweurasia has an in-depth report on HIV/AIDS in Kyrgyzstan.

Metroblogging Lahore continues the debate on the economic and political background to the Danish cartoons controversy.

Oneworld Multimedia discusses corruption in the Armenian justic system.

Ben Paarmann writes on HIV/AIDS in Kazakhstan.

Registan.net writes about the deportation from Ukraine of a handful of Uzbeks trying to obtain refugee status and speculates about the possible connection of the decision to Ukraine's need for Central Asian gas.

Dan McMinn of Orange Ukraine does his regular roundup of Ukraine's main political and economic themes: the gas agreement, privatization issues, campaign news and relationship with Russia.

Indigenous matters blog The Voice of the Taino People publishes a press release issued by the Amerindian Peoples Association of Guyana (APA) objecting to the passage of the Amerindian Bill 2005 in its present form. The APA alleges that the Bill promotes racial discrimination.

Dominican hip-hop group R-1 invites (ES) all visitors to their blog to download their latest mixtape, ““Pa Que Vayen Cogiendo”.

Que Bola? posts a lovely black-and-white photo of two macheteros, or Cuban sugar cane workers, remarking that “it is mindboggling to see the old antiquated equipment and ox drawn wagons that are still being used in the small sugar industry that persists in Cuba.”

The Limey notes that South Pacific islands of Tokelau have become the latest colony to reject independence by referendum, and wonders when the pressure group “Bermudians for Referendum” will be taken seriously by the country's Premier.

Francomenz writes about singer David Rudder, whom she calls “the Naipaul of calpyso”, and Nicholas Laughlin posts the second report on his efforts to help build Carnival costumes.

Peter Byrne at Abdymok links to a Ukrainian-language story on ten Uzbek asylum seekers who were deported from Ukraine in violation of international law. He thinks this is “almost as bad as shipping rocket launchers to Burma.” Holly Cartner, director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division, believes the ten men are likely to face “torture and abuse” back home.

US Congressman Tom Lantos sharply criticized the US hi-tech firms for helping the Chinese government censor the Internet at Wedn's congressional hearing. Chinese blogger Keso compares that to Chinese government's insistence that no one has ever been arrested due to speech on the Internet. He considers both “political postures”, and regards it as ridiculous that US firms were questioned in the US Congress on whether they should feel sorry for their behavior towards the Chinese netizens.

While most Venezuelan bloggers lament the site outage of the directory, VeneBlogs, Miguel Octavio was full of despair and frustration on Valentine's Day as he lists nine examples of corruption and lawlessness which he says have come to define contemporary Venezuela.

Andrés Calamaro is hoping to recruit volunteers (ES) to help fill out his Montevideo Wiki (ES), a collective information resource about Uruguay's largest city. He is starting with a collection of famous regional sayings.

The Lucretius Plan, which is setting up an NGO in Flores, Indonesia, struggles over writing an email asking for donations from family and friends. “I find it hard asking people for donations, partly because I am anxious about being disappointed by the response.”

Once Upon a Weblog wonders what nationalism means for Indonesians, and worries whether the elite has hijacked it: “To them nationalism has revolved into an instrument for manufacturing consent in order to legitimize socioeconomic and political interest of political groups.”

Mack Zulkifli reflects on why people seem more and more reluctant to help each other: “But that's just how society is turning out. When they need something from you, the persuasiveness is laced with the sweetest of candy. When push comes to shove, some people might forget that at the start of the whole thing, you were merely doing a favour with nothing to gain. They just leave you out to hang.”

My Liberal Times compares the crises in the Philippines and Thailand that have been dogging both countries' leaders (accusations of election-tampering in the case of the former and allegations of self-enrichment in the latter). His conclusion: In both countries, the opposition has been politicizing the alleged misdeeds of the leaders — but remain too weak themselves.

Chemical Generation Singapore hopes housing and pensions will play a large part in the 2006 Singapore budget, which will be announced on Friday, Feb. 17: “They are the cornerstones of a Singaporean's bread and butter concerns.”

To acquire sophisticated engine technology, China is buying a car engine plant in Brazil, breaking it up and shipping the pieces back to China for re-assembly. Richard and readers of his Peking Duck discuss whether it's time for carmakers everywhere to start worrying.

Thai Buddhist blogger Pongsathorn discusses his discovery of two kinds of samatha, or “coercion of our intention to do one single activity.” There is intentional samatha and unintentional samatha. Engaging in both exercises different aspects of the mind, so doing both is beneficial for the spirit. “For samatha without intention, while “observing the mind,” the mind may feel tired, if so, the mind will rest in emptiness by itself.”

Snowsquare.com writes about the revival of Russia's film industry: the opening of Dnevnoi Dozor (Day Watch, a sequel to Nochnoi Dozor, Night Watch) in the United States today, and the upcoming Moscow opening of Bumer 2, also a sequel.

Two-Zero writes of how he became a fan of the Russian banya while living in New York City's East Village, and explains why he hasn't been to Moscow's famous Sanduny (Sandunovskiye Bani) yet, now that he lives in Moscow. His friend Michael Haertfelder, however, visited Sanduny and took some pictures.

Snowsquare.com shares a glimpse of an inconspicuous corner of one of Moscow's best-known squares. (Not Red Square, though.)

Matthew Stinson observes the similarities and the differences between the Chinese and the Koreans regarding racism.

On The Korea Liberator, Joshua recalls the North Korean cheering squad whose presence at the 2002 Asian Games sparked a mood of reconciliation between the North and the South. A recent defector from North Korea, however, reported the women being sent to a concentration camp for having talked about their experience in South Korea.

In PowerPoint bullet-point style, Beijing Loafer explains on Beijing or Bust the many complex issues on the topic of Internet censorship in China and why it is difficult for him to take a firm stand on this.

The Passion of the Present reports that students of Yale university in the US have called for the university authorities to remove any financial interests they may have with Sudan.. “Yale had stock in one of seven oil companies that produced a good amount of revenue for the Sudanese government. The university has now dumped that stock.”

Agodi News describes President Obasanjo as irresponsible and dangerous following the use of military helicopters to fight illegal bunkering in Warri.……….”Why use bomb on your own community when you can simply shut down whatever illegal operation was going on peacefully and positively? Is the Nigerian army at war?”

Adrian of This and That writes about the bean harvest in his home town, Loitokitok, Kenya. He has some excellent photos too showing the harvest process.

Oromia Times writes that a vote for dictator Meles is a vote for bad democracy.…

Ore of Ore's notes writes about being “blue” and feeling “blah” about her new life back home in Nigeria…..”I long for the things that were familiar to me and rail against the unpleasant bumps in the road” like “the inefficiencies I see everyday, causing so many resources (peoples’ minds and talents included) to go to waste;

Bankelele points to a report in Africa Confidential reports that President Kibaki and intelligence chief, Brigadier Wilson Boinet” knew that Githongo was covertly recording conversations with senior officials in the government.”

African Shirts writes about the “monetary” relationship between the Nigerian press and Nigerian FA in Egypt during the recent Africa Nations Cup. ….”There were some journalists who refused to accept the money, saying it was only journalists who had “sold their souls” that accepted such.”

Black Star Journal comments on a BBC article on Ethiopia's dependency on foreign food aid..…”It notes that while aid may be well-intentioned, its effects can sometimes be devastating (and I'm careful to not lump all aid together).”

Aid worker, Jared of Jared's Mozambique Adventure describes his time spent with the “Caixa das Mulheres de Nampula (CMN), an association that offers savings and small enterprise loans exclusively to female members. These women are given the opportunity to gather in small groups to learn about healthy lifestyles, money management and basic business development skills”

Zimbabwean Pundit likens Zimbabwe's repayment of the IMF debt to that “the head of a family in a starving village, throwing food over the fence to baboons waiting on the outside, while the children of the village die of hunger, malnutrition and disease”

Breaking Hearts in the Heart of Darkness uses the Nescafe phenomenon or “who do I have to kill to get a decent cup of coffee” as a metaphor for governments and development in many third world countries. In other words when a system is not working you should replace it with one that does rather than trying to simply fix the old one!