Global Voices Online

Christian Garbis writes his thoughts and observations on Armenian logic.

Vilhelm Konnander turns a critical eye to ICG's recent report on Uzbekistan.

Ukraine, faced with threats now from Turkmenistan that it will raise gas prices, is reacting aggressively, reports neweurasia

Peter at neweurasia reports on the destruction of seaside homes in the city of Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan.

The Golden Road to Samarqand writes about Kyrgyz funeral customs.

Was 1905 in Estonia a prelude to 1917 or the year Estonia's independence movement was born? Bonjour l'Estonie links to a review of a photo exhibit capable of shedding light on this neglected and potentially divisive historical period: “Manors are Burning!: The 1905 Revolution in Estonia.”

Bonjour l'Estonie links to an article in Free Estonian Word about how the choices made more than 60 years ago still reverberate today: “People defend and excuse collaboration with the Nazis while condemning any sort of contact with the Soviets. Others, including prominent members of Estonia's political life, take the opposite view and defend collaboration with the Soviets. And all the while, they all maintain that their collaboration was in fact intended to help Estonia. Perhaps the truth is that it helped only themselves instead.”

Aleks at All About Latvia writes about the controversy surrounding March 16 in Latvia: “For the last few years, every year on March 16, Latvian uberpatriots march in Riga and the Western Latvian city of Liepaja. Every year, Russian uberpatriots march to protest against the new found spread of fascism in the Baltic states. Russian TV arrives. Takes the footage. Viewers in Russian cities watch what those Balts think of the grandpappy who died in World War II. The Russian government becomes irate and says that a EU member state should not allow Nazis have any liberty to demonstrate. And eventually, we forget about it.”

The concept of arranged marriages in India puts an extra pressure on women to not only succumb to being a certian type but also attempt to marry a man who falls into certain “types”. More on the marriage blues by Sakshi.

A collage of written testimonials on street harassment at the Blank Noise Project.

Sepia Mutiny provides an update on the Bird Flu breakout in India.

Legal News From Nepal on the position lawyers find themselves in - at risk from both sides of the conflict in Nepal.

Paramendra Bhagat presents a five-point agreement plan to work towards peace and conflict resolution in Nepal.

LEvko at Foreign Notes muses on why no one is really giving Victor Yanukovych and his Party of the Regions a hard time during this campaign, despite him being an easy target.

Greg of Reflections on Ukraine provides a link to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. Andrew in Boston, built in 1954 and serving a Diaspora community whose history goes back to the beginning of the 20th century. The church's calendar has an unlikely feature: an RSS feed.

Kevin Kinsella at Languor Management disagrees with Victor Sonkin, a book reviewer who is being too harsh on Andrey Kurkov, a Ukrainian writer whose novels, originally in Russian, have been translated into many languages: “I'd call it ‘pleasantly surreal' as opposed to Sonkin's ‘without rhyme or reason' - despite also being a straightforward and, in most respects, realistic portrait of Kiev life (and death) in the 1990s.”

Carpetblogger, now in Kyiv (not Baku), describes the feel of the city on a (comparatively) warm Saturday night in February.

Moral Fibre reports on the African Christian Democratic Party - the party that refused to accept the SA constitution in 1995 - “Like the Nazi Party abusing the democratic system in early 20th century Germany, the ACDP abuses the organs of our judiciary which it itself has explicitly rejected in its manifesto.”

Ghana Journal, NGO worker describes the markets scene in Accra.…….”The market is a swirling mess of people – hawkers shaking t-shirts and pants, calling out for attention or if they’re within reach grabbing my hand or my arm. There’s women carrying bakeries on their heads, young men hefting boxes full of more things to sell and dumping them on sidewalks.”

White African comments on the world of Kenyan school rugby and asks readers to tell him which school is the best.

Pilgrimage to Self points to a BBC programme on a Nigerian NGO called Increase …… She works with Nigerians who live alternative lifestyles, and educates people on sexual health.

James compares and contrasts Honduras' telenovelas with the soap operas of the United States commenting that “they both always feature incredibly rich families living in mansions with no discernable jobs or businesses to pay for their opulent dwellings, with nothing better to do with their days than scheme against one another.”

Grandiose Parlour comments on what he describes as a “Naija BlogODrama” over at Naijablog this past weekend. Insults flying left right and center - a display on how to be intolerant and abusive.

León Felipe Sánchez says that the crowd went wild at U2's concert in Mexico City's Aztec Stadium when Bono added the lyrics “Chiapas!!! Mexico!!! NO MORE!!!” - referring to Mexico's longstanding Southern conflict - to the legendary song, Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Squatter City gives some facts on squatters in Cape Town and country wide South Africa.…260,000 on the waiting list for housing; 1.84 million people nation wide live in shacks - a 26% increase since 1994

Jason has learned to love Nicaragua's micro buses.

Chad's public officials have joined other African leaders in the stealing of oil funds into offshore accounts - Yebo Gogo points to an article in the NY Times.

Black Star Journal reports on the continuing crisis in the DRC and points to three articles on the country's state of affairs.

Elena Hernández posts her interview with Peruvian chef, Gastón Acurio (ES) which appeared in this week's magazine supplement to the daily, La Prensa de Panamá.

Lux Mean observes that rural Cambodians seeking redress now wait in front of the Prime Minister's residence instead of before the Royal Palace or the Parliament: “Before, people went to the Royal Palace to ask for help from the King. The change may be led by either the frequent absence of King Father from the country or by any level of people’s expectation, which I could not understand, about the Royal Palace’s intervention.”

Simon World comments on the possible far-reaching consequences of a recent decision to give two Hong Kong-born children of a Filipino domestic worker “right of abode” in the Chinese territory.

Indonesian model and blogger Tiara Lestari, who controversially posed for a European edition of Playboy and who now lives in Singapore, is returning to Indonesia for a photo shoot. She expresses her trepidation at the trip: “Will they accept me as a model who is trying to be a better person? Or will they reject me as the queen of immorality trying to come back to country she doesn’t belong?”

Howie Severino talks about Jollibee, a local fast-food chain in the Philippines that competes strongly with McDonalds. “Jollibee has since come a long way, and so has our globalized world. But now I'm wise enough to know that it might one day make Filipinos as obese as Americans. Jollibee is far from being my preferred Pinoy culinary ambassador to the rest of the world.”

Jessica Zafra writes from Manila about marketing coffee as healthy: “I've been drinking coffee since I was 8, and let me tell you: I don't drink it because it's good for me. Part of the attraction of drinking coffee is knowing that too much of it is bad for you.” Bangkok Mom has a similar bemusement about the advertising of instant noodles.

Expatriate Mister Morris lists the reasons why he likes living in Vietnam, among them “a really really nice country club swimming pool nearby that is to die for.” Our Man in Hanoi sighs that in his mind, its people like Mister Morris who are “expats” — and that's why he hates being called an “expat” himself. His commenters sympathize.

Que Bola? posts a photo of an abandoned department store in Trinidad, Cuba called “Fin de Siglo” (the end of the century) and notes: “The 1900s were in fact a final century for a way of life in Cuba. Things have changed for the better and the worse, but they will never return to the way they were in the last mid-century.”

regalado.blogia.com highlights (ES) a few of the offerings at the Havana International Book Fair.

Barbados Free Press takes issue with the fact that public officials in Barbados are not required to declare their assets. And with Barbados a “hotbed of political goings-on” in recent times, Neil Benn can't help but break his self-imposed rule about not blogging about politics.

“My Caribbean and Florida bloggers, do you realise we are less than 16 weeks away from hurricane season”? asks Cayman Islands-based blogger Ri.

Photographer Stefan Falke posts photos the children's carnival in Trinidad, including a few of a band inspired by the Soca Warriors, the national football team.

Barbados Free Press questions the use of the phrase “world class Cuban medical system” in a article in the local press. In a response to that post, a reader leaves a comment asking what happened to a local eyecare facility for which funding had been received.

How to regulate love in China? A mock law on love has been circulating online in China as early as 2002 and was recently picked up by mainstream media. Joel Martinsen presents the English translation on Danwei.

Flying Yangban applauds the South Korean government's consideration to officially abolish the death penalty. However, he shudders at the thought of extending voting rights to prisoners.

The Peking Duck gives China credit for opening up the first Cultural Revolution Museum for the people to remember the past - “Yes, it (China) can do a lot more. But there's no question this is a positive step“.

On The View from Taiwan, Michael Turton and readers discuss how Apple Daily, the top selling tabloid newspaper in Hong Kong and Taiwan, reflects the regions' democracy, freedom of speech and cultural spirit.

Simon on Simon World considers that “Marxist class analysis pervades even the world's free-est economy, that darling of laissez-faire economics, Hong Kong”. He cites the latest budget discussion as evidence.

So far 10 South Korean have claimed to be either Toby Dawson's birth parents or relatives. Toby Dawson was born in South Korea, adopted by his American parents at age three, and recently won the bronze medal in the men's mogul ski event. The Lost Nomad cites two reportings on this issue and pokes hole in one personal statement.

Nikita Khrushchev began the process of de-Stalinization 50 years ago, with a speech given at the 20th Communist Party Congress, held February 14-25, 1956. Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog discusses the event's significance and reviews the coverage of the anniversary. He also reproduces parts of an interview with Sergo Mikoyan, son of Soviet statesman Anastas Mikoyan. Masha Gessen publishes an excerpt from her own book, in which her grandmother Rozalia, a censor at Glavlit, listens to the speech being read by a Party functionary at a staff meeting.

Louise Arbour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, is in Russia and is expected to arrive in Beslan, North Ossetia, on Wednesday. Women from the Voice of Beslan organization, who spent ten day on hunger strike this month to draw the world's attention to inadequate investigation and unfair trial following the tragedy of Sept. 2004, hope to meet with her. LJ user struwwellpeter has translated their appeal to a prominent Russian human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva, who attended the meeting with Ms. Arbour in Moscow.