Global Voices Online

John Guzman pens his thoughts on language and nationality, commenting that not every Latino in the United States speaks “Mexican.”

LEvko of Foreign Notes reports several “worrying violent incidents,” which may or may not be related to the upcoming election: the National State Tax Service Academy in Irpen has been stormed, a journalist in Donetsk attacked, and a news agency office in Lviv gutted.

Don't burn Pakistan asks a crucial question - “What role have the Muslim leaders (not politicians, not the socalled-jihadis) played to pipe down the negative propaganda forcing people to spread hate?“

Legal News from Nepal reports “Legal experts said that election of the constituent assembly on the basis of the prevailing constitution was the only way out for the country.“

The game of cricket today has Bangladesh celebrating with quite a spirit. More at Me, Myself and Bangladesh.

Mezba reflects on how politicians in Bangladesh seem to have all the time in the world in their hands to spare.

Manjunath Shanmugam - the young man who was killed for refusing to be corrupt - would have celebrated his birthday on Feb 23rd. The Vantage Point on a trust that plans to “take up the legal battle and ensure quick justice for the murder case”.

Jeff Barry links to an article in Argentina's largest daily, Clarín about the identification of a 28-year-old man by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo as the son of two kidnapped victims during the country's military dictatorship. Now known as Sebastián, he is the 82nd disappeared child to be identified by the group.

As the Bush administration rethinks its policy towards Bolivia's coca farmers, Ben Dangl describes his recent visit to Eterazama in the coca-producing region of Chapare. He visits a market where vendors are surprised to hear that the coca leaf is illegal in the US, talks with two coca farmer organizers, and describes the surreal situation of showing rural villagers a documentary about Bolivia's coca issue on a brand new Apple laptop.

Ian writes that South America's first “gay cruiser” has docked in Buenos Aires. Andres Duque has more on the controversial cruise journey - which plans on ending its voyage in Rio for Carnival - as he compares it to a similar cruise which caused an uproar in the Cayman Islands two weeks ago.

Yekaterina Chistyakova links (RUS) to the site that has the 36 winning photos of this year's “Through My Eyes: A Day in the Life of Children with Cancer Around the World” contest, which took place at the Children's Clinical Hospital on Feb. 12.

Following the fire that destroyed one human life and much of the archives of Komsomolskaya Pravda, Sean Guillory recounts the newspaper's history.

Rami writes a comparative study, which looks into how different online mediums covered the Israeli force raid on Balata refugee camp, near Nablus, Palestine. The criteria for choosing the websites under study were based on the largest readership: The two largest Israeli online news services, the two largest Palestinian online news services, and the two largest sources for neighboring Jordanian readers, being the Jordan Times newspaper and Aljazeera TV channel.

Marina Litvinovich (RUS) posts pictures of several Russian airports and pictures of Russia taken from the plane. The airport of the town of Magas in Ingushetia is populated by cows.

Tim Newman of White Sun of the Desert links to a fascinating story in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, about the Diggers of the Underground Planet, a Moscow group formed in 1990 to “study the historical, ecological, and social aspects of the Moscow underground.”

With all the religiophobia going around, specially when it comes to Palestine/Israel conflict, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, Uri Avnery writes, A War of Religions? God Forbid!

As part of an ongoing virtual tour of Moscow, snowsquare.com provides a few more glimpses of the capital's landmarks, obvious and not so: male/female voices of Moscow Metro; yet another Honey Fair; Moscow “migalki” and irresponsible driving; and the recent re-opening of Oktyabr Cinema.

Men dressed as Iraqi police commandos slipped into Samarra's shrine of Imam Hasan al-Askari last night, set explosive and blew it up this morning, causing the golden dome to collapse and with it, hopes for a national unity.

Nigeria, what's new? publishes extracts from his forthcoming book - here he discusses where does culture meet the modern world? “Mention female anatomy or clitoral circumcision and our people cringe but the shocking practice of female genital mutilation FGM/C is still being carried out.” hm

Naijablog sets the Nigerian blogosphere alight with a commentary on the coming of the Vagina Monologues to the country.

Gukira takes a new approach towards Western cartoons and puts the whole thing in an historical context.…”To trace a history of cartoons in Euro-America is to trace a history of race relations.” The conversation develops from there to a journey into ““black critical memory” - a place we all need to visit from time to time lest we forget.

Zimbabwean Pundit writes on the Zimbabwean media frenzy over reports that Mugabe has extended a gracious welcome to the new British High Commissioner, asking him to please “build bridges to London. Zimpundit concludes…”There's no need for this hullabaloo, it's just glimpses of old glory from a defunct former statesman, not a change of heart.”

Ri imagines a conversation between the West Indies cricket team's captain, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and the team's new Irish shrink.

Attorney and writer/blogger Nyashazasha publishes a well-researched article on copyright issues affecting the Caribbean music industry.

Linda Thompkins at My Barbados Blog receives an e-mail from a visitor who was alarmed at an offer from a young Barbadian woman riding with her on a crowded bus to hold her packages. “Let me say it is quite natural for bus riders that are seated to hold packages,” Linda says, “and even your purse. If you've ever been on a bus in Barbados, you know it takes all your strength to just hold on. On more occassions than I can count, I've had Bajans hold my packages and purse.”

Taran Rampersad speculates on the possible links between the earth's magnetic field and global warming.

Barbados Free Press pays tribute to the late environmental advocate Dr. Colin Hudson. And Titilayo posts photos of a traditional tuk band.

Cafe Salemba has two mini-stories of globalization, both in-flight: one involving an encounter on an American on a plane who works for a Japanese company and another about Japan Airlines practice of hiring Thai stewardesses.

Ktemoc Konsiders notes the irony of the imprisonment of a British holocaust denier against the background of the Danish cartoon controversy: “The Europeans must now shut their mouths up, and cease their hypocritical pontifications of the ‘freedom of expression’, and accord to Muslims the considerations of sensitivity that they have correctly accorded to the Jews.”

caffeine sparks responds to a post written by Idiot Savant some weeks back on the roots and reasons behind the game show stampede in Manila that cost over 70 poor Filipinos their lives. “Idiot Savant and I should thank our lucky stars our lot in life means we are able to look out our 20th story windows and survey the Makati skyline and rail about the dastardly aspects of the human condition instead of living it.”

All over the Singapore blogosphere are commentaries on an unfortunate high school cheerleader, nicknamed “Tammy NYP,” whose cellphone was allegedly stolen by a jealous classmate and whose sex video recorded on that phone is now spreading across the Internet. A post by Book of Aletheia on the topic now has over 150 comments. Tinker, Tailor has a few words on the scorn heaped on the poor girl but not on her male partner. Xialanxue has been following the story, communicating with the victim, trying to persuade a blogger to remove pictures posted from the video, and reflecting on the ethics of the traditional media's reporting on a deeply embarrassing story.

Huichieh Loy shares his impressions of the offerings at the First Toronto-Singapore Short Film Festival.

the news at 10 lists ten things he thinks the Association of Southeast Asian Nations can do in order to create closer cooperation. No. 2 is “less bickering: for gods sake, stop bickering about islands that have no benefits whatsoever. and no, no country is going to invade any country, its all in jest.”

Meskel Square reports more on the drought faced by Ethiopians in the Southern region of Moyale. …”an estimated 737,000 Ethiopians struggling to survive without access to clean water. Beyond Ethiopia, the drought has spread out to affect more than 8.3 million people, including 1.2 million children aged under five, across the Horn of Africa.”

Grandiose Parlor believes President Obasanjo of Nigeria is “hell bent on going for a third term” as the “Constitutional Committee” commenced hearing this week.

Posters have appeared in Hungary imitating one of the opposition party's campaign posters and mocking politicians who are too eager to get back to power, writes Pestiside.hu.

Fighting continues in the Somalia capital, Mogadishu. Coalition for Darfur reports that the death toll has now reached 33 as gunmen loyal to local warloads battle with security personnel.

Uganda-CAN reports from the Northern region on the plight of child soldiers. Even after being rescued and returned home, the children still suffer from being stigmatised by their own families and friends.

My Heart's in Accra reports on tomorrow's Ugandan elections which have been marred by violence and arrests.

Pestiside.hu reports that, contrary to the poll data suggesting “a decline in voters' interest in the major public issues of the day,” some Hungarians seem to take the election campaign a bit too seriously and act somewhat too violently.

Pestiside.hu reports that Russia has finally agreed to return an invaluable Hungarian book collection that was seized during WWII - but will charge Hungary $400,000 for “storing” the books for over 50 years.

Hungarian prime minister has his own blog now, and Henrik of Hungarian Accent reviews the reactions of Hungarian bloggers to this unlikely development. Pestiside.hu describes it as “a classic blog, offering updates on his personal life and observations and arguments on the political issues of the day” - and thinks that politicians with blogs could actually offer a good alternative to “media bias.”

As the Bush administration intends to use Poland's Solidarity movement of the 1980s as a model for Iran's opposition, Beatroot examines Solidarity's history and explains why such a model may not work in Iran now.

Beatroot corrects Mohammad Taheri, Iran's ambassador to Portugal, who thinks it necessary to reconsider the Holocaust numbers and has been quoted saying this: “When I was ambassador to Poland I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau twice and I did my own calculations. To incinerate six million people you would need 15 years.”

Panahandegi writes about women & their problem to go watching a football game in Iran. Blogger says did you know that a woman in Iran need to be granted an “authorization” to enter the stadium and watch a live football game? Apparently it would be “unholy” for them to listen to bad language… yeah right! What about the unholiness of the speaker!