Global Voices Online

“Tajik Boy” writes that he hopes that Tajik educators currently in the US learning about the delivery of economics education pick up valuable skills to bring back to Tajikistan.

Nessuna writes about the trials, tribulations, and joys of waitressing in Armenia.

Noting that more and more women are starting to smoke, Indonesia Anonymus suggests some alternative warning labels that could scare off as many women as men.

Ktemoc Konsiders discusses Malaysia's race-based politics. “Opportunistic, avaricious and deliberately divisive politics has screwed up our opportunity of a Bangsa Malaysia. Some of us go around saying proudly “I am Malaysian”, yet the truth is that does ring somewhat hollow in our own ears!”

Another Hundred Years Hence takes the long view of the evolution of Philippine politics. Despite the upheavals, the long-term trend is positive: “the comfort is that chaos on the surface is generated by the friction in the deeper layers.”

After reading a local business paper refer to Singapore as the “heart of Asia,” Mr. Wang cautions against the use of such self-congratulatory terminology: “The best place to start climbing towards success is right where you are - not where you imagine yourself to be.”

Paul at thai-blogs.com worries about the state of Buddhism in Thailand: “it seems that for many people Buddhism is about merit making. About giving money to monks and about trying to improve your own social status. Sorry but to me this is not Buddhism.”

Latino Movement USA Director Juan Jose Gutierrez recently gave a talk in Los Angeles, California about his experience at Bolivian President Evo Morales' inauguration. In this podcast you can hear what Gutierrez has to say about Morales and the future of Bolivia.

Jon of PostHegemony introduces his readers to Chilean black and white photographer, Paz Errázuriz. He notes that most of her subject matter involve those who have been marginalized by society.

Peter Byrne of Abdymok points out the “wrong adjectives” used to describe Ukraine's president Victor Yushchenko in a Wall Street Journal piece on his relationship with former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Over at A Fistful of Euros, Doug Muir argues against the independence of Montenegro and Brussels Gonzo disagrees with him.

LEvko of Foreign Notes makes predictions on what the upcoming TV debates between the Ukrainian politicians are going to be like.

Digenis has begun an 11-part series on the history of the the Seven Sisters, the Moscow skyscrapers built in the 1950s, which are considered to be “the epitome of Stalinist Architecture and Socialist Classicism.”

W. Shedd of The Accidental Russophile writes about Mikhail Bulgakov, his work, and a TV series based on one of his most famous novels that has made the sales of the book itself soar.

LJ user Petya Favorov reproduces a map of the Moscow subway that shows what it might look like by the year 2100. Some commenters (RUS) agree that it is more or less realistic.

Novgorod-based RUBLog (recently renamed into Travel Russia!) links to a site featuring Russian folk tales in English, including the one about Sadko, a bard from Novgorod. The Accidental Russophile links to a site dedicated to the “Russian mushroom lore” and reproduces several well-known Russian folk tale illustrations.

Alex(ei) of The Russian Dilettante's Weblog writes about Russian citizens' mistrust of the police.

Leon waxes cynical as the West Indies cricket team “snatch[es] defeat from the jaws of victory” and lose to New Zealand.

Stacy-Marie Ishmael leaps to the defense of Trinidad & Tobago's football team, who will be contesting their first World Cup this coming June and are proving to be the butt of more than a few jokes.

Thanks to Salman's blog, first blog in Persian in history, I discovered a site which tries to promote Iranian New Year, Nowrouz, on Google. People are invited to send following letter to Google: Dear Google Team, We will be so grateful if Google would do us a favor and display special logo for the Persian New Year's celebration (Nowrouz) on its main page on March 20th and 21st.

Eduardo Arcos points out that Mexican telecommunications monopolist, Carlos Slim was recently listed by Forbes as the third richest man in the world after Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

The Other India on a slum-demolition from the perspective of a person who teaches some of the young children through an NGO programme.

Caribbean-born sci-fi writer Nalo Hopkinson recalls childhood encounters with the music of the great South African singer Miriam Makeba, who'll be retiring soon.

Charu wonders why Mobile phone companies seem to suddenly advocate sensible mobile phone usage and behaviour.

imperfect world 2006 on Bangladeshi migrant labour, with a feature on a person who worked in Jordan. - “It is the only good memory he holds of Jordan despite the trouble he got into with it. The other recollections are of beatings and jail.”

Even as Nepal pulls through violence and conflict, the festival of Holi brings some respite. Photo post at United We Blog!

Bermuda-based photoblogger Tom Q reports that Reuters and MDA EarthSat Energy Weather are predicting “another year of potential category 5 hurricanes”.

Caracas-resident Barbadian Campfyah goes walking along Sabana Grande, where she runs into illegal vendors, roving coffee vendors, chess players and other denizens of the well-known strip. She posts photos as well.

Shirazi at Light Within weaves brilliant images of Basant and celebrations in Pakistan.

Barbados Free Press expresses “a concern that many Bajans have with CARICOM - although we might share common origins and history with our Caribbean neighbours, there are some cultural manifestations that we would just as soon not import to Barbados.” The “cultural manifestation”, in this case, is Jamaica's crime problem.

Non-violent Resistance says that China Digital Times is now blocked in China, and that all the distrust created by the Massage Milk hoax has stopped anyone reporting on it.

Need a fake mainland Chinese household registration card, marriage or divorce certificate, Hong Kong or Macau ID card, birth certificate, driver’s license or university degree? CSR Asia has the details.

Oranckay picks up on a very specific post by a Chinese American businesswomen and wannabe wife and mother on an online dating site, drawing a variety of comments from visiting males.

The Tao of baseball, proposes Japundit, lies in balancing the energies of two familiar and bitter rivals through careful study and appreciation of the Korean flag.

Asia Pundit wraps up his experience of the National People's Congress (NPC) with reflections on proposals to remove Mao Zedong's image from Chinese yuan notes, and assures his faithful readership that there is practically no chance of Jung Chang and Jon Halliday's Mao: The Untold Story making it as far as Tiananmen Square…

Danwei's Jeremy Goldkorn responds to comments on Bingfeng Teahouse, who was wondering if Goldkorn's approach to the Massage Milk hoax was conditioned by other Western writers, because he too imagined the blog had been closed by the authorities.

Bingfeng Teahouse cites a recent on-line poll on Sina (ZH) which showed around 35 percent of respondents saying that they believed in a form of universal intelligence as the architect of the universe, with more than half plumping for Darwinian evolutionary theory. Many also thought that to assent to the former was tantamount to a belief in creation by a divine energy, or God.

ESWN translates a series of questions currently being asked of straight-A Hong Kong students by three of China's top universities now recruiting in the territory. Including: “If you are in a concert hall and a telephone rings next to you, what do you do?”

Lyndon of Scraps of Moscow quotes his St. Petersburg friend on what spring feels like: “It's very cold everywhere, we drink tea mixed with vodka and minimaze [sic] our moving around the city.” Snowsquare.com posts pictures of ice sculpture in the garden of one of Moscow's banks.

Charlie Ganske of Russia Blog reviews “The 9th Platoon,” an extremely expensive and popular Russian movie about the 1980s war in Afghanistan.

Michael of The Glory of Carniola reports on how yet another newspaper has lost Slovenia on the map.

Tomorrow is the day when Hungarian nationalists in Udvarhely, a Romanian city whose population is 98% ethnic Hungarian, may clash with their Romanian counterparts, reports Andy H of Csikszereda musings: “[…] And once again the fact that broadly speaking Hungarians and Romanians live together fairly successfully and without rancour, will be obscured by a bunch of nationalist scum – Vadim Tudor will get his publicity, as will the Szekely Autonomists, and everyone on the extremes is happy. Everyone caught in the middle gets screwed. […]” Freezing temperatures and the lack of media attention might prevent the clashes, but are unlikely.

Adventures of a Retired Armchair Traveller has two election reports from the DRC - the deployment of EU troops to maintain peace during the elections and the yet another candidate who has declared himself - now there are some 20 altogether.

Chippla reports on the the impounding by security forces of an essay by Nigerian journalists who criticised the President's campaign for a third term.

The African Union tells fighters at Sudan peace talks that their time is up….If they can reach an agreement this may pave the way for the deployment of UN peacekeepers . Sudan Watch

Afromusing notes the building of a “massive solar based rural electrification of at least 88 villages is expected to be rolled out countrywide mid this year” in Kenya.

Ore's Notes blogs about blogging and points to a BBC site that provides an overview of blogging tools that are popular...”Blogging, wikis and podcasting have become popular ways to create an online presence and share ideas with a cyber audience”

France Watch questions the presence of a statue of French soldier in the center of Douala, Cameroon..”Does General Leclerc, a French soldier, deserve to be honored at the Bonanjo [Douala] independence square of all places, at the expense of Cameroonian martyrs such as Douala Manga Bell and Ngosso Din?

The Vision insists that refugees must have a say in the running of Buduburam refugee Settlement in Liberia....”It is also time that things become more proactive by giving refugees the chance to be part of some policy drafting which references the settlement since these policies are geared toward the welfare of the refugees themselves.

Black Star Journal comments on an article in the Atlantic magazine that “speculates on the possible implosion of Nigeria and the possible reaction of the US government in the world's sixth largest oil producer”

Ethiopundit comments on a report in the LA Times which likens the new African leaders to the autocrats of old..“Tens of thousands are in prison camps, thousands are dead and those who operated in a false democratic space supposedly guaranteed by the West are ‘on trial' for their lives for the high crimes of treason, genocide and for all we know jaywalking.”

ThinkersRoom reports that the Kenyan Daily Nation featured Kenyan bloggers “My one gripe — a very healthy imagination on the party of the author. I’m not 29. At no time did I divulge my age, or indeed anything personal about myself. Check your facts, ladies and gentlemen, check your facts”

Sharif Chaos, an Iran based blog, writes about government's plan to bury anonymous martyrs in Sharif University (Persian). Blog informs us that about 1000 students wanted to stop this event but Basij forces beat them up and buried anonymous martyrs in a mosque at the heart of famous Sharif University in Tehran.