Global Voices Online

Just a little something, on a new service called MarryGold, which says - “‘Marrygold’ intends to help professionals above 25years of age, who do not have much time to focus on finding partners for marriage.”

In the context of the Commonwealth games, Karmadude looks up the history of Commonwealth and isn't too sure why India should be a part of this any longer.

Bahas on the prevalent forms of racism in Nepal - “Racism in Nepal particularly affects members of the Dalit and indigenous as well as refugees and other ethnic communities.caste-based discrimination has been recognized as a critical problem worldwide, with particular impact in South Asia.”

United We Blog! reports - “In a bizarre case, policemen arrested a justice-seeking policeman from the library of Kantipur Publications”

Raheel wishes his readers a happy Navroz and talks of the rich tradition of the day, and the way it is celebrated.

Blogging from Havana, Cuba, Ernesto commiserates with his homeland over their loss to Japan in the final of the World Baseball Classic, but also notes the silver lining: “two island nations rewriting a game invented in North America, and giving a lesson of courage and team work.”

The Trinidad & Tobago government's proposal to locate low-income housing on Trinidad's north-western peninsula is a bad idea, says Francomenz, in a well-documented post on the matter.

Alice Backer links to an article on the new realities of US immigration which helped her understand how Haitian-born hip-hop star Wyclef Jean was able to vote in the recent Haitian elections: “it turns out he's shacked up, not married, to America”.

br23 blog reports on the coverage of the events in Minsk by the Western media: CNN is doing a good job, but the Russian-language EuroNews' coverage is full of distortions, as usual. Also, the German foreign minister says “there should be a dialog with Alexander Lukashenka (!)”

Ivan Lenin of Rush-Mush comments on the recent breakup between the two opposition leaders, Milinkevich and Kozulin: “Milinkevich has got a wonderful opportunity to create a change, thanks to the courage of the thousands Belarusians who braved the very real threats from Luka and the cold; the tens of thousands of people who overcame fear, despair, and cynicism. It will be a shame if he and his team blow this opportunity, by disgracing himself the way Kozulin just did.” Andrei Khrapavitski criticizes Kozulin, too.

Update - Lenin has pulled the post referenced above and added a correction: “UPDATE: a good comment by anonimous re: my post about opposition split: there is no split, kozulin's supporters are on the square. [respect! - IL]”

Over at UDPS Liege, blogger J. Kayembe Tshipamba lists (FR) all the reasons why he believes the DRC is headed towards an era reminiscent of the Mobutu years: free speech issues as evidenced by the repressed March 10 opposition protest; the presence of Rwandan mercenaries; the parcelling of the DRC in 26 provinces; issues with freedom of the press mishandled by the government and poor leadership by key government figures to name a few. He also deplores the role played by the UN.

Fed up with the quality of the writing in his comment thread, Cayblogger urges the people of the Cayman Islands “to unite in your indignation of all things grammatically incorrect, and stand up against the scourge of poor grammar”.

Barbados Free Press links to an article which states that British children of Caribbean heritage are being sent back to Barbados to be educated.

As “the biggest sell-off of Bahamian land in history” takes place, Sir Arthur Foulkes recalls some earlier efforts at land development and speculation by both Bahamians and foreigners.

Though not a Catholic, ArubaGirl still appreciates the value of Lent as a period of rest and reflection after the frenzy of Carnival. Among her compatriots, however, she notes an increasing indifference towards observing the season.

Jon at Posthegemony posts two architectural analyses: one on “an architecture designed to repel nomads”, also known as forts, and another on architecture designed to attract them, in this particular case, the Internationalist-style Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Adventures of a Retired Armchair Traveller reports on street kids in Kinshasa and points to an article which writes that the children are…”being beaten, abused, starved, thrown out of their homes which brings all the hardships and dangers of living on the street, at least in part because fear of witchcraft is cultivated among their parents. Preachers are consulted as to whether the children are possessed. The consultation demands a fee, and the resulting ‘exorcism' based on an answer of yes, your child is possessed, requires an additional fee.”

Rethabile writing on Mzansi Afrika discusses music and what it means for Africa and Africans. “Music, then, is serious matter in Africa. By extension, it is also serious matter to African-Americans, whose fore-parents brought it over as slaves, and maintained enough of it for future generations to “have it in their blood.”

Nigeria's is presently in the midst of carrying out a census. Oro reports that by the end we should know “exactly how many Nigerians live in Nigeria — 120 million? 150 million? Less? More? And as soon as that census exercise is over, another census (that will seek to consider how many Internet enthusiasts there are in Nigeria”

Naijablog has a couple of nights out and about in Nigeria at an Owambe party .…”('come and show') party. A big society woman was ‘washing' her new upscale housing estate in Maitama. The yearly rent is reputedly 90,000US per year (N13.5million). “

AfroMusing posts on a radio interview by two African women bloggers - via Kenya Unlimited.

China Confidential picks up a Xinhua report on the visit to the northeastern city of Harbin by members of the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL). “In the 1920s, Harbin was the largest Jewish community in the Far East, with a thriving economic and cultural life. Numerous Jewish relics of those days, including assembly halls, schools, banks and memorial parks, have been preserved. The ADL is the largest and most powerful of the so-called defense organizations that exert enormous influence over America's organized Jewish community. The others include the American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress,” writes Confidential.

Afrikan Eye writes on the role of African women in civilisation….”I always cringe when people talk about African women's ‘traditional role in Africa' when in actuality they are referring to a fairly recent period in time (namely the 1800s) when African women's roles had already been distorted. So…just to set the record straight, here we go…and as a certain person would say…MUJIENJOYIII”

The Voice of Somaliland-Diaspora Ottawa reports on a visit to the US by the first elected woman MP in Somaliland, Honorable Ikran Haji Daud Warsame

Nazret.com writes that Ethiopians are grippped with fear - fear to speak and meet with each other…”A climate bordering on fear has taken hold of the Ethiopian capital as journalists, lawyers and politicians carefully measure their public remarks and contacts in the face of widespread arrests and prosecutions”

AsiaPundit showcases a video clip of Chinese rural communities engaged in “gold-farming”, where players work their way through the lower levels of online games on behalf of others, in return for virtual currency. These “gold farmers” work every day, in 12-hour shifts, playing computer games to harvest gold coins and other virtual goods that can be transformed into real cash, according to We Make Money Not Art.

Gukira writes a brilliant short piece entitled “Homosexuality is Un-African”………”Homosexuality, it is claimed, was introduced to Africa by the West. Others argue that homophobia, not homosexuality, was introduced to Africa. This dog-chase-tail debate privileges cultural origin as the primary source of legal authority: “as it was so it should be.” Myths make for great stories but terrible legislation.”

tumbleweed in timor lorosae tells the story of a local East Timorese woman who went from janitor at a UN facility to principal secretary to the local UNICEF chief.

Nearing tax reporting date in Indonesia, Cafe Salemba decries the progressive income tax. “In addition to being the cruelest income cutter, progressive tax is also the meanest disincentive to work hard(er).” He starts a discussion with his co-group blogger, another economist.

Jardine Davies, an ardent Filipino science-fiction reader, analyzes why in so many science-fiction novels poverty is juxtaposed with high technology.

Malaysian blogger Mack Zulkifli comments on a recent survey in Singapore that ranked blogs as lowest in credibility and newspaper reports as highest. But Mack says there is more than meets the eye.

The Asia Pages has a long and detailed warning to anyone considering living and working in South Korea: “Words cannot possibly describe to you what a shock the Korean way of doing things was to me. My entire first year at my current job was a harsh, harsh lesson for me in Confucianism in the workplace. I remember locking myself in a stall in the women's bathroom just so no one would see me cry–and this happened at least once a month (somtimes more than once) for a good 9 months,” she writes.

Maytel 2020 describes the rural-urban divide in Thailand that characterizes Southeast Asian politics as a whole. “Southeast Asia has long been noted for its ‘patron-client' political structures which many theorists believe stem from the primarily agrarian nature of most of the region. Farming rice is a precarious livelihood strategy and poor farmers need protection.”

The Opposite End of China comments on a recent report from the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, announcing another highway to be built across the formidable Taklamakan Desert.

ESWN has translated extracts from one of the most popular forum posts on Tianya, entitled “My Seven Years in the World of Gangsters”. Ostensibly a memoir of someone who has now left the triad fraternity and is looking back on his experiences there, the fictive nature of the story becomes clearer as readers continue it via comments posts. As of March 19, 2006 at 00:45, there have been 1,729,215 page views and 21,584 comments, reports Roland Soong.

Chinese Law Prof summarizes and comments on an article which analyzes the career of Qiu He (仇和), recently promoted to the rank of vice governor of Jiangsu Province. The essence of the issue, the Prof writes, is that Qiu has apparently run roughshod over the legal rights of those he has governed in previous positions, but has ultimately delivered impressive economic results and introduced political reforms, a result which leaves some commentators wondering how valuable democracy is anyway.

LJ user lipski reports (RUS) that photos from the Oktyabrskaya Sq. protests have reached the dean's office of Belarus State University's history department: two students from the department are on these pictures, and faculty members are now considering expelling these students. Also, dean's office of the geography department demands lists of all those absent today.

LJ user litota posts March 20-21 photos from the ‘tent city' at Oktyabrskaya Sq. in Minsk: Kozulin negotiating with the police; warming up with hot tea; greeting passangers inside public buses; delivering the tents and running away from the police; WC in a tent set up over a sewer hole; people with the banned Belarusian flags on the skating rink.

19. People's Blog on the Presidential Election reports (RUS) that Lyavon Volski, a Belarusian rock musician whose band NRM is often not allowed by the regime to play in Belarus, intends to invite U2 to sing at Minsk's Oktyabrskaya Sq. in support of democracy in Belarus.

The latest international organisation forced to leave Uzbekistan is the UNHCR. No reasons have been disclosed by the Uzbek government yet, writes CXW.

Ataman Rakin wishes “Happy Nawruz” and gives some background information on the festivities that are celebrated in all Central Asian states.

Onnik Krikorian, whose blog Oneworld features many of his photos, has been nominated for the prestigious National Geographic All Road's photography award.

James of neweurasia posts about a rapprochement between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Central Asia's largest and most populous countries respectively.

Ivan Lenin of Rush-Mush monitors and translates updates on the situation in Minsk on Belarusian blogs. Report on how the night on Oktyabrskaya Sq. went for the protesters is here.

Lyndon of Scraps of Moscow reports on tonight's attack on the Russian opposition activist Marina Litvinovich, who serves as an advisor to Garry Kasparov and is also chief editor of the BeslanTruth website.

Liz Henry has an introduction to Buenos Aires' mom bloggers who will be meeting up this Thursday. Judging by the comments on Turca's blog post, it should be a good turnout.