Global Voices Online

Brazil's Varig has joined Mexico's Aerocalifornia and Bolivia's LAB on the growing list of Latin American airlines struggling to get by according to Made in Brazil.

Mysterious as it is informative, the weblog The Wolf Report continues its series of “The Importance of Being Ecuador.”

Jorge Arena has an almost comprehensive list of Anglophone Venezuelan bloggers who remarked on the fourth anniversary of the April 11th coup which temporarily removed Chavez from office. Oil Wars also comments on the anniversary including a partial translation of the “Carmona Decree” issued by the ever-so-brief transitional government.

Registan.net writes about the attempted assasination of Edil Baisalov, the president of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society and blogger, arguing that it's yet another sign that the political situation in the country is quickly deteriorating.

Zarchka writes that she wishes that smiling in public was more acceptable in Armenia.

Dialogue 3 (Persian) says that income disparity on the rise in Afghanistan. A soldier can only get 700 dollars per year while a businessman makes 600,000 dollars!

With descriptive words and somber reflection, Jim Shultz describes his time in Cochabamba's cemetery, where family and friends gathered to remember Victor Hugo Daza, killed by the military at the age of 17 while protesting against the privatization of local water supplies.

“Tajik Boy” writes about racist attacks on foreigners in Russia, a situation that worries the many Tajiks who work in Russia or have a relative who does. He says that neither the Russian nor the Tajik governments pay enough attention to the situation.

A.M. Mora y Leon hopes that the vote from abroad will carry conservative candidate Lourdes Flores into the second round of presidential elections. Enrique Mendizabal (ES) says that it would be difficult, but possible. In a comment, Giovann Alarcón says that he is doubtful of Flores' chances.

Sasha writes about the state of legislation in Kyrgyzstan.

Alan Cordova notes that Kyrgyzstan is offering yurts for $10,000 each for temporary housing for Hurricane Katrina victims. Alan wonders if this is the government's latest get rich quick scheme.

The blog of recently elected President Boni Yayi publishes (FR) a decree listing the members of his newly formed cabinet.

A moving account from a person who reflects on what it is to be like in Nepal at United We Blog! - “I am a charlatan that interviews a hungry Chepang woman, forcing her to speak out wasting whatever little chemical energy food has released in her body, when the meager one day meal is all she survives on. I am an imposter who is attempting to voice her thoughts in a platform that is merely for the privileged. That squatter dweller across the river is never going to read this, never going to tell us all what exactly it feels like to be out there.”

Violence seems to continue without pause in Nepal - as the protest intensifies, even with the curfew being relaxed. Democracy for Nepal has some visuals.

Bhopal Blog provides an update on the fight for justice for the victims of the Bhopal Gas tragedy, and comments on the hunger fast, while commenting on the meeting point with the Narmada Movement - “As both enter a very critical phase of respective struggles, we can sense something big is about happen. Something that will determine the fate of these two and consequently many others to whom these serve as inspiration and models.”

Popular Economix on setting back the clock in Sri Lanka, more day light to save energy and issues that are the highlights of the decision to reset time.

Metroblogging Islamabad on how the city appears to have lost some of its shine. “Now the blue tiled watercourses and cascades at Pakistan Secretariat are lying dry and dirty. We really don't know what became of that ‘clay train' in Saidpur village or if that water treatment plant there is still working or not.”

“Given my multinational beef eating experiences, I am the first to promote the superior quality of Argentina’s meat” says Diego in Altered Argentina. But find out why his favorite food is under attack in Argentina. Included is a very handy chart of state-regulated prices depending on the cut.

Peter Myers of Adventures in Moldova writes about Moldovan wine industry and the potentially disastrous consequences of Russia's ban of wine imports from Moldova.

LEvko of Foreign Notes reports on how Ukraine's richest man Rinat Akhmetov has failed to rob his native idustrial center Donetsk of its botanical garden.

David McDuff of A Step At A Time cites a report on a protest rally that took place in St. Petersburg yesterday, following the recent murder of a Senegalese student.

Snowsquare.com posts pictures and text from the All-Russian Exhibition Center in Moscow, formerly known as VDNKh.

TOL's Belarus Blog shares rumors of Aleksandr Lukashenko's poor health reported in the German Focus Magazine.

Timbo of The Hungary Years writes about recycling and “not wasting” in Hungary.

Michael of The Glory of Carniola posts a video clip of the Slovenian version of Who wants to be a millionaire?, in which a contestant fails to answer the first question. Also, a past highlight of the Serbian version of the show.

W. Shedd of The Accidental Russophile posts a bio of Russian comedian Mikhail Zadornov and supplies a translation of two of his pieces: a Soviet-time “Conversation of a Rest Home Deputy Director with Guests on the Day of Their Arrival” and a more recent one, “Russian business, or the Eighth Wonder of the World.”

KTemoc discusses the surprise Malaysian decision to halt the construction of a controversial bridge between Malaysia and Singapore.

Greg at Vagabonding begins! joins the Songkran festivities in Chiang Mai. Songkran is also known as Water Festival and it marks the Thai new year.

Saifulrizan from Labuan, Malaysia takes a ferry to nearby Brunei and blogs about his experiences there.

Bangkok resident Chatchai Kongaut lists the pros and the cons of Songkran festival.

Ten years in the making, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights' ‘Report on China Mission of Special Rapporteur on Torture‘ came out last month. Donald C. Clarke of the Chinese Law Prof blog gives a review and two links. “It is a sober and comprehensive treatment of many aspects of the criminal justice system that gives credit where credit is due,” he says, “but pulls no punches. For those who don't have Word,” continues Clarke, “here is the report in PDF format.”

Chapter four: ‘Deprivation of liberty for political crimes and forced re-education as a form of inhuman or degrading treatment.'

The blogger at Frus and Fuss asks if something can be done to reduce the rising crime rate in the Malaysian state of Johor.

Filipino blogger J. Angelo Racoma questions the logic behind a bill that the US Senate Commerce Committee is considering. The bill requires that call centre employees disclose what country they are in.

Filipino Librarian blogs about a presentation titled “Blogging 101 for Librarians” that he gave at a gathering of Southeast Asian Librarians.

The Japundit links to a story in which recently-elected leader of Japan's Democratic Party Ichiro Ozawa suggests “that visits to Yasukuni shrine are the main cause of problems with Japan's neighbors,” a view which Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi rejected.

Next up is a review of writer Hillary Raphael's first novel I [heart] Buddha: “Set in the late 1990s in, yes, Tokyo, the novel tells a very interesting story of a group called “the Neo-Geisha Organization,” and yes, as you might have guessed, it's a kind of sex-and-death cult with hedonist ideology,” which, the blogger writes, “reads like manga, sounds like hard techno, and feels like some kind of fetish. Weighing in at 192 pages and retailing for around US$15, it's a work of postmodern chick-lit literature worth looking into.”

Richard from The Peking Duck updates on PBS' upcoming documentary on the man who on June 5, 1989 stood in the way of a line of China's People's Liberation Army tanks pushing into Tiananmen square, and links to a website PBS has which focuses on that man.

“I've just spent more time scrolling through the site, and all I can say is that it is extraordinary. What a great service,” writes Richard. “Lots of eyewitness accounts from the likes of John Pomfret, Jan Wong, Orville Schell and others. The entire upcoming Frontline program on the Tank Man will be availabe for viewing online at the site as of Friday at 5PM (EST, I presume). To those of you in China, has this site been locked behind the Great Firewall yet?”

Has Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain given homophobia a foothold within the Cantonese language? The flagrant harbour blogger gives us the both the short and long answer in ‘Brokeback Mounting.'

Danwei blogs—and China Herald too—on China Central Television's newly-revamped English-language website, developed in cooperation with media magnate Rupert Murdoch and designed with help from Fox News.

“Fortunately,” quips Fons from the Herald, “it also has no RSS-feeds, so I can avoid this new tool to fall asleep.”

An astute observation in a post at The Useless Tree regarding China's Qing Ming festival—which took place last week—in which people go and sweep the graves of their relatives:

“If you go to a graveyard to sweep the tomb of your parents, and if you speak out about how they may have died, you may be telling stories that the current regime does not want to hear, stories that push against a simplistic nationalist narrative of continuous and unsullied national greatness.”

Amshaspands (Persian) writes Iranian President in his declaration that Iran has started to enrich uranium, talked about Islamic Republic as a model several times. Blogger says God knows Islamic Republic is a model for whom?

Daily Dominican Republic News reports that the US Immigration and Naturalization Service has deported 942 Dominican ex-convicts so far this year, and that the premiere of the film “The Feast of the Goat”, based on Mario Vargas Llosa's novel about Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, took place in Santo Domingo.

Francis Wade runs across a few blogs by Peace Corps volunteers working in Jamaica.

Geoffrey Philps reports on a reading by Guadeloupean writer Maryse Condé at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida.

Maximilian C. Forte comments on the role to which Dominica's government appears to have relegated the country's indigenous population: “The Caribs seem to be slotted as mere window dressing in a professed strategy of developmentalist diversification, thus reduced to playthings for foreign tourists, and reduced to “resources” in the calculations of economists.”

Regalado.blogia.com celebrates (es) her first anniversary with a catalog of some of the blogs and bloggers with whom she has made connections in the past year.

Over at Le Blog du Congolais, Ben-Clet analyzes (FR) the “180 degree turn” in the international image of UDPS leader Etienne Tshisekedi from sympathetic Mobutu opponent in the 90s to modern-day extremist. Among factors, Ben-Clet cites the fall of the Berlin wall, the fact that Congolese national interests often clash with international business interests and yes, Tshisekedi's tendency not to engage in compromise. He concludes that Tshisekedi is an experienced politician who understands the complexities of a unipolar world rather than an Al Qaeda type.

Renouveau Congolais deplores (FR) the fact that interim president Joseph Kabila signed the decree that accepts his resignation from the DRC's army … himself: “How can the one resigning sign his won resignation? Only a PPRD member can accept such a thing.”

REALITY comments on Damiloa Taylor, the Nigerian schoolboy who was murdered outside his home in South London six years ago.…..”For six year now, the killers of this young lad have not be found. Four youths were tried and acquitted of Damilola's murder in 2002. Three other young men were cleared of murder after a second trial at the Old Bailey in 2006.”

Blogswana explains the funding strategy of Blogswana (blogging for AIDS project in Botswana)

Diary of a Mad Kenyan Woman comments on rudeness in the blogosphere. In particularl she picks out those who conduct their rudeness annoymously or by using pseudonyms'.. …..”I am thinking of various debates I have been reading in our blog world, and of those who find it necessary especially when leaving comments to use a kind of violence in language that wounds my sensibilities as well as my mind”

Zimbabwean Pundit comments on changes that are taking place in the MDC as leader, Morgan Tsvangirai holds a series of rallys criticising the Mugabe regime.

Ethiopian blogger, Aqumada posts on Ethiopians and Religion and posts an article called “Soul Searching” by Fasil Yitbarek.

Naijablog comments on the recent visit to Nigeria by Black British MP, Diane Abbott. Specifically he responds to an article by Uche Nworah ” Is Dianne Abbot (MP) A Friend Of Nigeria” and writes that it is time for “Its time for Nigerians to stop getting so defensive when a foreigner speaks their truth. Its time for a reality check, and to realise that serious reform (economic and political) has yet to really begin.”

Steve Ntwiga Mugiri reports and comments on the Kenyan air crash last Monday...”The death of these citizens is a great loss to the country especially that of Dr. Godana whom I feel was one of the few politicians in the country who used his solid educational and professional as a launch pad to champion the cause of his constituency and Kenyans in general in a very articulate and public way”

Kenyan Pundit writes on a project called “Imagining Ourselves” which is “a platform for young women to create positive change in their lives, their communities, and the world.”