Global Voices Online

Adam Isacson emphasizes the sensitive consequences of extraditing longtime narcotrafficker, paramilitary associate, and ex-government security agent, Gabriel Puerta Parra (alias “The Doctor”) to the United States. Included is a translation of an intriguing and recent interview with Parra by the news magazing Semana.

Comings Communiqué, a weblog by a Christian missionary, is dismayed by the rise of Islam in Brazil.

Blogs de Bolivia announces (ES) that blogger Sebastian (ES), his wife Anne (ES), and Sergio Mier have launched a weekly radio show on FM 92.3 Santa Cruz, which will cover happenings in the Bolivian blogosphere each Monday night from 8 to 9.

The Western Hemisphere Policy Watch blog cites a meeting between the Brazilian NGO, Landless Workers Movement (MST) and the Zapatistas in Southern Mexico as proof “that the international left's designs on the Americas are quite real and very much alive.”

Andrés Duque says that backing by El Salvador's two largest parties probably means that an amendment prohibiting marriage and adoption by gay couples will soon be passed.

Archbishop of Kinshasa, Cardinal Etsou, asked Congolese to protect their country from foreigners, reports (FR)Renouveau Congolais. “You have left this beautiful country to foreigners who are carving it out” said the Cardinal to local political actors.

Even as the revolution in Nepal unfolds, Bahas> asks if this is the time for reconciliation or confrontation - “Nepalese political parties are equally responsible as the king Gyanendra for the present state of Nepal. After 1990, the political parties badly misgoverned the country, forced Maoists to abandon the present constitution, spent most of the time in fighting to grab the power, many times untimely dissolved the parliaments without any logical reasons..”

The various sides of the Bin Laden story. Why various stories still float around and who benefits from them on A Journey To The End Of Time.

All About Latvia posts an update on Aivars Lembergs, the man who might rule Latvia after the election in October.

Jesse of Bored in Brno is wondering why “a Czech radio broadcasting tower might be added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.”

Douglas Arellanes writes about the unlikely “first moves in the relaunch of the Unie Svobody (Freedom Union), the right of center party that is still in the governing coalition along with the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats”: their posters, their slogans and their site, as well as potential problems with the party's potential supporters in the June election, the young people.

Stefan at Dykun writes about a Ukrainian relative who was sent to work in Chernobyl 20 years ago: he's in his 40s now but walks with a cane. “Mykhajlo wears what must count as the thickest glasses ever worn by a human being–they should definitely find a place in a Museum of Strange and Unusual Medical Devices, such as we have here in Minneapolis. He told me that his eyes are slowly “melting.” He said that he feels like his internal organs are slowly decaying, changing form, and becoming something like a moosh of organic flesh without distinctions. He is becoming a body without organs (but not in the liberating sort of way that certain poststructuralists have celebrated). He says that at some point his body will prematurely just stop working and become a body without organs and without a soul, without a life. It could be soon, or it could be in a while. “

CafeDA writes about Kosovar schoolgirl Taida Pasic's battle with the Dutch immigration authorities: “Pasic's family fled from Kosovo to the Netherlands when she was 12. The IND decided the family could not stay and they were given money to leave voluntarily. Taida said she returned to complete her schooling in the hope of going on to study law at university. Immigration officials came to the school in Winterswijk at the beginning of the year and put her in handcuffs in front of her classmates.”

UDPS Liege contrasts (FR) the official world order (UN and other international bodies) to the informal world order (multinational corporations and secret service agencies). According to the informal world order, the DRC is not a sovereign nation, continues the blogger.

Caribbean Free Radio links to a newsflash from a Trinidad & Tobago daily stating that Basdeo Panday, the country's Opposition Leader has been found guilty of “deliberately failing to disclose a London bank account.” According to the news item, Mr. Panday “has to pay 1.5 million TT Dollars to the state and serve 2 years hard labour in jail”.

Yemenis are well known for chewing Qat. However, Omar does not seem to be one of them. Discover what is Qat, what it taste like, why do they chew it, and all what you need to know about it, and why Omar does not like it?

Deshcalling on how plagiarism in Bangladesh seems to be prevalent - “When plagiarism becomes rife as it has in Bangladesh educational institutions it devalues the degrees or diplomas awarded by those institutions and also undermines the intellectual potential of the country.”

Amardeep does a great job of collating links on the fate of Nepal even as Monarchy seems destined to end.

The Instant Me writes from Armenia on the death of the Indian student - “A fact that I would like to bring under, is that no one from the university, accompanied the body back to India. The reasons they gave was that a visa could not be made ready, and for it to get ready would take a week.”

Preya at Dreaming of Hanoi tackles some of the myths people have about Vietnam.

Sarapanekonomy explains islamic banking in Indonesian context. Islamic banks operate under shariah law, which does not allow interest taking on investments.

LoonyMoony, Nessuna, and Onnik Krikorian all have updates on the Indian student protests in Armenia at Oneworld Multimedia. Nanyaar, an Indian student in Armenia, also has an update at his blog, The Instant Me.

Luke Distelhorst writes on the higher prices for domestic flights in Mongolia, sparking a lively discussion in the comments.

According to Ibn ad Dunya, The Giza Zoo, the oldest Zoo in Africa (innaugerated March 1, 1891), reopened on Sham an Nessim, (litteraly the smell the brezze-festival) after being closed for 45 days, due to the bird flu. The Giza Zoo is normally one of the major attractions on this day, with about 700 000 visitors, Ibn ad Dunya said.

It seem that FIFA World Cup fever is starting early at Saudi Arabia. Ahmed is posting some details about the Saudi football team and tagging other Saudi–male-bloggers to motivate them starts talking about Saudi and it’s participation in World Cup 2006.

Iran appears as a greater threat to some Lebanese Sunnis than Israel. The reasoning behind this comes from both domestic and regional factors, however, it is couched in regional terms, Lebanon Profile said.

Taran Rampersad is starting a “death and injury counter” in response to the region's lack of action in the area of disaster preparedness. “My theory is that all the bureaucracy kills people in a way that could be seen as criminally negligent,” he says. And why isn't the Caribbean thinking about biofuel?

Der Hova writes about the frustration of being involved with creating a great song in Armenia only to have it stolen and made into a hit by someone else.

Christian Garbis reports on blatant government corruption in Armenia and comments that the best way for Armenian citizens to combat it is to organize themselves politically rather than waiting for an opposition leader to appear and lead them.

The Golden Road to Samarqand covers corruption in education in Central Asia, describing how corruption works in the Kyrgyz educational system and efforts to combat it in a few countries in the region.

Olesya comments on the first steps in the inevitable closure of the American Bar Association–Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative in Uzbekistan.

“According to very unconfirmed sources, the Cayman Islands government may be looking into a way to sell permanent residency and/or status – this time above the table,” writes Cayblogger, who isn't happy about this at all.

A Flickr photoset prompts Mad Bull to satisfy his curiosity – whetted years ago in Lit. class — about the presence of US army bases in Trinidad and Jamaica.

Zannevesht (Persian) says that according to IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency), Iranian President wants to give permission to women to go stadiums watching football matches.

In Hostile Maneuvers, Reloaded, Curzon at Coming Anarchy traces increases in Chinese military spending since the 1990s in the context of Japan's ratification of the American Missile Defense Plan.

A series of small earthquakes in Tokyo every day this past week have left Jesse Jace at Chorus, Isolate, Confirm a little shaken up:

“As if to punctuate the phenomenon with an extra-heavy bullet point, there was a sudden tremor no more than five seconds after I had the idea to write about earthquakes, just minutes ago.”

Frances at Supernaut continues with the visual and textual representating of Guangzhou, one of China's largest cities, with posts on an upcoming DJ delight, the city's third modern dance festival, a photo tour through the largely undeveloped old city and the sci-fi endlessness of the south side of the Pearl River.

Two interesting stories from the many this week on China Activist Weekly: statistics behind the country's death penalty and the hunger strike which following the Chinese New Year has seen many leading Chinese activists and intellectuals imprisoned, which last year's diplomatic defector to Australia Chen Yonglin calls “the biggest freedom protest in China since the 1989 democracy movement.”

Barbados is trying to attract biotech firms, but Barbados Free Press thinks they should find a more efficient way of spreading the word than through PR newswire services.

Abeni cites some alarming rape statistics from St. Vincent, and stumbles upon a web site organised by a group of men seeking to “raise their own and the community's consciousness about men's violence against women.” She asks for comments.

Zeerlhing in Thailand worries about the money being wasted in organising elections after elections in Thailand. Nevertheless, she is excited about getting the chance to vote. The second round of elections too faced boycott from the opposition parties. Several of the Thai Rak Thai party candidates ran unopposed but failed to win enough votes to declare them as having won the election.

Photoblogs can not only get around keyword filters but language barriers too. Beijing-based Ziboy has invited his photoblogging peers to send in contributions to his exhibition to be held in China's capitol this coming Saturday, which will “[use] the form of photoblogs on the internet to promote exchange and understanding among people from different countries and locations.” (via Danwei)

Prominent Taiwanese blogger Portnoy has started an English-language blog, Portnoy in Between. First up? Time to see a Chinese-language blog aggregator.

“It is nothing about English hegemony;” he writes of Asia247 set to open June 4, “it is about how to communicate effectively, how to break the language divide, and how to enhance our understanding of our neighbors.”

Zambian blog, Real Life of a Journalist posts on a local project “ Freedom to be heard Campaign through Radio” which would help to provide ….”a medium for people especially women and children to express them selves to government leaders, community heads, civil society heads and the rest of the country what problems they are encountering.

Aba Boy comments on the anti immigration discourse currently taking place in Britain. He suggests that 1,2,3, 4th generation immigrants down tools for a day “I think this simple act will give everyone a pretty good idea of the contributions or burdens that immigrants place on this society”

Coalition for Darfur has a op/ed on Chinese investment in oil in the Sudan and why America should complain… China is now underwriting its second genocide in three decades. The first was in Pol Pot's Cambodia, and the second is in Darfur, Sudan. Chinese oil purchases have financed Sudan's pillage of Darfur, Chinese-made AK-47's have been the main weapons used to slaughter several hundred thousand people in Darfur so far, and China has protected Sudan in the U.N. Security Council.

This is Zimbabwe comments on the lack of livestock and human activity during his travels to the Zimbabwean city of Bulawayo…”The reasons seemed obvious … the consequencs of the misrule of the Mugabe regime … unemployment, emigration, little or no seed and fertiliser and poor health care.”

Grandiose Parlor comments on the recent Nigerian debt cancellation. He wonders how Nigerians have benefitted from the debt and where the loans were spent. …”What disturbs me the most is that a greater slice of this money ended in the pockets of a handful of retired generals and former top-level bureaucrats.”..

Fodder reports on an attack on South African politician, Helen Zille who had “chairs thrown at her and a knife pulled on her” .. He is critical of the ANC response which says the attack must be put in context!..

Adventures of an Armchair Traveller reports on the conviction of “seven former Mouvement Pour la liberation du Congo (MLC) (or Armed Forces of the DR Congo (FARDC)) soldiers of the rape of 119 women and girls and other crimes against humanity”

Kenyan Unlimited Kaybee Awards 2006 are now out. A list of winners and nominees can be found on their website. Congratulations to all this years winners.

Sotho comments on a recent post by Idland on racism against the Chinese population in Lesotho...We have so far only considered the moral and common-sense aspect of the issue. There’s an economic angle. Carrying out hate crimes (if that’s what they are) against foreigners will only: * invite potential investors to back off and to go look elsewhere, * speed up the closure of foreign controlled but job giving businesses,
* create a climate of instability that is incompatible with a healthy economy.

Soul on Ice comments on the drought in Somalia meanwhile in England's Chelsea Flower show, a commentator complains about the lack of water for the poor flowers…and trade inbalances via Euro farm subsidies.

Nazret points to an op/ed in the Washington Post on Ethiopian dictator Meles Zenawi…”Dept of Moral Outrage.

Meskel Square reports on Hollywood actress Angelique Joli who is buying “Ethiopia” in Dubai “to help impoverished Africans”

In Point of View blog, we can discover several cartoons created by Sakhvarz, an Iranian cartoonist & blogger, about the ongoing nuclear crisis.