Global Voices Online

Generation Consciente, Une Autre Afrique asks (Fr) “What is France doing in Chad? In Africa?” and answers: “The day before yesterday, they waved the communist threat to explain France's presence in Africa. Yesterday Anglo-American jolts justified the need to stay. Today Islamist regimes peak their heads in and explain our presence. Tomorrow Chinese imperialism will be evoked.”

Luke Distelhorst reports that the Mongolian National Mining Association held a meeting on the country's new windfall tax law, which has yet to be signed into law by the president. Mongolian mining companies were the most vocal opponents of the legislation.

Nessuna wonders whether or not the designer of signs promoting a clean central Yerevan has a sense of humor.

In the wake of an international business conference in Kabul to explore ways to invest in Afghanistan, Afghan Warrior goes through many things that need attention

Onnik Krikorian posts on Armenia's small biker scene.

Hans has videos of sheep on the Georgian Military Road, showing it continues to be an important route through the Caucasus.

Abdymok.net remembers Ukrainian photographer Victor Suvorov, who died May 11 of injuries sustained in a car crash April 26: “. . . he was blunt, and plowed ahead like a tank . . . […] and never asked permission to take a picture.”

Daut of Ufa Blog is starting a memorial site devoted to the victims of racism in Russia. Some help is needed: “I have an incomplete list and very few photos. I have written various organizations and embassies, but so far haven’t received any replies. If anyone can help, particularly with pictures, leave a comment or send an email.”

Browler attends a Russian Orthodox baptism ceremony of a friends' baby and shares his impressions: “All the children being baptised (there were about seven of them) got quite wet. The priest was sufficiently liberal with his splashing of the holy water. They also had a small bit of hair cut. (That alone would exclude Leon! Even at one year old, he still hardly has any hair to cut. An indication of being born to an Anglican father, perhaps?)”

The beatroot writes about Wojciech Wierzejski, the homophobic spokesman for the League of Polish Families, one of the three parties that make up Poland’s government coalition.

Aaron Fowles of p3 writes about young Polish friends who are planning to go to England to earn some money: “England is a shangri-la for many Polish people. It's the local version of the American dream: Work hard, earn money, be happy. Learn English for free.” Becca of Boo shares a story of one Pole's awkward encounter with an overly friendly - and overly emotional - Canadian salesperson: “‘We live in Poland' I answered, ‘Marek's Polish, I'm English'. The man looked geniunely interested as he turned to Marek. ‘I always raise my hat to Poles' Marek looked confused so the guy continued, ‘in World War Two they really held their ground.'”

Antropologi.info is justifiably troubled by the deportation and beating of Chilean Anthropologist Valentina Palma when she went to San Salvador Atenco on Thursday, May 4 to document protests that erupted there. We will have much more on San Salvador Atenco and the reaction it has inspired later in the week.

Jamaican Francis Wade at Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle thinks about customer service in the Caribbean. “There is not a single island I have visited in which there is a local company giving excellent service to local people.” He tries to understand why, and congratulates the Sandals resort chain for being an exception.

An online initiative takes off in Chennai to move volunteers to work towards being able to use the Right to Information Act.

Or how I leart to stop worrying comments on the information released on the two Bangladeshi detainees at Guantanamo Bay. “The information released by the Pentagon, on close examination, suggests that after 4 years of detention the United States Government does not have complete or accurate information on, at the very least, the Bangladeshi detainees.”

“Monday was Common Entrance Exam day in Barbados,” writes Titilayo at The Pan Collective. She explains why this exam (sometimes called 11-plus), which determines which secondary schools children will attend, is such a big deal. “To a child that age, it can probably feel like your entire future is hanging in the balance.”

Lahore Metroblogging on a young student Aamir. “Aamir Cheema was a student in Germany. Apparently he went to assassinate the editor of Die Welt newspaper for publishing the infamous cartoons. Security arrested him in the lobby of the building and he was allegedly carrying a knife and told the police that he was going to kill the editor.”

Text messaging in India has found use across sectors. From finding cricket scores, to booking rituals in a temple. Kamla on the SMS culture in India.

Caribbean bloggers are making noise about the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Efficiency Act of 2006, currently before the US Congress, which would permit “broadband discrimination” by ISPs. “It seems odd that the rest of the world has such little influence on this decision when so much of the world will be influenced,” says Taran Rampersad in Trinidad. He also explains “why network neutrality is important for the future of disaster communication”. In St. Lucia, Dorna! at the Guabancex Blog describes the COPE Act as “excessively vòwas thinking” (vòwas is Kwéyòl for greedy).

Reunion Passion posts (Fr) pictures of the Port of St-Gilles (2 photos), the beach at Boucan Canot and some palm trees.

The Indian Government decides to delay the release of the movie - The Da Vinci Code, and the blogosphere has had quite a reaction to the issue. Falstaff on having to defend a piece of work that may not be worth it.

Nathan Gibbs recommends to readers that they check out the Flash-based website for the exhibition “Strange New World,” which focuses on artists from Tijuana, Mexico.

Salakhi Migerist writes some people say Iranian women use a lot of make up products! She adds but same people forget to say the only visible part of Iranian women are their faces and Iranian men just care about their beauty and nothing else (Persian).

Rajabali Mazroi, reformist politician & blogger, says diplomacy is the best way to solve nuclear crisis. He writes that he does not agree with Iranian President's policy concerning nuclear issue. Blogger adds he believes USA and other big powers have not been on a right diplomatic path to negotiate with Iran. Blogger says Iraq & Afghanistan experiences are there to teach us lesson (Persian).

Ethan Zuckerman tells the story of his college roommate, Kurt Shaw, who has been working with the group Pé no Chão (”Feet in the Dirt”) to help street kids express themselves through breakdancing, capoiera, grafitti, beats and MC’ing. The group has just released “City of Rhyme,” a compilation of “a dozen street rappers, boys and girls who work, live, and play on the street and who use rhyme as a way to understand and change their world.” The tracks are freely available for download and licensed with a CC attribution 2.5 license, which means in the words of Zuckerman, “pass them around, remix them, play them - these are kids who deserve to be heard.”

Andrew Biggs in Thailand boycotts the opening of the movie Da Vinci Code. The final 10 minutes of the movie is cut because of protests by Thai Christian groups. Andrew says “I don’t want to offend this group of well-meaning Thai Christians, but really, you have no right to be telling me what I can and cannot see. I’m an educated, grown man, and I am intelligent enough to watch something and make up my own mind about it. I don’t need you telling me what I can and cannot do.”

Paras Indonesia blog has a story on International press groups asking Indonesian authorities to find the culprits involved in the murder of a journalist. The journalist was investigating corruption allegations against officials in East Java.

Kalyan in Cambodia is reading Thomas Freidman's “The World is Flat“. Kalyan is asking the visitors to her blog “Do you believe that the world is or is going to be flat?”

secretdubai says that finally the UAE gets a sensible weekend that isn't unmanageably out of sync with the rest of the developed world.

lebanon.profile thinks that the American University of Beirut, the institution that paid for Chomsky's visit, should provide a more rounded view of the United States rather than present only the opinions of - what in the United States is deemed - the radical left.

Abu Kais sums the existing National Dialogue by saying; they hug, kiss and gently disagree.

Sandmonkey shares a video taken by a camera phone that shows how the Egyptian police interrogates females at a police station.

As a pan-Asian consensus seems to have been reached on changes to a revisionist Japanese history textbook, a translation from Joel Martinsen at Danwei of historian Ye Yonglie's essay Textbook Problem suggests Chinese textbooks should be next.

Of prefect officials in Japan's Fukui city ordering one library to cease stocking a list of 150 books, Tokyo Times‘ Lee sees the move as “all in all a rather unsavoury affair, although as an isolated incident it’s hardly indicative of a return to ‘the bad old days.' No, surely for that to be the case we would have to see the likes of people clamouring for a change in the country’s pacifist constitution, the forcing of public employees to sing the national anthem and high-ranking ministers suggesting the emperor should visit the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine.”

unity at Days in Daechuri blog keeps up the coverage of villagers peacefully protesting the expansion of an American military base into their village, and the resulting state crackdown with the post ‘Environmental Testimony from Daechuri Villagers.'

BlogaCine highlights the film ‘El Aprendiz’ by Jorge Hernández Aldana [ES], which will be shown at this year's Cannes film festival. Día Naranja, Días de Cine [ES] is a weblog by Venezuelan filmmaker Alejandra Szeplaki about the production of her first feature length film, “Día Naranja.

“A program called Ultrareach is helping thousands of Chinese defy internet censorship every day,” writes Celia at China Activist Weekly, along with posts on disturbances in Tibet and the response to a letter written to the Canadian government regarding Canadian citizen Husein Celil currently in Uzbekistan “where he is being held and likely to be extradited to China for execution.“

Roberto Bobrow, accompanied by one of his ever-talented caricatures, describes the relationship between American economist John K. Galbraith and Argentine historian Gregorio Weinberg, both of whom passed away around the same time.

Prior to tomorrow's kick-off to Project Sunshine—a two-week campaign for human rights for North Koreans—a documentary was screened and a mock funeral procession held in, says Joshua at The Korea Liberator, “what appears to be either Myongdong or Apkujeong, but in any event, one of Seoul’s tonier neighborhoods.” Photos included.

“In the time it’s taken Bermuda to produce a discussion paper on freedom of information, the Cayman Islands has already started debating some actual draft legislation,” says the Limey, who points out that it's nearly two years since Bermuda's premier promised to table the appropriate legislation.

“On the streets young men push cart loads of stolen booty. In stores around town sales girls hand you the very latest stolen booty with a dazzling smile.” Guyana 360 reports on rampant music and movie piracy in the capital, Georgetown, and visits a series of shops where bootleg CDs and DVDs are openly available.

Nicolette Bethel argues that the Bahamian institution of “generation property” — communally owned land — which many have come to see as a burden, is actually an important source of power and independence, and “lies at the core of the independent spirit of the Bahamian”.

News Ivoirien posts (Fr) a speech by Ivoirian Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny delineating his crisis exit plan for the country. “The plan to end the crisis contains three or four important aspects: disarmament, identification, relaunching of the administration and the organization of elections,” said Mr. Banny.

UDPS Liege posts pictures and an account (Fr) of yesterday's Debout Pour Le Congo demonstration in Liege, Belgium. The demonstration was sparked by a journalist's decision to film undocumented Congolese for remuneration. The people filmed fear consequences on behalf of Belgian authorities but also retribution by the Congolese government if they are sent back to the Congo. The demonstration's main theme was that all Belgians are first, second or third generation immigrants, the King included.

Seckasysteme would like to see (Fr) “a summit of West African heads of state so that clandestine emigration can be uprooted and so as to find a durable solution to the problem.” “Hundreds have died since the beginning of the year for having simply tried to escape misery,” continues the blogger. “Images are shocking of these corpses that even sharks don't want, floating on the ocean, that end up on Spanish shores.” He posts photos.

Ramblings of an African Geek is presently visiting his home in Ghana. Here he remembers fondly the chocolate of his childhood. Ghanaian chocolate Ghana is one of the largest producers of cocoa in the world. He posts some photos of Tree Chocolate - a Ghanaian speciality.

Idland comments on the World Bank's visit to Lesotho and wonders if it will make any difference to anyone or anything…”I wonder if we aren't barking up the wrong tree. Nobody who is resident here really believes in any of the Growth Strategy papers that get floated around. Only the most optimistic fly-in-fly-out consultants can believe what they write - because they do not stay long enough to understand the fundamental challenges.”

Nigerian blog, Chxta's World, is overjoyed by the death of the third term consitutional amendment.….”We are proud to be citizens of Naija, and it has been shown that we have people in the right places who know how to do the right things”

Naijablog comments on the achievements of Nigeria's Finance Minister, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and gives her credit for the 60% debt relief from the Paris Club and reducing inflation.

CoffeeChillunSun comments on the recent bombings in Ethiopia.…”It leaves a strange sense of unease that doesn't dissipate anymore- we now listen out for any loud-ish bang, look out for strange behaviour (difficult in Addis) and stick to the most familiar areas and routes when out and about.”

Agathon Rwasa publishes archived material dating back to 1972 on US policy towards Burundi - various memos from Henry Kissenger and Richard Nixon.

Black Star Journal comments on the Ethiopian journalists who were charged with genocide by the government of Meles Zenawi. Needless to say the arrest of the so called treasoness and genocidal journalists has not stopped the bombing in Addis.

Gunung Merapi, a volcano in Indonesia finally started spewing out dangerous gas clouds. Ktemoc writes about some nearby residents who are refusing to leave citing their magical powers that would prevent any harm to them.

Singapore based Creative Labs is suing Apple for patent infringement and wanting to stop Apple from selling iPods. Creative makes mp3 players that compete with Apple. Tech blogger Justing Lee asks Creative to “Stop Being a Sore Loser“