Global Voices Online

Andrew Biggs in Thailand is reporting that BBC and HBO has upset people in Southern Thailand after they put out posters calling for extras to play corpses.

Cambodian blogger Wanna introduces more Cambodian blogs written in English. The post is in French but the links to the blogs are easy to spot.

At The Pan Collective, ArubaGirl writes a story about dwarves and elephants — or could she be talking about something else?

ICT for Peacebuilding reflects on net neutrality and what it means for peacebuilding processes.

Both Francisco and Daniel Duquenal write with glee that the North American Opinion Research poll - often seen as pro-Chavez - was off by around 28 points in their prediction that Ollanta Humala would win Sunday's Peruvian election. Duquenal can't help but add that “watching [Latin American news network] Telesur this morning trying to put a best face on Humala defeat was a truly exquisite moment.”

The Chilean newspaper El Mercurio has a complete list of Chilean blogs and photoblogs maintained by protesting students throughout the country.

Both Michelle Dion and Greg Weeks examine the word “populism” in a recent New York Times article about Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Chilanga Banda says that the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) will stream tomorrow's presidential debate online (ES) from 6:30 to 8:30.

More reactions after attending the mass meeting organized by the Maoists at United We Blog! . “I have been to all of them held after the 19-day movement (April). And on the stage speakers seem to lose their minds promising everything they can’t even make an attempt to think about. Big talk, always talk and petty actions. The monotony is killing me.”

A.M. Mora y Leon has a nearly exhaustive summary of what anglophone bloggers are saying about Alan Garcia's victory in Sunday's Peruvian presidential elections. Enrique Mendizaba, an international observer during the 2001 elections, takes a look at “the new roles of Peruvian political actors.” Boz has five talking points on Garcia.

Blogdai goes to a 650,000 rally and is struck by something odd. “Something was not right. It finally occured to blogdai that the entire gathering was under an eerie pall of silence. I have never heard such silence from a group this large. No smiles no chanting, nothing. You expect the crowd to respond to the speaker from time to time, but again, nothing.”

The 3rd World View on one more conspiracy theory. “The textile workers are protesting, bombs went off in a cinema hall:- must be international conspiracies. It seems all that can not be explained or not to be explained logically are simply branded with the term ‘international conspiracy'.”

Sepia Mutiny announces an online collaborative project, where readers are encouraged to send photographs of their dads who were South Asian immigrants after the 1965 Immigration Act to the US. “Remember that the main point of this is to capture through pictures what it meant to be a South Asian immigrant in the U.S. during the second wave which followed the ‘65 Immigration Act.”

As Chilean students protest against the fees for their national entrance exam, Oil Wars says that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is considering doing away with the entrance exam entirely. But Oil Wars says that there is a better solution.

Argentine media professor, Julian Gallo says he is tired of all the chauvinistic and overly patriotic advertisements (ES) amid World Cup hysteria and posts a video of a Quilmes advertisement to prove his point. He also posts two other videos, which he says are demonstrative of quality, non-chauvinistic publicity. Alfredo Octavio, on the other hand, posts a different advertisement from Quilmes and opines “this has to be one of the best songs ever for a team in any sport.”

Although the Belarusian opposition “is way ahead of their colleagues in pre-revolutionary Serbia, Georgia, or Ukraine” in using internet for outreach, it's neglecting more traditional ways of drawing publicity and support, writes TOL's Belarus Blog, citing the obscurity of the hunger strike in Salihorsk as an example.

TOL's Belarus Blog reports about the white-red-white flag of Belarus being used in Roland Garros tennis tournament broadcasts instead of the official flag.

A Polish reader of the Economist claimed it was impossible to find “a Briton who speaks fluent Polish.” Edward Lucas, the magazine's Central and East European correspondent, decided to prove him wrong: “I have challenged him to a dinner at a very expensive Warsaw restaurant, where I will produce a bunch of polonophone Brits (or other native English-speakers). We will have a neutral adjudicator. Over dinner, we will discuss in Polish a range of political, economic and cultural issues. At the end, the adjudicator will give his verdict. Depending on which way it goes, either Keller or I will pick up the tab.” Unfortunately, the challenge will not take place, and Lucas explains why in the comment section.

Iryna of TOL's Belarus Blog recommends two films on Belarus now playing in New York City; both are banned in Belarus: “I am jealous that a New York audience can see these documentaries, described by one of the critics as “rough-hewn, hard-core, must-see, front-line filmmaking,” on the screen, but hope that one day they also will be publicly shown in Belarus. In the meantime, samizdat, home-made copies of anti-regime documentaries by Dashuk, Khaschevatsky and Sheremet will continue circulating from hand to hand and being discussed in kitchens. Dashuk’s films are only a part of a growing underground cultural life in Belarus, similar to that which played such a crucial role in Poland and Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s.”

Tobias Ljungvall writes about the difficulties one faces when not translating ‘Belarus' into Swedish.

Paul of Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar writes about the tough streets of Budapest: “When I first moved to Budapest, I was convinced, within a couple of weeks, that the whole city had declared war against me.”

The beatroot writes about the recent Law and Justice Party convention: “…a victory rally. Not much else, really.” He also writes about the upcoming “summer of protest”: “The Tolerance Parade, and the counter demonstration by Polish far-rights groups, have received official permission from Warsaw’s local authorities to go ahead on June 10.”

The beatroot writes about an unfriendlyy Auschwitz encounter between Lebanese and Israeli tourists; a 1980 opinion poll taken secretly in Poland; and the belated investigations of the alleged Communist spy priests.

Romerican writes about and posts pictures of the “annual weekend of city pride”: the Days of Brasov.

Our Man in Gdansk writes about a Polish poet Juliusz Slowacki and his work called Anhelli.

J. Otto Pohl writes about a special category of Stalin's victims: “During World War II, the Stalin regime mobilized nearly 400,000 Soviet citizens belonging to suspect nationalities into forced labor detachments. The majority of these men and women, 220,000 in total, worked in corrective labor camps under conditions almost identical to Gulag inmates. […] Unlike Gulag prisoners, forced laborers in the labor army received no trials or sentences. Their only crime consisted in being able-bodied members of nationalities declared unreliable by the Stalin regime. These nationalities included Russian-Germans, Russian-Finns, Russian-Koreans, Russian-Bulgarians, Russian-Greeks, Kalmyks and Crimean Tatars.”

It really irritates me how the actions of the Israeli army are always ignored by authorities.
If they kill, and they claim it’s by accident, then it’s by accident for sure, no one doubts that. If they raid and bomb and kill hundreds of innocent people, it’s just victims of a resistance-chaise, and no one dares say a thing. If they jail children or kill students, there’s always an excuse to justify all that. If they mistreat prisoners, it’s to serve their own cause…etc, Falastine said.

The first rule of journalism is that you don't miss deadlines. So far, al-Jazeera has missed at least three for the launch of its international channel, suggesting that all is not well with the Arab network's first attempt to break into the English market.
Officially, al-Jazeera International (AJI) is due to go on stream in September this year, but according to staff at the channel November or December is a more realistic prospect.

Behind the scenes at the Fes Festival there are several little issues that need clearing up. One is the dress code acceptable in Morocco. For a start the Moroccan people are far to polite to say anything … but plunging necklines and short skirts are as welcome as motorbikes in the Medina. Sure it is hot and the Sufi Nights are exciting but a few Western women need to respect local culture, Samir said.

Egyptian State Security renewed Alaa’s detention for another 15 days today (he already spent 30 days in prison) . His wife Manal visited him today and reports that he took the news stoically and is trying to remain strong.

Renewing them another 15 days could go on forever.

Because of the quantity of articles and opinions that appeared in the media about Haditha crime, one thing you need to know… many missed about Ishaqi crime, LadyBird said.

On Tuesday, many people around the world will wake up to a calendar number date that has been one of dread and apocalyptic connotation since it first appeared in the beginning centuries of the Common Era, EB said.

Chef Melissa de Leon appeared in the pages of the Ellas Magazine from the newspaper La Prensa in Panama, in which the newspaper reviews her talent and experience in the kitchen as well as two of her recipes.

Mocking Africa, a French Monopoly-like game, Kangni Alem repeats the game's description [”Your goal is to explore, to conquer and to develop [the] new colonies. You will be able to betray alliances to exploit the lands of your adversaries, the goal being to own the most land at the end of the game”] and comments (Fr): “The game could not be easier (…) Enjoy!”

Kofi Yamgnane, a French politician of Togolese descent and the Vice President of the General Counsel of Finistère [a region in northwestern France] in charge of water management, announces (Fr) that he is presenting his candidacy to the Socialist Party to represent them in the 2007 legislative elections. The Socialists will designate their candidates on June 14.

The latest Kazakhstan Stories podcast covers Kazakh perceptions of foreigners.

Mongster's nest has a post that talk about Philippines planning to hire doctors from India to help offset the shortage of doctors in the country.

Singapore's heritage blogger Lam Chun See remembers weddings in the Kampong (village) days.

The Golden Road to Samarqand writes about balbals, stone grave markers found on graves across Central Asia.

Onnik Krikorian reports on a protest in front of the Russian embassy in Yerevan against racist attacks in Russia.

Yulia of neweurasia writes about the negotiations between the US and Kyrgyzstan over payments for the US military to house troops and equipment at the Manas airfield.

Luke Distelhorst has a photo essay on Mongolia.

Hojreh, a cleric blogger, talks about two titles in the same day and in the same newspaper, conservative Kayhan. According to blogger, newspaper reports that many people participated in the death anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini, Islamic Republic founder who had promised justice. Hojreh reports that in the same page, we read 14 million people, in Iran, have an income below poverty line (Persian).

After having been blocked and unblocked in China, blog aggregator Technorati seems to be back, says Imagethief blogger Will, the day after the the seventeenth anniversary of one of the darkest days in China's contemporary history.

“Why now?” Will asks. “If I were a parnoid, conspiracy-obsessed recluse (I and I don't specifically deny it) I might suspect it's because today is June 5th, which is to say, on the back side of June 4th. (Along with a few others, Imagethief noted some weird hiccups in Google's service late last week as well, further adding to his cold sweats and furtive, darting eye movements.)”

Twenty clever questions China Confidential's Confidential Reporter hopes might one day be asked of Chinese president Hu Jintao.

“Who knows?” Confidential Reporter asks, “Maybe Bill Gates will email the queries to Hu's Hotmail account.”

Question #3: “Do you believe in Communism?”

Asiapundit's myrick has two key posts this week: one announcing the commencing of the 2006-2007 Asia Blog Awards contest, with the deadline for nominations set at June 16. A new category this year aims to include blogs of a more visual nature:

“Podcasts, photo and video blogs must be based on original content — which means a site such as Danwei.tv is acceptable,” the blogger writes, “but TV in Japan is not (although it is an excellent site).”

An earlier post looks at the claim from one dissident website that ‘Tank Man‘ is alive, well and in Taiwan.

Mao Zedong's English teacher's daughter Hong Huang (洪晃), upon completion of her education abroad, came back to China and went on to become “one of the most influential entrepreneurs in Chinese print media,” says Jeremy Goldkorn at Chinese media blog Danwei in a post looking at her new blog [zh].

Has being handed over to China been good for Hong Kong or not? Simon at Simon World takes a swing at this complicated question in ‘China's Rule of Hong Kong.'

In the 10 years since China took over, the city has had the Asia crisis, Tung Chee-hwa, the Article 23 marches, the right of abode cases, the controversy over Donald Tsang's appointment, the ridiculous rotten boroughs of the functional Legco constituencies, SARS and more.

“Down with jargon!” say three Trinidadian bloggers. Taran Rampersad and aka-lol rail against the use of the word “stakeholder”, while Caribbean Free Radio wishes people would stop “speaking to issues”. In the comment thread at CFR JT adds his two cents': “And what about “interrogating”? Couldn’t that be left to the noble folks at Abu Ghraib?”

Sean at IMHO.bm weighs in on the pro-democracy rally held last Friday in Bermuda: “It was good to see my fellow Islanders standing up and letting their voices be heard. I truly hope that this isn’t an isolated incident and that next time things are done prior to, rather than following the issues.” He also posts a few cameraphone photos.

On a recent visit to Dominica, Francomenz goes out of her way to photograph the childhood home of renowned Dominican writer Jean Rhys, which is “now a guest house, right in the middle of the busy capital. When I jumped out of the car and dodged traffic to get just the right shot of the unassuming wooden building, people seemed to understand my interest and smiled at me as they walked just a bit more proudly down the street.”

Stacy-Marie Ishmael at the Trinidad & Tobago World Cup Blog interviews Trinidad & Tobago's entrant in the Miss World Cup competition, who says that “the best part of the experience for me was placing in the top 8. I was very surprised! The worst experience was being outside in the cold weather and rain at times…but now I am getting accustomed to it.”

According to Barbados Free Press, a Russian “marriage introduction service” is arranging group tours of Barbados for “prospective Russian brides and North American men.” Adds BFP: “While Barbados is a beautiful and romantic island (as we all know), for North American men seeking Russian ladies, the allure of Barbados is also about our visa requirements - which are easier than the USA and Canada.”

Hanouz, a collective blog, informs us that Akbar Ganji, famous dissident journalist & writer, published a new manifest ( essay) about liberal democracy on internet. According to this blog, in his writing, Ganji defends liberal democracy ideas (Persian). Ganji who, is in Europe to receive several prizes reminds us that liberal democracy needs to be based on more ethic (moral) foundation.

A new blog is created to promote freedom for detained student activist & blogger, Mr.Abed Tavancheh (Persian). In Abede Tavacheh blog we are informed that another student activist, Houman Kazemyan from Tehran university, is missed and 25000 students signed a petition to ask freedom for student leaders (Persian).

Fabiola Bazo writes that “in a very brief speech (no more than five minutes), Ollanta Humala conceded to a crowd of followers and supporters this evening.” Humala's second round opponent, Alan Garcia will once again become the country's president.