Global Voices Online

Vutha in Cambodia discusses the seedier side effect of World Cup - gambling. “Bet on footbal was a driven force to make my youngest brother to drop out school and sold his motocycle for betting football match. Before this problem happened I always told him to stop betting football. One day, he did not stay at home for a few days. I tried to look for him but when he came back without his motocycle. And then I asked him where your motocycle was. He responded to me that he lost football match.”

The recall motion on the Taiwan President Chen Shiu Bien is now a most hot topic. David from jujuflop had a lengthly discussion on whether it will succeed? whether it is a good move? or whether it will backfire KMT? etc. Michael Turton also picked up the discussion in The View from Taiwan.

Serendipity points to an article on Singapore's Prime Minister's visit to Australia and hopes that relations will improve after the low point last year when Singapore hanged an Australian who was convicted of smuggling heroin.

Troy, a US missionary based in rural Haiti, is refused service at a government office because he's wearing shorts. A friend tells him, “”Look, man, we have a new president now. You can't just do whatever you want in my country, man. This is seewious.”

On the 26th anniversary of the June 13th, 1980 assasination of Guyanese historian Dr. Walter Rodney, Guyanese Resource Centre links to a Guyana Chronicle article outlining the incident and Rodney's vision, and to a Kaieteur News piece announcing that progress is being made toward the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the killing.

Danny Bloom in Japundit provided some backgrounds on the Ang Lee's latest film “Lust, Caution”. The original story by the late Chinese novelist Eileen Chang (張愛玲) (1920-1995) is only about 10 pages long.

The Limey calls the decision of teachers at a Bermuda primary school to stage a sick-out “wrong, unnecessary, self-indulgent and foolish.”

The Commerical Radio in Hong Kong launched a questionable poll on “the female artists they would most like to indecently assault” and resulted in a joint protest by woman organizations. The poll was eventually banned and the programme were suspended for two months. It resulted in an online petition against the ban. And the debate between woman organizations and youth netizens took place in internet forums and blogs.

Duimanpark pointed out that the issue had been politicized and the Government took the chance to strengthen its control over broadcasting industries (zh). And there were over 100 comments made in a blog post on the woman organization joint statement in inmediahk.net; the hot debate was concerning the strategy of woman organizations in relation to youth, sex and media space (zh).

Titlayo gives a new anthropological study of rural Barbados two thumbs up, remarking that “what I liked the most about the book is that it portrayed a Barbados I could recognise as the island I live on, not a Barbados as perceived by a couple of foreigners from a university in the States. It doesn't portray Barbados, or Barbadians, as exotic or backward or foreign.”

Barbados Free Press links to a news story which states that Muslims in Barbados have offered to bury the bodies of the eleven as yet unidentified men which were found on a vessel drifting off the coast of Barbados, though not asking the question: “Suppose some of the bodies are Christian and they were buried in a Muslim ceremony - then what?” Noting that Senegal is 94% Muslim, BFP also took solace in the words of a wise relative, who said: “I think Jesus will probably never no mind.”

Aldiyar reports on a public hearing on the conclusions of the preliminary investigation into the murder of the Kazakh opposition politician Altynbek Sarsenbaev.

On the occasion of a visit to the Bahamas by Francisco Flores, former president of El Salvador, Larry Smith offers an overview of the country's recent political history and recently achieved economic success, calling it “a message that many Bahamian leaders are seeking to come to grips with as we speak. . . . it emphasizes the futility of trying to apply traditional left and right labels in today's complex and rapidly changing world.”

Onnik Krikorian discusses Georgian and Armenian plans to promote tourism to their countries to Western audiences.

Irina Petrosian writes about the use of the “strategy of stale bread” in Armenia that shopkeepers use to create loyal customers.

Ben Paarmann discusses the latest round in the wrangling over Coca-Cola in Uzbekistan. The country's bottling company was formerly owned by the former son-in-law of the country's president, and the former owner is now suing Coca-Cola for not backing him when the Uzbek government took his stake in the country from him.

Denise of neweurasia notes that Azerbaijan's Freedom House ranking has again gone down, but she takes issue with their ranking of the state of civil society in the country.

There is one scene in Mission Impossible 3 taken at Shanghai old city where a phone number “13347707266″ painted on an old wall just over Tom Cruise's left shoulder. A netizen traced the number and wrote an interesting “mission” story. ESWN has translated the story into English.

How far is the Sri Lankan military sold out to the LTTE. Moju on “Defence hierarchy in the country was in for one of its biggest shocks last week when it was presented with a list of some 45 names – all from the security forces – who have been found to be on the LTTE pay roll.”

Tiny Little Fractures on the LTTE - Sri Lankan Government talks in Oslo - “It looks like the Tigers are doing it again, walking out of Monitor Safety talks (not peace talks) because of the lack of ‘ministerial’ representation.”

Kashmir on a recent release Fanaa which was based on protagonists in the backdrop of Kashmir.

Nepali Netbook on the intricate relationships between the politicians, diplomats and the media. “It turns out the royal government paid up to 99 journalists or media organizations to carry favorable coverage.”

Lahore Metroblogging on the destruction of the only Hindu temple in the city, and clearing the air.

Yesterday's Soccer World Cup match featuring Brazil was an eye-opener for Carnet de Guyane who blogs (Fr) from French Guiana: “Do I really live in France? (…) Since the beginning of the Cup, Brazilian flags are everywhere. (…) But today was worse. People dressed in yellow and green. Even I joined in.” She finds it interesting that the same fervor was not visible when France played earlier in the day.

Says (Fr) Afrogoals.com: “Tunisia can thank Rahdi Jaidi. He scored the equalizing goal for Roger Lemerre's team which was headed for a big disappointment against Saudi Arabia (2-2). He was therefore named ‘Man of the Match' by FIFA.”

Reunion-USA2 writes (Fr): “When I lived in La Reunion, some wondered whether I was frightened of living so close to a volcano. Well, actually no, you never think about it just like, I think, Californians never think of the ‘Big One' (gigantic earthquake) that might happen any minute.”

Hossam el-Hamalawy reports that the Liberties’ Committee has called for a stand in solidarity with detained journalists and activists tomorrow Thursday 12 noon, at the Press Syndicate. At 1pm, activists will also assemble in front of the General Prosecutor’s office to demand the release of the detainees.

So now we're back in Lebanon. A country where an influential minority, that I call the cosmopolitan population, finds that it can mix freely and enjoy leisure time together without regards to sectarian lines. But is that as far as it goes in Lebanon? Leisure and Friendships? What about the more serious matters in life? Why don't we find more business partnerships that cross familial and sectarian lines? What about Politics? And Marriages? Why the red line? Raja wonders.

The Jerusalem Gypsy asking a Palestinian friend if he will be at her daughter wedding, he said “Only if I'm not in jail” and told me he is up for a court hearing the day before her daughter's wedding. The reason? He invited two old friends of his, men in their sixties, to his home to do some work at his house. He's been friendly with them for years and they do handymen work around his house. Unfortunately, the separation fence was built so that his friends are over the fence and not inside like he is. He is a resident of Jerusalem, they are now considered West Bank Palestinians. By law, he cannot any longer invite his buddies that he knew most of his life over to his home even for a cup of coffee unless they have a permit. Well, he was caught by the police who checked their id's and this could carry a 6 month prison sentence (even if the “infiltrators” have a clean police record which they do). He didn't feel like asking his old buddies whether they had permits. He did what he always did and invited them over. Everyone in his neighborhood does because the fence split the town in half.

Zeyad is in Amman, and what he describes is not what Jordanians might agree to. He said: “Amman is the same as I left it last time. An ever expanding bustling city that gives the false impression of modernity and a progressive, enlightened society. Yet, every Jordanian I spoke to thinks that Zarqawi is a martyr. One taxi driver frankly told me that one should not rejoice over Zarqawi's death, for one simple reason: Americans and Iraqis are happy about it.”

Nouri Lumendifi have come to the conclusion that individuals such as Mr. Ahmadinejad suffer from a mental disorder. A lot of Middle Easterners have what I call Type I Americo-Zionist Syndrome (or AZS), which results in random, and practically uncontrolable outbursts of “Zionists did it!” or “America's fault!”, even when the fault for whatever calamity lays squarely at the feet of Muslim Middle Easterners. Find out more about type I and II.

Stephan Clark of Everybody I Love You sets out to explore what it takes to bring one's foreign spouse to the United States - partly because this is what the subjects of his research often have to go through, but also because he is getting married to a Russian national himself. Stephan also writes about the wonderful work of currently Lviv-based photographer Carolyn Drake: “Carolyn and I had hoped to document the men and women who meet in Ukraine through the marriage agencies.”

LEvko of Foreign Notes writes about the dangerous relationship between Ukraine's security service and “the clans.”

LEvko of Foreign Notes posts an update from Ukraine's coalition-building front. More info in previous entries on Foreign Notes.

Petro of Petro's Jotter is “suffering from blogger's block” but manages to share impressions and highlights from a recent family trip to Crimea: “The meeting with Dimri the real estate guy in Yalta whose parents are 100% Tatar, who spent 12 years living in Donetsk and now taught himself to speak and read Ukrainian and insists on raising his children as Ukrainians.”

J. Otto Pohl writes about a sad anniversary of the deportations of “over 17,500 Lithuanians, 17,000 Latvians and 6,000 Estonians” by the NKVD in 1941.

Guillermo Parra has translated an Op-Ed by Fernando Rodríguez, which appeared in yesterday's Tal Cual exploring the competing rhetoric around Venezuela's electoral process.

Oil Wars seems convinced that Venezuela's tremendous economic growth with continue and increase in the coming year.

Abby describes her visit to the US embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay.

The launch of Creative Commons licenses is coming soon to Peru wit Perú iLaw taking place on June 27th and 28th. A contest was just announced, open only to Peruvian bloggers, which seeks the clearest explanation of why Creative Commons licenses are useful in Peru (ES). The three winning essayists will win free entry to iLaw and a Creative Commons kit.

Three new fascinating presidential polls have just come out in Mexico. Both the Mitofsky (ES) and Milenio/María de las Hera (ES) polls give Andrés Manuel López Obrador a slight lead over Felipe Calderón, but in the biggest shock, a group called “Mexicans & Americans Thinking Together” say that PRI candidate Roberto Madrazo is actually ahead of Felipe Calderón (ES).

Imitating the legendary Ostap Bender, East-West Shout Out comes up with a “writers set” for journalists covering Russia: “The solution is to create set of code words which can be used in different combinations / situations and with varying density.”

While nealry every Argentine (ES) blog is consumed by the World Cup, Robert Wright follows the game of national politics.

UDPS Liege reposts a MISNA article stating(Fr): “A ‘motorized procession' (…) is currently heading towards the area of Royal, in the center of Kinshasa. The demonstration headed by Etienne Tshisekedi's UDPS party gathers the partisans of many political parties. They demand once again that political talks take place for an apeasement of the climate before the first round of presidential and legislative elections July 30.”

Yon Ayisyen is back but not to talk politics: “Livres en Folie, ‘The 12th Annual International Haitian Book Fair', says (Fr) the blogger, will take place Thursday. You can order their books online before then.”

We read in Fallosafah that a few days ago in Iranian TV, a football magazine editor was saying that victories in football can be helpful for the governance of country (Persian). This editor added Brazilian government will face problems if their football team does not achieve victories.

A new blog, Zanirani, is launched to back the women activists who tried to demonstrate two days ago but was repressed by the policewomen. The blog says what these women asked for such as more legal rights, is our wish too (Persian). Many people including academics, journalists, writers and bloggers have already added their names to this blog.

The breaking news of ipod sweatshop in China has been picked up by Taiwan Citizen journalism (zh) website Coolloud as the contracting company Foxconn (registered in Hong Kong) is owned by a Taiwanese multi-national corporate Hon Hai. According to the report workers work 15 hours a week while earning USD 50 a month. The Shengzhen (Southern part of China, near Hong Kong) based factory campus is surrounded by many security guards. If a worker leaves the production line, they would be punished. Male workers' punishment is doing “press-up”!

ESWN compared the reports in Mainland China and Overseas media concerning the corruption case of Beijing vice Mayor Liu Zhihua (the Olympic building chief). The former described his conduct by terms like “dissoluteness” and “degeneration” without much explanation. No comments and discussions were allowed in internet forum. Overseas media found out that “dissoluteness” means power, money and sex; but what is the exact ratio of the three is still opened to speculation.

Li Yin-he, a Mainland Chinese professor on woman studies tried to explain why Chinese people are not good at football by confucian culture and the national character of a peasant state: Chinese masculinity are more intellectual (zh). Virtual China has translated part of her viewpoints into English. However, Korean also uphold confucianism and they play much better football. The cultural explanation is too Han-centered.

JP in Japundit reported that the Japanese government is planning to create a central database of information about all registered foreigners in the country for the purpose of “improving services to foreign residents.” Is that really for your own good?

Yesterday it was the Korea first World Cup match. Andy in the Marmot's hole was doing semi-live blogging on Korea-Togo game; while Robert Koehler discussed about the joy killing comments made by Hankyoreh concerning how the nation seems to have forgotten the fourth anniversary of the deaths of Sin Hyo-sun and Sim Mi-seon, two middle school girls who were accidentally crushed by a USFK armored vehicle on June 13, 2002.

Lux at Cambodia Blog talks about Cambodian football “I am not sure whether I live long enough to see Cambodia go to World Cup because of the management and problem in Cambodia Olympic Committee that oversees Cambodian Football Association. Recent news report about corruption and controversies are killing my dream.”

Manila Rat finds that Philippines national flag has design elements that pays homage to the US flag.

KTemoc argues why Malaysia needs an independent body to investigate the wrong doings of the police.

Martin Manurang in Indonesia tries to answer “Why the right wing radicals succeeded in establishing their network while the left failed?”

Timbuktu Chronicles posts on Adire African Textiles, a business that produces local traditional Adire fabrics

Shhh comments on the The Bakassi peninsula which lies between Nigeria and Cameroon - is rich in oil and subject of continued disputes and violence between the two countries.

Naijablog writes about a Nigerian Leadership inititiative worth 250k to be won for writing an essay on Nigerian leadership.

Kenyan blogger, Bankelele posts the latest tips and news on the Kenyan stock market and local investment deals

The Nata Village Blog posts various pieces on the village activities from fund raising to a new publicity billboard campaign urging people to test for HIV

The Beareded Man reports that the Zimbabwe army steals maize from local farmers...”The Zimbabwe government has stationed soldiers and police on roads leading into cities to prevent farmers from moving maize to a black market for the grain in urban areas, forcing them to instead sell to the state-owned Grain Marketing Board (GMB)”.

African Blogs on China's arms trade with Africa ….”Instead, as China has possibly discovered, it pays a dime and some more to secretly trade the AK-47, the real Weapon of Mass Destruction, to a host of trigger-happy, impoverished African nations sucked up in conflicts and power-games designed to keep some corrupt-ridden regimes in power for life.”