Global Voices Online

Manuel L. Quezon III in Manila does an excellent roundup of Filipino blogger's reaction to the President's State of the Nation address.

Chinese human rights activist Chen Guang-cheng is on trial today (July 25). Nickwong anticipates that the result won't be good (zh).

Jeremy Goldkorn from Danwei writes about the disappearing of Beijing and Shanghai because of urban renewal.

Yeahayeah blogs about the demonstration against Israelis bombing in Lebanon in Hong Kong (zh).

The romance of Suzie Wong takes place in Hong Kong, an classic scence is in Star ferry pier, Central. Hong Kong government is now planning to demolish the pier. Diumanpark criticizes the government of such acts in his blog post: goodbye Suzie Wong (zh) and urges people to sign up against the project.

ESWN translates a blogpost from learned friend on how children are being influenced by their parent in racial stereotype. “To the parents of the children — how do you teach your children!“

Opposition party blog UDPS Liege announces an intensification of peaceful protests in the capital Kinshasa leading up to the July 30 election. Protests are planned for July 25, 27, 28 and 30.

Of Lilian Thuram, a French football player of Guadeloupean origin, France-based Senegalese blogger says (Fr): “Wanting desperately to become a Martin Luther King-style defender of the Black cause, Thuram seems to have no friends around him to tell him to calm down and to stay away from politics, an artform for which he is little skilled. His statements against [French Interior minister Nicolas] Sarkozy are so inept that he'd better shut up.”

The Mercosur summit ended with Hugo and Fidel stealing the limelight says Erwin Cifuentes. Greg Weeks sorts out the implications of Venezuela's new membership in the trade bloc. Finally, Ricardo Carreón argues that Mexico could and should become the trade organizations first non-South American member.

Elizabeth writes about the decline in Russian language abilities in Tajikistan.

Leila translates a Russian-language post about a health care scandal in Kazakhstan's Karaganda region.

For those who have always wanted to know what acting in a Georgian soap opera is like, Breed describes his experience.

Both Nessuna and Jeremy express their dislike of Vardavar, a holiday celebrated in part by throwing water on complete strangers.

Zarchka writes on the value of escaping the city for the village.

The Bearded Man commens on an article in the Washington Post about plans being mooted by the Zimbabwean government to monitor e-mail and other electronic communication. He writes: “It would take a sizeable army to sift through emails, SMS and telephone calls - yes, I know that much of it can be done electronically, but that takes money - one thing that the Zimbabwen government is decidedly short of.”

Ore's Notes remarks on a visit to Nigeria by author Diane Evans, who she notes is part-Nigerian.

Farrel Lifson of politics.za comments on a forthcoming position paper from the Eastern Cape provincial division of the African National Congress (ANC), which will say that the South African government is being taken over by right-wing forces resistant to transformation.

Africa Unchained points to a passage in George Ayittey's book by the same name, which runs: “We need TECHNOCRATS to fix our broken, dysfunctional institutions. REPAIRMEN or plumbers who will unclog the gutters or the system. CUTLASSES to chop down all the dead wood.”

“It's odd to quit a job,” writes Kenyan Musings, who just quit hers. “People think you are nuts…but it gets to the point where if you allow yourself to be depleted to the point where your professional tank is empty and you are running on fumes of habit, everybody loses. Especially you.”

4Sheezy wonders what might have happened if she had managed to get a meeting with Bill Gates while he was in Kenya, to talk about his HIV/AIDS work.

The terror of Naxal forces in Central IndiaI at Indian Muslims. “Vast areas of Chhattisgarh are now controlled by Naxals (termed Naxal because of Naxalbari village in West Bengal where the armed revolution started in the 60s) but the BJP state government that had come to power on the plank of eliminating the Maoists is yet to check the menace of Red Terror.”

Light Within on life in a Pakistani Village. “There are lessons in the first landscapes of every one's life. Mine was a vista of green paddy fields, smoking with Salt Range (Pakistan) mist, against a setting of ribbon of River Jhelum which from distance looked like a shore of another land altogether.”

United We Blog! takes a closer look at development and democracy. “Nepal does not fall within any specific model when we only look at the theoretical background. Reforms, leading to liberalization, had already been initiated in some sectors (especially in financial sector) before advent of democracy in 1990.”

What does China have to do with the peace process in Nepal. Nepali Netbook says “Considering the fervor with which it is broached, speculation of recent secret talks between a team of Chinese officials and top Nepalese Maoist leaders threatens to throw our nascent peace process off course.”

All About Latvia and Stefan of Dykun discuss the gay pride parade that failed to take place in Riga.

Sean's Russia Blog writes about the daily routine at the Nashi movement's summer camp: “To older Russians the similarities to the Soviet era are striking. They should be. It seems that all that is missing are the little red neckties.”

Vilhelm Konnander writes about a Russian fast food chain, Russkoye Bistro: “There is a well-known popular story on how the Russian troops that defeated Napoleon in the 19th century, sat about the Paris cafés and restaurants urging the waiters for food by shouting “быстро, быстро!” (fast, fast!). Thus, the world-renowned Paris “bistros” would have originated from Russian troops in Paris celebrating one of their country's greatest historical victories. This was the positive image Russkoe Bistro exploited.”

David McDuff of A Step At A Time writes about unconfirmed reports on Russia's plans to move its Black Sea warships from the Ukrainian Crimea to Syria.

Stephan of Everybody I Love You gets married in Russia and, in between the wedding and the honeymoon, works on bringing his wife to the United States.

Orange Ukraine and Vilhelm Konnander discuss the political situation in Ukraine. Petro's Jotter and Foreign Notes write about corruption of the country's leading politicians.

T K Vogel of East Ethnia writes about “worrying” political developments taking place in Bosnia.

David Sheern writes about the problem of land ownership in Albania.

TOL's Belarus Blog reports on Hugo Chavez's visit to Minsk.

TOL's Belarus Blog and Andrei Khrapavitski write that “Belarus is soon to be expelled from the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) due to its non-compliance with trade union legislature (mostly when it comes to the rights of the workers).”

TOL's Belarus Blog writes about scholarship fraud and the connection between scholarships and brain drain.

Andrei Khrapavitski writes about George Krol, the outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Belarus.

Rentaempress posts a charming vignette of life in multicultural Trinidad: an encounter with some Hare Krishna devotees. “Trinidad remains sweet and unbelievably bizarre.”

Like Julian Gallo, Jeff Barry can't help but play around with the 3D modeling of Buenos Aires for Google Earth.

Patrick posts a clip from Luis Argueta's most recent documentary, “And There I Am Documenting Silent Voices,” which follows the stories of Guatemalans who emigrate to the U.S.

Lima-based blog Sin Papel says there is no reason to buy a pirated version of Windows XP (ES) now that Peruvians have their own localized version of Ubuntu Linux. 100 free installation discs were handed out at a recent presentation.

Francisco sits down with political economist Jonathan DiJohn for a skypecast on Venezuela's economic collapse.

Alina Rocha Menocal says that “if there is no vote-by-vote recount, the next president risks being haunted by the unfinished business of 2006 throughout his term in office and further alienating an already polarised citizenry.” Boz's Friday poll numbers, however, reveal that “60% [of Mexicans] believe that a full recount is not necessary.” And finally, Ana Maria Salazar has an excellent summary of the week in review including news of a National Action Party “campaign called ‘Let´s paint Mexico white' in order to promote an orderly, peaceful and respectful post-electoral environment.”

Mohammad Ali Abtahi, reformist politician talks about Ahmadinejad's letter to Merkel, German Chancellor. The blogger says Germany says that there will be no answer to Ahmadinejad's letter. Abtahi considers Germany's reaction as an insult to Iranians but he adds it seems that Iranian President in this letter did not talk about our nation's problems. He writes it is another insult that a President instead of caring about his own people, talk about other nations' problems [Fa].

Panajane of Panama City describes where Macalucia and Totuma go hand in hand.

Why is Chile such a hot-bed of internet-based activism? More importantly, how can the Chilean experience inform grassroots internet activism in other countries? Those two questions are driving Mary Joyce's visit to Santiago, where she is investigating various efforts underway to create a more active civil society using the internet.

Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philp thinks about the role of “reggae aesthetics” in the post-colonial Caribbean, and posts a podcast of his poem “version break”.

Following the announcement that a long-anticipated general election will be held in Guyana on 28 August, Demeraralighthouse analyses the election strategies of the country's two major political parties, while Living Guyana predicts a violent election season: “all de nastiness an' de madness now start”.