Global Voices Online

ESWN translates a BBS post on how a local company made money out of a memorial park of the victim of the Tangshan earthquake.

FLD from China Times wonders how president Chen Shui-bian would response to the recent accounting department report on the president house national secret expenses (zh). The report was released yesterday: 77% of the expenses was without standard record. The case is now filed at the department of justice.

Zat Liu in Shanghaiist reports on the Sino-America Police Sanshou Championship organized by Ministry of Public Security and Public Security Office of Hunan Province and to be held from August 26-29 at Helong Stadium in Changsha. There is a voting on web (zh) where China supporters out numbered America supporter more than three times.

Lyn Jeffery in Virtual China blogs about spoofing culture in Chinese internet sphere and translates an article from QQ discussing whether spoofing can prevent social tragedies. Spoofing is a popular subculture that deconstructs serious themes to entertain people with comedy effects.

Many bloggers in Hong Kong blog about book exhibition. Henry porter criticizes book exhibition this year become even more “vulgar”. Because of the crowd, the host has to urge people to leave the exhibition center as soon as possible; so how can people choose their books? (zh). Thomas describes the book exhibition as an annual buzz or pilgrimage for those who can read; but he still spend more than a thousand in books, comics, VCD and DVD (zh).

The blogger at Sarapan Ekonomi talks about expats discussing life in Indonesia. The blogger does not agree with some of the views the expats have but at the end of the post, the blogger asks everyone “Meanwhile, lighten up. It's Friday after all.”

Dawn in Myanmar takes a look at love and relationship in Myanmar and how people are holding on some traditions while some things are changing.

Manivan Larprom in her Thai Lao Food Blog has text and video instructions for preparing Pad Thai Pho Noodles.

The Daily Brunei Resources blog talks about what makes a person a Bruneian.

Collectif Haiti de Provence points to (Fr) a Radio Metropole article about the launch of a new Center for the Facilitation of Investment thanks to a grant by USAID. Thanks to the Center, “a corporation can be formed in 4 days as opposed to the 264 it took in the past.”

Collectif Haiti de Provence points (Fr) to a Radio Signal FM article stating: “Tens of Haitian alternative globalization activists protested Tuesday in front of a Port-au-Prince hotel where international delegations were participating in a meeting of donors to Haiti. The protestors, students for the most part, demanded the cancellation of Haiti's external debt estimated at $1.4 billion.”

France's Council of Ministers recently decided to dissolve Tribu Ka, a Black nationalist French group, accusing it of anti-semitism. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy claims the group posted a graphic of a chimpanzee holding a star of David on their website. Martinique's Le Blog de [Moi] agrees (Fr) that Tribu Ka is anti-semitic but disagrees that they posted such a graphic on their site.

Vadim discusses why Tajikistan placed last in intellectual development amongst post-Soviet states on the World Bank's knowledge index.

For Optimists and Philosophers reports on the unveiling of a Gandhi statue in Ulaanbaatar.

Nessuna reports on anti-Armenian discrimination in hiring for jobs in Russia.

Matt Jay rounds up news on Georgia's military operations against a local warlord who controls the Kodori Gorge, the only part of the breakaway region of Abkhazia controlled by Tbilisi. The blogger says that the escape of the warlord, Emzar Kvitsiani, into Abkhazia may provide Georgia to invade the region.

The Nanopolitan comments on the government deciding not to go ahead with the hundred dollar laptop.

Mitesh Vasa compiles information on what got censored in India over the last fifteen years. “Nonetheless, what I present is a compilation of raw facts about the history of State-ordered bans by India. And do let me know if you know any event that I missed here. “

Blogdai makes some dark predictions for Nepal. Who'll die over the next year, and who will be allies with the Maoists.

How Bangladesh is responding to the crisis in Lebanon at imperfect world 2006.

Thejesh links to High Court Allahabad's website, which comes across as rather user friendly and promotes the use of open-source, and reflects on open standards and the public sector.

Both Miguel Octavio and Francisco Toro try to help their readers understand the candidacy of Benjamín Rausseo, better known as “El Conde del Guacharo.”

Adam Isacson writes from Medellín, where he describes his visit to the Casa de Paz: “The sole resident of the Casa de Paz is Francisco Galán, an ELN guerrilla leader whom the government captured in the mid-1990s. Galán is very unlikely to attempt an escape: from his previous jail cell in Itagüí, south of Medellín, and elsewhere, he has long served as the main conduit between the ELN and the outside world - including the Colombian government.”

Made in Brazil has a preview of Rio's Gay Pride Parade, which will take place this weekend.

Miguel Centallas has an update on Bolivia's Constituent assembly.

Jeff Barry points readers to a post on Pasa en Buenos Aires, a new blog run by the city, about the closure of the Cosmos theater (ES). Speaking of cinema, Lovers Go Home gives some short reviews (ES) of recent movies and Robert Wright had just walked out of the movies when it started to hail (photos included).

Cayman-based Jamaican blogger Mad Bull posts a short report on last night's “Caribbean Blogger Linkup”, at which ten bloggers, mostly Jamaican but including one from St. Vincent, assembled at a restaurant in Kingston.

According to Ocho Cuartos, the famous parody of a Barney song poking fun at Lopez Obrador (ES) has been taken down for copyright reasons.

Malaysian opposition politician Lim Kit Siang is asking the Prime Minister to give assurance that online media would not be censored in Malaysia. The call comes after the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers made negative comments about blogs and online media in general.

Light in the Heart of Darkness chronicles what she calls “last minute punches” by various presidential candidates including interim vice-President Bemba, Ruberwa and interim President Joseph Kabila. Strategies include marches to the capital and burning of campaign headquarters among others.

Edward Lucas, Central and East European correspondent of The Economist, writes about his two visits to Croatia's seaside town Dubrovnik: in 1985 and this year.

Greg of Reflections on Ukraine writes about the Ukrainian Sunflower Festival of Detroit, scheduled to take place Aug. 25-27, 2006.

Our Man in Tirana cites a World Bank study, which declares that in terms of instituting anti-corruption reforms, “Albania remains the worst performer among all transition countries.”

The Limey offers his tongue-in-cheek “Worst of Bermuda Awards 2006”. Categories include “most embarrassing mistake”, “worst corporate citizen”, and “worst act of political cowardice”.

Yuri Mamchur of Russia Blog writes about the current regime's idea of fishing: the “big fish” are Mikhail Khodrkovsky's former business partner Leonid Nevzlin, currently based in Israel, and two London residents - the “oligarch” Boris Berezovsky and “the so-called ‘Foreign Minister of Ichkeria' Akhmed Zakaev.”

Copydude writes about Kaliningrad and the mystery of the Amber Room.

Poet and actress Louise Bennett, popularly known as Miss Lou, perhaps the most beloved public figure in contemporary Jamaica, has died at the age of 86. At the Caribbean Beat blog, Jeremy Taylor offers a tribute. “She wrote unforgettable poems in the Jamaican ‘patois' or ‘dialect' which we now learn to call a language … and her wit, her laughter and her satire did as much as anything to make Jamaicans feel at home with themselves.”

The Bearded Man stands amazed as Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe gives the office of president something of a face-lift, endowing it with what looks a lot like the trappings of monarchy.

“We, as Africans should not under-estimate the pessimism, especially in Europe, that surrounds 2010 FIFA World Cup scheduled for South Africa,” writes Matters of the Mind.

In honor of Liberian independence day, Black Looks highlights a campaign to persuade U.S. tyre maker Firestone to clean up its operations in Liberia, spearheaded by the Friends of the Earth.

Aba Boy links to a petition called “Save the Lebanese Civilians”.

Reject the Ethiopian Invasion! picks up on reports of a mystery aircraft which landed at Mogadishu, rumored to be carrying arms from Eritrea. “The last thing Somalia needs is more arms,” the blogger writes. There is also part of a transcript of the U.S. State Department media briefing which dealt with Somalia, Ethiopia and the plane.

The famous mainland Chinese BBS websites Century China forum and lifeweek BBS were closed down almost at the same time (25 of July 2006). The later is set up by Joint publishing company which focuses on the publication of intellectual thinking. Mongee in Soho Xiaobao feels very pity about the disappearing of such intellectual space (zh). Nick Wong writes in his blog commenting on closing down of Century China forum: my evaluation of the Central Propaganda Department is that except the fact that people eat rice and they don't eat shit, whatever people like, they oppose (zh).

Peijin Chen in Shanghaiist puts together reports and commentaries concerning the shut down of a school because of high tuition fees. “The story of this school illuminates interesting issues confronting Chinese education and society.“

ESWN translates Jimmy Lai's recent column in Next magazine discussing the limit of time and space in pan-Asian publications.

Media cultural action (a Seoul based independent media activist group) has put up the “no-fta” demonstration video in July 12, 2006 with english subtitle on their website.

wzp in ofblog has an evaluation of the impact of blogging in China and describes 2005 - 2006 summer as the hottest year. He claims that blogging has smashed the monopoly of hegmonic discourse and changed the tragetory of journalism (zh) . However, after the summer, winter follows (zh) , Liu Ren predicts. Keso is more optimistic about the coming winter, “it will only freeze the flies to death”. (zh).