Global Voices Online

Imagethief responses to the recent article from AP about English teacher in China: “It has always seemed to me that teaching in English was the job of last resort for people who wanted to spend an extended period of time here. “

Shang Neil in Shanghaiist reports on the book expo in Shanghai.

Moluiology comments on a award winning research done by a professor in Hong Kong University claiming that blog can become a platform for hate speech. Moluilogy disagrees and points out that the 820 Xanga users in the research only constitutes 0.0164% of the Xanga population. Besides the researcher did not include the number of readers of those blogs and therefore could not estimate the impact of the population. (zh)

Last night local environmental organizations jointly launched the light outs campaign in Hong Kong; the big white guy comments that “it turns out the power companies has nothing to fear of the Lights Out…” and “Lights Out failed because it didn't appeal to the people with power…”

Frog in the Well runs the sixth Asia history carnival by grouping and reviewing blog posts and internet resources on China, Korea and other Asian countries history.

ESWN has a partial translations of a blog post from Hong Kong and an essay by a famous mainland Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo to show the readers what are the Chinese thinking about the Israel-Lebanon war?

Le Blog de [Moi] disagrees (Fr) with local LGBT association An Nou Alle that Martiniquan homophobia explains a recent lag in its tourism industry but agrees with them that certain local dancehall artists –Krys in particular– are going too far with their homophobic lyrics. She points our that Jamaica has a thriving tourism industry despite graver attacks on gays there.

In a news roundup, blogger Jean-Paul of Dijoux.re writes (Fr): “Whales are passing through our island to reach cold waters. The females are here to give birth before leaving for Antarctica. It is the first time that we have observed the washing up of a baby whale on our shores. Every year Reunion's marine observatory (OMAR) follows the whales' itinerary.”

Andrey of neweurasia offers bowling as a summer sport (ru).

Ben Paarmann translates a story from German that tells how Volga Germans who were exiled to Kazakhstan are returning to Germany.

Onnik Krikorian uses the dismissal of a Reuters freelance photographer in Lebanon for manipulating photos as a springboard to discuss photojournalists' ethics and photo manipulation in Armenian media.

Registan.net reports that the daughter of Uzbekistan's president has launched a pop music career and speculates on how it will impact pop music in Uzbekistan.

Manuel Amador is collecting posts (ES) by bloggers who share his conviction that the popular Digg-like aggregation site Menéame (ES) is worthless.

El Blog Diablogico runs into a film crew in Antigua only to discover what will be the first full-length feature to be shot entirely in Guatemala since Green Jade back in 1935

David Sheern writes a letter to Albania, advising it “on how to become a better nation.”

Dan McMinn of Orange Ukraine posts a reaction on Ukraine's new government headed by Victor Yanukovych.

David, who continues to ride his bike along the Venezuelan coast, reminds readers of the deadly floods that claimed an estimated 30,000 victims in 1999.

LEvko of Foreign Notes reports on Yulia Tymoshenko's most recent radio interview, in which she talks, among other things, about Victor Yushchenko's broken promises.

Everybody I Love You criticizes a feature on “romance tours” to Ukraine that appeared in Harper's.

J. Otto Pohl reviews citations of his work and runs into an interesting book that compares the Chechens and Navajos: “Both the ethnic cleansing of the Navajos and the Chechens took place during “Good Wars” at the hands of the “Good Guys.” The Union Army marched the Navajos to Bosque Redondo during the Civil War and the USSR deported the Chechens to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan while fighting against Nazi Germany in the course of World War II. Since the victors write history there is of course very little published on either of these atrocities compared to Southern slavery and the Holocaust.”

Everyone knows that Al Gore invented the internet (joking!), but how did that invention spread to Chile? Mary Joyce tells the story following her meeting with Professor Florencio Utrera.

Why will five Argentinian navy officers be tried in absentia in Italy? Jeff Barry explains.

Is environmental campaigning as unbiased as it should be? Varnam points out to the fact that the recent controversy in India wherein Coke and Pepsi appear to have pesticides in their drinks and asks if the issue being raised is limited to American multinationals.

United We Blog! doesn't take too kindly to the idea of having space for monarchy in the new political environment in Nepal.

How has the changing context in Pakistan contributed to the way drugs are perceived?Metroblogging Lahore on drugs, media and the youth.

Shirazi on Multan. “While many historic Islamic cities have lost much of their original character during the twentieth century, Multan has survived remarkably intact, retaining the classic form of the medieval city encircled by its rampart and gateways. It is the entire urban fabric of the place that is historic.”

Blogdai is upset with the way International media and pundits cover Nepal without quite understanding the context, and urges his readers to be media watchdogs.

Mohammad Masih, a martyrdom seeker & active blogger talks about his own experience to try go to Lebanon. The blogger says imagine the moment that you may have a ticket to Damascus or you can pass the border a question comes in your mind: Is there God out there [Fa]? This question extends its roots deep in your being and you can neither prove it nor deny that. It is the reason that you turn back and return.

Dr. Emad Afrough, deputy in Parliament says our country's governance is like our national football (soccer) team's management [Fa]. In both cases too many emotions are involved and rational criticism has no place.

Rooznamenegar No talks about Cease Fire, an Iranian film at the top of box office. The blogger says in this movie people watch a rich couple driving expensive cars in rich neighbourhood, throwing away their meals without touching them or breaking their house decorative objects without caring about their price. The blogger explains people are not anymore in mood to read serious books, articles or watch serious movies. They want to be entertained a few hours to forget their economic problems [Fa] .

Babalu Blog posts a lists of things “we know for sure” about what's going on in Cuba.

Fernando Casale worked “like an ant” to add Spanish subtitles to a video of Lawrence Lessig from a presentation he gave at an event held last year in Buenos Aires.

An experiment in “synchronized communication,” blogsColombia has started a chat page to promote interaction among the national blogging community.

“Something is very dodgy here,” says MediaCritic, having perused the list of electors and found the names of two relatives who left Guyana several years ago (and who, moreover, had never gone through the registration process) but not his own. General elections in Guyana are set for August 28, 2006.

VivirLatino comments on CNN's hiring of Fidel Castro's daughter, Alina Fernandez, as a network contributor: “what this also clearly shows (in my not so humble opinion) is a bias in the media that is clearly pro-U.S. policy around the issue of Cuba. It seems to me that Alina has made a career of being la hija rebelde de Fidel and as such has become a darling of the Miami Cuban exile community.“

Nyasha Lang attends an event celebrating the 44th anniversary of Jamaica's independence: “The vibe was somewhere between a Negril dance hall and an open air roots reggae show, folks wearing white flowing garb bordered with red, green and yellow. Nuff dub poets and singers in the crowd.”

Ya No Más publishes an interview recently conducted in Havana with Cuban dissident Martha Beatriz Roque. The interviewer reports that during his meeting with Sra. Roque, a film crew allegedly shooting a tourism promo is hovering around: and “how accidental is it that the author of this article should spend two hours of questioning in customs at the airport?”

Rights Action T&T, a blog designed to support the protest against the establishment of an aluminium smelter in a community in southern Trinidad, issues a press release reporting that preparations for the establishment of boreholes have begun in the area, and deploring aluminium company Alcoa's “continued attempts to psychologically intimidate members of the Chatham village with their scientific mumbo jumbo and their well oiled PR machine.”

Dominican Republic blog Remolacha.net links (ES) to a news article and a series of AP photos depicting Cubans in both Cuba and the US engaging in Santería (an Afro-Cuban religion) ceremonies designed to hasten either the death or recovery of ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

The blogger at Our Local Style looks at the digital divide in South East Asia.

Blog for Cuba examines what it terms “Cuba's state sanctioned anti-Semitism,” via analyses of headlines from the Cuban news daily, Granma, expressing support for Hezbollah and Hamas, and of the activities, past and present, of Cuban leaders.

Indonesiamatters talks about a Falun Gong meditation session in Jakarta being broken up by demonstrators. Falung Gong supporters see Chinese hand in the disruption while some of the local traders say that they are just fed up with the group's activities that affects their business.

Vietnamese God introduces a street snack from Hanoi. If you don't mind trying street food and you have only 10,000Vnd in your pocket, then this lunch is for you. That's fried tofu with noodles.

Filipino travel and heritage blogger Ivan Henares is travelling again.Basilan. “Today, I visited Basilan. Just the mere mention of the name evokes fear among those unfamiliar with the place. Every time I told someone that I was on my way to Basilan, I received a shocked response. Who would want to visit Basilan anyway?”

Thai and Lao Food blogger Manivan Larprom has a post on how to prepare Thai Sticky Rice and Mango Dessert.

An online memorial has been set up for the Chinese UN peacekeeper Lieutenant Colonel Du Zhaoyu, who was killed in Lebanon by an Israeli rocket on July 25 along with three other UN peacekeepers, Jeffery Lyn reports from Virtual China.

DANWEIputs up an original article, Media “Schizophrenia” in China, written by David Moser. The article talks about the impact of digital technology on the schizophrenic split within the mediascape.

Michael Turton puts up an old article about his visit to a soya sauce factory in Central Taiwan. The vivid depiction tells a lot about the history of development and small business in Taiwan.

ESWN translates several reports related to a violent incident at Xiangying in Hunan province and asks “Could they possibly be about the same events? So what really happened in Xiangyin?“

Richard TPD in Peking duck comments on the “creative marketing” of an anger bar in Nanjingthat allows customers to beat up its staffs.