Global Voices Online

Of Kevin Sites' recent Hot Zones coverage of Haiti, Yon Ayisyen writes (Fr): “His visit helped me realize how narrow and even possibly twisted an image he portrays of the places he visits. He did not go farther than the well established cliches of this country.”

From Haiti, Yon Ayisyen points to (Fr) sites of pictures of Haiti taken by Haitians.

Robert Koehler in Marmot's Hole has two posts on Korea-U.S relation regarding the withdrawal of U.S troop or the flexible military strategy in South Korea. The first one is a comment on an opinion piece written in Chosun Ilbo. The second one is a summary of varous reactions towards the agreement.

Bingfeng is now translating comments from present and ex-foxconn workers on the working conditions in Foxconn from the two First Financial Daily workers' blog. According to Bingfeng, the newspapers company has a meeting last night to collect evidences to prepare for the libel case.

Shang pei-jin from Shanghaiist has a detailed sum up on Chinabounder (Shanghai foreign sex blogger) issue.

Having watched the trailer for a newly released film set in Uganda, Jamaican novelist Marlon James announces that he's sick and tired of “stories of a white man trapped in black (and sometimes yellow) hell where in the midst of all this inhumanity he discovers what it means to be human.”

Raúl Castro appears to have made his first official appointment, writes Luis M. Garcia: “analysts and Cuban watchers will have a field day over the next few hours with these latest news from Havana. Does it mean Raul is really in charge?“

Srdjan Cvijic of The TransAtlantic Assembly a translates an article by a renowned Serbian political analyst on Kosovo, the West and the feeling of collective guilt.

Eric Gordy of East Ethnia writes about a recent attack on an Israeli in Belgrade and the hype it caused.

David McDuff of A Step At A Time translates an article on the tenth anniversary of the end of the First Chechen War.

J. Otto Pohl translates a decree that ordered deportation of the Volga Germans to Kazakhstan and Siberia in 1941.

Our Man In Tirana writes about Albania's upcoming football battles.

Konstantin Dlutskiy of Russian Marketing Blog writes about guerilla promotion of The Sopranos.

Ibn ad Dunya writes about the 300 Egyptians who seek asylum in the Czech Republic. He said: “Who can blame them for wanting to go to Europe, to leave Egypt is a dream for many young Egyptians, and only to achieve the goal of getting a visa to America, Canada, Australia or the EU is tough post 9/11 and with Europe showing it’s nicest smile towards any potential refugee seeker, before sending him back with the first available flight if possible.”

Ammar is calling to hold a closed forum of well-known intellectuals and dissidents with the purpose of coming up with a draft for a Syrian national pact or charter where all issues related to peaceful change in the country. Then, he will demand that Syrian opposition groups sign on to it. Those who do will be invited to attend a general conference where elections will be held to form a government-in-exile consisting of a parliament, a PM and a small cabinet.

Morocco has stepped up security at its airports after discovering that the wives of two pilots at national airline Royal Air Maroc (RAM) had been funding a radical Islamist cell, Samir said.

Well, schools are opening, people are back from vacations, and traffic jams are all around Dubai roads and linking Emirates. If you want to get to work on time, you will have to subtract another half hour from your departure time from home. Some easy ways of navigation help to navigate through traffic and should help you squeeze your way to work in time are presented by Farrukh Ahmed.

A blog to collect facts on blogging records in India at Limca Book of (Blog) Records.

Honduras News-Daily says that Honduras will be participating today in the controversial Panamax 2006 military exercises.

A Land like no Other on the possibilities of National Government in Sri Lanka. “Party politics has spoiled this country to a level where after your race and religion, supported political party is the next most common factor of distinguishing people into groups.”

Adam Isacson on the strange and revealing scene at a high-profiled animal-food concentrates processing plant in the town of Orito.

United We Blog! on a conversation with contestants for Miss Teen Nepal 2006. “The beauties looked confused and Arpana came up with the answer once again. “If you ask me I can easily say what should have been done but can’t say what exactly needs to be done.” An answer very much depicting the political awareness among teenagers.”

Having already presented the Bolivian presence on YouTube, Miguel Buitrago now describes the transmission of Bolivian television online: “The whole package is supposed to cost US$ 9.95, and is mainly aimed at the around 1 million Bolivians living outside Bolivia, mainly in Madrid, Buenos Aires and the Washington DC metro area.”

Alejandro is inspired to start blogging again after a visit to the Peruvian restaurant, Los Balcones del Peru in Hollywood, Calornia.

Blogdai scans the political horizon and suggets we get rid of democracy.

Rezwan highlights diaspora blogs from South Asia on the occassion of Blog Day 2006.

The Narco News Bulletin has translated the most recent address by Zapatista figurehead Subcomandante Marcos at the Second Indigenous Gathering of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Living in Peru on a recent conflict between settlers from Combayo and the neighboring Yanacocha gold mine and its potential effect on foreign investment.

Miguel Octavio has translated an Op-Ed by Teodoro Petkoff as the Venezuelan government tells Caracas Mayor Juan Barreto that he was wrong in expropriating two golf courses.

Steven Taylor astounded by Chavez's newly declared solidarity with Syria. Erwin Cifuentes does the media roundup.

“Does anyone really ‘celebrate' our Independence as a nation?” wonders Elspeth Duncan, as Trinidad and Tobago observes the 44th anniversary of its independence from Great Britain.

By analysing the facial expressions of Guyana's incumbent president Bharrat Jagdeo, Andy is “100% confident that he is the new president-elect of Guyana“.

Guyana's “ministries [of government] and their portfolios are outmoded, irrelevant and obscure,” says MediaCritic three days after the country's general election, as he reconstructs government and puts forward his own ministerial wish list.

Ato G may not be corrupt. But he lives in a society ruined by corruption. He may be honest and hardworking. Yet the law will always make an enemy of people like him. ET Wonqette powerfully plays on words, satirising Ethiopia, which he says, “is ruinously, unrelentingly peaceful. Better days are coming because there are so many others doing their ‘16 days'.”

You Missed This draws attention to the threat of censorship, where those who are unhappy with what bloggers are doing may choose to ruin their site by hacking into it. “One blogger reveals that he has already been targeted before and somebody even hacked into his site,” he reveals.

Unlike many countries, Nigeria is richly endowed with human and natural resources. But it’s lagging behind, in terms of development. Many emerging rich countries, Nkem Ifejika argues, are taking advantage of the little they have to transform their economies. Some even rely solely on human resources, where expert experiences gained from other societies are brought and put into use at home. “Nigeria has the cumulative knowledge of the world at its disposal, it has to use it,” he submits.

Tale of corruption and official high-handedness is re-echoed by Ethio-Zagol, who seems rather pleased that Bereket Simon, “one of the most detested EPRDF politicians” in Ethiopia, is defraying the cost, via divine punishment, having been rushed to hospital in Israel. Even in a close shave with death their kleptomaniac fingers remain busy doing business as usual, “On the morning of the same day, Bereket's aides were spotted taking hard currency from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.”

Joel Basson’s experience with banks in South Africa had made him lose confidence in them. He felt they were only out to rip people off. Soon the opportunity to prove him wrong came and right at his doorstep, his own bank forced him to a rethink. He now thinks differently. “So, to every student out there that is paying bank charges in excess of R13.50, visit your nearest FNB branch and change banks,” he preached.

For anyone that passed through the boarding school system, Nkem Ifejika’s story, bizarre as it sounds, is not in any way strange. What may, however, seem strange is that anyone could be convicted for violating immigration rules and sentenced to gardening. Yet life at Nkem’s school might have been much worse, with bullies always on the rampage. “Imagine being given a matchbox and being asked to cut grass to the exact dimensions of the box, and not with a razor blade, but with our huge machetes,” He wonders.

From Big Brother Africa to Survivor Africa young men and women across the continent are making their way up, ascending the ladder of fame. And this time out as many as twelve were called. But only one will be chosen, to take home the star prize of US$100, 000. Courtesy of Bella Naija, “Here’s a look at the survivors.”

Shahram Kholdi, UK based blogger & academic reports that Ramin Jahanbegloo, researcher & philosopher, was released on bail. According to the blogger, Ramin Jahanbegloo visited ISNA's (Iranian Students National Agency) office immediately after he was released. The source said he looked much thinner than the last time he had seen him. The source also has said that Ramin said the prison was a bit hard, interrogators were nice and polite and prison situation has not been very bad.

Amin Rasooli has played Pink Panther cartoon's music with Azeri instruments. You can listen to that in Rasooli's blog.

Lyn Jeffery from Virtual China introduces a new website for searching data in China: soshoo.com. The website bills itself as the first free Chinese vertical search engine focusing on statistics and survey data.

Bingfeng updates that Shenzhen court has unfreezed the personal assets of the journalists, foxconn now sues BOTH the newspaper AND the two journalists and seeks only 1 RMB instead of 3 million RMB in damages.

Roland continues his media analysis and for the first time describes his life as an activist journalist.

Foxconn has in fact adopted the suggestion made by imagethief in PR strategy, imagethief makes a clarification that: I am not Apple's PR man.

Rebecca also describes the case as a successful joint force between chinese bloggers and journalists.

Jamie from Two Koreas tells us how the International Labour Organization's meeting is going on in Busan now.