Global Voices Online

The members of the Non-Aligned Movement are meeting this week in Havana, prompting Jeremy Taylor to wonder whether the Movement's ideals might be more workable in theory than in practice.

Peter Myers of Adventures in Moldova writes about Moldovans' tardiness, shares his new understanding of Moldova's language politics, and posts a letter by a Moldovan teenager, OIga: “It's hard, really and if somehow I will escape from here I will just come back to see my relatives and that’s all. Nothing more attracts me here.”

Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa offers suggestions for Queen Elizabeth II on how to “get to know everyday Estonians” during her visit to Estonia on Oct. 19-20.

NvB: Bored in Brno? writes about a Czech proverb about assertiveness - “you get nothing if you don't ask” - and its “unCzechness”: “Czechs are some of the quietest people in public that I've ever met. Sometimes this is carried to a fault.”

My Czech Republic Blog writes that Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral has been formally returned to the Catholic Church.

TOL's Belarus Blog reports that soon foreign journalists, politicians and others banned from entering Belarus may also be automatically banned from entering Russia.

TOL's Belarus Blog translates an article about former interior minister of Belarus praising Adolf Hitler's Code of Honor of the Officer.

TOL's Belarus Blog reports that the Chinese language has been declared a priority in Belarusian schools by the country's president Aleksandr Lukashenko.

Eric Gordy of East Ethnia writes that Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs agrees to this two-letter symbol for Serbia: SS.

Taking Aim links to a collection of pictures of Russian churches, taken in 1910 and recently.

Doug Muir of A Fistful of Euros writes that the Hungarian currency, forint, “lost about 10% of its value in a month,” so it's a good time to travel to Hungary now - because everything is “about 7% cheaper.”

Mohammed is disappoint. He says, “the media is keen to disappoint me every single time because after the short friendly introduction that leads into the main coverage of the terror attack I find a flood of blaming, condemnation, chastising and scorn directed against (guess who?)…the victim of course, the victim of that very terror attack!
It makes me feel there's only a fine line of shyness stopping those people from praying for the souls of the terrorists, after all they, in the mentality of the media, are also victims of America.“

Five years ago some people imagined that the time has come to attack America and teach the whole world a lesson. Those people divided the world to “us” and “others”….I refuse to link between what is happening in Iraq right now and the War on Terror. If Iraq now in a mess I guess that what the Iraqis themselves did. Operation Iraq Freedom was totally successful in saving the area from a real threat and what happened in Iraq next have many causes these lines wont be enough to deal with, I hope I will have more time in the future to discuss them individually, Sooni said.

The Limey reports on the situation in Hamilton, Bermuda the morning hurricane Florence was scheduled to have passed by, and posts some photos.

Rasheed wonders: “High unemployment among Saudi youth and the lure of religious extremism make them perfect targets to be enlisted in Bin Laden's war against the West. All Saudis must now reflect on what happened and try to find answers to the question: Why did happen? If we don't try to find quick solutions to this problem, Saudis will unfortunately be typecast as the terrorists of the 21st century. Do we really want that stigma?”

The Lebanese showed more guts and were more principled in their opposition to Blair than the Palestinians. Only a handful of protestors protested in Ramallah while thousands of angry protestors gathered in Beirut, Tony said.

While the anniversary will inevitably be exploited by Bush and Co. to further thier case for more bloodshed in the name of “freedom”, September 11 can also be a means to send an alternative messege; a message in support of our universal humanity. As humans we are all equal and deserving of our freedoms. If one genuinly accepts this premise and not the view that “some are more equal than others”, then the finacial and political systems which entrech exploitation and oppression fundamentally come into question, Odog said.

Brian Anthony wonders: In the decade before the 3,000 innocents died on 9/11, over 100 times that many innocents died in Iraq through UN-imposed sanctions…So perhaps a more introspective question, a slightly tougher one than ‘What were you doing on 9-11?' is this: What were you doing, America, for the three decades leading up to 9-11, while other people's innocents were being killed?

It's unfortunate that is takes commemoration of a mega-tragedy to bring people together and focus their thoughts on the same issue. I see the same process in Israel, when it's only during war that the country becomes less fractured and more united for a brief time. Imagine if modern societies were able to focus attention, energy and goodwill around things other than tragedy commemoration or self-defense, Matt said.

Foulla prayer:
“To those who died for no reason
To those who lived and still live through the pain
To the victims of hatred, injustice and tons melted steel not just under the sunny skies of New York, but also the sunny skies over Darfour, Baghdad, Ghaza, Madrid, Amman, Kabul, Riyadh, Bali, Beirut, Saida, Jakarta, Sour, London, Khobar, Mumbai, and Bint Jbeil.

Just a word of remembrance. And a prayer. And hope for a better day.”

What are the roots of such intense hatred that the slaughter of thousands of innocent people was the result? … The United States has done things over the past decades to make many a nation look at them with suspicion, even hatred. The documented crimes against the people of the Congo, Japan, Ghana, Guyana, Cuba, Chile, Viet Nam, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, the list is endless, gives many a nation a motive. To say it was any one in particular would be wrong and would not accomplish a thing. Sadaam was blamed, Bin-Laden was blamed, both had a motive… but did they do it? I personally have great doubts, DesertPeace said.

Will, a Dutch student newly arrived at New York's Columbia University, takes in last Monday's West Indian Day Parade: “A giant Caribbean parade which takes place in Brooklyn on the Labour Day Holiday . . . . The first part of it was made use of by American politicians (Congressional midterms are comming up here in November) and corporations, although sometimes the difference between the two was not clear.“

MediaCritic receives news of the cabinet appointments made by the newly re-elected government in Guyana, and concludes that the nation has been duped.

A Barbadian community leader asserts that there's no place for girls in the Boy Scout movement, as “there must be organisations within our society that maintain a male influence.” “Here we going again with the usual ‘Bajan women are taking over blablabla',” says eemanee, “How many times must it be said that maybe, just maybe, men aren't teaching because they don't appreciate the low pay, poor working conditions and the nurturing that teaching entails, NOT because women have conspired to keep them out of the profession!!!“

Ali Mazroi, reformist politician and former deputy in Parliament says it is better to organize a referendum to know if people want this nuclear energy or not. He says personally he does not consider nuclear energy as our absolute right and he thinks nuclear weapon won’t be, in general, in country’s interests [Fa].

Pouya says in USA-based Iranian channels, commercials about food products represent women in kitchen trying to serve husband, family and guests when these commercials' targeted audiences are Iranian, Arabic or Armenian. The blogger says same commercials from same company represent women as active professional people when they target American audience [Fa].

Kaariz said Iranians who lost their houses in Lebanon can not get any money from Hezbollah or Iranian government [Fa]. The blogger said he knows some people who get up to 18000 dollars from Hezbollah and now try to get 40,000 dollars from Lebanese government. Iranian in Lebanon got nothing. Hezbollah says them go ask Iran for money because all our money comes from Iran and Iranian authorities said what we had, we already sent to Hezbollah!!!

Luis M. Garcia posts a photo of certain Cuban officials taken on the eve of the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Cuba and wonders how much one should read into it.

Seckasystemeperso isn't sure (Fr) whether integrity or a desire to settle scores are motivating former President Wade ally Abdoulaye Bathily's recent public outbursts but rejoices nonetheless in the man's recent revelations of Wade's alleged “secrets and governance scams”. He points to a Le Quotidien article on the issue. (No permalink to blogpost available.)

Xinhua released regulations regarding limitations on cooperation between Chinese media and foreign newswires yesterday (September 10).

ESWN has translated some mainstream reports. China media project has summarized some blog comments on the issue.

Ohmynews puts up a resarch paper written by Shaun W. Sutton on citizen reporting.

ESWN translates various reports on the mysterious death of a teacher, Dai Haijing, in Zhejiang, which resulted in a series of demonstrations demanding the police to carry out proper investigation.