Global Voices Online

We are learning from Zimbwabean Pundit that Zimbabweans will not give up the fight!:
“Barely a week after their counterparts from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions were arrested and tortured for demonstrating against the government, Lovemore Madhuku's National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) have promised they'll be out on the streets today.”

Geoffrey Philp recounts his encounter with various stereotypical ideas about Jamaicans on another Caribbean island, and asks the question: “what are we doing now to promote well-rounded images of Jamaica and the Caribbean.”

Ethiopian Paradox informs us about a new book written by the jailed mayor of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Dr. Berhanu Nega, “As or When the Dawn of Freedom Breaks”:
“It makes compelling reading when the author is in jail and his pen, head, heart and spirit- together and in unison defy the will of the jailors and his own physical limitations walled in a small prison room. The spirit with which it is written is rich and generous in calling all those in the struggle not to employ feelings of hatred and motives of vengeance and other destructive impulses in their struggles to bring about irreversible and sustainable change with the core engine of freedom and democracy.”

In a post titled “Liberal Democracy in Action,” Ethiopia Pundit writes:
“Also … EthioMedia reports that “The phones ring off the hook” at House Speaker's Office.” Ethiopian-Americans are exercising their democratic rights in support of Ethiopians who can not. The calls are to House Speaker Dennis Hastert with the aim of allowing a vote on HR5680 also known as The Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Advancement Act of 2006.”

France-based Togolese blogger Kangni Alem ponders (Fr) the significance of Togolese hip hop: “Hip hop really is the pot in which different Togolese traditions melt and interpenetrate.”

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“He didn't say “I put others needs before my own, I sacrifice my happiness for my loved ones.” or “I give value to my emotions, I feel my partners grief” or “I acknowledge God as mother, I nurture Her creation,” says Barbados's BIM in a tongue-in-cheek rant about partriarchy.

Black Looks writes about “The 5th Carnival Against Racism and the 1st to be held in the African blogosphere.”

Barbados Free Press says farewell to BWIA — or Bwee, as it's familiarly called — as the Trinidad and Tobago airline prepares to wind up its operations and make way for a new entity called Caribbean Airlines.

“The country's entire broadcasting policy needs to be re-evaluated and reformed to fit our modern context,” says Sir Arthur Foulkes in a post outlining the history of television broadcasting in the Bahamas.

Bahamian Nicolette Bethel posts her first report from the Carifesta XI arts festival in Trinidad and Tobago.

Writing about the Digital Citizen Indaba on Blogging, which took place in South Africa last week, and the future of the African blogosphere, Grandiose Parlor asks: “What would the post-conference initiatives be?
How can African bloggers leverage their knowledge and (web 2.0) expertise to a greater good?
What initiatives can bloggers undertake that will impact positively on the continent, particularly the mainstream media coverage Africans and the continent?
What direction is the African blogosphere heading; is there a future for African and Afrocentric blogs?”

Paul of Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar writes that this year's Critical Mass bike ride has been cancelled in Budapest because of the riots: “Understandably, the organisers have now decided it prudent not to have thousands of cyclists on the streets stretching police resources at the present time; I guess they were also wary about their demo being hijacked for political reasons.”

Pestiside.hu posts a Mid-Week Briefing: “As thing currently stand, we are going to treat the whole “Uprising ‘06″ for what we think it is: a colorful little street carnival staged for the benefit of bored right-wing nudniks, self-important politicians (including some as or more dishonest than our current BSing PM), and self-interested media types. Show us a few bodies or leveled buildings (or a few hundred burned-out cars) and we might change our minds. But until then, it's on to other news.”

Foreign Notes covers the following subjects: investigation of the “allegedly illegal discriminatory” value-added tax reimbursements; Party of the Regions anatomy; Vladimir Putin's thoughts on Ukraine; former speaker goes into opposition.

Dan McMinn of Orange Ukraine reviews Ukraine's political developments and also writes about his visit to Ukraine: “I myself wasn't paying much attention to politics, in truth. Instead I was looking at things like… plastic bags. Specifically I was wondering how the 50 kopeck heavy-duty plastic bag makers hit on the idea to steal the BMW logo. Like the people using these to carry around kilos of potatoes are really the target market for BMW products.”

Petro of Petro's Jotter writes about Ukraine's art scene.

Abdymok reminds the readers of the events two years ago by translating a non-published article about president Yushchenko's alleged poisoning.

David McDuff of A Step At A Time writes about Svetlana Bakhmina's appeal “to have her sentence deferred for nine years, until her youngest child reaches the age of 14.” Bakhmina used to be a YUKOS lawyer and was sentenced to six and a half years of imprisonment in a labour camp.

What is Egypt's fourth faith? Zeinobia talks about the faith that both, Egyptian Muslims and Christians refuse to exist.

The famous Decapant ladies (paint-strippers) are now available to help reveal the true beauty of your house in Fez. Read more from Samir at The View From Fez.

The number one most important priority for those who want to improve Israel's defense and Israel's public diplomacy/Israel's image abroad has to be internal reforms. It has to be fixing Israel's political system and the dysfunctional Israeli society. Anything else is just a bandaid, amechad said.

Ben at Mai Me Arai writes about the increase in internet usage in Thailand while the coup was taking place. “Let it never be said that Thai’s don’t know where to find information when they really want to”. Gnarlykitty points to a new classified ad in Craigslist's Thailand section.

Bandra Fair in full swing and colour at Ultrabrown and Trivial Matters.

Deane's Dimension reflects on the BlogCamp held in India recently and if the blogging community in Sri Lanka is big enough for such an event.

Nirmal Jayasinghe on why Free and Open Software is important for Sri Lanka.

Pradheep's Blog laments the takeover of an Apollo Hospital in Sri Lanka, implying that the hospital would lose its USP and the negative impact it could have in terms of an investor friendly business environment. “Needless to say this will have a negative impact on the confidence that investors have in Sri Lanka since no one will want to set up a business here and then want to see their business being swallowed up by another.”

Drishtipat looks at the coup in Thailand and highlights an important question about what lessons could be drawn in terms of Bangladesh's future. “Thailand resembles Bangladesh in many ways. The last military coup in Thailand, in 1991, was extremely unpopular and was overthrown by violent opposition in the streets.”

In Webgardian we read Mohammad Ali Abtahi's, former vice president and blogger, article on religion, media and 11 September. Abtahi says after September 11, most media have functioned to strengthen the points of difference or violent identity-forming aspects.

According to Pourostad, monthly magazine, Psychology of Society was closed down by authorities [Fa].

Sewing from Marmot's Hole gives us more background about the South Korea textbook revision. This time it is not about intepretation of history, but about changing traditional gender roles, implicit endorsement of single-child families, and unhealthy focus on the myth of a homogeneous Korean “race”.

Mutant frog writes an elaborated summary on the history wars between China and Korea for the Asian history carnival.

Shanghaiist puts up a video stream from Tudou, which exploring how people born in the 1980s feel about sex.

One man bandwidth compares the business of Baidu and Google search engine in China and predicted that Google would flounder based on the ancient Chinese pronciple of Guanxi.

An alert posted by Mister Bijou on PCCW (biggest telecom in HK and ISP netvigator) decision to filter out a website called ntscmp.

ESWN picks up the story and urges Hong Kong blogger to test the filtering.

One Man band width reports on the condition of breast cancer patients in China. Breast cancer is becoming the biggest killer for Chinese women, even resources have been allocated for campaign, nothing much has been changed: “they do not want to alarm women in the late stages of a disease as many cannot afford the treatment they might need. And the truth is: many women commit suicide to save their families from bankruptcy.”

Jamaica and the World offers four techniques sure to guarantee success in Jamaican politics.