Global Voices Online

Le Blog de Moi (Fr) describes the debate over after which anticolonialism thinker to name Martinique's international airport: Aimé Césaire or Franz Fanon. Fanon, although born in Martinque, is not well-known there. The balance has tipped in favor of Césaire who, still living, publically refused to meet with French Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy in advance of his visit because of his support for “an active French presence overseas.”

The blogger at The Final Word in Saigon visits Con Dao, an island in the South China Sea. The blogger posts pictures and some observations from the island. “If I had to pick one adjective to use for Con Dao, it would be ‘rugged', although that may be influenced by the wind and rain we experienced. The coastline, interior, and beaches were dramtic anyway, and it's always great to drive a motorbike along a windy coastal road whilst enjoying the views.”

The blogger at Sensintrovert analyses a news report on Malaysian Prime Minister talking about Malaysia's space efforts. The blogger feels that there is too much hype in the media. “I am amazed of the media-hype when some ministers clicked on a mouse or had video conferencing. I guess that is why blogs=devil. FYI, as mentioned above, I have my video conferencing with my family almost every now and then.”

Saucydiva offers an assessment of the budget presented today by Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister, with a special emphasis on its potential effects on the upcoming Carnival season.

Thai-Lao food blogger Manivan Larprom video blogs on how to prepare fish stuffed in Thai and Lao herb.

This is the haze season in South East Asia. The cause of haze is the open burning of land by the farmers to clear it for agriculture. SaS in Brunei talks of some ideas to help reduce haze.

Geoffrey Philp starts a survey: How has Rastafari — and Bob Marley — influences our lives?

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A citizen report at inmediahk.net on a demonstration for minimun wage in Hong Kong. Demand from demonstrators are HK$30 (US$3.5) per hour. While the existing fast food resturant (KFC) rate is HK$15 per hour (zh). More background information can be found at interlocals.net, the lowest hourly wage found in the market for cleaning ladies is HK$7 (US$1)per hour!

The European Union is funding a new media initiative to give Africa positive news coverage, reports Sociolingo.

Yulia says that with summer over, the political season in Kyrgyzstan is firing back up.

Kazakhstan's diaspora in Turkey recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary there, and Özgecan of neweurasia reports on the celebration and the community's history.

Why is Phil Collins so loved in Senegal? Why can't you go a day in Rwanda without hearing Kenny Rogers? And why are there dozens of Madonna and Rambo stickers on every public bus in Senegal? Benn Loxo would like to know the answers.

Onnik Krikorian discusses the difficulties and discrimination many Armenian Diasporans face when living in Armenia.

Car culture is blossoming in Kazakhstan, as videos from Almaty at KZBlog show.

The European Union is funding a new media initiative to give Africa positive news coverage, reports Sociolingo.

Someamongus interviews a South African security contractor in Iraq about the situation in Iraq and his thoughts on the new South African Anti-Mercernary Bill.

On their blog, the UDPS of Benelux announces they will not support Jean-Pierre Bemba, incumbent Joseph Kabila's opponent in the October run-off election, even though they are staunchly anti-Kabila.

David McDuff of A Step At A Time translates an article on Ramzan Kadyrov's 30th birthday.

A Step At A Time, The Accidental Russophile and Russia Blog discuss the ongoing Russia-Georgia crisis.

The Accidental Russophile reviews Railway Station for Two, a 1982 Soviet movie. Russia Blog reviews a recent sequel to the Russian film Bumer.

English Russia writes about and posts pictures of the changes taking place in Moscow: the demolition of the Rossiya Hotel and a photo comparison of a certain Moscow area. Two-Zero's diary has pictures of Moscow's new and old subway trains, as well as a couple of pictures taken during a rare flight over the megapolis and a series of late-summer Moscow shots.

White Sun of the Desert writes about Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk water problems and about a limo tour of the city.

View from Iran reports about an interesting conversation between one American,Iranian taxi driver and the other Iranian passengers. The blogger writes“ the driver asks they think we are terrorists, right?” “American passenger replied:They don’t know who you are”.“They don’t know the difference between Iran and Iraq. There are a lot of Iranians living in America, so maybe they will learn.”Click here to read all conversation.

Kamla Bhatt has a podcast - on Mathematics and Ramanujan. “Professor Freeman Dyson talks about Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan, the famous Indian mathematician. Prof. Dyson studied under Prof. GH Hardy in Cambridge University, and worked on Ramanujan’s partition of numbers.”

Sri Lanka's Daily Papers has a roundup of the newspapers covering the go-ahead on talks between the government and LTTE.

Love in the Age of World Domination has a few questions for Europe. “Why is it that when I say I am from Switzerland, you stare at me and inevitably follow up with “but what is your ethnicity? Is it not possible that a brown person can be from a European country?”

Muri or puffed rice is a staple in Bangladesh. Rehan on food adulteration. “I am surprised that not much has been done in educating the consumers so a market for adulterated Muri or in that regard any other adulterated food items don’t exist in the first place. As for me, I was never aware of adulterated Muri but after watching the show I made sure the Muri I bought the other day for Iftar didn’t look superficially white, fluffy and had small pores.”

On the anniversary of the reunification of Anglophone and Francophone Cameroon, Fojrega (Fr) remembers Daniel Fonkoua, a member of the SCNC (an anglophone separatist group), who disappeared last September after state security forces raided his house. This anniversary, anglophone separatists hoisted their flag in several villages in the English-speaking region of Cameroon, despite heavy police presence. Radio stations were formally ordered not to report on SCNC activities and one journalist was allegedly tortured.

Bahamian Nicolette Bethel on the Kate-Moss-in-blackface issue: “…it is a symptom of the problem, and not the problem itself. Global racism is institutional, and it is far deeper and more immutable than the aesthetic choices made for a magazine cover suggest….“

Guest-blogger Gretchen Gordon describes the roots and objectives of “A Day of International Solidarity with Bolivia” to be held on October 17. The day is organized and sponsored by the newly created Bolivia Solidarity Network [ES].

A war of political photoblogging has emerged in Venezuela's blogosphere. Alek Boyd photographs supporters of opposition candidate Manuel Rosales and asks, “Did these Venezuelans agree to subsidize London's transport system?” Katy from Caracas Chronicles continues her documentation of government-funded campaigning. Finally, pro-government blogger Dan Burnett says that the Rosales opposition campaign has been dependent on recent public work projects.

Wangari was a lone voice in the wilderness but it saved Uhuru Park, via African Women's Blogs.

The blogger at Myat Thura links to sites that are hosting materials on Burmese history. One of the link points to a translation of a classic work on Burmese history called the Burmese Chronicle.

What do you do when you don't want a real black woman on a magazine cover? Sokari has a suprise for you!

Proud Dzambukira sees cultural innovation in the midst of political and economic turmoil in Zimbabwe:
“Some might find it easy to condemn the recent move in Zimbabwe to pull “witch doctors” closer into the mainstream by allowing them to grant sick notes to ailing workers. The move follows legislation passed this past July finally getting rid of colonial laws that illegalized the age old institutions of witchcraft on the premise that they were pagan and primitive superstitions.”

A Village Idiot comments on the disputed Zambia's presidential election:”Sata’s insistence that he was robbed of the election seems more tied to his reliance on unreliable polling to gauge support for his campaign than any particular evidence of fraud.”