Global Voices Online

The movement protesting the establishment of an aluminium smelter in a community in south-western Trinidad gains momentum with the setting up of a protest camp in the north of the island, reports the Rights Action T&T blog. The camp will be launched on Friday to coincide with a demonstration in London on Friday jointly staged by anti-smelter activists from Iceland and Trinidad and Tobago.

Alexpappas in Japundit blogs about the confession of a 84 years old former Japanese military medic's confession of human torturing during the WWII.

Citizen reporters in Ohmynews has an interview with George Soros. The interview has touched upon many issues including economy, new media, and the recent nuclear test.

In preparation for the Olympics, Beijing city government is now catching street dogs without proper license. Han song wrote a short piece fiction on “city without dogs” (zh).

Trinidad blogger Jeremy Taylor reviews the book Londonistan by British journalist Melanie Phillips: “What causes intelligent people to slither across the political spectrum from left to right (and sometimes the other way) as they get older? When she was a young journalist, Melanie Phillips used to write outstandingly sensible and readable pieces for the (London) Guardian.“

Sir Arthur Foulkes is highly critical of the handling by the Bahamian Prime Minister of a fight between two members of parliament in the Cabinet room.

A new anti-expat flyer hits the streets of Bermuda. Christian S. Dunleavy reports.

Barbados Free Press wonders whether a political candidate's affiliations with a clinic that provides abortions — which are legal in Barbados — will affect his candidacy.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines blogger Abeni wonders whether her country's national anthem could be re-written: “It's clear that verse was written from the perspective of the main island-St Vincent. So,what do the people of the Grenadines do when it gets to verse 3?“

At neweurasia, Vadim reports that Tajik presidential candidates are rather reluctant to take on the incumbent, leading him to conclude that they are indeed window dressing to make the election look more democratic than it is.

KZBlog reports on local elections for executives in some parts of Kazakhstan, noting that some local media did not find the elections all that newsworthy.

Alexander Sadikov explains how Tajikistan's plans to become an energy exporter are causing problems in relations with Uzbekistan.

Notes From Hareinik draws attention to the depopulation of Kashatagh, territory captured by Armenian during and settled by Armenians after the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Vadim reports on the latest buzz in the Tajik blogosphere.

Black Looks has been nominated for Best of Blog Award, “Received this email yesterday: Black Looks has been selected as one of 10 nominees in the Best Weblog/English category of the Best of the Blogs (www.thebobs.com), making Black Looks open to two awards. The first comes from the BOBs’ jury - The second is decided by public vote.”

Kubatana Blog writes about the initiative by the UNDP in Zimbabwe to broker meetings between the government and the civil society organizations, “In response to this initiative, a few civic and human rights organisations have asked, “are you mad?” - you want us to speak with a Government that brutally suppresses freedom of assembly and expression? A Government that displaced 700 000 people during a mass eviction campaign in 2005.”

While he's not against supporting Venezuela for a seat on the UN Security Council, St. Lucian blogger Matthew Hunte cautions against not factoring self-interest into that and similar arguments.

The long dark tea time of the soul discusses going nuclear with respect to India and if it has helped at all. “We have achieved absolutely nothing by having nuclear weapons. And lost a lot. Nuclear war reduces the whole paradigm of war to a competition of which country can kill more number of oridinary people, and who can withstand more casualties of its citizens.”

The Doodle Spot looks into the issues that come up when ordinary people rescue wildlife. “Handicapped by the lack of guidelines that prescribe how to rear, where to rehabilitate these animals and with little scientific background and usually nil post-rehab monitoring, it is difficult for rehabilitators to judge if their methods work and what percentage of released animals survive.”

The world over there seems to be some element of difference in opinion on when Eid should be celebrated. All Things Pakistan speaks on the issue “Some of our readers suggest this is yet another sign of a society divided and forever seeking new ways to become even more divided. Another way to look at it is that we so love having Eid that we want to enjoy it thrice; or that some so like fasting that they want to fast even more. “

It is write compiles responses from bloggers on issue of .. well, blogging. “Why do you blog? I asked bloggers this question. First, I posted the question on my own blog Light Within and then emailed the post to bloggers soliciting their comments on the post. Earlier, I have been scouting blogsphere in an effort to find out different motives for blogging.”

The peace process in Nepal might be routed via India says Nepali Netbook. “The reality that the key to our stalled peace process lies down south was apparent long before Ian Martin, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan special representative for Nepal, decided to take a pre-Tihar day trip to New Delhi.”

Our Man in Gdansk writes about the “Election Sausage” season in Poland.

Vietnamese blogger Vietnamese God visits neighboring Lao city of Luang Prabhang and posts pictures of the night market. The blogger has some tips for a good bargain. “Most of the prices that those sellers give to you are up really high and the game starts from 70% off then stop about 40%. One tecnhique is a smile and walk away and then they will call you back to ask for a little bit more but if you are strict with that price then they will sell it.”

The beatroot writes about homophobia and politics in Poland.

Enda Nasution links to a website launched by Thailand to attract business and tourists from the countries in the Middle East.

Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar dispels the three myths about the 1956 uprising in Hungary. Pestiside.hu posts Adrian Courage's photos and text from the uprising anniversary rally that turned violent. Searching for Utopia writes on the history of the 1956 uprising. The beatroot, in the comments to this post, discusses the sorry role that Radio Free Europe and Voice of America played at the time of the uprising.

Alejandro introduces readers to the recent phenomenon of Oktoberfest in Lima, Peru: “Five years ago, a group of German expats living in Peru decided to celebrate the traditional Oktoberfest. Little did they know that this would turn into an event of such magnitude that in 2005, 10,000 revelers consumed over 8,000 liters of beer, as well as 1,500 kilos of German sausages, 5,000 pretzels, 600 kilos of potato salad, and 400 kilos of sauerkraut.”

Ana Maria Salazar has an entertaining post introducing readers to potential candidates for the Secretary of Gobernación. This is the first post in a series on upcoming cabinet candidates.

Salvadoran blogger Ethel explains why she is not vegetarian.

Ecuador Elige posts a recently uploaded video of voting in New York [ES] with the caption, “it goes to show that problems happen everywhere.

Adam Isacson gathers a confluence of unusual events surrounding the United States and Paraguay and asks what it all means. Here on Planet Earth asks the same questions.

Wes Enzinna guest-blogs at Blog from Bolivia about Evo Morales' land reform plan and the resistance it has met.

Earlier this week the feuding former prime minister of Malaysia mahatir met with the current prime minister Badawi to discuss their differences. The blogger at Cakap Tak Serupa Bikin writes that the meeting did not have the desired effect and criticised the former prime minister again prime minister Badawi in his hari raya holiday message.

Former presidential candidate is in jail and on hunger strike; 60-year-old woman is sentenced to two years for requesting a psychiatric exam for the country's president - and this isn't all of it, writes TOL's Belarus Blog.

Peceli blogs about the tradition of building a “lovo” - the traditional underground oven used to cook communal meals in the South Pacific. “In Australia we can’t make a lovo in your back yard without permission from the local council and the Fire Prevention Officer. The ruling is if we have a small back yard you don’t make the lovo close to the fence – at least 2 metres away. It’s good manners to talk also to your neighbours because there will be smoke. Making a lovo early in the morning is a good idea.”

Tanzania In Focus is not tempted to sing praises to the current President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, “The first case in point is the electricity saga. Lets bring some objective arguments and facts here. NO COUNTRY can ever make any economic strides without setting up good and reliable power supply and infrastructure. You don’t need a Harvard degree to know that, common sense can suffice. Power rationing has been in Bongoland as long as I can remember. Power rates in Tanzania are the highest in East Africa. So this is nothing new. Wouldn’t it be a priority, as a matter of common sense, to make power supply our priority, given its importance to productivity and economic growth? Hello, Vision 2025 anyone?”

Kenyan blogger, Bankele, took a month long beer fast. He writes about his enlightening experience, “Taken a (just ended) month long fast from beer which was very enlightening in terms of impact it has on life and business networking.”

Grandiose Parlor on Nigeria's problems, “Now, some might ask, with such huge revenue from oil and gas why does the country not receive a proportionate and favorable coverage. Why are the people so poor in the land of plenty, and why all the negative distortions about Nigerians and Nigeria? To me the answer is tri-fold, namely Leadership, weak Institutions and Nigerians.”

Dipotepede is humbled after finding out that the editor of Haute, a world-class fashion magazine featuring works of Nigerian designers all around the world, is only 21 years old, ” My dear, I was very humbled when I knew the editor of Haute Magazine was less than 21 years of age. For those that don’t know, Haute Magazine is the foremost Nigerian Fashion Magazine distributed mainly in United States and UK.”

Proudly African links us to a story in the Ghanian local newspaper about the Cedi, the Ghanian currency, “For the first time ever in this country’s history, and indeed in the history of any local currency in West Africa, the cedi, once rated among the most discredited currencies across the globe, is going to be traded publicly on the international market.”

Kamangir reports about Iranian President's speech about the population growth. President Ahmadinejad said they say two children are enough [a famous slogan for controlling Iran’s population growth in the last decade]. I oppose this…if our population increases we will defeat them [Westerners]. The blogger adds it reminds me of what the Islamic Republic advocated for during the war with Iraq. Then, they encouraged people, through financial aids and propaganda, to enlarge their families. At that time, they needed soldiers.

Kosoof, a leading photo blogger has published photos of Mousavi Khoini's, human right activist and politician, after being released from jail. According to the blogger, Mousavi Khoini was arrested on June 12 2006 during a rally for women's rights in Tehran.

DANWEI has a post on the future and potential conflict of the dam construction plan in the tiger leaping gorge in Yunnan province.

The imagethief discusses about the quality of China's English language media, which, in his opinion is related to the elephant in the room studiously overlooked in the article above.

ESWN translates Sidekick's post pleading local media to protect the privacy of bloggers(zh); the recent case is a 12 years' old girl saying in her blog that she wants to kill her father after being beaten. Florence thinks that sidekick's plead would be in vain as the mainstream has their own logic. And bloggers, eventhough they maybe young, have to learn how to protect themselves.(zh)

Matt summarizes the life of South Korea former president, Choi Gyu-ha, who passed away last Sunday.