Global Voices Online

DANWEI has translated Wang Xiao Feng's post on “The paradox of registering bloggers' real names”(zh).

The China Media project reports that Chongqing police admit error in arresting author of satirical poem.

Shang dan at Shanghaiist advises the readers not to travel to Beijing early Novemeber as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) will be taking place, and the traffic will be in total chaos.

Trinidad blogger Jeremy Taylor returns to the “quiet corner of the mudder country” (England) where he grew up: “There ought to be a name for this state of mind. (Perhaps there is.) When your head is split between two worlds.“

The Manicou says an offhand good-bye to Basdeo Panday, former Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition of Trinidad & Tobago, who vacated his seat in parliament after being convicted of fraud.

Jamaica-based Linguist Ria Bacon uses the example of the Jamaican Minister of Information's statements about a recent political scandal to demonstrate the meaning of the Yiddish word “chutzpah”.

After seeing a play based on Dominican writer Jean Rhys's “remarkably screwed up life”, Jamaican novelist Marlon James wonders: “Must every great artist have a self hating streak? Didn't Jean Rhys transfer hers to writing and Naipaul to everybody just like him? Is happiness a false goal for an artist?“

Trinidadian blogger Jonathan Ali receives a stark reminder that the country's deep-seated crime problem affects everybody.

Onnik Krikorian recounts some horror stories from the Armenian medical system, saying that seeking medical care in Armenia might be more dangerous than Russian roulette.

Yulia of neweurasia notes that a Kyrgyz politician recently said that Kyrgyzstan should become part of the Russian Federation and she explains why this might make sense.

Ben Paarmann notes that Kazakhstan's president has declined nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Blogrel applauds Yerevan for making itself more friendly to foreigners and tourists by putting up bilingual signs and maps.

At ArmYouth Blog, Pradafreak complains about traffic and transportation in Yerevan.

Belgrade Inside Out merges with Belgrade Blog - and we now have Belgrade 2.0, equipped with a number of new features.

Our Man In Tirana links to the story of a man who was a passenger on the hijacked Tirana-Istanbul flight - over at The Chronicles of Chris: Travel Recollections, written by a member of the U.S. Foreign Service, who served in Pakistan, and is now based in Israel, and was in Albania on vacation.

Lemuel of Deleted By Tomorrow shares an old anti-Soviet joke.

Visit The Glory of Carniola to see what dairy products of the former Yugoslavia looked like and to read the memories of some readers.

Even though Michael M. of The Glory of Carniola is a foreigner in Slovenia, he gets to vote in the local elections this coming Sunday.

Boby's Blog is excited by the fact that football star Diego Maradona is visiting Honduras [ES], but embarrassed by the behavior of the press: “Does anyone here in Honduras know how to organize a press conference? All of the journalists were asking questions at the same time … and the stupidities they would ask him … like someone who asked if he'd be interested in coaching Honduras' team … what a question! … someone with the ego of Maradona would be interested in coaching a country like ours!” On a related note, Ian Mount has an entertaining post on a bronze sculpture [ES] of Maradona.

Chile from Within covers issues of class, language, emigration, and history all during one trip to the barber's.

Ian Mount gives some more context to a recent exchange of journalistic jabs in the coverage of reopened trials for crimes committed during Argentina's “Dirty War.”

Argentine-Spanish blogger Martin Varsavsky wonders if one day more Americans will be moving to Mexico than vice versa.

Liz Henry just got back from the American Literary Translators Association conference (which she liveblogged) and introduces readers to some of the Latin American & Spanish-speaking authors and translators she met there.

Argentine anglophone blogger Ana Toniolli has translated [ES] a piece by Global Voices Lusophone Editor Jose Murilo Junior into Spanish at Voces Latinas.

Flickr user Dristis-Mudra has a gorgeous set of black and white photos from a 1974 trip to Mexico.

Angus McDowall is a correspondent for Middle East Economic Digest and reporter for The Independent in Iran and he is blogging. About the end of Ramadan he says for a journalist, it can be a good time of year to check the social temperature. Some years the police hassle people who break the fast and crack down more heavily over parties and Islamic dress. This year things seem pretty relaxed. It's common to see people smoking in cars or on mopeds, confident nobody will say anything. In meetings, you are still sometimes offered a cup of tea or a plate of fruit, with your host tucking in too. And in Tehran parks, it is not unusual to see people eating a surreptitious sandwich.

“Yalemzewd Bekele, a prominent human rights activist and a lawyer working for the European Commission in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, was arrested on the morning of 19 October by the Ethiopian authorities, while trying to cross the border to Kenya with another Ethiopian,” reports Ethiopian Life, Politics, Culture and Arts.

ICT for Peacebuilding on the “Future of the Internet”. “Given that many respondents argue that violence arising from conflicts over religion, economics, and politics, will be more prevalent, the future of the internet is in one way or another deeply entwined with violence and conflict.”

kathman.org on going to Nepal's Langtang National Park. “While the Maoist’s People’s War had ravaged Nepal’s countryside for over ten-years and I’ve lived and visited various placed across the country, I hadn’t really every met a Maoist. I’d seen there banners, received orders not to go to certain destinations under Maoist fiat, and been banned from buying a pressure rice cooker under suspicion that I’d build a bomb on Army fiat, but never had a face-to-face encounter.”

A discussion in the comments space at Drishtipat on the RSF Press Freedom Index which places Bangladesh at 137.”The major obstacle to press freedom in BD is the lawless street and democracy of elections. If someone publishes cartoons depicting Muhammad, there will be street violence, act of coercion and eventually govt (irrespective of party in power) will ban that issue for fear of election reprisal.”

Nik Nazmi in Malaysia reads a book on Ottoman ruler Suleiman and discovers the Ottoman people's desire to develop the talents of any exceptional person they encounter.

The Delhicate Constitution on terrorism, freedom fighters and such terms. “For example, is there a difference between, say, the aims of Hamas and Kashmiri-based organisations, on the one hand, and Al-Qaeda and the like, on the other? You could say that the former type has liberation/freedom from external rule as its explicit aim, while the latter type has less explicit aims.”

Indonesian blogger Enda Nasution has set up a blog search engine for Indonesian blogs. Enda is inviting submissions to the search engine.

Feringhee on being in Nepal during Diwali celebrations. “I love the tradition of jamara, which is (as far as I know) unique to Nepal. On the first day of Dasain, the lady of the house plants seeds of barley, rice or corn, in a bed of sand, in a special niche inside the home. The seeds are then covered and allowed to sprout secretly in warmth and darkness.”

All African Bazaar writes about a non-profit organization, which uses soccer to fight AIDS in Africa, “Founded by Tommy Clark,MD, Grassroot Soccer became a registered 501(c)3 charitable organization in 2002. Dr. Clark conceived of the idea after having played soccer professionally in Zimbabwe. During that time he witnessed first hand both the power of soccer and the tragedy of HIV. He enlisted a group of friends who had similar experiences, and with the help of co-founders Methembe Ndlovu, Ethan Zohn and Kirk Friedrich created Grassroot Soccer.”

Vincent Maher writes about a new South African employment site, which uses web 2.0 to sell jobs, “You’d think in South Africa, where there is so much unemployment, it wouldn’t take a Web 2.0 approach to attract job applicants. I guess when the number of highly skilled candidates is low and there is an abundance of employment agencies it takes a little something extra, in this case Web2.0 features.”

Alexcia has a simple proposal for Mzalendo, “My proposal is simple enough. Why don’t you introduce a badge of endorsement/ recommendation that you would include with the biographies of MPs that have signed up to some 5 or so core values?”

Odegle Nyang Investment knows how last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai, can help you beat the stock market, “a friend of mine has just told me how the great lady can help you beat the NSE fair and square. here is the deal….”

Le [Blog de Moi] announces (Fr) that Martiniquans, Guadeloupeans and other overseas French departments will vote one day early in the upcoming French presidential election taking place June 10 and 17, 2007 in mainland France. Explains the blogger “The point is to take into account the time difference and to make sure we don't vote after the results are known.. … To those who are complaining because ‘they have things to do on Saturdays': no comment”

Togolese-origined politician Kofi Yamgnane posts a pamphlet about his 12 years in elected public office in Finistere, France. Says the pamphlet (Fr): “All the work accomplished was done with incessant dialogue with your mayors and your elected officials. but also with you through your citizen groups.”

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.”