Global Voices Online

After her brother returns to England, Guyana-Gyal muses on personal melancholy and the more general issue of migration: “I don’t think people here recover yet from the splintering of families, from massive migration. We tear away from old lands to here, from here to new lands, and them tears still burning.”

Onnik Krikorian rounds up the Armenian blogosphere while Vadim does the same for the Tajikistani one.

Jamaican Mummy Mel appeals to her compatriots to show their patriotism by respecting the local currency: “All too often I see people screwing up their faces and bitchin about the state of the economy and how the dollar depreciating every day. Well how the hell you expect the economy to get any better if you don't do your little part. Support your Jamaican products, and support your own damn currency!“

Vadim reports on Tajikstan's presidential symbols.

Yulia translates an article on the heavy use of nasvay, a mixture of tobacco and lime that is chewed, among young Kyrgyz.

Kyrgyz Report discusses the findings of a new public opinion poll.

Blogrel reports on the death of Big Brother, a large advertising screen in Yerevan's Republic Square.

Saucydiva reprints an article on her blog announcing that the Queen's Park Savannah, one of the traditional venues for Trinidad's Carnival parade, will be off limits for next year's festival, and attracts (at the time of writing) 39 comments largely protesting the move.

Are the comparisons being made by former Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition Basdeo Panday between the state of race relations situation in Trinidad and Tobago and that in 1950s America and apartheid-era South Africa fair? The Manicou wants to know.

Barbadian blogger eemanee quotes the lyrics of two songs in which people from one Caribbean island make fun of people from another, and wonders: “i wonder if i'll live to see free movement of Caribbean people through out the Caribbean? What would/will the Caribbean look like when its people are allowed to move around as they like? Or have Caribbean people been moving already, imagining new communities beyond their country of birth? Are we just waiting for the treaties and laws that would codify and regularise what is already reality?“

Slobodan Milosevic could have known where Karadzic was, writes Finding Karadzic. And Jean-Marie Le Pen, a French presidential candidate, has a t-shirt with the images of Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, reports Neretva River.

Leopolis writes about the meaning and the second anniversary of the Orange Revolution.

The Turkish Invasion compares Russian and Turkish hairdressers.

Sean's Russia Blog writes about the Litvinenko Affair.

Foreign Notes writes about the lack of unity and other troubles in Ukraine's Orange camp.

An anonymous reader responds to Black Looks' post, “You are a blackman, you have to leave”: “Service was refused to this man based on his appearance not his race. If anyone has strong enough evidence than I to contest this statement I would like to know. We are a tolerant community and a diversely employed restaurant, how dare you try to bring down our good name for an issue that has been dead for years.”

Vincent Maher writes a round-up of South African news podcast, “Both the Sunday Times and the Mail & Guardian Online have begun podcasting in the recent weeks so I figure it’s a good time to do a little test and compare the available products.

A new website enables South Africans to design their own 2010 World Cup logo, “If you're bummed that you didn't crack the nod to assist with the design of our country's most important logo ever - then here's you opportunity to set that record straight.”

Leila Al Haddad in Raising Yousuf, who is making her long trek home from the US to Palestine, and is now stuck in Egypt, waiting for the border to her country to reopen.
The experience makes her feel “very alone; no one cares, no one knows, no one bothers to know. This is how Palestinian refugees must feel every day of their lives.”

Mustafa from Beirut Spring has posted some banners on his site for people to print and wave at a huge rally planned in Lebanon tomorrow as part of assassinated Christian government minister Pierre Gemayel's funeral.

Freedom for Egyptians reports that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak rejected a request to ban the Niqab (full face cover for women) in his country.

Iraqi Ihath, who lives in Canada, posts an insightful link to a master's dissertation which focuses on “how the reporting of the American-led war on Iraq in 2003 was effecting Iraqis living in Canada.”
Ihath admits the study left her crying on several occasions.

Bloggers visiting Panama City in the month of December, take note: the next “Beers & Blogs Panama” will take place at Taberna Steinbock on December 22 [ES].

Bangladesh is going through a difficult time. Elections around the corner, discussions on authority and the state. Drishtipat puts together a series of photographs that quite well encapsulate the current state of affairs. “While we try to make sense of what is happening to our beloved country, here is a glimpse of some surreal images from the past few days looking at the broader picture.”

Light Within shares the memories of a cricket match played between two colleges in 1989. “While both colleges boast of great talent in academics and sports, DJ college gets the best of two in cricket. However, for at-least one year in 1989, Adamjee College was able to beat DJ College comprehensively. This writer had the honors of playing for Adamjee College that year.”

Metroblogging Islamabad profiles women from the city who have featured prominently in the public arena. “Here are five of the top movers and shakers based out of Islamabad who can be a beacon and role models for the rest. They come from diverse backgrounds ranging from government, entrepreneurship, and technology”

Ricardo Carreón lists Felipe Calderon's newly appointed Economic Cabinet. Ana Maria Salazar says there are some surprises among the choices.

Blogómana [ES] is a new directory of Spanish-language blogs by women.

Jafar Rezai in his blog, From West, introduces Fayz Muhammad Katib,a 19 century Afghan historian, to us. The blogger adds Robert D. McChesney, a well-respected professor at New York University fell in love with the books of Fayz Mohammad Katib, a historian from Afghanistan. Robert D. McChesney not only translates Katib’s book, Kabul Under Siege: Fayz Muhammad’s Account of the 1929 Uprising, but as director of The Afghanistan Digital Library, digitizes Katib’s 900 000 words.

Le Blog du Congolais posted a declaration by Union pour la Nation (UPN) stating (Fr) that partisans of defeated candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba who had gathered at the Supreme Court to hear an official report on part of the results had nothing to do with the fire or gunshots that set the court ablaze. The declaration claims that elite troops of the army of Angola brought in by victor and acting President Joseph Kabila as well as the national police force were present and attempted to disperse the crowd with tear gas. The declaration says partisans of UPN saw rockets land on the building, causing the fire.

Grandiose Parlor writes about a new blogging initiative, We Blog for Darfur.

Light in the Heart of Darkness writes about post-election violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, “Protests outside the Supreme Court erupted in violence when several hundred Bemba supporters turned to arson. Several vehicles, including a police car, and the court building itself were caught in the path. Police fired into the air and gassed the crowd; amazingly, there were no casualties.”