Global Voices Online

Abkhazian LiveJournal user sukhuti has photos and impressions of Baku.

Onnik Krikorian registers his hatred of ArmenTel over their high prices for substandard service.

Ktemoc writes about the callousness shown by authorities in demolishing a village and a place of worship within it. “But what was typical was the brutal suppression of the villagers by the MPAJ enforcers. It seems that in Vision 20/20 Malaysia, the mentality of authority enforcers are still of Vision minus 20/minus 20.” MPAJ is the local municipal council responsible for the demolitions.

Novoye Uzbekskoye Slovo has photos from Boysun, a place he says is a must to visit in the spring.

Tom Terry has more on Tuesday's hijacking of a plane in Mongolia by government agencies saying they were conducting a drill. One post includes comments from passengers and the government while the other comments on how the media and the government handled the story.

Yulia writes about the anti-death penalty rally in Bishkek and says that she has very mixed feelings about the issue.

At Life in the Armenian Diaspora, Raffi Meneshian reviews “Ethnic Experiments” from Deti Picasso, a band based in Russia with two Armenian members. Onnik Krikorian has more on the band and thoughts on the Armenian music scene.

Torn and Frayed in Manila reports that the thyphoon Renming has spared Manila and veered south.

The EducationMalaysia blogs writes why students are leaving national schools for already overcrowded vernacular schools. “Now, even as mother tongue programmes have yet to be fully implemented in the schools, you will find bungling headmasters and education department officials implementing the most clumsy of policies like forcing Indian students in a school to take Arabic lessons and sit for the corresponding examinations!”

A taste of shaddock, a citrus fruit, re-opens Guyana-Gyal's senses to the newness of things.

Ria Bacon recounts the story of the twice- — indeed thrice- — buried man and other bits of history pertaining to Port Royal, Jamaica, which, before its destruction by earthquake in the 17th century, earned itself the title of “wickedest city on earth.”

Geoffrey Philp pays tribute to Perry Henzell, director of the Jamaican cult classic The Harder They Come, who passed away today.

Caisoqueen reviews some of the new musical selections of the 2007 Carnival season.

Karlito writes (Fr): “[We] hold the police and government responsible for not doing enough to fight insecurity. But we forget the role that artists can play in helping that fight. One organization that has caught my attention is ONE. An organization filled with international artists whose goal is to help fight poverty … I am always thinking about ways in which our artists could be more involved.”

Dateline Bombay on rude airline staff and why the one of the best airlines in India will lose its grip. “So you can have the best technical staff, the best equipment and the best food (in the airline business). But when your number one position gets to you and arrogance begins to creep in, then people lose respect for you. And they will opt out the moment they can.”

Or how I learned to stop worrying on a Muslim reaction to the situation in Iraq. “Who says that Muslims, just like everyone of good conscience, are not horrified by the violence and killings in Iraq? Who says that Muslims are not opposed to this chaos? I feel no inclination to draw a line here between me, a supposed “good” Muslim, and “them”, who are the “bad” Muslims in Iraq.”

drishtipat on a concert called Take Back Bangladesh. “The idea behind Take Back Bangladesh is to reconnect the people, especially the younger generation, who are turned off by politics as usual and feel that their voices are never heard by the political parties. … The first step in this direction is a free concert today at 2:30.”

Mark in Mexico fills his latest report from embattled Oaxaca with accustomed satire. Colin Brayton, meanwhile, shows a video from La Jornada reporting that paramilitary members fired shots into the Medical Department of the Autonomous University of Benito Juarez.

Ricardo Carreón, Rodrigo Javier [ES] (with video!), A.M. Mora y Leon, Ana Maria Salazar, and Michelle Dion all on the wrestling match that broke out in Congress.

Commenting on the new attempt at local English-language news reporting in Palestine (Palestine Times), Matthew Carrington says: “If, as the editor claims, the Palestine Times isn't going to be beholden to any particular political or commercial interest, then this could a good thing. Palestine, as much as Egypt, needs a way of laying out local events from a local perspective in a way that is comprehensible and credible to a western audience.”

The famous Nejjarine Square visited by thousands of visitors every year today was the scene of a brutal stabbing attack at against three tourists. Samir and El Glaoui post some updates.

If you happen to be in Amman these days; have a look at Lina's calender for some interesting cultural events that you might like to attend.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, terming Premier Fouad Saniora's government “failure,” called for an open-ended sit-in Friday in downtown Beirut to achieve what he described as “political partnership” in running Lebanon. Abu Kais describe this by saying: “On Friday, Syria and Iran will launch an attack on Lebanon. They have recruited an Islamist militia armed and funded by an anti-democracy clerical regime. They have also recruited a mentally disturbed former army general with Napoleonic tendencies. They have recruited Palestinian refugees and Syrians languishing under a despotic regime. They have recruited a “president” who thinks his duty is to call for civil disobedience against the very government he heads. They have recruited Lebanese “citizens” brainwashed by theology and false messiahs.”

Journalist Nestor Valecillos, who had plagiarized the post of a Venezuelan blogger, emailed two [ES] of his many [ES] critics to explain himself: “Before anything else, greetings, it's important to stress the fact that we live in a society in which information is found in many and various websites, be it print, audio-visual, or the internet, as in this case. Like with other opportunities, including prestigious media outlets such as the most important channels of the country, the information turns or is transmitted like a link that the citizen wants or desires to have.” The letter goes on, but if you don't speak Spanish, not to worry, native speakers such as Eduardo Arcos are also have difficulty making sense of just what the sender is trying to communicate. The bloggers are, however, publishing his email, the inbox of which must be filling up by the minute.

“One of the funniest things for any bilingual person to do is to directly translate idioms from one language into another,” Omar said. Check out some of these from Arabic to English.

Barricada lists the top ten most visited websites in Nicaragua according to Alexa.

“The sexual exploitation of minors in the Triple Frontera – the name given to the trans-border no-man’s land between Ciudad del Este and the border towns of Foz del Iguazú in Brazil and Puerto Iguazú in Argentina – persists thanks to slack border control,” writes Oliver Balch during his visit to Ciudad del Este, Paraguay.

Political Cortex examines rumors that President Bush and family may have purchased land in Paraguay.

“La Gringa” has initiated two fascinating discussions on the “Americanization” of Honduras.

The beatroot writes about one Polish party's neo-Nazi ties.

As Britain is thinking of introducing an ID card system, Paul of Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar cites an example of Hungary and discusses whether IDs have made the country and its citizens safer.

Neretva River writes about a Slovenian citizen seeking asylum in Croatia, and the Croat member of the Bosnian presidency decorating his office with a portrait of Tito, an ethnic Croat, too.

East Ethnia writes about NATO's credibility in the Balkans.

Four Bees recommends Bratislava as Christmas shopping destination.

Ijebuman's Diary posts a list of Nigerian unwords and examples of how they can be used in a Nigerian context.

In a post titled, Can Bloggers Save Darfur?, We Blog for Darfur respond to arguments raised by Mark Jones, the Global Community Editor for Reuters, “We don’t ask for your money, we ask for your attention so that you will be educated as to what’s actually going on in Darfur.”

Manicou offers another of his “Trinidad at a glance” lists, which highlight the country's current interests and preoccupations.

The world social forum and civil society: a reification of the state or an oppositional discourse?, asks Kameelah Writes.

Enanga's Pov refutes the notion that Africa is a home to the greatest collection of failed states. She writes, “We should stop calling babies bad names because we cannot give them the time and freedom to grow.”

Congo Rangers blog has a story about Mount Nyamulagira volcanic eruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo, “Nyamulagira erupted on Monday 27th at approximately 1930. Ever since, lava from the 1km long fissure has been moving down the western side of the volcano towards Sake, a small town 25km west of Goma on the edge of the Virunga National Park and the scene of recent clashes between the dissident Gerneal Laurant Nkunda and the UN Peacekeeping Forces.”

Jesp wrote about the difficulties of accumulating a proper Kiswahili vocabulary as an IT professional in Tanzania. This is what he did not know when he was writing his post, “The Kamusi Project has a list of 700 IT related words translated from English to Kiswahili, made publicly available in several formats.”

Kenyan Pundit writes about a young Kenyan entrepreneur who is getting innovative with YouTube.

“Earlier this year, Pay265.net launched their e-Wallet concept that would allow Malawians make payments via SMS and email when implemented. Now, the African Lotteries Company Limited (AFLOT) is looking for a company to operate on its behalf, an SMS/mobile phone lottery service that can enable the general public to play Lotto 5 via the cell phone for a period of 4 years in Malawi,” reports Soyapi Mumba.

Thanks to YouTube, Iranian Truth has published an Iranian Blogger interview with Ted Koppel.The blogger talks about different subjects such as filtering.

According to Alpar, two weeks before “Councils' Election (of Cities and Villages)” [Fa], reformist groups have united their force and their lists.

The first Chinese Human rights exhibition was held in Beijing from 17-26 Nov 2006. SohaoXiaobao pastes a report on the 10 days exhibition that shows how the exhibition demonstrated the conditions of human rights in China: more than 2,000 people had been arrested in 10 days (zh).

Simon world comments on the slowness of the legislation against racial discrimination.

Sunbin gives some more ideological background of the CCTV's series on “The rise of great nations”.

Max Lin, citizen reporter at Ohmynews!, has put up three informative reports on the history of Old Taipei market: The Old Markets of Taipei; ‘Temporary' Shilin Market a Permanent Hit; The Fading Memory of Chung Hwa Bazaar.

Adamu from Mutantfrog reports on an investigation of recent scandal about the government's fake public consultation meetings on issue such as postal privatization and education reform.

Jamie in Two Koreas explains why yesterday's protest against FTA in Seoul was much smaller in scale: the governments were blocking protesters' buses in the highway!

inmediahk.net has several reports and public appeals on the demolition of Star Ferry Pier - the most famous tourist site in Hong Kong (zh). I have put together informations, articles, video and photos at interlocals.net.