Global Voices Online

Says Harinjaka, (Fr) Malagasy artists haven't put out any chistmas compilations this year probably because of elections. But the blogger proposes an exploration into a forgotten music form, the zafindraony of which he posts a clip. The key to the proper execution of this music? Sing off key and while drunk.

Wagle Street Journal on the chaotic traffic in Khatmandu. “If you want to protest, just go to the road and lie down there. Traveling in the city has become difficult because of these kind of small scale protests, I don’t know how many.”

It isn't has wonderful photographs from Zanskar of a monastery called Phuktal. “The monastery, which belongs to the Yellow Hat Sect of Tibetan Buddhism, has a history which dates back to 15th century. It is carved out of the lime stone mountain wall, with a walled frontage.”

Nepali Netbook on the ambiguity of positions in the interim constitution in Nepal. “The king is no longer head of state. The interim constitution is silent on who is. As political solutions go, Nepalis have strictly conformed to tradition.”

black and gray in conversation with the author of Trespassing, Uzma Aslam Khan. “The Soviets were in Afghanistan, Pakistan was ruled by its most brutal military dictator, General Zia ul Haq, a United States ally (one Pakistani general referred to Pakistan as the condom through which America entered Afghanistan), billions of dollars worth of arms spread across this country, mostly to Karachi, where a nasty ethnic war ensued..”

a bengali in TO on the status of dogs in Islam and how cleaning a utensil with detergent to get rid of a dog's lick will suffice. “Involuntarily I stepped back due to years of training. I was going to go for prayers later and didn't want my clothes to be “dirtied”.”

Reacting to news of a new airline to offer Haiti-Dominican Republic flights, Collectif Haiti de Provence complains about the cost of flights to Haiti(Fr): “It is always flabbergasting how expensive flights to Haiti are whether via all powerful American Airlines who holds an unwavering monopoly or via the lines that offer Haiti-Dom. Rep. service. … How long will it take before Haitian skies open up to competition so as to spare customers' wallets?”

Cyberkabyle (Fr) deplores the official overtones of French soccer star Zinedine Zidane's visit to Algeria and looks with suspicion at the fact that the visit may have been initiated by the Algerian government.

Expat blogger Anne Au Benin posts (Fr) pictures of Benin schools.

The Caribbean Beat blog celebrates the diverse tastes of a West Indian Christmas!

Nurse Melly tells the near-tragic tale of two young puppies, Jack and Jill - and she's relieved to report that, “like all good human stories, the good guys won.”

India-based Haitian blogger NatifNatal ponders (Fr) India's matrimonials. Whereas in the West, she says, people fall in love and then marry, “here you marry the one your parents chose along many parameters such as caste, religion, income, dowry etc… and then, after many years of joint living, you just can't do without him.”

Since the Bahamas' Public Disclosure Act deems that Parliamentarians (along with other “persons in public life”) must report their income, assets and liabilities to the Public Disclosure Commission by December 31 each year, Rick Lowe is concerned that the latest published disclosures were almost six years ago.

Granite studio trys to explain Chinese's public manners by looking into the cultural character.

Frog in a Well announces a project on the East Asian Libraries and Archives wiki. The project will will serve as a central collection site for information about archives, libraries, museums, etc. in East Asia that are of potential interest for anyone doing research on or in East Asia.

Experts believe that the twenty-million year old white dophin in Yangtze River was extinct. Lonnie Hodge puts up a story in Onemanbandwidth.

Jeremy Goldkorn in DANWEI reports that Wang Xiaofeng, a famous Chinese blogger, is the Time magazine person of the the year.

ESWN blogs about his memories of Star ferry and explains why he did not join the protest to “preserve” the site.

Koh Ki-bok from Ohmynews discusses about conditions of migrant workers in South Korea and urges the government to ratify migrant convention as soon as possible.

In the next four months, a “travel to Serbia” commercial will be broadcast on CNN over 500 times (Serbia has paid half a million dollars for this) - but the country's secretary of tourism hasn't seen the ad yet, reports Belgrade 2.0. Also, Belgrade is updating its tourist maps but city authorities refuse to put up street signs in Latin script.

“Breaking news: Kosovo parliament has unilaterally declared the independence of Kosovo,” writes Belgrade 2.0. Whoops, just kidding: the post is an attempt to encourage discussion - “since no politicians here (or in Kosovo as far as i know) never discuss what will happen if/when Kosovo becomes independent. And when i say ‘what will happen’ i refer to the Serbian and other minorities. There are certified fears that this move would cause massive Serb exodus/emmigration from Kosovo to Serbia, and i wonder if Serbia really is capable of giving help to those who may need it.”

La Russophobe posts “a multi-media presentation with some insights regarding pop music” - featuring Oleg Gazmanov's song “Made in the USSR”: “[…] The Ryuriks, the Romanovs, Lenin and Stalin/They are my country/Pushkin, Yesinin, Vystotsky, Gagarin/They are my country […]”

Music and Life - Everywhere! is reading Anton Chekhov's short stories, and also posts a comment on a book about the Vilnius Ghetto.

Andres Duque offers both a short and long explanation to what is happening and not happening with Colombia's same-sex partnership legislation.

Lee Iwan describes Mexico's annual aguinaldo: “This puts added strain on cash flow and accounts payables for Mexican organizations during the month of December. At the same time it creates a huge burst of economic activity throughout the country.”

Chapinadas on the production and exportation of Guatemala's Flor de Pascua or “Easter Flower.”

Erwin Cifuentes, who normally blogs prodigiously at The Latin Americanist is now in Colombia and has put together a collection of “the many lessons big and small” he's learned so far. Ricardo Carreón also finds himself in Colombia and recommends an English-language website about the capital city.

Alan Patrick spreads the link love with his second Buenos Aires Blog Roundup.

Both Miguel Centellas and Jim Shultz document and analyze the increasing tension between pro-autonomy protesters, government supporters, and the military.

Lex Libertas compares U.S. and Russian education and writes about cheating and cheatsheets - shpargalki - in the former Soviet Union.

Declan Butler reports that the U.S. Department of State refuses to give a straight answer on its position regarding “the death penalty trial in Libya of 5 Bulgarian nurses, and a Palestinian doctor, accused of injecting over 400 children with HIV, even though the verdict is expected next Tuesday.” Also, Butler links to videos of a Geneva press conference on the Libya HIV trial.

A new book has captured Luis M. Garcia's attention: Khrushchev’s Cold War attributes the decision to place nuclear missiles on Cuban soil at the height of the Cold War to do more with the Soviet Union wanting to be taken seriously by the U.S. and less to do with Khrushchev wanting to protect Fidel Castro.

“Everybody who knows me, know that mosquitoes don't bite me,” says Kara - until now - just when Jamaica's capital city is facing a Malaria outbreak.

In the wake of 21-year-old Stacy Wilson's gruesome murder, Abeni is both angered and saddened: “We are a nation reeling in horror with too many of us having seen the unimaginable. It just cannot be business as usual with our collective psyche so badly damaged. We need to unite, share our grief and see how we can prevent another such horror from occurring.”

The Barbados Labour Party may or may not have received donations from the Institute of Reproductive Medicine - a clinic “embroiled in what appear to be credible accusations that its stem cell supply chain involves kidnapping and murdering healthy newborn infants in Ukraine”. Barbados Free Press wants full disclosure.

Why should the 2007 bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade by Great Britain be commemorated? According to Nicolette Bethel, “the short answer is that it marks the beginning of a process of emancipation that involved all parties — the slaveowners as well as the slaves. The long answer is that Abolition created a culture that provided the foundations of the one in which we live today. If we begin with the question about who enslaved whom and when that ended and who ended it, we begin in the wrong place.”

Black Cush writes about the case for South Sudan to form a separate state, “South Sudan has the most untapped resource, in both human and natural. The vast oil reserves in the South could give its economy might that can rival South Africa in growth. There are also other minerals like gold and diamonds. The vast agricultural lands could serve as the breadbasket of Africa. The opportunities are endless.”

Mathew Buckland writes about the success story of the South Africa's Mail and Guardian Online, “It’s also been fantastic to see the revenues of the site grow to where we were a profitable division last year for the first time in our 11-year history — and it looks like this year we’ll even beat what we did last year. In fact, revenues have increased four-fold over the last two years after we overhauled our online sales strategy about two years ago.”