Global Voices Online

The Daily Brunei Resources blog traces the origin of Malay wedding custom of bunga telur. Bunga telur is the token gift presented to the guests who attend a wedding.

A tongue-in-cheek post by the Limey, riffing off of a incident where a chef at a Bermuda resort was thrown off the island after making a joke about putting arsenic in a meal to be served to the island's Premier, occasions a string of comments debating issues of propriety and taste.

Lee Vanderwalker in Caye Caulker, Belize, wonders: “Why do you think people vacation at Christmas time. Do you think they expect a traditional American Christmas? Do you think that if we play Marvin Gaye they will forget about Christmas?“

Reflections in a window pane on the power of video and overcoming oppression. “When the use of Video by a team of six Dalits, working for a Community Video Unit, set up by Navsarjan, Drishti and Video Volunteers transcended all barriers of caste, it brought upon relief for an entire village.”

LIRNEasia is apprehensive about a report in the UK press which claims that Sri Lanka is prepared well if a tsunami strikes. “The best-prepared country is Sri Lanka, one of those worst hit two years ago, which has a system of transmitting warnings through its police stations.”

Metroblogging Chennai remembers the Christmas Eve of 1987, when a famous politician died. “The size of the crowd was unimaginable - hundreds of thousands of people. The driver had to inch along. People peered in, saw us foreigners and the wreath, and parted to let us pass.”

Barbados Free Press is horrified that Barbados abstained from a UN vote citing Iran for human rights abuses, then went on to vote to protect Iran against sanctions.

Barbados blogger AirBourne offers a capsule history of Hollywood's interventions in the Caribbean, with a special emphasis on the music featured in the films.

Democracy for Nepal discusses Humro Nepal. “It has not been registered. It does not have a budget. Both those details are intentional and are to be kept that way. It is the world's first digital democracy organization. A lot of members and outsiders still do not think of it as a “real” organization.”

Nicolette Bethel advises her fellow Bahamians to heed the words of Trinidadian Carnival designer Peter Minshall when considering the “improvement” of Junkanoo, their own national festival.

A passage in a book about Suriname received as a Christmas present resonates strongly with ArubaGirl: “While things in Aruba aren't nearly as bad as they were during that time in Suriname, I could particularly identify myself with that passage. It seems like here in Aruba, the government just take actions, willy nilly the protests of the people. Yes, I know they were voted in power, but surely that doesn't mean that all of us just have to sit back and be quiet, does it?”

Ukraine List writes about Ukrainians of North Dakota.

Carpetblogger posts pictures and writes about the New Year's in Kyiv.

Abdymok writes about a neglected story of “a 20 kilometer-long line of cars, buses, and trucks trying to make it back to ukraine before the new year . . . polish border guards with machine guns. eye witnesses say little kids are sick and dying. they say the crossing zone is the scene of a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Russian Marketing Blog writes about a St. Petersburg promotion campaign: “It would cost the City Council about 1 million Euros to place 300 billboards in London, Amsterdam and Paris till the middle of December.”

Copydude is posting short stories - one, two, three, four - he wrote while in Tatarstan: “They come under the category of ‘True Lies’ - or what writers prefer to call ’semi-documentary’. I wrote them about real people - but sourced largely from local gossip.”

David McDuff of A Step At A Time translates a piece by Marina Litvinovich, an activist and founder of the Truth of Beslan portal; she writes: “Another of the report’s conclusions is that 32 people took part in the school seizure, of whom 31 were killed and one has been sentenced in court. This is simply ridiculous. Even the Prosecutor’s office has already admitted under pressure from us that there may have been more of them. It’s a mystery why this figure has not changed in Torshin’s reports since 2004 - there is a mass of evidence which refutes it. All this is being done for one purpose alone - to close the question of Beslan.”

The beatroot reports: “46 members of the Polish parliament have tabled a motion to name Jesus Christ as the ‘honorary King of the Republic of Poland’. […] There is an historical precedent to this mad move, however. The Virgin Mary was made Honorary Queen of Poland 350 years ago by King Jan Kazimierz (who must have been a lonely soul).” The beatroot's thoughts on another Poland-related Christmas story are here.

Pestcentric writes about Budapest's poor and the problem with videotaping them.

Itching for Eestimaa writes about Estonian Christmas customs.

Neretva River writes: “As exhumations begin at Osijek's central cemetery as part of the Croatian judiciary's investigation of war crimes committed against Osijek's non-Croat civilian population during December 1991, 2006 could prove to have been the year that domestic courts in Croatia demonstrated that they are serious about prosecuting war crimes committed on the territory of the Republic of Croatia.”

“There is a big need to re-brand the Middle East. Not just to change the bad image we have in others minds, but also to change the bad image we hold for ourselves inside. And maybe this would be one of the most efficient steps towered resolving the most complicated conflicts in mankind history,” Wael Attili said.

What is the relation between religions and suicide bomber? Is religion the only factor behind it? Who and why a person commit a suicide bombing? All these questions and more are answered in a series of posts by Lawrence of Cyberia. To start, follow the posts here and here then don't miss the coming interesting posts to follow.

“Egypt, where Mary, Joseph, and Jesus fled seeking shelter. But the Christmas spirit has apparently not returned, at least not to the Qalubia governor who just attempted to shut down a local NGO for reporting on poor civic conditions,” Or Does it Explode reports.

Yisrael Medad says that he opposed the term “settler” and “settlement” from the beginning, preferring his own term -”revenant” and “Jewish community”. Find out why he hate these terms.

Granite Studio comments on the recent announcement by the government on the 100 outstanding Mothers in China. The blogger notices that such practice is not new.

Many Chinese bloggers are discussing the most popular Chinese word of 2006. Some of the suggestions are: Bo (as in Blogger), Gao (as in spoof) and Chao (as in argue). Gao is so far the most popular one (zh).

Ai Wei Wei criticizes a recent court case in Hanzhou concerning “illegal church construction”. More than a thousand people were involved in the church construction from 26-29 July 2006. On 22 of December, the court found 8 of them guilty (zh).

One Man bandwidth looks into the differences in the western and Chinese sense of humor.

DANWEI has a post summarizing internet republishing debate in China. It explains the copyrights law in China which allows fair use and translation.

Arguing that religion is not the cause of Ethiopia-Somali war, Urael writes, “The suggestion that the conflict between the mafia gang [Ethiopian government] and the Union of Islamic Courts has something to do with religion is the ultimate attempt by the gang to survive. They know that the Islamiphobia in the United States is at his peak with the new born Christians at the helm.”

“So we are at war. We are no longer “technically” at war, or swapping challenges and insults, or officially providing training support to somebody else's army,” writes Meskel Square from Ethiopia.

“So we are at war. We are no longer “technically” at war, or swapping challenges and insults, or officially providing training support to somebody else's army,” writes Meskel Square from Ethiopia.

“So we are at war. We are no longer “technically” at war, or swapping challenges and insults, or officially providing training support to somebody else's army,” writes Meskel Square from Ethiopia.

Of President Bush's signing of the HOPE Law (Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act), Collectif Haiti de Provence writes (Fr): “We find ourselves compelled to welcome with enthusiasm this law which seems to be designed to favor job creation via textile subcontracting. We would like that leaders in that sector hold the expertise needed so that Haitian industry derives maximum profit out of the law.”

Senegalese blogger Seckasysteme is unhappy (Fr) with Guinean President Lansana Konte for personally freeing powerful friends who had been booked for financial fraud from Guinean jails. “Africa is ashamed of Lansana Konte”, concludes the blogger. “Guineans are right to have taken to the streets, demanding that he and his corrupt clique resign.”