Global Voices Online

Says Harinjaka (Fr): “Malagasy forests are like medicine cabinets. You can find 75% of medicinal plants used in Madagascar. A vital ressource for those who, by and large, live tens of kilometers from the closest clinic.”

In the summer of 1987, Jamaican writer Marlon James is saved by The Cure: “I don’t remember 1987 by any sequence of days and dates; I remember it by breaths I lost, gasping at “Just Like Heaven.” I can’t recall any major events but I do remember the sad drum clatter of “Like Cockatoos,” fighting against the thunder strings and the titanic, looping bass. . . . I remember that being the exact point when loving something everybody else hates became the greatest pleasure in the world. . . “

Studies show that although English is a compulsory subject in Puerto Rican schools from elementary level upwards, only 20% of the country's population has a mastery of the language. Eugenio Martínez Rodríguez thinks he knows why.

Keith Francis on the recent discovery of a school porn ring in Trinidad involving videos recorded on cell phone cameras: “The fact is that despite our wilful efforts to ignore the fact, children have been screwing children - indeed adults both male and female have been screwing children - from time immemorial. . . . Perhaps having things like under-aged sex caught on camera and thrust in our faces will make us think more about responsible sex education, and doing more than telling our children, “don't bring home no baby for mih to mind!>”

Onnik Krikorian has multiple posts on the murder of Hrant Dink, a journalist who was an ethnic Armenian Turkish citizen who had been given a six month suspended sentence in 2005 for writing on the Armenian Genocide. Be sure to check out his roundup of discussion of the murder in the Turkish blogosphere.

Alexander of neweurasia Tajikistan reports that Tajikistan is set to step up economic cooperation with China.

Mira Bakhytova reports that the trial of health care professionals said to be responsible for a wave of HIV infections in southern Kazakhstan has gotten underway.

Vadim takes a look at some of the latest topics being discussed in the Tajik blogosphere.

Zarchka writes a spirited post on love, relationships, premarital sex, safe sex, double standards, and more in Armenia.

Mama Junkyard's blogs about how people greet each other in Nigeria: How you body de? Pidgin English; often used when addressing someone who has been unwell. The first time I heard it was during my first week in Abuja. I was staying in a hotel and had just developed a cold. The guest relations manager knowing that my Pidgin English was not my strong point, opted to greet me in what can only be termed as the literal translation of the phrase. I can not even begin to describe my shock when I heard her utter the words “How is your body?”

Marginalia posts a very interesting entry on Latvia's monuments - and its “almost antiseptically politics-free” currency.

Some Latvians are “tired of being lumped in with, and referred to, as Eastern European,” writes All About Latvia.

A Hungarian political joke from Pestcentric: “Q: If communism had not fallen in 1990, who would be prime minister today? A: [Socialist Ferenc Gyurcsany, who's the prime minister anyway].” More on the country's politics here and here.

Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar suggests a better way to punish an elderly war criminal about to stand trial in Hungary: “Much better, that the media, schools and various NGOs give as much publicity as possible about Kepiro and his ilk and how horrendously they treated their fellow Hungarians. He would thus spend his last few years in shame, shunned by all decent people.”

Croatian war veterans group protests an upcoming talk show appearance by a Serbian rock singer Bora Dordevic, reports Illyrian Gazette.

Russia in the Media argues that “referring to Litvinenko as an “ex-spy” basically misrepresents the work that he did in the Russian special services.”

The IZATRINI.com blog reviews shortdrop.com, a web site for Trinidadian car enthusiasts, and TrinidGourmet.com interviews fellow food blogger Chenette.

Zenia presents a portrait (ES) of two same-sex couples living lives of relative tranquility in Cuba, and concludes that the climate in the country has become more tolerant of homosexuals since the days of the film “Strawberry and Chocolate”.

The PANOS Institute West Africa and Fahamu, the publishers of the award-winning online forum for social justice in Africa – Pambazuka News, have jointly established a blog to bring daily news and commentary from the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya: “Journalists and activists will be posting articles, commentaries and other useful pieces of information about what is going on.”

Joel Martinsen from DANWEI notes the shift of terms from “real name system” to “we just want your real name” in regulating online game internet user.

Jacky finds some discussions at Chinese BBS forum concerning South Korean textbook. Chinese's netizens were outraging about the distortion in the territorial map. However, are those books really Korean textbook?

Xue yong quotes from a recent research to show the inequality in education: “researcher analyszed the examination result of year 2003 student from a high school in Beijing and discovered that lower class family's entrance examin result is higher than upper class. The average marks from high to low are: peasant, unemployment workers, small individual business, workers, white collar, management and technical… the lowest average mark, 571.3, are from management and technical background family, which is 38.8 marks lower than the average mark, 610.1, from rural background family…” (zh)

Chao from China Times discusses the role of social news reporters in media. His judgement is that newspapers' bosses like but don't give enough value to social news reporters compared with political news reporters. (zh)

ESWN puts together and translates a rape and murder case of a 16 years old girl who worked in a hotel in Dazhu County. The case later developed into a riot or mass incident in official term. The incident is now banned in the Chinese internet.

Overoften from Japundit presents a selection of the very special signage.

Mark in Mexico shows how ex-governor Manuel Andrade Díaz “fattened up” at Tabasco's expense including a costly highway monument to himself.

January 16 marked the 15th anniversary of the signing of the Peace Accords which ended the 12 year long civil war in El Salvador. Tim Muth offers his own assessment of their effectiveness a decade and a half later.

Eco-trans-hemispheric cyclist Dave of A Ride for the Climate has arrived to Santiago, Chile where he was featured in the English daily The Santiago Times as well as La Nacion.

While Jim Shultz does not believe that protesters either in opposition or support of Governor Manfred Reyes were paid to be there, he does think that “those on the streets (and the families affected who weren't in the streets) were caught in a political power play that none of them asked for and which Manfred and Evo created.” Bolivia Rising has translated the resolutions from the January 16 open town meeting into English. Finally, Miguel Buitrago writes that, although the social upheaval has died down somewhat in the past few days, Governor Reyes Villa doesn't plan on making life any easier for President Evo Morales.

Both Alan Patrick of Buenos Aires Travel Guide and Buenos Aires Weekly give tours of the Japanese Gardens in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

Forum on Democracy has translated an Op-Ed by anthropologist Aldo Civico which “compares the collusion between politicians and paramilitaries in Colombia, to the Mafia-controlled government of Palermo in the 1970s.”