Global Voices Online

Convention pour une Nouvelle Guadeloupe notes (Fr) that French Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal has endorsed the Quebecois party's principle of Quebecois independence. The blog continues: “We notice once more the double standard of socialist conservatives who share the goal of Quebecois Independence but reject the same outcome for Guadeloupe.” The blog goes on to urge the UN to demand that all its members (and France in this case) respect the international right to decolonization.

The three month deafening silence on Zimbabwean Pundit blog is explained, “Over the last three or so months, you have come here looking for a new helping of “the world as seen from the eyes of a Zimbabwean” and have been dissappointed to find no new servings. At first you thought it perhaps was a personal difficulty in the real but personal realm of yours truly's life and it'd be over in a few days, but then the days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and sadly, the year too passed on by. I know I've dissappointed you. For that I'm deeply sorry.”

Flickr user sergio_serrano has a lovely set of photos from Cuba entitled “Cuba Sí!”

An article about an exclusive Barbados holiday villa in the UK's Times Online gets Barbados Free Press's back up with its trumpeting of the villa's private beach and seclusion away from the “hoi polloi”.

Barbados Free Press republishes a newspaper article from 1901 detailing the most dramatic landslip in the country's history, and expresses concerns that it took place not far from the site of a proposed dumpsite.

“All of us can collectively turn our backs by remembering that tourism is a job that we do, it is not who we are. It is a necessary evil, it is not our reason for being. Serving tourists well is not the greatest achievement we can aspire to, and it is not the mandate of the cultural community at all,” writes Bahamian Lynn Sweeting, in a post outlining her evolution from artist creating “tourist-friendly” works to one making work that “inspires the collective native soul.”

Lynn Sweeting is inspired by a letter from Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel prize winner Wangari Maathai, to plant trees in her neighbourhood.

Virtual Doug gives us a pictorial tour of the alleys in Hue, the former royal capital city of Vietnam.

ArubaGirl posts some pictures of Aruba's National Park Arikok.

Mavericksym blog introduces a website called bloggers united that has been launched to support the two bloggers being sued by a Malaysian newspaper for defamation. The support site is run by Susan Loone who says “Take heart my friends. Our movement is growing. This black dot in the history of blogshpere for Malaysians bloggers has a good side to it too. It brings us together. With numbers we can change something. Even if we don’t (yet), we have at least started the ball rolling:”

Turns out some Eurovision contenders are worse than others: according to TOL's Belarus Blog, British music critics think Belarusian entries are “dreadful.”

Illyrian Gazette writes about a scandal brewing in Zagreb: “…the metropolis might soon share a less welcome characteristic with the Gazette's home town of London: losing out on hosting a world sporting championship because the venues weren't ready in time.”

Ruminations on Russia writes about the language issue in Russia: “The problem is apparently that the near abroad prefer their own language and English to Russian and Russian (strange that), and native Russians (whoever they may be - but that's a different topic altogether) have a nasty habit of eating sala, drinking vodka, not having enough sex, too many abortions, dying early and generally being fewer at the end of the year than at the beginning. Not so much a dying language, as a population suffering from a collective heart attack.”

Snowsquare recommends both the real and the virtual Moscow-Vladivostok train ride: “6 days, across 9259km, across 2 continents, 14 oblasts and 8 time zones.”

Dykun posts “footage of members of the folk choir Skandinieki singing this past weekend at a rock that marks one of the spots in Riga where 5 people were killed during a Soviet crackdown on January 20, 1991.”

The world's deepest cave, the Olympics 2014 bid and a lot more - at Sochi Travel Info: Experience the Russian Riviera blog.

Our Man in Tirana posts pictures of election posters in Albania's capital.

Europhobia and Balkan Baby write on the elections in Serbia.

Information Policy mentions the creation of the first Belarusian vlog - by a duet of comedians.

The Economist's Edward Lucas writes about migration within the EU.

Shekkar says Ahmadinejad's words on TV tonight, makes him/her sicker.The blogger says Iranian president pretends inflation is the result of former government's policy.The blogger adds Ahmadinejad says United Nations sanctions have had no cost for Iran.The blogger writes it seems his words are from planet Mars[Fa].

Charles Malik from Lebanon says the opposition “is restricting movement throughout the capital and is intent on destroying the environment and giving everyone lung cancer by burning tyres across the country.”

Palestinian blogger Fayyad gives us a sneak preview of his visit to Palestine at Kabobfest, where his little village was without electricty for the duration of his stay.

Abu Aardvark sheds some light on the Shia-Sunni conflict, following a visit to Egypt. His comments are timely considering the increasing human toll from the civil war in Iraq with Iran being accused of instigating sectarian strife in the Arab world.

Bahraini blogger Bint Battuta has decided to translate some of the Arabic Bahraini blogs for English-language readers. This week she translates two posts from the hilarious Zarnooq Bahrani and she promises more translations soon.

Egyptian blogger Tom Gara isn't amused with the design of Dubai's latest skyscraper and is thanking the stars that it isn't being built in Cairo.

Omodudu does not think that Nigerians living abroad need to go back home,”Often we hear Nigerians living abroad declare, “I am going home”. I have news for all of you, Nigeria is not in dire need of your presence, actually you may be adding to the problem of overcrowding on the streets of Lagos. Nigeria needs your productivity more than anything else. If you have nothing to offer besides competing with the individuals at home for the already overstaffed service sector jobs, please sit your butt down wherever you are and pay your mortgage LOL.”

Feringhee: The Indian Diaries writes on going to Bihar. “Every week, the paper has an account of a prominent person's child, or even just successful middle-class person's, kidnapped and held for ransom. The headlines of the “Bihar Digest” section sometimes defy belief (”Child's fingers chopped off for stealing spinach”; “Son hacks mother to death”).”

Sepia Mutiny on the Indian community in Kenya. “Today, the community in Kenya is perceived, not without justification, as wealthy and aloof. Rajan is critical of what he sees as the community's lack of engagement with Kenya's many challenges.”

Blogging from the Democratic Republic of Congo, John writes about the richness and complexity of Lingala: Then there’s the word “poto” which I think is “mpoto” in the classic Lingala (but that’s a whole other discussion…). It means Europe, but I’ve discovered that it also means the U.S. I haven’t probed too far into the meaning, but pretty much for the Congolese it means anywhere where the white people live. “Malili” is related to “moi” because it means both “cool” or “cold” (as in a cold beer, which is my most frequent use of it) and also “shade.”

groundviews on conflict and its impact on art. “Among those artists who regularly emphasize the impact of conflict on society are Sri Lankan duo Bandu Manemperi and Roger Constantine. Their most recent exhibition was based on how human emotions have been numbed by frequent and continuous violence.”

Nepali Netbook on the Maoist way of arms and doing things and how it's impacted the mainstream parties and politics. “By the end of 1976, when B.P. Koirala finally fused nationalism and democracy into a plea for reconciliation, it was pretty clear that the Nepali Congress’ principal foreign sponsor had given up on armed action as tool of political change.”

Salam Dhaka on glimpses of life in Bangladesh, like meeting Huzur. “You want an end to end solution for all your religious events? Hanif is your man. In 2 hours notice he will buy a goat, bring in a professional butcher and get it all done. If you want the “deluxe” version he will whisk in 17 orphans from his madrassah who are also Hafez ( memorized the Quran) and have them complete the Quran.”

AllFOLK's Blog and Oneworld Multimedia have photos from the public memorial in Yerevan for Hrant Dink.

At neweurasia, Alexander reports on the new political strategy of the Islamic Renaissance Party.

The Roberts Report explains why Kazakhstan's government is taking steps to decrease the number of foreign workers in the oil sector and stop the resale of licenses to develop oil deposits.

Sean Roberts says that Kyrgyzstan's president may have backed the parliament into a corner again by putting it in the position of accepting his nominee for prime minister or facing dismissal.

Inga reports on Kyrgyzstan's foreign policy strategy at neweurasia.

Gulru begins blogging about Tajikistan for neweurasia with a post on the city of Khujand, the Pearl of the East.

Yulia reports on a novel proposal, surely to never to come into law, for fighting corruption among state employees in Kyrgyzstan, severing of digits and hands.

News from the Caravan posts a recipe for manti, a dish made in not just Kazakhstan, but also in the rest of Central Asia, Mongolia, and Turkey.

Collectif Haiti de Provence posts (Fr) pictures of the Port Morgan resort in Ile-a-Vache, Haiti.

My Africa Today writes about African Journals Online, “African Journals OnLine (AJOL) is a service to provide access to African published research, and increase worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship.”

Mental Acrobatics writes about drama at the World Social Forum, “The poster says, “Reduce food prices in the WSF.” A demonstration organised by a youth group from Korogocho started a loud vocal protest outside the Windsor catering tent. Korogocho is the third largest slum area in Nairobi after Kibera and Mathare. The demonstarters called for a reduction in food prices and informed everyone buying from Windsor to remember what they had gathered in Nairobi for. To battle inequality. How can you have a conference where most of the participants if they could get in, would not be able to afford the food and call that same conference social?”

Y Samphy rounds up press coverage on the Cambodian jungle girl. The girl was missing for 18 years and was captured recently while attempting to steal food. The jungle girl cannot speak any human language and communicates by using gestures.

IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry (Hong Kong) decided to have 24 hours monitoring local blogs' background music against copyrights infringement. The issue raised concerns from local bloggers. However, many bloggers commented that(zh) such action was a waste of resources and eventually bad for the business.

Neomarxism has an informative post about the kogal phenomenon in Japan: For foreigners looking at Japan from abroad, the kogal appeared to be empowered young women forming a revolutionary army against the patriarchal mores of traditional society…

Ampotant introduces the culture of strange festivals, kisai, in Japan.

Ampotant introduces the culture of strange festivals, kisai, in Japan.

ESWN translated Zhang Yihe's statement and position towards the list of 2006 banned books in China. “This book (Past Histories of Peking Opera Stars)is banned because of that person.” That person is Zhang Yi-he.

IFTF at Virtual China reports on the new move of internet T.V business in China: Tencent has partnered with Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL to develop an Internet-enabled, interactive TV with QQ-branded applications such as IM and games. It's called iTQQ.