Global Voices Online

Madagascar Croissance posts (Fr) a list of the ministers that make up the new government.

Reunion Passion usually blogs on her homeland but recently she focused on nearby Indian Ocean French overseas department Mayotte (Fr): “Many cultures cohabitate in Mayotte, the first, of Comorian origin, constitutes 60% of the population, the second is Malagasy and is heavily influenced by the first and finally the French and Western influences the first two increasingly.” The blogger posts an original slideshow of the featured island.

Due to regained security in the capital, pre-carnival festivities in Port-au-Prince have been about as well attended as carnival itself, says (Fr) HaitiXchange. Adds the site: “Marching bands and the better known DJs were all part of the festivities. People came from everywhere: Petion Ville, Delmas, Cite Soleil, Martissant…in order to enjoy themselves. Important measures were put in place by the authorities to prevent any decline in security during the pre-carnival activities.” (See full post translation to English here.)

Senor Enrique in Manila introduces us to Jun, a Taho seller. Taho is a popular sweet snack in Philippines and it is made with bean curd, liquefied raw sugar and tapioca balls.

Bangkok Dazed takes us to Inle Lake, one of Myanmar's popular tourist destination. Inle Lake is a large fresh water lake in Shan state.

Abeni regrets to report that drive-by shootings have arrived in St. Vincent.

Ryan Patrick at the West Indies Cricket Blog offers up a list of his favourite “dramatic cricketing names” and invites you to submit yours.

Larry Smith offers a useful historic overview of the history of the drug trade in a post that asks the question: can the war on drugs be won?

Alejandro Armengol attempts to make sense (ES) of the reaction of Miami's Cuban exiles to the video of Cuban president Fidel Castro released yesterday.

Laura at the Caribbean Beat blog is interested to see what the impact of the three-year old — and inaptly named — Tobago Jazz Festival will be on the region's other music festivals.

“How do you take back a country that at independence failed to take real responsibility for itself, whose fabric has been slowly unravelling ever since, and which now equates modernisation with a frantic rush towards industrialisation and “developed country status by 2020″?” asks Jeremy Taylor of his country, Trinidad and Tobago.

Collectif Haiti de Provence reports (Kr) on a Creole language mass that took place last Sunday in Marseilles, France for the Haitian community there: “More than 120 people showed up in their Sunday best. Restless young men weren't very excited about the music and hymns but they still showed up… Before people returned home, another Creole language mass was scheduled for February 18.” The mass was organized by a Haitian cultural association.

Iraqi blogger Nabil writes about yet another terrifying day in his neighbourhood.
“Me and several people ran to the roof of the house, and there was my neighbour lying on the floor with his legs got cut due to the explosion and he was severly bleeding and there was blood stains all of him.I was completely shocked, scared and terrified, I stood there and didn't know what to do.A man who was standing next to me shouted on me “come on!, grap him with me, lets take him to the hospital”, I ran to him and carried my neighbour with him,” he wrote.

Iraqi blogger Imad Khadduri reports a massacare in Najaf, which left about 260 people dead.

Egyptian blogger Zeinobia is in stitches that the Israeli Ambassador to her country has left his residence in Maadi Suburb because of the Maadi Slayer.
“Oh yes the Israeli Ambassador and his family pack their bags to stay in the Embassy in Giza area near the Zoo because of the Maadi slayer. (It) was announced that the man couldn't stand the security measures taken now in Maadi !!” she wrote.
According to Zeinobia the slayer is said to have attacked six victims so far, injuring but not killing them. I have found no reference to him in official media sources.

While Bolivia Rising posts the translated text of Evo Morales speech at the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Jim Shultz of The Democracy Center publishes “three messages that Morales and MAS need to hear.”

Andres Duque of Blabbeando documents the various political paths that GLBT advocates and activists in Colombia are using to gain the rights of same-sex unions.

Copydude writes about the sorry state of the Baltic ecology and about the amber mines of Kaliningrad.

Part 10 of the conversation with Aleksandr Litvinenko's widow is translated and posted at A Step At A Time.

“This is not a deeply unpopular government at all. It’s supporters appear to quite like it,” writes Warsaw Station in a lengthy post (followed by a lengthy discussion).

Blogger Baheya is back from the Book Fair, with three books in tow.
“I’ve plucked only three of the most prominent features this year, two worthwhile new novels and a marvellous book lifted straight from the texture of daily life,” she wrote, giving us an interesting review of the books!

Traveling Life writes about Poland's ongoing sex scandal and about yet another case of cronyism: “I know that each political appointee has an army of advisers to make sure he doesn't screw up too much. But at some point we have to ask when the sheer incompetence of political appointees will hurt these companies beyond short-term repair. The nationalistic Kaczynski twins are hurting the national champions they are trying to promote. This is how we run Duck Republic, Inc.”

“LOT's passenger numbers have risen by less than 2 percent last year at the time when millions of Poles are traveling to work in Irland and Britain.” Polish Matters writes about plans to revive the ailing airline.

A small Polish town is divided: is it a sin to make sexy underwear for a company that used to make ceremonial clothing for Pope John Paul II? The beatroot has more on it.

The beatroot writes: “[The Polish president's twin brother] breaks arm after falling on ice. Does that make him a lame duck Prime Minister?” A commenter responds: “He's a right wing duck, so breaking he left wing is part of his project, surly?” And another one: “Populism and regionalism, only requires one arm.” And one more: “One of the tabloids has a computer-animated reproduction of the whole tragic incident for readers too dumb to understand the complexities of slipping on ice.”

The beatroot argues that “the critics of the decision of placing a US anti-missile system in Poland are being as paranoid as the US government.”

The beatroot writes about the “now unclassified documents which show that Poland was nothing more than a buffer to the West for the Soviets and one that they could afford to make into a nuclear desert!”

Egyptian opposition movement Kifaya will have a new activist at its helm after the resignation of George Ishaq, reports Arabist.
The new frontman is Dr Abdel Wahab Al Messiri.

Blogger Tom Gara gives us a brief history of Nimrod and Zionism following a brief research after the funny looks he got on the metro while singing to himself.

Argentinian native and Spanish citizen Martin Varsavsky writes on his Spanish blog [ES]: “[Technorati founder, David Sifry] showed me what he is really going to do and how he is going to launch it. And I suggested a modification that he liked a lot, but that it will take a couple days. So I suppose that the service will come out on Friday. On my English blog I didn't post it (although it is easy to translate, there is a linguistic barrier between the two blogs), but here I'm going to talk about it at least a little. It's an improvement to Technorati that resembles Meneame and Wikipedia.” But before Varsavsky got to spill his secret news, Steve Rubel of Micropersuasion showed a screenshot of the new feature that, get this, was to be called “WTF” or, so they say, “Where's the Fire.” As it so happens, Steve Rubel is the senior vice president of Edelman, the world's largest independent PR firm and he is helping form a partnership between Technorati and Edelman. According to his posting, however: “I spotted this with my own two eyes and didn't get advance notice.” From Rubel's blog, the news drifted around the tech echo chamber including Michael Arrington's widely read TechCrunch. Arrington, like many, notes that the new feature, which had been live at technorati.com/wtf is no longer available, which leads Juan Luis of Technorantes to assume [ES] that the good people of Technorati are looking for a better name than WTF. Moral of the story? Pre-release leaks make for good publicity.

A court in Bahrain today sent two political activists to jail for possessing leaflets calling for a boycott of recent legislative elections, reports blogger Mahmood Al Yousif, who describes the sentence as “Disgusting. Another blow for freedom of speech in Bahrain.”

“In mid-January I went back to Mexico for meetings with clients and academics, as well as colleagues from IBM. As you might imagine, the immigration debates going on in the US are being closely followed in Mexico. The people I spoke to were generally very critical of the Mexican government because it has not done nearly enough to improve economic conditions in the country so that the poor don’t feel the need to go North in search of a livelihood for them and their families. But, they also had many questions about our actions in the US. I was asked, for example, why, almost twenty years after the dismantling of the Berlin Wall - with all the ugliness it symbolized - here is the winning superpower of the Cold War planning to build a new, even bigger Berlin-style wall. Such questions caused me to reflect back on immigration, and the debates it has ignited in the US.” That is the beginning of a thoughtful post by Cuban-American IBM Vice President Irving Wladawsky-Berger. It was linked to by the popular Mexico City-based blog ALT1040.

Bahraini Rants is trying to get his cousin appreciate some of the music which shaped his generation. “I asked him about Jimi Hendrix, and he told me he wasn’t interested. His disinterest invited me to launch into a full monologue explaining the influence Jimi Hendrix had on my life and many many other listeners over the past 4 decades,” he wrote.

Syrian blogger Mustafa Hamido reports that Syria may abolish capital punishment.

Sean Roberts examines how Uzbekistan will handle succession. President Islam Karimov is 70 and currently in the “bonus time” of his final term. With elections on the horizon, Uzbekistan may have a new leader soon.

Ben Paarmann reports on the meeting between the leaders of Kazakhstan and Germany during which Germany offered support for Kazakhstan's bid to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Leila translates a post on James Giffen, an American businessman facing trial in the United States for bribing Kazakhstan's president, something he says that he did with the knowledge of the US government. The case has been used by opposition politicians in Kazakhstan against the president.

Levan takes a look at Georgian musicians on MySpace.

Tanzania In Focus blogs about Tanzania's snoozing “thinkers”: I don't want to sound like a genius, but I once blogged on the fact that ours is a snoozing government. I only didn't realize that some day, I will come to witness literal snoozing.

Sociolingo's Africa blog has a post about a new book by Fahamu on Women's rights, Africa and China, “The traditional perception of African women is that they face grinding poverty and harsh cultural, traditional and social prejudices. Yet while it is true that African women are not equal to men, this is only one part of the story.”

Hacktivate writes about the Malawian blogger who passed away recently, Mangaliso Jere, “Mangaliso Jere, author of Mangaliso’s World passed away last week. He was probably the most prolific Malawian blogger in the world, and he is being mourned and missed by many. Apparently Mangaliso died from internal bleeding after having a straightforward operation at a hospital in Mzuzu.”

Idland writes about “institutionalization of development consulting”:
You know you've been institutionalized into development consulting when your only concern about your deliverable is how it will look on the bookshelf where you know it will spend 100% of its life.

“Gaddafi won the prize for the biggest entourage - three jets and a smaller cargo - and the best outfit - blue/purple/orange wraparound shares. white and yellow robes, green Africa badge and every military medal you can think of,” writes Meskel Square in a post about the arrival of dignitaries in Addis Ababa for the 8th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union.

Bots Blog.com writes about anti-Aids campaign in Botswana using soccer to attract men, Zebras4Life–Test4Life, “The Zebras4Life–Test4Life project was offically launched at a press conference at the national stadium on Monday, 22 January. The U.S. Ambassador, several footballers, the Minister of Labor and Home Affairs, Peace Corps Volunteers and other partners were on hand to explain the campaign and offer up continued support.”

According to Sudanese Thinker, Muslims do not pay attention to Darfur because of three reasons.

David Weber in Japundit blogs about the winter purification-through-freezing-water rituals in Japan.

China Diligence has an article about certain landmarks / issues to look out for as China makes the transition from “from self-loathing acolyte to over-confident preacher.”

Xueyong suggested that by improving rural women's education, China can achieve a better population policy (zh).

A blog that tells you the most updated news about Xinjiang, with daily translation of local news.

IFTF from virtual China found a video clip about the Internet addiction clinic in Beijing.

Jamie from interlocals.net reports on an interesting alternative fashion show in Seoul: The clothes were made and modeled by the women who made them as well as by a number of prominent figures from Korean civil society. The participants from civil society included labour union activists from the largest and most militant trade union, the KCTU; ministers of labour, justice, and gender equality; members from each of the major political parties; popular entertainers from both the social movements and from the conventional pop music industry.