Global Voices Online

Alice Backer views Haitian — indeed, Caribbean — supporters' throwing their support behind a single candidate in a New York City Council election as a sign that the community is approaching political maturity.

Among the many posts summarized in Alan Patrick's latest dispatch, we find Ken’s description of the dog walkers in Buenos Aires, yet another post about the prevalence of mullets in Buenos Aires, and Robert Wright's photographs of the capital's “Parisian-esque domes.”

Ryan Patrick at the West Indies Cricket Blog posts the audio of the public apology offered by the Prime Minister of Grenada for the erroneous playing of the Taiwanese national anthem in place of the Chinese national anthem at a ceremony in Grenada.

Geoffrey Philp marks Bob Marley's birthday by posting a poem written in tribute to the Jamaican reggae superstar.

She'll get to Cuba eventually, but in the meantime, TriniFood of the Can Cook, Must Cook blog reviews two Cuban cookbooks.

Caroline.neisha at the Caribbean Beat blog paints a picture in Trinidadian English of the semi-finals of the Panorama steel orchestra competition, which took place this past weekend under dramatically altered circumstances.

At the Caricom Blog, Sir Ronald Sanders makes the case for the Caribbean to pursue a “joint policy” towards China: “Belize, Haiti, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and St Kitts/Nevis continue to recognise Taiwan while the rest of the Caricom countries have diplomatic relations with China. This division within Caricom has kept the development of a trade, aid and investment policy for China off the agenda of Caricom Heads of Government even though China is now involved with the region in a number of ways including as a lending member of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).“

Lovely Amphibian explains why it is hard to be a president in Uganda, “Our president is on pressure as we speak. If he’s not, well, he should be. What with the many barbs coming from all directions!”

Sociolingo's Mali blog has a post about Malian cuisine: “The main foods eaten by a moderately well-off family living in Mali’s capital, Bamako, are rice, millet, sorghum, and beans, cooked as a sort of porridge, served with a meat or fish sauce. A common meal in southern Mali is called tô, a pudding made from pounded millet, served with a sauce of meat or vegetables. In the North, the Songhay and Touareg make thick doughy pancakes served with wild leaves. Tô is also popular in Burkina Faso.”

An American in Africa writes about the burial of a traditional chief, two years after he passed away: “Anyway, Ga Mantse died almost two years ago, but tribal chiefs are not buried until their succession is settled. This is a phenomenon we have encountered quite a few times since we moved here. Delayed funerals are not uncommon. We have no idea where the deceased hangs out while he waits and there is no polite way to ask.”

As Mikhail Khodorkovsky is facing new charges, his lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, blogs about the situation. An anonymous guest-blogger, The Politechnologist, provides more analysis.

Grigory Pasko follows Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev to Chita and the preliminary detention center they are kept at; he writes about it at Khodorkovsky's lawyer's blog: “As of December 2006, SIZO-1 of the city of Chita held around 2000 suspects, accuseds, and convicts, which is three times more than the established limit of places. […] it has already been announced that the trial itself will take place inside the isolator – an unprecedented move clearly designed to ensure that a nominally ‘open' trial will in fact be closed to the public, which will not be able to gain access into the high security facility.”

According to Copydude, Novgorod is a city where children's playgrounds look abandoned and prams are “an unusual sight.”

David McDuff has completed his translation of Marina Litvinenko's interview - part 13, part 14 and part 15 are now posted at A Step At A Time.

Greetings from Kiev posts a rather immodest picture of a pig and writes about the Ukrainians' favorite food, salo.

Mazyar Nazemi has published several photos of Christiane Amanpour,top CNN journalist,in Tehran.According to the blogger Amanopur was in Iran to make a documentary about Iranian nuclear project.The blogger adds Amanpour did not answer Iranian journalists' questions and said she is not a political journalist[Fa].

Victor Yanukovych's government can't control the situation with grain again, writes Foreign Notes: “Quotas were applied from 31 st December 2006 and this has led to the scandalous situation described in newpapers across the world. ‘Ukraine's grain dumped into sea as quotas strangle exports,' from FT is typical.

Human Rights Watch announced that Shahram Rafizadeh and Arash Sigarchi are two Iranian bloggers who received the prestigious Hellman/Hammett prize, an award that recognizes writers globally who have been victims of political persecution. There are 45 people,including seven Iranians, who received awards.

Foreign Notes reports that roughly half of Donbas population supports Victor Yanukovych, despite the region being traditionally seen as the PM's stronghold.

One of the less “media-shy” members of Victor Yanukovych's team, vice prime minister Andriy Klyuev, gives an interview to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Brussels, Foreign Notes reports.

Freedom for Egyptians is not at all enchanted with the Super Bowl.
“Anyway, the game was over and the trophy was about to be awarded to the winning team. The presenter said now the trophy goes to the “world’s champion Indianapolis Colts”. I looked at my friends and said did you hear what he has just said?” he writes.

Noting the dubious track record of the US military program New Horizons and the upcoming elections, Patrick of the Guatemala Solidarity Network remains skeptical of the latest US troop deployment in San Marcos, Guatemala.

It Isn't remembers a trip to Zanskar. “As I write this, it would be winter in Zanskar. I imagine those people sitting in there around the stove during these long winter months, drinking chang and tea, maybe reading a book of scriptures, looking at the vast landscape of white sorrounding them, talking in mild tones, sharing old stories again, sometimes scolding a particularly annoying kid, sometimes worried about the dwindling supplies for cattle, sometimes worried about someone's illness.”

Tim Muth has started another excellent series, this time on issues affecting El Salvador's supply of safe and dependable drinking water. So far, the first post introduces the issues and the second describes the importance of water in the words of Monseñor Eduardo Alas, Bishop of the Diocese of Chalatenango.

A suicide bomber at the Islamabad International Airport causes much alarm. Metroblogging Islamabad asks “Is this what our city has been reduced to? This will be our claim to fame; the capital of a Muslim state identified by the blood of innocents spilled by their own brethren in the name of faith or religion?”

Democracy For Nepal on the 198 ways to exercise Non Violent action and protest. “Come out into the streets in humongous numbers. The crowds should be so large, curfew orders and police guns should become irrelevant. They should fall by the wayside. That happened in Birgunj recently. The police simply melted away.”

United We Blog! indicates at the brewing trouble in the Nepal Army. “No doubt Dilip Shumser Rana (pic) is a living symbol of the reactionary forces in Nepal who is still trying to play against democracy and freedom in the country. This man, a RANA, is also a burning example of how our political leadership failed to bring about reform in the Nepali Army.”

La Nuez congratulates [ES] the Peruvian animator Jossie Malis who won US$ 25,000 for his grand prize winning short animation, “Bendito Machine.” According to AniBoom, “Malis's beautiful use of color and shadow-puppet imagery has been internationally praised in this indigenous art inspired tale of power, religion, sex and money.

Leftside criticizes those who claim that there are no free media in Venezuela.

Blogger Zeinobia discusses the case of an Egyptian spy, allegedly recruited by the Mossad and is now held in Egypt. To add spice to the story, she is convinced that the spy is gay.

Bahrain may soon have its very own Disneyland on one of its islands, at the staggering cost of almost $8 billion, reports Mahmood Al Yousif.

Joshua Foust takes a look at problems with the aid given to Afghanistan.

Bahraini Maysaa Hazeem has been appointed as Bahrain's first female commercial pilot, reports Mahmood Al Yousif. He hopes this will be an inspiration for women who think sky is the limit.

Michael Hancock bids a bittersweet farewell to the Shymkent bazaar.

Onnik Krikorian has another update on the upcoming Armenian parliamentary election, saying that managed “democracy” will be the order of the day until Armenian citizens feel they have a stake in their country's future.

Ethiopian Life, Politics, Culture and Arts writes about the Ethiopian government's response to Amnesty International's report, “AI's report on torture at Maekelawi(which was first reported on this blog) has left the EPRDF machine confused and utterly discombobulated. The federal police flip-flopped twice in four hours over the issue.”

The world’s officially appointed jester writes about the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, “Will you be safe in the darkest Africa?”

“Voices from Nigeria is a series of video shorts from Nigerian Kabissa members on how the internet has “been a force for change in their organisations,” Black Looks reports.

Chong translated a citizen report by Lung at interlocals.net on the closure of Disney's factory which is found having environmental and labour problems. However, about 800 workers were left unemployed and the factory failed to pay workers various compensations, a total of 4-5 million Yuan.

ESWN translated an article by Lung Ying tai, the former minister of Culture Bureau, confessing her “corruption” crime, which is similar to Taipei city mayor Ma Ying-jeou's “corruption” case.

Japan’s Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa recently called women “birth-giving machines” and got himself caught in trouble. More from Japan Probe

Will from imagethief blogs about the difference between PR in China and in the West.

Frank Yu from One billion users blogs about his experience of confluence project in China: The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location.

Jacky Peng posts a survey from International Herald Leader on African’s Views On China.

Gao Yaojie, a 80 years old AIDS activist was detained in Beijing after receiving an invitation to attend 2007 the Annual Leadership Awards and Benefit, at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts on March 14, 2007. Zheng Jinyan has written a brief biography of Gao(zh).

Recently, Japan announced to host a special IWC - International Whale Commission - conference in February in order to “re-assess” the population of whales. The move has been met with outrage from activists and anti-whaling nations.

David weber from Japundit gives us more background on the whaling industry and debate.

Ampotan blogs about Japan's bathhouse art, which constitutes a significant part in Japanese Art history.

Tania Campbell from Ohmynews writes an citizen reports on South Korea's suicide rate which is highest among developed countries. The reporter focuses on the social pressure of minority groups, such as gay man, mentally sick people and students.

Kim, Lee, Park are the most popular Korean surnames chosen by foreigners who have taken up Korean nationality and choose to change their names. - more from Robert Koehler, Marmot's hole.

Robert Koehler from Marmot's Hole blogs about the netizens' war over Korean historical dramas “Jumong” and “Taewang Sasingi.”