Global Voices Online

The CRD/TI Armenia Election Monitor rounds up the latest parliamentary election news.

Ian Chesley reports on a Harvard roundtable on Turkmenistan after the death of Turkmenbashi.

Registan.net covers the latest crackdown on foreign health NGOs in Uzbekistan, which includes action against an organization running an HIV/AIDS prevention program for not just paperwork problems but also because it works with homosexuals. Male homosexuality is a crime in Uzbekistan punishable by three years in prison.

In Armenia yesterday, a man died after setting himself on fire in the capital's Republic Square. It is not known exactly why the man set himself alight, but he reportedly was angry at government officials and over unspecified injustices. The CRD/TI Armenia Election Monitor reports on the incident and rounds up the reactions of Armenian bloggers.

Expat blogger BeneBurundi is learning about local culture (Fr): “Communicating with people from Burundi is all about subtlety and interpretation; for example if you're proposed to and you decline with a ‘no', it is highly possible that what will be heard will be ‘yes, maybe one day if you insist'. Also, in answer to ‘is everything okay?' a ‘yes-yes' would mean there's a problem. “

California-based Congolese blogger Alain Mabanckou has nothing but praise for Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour's big screen debut in Amazing Grace (Fr):”to see the few clips featuring Youssou N'dour, I think we'll need to to follow him closely. His future is bright if he chooses to concentrate exclusively in this direction and hence to play roles other than those characters deemed natural for men of color. “

Ukraine List posts samples of Chernobyl poster art.

Olechko shares sketches and observations of the Arena bar in downtown Kyiv.

“Who are the prison cells for?” asks Foreign Notes in a post about Volodymyr Shcherban, former governor of the Donetsk and then Sumy regions. Not for those who seem to deserve being there, it appears.

The Glory of Carniola reports on a rather surreal bureaucratic mishap: “This week marks the 15th anniversary of a now infamous moment in Slovenian history: the removal of 18,000 people from Slovenia’s permanent registry of citizens.”

The beatroot writes about Prince Charles' McDonald's comment and the Polish First Lady's views on the planned Rospuda bypass.

Pestcentric writes about Two-Tailed Dog Party - “a guerrilla street artist (read: creative university student with too much spare time) operating out of Szeged” - and showcases some of his work: “Well, fortunately, there’s now an English-language subsite, where a lot of the written work is actually translated so non-Hungarian readers can get the joke too. Granted, sometimes things are lost in translation, but it’s still very much worth a look.”

Pestcentric puts words into Hungarian politicians' mouths.

Shopping for movies at Mozikep DVD/Video shop in Budapest is a crazy experience: read the details at Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar.

According to Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar, the British Council is closing 10 of its 19 offices in Europe, including the one in Hungary. The library will stay, though.

LaurenceJarvikOnline shares his impressions of Yulia Tymoshenko, who was in Washington, D.C., this week: “She described her nation as ‘in crisis'–and took a number of hostile questions about her legal problems from Russian-speakers in the audience. Tymoshenko handled them with grace and aplomb, didn't bristle, smiled even. She's definitely a tough cookie and obviously smart.”

Palestinian blogger Abu Issa takes us down memory lane to Palestine in 1948 through words, memories and photographs here.

According to Haji Kensington[Fa], on Saturday, anti war marchers in London asked British troops out of Iraq and they also asked there will be no attack against Iran.

Jomhour says that Iranian goverment failed to accomplish its economic promises such as fighting against poverty. According to the blogger, goverment has no reason to accuse “enemy” for its economic failure because 90 percent of country's economy is in the hands of goverment[Fa].

Madhesh Blog on funding terrorism in Nepal. “Several donor agencies who invested their time to investigate the use of their funds have found them not being used for the intended targets. For example, many grants for poverty reduction and micro-credits have not reached to the targeted grassroots, and many other projects were “drawn” to the area of influential leaders, rather than implementing them where they were really needed.”

Accounting for weapons in Nepal is rather controversial. Nepali Netbook explains - “Moreover, according to Prachanda, many of their weapons were destroyed in fire and swept away by river during the conflict. (Translation: if everyone’s so interested in exact numbers, why does no one ask Girija Prasad Koirala about the substantial arsenal the Nepali Congress maintained even after Indira Gandhi requisitioned those supplies for the Bangladesh front in the early 70s?)”

Guillermo Parra translates an excerpt from Juan Carlos Méndez Guédez's novel “Una tarde con campanas.” Explains Parra, “the book is narrated by a boy whose family migrates to Madrid after a military government comes to power in Venezuela. Una tarde con campanas was a finalist for the Premio de Novela Fernando Quiñones in Spain, where Méndez Guédez now lives.”

Daniel Duquenal posts and narrates two video clips from a Chavez press conference in Caracas in which he criticizes Brazilian media conglomerate O Globo for its opposition to Lula in Brazil's last presidential elections. In the second clip, Chavez focuses on O Globo's reporter, accusing him of not understanding Venezuela.

The Lolly DJ writes a fabulously touching piece on inheriting Colombo from a grandpa who came to Sri Lanka 65 years back.” In 1942, my grandfather, Arthur, was en-route to Singapore, when the impregnable city fell. The soldiers who were there became the stuff of myth, imprisoned and emaciated under the Japanese. While the Army debated where to redeploy his unit, my grandfather was sent over to Ceylon.”

About Lula's recent decision to let Uruguay negotiate outside of South America's Mercosur trade block Gaby writes “It's a bit pathetic that we have to go by asking permission to do things, when is something that doesn't happen the other way around, but that's the way it is (let's face it… we are a midget in the middle of two basketball players).”

Unheard Voices points to a an article in Himal on military and governance. “As Dhaka’s military-backed interim government gets on with its anti-corruption agenda amid cautious cheers from the public, Bangladeshis at home and abroad are arguing over what kind of government system can both be functional and deliver for the long-beleaguered people.”

The US allies are no longer its allies, rats are leaving the sinking ship and Canada is no longer in the flock. If you want to understand what I mean read what Iraqi blogger Ladybird has to say here.

Guyana-Gyal writes a letter to Opportunity.

Waldo of El Mundo de los Pendrejos creates a storm in the comment section when he writes [ES] “I'm in Lima in the early morning and I've heard thunder, supposedly it's spread from Carabaillo to Huachipa.” His readers nod excitedly at a weather phenomenon that almost never visits Peru and, of course, the conversation soon turns to global warming.

Haitianalysis.com posts some lovely photos of the 2007 Carnaval in Haiti by Wadner Pierre.

Jamaican novelist Marlon James posts a list of his top ten books.

Geoffrey Philp posts a podcast of the proceedings from the premiere of a documentary on the life of the Jamaican dub poet Malachi Smith.

London-based Trinidadian Sinistra posts part two of her “Young and Black in Babylondon” series: ‘“So, what do you speak in the Caribbean? African?”'

Freedom for Egyptians wonders what if Anna Nicole Smith was Egyptian! “This woman was into the playboy world of fame, however there was no one single story judging her based on morality, religion or ethics…There are three men who are claiming to be the daughter’s father. This means that the three men slept with her during a very short period of time that the three of them are now fighting over the daughter. However, no one in the United States is judging Smith or trying to deviate into personal talk about her private life… Literally everyone is minding his own business,” she writes.

Egyptian blogger Zeinobia accuses Egyptian feminist and writer Dr Nawal Al Saadawi of coming up with an annual gimmick to ensure her name remains in the news. “(I)n 2004 she wanted to be a president ,in 2006 she came and her daughter with the new idea that people to be called with their mothers' names,” she writes. This year, Zeinobia says Saadawi fled Egypt to Belgium and is now seeking asylum in the US because “Egypt doesn't deserve her.”

Egyptian blogger Zeinobia continues to follow news on an Egyptian-Canadian accused of spying for the Mossad here. “He wasn't spying for Israel despite the fact that he went to the Israeli Embassy , knew the three other wanted Mossad officers and considered them as friends and was going to Israel after visiting Egypt!!!” she writes.

Simone at Something Extra looks at the web sites of two luxury hotels in St. Kitts and Antigua, in an effort to determine “what defines luxury“.

Keith R at The Temas Blog analyses of Barbados' draft national energy plan with a particular emphasis on its “environmental implications”.

Robert Frische of cricketwukup.com interviews Barbadian Tony Cozier, the dean of West Indian cricket commentators, who talks about the West Indies' chances in the upcoming Cricket World Cup, Barbados's refurbished cricket ground, the life of a cricket correspondent and more.

Egypt-based blogger Tom Gara is confused as to how BBC World has lost tapes of its coverage of the September 11 attacks on the US. Gara reports that a BBC World editor wrote: “We no longer have the original tapes of our 9/11 coverage (for reasons of cock-up, not conspiracy). So if someone has got a recording of our output, I'd love to get hold of it. We do have the tapes for our sister channel News 24, but they don't help clear up the issue one way or another.”

Bahraini blogger Bahraini Rants takes us into a culinary tour of the world of sandwiches, after proclaiming that they are the world's greatest invention.

Algerian blogger Nouri writes: “Washington must distinguish between those with whom it can deal and those it can't; even if they aren't Ideal.” To read more of his advice to the US, click here.

Black Cush does not think the release of the names of genocide suspects in Darfur will improve the situation, “I just have a feeling it is going to have the reverse effect . . .”

The Voice of Somaliland Diaspora-Ottawa writes about the f

Sub-Saharan Africa