Global Voices Online

The blog of Convergence Républicaine pour l'Instauration de la Démocratie en Mauritanie (CRIDEM) points to a La Tribune d'Algérie article stating [Fr]: “Long considered a back-country, Mauritania just proved to its neighbors and to the world that when it comes to democracy, the country can now be an example. Never has an Arab country held a second round in a presidential election. Among the 19 candidates running, the two ahead are Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallah and Ahmed Ould Daddah. With respectively 26 and 25% of the vote, they will run again on March 25.”

Armenian Blog Review reports on various developments in the Armenian economy, including a natural gas pipeline linking Iran and Armenia and poor localization for Windows XP, as discussed on Armenian blogs.

Chadstoune is happy Moroccan band Darga and Spanish band El Bicho will be performing in Casablanca on April 1. Says the blogger: Says the blogger [Fr}: “El Bicho is one of the best bets of flamenco fusion based on daring mix of music! ” and “Darga is a group united by its love of music and conscious of the role that youth must play in the country's social dynamic”

Tolkun Umaraliev reports that Svetlana Nazarenko, a native of Bishkek who is the lead singer of the Russian band Gorod 312 (ru), has been awarded the honorary title “Honored Artist of the Kyrgyz Republic.”

Registan.net discusses how the government of Uzbekistan is using the state-sanctioned Islamic religious establishment to back its policies and ideology.

Safrang writes that spring has become associated with renewed fighting in Afghanistan in recent years and takes the liberty of changing an old folk song associated with Nowrouz (the holiday celebrated on the first day of spring) to urge a different mullah to come join the festivities.

Itching for Eestimaa writes about a day spent in Tallinn (11 comments) and the city of Narva (35 comments).

An upcoming football game between Estonia and Russia inspires Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa to write a lengthy post on all the complex political matters that stand between the two rival teams and their fans.

Belgrade 2.0 writes about Serbian neo-Nazis and their web presence.

Belgrade 2.0 predicts a new war, over Milosevic: “Even though the online group of Milosevic-haters is by far bigger than the group of his supporters, it seems as if the supporters are louder and manage to create a balance. How long can this go on i wonder?”

Belatedly, a bit of contemporary Serbian history, via Belgrade 2.0: on March 9, 1991, Belgrade became the scene of large protest rallies. “This was the first sign that the citizens were not so satisfied with Milosevic’s rule, already after two years of his reign.”

Belgrade 2.0 reports on the sorry state of the Belgrade Zoo.

Photos of a group of Japanese men clad in Croatian and Serbian military uniforms has caused a scandal in the Serbian blogosphere, Neretva River reports: “…these men were participating in a re-enactment of the recent wars in a ‘capture the flag' style game which apparently had different scenarios, one apparently was very distastefully called the ‘Bosnian survival' game.” More on it at Belgrade 2.0 - here.

MoldovAnn discovers a couple places in Kyiv where the Soviet-time currency - rubles and kopeks - still survives.

Dykun posts a video and writes on a Ukrainian and Russian folk music performance in Riga, Latvia: “they performed together a show of russian and ukrainian wedding songs and rituals, with the structure of a ukrainian cossack marrying a russian bride. […] presented are typical wedding songs and a re-enactment of negotiations for the marriage, which finally happens in the end.”

Darkness at Noon writes about the Moscow subway - its dogs and the etiquette.

Heribert Schindler of Rossijskaja Federazija “whacks” Russia blogs of a certain category: “My entry ‘Whack the Blogs' is admittedly inspired by a most rabid and fascinating phenomenon of blogosphere, by a persuasively US based group of spin doctors who vehemently try to convince me of them being one single hateful female and not some public relation agency or NGO.”

Roy Rojas on the intense protests against the Central American Free Trade Agreement in Costa Rica: “what has happened in countries that have ratified the agreement, for example Nicaragua and El Salvador, is that exports to the US have gone up significantly and there has been no loss of employment like the opposition said there would be.” He adds that signing the agreement does not mean “that we support the US government and much less that we agree with their foreign policy, but that we recognize that as such a small country, we need a commercial partner, we need their market, we need to have an agreement that guarantees us rights, which in this moment are out of control.”

Calling George Bush's visit to Latin America, “a meaningless show”, Robert Borbow sketches a cartoon to show Bush and Hugo Chavez competing for influence in the region.

In his inimitable style, Tomás Dinges ties together the popularity of Mexican Rancheras and American hits, Chile's feudal history, the oppressive days of the dictatorship, the brutal murder of Victor Jara, and the censorship of video images by the producers of the massive concert recently held by Chilean folk-rock superheroes Los Tres at the Festival de Viña.

Isabella Kenfield and Roger Burbach argue that “The US-Brazil Accord on Ethanol is good for GDP but very bad for rural poor.”

Miguel Buitrago has a useful summary of a proposed new constitution by the Podemos political party.

Robert Wright explains how the evolution of the free tourist map from Argentina's Subsecretaría de Turismo over the past two years demonstrates a gradual change in Buenos Aires' self image. Also, a clarification about the odd orientation of maps of Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires Weekly has some great photos of Buenos Aires' Chinatown neighborhood of Belgrano.

A flickr group called 50 million missing attempts to collect pictures of Indian women and girls. “It is the HOPE of this website to have as many possible of the 50 million missing represented by a photograph. These can be of Indian women or girls, of any age, and community represented as portraits or shown as engaged in various activities — which is life.”

Unheard Voices on the Human Rights Commission. “It is never too late to initiate something as essential as a national governing body to protect human rights in a country where we see violations of it far too often. Thought on this proposal?”

Pickled Politics on brown people and the government in UK. “Although I’ve frequently explained the process and the reasoning behind which the Labour government has engaged with brown people in the UK, especially Muslims, I haven’t explained it properly in one article.”

India Daily reports on children being denied sex education, because, well, apparently it's too graphic. “The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to ban the sex education provided under the adolescent education program in its present form in the schools.”

Visit Bhutan on the SAARC car rally in Bhutan. “One of the main objectives of the exercise would be to enhance people-to-people contact within the region and increase trade activities among constituent countries which will draw the member countries attention for the need of improving transport infrastructure and encourage tourism, economic and business co-operation in the region.”

Whisk on the accountability of the judiciary. “Since this debacle with the Chief Justice began, numerous jurists and lawyers have resigned from their posts and boycotted the courts in protest, because apparently, the supreme judicial power in the land cannot be held accountable for any misconduct.”

Ever wondered who's the biggest moaner on the West Indies cricket team? Who has the best dress sense? Or who takes longest in the shower? Captain Brian Lara spills the beans - and the West Indies Cricket Blog has the video clip to prove it.

ttgapers.com pays tribute to three Trinbagonian icons who passed away recently: calypsonian The Mighty Terror, journalist George John and economist Lloyd Best.

Tyler Reed breaks the news about Amatomu, “Amatomu is tracking South Africa’s blogosphere. It is brought to you by the folks over at Mail & Guardian, who really seem to be getting the whole new shift in the web and keeping up with it.”

Ewenet Means Truth in Ethiopia writes about the sad story of Kamilat Muhisin, “Everyone who is following Kamilat Muhisin's story is absolutely horrified at what has happened to her.
She lies in a hospital in excruciating pain, disabled and horribly disfigured when a man called Demesew spilled sulfuric acid on her young pretty face.”

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog reports that the court conviction of former T&T Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, who was found guilty of not declaring a million-dollar London bank account to the Integrity Commission, has been squashed.

A poetic take on breathing from Elspeth at Now is Wow.

The trials and tribulations of getting to Camp Karema, “We are making progress on setting up Camp Karema at the Bukima patrol post. It takes about 3 hours to get there from Goma, on a pretty rough road, and then a very rough road. Some would call it a track. It is not uncommon to have more than one puncture on any one journey, and if you have shakey bones I would not even attempt it!”

Bankele's post on money transfer within Kenya shows how mobile phone technology transforms the financial sector in Africa, “With cell phones this is already happening but it's just not formalized. The Option - Safaricom's free magazine publication has a letter to the editor this month from Joe Nickson of Kerugoya (central Kenya) who paid his fare in a matatu (bus) by transferring 50 shillings airtime to the conductor's phone and he received 30 shillings actual cash as change.
Airtime offers many more possibilities - 7 million cell phone (including more post-paid cell phone customers) vs. 100, 000 credit card users in Africa.”

Vincent Maher posts a scan of the S Sunday Times (South Africa) article about the South African blog awards, “I have a scan of the article as it appeared in the Sunday Times this weekend. It’s pretty balanced in my opinion, but read for yourself.”

It seems that there is some good news for Jordan's journalists. “After a little pass and play between the two Houses of Parliament, the Lower House voted to cancel (i.e. remove) the clause that upheld the imprisonment of journalists in the new press and printing draft law after it was sent back from the Upper House. The hefty fine is still on but at least journalists won’t have to see the inside of a jail cell,” writes Jordanian blogger Nas in The Black Iris.

Kuwaiti blogger Princess works in the human resource department of a company with 700 plus employees. All was well .. until she got a call from a trainee who refused to acknowledge she was a woman and continued addressing her in the male gender.

“The French people are not happy with the latest event of the French governement deciding to build a branch of the Louvre in Abu Dhabi; they believe this museum is part of France and giving it away is like giving part of France too. This is the first time in my life I hear about a museum becoming like a McDonalds!” writes Lebanese blogger Fonzi, who lives in Kuwait.

Lebanese blogger Lila, who currently lives in Montreal, Canada, pledges her support to One Million Blogs for Peace - To End the Iraq War.

Lebanese blogger Bob links to an interesting article which shows how love is a casualty of war.

In five days Egypt is scheduled to hold a national referendum on changes to its Constitution. Even veteran Egyptian opposition figures, well versed in the regime's authoritarian ways, have expressed shock at the choice of March 26 for the referendum, writes blogger Abu Aardvark (Marc Lynch). This is a travesty, a crude mockery of promises of political reform, and something which deserves widespread international mockery and condemnation, he adds.

Abeni shares her thoughts on some unexpected developments in the ICC Cricket World Cup that's being played in the Caribbean.

Geoffrey Philp refers to a post by Kenneth Goldsmith highlighting possible implications of the digital revolution.

Postive solution blogs about his reading of the newly passed property law in China: while private property was the most eye-catching section of the law, the focus was in fact on problems with State-owned property.

Shao Zishing from mindmeter posts an article about the logic of property management and the distinctive character of “property violence” in China (zh). This article has been censored away by some printed media.

Eric Hu has a review on the google translation in Shanghaiist.

Joel Martinsen from DANWEI sums up a discussion in Liaoning Legal News on whether the “real name registration system” has legal base: Of the real-name systems that have been proposed recently, relevant national laws are only in place for the banking system; real-name systems for mobile phones, online games, blogs, and other areas do not have that legal basis.

Jeremy Goldkorn reported that many foreign blog providers have been blocked in the past few weeks. Blogspot is blocked again.

Dibussis Tande announces the death of the Cameroonian literary giant, Bate Besong: To many Cameroonians BB was an inspiration, a teacher and mentor. He was an iconic figure who gave meaning to the cliché, “Man of the People”.

Christina Meetoo's take