Global Voices Online

Tajikistan Journal shares photos of Navruz celebrations out in the provinces.

Alexa writes about name brand knock-offs in Mongolia, speculating that perhaps their popularity will build brand loyalty that will lead to success for genuine articles in the future.

Registan.net publishes the text of a letter from US Senator and presidential candidate Joseph Biden to Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev that the senator's office says should not appear in the press.

Tolkun Umaraliev surveys the Uzbek blogosphere.

This week's Friday photos from Kazakhstan at neweurasia are of Nauryz celebrations in Almaty.

The Latin Americanist refers to an Amnesty International report on widespread discrimination against Haitians in the Dominican Republic.

chapati mystery on the situation in Pakistan, and how it threatens Musharraf's seat of power. “Two weeks ago, General Musharraf suspended the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on vague corruption charges. Since then, daily riots and protests have broken out in major cities; the goverment has tried to shut down tv stations which reported on these riots; the police have repeatedly assaulted the lawyers who are leading the process. “

MumbaiGirl, who is an Indian living in London, travels to Pakistan. “At the Badshahi Mosque I was immediately reminded of Fatehpur Sikri. There’s something so right about the squareness that the Mughals achieved. The body feels right enclosed in a space like this, precisely because it doesn’t feel enclosed.”

Biting satire at Broken News. Wonder what would happen if there was a competition for the top tyrant? “World number one Kim Il Jong of North Korea commented on the challenge being made on his position saying, ‘Mugabe doesn’t frighten me – he’s been playing this game for decades and he’s still only number three! Musharraf and Mahinda are more interesting because of their facial hair.”

janantha's home asks rather hopefully if Sri Lanka would beat India in the cricket match. “After loosing to Bangladesh, the angry fans caused chaos in India! Destroying cricketers houses and stuff. Will it happen again?”

A photo essay at United We Blog! capturing the Maoist public mourning for those who lost their lives in the Gaur massacre. “It was a day for mourning not only for the Maoists of Nepal but also for those who are praying for the success of the peace process. And it was yet another historic day for Nepal as Kathmandu saw what was unthinkable before: 25 dead bodies of the Maoists cadres were lined up in open air theater this afternoon.”

Rossijskaja Federazija looks at the Russian-Estonian dispute over the WWII monument from a German perspective.

Sean's Russia Blog writes about the ban imposed on the National Bolshevik Party.

Megan Case writes about Slovio, “the artificial simplified pan-Slavic language.”

Swobodin v Brne writes about the Czech rival of Coca Cola, and about things he dislikes about Prague.

Wu Wei visits Lake Bohinj, Slovenia, and posts pictures.

Neretva River writes - here, here, here, and here - about a Serbian war criminal who has allegedly been advising the United States on Saddam's bunkers and other strategic facilities in Iraq.

After enduring some intestinal unpleasantries, Scott Lamorte made it to Guatemala City where he convinced local cops that he was a journalist for a behind-the-lines look at the protests that met US President George Bush on his one-day visit.

As political parties organize their campaigns for the presidential elections, Jose Zamora hopes for a much more serious electoral process than just catchy campaign songs, ubiquitous street banners, and empty stump speeches. “We should demand concrete plans of governance from all the candidates, plans which we can study and debate before casting our vote. It's our responsibility to promote and demand change.”

Venezuelan-American poet Guillermo Parra, recently in San Salvador to research Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton (1935-1975), describes the interests in leftists politics and experimental fiction shared by Dalton and the Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño. A follow-up essay, “Poor Poets: Roque Dalton and Roberto Bolaño“, goes into further detail about the lives of works of the two poets.

Iraqi blogger Omar, who writes in award winning blog Iraq The Model, writes about the future of an Islamic state in Iraq. “In fact the correlation between the two main extremist groups is some sort of catch 22, though it really isn't. it might be believed that the attacks of al-Qaeda led to retaliation from the Mehdi army and at the same time that the attacks of Mehdi army's death squads left many Sunni with no choice but to seek protection under the umbrella of al-Qaeda; as if the two militant groups were enemies, while there's good evidence that they work jointly at some level to escalate the violence in Iraq,” he writes.

Iraqi blogger Ladybird links to a video showing “US soldiers shooting on every thing that moves including civilians.”

Egyptian blogger Zeinobia gives us her two cents on what she thinks of the list of speakers who attended a conference on Secular Islam in Florida, US. “I don't know how the organizers of the Summit of were thinking, it seems that they chose all the outcasted and hated personalities from intellectual secularists across the Muslim world and those who got nothing to do in their miserable life except to write down books blaming Islam for all the tragedies in their lives to be in the international spot light,” she writes.

Egyptian blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy says an anti-Mubarak rally will be staged in Cairo Egypt on Sunday (March 26). This follows announcements of protests in Washington DC, US, and London, UK, on the same day.

Blogger Issandr Al Amrani links to a BBC documentary on the child slaves of Saudi Arabia here.
“These children (from poor countries like neighbouring Yemen) are often sold by families who are either duped into believing their offspring will get a better life or sometimes simply threatened. Once in the country, they are likely to face beatings and are sometimes even mutilated as their Dickensian masters stoop to any low to try to improve the chances of them earning more money,” says the documentary's synopsis.

Algerian blogger Lameen Souag is just back from attending a linguistics conference in Cambridge, CamLing 2007, where he presented a talk on number borrowing in Berber. For those interested, the talk is available here. Souag is also distressed to learn that Yucatec Maya, one of the largest Maya languages, is extremely threatened.

“Bad news for bus travellers in Dubai, who were looking forward to the installation of 500 air-conditioned bus stops before the brutal summer heat hits us. It's reported that they will miss the deadline for installation due to “operational delays” - whatever that means,” writes Dubai-based blogger Seabee. “This summer, travellers will again have to stand waiting for a bus in temperatures up to 50C (120F) and humidity in the 90% range,” he explains.

A UK court's decision “undermines the effort to bring to trial all defendants currently suspected of war crimes committed during the 1991-1995 conflict,” Neretva River reports.

A first-hand account of what is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo, “Meanwhile, the Spanish Embassy has been hit by mortal fire and the Nigerian Ambassador has been wounded in his home yesterday and as last heard, had not been evacuated as MONUC could not yet get to his house.”

Pressure is mounting on Egypt to release jailed blogger Abdulkareem Nabeel Sulaiman. The latest pressure tactics are an op-ed article in the New York Post and a call to US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to raise Kareem's issue in her meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, according to Free Kareem, a site put up by the jailed blogger's supporters.

Mighty Afroditee shares her thoughts on the plight of the disabled: “My environment needs further education and enlightenment…if buildings and sidewalks are not properly outfitted for handicap access…then we are taking away the ability of those with special needs to be independent.”

On the heels of the Jamaican police confirming that Pakistan's cricket coach, Bob Woolmer, was strangled to death, Guyana Providence Stadium refers to a report by Paul Newman and Mike Dickson speculating that the murder had to do with match-fixing.

Sara Lawrence, the medical student who won the coveted Miss Jamaica title and placed sixth for her country at the Miss World pageant last year, has relinquished her crown. YardFlex.com reports that it is the first time in the Jamaican contest's 23-year history that a winner was dethroned because she was pregnant.

The Voice of the Taino People reports that the Santo Domingo Government's Public Works Ministry is causing significant ecological destruction in a National Park in order to build a two-kilometer vehicular access.

Caribbean Public Relations is pleased at the Trinidad and Tobago government's introduction of measures to increase corporate social responsibility best practices in businesses.

What is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo? Read Congo Girl's update: “Since daybreak, the gun and mortar fire has only worsened in intensity. There is now one column of smoke rising from something or other when I look out the office windows either east or west. I can't see much else but I tried recording some sound (uploads…sometime). Had a tiny repos and have now given up on the mattress. On to another cup of Nescafe to squelch the growls.”

Joel Martinsen from DANWEI translated the story / interview with Yu Quanyu, the CPPCC member who proposed a law criminalizing seditious speech at this year's congressional sessions, from the most recent issue of Southern People Weekly.

Jacky blogs about the Google blogger sharing meeting. It is organized by google public relation company in Hong Kong, more like a product advertisement talk (zh).

Zhaihua picked up the recent catch phrase “you are too CCTV!” and explained that apart from China Central Television, it stands for closed-circuit television(zh).