Global Voices Online

ESWN put together various polls about Hong Kong people's evaluation of the two candidates and priority in concerned issues, and provided a detailed post-election analysis of Hong Kong politics.

Simon world has an update on the preservation plan of the Queen's Pier: a roadside Pier. Over the Rainbow explains the reason why Hong Kong architects insist to keep the Pier in Situ is because of the symbolism in its spatial relation with the city hall (zh).

Peoples' Republic of blogs three pictures that tell the differences between Google and Baidu.

Will blogs about the recent suggestion to turn Panda poop into wrapping paper, following Thailand's example in using elephant dropping. He drew some associations from the news.

Jonathan Dresner from Frog in a Well has written a history round up on issues such as comfort woman, Nanjing massarce, textbook, etc.

Darkness at Noon (Moscow-based) and Music and Life - Everywhere! (currently, in Tbilisi) reflect on street beggars and ways of dealing with them.

The Turkish Invasion reports on the blood tests one is required to undergo to be allowed to work in Russia.

Lyndon of Scraps of Moscow writes in-depth on the troubles facing Russia's universities.

Two-Zero captures a typical early-spring scene in Moscow.

Kamangir informs us about a piece titled “ten points about Resolution 1747 ” published on Alef,a right-wing site.According to this piece:”While it had no effect on this resolution it might be effective in the future. Although, the pressure has not had any effect on the daily life of Iranians, and on the economy of Iran, if the West goes further than this and the sanctions start affecting Iran, then many people in Iran would start asking if we are paying the price of owning a nuclear bomb, why not really posses it and benefit from it.”

TOL's Belarus Blog covers these subjects: silly pretexts used to arrest opposition activists; the Constitution Day; Belarusian “market socialism“; some of the effects of the recent “gas war” with Russia.

Neretva River writes about five war criminals living abroad; Bosnia Vault writes about the one who had just been spared extradition by a British judge: “How much time needs to pass before a crime is no longer worthy of being dealt with in a court of law? In other words, how much time must pass before an alleged crime ceases to be a crime?”

Parque Patricios [ES] is a hyperlocal blog by journalist and photographer Gabriel Giubellino about his Buenos Aires neighborhood, you guessed it, Parque Patricios.

J. Otto Pohl posts a note on the deportation of the Kalmyks 63 years ago.

Information Policy reports on Romania's Internet use statistics.

Salam Dhaka talks of the person in the middle. “The middle-class is where the best of the country's talent lies. Yet, they are in a very tight corner when it comes to financial options. The capital markets in Bangladesh are rigged and almost non existent.”

a bengali in TO doesn't take kindly to the BBC's patronizing view of Ireland and Bangladesh's entry into the World Cup Super 8 round. “The BBC has always been a patronizing old white men's club. Yes, they do deliver (mostly) fair and balanced coverage of the Middle East, but when your main comparison is the CNN, that doesn't say much. These old white men have a few set ideas and are scathing when reality begs to differ.”

Light Within has a wonderful collection of advertisements from a 1959 publication. “I own a copy of Pakistan Railway's time table published in November of 1959. Besides train timings, it has a section of advertisements which is a great glimpse into our national past. I've selected following 8 advertisements from this publication.”

Even as the media appears to be forgetting about Nandigram, SacredMedia Cow has a post by a journalist who says that the real carnage is yet to come. “Though the report is yet to be made public, CBI sources very clearly detail out the following – a. police did not follow the standard 5 step procedure before opening fire and they fired to kill – in almost all cases the bullets pierced the bodies around stomach & chest.”

International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal provides a rap sheet for a corporate giant TATA. ” Until the onset of liberalisation, Tatas remained the undisputed king of the license-raj, covering its trail of human rights, labour and environmental violations with liberal philanthropic give-aways.”

Animal Science blog has published several photos and description of extinct animals in Iran such as “Iranian Lion”(Panthera Leo Persica) or Mazandaran Tiger.There are also photos of endagered animals such as Cheetahs and Euracian lynx.The blogger says urbanism and mismanagment can add endangered animals on the list of extinct animals.

“The health of the Tunisian prisoner of conscience Reda Boukadi is reportedly deteriorating again due to the diseases that hit him in Tunisian prisons; he should be released or moved immediately to hospital to be hospitalized before it is too late. the doctor who hurriedly examined him in Charles Nicolle hospital days ago said that he must be immediately given adequate care because his health is bad,” according to the Cairo-based Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) website.

“Today, the local newspapers carried an advertisement from the Ministry of Telecommunications prohibiting the use of counterfeit or pirated material including computer programs that are either sold, lent, given, shared, or otherwise,” writes Omani blogger Sleepless in Oman.
“Given the seriousness of this issue in the current time and stage that we all now live in, and being a child of the 21st century technological revolution. It seems quite disappointing that the Ministry in name has started its said ‘war against piracy' now without giving the consumers that do have such programs in their systems an alternative,” he adds.

Iraqi blogger Konfused Kid, who lives in Jordan, shares with us a day of his life here. He also shows us how Iraqi refugees are faring in nearby Jordan.

Iraqi blogger Lady Bird links to a video allegedly claiming that US forces demolished Iraqi homes here.
“Last Friday US occupation forces destroyed civilians houses in Raghba-Katoon -Ahdamiya neighborhood. I bet houses owners if they fought against the occupation forces they will called terrorists,” she writes.

Iraqi blogger Ibn_Alrafidain lets us in on his take on the debaathification of Iraq here.
“The US administration and its Iraqi allies seem to have dissimilar approaches to the de-baathification law. The Americans want to go much further than the Iraqis in easing rules barring former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from government service,” he writes.

Mobile phone woes anyone?
“It took a whole year, two phones and a good BD 200 (US 530) for me to realize that there is absolutely nothing “smart” about the so called “PDA Smart Phones”. I just dumped my Sony Ericsson m600i yesterday, exchanging it alongside my late imate KJam I had previously,” laments Bahraini blogger Mohammed Al Maskati.

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif was busy car shopping for his wife.. and being in a democratic mood.. got his readers involved in the selection process. Congrats Frances on a lovely car.

“It occurred to me that for people like Carlos, assuming the worst about strangers is one of life’s great little pleasures. A pleasure which can transform something as boring and mundane as a taxi ride, into something dangerous and risky and rash,” writes Matt Landau in his meditation on “Taxis in Panama.”

“Ms. Forbes has been an inspiration to actors and artists all over the world… especially black actresses and people of Caribbean decent.” Caribbean Beat Blog is thrilled that West Indian actor Leonie Forbes will be honoured with an Award of Excellence at this year's ReelWorld Film Festival in Toronto.

“I always feel relieved in more ways than one when, after long travels, I once again visit a public toilet in Belize.” Simone Angel thinks all the bells and whistles of “top of the range” toilets are a symbol of progress gone mad: “Progress is not always about going faster and it's not about sanitizing the hell out of life either.”

Barbados Free Press wonders if Barbados' tourism industry has actually grown or whether “visitors are spending more, simply because virtually everything is costing more, so there has not been any real growth at all.”

In light of this year's Commemoration of the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Nicolette Bethel reprints a letter she has written to Caribbean film distributors questioning the limited release of the film Amazing Grace: “Given that the Abolition Act championed by William Wilberforce and his Abolitionists directly affected the British West Indian colonies, of which The Bahamas is one, we find the unavailability of this film, which provides an account of his struggle, beyond our comprehension.” l

Jackfruity announces the winners of the 2006 Uganda Best of Blog Awards: The goal of the 2006 Uganda Best of Blog Awards was to recognize the incredible writing and art in this community, and all of our nominees are certainly emblematic of the talent that exists in the Ugandan blogosphere. Congratulations to the winners! I look forward to seeing everyone continue to express themselves through word, art, design and photography over the next year.

Drug addicts, known in Aruba as “chollers”, are wreaking havoc in Oranjestad. Arubagirl recounts the most recent incident and wonders “who the real threat to society here is: the choller who slashed tires because he was denied something or the businessman waving a gun because he thought that the man in front of him was going to pull a knife.”

Corruption-Free Anguilla features a guest post that expresses concern about the island's failing education system and the resulting consequences.

Metroblogging Bangkok points to a video interview with a professional foreign beggar in Bangkok. “You know those farang who sit on the overpasses with signs begging for Baht to help them buy a plane ticket or something? They usually look like backpackers, and honestly they usually make me pretty sick. I guess more and more of them have been popping up lately, and this video is of an interview with one in Gaysorn. He makes 1,000B a day, meaning, 30,000B a month.”. Farang refers to a person from the west.

Jewelle is happy that her native language is being made an examination subject. The blogger feels that this would help save the language from extinction. “So I totally laud this new policy as I think this language is fast disappearing as more and more Sabahan parents do tend to speak other common language like English, Malay and Chinese.”

Cloggers - a self coined name by Cambodian bloggers themselves are happy that the mainstream media has an article on them. Dee Deehas more.

Maurina introduces Lawar, a traditional dish in Brunei. “What is interesting about lawar is that, it does not require any conventional form of cooking, e.g. frying, boiling, sauteing, grilling. Not to say that it is eaten raw just like that. On the contrary, it is cooked, but only using the acids from the liberal amounts of lime added in the beginning.”

A petition for political prisoner Hailu Shawel: “Petitioning the agency to pressure the government of Ethiopia–its primary regional ally in the Horn–to allow Engineer Hailu access to immediate and proper medical care is not a political demand. It is a purely human rights concern.”

While Congolese are trying to get their life back to normal, there are rumours that Angolan troops have been deployed in Kinshasa, blogger Kate Wolf reports: The have been rumours of Angolan troops in the country on and off for several months and there have now been definite sightings in Kinshasa. Apparently during the fighting the Angolan army was ready for deployed to Congo.

Oneworld Multimedia reports that the prime minister of Armenia has died.

Notes From Hareinik says that Armenian mineral water is probably perfectly safe and says that the recent US ban on Jermuk brand water may have been politically motivated.

The Armenian Economist reports that Armenia's real estate sector boomed again in 2006.

neweurasia's Adam reports on an apparent outbreak of ethnic violence in Kazakhstan between Kazakhs and Chechens, a country that likes to pride itself on ethnic and religious harmony.

The CRD/TI Armenian Election Blog reports on this weekend's Aylentrank rally in Yerevan.