Global Voices Online

Vous Reprendrez Bien Un Peu d'Humanisme is upset [Fr] that veteran sailor Florence Arthaud has accepted the Sassou-Nguesso government's offer to participate in a sailing event there in less than 2 weeks for an event that is designed to boost local tourism. Says the blogger: “Are French sailors naive? Does Florence Arthaud lack critical thinking skills to the point of being had by any old crook?… This decision is a bad one because it cautions a violent dictatorial regime. “

Says Le Pangolin [Fr]: “Marthe Moumié is the widow of Cameroonian nationalist Félix Moumié, assassinated in Geneva by the French Secret Service in 1960. Marthe writes a book prefaced by [Algerian President] Ahmed Ben Bella… In the book, Victime du Colonialisme Français [ i.e “Victim of French Colonialism”], Marthe explains how after her husband's death she was tortured in Equatorial Guinean jails for 5 years. “

The blogger at a Japanese popular culture site J-List side blog explains why his daughter was surprised that the maids at a home that they were visiting in Malaysia were cleaning the house.

The blogger at Old Man's Blog relates the story of a friend whose marriage is on the rocks. The blogger who is himself a divorcee hopes for his friend to reconcile with her husband and get back together. The blogger laments the increase in marriages falling apart in Brunei.

Iraqi blogger Omar links to his own article in which he discusses his thoughts on the captured British sailors.
“Understanding the motives and goals of Iranian government is useful in predicting the way the crisis will end,” he notes.

Bill Gates is worth as many as 15 Arab billionaires, writes Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif, who links to an article on Arab billionaires here.

Bahraini blogger emoodz is enjoying life without cable television and he tells us why here.

Algerian blogger Nouri cautions the West of misreading recent Saudi manoeuvres in leading Arab states. “The Americans should encourage Saudi leadership, because if their reaction to the Saudi drive for organization is mismanaged or misinterpreted, the consequences are potentially dire. And the consequences of continued Arab ambiguity and disunity are even more explosive and dangerous,” he writes.

The movie Blood Diamond reminds blogger Man Actually of his younger mining days in Myanmar. “And being once a miner myself deep in the jungle far north Myanmar's very own Jade Mines, you guess! how this movie would be so special to me..Along with the Archer and Solomon, the whole week I was thinking and wondering about Dee Rum, Hong Hkong, my dear comrades, the miners and how they are doing? I have always wanted to write about my experience in the jade land but whenever I tried to start the story I felt mentally draining and lost in translation emotionally hence never been able to materialize the story.”

Afghanistanica writes about the other side of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

New Somalia publishes an email from Somalia describing “new terror”:We have lived in Mogadishu for 60 years and we have never known fighting on the scale of what we have suffered in the last week. The Ethiopian troops have been using tanks and missiles to demolish whole parts of the city which they say are held by Al Qaida supporters. But these areas are ones which refused to support the Ethiopian invasion, and do not want the warlords to return. There is shelling all the time. It is completely indiscriminate. They are just destroying homes and shops.

Onnik Krikorian rounds up news concerning Armenia's upcoming parliamentary election.

Responding to the news of an attempted assassination of a provincial mayor that left four people dead, Harmick comes up with an innovative solution for solving Armenia's politics

Kyrgyz Report says that a prominent opposition leader in Kyrgyzstan is worried that the current tensions between the president and his former prime minister, who is currently trying to unite the opposition, will deepen regional divisions in the country.

At neweurasia, Peter says that the selection of Turkmenistan's president as head of the Halk Maslahaty (People's Council) indicates that he is more powerful than was previously assumed.

Grandiose Parlor gives up on Nigeria general election, “As for me and my household, we have given up on the presidential elections because there’s nothing awe-inspiring or even encouraging among the present cadre of candidates. It is a shame that some of the promising candidates have either been bullied to step-down (Duke and Muazu) or simply got lost their way to the campaign ground (Utomi).”

A new blog aggregator from Africa, Afrigator: “Afrigator launched today, an excellent new website dedicated to aggregating blog posts from Africa. It joins the ranks of 1-year old Muti, 1-month old Amatomu, and 1-week old Mashada.”

In Project 300 we read “Tehran-based music band Hypernova, spearheaded by former Vancouverite -and friend of a friend- Raam, is in New York. Check out what they're up to. The music scene in Iran is quite complex, none of the music I have so far posted here is actually ‘legal' in Iran.”

Dina Mehta doesn't quite buy the concept of a Bloggers Code of Conduct. “It seems to me, culturally, it is a very North-American thing to think up. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love some aspects of North America and have met some of the finest folks there - but this operating out of ‘fear' is one aspect I have written about earlier, that I find goes beyond protection.”

Indian Muslims on revisiting Kabir. “Nevertheless, a synthesis of sorts was navigated by hundreds of yogis, Sufis and poets of India. Very much a people’s movement from the below, Bhakti movement articulated a powerful vision of tolerance, amity and co-existence that is still relevant. This is many centuries before the suave, western educated intelligentsia coined the ‘people-to-people’ contact campaigns.”

True Sri Lankan comments on Amnesty International's campaign. “So shouting at Amnesty International is not going to help Sri Lanka at all. Sri Lanka has to gets it’s act together and face the reality of the situation. Everyone knows that the authorities are claiming that this campaign is aimed at demoralizing the Sri Lankan cricket team in order to get the support of Sri Lankans and shifting focus from the real situation of human rights.”

Light Within on language. “In the Angkor period of Cambodian history (9th-15th century) numerous Sanskrit and Pali words (by way of Buddhism) were absorbed into the Khmer language, and subsequently into Thai, since Thailand was a Khmer colony. The new words adjusted to their new homes imbibing the rules of pronunciation and sounds of the local languages.”

Salik brainstorms a bit about a citizen journalism portal for Nepal. “But freedom comes at a cost- I want to build a community portal that will make money which in turn will be provided to those who created contents and help run the portal itself. I know that such project will take a lot of my time and demand more knowledge and manpower.”

Kourosh Ziabari [Fa] talks about Iranian president,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's interview with France 24 television 2 weeks ago. The blogger got surprised that Ahmadinejad considers that sanctions won't have any influence on Iranian economy.The blogger writes Iranians import everything and sanctions can really hurt country.

Sunday, 1st April 2007, the Tunisian authorities have blocked access to the popular French video sharing site Dailymotion, wrote the Tunisian blogger Astrubal.
“The blocking of the www.dailymotion.com site may have been prompted by the posting of a number of videos on the political situation in Tunisia” said Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in its statement issued yesterday, 3rd April, 2007.

American blogger Joshua Landis writes that the perpetrators of the February 14, 2005, Hariri assassination may never be tracked down. “His (Seymour Hersh - an American Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and author) sources at the UN tell him there is no evidence against Syria yet. That the Hariri killing was very carefully planned and executed, and that we might never find out who ordered that assassination,” writes Landis.

Lebanese blogger Moussa Bachir links to an article on the British sailors captured by Iran. “No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilized bunch. This is an article written by Terry Jones for the Guardian that I like to share with you. His article is a satire that does an excellent job in exposing hypocrisy,” he writes.

Algerian blogger and linguist Lameen Souag debates the motives of bloggers who abusively invoke Islam into defining different behaviours and attitudes. “The likes of Al-Qaeda wrongly describe their own terrorist acts as jihad in order to make them appear legitimate to other Muslims; for Western governments to publicly accept this characterisation is about as sensible as it would be for Muslim critics of Bush to start losing no opportunity to call him a true American patriot, or a stalwart defender of democracy and freedom,” he writes.

Trinidad and Tobago's Environmental Management Authority announced yesterday that they have given Alutrint the go ahead for an aluminum smelter to be built in La Brea. “This in spite of two years of extensive comment, research and investigation which conclusively shows not only that aluminum smelting is not a financially viable option for Trinidad and Tobago but that we are ill prepared for the environmental implications of such a hazardous industry,” Attillah writes, adding that the fight is only just beginning.

Jonathan Ali is highly amused at what clearly must have been the Trinidad Guardian's April Fool's prank.

The Life and Times of Michmac recalls being taught by Professor Rex Nettleford and links to his keynote address to the United Nations on the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

Marlon James is forced to consider his own mortality as he enters the stage of life he dubs “The Burying Years”.

Guyana Providence Stadium links to a story by by Vaneisa Baksh about the failed marketing strategy of the Cricket World Cup: “West Indians sensed early that this World Cup cared little for their company, their culture, and ignored the realities of life in this part of the world. It just hasn’t been enough about West Indians; can you blame them?”

The Hong Kong Government urged the public to name the two Pandas, a gift from the central government to Hong Kong to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of reunification. Fou Sing from inmediahk.net suggested to name them “Po Po”, “Suen Suen”, meaning universal suffrage (zh). In the comment section there are more suggestions, such as “Star Ferry”, “Queen's Pier”, and “July 1″ and “June 4″.

Guyana Providence Stadium links to a story by by Vaneisa Baksh about the failed marketing strategy of the Cricket World Cup: “West Indians sensed early that this World Cup cared little for their company, their culture, and ignored the realities of life in this part of the world. It just hasn't been enough about West Indians; can you blame them?”

Living Dominica reprints an article she has written for Caribpro Magazine about healthcare in the Nature Island: “We may not live as long as the famous Dominican Ma Pampo who reached 127, but the fresh air and fresh food of this island have a healing quality. And we have been delighted to find this same healing touch in the lovely old fashioned caring of Dominican healthcare.”

A total of 710 prisoners were pardoned in Morocco on the occasion of Prophet Mohammed's birthday, according to Sandy, who gives us a View From Fez.

Saudi-based blogger Nzingha is already planning for her summer holidays and is finding it hard to select between visiting the US or Malaysia. She also fills us in on problems with finding a suitable nanny for her children.

Saudi blogger Yazeez finds the mounting crisis on the British sailors captured by Iran as “ridiculous.” “Iran wants an apology, which is very justifiable considering the fact that what the sailors did was technically an ‘invasion',” he writes.

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif links to a video which serves as a reality check on the status of education in the Middle East and whether it really prepares students for the future.

Rebecca has written up a detailed report on the copyright and creativity symposium. As she has pointed out, Hong Kong has lagged behind in web innovation.

Jacky carried on the discussion and suggested that the cultural industries had to seek new business model (zh).

Fongyun, a teacher, kept on protesting that the existing copyright practice will betray the development of knowledge (zh).

Walter Hendler from Ohmynews has put up a video on the recent anti FTA battle in Seoul with a background report on the negotiation and local politics.

Gyaku has translated an article on the neglective impacts of Japan's Official Developmental Assistance (ODA) in Japan and in developing countries. The writer, Tanaka Yu, is an activist on environmental, economic, and anti-war issues.

Farjami [Fa] can not understand how VOA, Voice of America, ( Persian service) can interview Abdolmalek Rigi, a terrorist leader who killed innocent people in Iran. He considers it very shameful.