Global Voices Online

Rosu blogs photos of a sand storm interrupting the speech of the vice minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) during a tree planting event.

Adamu reports that Hayao Miyazaki's new animation, “Ponyo on the Chiffs” is scheduled to be released in summer 2008. The production is completely hand-drawn, with no computers used whatsoever.

Hisane Masaki from Ohmynews reports on the recent merge of two oil companies into Inpex Holdings to prepare for entering the global market.

Marie Mockett from Japundit introduces a new book, Kickboxing Geishas, about contemporary Japanese women's role in changing the society.

Poet Tinashe Mushakavanhu has been compared to Dambudzo Marechera. eshuneutics disagrees: The gaps are more to do with a poet learning a visual syntax whereas the breaks in Marechera are a psychological terrain that has to be crossed with a struggle, with effort, with full engagement by the reader. I find Mushakavanhu’s poetry to be interesting, but to draw comparisons with Marechera is misguided: the obvious comparisons—beyond the fact that both have connections with Zimbabwe—are really quite spurious and detrimental to a developing poetic talent.

Kumekucha reveals what he calls “two anti-Kikuyu” constitutional amendments in Kenya, “Moi and his cronies introduced the constitutional amendment requiring a president to garner at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in 5 provinces out of the total of 8 as an extra safety valve and precaution against losing the presidential elections. This amendment was clearly targeted at the feared Kikuyu vote in the opposition. The arithmetic clearly showed that a Kikuyu candidate who could get the support of the entire community was capable of getting enough votes to win the presidency. This is further evidence that Moi must have rigged both the 1992 and 1997 elections in his favor. The truth is that Matiba won in 1992 and Kibaki won in 1997.”

A sign of order and normalcy in Hargeysa, the capital of the Republic of Somaliland.

Le Blog du Congolais posts an article by Freddy Lokolongo stating [Fr]: “The events of Bas-Congo and more recently attacks on the homes of ex-Vice President Bemba … with the complicity of [United Nations Mission to the Congo] MONUC, do not even begin to display the extent of the plot originated by the international community … and of which Kabila [and others] are the leaders.”

Commenting on a news story about GEDIMEX, a food distributor who refuses to halt its alleged sale of rotten rice, Collectif Haiti de Provence writes [Fr]: “One wonders how one can store food to its rotting while thousands starve … No investigation by authorities will uproot GEDIMEX. Favors here, resounding favors there and the story will be quickly forgotten.” The story about GEDIMEX broke amidst a general crackdown on retailers of expired food near destitute violence ridden areas of the capital by the government.

My Voting Dilemma - A poem by Kenyanpoet:
This paradox of how a piece of paper
With X and ticks marks like an exam paper
To examine my literacy and disarm my prayers
Malcolm X and Nike labels
Tick no and X or cancel yes
No I don’t want yes
My answer is no
And so I will cancel

Bahraini blogger Mahmood's Den discusses the ills of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and their inability to implement important monetary policy.

Saudi blogger Nzingha's Soapbox tells the story of dealing with a potential stalker: “Now that freaked me out, it sounds like he is calling from his car and he is asking me if I'm alone. I hung up called security let them know if this guy shows up to have him detained until police arrive.”

Palestinian blog Oranges and Olives notes the hypocrisy of the website Islam the Religion of Peace: “It is supposed to be a sarcastic name, based on the origin of the word Islam. The website has the most despicable news analysis, and op-eds which should all direct you to one conclusion, that Islam is a religion that calls for murder!”

black and gray in conversation with novelist Ravinder Randhawa. “British-Asian writers may traverse all the territory from fantasy to reality, chick-lit to crime novels, but, in general, if a novel is by a British Asian author and has Asian characters it is immediately placed in the category of British-Asian novel. Or, additionally acquires the embellishment of ‘a multi-cultural novel.’”

Jordanian blogger The Black Iris of Jordan points out how using the term “Jew” can feel like it is Anti-Semitic; as well as words like Judaism and Israel. “It is the strangest feeling but it’s like there is an anti-Semitic radar in my head that starts to beep wildly whenever this word approaches.”

Chaar~Max on the extremely exciting game of cricket - SL vs Eng. “Not letting down his captain Dilo held his nerves to bring down the target to 3 runs in the last ball, and when some thought there might be a Draw in the cards the bugger manages to bowl a “You miss, I hit” ball under pressure!”

Indi.ca on the appeal of cricket. “I’ve watched whole games, but it’s hard to stay up till 3 am on a work day. However, the game courses through multiple mediums - the web (CricInfo), the security guard’s radio, casual phone conversations with friends, and the cheers of the people next door. I was replacing my car battery last night and you could reliably tell the score from the noise the neighbors were making. And that is the appeal of cricket, to me, that it is a profoundly social sport, and a modern sport in terms of media.”

The Arabist explains the ties between Venice and the Middle East: “Did you know the first Koran was printed in Venice in 1537? Or that Venetians learned the art of glass-blowing from the Arab world, Syria in particular?”

Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying on the fairness of trials. “The Bangladesh desk of Amnesty International responded to an enquiry from Drishtipat, a Bangladeshi Human Rights organization, regarding their position on the deportation of convicted terrorist Mohiuddin AKM Ahmed to Bangladesh.”

Rowing solo across the atlantic, Bhavik writes “Cleaning the bilge pump and the space under the bilge board is always a bit of a treasure hunt, turning up wrappers, paper, nuts, bolts, screws, bits of plastic, hair and dropped food. Finally, storing the sea anchor away and clearing the last debris of flying fish wings and about 3 small fish that had slithered under the ropes. All in all, the deck is once looking much more civilized.”

A funny (and macabre) take on Greg Chappell's personal diary at Mostly Thoughtless. “Anyway, the Bangladesh team is not very good at all. After we thrash them tomorrow, we will then play some team called Bermuda on Monday. I wonder why they have named themselves after loose shorts. They have a really fat player in their team, who grosses me out completely.”

For over a year now we've been following Dave as he has ridden his bike from California through Mexico, Central America, the Andes, and Patagonia as part of his Ride for the Climate. That adventures is now over, writes Dave from Buenos Aires. This last entry is a great look back over the all 15,921 miles of the trip and a review of some of Latin America's environmental issues as global warming accelerate.

Bob Glass says that Panama and Costa Rica will renew talks on April 9 that might lead to a free trade agreement between the neighboring countries.

Unlike most other languages, Spanish is officially regulated by a governing body. A governing body which, according to Christian Espinosa [ES], has finally accepted the inevitable: everyone's favorite investigative verb, to google. Yo gugleo, tu gugleas, we all gugleamos.

Noting that BlogsColombia recently organized a successful blogger bash in Bogotá, Juliana Parra and fellow Medellín bloggers are now planning their own event to celebrate Internet Week from May 14 - 18. A Medellín metro blog - MedalloBloguero [ES] - has already been set up.

“Radio Sumpul, like other stations in ARPAS, plays a variety of music, news and educational programs for all ages of listeners. The operation at Radio Sumpul is staffed by volunteers. One of the staff explained to me that the volunteers, most of whom are women, work at the station because they are commited to the project and because they are able to gain experience working with the technology of an actual radio station.” Learn more at Tim's El Salvador Blog.

Israeli blogger Yael on Aliyah! criticizes the Canadian government for not considering the bombing of a Jewish Community Center during Passover as a hate crime, “if a church got bombed on Easter or a Mosque got bombed during Ramadan it would also be a good bet that it was a hate crime.”

Kurdish blog From Holland to Kurdistan reports of unrest in the Kurdish region of Syria: “Ciwan Mohammed (25) was killed in a fight in the Assyrian district of Derek by an Assyrian on the 1th of April. Two Kurdish boys were severely wounded and brought to the hospital in Qamishlo. 30.000 Kurds attended the funeral today of the murdered victim and demonstrated against the Syrian government.”

Metroblogging Istanbul has now started a Flickr account to document the graffiti art of Istanbul “some of them are great works of art, out of reach of the general public because they are hidden in remote locations in the city”.

Brown Dawg finally gets his day, managing to slip in a post on Guyana Gyal's blog in much the same fashion that he slips into practically every cricket match “more silent than a piece of stew chicken plopsing to the ground.”

Rossijskaja Federazija reports that the Polish management of the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial museum closed the Russian part of the exposition on the prisoners because of a dispute over the victims' citizenship.

All About Latvia writes about Riga's mayor's proposal to build an “adult playground” for the capital's foreign visitors: “the new district will feature a multi-purpose sports facility, several night clubs, public restrooms, and a brothel.” (Update: it's an April 1 joke!)

t13hman posts a great shot of the cocoa-drying process in Grenada circa 1970, accompanied by a photo stream of slides taken in Puerto Rico in the 1940s.

Cuban dissidents were insulted that the Spanish Foreign Minister did not meet with them during a recent visit to the island. Blog for Cuba has details.

History was made in Belize as Mayans filed a Supreme Court action aimed at forcing the government to recognize their indigenous land ownership rights. Brad Brace calls it “an unusual show in the middle of the morning in the heart of the city, but still, by-standers could be heard shouting support.”

On the heels of both the LIAT/Caribbean Star merger and the re-branding of BWIA to Caribbean Airlines, intra-island airfares are the highest they have ever been. Barbados Free Press worries that “unless this issue is addressed, it will certainly restrict any meaningful growth in travel throughout the region.”

As Bahamian elections are announced, Sidney Sweeting at WeblogBahamas.com laments “the evil that men will do, all in the name of politics.”

Siberian Light had to close the comment section on this post about the current events in Ukraine, after minor virtual fighting broke out between a bunch of readers.

“Crisis has become the hallmark of Ukrainian politics since last year's March parliamentary elections,” writes Vilhelm Konnander and explains what the reasons and the perspectives are.

Moscow Graffiti showcases two pieces of Russian “dissident street art”: the first one is “self-explanatory, unless you are a poor soul who has never heard of Bob Marley.”

Some Chechen opponents of Ramzan Kadyrov are also opposed to a French “mobile festival of artists, performers, jugglers, musicians and others that is scheduled to travel from Paris to the Chechen capital Grozny during the months of April and May.” To learn why, read this post at A Step At A Time.

Wanted by the West Indies Cricket Board: Strength and Conditioning Coordinator. The West Indies Cricket Blog links to the job advertisement that seeks to ensure “West Indies teams are the best prepared teams so as to create a successful and winning culture.”

MoldovAnn shares her impressions of living “in the midst of our own little political mess in Ukraine”: “I had a chuckle when a friend of mine working in Afghanistan IM’d me on Monday to check if I am OK. I had to chuckle at the irony. The worst thing that seems to have happened so far is that all the shops around here are completely sold out of everything. These are Ukrainians, I told her, generally pretty nice people. Except for in stores, or the post office, or in any kind of service job.”

Abdymok.net and Foreign Notes write about the politics of awaiting the Constitutional Court's decision and other political matters: “Luckily most Ukrainians are equipped with efficient bull-s**t filters and are going about their daily business as usual,” writes LEvko.

Blog Bucharest provides a link to a Romanian-language Wikipedia page written in Cyrillic script and explains this particular “language issue” a bit.

Blog Bucharest writes about stray dogs in Romania's capital.

Japan’s Supreme Court recently ruled that the woman giving birth, not the woman who contributed her DNA, is to be recognized as the legal mother. Joe Jones from Japan Law blog discussed the implication of the case.

Some tips from Joe on how to live on the cheap in Tokyo.

Yesterday, 4th April, 2007, Thailand’s military-appointed government has blocked access to the popular video-sharing site YouTube after its owners, Google Inc, declined to take down a clip ridiculing the country's revered monarch: King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

“When they decide to withdraw the clip, we will withdraw the ban,” said ICT Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom.

Jeff Ooi in Malaysia seeks encouragement from Gandhi's non-violent movement against the British salt monopoly in India. Jeff and a fellow Malaysian blogger are being sued by a mainstream media company. The blogger writes “Seventy-seven years on, ain't we living in a world of surging monopoly over the opinion space. Constructive criticisms are gross dissent. And that, you should only buy one version of truth that is news-slanted by the politically-cowed mainstream media dictated by the editorial mullahs?”