Global Voices Online

Recursive Hypocrisy on the politics of Uttar Pradesh. If opinion/exit polls are to be believed, and taken with a pinch of salt, one can come to a reasonable conclusion. Mayawati will be the next chief minister. The question is, with whose support. Given the law in its current form, and given that the probability of her winning more than 160 seats in very small, she has to get either the BJP or the SP.”

Indian Muslims on the difficulty of finding a place to pray. “I wonder how many non-Muslims are comfortable with Muslims praying in front of them. I have seen people, in northern India, object just for the sake of doing it. On the other hand I have seen very amiable responses by non-Muslims in southern India. I would go ahead and claim that southern India is much more tolerant towards others when it comes to accepting idiosyncrasies.”

Desidabba on Nina Paley's work as a cartoonist and why it might just be kicking up a controversy. “Then of course, Paley is a white American woman. Cue the drum beats baying for her blood. This complex we have when it comes to white people is so ingrained in our psyche that we don’t know whether to celebrate that they’re paying us attention or get angry at the direction taken by their interest.”

Zahra says[Fa] Hezbollah in Iran criticized Iranian president,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for kissing the hand of his primary school's teacher recently.His teacher was an old woman and wore gloves. The blogger says why he did not choose a man.You can see the photo here.

Shahzaman Mozumder's Blog has a fascinating account of being a freedom fighter in 1971. “I reached the recruiting office, which was adjacent to Capt. Mahbub’s headquarters. Capt. Mahbub was also there and my name was soon written in a register and I became a Mukti Bahini recruit. There were a total of 45 to 50 other recruits, mostly from the nearby areas of Brahmanbaria. I was the only one from Dhaka. It was the 7th day of April 1971.”

A gut wrenching post on what means to be Bangla in Malaysia. “BANGLA, does that word mean anything to you? Or is it just something you shout to call that nameless guy from your toilet to scrape off that dried cow shit from underneath your car? Well for those who dont know shit, this blog explains the life of a Bangla. “

“One of the great resources for democracy is a free and strong press with a sense of duty towards preserving recent history as best as it can,” writes Barbados Free Press as it expresses concern over Barbados newspapers destroying their own archives.

The beatroot writes about May holidays in Warsaw.

Michael Forster Rothbart posts photos from an abandoned village near Chernobyl and writes about one image from Pripyat that he was especially impressed with.

Abdymok, during his early-morning run, talks religion and politics with “a longhaired bearded man missing most of his left front tooth.”

Both Babalu Blog and Cuban American Pundits report on a gunfight at Havana airport.

The Russian Dilettante compares the Russian president to the Estonian PM and writes about their respective roles in the current conflict over the Bronze Soldier: “I also suspect that the ‘riots' wouldn't have happened without Moscow's instigation, which is no wonder, Putin being the same Soviet type as Ansip. No doubt Moscow causes more harm than good to the Russians in Estonia with its yells of ‘fascism,' ‘boycott,' and ‘discrimination.'”

Itching for Eestimaa writes: “With the issue of the Estonian government's decision to relocate a Soviet war memorial to a military cemetery de facto concluded — though the repercussions will no doubt linger for years — the situation at the Estonian embassy in Moscow has become the new focus point of this contest of wills.” Estland posts pictures of the Tallinn monument at its new location (text in German). At Copydude's blog, an ethnic Russian living in Estonia posts a plea for help and inspires yet another heated discussion in the comments section.

Tim Muth's El Salvador Blog links to the recent US State Department's Country Report on Terrorism and how El Salvador has participated. There is some worry that the broad definition of terrorism in the country's anti-terrorism law may place other non-related activities, such as protests, liable for harsh penalties.

Bloggings by Boz was recently in Colombia once again and launched an informal poll of taxi drivers in Bogota and Cartagena. All five gave President Alvaro Uribe high marks on security, which is something that was not surprising. In addition to the security issue, he also asked them about other pressing issues, however, “I’ll stress that five cab drivers in two of Colombia’s major cities should not be taken as representative of the population at large.”

As the world celebrates World Press Freedom Day, the Egyptian journalist and blogger, Abdel Monem Mahmoud, sits in jail after reporting on torture and condemning the transferring of civilians to military tribunals.

On this occasion, a number of bloggers and activists from around the world have launched the Free Monem campaign. “ We cannot let the regime succeed in silencing him. We have to show the Egyptian regime that when you imprison a blogger, you don't silence his voice, you AMPLIFY it!” they wrote in their mail announcement.

Koluki weighs in on the Miss Landmine Angola Project: “Certainly, these women won’t become “more beautiful” or “more empowered” in the eyes of their husbands, boyfriends, children, families and communities simply because they are photographed wearing make-up and nail polish, which after all will definitely not survive the tending of fields or street-vending activities through which those among them who have a job earn a living! Wouldn’t this suggest that USD 80.000 would go a long way towards funding job-creating activities for these women, their families and communities?!”

“By my count, there are at least 31 men imprisoned in Cuba jails because of their work as journalists.” Uncommon Sense recognizes World Press Freedom Day.

“These are very interesting times,” writes Jamaican Geoffrey Philp, as he reports on a new blog by the Caribbean Review of Books.

Someone on My Space is using Guyana-Gyal's moniker and she's not happy about it: “I so vex me words chack up in me trote.”

“Why is Trinidad so lost on the urban planning front?” asks Club Soda and Salt. “It’s time to really put some thought into improving the capital city.”

Guest authoring on the Caribbean Beat Blog, Nicholas Laughlin writes an account of his hiking expedition to Mt. Roraima, a tabletop mountain located on the borders of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana.

Recently Hong Kong Bloggers are playing the Blog-chain game around a topic: Lemon Tea. (Technorati search: 檸檬茶) “Lemon Tea” is initially this year's examination topic for Chinese composition at Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination. The topic was criticised by teachers and education authority because they found it “too post-modern”, “too board” and “too difficult to give a mark”.

Diumanpark criticised [zh] the education system has assumed that everyone assume everyone else are stupid, student too stupid to write on a loose topic, teachers too stupid to give a mark, etc…

While other bloggers start to play the chain game to show the creativities in the blogsphere.

Pending the results of the Bahamian General Elections, which took place yesterday, Bahama Pundit touts the idea of changing governments regularly: “Either our politicians, public servants and judiciary uphold the rule of law, or, like termites, they will destroy the very structure of our nation. The best way to force them to toe the line is at the polls - every five years.” And Nicolette Bethel gives an update: “The governing party has changed.”

ESWN continued to translate article concerning Macau May Day disturbance. There are six listed reasons: In summary, this is an almost-zero-sum game. If the demands of the present marchers are met, another set of marchers will show up because their interests have been adversely affected as a result. Even if the overall welfare of the general population is maximized, someone will be unhappy.

Breaking out of prisons is the norm. Not any more. Blogger Jane Novak links to an article which claims that a cell of nine Yemenis were planning to break into a prison in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Libyan blogger Khadija Teri laments the end of a dream to bring affordable $100 laptops to classrooms in her country. “It was supposed to be happening this year in Libya too but it didn't … what happened??? We were looking forward to it… promises, promises… sigh…” she writes.

Andy Jackson from Marmot's Hole blogs about foods and calories statistic of 30s and 40s. For Korean man, soju is the second source of energy.

Libyan blogger Hibo Abo takes us on a quick tour of Tripoli in this video link.

Lebanese blogger Bashir Moussa briefs us about the history of car bombs. “The car bomb was invented in the US and was used to devastating effect by Mario Buda, an anarchist who exploded his horse-drawn wagon on Wall Street in 1920,” he notes.

“Are we witnessing a media freedom backslide in Jordan? For the past couple years or so, Jordan has been making baby steps towards safeguarding the freedom of the press, one was the recent scrapping of an article that imprisoned journalists. However, from what I read this week, things are not looking good as it seems the kingdom is regressing to its earlier status of muzzling press freedoms.I will try not to jump to conclusions quickly and point out that the Jordanian government has denied banning the newspaper,” writes Jordanian blogger Natasha Tynes on the World Press Freedom Day.

Jamie from Two Koreas blogs about how the new labour law ends up encouraging a range of bad practices.

Bahrain-based blogger Bint Battuta opens Pandora's Box and talks about how comfortable she is with alcohol and those who drink. “There's nothing remarkable about this – plenty of non-Muslims don't drink – but what I find strange is that the few Bahraini friends I have who do drink are almost evangelical about trying to persuade others to do so,” she writes.

Michael Hurt expresses his frustration as a foreigner in South Korea. This time, his friend is caught in a libel case because he has told the truth.

“Egypt famous e-journalist Wael Abbas who is currently in the United States had a little interview with Condi Rice’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Middle East Scott Carpenter for few minutes about the American aid which according to the annual report of the American aid organization Egypt took between years 2005 and 2006 in the midst of the so called Political reform one billion American dollar!!,” reports Egyptian blogger Zeinobia.

Qaddafi called recently for the creation of a neo-Fatimid empire in North Africa that would be “Arab and Shiite”, for “North Africa is Arab and Shi'ite,” reports Algerian blogger Nouri. “Obviously the Fatimids were of Arab origin, and not Iranian; the Iranians came to Shiism far later than did the Arabs, and even then only by force of arms by way of Turks. This does not change the fact that Shias are few and far between in North Africa today. And it very clearly does not mean that North Africans are “100%” Arabo-Shia. The Maghreb is not Basra,” he notes.

Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif marks World Press Freedom Day on a solemn note. “This occasion of course is not a celebration, not by any means, but is an occasion for all of us to reflect about what dear price journalists and opinion writers pay to bring us news and thoughts which makes us more aware of the world around us, and even allow us to make informed decisions. And for that, they generally get kidnapped and imprisoned,” he moans.

Who among Europeans are the strongest? If their dominance in the 2007 European Weightlifting Championship is any indication, it just might be the Armenians. As Armenia Blog reports, both the men and women of the Armenian team finished strongly.

KZBlog discusses whether or not policies in Kazakhstan are discouraging and scaring off investors.

Ben Paarmann reports on this year's Eurasia Media Forum, an annual (and controversial) event in Kazakhstan that, apparently, does not actually give many opportunities for journalists to participate.

Leila Tanayeva interviews the director of a short documentary on life as a teenage girl, love, and bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan.

Says French Caribbean site New Media [Fr]: “Taiwan, through the hand of its Foreign Affairs minister James Huang and his St. Lucian counterpart Rufus Bouquet, has officially signed Wednesday in Castries a treaty reestablishing diplomatic ties between the two countries. China has already stated it feels ‘offended' by the document.”

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, just paid a visit to Kazakhstan and Bonnie Boyd discusses Kazakhstan's human rights situation.

En Guyane posts [Fr] pictures of a mangosteen, a local fruit originating from Asia. She calls the fruit “sweet and strange”.

Onnik Krikorian reports on the election campaign of Artur Baghdasarian, leader of Armenia's Orinats Yerkir party, in the wake of a scandal involving him that prompted the country's president to accuse him of treason.