Global Voices Online

Flickr, the popular photo-sharing site is being blocked in China since June 7th: “It seems that access to our image servers is being blocked for users in much of China. Our technical staff has looked into this at depth and determined this is not a technical issue from our end. We will keep an eye on the situation and update if we get any developments”, said Flickr CEO Stewart Butterfield on the help forum.

As Global Voices John Kennedy reported earlier, the reason of banning Flickr may be the photo-report of the Xiamen protest that made its way to flikr.

Hamed Saber, the developer of the Firefox extension Access Flickr! (see his interview with Global Voices) who got engaged in an interesting debate about the Great Firewall in China, is offering his support to the Chinese Flickr Community and a Chinese HowTo of the extension has been added.

Kenya-Byte writes about the Kenyan bank whose website was hacked recently: “Equity Bank’s website was defaced last week. Safaricom’s website is suspiciously unavailable. There is some mischief going around.
The cracker who defaced Equity’s site might not have caused serious loss to the bank apart from denting the reputations of the in-house IT team. However Bongeni Jo (let’s baptise him so - after one of his calling cards), exposes a security lapse that would have had more serious implications.”

Afromusing blogs about the launch of Believe-Begin-Become program in Tanzania: “The programs’ goal is to support the youth in entrepreneurial pursuits by providing training, networking, and mentoring through technoserve and in partnership with the government. The plans they are looking for through business plan competitions in Tanzania, ought to be fundable and workable.”

Thinker's Room defines insanity as Paris Hilton vs. Darfur conflict on Google: “That’s right. There is almost FIVE TIMES as much content about some nebulous nobody than one of the biggest tragedies every to befall this earth. We pay more attention to issues of nuisance value than serious catastrophes that we could avoid but don’t.”

Bongoland II writes about Innocent Galinoma, a reggae artist from Tanzania living in the US: “His message is real and genuine, which you quickly pick up on when you talk to him. For example upon hearing his hit song “KILIMANJARO”, one could think that the message is about the famous majestic mountain in Africa…but paying more attention you quickly realize that there is a heavy message with references to oppressive governments, corrupt officials and starving children. The song takes you to the highest mountain in Africa with visions of all atrocities going on underneath.”

Lam Chun Chew remembers their kampong barber Mr. Low from his childhood days “He had another skill that enabled him to clear sand or small particles which got in his customer’s eyes by accidents. I saw him on one occasion lift a guy’s eye-lit, picking out a sand particle using a chrome pincer deftly. While doing his job he would engage his client in small talk, usually on whose children did well or not in their studies. This was his pet topic, probably because his elder son did quite well in a Chinese language medium school” . Kampong is the Malay word for a village or small settlement and Singapore used to have several kampongs before the urbanization in the 70s and 80s.

VietPundit is offended by people who think of US as a racist country. “The truth is that there’s less racism in America than anywhere else on earth. Just from the little corner of Asia where I came from: the Vietnamese hate the Chinese, who can’t stand the Japanese, who despise the Koreans, who of course loath the Japanese, and you can complete the circle yourself.” (via Balderdash)

The blogger at monsoonmaritimeservices recalls the late 70s encounters with the Vietnamese boat people. “During those time, those of us on merchant ships plying the South China Sea would have seen these decrepit boats overloaded with hundreds of “boat people” - We were in a dilemma, do we risk taking onboard these refugees knowing that most neighbouring countries including Singapore will not allowed them to be landed ashore?”. The “boat people” were the escapees from the communist regime in Vietnam following the Vietnam war.

5XMom read about a two-timing man on friend's blog who justified his actions by assuming that “woman is capable of just sleeping around without emotions involved”. The blogger cautions her readers “Classic. Grow up. Remember. Men have sex due to lust. Women have sex due to being fooled into thinking there is love involved. How the fark I know so much? I watch movie, read books, read blogs and I see them with my own eyes. Now, is this entertaining or what?

En Tu Ciudad [ES] reflects on the hardships suffered by many of the city's residents during the recent cold temperatures in Santiago. He also doesn't see anyone taking concrete steps in providing comfort or shelter for these individuals.

Hoja de Bijao [ES] writes about a Honduran film festival sponsored by a local university and the Honduran embassy that will take place in Panama.

Christian Espinoza summarizes the use of interactive and participatory media in Ecuador's online newspapers. On his blog Cobertura Digital [ES], he also writes about the newspaper Diario El Comerico's new feature “I Was There,” which allows readers to send information about events that they may have witnessed.

Richard Barrow at Thai-Blogs.com has pictures from the Thai Wai Khru Ceremony. I think one of the highlights for us during the first semester in schools in Thailand is the Wai Khru Ceremony. This is when the students pay respects to their teachers and present them with flowers or jasmine garlands.

Bangkok Pundit has a post on Thai prime minister's plans of launching petrochemical projects in the restive south of Thailand to improve the economic condition of people living in the area. There are some interesting comments below that talk about how much oil and gas project help the locals.

British American Tobacco (BAT) is leaving its North Korean joint venture and a Singapore based group is taking overs BAT's place reports dprkstudies.org. South East Asian and Chinese companies often fill the gap left by western companies who leave North Korea and Myanmar due to public or government pressure in their home countries. SE Asian and Chinese companies answer their critics by saying that they offer employment and their investment benefits the people in these closed economies.

At Blogrel, Harmick wonders whether or not a shared sense of pain resulting from the experience of genocide is the glue that gives Armenians around the world a shared sense of identity, and worries whether or not that sense of shared identity would vanish if the community decided to put the genocide behind them.

Cuttino's Georgian Life covers the outbreak of African swine fever in Georgia and says that this threatens a centerpiece of Georgian cuisine.

neweurasia and Non Pon say that Vladimir Putin's proposal for the US to put a missile defense system in Azerbaijan is a rare opportunity for cooperation in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

CXW notes that in Kyrgyzstan, competitive armwrestling is being impacted by the high cost of protein.

Blogonoia [ES] is an Argentine blog that has been chronicling the progress and writing about the interviews that will be part of the ongoing blog documentary project.

Pasa en Buenos Aires [ES] writes about the new “Noise Law” that seeks to curb the level of noise in the city and limits to 80db. The law also places restrictions on car alarms and sirens. Those that do not conform to the new law can face fines up to 50,000 pesos.

The Salvadoran daily La Prensa Gráfica recently refused to publish a piece from opposition party FMLN criticizing current President Tony Saca, as it claimed it is a private company that reserves the right to publish anything they see fit. The blog Hora Cero [ES] places the information on his site because, “I like to make information available and collect, if possible in a civil manner, opinions about one single question: Was La Prensa Gráfica justified in not publishing this communication piece from FMLN?

Colin Brayton of the New Market Machines writes an open letter to the editor of the New York Times regarding the work of reporter Larry Rohter. One complaint is “Your Latin American correspondent, Larry Rohter, frequently repeats, verbatim, the press-relations talking points of dubious actors, without attribution, and omits the viewpoints of more credible sources.”

Le Blog politique du Senegal writes that like Touba, Darou-Mouhty will now be a quasi-independent holy city [Fr] where political and folk activities, music, indecent dress, and the use of cigarettes and alcohol are all forbidden.  Senegal says that “mouride exceptionalism” is become more serious and worrying, that these areas defy the law of the state and when it comes to extremism, it is the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens, especially children, even from themselves.

Togo-iTunes posts photographs of a memorial ceremony for those who disappeared in a plane crash in Sierra Leone.

Le blog politique du Senegal questions how the government can consider a 35% a good voter turnout rate [Fr], calling it payback for the last election which was plagued by fraud and irregularities.   Those in power should see that this low turnout reflects the deep discontent and lack of trust many Senegalese have for their government.

Et Si Nous Parlions writes the French Ministry of Immigration and National Identity, which he sarcastically calls the Ministry of Expulsions and Official Racism, plans to expel 25,000 illegal immigrants [Fr] this year, an increase of 5,000 over the previous year.

Tunisien Doctor writes that the Hariris, the Lebanese government and most Lebanese Sunnis wanted to manipulate [Fr] the radical Islamic groups based in the Palestinian camps to place pressure on the Shiites, only to have them turn against them.  Some of his readers accuse him of giving undue credence to conspiracy theories.

Babilown writes about a new edition [Fr] of Les Appels du Vodun (The Call of Voodoo).