Global Voices Online

Mahmoud Chachtawi, Egyptian blogger and reporter of abna2masr.com website, has been arrested during a taxi drivers strike he was covering. After detaining him for four hours, the police released him and confiscated his camera, mobile phone and ID card. According to a twitter message left on the blog, it seems that his equipment was returned to him without the memory camera's card that had the pix of the strike.

‘To my sweet and lovely wife: “Love” is but a fraction of the feelings I have for you. Thank you for making my life as beautiful and complete as it is today,' writes Subzero Blue from Tunisia, in a post dedicated to his wife on their fifth wedding anniversary.

“Nothing pisses me off more than Corporate Bullshit. I’m not sure why Corporate Bullshit (CBS from here on in) works me up, but then again, people have the weirdest pet peeves. If you worked for a big company then you know what I’m talking about,” rants Syrian blogger Omar in this post.

Abu Fares, from Syria, shares Ramadan's spirit with his readers and dedicates to them a famous fish recipe.

Rime Allaf, from Syria, links to an article on the destruction of old Damascus.

Window on Eurasia explains why the situation in Ingushetia “is not Chechnya-II but possibly something worse.”

Window on Eurasia writes about the lack of improvement in Russia's demographic situation: “…the small rise in the number of births reflects instead a temporary increase in the number of Russian women of child-bearing age.”

TOL's Romantic writes about Lojze Podobnik, a Slovenian author whose works focus on Romani culture. Pesha's Blog links to Professor Steve Balkin's compilation of online resources on Romani culture.

Douglas Muir of A Fistful of Euros writes about Transnistria, “a sort of post-Communist gangster state”: “Travellers unanimously agree that Transnistria is weirdly fascinating for the first hour or two, then just depressing and boring.”

Dr. Sean's Diary writes about Václav Klaus' multiple views of Czechoslovakia’s first president T.G. Masaryk.

Natalia Antonova writes about Ukrainian prostitutes and Ukrainian feminism.

Petro of Petro's Jotter writes about car crashes that he sees regularly during his morning commutes in Kyiv.

Elections approach both in Russia and Ukraine, and politicians start “fiddling” with the numbers of registered voters' - or accusing their opponents of doing so. Window on Eurasia reports that “members of the entourage of Kaliningrad Governor Georgiy Boos are thinking about combining his district with the Adygei Republic or with Russian citizens resident abroad.” In Ukraine, Foreign Notes reports, various forces keep finding “pseudo-persons” on the voters' lists.

nanopolitan on the faith-based attacks on science and the reluctance of the Indian scientific to comment.

Nepali Netbook on regional politics, and how India's aspiring relationship with China affects the one with Nepal.

E-Bangladesh on whether Bangladesh's government is blocking access to Google.

Siddhartha Shome on new social movements that “claim to represent the “people” – the downtrodden Indian masses, without, however, subjecting this claim to the test of democratic elections”

The 23-year old Russian blogger, Dmitry Shirinkin, who wrote a fiction story on his blog inspired by the Virginia Tech shooting, could face up to three years in prison. In an interview with Russia Today (watch the video on GV Advocacy), Shirinkin said “I didn’t expect that a short writing piece could provoke such reaction from the security services. They interrogated me asking where my gun was, but I’d never had one.”

Accroding to[Fa]Free Keyboard,Iranians have access to Google,Gmail and Blogfa,a leading Perisan provider of blogs,again.The blogger says “it seems that people who blocked these sites,found out that they did a stupid thing!” These three sites were blocked for 24 hours.The blogger informs us how we can go beyond filterting and read our Gmail or search in Google.

“I was more interested in the ambivalence that many West Indians feel about the canefields, a reminder of more oppressive times and also a means to a livelihood”: Geoffrey Philp's Blogspot features Trinidad-born author Rabindranath Maharaj as he discusses his new novel.

“As quick as I am to congratulate Mr. Golding, I am quite disappointed in a few moves he has made, within a short space of time”: Jamaican Lifestyle has its eye on post-election politics on the island.

Brn, from Al Ain, UAE, writes about the elaborate ceremonies staged to usher in the new academic year at the university. “Each year, Sheikh Nahayan, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, as well as Chancellor of the UAE University, comes to give his opening address, and the red carpet is literally rolled out. I have to admit, to me, some of the preparations seem more than a little overboard,” he explains.

Satsuka, who lives in the UAE, discovers the true meaning of Ramadan. She writes: “Today, a Muslim colleague explained to me why Ramadaan gives him such great joy. He said: Throughout the year I do things for myself in praise of Allah, but in Ramadaan, I do everything for God in benefit of myself.”

UAE blogger e3ashig reflects on social life in the Middle East: “Social commitments are one of the biggest wastes of time and I can see why it is difficult to be dedicated to your work or be creative as there is always some social thing to interrupt you: a death to be mourned, a birth to be celebrated, an illness to be nursed, wedding parties, a formal majles gathering, etc.”

“I have been as relentless as the Paparazzi stalking their prey, all with a view to collate seemingly scandalous and cutesie photos with which to torture the child with embarrassment later in life”: Mighty Afroditee reflects on the true joy of parenthood.

Snoopy the Goon from Israel writes: “As if it were not foggy enough, now we have Peter Beaumont of the Observer jumping into the fray with a new version of the event. First of all, he came up with a name for this sortie: Operation Orchard. Now, of course, the relevance of the whole story he concocted is that much higher, due to this morsel of inside info.”

Rav Yossie, from Israel, writes: “Rosh Hashana's official liturgical name is “Yom Hazikaron,” Remembrance Day, so it's quite appropriate to reflect on our recent history this week.”

Raed Jarrar from Iraq writes about the official withdrawal of the Al-Sadr group from the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), formed originally as the Arab Shia coalition and its implications on Iraq.

The Latin Americanist reports that ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries are calling on the European Union to uphold the “Sugar Protocol” agreement, which guarantees that EU states buy and import agreed quantities of sugar at certain prices.

“Anything along the lines of “save the poor oppressed arab women” written by stupid women like this one just makes me puke. Yes we do have thousands of problems to struggle against but please don’t act like everything is perfect where you come from, and what’s with the disturbing generalisations?” writes Eman from Egypt.

“Thursday’s sentencing and fining of four independent newspaper editors is not particularly new or surprising… (T)he two incidents do not herald an impending crackdown on the press, for the simple reason that Mubarak’s regime has been continuously cracking down on and intimidating independent journalists, from at least the early 1990s to the present,” writes Egyptian blogger Baheyya.

Notes From The Margin weighs in on the Barbados/IMF Article IV Consultation: “At the heart of the IMF report is a difference of opinion. Is the Barbados Government being overly optimistic? Or is the IMF being overly conservative?”

Sidney Sweeting, writing at WeblogBahamas.com, thinks that “it is time for zero tolerance” when it comes to violence in the society.

Pinoyblogero has highlights from last week's posting on Philippines blogsphere. The topics include the trail of former president Joseph Estrada and how a blogger stirred up controversy by baiting them on his blog.

Vutha summarizes a report on sexual exploitation of women in Cambodia and calls for stricter implementation of laws that according to him are only there for the benefit of the rich and powerful.

K-Media has a better idea for US Federal Bureau of Investigation that is currently involved in training Cambodian Interior Ministry officials in counter-terrorism.

Yemeni blogger Omar Barsawad gives us a chilling insight to how Somalis risk all to escape to Yemen in this post, which also touches on the plight of escaping Iraqis. “For both Somalis and Iraqis: is there a solution in sight? Will Somalia and Iraq settle down and allow its people back home to lead normal lives?” he wonders.

Naseem Tarawnah from Jordan links to a story about how a man was jailed for having a relationship with a girl, whose parents turned him away. He set up a tent on a main street, where he had sex with the girl for seven months.

Ladybird from Iraq writes about how an interpreter is threatening the safety of other ‘collaborators with the occupying forces.'

Iraq the Model explains what the withdrawal of the Sadr movement from the Iraqi government means in this post.

le blog de [moi] writes that the pesticide chlordecone has been used in the French Antilles as recently as 2002, despite being banned in the United States since 1976 and in France since 1991. Although the scandal broke five years ago, [moi] says the most damning details were kept quiet for economic reasons. She also writes that Martinique has the second highest rate of prostate cancer in the world.

Alive in Baghdad brings us face to face with the changing face of Hurriya, a neighborhood on the western side of the Tigris was at one time a mixed neighborhood where Sunni and Shi’a lived together, married together, and existed peacefully, like any other neighborhood. The case is no longer so and residents are protesting as can be seen in the video.

The blog of AZUR Developpement, a Congolese NGO, writes about a recent training in “Web 2.0″ (Fr) technologies held with members of le Réseau Sida Afrique from Togo, DR Congo, and Republic of Congo. Participants learned how to organize email lists using Yahoo Groups, talk for free on Skype and Yahoo Messenger, upload photos to Flickr, and start their own free blogs on Blogger.com.

ESWN translated a poll on a recent court case about Obscene Articles Tribunal's (OAT) classification on indecency. A majority of the interviewees said that OAT's classification are chaotic while The Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority doesn't know how to differentiate art and pornography.

Recently three newspapers (Ta Kung Pao, Wen Hui Po and Sing Pao) were charged with publishing a Class I: Indecent photograph of a topless female British soldier. Ta Kung Pao and Wen Hui Po admitted fault and paid their fines. Sing Pao refused to plead guilty and contested the classification. Upon review by the Obscene Articles Tribunal, the photograph was reclassified as Class I: Neither Indecent Nor Obscene, and Sing Pao was not guilty.

Wenbin in V360 posts a report about an injustice prosecution (zh): a young person (Pan Yue) helped bringing an old lady who fell down in the bus stop to a hospital in Nov 2006 in Nanjing. It turned out that the hospital fee was huge (RMB40,000) and the old lady's son decided to sue this young person for the cost. However, netizens later found out that the son is actually a local police.

Even though local media has exposed much faked evidence presented by the local police station, the court had ruled in favor of the old lady's family in early September. The judge commented that Pan Yue should chase after the person who knocked down the old lady rather than helping her. The netizens were outraged by such ridiculous ruling and continued to challenge the injustice legal system in the Internet. The story has been picked up by local and national media and now becomes a national incident.

Roberto Vigo writes in Grito Argentino [ES] that nearly 1/3 of children in Salta live below the poverty line.

The Fraternity Tinku Puro from La Paz recently launched a blog [ES] that includes photos from participation in local festivals.

Tim Muth shares how he keeps up to date on current events in El Salvador. He recently led a workshop at the 25th anniversary of the SHARE foundation about the subject, which included a steady intake of Salvadoran blogs.

Songsoa notices that Web 2.0 is not only a technological development, it has the power to resist brain washing propaganda of mass media. The appearance of mu zi mei, hu ge, and other seemingly immoral bloggers, signifies the disintegration of official propaganda (zh).

Recently there are reports saying that Chinese hackers have been attacking foreign websites, some speculate that the hackers are government sponsored. William long recently also has the experience of being attacked with ARP poisoning and Trojan (zh). He feels that to some extends the Chinese government has to be responsible for hackers' behavior.

Iraqi Sunshine had her moments in the limelight when BBC allowed her to speak to the world about her thoughts. Read this post to see how she managed to overcome the odds, Internet and electricity cuts and the fear of bomb explosions to make her voice heard.

“(F)or some reason American embassies are staffed with illiterates and space monkeys, rather than helpful personnel with a sense of duty to American citizens. I say this from my own experiences as well; it is not easy for anyone to get into the American embassy in Algiers. With so much security and barbed wire, it is so difficult for a civilian to enter, and you have to wonder what a pain in the ass it would be for a terrorist to try and get in,” writes blogger Nouri.