Global Voices Online

Gil the Jenius has something to say about Puerto Rico's #35 ranking on Transparency International's 2009 Corruption Perception Index.

Barbados Free Press and Barbados Underground question the vision of the island being transformed into another Monaco.

Cuba's Generation Y sends a questionnaire to U.S. President Obama “with some of the issues that keep [her] from sleeping” and publishes his responses.

“Next time you go up to Dockyard, lie down on that big ole dock and give it a hug”: According to Vexed Bermoothes, “At its $60 million pricetag, it cost every single Bermudian about $1,250 in long term debt. You better kiss that dock ‘cuz it owns a piece of you.”

“Barbadians have become alarmed at the prospect of having its investment paper perched at the brink of junk rating, a status most unfamiliar to Barbadians through the years”: Barbados Underground says it's economic “crunch time”!

Serendipity from Minneriya, Sri Lanka believes that a level playing field is essential to protect the local industry from the mighty multinationals who have competitive advantage and “it is the duty of the Government to level it”.

“Barbados' debt may be headed for the dread ‘junk' status if it is downgraded another notch,” says Living in Barbados, adding: “To change things needs more than a shift in confidence. It needs policies that attack rapidly the size of the debt.”

Ukraine roundup: flu and politics - at What's Up, Ukraine? and at Jamestown Foundation Blog, here and here; the latest on the tense relationship between the Ukrainian president and PM - at Ukrainiana, as well as two posts - here and here - on one of the 18 presidential candidates, Vasyl Protyvsikh, head of Ivano-Frankivsk Chamber of Commerce and former head of Ivano-Frankivsk Customs, aka Vasyl Humenyuk, whose new last name translates as “against all”; Ukraine Today reports that Natalia Vitrenko of Ukraine's Progressive Socialist Party “has been excluded from the Presidential race for failing to pay the 2.5 million deposit”; Window on Eurasia highlights the views of Ukraine's ambassador to Russia on the Ukrainian-Russian relations.

“About 15 percent population consisting of political leaders and government servants have, through their corrupt practices, amassed 85 percent of the total wealth of India, leaving only 15 percent of it to the balanced 85 percent population of the country,” comments Ram Bansal at India in Peril.