Global Voices Online

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

Taran Rampersad is glad “to see that social media is being seen as a tool for fighting crime in Trinidad and Tobago”, but says there are more effective ways in which to do it.

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.

“There are a good number of ministers still under sixty, but the largest share of power is concentrated in the hands of septuagenarians and octogenarians”: Cuba's Generation Y suggests these veterans are unable “to hear the new generation knocking at the door, coming like a whirlwind to dismantle everything.”

“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”!

The 2009 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index is out and although Living in Barbados always takes the results “with a pinch of salt”, he notes that “greasing palms is unfortunately seen as a part of doing business worldwide.”

David on Formosa publishes a series of posts introducing some of the best Taiwan blogs in English(bridge bloggers).

Pink Tentacle has translated into English all of the “Top 60 Japanese words/phrases of 2009″, released by publisher Jiyu Kokuminsha: Included are plenty of references to Japan’s recent political shake-up, the ailing economy, and the blurring of traditional gender roles.