Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

“No Bavaglio” (No Gag) is a large protest movement in Italy against a proposed privacy law that would impose heavy fines on newspapers (and blogs) that publish transcripts of phone calls. The law is suspect, because wiretapping has played a key role in media investigations that have led to mafia arrests and political scandals. The mobilization is taking place on Liberarete.tv and Facebook group, among other online venues.

SRF from GeoCurrent Events blog writes about the economic geography of the 2010 FIFA World Cup participant countries.

Once persecuted by the authorities, street art has made it to the mainstream. The Brazilian twin brothers known as GÊMEOS are on exhibition in the first event of street art in a Portuguese museum, according to local bloggers [pt]. In collaboration with Italian graffiti artist Blu, they also left their mark on the walls of Lisbon's city center and of Grottaglie, Italy.

Roba from Jordan published pictures from different demonstrations world wide against Israel's last attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, in Holland, Greece, Egypt, United Kingdom, Lebanon, Pakistan, Malaysia, Sweden, France, Turkey, India, Italy, Canada, Spain, Belgium, United States, Bulgaria and Austria.

Threatened Voices has received an Honorable Mention in the first Digital Heretics journalism award, established at the upcoming International journalism festival in Perugia, Italy (April 21-25). The project coordinator and GV author Sami Ben Gharbia, will be rewarded with a Kodak Zi8 videocamera during a special event with guest speakers Koro Castellano (editor elMundo.es) and Marco Pancini (Google Italy director). The other Honorable Mentions are The Berlin Project, in.fondo.al.mar, and Omofobia Capitale, while the first place award is a tie between After Jugo – Sarajevo the life of a generation, by Marco Pavan, and ELEVEN Catania, inchiesta collettiva a 11 voci, by the University of Catania. [via Beatrice Borgato].

Photographer and blogger Sigrid, author of one of the most popular Italian gourmet blogs, is in Kyoto. Wonderful pictures of the city and of the delicatessen she has, together with mouth-watering Japanese recipes for the Cavoletto di Bruxelles‘ fans.

IZO links to LJ user maratguelman‘s post (RUS) and writes: “Silvio Berlusconi travels round Rome in a Russian-made VAZ-Patriot car and likes to wear a commando jacket given to him by Putin.”

Balkan Travellers re-posts a Balkan Insight piece about the Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi's comment that “his country would accept only pretty Albanian girls as immigrants.” Belgraded writes about the photoshopped photos of Berlusconi and Slobodan Milosevic: “Fours days after the [doctored] photo was published, Milosevic lost the elections by a close margin. Maybe it will be the same for Berlusconi, who is probably the politician with the biggest resemblance to Milosevic-style politics in European Union today.”

Patrizia Venturino filmed and uploaded the video of the Maierato landslide where a whole hill slid down the slope in the province of Vibo Valentia in Calabria. The clear video shows as the citizens run away from the river of rocks, dirt and trees amid the shouts of the police and those at the scene.

BaLashon (On the Tongue) explores the Hebrew term kalgas קלגס, meaning soldier. He discovers Latin roots: “Caliga- Roman sandals, secured with nails (which made quite a bit of noise)- were apparently frightening enough to give their name to the Roman soldiers.”

Ikeda-san, at Greenz, uploaded some old and recent pictures and videos [ja] of Nobushi Japan, the football team that represented Japan at the Homeless World Cup, the championship held in Milan at the beginning of September.

LJ user supehero gives his very own explanation [RUS] to why President Medvedev looked so drowsy at the G8 summit in Italy.

Vilhelm Konnander writes about a namesake of Vladimir Putin who was arrested for shoplifting in Italy.

Italian comedian and opinion-leader Beppe Grillo's blog [ja] is the only blog that is translated into Japanese (and English), presenting Italy from an unusual perspective. In his blog, he also hosts the translated version of journalist Marco Travaglio‘s weekly talks on the misdeeds of the current Italian government [it].

Read all about Christian Okpara, the Nigerian who wants to join Italian Parliament.

Belatedly, links to some posts on Entropa: Margarete of The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia believes “it should be taken down”; Kosmopolito thinks that “the debate around the project is also part of the installation”; BBC's Mark Mardell writes that “the fact that it is a hoax does not mean that the art itself is bad”; Blue, Black and White Alert doesn't think Entropa is “that incendiary”; A Fistful of Euros considers Entropa “an ugly but really funny piece of work.”

In Iranian.com we can watch beautiful clips of Iran made by an Italian traveler.

Id:sawabonroma, a Japanese writer living in Rome, describes her everyday life in the Italian capital at Roma no Heijitsu (ローマの平日). In a post on October 30th, she writes about a students demo against the education reform proposed by Minister of Education Gelmini. Millions of high school and university students, professors, researchers and school employees protested in the streets of Rome against the demolition of the public educational system, paralyzing the city center. Blaming the Japanese media, Sawabonroma points out how they gave more importance to the resulting traffic problems than to reasons for the demo. Besides, the blogger adds, everybody knows that traffic jams are part of the everyday routine for Roman people.

Le blog de [moi] posts a disturbing photograph of a Nigerian prostitute, arrested during a recent raid in Italy, laying half-naked on the floor of a jail cell, covered in dust.

At A Fistful of Euros, a discussion of the situation with the Roma people in Italy, inspired by this piece from the Guardian's Comment is Free (229 comments).

James from Japan Probe wrote a sum-up on the Graffiti scandal in Japan: A Japanese teenager who was caught on video daubing graffiti on the Duomo in Florence flew back to the Renaissance city at her own expense to apologise.

Borut Peterlin posts photos from the former border between Slovenia and Italy in Nova Gorica.

After almost a month in Italy, Bint Battuta in Bahrain was in Budapest, Hungary, where she attended the Global Voices 2008 Summit.

Desmond McGrath of A Fistful of Euros writes about football and politics: “Part of the fun of football is the way in which it overturns the international order of power politics.”

Nicolaus Mills explains at Comment is Free why Britain hasn't seen the much-feared “‘tidal wave’ of immigrants” from Bulgaria and Romania.

Mihanyar has published several photos of a demonstration in Rome where people protested against Iranian president,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's last week visit.

Trinidadian blogger Jeremy Taylor admits: “I don’t normally swell with nationalist pride, but I confess I was very touched to see and hear this young half-Trinidadian commanding the very stage where Tosca was first produced in 1900, and the Roman audience warming to her and giving her long generous applause.”

Notes from Port of Spain weighs in on everything from the Pope's visit to the US: “It's not enough for the Pope to be ‘ashamed’ of his American paedophile priests…he also has to do something about them” to international politics: “It's a lesson to every crook in office or aspiring to it: just brazen it out long enough and the world will lose interest.”

Ukrainiana writes about the country's economic problems.

The Bard's identity has long been a matter of debate, but a new candidate has entered the scene. Could Shakespeare have been an Italian Jewish woman? Jewcy's John Hudson provides eight pieces of evidence to convince you.