Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

It ought to become something understood in the language that disabled people do things not in spite of or because of, but with their disabilities.

During the Paralympics in London there have been more and more reports on “against-it-all people” or “supercripples” in the media. leidmedien.de explains how to get the tone right.

While saluting the decision of Saudi Arabia to send two female athletes to the London Olympics, the Saudi Women Driving  deplores the fact that Saudi women cannot drive. “The whole world has been watching Saudi women and their triumphant appearance at the Olympics, and most news stories about them mention that they can't drive back home,”  it says.  The Blog of Amnesty International – USA  also notes”Evidently, Saudi Arabia has a long way to reach the finish line of ‘gender equality.’ Nevertheless, Sarah Attar’s 800 meter run at the 2012 Olympics certainly shortens the distance.”

Mildred Largaespada from the blog 1001 trópicos [es] shares her “Olympic dream.” In 1984, Mildred was part of Nicaragua's National Junior Basketball Team and participated in the Central American Games of that year in Guatemala. Her dream was to make it to the Olympics, but after losing in Guatemala she traded her basketball shoes for a career in journalism.

Beatrice from Ministry of Tofu puts together a set of infographic and reports on products related with London Olympic Games which are made in China.

Colombians on Twitter anxiously awaited the performance of BMX cyclist Mariana Pajón. Hashtags like ORO (“gold”), #ÁnimoMariana (“Go Mariana”), or Mariana Pajón became local Trending Topics before and after Pajón won the gold medal. With this achievement, Colombia ratifies the country's historic performance at the this year's Olympics and now ranks number 33 in the current medal count.

Twitter user @zhenya_jane wrote on the U.S. native Becky Hammon‘s contribution to #London2012: “She's 35 years old, 168 cm tall. Becky Hammon is in the starting lineup of the Russian national basketball team. Thought they wouldn't take her.” In 2008, Hammon faced ridicule from Americans when she gained Russian citizenship in the hope of playing on the international stage. Today she led her team in scoring (19 points, 5 assists) as Russia defeated Turkey (66-63) in a quarterfinal match. Team USA and Russia could meet in the final if Russia defeats France and if Team USA defeats Australia in the semis. Hammon's Facebook fan page is here.

The London 2012 Olympics will be a landmark in Cyprus’ sport history. Twenty-two year old Pavlos Kontides, who is from Limassol, Cyprus, became the country's first ever Olympic medalist. Kontides won the silver medal at single-handed Laser class in Men's Sailing.

This post is part of our Special Coverage of our London 2012 Games.

During the afternoon of Sunday, August 5, Colombian Twitter users expressed their emotion, expectation and tension due to the performance of  Caterine Ibargüen, who represents the country in long jump, high jump, and triple jump at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Under the hashtags #VuelaCaterine [es] (“Fly Caterine”) and #VamosCaterine [es] (“Go Caterine”) netizens showed their support for the athlete who won the silver medal in triple jump.

The 101 Great Goals site shared a scanned image showing how an Australian newspaper distinguishes two Koreas in its Olympics medal table. One was referred as ‘nice’ Korea, while other was named the ‘naughty’ one.

The Americas Quarterly blog points out that although there is still a lot to do to end gender discrimination at the Olympics, “for the first time in history, every country competing in the London 2012 Olympics will have at least one female athlete, with many – notably in Latin America – achieving  gender parity among their delegations. [...] Argentina, Bolivia, El Salvador, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Peru have selected female athletes to represent their teams. “

When nerds follow the Olympic Games, a hashtag like #Nerdlympics is born. Find our favourite tweets in the hashtag here

Lillie Langtry from the blog Memory in Latin America explains that the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo are getting into the spirit of the Olympics by “asking various Argentine sportspeople to feature in their latest video campaign.” Langtry shares a video where Carlo Retegui, the coach of the women's field hockey team, tries to raise awareness about the disappeared children.

As the year draws to a close, Jamaica and the World looks back on the good, the bad and the ugly of 2008.

As the Jamaican Olympic medalists implore their compatriots to “stop the violence”, A Fe Me Page Dis Iyah says: “I hope someone listens to them.”

Allen blogs about the closing ceremony of 2008 Beijing Paralympics at the Fool's Mountain.

“I think he forgot (that in) 2003 he failed several drug tests that questioned the validity of his achievements. Sometimes folks think what you are doing is what they are doing”: A Fe Me Page Dis Iyah is not impressed by former US sprinter Carl Lewis’ insinuations about Jamaican Olympic Gold Medalist Usain Bolt.

“Too much human resource seems to be wasting away, which is quite evident not only from Usain's reception crowd, but by the parties and dances that are kept every single night of the week”: Stunner's Afflictions has mixed feelings about Olympic Gold Medalist Usain Bolt's homecoming.

“The rain didn't stop Usain Bolt's return ‘back a yawd'. People lined the road from Norman Manley Airport all the way to the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston”: A Fe Me Page Dis Iyah reports on the Olympic Gold Medalist's triumphant return home, as do YardFlex.com and Guyana 360.

“September is the month for celebration as athletes from Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica return home from the Beijing Olympics”: Caribbean Beat Blog wants to get the party started!

Leocardo [pt] reports that the 63 Chinese medal winners have arrived today in Macau, part of a tour of China that, accorging to the blogger, made they look like “monkeys in a circus”: “Couldn't they have rested a few more days before this enormous embarrassment on the news across regional and foreign press? Is this the right way to demonstrate the unity and love for the SAR?”

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has ordered an enquiry into why Egypt performed poorly in the Olympics, reports Tom Gara.

Zhaomu re-posted a forum article which calculated the cost of a gold medal exemplified by the Olympic shooting team. It is estimated that a gold medal costs between RMB30 – 80 millions (around US4.5 – 10 million).

Black and White Cat shows how the Xinhua has translated the New York Times Olympic Report into Chinese.

A graphic representation of the distribution of medals shows that China has big tits. The picture was created by Form One high school boy at bbs.163.com.

“Jamaica's garrison politics found its way onto the Olympics stage in two performances – once in a scintillating display of athletic grace and vigor, and once in a celebratory performance of the “gully creepa”: Abeng News Magazine explains.

ESWN translated an article by Li Punman at my1510 about an older generation peasant's view on the Beijing Olympics. Nationalism is still a pervasive frame.

During the Olympics, the Beijing government created artificial rain to secure good weather for the opening and closing ceremonies. Lui Li said that if the government had plan to intervene the weather, it should have forecasted it to the people.

Chen XueLei reflected upon his Olympic experience since 7 years ago when Beijing applied for the hosting city. Now that the Beijing Olympics has obtained great success on stage, the blogger wonders if it is really a success for the majority of Chinese people.

Saudi girls deserve sport heroes too, says Jillian, at a post on women in the Olympics at Kabobfest. “Little girls in Saudi Arabia (which I will use as an example from now on, given that Qatar's population equals that of Boston) deserve to have strong heroes too,” she notes.

Despite the Saudi Arabia's decision to ban Saudi women from taking part in the Olympics this year, Blogger Dilshad D. Ali writes about the emergence of hijab (veil) at the Beijing Olympics. Blogger Jana, also lists the 12 veiled Muslim athletes who competed this year in Beijing.