Global Voices Online

Bonjour l'Estonie compares Finland to Estonia: “Many Finns expected Estonia to build a Social-Democratic style welfare state, and were surprised and to some degree miffed that Estonia, which they wanted to regard as a little brother, chose to model itself after America rather than after Finland.”

Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa and Estonia in World Media (RUS) report that the Dutch Ambassador has decided to leave Estonia due to the recent racist and homophobic attacks on his partner.

David McDuff of A Step At A Time reports on a Finnish lawyer who plans to sue Russia over the property in Karelia that used to belong to Finns before September 1944. Kari Silvennoinen, the lawyers, thinks that these Finns haven't lost their rights to this property.

Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa writes about the history of military action of Sweden, Norway, Estonia and Finland, and reports on a Nordic Battle Group's workshop that took place Tuesday.

Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa writes that Estonian and Finnish trade unions have signed a deal to ensure that workers' rights in both countries are not violated.

Finland for Thought passes on the news that it's illegal to ride a Segway on a public road in Finland.

We’re always looking for new ideas and good stories to write about. If you have a story or a blog post that you think would be a good fit for our daily roundups, email us with the link!

South-East Asia

Tales from Disiniland suggests that embattled Philippines President Gloria Arroyo should take a page out of Bill Clinton’s political playbook.

Singabloodypore notes that would-be Olympic vote protesters could be arrested should they try to organize in Singapore.

Brand New Malaysian alerts us to the plight of a Malaysian blogger who is on the business end of a cease-and-desist letter from a giant US corporation regarding his domain name.

Photograph by Yoshiki Okamoto

The Middle East

Who is Lebanese? The Lebanese Blogger Forum posts an email that laments the habit of overseas Lebanese to downplay their Lebanese heritage.

The Lebanese Political Journal on the phenomenom of the “Waraqa Bayda”, or “white paper”.

What happens when a society that only recognizes religious law has to deal with the reality of a world more complex than religious law was designed to handle? Crossroads Arabia points to an article that suggests that law schools may soon open in Saudi Arabia.

The question of whether or not Saudi Arabia should let women drive raises its head again, reports Saudi Jeans.

The Silly Bahraini Girl, having recovered from a nasty enounter with the flu, posts images of protesters who were beaten by Bahraini police.

More Iranian election fallout: The Eyeranian suggests that Ahmadinejad’s election is not entirely the disaster that it’s been made out to be.

Isam Bayazidi greets the news that Jordan’s King Abdullah will create an anti-corruption committee with a certain degree of skepticism.

Iraq the Model has a list of recent successes against the terrorists in Iraq.

Free Iraqi reports that Saddam’s palaces will be turned into cultural centers.

Farangopolis puts out a bulletin on a missing Iranian filmmaker. Farshid Faraji was arrested by American military forces in Iraq on May 19 after entering the country to film historic sites and has not been heard from since his arrest.

Latin America

Babalú, celebrates it second anniversary [en] of blogging about Cuba and summarizes, “Not much has changed in Cuba these past two years, but we still have one thing: [hope]” They also suggest a letter writing campaign to Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic [en] to protest new, direct flights from Britain to the communist island.

MABB emphasizes the importance of the Bolivian congress [en] right now and spells out six important decisions to be made in the upcoming months.

Eduardo Ochoa, using Google Maps new coverage of South America, points out the new location [es] of last Saturdays, “First Blogs and Beer Meetup” in Manta, Manabí, Ecuador. Photos and details are promised soon.

Julio Alonso [es] and Isopixel both contemplate the recent announcement that Engadget will begin posting in Spanish and what it means for the popular Spanish tech blog xataca [es].

As usual, our Latin America roundup was compiled by David Sasaki (el Oso).

Africa

Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah, an overseas Ghanian blogger, gives some practical advice to another African blogger who is considering blog-retirement.

Both This is Zimbabwe and The Zimbabwean Pundit cover the release of opposition MP Roy Bennett from prison. It should be noted that Bennett lost nearly 60 pounds (27 kg) in his eight months in prison.

Ethiopundit has a very long post that analyzes the Orwellian propaganda machine of the Ethiopean government.

East Asia

Issac Mao alerts us to the plight of Chinese blogger Wang Jun, who’s suffering from a blood disease.

Yellow Peril, the blog of an Auckland-based overseas Chinese writer, has a profanity-filled rant about Chinese internet censorship that tackles everything from the Public Security Bureau to Microsoft.

China Digital Times reports that more than 2,000 Chinese journalists have signed a letter protesting the detention of two colleagues.

Europe

So this guy goes to an expensive restaurant and gets lousy service. An all too common occurrence, right? Well, as Finland for Thought reports, that’s not the end of the story. The disaffected diner posted his tale of woe to his blog, and it eventually rose to the #2 ranking on Google for the restaurant’s name. Legal action ensues… but the restaurant didn’t realize that the angry diner is one of Finland’s top intellectual property lawyers.

South Asia

Niraj engages in a pastime familiar to any international traveler: complaining about a lousy airline.

Central Asia

Blogrel is reporting that several Armenian cities have been wired for city-wide WiFi coverage. This is, however, pay-as-you-go access, not free wireless…

Blogrel also brings us the happy news that the Armenian government, responding to public pressure, has backed away from a plan to drop a highway through the middle of a nature preserve.

Central Asia & the Caucuses:
The Farsi blog Shared Pains (winner of the 2005 RSF Freedom Blog award) has a post in English on freedom of expression in Afghanistan (hat-tip to Afghan Lord).

Registan points to an interview with the leader of Uzbekistan's opposition coalition. On the 40th day of mourning after the Andijan crackdown, Nathan has some harsh words for Russia's blind eye.

Blogrel discusses America's influence on democratization in the Caucasus.

Southeast Asia:
Webbed Feet has a big list of people blogging about Cambodia.

As Vietnam's prime minister tours the U.S., the new Vietnamjournalism blog, run by a Vietnamese journalist, reports that the Vietnamese president wants journalists to help “encourage the nation's citizens to flay enemy fabrication.”

Brandmalaysia's Mack Zulkifli talks about media reaction to the Singaporean blogger who bared most of herself on her blog… and about the larger issue of blogging as a lifestyle.

Economist/columnist Paul Krugman visited Bangkok, and Sarasonteh has the fallout.

East Asia:
In China, Typepad blogs are now confirmed to be blocked. Asiapundit has started a campaign to shame companies whose technology enables the Chinese government to do this. (There's a big argument going on about this in the comments section of my blog.)

Meanwhile, the Chinese adopt-a-blog project is getting lots of buzz in the English language blogosphere.

Chinadigitaltimes points to an article in Singapore's Straits Times: CHINA: Hackers hit website of firm trying to control Internet use. I guess we know where at least some of China's hackers stand on the censorship issue…

ESWN describes how information is kept out of newspapers in China.

South Asia:
Reporters Without Borders is hosting a new blog from Nepal, Nepal Info (in Nepalese).

In Bangladesh, Futurebanglanetwork is cynical about the World Bank's motivations when it comes to lobbying against a SIM card tax.

Chiens Sans Frontieres brings us a link to Gujarati rap.

In India, the Mumbai bloggers are planning another blog meetup on Sunday. If you're in town be sure to join them.

Africa:
Ma-Schamba in Mozambique is looking forward to an upcoming exhibit of Mozambican contemporary art [Portugese]. (Poster for the exhibit at left.)

Sokwanele is concerned that Zimbabwe is turning into a Chinese colony.

Vilho's World has some thoughts about the issue of transparency in Namibia.

Middle East:
At the Lebanese Political Journal, “Cedar-Guardian” has some views on Lebanon's post-election political future, and “Lebanon.Profile” is resigned to political asassinations. (Click on their names to hear podcast interviews with these two bloggers in Beiruit.)

Brooding Persian explains why he chooses not to vote in Iran' s election run-off on Friday.

Under Underground will vote but is bitter about it.

In Egypt, Manal and Alaa describe how they organized a protest and how blogs played a part.

Spark Armada's Nir Ofir wants to start an August 31st World Blog Day tradition. Why that date? Because he thinks the date 3108 kind of looks like the word “blog” if you write it a certain way… His idea: “in this is day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs (in the same time). In this day all Blog web surfers will find themselves leaping and discovering new, unknown blogs.” (He has even created the graphic at right.)

Europe:
Bonjour L'Estonie describes Estonia's native religion.

Finland for Thought has a short quiz about his nation's leader…

Pestiside has some dirt on Hungary's highway wars.

Latin America:
Coming soon. Check this post later for today's Latam links courtesy El Oso.

The Middle East

Hoder reports that the mood at the headquarters of Iranian presidential candidate Moin is quite upbeat in the wake of recently-released polls. He also asks that his visit not be blogged about in Persian for safety reasons.

More fallout from the recent Lebanese parliamentary elections: Beirut Spring profiles General Aoun, tagging him “a natural”; Raja at Lebanese Bloggers looks at the root causes of his victory.

Crossroads Arabia points to a BBC piece that interviews young Saudi women about their lives in the kingdom.

Omar from Iraq The Model talks about his brush—and subsequent disappointment—with the BBC: they interviewed extensively, by both phone and email, him for a piece called “One Day in Iraq”, yet subsequently failed to include him in the finished piece.

Photograph by Martin Sercombe

Africa

The Kenya Democracy Project posts a lengthy, illustrated analysis of the debt relief package that manages to tie Clint Eastwood westerns together with the work of economist Joseph Stiglitz.

South African President Thabo Mbeki fired deputy president Jacob Zuma today. The popular Zuma, who had been Mbeki’s heir apparent, had been implicated, though not charged, in a corruption scandal. South African blogs have been impressed and surprised by Mbeki’s decision. Commentary.co.za says “It was the smart decision as well as the morally correct one. And Mbeki deserves credit for it.”. Politics.za suggests that the firing was a message by Mbeki to the ANC membership.

Sokawanele has quietly collected a list of abuses and “assaults on freedom and dignity” in Zimbabwe, including police, in search of foreign currency, performing body searches on civilians. The blog also reports on the fuel crisis; apparently fuel tankers are not being allowed to drop off their cargo.

The Zimbabwean Pundit analyzes why the general strike called for last week flopped. He also asks who was worse: Mugabe or Ian Douglas Smith? The answer may surprise you.

Jangbalajugbu, a Nigerian blog, wonders why more Nigerians don’t blog.

East Asia

New Mongols analyzes some numbers on political rights and civil liberties worldwide and concludes that Mongolia is embracing western-style democracy enthusiastically.

Photograph by Robbed

South-East Asia

Bloggers.SG 2005, an upcoming mini-conference for Singapore bloggers, is looking for volunteers and panelists for the July event.

Thai Blogs, a group blog about Thailand, writes briefly about its history and what it’s trying to do. They also have a post about a young woman coming to terms with her place in Thailand’s long tradition of women warriors.

Inside PCIJ continues their muckraking work in the Philippines by assembling a list of the scandals that have involved the Arroyo administration. They also have audio files of the tapes at the heart of the latest scandal available for download.

South Asia

In Nepal, United We Blog writes about the important role that a free press plays in the political process, and why the Nepali royal family fears it.

Latin America

A Venezulean-oriented blog called The Devil’s Excrement has a pop quiz to “prove if you are a true Chavista”.

Europe

In Hungary, Pesticide.hu has a fun interview with Marton Bede, creator of a bomb-throwing Hungarian-language ezine called Matula Magazin.

Finland For Thought congratulates Michael Quarshie and Klaus Alinen, two young Finns who’ve earned NFL roster spots this fall.