Global Voices

English

The world is talking, are you listening?

Updates

Africa

Brian at Black Star Journal worries that UN relief efforts are “damned if they do, damned if they don't”.

Emeka of Timbuktu Chronicles points us to companies exploring m-banking, banking services delivered through cellphones.

Ethiopundit feels “a profound degree of distrust and disgust with the ruling party” and wonders if the Ethiopian government has misrepresented a good harvest to obtain food aid.

Friends of Ethiopia, on the other hand, sees the recent elections as a breakthrough for the opposition.

Ory, the Kenyan Pundit, points us towards a collection of photos shot by Nairobi street kids at homelessworld.org. It's part of a series that includes photos from Moscow, Cairo, New Delhi and other cities around the world.

Zimpundit explains why the black market in currency is flourishing in Zimbabwe, despite government attempts to close it down.

Caucauses and Central Asia

Nate at Registan is concerned about Chinese influence in Uzbekistan (as well as their support for Karimov's crackdown on militants.) And he's got a link to a great story about Georgian threats against George Soros.

Onnik visits a Molokan community in Armenia and finds it a bit surreal to encounter blue eyed, blond, Russian speakers in Armenia.

Middle East

Isam Bayazidi is having a tough time finding a content management system that has a bilingual (English/Arabic) interface.

Sabbah points us to a reworking of Grant Wood's American Gothic by cartoonist Emad Hajjaj.

Mohamed at From Cairo, With Love thinks it's great that Egyptians are being politically active, but that he's not sympathetic to the emails he's getting urging him to boycott tomorrow's polls.

Big Pharaoh points to evidence that he's an actual Egyptian blogger, not a CIA plant. Silly Bahrani Girl goes a step further, blowing her cover in an article in USC Annenberg's Online Journalism Review. (The article, BTW, is an excellent overview of the vibrant Bahrani blogosphere.)

Yasser is (understandably) confused about the certification of presidential candidate Mustafa Moeen. Mr. Behi thinks the decision by Iran's supreme leader to “order democracy” by re-certifying Moeen is a contradiction in terms.

Europe

Antoin is interested in having Ireland adopt a numeric post code system, like the US or the UK.

Petr Bokuvka, the Daily Czech, is finding context-based text ads in online newspapers just a little bit off…

Finland for Thought thinks Finland is pretty unique… but that philosopher Pekka Himanen's explanations for the nation's successes are pretty weak.

Asia

Gaurav wishes that Indian libertarians - himself included - would talk less about macroeconomic issues, and more about micro issues, like local poverty.

The Tokyo Times blog features what's quite possibly the world's least neccesary research study.

Japundit fills us in on some of the unknown dangers facing restauranteurs in Seoul: escaped zoo elephants.

Phil in Hong Kong wonders “What's in a Name”?

South America

Guillermo at Sine Metu Reloaded picks apart a statement from President Kirchner in a line-by-line critique.

FYI speculates about Brazil's “sistema jurídico disfuncional brasileiro” (dysfunctional justice system) and its impact on Brazil's economic development.