Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

Updates

Middle East:
Chan'ad Bahraini is sad about Bahrain's wilting environment. Photo: dead date palms.

Mahmood wonders if recent international media attention will shame the Bahraini government from stifling free speech on the internet.

Linda asks why offices depicted in Arabic soap operas rarely seem to have computers in them.

Mohammed at “From Cairo With Love” describes voting in today'sreferendum on multi-candidate presidential elections, despite calls for a boycott.

Tom at “Shisha and Shawerma” is cynical about the whole thing.

Alaa describes being attacked and having his laptop stolen while attending a protest with his mother.

Ali at “A free Iraqi” continues his argument with Spirit of America.

IRAN'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS:
Free Thoughts on Iran has some sarcastic advice for Iran's “management.”

Hossein Derakhshan (Hoder) discusses the debate raging in the Iranian blogosphere over whether reformist candidate Mostafa Moeen should agree to run now that the Guardian Council has reinstated his candidacy, after first rejecting him.

Mr. Behi also has much to say.

East Asia:
ESWN posts about Chinese online citizen-journalism, blog plagiarism in Hong Kong, and virgins accused of being prostitutes.

Bingfeng has some Chinese “doggerel” jokes.

STAR WARS ALERT: “Musing under the tenement Palm” watched Revenge of the Sith in Urumqi and has some observations about the way it was dubbed into Chinese. (Don't forget to participate in the Globalvoices del.icio.us Starwars tagfest!)

South Asia:
Vantage Point discusses micro-libertarianism, a subject that came up at a recent bloggers' meeting.

Europe:
Fistful of Euros reacts to the latest Madrid car bombing.

Barcepundit has more.

Finland for Thought reports on the Finnish Toilet Paper Crisis.

Eurasia:
Kaukasus found a book and website about all the many forgotten peoples of the Russian empire.

Latin America:
Thanks to Victor for pointing out NotiCuba, written by Elsy Fors, a journalist blogging from Havana. The tone of recent posts is generally supportive of the regime.

Gringo Unleashed translates a Spanish-language report about Al Qaeda in Central America.

Publius Pundit rounds up blog coverage of the crisis in Bolivia.

MABB discusses President Mesa's gamble with pacifism in Bolivia.

Africa:
Chippala reacts to American predictions of Nigeria's collapse.

MORE STAR WARS: Commentary.co.za compares the Republic in Star Wars to the U.N.