Global Voices

English

The world is talking, are you listening?

China

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!

Latin America

Venezuelan News and Views speculates on why neither Trinidad and Tobago nor Barbados signed Hugo Chavez's oil venture, Petrocaribe [es].

The Devil's Excrement questions the significance of Venezuelan Information and Communication Minister, Andrés Izarra's statement that he was not expecting Fidel Castro's visit yesterday.

Tim's El Salvador Blog reports that the White House has agreed to throw in $40 million of aid to Central America as a way to sell CAFTA to democrats.

Fernando Flores summarizes the current political crisis in Brazil [es] and points to Libardo Buitrago who summarizes why Lulu is not able to form an alliance [es].

Elecciones Presidenciales 2005 [es] writes that Chilean presidential candidates Joaquín Lavìn and Sebastián Piñera have agreed to an upcoming televised debate. The office of Socialist front-runner, Michelle Bachelet said she will not be taking part. Meanwhile, Piñera himself writes [es] that he is “astonished by the immediate and gigantic response this [blog] has generated.”

Babalú asks why the mainstream media has forgotten about Elian Gonzalez who was returned to Cuba five years ago.

Juanson World suggests the Mexican government needs a lesson in political correctness as they release a series of Memín Pingüin commemorative stamps just weeks after President Vincente Fox complained that in the US, Mexicans do work that not even Blacks would do. Isopixel, on the other hand, says his northern neighbors need to calm down and take a refresher course in history (referring to US slavery). His readers seems to agree.

The Latin America roundup was compiled by David Sasaki (el Oso).

South Asia

Pakistan’s main internet connection has been down for several days, but many ISPs have switched—or are switching—to backup connections, so connectivity in the country is slowly coming back up.Umar at Metroblogging Karachi reports that his ISP is back up, but the connection is painfully slow. (via Sean Bonner) Misha, another blogger forced off-line by the outage writes about being forced to go cold turkey off the internet.

The Nepalese opposition blog United We Blog reports that they’ve been profiled by the Overseas Press Club of America.

Europe

Loic Le Meur and Udo Schroeter discuess why blogging uptake in Germany has been relatively slow.

A Fist Full of Euros on Spain’s move to legalize gay marriage.

Julio Alonso of Merodeando notes that, in Spain alone, the blog service MSN Spaces has already registered more than a million users [es]

Africa

Black Looks reports that communities in the Niger Delta have sued the Nigerian government and a number of oil companies because of the open burn-off of natural gas. The flares contribute significantly to air pollution in the area.

Meskel Square picked up a copy of the paper the other day to find a copy of one of his blog posts on the front page. Apparently newspapers in Ethiopia take a somewhat relaxed view of copyright…

This is Zimbabwe asks where does the Church stand in relation to Mugabe?

Kenyan Pundit points to a great story that outlines some of the built-in inefficiencies at Telkom Kenya.

The Middle East

Saudi Jeans points to a newspaper article that says that a two week course at Imam Mohammed Bin Saud Islamic University for any Saudi student who wishes to study in the United States is a “waste of money and time.”

Omar at Iraq the Model has an update on the progress of the Iraqi Constitution.

Iran Scan has an article about Iran’s longest-imprisoned journalist, Akbar Ganji.

Israellycool takes on the the Condoleezza Rice ex-boyfriend theory.

East Asia

Is Korean pop culture taking over the world? The Marmot’s Hole a story in the New York Times that profiles the export of South Korean pop culture overseas.

The Korean blogosphere has been agog over the case of a young woman who refused to clean up the mess her dog made in the subway, reports Japanpundit. Some other bloggers, though, feel that the girl’s privacy has been violated.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association has created a Chinese-language blog to protest the arrest and continued detention of Singaporean journalist Ching Cheong on the mainland.

Photograph by Chris Drumgoole

South-East Asia

Thai-Blogs.com sends a fish tale our way: fishermen in northern Thailand have landed a 646-pound catfish; it’s believed to be the largest freshwater fish ever caught. There’s also a pretty amazing picture to go along with the text…

Given the news that oil has passed the $60/barrel mark, Mack Zulkifi of Brand New Malaysian thought it might be prudent to stop by the gas station on the way home to fill up. Apparently, most of Kuala Lumpur thought that it was a good idea as well…

Malaysian blogger Jeff Ooi was interviewed on NPR about blogging and cyber-dissents today. Also participating in the talk show were Iranian blogger Hoder and GV’s own Rebecca MacKinnon.

Mr.Brown continues his coverage of l’affair SPG by noting that Sarong Party Girl’s blog is being filtered by government agencies. He wonders if they’re afraid that hardworking Singaporean civil servants will be corrupted by her site.

Saigon-based food blog Noodlepie brings us the story of a restaurant that was forced to shut down because they were lacing the food with gold. The restaurant owners claimed that ingesting gold had health benefits; however, the Health Ministry disagreed.

Rajan Rishyakaran has a very short comment about the Organization of the Islamic Conference’s call for a permanent Muslim seat on the UN’s Security Council.

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• Paul Frankenstein

China

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!

Africa

The Kenya Democracy Project applauds the growing independence of the Kenyan judiciary.

Thinker’s Room wonders just how exactly will Live 8 help actual Africans?

Hacktivate has a brief rundown on why politics in Malawai are weird.

East Asia

We’ve been alerted that Blogsome, a free WordPress-based blogging service, has apparently been blocked in China (Chinese language link).

Lalaoshi, a western journalist living and working in China, blogs about his encounter with the Foreign Affairs police in the northern Chinese city of Qinhuangdao.

How well does Henry Kissinger know his Chinese history? The blog Mutant Frog Travelogue thinks the answer is “not well at all”, as does Bingfeng Teahouse.

SimonWorld puts on its thinking cap and wonders what shape government might be in a post-communist China.

New Mongols points us to a useful resource for the Temujin enthusiast: Tim Spalding’s Genghis Khan On The Web. On a more contemporary note, the comments on one of their posts started a discussion of modern Sino-Mongolian relations, a conversation continued in this post.

Japanpundit on the possible return of women’s sumo. One wonders if it could take off the way that women’s boxing has in the United States.

Danwei looks that the furor kicked up by China’s latest blogstar; this leads him to look at the 10 most popular personality searches on Baidu, China’s most popular search engine. Interestingly enough, the top five are all female bloggers. Mao Zedong, somewhat embarrassingly, comes in 8th.

Chatter Garden says that Hong Kong Chief Executive-to-be Donald Tsang will, in a symbolic move, order the gates at the main Government offices in Central to be taken down. However, as the blog notes, this will have little effect on Tsang himself, since his offices are up the hill at the Governor’s Mansion.

ESWN reposts and translates a photo essay about a Shanghai drug bust. However, what’s really disturbing is what happens after the dealer is arrested and then released on bail. Here’s the Chinese original. Some of these images are very graphic and disturbing.

Photograph by Janne Moren

Latin America

Fernando Flores, co-author of Disclosing New Worlds: Entrepreneurship, Democratic Action and the Cultivation of Solidarity, writes that tomorrow in the Salón de Honor de la Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile, Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, Chilean Education Minister, Sergio Bitar, and WIPO representative, Richard Owens will be speaking on copyright law and Creative Commons licensing.

Havana Journal has uploaded a satellite image of Havana [en] using Google's new software, Google Earth. They also anticipate a House vote on ending the travel ban to Cuba in the upcoming week [en] and encourage civic participation.

Chica Regia describes her very traditional and very “Northern” quincenera [es], a female coming of age celebration here in Mexico. Complete with photos.

Juanson contemplates on yesterday's decision by Mexican legislators to allow Mexicans living abroad to vote in the upcoming 2006 election [en].

Gemma [es] and Antonio [es] have released the results of their Second Survey of Webloggers and Weblog Readers. The data is available in both text and xml formats and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.1 license.

Tonight, beginning at 7 p.m., is the first Ecuablogs Convention “About and For Weblogs.” It will take place at the Auditorio de Expoplaza in Quito and the cost is three dollars.

Venezuela News and Views covers Fidel Castro's visit to Venezuela [en] and what it means for Chavez's foreign relations.

The Latin America roundup was compiled by David Sasaki (el Oso).

South-East Asia

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, in an attempt to deflect some of the pressure arising from the “Tapegate” scandal, announced today that she’s exiling her own husband from the country. Cranial Cavity suggests that customs officials give “Mike” Arroyo a thourogh search before he leaves the country; Inside PCIJ compares the President’s speech with one of her political rival’s and finds Arroyo’s talk to be wanting.

Jeff Ooi is reporting that Maybank, Malaysia’s largest bank, had a severe network crash today. Unfortunately, today also happens to be payday for most Malaysians.

Graham Holliday, the writer behind the Vietnamese food blog Noodlepie, has posted an updated list of Vietnamese blogs. The list is growing by leaps and bounds. He also points us to a Vietnam slogan competition being run by the Ministry of Tourism; taken the time to highlight some of the more unique entries in the contest.

Beth Kantor, blogging at Cambodia4Kids, passes along the news that former King Norodom Sihanouk has promised to stop blogging about politics.

ThaRum’s Web recalls the impact that having an overseas sponsor had when he was in elementary school.

The Middle East

In Egypt, opposition leaders are calling for the state press to cover anti-regime rallies, reports the Arabist Network.

The Beirut Spring is underwhelmed with the opposition’s apparent plan to oust Lebanese President Lahhoud.

Saudi Jeans points at the Saudi Arabia page on the brand-new 43 Places site.

South Asia

Chapati Mystery points to a CNN.com article that says that internet service for most of Pakistan was out Monday and Tuesday due to a fault in a cable. It seems, though, that not everyone buys this explanation. This may explain reduced posting from Pakistan bloggers recently, though we have seen posts from some Pakistani-based bloggers during the affected time frame.

Central Asia

Prague Watchdog is a Czech-based online service that keeps a very close eye on on-going conflict in Chechnya. Hat tip to David McDuff of A Step At A Time.

Europe

A Fistful of Euros looks forward to elections in Albania, a country that unfortunately gets often ignored in discussions of Europe.

Back Seat Drivers posts a reminder that the next Irish blogger meetup is this Saturday in Dublin.

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• Paul Frankenstein

China

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.

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• Paul Frankenstein

China

The Middle East

A Free Iraqi does an interesting Q&A with his readers.

Crossroads Arabia points to a news story that says that 2,500 scholarships are available for Saudis who want to study at American universities. While 2,500 students is a fairly large number, the American university system is so large that those students could easily get lost in the system: for example, Arizona State University has more than 8,000 students in its freshman class alone.

Sara Jabbari Farouji, an Iranian student studying in Europe, guest posts at Free Thoughts Iran on the election results and makes some interesting semiotic suggestions about how the opposition can reposition itself for future elections.

The author of Iran Hopes 2005 bitterly condemns the election as a fraud and states that “Ahmadinejad may carry the title of the ‘president’, but he is the most powerless man in Iran.”

IranScan points out the parallels between a famous speech that Ayatollah Khomeini gave shortly after the Shah had fled Iran in 1977 and the promises of new president Mahmood Ahmadinejad. It has a brief roundup (unfortunately, linkless) of Iranian blogosphere reaction to the election.

The Syrian News Wire has an excellent summary of the recently-completed Lebanese elections. About Lebanon speculates about how the election results will play out in the Parliament. One possibility is that pro-Syrian politician Nabih Berri will be re-elected Speaker of Parliament, a option that has drawn heated opposition from across the Lebanese blogosphere.

Sabbah’s Blog has a long post about the Hijab, the Muslim headscarf.

Both Mouse Hunter and Subzero Blue have write-ups of the Third Tunisian Blogger Meetup. Sounds like a good time was had by all…

Despite protests from Israeli settlers who attempted to prevent the demolition, the Israeli Army started to tear down a number of abandoned beachfront houses in the Gaza Strip over the weekend. Rafah Pundits Radio notes a striking parallel to IDF demolition of Palestinian houses in the same area a few years ago.

Where are you really from? AquaCool expresses her bitter disappointment when she meets a Jordanian who disavows his origins after having acquired a different passport.

Celebrity gossip meets international blogging: it turns out that the fortune that Paris Hilton’s fiance, Paris Latsis, is heir to, may be tainted. Israellycool points to a magazine report that claims that the Latsis fortune was not amassed in shipping, but rather by running oil and guns.

East Asia

Japanpundit continues his profile of Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi. Must reading if you’re at all interested in how Japan works.

Bingfeng Teahouse is slightly amused by news that a new poll indicates that China has a better image than the US.

ESWN has a guide to the three stages of breaking disaster news in China. Unsurprisingly, step three is “ban further coverage.”

The website of a police-run security company in Beijing has been defaced by hackers, reports Chinese Internet.

New Mongols finds a story that suggests that women are starting to dominate higher education in Mongolia.

Shanghaiist has full coverage of “One World, One Dream”, the inspiring new slogan for the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Photograph by Paul Frankenstein

Europe

Central Budapest reports that the latest statistics indicate that the Hungarian population is slowly shrinking. However, the Hungarian press is, “in a spirit of exceptional cheerfulness”, reporting this as good news.

A national ID card bill will be set for a second reading in the House of Commons, reports Lots of Big Ideas; they’re less worried about the ID card itself than the idea of a database nation.

The Barcepundit on the Spanish Government’s proposal to remove the word “war” from the Spanish constitution.

Beauty Pageant Vote-Fixing Scandal! Blog de Connard breaks the news that the Miss Russian Army 2005 pageant (won by a Navy Liutenant, reports Siberian Light) may have been fixed, with the judges fixing the outcome before the contest proper. MPC sadly wonders, “can we not even keep the Miss Russian Army contest free from graf?”

South Asia

Six months ago, the Boxing Day Tsunami devastated the Indian Ocean rim. Macam-Macam has a comprehensive recap and update on the situation. In addition, WorldChanging has its own update.

United We Blog: can protesting journalists alone make a difference in Nepal?

India Uncut has a brief report on Sunday’s Mumbai Blogger Meetup.

Kiruba Shankar points us to an Financial Express article about blogging in India.

Pakistani blogger KO posts a letter to the Indian people: “In Pakistan, we have a slightly different democratic system from India, where you have the worlds biggest elections. … We have greatly streamlined the process. You see, Musharraf tells us he embodies the people’s desires, and so when he votes its the same as the whole country voting, so our process is much faster and terribly efficient.”

Africa

This is Zimbabwe relays the news that private citizens are now being ordered to dress ‘appropriately’ by government forces.

Having turned on their erstwhile allies the war veterans, Zimbabwe’s ruling regime now has to find a way to placate them, says Zimpundit.

Inside Somaliland looks inside “the best camel meat restaurant in the country.”

South-East Asia

In the Philippines, President Gloria Arroyo has come out and admitted that it’s her voice on the controversial ‘election-rigging’ tapes. Crainal Cavity is less than impressed by her statement, predicting that Arroyo won’t last out the year; Nina at Metroblogging Manila doesn’t even give the President that long. However, The Sassy Lawyer thinks that an immediate change of office is unlikely, at least from a legal standpoint.

Sarasonteh wonders why the English-language press in Bangkok has such tremendous difficulty identifying a “former” casino-owner turned Senator in stories about illegal casinos getting shut down.

Singabloodypore notes the irony in having a Malaysian film festival show a film that’s been banned in Singapore.

Thai-Blogs has an immensely practical post about the different kinds of taxis available in Bangkok. It does not, however, cover tuk-tuks.

ThaRum’s Web complains that copying foreign pop songs is destroying the Cambodian music industry.

Jeff Ooi has a post that excerpts from a a lengthy interview given by Tengku Mahaleel, the beleagued head of Proton, Malaysia’s national car company.

The Committee to Protect Bloggers announces the formation of a Singapore-specific branch of the Committee.

Latin America

Jeff Barry, an American expat now living in Buenos Aires announces that Google Maps has found it's way to Buenos Aires [en]. He also notes that Buenos Aires is becoming a destination of outsourced call centers [en] from the US.

Gastonl [en], an Argentinian living in Toronto has written a controversial post [es] trying to peg Argentine idendity on the group blog Argenautas, written by “Argentinians spread around the world.” In response, Jorge Gobbi questions [es] if Argentinians living abroad have even the right to characterize Argentine identity.

Marcela Olivera guest blogs on Blog from Bolivia [en] to bring us up to date on the political conflict as well as beautifully describe the importance of the summer solstice to indigenous Bolivians. Major state and federal elections seem to be around the corner.

MABB translates [en] a political cartoon [es] which seems to effectively sum up the current political situation in Bolivia.

Roberto Arancibia of El Mundo Sigue Ahí [es] has notified me with Chilean presidential candidate Sebastian Piñera’s official blog URL [es]. Piñera, in his latest post, clarifies the difference between this official blog and the one I linked to in yesterday's roundup [en]:

El talentoso escritor Sergio Paz ha expresado sus dudas acerca de si este blog lo escribe realmente Sebastián Piñera, es decir, yo … puedo asegurarte … que estas palabras son mías. Hay otro “blog de Sebastián Piñera” dando vueltas por ahí, pero más bien es una bitácora de campaña que crearon amigos en Antofagasta y por eso está escrito en tercera persona. Este es mi blog y acá pretendo expresar lo que muchas veces no se puede decir en medio de la actividad tan intensa como candidato.

The talented writer Sergio Paz has expressed his doubts [es] in regard to whether this blog is really written by Sebastián Piñera, which is to say, me. I can assure you that these words are mine. There is another “blog [es] de Sebastián Piñera” making its rounds out there, but it is more a campaign weblog created by some friends in Antofagasta which is why it is written in the third person. This is my blog and here I will express what I often can't say in middle of such intense activity that surrounds me as a candidate.

The candidate's blog is open to comments.

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

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• Paul Frankenstein

Tunisia

South Asia

United We Blog! puts out the call for more Nepalase bloggers. In furtherance of this goal, Uzz of UWB has translated WordPress into Nepali, and that tool will be availble to the public within two months…

South-East Asia

Sakdipat, at Thai-Blogs, blogs about her first day of school… as a teacher. One of her projects is teaching her students—who are currently learning in an all-Thai environment—to blog in English.

Mr.Brown critiques Singapore’s appearance in an American comic book. At least they got the Singlish right, no?

Photograph by Hartanto

The Middle East

Hoder explains the very practical impact of what’s at stake in the Iranian election. In addition, the Los Angeles Times has an interesting feature story about Hoder and his return to Iran in Thursday’s edition.

A Free Writer details the latest tactic that terrorists are using to raise money in Iraq.

Having traded Tehran for the countryside, Mr.Behi looks at the difference between Iran’s two presidential candidates.

Another Irani Online has voted and now he’s watching TV, waiting for the results.

Brooding Persian further explains his decision to not vote in the election.

Yishay Mor recently observed that Secure Computing’s filtering software is used by Tunisia to control their internet. David Burt, Secure Computing’s PR manager, posted a comment on his blog stating that Secure Computing does not license their software to Iran. Yishay wrote back, pointing out the discrepancy; Mr. Burt’s response is, to say the least, eyebrow-raising.

Ammar Abdulhamid, who writes Amarji - A Heretic’s Blog, is very skeptical of the Syrian Government’s attempts to reform itself.

Isam Bayazidi on the culture of software piracy in Jordan.

The pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat has been running a series of articles on Arab blogs; The Big Pharaoh points to two in the series that mention him.

A detailed cultural critique comes from From Cairo, With Love, as he tries to figure out why Egypt seems to be perpetually stuck in neutral.

Africa

Bankelele points out that Harvard Business School is holding an open house in Nairobi next month.

Amnesty International launched an appeal for action in Zimbabwe yesterday, reports This is Zimbabwe. The blog also condemns the African Union’s refusal to act, stating that the AU’s “comment[s] denies the truth that, even by Zimbabwe’s own legal system, the actions have been illegal.”

East Asia

Japanpundit looks back on the remarkably successful administration of Prime Minister Koizumi, and starts to explain how and why the Japanese political system is not what it seems to be to western observers.

Following up on the recent report of a black watermelon, Tokyo Times reports that square watermelons have started to go on sale in Japan.

SimonWorld notes that whaleburgers are now on sale in Japan. No first-hand reports on how they taste yet.

Europe

Pesticide notes that the world’s largest mass kiss-in will be attempted on Saturday night on the Elizabeth Bridge in downtown Budapest. I’m sure that if anyone wants to join in, they’d be more than welcome.

Heiko Hebig points to an interesting-looking German-language article about blogs and bloggers.

Is the French newspaper doomed? Loic Le Meur points to the report of a government think-tank that seems to think that it is…

Budget airlines are sprouting in Europe like mushrooms after a rain; A Fistful of Euros has the latest on their expansion into Eastern Europe.

When the cop’s in the bathroom, the crook will play? The Daily Czech reports an embarrassing incident when a billionaire fraud suspect managed to escape police custody when the police officer guarding him went to use the loo.

Central Asia

Pretend You’re Dread, a new blog about Kyrgyzstan, on differing cultural norms: “It seems that the guest of honour is very much optional when it comes to parties in this neck of the woods.”

Oneworld reports that Georgia is putting together a proposal to host 2014 Winter Olympics.

With elections in Kyrgyzstan only a month away, election-related ‘incidents’ are on the rise, reports Alan Cordova.

Australia

There’s a really interesting guest post at The Road to Surfdom about Chinese defector Chen Yonglin. The anonymous author is apparently a former employee of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Latin America

The Committee to Protect Bloggers [en] and Ecuablogs [es] both cover the cease and desist letter [es] which Ecuadorian blogger Eduardo Ochoa (AKA “blue”) recently recieved [es] from the telecom company Movistar. While Ochoa has so far complied with the demand, Mexican blogger Eduardo Arcos opines [es] that what Ochoa did was legal under article 83 of Ecuador's Intellectual Property Law [es]. Ochoa now satirically proposes [es] doing away with the letter “M”, which seems to be the intellectual property of a single company.

The Chilean blog, El mundo sigue ahí gleefully announces [es] that pro-business Chilean presidential candidate Sebastián Piñera has opened up commenting on his blog [es]. According to Angus Reid consultants, Piñera is the conservative favorite and currently is running second place after Socialist Party candidate Mora from Babalu [en] points us to Venezuelan blogger, Tomas Sancio [en] who in turn links to an audio file [es] of a Cuban-American man asking the Cuban Phone Company for a cell phone (which can only be obtained in Cuba with a government permit.

The Latin America roundup above was compiled by David Sasaki (el Oso).

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• Paul Frankenstein

China

East Asia

New Mongols, under the guise of a complaint about a Chinese museum of Mongolian culture, takes a close look at patriarchal Chinese attitudes towards Mongolia.

An in-store McDonald’s ad has been accused of insulting all Chinese customers, reports Danwei. Like many similar stories that have come out of China, I suspect that there’s more to this story than meets the eye.

Bingfeng looks at the return of Confucius in modern China. Historically, the Chinese have turned to the old masters in times of change and crisis with mixed results.

After receiving publicity in Western press, two Chinese websites have been shut down by the authorities recently. EastSouthWestNorth wonders if there was a causal relationship…

Found on an message board: An eye-opening collection of Korean children’s anti-Japanese art.

Photograph by Janice Lo

The Middle East

The final round of voting for the Lebanese parliament has concluded, with the ultimate result being a solid majority for the anti-Syrian “opposition.” About Lebanon states that it’s time for differing factions to set aside their differences and work together, an idea strongly seconded by Pulse of Freedom.

The Beirut Spring has a great graphic breaking down the membership of the new parliament.

However, the Lebanese Political Journal asks some tough questions about voting irregularities.

More fallout from the Iranian Presidential election results: Mr.Behi calls on the forces of reform not to give up: “But this wall is our last to protection. If we show up little, they will cheat again and make the most logically impaired people to become the owners of our destiny and they will cut all the trees we raised in these years with our words and ideas so that under they shadow we can have better living and a more free society despite the barren desert of dictatorship around us.”

In addition, Hoder notes that election-related text-messaging (SMS) has been banned by the authorities.

The Big Pharaoh gets into a lengthy political conversation with some bookstore employees… and discovers that they didn’t complain once about Palestine or the USA. Perhaps the Egyptian political elite cannot deflect criticism with those two hot button topics anymore.

Egyptian Person comments on Farouk Kaddoumi’s recent statement calling on resistance groups to stop targeting Palestinian civilians: “But I think that Kaddoumi … did not have the courage, or perhaps enough wit, to include in his list of wrongdoings by the Palestinian groups other kinds of attacks against civilian Israeli targets …

Saudi Jeans on the rituals of the teenaged Saudi male:“During summer, large number of young men in Riyadh go to Jeddah to have a good time, because they are not allowed to enter entertainment places, such as shopping malls, in Riyadh, unlike Jeddah, which does not have this kind of boys-phobia.” Unfortunately, as the blog reports, some of the malls in Jeddah have been changing their policy on unaccompanied young men…

Mahmood’s Den has a simple explanation for why some Bahraini protesters were beaten badly by police: “That’s because they protested in front of the Royal Court.”

In less political news, the recent Jordan blogger meetup “was one big success,” writes AquaCool. She says that “I enjoyed every moment, I didn’t feel like a stranger, I felt I’ve already met the bloggers before and having an interesting, and a fruitful conversation with all of them couldn’t be easier!”

Latin America

MTYBlogs.com has a great English-language roundup of blogs from Monterrey, including this great guide to podcasting in Spanish.

Exhausted from the excitement of the Bolivian presidential resignation and change of power, Barrio Flores settles for doing a roundup of the past week in Bolivian blogs.

Blog From Bolivia thoroughly disassembles an Economist article about Bolivia’s economic troubles.

Bolivian legislatures are attempting to collect compensation in the event that the Congress is dissolved; MABB is understandably outraged: Never mind the 126 million dollars it would cost, how about the fact that they have been completely unable to deal with the crisis currently affecting the county.

South Asia

Kiruba Shankar, in the context of a podcasting meet-up, needs to know what the best way to connect some remote visitors…

Rashmi Bansal at Youth Curry uses the question—“So, when are you having another baby?”—as a starting point for an essay on the nature of the modern Indian family.

In sports news, a jubilant 3rd World View
is collecting news reports about Bangladesh’s massive upset cricket victory over Australia.

Photograph by Pyo

South-East Asia

Jeff Ooi writes about some positive press coverage that Malaysian blogs have been getting, and reminds his readers that there’s a Malaysian blogger meetup this week in Kuala Lumpur…

Jakartass is relieved to know that Indonesia’s antiquated foreign marriage laws will be reformed soon: “Er Indoors and I should be able to complete the marriage procedures started 15 years ago.”

Macam-Macam notes some interesting disparities in Indonesian drug penalties and concludes that, as in many things Indonesian, the rules for the haves and the rules for the have-nots aren't always the same.

Europe

It’s graduation season these days; colleges and high school seniors get dressed in robes and funny hats and face their future. San Francisco-based Irish expatriate Dervala takes the occasion to reminisce about the Irish college entrance exam: “In Ireland, we didn’t get to prove our “scholastic aptitude” with a multiple-choice test of our parents’ ability to pay for Kaplan prep. Instead we faced the Leaving Certificate, a national examination that would, we sincerely believed, determine everything in our future except the color of the curtains.

In Hungary, Pesticide explains why turnout at a meeting celebrating 60 years of Russian-Hungarian brotherhood might have been a little low; it also details the link between nice weather and rising eviction rates in Budapest.

Africa

Ethiopundit write a long post about the government that rules Ethiopia: “Ethiopians are in the tragic position of being ruled by an undemocratic government that actively hinders their economic and social development and indeed values their suffering for the aid money it attracts.” The post also has a detailed roundup of blog posts about Ethiopia.

Apparently recovering from a back injury, the author of Black Looks uses her time to do a quick pan-African blog roundup.

Central Asia

The Carpetblogger discovers that mourning in Azerbaijan involves much more ritual than in the West.

From Registan.net, a report about a 20,000-strong opposition protest in Azerbaijan. Taking their cue from another former Soviet republic, the protestors have picked orange as the color to symbolize their fight.

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China

The Middle East

Regime Change Iran has a story about the difficulties that US-based Iranians have in voting.

Mr. Behi has running coverage of election day. Highlights: “This [extension of voting hours] is always happens regardless the number of voters so make it look big.”

Hoder can’t believe that the western press is ignoring Dr. Moin’s rapid rise in popularity.

Free Thoughts on Iran says the voting situation reminds him of a old Lone Ranger joke.

Under Underground explains why he voted for Dr. Moin, despite some misgivings.

Nema at Iranian Truth has some advice for President Bush: “My advice to Bush, keep your mouth shut. You pick the worst times to talk.”.

Is Iran nearing a tipping point? Nasrin Alavi at IranScan seems to think so.

Responsibility for least some of the bombings in Iran earlier this week have been claimed by Arab seperatists, reports the Arabist Network. However, this does not address the issue of the bombings in Tehran, which appear to remain unsolved.

Silly Bahranini Girl attends a “massive rally” for constitutional reform. Apparently the government had ruled that the previous constitutional reform rally was, in fact, unconstitutional…

South-East Asia

ThaRum’s Web has been keeping close watch on the kindergarten hostage situation in western Cambodia.

Jeff Ooi looks at a New Straits Times article about blogging in Malaysiaand notices that a certain prominent, award-winning Malaysian blogger is missing from the roundup…

Brand New Malaysian point to an article about a new proposed regional ASEAN airline. I’m guessing the model is similar to American regional carriers or European discount airlines like EasyJet or RyanAir.

Commentary Singapore notes that the CEO of NTUC Income, Singapore’s biggest insurance company, has started blogging.

Photography by KatieW

Europe

Babblogue Blog announces the time and date of the next Galway blog meet.

Latin America

VCrisis has notes on the story that Citgo, the Venezuelan state oil company, managed to lose—as in misplace, as in cannot account for—more than $700 million.

Central Asia

In a post titled “The Last Soviet Generation”, Katy at Blogrel notes that the kids who are eligble to vote this year have never really known the Soviet Union.

Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan goes for a field trip into the country: “Although the curtain never fully closed on the genetic memory of the Kyrgyz during last century’s Sovietization, the re-emergence of their own culture plays out on an eerie stage…”

Africa

Meskel Square has the full text of the press conference the UK’s secretary for international development gave in Addis Ababa earlier this week. The highlight is that the UK is suspending a 20 million pound increase in aid to Ethiopia after recent post-election violence.

This Is Zimbabwe has a copy of Pope Benedict XVI’s address to the Zimbabwean envoy to the Holy See. It’s loaded stuff, particularly if you ignore the diplomatic boilerplate.

East Asia

ESWN has a post about contemporary versions of the famous “No Chinese Or Dogs Allowed” sign.

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• Paul Frankenstein

China

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 and a short blurb about what it’s about!

East Asia

Doubleleaf has a roundup of recent topics of discussion in the Chinese-language blogosphere, translated into English.

Issac Mao writes about a new project he’s involved in called the Social Brain Foundation. They’re looking for funding now…

ESWN translates an article written by a man who was detained by Chinese security forces and interrogated about possible democratic collusion. The article is largely a transcript of the interrogation session, and gives interesting insight into the tactics used by the Chinese security apparatus (here’s the article in the original Chinese). ESWN also looks at three different newspaper reports about a flash flood in Heilongjiang province that killed 200 schoolchildren, and compares them and the different stories that they tell.

One of the most violent incidents of rural unrest in China occurred over the weekend, as hundreds of hired thugs attacked a group of farmers who were occupying land they were refusing to turn over to local officials in Hebei province. The land in question was to become part of a state-owned powerplant. China Digital Times points to videotape of the attack obtained by The Washington Post (warning: the video footage is unedited and disturbing). The Post has fuller coverage of the incident.

Danwei reports on China’s attempts to shut down adult-oriented websites in a posted optimistically titled “China Triumphant in War on Porn”.

The Middle East

Hoder passes on the news that two important vote boycott supporters have changed their mind and now support voting in the upcoming Iranian election.

Iranian Girl explains why she started blogging.

Iran Scan reports that several protestors were arrested and then released a few hours later at a protest for political prisoners in front of Evin Prison in Tehran.

Iraqi Expat notes that Saudi newspaper Asharq Alawsat has both an English section and a RSS feed (the feed seems to be English-only; I couldn’t find an arabic feed).

The Big Pharaoh reads a story in Time about an Islamic school in the US and is both amused and horrified at the same time.

The Arabist Network passes on the news that Egyptian President Hosani Mubarak will name a vice-president after Presidential elections in September. This move is generally considered to be a sign that Mubarak is considering the issue of presidential succession.

Iraq Rising puts it quite simply: “I feel sorry for Americans, I really do. When they liberated Iraq they never expected to find a population as insane and dysfunctional as the Iraqi population is. They never factored in the psychological damage that 30 years living under Saddam Hussain has done…”

Photo by Steve Evans

Africa

Friends of Ethiopia reprints an article that charges that the West, by using genetically-modified [GM] grain and seed in aid efforts, actually causes African famine.

Thinker’s Room notes that the Kenyan Tourism Minister recently gave a talk where he placed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Kenya. For the record, Mt. Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania and is unlikely to relocate to Kenya any time soon.

Europe

David McDuff, who writes the blog A Step At A Time, notes that June 14 is a national day of mourning in Estonia, as it marks the anniversary of the first Soviet-organized mass deportation of Estonians to Siberia. He also notes that a public effort is underway to try to obtain a pardon from Russian President Vladimir Putin for a political scientist who was convicted of espionage.

It’s not uncommon in the United States for employers to offer their employees commuting vouchers as a perk. Usually a portion comes out of the employee’s paycheck and a portion is paid for by the employer; the benefit for both is that the vouchers are tax-free. Clotilde Dusoulier, the author of the great food blog Chocolate and Zucchini, writes that the French have something similar, but for lunch: les tickets resto (which come with their own set of (often ignored) rules and regulations).

South Asia

Youth Curry looks at the shopping habits of the Indian middle class.

Kiruba Shankar announces a podcasting meetup in the Indian city of Chennai.

Photograph by Jessica Lim

Latin America

MABB points to the tale of a tourist who arrived in the middle of Bolivia’s recent upheaval.

South-East Asia

Bun Tharum looks at a Cambodian government public health initiative that takes the form of a prime-time television series.

The talk of the Singaporean blogging community recently has been l’affair SPG: a young Singaporean blogger, who writes under the pseudonym Sarong Party Girl [warning: her blog is Not Safe For Work in most workplaces], posted a (fairly tasteful) nude picture of herself on her blog, and The Straits Times promptly wrote an article about it. Mr.Brown has posted a very detailed roundup of internet coverage of the story.

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Kenya

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.

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• Paul Frankenstein

China

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 and a short blurb about what it’s about!

Lebanon

The Lebanese blogosphere reacts to General Michel Aoun’s stunning victory in the latest round of parliamentary elections: Across the Bay has a lengthy analysis of the results, framed in terms of politics-through-partnership, not politics-through-opposition; Beirut Spring suggests that this is the beginning of the end for Christian religious influence in Lebanese politics; “Guess what? We held them accountable,” says Pulse of Freedom; Lebanese Political Journal has a look at the very high voter turnouts in the election; and finally Ramzi’s Blah Blah, tongue-in-cheek, salutes the General’s campaign strategy

Iran

In Iran, Hoder has landed safe and sound, though he notes that his website is inaccessible, making posting difficult. He also wonders why if Sean Penn can visit Iran with no problems, why can’t he?

Speaking of Sean Penn, Above The Wall has a photograph of the actor attending Friday prayer services, and Aref-Adib asks if Mr. Penn and Mr. Rafsanjani were separated at birth…

On a more serious note, Iran Scan wonders if Sean Penn’s visit as a journalist will be a serious visit, or if he’ll let his anti-Bush tendencies color his viewpoint.

There was an enthusiastic women’s rights demonstration in front of Tehran University that Iranian Girl participated in. Omid Memarian of Iranian Prospect notes that the Iranian feminist movement exemplifies the kind of independent civil society that the fundamentalists fear. Pictures from the demonstration can be found here, here, here, here, and here.

Iranian blogs have been wondering who’s been behind the recent bomb blasts in Terhan and Ahvaz: Mr. Behi wonders who would stand to benefit from the blast; Iranian Truth thinks that they might have been caused by Sunni Arabs connected with the erstwhile Saddam regime in Iraq; Zaneirani suggests that they were planted by Iranian hardliners, so they could blame the opposition and affect the upcoming election.. Another possibility could be that they were the work of separatist Arabs from Khuzestan.

As for the election itself, Iran Scan has a brief rundown of the major candidates. The candidate favored by the reformers and many of the Iranian bloggers is Dr. Moin (his name is also transliterated as Moeen, Moein, and Moien), who was only allowed to enter the election by decree of Ayatollah Khamenei. Iranian Truth notes while Rafsanjani is the clear front-runner, it doesn’t seem likely that he’d clear the 50% needed to avoid a run-off election; thus, the real race in the election is for second place.

Free Thoughts On Iran has a lengthy, thoughtful post from an engineer who is planning on boycotting the election.

It’s been noted by several bloggers that a campaign gimmick that Rafsanjani has employed in this election has been the spelling of his first name in Roman letters. Hoder suggest that perhaps this is so “he can look more cool and Westernized this way, but to me personally, it’s so cheesy to use English letters for Persian words in Iran.”. One other possibility is that that the intended target are viewers in Europe and America.

The Committee to Protect Bloggers has news about two arrested Iranian bloggers: Omid Sheikhan was arrested last year and now faces an October court date without benefit of an attorney; the Committee is also attempting to gather 1000 signatures on a petition to free Mojtaba Saminejad, who was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison on a charge of “insulting” the Ayatollah.

Photograph by Hoder

The Middle East

OceanCreep notes that wireless internet is coming soon to Starbucks in Jordan. This will, no doubt, be a great leap forward for bloggers in the kingdom.

Annalysis on the effective use of metaphor in the marketing of Viagra in the Middle East.

Africa

Martin, who writes African Bullets & Honey, describes the rituals he goes through whenever he passes through immigration lines. The comments have similar ancedotes…

Ethiopundit on Pulp Fiction and African politicians.

A young Maltese expat was forced to leave her neighborhood and check into a hotel because of the ongoing unrest in Addis Ababa.

Australia

Tim Lambert uncovers a logging industry astroturf organization.

Latin America

Barrio Flores wonders what the future will hold for Bolivia's now ex-President Carlos Mesa.

Asia

In China, Bingfeng Teahouse wishes that his ISP would warn him—or at least regularly schedule—when they’re gong to ‘crack down’ on bloggers.

ESWN checks in with two stories: first, “banned” in China doesn’t mean “unavailable”, thanks to the underground press, and second, he provides a glossary of ‘new’ Chinese terms being used by kids these days (warning: link is mostly in Chinese).

The Economist is famous for its Big Mac Index; now, SimonWorld in Hong Kong is launching the Alternative Big Mac Index, which asks how long must a McDonald’s worker labor in order to earn enough money to buy a Big Mac. He’s also asking for research volunteers. Give your stomach up for research! This is also a good time to remind our readers that Simon keeps a daily East Asia roundup going.

Scribbles of A Lazy Geek points to an article that talks about Indian blogger meetups. Apparently, at least one couple has met and married because of these!

Europe

A Fistful of Euros notes that Gaelic will join the ranks of official EU languages in 2007.

Loic Le Meur updates us on the progress of his European Blogosphere wiki page.

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• Paul Frankenstein