Global Voices Online

Ethan Zuckerman is also on his way to WSIS in Tunis to run Global Voices workshop on “Expression under Repression. “ He like many others has a number of concerns on WSIS. “I’m attending despite deep misgivings over the usefulness of the gathering, the absurd cost of the meeting, and the fact that it’s being held within a deeply repressive country with a history of detaining people who use the Internet to exercise their right to free speech.”

Nigerian blog, Resident Pharmacist wonders if there is not something ” about our culture that, while making it a morally unacceptable for a married woman to be assaulted, would not be as concerned about a single/unmarried woman”?

Friends of Ethiopia asks us to “beware of the white elephant” - The WSIS in Tunis this week will be discussing the “digital divide” between the “north” and “south” and call for a Digital Solidarity Fund. However without substantive changes in trade restrictions and barriers then it will just be another one of those “talking shops” and everyone gets to have lots of fun in Tunis.
“Dazzled by the allure of e-commerce, the global information society, e-learning and other buzzwords, they believe that new technology will allow them to leap-frog decades of incompetence and corruption and achieve rapid development. But the barriers to technological development are exactly the same as the barriers to any economic development: market restrictions, lack of contract law, state controls, customs duties, bureaucracy, and corruption.”

In many parts of Africa snails are a delicacy. Timbuktu Chronicles has a report on heliculture in Africa (snail farming). Snails are not only eaten locally but are also a major source of foreign exchange in Ghana and can be used to increase the fertilisation of land for other crops.

African music blog, SoundRoots is saddened by the decision of African Diva, Miriam Makeba too stop touring. In her performance in Cuba recently Mama Afrika commented about the use of the term “world music” to describe “third world” music.
“I don’t believe that there would be rhythm without Africa. Now we are called World music, and I ask myself, where are the rest from then? We are all of the world. In real terms they want to say Third World music. It’s the same as when they called us underdeveloped countries and now courteously we are in development. That’s how it is.”

Black Star Journal has a report on the arrest of Ugandan opposition leader, Kizza Besigye by President Yoweri Museveni. “After 19 years of banning all political parties, Museveni's regime finally legalized multipartism. He even invited main opposition leader Kizza Besigye to return to the country. In addition to being the main threat to his power, Besigye was once Museveni's personal doctor. When Museveni invited Besigye to return to the country, he promised that doctor wouldn't be arrested. So Besigye came home on Nov. 1. And less than two weeks later, he was… you guessed it… arrested on dubious charges.

Lux Mean reveals where to go shopping for second-hand goods in Phnom Penh. Jinja covers a more ominous kind of sale: the no-bid transfers of public land to private bidders, which has already put the lands under the National University of Fine Arts and the National Theatre in private hands.

Danwei and Bingfeng Teahouse engage in a back-and-forth over an editorial in Caijing (Finance) magazine criticizing the domestic Chinese media's hesitant coverage of bird flu. Imagethief and The Peking Duck share their thoughts on the topic as well.

Jakartass discusses Jakarta's water problems — from subsidence, flooding, the lack of tap water for two-thirds of the population to the possibility of a severe water crisis in three years.