Global Voices Online

Dan McMinn of Orange Ukraine does his regular roundup of Ukraine's main political and economic themes: the gas agreement, privatization issues, campaign news and relationship with Russia.

Indigenous matters blog The Voice of the Taino People publishes a press release issued by the Amerindian Peoples Association of Guyana (APA) objecting to the passage of the Amerindian Bill 2005 in its present form. The APA alleges that the Bill promotes racial discrimination.

Dominican hip-hop group R-1 invites (ES) all visitors to their blog to download their latest mixtape, ““Pa Que Vayen Cogiendo”.

Que Bola? posts a lovely black-and-white photo of two macheteros, or Cuban sugar cane workers, remarking that “it is mindboggling to see the old antiquated equipment and ox drawn wagons that are still being used in the small sugar industry that persists in Cuba.”

The Limey notes that South Pacific islands of Tokelau have become the latest colony to reject independence by referendum, and wonders when the pressure group “Bermudians for Referendum” will be taken seriously by the country's Premier.

Francomenz writes about singer David Rudder, whom she calls “the Naipaul of calpyso”, and Nicholas Laughlin posts the second report on his efforts to help build Carnival costumes.

Peter Byrne at Abdymok links to a Ukrainian-language story on ten Uzbek asylum seekers who were deported from Ukraine in violation of international law. He thinks this is “almost as bad as shipping rocket launchers to Burma.” Holly Cartner, director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division, believes the ten men are likely to face “torture and abuse” back home.

US Congressman Tom Lantos sharply criticized the US hi-tech firms for helping the Chinese government censor the Internet at Wedn's congressional hearing. Chinese blogger Keso compares that to Chinese government's insistence that no one has ever been arrested due to speech on the Internet. He considers both “political postures”, and regards it as ridiculous that US firms were questioned in the US Congress on whether they should feel sorry for their behavior towards the Chinese netizens.

While most Venezuelan bloggers lament the site outage of the directory, VeneBlogs, Miguel Octavio was full of despair and frustration on Valentine's Day as he lists nine examples of corruption and lawlessness which he says have come to define contemporary Venezuela.