Global Voices Online

Sean Guillory discusses (and recommends) an article by Anne Neistat, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, on her recent trip to Chechnya's capital Grozny.

Brigid of Laughter in the Dark post a moving story about sharing family histories with Katia, an archive employee in Smolensk.

An angry comment forces the beatroot to continue an endless debate on whether life was better during communism.

Hugo Chavez plans to visit Belarus at the end of July, reports TOL's Belarus Blog: “Finally, the two outspoken haters of U.S. will meet. I am sure they have a lot of things to discuss, and I assume some spicy joint anti-Washington statements will be made during the visit.”

DoZ catches Pyaasa, a movie made in 1957 and wonders, “There is no three-point program to improve the sum total of the hero’s happiness in fifty-five minutes. When you make your life that deterministic, the risk of unhappiness only seems to go up.”

Nikita has a post on the perceived impurity of women during their menstrual cycle. No access to places of worship, treated as an untouchable and more.

>Dhaka Diary on the corners in Dhaka. “Kawran Bazar, plays out to an audience of many, movement is rapid, shift and purposeful. It is a hub of action and activity, offices, banks, TV studios, small shopkeepers, street vendors and consumer waste make it a party worth dropping into.”

Voices of Reconciliation on the public appeal for Public Service Media in Sri Lanka. “As Sri Lankan citizens groups have been campaigning for public service media, we now call on politicians, public authorities, civil society and all media groups to unite around a program to enhance public service values in Sri Lanka's media.”

Nepali Netbook comments on the changing face of alignments and alliances post the upheaval in April. “A passionate realignment of politics seems to be underway. To be sure, the precise motives and possible outcomes remain obscure. Yet this much is clear: In the run-up to the constituent assembly elections, Nepalese politics seems to be crystallizing into republican and ceremonial monarchist camps from their hitherto tri-polar dimensions.”