Global Voices Online

Elizabeth writes about the decline in Russian language abilities in Tajikistan.

Leila translates a Russian-language post about a health care scandal in Kazakhstan's Karaganda region.

For those who have always wanted to know what acting in a Georgian soap opera is like, Breed describes his experience.

Both Nessuna and Jeremy express their dislike of Vardavar, a holiday celebrated in part by throwing water on complete strangers.

Zarchka writes on the value of escaping the city for the village.

The Bearded Man commens on an article in the Washington Post about plans being mooted by the Zimbabwean government to monitor e-mail and other electronic communication. He writes: “It would take a sizeable army to sift through emails, SMS and telephone calls - yes, I know that much of it can be done electronically, but that takes money - one thing that the Zimbabwen government is decidedly short of.”

Ore's Notes remarks on a visit to Nigeria by author Diane Evans, who she notes is part-Nigerian.

Farrel Lifson of politics.za comments on a forthcoming position paper from the Eastern Cape provincial division of the African National Congress (ANC), which will say that the South African government is being taken over by right-wing forces resistant to transformation.

Africa Unchained points to a passage in George Ayittey's book by the same name, which runs: “We need TECHNOCRATS to fix our broken, dysfunctional institutions. REPAIRMEN or plumbers who will unclog the gutters or the system. CUTLASSES to chop down all the dead wood.”