Global Voices Online

Russia Blog writes about the tragic death of an Omsk journalist and his family: “Ruslan noticed a nice Mitsubishi car parked by a tent, with no potential witnesses around. Driving a foreign-made vehicle was his childhood dream. So he went to the tent and shot Aleksandr Petrov in the face and his wife in the back.”

Copydude writes about “a giant can of Baltic Sprats” sculpture soon to appear in a town near Kaliningrad; about German ads - possibly, a scam - offering “assisted resettlement package to Kaliningrad, including subsidised bills, free train travel, free phone installation, a chance to collect Russian and German pensions and dual citizenship”; and about Russian “ripping [as] a Pavlovian reflex.”

Owlspotting writes about journalism education in Romania.

Owlspotting writes about translating movie titles into Romanian. The Accidental Russophile gives advice on finding and watching Russian DVDs in the United States.

Halfway Down the Danube compares Bulgaria's capital Sofia to Romania's capital Bucharest: “Bucharest has more cars; Sofia has better drivers.”

The beatroot writes about the opening of a 9/11 memorial in a Polish town that saw a pogrom against Jews in 1946 - and about the effects of the 9/11 “media hysteria.”

The beatroot writes about Socialist Realism: “…mostly a patronizing celebration of all things ugly and pompous.”

Moju on the various dichotomies between religion and the politics of domination. “however, what cannot be explained, nor justified, is the frenzied nationalist who screams for sinhala domination and also calls himself a sinhalese buddhist.”

Or How I Learnt To Stop Worrying on the events of 9/11 - including the worry for people, the anxiety and the frenzied calls. “I later found out that both of my college housemates were in the towers that day. My other friend was having breakfast in Morgan Stanley’s cafeteria on the 43rd floor of one of the towers. That trip to the cafeteria may have saved his life.”