Global Voices Online

The Congolese-born basketball star, Dikembe Mutombo, talking about his experience building a hospital in his home country: “The big question was: Why do you want to be the first one to do it? What motivate you to build this hospital and what is behind this hospital?,” via Dizolele.

Should Dr Yunus take over political leadership in the country. Drishtipat opens the question and there is an interesting discussion in the comments space. “If we agree that it should be fixed, what better way to fix it then getting the most non-controversial and efficient man in the country now to do the job? Fortunately the timing of it works such a way that he can try it out for three months and know whether he can do it or not.”

With Eid around the corner, shopkeepers in Pakistan stock up on items that are traditional gifts on the festival. Metroblogging Islamabad says “Against the expectations, this time the costumer response is slow towards these traditional gifts and stallholders and costumers blame different reasons for this decay. A survey revealed that price-hike is the main reason forcing the costumers to become overly choosy in Eid shopping, avoiding luxuries such as bangles and henna.”

imperfect world 2006 on homophobic persecution in Bangladesh. “Hussein explains that he first encountered anti-gay attitudes in university. He claims that fundamentalist outfits like Jamaat, Chatra Shibir and the Freedom Party made it difficult for him to stay in Bangladesh.”

Democracy For Nepal on being a republic and Monarchy. “Retaining the monarchy any longer gives the monarch and the monarchists room to play. If the monarch could invest a few crores to ensure a continued salary of tens of crores, do you think he will be tempted to do it?”

Nik Nazmi links to the audio of a speech he gave at the Young Malaysians Forum. In an earlier post the blogger talks about the speech. “Insya Allah, I will be speaking at a young Malaysians forum ‘How to Set Pak Lah Free?’. The panellists of politicians and young bloggers will discuss on how to get Pak Lah to implement his reform agenda, after a lot of talk but little action.” Pak Lah is the informal name of Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmed Badawi.

Huang Shoou Chyuan in Singapore is East Asia