Global Voices Online

Enanga's Pov writes about Africans and victimhood: “Have you not met the kind of African who likes to detail the things that are wrong with our continent, how we have been raped and plundered over centuries, the sort of African who has all the details (real and imagined) of what the White man did and did not do, and who enjoys the telling? Have you not met them?”

The blogger at itsthefinalworld posts pictures of Saigon's skyline. Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City is one of the fastest growing cities in South East Asia with a rapidly changing skyline.

Dristis-Mudra has a fascinating collection of Black and White photographs on a flickr set. They are from the 1970s when the photographer was travelling in Kashmir.

United We Blog! on the haughty king - as he refuses to answer the questions raised. “King Gyanendra has again repeated his act of stubbornness by refusing to answer the questions of High Level Probe Commission (HLPC). This must have alerted the SPA-Maoists as it reflects the same old mentality, tradition and work pattern of the king.”

Kamla Bhatt has a wonderful podcast with Indian diaspora from around the world on how Diwali is celebrated by those outside the country.

Morris the Pen on fasting, Ramadan and fastlets. “Our speaker talks of how he looked forward to this as a child (the ‘Iftar’ or breaking-the-fast evening celebration is a time of joyous togetherness and seems like a ‘month of parties’). However, as an entrepreneur in middle age, he found it bothersome – lower productivity, workers heading home at 3 in order to be ready for Iftar, and a constant sense of tiredness.”

Cuckoo's Call reflects on Calcutta and its people. “But you would'nt know all this when you first meet them. They are up-standing human beings, with a sense of self, with a sense of dignity, aware of their equality with anybody else in a democratic society, articulate; being crushed relentlessly by life, but miraculously struggling on, waging a million tiny ineffectual mutinies to live on.