Global Voices Online

VeryRussianTochkaNet writes about the election scandal involving the Yabloko party in St. Petersburg.

Sean's Russia Blog writes about a U.S. comedy show whose recent guest was Michael Specter, the author of a lengthy piece on political murders taking place in Russia.

Belgrade 2.0 warns travellers about the new safety rules introduced at Belgrade airport.

The Turkish Invasion writes about how Russians celebrate March 8 - and posts a hilarious Soviet poster on the subject.

Traveling Life reports on the neo-socialist party's initiative to “forbid Polish television stations from inserting commercials into movies and other programming without the consent of the author.”

Our Man in Gdansk writes on how Polish college education works.

“From March 15th all journalists born before 1972 working in Poland will have to sign a declaration that they did not spy for the Polish People's Republic. That includes me: Polish law has a very wide definition of journalism and the bill makes no distinction between Poles and foreigners,” reports Our Man in Gdansk.

The beatroot reports on a Polish politician who “wants any new EU Constitution (yawn) to include a ban on abortion and rights for homosexuals.”

The beatroot continues covering the saga of the African man who infected seven Polish women with HIV: the latest news is that Simon Moll was only pretending to be a political refugee.

Csikszereda Musings writes about the region he lives in and his vision of “a more federal Romania.”

Thank god it's Friday. Time for some relaxing Trova to wind down for the weekend. Fortunately Creative Commons Peru has posted all of the tracks from Pedro Novoa's latest album “La Estación.”

Commemorating International Women's Day in Bolivia, Leny Olivera guest-posts on Blog from Bolivia to profile three Cochabamba women: Maura—mother, wife, cook, business-woman; Sara—wife, mother, vendor; and Alicia—mother, drink vendor.

Commemorating International Women's Day in Bolivia, Leny Olivera guest-posts on Blog from Bolivia to profile three Cochabamba women: Maura—mother, wife, cook, business-woman; Sara—wife, mother, vendor; and Alicia—mother, drink vendor.

Andres Duque finds yet another Latin American police investigator who tries to explain a homicide as “promiscuous homosexuality.”

Robert Wright heads down to his local supermarket and compares costs on basic foodstuffs from March 2002 to March 2007. Take a look for yourself and find out why neither he nor Felisa Miceli are smiling.

Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar writes about the town of Pecs, which has been chosen to be one of the 2010 European Capitals of Culture: “In most other countries, this would be a source of minor pride; in Hungary, of course, the award has caused all manner of back-stabbing, accusations and general, good old-fashioned jealousy from the other wannabes.”

Itching for Eestimaa corrects Itar-Tass news agency and quotes Pravda.

Penelope Anthias on “how the new political map of Latin America is influencing Peru’s integration into transnational markets and what this tells us about the opportunities and challenges facing developing countries when interacting in the global economy.”

Itching for Eestimaa writes about the recent elections (+32 comments) and their impact.

Here's what Estonian music radio does to Giustino of Itching for Eestimaa: “One thing that I have noticed since moving to Estonia is the preference of Estonian radio stations to play 1980s-era pop songs, or, more prevalently, 2000s-versions of 1980s pop songs. […] One second I'm a 27-year-old guy shopping for linens with my wife, the next I'm six years old again, in the car on the way to the ocean with my parents.”

Celebrating International Women's Day, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet tells men to keep their hands to themselves.

Russia's billionaires are numerous and young, according to the Forbes Magazine and Russian Spy.

“Iraqi Judge who issued the death sentence of Saddam “Rauf Abdul Rahman” fled Iraq to London and asked for asylum. Rauf came to London mid-December with a tourist visa accompanied by his wife and two daughters, then returned to Iraq and filed a request for asylum to the British embassy claiming that he feared for his life from Saddam’s family,” reports Roads to Iraq here.

Iraqi blogger Mohammed is wondering whether tomorrow's Baghdad Conference will be a “positive contribution to stability in Iraq and to building better relationships with the neighbors and the international community?”
“The public opinion here isn't showing a lot of interest in the event and the subject rarely finds its way to common conversations, actually most people do not know who's going to be here for the conference, that, if they are at all aware it's going to be held tomorrow and in Baghdad—people are tired of watching neighboring countries interfering in Iraq almost always against Iraq's interests,” he explains.

“We're being fooled by the government.. We know it, and we do nothing about it,” writes Iraqi blogger Aunt Najma here.
She then took us with her on a class picnic, which somehow had an awkward start but a happy ending.

Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey reports that Turkey has blocked YouTube for hosting videos that insulted Kemal Attaturk.
“The model secular Islamic state everyone,” he remarks.

Lebanese blogger Free Cedar meets a girl, in a bar, who is clueless about where Lebanon is. Find out more about their exchange here.

“The passing of time, it seems to me, the passing of time without resolution, is the greatest evil we face. The passing of time compounds problems beyond measure. The passing of time makes everything more convoluted. This is especially so when it comes to some of the thorniest issues facing palestinians and israelis: refugees and settlers,” writes blogger Yaeli here.

The head of the very same Court imprisoned blogger Kareem Soliman will be appealing to next week is launching a lawsuit to get 21 blogs and websites blocked in Egypt, writes Issandr El Amrani in The Arabist.

Silly Bahraini Girl thinks her Falafels rock and gives us her recipe for disaster here.

Bahrain-based blogger Soul Search praises an orphan's sponsorship scheme, run by an Islamic society. “I encourage everybody to try it out, it is a wonderful scheme, very well organized, and you would be aiding in supporting the most vulnerable segment of society. The forgotten victims of wars or poverty and to top it all off, either lost one parent or both, shattering their dreams by disasters and aggression around them,” she writes.

Algerian blogger and linguist Lameen Souag is looking for more information on Arab dialects from Saudi Arabia here.

Sokari writes about African women bloggers celebrating International Women's Day 2007, “There are probably hundreds of blogs by African women on the continent and in the Diaspora so selecting this list was not an easy task. The ones mentioned here are because they are consistent, have been around for over a year [keeping a blog consistently is no easy task], they are exceptional in content and/or style and because they are blogs I read regularly and always enjoy.”

EspaceMaroc writes [Fr]: “Comedian Gad El Maleh is coming home to present his one man show I am the Other, his latest comedic creation featuring very original sketches. He will be in Casablanca on Marh 12 and 13 and then in Rabat on March 17. The comedian was named one of the funniest men of the year by [French TV channel ]TF1.”

Blog Politique du Sénégal [Fr] doesn't understand why some are unhappy with the doubling or tripling of public transportation costs during the Magal, an annual event of the Mouride moslem sect. “Personally, I find logical and normal that the drivers increase the fares as mush as they can. We are after all in a capitalist state where freedom in trade, as in the law of offer and demand, is king. “

One of the most outspoken People Congress representatives, Hung Ke-zhu criticised that the Chinese stock market has been a biggest casino, and within China Securities Regulatory Commission, there are members making use of information for their own benefits - more from Xue yong (zh).

Caijing (a finance magazine in China) has been forced to withdraw its latest issue on “Property Law” because the special issue had addressed the controversial nature of the Law, Zuo Ai zhong explained in his blog (zh).

Granite Studio comments on Japan Prime Mininister Abe's recent comments on “comfort woman”: Is history, and especially history education, nothing more than rhetoric and tales in the service of national self-esteem?

Kuang feng blogs about 10 things that should be avoided in blogging (zh), including: 1. seldom update; 2. blogging for money; 3. too rush; 4. not personal blog; 5. copycat; 6. not responding to comments; 7. no full text RSS; 8. no contact with other bloggers; 9. writing for google; 10. not subscribing Kuang feng's blog.

Simon world talks about the absurdity in Hong Kong, such as banning clap during the Chief Executive election debate between two candidates.

Charles Mok repost his article for computer world on the recent government consultation of “Copyright Protection in the Digital Environment”: the issues raised in the paper are all about strengthening enforcement, with nothing about how consumer rights can be enhanced, or how innovation can be encouraged with these measures beyond a simple-minded assumption.