Global Voices Online

Anticipating Chavez's upcoming visit to Haiti, Roody Edme writes [Fr]: “His arrival requires an apt diplomatic dance… The recent American decision to list the country as a nation that might possibly benefit from the ethanol project echoes Caracas' decision to make us benefit from the Petro-Caribe clause … While we want to avoid always hiding in “American skirts”, we also should not act like rebellious children. “

The beatroot writes about the Polish government's “de-communization zeal.” Among other things, bloggers might be affected by the new law as well: “All journalists – public or private - born before 1972, must now be vetted for communist era collaboration.” The post has generated 51 comment thus far.

The beatroot reports that “the Russian NGO Memorial has pledged to pursue all legal means to get Moscow to recognize Soviet responsibility for the deaths of over 20,000 Polish officers in the Katyn massacre of 1940.”

Vilhelm Konnander writes about a documentary being made on Latvia's outgoing president Vaira Vike-Freiberga.

The Turkish Invasion experiences a blackout: “So another myth about Russia is busted…no reliable electricity.”

Andy of Siberian Light interviews Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog.

Russia in the Media critiques Luke Harding's Guardian piece on Russia's poor; Russia Blog awards The Stranger's Annie Wagner with “the Shoe Award” for her review of the 9th Company movie.

Russian Kafe writes about Cold War films that could have caused “a child to write things like ‘I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war' and ‘I would like to know why you want to conquer the world or at least our country'.”

Tolkun Umaraliev agrees with the new Turkmen president's views on democracy — namely that it cannot simply be imported ready-made, but that it instead has to be adapted to local traditions and culture.

Russian bureaucrats force Darkness at Noon to live without his passport; at some point, it looks like the passport has been lost; but then the blogger hears this: “In Russia we don't lose things. We just take a long time looking for them!” - and, bingo, “this little saying puts the familiar (and tired) question of ‘who lost Russia?' in a new light: maybe Russia isn't lost after all - maybe we're just still looking for it…“

The Azamat Report argues that Kyrgyzstan should reintroduce a Latin alphabet for the Kyrgyz language. It briefly used a Latin script while part of the Soviet Union.

At neweurasia, Vadim discusses the Tajik president's opposition to the construction of new mosques. Vadim agrees with the president that the money could be better spent on new businesses and education.

Darkness at Noon ruminates on the missing toilet seats in the Russian public bathrooms.

Safrang continues discussion on reconciliation and accountability legislation in Afghanistan, wondering how both can be obtained in the country's current political climate.

He is, writes Mark in Mexico, “the world's third richest man, whose fortune grew by 19 billion dollars just last year alone.” But will Carlos Slim jump on the Bill Gates/Warren Buffet philanthropy bandwagon? Spanish readers will also be interested in “Los 10 Secretos de Slim” from Enchílame.

More watchdog blogging from Adam Isacson: “here is our most current list of Colombian government officials and congresspeople facing accusations of assisting or associating with paramilitary groups.”

Tim Muth on “Deadbeat parents from El Salvador”: “This is an aspect of Salvadoran emigration to the US which you do not often read how about — what happens if a parent stops providing support to children left behind in El Salvador?”

The Overseas Development Institute calls the Juntos program “the most ambitious and innovative government attempt at tackling childhood poverty in Peru, a country where two out of three children live below the poverty line and many lack access to basic services.”

Eduardo Arcos[ES] links to a post by Verónica Mellado [ES] offering bloggers $1,000 to videotape themselves getting naked. The winning submission will published on the web. Arcos suggests Paniagua [ES].

Bahrain-based blogger Bint Battuta attended a kite demonstration , at a time when she is actually feeling like there a kite in her heart.
“I feel like I have a kite flying inside me right now! Yesterday was my last day at work – in full-time work, that is, as I have decided to go back to freelancing. The job I was doing wasn't particularly hard, but I found much of it boring and frustrating because there was a lot of administration and bureaucracy,” she writes.

Omani Blogger Umm Qusay is moved by water splashing on rocks. Read this to know why.

Bahraini blogger Lulu reviews the Spring of Culture festival in Bahrain. “I'm loving the concept, but then I decided to be democratic in my show reviews at least. So the opinions below are based on (totally unscientific) polls I took of random fellow culture-mongers,” she admits.

Bahraini blogger Silly Bahraini Girl borrowed a photograph posted by blogger Mahmood Al Yousif as an inspiration for a new painting.

Iranian blogger Mr Behi has moved to Tripoli, Libya, and tells us about life without his life, a computer on life-support and the importance of credit and debit cards. “I received my first salary in Tripoli but the money is in the bank, my debit card is in my hand but the pin for the card is not yet arrived. I was once with my manager at lunch once and I was asking so many of these simple questions about credit cards and it looked so strange to him that a a guy on my age never had his own Visa!” he writes.

The Save Lo Sheng Sanatorium campaign has developed into 200 bloggers joint action. In less than 18 hours, the bloggers got 150,000(TWD) for posting an ad in apple daily news to express their anger towards the state violence and the mainstream media's lack of coverage on the issue.

The action is initiated by HeMiDEMi, and supported by many bloggers who wanted to save the neglected news back to the frontpage in the newspapers. Coolloud has a detailed report (zh).

Grandiose Parlor writes about the latest mobile technology in Nigeria and South Africa in “From Nigerian Yellow Pages to Bluetooth Enabled Marketing in South Africa.”

Kenyan Pundit blogs about an article in the BBC about Mzalendo project, “Great piece on Mzalendo by Andrew Heavens who blogs who at Meskel Square.”

Kenyan business blogger, Henry Karanja,

Sub-Saharan Africa