Global Voices Online

“… Splitting tendency has been evident in Polish politics ever since the fall of communism. It even happened to the Beer Drinkers Party,” the beatroot reports.

Wu Wei resumes writing about her father's life: “No wonder his nationality was not so clear. And no wonder he could apparently speak Polish, Romanian, Hungarian and Ukrainian when he arrived in Brussels.”

According to Eteraz[Fa], 15 students were arrested by security forces in a university in Mazandarn province in the northern part of country.According to the blogger a few days ago,Bijan Sabagh, a member of Islamic Association of university,was arrested and many students started to protest against this act.Some even started hunger strike.

Michael Forster Rothbart posts photos from an Orthodox Christian Easter service held at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.

April 16 in history - at De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis: a failed attempt to kill the Russian emperor in 1866; the first Russian trade union is created in 1905; the museum of the red Latvian riflemen opened in Riga in 1970.

Following the Dissenters' March in Moscow this past Saturday, Robert Amsterdam talks on the phone with Eduard Limonov, Garry Kasparov and Karinna Moskalenko, and other friends in Russia. More - here and here.

Two roundups of coverage of this weekend's opposition rallies in Russia - at Scraps of Moscow, here and here.

Levan manages to find a video of free hug distribution in Georgia.

Onnik Krikorian reports from the Armenian parliamentary election campaign trail with on a Heritage party event.

My Mylapore on a little history trip with notes on Palathope, the lawyers' enclave. “What circumstances caused generations of legal eagles to ‘graduate' from Palathope? Their ‘graduation' into the world of litigation and trial linked surprisingly, more definitively to this sleepy, little lane, rather than to any academic institution of law. Was a societal creation like a ‘neighborhood' solely determining the choice of profession amongst multiple generations of residents or were there more complex factors at play?”

One One Things on donor conditionality in Sri Lanka. “The first is that loan conditionality has evolved over the last decade or so. In the 80’s and 90’s the World Bank and the IMF notoriously imposed loan conditionalities that have been at loggerheads with the interests of developing countries. I think their main fault was to assume that market imperfections in developing countries are much the same as those which affect developed countries. But there seems to have been a shift, which culminated in the Paris Declaration a couple of years ago.”

Can Cook, Must Cook recently had a discussion with three other Caribbean food bloggers - the happy outcome was that “it’s become more and more obvious that there are several reasons why my fellow bloggers and I must continue doing this.”

The Pakistani Spectator doesn't take very kindly to comments made by the Pakistani Cricket Team's manager about the connection between Namaz (the ritual of prayer) and playing. “But its shocking that in an Islamic country people are blaming Namaz and religious activities for the defeat. Namza differentiates between a Muslim and non-muslim. Namaz is mandatory. But what sort of Muslims these are who are making Namaz controversial.”

Deepak's Diary on sherpas. “Nepal has always been exoticized as a country of brave Gurkha soldiers and adventurous Sherpa mountaineers. Both of these myths are under deconstruction now. Tenzing Norgay, the famous Nepali son was later snatched away by India and now another relentless mountaineer Appa Sherpa is in the process of becoming American citizen.
“

A heavy day for Bangladesh yesterday. Rezwan liveblogs the cricket match with Ireland. “24 Overs: Bangladesh is in real trouble with 104/5. Their front-line batsmen are all out. They tried to play too many shots instead of nudging around for singles like what Ireland did. Ireland is playing better here and they deserve to win. Bangladesh need to think about their batting strategy.”

Greenlight Nigeria collects audio comments about state elections in Nigeria: “I posted this idea - of people using Evoca and this site to respond to the election result, to a few of the Nigerian sites worldwide - early this morning. And here’s our first message”

Grandiose Parlor on Nigeria state elections: “Reports suggest the presidency and state government have manipulated the result in favor of the PDP. Hence the reason for delaying the results in the state. Which I’ve been told has been suspended indefinitely because of fraud.
But it appears the PDP has underestimated the people they have ruled for 4 years, and certainly has forgotten history as well.”

Fwade at Moving Back to Jamaica has second thoughts about Portia Simpson-Miller, Jamaica's first female Prime Minister.

Guyana Providence Stadium features an article by Peter Roebuck that calls the 2007 ICC World Cup Cricket Tournament “an abysmal failure”.

“…With his latest project, filmmaker Michael Moore reveals himself as a 'sicko,' willing to use some seriously ill veterans of the ground zero cleanup in New York to help the Castro dictatorship score a few public relations points,” writes Uncommon Sense, linking to a New York Post report on the issue.

Aruba is the first Caribbean territory to officially acknowledge gay marriage, reports gay news blog. The move follows a three-year legal battle with Dutch authorities that began when a lesbian couple tried to register their marriage on the island. And Vivir Latino says that Puerto Rico may be considering the same move: “Wouldn't it be a hugely powerful statement if Puerto Rico, who is subject to US laws, were to pass the measure and prove once and again how it truely is its own nation with a clear concept of the diversity that is the Puerto Rican people?”

You can order pirated DVDs online in Kuwait and have them delivered to your doorstep, according to Lebanese blogger Mark, who lives in Kuwait.

Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah links to an article which claims that Israel is torturing Palestinian child prisoners.

Jordanian blogger Firas links to news reports about the bombing of a Christian bookshop in Gaza, Palestine.

Israeli blogger Danya Ruttenberg announces that the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards are taking nominations until Thursday.
“You read Jewish blogs; tell them which ones you think are the best,” she adds.

Hugs are holy, writes Rabbi Yohana. “We can have men hugging men and women and hugging women. We can have mixed hugging for those that want that. We can have kids hugging kids. Hugs are holy,” he explains, after posting a video of the Free Hugs movement, started by Juan Mann.

Israeli blogger Stephanie talks about the trauma second generation Holocaust survivors suffer from.

Joe Jones blogs about the April 15 Will Day and Japanese Will Law in Japan Law Blog. The day is designated by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.

Iraqi nationalists opposed to the controversial oil law have been targeted in the attack on the Iraqi parliament, writes blogger Raed Jarrar. He also says Iraqi nationalists are leaving the government and forming a shadow government. “Forming a shadow government is still good news because it indicates that Iraqi nationalists are still willing to try political, rather than military, solutions for ending the occupation, but at the same time news coming from Basrah and other southern cities indicate that the next days might be very violent. It seems that some nationalist groups have been calling for major rebellions against the occupation forces and their collaborators,” he explains.

Michael Hurt has written a long post on the development of user created content (UCC) in South Korea. He felt that the creativity is behind the technology development.

Citizen reporters from Hong Kong have spontaneously organized a trip to Taiwan to report on Losheng preservation campaign. Lee Chung-nei carried with her a very simple question: why do these group of 70 years old grannies would stand up to resist the government policy? [zh]

Writing in The Arabist, Ursula Lindsey is concerned “the actions of the 20,000 or so private security contractors in Iraq, who fall under no legal system whatsoever and a few of whom apparently like to get their kicks by taking target practice on elderly taxi drivers.”

Plato from inmediahk.net wrote a letter to the Chief Executive office to tell his experience in competing public space with dogs in the King's Park Hill [zh] (he was assaulted by dogs). As a result of the development plan that aims at eradicating “streets” with shopping mall, both grassroots and dogs don't have enough public space and they have to compete with each other. Of course dogs are back up by middle class owners in this case.

Bahraini blogger emoodz regales us with a tantalising Brazilian dance at the Spring of Culture festival, which has generated heated debates between Islamists and liberals on whether such live entertainment should be allowed in Bahrain. “I sat through two butt numbing hours on that very uncomfortable chair, fascinated by the passion and enthusiasm of the performers on stage, taken by the bright colors, the joyful spirit and touchy rhymes, watching the curvy sexy bodies of the dancers as they melt together in breathtaking harmony,” he admits.

It's raining men in Bahrain, according to blogger Mahmood Al Yousif, who reports that a second Indian man has plunged to death from a pedestrian bridge built over a busy highway.

Chai jin wrote a poem in her blog “A bottomless Glass”[zh] for a charity organization: If we only talk about poverty and not about how to empower the poor and the vulnerables to voice out for their rights, to monitor the powerful social groups and enjoy same rights… we are pouring water into a glass without bottom. Social justice is the bottom of the glass.

I have translated the post into English at interlocals.net.

William long tries to investigate why mainland Chinese netizen can't visit Baidu again [zh]. The result showed that i.p from China are reset by Baidu japan site.

Tim Beckenham from Shanghaiist puts together reports on recent rat poison incidents which caused hundreds of illnesses in northern part of China.

Ms. Chui-Yung Chang (張翠容), an independent reporter from Hong Kong, was threaten by Taiwan local police when she spoke for the public in a demonstration. The administration claimed that foreigners can only perform the task listed on the application, or they will be deported. More details can be reached via the article in coolloud.org.tw [zh].

Individual memory and collective amnesia in Cameroon: “The absence of memoirs, autobiographies and biographies in Cameroon is merely one facet of a much broader problem, i.e., the collective inability (or unwillingness) of Cameroonians to keep historical records for posterity or to even consider these records as important contributions to the national collective memory. For example, there are very few publications containing key political speeches, landmark declarations and documents of our times (save those of Presidents, Ahidjo and Biya).”