Global Voices Online

Window on Eurasia says that while oil and gas pipelines through the region attract more attention, railroads might have more geopolitical significance. In particular, the blog examines what plans for a new railroad linking Iran and Azerbaijan might mean, and not least on Russian and NATO interests in Eurasia as well as the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh.

Al Kags writes about digital villages project: “The project to launch digital villages across the Kenya has kicked of with the Kenya ICT Board calling for applications for entrepreneurs who would like to run digital villages to apply for the training support, which is phase 1 of the Digital Villages project.”

Harara is the rumour capital of Zimbabwe: “Our only non-state daily newspaper was bombed so the people’s paper is the people’s stories, nyayas that circulate like a whisper at a bottle store. Mugabe has fled to Malaysia. Morgan has 68% of the presidential vote. Mujuru has lost her seat. Morgan’s win is being broadcast live on TV. A people starved of truth begin to manufacture their own.”

Comrade Fatso writes about political jokes in Zimbabwe: “Anyone know someone with a truck? There's a guy wanting to move all his stuff from State House to Zvimba. The jokes spread as text messages refer to our aged dictator relocating to his rural home. People really do believe this is a general election - because our generals decide who gets elected. Another joke walking the streets of Harare is that the only difference between an election and an erection is that you can't rig the latter.”

Kubatana blog publishes views of ordinary Zimbabweans: “Here is more of what ordinary Zimbabweans want to see change in a free Zimbabwe. This information comes from feedback from a Kubatana.net email newsletter in which we asked for ideas . . . “

HelloJi writes on the concept of son preference, still prevalent in India and how it contributes to the phenomenon of “missing women”.

Feringhee has photographs of the Pro-Tibet protest outside the Embassy of China in Nepal.

Five Rupees has an interesting take on the nature of intra-state conflict management in India and Pakistan.

Blogian posts some fascinating photographs of Armenian women who were kidnapped from their families during the 1915 Genocide and assimilated into Turkish and Kurdish families. Eventually married off, the women in the photographs bear various tattoos as custom dictated. However, the blog says, despite outrage at what it considers to be an early form of human trafficking, the Armenian government does nothing to stop the trade today.