Global Voices Online

Aysha Alkusayer has a suggestion for anyone looking to invest in Saudi Arabia: daycare. “Here’s what’s changing in Saudi. Young couples are moving away from their family’s house to wherever their jobs might be. If both mommy and daddy are working, comes the tough part of what to do with the child.”

“Seychelles is the second African country, after Senegal to join the $1 billion pan-African e-network project initiated by the Indian government,” writes Gervais from Seychelles.

Sixthman attended BarCamp Madagascar: “SA lot of people attended the barcamp and most of them were … bloggers. This was an opportunity for me to see some of them that I only knew by pictures through blogs like avylavitra, DotMg or Jentilisa - who talked about the Global Voices Online and released a book containing what he’s been writing as a blogger since 2006.”

From Turkey, Erkan's Field Dairy notes: “After the attack on the Aktütün military outpost on Oct. 3, killing 17 soldiers, something new has happened; for the first time people are openly starting to question the General Staff.”

Tony Bey, from Lebanon, reports that two missing American journalists have been found - detained in Syria.

The Haitian Blogger is curious about John Mc Cain's debate reference to “his hero, Teddy Roosevelt, who said, ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick'”, adding: “When you look at the world economic crisis that has resulted from the U.S. doctrine of ‘total world domination', the instinct is to say–how the mighty have fallen, on their big stick.”

Barbadian diaspora blogger Jdid weighs in on the “town hall-style” US Presidential debate: “Obama has shown himself to be presidential material just by his cool manner…I'm speaking about his grace under fire, what seventeenth century Caribbean buccaneers referred to as being ‘pistol proof'.”

Cuban diaspora blogger Child of the Revolution disagrees with the suggestion of an “independent scholar” that “lifting the embargo is no longer ‘just a noble but hopeless idea' but smart politics.”

The government distributes the draft Freedom of Information Bill for feedback, prompting Barbados Underground to encourage citizens to read it and make suggestions: “This is what democracy is about, PEOPLE participation by the PEOPLE!”