Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

The blog “Живот Мой” (“My Life”) published [bg] the 1888 local legislation on how to become a prostitute in the Black Sea coastal city of Varna. The bill contains the requirements for women willing to become prostitutes; regulations on brothels; health requirements before, during and after being a prostitute; and legal proceedings in case of violation of the above rules. These documents are in striking contrast with the current Bulgarian legislation on prostitution: a tolerated gray area that allows the country to be a big player on the international sex trade scene and was estimated to generate 1 billion euros income.

On July 3, the Bulgarian government voted [bg] for a national roadmap compliant with the Open Government Partnership Initiative requirements. As an integral part of this action plan, the Ministry of Finances launched its transparency plan [bg] and started publishing budget expenses details on an everyday basis.

The Bulgarian news outlet Fakel published [bg] a review of a new book entitled, “I, the Bulgarian from Macedonia.” The book is described as “a terrible, breaking, disgusting story that not only shakes up, startles and stirs our sleeping national conscience, but shifts, collapses and splits with tectonic force all the strata of our minds, all our live images about what modern civilization is and what it's like to be a Bulgarian in Bulgaria's most brotherly country: Macedonia.” Above all, the book tells about the battle for identity the two countries have been engaged in for decades.

Amnesty International started a sms action campaign calling for the release of three jailed members of the punk band Pussy Riot. The women — Nadezhda, Maria and Ekaterina — were detained after performing an anti-Putin song in a church in Moscow [video] back in February. An announcement on their blog [ru] said an anonymous source from the presidential administration confirmed the three women would be set free on July 9. The outcome, however, was very different: the women remain in detention [ru] after the Court refused to consider a letter in their support. Amnesty considers them “prisoners of conscience.”

Using two empty plastic bottles and a zipper, the Colombian Version Beta Show [es] uses a video to teach viewers how to make a storage container.

At I and Iyanola, Nkrumah Lucien discusses Saint Lucia's rock music scene with journalist/actor/musician Jason Sifflet : “Playing rock from a Caribbean island is a trap, like playing reggae. It’s not indigenous to your culture, so every in and out of your culture sees you as a fake. But when you incorporate your culture into a bigger sound (or vice versa), you create something new which is not exactly rock, alienating everyone except the most open-minded listeners.”