Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

The ministry of Tofu translated some micro-bloggers’ comments on Chinese President Hu Jintao's talk in the 18th Party Congress about political reform. Hu stressed that the Chinese's reform will be neither old way nor odd way, which in a nutshell points to “no way” as highlighted by micro-blogger Xu Xiaonian.

batikantik writes about the success of #batikday in Indonesia which has become a social media movement promoting Batik as global heritage of humanity. Batik is a traditional textile art and craft in Indonesia.

Stan from China Hearsay lamented about 18th Chinese Communist Party Congress in China: boring official news, internet connection disrupted, unproved rumors and speculations.

An imagined Chinese election map. By 假裝在紐約

A micro-blogger, pretending to be in New York, composed an imagined map of election results if the Chinese Communist Party were to compete with Kuomintang from Taiwan. (via Tea Leaf Nation)

We are told that miners do everything to waterproof the soil and ensure that waste does not contaminate subterranean water. But it must be recognized that there is always a risk, as they can never be completely sure that they are not contaminating subterranean pools. Moreover, with the impact of climate change, people will increasingly rely on subterranean water to supply towns

Alain Tossounon, reporting comments [fr] from a meeting with Dam Mogbanté, Executive Secretary of the Global Water Patnership West Africa

Aliou Fama reveals [fr] that Macky Sall, President of Senegal, has decided to put the members of his goverment on a strict regime, in order to reduce government telephone bills:

Ministers’ telephone credit is now capped at 500 000 FCFA (EUR 762,25), with that of technical advisers limited to 150 000 FCFA. Beyond this point, costs must be covered out of the officials’ own pockets. As a result, after the 15th of each month, certain advisers have found themselves scratching away at top-up cards to get their phones back on line.