Tuesday Global Blog Roundup

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South-East Asia

Tales from Disiniland suggests that embattled Philippines President Gloria Arroyo should take a page out of Bill Clinton’s political playbook.

Singabloodypore notes that would-be Olympic vote protesters could be arrested should they try to organize in Singapore.

Brand New Malaysian alerts us to the plight of a Malaysian blogger who is on the business end of a cease-and-desist letter from a giant US corporation regarding his domain name.

Photograph by Yoshiki Okamoto

The Middle East

Who is Lebanese? The Lebanese Blogger Forum posts an email that laments the habit of overseas Lebanese to downplay their Lebanese heritage.

The Lebanese Political Journal on the phenomenom of the “Waraqa Bayda”, or “white paper”.

What happens when a society that only recognizes religious law has to deal with the reality of a world more complex than religious law was designed to handle? Crossroads Arabia points to an article that suggests that law schools may soon open in Saudi Arabia.

The question of whether or not Saudi Arabia should let women drive raises its head again, reports Saudi Jeans.

The Silly Bahraini Girl, having recovered from a nasty enounter with the flu, posts images of protesters who were beaten by Bahraini police.

More Iranian election fallout: The Eyeranian suggests that Ahmadinejad’s election is not entirely the disaster that it’s been made out to be.

Isam Bayazidi greets the news that Jordan’s King Abdullah will create an anti-corruption committee with a certain degree of skepticism.

Iraq the Model has a list of recent successes against the terrorists in Iraq.

Free Iraqi reports that Saddam’s palaces will be turned into cultural centers.

Farangopolis puts out a bulletin on a missing Iranian filmmaker. Farshid Faraji was arrested by American military forces in Iraq on May 19 after entering the country to film historic sites and has not been heard from since his arrest.

Latin America

Babalú, celebrates it second anniversary [en] of blogging about Cuba and summarizes, “Not much has changed in Cuba these past two years, but we still have one thing: [hope]” They also suggest a letter writing campaign to Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic [en] to protest new, direct flights from Britain to the communist island.

MABB emphasizes the importance of the Bolivian congress [en] right now and spells out six important decisions to be made in the upcoming months.

Eduardo Ochoa, using Google Maps new coverage of South America, points out the new location [es] of last Saturdays, “First Blogs and Beer Meetup” in Manta, Manabí, Ecuador. Photos and details are promised soon.

Julio Alonso [es] and Isopixel both contemplate the recent announcement that Engadget will begin posting in Spanish and what it means for the popular Spanish tech blog xataca [es].

As usual, our Latin America roundup was compiled by David Sasaki (el Oso).

Africa

Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah, an overseas Ghanian blogger, gives some practical advice to another African blogger who is considering blog-retirement.

Both This is Zimbabwe and The Zimbabwean Pundit cover the release of opposition MP Roy Bennett from prison. It should be noted that Bennett lost nearly 60 pounds (27 kg) in his eight months in prison.

Ethiopundit has a very long post that analyzes the Orwellian propaganda machine of the Ethiopean government.

East Asia

Issac Mao alerts us to the plight of Chinese blogger Wang Jun, who’s suffering from a blood disease.

Yellow Peril, the blog of an Auckland-based overseas Chinese writer, has a profanity-filled rant about Chinese internet censorship that tackles everything from the Public Security Bureau to Microsoft.

China Digital Times reports that more than 2,000 Chinese journalists have signed a letter protesting the detention of two colleagues.

Europe

So this guy goes to an expensive restaurant and gets lousy service. An all too common occurrence, right? Well, as Finland for Thought reports, that’s not the end of the story. The disaffected diner posted his tale of woe to his blog, and it eventually rose to the #2 ranking on Google for the restaurant’s name. Legal action ensues… but the restaurant didn’t realize that the angry diner is one of Finland’s top intellectual property lawyers.

South Asia

Niraj engages in a pastime familiar to any international traveler: complaining about a lousy airline.

Central Asia

Blogrel is reporting that several Armenian cities have been wired for city-wide WiFi coverage. This is, however, pay-as-you-go access, not free wireless…

Blogrel also brings us the happy news that the Armenian government, responding to public pressure, has backed away from a plan to drop a highway through the middle of a nature preserve.

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