Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

Rick Falkvinge, the founder of Pirate Party, reinterprets the wars of religion that devastated Western Europe in the XVI and XVII centuries in terms of the current struggle to control information through overbearing legislation related to copyright and freedom of expression:

The religious wars were never about religion as such. They were about who held the power of interpretation, about who controlled the knowledge and culture available to the masses. It was a war of gatekeepers of information.

Belatedly, links to some posts on Entropa: Margarete of The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia believes “it should be taken down”; Kosmopolito thinks that “the debate around the project is also part of the installation”; BBC's Mark Mardell writes that “the fact that it is a hoax does not mean that the art itself is bad”; Blue, Black and White Alert doesn't think Entropa is “that incendiary”; A Fistful of Euros considers Entropa “an ugly but really funny piece of work.”

A discussion of the Russian election and certain European politicians’ reactions to it – at the Economist's Certain Ideas of Europe.

Le Renouveau Congolais posts pictures [fr] of UDPS Belux's (Belgium-Luxemburg branch) celebration of the party's 25th Anniversary. UDPS is the main DRC opposition party.

Africa:
Picture via Sotho, drawn by 13-year old McGlen of Johannesburg, South Africa. He wants to be a veterinarian. Courtesy Creative Connections.

Thinkers Room says it shouldn't be this hard.

Afromusing thinks Kenya needs a “hygrid.”

Special Blog Coverage: Iranian Presidential elections:
Mr. Behi thinks U.S. pressure on Iran over nuclear weapons at this moment will make an illiberal election outcome more likely. He's no big Rafsanjani fan, either.

Iranian Prospect also discusses the relationship between the elections and the nuclear issue. He has another post about Mojtaba Saminejad, a jailed Iranian blogger, a jailed researcher, and how this all ties in with election politics.

Brooding Persian has a colorful account of the candiates who have registered so far, including “a 72 year old milkman from a principality far from Tehran who made an impression on the reporters with his open zipper during the registrations and he appears quite charming as he frankly admitted to having no place to sleep over the night at in Tehran.” He then complains about foreign analyists who comment on Iranian politics, claiming to know what “Iranians want.” He broods: “No two Iranians I know can ever agree on much of anything. “

New Blog alert: OpenDemocracy has a new Iran-focused group blog, Iranscan. The authors include bloggers from inside and outside Iran.

It would be interesting to know what bloggers in Iran think of this post on “Regime Change Iran.”

Iraq:
Iraq The Model links to pictures and info from an Arabic-language Iraqi blog about artefacts confiscated by a Syrian officer who was attempting to smuggle them out of Iraq.
Omar also links to this blog post about the Baghdad softball team.

Frustrated with Iraq's unreliable phone network which makes it hard to blog regularly, Ibn Alrafidain >asks some tough questions about the way his fellow countrymen approach democracy.

A Free Iraqi recounts his personal experience with citizen journalism and his reflections on how the international media covers the Iraq story and why. Check out the comments thread on that post, too.

Khalid of “Tell Me A Secret”, who opposes the U.S. presence, returned home today to find a car bomb had exploded about 100 meters from his house just a couple of hours before.

Hammorabi blames Syria for supporting terrorism in Iraq.

Elsewhere in the Middle East:
Israeli bloggers celebrate independence day, via “Thoughts from a Rabbi.”

Chan'ad Bahraini tackles the subject of torture.
Chan'ad also points out that Bahrainonline.org and others were mentioned on the front page of the Wall Street Journal this week.

Kuwaiti Online is upset upon discovering more acqaintances who beat their household employees – who come from other countries and apparently are viewed as having no rights.

The Beirut Spring has a post on the role of Lebanese Christians in the new political context.

Eurasia:
Democracy Guy thinks that Bush missed an opportunity to support Armenian democracy while in Georgia.

Central Asia:
Registan.net on different approaches to upcoming elections in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

East Asia:
ESWN recounts a controversy over journalistic ethics in China.

Mask of China: Dalian Edition is concerned about an official news blackout on a local ferry disaster and ponders the implications thereof.

Fons Tuinstra of the China Herald is bemused that the media took the People's Daily revaluation story as gospel, when he smelled a rat all along.

Danwei accuses the International Herald Tribute of editorial sloppiness to rival the People's Daily.

Kevin Wen wonders about Google's new presence in China.

Fons in Shanghai says its only a meeting room.

Isaac Mao is able to use Google Web Accelerator from his office to access blocked websites.

Dottocomu on the latest special pocket for cellphones, while Japundit reports on the latest perversion (do not click on this if you are underage or a sensitive person).

South Asia:
3rd World View has a sad post on the face of Bangladesh.

Europe:
Jukka recounts a bewildering meeting with beauty queens.

Central Budapest says there will be a march against racism on Sunday.