Global Voices Digest for December 15th, 2008
Dear Global Voices Reader,
If you are reading this, you are most likely a subscriber to the RSS feed for the Global Voices digest. Thanks for keeping up with Global Voices! Tomorrow, we are changing our Daily Digest to a new HTML email format and will unfortunately no longer be updating this blog. If you are not currently receiving emails from Global Voices, you can subscribe to our new one here: http://globalvoicesonline.org/subscribe
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Deborah Dilley
Ecuador: Default on External Debt
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa recently announced that his country will not repay back its remaining external debt. Citing the economic crisis, Correa calls the debt, “immoral and illegitimate” and he echoes the sentiments of ordinary Ecuadorans who say that they cannot pay anymore. Bloggers wonder whether the report that supported this decision was too partisan and what it might mean for the country’s future.
Fact or Fiction: A mini Dubai in Downtown Cairo
Rumor has it that Gamal Mubarak, the President’s son and the NDP’s General Secretary of the Policy Committee, will turn the historical downtown Cairo into a “mini Dubai”.
Australia: Reflections from ‘No Clean Feed’ rallies
Australians in seven cities demonstrated on Saturday against the Rudd government’s plan to require Internet Service Providers to block access to websites publishing child pornography and other unsuitable and illegal content.
Azerbaijan: Destruction of Ancient Cemetery Commemorated
Three years after a cemetery dating back to the 9th Century was deliberately destroyed in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan, bloggers recall an ancient culture annihilated and condemn the world for closing its eyes to what many consider to be an official attempt to rewrite history.
Kenya: East African drink fights Coca Cola
In March 2008 the Kenyan corporate giant East African Breweries Limited, who produces the famous Tusker beer label, launched a new non-alcoholic drink called Alvaro. Last month, Coca Cola decided to lauch a similar drink to compete with it, called Novida. Kenyan bloggers debate about the two brands.
China: Charter 08, to be free and fearless
At the Eve of the sixtieth anniversary of the promulgation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Dec 10, 303 prominent intellectuals and human rights activists in China, jointly released Charter 08, demanding more political reform in China. However, the China government decided to celebrate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by repressing the peaceful and rational act.
Malawi: Murderous Thanksgiving, AIDS Day and crossing the Zimbabwean border
Victor Kaonga highlights a few posts from blogs about Malawi: an expat Thanksgiving, World Aids Day and a long bus trip from Malawi to South Africa with an interesting border crossing in Zimbabwe.
Brazil: Manifesto For The Immediate Release of Graffiti Painter
While a police officer who mistakenly killed a boy of just three has been acquitted of murder, a graffiti painter arrested on October 26 for spraying the walls of the Art Bienal of São Paulo’s pavilion spent her 24th birthday in jail. Bloggers comment on the ironies and discrepancies of the Brazilian judicial system.
China: 08 Charter, signers arrested and questioned by police
Big Brother searching and questioning people involved in an collective appeal for democracy.
Bangladesh: Bloggers unearth the fake Taj Mahal scam
If you cannot visit the Taj Mahal at Agra (India) then the Taj Mahal will have to visit you in your home town. Since the last few days, we have been reading a curious and interesting piece of news from Bangladesh- of a new replica of the famous tomb.

