Global Voices Digest

Hungary, Slovakia: Tense Relationship

On Nov. 15, Slovak prime minister Robert Fico and his Hungarian counterpart, Ferenc Gyurcsány, met in the border town of Komárno, Slovakia, in an attempt to ease nationalist tensions that have escalated due to Nov. 1 football game violence in Dunajská Streda, Slovakia. Eva S. Balogh of Hungarian Spectrum has been blogging a lot recently about the Slovak-Hungarian relations, and here are some of the highlights.

China: Baidu’s new scandal

CCTV reported that Baidu, referred to as China’s Google, had accepted money from illegal medical companies and placed their Web links on top of search results. Baidu’s marketing employees were also reported to have the knowledge of these.

Denmark: “Deep Linking” Under Fire by Newspaper Publishers

Blogging journalists in Denmark are up in arms over a renewed effort by Danish newspaper publishers to stop websites like Google News from linking to individual articles rather than a newspaper’s homepage. They call this “deep linking”, and it is precisely what bloggers usually do. Regardless of what is considered normal practice around the world, the Danish Association of Newspaper Publishers insist they only want homepage links.

MENA: How to deal with Somali piracy?

Last week a Saudi supertanker was hijacked by Somali pirates off the coast of Kenya, making it the largest ship ever to have been seized in this way. The problem of Somali piracy is growing; in this post we hear bloggers’ reactions from around the Middle East.

Humanitarian crisis in south Philippines

The fighting between government troops and Muslim separatist rebels in the last three months has not stopped. More than 610,000 people have been displaced already. The situation of refugees is deteriorating. Children are among those who are suffering the most.

Today on Rising Voices: REPACTED: Working Towards A World Free From HIV/AIDS

Eduardo Ávila of the Voces Bolivanas project recently visited the REPACTED project in Kenya. Read his accounts of the works and the challenges of this project. Also posted in this feature are two videos of Magnet theatre, their tool for behavioral change in the society and some photos taken by Eduardo. Read also the highlights from the blogs of the REPACTED members, who are telling amazing stories online about their fight to make the world free from HIV/AIDS and STIs.

Also Today on Rising Voices: Ukraine: Harm Reduction and Law Enforcement, Part 2

In the follow-up to a recent post in which “Mazay” from the Drop-In Center explained harm reduction to Ukrainian police officers, Veronica Khokhlova offers this translation, which reveals that the lecture is already starting to bear fruit.

Today on Global Voices Advocacy: Brazil: Attempts to censor a documentary about censorship

Gagged in Brazil, a documentary about the relationship between politics, media and censorship in Brazil was taken off the Current TV networks after a political party’s complaint. After a full investigation into the sources, the film is back online – but media censorship in Minas Gerais is an old and ongoing issue.

Also Today on Global Voices Advocacy: Egypt: one blogger disappeared and another still in custody despite court order

Blogger Mohammad Adel who runs the blog Maeit (already dead!) disappeared since Friday, November 21, 2008. As reported by Wael Abbas on Twitter, Adel was supposedly going to meet with an American journalist for an interview, but the he did not show up.
Blogger Mohamed Khairi is still in custody despite he received a release warrant few days ago. The Egyptian blogger who writes on “Jarr Shakal” blog (teasing) has been arrested at the dawn of the 17th of this November from his house in Fayoum governate in Nile Delta.

Today on Voices Without Votes: Global: On Obama’s Cabinet Choices

Two weeks since Barack Obama was elected president and a little less than eight weeks away from his inauguration, and world bloggers have commented on every move the he’s been making and every post he’s assigned.

Also Today on Voices Without Votes: Obama: Fortune tellers – past and present

Foretelling political fortunes is risky at the best of times – almost as hard as economic predictions. Remember the warnings of oil at $200 a barrel before the end of the year? Kevin Rennie, from Australia, takes a closer look at predictions for the Obama administration.

Rising Voices is a nominee for the Best of the Blogs!

As you may know, Rising Voices has recently been nominated for a “best of the blogs” award in the category “best weblog”. At the moment we are trailing behind almost ALL the other nominees in spite of having such a big, powerful, and active community.You don’t need to vote in all the categories to have your vote recorded. Just click on the project you would like to vote for, enter your name and email – and click send.

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