T-Salon

A wonderful, wonderful initiative by Global Voices at this important time as Americans elects a new president this coming fall that will have tremendous implications in many facets of life from environment, international trade and global economy to world peace. I expect lots of interesting perspectives will emerge out of this new initiative that will make a refreshing read on top of views convey by American media.

Today, Global Voices is launching a new website with Reuters that
opens a window on the global conversation about the 2008 presidential
election in the USA.

It's called Voices Without Votes.



There are few subjects that spark the imagination of bloggers
worldwide - and United States foreign policy is one of them.

Global Voices challenges people to listen to people beyond their own
borders. We translate back and forth from blogospheres in the Middle
East, Asia, Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe in hopes that
people may come to understand and care for one another across borders.

We also encourage international media to talk to and report on the
concerns of ordinary citizens around the world. Hopefully, looking at
US politics more closely through a kaleidoscope of world blogs will be
a compelling and thought-provoking experience. Send us links to blogs
you would like us to link to, including your own.

Our Middle East and North Africa Editor, Amira Al Hussaini is going to
be editing the website with help from other Global Voices editors and
volunteers. Check in regularly at Voices Without Votes until Americans
finally hit the polls and elect a president in November 2008.

Meanwhile, the world is still talking! Are you listening?

Labels: intercultural, internet, politics

Via competitionforce.hk, a commentary titled "This city will never be the same again" by Steve Vines, originally appeared in The Standard. Vines reviewed the Hong Kong Chief Executive Election which will be held today (Sunday) in Hong Kong and points out the uncertain options ahead for Hong Kong's road to democracy.

"In other parts of the world, a special place in hell is reserved for journalists who confidently predict election outcomes just days before they are announced. Lamentably, this does not apply in Hong Kong, where the result of Sunday's chief executive election has been preordained. Yet Sunday's result is only one part of the story, because it seems increasingly likely that a variety of other results are not so predictable.

Donald Tsang Yam-kuen will be elected to a second term in office, but will he claim that he has secured a popular mandate? Or will he, more modestly, assume that he has the mandate of only the few hundred who were allowed to vote? Surely the temptation will be to claim a wider mandate - one justified by high ratings in public opinion polls.

Such a claim, however, carries dangers because it would lead to the question of why the new chief executive was claiming a popular mandate while refusing to put it to the test - in a real election by universal suffrage.

Meanwhile Mr Tsang's opponent, Alan Leong Kah-kit, can also make some sweeping claims about success in this election. He can say that he succeeded in creating a competitive poll, that he made an impressive showing in the televised debates and forced the incumbent onto the defensive in explaining his policies.

Yet Mr Leong's participation in the campaign has widened, or at least publicised, divisions in the democratic camp. A minority of pro-democrats believe he has betrayed the campaign for universal suffrage by taking part in a small-circle election."

Labels: hong kong, politics, society