From the swivellin' chair...

Global Voices is a site I've been meaning to mention for a while. Global Voices offers a window into what is happening in parts of the world we don't often hear about in mainstream media.

From Global Voices:

At a time when the international English-language media ignores many things that are important to large numbers of the world’s citizens, Global Voices aims to redress some of the inequities in media attention by leveraging the power of citizens’ media. We’re using a wide variety of technologies - weblogs, podcasts, photos, video, wikis, tags, aggregators and online chats - to call attention to conversations and points of view that we hope will help shed new light on the nature of our interconnected world.

Where else can you log on and find out what bloggers are saying about the arrest of Syrian blogger and human rights activist Ibrahim Zoro and then cruise over to the latest news from Panama to read about cooking plantains in true Panamanian style? It's an addictive formula because it offers a window into worlds we might never experience first-hand. In a world that's becoming increasingly smaller due to the globalising effect of the internet, Global Voices strives to turn minds away from insular thinking, towards open minds that seek to hear and understand different points of view.