By Tomomi Sasaki

Richard Smart at the Tokyo Digital Journalism blog posted a summarized list of Wikileaks’ Japan data on Afghanistan. Raw data can be found on his blog.

By Amira Al Hussaini

The Gulf Cooperation Council, which makes up Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, has an estimated 13 million foreign workers, who make up about 40 per cent of its population. Out of Qatar's population of 1.69m people, 200,000 are believed to be locals.

Almost all workers return to their countries after their work contracts end. At Qatar Living, expatriates attempt to answer the inevitable question: What will they do when they return home?

Filipino Obed Castro Jr kicks off the discussion saying:

I am a Filipino who have stayed here in Qatar for almost 9 years happy to say that my stay here has been fruitful, I manage to have my own house and maybe save a little, now i am deciding to go back to my native country, but what will i do when i am back..same to all other nationalities “what will you do with your life after Qatar”

Drmana is quick to answer:

Place of living would change but life would go on normally as in Qatar…..

afrinnabees adds:

no yet thought abt it.as of now Back home is just vacation Spot……..

And Frexie reminds the readers:

for sure your gonna miss the busy life.. You know all things are uncertain.. but its never bad to prepare for something.. so i guess better plan up if your goin home for good…

ochiha says after five and half years in Qatar, she doesn't miss living in her country:

people say that it is amazing to return to your home country and relax, but honestly, I do not feel like that. sure I miss my family, but I really do not miss living in my home country.

is that weird or many people feel the same way
I have been here 5.5 Years already

ex.ex.expat retorts:

whether you miss it or not. If your standard of living and chance for employment is better here, why wouldn't you want to stay until you see the situation in your homeland improve?

And foolish suggests venturing into business:

Why don't you start a small business; be a boss once in your life lol. I'm venturing now on egg production and it's going good. Am planning to go home maybe next year, if my business will go better.

arymoceana supports the idea and reasons:

Sometimes going back scares us the most because we have missed a lot things in our country.We think that so many things changed already there and we may not adjust easily, when the truth is it's us being here in a different culture that has changed a lot.

Try to relax first, enjoy your hard earned money. But make sure you do have a plan to sustain yourself and your family. You know how it is in the Philippines, money flows like water, and you being an OFW everybody thinks you brought a sack full of QR.

Honestly, its more practical that while here, we do start a business in our countries then if its doing okay then that is the time to make a decision to come home. O well, that is just my opinion.

But Mr. Balut cautions those planning to return to their home countries:

1.) Check the economy back home!

2.) Check the crime rate back home!

3.) Check the weather back home!

4.) Check if you have enough money to survive!

5.) Check if once your out of money, your age is right enough to get a good job!

****If the TO DO's don't fit you, better cancel your flight! Go back to work!

If you are a long term resident in one of the GCC countries, what are your long-term plans? What will you do when you return home?

By Mong Palatino

Thuy Vu of Vietnam Reporting Project visited the Danang Airbase where Agent Orange was stored. Agent Orange is the highly toxic herbicide used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War

By Rezwan

Raza Rumi at Pak Tea House analyzes the disclosure of Wikileaks documents on Afghan war and opines that the civil-military leadership of Pakistan should take corrective actions against the extremists within Pakistan.

By Veronica Khokhlova

Veni Markovski writes about the Bulgarian government's most recent attack on the independent media: “This latest pressure on the free media comes after a number of worrisome cases, involving journalists in the last years. […] Every government in the last 20 years has come to power at the promise of keeping the media free and independent, and every government has stepped down not being able to fulfill its promise.”

By Veronica Khokhlova

All About Latvia writes about Saskaņas Centrs (”The Harmony Center”), Lativa's “most popular” political bloc.

By Veronica Khokhlova

Sublime Oblivion interviews the author of A Good Treaty blog, continuing the Watching the Russia Watchers interview series that was launched by Andy Young of Siberian Light.

By Veronica Khokhlova

The Greater Surbiton writes that “the ICJ’s ruling on Kosovo sets a precedent that is dangerous only for tyrants and ethnic cleansers.” (More views are here and here.)

By Veronica Khokhlova

Belgraded writes about the planned revival of “the one big regional lottery” in the former Yugoslavia and does not “miss the opportunity to point out just how stupid nationalism is.”

By Veronica Khokhlova

RFE/RL's The Power Vertical reports on the alleged plans to merge Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service with the Federal Security Service. Scraps of Moscow writes about the newest “sexy Russian spy” scandal.

By Hamid Tehrani

Earlier this week Global Voices launched a liveblog of global reactions to Wikileaks Afghanistan war logs. Now let's take a look at what Afghan bloggers have been writing on this story.

Among the 50 Dari-writing Afghan bloggers in my blogroll (one of two official languages in Afghanistan) I've seen very little commentary on the Wikileaks story. If you have links to Dari or Pashtun Afghan blogs we should read or translate from please add the link below or contact us to volunteer to write for Global Voices.

In the meantime, here are two reactions from Afghan bloggers who did write:

Syed Akramoldin Taheri, writing the blog Isteqlal (meaning ‘independence') has chosen as the title for his post “Wikileaks reveals all roads end in Pakistan”. He says [fa]:

One of the main issues revealed in these 90,000 pages of documents is the clear support of Pakistan for the Taliban. According to these documents Pakistan has very close ties with the Taliban and supports extremist groups such as Jalaluddin Haqqani's. The leaked documents mention that Pakistan's intelligence service provided 1000 motorcycles for Haqqani's group in April 2007. The report also talks about Iran's support for the Taliban and the death of civilians that were not reported.

The blogger concludes that while the United States was angry to see the documents leaked, they show that Afghanistan's neighbors are intervening in internal politics and that actions could be taken to stop them.

Writing in his blog Tabarghanak, Mahmoud Hakimi of the Afghanistan Journal, writes “Finally everything is revealed” [fa]. The blogger says:

The 90,000 pages of leaked reports that show Pakistan's support for the Taliban, the murder of civilians, and conspiracies to kill Afghan leaders, is probably one of the most unique security/political events in recent history. It seems that beyond the political and military theater in Afghanistan, other scenarios have been written… Afghan people have struggled with such scenarios for the last three decades, and the outcome has been the death and homelessness of millions of people.

Update: By email, Nasim Fekrat, the journalist and blogger behind AfghanLord, says in response to a question about why Afghan bloggers have been silent:

All the stuff on Wikileaks is such an overt issue here [in Afghanistan] and people are dealing with it every day. They know what is happening on the ground. It does not seem like covert intelligence gathering for them as it does for the West. It doesn't make sense to them.

By Manuela Tenreiro

Spanish based storyteller and artist Boniface Ofogo Nkama, from Cameroon, was refused entry to Brazil last Friday because of the lack of a visa. He had been invited to participate in a Storytelling Symposium [pt], and the organizer, Benita Prieto, pours her heart out and tells all [pt].

By Onnik Krikorian

The Tbilisi Blues comments on the latest gaffe by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili when he called his prime minister a term considered politically incorrect in the West. The blog says that it is surprised at how many people have reacted to the remarks so strongly given that even losing a war didn't force the often wildcard leader to resign. It also criticizes Saakashvili's plans to militarize the population in case of what it sees as another personal squabble with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

By Onnik Krikorian

This is cinemelo comments on Border, a 2009 film from director Harutyun Khachatryan. Ostensibly a tale of life in rural Armenia, the blog says that the most telling images come from barbed wire fences which illustrate the filmmaker's connection with his country and his hatred of the war and closed border with neighboring Azerbaijan.

By John Kennedy

With an incident-free Invincible Spirit wrapping up today, don't miss this post from Sinologistical Violoncellist's Adam Cathcart looking at some of the dynamics in the relationship between China and North Korea.

By Veronica Khokhlova

Simon Shuster writes for The Huffington Post about a summer camp for Russia's “group-think generation.”

By Onnik Krikorian

Ianyan says that food might represent the path to peace for cultures that place such significance in it. Referring to an Armenian bakery in the U.S.-Armenian Diaspora as well as responses to a recent guest entry on Armenian-Azerbaijani relations in the context of the still unresolved conflict over Nagorno Karabakh, the blog says that dining around a full table can bring people together and help them overcome their differences.

By Veronica Khokhlova

Notes and updates on the upcoming 2011 presidential election in Belarus - at BelarusDigest (here, here, and here).

By Veronica Khokhlova

Anegdote comments on the recent beating of journalist Teofil Pančić in Belgrade: “The government needs thugs, and thugs need the government. The cycle goes on.” (A GV translation on the attack is here.)

By Veronica Khokhlova

More commentary on the ICJ's opinion on Kosovo's independence - at A Fistful of Euros, Belgraded, Gray Falcon, and Jamestown Foundation Blog (a GV translation on the subject is here).