Where else do you get to hear this range of voices so clearly? Who else has a most-read list that so represents the globe?

By the way, the
#1 was the report on The Cala Boca Galvao Phenomenon, a hilarious phenomenon that Ethan Zuckerman helped popularize.

Have a fruitful new year, Global Voices. And to all the globe’s voices: Happy new year!

Bricolage is usually romanticized because it is a way those without resources can, through their inventiveness, make something out of scraps. But, EatBees writes about how a friend convinced him that as a integral part of Morocco’s economy, it isn’t just a sign of the culture’s inventiveness:

Bricolage…is a desperate response to a system in disrepair. My friend sees it as a sign of Moroccans’ misfortune, not as something to celebrate. Perhaps it is even a factor in perpetuating the breakdown, by accepting it as normal and multiplying it into the future. More professionalism is needed in Morocco, my friend would argue. The solution is to reform the broken-down system and do things the right way in the first place. However, this requires a material investment that is not being made; and bricolage is an engrained habit that will be hard to break.

(Thanks to Jillian York at Global Voices and Twitter. You might also want to read her post about the sense of otherness Americans (and others) can feel in Morocco.)

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