Archive for
July 8th, 2005
Stories
Cross-Border Conversation on Race
· 21:58
The 1940's creation of famed Mexican writer, Yolanda Vargas Dulché and comic book illustrator, Alberto Cabrera, Memín Pinguín was an unlikely candidate at the time to spark a 21st century international debate on racism in Mexico and the United States. But when the Mexican post office decided to release a commemorative series of stamps honoring the comic character, the White House condemned the decision and spokesman Scott McClellan responded with the following:
“Racial stereotypes are offensive, and I would say racial stereotypes are offensive no matter what their origin. The Mexican government needs to take this into account. Images such as these have no place in today's world.”
Eight days later and the blogosphere in both Mexico and the United States has become saturated with opinions about both the Mexican post office's decision to release the stamps as well as the U.S. government's reaction to the decision.
Latino blogger, ngrand78, writing from Tucson, Arizona, was one of the first to post about the issue explaining that he agrees “that Memin Pinguin has exaggerated features thick lips and wide-open eyes. But what people have to take in consideration is that the Mexican culture is different, I am not going to say that discrimination doesn't exist in Mexico, it's just based in other characteristics, social status and wealth being the most notable ones. The truth is that back there the color of the skin is not important and people pay little attention.” ngrand78 has generated a tremendous amount of comments and, like many bloggers writing on the subject, has updated his post to clarify his thoughts.
Mark in Mexico, writing from Puebla, concurs that culture is at play:
By our standards, it is blatatantly rascist. By Mexican standards it is not. Mexican society is a rascist society kind of like that of Japan. Intermarriage, even fraternization, between the mestizos and the indigenous peoples is frowned upon and is rare. Even more rare is intermariage or fraternization with blacks. By mestizos I mean the lighter complected Mexicans of mixed Spanish/Indian or European/Indian descent. In Mexico, the whiter your skin the better. Mexican mestizos see nothing wrong with this and do not consider it rascist at all.
His post has a thorough collection of Memín Pinguín images and links to other blogs discussing the controversy.
Mexican-American blogger, Gustavo Rojo however disagrees:
My problem with the Memin Penguin stamp controversy is that in Mexico it should be a controversy but it is not. Just because Mexico didn’t have a “slavery issue” doesn’t mean that racism hasn’t been a problem. Race has always been a problem in Mexico from its inception.
After reading a post by Blex though, Gustavo updates his own and asks, “Is it so wrong to make fun of one another. It’s not like the mission behind this comic is to spread hate or some other propaganda. It is genuinely good-hearted.”
16 comments · »»Comments from the Arabic-language Blogosphere on London Blasts
· 20:09
Searching the Arabic-language blogosphere for commentary on the London bombings, I found several brief comments from some bloggers in Egypt and Syria.
Mohammed from Egypt has decided to translate the words of Michael Henning, an eyewitness from Liverpool St. who talked to the BBC website.
Also from Egypt, Lone Wolf, under the title “Nothing New,” wrote: “There is no hope. (…) These people of Jihad and al Qaeda are retarded and barbarians.”
From Syria, Abu Rummana, has written only a few words in a quick comment: “You, thieves! Give me my religion back!”
Commenting on Abu Rummana's post, Rami wrote: “In a few years, those thieves have distorted a civilization and a history that took thousands of years for our ancestors to build. And how much did that cost them? A few kilograms of explosives, and a handful of straying souls.”
3 comments · »»Zaid Hassan's response to the London bombings
· 17:18
Our friend Zaid Hassan - one of the folks behind the Pioneers of Change social entrepreneurship project - posts his reflections as a Londoner and a Muslim on the July 7th bombings:
At the mosque this afternoon there were two police-women standing outside, in fluorescent bright yellow-jackets. One was quite old. I couldn’t help but think “police-women? That’s quite odd. I wonder what that means?” The mullah reminded us that it was for our own good and we should be respectful. I saw a young man talking to them. Later on in the local donar kebab place a young laughing Somali boy put his friend in a head-lock, yelling “you’re under arrest!” White people look on blankly.
Zaid raises the difficult quesion, “Why is no one talking about the cause of the London attacks?”
25 comments · »»Why is no one talking about injustice? Surely it’s obvious? Surely we all know that the prime cause of terrorism, of such acts is injustice? Surely we know that if terrorism is madness then it’s a madness caused squarely by being a victim of forces beyond comprehension? By being on the receiving end of an intolerable amount of injustice? Of having no tears left, of being drained of empathy.
I search around me in vain for empathy. I can see courage, bravery, bluster, pain, fear, sadness, but no empathy. No empathy and no justice.
Links
Americas
Taran Rampersad discusses Wikipedia in the Caribbean and specifically, Guyana. He's also got some good updates on Hurricane Dennis.
Agua Fuertes 2004 starts a long discussion when questioning whether Google Earth respects Argentina's privacy [es].
Nada importante sucedió hoy… writes about the potential future of biotech in Argentina [es].
MABB discusses natural gas and Sino-Bolivian relations in the 21st century.
Pehuen describes a new project [es] on the country wide network, TIC Bolivia [es], which aims to support rural, eastern, indigenous Bolivians in learning computer skills.
Venezuela News and Views continues to beat the major media to the punch.
The Devil's Excrement covers the trial against the Venezuelan opposition movement, SUMATE [es].
Middle East & North Africa
Beirut Spring has posted a banner condemning terrorism in both English and Arabic.
Saudi Jeans has been looking on the Arabic blogs for commentary on the London bombings but has not yet found any; if you see any, make sure to pass it on to him.
Chan’ad Bahraini simply asks “May the murdered souls rest in peace.”
About Lebanon asks us to “take a moment out of our busy days to think about the victims and pray for peace.”
Mr.Behi has a long, heartfelt post about the bombings; he also links to an influential Persian blog out of London that has first-hand reports.
Iranian Prospect is pessimistic about the western response to these bombings.
The Iraqi blog Ibn Alrafidain flatly condemns the violence, though he adds that “I can imagine the disturbance, chaos & fear caused by the incident since we live this situation here in Iraq daily.”
Iraqi Expat, who lives in London, is beside himself with anger and rage: “What happened to London today was an outrageous evil act by shameless criminals who, sadly, call themselves Muslims. Today, my family and I are ashamed of being Muslims.
Sub-Saharan Africa
African Bullets and Honey was in London on the day of the attack, and concludes that “whenever I think about the scale and importance of the lives of people I love, and then consider those who were killed today, I am forced to conclude that a single human life is far more important than the ideas and hatreds that lead to such violence.”
Thinker's Room has a very long, very thoughtful response to the bombings in London that recalls the bomb attack on the US embassy in Nairobi.
Black Star Journal reports that one of Mugabe's closest allies, the former head of the secret police, has denounced the government's ‘clean-up' operation.
Congo Girl posts an update on the armed conflict in eastern DR Congo.
Ethiopundit posts a spirited defense of all things British, wrapping up his post with the text of the poem Rule Britianna.
Onyango Oloo of the Kenya Democracy Project asks who stands to gain from the bombings?
The Kenyan blog Mental Acrobatics says “there is no excuse for the cowardly acts. None.”
Pole, the Swahili word for condolences, carries far more weight than Afromusings can properly translate.
Western Europe
A bit of meta-coverage: A Fist Full of Euros notes that “A recurring theme in all the commentary of the attacks is the stoicism, composure and defiance of Londoners.”
Heiko Hebig points out that the bombings occurred even though London has one of the most comprehensive networks of security cameras in the world.
Lenin's Tomb has a long post analyzing the various interpretations and possible consequences of the bombing.
Barcapundit points to an article that details the similarities–and the differences–between the London bombings and the bomb attacks in Madrid a few years ago.
East Asia
Jinja, who writes the Cambodian blog Webbed Feet, Web log notes the irony that his former boss had only recently left Siem Reap, where the international school had a hostage crisis last month, to go to London. More importantly, though, he looks at the disquieting congruity of ‘good times' and ‘bad times'.
Phil of Flying Chair was interviewed by Singaporean television for his response to the London bombings.
The Ordinary Gweilo points out that “the British government have been saying for a long time that it was a matter of ‘when' rather than ‘if' there was a major terrorist incident in London, and sadly they have been proved right.”
SimonWorld has a short roundup of Chinese press coverage of the London bombings.
The bombing strikes home for Sushicam, since he had ridden those tube lines and taken those buses.
South Asia
While bemoaning the loss of life, Chien(ne)s Sans Froniters points out that similar blasts in Ayodhya were overlooked by the mainstream press.
Sepoy, at Chapati Mystery, is taken back to November of 2001, when he was living in London.
Eastern & Central Europe
Registan.net passes on the news that the Taliban is denying responsibility for the attacks in London, though they're not exactly sorry that they happened either.
The Russian Dilettante points out how opinion polls get deliberately misinterpreted in the Russian press.
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