Archive for
November 7th, 2005
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This Week in Palestinian Blogs: More Violations of Human Rights and a Little Bit of Art
· 14:25
While most news wire took the comments of the Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad on Israel out of context, in peacepalestine, an article from Tehran Times explains the context in which his speech occurred. It turned out that the Iranian president did not mean a phsycial annihilation of Israel, but rather a non-violent confrontation of the Zionist movement and schools. On the same matter, Sabbah sadly asks: did anyone react when Israeli leaders shamelessly demanded Palestine to be wiped off the map?
Israel's aids to Pakistan after the earth quake are dependent on Pakistan's recognition of Israel. peacepalestine reports that a 200-memeber delegation of Pakistan are to visit Israel as ordered by Western Europe and the US if they want to receive loans.
Italy threatens in the same “Support Israel or else” way those who do not take part in a demonstration infront of the Iranian embassy by considering them not only enemies of Israel but also enemies of every Italian Jewish as stated by the leader of the Roman Jewish Community.
Haitham Sabbah has finally found the famous Ariel Sharon interview by Amos Oz dated 1982. Other outrageous things said by Israeli leaders about Palestinians and Arabs can be read here
peacepalestine writes about an index that measured freedom of press in all countries of the world in which North Korea ranked 167th. While surprisingly the Palestinian Authority (PA) ranked as the 82nd and was considered friendier towards press than Israel who ranked as the 92nd. The index was made by Reporters Without Borders. following up the Italian pro-Israel agenda, peacepalestine wrote about a press statement by Forum Palestina in which a decision was made to dedicate a week of action that is about the rights of the Palestinian people from 12 to 19 November in Rome/Italy. The peacefull democratic acitivties of the coming week will put out the flames of war and lies lit in Rome by the pro-Israel demonstration.
Israeli air raids continued on Gaza Strip and a child was shot dead in the heart and head by Israel occupation forces for holding a toy gun. Ahmad Khateeb was shot while walking down a street in Jenin Refugee Camp in a visit to some relatives. Ahmad's family response to the hosiptal's request of donating their dead child's organs to other Israeli patients might come as a surprise to some of you considering the state of emotions they are still going through. It should be mentioned (for the sake of comparison) that Israel deprives patients and urgent cases in Gaza Strip of having medical treatment abroad.
Meanwhile, Imaan from Living in Gaza city nicely describes her Eid days, she says she hasn't seen people as happy and joyful since the time she arrived Gaza.
Talking about Eid in Palestine, Israel occupation forces wished the Palestinians a happy Eid on its own way by sending voice messages to their mobile phones early in the morning. “thousands of Palestinian customers with the local Mobile Communication Network- Jawaal, received a voice message sent from some private number”. The message said:
“This is the IDF, we wish you happy Eid. We work continuously to protect you. You must shun the terrorists from your society. We warn you from attempting to threaten or harm our security. You must cooperate with us to help us provide you with better life standards and safety. Once again, refrain from assisting or accommodating terrorists in your homes”
On air strikes umkahlil writes about an appeal to individuals and professional organizations to join a protest against the Israeli air forces policy of illegaly flying over the occupied Gaza Strip. Inhibitants of the strip risk sever mental health problems caused by supersonic booms, especially children. Supersonic booms are contradiction to Geneva Convention & International Convention for Rights of Children.
In Bethlehem Bloggers, a report via Guardian says Bethlehem will be soon encircled by Israel's security barrier. Church of the Nativity lies in the heart of Bethlehem marks one of the most sacred sites-the birthplace of Christ.
Inside the Church of Nativity, by Sugar Cubes
Israel's assassination policy continues as two of Gaza masterminds were assassinated in a missile attack. The two victims were Hasan Al-Madhoun, aged 32, the leader of the Al-Aqssa Martyrs Brigades, a breakaway group of Fatah. And the other victim was identified as Fawzy Abu Al-Kar; aged 37, one of the most wanted leaders of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement.
From Sumoud, 13 AMB activists detained in PA jails go on hunger strike in a protest against an unjustified detention while their families urged an immediate release. The detainees were accused of planning and involvement in anti-occupation targets, the latest of which a raid that left 3 settlers killed and 30 others injured.
Eye witnesses from the International Solidarity Movement say on the 29th of October, they were called to the streets by local Palestinians of the village of Bil’in. A force of three jeeps full of Israeli soldiers armed with M-16s were conducting night raids to arrest villagers in Bili’n. we were witness to two of the arrests, one of which was a young boy of 14. The other was a young man of about 18. There was one further arresst that we did not directly witness. Most of the 19 people arrested in the past 2 weeks have been young men below the age of 19. They further said that a Palestinian man was taken and used as a human shield. ISM team filmed everything.
This week, a Travel Exibition by ‘Made in Palestine’ is being held in Vermont between 18th of Oct and 20th of Nov:
Made in Palestine is a collection of contemporary art made by 23 Palestinian artists and refugees who live in the occupied territories and in the Diaspora. According to curators at the Station Museum, it is “the first exhibit of contemporary Palestinian art ever displayed in the United States.” The exhibit includes works in many media, including oils, paper, video, sculpture, textile art, ceramics, and photography.
| Hani Zurob | Tayseer Barakat | Rajie Cook |
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Made in Palestine current Traveling Exibition is taking place since the 18th of Oct and will continue until the 20th of this month Nov in Montpelier, VT, USA. Other tentative locations: New York City and Mexico.
Read more about this event.
4 comments · »»Best Blog of Costa Rica
· 13:34
Este artículo también está disponible en español
The Bloggos group has chosen five of the best Costa Rican weblogs and the voting has already begun.
The five finalists are:
Caos entre ángeles y demonios
fusildechispas
betobeto.com
korova-milk-bar
Medea Material
Best of luck to all the finalists. You can vote here.
3 comments · »»This week in the African women's blogsphere
· 10:18
Feeling like ‘…woman standing at the edge of belonging, watching as male speaks to male, white speaks to white’, Keeper of her thoughts describes how it feels to work in a faith-based donor organisation largely led by white men.
In response to the recent violence in Kisumu, prousette takes issue with the current leaders in this part of Kenya who have failed in developing an area that has ’some of the best brains in the country’.
November 10 will be the 10th anniversary of the extra-judicial execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian author, author, television producer and environmental activist who was campaigning for the rights of the Niger Delta people. Black Looks writes about a report published by Amnesty International that states the cause Saro-Wiwa died for remains as relevant as ever.
Bronwyn also writes about the report and says, ‘As long as the oil keeps pumping, to hell with human rights and the environment.’
Mymmoh writes about the indignities faced by African students in the US when asked questions such as whether ‘you learnt English on the plane’ or when statements are made such as ‘you speak good English’ and wonders who is worse - the people who ask such questions or the ones who assume they know and thus make ignorant statements.
In an overhead conversation, Nyakehu hears two men maliciously and viciously gossip about a woman and thinks the vitriol is just a case of sour grapes.
Wangari illustrates the complications in finding a place to live in London. ’Not only had I lost money, I had nowhere to live and I had to vacate my flat in a week’, she writes, while describing last week’s events when she thought she had been conned by a landlord.
Finally, in a week where one has been greatly troubled by the continuing rioting in France, Black Looks writes an eye-opening and excellent account of the riots and related issues and says
“People and especially young people who are constantly and incessantly faced with racism and marginalistion in their daily lives whether on the streets of the US, Europe, Palestine, apartheid South Africa, or Bolivia will eventually take to the streets. The riots are the outcome of a culmination of experiences and incidents over a period of time, they are not simply happening in a vacuum of nothingness. France will have to face the reality of this otherwise it and Europe will sink into further violence as communities become even more polarised”.
0 comments · »»Steppin' into the Turkish Blogosphere
· 05:23
After a 15 day hiatus, the Turkish blog review is back.
I found some information on Turkish Podcasting! The website Kevin and Fatma take on the World! are in the planning stages of weekly podcasts. At the moment they only have a few test podcast shows, but it is a worthwhile project to continue to check the status of. Alacakaranlik Istanbul is another site that is also trying to begin the Turkish podcast venture. They currently only have a few test shows. But by far the coolest podcast discovery of the week for me is from the site Devletsah.com which has an entire archive of podcasts giving recipe instructions (in Turkish). And our list today would not be complete without Undomondo a wonderful Mp3 blog, that focuses on new and upcoming Indie music in Turkey and throughout the rest of the world.
Mert Ulas has been dabbling with videoblogging. Mert gives us a tutorial on videoblogging and the oppurtunity to listen and watch part of a lovely little diddy called “thinking about my doorbell”.
Moving on to our normal fare…. Turkey has been graced with two holidays the past two weeks: Turkish Republic Day and the end of Ramadan Eid al-Fitr, which the Turks call Seker Bayrami or Sugar Festival. Here are some Turkish Republic Day greetings from Metroblogging Istanbul, and Happy Bayram wishes from American Turk. Phanja from The Need to Know describes the similarities between Seker Bayrami and the Halloween.I am happy to report that Turkish Torque is posting again. They have an interesting post on an upcoming Janissary scuplture exhibit in Paris. Ever posting on the history of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire, Mavi Boncuk has a profile of architect Alexandre Vallaury and biography of Claude Alexandre Comte de Bonneval who converted to Islam in the 17th Century and became a Humbaraci. Metroblogging Istanbul has a post about a turkish soldier caught in terrorist violence in Eastern Turkey who calls home shortly before he died from enemy fire and a post about the arrest of Human Rights activist Eren Keskin. A newly found blog entitled Erkan's Field Diary details various aspects of the Turkey/European Union situation, the website is a format for Erkan to post things that pertain to his thesis. His latest post is about European Stability Initiative. Murat from American Turk has a frightening post about Sleep paralysis.
For the interesting finds section for this week:
1. Farketing a design weblog.
2. Topkapi Palace which deals with issues of Orientalism.
3. Aegean Disclosure which describes itself as ” a turkish blog which would prefer to write about film, but other things endlessly get in the way, so one is simply content to keep the ocean floor visible.”
Court Orders Philippine Blog to Remove Post
· 02:59
The blog of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, or PCIJ, has made history — of sorts. Last week, the PCIJ was served with a court order to remove this Aug. 12, 2005 post related to an ongoing political scandal. The scandal revolves around taped wiretaps allegedly of Philippine Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordering an election official to rig her election. The President admitted the voice on the tape was hers, but her government claimed that the recordings had been doctored. Opposition politicians seized on the ensuing controversy to lead an aborted attempt at her impeachment.
The PCIJ post revealed information from a police dossier on the background of Jonathan Tiangco, an audio expert presented to dispute the authenticity of the recordings. The post described several criminal cases against Tiangco and mentioned that Tiangco had two wives. In October, Tiangco's spouse requested a temporary restraining order against PCIJ, which a lower court granted after the Philippine Supreme Court turned down her petition. The order enjoined PCIJ for 20 days from “broadcasting, publishing or posting or causing to broadcast, publish, or post articles and statements similar and related to, or connected and in conjunction with” that blog post. In its post announcing the gag order and the removal of the post, PCIJ directed its readers to look to Google if they wanted to know the deleted post's contents.
The action spurred much commentary across the Philippine blogosphere, particularly among its most active participants: journalist-bloggers and lawyer-bloggers. Media blogger Jove Francisco fretted that the court action could frustrate efforts by both the local mainstream media and bloggers to police themselves, while columnist-blogger Dean Jorge Bocobo calculated that the Tiangco action will end up where most libel suits in the Philippines go: dead in the water. Law professor-blogger Edwin Laceirda launched an email-writing campaign. Journalist-blogger Manuel L. Quezon III called for full support of PCIJ. Sassy Lawyer isn't so sure, pointing out that the PCIJ backgrounder on Tiangco didn't have to mention his marital arrangements:
[I]f you must write to the Supreme Court regarding this issue, then write you must. We all want to see the right to freedom of expression upheld. But neither should we triviliaze Rona Tiongco’s right to privacy. If we do that, we triviliaze our own right to privacy.
Other bloggers wondered about the reach of the order. Technology blogger yuga asked: “What if every other Filipino blogger re-posts the entry in their respective blogs?” Some already have. Another intriguing and potentially far-reaching question: In directing blog readers to a Google cache, did PCIJ violate its obligation to refrain from “causing to broadcast, publish, or post articles and statements similar and related to, or connected and in conjunction with” the post? Law professor J.J. Disini thinks there is an argument that it did.
5 comments · »»
Links
Americas
Beautiful Horizons calls the Bush-Lula joint statement a “study in hypocrisy. Boz says the U.S. must follow through on promises to cut farm subsidies. Comings Communique wishes Brazilian protesters against Bush would get better translators.
Americas
Rob Mercatante discusses Guatemala's place in Western Hemisphere drug smuggling while Chapinadas is thankful for the aid of 600 Cuban doctors [ES] currently in Guatemala to help hurricane Stan victims.
Middle East & North Africa
Descriping here hometwon during her Eid vists, Farah says, “I cannot begin to describe the comfort I'm instantly overcome with as soon as I set foot in to this land. It is a land where simplicity prevails, where maintaining a kind heart and an affectionate, caring and God fearing soul is the underlying constitution, and where mud homes stand tall and persist to look modernism in the eye.
As shameless as this may sound,(it is my hometown after all,) it is a land where men can still be described as gallant, chivalrous, and courteous, and where getting the female tingles all over as a result of these fine young men's ongoing fine deeds is the norm.”
Americas
Luís Afonso Assumpção goes through the speculation that the Cuban government helped finance Lula's presidential campaign. Comings Communique posts an audio file describing, among other things, Brazilian red tape.
Americas
Nadine Farid offers an up-close description of the rioting at the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata.
Americas
Guillermo Juan Parra introduces Venezuelan poet and novelist, Antonia Palacios and posts the first of eight translated poems.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Head Heeb reports on the latest developments in the conflict in ‘Cote d'Ivoire. French peacekeeping troops are once again responsible for the death of an Ivoirian - this time a local gang leader - who was suffocated to death by an amored vehicle. However Heeb points out that this time “the French government seems to be doing the right thing with respect to this killing; the soldiers involved are facing charges, and their commanders have been suspended pending investigation. At the same time, it is further proof that the French presence in Cote d'Ivoire is turning into a case study in how long-term peacekeeping can turn into counterinsurgency” .
Sub-Saharan Africa
Tanzanian/Ugandan blog East African_Peripetatic reports that Ugandan democracy is still ” a big dream“
Sub-Saharan Africa
Ethiopundit provides an analysis of the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia 14 years after liberation “MELES THE SUPERMAN SWALLOWS GOLD AND SPOUTS JUNK“
Sub-Saharan Africa
Chippla's Weblog discusses an article “Between African Culture and Modernization” which “reminisces a lot about the good old days when most societies in Africa lived by societal norms and mores (or African culture if you prefer) before the advent of the European colonisers which changed all that forever.”
Middle East & North Africa
Kaskol Haji who presents himself as a faithful person to Islamic Republic wrote an open letter to Ahmadinejad. Haji mentioned raising prices of some products by goverment has disappointed many who voted Ahmadinejad. (Persian)
Sub-Saharan Africa
Nigerian blogger, Grandiose Parlour celebrates Nigerian musician, Tu Face who recently won MTVs “Best African Artists of the Year” award.
Sub-Saharan Africa
What an African Woman Thinks discusses how it feels to be the only Black woman working in a large global Faith Based Organisation “This has been my reality all my working life: I don't know any different, so I just do what I have to do.”
Sub-Saharan Africa
Afromusings is struck by “the fact that the anti colonial movement, a part of Kenyan history inspired liberalism and the civil rights movement in America (60’s and 70’s)” but is disappointed that “that special thing (for lack of a better word) that inspired Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and the feminists is gone” in todays Kenya and US.
Middle East & North Africa
Neila Charchour Hachicha says that here blog, the PLM's website and a number of dissident sites and blogs are accessible again in Tunisia. She hopes these are not just ponctual measures taken only before the WSIS in order to give a better image of the Tunisian regime.
Middle East & North Africa
Erkan says, Zaman is the first online Turkish newspaper and as far as I know it is only paper that is completely translated from Turkish to English. It is again the first newspaper that had an op-ed page.
Middle East & North Africa
Ugur says, according to a survey conducted by Turkish Ministry of Health at 12,000 households, 19% of Turkish women are “slightly,” 24% “medium level,” 13% “a lot” and 8% “extremely” depressed.
Middle East & North Africa
Thanks to Stacey, I've finally found the FIRST Yemenis blog. Mustapha Ahmed No'man, is the Yemen Ambassador in India, just started his blog. All the best!
Middle East & North Africa
Bethlehem Bloggers wonders, Bethlehem, a place of Christian pilgrimage for centuries, will soon be encircled by Israel's security barrier. Is the town to become no more than a museum among ancient shrines?
Middle East & North Africa
According to director of Center for Women & Family, Women's work hour will be reduced. Then they can spend more time in their families. Sooratak say that women will be more at their husbands' service. (Persian)
South Asia
A Bangalore based collablog Everman's City has information on how fellow-bloggers could contribute to an ongoing Education initiative in the state. It's incredible when blogs use their ability to communicate for such causes - especially as it goes far beyond disaster relief blogging, and is focused on development blogging.
South Asia
Light Within on the beautiful Khunjerab Pass, its history and times.
South Asia
Razib Rashedin on the origins of the Hijab (veiling and seclusion of women) and it's place in Islam.
South Asia
Rezwan wonders if the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is becoming less important.
South Asia
The turf war for Elections 2005 and an analysis of the economic promises and agenda of the candidates at Mahoshada.
South Asia
Tamiliana on Elections 2005, and how in every round of elections, other than the two big candidates there's also -
These candidates fighting a lost battle provide spice, , sizzle, sparkle and colour to the campaign. They prevent monotony and add variety to what may have been drearily dull otherwise.
East Asia
Talk Talk China's post wondering why his Chinese hosts continue to offer him food even after he's sated has touched off lengthy discussions on hospitality, insincerity and cross-cultural misunderstandings.
East Asia , South Asia
Preetam Rai at betterdays took photos of the wry commentary penciled in the margins of an old travelogue written in the 1930s by an American traveler who visited China, Japan and Korea. Rai had bought the book in Bangalore bookshop. He observes: “The commentator was surely a proud pan-asianist. Pan-Asianism was encouraged by the Japanese. They urged all Asian countries to band together and beat their colonial masters. Pan Asianism found strong support in India.”
East Asia
American and Korean bloggers writing about South Korea are incensed about the hero's welcome given in Seoul to Robert Kim, a Korean-American arrested in 1996 for passing classified information to the Korean government.
East Asia
In a surprise move, Myanmar's government announced that it was relocating the country's administrative bodies from Yangon (Rangoon) to a new, administrative capital 320 km to the north in the town of Pyinmana. Mizzima.com considers the various explanations, from severing the government from foreign embassies to entrenching the military-led government in a remote, fortified location. Writes Burma Watch.com “This is a prime example of one of those mysterious events which can only come from a brutal regime. No one is really sure of the logic behind the move but one knows it can not be good.”
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