Archive for
July 18th, 2006


Stories

This week in Israel: War?!

A small portrait of the translator Lisa N. Goldman · 14:15 · Middle East & North Africa

Israel is at war and the Israeli blogosphere is on fire. There are so many posts to mention that I can hardly think where to start. Since the events of the past week turned Israelis' reality upside down literally overnight they are trying to make sense of it all - and many are doing so online.

As I wrote in this post, this is probably the most blogged conflict in the world. The post contains links to Israeli and Lebanese blogs that are hosting ongoing conversations between commenters and bloggers from both sides of the border. This is possibly the first time in history that citizens of two countries at war are able to maintain direct communication and express their feelings to one another in real time. I quote Shachar, an Israeli who commented on Lebanese Bloggers Forum:

I'm an IDF soldier stationed at the Lebanon is border, but got back home for a funeral of someone I knew.

We can’t see all the bombing on Lebanon here from Israel (naturaly we’re focusing on bombs at Israel), so you’re pretty much updating me on what’s going on.

I don’t want to start arguing about who’s right and who’s wrong, the finaly word is that it’s not right that civilians get hurt in the process, from both sides.

I’m sending you my best wishes from here, and hope that you and your family will be strong and be alright until this horrible situation will be over.

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Voices from Zimbabwe and the Great Lakes

A small portrait of the translator Zimpundit · 14:07 · Sub-Saharan Africa

Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's blogosphere has virtually been deflated by threats of new legislation allowing government to surreptitiously spy on people's cyber activities. Their numerous voices have been silenced leaving a marked void in the chronicling of the one the world's worst crises. Please keep this troubled nation's valiant bloggers in your minds and prayers. A few bloggers still persist; here are some of the issues they have been reporting:

After an acrimonious split, Zimbabwe's opposition MDC is steeped in further controversy after a ghastly attack on Gertrude (Trudy) Stevenson. Stevenson, who has aligned herself with Arthur Mutambara's “pro-senate” faction, is the MP for the Harare North constituency on an MDC ticket. Zimpundit is sickened by the attack.

The Bearded Man posts and discusses headlines on Zimbabwe every day.

D.R.C>:Carl at Because we're here boy no one else; just us shares his version of election-related developments. These include; increased patrols by the airforce, the arrival of EU troops, a war threat by a presidential candiate if the elections don't go well, and relief organizations cutting back their operations in the country.

Meanwhile Fleurdafrique contempletes whether the elections will be just another historical event or if they will be democratic at all:

Should I sit here and say “well at least we’re having elections”? What’s the point of having them if it’s clear who’s running the show?

Somebody is clearly taking a piss.

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China: How do you say RSS feed in Chinese again?

A small portrait of the translator John Kennedy · 12:39 · East Asia

One day soon, when content flow between Chinese and English websites reaches a reciprocal balance, when newspapers, textbooks and bloggers everywhere go bilingual, how well-positioned will you be? It's not an easy question to answer, and keeping a foot firmly planted on the ground on both sides of the fence won't ever be an easy stance to maintain.

The Chinese aren't waiting for the rest of the world to figure this riddle out, however, and keep things progressing—particularly the internet—at pace with if not quicker than the English side. Sinosphere behemoth Sina.com has just announced its Blog 3.0 [zh] service, the blogging love bubble seems to have burst [#048], and, as journalist-blogger Priest Liu writes, the word blog itself seems so last quarter [zh].

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Polish Blogosphere Update

A small portrait of the translator Jordan & Maria Seidel · 09:06 · Eastern & Central Europe

Better late than never… That's what PolBlog hopes bloggers will think in response to its latest foray into blogging technology. Its new “Talk Back Attack” features an audio comment option to put “a voice to the text.” This is how PolBlog explains the new feature:

Audio-commenting, as we call it, adds another dimension to blogging — think of it as audio SMS.

The topic for the inaugural Talk Back Attack (TBA) is the very hot issue of the Polish brain drain. PolBlog pontificates:

While Poles working abroad are now what one could call economic refugees, in the nearest future they may very well be followed by their diseffected brethren, the political refugees. How to put a brake on it? Oddly enough, there won't be any religious refugees as Poland stands to become a country of unemployed, educationally undistinguished (and indistinguishable), Catholic zealots.

And speaking of the devil(s), religious zealotry may be just what Poland needs if Edward Lucas is correct in his latest report pinning much of the blame for Poland's fall from EU grace on the twins currently serving as President and PM:

It is easy to argue that the Law and Justice party has done disappointingly little in the nine months since it won Poland's parliamentary and presidential elections. But in one respect it has done a lot: once a regional heavyweight, respected in America and around Europe, the country now attracts ridicule and condemnation. The main culprit is the president, Lech Kaczynski.

The twins of Polish politics are providing tons of newfound grist for the satirists. The Real Warsaw waxes instrumental, anticipating a potential windfall of success should the ‘wonder twins' fail (or succeed, depending on the POV):

…it would be impossible to set Poland any lower on the world respect ladder. good news for me…I want this country to fail so I can prosper.

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