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May 21st, 2007


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Lebanon: Violent Clashes and an Explosion 

a small portrait of this author Moussa Bashir · 21:18

The clashes between the Lebanese army and the organization of Fatah al Islam, as well as the explosion in Ashrafieh (Beirut), took precedence over all other news and blog posts in almost all of the blogs during the past two days. Following are quotes from a number of these posts including a post quoting a civilian trapped in the camp of Nahr el Barid in North Lebanon, in the crossfire, between the army and the organization.

In the Nahr el Barid Camp
In a very rare blog post on the conditions in the camp where some members of Fath al Islam are reported to be hiding, A Shouly quotes Ahmad, his friend, who is one of many trapped in the crossfire:

Ahmad, a friend of mine, living in the camp, told me that they don't have water now, nor bread, nor hospitals. They are starting to feel hungry, they can't take the injuries outside the camp nor the dead, mostly civilians.


Explosion in Ashrafieh–Beirut
Golaniya who lives in Ashrafieh, was awake and out when the explosion in a parking near the ABC shopping mall occurred at about midnight on Sunday. She shared with her readers what was her first experience with the aftermath of a violent explosion as well as her anxiety over the safety of her sister who was at home, a couple of blocks from the explosion.

I was walking on glasses, glasses of bed rooms, living rooms, of homes. It was so crowded, with families wearing pajamas, pink, blue, yellow, scared, panicked, I saw a guy with a wet face, and a woman grabbed my friend's arm asking him about her house, we left her.
I don't know why, but I shed a tear.
I looked at my Southern friend's face, he was in the South when Israel bombed it, he heard the noises, saw the red, all this is very familiar to him, very not to me.
I saw the fire, I saw the giant thing glowing in the panicked people's eyes, I do not know how does it feel to be Lebanese, to have a Lebanese face, I haven't lived a “civil” war, nor a terrorist war, June war. I haven't heard a single noise outside the screen, we shared history??

Word on the Street
Jounoune mentions some of what the people on the streets are saying concerning the origins of the militants in the north of Lebanon:

The Government is blaming Syria. I am really not a fan of Syria but word on the streets is that militants in the north (said to be linked to Al Qaeda) have been funded and armed to create sunni arms in response to the shia's hizballah. The word on the street is that Lebanese sunnis will not hold arms and fight so yes, such militants have been created and grown as a possible retaliation. Of course, just like the US couldn't control Al Qaeda which in reality it helped create, these militants will be very hard if not impossible to control as well. Proof of the matter… these days events.

And in a witty article, Jamal mentions some facts about the situation which he describes as circulating rumours that we should beware:

The panic and fear engulfing the مساطيل [fools] makes them susceptible to any rumors that might answer their question “Whodunit?” Who's the big bad wolf? Of course the big bad wolf is banking on this chaos and on these rumors to feed the already pre-conceived convictions and ignite the pent up hatred.
Anyways this مسطول [fool] just wants to point out that some widely circulated rumors, are just that rumors, and hopes that his مساطيل [foolish] buddies do not adopt these propaganda lines as facts and speed up the nose dive into the shit pond that awaits us. […] 3.) The nutbags are not exclusively Palestinian, most of them are actually مساطيل with some nutbags from various other Middle Eastern countries. […] 6.) The مساطيل [fools] don't love life. A large number of people showed more outrage for the glass shattered in ABC than for the tens of soldiers and civilians dead during the day.

Blame Game
The two major Lebanese groups, the pro–government and the opposition threw allegations at each other as a result of the situation. Abu Ali summarized this blame game and added his opinion in a post in which he said:

The two camps in Lebanon are now throwing allegations at each other, each sticking to the usual litany: The pro-Government group accuses Fateh al Islam of being Syrian agents, in charge of derailing the international tribunal by holding Lebanon hostage. The opposition describes Fateh al Islam as a creature of the Hariri group, brought in to oppose the Shi’a expansion on sectarian basis. They point to the fact that Mr. Fatfat, when he was Minister of Interior, gave official recognition to Hizb al Tahrir, a Sunni party fighting for the reinstatement of the Caliphate. Hizb al Tahrir became famous for its strong expression of dislike towards Danish cartoonists by burning churches in Ashrafieh.

I wonder who those Fateh al Islam are anyway. There has been so little transparency in reporting the events of the past 2 days that one is unsure what is and what is not true. Are they Palestinians? We hear that only part of them are, and that the group is mostly made up of Lebanese Sunnis from the squalid areas of the North, like Bab el Tebbaneh. Places like Bab el Tebbaneh are truly the poorest areas of Lebanon, only the Palestinian camps are worse.

Updates
MFL and Blacksmith Jade are two bloggers posting updates on security situation.

Civilian Casualties
Mustapha raised the issue of the civilian casualties and the ethical issues that it poses:

Indeed, terrorists hiding among civilians pose a moral dilemma, and the humanitarian crisis should not be ignored. But does that mean that the Army should somehow start “talking” with terrorists whose only aim is to destabilize Lebanon?
A lot is at stake in the Army’s zero-tolerance policy. A “softer” and “more understanding” Army will send the wrong signals to would-be-terrorists that it is ok in the future to attack the military. Moreover, the Army has to send a clear message to the residents of the camps: Not handing the terrorists over will cost you much more than keeping them around.


On Fatah al Islam and On How Will the Clashes End
Abu Kais explains why the army can never lose this battle:

This battle cannot be won by Fatah al-Islam. They are outnumbered by the increasingly popular army, even though they seem to have a lot of weapons. The group, which the head of the Internal Security Forces called “imitation al-Qaeda”, consists of former Iraq fighters and international terrorists. That they all got into Lebanon with the help of Syrian intelligence should be a confirmation to all that the Assad regime is a major sponsor of world terror. According to An-Nahar, one of the killed terrorists was involved in the Ain Alaq bombings in February, and another was wanted over the 2006 plot to blow up trains in Germany.

Jeha wrote on what he sees are the role and objectives of the organization of Fatah al Islam:

Groups like those Fath Al-Islam and other similar fundamentalist groups are “true believers”.
In practice, they are opportunists who follow whatever the “cause du jour” happens to be. They have become more vocal and were overdue for some action; with the approach of the Hariri tribunal, their Syrian masters may have seized their chance to “activate” them. That much was clear to the Mufti, who called for support to the Lebanese armed forces as the fighting got bloodier.
In theory, it was meant to be different, at least from the perspective of the cannon fodder they recruit. The ideology of Fath Al-Islam and similar groups is geared towards a return to the heydays of the Caliphate. While this particular outfit is focused on a return to Palestine, others want a return to Al-Andalus.

And finally, As’ad Abu Khalil believes that the whole situation will end up in a stalemate with things returning to their “abnormal” conditions as they always do in Lebanon:

This is typical. We have seen this before. The Lebanese Army is given an opportunity by the political class (and by the sectarian sects–all of them) to show muscle, but only against the refugee camps of Lebanon. I remember this from my childhood. Back in 1973, Israeli terrorists (headed by Ehud Barak) sneaked into Lebanon and killed Palestinian leaders: one of them was a poet sleeping in his bed (Kamal Nasir). The Lebanese Army did not lift a finger–it never does against Israel.[…]
But make no mistake: nothing will change. It will end like every other incident of this kind ends: in a stalemate, and in things returning back to abnormal. This is Lebanon.

2 comments · »»

Colombia: The First Blogger Meetup in Medellín Results in Mixed Reviews. 

a small portrait of this author Juliana Rincón Parra · 17:58
sample image for this post

Medallo Bloguero flyerThroughout the planning of the first blogger meeting in Medellín, a website, Medallo Bloguero [ES] was set up for bloggers from Medellín and others interested could participate in the planning process by giving their opinions and criticisms on the planned activities for the first roundtable/meetup.

The idea behind the meetup was to have a space where both bloggers and non-bloggers could take something of value with them, and to spread the blog love all around. This roundtable event was to take advantage of the National Internet Week and internet day as an opportunity to present Medellín Bloggers to the rest of the community.

Here are some comments from the Medellín Bloggers:

Diegoeche [ES]

Acabo de llegar del evento… me aburrí. La verdad había me hecho expectativas… pero no me gusta escuchar a alguien que no sabe de lo que esta hablando y que cree que diciendo siglas (CSS, XML RSS) va a hablar de cosas muy interesantes. Si se quería dar una introducción a que es blogging, o tratar de definir que era un blog creo que publicitaron mal el evento. Me imagine otra cosa.

Ademas un ambiente tan entusiasta resulta terriblemente perjudicial para la discusión jejeje.

I just got home from the event… I got bored. As a matter of fact, I had expectations, but I didn't like to hear from someone who doesn´t know what they are talking about, and who thinks that by saying acronyms (CSS, XML, RSS) thinks that one would talk about really interesting things. If the goal was to give an introduction to blogging or try to define what a blog was, then I believe the event was incorrectly publicized. I imagined something completely different.

Besides, such an enthusiastic environment is terribly harmful for discussion, hehehe.

Medallo Bloguero

Ayer fui al primer encuentro de blogger en Medellín, llegue cuando ya había empezado y me fui antes de terminar, solo estuve para el final de una charla en la que alguien hablaba maravillas de los blós y que todo el mundo debería bloguear, luego siguió una charla “técnica” sobre los blós y web 2.0, que no me gusto, o me daba risa la recitación descarada de wikipedia o me daban ganas de llorar ante las mismas palabras vacías y TLA, espero que se repita, pero ahora sea mas integración y menos charla.

Yesterday I went to the first Blogger meetup in Medellín, I arrived late and left early, I was just there for the end of a speech in which someone talked about the wonders of blogs and why all the world should blog, which was followed by a very technical speech on blogs and web 2.0 which I didn't like, or I found it funny to hear them blatantly read off wikipedia or I wanted to cry for the same empty words and TLA. I hope they do it again, but with more integration and less talk.

Angelfire [ES]:

Pues parce, yo ya tenia cierta experiencia con este tipo de cosas y estoy seguro que no nos fue mal, hablar de blogs en medellin no es tan fácil como hablar de futbol o cosas por el estilo, desgraciadamente a nuestra ciudad o al país en general le falta más cultura, y pues para eso estamos nosotros.

Well man, I already had some experience with this sort of thing and I´m sure we didn't do badly. Talking about blogs in Medellín isn't as easy as talking about soccer or things like that, unfortunately our city or country in general, lacks more culture, and well, that's what we are here for.

Frakasoft [ES]

Bueno quiero primero felicitar a las organizadores por la idea, creo que hay que repetirlo. Sin embargome parece e que hubo muchos cosas que se debieron mejorar, desde el objetivo del evento. Yo iba a socializar y a pasar un buen rato, no ha que me dieran clases y charlas interminables… pa eso la Universidad y mis profes :P. Creo que si lo que buscaban era gente que no blogueara le apuntaron a los que no debian. No logro entender por que lo llamaron encuentro Blogger si querian gente no-blogger. Creo que debemos reunirnos de nuevo pero en otro contexto, Sin charlas magistrales, mas bien con un conjunto de temas de los cuales conversar, en un contexto mas de conocer gente, tomarse unas polas y hacer amigos. Eso si sería un “encuentro” Bloggger .

Well, first I want to congratulate the organizers for the idea, I think it needs to be repeated. Nevertheless, it seems to me that there were several things which should be improved, according to the event's objective. I wanted to socialize and have a good time, not to be given classes and watch neverending presentations… that´s what the university and my teachers are there for :P. I think that if you were looking for non bloggers, then people signed up who shouldn't have. I don´t understand why it was called a Blogger meeting if you wanted non-bloggers. I believe we should meet again but in another context, without lecturing but rather with a list of topics to discuss in a context more in the spirit of meeting people, drinking beer and making friends. That would truly be a “blogger” meetup.

Jaime Humberto Medina Medina [ES]

Con suma atención he leido este post sobre Lo Bueno, lo Malo y lo Feo del Encuentro Blogger Medellín 2007, del cual también tuve muchas expectativas, en mi caso virtuales, por cuanto les escribo desde la ciudad de Pereira.

Lo de la norma bloguera de hacer una reunión para ir a tomar cerveza y hablar mierda, tiene mucho de cierto y en parte fue lo que sucedió en el Encuentro Blogscolombia el pasado año en Bogotá donde tuve la oportunidad de asistir.

Las diapositivas me parecieron excelentes porque muestran de manera clara nuestro “oficio” blogueril.

I´ve read with great interest this post on the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Medellin Blogger Meetup 2007 for which I had many expectations, in my virtual case because I´m writing from the city of Pereira. It is true that the blogger norm is to meet to drink beer and talk crap. This is what, in part happened at the Blogscolombia meetup last year in Bogotá, where I had the chance to attend.

I thought the slides were excellent because they very clearly show the craft of blogging.

Galo [ES]

Es un gran logro haber realizado el evento y haberle llegado a los que participaron. A mí me gusto mucho que se haya vuelto un blog en el mundo real, los participantes comentando, compartiendo experiencias y debatiendo. El café le dio un aire mucho más informal al evento y permitió mayor integración.

It's a great accomplishment to have put on the event for all that participated. I truly liked how it became a blog in realtime with participant comments, adn the sharing and debting of experiences. The coffeehouse gave it a more informal feel to the event that allowed for more integration.

Noájida [ES]

Exito rotundo el conversatorio, pues se conversó, el que quizo habló, además hay tendencias muy marcadas que nos dan herramientas para asignar funciones. …En fin, es demasiado para un primer acercamiento, no importa cual sea el fin de cada bloguero, yo creo que lo importante es que cada uno lo alcance reconociendo al otro, a la diversidad, eso para mi es civilización.

Gracias a los organizadores, es un trabajo voluntario, que vale mucho.

The roundtable was a resounding success, since we chatted, and those that wanted to were able to speak. There were also very marked tendencies that give us tools to assign different tasks…Well, it's a lot for a first encounter, independently of each blogger's purpose in attending. I believe that the important thing is that each one recognizes the other, their diversity, and for me, that is civilization.

Thank you to the organizers for the worthwhile and voluntary work.

Patton

Pues por lo que leo fue un éxito, 40 personas para una convocatoria tan corta y para ser la primera … excelente. creo que te das mucho palo y te exiges demasiado. Ningún evento de bloggers al que haya ido ha tenido una parte “académica”, y tal vez en lo que pecaron fue en tratar de unir dos públicos distintos en un mismo espacio.

From what I can read, it was a success for attracting 40 people on such short notice and for being a first-time event… excellent. I think you are being a very tough critic and are demanding too much of yourself. No other blogger event that I've been to had an academic component, and maybe your only error was to try and unify two very distinct audiences in the same space.
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Arabeyes: The Middle East in Pictures This is a Photos post

a small portrait of this author Amira Al Hussaini · 15:22

Today's Middle East in Pictures tour takes us to Dubai's tranquil beaches, Doha at night, a picture of a flower in Bahrain, the blooming flower gardens of Syria this spring and finally on a Viagra buying spree in the bazaars of Fez, in Morocco.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates:

umm-suqeim-beach3.jpg

Who wouldn't die to be on this stretch of sand? I know I would love to but the weather in Dubai and the noise of construction machines pounding just a few minutes away will make me change my mind immediately. Been there, done that! And so has Seabee who brings us this week's images of lovely beaches in Dubai here.

Dubai only has about 40 kilometres of natural coastline. A lot of that is taken up by the city, Port Rashid, Jebel Ali Port, Dubai Dry Docks plus some which is private for the beach hotels and some for Sheikhs' beach villas.

But we still have maybe 15 kilometres or so of open public beach. The main stretch starts beside Burj Al Arab, our famous seven-star hotel, and runs back towards Dubai city, which is about 30 kilometres away.

Doha, Qatar:

In nearby Doha, the capital of Qatar, and home of Al Jazeera, Qatar Victor beings us this image of Doha at night.

The site Qatar Living has a lively panorama of lovely photographs from the oil-rich Gulf country here.

Bahrain:

flower.jpg

Moving on to Bahrain, blogger BuZain proudly announces that he has posted his first flickr picture here.

I just uploaded my first flickr photo taken with my new Nikon D80 digital SLR camera. This getting-into-photography thing is a long story and it is too late to tell it all so I'll let the juice for a separate post…I took like 400 pictures since I bought the D80 few days ago but this picture is the one I like most and I thought I'll share it with you all.


Syria:

From Syria, blogger Hovic presents us with more flowers in vibrant colours, which are blooming this spring. More pictures of Syria's flora are also found here.

The photography site, aptly called Syria Looks, also boasts stunning pictures of dead cities , which date back to the Byzantine era, and the Citadel of Aleppo.

Other photographs of those stunning sites are also available in Syria Winks here.

Fez, Morocco:

viagra.JPG

Our last stop this week is in Fez, in Morocco, where a traditional contortion of impotency drug - Viagara - is available over the counter.

“Now, you probably think that Viagra is not a usual item on a tourist's shopping list in the old Medina of Fez. Maybe right - however, when you go into a traditional medicine shop, you can be surprised,” notes The View.

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Morocco: The Week of Firsts 

a small portrait of this author Jillian York · 13:27
lingua → fr · zhs · zht

This week in the anglophone Moroccan blogosphere, much ado was about Rachida Dati, France's first North African Justice Minister, appointed on May 18. Dati is a 41-year-old lawyer whose father is Moroccan and her appointment is causing quite a stir - on the one hand, it demonstrates that minorities can make it in France, but as Liosliath says, “Ms. Dati’s parents wouldn’t even have been allowed to enter France under Sarkozy’s proposed immigration policies, and that’s just one of the reasons I find her so hypocritical. She’s pursued Sarkozy for years, begging to be part of his team - obviously morals are trumped by career ambition in her case.”

The View From Fez reported on the Moroccan reaction to Dati's appointment:

While many in France have applauded Rachida Dati's rise to power as French Justice Minister, the reaction of the Moroccans and many in the French community in Morocco has been muted. “She has no experience and is just there to look good,” said one cynical commentator.

Maghrebism first asked, “Why can’t an immigrant child share the same views as Sarkozy?” The blogger then argued for Dati, saying:

Rachida Dati, as an individual and immigrant-child, has all the right to agree with Sarkozy’s policies. And Sarkozy has all the right to appoint her, without being accused of looking for a posterboy(girl). Maybe he has the same reasons for appointing her as the leftist politicians. Because of her experience and abilities.
Somehow, immigrant and leftist groups find this hard to believe. Only they can claim to have the true immigrant-politicians. All the other ones are just poster boys/girls, traitors and weirdos.

This fetishism is ridiculous and restrictive. It’s time we start realizing that not all (second-generation) immigrants are the same. That we don’t share the same values even though we share the same background.

stuff-121.jpg

It turned out to be a week of firsts - after the news of Dati's appointment broke, another news story - rather, a newspaper came to light. Before this week, those wishing to read Moroccan news in English could choose between the state-run news website and a U.S.-backed site. With the release of The Casablanca Analyst, a new independent weekly, this is no longer the case. The View From Fez reported first, saying:

For only four Dirhams the reader is offered poetry, analysis, news, comment and a book review. Sections of the paper are devoted to Moroccan national news and comment, analysis of world affairs, opinion pages, culture, language and communications, literature and so on. It is a heady mix and certainly provides several hours of enjoyable reading and contemplation.

The Morocco Report also praised the newspaper, quoting from its pages and saying:

My students remarked that the editors are indeed quite ambitious, and I don’t disagree, but that kind of confidence is what they’ll need to succeed in a country where even the most popular newspapers only sell around 100,000 per issue (Morocco’s population is 31 million), and where few people speak or read English.

And yet, I’m impressed, because not only are the articles original, but the writers seem to remain true to their identities, claiming their perspectives as Muslims, humanists, pacifists, environmentalists, nationalists, seekers of truth, democrats, lovers of literature and the arts, militants for freedom and economists (not in that order).

And for one last exciting first, Cat in Rabat posted about what is probably Morocco's first wine outlet: “Its location on this particular street … in this particular neighbourhood of Agdal … in Rabat … in Morocco for that matter … was about as incongruous as a Carmelite nun at an Al Qaeda bootcamp in the foothills of Afghanistan, but there it was.”

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Bukavu on the Congolese-Rwandan border: A city at the crossroads of conflict 

a small portrait of this author Jennifer Brea · 09:50
lingua → fr

Kakaluigi, a foreign missionary who has lived in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for 35 years describes a feeling of apprehension about the future that overshadows Bukavu.

Bukavu is a city of survivors. During the First Congo War （1996-1997），Bukavu was caught in the middle of fighting between Tutsi government forces and the Hutu that fled to the regionafter the Rwandan genocide. Government and rebel forces clashed there during the Second Congo War (1998-2003). In 2004, the city fell to soldiers led by General Nkunda, a dissident pro-Tutsi Congolese general, and in just three days, some 16,000 women were raped.

Bukavu still faces insecurity and violence, including raids from FARDC soldiers and continued fighting in (Fr) North Kivu as recently as yesterday.

The presidential elections have yet to bring the peace and stability they promised. Kakaluigi wonders whose interests President Joseph Kabila really has in mind: those of Bukavu’s people or those of the Rwandan government.

(more…)

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Touring Libyan Blogs: Bloggers meet, traffic chaos, activism, corporal punishment at schools and more 

a small portrait of this author Fozia Mohamed · 07:56

In the last few weeks it looks like more bloggers met. This is developping into a real phenomenon. I think that Libyan bloggers are thirsty for like-minded individuals and Libyans especially and many are not camera shy any more and have posted their photos.

So this time it was the turn for Mani, AngloLibyan and A_Akak to meet and they had a jolly grand time. You can read about it on their respective blogs.

“Well today i was fortunate enough to meet another fellow blogger, A person i respect and regard very highly as his posts are usually close to his heart and the person behind the persona of Anglo is as good and pure as his blog [sic] ” [more]

” have found both Ahmed & mani very friendly and very down to earth very well educated young men, it was my pleasure to meet them both, I really enjoyed the 3 hours I spent with them and we talked about all sort of interesting things,[sic] ” [more]

Driving in Libya and getting home safe is the stuff of legends not because people can't drive but because people are careless and irresponsible . Aladdin's latest rant is about a guy who hit his car but ran away instead of facing his responsibility.

” Driving in Libya is a cemetery, or it's a war ALNASR AW ELSHAHADA (Victory or Martyrdom)!!! …[sic]”

No comment !

AngloLibyan, ever the leader in such topics is launching a campaign against the shameful public services provided in Libya.

“Tourists paying money to come and enjoy our country should at least expect a clean toilet, clean streets and clean beaches, these so far have proved to be very difficult to find in Libya. I am not sure what to do to raise the authorities and Libyan awareness regarding these problems but there is a policy of Name & Shame here in Britain which sometimes works so perhaps some of my fellow Libyans in Libya should take pictures and videos of the offenders and publish them in popular websites” .

Mani is doing just that ‘naming and shaming', another sector, a private tourism company and what he calls the ‘hit and run' mentality of making business.

“THIS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. IT WILL BE EXPOSED AND THESE PEOPLE SHOULD BE PENALISED.
we cannot have these amateurs thinking that the new progress our country and it's young people are making is a short lived opportunity, with no holds barred.. take-before-you break.. “

Beggars around the world or hustlers as I would rather call some of them seem to have given themselves the word to unite on one single idea: asking money to continue a travel journey. I've seen that recently in Libya. A woman/man would approach me and ask for a few dinars to take the bus of car back home, even to buy fuel for their vehicle. Usually I give them, but now reading Braveheart's experience in the UK I'm going to use his trick for weeding out the sincere from the liars.

“he: well i want to go Manchester and i have £11 and i need another£5 to buy the ticket.
now i knew what he want and i must take a decision, but the problem for me i feel this guy is liar, because in libya there are many people do the same in stations and they told you the same story.if i decide to give the £5 i might be stupid and he will take my money and tell himself how he is clever and how me is stupid, and if i dont give the money it might be he is true and he is in need for this money to go to his city and if i dont give him money i'll lose a chance to help one guy in problem, all this i thought about it in seconds and i must take decision.i decide to take the money which he has and buy the ticket by myself to him,if he is lair he will refuse and if he tell the truth he will agree […] i told him give me ur£11 to buy the ticket, which he start loooking right and left and told me my money with my friend i'll go to bring it to you, and went and never come back. “

We all remember our school days with fondness, but Libyan kids have additional memories, that of the ‘Falga' it is a typical corporal punishment usually effected by hitting with a stick on the palms of soles of the feet. Although hitting is prohibited by law it is still done. Honestly with the state of students here I would probably wish to tear gas them as some are so naughty, still this hitting is just too much. Libyano cannot forgive his teachers who gave him a falga and he has posted a photo of a poor kid getting one at a high school. Ouch that looks painful !

” I was only was 9 years when I had my first Falga , if you don't know what Falga is then I have a clip for you that explains it more than words do , why I had these Falgas ? , two Falgas because I was late , one because I hit another guy and the fourth was all the class Falga , it's the worst because we all laugh at each other and the teacher gets more excited to use his full energy , but yet I think Falga is much better than being hit on the hands because you get numb from the first hit on your feet and wont feel a thing after that .”

Libyan blogs have a rich harvest of posts and it would take too much space to highlight them all here, but if you want to read more I would recommend going to this website which has collected a large number of blogs. Happy reading!

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More than 140 dead in “peaceful Philippine elections” 

a small portrait of this author Mong Palatino · 04:52

Philippine police is claiming the midterm polls were peaceful since there were fewer deaths this year compared to the previous elections. But Kontra Daya, a citizen electoral watchdog, is challenging this verdict:

“Kontra Daya belies the claim of the Philippine National Police and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that the elections were generally peaceful and orderly. Such an assessment seems oblivious to the fact that the police themselves have tallied at least 143 election-related killings, since January 2007, in the run up to the elections. We suspect there to be more. We expect that the trend of violence will continue well into the canvassing stage of the elections.”

Aside from election-related killings, there were many instances of abduction, ballot-snatching, ballot-switching, harassment of pollwatchers and burning of a school-building. For many Filipinos, these horrid crimes may be not surprising anymore but foreign observers were shocked by these incidents.

Ellen Tordesillas links to an article which mentioned the remark made by a foreign observer about feeling more secure in Afghanistan than in southern Philippines. Inside PCIJ has a transcript of the report of foreign observers. The article notes the following:

“The 27 observers of the People’s International Observers’ Mission stated that the significant number of disenfranchised voters, vote-buying, deadly election-related violence, direct intimidation of the armed forces, the suspicious absence and abandonment of duties of Comelec officials, and the overt coercion by candidates of powerful political clans ran contrary to the Palace’s statement that Filipino voters cast their ballot, free of coercion and according to their own will.”

James Jimenez, spokesman of the Commission on Elections, does not agree with the observation:

“Let me point out that the Commission is not in a state of denial. Far from it. We have acknowledged repeatedly that we’ve had problems with violence, except that we insist on putting the problem in the proper context: that the levels of violence we’ve experienced so far are lower than those in previous polls. This does not make violence any more acceptable to us, naturally. As we’ve always said, even one incident is one incident too many.”

Like a rolling store blogs about the intervention of soldiers in the recent elections:

“One thing I noticed is that the military has been actively campaigning against militant partylist groups as confirmed by reports of incidents in Southern Luzon. This has not received too much media attention. In 2004, only a few generals were implicated in rigging the polls. Now, we are getting reports that the entire military is being mobilized to influence the outcome of the polls. Very disturbing indeed.”

Sumilang writes about the alleged harassment of young pollwatchers by soldiers. Our thoughts are free exposes how soldiers were told to campaign and vote for Administration bets. Himagsik Kayumanggi theorizes on the political violence engulfing the country:

“The inertia of tyranny at first seemed impervious to humanitarian blandishment. (President) Arroyo may shed crocodile tears, but her cabal of generals and security advisers don’t care and seem addicted to the opium of violence.”

Our Times and Bryanboy are disappointed with the elections. But Teacher Rowie remains an optimistic voters and in fact, “smells the winds of change.”

Pedestrian Observer reacts to the statement of a Comelec official claiming vindication for the scandal-ridden 2004 and 2007 elections:

“Now what’s up with these people so eager to absolve and fish out their credibility out of the toilet early in the game truly makes you wonder why they issue such crap. It is as if they are more concerned in covering their tracks than doing their duty as overseer of a clean, orderly, honest and credible election.”

Postcard headlines describes the election process in a province in southern Philippines:

“The highest bidder pays his/her way to victory. No one actually dares to contest such a result because that would mean challenging the local warlords, the military and the Comelec operators that are under their pockets.”

Rasheed’s World critiques Philippine elections:

“If the results are always going to be so massively rigged to begin with, why even bother to hold elections to begin with? The pretence of a democratic exercise will be exposed for what it is: A sham that serves only to keep a dictatorial Arroyo and her political cronies in power. The Philippines deserves better.”

Carol P. Araullo also made the same conclusion:

“The general picture emerging from the stories and the images that have so far dominated the tri-media and ordinary people’s accounts is that of a nightmarish elections and post-elections situation that has confirmed our worse fears. The farcical nature of the electoral process in this country has been laid bare, much worse than even our most dire predictions.”

The Guidon Blue Ballot asks students of their views on the high number of election-related crimes in the country.

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Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome 

a small portrait of this author Salam Adil · 01:31

This week blogs have covered a steadily deteriorating situation in Iraq. Things are not so much going from bad to worse, but from worse to appalingly worse. Also read about a visit to the Iraqi ID office and one blogger gets to answer readers' questions.

But first, my condolences go out to Aunt Najma and her family whose grandfather died after a long illness. Unfortunately, outside events turned funeral plans on their head. While the male mourners were at a mosque at one side of the city the female mourners were at Najma's house…

It was 7:30 when we started hearing very loud explosions. All the women moved to safer rooms in the house, and everyone started calling to see if their relatives are okay. Several explosions followed… a curfew [started] at 7:30.. Everybody got stuck.

We had 25 women sleeping at our house with no previous notice.. Almost everybody started laughing hysterically, grandma forgot all about her loss and got busy trying to figure out what to do…

The men hid their cars in houses in the neighbourhood, they divided themselves into three groups and slept at three or four houses, people in the neighbourhood were really hospitable…

Mosul is a mess now.. Many buildings are badly damaged as I saw on TV. Thank God everyone is safe.

If you read no other blog post this week read this one

Al Tarrar chronicles a city being torn apart by the troop surge that George Bush is promoting. And gives us another side to the story behind the headlines:

El Biya’a vicious confrontation between the government/invader forces and the Mujahdeen have marked a new turn in the battle for dominating Baghdad. The streets have never been as unreal as they are today. The minute the government forces pull away from an area and immediately heavy shooting commences. …

Haifa Street is relatively calmer due to the presence of unbelievable amount of military hardware. Yesterday BC counted more than 18 Hummers and two tanks swarming in an area of roughly 2 kilometers! And between them you could see children, grownups and cars…

As the curfew starts not a single sole is seen or else will be shot at by either the government/invaders or the Mujahdeen!

And as for life in Baghdad…

Prices are gone beyond believe. A taxi ride to certain areas could cost up 80 US Dollars per trip and you will be dropped off on a main road far from your destination. It is shear madness. Also, in our area we have been continuously without electricity for the past two weeks.

The other painful sight is the large number of stray animals. People say that dogs are eating dead bodies and consequently turning vicious!

How could anyone manage the war like that? The government/invaders running full capacity and yet they fail to deliver. Who was that freaking idiot behind increasing the hardware to that extent as a solution?

In other worlds:

Nabil neighbourhood was taken over by Al Qaeda and Nabil describes some of their activities against his neighbours. How one shop was burned because the owner wanted to take away his generator and another building was destroyed because the owner would not pay money to the local Al-Qaeda group.

He also reports how sectarian divisions are becoming more entrenched among the people around him.

Even in college, its funny but I have to mention it, we had couples from different cults who loved each other for two or three years, now
they broke up because one of them is shiite and the other is sunni. And when a guy loves a girl, he first ask whether she is shiite or sunni before he talks to her, and if she was from the other cult he would neglect his feelings.Those are really funny and sick minds at the same time

The Shaqawa breaks down the whole concept of sectarianism into simple terms that anyone can understand. He writes:

Think about this. What makes you more upset, if a random person in a far away place gets killed, or someone in your city gets killed, or if your cousin gets killed? … Sometimes you chose sectarianism to stay alive, but I guess you should be criticized for it…

I think only in Iraq it is automatically a bad word because people hate to see the Shi’a having power after the Shi’ite majority was oppressed for so long. Still, I think that sectarianism, if it means that you support your group against all others, and support your group in a way to harm others, then it is a crime and such people should be shown as criminals and condemned. It is a fine line, isn’t it? Never black and white and never good and bad!

Baghdad Treasure gives his respect to Americans for their effort to rescue their captured soldiers and wanders about the 9 Iraqi soldiers that were captured and executed by al-Qaeda militants. “I was thinking why didn’t the Iraqi government offered to help or drain a canal to find the missing Iraqi soldiers? Are their souls that cheap?” he asks.

Going to renew your ID card is something that most people dread. And Marshmallow26 dreads it more than most. It was seven years since she last had to go to renew her ID.

The only thing that stayed the same is “dealings” and to be exact “citizens mistreatment”…

to me, it has been 7 years I haven't stopped by that street, it was a shock…what is going on? Lots of T-walls, garbage, miserable faces and torn mentality…they divided the narrow hallway to two tighter hallways one for men and the other for women, now we have to get in rows waiting on our turn to get in…not to mention standing in the middle of different types of people with strong stink, damn it.
Thank goodness I was having my sunglasses with me

And finally…

Sunshine is on holiday from school and has time to answer some readers' questions…

- How do you feel about the US presence ?

people ask me that question a lot ..
well , scared , worried, confused, I don’t trust them , because they killed our eldest uncle as I mentioned before , as well as many innocents. But there are absolutely good soldiers like those I met in the airport ,but in the first year of the invasion , I used to feel safe when they were around , but now , I try to be as far as possible . my feelings changed , because they are not the same soldiers who freed us. … We see each other in the markets , they used to salute us , but now , we drive as hurry as we can if we see them coming , we try to avoid them , because if a mine exploded they shoot randomly .. we don’t feel safe, neither them because of the terrorists who ruin our lives ..

- I am curious to know more about your faith - the holidays you observe and what they mean. and the traditions you have around marriage. My biggest question for you is about heaven. What is heaven to you? How does a person get there? Do you believe these good deeds earn your way into heaven? Is there a book that you would recommend to give us a true understanding of the basics of your faith?

Well , we celebrate 4 feasts , one last for 3 days it comes after the fasting month “Ramadan” , the other feast when people go to Mecca and it last for 4 days , our prophet's birthday ,as well as the Islamic new year (the memory when our prophet left Mecca to Al -madeena ). About heaven, people go there if they do the right things , like if they don't lie , don't cheat , don't kill , don't humbug, love each other , etc .
And yes, I believe these good deeds earn the way into heaven, I would recommend the holy Quran , if you want to know more about Islam , it is like the bible , because they are from the same god. About marriages I wrote a post about that .

- Many people ask me if we have arranged marriages , NOOOOOOOOOO we don’t have arranged marriages ,it breaks my heart what people in the west think like that about us.

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France's New “Ministry of Nationalism and Expulsion” 

a small portrait of this author Jennifer Brea · 00:02
lingua → es

Francophone blogger Et Si Nous Parlions has no love for French president Nicolas Sarkozy's new Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity, and Co-Development. He prefers to call it the “Ministry of Nationalism and Expulsion” (Fr).

The ministry's title suggests its broad-reaching ambitions. French human rights groups have criticized the ministry's xenophobic potential and eight historians of immigration said that it “it is not the role of a democratic state to define identity.”

(more…)

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