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Iraq: BlogIraq is Dead

Salam Adil · 23:17, May 17th, 2008 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → fr

I am sad to report the death of Ahmed the writer of the blog BlogIraq who was murdered in the Al-Mansour district of Baghdad. May he rest in peace. Iraqi bloggers are a close-knit community and we mourn the death of fellow bloggers as if it is from our own family. There is not one family in Iraq that has been untouched by the violence that gripped our country and Iraqi bloggers are no different. His friend, Mohammed Alani, who helped set up the blog, wrote on BlogIraq:

Ahmed (BlogIraq) is dead. He was killed in Baghdad on April 11th, 2008… He had an appointment that day with a guy he knew. This guy was supposed to get him some documents that prove corruption in some USAID office back in Baghdad. I don't have complete details about it. Anyway, he and the guy bringing the documents were killed at their meeting place in Mansour district in Baghdad…

His brother in-law found him dead with his friend in Mansour district in one of the small streets there. Thank God his body was found, unlike many of our friends who were killed or just vanished without a trace.

When I first setup this blog for him, he gave me the admin password of his blog and I gave him the password of mine. We agreed that whoever dies first, the other should write about it in his blog. Its just my bad luck that he died first. I can only think of his 20 months old daughter. Shes about the same age as my daughter, Aya.

May God take revenge of those who killed him and orphaned his lovely daughter.

Abbas Hawazin adds: “I am feeling so much anger boiling, I tried to cry but I couldn't.”

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

The media is increasingly making noises about how the modern world is creating a new environmental crisis. Yet scant attention is being paid to the environmental disaster that is befalling iraq as a result of five years of war. Last of Iraqis takes a look at all aspects of the crisis:

year after year it's getting hotter, I remember before the war and two years after it when I used to sit in my room the fan was enough…

but in 2007… I remember when I got back to my house and opened the door, I swear to god it was like opening a door to hell although the house was left for only 36 hours without air cooling! … one can feel that the weather got crazy here, this year we were punished by the several sand storms and the swinging temperatures…

Deterioration in agriculture was the reason behind the climate change as I think; people say that what used to be farms became a desert now in the south middle and west of Iraq and that's one of the main reasons behind the sand storms that we suffer from now because there are no trees and plants to hold the sand storms, Iraq is suffering and it's transforming, I know people are dying in Iraq and they can't be even counted but what will we inherit our children even if the situation improved and Iraq became free again and everything is settle? What will we inherit them? A destroyed land? A desert? a community filled with hatred?

Waiting for the war to come in Mosul

Empty streets in Mosul
by Mosul is in Heart

The Iraqi president, Nouri Al-Maliki has made a big noise about reclaiming the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Like the massive Basra offensive he moved to Mosul to personally direct the army. Iraqi bloggers give their impressions of a city about to be at war.

Najma is bored of being locked up at home because of endless curfews:

Hatred, such a strong unhealthy feeling.. but I just can't help but hate it here.. I hate it, I hate it, I HATE IT.. I want to shout it at the top of my lungs so everybody can know that I just can't stand it here.

The curfew that started at 9 PM last Friday was only temporarily stopped at 6 AM today and is going to start again at 6 PM until further notice.

And Sunshine writes about life in the war zone:

Everyone knows the new operation may starts in every sec , and the curfew may last for few weeks probably, so my dad bought every thing we need, rice , flour, eggs, cheese ,oil, meat , vegetables , fruit, etc. but there are many families can’t buy all those stuff , and live day by day, so when the national guards allowed the citizens to walk , many people started to do shopping, but this time, the prices were doubled or got higher 30-50% ..It breaks my heart to see my people living under hard circumstances, there are many issues need to be solved, like economy for example, and many other things, but who cares ?!!…

On the third day … a fight started in far away neighborhood, dad immediately harried to carry Yosif inside , as soon as he carried Yosif a bullet hit the pavement where Yosif was standing !! I am so thankful it didn’t hit Yosif ..

The situation today is not good, we heard many explosions and shooting.. and there were sounds of helicopters since the early morning, as well as many tanks

She concludes:

I really hope Mosul will be free of terrorists, I don’t mind spending 3 months stuck in the house, if there’ll be a happy end, we want to live in peace, we are tired of the continues fights, kidnapping, and killing. all Iraqis want their lives back, I want to go back to my room and sleep there, and I am eager to the day we’ll fix our house and be aware it won’t be damaged, whenever I look at our walls or my closet and see the bullets and shrapnel, my heart breaks, each damaged corner in the house has a painful story ..

I want to be able to walk freely in the streets without being afraid of terrorists, many times I wonder, god created us all equally, and gave us mind to think , and feelings to sense, everyone like children because they are so innocents, why some of those children grew up and became evils ? why people fight each other ? I can’t understand that, why someone wake up in the morning and his attention is to kill ? I can’t understand the reason that motivate people to kill, sometimes they kill because of nationality!, religion!, race, some times I wish everyone can remain a child to keep the innocence!

And finally

Given the - for want of a better word - unique experiment of democracy in Iraq, where does the young intelligent Iraqi look to for a role model in a world leader? Marshmallow26 tells us:

I was watching on TV with dad of course… Any way Dad was pointing at Medvedev, I said dad is that the new Russian president?

Yes daughter. Dad said

Wow he looks hot!! haha I mean he is really cute and young and above all he is taking the responsibility of leading his country…

As he took the oath he stated:

I believe my most important aims will be to protect civil and economic freedoms; We must fight for a true respect of the law and overcome legal nihilism, which seriously hampers modern development.

Waw “to protect civilians”!! that is a very important thing, now days in Iraq we miss hearing this phrase from our leaders, as a matter of fact there is a conflict amongst them which is about how to get rid of civilians and fight them to death!!…

I hope there will be rightfulness in our next elections, I hope that Iraq finds and elects the honest person who cares about his people and his country first.

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Serbia: International Day Against Homophobia

Sinisa Boljanovic · 13:16 · Eastern & Central Europe

lingua → mk · sq · es · bn · pt

On the International Day Against Homophobia, marked on May 17, a Serbian lesbian human rights organization Labris has issued a statement.

Jasmina Tesanovic, a Serbian political activist and writer, re-posted the text of the statement on her B92 blog. Below is the translation from Serbian:

[Serbian Medical Association]: Homosexuality is not an illness.

Homosexuality is not an illness, according to the Serbian Medical Association's response to a request from Labris to check the official conclusion of the [World Health Organization, (WHO)].

On May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia - and as part of the “Are you a Homophobe?” initiative - Labris has turned again to SMA, the Serbian Medical Chamber and the future health minister. Labris expects the new minister to immediately declare that homosexuality is not an illness. Labris also expects the adoption of an ethics code about sexual orientation by the Serbian Medical Chamber, to help prevent discrimination against persons in need of medical care.

We remember that Labris - the organization for lesbian human rights - has been persistently trying this year to get numerous institutions, including the ministry of health, to issue a statement of agreement with WHO. One of the relevant domestic institutions - SMA - has expressed agreement with WHO. In this way, Labris wants to support other associations to join us in action of stamping out prejudices. May 17 is the day of promotion of lesbian and gay rights, because on this day in 1990 WHO officially took homosexuality off the list of mental illnesses.

Dragana Vuckovic

Labris - organization for lesbian human rights
Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
E-mail: lobi@labris.org.yu
Tel: + 381 11 334 1855, + 381 11 334 7401
E-mail: labris@labris.org.yu
Tel/fax: + 381 11 3225 065
Mob: +381 63 8 513 170
Web: www.labris.org.yu

Dawngreeter comments:

I am glad because of their step, but I am sure that they will be attacked from different sides. I think that it is very courageous to publish this statement, especially when it is unknown who will hold a stick in his hands [following the May 11 election, the new government is yet to be formed].

Drago Kovacevic replies to Dawngreeter's comment:

The attacks won't be too powerful. Everyone is afraid of doctors, because everyone has to deal with them one day.

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Japan: Bloggers criticize Greenpeace over whale-meat theft

Chris Salzberg · 06:03 · East Asia

lingua → bn · zht · zhs

The reputation of Greenpeace Japan appears to have dropped a few notches this week, with news that the organization, in order to expose the theft of whale meat by crew members of a whaling research ship, itself stole meat to use as evidence of the crime. In order to seize packages of whale meat, members of Greenpeace Japan admitted to having entered a delivery company's distribution center in Tokyo on April 15th without permission. In total Greenpeace found 23.5 kilograms of whale meat, worth 100,000 to 300,000 yen (or roughly $1000-$3000 USD), smuggled by 12 crewmembers of Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, Ltd.

News broadcast about the Greenpeace whale-meat revelation on May 15th

The claim by a lawyer representing Greenpeace that: “The group's acts [such as trespassing] weren't illegal because they were attempting to uncover alleged theft” did not go over well with bloggers, however, who questioned the double-standard of committing a crime to expose another crime.

Blogger Kiyotani writes:

捕鯨関係者の脇も甘かったわけですが、このような行為が法治国家で許されるわけはありません。
そのような主張が通るのであれば我々はグリーンピースやその顧問弁護士の犯罪を暴くためには事務所に押し入って書類を押収したり、グリーンピースのメンバーや弁護士を拉致監禁して、自白を強要することも「合法」ということになります。
　今回の騒動ではグリーンピースが環境テロリストかつ犯罪集団であることが明らかになったわけです。当局は破防法をこの団体に適用すべきです。極左暴力集団やオウム真理教と大同小異です。

The whaling authorities were also pretty lax, but this kind of action [by Greenpeace] cannot be allowed in a law-abiding nation.
If this kind of claim is allowed to pass, then it follows that it would be “legal”, in order to expose the crimes of Greenpeace and their legal advisors, to break into their offices, take Greenpeace members and their lawyers captive, and force them to confess.
In the noise surrounding this case, it has become clear that Greenpeace are ecological terrorists, a criminal group. The authorities should apply the Anti-Subversive Authorities Act to this organization. It is essentially the same as violent ultra-left groups or the Aum Shinrikyou religious group.

Blogger gootdk, meanwhile, reads the Wikipedia entry on Japanese research whaling and quotes these lines:

「捕獲調査の副産物は有効利用が条約で義務付けられている」
「一般販売のほか学校給食などの公益事業に供され、その収入は調査捕鯨の費用に充てられている」

“There is an obligation in treaties to make effective use of byproducts from research whaling”
“Apart from general sales, [such byproducts] are furnished for public operations such as in school lunches and so on, and the revenue from this is set aside for expenses of research whaling”

The blogger goes on to note that 10kg or 20kg of whale meat is more than one would need for family use. Still, the position of Greenpeace is not convincing:

だからといって、グリーンピース・ジャパンの行為が許される訳ではありません。
明らかに犯罪です。
少なくとも、この運送会社の信頼を低下させました。
両者とも、法の下間違いのないように処断されることを望みます。

But just because this is so, does not mean that the actions of Greenpeace Japan should be tolerated.
Obviously this is a crime.
At the very least, they have degraded trust in this shipping company.
I hope that both parties are judged so as to prevent mistakes of the law.

Blogger Hamayatti meanwhile agrees with the position of Greenpeace, but not with their strategy:

「グリーンピース」の主張について賛同できる面もある。しかし、捕鯨の違法性を訴えながら、自分たちが盗人をしているようなやり方では説得力もなかろう。違法は違法として処罰されるのを覚悟しての主張こそ、その決意が分かろうというもの。摘発のためだから違法ではないと主張するのは、大義のための戦争と変わりはしない。

There are aspects of the claims by Greenpeace that I agree with. However, to make appeals about the illegality of whale fishing, while at the same time themselves committing an act of robbery, I am not persuaded by this way of doing things. The claim that they were prepared for their crimes to be punished as crimes, this intention is understood. To insist that because the goal is to expose something it is not illegal, there is no difference between this and war [waged] in the name of a cause.

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