xer-files
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Myanmar [Burma]
So. An Italian journalist managed to get into Burma.
It's the journalist who has been reporting from Afghanistan too. And then got kidnapped. March last year. Then he was liberated, but his interpreter did not survive it.
The journalist is Daniele Mastrogiacomo
His reports in Italian daily La Repubblica were published between the 4th and 10th of May.
And there's Global Voices, they've put video material together, from Burma.
It's the journalist who has been reporting from Afghanistan too. And then got kidnapped. March last year. Then he was liberated, but his interpreter did not survive it.
The journalist is Daniele Mastrogiacomo
His reports in Italian daily La Repubblica were published between the 4th and 10th of May.
And there's Global Voices, they've put video material together, from Burma.
Labels: Afghanistan, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, Italy, Myanmar [Burma]
¶ Saturday, May 17, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Non non rien n'a changez...
Labels: '70s, nostalgia, Poppys
¶ Tuesday, May 06, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, March 31, 2008
Mapping the election conditions in Zimbabwe
SOKWANELE
-- Explore the map and then consider whether elections held in this context can ever be considered 'free and fair'. Information on how to use the map, the map data limitations, and the background to how we mapped the data is provided below the map. Please visit our Zimbabwe Election Watch section, and explore our database for a comprehensive look at the many ways the articles listed in the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections have been breached by the Zimbabwean government. -- [link]
¶ Monday, March 31, 2008 0 Comments
Links to this post
-- Explore the map and then consider whether elections held in this context can ever be considered 'free and fair'. Information on how to use the map, the map data limitations, and the background to how we mapped the data is provided below the map. Please visit our Zimbabwe Election Watch section, and explore our database for a comprehensive look at the many ways the articles listed in the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections have been breached by the Zimbabwean government. -- [link]
 | Voter Registration |  | Food Supply |  | Abduction |
 | Murder |  | Political Cleansing |  | Political Violence |
 | Press Freedom |  | Unlawful Detention |  | Looting |
 | Freedom of Association |  | Freedom of Information |  | State Propaganda |
| |
 | Vote Buying |  | Gerrymandering |  | Voters Roll |
 | Observer Restrictions |  | Polling Issues |  | Judicial Issues |
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Not only morally just but tactically smart
The Huffington Post
Obama, Being Called a Muslim Is Not a Smear
by Naomi Klein
-- Hillary Clinton denied leaking the photo of Barack Obama wearing a turban, but her campaign manager says that even if she had, it would be no big deal. "Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely."
Sure, she did. And George W. Bush put on a fetching Chamato poncho in Santiago, while Paul Wolfowitz burned up YouTube with his antimalarial African dance routines when he was World Bank prez. The obvious difference is this: when white politicians go ethnic, they just look funny. When a black presidential contender does it, he looks foreign. And when the ethnic apparel in question is vaguely reminiscent of the clothing worn by Iraqi and Afghan fighters (at least to many Fox viewers, who think any headdress other than a baseball cap is a declaration of war on America), the image is downright frightening.
The turban "scandal" is all part of what is being referred to as "the Muslim smear." -- /snap/ [link] ¶ Wednesday, March 12, 2008 1 Comments Links to this post
Obama, Being Called a Muslim Is Not a Smear
by Naomi Klein
-- Hillary Clinton denied leaking the photo of Barack Obama wearing a turban, but her campaign manager says that even if she had, it would be no big deal. "Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely."
Sure, she did. And George W. Bush put on a fetching Chamato poncho in Santiago, while Paul Wolfowitz burned up YouTube with his antimalarial African dance routines when he was World Bank prez. The obvious difference is this: when white politicians go ethnic, they just look funny. When a black presidential contender does it, he looks foreign. And when the ethnic apparel in question is vaguely reminiscent of the clothing worn by Iraqi and Afghan fighters (at least to many Fox viewers, who think any headdress other than a baseball cap is a declaration of war on America), the image is downright frightening.
The turban "scandal" is all part of what is being referred to as "the Muslim smear." -- /snap/ [link] ¶ Wednesday, March 12, 2008 1 Comments Links to this post
Monday, March 03, 2008
Paki Quake Perceptions
AlertNet
The relief effort following the Pakistan earthquake in 2005 - which saw the unlikely spectacle of U.S. forces distributing aid alongside Islamic militant groups - has been touted as the most effective response ever to a natural disaster on this scale.
The complex operation is examined in a new report the Boston-based Feinstein International Center, which asks what impact the war on terror had on aid operations.
The quake killed approximately 75,000 people, injured 70,000 more and left an estimated 3.5 million homeless in the north of Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in its "war on terror". [link]
AlertNetThe relief effort following the Pakistan earthquake in 2005 - which saw the unlikely spectacle of U.S. forces distributing aid alongside Islamic militant groups - has been touted as the most effective response ever to a natural disaster on this scale.
The complex operation is examined in a new report the Boston-based Feinstein International Center, which asks what impact the war on terror had on aid operations.
The quake killed approximately 75,000 people, injured 70,000 more and left an estimated 3.5 million homeless in the north of Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in its "war on terror". [link]
Labels: 'war on terror', Pakistan Earthquake 05
¶ Monday, March 03, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, February 29, 2008
Henry Okah: a superempowered individual in warfare
Global Guerrillas
-- Henry Okah is likely someone you have never heard about. Despite that, he is one of the most important people alive today, a true innovator in warfare: a global guerrilla.
Henry is a burly man who speaks with a cultured British accent, a consequence of his upper class upbringing and his education in Nigeria's private school system. His mind is an interesting combination of the discipline of engineering, gained through his experience as an engineer in Nigeria's merchant marine, and the believability of an arms salesman that once used worries about personal safety to sell handguns to private citizens. In short, it is a combination of attributes that made him the perfect guerrilla entrepreneur. [..]
Nigeria is a mess, due to the combination of legions of legendarily corrupt politicians, buckets of oil money, and vast pools of neglected citizens. The Niger Delta, the wellspring of Nigeria's oil wealth, is particularly messy. It's where people, abandoned by their government, are living at a minimal subsistence level just outside the fences of the major oil company compounds, which sport European levels of convenience and lifestyle for their expatriate employees. As a result, it's little wonder that the Delta's political environment is a swirling maelstrom of actors -- from tribal chiefs to military commanders to gangs (aka "cults" in the local parlance of the Delta) to local/national politicians -- all competing for a share of the Delta's abundant oil wealth. Here how Henry was able to leverage this environment: -- /snap/ [link]
-- Henry Okah is likely someone you have never heard about. Despite that, he is one of the most important people alive today, a true innovator in warfare: a global guerrilla.
Henry is a burly man who speaks with a cultured British accent, a consequence of his upper class upbringing and his education in Nigeria's private school system. His mind is an interesting combination of the discipline of engineering, gained through his experience as an engineer in Nigeria's merchant marine, and the believability of an arms salesman that once used worries about personal safety to sell handguns to private citizens. In short, it is a combination of attributes that made him the perfect guerrilla entrepreneur. [..]
Nigeria is a mess, due to the combination of legions of legendarily corrupt politicians, buckets of oil money, and vast pools of neglected citizens. The Niger Delta, the wellspring of Nigeria's oil wealth, is particularly messy. It's where people, abandoned by their government, are living at a minimal subsistence level just outside the fences of the major oil company compounds, which sport European levels of convenience and lifestyle for their expatriate employees. As a result, it's little wonder that the Delta's political environment is a swirling maelstrom of actors -- from tribal chiefs to military commanders to gangs (aka "cults" in the local parlance of the Delta) to local/national politicians -- all competing for a share of the Delta's abundant oil wealth. Here how Henry was able to leverage this environment: -- /snap/ [link]
Labels: arms sales, Nigeria, oil, warfare
¶ Friday, February 29, 2008 1 Comments Links to this post
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Unfiltered Cartoon contamination: No waste: Scampìa
Searching for Napoletan music, i found more:
¶ Saturday, February 16, 2008 1 Comments Links to this post
¶ Saturday, February 16, 2008 1 Comments Links to this post
