Archive for
November 15th, 2005
Stories
Iranian Blogs: Association of Moslem Bloggers, 20 million dollary Revloutionary Guard and Solidarity with Feminist Tribune
A new association for Iranian bloggers came into existence: Association of Moslem Bloggers ( Link in Persian).
Before this new association, a few other ones have become active such as Penlog which tries to protect freedom of expression and has about 200 members.
But what is the goal of this new association? According to Pasdar ( means guard ) link in Persian, a blogger who presents himself as somebody in love with revolutionary guards, this association is an answer to secular bloggers & blogs. All members of association must be faithful Moslems to Islamic Republic and Iranian theocracy. One thing is clear that some bloggers try to organize themselves in groups based on their ideology. Pasdar says:
“We consider country as ours and we are proud of it.”
Many bloggers talked about Ahmadinejad’s candidate for Ministry of oil. Mr. Mahsouli, a former revolutionary guard, declared his wealth is more than 20 million dollars. Paiz link in Persian, a Nederlands based blogger, says nobody in Iranian Parliament asked him how he got all this money in a real short period. FMSokhan link in Persian, an Iranian blogger and journalist, published photos of Mr.Mahsouli’s house and says look at satellite dishes on his roof. Whatever is forbidden for us it is permitted for some… After pressure of some deputies Ahmadinejad dropped his candidacy.
Several blogs appeared at 11 November in the name of Iranian Feminist Tribune link in Persian which was filtered about one week ago. More than twenty blogs participated in this solidarity action such as Sarzamine aftab.
On the Menu: Food Blogs from Southeast Asia!
‘Sentral biryani handover' by David Hagerman
Take one former graphic designer, a retired corporate banking and management consultant, a civil servant, a teacher, an amateur photographer, an academic and a freelance journalist. Add generous dollops of blogging software, several digital cameras, a sprinkling of enthusiastic assistants/partners and a few web-hosting accounts. Stir them together and you get some of the best writing about Southeast Asian food this side of the printed page.
Food blogs have always been a popular blogging genre, one that was for a long time characterized by foodlovers reviewing restaurants, recording recipes or reporting their obsessions with certain foods, such as cupcakes or “crazy Asian drinks.” But the genre has since those fizzy days aged, matured and acquired complexity and depth. Now there are food bloggers who go beyond recipe records and reviews to inquiring into ingredients, interacting with cooks and discovering the stories and cultures behind the dishes. In Southeast Asia, many food bloggers can be found outside of the kitchen and out in the street: sampling food at the roadside stalls, wandering carts or wet market counters from which most ordinary Southeast Asians draw their daily sustenance.
Here is a taste of some of the Web-only delicacies cooked up from our region:
Voices From Zimbabwe Plus
Zimbabwe:This is Zimbabwe in Surviving Zimbabwean Democracy presents a summary of the major arguments for and against the MDC's participation in the senate elections which a are now under two weeks away. Disturbed by the failure of many pundits to decipher just how mundane and cruel implications of an election bode for lay Zimbabweans, he cautions not to,
“forget that when Zimbabweans are asked by political parties to turn out and vote, they are in effect being asked to deal with intimidation, violence and with the likelihood that they and their children - I emphasise, their children - will be deprived of food if the area votes against zanu-pf. To be fair to the people of Zimbabwe, any arguments for or against electoral participation have to engage with their grassroots reality.”
On the subject of senate elections, FirePussy takes aim at the MDC ,
“the Senate Elections notwithstanding, there has been a Big Bold Sign flashing for the last couple of years:MDC Change Your Tactics.”
And Zimpundit seems sure that Morgan Tsvangirai's days at the helm of the MDC are over,
“Tsvangirai emerged not as the benovelent savior Zimbabweans had begun to look to him as, but as just another victim of that dreadful pandemic that has claimed hindered the continent's prosperity and progress: a dictator, another tyrant in the making.He had started to build himself a kingdom, an untouchable kingdom just like Robert Mugabe has succeed in doing. And just like Mugabe, he has been trying albeit unsuccesfully to squash any dissent to his views. Fortunately for Zimbabweans, his closest associates saw this and denied him that opportunity.”
This is Zimbabwe also discusses the fisicious diplomatic row raised by Harare after Christopher Dell, the US ambassador, critized the Mugabe regime in a speech.
Mark of Paradise Lost interviews Sizwe a young Zimbabwean immigrant in South Africa and Gary Cross a pastor at a church in Harare which is faced with a crisis as retirement benefits have long since fallen behind inflation.
Burundi: Agathon Rwasa is mad at the UN for promising action and then backing away allowing more innocent civilians to be killed in Burundi,
“By making threats back in 2004 and then not following through with those threats, the UN was inviting the FNL to carry out further atrocities. By encouraging the FNL to think that they were immune, and that they could extract further concessions by killing more people, the UN helped to cause the August 13th 2004 Gatumba massacre.This is a matter of life or death. Unless the UN a) applies sanctions to the FNL or b) shuts up now, their empty threats will help to cause another massacre, possibly one even worse than Gatumba.”
He is also reporting that Tanzania's retiring president, Benjamin Mkapa is encouraging his followers halt FNL activity from Tanzania.
Finally, Agathon Rwasa announces a new blog, Memoire Vigilante
DRC: Congogirl reports that a Belgian priest, the first foreigner charged in relation to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda will be allowed to go face trial in his home country. Father Guy Theunis edited a publication that republished extract from a Hutu magazine.
MalawiBlogger Geeta shares her thoughts on joint programming in Malawi.
Preventing another African war – Blog reviews on the Ethiopian-Eritrean dispute
As seven African leaders met in the Nigerian capital of Abuja over the weekend to discuss ways of moving their continent forward, Ethiopia and Eritrea had troops amassed on their borders. Amongst the leaders meeting at Abuja was the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. An Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict is something to be dreaded. Both countries fought a bitter war over a border dispute from 1998 to 2000 in which tens of thousands of lives were lost. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) and United Nations mediated and a peace agreement was signed on 12 December 2002 in Algiers, six months after a ceasefire was agreed. An Ethiopian-Eritrean Boundary Commission was set up and its recommendation was accepted and made binding by the United Nations Security Council on 13 April 2002.
The general perception in the blogosphere on the reasons why Ethiopia may want to go to war with Eritrea appears to be one of skepticism. Ethiopundit, for instance makes it clear that there can be “absolutely no justification for another single drop of blood, sweat or tears to be shed or wasted by anyone in any possible disagreement the two may yet have.” It sees the war as a farce on both sides. The Eritrean government, it says, needs Western attention “because it is going broke and facing rising internal opposition.” The Ethiopian government on the other hand would like to divert Western attention from the collapse of the pretense of democracy (a reference to the Ethiopian elections held in May 2005, the fairness of which was hotly disputed by the opposition).
Greg's Africa Thoughts, the blog of Greg Fischer, a Christian missionary based in Entebbe, Uganda also speaks about the Ethiopian-Eritrean dispute. He states:
“I make several trips each year into the region where Ethiopia and Eritrea share a common border. Many times from my hotel room I have heard the distant ‘boom-boom’ of heavy artillery fire. The airport is often the scene of jet fighters roaring off to Eritrea.”
Greg Fisher also appears deeply concerned about the persecution of evangelical Christians by the Eritrean government.
African Bullets and Honey, in an article authored by Akinyi Arunga who was recently in Addis Ababa tells about
“…a young women whose brother was arrested [for joining in street protests against the ruling government], feared that his punishment might be getting forced to the frontline should war between Ethiopia and Eritrea break out as is seeming[ly] more likely by the day. She told me that her mother was in tears daily, dreading the worst for her child…”
On most Ethiopian blogs I came across in the blogosphere, the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi appeared to have no support. The mainstream media also continues to follow the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict closely. For now, we should hope that the voice of reason prevails and that the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea are able to resolve their disputes peacefully, adhering to United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Links for Tue, 2005-11
Gil Schmidt digs into the U.S. Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract of the United States 2004-2005 and finds some “sobering statistics” related to how Puerto Rico compares to other U.S. territories like Guam and the Virgin Islands.
Rami Abdelrahman wonders, after Amman was bombed, that did not only show how vulnerable we are, but also how we need to get many things straight. Why do we stick our noses in our neighbours businesses? why do we have to take millions from the US, and probably as much from other countries to keep doing that, while it doesn't reflect anything on the average Jordanian's life? Was it only for the people not to say anything regards their opinion about our “foreign policy”? Why do we have to take fight for “moderate” islam against those fanatics who bombed our capital? What about poverty, corruption, underdevelopment in rural, civil and badia areas? How can you be interdependent if you are dependent?
Akiva says: “For the past 2 weeks, a woman in the U.S. has been trying to pin down rumors that the government of Israel is selling off parts of Mount Zion, specifically the area of David HaMelek's (King David's) tomb and the location of the Diaspora Yeshiva (Jewish religious school) in Jerusalem to the Vatican. Vatican Press says it's happening, Israeli government spokespersons alternately say no, yes, maybe, never, could be, and “we can do whatever we want without telling anyone“…
Omar says: “Math wasn’t my favorite class in school but I do remember one thing for sure that is inorder to solve any equation it has to contain a number of variables and constants and the values of the constants will help find those of the variables leading to the final solution. Elections in Iraq can be considered an equation and the above applies to it more or less.“
Grandiose Parlour sees the “handiwork of the Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo in the recent attempt of some African head of states to form a closer political union”. However he feels the “actors are mediocre and the timing is off”.
Sokwanele - This is Zimbabwe has an action alert in respect of the ” arbitrary detention of Mrs. Netsai Mushonga the Coordinator of the Women’s Coalition, an umbrella body of women’s rights groups in Zimbabwe.”
Coalition for Darfur is reporting on the possibility of a catastrophic health crisis looming in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
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