Archive for
July 5th, 2006
Stories
Kurdistance:
Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today's post is going to be short for two reasons: one, I am currently taking an intensive Arabic class this summer and transitioning back to English today is proving to be much more difficult than I first imagined and two, I just fell up the concrete steps to my house and the soreness is quite distracting. So here we go on this week's edition of the Kurdish Blogosphere train-ride o'fun!
Hiwa from Hiwa Hopes wishes South Kurdistan a Happy Birthday this week:
I am not talking about an anniversary, I mean it, happy birthday southern Kurdistan including myself!
Those of us who did not have literate parents and their dad was scared of being sent to military service very soon were not registered when we were born untill we were three or four years old and then registered younger or older and were given 1st of July as the date!
so on 1st of July almost one third of the pre 80s generation celebrate their birthday and I am one of them!
so if you see anyone these days from Iraqi kurdistan (southern Kurdistan) they might be one of us! my readers might have people who have their birthday as today! if so HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
On the subject of birthdays, Mizgin from Rasti has a message to the US in honor of it's birthday:
If, through their foreign policy, the American people stood defiant against other, massive injustices–regardless of special interests–the entire world would be a much better place.
Americans are not a perfect people and America is not a perfect democracy. However, America is far closer to realizing the universal ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as those ideals are expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, than certain other countries, countries that wear a mask of democracy in order to conceal a heart of fascism.
Kurdish Aspect urges you to spend some spare time watching the documentary “Remembering Saddam's Victims” available online. An Iraqi's Thoughts expresses hope after seeing a Q and A session with some of Iraq's new ministers. Free Kurdistan talks about the re-occuring cycle of violence in Northern Kurdistan/Southeast Turkey. And Save RojTv is still continuing their fight to save their TV station.
That's all for our coverage this week….as for me, its back to my verb charts. Ma' salaama!
Fresh Ideas, New Option, Global Vision: The Brunei Times
A second newspaper, called The Brunei Times has finally been launched on Friday, 30th June, 2006, and debuted the next day, with a motto of “Fresh ideas, New options and Global vision”.
The launch marks the end of Borneo Bulletin's long time monopoly being the sole English newspaper and months of vague rumours and speculations in the blogosphere. For example, the following extract is written earlier in May where Naz from Absolute Nothingness had said:
“A new website has popped up from out of nowhere: BruneiTimesOnline. Don’t be fooled by the name, it doesn’t seem to be the official site of the upcoming English-language newspaper..”
Rano had witnessed the official launching of the newspaper and recorded the moment on his blog, RA.com.
The launching happened this morning at The Mall where all the Board of Directors were present as well as invited guests. The Minister of Home Affairs officiated the opening and he gave a brief speech.
He had adopted a heavilly positive attitude towards the newspaper, saying:
Brunei Times is a totally new concept, similar to Strait Times in terms of layout and it looked more professional and lesser of a tabloid. With a strong team and a powerful BODs on board, I can see a good future for Brunei Times.
The paper has been receiving some fairly good reviews from Bruneian Bloggers.
K had said in his/her blog that it, “looks good and hopefully it'll give the Borneo Bulletin a run for its money.”
David Cheok, on the other hand, had said that the newspaper “seems much better than that of Brunei Press with better colours and a finer resolution.” except that it needs “to be streamlined and fine tuned”. He too is very glad that Bruneians have broken away from the monopoly of Brunei Press.
LSM, had two sides to his reviews, the pessimistic:
Big words from (…)
The Brunei Times (…), let’s see if they can deliver. With their official launch on Saturday 1st July 2006, I wish them all the best.
And the optimistic, he gave raving reviews for Sunday's editorial:
I read Sunday’s editorial - ‘Novel Approach to Brunei’ - putting forward the notion of translating local literature into English and have to say I was rather impressed. An editorial that’s timely, relevant (to Brunei) and interesting. Nice catch, guys.
The newspaper had gained a lot of trust it seemed, from the Bruneian Bloggers. My hope is that the two medium of sharing information will one day collaborate to facilitate the availability of less censorship, more transparency and more freedom of speech.
Culture and History Triumph Over Nationalism in the World Cup Lusosphere
As the World Cup heads into its emotion-packed finals, the Lusosphere is still pulsing around the diverse fates of the teams of Portuguese speaking countries. Brazil fell from its high pedestal and the noisy crash of coach Parreira and his fading stars is bouncing through the blogosphere as expected. Portugal's success in advancing to the semi-final, led by the world champion Brazilian coach Luis Felipe (Big Phil) Scolari, has strengthened the connection between the football fans in both countries. This context is bringing up many interesting connections and promoting an otherwise unexpected conversation.
“On Saturday they asked me if I was sad with Brazil's defeat. I will answer here, in a resounding response: NO!!! What I really dislike is Parreira's cowardly and bureaucratic football playing. Parreira has always been this frightened coach. They call this a pragmatic approach. Now I will go for Big Phil. Portugal can even loose, but at least, Scolari will have sweated, shouted, prayed, yelled, spitted, cursed, right there, on the edge of Portugal's glorious field.”
Hey Parreira, call Big Phil! - in a day of jupiter, in mars hour - Brazil“It took me 24 for hours to recover my strengths to write here. What a game. I was worried about seeing Brazil vs. Portugal in the semi-final. Not because I'm afraid to face them but because I'm am Brazilian and wouldn't be able to cheer for Portugal as I've been doing. I must say that, every Brazilian that I know is now cheering for Portugal for 3 obvious reasons: 1) Our historical connection; 2) Deco and Scolari are Brazilians; 3) France is the devil (at least for us Brazilians)”
A night to remember - WorldCupBlog.org“In the vast outreach of such a small country as ours, a euphoric and energetic feeling is exalted to display our grandeur. Our flag has become known worldwide and we've awakened the sleeping giant inside us — we who in other times traveled many seas and conquered many lands. There came a man from one of these countries, discovered a little more than 500 years ago, who sailed now to the East as an Admiral and managed to make a huge contribution to us as a nation. He gives interviews, and appears in TV ads… He sells the team's watch!!! All hail to our Big Phil!!!”
Across sailed seas… - Guru Scolari “I Believe”
Lebanon: Palestine & Israel, Values that don’t work & the Sahsouh
The Lebanese blogosphere this week seems to be directly affected by the situation in the occupied territories of Palestine. Anti-Semitism in Lebanon, the besieging of Gaza, Israeli flag in the World Cup and books by Israelis that “distort” facts are some of the topics discussed. In addition to these we find out about a case where the values we are taught when young do not work well when we get older. We also learn about a common Lebanese practice called the Sahsouh.
Sietske in Beiroet, a Dutch blogger in Beirut, posts on the difficult task of writing about anti-Semitism in Lebanon:
“My newspaper asked me to do a story on anti-Semitism in Lebanon. And on how the terms anti-Jewish, anti-Zionistic and anti-Israeli are being used intermittently. I struggle a bit with the subject because I don’t think most Dutch have a clear idea as to how the Lebanese have suffered from Israeli actions over the past, what, say 40 years now? And I am not taking the Palestinian cause into consideration now, just the Lebanese. […]
But this anti-Semitism issue is a bit of a painful subject here in Lebanon. […] Over here there are very strong anti-Israeli sentiments, and understandably so. As there are so very few Jews (left) in Lebanon […]
I live in one of the most mixed neighborhoods in Beirut, and many people I have spoken with say that at one point in time they either had Jewish friends, or went to school with Jewish people. These have all left since the war. And they will tell you very clearly that they have no problems at all with Jews. It’s the Israelis that bug them.”
The Arab – Israeli conflict was also the topic of a post by Anarchistian where she critiques two books “Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East” by an Israeli ex-diplomat Michael Oren and The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World” by Avi Shlaim (more…)
Links for Wed, 2006-07
Jeremy Goldkorn from danwei describes the blogsphere discussion on Beijing earthquake, it also brings out the issue of the current draft bill which intends to make breaking news illegal: “Any law that hinders the process of sorting the facts from the rumors is a bad law. The law is a lost cause anyway. The information floodgates are already open.“
Li yin-he is discussing a criminal case in Shanghai in her blog. The court charged a homosexual person for three years imprisonment in 1984 under Hoodlum crime and rejected the appeal in 2006 by referring to the defendant's sodomy behaviour. However, sodomy has never been a crime in China's criminal law (zh).
Neither Afrael nor his readers can understand how El Universal listed Caracas as one of the world's most affordable cities (ES).
Michael Fox has an informative summary of the 6th Annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade in Venezuela.
Christian Espinosa links to a new blog by the newspaper El Diario (ES) from the province of Manabí. So far the weblog has been embraced mostly by migrants living outside of their home state. El Telégrafo and La Noticia are the two other Ecuadorean papers with official weblogs.
Incredible, now it is Lopez Obrador who has taken the lead. Michelle Dion, Matthew Shugart, and A.M. Mora y Leon are all updating on the hour in English. With 85% of the votes in, Lopez Obrador has more than a one percent lead over Calderon, but as Dion explains, “Calderon has more support in the North, so the lead Lopez Obrador currently enjoys is likely to shrink even more.” A number of bloggers are chatting about the recount (in Spanish) at Hipertextual.
Lessons drawn by Le Pangolin from the recent acquisition by Indian-owned steel company Mittal Steel of European-owned Arcelor (Fr): ” Economic actors of developing countries can really change the world if they are so inclined. (…) The West is not invincible.”
Jennifer Woodard Maderazo translated an article by Mexican intellectual Elena Poniatowska who was among the many to observe voting irregularities on election Sunday. Michelle Dion explains that “the real voting begins today.” Goleech describes the situation (ES) as “hardly expected and nothing desired.”
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