Archive for
July 18th, 2006
Stories
This week in Israel: War?!
Israel is at war and the Israeli blogosphere is on fire. There are so many posts to mention that I can hardly think where to start. Since the events of the past week turned Israelis' reality upside down literally overnight they are trying to make sense of it all - and many are doing so online.
As I wrote in this post, this is probably the most blogged conflict in the world. The post contains links to Israeli and Lebanese blogs that are hosting ongoing conversations between commenters and bloggers from both sides of the border. This is possibly the first time in history that citizens of two countries at war are able to maintain direct communication and express their feelings to one another in real time. I quote Shachar, an Israeli who commented on Lebanese Bloggers Forum:
I'm an IDF soldier stationed at the Lebanon is border, but got back home for a funeral of someone I knew.
We can’t see all the bombing on Lebanon here from Israel (naturaly we’re focusing on bombs at Israel), so you’re pretty much updating me on what’s going on.
I don’t want to start arguing about who’s right and who’s wrong, the finaly word is that it’s not right that civilians get hurt in the process, from both sides.
I’m sending you my best wishes from here, and hope that you and your family will be strong and be alright until this horrible situation will be over.
Voices from Zimbabwe and the Great Lakes
Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's blogosphere has virtually been deflated by threats of new legislation allowing government to surreptitiously spy on people's cyber activities. Their numerous voices have been silenced leaving a marked void in the chronicling of the one the world's worst crises. Please keep this troubled nation's valiant bloggers in your minds and prayers. A few bloggers still persist; here are some of the issues they have been reporting:
After an acrimonious split, Zimbabwe's opposition MDC is steeped in further controversy after a ghastly attack on Gertrude (Trudy) Stevenson. Stevenson, who has aligned herself with Arthur Mutambara's “pro-senate” faction, is the MP for the Harare North constituency on an MDC ticket. Zimpundit is sickened by the attack.
The Bearded Man posts and discusses headlines on Zimbabwe every day.
D.R.C>:Carl at Because we're here boy no one else; just us shares his version of election-related developments. These include; increased patrols by the airforce, the arrival of EU troops, a war threat by a presidential candiate if the elections don't go well, and relief organizations cutting back their operations in the country.
Meanwhile Fleurdafrique contempletes whether the elections will be just another historical event or if they will be democratic at all:
Should I sit here and say “well at least we’re having elections”? What’s the point of having them if it’s clear who’s running the show?Somebody is clearly taking a piss.
China: How do you say RSS feed in Chinese again?
One day soon, when content flow between Chinese and English websites reaches a reciprocal balance, when newspapers, textbooks and bloggers everywhere go bilingual, how well-positioned will you be? It's not an easy question to answer, and keeping a foot firmly planted on the ground on both sides of the fence won't ever be an easy stance to maintain.
The Chinese aren't waiting for the rest of the world to figure this riddle out, however, and keep things progressing—particularly the internet—at pace with if not quicker than the English side. Sinosphere behemoth Sina.com has just announced its Blog 3.0 [zh] service, the blogging love bubble seems to have burst [#048], and, as journalist-blogger Priest Liu writes, the word blog itself seems so last quarter [zh].
Polish Blogosphere Update
Better late than never… That's what PolBlog hopes bloggers will think in response to its latest foray into blogging technology. Its new “Talk Back Attack” features an audio comment option to put “a voice to the text.” This is how PolBlog explains the new feature:
Audio-commenting, as we call it, adds another dimension to blogging — think of it as audio SMS.
The topic for the inaugural Talk Back Attack (TBA) is the very hot issue of the Polish brain drain. PolBlog pontificates:
While Poles working abroad are now what one could call economic refugees, in the nearest future they may very well be followed by their diseffected brethren, the political refugees. How to put a brake on it? Oddly enough, there won't be any religious refugees as Poland stands to become a country of unemployed, educationally undistinguished (and indistinguishable), Catholic zealots.
And speaking of the devil(s), religious zealotry may be just what Poland needs if Edward Lucas is correct in his latest report pinning much of the blame for Poland's fall from EU grace on the twins currently serving as President and PM:
It is easy to argue that the Law and Justice party has done disappointingly little in the nine months since it won Poland's parliamentary and presidential elections. But in one respect it has done a lot: once a regional heavyweight, respected in America and around Europe, the country now attracts ridicule and condemnation. The main culprit is the president, Lech Kaczynski.
The twins of Polish politics are providing tons of newfound grist for the satirists. The Real Warsaw waxes instrumental, anticipating a potential windfall of success should the ‘wonder twins' fail (or succeed, depending on the POV):
…it would be impossible to set Poland any lower on the world respect ladder. good news for me…I want this country to fail so I can prosper.
Links for Tue, 2006-07
Ceci Connolly has a thorough update on the state of Mexico's contested election including a recent poll which found that “about 60 percent of Mexicans do not think there should be a recount, while 37 percent believe one should be conducted.” Ana Maria Salazar has a more general update of news from Mexico including President Fox's meeting with US President George Bush in St. Petersburg, Russia. Mark in Mexico translates an excerpt from an interview with Lopez Obrador which he considers a direct threat to Felipe Calderon's family.
“Publicidad a huevo” (ES), which means both “publicity, of course” and “egg publicity” is an exceedingly clever pun by Raúl Ramírez about the news that several companies including the American TV network CBS will begin advertising on egg shells.
Patrick comes to the defense of Guatemala City.
Christian Espinosa has compiled the abundance of citizen photography (ES) documenting the eruption of Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador. The comments section has become a forum of citizen reporting.
The English translation of “googlear” should be easy enough to guess: “to google.” According to one article, the first reference in a Spanish paper belongs to Spanish blogger Enríque Dans (ES).
Tired of reading about Tango? Adam takes a look at some of Argentina's lesser known musical sub-cultures.
Santiago Candegabe has released a new album of electronic music called ElectroKant - Vol. 1, “centered around the image of the german philosopher.” The 13 song album can be downloaded for free and is published under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2.5 license.
Pink Floyd's “I Wish You Were Here” at the US Embassy in La Paz and an homage to Che Guevara requested by wealthy bankers: Ben Dangl's latest dispatch from Bolivia is description by juxtaposition.
Leila reports on internet regulation and development in Kazakhstan. She notes that e-government is being explored in the country.
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