Archive for
September 7th, 2006
Stories
Malaysia: Cellphone video captures police excess
When the Malaysian police started accepting crime reports sent in by members of the public from their cellphones, little did they expect that their own misdemeanours would one day be caught in the frame.
Malaysians have had to put up with police corruption and misconduct as a part of everyday life. But now blogs and video cellphones have given Malaysians who are exasperated by the lack of action against the police a new and very public outlet. A new Malaysian blog - Polis Raja Di Malaysia (or “Royal Malaysian Police”) - aims to pull together footage documenting police misconduct from video-sharing sites like YouTube and GoogleVideo. The blog promotes itself with the strapline “Police should fight crime, not fight the people”. Cellphone videos on YouTube range, for example, from footage and photomontages of the police breaking up protests to a police officer firing into the air unprovoked while breaking up a fight - as seen below.
One recent video that hasn't made it onto Polis Raja Di Malaysia yet, but has been on other blogs, appears to show police officers beating and humiliating two youths in a police cell. It has caused controversy in Malaysia and human rights organisation Suaram calls it “the tip of the iceberg”. The video, which shows a youth being forced to lick his saliva off the floor, was apparently filmed by one of the police officers on his cellphone, and only came to light when he sent the phone in for repairs. A technician uploaded the clip onto the internet, and one viewer sent it in to Malaysia TV3's Utama Bulletin news programme, which aired it last week.
It's just one of many alleged cases of police brutality that remain either uninvestigated or unpunished, and this one has only stoked up a controversy because video evidence surfaced - in this case, unwittingly released by the police officer himself. As a result, it seems that Malaysian police officers are now banned from carrying cameraphones.
Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome
Been a while since I last reported from the Blogodrome. It was not the holiday that stopped me - it was the mountain of work after. It seems every one is back from holiday demanding my time. Anyway I'm back, Iraq is the same-old, same-old, well maybe a darker version of the same-old but Iraqi blogs are in a bit of a spin.
Ladybird had decided to stop blogging and wrote her goodbye (post was deleted), but an outcry from her readers brought her back and she is now blogging with a vengeance. Ali, of the blog A Free Iraq deleted his blog and one of the most active bloggers Truth About Iraqis has also boldly gone. He writes:
Those few, enlightened individuals in our histories - the Ghandis, Mandelas, Martin Luther Kings, Mother Theresas and so on - are such rare occurences that our societies revere them … But that is defeatism at its loudest. It is not these people that should be held up high but the clarity of vision they sacrifice all for. … By revering those brave individuals we are admitting that the human collective is itself cowardly. By saying these individuals are inspiring we are admitting that the human collective is uninspired. … We use them to remind ourselves that there is always hope but we then proceed to quash any traces of it.Which is why the enemy is within. And it is time to boldly go …
And where is he going?
I am a Trekker. I have made no effort to hide that. I have loved science fiction all my life, ever since I was about six. …Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction, its essence . . . has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.
This is the last blog entry for me. And so, I boldly go … Live long and prosper
So what of the Iraqi blogosphere? Zeyad thinks that the 212 blogs enumerated at Iraq Blog Count is a poor showing given that Technorati tracked its 50 millionth blog. But, Omar counters with this:
The fact is, those 212 blogs listed here are only the tip on an iceberg as the mass of the Iraqi blogosphere remains unseen and grows below the surface and that's mostly because this mass is almost entirely written in Arabic and thus receives little if any global attention
and he links to an Iraqi blogging site that has 1558 individual members. Not all of these are active bloggers but neither are the 50 Mil tracked by Technorati. And I can add to that al Iraqi Community with at least 5000 members. Suddenly the blogodrome is that much larger!
(more…)
Links for Thu, 2006-09
Yulia of neweurasia reports that Kyrgyzstan's constitutional commission has finally presented three draft constitutions to the public and revealed the disagreements and political wrangling that were involved in their drafting.
Sean Roberts discusses the curious and shocking case of the arrest of a prominent Kyrgyz opposition politician, Omurbek Tekebaev, for smuggling drugs into Poland.
The Long and Winding Road reports on the latest developments in the trial of Dadahon Hasanov, a musician on trial for writing a song commemorating the massacre of civilians during the May 2005 protests in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijon.
Akhtamar, blogging at ArmYouth Blog, writes that he and his friends decided to show their national pride while attending the recent football match between Armenia and Belgium by painting the Armenian tricolor on their faces. He reports that this was met with plenty of shock and confusion.
Waheed says that if NATO forces really want to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, they must pressure Pakistan to take action against Afghan militants based there.
Guyanese are everywhere, observes a wistful MediaCritic: “Lost, gone, no more. Building other nations, building a brighter future overseas.”
Guyana-Gyal hasn't heard from her brother in over week. “I hope them aliens ain't kidnap he again,” she says.
The Limey kindly makes available on his weblog downloadable copies of the draft Sustainable Development Plan documents that the Bermuda government appeared be having trouble with at their own newly launched blog.
“Behold the stubbornness of the politician. The arrogance and blindness and stupidity of the species,” writes British-born Trinidadian blogger Jeremy Taylor, examining Tony Blair's refusal to step down. “It's a lesson that some parts of the Caribbean have yet to learn. Everyone has their sell-by date, after which the product begins to stink.”
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