Archive for
January 3rd, 2007
Stories
Afghan Whispers: Kabul Express, 5 More Years, and Lack of Legitimacy
Dialogue 3 talks about an Indian film, Kabul Express, which has created a lot of noise in Afghanistan without being shown on Afghanistan. The blogger says according to what is heard in the movie, very negative comments are made about the Hazara ethnic group such as that these people are as violent as Taliban or that all of them are killers[Fa]. He says this film hurts national unity in Afghanistan.
Afghan Warrior writes that the international community should pledge to support Afghanistan for five more years. The blogger says ,
We don't want to be a charity case. Afghans are proud people who want to make their own way in the world but at the moment we need the support of the free world. We need more emphasis on training the Afghan army so that Afghans can take over the fighting. We need enough support to defeat the Taliban. We don't have a shortage of brave Afghans - we have brave people and we can defeat the Taliban with the support of the free world. The Taliban are not strong enough to create any civil war at the moment. Therefore they carry out terrorist attacks which mainly kill innocent civilians, and if we have the support of the free world we can defeat the enemies soon. But if the world community abandons us, Afghanistan will go back to civil war. We don't want to be part of the 3rd world. We need the support of the world community at least for 5 more years.
Askar Gu Raiz talks about the fragile legitimacy of Afghan government. The blogger writes,
at a time when the public is becoming increasingly disillusioned with the state…parliamentarians spend the day which marks their first anniversary as a house not with their constituencies or the general public, but reporting to ‘donor countries and their representatives’… While I understand it is vital to have the donors on board, and less in Afghanistan is possible without them, the satisfaction of donor community with parliament’s performance need not be confused with what the motives of having a parliament in place are for either side; the Afghan state as a whole, and the countries involved in Afghanistan.
Russia: Sorry State of North Caucasus Journalism
Timur Aliev - LJ user timur_aliev, editor-in-chief of the print/online weekly Chechen Society (Chechenskoye Obshchestvo) and the Chechnya editor of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) - is involved in a journalism education project that takes him to various parts of the Caucasus, where he conducts seminars to local media professionals. After a recent visit to the capital of Karachay-Cherkess Republic, he concluded (RUS) that “in the North Caucasus, journalism is practically nonexistent.” Here's why:
Have returned from Cherkessk - we did a seminar there. Almost got in trouble as we were leaving - all of the city's center was blocked today, but it's good that we lived at the outskirts and managed to drive to the bus station via backyards. The guys, though, were stopped at this very bus station - taken to the cops' room and ordered to write an explanation of what they were doing in Cherkessk. My […] press card saved me from having to help the cop pretend that he was being alert - for some reason, I doubt that he really was looking for criminals. Anyway, we got out and reached home okay.
The seminar turned out to be rather exhausting. There were only two of us to conduct it, and it turned out to be quite a laborious task.
During the round table that we did prior to the seminar, I suggested that we discuss which form of journalism was the most popular in the North Caucasus - [interactive] civic journalism, informational (traditional), post-Soviet or some other form. And I suggested that we talk on whether this form of journalism suits our needs, and if not, then what does.
South Asia: 2006 in review
Let us take a look at how the South Asian bloggers reflected on the year 2006:
Bangladesh:
Drishtipat reports that a total of 3,239 people were killed in Bangladesh, with law enforcement authorities killing 300 of them, from Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, 2006, an average of 9.69 persons per day, according to the survey report of the Bangladesh Human Rights Commission. Bangladesh Talk reports that 329 Muslim families from north Arakan state of Myanmar fled to neighboring Bangladesh in 2006, marking a greater exodus than 2005.
The 3rd world view writes that the year 2006 was a successful year for Bangladesh Cricket. The other remarkable event for Bangladesh was Dr. Muhammad Yunus getting the Nobel peace prize. Tanvir of Journal of a Disturbed Mind retrospect on the various events in Bangladesh in 2006. Ershad Ahmed posts some pictures of Bangladesh that represent the event and day-to-day life of Bangladeshis.
India:
Offstumped looks back on the fames and shames of Indian politics and Media in 2006. The bloggers had some role to play in it. The Middle Stage categorically short lists from the Indian books published in 2006. Readers were also encouraged to mention their books of the year. A Point of View reviews mostly Indian classical music that reigned in the year 2006.
Amodini's Movies lists top 10 Indian movies of the year. Indicast picks the best and the (more…)
Chilean Opinion 2006
Chilean bloggers have summed up the good and bad of 2006.
El observatorio politico [ES] described six of the main general issues that are still not going the right way: corruption in the leftist party, the failure in the fight against delinquency, a deep crisis in our education system, low economic growth even with the best conditions, a slow justice system, and the deterioration of the institutions regulating Codelco Copper.
The “deep crisis” refers to the student protests held in Santiago last May and June and organized using online tools.
Regarding the lifestyle of Chileans, Manuel Rodriguez (ES) wrote of the “other summary of the 2006” in which he explains that one of every four working class Chileans are “suffering” because they got into debt.
Links for Wed, 2007-01
Nareg writes about celebrating the new year — both of them — in Armenia.
Keith Francis does some background research on Bernard Kerik, the former New York police commissioner who has been invited to Trinidad and Tobago by the country's opposition party to consult on solutions to the crime situation.
The Limey laments the lack of Bermudian blogs are supportive of the ruling party: “This decentralised model of debate cannot work. . . unless there are blogs offering all perspectives. That’s what’s missing in Bermuda today.”
Barbados Free Press announces the winner of the Piggies at the Trough awards, and tells the nominator of the winner that the US$1,000 prize money was “dropped off earlier tonight and it is waiting there for you right now.”
Proudly African writes about Africanpath.com, “The thrust of this blog post is to introduce to you a new website that is poised to aggregate news and blogs from Africa.”
“Meet George. He repaired our punctured tyre in less than 20 minutes without hydraulic tools, and hand pumped it to exactly the right pressure with no guage,” writes Extra Extra.
According to Jomhour, Ahmadinejad in a speech in Ahvaz,in Khouzestan province, predicts that western countries will be destroyed [Fa].The blogger adds Ahmadinejad says after talking with ” scientists” who attended Holocaust conference in Tehran, he found out that there is no freedom of expression in the western countries.
White Sun of the Desert posts pictures of Yuzhno-Sakhalinks following a severe snowstorm - as well as pictures of the New Year's ice carvings.
Snowsquare posts a whole bunch of Moscow photos: of Holiday Moscow Streets, and of St. Basil's Cathedral, and of Red Square New Year's Preparations, and of Manezh Square, Hotel Moscow and Stolichnaya, and, finally, of Last-Minute New Year's Shopping (one, two, three, and four).
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