Archive for
February 21st, 2007
Stories
Lusosphere: Reporting Carnival
After four days of official Carnival revelry — and seven weeks of regular preparations and rehearsals since the year started — Brazilians will finally start thinking about getting back to work. The interested reader will be pleased to see how blogs are full of accounts describing street celebrations and links to pictures, audio and video files all over the net. Indeed, to navigate through the visual reports of Brazilian streets during Carnival time can be a fascinating experience to world audiences, but a deeper look will evidence how the spectacular images can cloud some subtle but important local debates over the very concept of the celebration. In times of augmented citizen participation in reporting events trough web 2.0 services and blogging activity, will the mainstream media exhibition format of the Brazilian Carnival endure?
Se você é um daqueles que só conhece carnaval pelo que a TV mostra, provavelmente odeia tanto quanto eu odiava… Vai viajar? Esqueça o Rio e a Bahia. Esses dois carnavais podem ter seus valores, mas tudo virou uma grande indústria com músicas e bandinhas da moda e o folião virou consumidor de fantasias e abadás em troca de uma chance de aparecer durante 3 segundos na Globo ou ganhar “sapinho” dentro de um cordão de isolamento acompanhado do barulho incrível de um trio elétrico. Se for viajar escolha Recife/Olinda, são os únicos lugares onde há opções para quem gosta de blocos, frevo, maracatu, marchinhas, MPB, manguebeat, samba de raiz, coco de roda, ciranda, rock independente, funk, forró, caboclinho… É o famoso carnaval multicultural.
Vai viajar? Esqueça o Rio e a Bahia - Rodrigo Muniz
Traveling? Forget about Rio and Bahia - Rodrigo Muniz
World, meet Africa! A new way of reporting the continent
It's frequently depressing reading accounts of Africa in the mainstream media. Doubly so, in fact. Firstly because what is defined as worthy of reporting is, well, depressing. And secondly because it so seldom engages with the complex and vibrant reality of the continent in all its massive diversity, preferring instead to deal in simplistic stereotypes.
That's why today's launch of a new website from global news organisation Reuters devoted exclusively to the continent - Reuters Africa - is so exciting. And most exciting of all is the inclusion of blogs on every individual country page on the site.
In the screenshot below of the site's page for Uganda you can see, to the right of the map, a section headed “BLOGS”. Below it are links to the most recent entries on Uganda from Global Voices. There is a similar feed for each of the more than 50 countries on the continent.
Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome
Let me clear it up for any moron with lingering doubts: It’s worse. It’s over. You lost. You lost the day your tanks rolled into Baghdad to the cheers of your imported, American-trained monkeys. You lost every single family whose home your soldiers violated. You lost every sane, red-blooded Iraqi when the Abu Ghraib pictures came out and verified your atrocities behind prison walls as well as the ones we see in our streets. You lost when you brought murderers, looters, gangsters and militia heads to power and hailed them as Iraq’s first democratic government. You lost when a gruesome execution was dubbed your biggest accomplishment. You lost the respect and reputation you once had. You lost more than 3000 troops. That is what you lost America. I hope the oil, at least, made it worthwhile.
Riverbend on the security situation in Iraq
With a new security plan under way in Iraq and and a major oil law being pushed through parliament, politics is the order of the day for this post. But read to the end and learn something new about Iraqi jokes and the difference between Iraqis and Americans.
If you read no other post this week read this one…
Ishtar just does not get it… “I can't understand this American mentality which obliged all world people to love what they love and hate what they hate as if they are the only perfect model on this earth and all the other people come after them” (more…)
Rigoberta Menchu as Candidate?
Rigoberta Menchu 1992 Nobel Laureate by “ladyloneranger“
In the early 20th century, the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo quit wearing her Western clothes to adopt a more indigenous appearance, showing her heritage with pride, not in the genetic sense, since she was not indigenous at all, but with the pride of being Mexican, and using her clothes and style as a way of self-expression; a way that men were not able to do as they were always wearing suits. Also, she made strong, visual statements through her paintings.
Western women using indigenous folkloric clothing was an interesting picture, but it was even more controversial when, at the end of the century, an indigenous woman without changing her clothes or identity, was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. And now she dares to consider the idea of becoming a presidential candidate for 2008-2011 period.
Turkey is Typing…Midnight Express, Sweaters, and a Jar of Peanut Butter
What do the above items have in common? All of them and much more will be part of our hodge-podge edition of Turkish is Typing.
A couple of our bloggers have mentioned the film Midnight Express in their tomes lately, due to a new interview with the subject of the story Billy Hayes. If you are unfamiliar with the film and its impact on Turkey, Talk Turkey will fill you in:
My dear friend Leslie alerted me to ‘TurkLA,' a Californian-Turks news portal, where Alinur Velidedeoglu's interviews with Billy Hayes, the real-life author of the book Midnight Express is posted. Of course, you know the rest of the story. Oliver Stone wrote the screenplay, Brad Davis, who according to some is the first heterosexual actor to die of AIDS, (not true since he was bisexual, and may actually have died of a drug overdose,) starred in it, and Turkey was left with an image problem, as a by product of the movie, that still exists today equal to millions of dollars of anti-Turkish public relations.
When I first told my father of my intentions on going to live in Turkey, he wasn't thrilled and he forced me to watch this film, hoping that it would persuade me to stay at home. My conclusion of the film is pretty similar to what Talk Turkey mentions from the Billy Hayes interview:
As once reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, “the message of ‘Midnight Express' isn't ‘Don't go to Turkey,' ” he said recently. “It's ‘Don't be an idiot like I was, and try to smuggle drugs.' “
Bangladesh: Celebrating the Mother Language day
Today is the International Mother Language Day, an annual event in UNESCO member states to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. This is mostly the international recognition of Language Movement Day called ‘Ekushey February', which is commemorated in Bangladesh since 1952, when a number of Bangla-speaking people were massacred by the Pakistani police and Army in Dhaka.
Shawon68 proudly says:
Ekush is Bangla for 21, and Ekushey means 21st. In Bangladesh, ‘Ekushey' is synonymous with ‘Ekushey February', the day when Bangladesh celebrates its Bangla Language Movement and honors those who sacrificed their lives in its name on 21st February, 1952.
Pinaki lists the fallen heroes and the contributors of the language movement.
A bit of history: In August 1947, dividing India, a new state called Pakistan, comprising two far-flung wings (1600 kms distance) in the west and east separated by India, emerged on the world map. The ideological basis of that strange phenomenon was the absurd and pernicious two nation theory of Mohammad Ali Jinnah that ignored such basic elements as language and culture and considered religion as a bond strong and sufficient enough to transform a people into a nation. The language of the people of eastern wing of Pakistan, and they were the majority, was Bangla. It had a rich tradition of literature of over a thousand years. The Bengalis also had a highly developed culture that had little (more…)
Links for Wed, 2007-02
Jacky translated a video script of a woman from Shanghai who said that she would be a surrogate mother for US65k in order to study abroad. According to the comment, the average market price is USD$6.5k to 13k.
Le Pangolin posts (Fr) the synopsis of new film “Africa Paradis” (Fr), a film about two struggling Europeans attempting to migrate to a mythic, rich, future Africa. He also posts an english synopsis.
Amandine posts (Fr) pictures of this year's carnival in Martinique, including one of Miss Carnaval 2007.
According to Peijin Chen from Shanghaiist, during the lunar new year, Shanghai produced 12,000 tons of daily trash. And the rural migrant workers have to take care of that.
Racism somehow finds a way to our subconsciousness, admits Palestinian blogger Ola after being intimidated by the sight of a strange person in her neighbourhood.
The Madison-Rafah Journal posts a petition calling upon Americans to tell their representatives that they “find it outrageous that the US is threatening to boycott the Palestinians on the basis of their truce and that you question whether the US was hoping for a civil war in the territories,” among other issues.
Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff will hold an exhibition in Jordan, thanks to the efforts of Palestinian blogger Izzi, among others. Latuff himself blogs about it here.
In an email to a blogger friend, Lyndon of Scraps of Moscow explains beautifully what Thomas Friedman's Russia column is really about. La Russophobe guest-blogs at length on the same subject at Publius Pundit.
Read this week's installments of La Russophobe's translation project, which attempts to explain why the discourse at so many Russian forums often gets so unbearably filthy - and which, according to La Russophobe, also “exposes how the Kremlin is attempting to take control of the Internet. On Monday, we read the author's introduction to the subject of ‘Internet Brigades.' On Tuesday, we learned the details about their organization and activities. On Wednesday, we examined their ideology and strategy. This is the final installment this week, with the second part of this epic Russian investigative work appearing next week.”
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