Archive for
November 28th, 2007
Stories
Annapolis: The View from the Middle East
With leaders and politicians from the Middle East and far afield meeting in Annapolis, US, over brokering a peace deal between Israel and its Arab neighbours, the mood remains somber, skeptical and pessimistic among bloggers from the region.
Here's what bloggers from the region are writing:
Palestine: Superfluous Promises
Palestinian Lelia Haddad doesn't hide her pessimism when she admits that people in Gaza don't expect much from the peace talks. She explains:
The conference simply generates new and ever-more superfluous and intricate promises which Israeli leaders can commit to and yet somehow evade. An exercise in legal obfuscation at its best: we won't build new settlements, we'll just expropriate more land and expand to account for their “natural growth,” until they resemble towns, not colonies, and have them legitimized by a US administration looking for some way to save face. And then we'll promise to raze outposts.
Al Haddad further adds:
So then what are people's expectations in Gaza from all of this?
In short, not much. But then, if history has taught them anything, it's that they never have much of a say in anything that involves their destiny, be it Madrid or Oslo or the Road Map. And the moment they do attempt to take control, the repercussions are to “teach” them never to attempt to do so again.
Syria: Palestinians Excluded from Peace
Syrian blogger Omar agrees citing a news site as to how irrelevant the peace talks are for Palestinians on the ground. He posts the following screen shot from Al Jazeera's website and explains:
Photo credit: Omar
The image shows the current RSS feed from Aljazeera.net
the first item translates:
Work is underway in Annapolis, Bush considers Annapolis as the ideal time for negotiations
The second item:
Six martyrs in an Israeli raid on Gaza
I guess Palestinians living in Gaza are excluded from the negotiations underway.
Israel: Remaining Skeptical
Meanwhile Bert, from Israel, says he is skeptical about the success of the Annapolis conference. He also notes the increased security in Israel. He adds:
Like most people in Israel I remain skeptical about the chances of success for Annapolis, and I have my doubts about the whole conference making sense. Still, maybe, just maybe, Ehud Olmert and others are right when they say that the mere fact that this circus takes place is in a way a success and a victory. I thought this when this afternoon I was doing some shopping with our two youngest children. In the shopping center I saw a policeman and -woman patrolling, and I noticed some kind of (semi)automatic gun hanging from the man's shoulder, with the magazine inside. I approached the two and asked if there was a reason for these special precautions. They smiled politely and said quietly “Annapolis”. Every time that Palestinians or other Arabs are seen talking the fanatics, theirs and ours, basically suffer a defeat. I do not have to point out what their victories look like.
Lebanon: Summoned by the Master
The Angry Arab or Dr As'ad Abu Khalil says Arabs attended the event because they were summoned to it by their ‘master' Bush. He writes:
The New York Times is filled with “analysis” and quotations and citations as to why the Arab governments decided to attend. Some were saying that it was due to fear of Iran, others said it was fear of global warming, and other insisted it was fear of ghosts. The truth is much simpler. Arab governments, including Syria, decided to attend because they were summoned by master Bush.
Egypt: Illusion of Peace Process
The Arabist, from Egypt, says the meeting merely presents an “illusion of a peace process.” He notes:
I mean, is there anything more to Annapolis than providing a mechanism for boosting Mahmoud Abbas while keeping the Palestinian Authority subservient to Israel and the US, thus isolating Hamas and preparing the ground for booting it out of Gaza? And in the meantime recreating the illusion of a peace process Palestinians will never credibly endorse while divided and many in the Israeli political establishment (and certainly the current ruling coalition) have no intention of ever finalizing? Or am I missing something? The NYT could celebrate that if it wanted to, but enough with the @^%^$.
Mideast Youth: Middle Ground
Writing in Mideast Youth, Ray Hanania is urging both the Palestinians and Israelis to give peace a chance. He explains:
There is a middle ground and I suggest that Palestinians and Israelis BOTH start defining it better than they have. Let’s speak openly, not just criticizing each other, but criticizing ourselves. Palestinians need to be honest about the failures of their side, and Israelis need to be honest about the injustices committed by their side int he name of “defending” themselves.
I am hopeful, even if the legion of pessimists and extremists out there are trashing hopes for peace.
Bahrain: Let's Hope
Ammar, from Bahrain, is hopeful too. He writes:
It's started; let's hope for the best. This conference has caused a few sparks, so we'll just have to wait and see if it comes out with any useful solution.
In an earlier post, Ammar also wrote:
Sure, a lot of skepticism surrounds the conference, but there is always the opportunity that something useful may come out of it. Let's hope.
Uzbekistan: Stop Deportation of Asylum Seeker!
“Until this day I believed in freedom of media and its role in civil liberties in this country [Great Britain]. But information I have read today slightly changed my mind”, Craig Murray says.
Such was a reaction of bloggers all over the world to the decision of the British court to deport Jahongir Sidikov, an Uzbek asylum seeker, a member of the Uzbek opposition party Erk, back to Uzbekistan. It seems that the Great Britain’s officials do not have any idea how dissidents - and those who have critical views on the current regime in Uzbekistan - are treated in their home country.
Jahongir Sidikov, 27, was born in Uzbekistan in a village of Zangiota, east from the capital city, Tashkent. He majored in finance and worked for PahtaBank, one of the country’s largest banks. In 1999, Sidikov went to England to study at the City University and graduated in 2003 with the BSc degree. The Andijan massacre in May 2005, when hundreds of civilians had been reportedly killed, was a turning point in Jahongir’s life.
Later, he becomes a member of the “Erk” opposition party, which operates in exile being banned in Uzbekistan. Sidikov was one of those who had staged a demonstration in memoriam of the 1st anniversary of the Andijan tragedy in London on May 13, 2006, when he had been filmed by the Uzbek Embassy staff. Back at home, his neighbors and relatives were, as reported, summoned to the police office to identify him on the film.
Jahongir’s asylum claim failed because the court didn’t believe that there was a threat to his life in Uzbekistan. The court also didn’t find the documents submitted by leader of the Erk party Muhammad Solih were genuine. Today, Jahongir Sidikov is kept in custody until he is deported to Uzbekistan on Wednesday, November 28, 2007.
One of the first men to raise an alarm about the issue of Jahongir Sidikov was Craig Murray, a UK ex-ambassador to Uzbekistan, who knows well about the Uzbek officials’ attitude towards the dissidents, and therefore is aware what a severe fate Sidikov would face upon comeback to Uzbekistan. Mr. Murray believes that - by deporting Sidikov - the UK officials will commit a grave crime against human rights, which, according to the British laws, must be respected. He writes in his blog that :
“[UK] immigration officers who escort Jahongir onto that plane are in effect implementing capital punishment”.
In his blog, Murray tries to draw closer attention of the British officials, MPs and journos to the issue, but - as he writes – fails to capture their interest. He even called the UK Embassy in Tashkent, but Ambassador Iain Kelly refused to speak. Murray believes that the British Embassy is not a trustworthy organization, and he recommends the Uzbek rights activists not to seek cooperation with it in future.
In 2003, Kelly was deputy to Matthew Kydd, Head of “Whitehall Liasion Department”, the link between the FCO and MI6. Kelly's boss Kydd told me that it had been decided between Richard Dearlove and Jack Straw as a matter of policy that we should use intelligence from torture in the context of the War on Terror, specifically from Uzbekistan, and that this intelligence was “operationally useful”. Kelly is therefore not just passively but actively implicated in the policy of cooperation with the torture of Uzbek dissidents by the intelligence services. He will also have been directly implicated in the use of intelligence obtained by torture through extraordinary rendition, in Uzbekistan and elsewhere.
TravelersPoint urges those, who may be flying on the same plane with Sidikov, quit the flight and insist to take him off the plane:
There are strong grounds for believing he will be tortured there and perhaps executed. If you are traveling to Tashkent from Heathrow, you may find yourself on the same plane as this man. Any tourists to Uzbekistan who find that Jahongir has been forcibly bundled onto their flight should object and insist that he is taken off the plane. Any pilots and airline staff who are asked to transport Jahongir to Uzbekistan should refuse to co-operate.
Tenpercent believes that all the calls being made in the global blogosphere may eventually lead to cancellation of the court’s decision to deport the asylum seeker to his home country, where he will apparently face torture and mistreatment by the government.
A big enough fuss being made over this might overcome the determination by the government to deliver Jahongir Sidikov to the regime and a fate worse than death. So blog about it…
This is Sparta is also greatly concerned over the fate of the asylum seeker and posts different links to the websites and weblogs that discuss the Sidikov case.
It is a great surprise that none of the Central Asian blogs raises the issue of Jahongir Sidikov, although his case concerns the whole Central Asian region. Jahongir was denied an asylum by the British officials and will be deported on Wednesday, November 28, 2007. The European blogs are doing their best to halt the process of deportation. It would be more effective if the Central Asian blogs also joined the anti-deportation campaign too.
Blog about it!!!
Cross-posted on neweurasia.net
China: “Red Foreigner” Sings Red Songs Naked
Red songs, which mainly extol the virtues of Communist Party and patriotic sentiment, are not popular any more among the new generation of China. However, an American blogger who names himself Honglaowai (red foreigner) has revived the Chinese red songs and extensively posted his music videos on YouTube, Youku and Tudou such video sharing websites. What's more, in his red song MVs, he is naked to the waist.
Honglaowai's first red song “If There Were No Communist Party, Then There Would Be No New China”
Creating his blog in Yahoo China on November 7, which is the 90th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia, Honglaowai described himself as “a foreign comrade living in New York“. He called Chinese comrades and quoted Mao Zedong's past speeches like “People, only people can be the motive power of the world history” in the Little Red Book. His half-naked performance of Chinese red songs, with Chair Mao's portrait behind him, were quickly spread on Internet and provoked a hot controversy among Chinese netizens.The voices on Honglaowai's special MVs were different from each other while some people believed to perform the classic red songs in such a strange way was improper and even insulting to China, some people just looked it as a fascinating individual show, and some others thought his red songs had been totally antiquated.
The comments in Honglaowai's blog:
作者: 刘礱
太可爱了.. 继续加油哦.. 如果来中国的话可以来找我玩哇..哈哈…
Author: Liu Long
You're so cute.. Please carry on.. If come to China, you can hang out with me..ha ha…
作者：who…
同志，你实在让我太佩服了！这么难的歌都能让你唱得有声有色，不支持不行啊！！加油！欢迎到中国来！
Author: who…
Comrade, I really admire you! You can sing such a hard song so impressively. I have no reason not to support you!! Come on! Welcome to China!
作者：嚣尘
你这个老外不了解中国~~要在中国的网络玩搞笑，扒了衣服唱些过时很久了的革命时代的歌曲是没用的…去你们的WALMAKET买件中国产的衬衫穿穿…应该比你赤膊更有效果…你是美国人…喜欢中国…不过这可不叫爱国…来中国办绿卡吧…（中国绿卡比你们国家的绿卡好办多了）当你成为中国公民的时候…你才能说自己爱中国就是爱国了… 记得…要和谐…和谐…把老外全部和谐了…那社会就和谐了…还有…开播客…是可以…千万别有一丁点侮辱中国或者中国人民的话…NEWYORK可不是中国…是能买到GUN的…要弄死你很容易。
Author: Xiao Chen
You foreigner don't know China~~If you meant to make spoof on China's Internet, it's useless to take clothes off and sing some really out-of-date songs of the revolutionary era….Go to your WALMAKET to buy a made-in-China shirt and put it on….it must be more effective than being half-naked…. You are American…likes China….but that can't be regarded as patriotic…Come to China to apply for the green card…(to get green card in China is much easier than in your country) When you become a Chinese citizen..then you can say your love of China is patriotism…. Keep that in your mind… we need harmony…harmony…When all the foreigners are harmonized…the society will be harmonious….and…it's OK…to open a blog…but never give out any words that vilify China or Chinese people…NEWYORK is not China…it's easy to buy guns there…so it's easy to do away with you.
作者：光光
你老一口一个同志,一口一个同志的,你知道吗?同志在中国还有另外的一个意思就是GAY,想必你是GAY(同志) 还有,我喜欢你的体型,鼓励你不穿衣服~ 现在的家庭哪还有挂毛主席照片的,我觉得你现在的崇拜有点傻,有点落后,要跟上时代的脚步~崇拜是在心里的~还什么毛主席语录,你当中国还处在20世纪60年代呢吗?
Author: Guang Guang
You always keep saying comrade (同志). Did you know comrade's another meaning in China is GAY? I suppose you are a gay (comrade). And I like the type of your body, encouraging you not to put on clothes~ Nobody would like to hang Chair Mao's portrait on the wall now. I think your present warship is a little silly and backward. You need to follow the trend of times~the worship is in your heart~as to the Chair's Mao's Little Red Book, do you think China is still staying in the sixties of 20th century?
作者：晴天Pi…
同志，你好！！ 我是在土豆上看到同志你的身影的，你很可爱哦！！也很革命哦！！ 不过你真的是国际友人吗？？不要欺骗我们的感情哦！！ 你的中文真的是自学吗？你好厉害哦，虽然还有些表达不是很流畅的地方，但是加以时日，你必定能成为一个中国通哦～～ 不知道在你心目中的中国是一个什么样的国家，只怕你来了以后会发现跟你想象中的会有所出入 但是 依然欢迎你来中国作客！！！ 还有，如果在中文学习上遇到任何问题，都欢迎你随时发问，我相信大家都会很乐意帮助你的~ 加油！！
Author: Qingtian Pi…
Hello, comrade!! I see your videos on Tudou. You're very lovely!! And also very revolutionary!! But are you really international friend?? Please don't cheat us!! Did you really learn Chinese by yourself? You're brilliant. Although some of your expressions are not fluent, after a while you will definitely become an expert of China~~ I don't know what China's like in your mind, but I'm afraid when come here you will find out there are some discrepancies between the real China and your imagination. However Still welcome to China!!! Besides, if you get any problems in Chinese, don't hesitate to ask us. I believe everyone is glad to help you~ Good luck!!
作者：WANGXin
红同志真可爱！ 请允许有五年党龄的我，代表全体为共产主义奋斗的中国青年向你致以亲切问候和衷心鼓励！ 希望你继续热爱中华人民共和国，喜爱中国，早日到中国与革命同志们会师！ 和革命同志握手！
Author: WANGXin
Comrade Hong is very lovely! Please allow me who has been in Communist Party for five years, on behalf of all the Chinese youth striving for Communism to extend to you the cordial greetings and sincere encouragement! Hope you continue loving the People's Republic of China, liking China and come to China to meet the revolutionary comrades as soon as possible!
作者：chan…
可是我们还是比较喜欢穿衣服的人哦，下次记得穿衣服哈。 其实偶们是比较保守的，不太喜欢经常革命，一两次就够了。
Author: chan…
But we still prefer people in clothes. Please don't forget to get dressed next time. Actually we are very conservative and one or two revolutions are really enough for us because we don't like that very much.
作者：逆龙鳞
这些你写的blog大都涉及革命什么的字眼,其实…我们也不是以此来判断你是不是我们的朋友:） 嗯,还是不要走”红”为好,如果你喜欢,你可以以行动影响你们周边的人,比如推广一下中国文化,比如改变一下中国在他们眼中因不了解所造成的误解.自学的中文都已经很不错了,我们也很乐意帮助你…
Author: Ni Longlin
Your blogs mostly mentioned the revolution or the related words. In fact…we wouldn't judge whether you are our friend by that standard:) Eh, you'd better not go to the “red” way. If you like China, you may influence people around you, for example, by popularizing Chinese culture or dispelling their misunderstanding about China. Your Chinese is not bad especially when you study it by yourself and we are all happy to help you…
作者：Renee
支持你！喜欢东方文化毕竟是好事， 虽然表达的方式有点过激， 热情了点， 可是可以接受。（你可能不太了解，现在的中国人喜欢资本主义的东西， 不喜欢你把中国和苏联说到一起去， 你还是应该找个讲中文的人教你中文和中国国情） …
Author: Renee
I support you! After all, it's good to like the Eastern culture. Although the way you expressed yourself is a little immoderate and exciting, we can still accept it. (Maybe you don't know too much about China. Now Chinese people like capitalism things and don't want you to put China and USSR together. You'd better find a speaker of Chinese to teach you and tell you something about China) …
Faced with the questions and doubts, Honglaowai finally got on a blue undershirt in his new red song “March of the People's Liberation Army” and briefly replied to the suspicions in his blog:
同志们的问题
同志们好！
在优酷，雅虎，土豆 等网站我最近收到了很多评论。很多人有问题及建议。我现在要给你们回答
1。《唱歌时你怎么不穿衣服？你外猴子，侮辱我们的国家！！〉
我并不愿意侮辱中国。我人这个无产阶级 连衣服都没有。认真共产主义者说，不是衣服而是思想 是最重要的！
2。《你有什么目的?>;
我要庆祝共产党的成功
我要和平3。《你的中文不够好〉
对阿。因为是自己学的。如果同志们愿意，你们可以帮我改过来 我还没去过中国大陆。如果我去的话，我肯定改良。希望明年有机会去中国
谢谢你们的支持。
革命万岁！
The Questions from Comrades
.
Hello, comrades!
.
Recently I have received many comments on Youku, Yahoo, Tudou etc. where people gave me a lot of questions and suggestions. Here I will reply to them.
.
1.《Why are you naked when you sing the songs? You foreign monkey have insulted our country!!>
.
I didn't mean to insult China. I'm a proletarian even without clothes. To the real Communist, the most important thing is whether he has thought but not clothes!
.
2.《What is your purpose?>;
.
I want to celebrate the Communist Party's success.
I want peace.
.
3.《Your Chinese is not good enough〉
.
No, because I learned it by myself. If comrades are willing to help me, you can correct it. I have never been the mainland. If I go to China, I will certainly improve my Chinese. Hope I can get a chance to China next year.
.
Thank you for your supports.
Long live the revolution!
By this week, more than 75,000 people have visited Honglaowai's blog. His latest MV published on Monday is a reproduced version of 止战之殇 （The Wound That Ends War) which is an anti-war song in 七里香 (Common Jasmin Orange)，the fifth album of Taiwanese singer Jay Chou.
Egypt: YouTube Disables Activist's Account
A storm is brewing in the Egyptian blogosphere after video hosting site YouTube removed several videos featuring policemen torturing victims from their site.
“This is by far the biggest blow to the anti-torture movement in Egypt,” writes Wael Abbas, an award winning blogger, whose videos capturing the torture of victims at the hands of police were removed from YouTube.
Warning: This video contains graphic images which may not be suitable for all viewers
Abbas (Ar) further explains:
وقد ادعى موقع يوتيوب بان وصلته كثير من الشكاوى بشان هذا المحتوى
وانا الآن في حالة صدمة مما حدث وأحاول معرفة أسبابه
وقد راسلت الموقع في إنتظار التوضيح
لكن كل الإحتمالات قائمة
شكاوى كيدية من النظام المصري خصوصا بعد صفعة حبس إسلام نبيه
تعاون بين يوتيوب والنظام المصري في ظل صفقة ما خصوصا وأن يوتيوب مملوكة لشركة جوجل
فهل هو خطأ يمكن إصلاحه
أم أن يوتيوب أصبحت تدعم التعذيب وتتستر على فاعليه وتتعاون مع الحكومات الديكتاتورية
وفي النهاية أقول أن هذه كارثة كبري
ليس لي فقط ولكن لكم جميعا مدونين وقراء ونشطاء
وأطلب منكم جميعا الوقوف معي
Blogger Hossam El Hamalawy chimes in, describing the removal of the videos as a “unbelievable”. He adds:
YouTube has just disabled probably the most important channel for the Egyptian blogosphere. Wael’s videos have been central in the fight against police brutality, and YouTube should be proud the Egyptian anti-torture activists have been using its channels in the current War on Torture… but instead, the YouTube administrators played a cat-and-mouse game with us.
El Hamalawy also suggests moving to other hosting sites to continue the anti-torture battle. He writes:
It’s necessary at the moment to start diversifying the tools we use in uploading videos to the web. The response to (what) YouTube is throwing at us will be simply a slow migration from using its service…
Commenting on this post, blogger Mostafa Hussein says that YouTube was within its right to remove the videos. He explains:
Well, the message from youtube is that waelabbas violated their terms of use.
This is actually true if you take a look at it. It states that content should follow the community guidelines[1]. In these community guidelines, there is this statement saying “Graphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone getting hurt, attacked, or humiliated, don’t post it.”
This actually means that any video aimed at displaying state violence or torture against civilians will eventually be removed.
Simply, this means that YouTube is NOT the proper tool for this job. And Waelabbas and others posting similar content, should look for a websites, that don’t have similar terms. Or a website that is activist friendly, something similar to Indymedia or others.
Others are however not satisfied, and The Big Pharaoh is calling on supporters to campaign against the closure of the Abbas' account. He pleads with his readers:
I’m breaking my blogging siesta to report this and ask you to please e-mail YouTube. YouTube has suspended Wael Abbas’ account for reasons that no one can understand. Wael Abbas is an anti-torture activist who posts videos of Egypt’s police brutality. These videos are the only mean to expose what happens in our police stations, without them the cry of people who were subjected to torture will go unheard. I really don’t understand why YouTube took this decision. I am counting on you.
The Committee to Protect Bloggers also has its say on the matter here.
Ukraine: Thoughts on Yushchenko's Bloc
It's been nearly two months since the Sept. 30 snap parliamentary election in Ukraine, and although there are plenty of “democratic coalition” promises and hopes in the air, it has yet to materialize. Or not.
President Victor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense Bloc (NUNS) and that of his Orange Revolution ally Yulia Tymoshenko have a slim parliamentary majority; pledging to form a government together had been a significant part of their campaigns this past fall. On Friday, however, eight newly-elected lawmakers from NUNS failed to sign a coalition agreement. Prime minister Victor Yanukovych, who has already surrendered his powers, hopes to join the coalition with NUNS, too - and if that happens, the coalition would be known as “broad” rather than “democratic.” Obviously, Yulia Tymoshenko is opposed to this.
Here is what Ukrainian journalist Andrei Smirnov wrote (RUS) about the possible future of NUNS on his blog at Korrespondent.net on Nov. 26:
It's rainy and slushy outside, and the New Year's isn't here yet, so let's talk about politics a little. About the true [Ukrainian] politics - about NUNS. A lot depends on them now, but they aren't moving anywhere (as always). And it's perfectly logical - the bloc consists of small parties, and each one denies itself (because they can't afford to get into the [parliament] on their own) - and denies the bloc, because, having already gotten into the [parliament], they tend to exaggerate their role in the collective success. It is all but impossible to carry out any constructive work with such an inner duality.
Below are a few comments to this post:
Alexandr_1100:
How do you this this will end?
andrey-smirnov:
If they don't create a single party, they'll become irrelevant.
Topor:
On the one hand, it's all very good. It's so much better than what we are now seeing in Russia […].
But here's what I'm afraid of: that the country would get tired of all this before it all grows civilized, and that the country would want something simple and easy to understand. “A strong hand.” “Order.” And all that. People at NUNS can't agree about small things and risk losing something bigger. We've seen this happen before, a thousand times.
[…]
Gm:
Topor, and maybe let them (NUNS) lose their “power”? What do they need it for when they are doing everything to avoid working for Ukraine :)
Links for Wed, 2007-11
Itching for Eestimaa writes about Estonia's capital and the recent “devaluation scare”: “To your average Estonian, who is female, speaks Estonian as a first language, doesn't live in Tallinn, and is between the ages of 45 and 49, the capital must increasingly look like some revolving circus of riots, stag parties, ugly post-modern buildings, and devaluation fears.”
When a Czech actress' infant son died, a number of Czech newspapers closed down discussions of this story on their sites, a step the Czech Daily Word disapproves of: “Being offensive is not illegal.”
Petya of Bighead shares a Sofia cab driver story.
This site is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Please read our attribution policy.
Jennifer Brea385 posts 
Juan Arellano126 posts 
Julius Rocas1 posts 
Gina Cardenas4 posts 
Richard Wanjohi1 posts 
Andy Yee8 posts 
Diego Casaes11 posts 
Marwa Rakha134 posts 
Rebekah Heacock30 posts 
Keta Haluha2 posts 
Andriankoto Ratozamanana1 posts 
Markpeak6 posts