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Egypt: Residential Independence

Gr33nData · 22:52

lingua → mk · mg · sq · de · pt · es

OTV is a private Egyptian satellite TV channel which has attracted the attention of its viewers from the day it was launched, thanks to its liberal approach, the issues it tackles and the way it tackles them, which is different from conservative and traditional TV channels.

Egyptian blogger Zaman El Wasl (Ar), discusses here an episode of a talk show that was aired about women's independence.

أتابع بشغف -كلّما تسمح الظروف- برنامج “مساءك سكّر زياده” على “أو تى فى”
من ضمن فقرات البرنامج فقره لحل مشكلات المشاهدين العاطفيه تعرّفت من خلالها على كاتبه شابه اسمها “مروه رخا” ترد على مشكلات المشاهدين بنصائح تعجبنى فى معظم الأحوال
المهم فى حلقة بداية هذا الأسبوع يوم الأحد كانت “مروه” و معها “جورجيت قللينى” عضوة مجلس الشعب و المذيعه “بثينه كامل” ضيوف على البرنامج لمناقشة فكرة استقلال النساء من خلال التعليق على فيلم تسجيلى -غالبا- اسمه “ست بنات

I love to follow - whenever it is possible - a program called “Masa'ak Sukkar Zeyada” on OTV.
And one part of this program tries to solve people's emotional problems. And through this part, I got to know a young writer called Marwa Rakha, who tries to help in solving the viewers problems, and gives them advice that I normally like.
Anyway, during last Sunday's episode, Marwa, Georgette Quelleny - a parliament member, and the Radio/TV host Buthaina Kamel were invited to discuss women's independence through their commentary on a documentary called Six Girls.

The blogger then continues:

حسبما فهمت الفيلم يدور حول فتيات و سيدات اضطرّتهنّ الظروف لترك بيوت الأهل و الاغتراب للعمل أو الدراسه فى مدن أخرى .. لم يحظ الفيلم بقدر كبير من النقاش قدر ما حظيت فكرة الاستقلال نفسها بالقدر الأعظم منه
فكرة الاستقلال كانت تدور حول ترك الفتيات منزل الأسره حين تسمح لهنّ الظروف بهذا و الانتقال لسكن مستقلّ!! الدفاع عن هذه الفكره كان من نصيب “مروه” و بثينه” بينما كان موقف “جورجيت” -الذى اتّفقت معه- هو عدم الترحيب بالفكره طالما لم تحتّمها الظروف
ليس سبب تحفّظى على الفكره سبب دينى أو أخلاقى وليس سببه التخوّف من نظرة المجتمع لفتاه تقيم بمفردها فى مسكن رغم وجود أسرتها بنفس المدينه !! تحفّظى على الفكره منبعه أنّى لا أعتبر الاستقلال -المكانى- هو المعنى بفكرة استقلال أى إنسان ناضج رجلا كان أو امرأه
أعتقد أن الاستقلال يعنى القدره على اتّخاذ القرارات الشخصيه دون الحاجه لدعم أو مساعده اللهم إلاّ طلب النصيحه و المشوره ثمّ القدره على اختيار الأنسب .. وقد يعنى الاستقلال كذلك الاستقلال المادّى و القدره على تحمّل الإنسان نفقاته الخاصه أو حتى تحمّل نفقات البعض من أفراد أسرته

As far as I understood, the movie is about girls and women who were forced to leave their parents' homes and live alone to work or study in other cities. Most of the discussion was about the idea of women's independence - more than discussing the movie itself.
Their opinion about independence was related more to the departure of women from their parent's home and living alone whenever it is possible. Marwa and Buthaina were defending this point of view while Georgette - and so am I - were against it, as long as women are not forced to do so.
My stance against this idea is not because of religious or moral reasons, and not because I am afraid of what society will say about a girl who lives alone in a separate house while here parents live in the same city!! I am against this idea because I do not consider - residential - independence is the real symbol of a human being's independence, whether he is a man or a woman.
I believe that independence is the ability of someone to take decisions without the need of others — unless he is asking for their advice. Independence can also be someone's financial independence and his ability to depend on himself in getting his daily needs as well as taking care of his family members' needs.

One of the viewers of the show had a different point of view.

إحدى المتّصلات -يبدو من صوتها و كلماتها أنّها أم- تساءلت : لماذا يحرم الأبناء أنفسهم و يحرموا أسرهم من التفارب و الترابط و تبادل المودّه قبل أن يحين وقت الرحيل

One of the viewers - whose voice seemed to be like a mother's voice - asked: Why do children want to deprive their families from being close to each other and share love and care till it's time for them to leave.

In fact, people here in Egypt are used to living with their parents until they get married. And that's why many of those who commented on this post were against the idea of people moving from their parent's homes, especially for girls.

1 comment · »»

Tunisia: Al Radeyef Protests - When Bloggers Give a Voice to the Voiceless

Naruto · 21:39

lingua → mk · sq

With little to no coverage of the plight of thousands of people at the rich Phosphorous mines of Gafsa, Redyef and Oum el Arayess on mainstream media, Tunisian bloggers and activists are turning to the Internet to tell the world their story.

Protests by workers against inflation, the rising cost of living and the right to employment in the rich mines, have been dealt with a security clampdown by the government, which has arrested countless of protesters. And for the first time ever, Tunisian bloggers join hands with activists and other online users to give a voice to the voiceless - on Twitter, like Houieda's Tweets; by joining and contributing to a Facebook group to stream updates and news about situation (134 members so far); and by uploading videos to YouTube (which is banned in Tunisia).

This video, by Free Tunisie, shows some of the protests by the families of those arrested in unrest. More videos are also available on the above link.

Many of these online spaces also share the same text made the Tunisian Human Rights League (text published in Arabic by Samsoum and on the league's official website).

Moreover, there is a local committee which was set up to voice the requests of Gafsa inhabitants called Comité de Soutien aux habitants du bassin minier de Gafsa (Support Committee to the people of the mining area of Gafsa), which created the support Facebook group.

On blogs, COS-MAUX-POLIS (Fr) wrote two posts: one about situation and another about the response and disinformation provided by the Tunisian government.

Writing in Arabic, Fatma-Arabicca calls the incidents the Revolution of hunger. She puts some of the troubles in context here saying:

منذ 5 جانفي 2008 تاريخ اعلان النتائج النهائيّة لمناظرة انتدابات كوادر وأعوان شركة فسفاط قفصة اندلعت جملة من الاحتجاجات التى مازالت تعصف بأم العرايس والرديّف منذ أكثر من ثمانية أسابيع يخرج شباب الرديف ليعتصم بالخيام ويعلن اضرابا مفتوحا عن الطعام رغبة منه في تحقيق حدّ أدنى من العدالة الاجتماعيّة ومطالبا بحقّه في التشغيل …امّا في أم العرايس فان الارامل اللاتي فقدن معيلهن في حوادث شغل بالشركة لازلن منذ أكثر من شهر يسكنّ خيمة امام أقليم أم العرايس لشركة فسفاط قفصة يطالبن بتشغيل أحد أبنائهن

A series of protests broke out after the final list of those who will be employed a Phosphates Gafsa company on January 5, which are still continuing today in Oum el Arayes and Al Radeef. For more than eight weeks now young men from Al Radeef hold protests in tents, and announce hunger strikes, to call for the minimum requirements of social justice and their right in employments. At Oum el Arayes, the widows who have lost their breadwinners in the accidents at the company, still live in tents, on the outskirts of the province of Oum el Arayes, which are located in the Phosphates Gasfa company, where they are calling for their sons to work at the company.

Fatima also posts photographs of the protests.

Carpediem-selim (Fr), meanwhile, writes a detailed post about police brutality against the strikers :

Les forces de l'ordre, qui sont présents par milliers, n'ont pas hésité à déployer des pratiques de barbares contre des citoyens qui demandaient un droit fondamental qui est le droit du travail : des coups de feu ont été entendues, des bombes lacrymogènes ont été jetées par centaines, des chiens de police traînaient dans toutes les rues de la ville, des manifestants ont été violemment battus en plein monde et des descentes policières nocturnes et musclées ont eu lieu, violant l'immunité des domiciles, qui a poussé plusieurs jeunes à fuir et à passer la nuit dans les montagnes entourant la ville. Un climat de frayeur a été instauré dans toute la ville en procédant à des intrusions menaçantes dans tous les quartiers assurant le bouclage total de la ville et l'arrêt de toute circulation…

The police force, numbering in the thousands, did not hesitate to use barbaric methods against citizens who were demanding the fundamental right to work: gunshots were heard, tear-gas bombs were thrown by the hundreds, police dogs patrolled the city's streets, protestors were violently beaten in public and aggressive nocturnal police raids were conducted, violating the immunity of [citizen's] homes, which pushed several young people to flee and spend the night in the mountains surrounding the city. A climate of fear has been instilled in the entire city proceeding to menacing intrusions in all neighborhoods, assuring the city's complete lock down and a halt to all traffic.

Brastos (Ar), writes about those arrested, asking what their crime was. He writes:

قلت انو هالاعتقالات شملت العديد من الناس .. سواء كانو مناضلين و كوادر نقابية محترمه .. والا حتى مواطنين “لا متسيسين” .. كل ذنبهم انهم قالو ياخي شبيها بلادنا غنيّة بالثروات ، و الفاقونات العام اثناش ن شهر وهيّ تحمّل في فسفاطنا و مشتقاتو .. و الاربعة و عشرين ساعة و نحنا نربشو في المناجم .. و فنينا اعمارنا فيها .. كيما فنوا اعمارهم الذين من قبلنا .. و الذين من بعدنا .. و بالرغم من هاذاكا نحن جواعى و بطالة ..
يمكن ذنبهم انهم المرّه هاذي قالو هالكلام بصوت مرتفع شويّة ..

They said that a number of people have been arrested, including activists and union representatives, as well as people who had nothing to do with politics. Their only crime was that they asked why when their country was so rich in minerals, and they worked in the mines 24 hours a day, and sacrificed their entire lives in them, as well as the lives of those who came before them and those generations which will follow, were they
still hungry and unemployed? … Perhaps their fault was that this time they have voiced their concerns with a loud voice?

9 comments · »»

D.R. of Congo: Fifth fatal crash in under a year, food prices the real disaster

Jennifer Brea · 20:31

lingua → mg · es · zht · zhs

News agencies are reporting that 75 were killed when a cargo plane crashed in Goma shortly after takeoff on Tuesday. An overloaded cabin may have been the cause. It's the fifth fatal plane crash since June 2007.

Last October, Du Cabiau à Kinshasa, responding to a plane crash in a poor district of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, wrote, ominously: “This crash was not the first…it will not be the last” (Fr).

Sadly, these words have proved prophetic. In the wake of this latest disaster, Cabiau reflects on how a plane crash can bring attention to the DRC, generally ignored by Western media, even though it's reeling from one of the greatest human disasters in a century.
(more…)

6 comments · »»

Lebanon: Commemorating the Civil War

Moussa Bashir · 20:18

lingua → es

April 13 marked the 33rd anniversary of the beginning of the Lebanese civil war which ended, officially, in 1990. Lebanese, who are anxious that the violence may be renewed any time, commemorated the occasion with events to raise awareness against it. Bloggers too wrote about the war from different angles as usual; some with lengthy analysis of what caused it and others with reports on some of the anti–war activities. Here is a summary from some of the blogs:

Tantalus publishes a very angry letter from one of the readers calling for discrediting the Lebanese leaders and politicians for putting the lives of the people in jeopardy time after time. The writer also discourages people from participating in events marking the occasion:

This weekend is the commemoration of the Lebanese civil war. How will you find the right angle to write about the irony, disgust and ignorance that accompanies this date? Do you know that to this day we have no real count of how many people died during the war? I have attached the losses from only the past year of tragic events.

If I had a blog… I wouldn't vent this weekend. I wouldn't blame politicians. I would call for people to stop giving them credit, legitimacy and what have you… Not everyone deserves a second chance..not in politics and government you dont get a second chance. when you're dealing with the lives of millions and u have all the resources in the world, you should try to get it right the first time. these guys have had dozens of chances. Enough is Enough.. people are allowing them to do this.
F*** Lebanese politicians, and f*** second chances.

And, oh s***** Lebanese people, whenever you participate in any of these stupid events, the only people who take credit for it are the f***ing
politicians. It's called PR. You are numbers and statistics for someone's PR campaign.

In one of the events taking place to mark the memory of the civil war and warn against it, a large number of toilet seats were set to be used as seats. But why were toilet seats used? Sietske explains and posts photos of the setup:

These toilets are supposed to serve as seats for the public for tonight’s concert.

This particular exhibition is a commemoration of the old civil war, which officially started today, on April 13, some 33 years ago. (1975 – 1990).
The date is often seen as the ‘official’ beginning of the Lebanese Civil War. On this day, in 1975 a busload of Palestinians got ambushed in a Christian neighborhood, after earlier that day an assassination attempt had been carried out on a Christian leader. Nobody ever got caught of course, for either event, but that is quite common for this country.

However, is it not only a commemoration, but also a reminder, or a strong warning, to people of the possibilities, and the ludicrousness, of a new civil war. So why the toilets, you may wonder?
People in Lebanon have been hiding in toilets for 15 years, so you’d figure they’d have learned something in the meantime.
For those unfamiliar with the mechanisms of a (civil) war; the toilet (or bathroom) is supposedly the safest room in the house during shelling because a) it has either no windows or very small windows, and b) most bathrooms in Lebanon have a double ceiling, because the water tank for your shower is right above the bathroom.
The people that I know usually hid out in the corridors, or the underground basement of their building, but quite a few must have spend substantial time in the toilet.
Hence the title of this installation.

Marxist from Lebanon analyzes how the two major forces are neutralizing any possibility for a third political group or party to rise. In addition to this MFL writes this article on “the Causes of the Lebanese Civil War”. It is notable that the bickering between these two major groups, pro–government and opposition, it so tense that some fear a new civil strife in the near future:

In Lebanon, the majority of the civilians do not want a civil war; however, that was the case back in 1975 and they were dragged to a civil war.

The current politicians are practicing a process what is called: demobilization. This means all non-party affiliates are de-activated due to the lack of availability of alternatives or options to impose the over-all populations' voice on the politicians. Henceforth, the destruction of alternative aka space to function in opposition to the political parties' duet singing of 14th of March and the Opposition.

More to the point, activists who oppose the war are suffocated by the demolition forces of 14th of March and the opposition. They can't do nothing, and personally someone may wonder if they agreed with each other to cripple the activists from expressing their opinions.

Marillionlb posted many videos from the civil war of 75–90 and had this to say about the sad events that occurred:

This is nothing but, as we say back home “mourour al kiram”; depicting a small percentage of events which forged a generation that is now controlling the destiny of our nation and children.
I am part of this generation which is lost in limbo, somewhere between a false sense of patriotism and a deep guilt for having followed and engaged in acts that were against our morals and religious teachings.
This was Lebanon then.
I will leave it up to you to watch and formulate your own opinion.
N.B: Always keep in mind that this nothing but a mere fraction of what actually took place.

I will leave you with this sample of blog posts. Let's hope that the voice of the majority of Lebanese, who are opposed to a civil war, is triumphant this time.

0 comments · »»

Morocco: Hands off my Muezzin!

Lydia Beyoud · 19:10

lingua → mg · es

Robin des Blogs received over a dozen comments on his post about a minister in the Moroccan government who has asked muezzins in mosques adjoining tourist areas not to do the call to prayer. (more…)

17 comments · »»

UAE: Thousands of Sites Blocked in New Crackdown

Amira Al Hussaini · 18:39

lingua → ar · mg

The UAE blogging community is slowly absorbing a new clampdown on the Internet, following the blocking of thousands of websites en masse after objections on their content. While some bloggers are welcoming the move to filter sexually explicit and “unacceptable” material, others are not so happy with the crackdown.

According to i*maginate state-owned Dubai telecom provider Du sent the following message to its users:

“Dear valued customer, we wish to inform you that from 14 April 2008 we will be blocking sites with content that do not conform to the moral, social and cultural values of the UAE. Thank you.”

Commenting on this news, Hatem writes:

Today, I came home to find the TV service broken and Facebook useless! But water and electricity are still there! Ah, and internet too!

And Ali009 reasons:

the more you block, the more people just get curious :P

Meanwhile, Samuriasam says that another telecom provider Etisalat has partially blocked Facebook. The blogger explains:

Etisalat has once again managed to block an integral part of facebook (or was it just MySpace I'm thinking of the last 5 times they managed to do something like this?) (http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/); this is preventing CSS and other design elements from the website loading properly.

Anonymous reacts to this announcement saying:

Come on now, its not like anyone will die because of not having access to facebook !
Move on, there's a lot more to life than facebook,

to which Imaginate replies:

there is much more to life than the internet, too. As far as I'm concerned, it's really anti-social, so I call for a block on the whole of the internet too. Just not facebook (yet) because I need time to save all my friends' contact details. I wish things were like in the old days, where telephones and emails didn't exist. Those were happy days!

Acknowledging that it is the community which pushed for such measures, Dubai Entrepreneur lashes out at a society which accepts such censorship as being “backward.” He writes:

Internet censorship is always a big deal for bloggers (writers and readers), let alone the average Internet user. For the most part, it is often the government dictating rules that residents/stake-holders don't want. In the case of Internet censorship, it appears to be a case of the citizens demanding more of.

(…)

I have come to the conclusion that you can't help those who don't want to be helped. However, we should clearly identify who is responsible for the current state of access to information. In this case, it is the community that is backward. The situation is beyond help.

Ismail D says the new crackdown, also effects the Free Zone areas, which have lured giant media, communications and Internet companies. He announces:

The run of uncensored internet enjoyed in UAE free zones is over.

He also adds that such a crackdown may impede their work, saying:

Now, considering this proxy will be affecting most of the ‘Free zones' with all the big name media companies (CNN, BBC etc.) and Internet/Technology companies (Cisco, Microsoft, Google etc.) how will this be affecting their business? There are bound to be sites that should not be blocked or sites that are blocked but could be used for legitimate reasons. An example would be a security professional checking known hacking/exploit archives or a journalist visiting ‘Political/Terrorist' sites. I am certain it will cause some amount of frustration amongst the companies based here and possibly even hamper some media companies.

2 comments · »»

Argentina: Economist Blogs and Economy Policy

Jorge Gobbi · 15:12

lingua → es

In the last weeks, there has been a series of relevant discussions about economic policy in Argentina. The reason: the massive lock out of the countryside against the rise of export retentions, particularly in the soybean market. During almost three weeks, groups linked to agricultural exports closed the roads and stopped the passing of trucks carrying grains and, in many cases, milk and other food products, which created an important shortage of food in the cities.

Retentions are taxes collected from the exports of certain products, to provide more resources to the State, but also to lower the impact of the international prices' increase in the local market. Adding to this, since 2002 the Argentinean State insists on a policy of maintaining a high dollar value to make exports competitive. But to keep this exchange rate - that favors farms, industry and tourism, among others- important fiscal resources are needed.

In this context, a type of blog acquired a sudden popularity: those written by economists. Many of us didn't even know they existed, but the need for better information about the conflict between the countryside and the government have turned them into a very good source of information, epecially when facing the poor coverage of the media, plagued with generalizations and common sense statements from both sides.

Homo Economicus [es] is a group blog, but most of the entries are dedicated to the topic of the countryside and were indicated that they were written by Tavos, an economist that prefers to keep a pseudonym. Among its entries, the blog mostly focuses on pointing out the weakness of the arguments of those who favor the countrymen's measures. In an entry called “La rentabilidad del agro” he analyzes how those in the countryside are making even more money than they were in 2007, even with higher retentions. And, inspired in Arturo Jaurteche [es], he analyzed the “nonsense” that was repeated by some people in favor of those who closed the routes.

On the other side, at Economista Serial Crónico [es] they summarized the main reasons by which arguments against the countryside were not well sustained

Los Tres Chiflados [es] is another group blog, but in this case, with higher effective participation. And part of this plurality has become in reading entries where there are very different postures, be it against the countryside [es]

Parece que se creen dueño del país, o por lo menos de las rutas. Los últimos 20 días toda persona perdió la libertad de transitar con lo que quiera y por donde quiera por el país.

It appears that they think they own the country, or at least the roads. During the last 20 days, everyone lost the freedom for free transit with whom they want and wherever they want in the country.

or against the government [es].

Un discurso y una practican política que es la misma que mantiene hoy la Presidenta y que puso en práctica durante esta grave crisis que afecto al país. Una acción que usa a los piqueteros como fuerza de choque violento, y la violencia de las palabras desde el pulpito presidencial para fulminar opositores, disidentes, periodistas y más recientemente, humildes pero prestigiosos artistas como Sabat.

Rhetoric and politics that are the same that the President maintains and puts into practice during this heavy crisis that affected the country. It is an action that uses the “piqueteros” (members of a social movement) as a violent confrontational group and the violence of rhetoric from the presidential pulpit to attack the opposition, dissidents, journalists, and recently, humble, but prestigious artists like Sabat.

Photo by Quique Mendizabal and used under a Creative Commons license.

While the big topic in the last weeks in blogs about economy was the conflict between the countryside and the government on the retentions issue, in many of them there are entries dedicated to specific theoretical matters and other discussions. The overview gives a surprisingly great variety and vitality, so you'll have plenty of options. To list some of them, you can check blogs such as Controversias del Capital [es]; Mide / No Mide [es]; Exabruptos de Miguel Olivera; Ramble Tamble [es]; La ciencia maldita [es]; Abuelo Económico [es]; Trade and Me [es]; Finanzas Públicas [es]; y El lobo estepario [es].

2 comments · »»

Israel: Teenage Girls Usage of Mobile Phones for Dating

Gilad Lotan · 13:42

lingua → fr · mk · pt · sq · bn · mg · de · zht · zhs · es

Hiyam Hijazi-Omari and Rivka Ribak wrote a paper called “Playing With Fire: On the domestication of the mobile phone among Palestinian teenage girls in Israel”. In their research, they analyzed mobile phone practices among Palestinian teenage girls in Israel. The Paper constructs a detailed account of mobile phone use among Palestinian Israeli girls who, at the time of the fieldwork (2003-2006), used mobile phones given to them by their illicit boyfriends, unbeknownst to their parents.

danah boyd writes on the Shift6 blog:

Palestinian boys give their girlfriends phones for the express purpose of being able to communicate with them in a semi-private manner without the physical proximity that would be frowned on. At the same time, girls know that parents do not approve of them having access to such private encounters with boys - they go to great lengths to hide their mobiles and suffer consequences when they are found out. While the boys offered these phones as a tool of freedom, they often came with a price. Girls were expected to only communicate with the boy and never use the phone for any other purpose. In the article, Hijazi-Omari and Ribak quote one girl as expressing frustration over this and saying “I did not escape prison only to find myself another prison.” These girls develop fascinating practices around using the phone, hiding from people, and acquiring calling cards.

No doubt mobile communications technology is enabling teens in the Middle East to bypass cultural norms by providing them with access to private communication channels. More examples:

BBC article

Adnan Gharabiya

4 comments · »»

Sri Lanka: Our Lady of Madhu and the Bishop

Nishadha Silva · 08:16

lingua → es

Sri Lankan government forces are closing in on Madhu area in Mannar district and it is said that this capture will be very beneficial for the morale of the troops and the government. In the event of army advancing, the Bishop of Mannar Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph has moved the statue of Our Lady of Madhu deep into the LTTE controlled areas. This has received a mixed reaction from the Sri Lankan blogosphere. The shrine is considered one of the holiest Catholic spots in Sri Lanka, and is known to attract Catholics regardless of their ethnicity. Despite its importance, the fact that is is situated in the conflict zone has meant that fewer devotees visit the shrine over the years.

Lanka Libertarian strongly questions the Bishop's motives in his post Time for Mannar Bishop Rayauppu Joseph to speak up.

He has allowed priests under him like the ones depicted above to participate in LTTE propaganda and has not disciplined them as far as i know. Bishop of Mannar himself has attended LTTE propaganda rallies and other functions, including reportedly the funeral of roasted murderers like Thamilchelvan and have turned a blind eye to child soldiers participating in such functions.
All of that lead us to believe he is a willing collaborator of a murderous fascist group.

Kanabona.com offers a different view siting that an unarmed catholic priest can't do what he wants in a LTTE controlled area in his post Opinion: Our Lady of Madhu and the Bishop of Mannar .

As for the frequent allegation of bias of the Mannar Bishop and his Diocesan priests towards the tigers, once again it smacks of total insensitivity to the complexity of the situation.

For one thing the Bishop has continuously stood for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. He has consistently denounced war and violence. At the last Presidential Elections he unsuccessfully appealed to his followers to exercise their franchise, contrary to LTTE orders against it. The late Maj. Gen. Parami Kulatunga was a good personal friend of his - all of this demonstrates his impartiality in the crisis.

It must stressed that a substantial portion of the Mannar Diocese lies in LTTE territory so the Bishop of Mannar is not in a position to take on the Tigers as much as he would like to. It is easy for the JHU to shout hoarse from their safe well secured confines in Colombo, but for an unarmed priest of God to openly challenge the world's most ruthless terrorists in their own territory is an impossible task.

transcurrents.com talks about the people who are caught in the crossfire and goes on to add why capturing Madhu is this significant for the president in his post Madhu Church: Tragic Casualty of Politico-Military Crossfire.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa is a devout Buddhist but the First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa is an equally devout Catholic. Shortly before his Presidential election campaign in 2005 Rajapaksa wished to go to the Madhu church with his wife.

Since the Madhu church was in LTTE controlled territory, “permission” was sought from the Tigers for the visit. Rajapaksa was Prime Minister then. The LTTE laid down the condition that once inside LTTE territory, Rajapaksa should dispense with his security detail and rely only on Tiger escort. This was unacceptable and the idea of a Madhu visit was aborted.

The issue however rankled in Mahinda’s mind. During his election campaign he often referred to the fact that though he was Prime Minister he was not allowed to visit some parts of the country.

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