Archive for
September 11th, 2008
Stories
Lebanon: The Assassination's Echo
At 18:30 GMT on September 10th, Mr Saleh Aridi was about to drive his car when a bomb planted under the driver-seat went off, killing him on the spot. Mr Aridi a well known top adviser to the government minister and pro-Syrian Druze leader Talal Arslan. With his death, the number of assassinated officials in Lebanon mounted to 11 since former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination on February 14, 2005. It is important to note that this incident marks the very first killing of a pro-Syrian and government opposition personnel on Lebanese soils. Ten of the 11 assassinated officials were pro-government and anti-Syrian, with the exclusion of Imad Moughniyah who was pro-Syrian and was assassinated on Syrian soils in February this year.
The blast was covered by local and international media and more details on the incident are pending investigation. While the shock of this returning phenomenon of assassinations and the new targeted figures kept bloggers from analyzing much of its background and intentions, they reported the incident by whatever material they could find.
Liminal at Lebanon Heart Blogs posted a list of the assassinated figures in Lebanon and left it without a comment:
Assassinations
Feb 2005: Ex-PM Rafik Hariri
April 2005: MP Bassel Fleihan
June 2005: Anti-Syria journalist Samir Kassir
June 2005: Ex-Communist leader George Hawi
Dec 2005: Anti-Syria MP Gebran Tueni
Nov 2006: Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel
June 2007: Anti-Syria MP Walid Eido
Sep 2007: Anti-Syria MP Antoine Ghanim
Dec 2007: Army Gen Francois al-Hajj
Jan 2008: Police investigator Wissam Eid
Sep 2008: Pro-Syria MP Saleh Aridi
Reflecting back on an older incident, Manuela Paraipan links to an earlier article that represents the Druze's intentions to stick together in such times and circumstances:
In spite of the political differences when threatened Druze stick together. In May they have proven it yet again. You can read an interesting account of May events here.
Eu4hell who blogs at Livejournal writes about this incident, focusing on the highlighted issue of this being the first assassination of a pro-Syrian figure. The post also includes a picture taken from the scene:
Wednesday's attack is the first deadly car bombing since January, when a security official investigating a series of political killings blamed on Syria was killed. Aridi is the first opposition politician to be assassinated since a string of politically motivated attacks against members of the parliamentary majority bloc began in late 2004
More pictures and reporting were posted by the Lebanese Tag:
The state-run National News Agency said the bomb was planted under the driver's seat of Aridi's car and detonated by remote control.
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat arrived at the victim's residence in Baysour shortly after the blast in a show of Druze solidarity and to pay his condolences.Supporters of the Democratic Party opened fire from automatic rifles in the air, in the traditional way of expressing wrath, but no clashes were reported.
Security sources in the Aley Province, of which Baysour is part, said the situation is “under control.”
Sasa at Syrian News Wire reports on the incident and the significance of its location:
A main figure in Lebanon's opposition has been killed.
Druze politician Saleh Aridi has died in a bomb blast in Aley. He was an ally of Hezbollah - and his party (led by Talal Arslan) humiliated Junblatt in the fighting in May.
Aley is just outside Beirut, and is considered a stronghold of Walid Junblatt.
The two sides were due to come together on Monday to discuss their differences.
+961's blogger Rami posted a picture of the blown up car and wrote:
I don’t know since when Lebanese people started exchanging messages through dead bodies, but they should really stop it. It’s a dangerous habit because 6 other persons were injured yesterday during the message delivery.
Now Lebanon along side reporting the incident since day one,published an article rounding up the reactions of Lebanese officials to the assassination.
UAE: Iran Quake's Tremors Felt in Dubai
Tremors from an earthquake in nearby Iran were felt in Dubai and other parts of the UAE, sending thousands of office workers and residents to the streets as high-rise buildings were evacuated, bloggers report.
The quake, which measured 6.1 on the Richter scale, struck near Bandar Abbas, while tremors registered in the UAE measured 4.8, according to news reports.
Iraqi blogger Attawie, who lives in Abu Dhabi, sets the scene:
I was checking my email yesterday around 3 PM when I felt really dizzy. For someone fasting during Ramadan this is not a good news. It means you're not having the right portion of food to keep you healthy. But I remember very well that I had biryanee (rice with biryanee spices and vegetables), roasted piece of chicken, salad and a piece of cake with dried figs for desert. I can't be hungry this soon!
With closed eyes I was still feeling dizzy. Not a good idea to stand up, I looked right and there it was. The stuffed tiger with long dangling hands and legs was swinging right and left. It can't be the AC that made it move because if it was so then the shelves he was hanging on should not move too! Oh my God! An earthquake.
I ran to the next room where my father was helping my sister to hang her new shelves. I told them that there's an earth quake and I'm feeling dizzy. So they'd better change. We have to leave the building. A moment of silence there was and I said it's true look at the chandlers, they are swinging.
The earthquake was still there, the chandlers were still going left right and left, I put some important stuff in my handbag and told dad to bring the case of our important documents.
Seabee, from Dubai, says he felt nothing.
I was in Dubai Marina at the time and felt nothing. Mrs Seabee said her office building in Knowledge Village trembled slightly, but that's only three storeys high.
Many people are relating their experience of it to the media, but not the ones I'd like to hear from - the guys in the cranes above the world's tallest building Burj Dubai.
From Kuwait, Lebanese Fonzy posts a video, which shows people on the streets after evacuating their buildings:
Fonzy further explains:
These tremors are from a 6.2 quake that hit Iran and spread to Dubai. The aftershock measured 4.8 on the Richter scale. Buildings all along Sheikh Zayed Road were evacuated after the tremor struck at around 3.00pm, with crowds of confused people flooding out into the street. Buildings were actually swaying from side to side.
And Teachthemasses's School Days asks:
Did the Earth move for you?
The UAE Community Blog also features an exchange between bloggers and their readers about what happened.
The Lady asks:
Anybody felt any mild tremors today at around 3:05pm?
And hallodubai replies:
yes i did! our building was shaking!!!
Extinct adds:
I don't know about buildings swaying but my bed definitely moved!
But for Josh of Arabia, who was in Sharjah, there was more important business to attend to:
oh yeah, i was eating in the sofa and it moves..then our windchimes made sounds too..half of the people in our building in sharjah went down fast, but i rather go ahead eating..
i got lot of calls after..
Japan: Street View's Missing Streets
The launch early last month of Google's Street View service in major Japanese cities brought with it considerable controversy and debate among Internet users, particularly with regard to the scope of coverage and lack of local consultation prior to roll-out. Opinions among bloggers were divided — and remain divided — over whether broadcasting detailed images of the country's public streets and residential alleyways to the whole world is a good thing or not. While that debate has quieted down, another discussion has emerged in its wake, centered on a curious property of the new service that, as of yet, remains unexplained by the company that created it.
One of the earliest bloggers to write about this was tama at Tamagorogu [タマゴログ], who on August 6th, after taking Street View for a spin and remarking on their surprise at the service's incredible detail, noticed something funny. While the service was rolled out across 12 cities in Japan, including Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka, the coverage did not appear to be uniform across these areas:
ところがどうもおかしなことに気付きました。街路の網羅度がこれほど充実しているにもかかわらず、かなり広い範囲の空白地帯があるのです。私が住んでいる大田区のかなりの部分はストリートビューがありません。
これはいったいどうしたことなんでしょう。23区内でこれほど広い空白地帯があるのはここだけのようです。23区外もかなり広範囲に網羅されていることを考えると、優先度の低いエリアだとは思えません。 Google は国防関係の施設は航空写真でもぼかしたりしますから、ここも意図的に操作されているんではないかと勘ぐってしまいます。まさかこのエリアに国家機密レベルの重要施設があって写真を自由に閲覧されてはまずい、なんてことがあるのでしょうか。謎は深まるばかりです。
Coverage of Ōta Ward [大田区] (Tokyo) in Street View. Follow this link to explore the area directly in Street View.
Just over a week later on August 14th, blogger and social activist Nobuo Sakiyama [崎山伸夫] wrote a post on the “blank zones” (空白地帯) in coverage on Street View of Japan's major cities:
ここで言う問題は、すでに多くの議論の対象となっている「何が映っているか」ではない。逆の話だ。ストリートビュー機能を有効にしたGoogleマップでは、ストリートビュー写真が用意されている道路は青く表示されてそれとわかるようになっている。逆にいえば、ストリートビューのないところも分かる。
オプトアウトを要求した場合にどう変化するかまでは確認していないが、東京都では、大田区の大半のような大きな空白地帯のほかにも生活道路的な道に入り込んでいない場所も多い。例えば、吉原や山谷の一部もそうだし、大久保・百人町もそういう部分が多い。湯島駅の近辺も粗め。根津・千駄木あたりは単に道が細いところを通っていないような気もするが、高木さんの挙げた目白の事例では、かなり細い道まで入り込んでいるから、単純に道路の幅の問題ともいえないだろう。
東京以外では、有名な大規模被差別部落（ここは地域団体がドメインとってWebサイトまで持っているが一応都市名も含めて実名は避ける）についてストリートビューが外周以外はあまりないなどが分かる。もっとも、この都市の空白地帯はそれ以外にも多いし、また、2ちゃんねるの人権問題板などをみると、被差別部落だからといってGoogleがストリートビューを避けているという因果関係もないようだ。ただ、その地域のおおよその所在を知っていれば地図の上で可視化されてくるという要素はある。
(For those interested, Sakiyama goes into more detail about the connection to burakumin (部落民, a Japanese social minority group) in an interesting and detailed follow-up post [ja]. If readers are interested I could translate part of this entry in a separate round-up.)
Sakiyama's thoughts are echoed in a popular entry by Hatena blogger id:buyobuyo:
歴史的・社会的に差別を受けてきたような地域を避けているのではないか、ということで、そういう地域がいやな形で、写っていないことで晒されるようになるのではないのかという懸念である。
現在は、サポートエリアがまだ小さいのでそういうことにはならないだろうが、懸念は残る。前にも書いたが、俺は人が写らないようにもっと工夫して、商業地域や幹線道路沿いに限定すればよいサービスだと思うし、そのような明確な撮影のガイドラインを公表することで、紹介したような懸念も払拭できるだろう。
Coverage of Ōta Ward [大田区] (Tokyo) in Street View. Follow this link to explore the area directly in Street View. buyobuyo compares the atmosphere of Ōta Ward in these pictures to Area 51 in the U.S.
At umakoya.com, another blogger considers a few of the places in Ōta Ward not covered by Street View: Kugahara, Ikegami Honmon-ji and Kamata.
たしかに久が原、池上本門寺近辺は庶民が住む場所ではないけど、小生の近所は工業地帯。
大田区零細工場の技術力は世界一ィィィィィィ！な旋盤工場や、倉庫、クリーニング工場がいっぱいです。
空白地帯が蒲田まで及んでいることを考えると、お屋敷街を外したのとは別の理由があるように思えます。
The technological strength of small-scale factories in Ōta ward originates in many world-class turneries, warehouses, and cleaning factories.
Considering that the blanked-out areas reach as far as Kamata [蒲田], the idea that [Google] was trying to remove high-class streets doesn't seem very convincing.
Other bloggers found blank zones in different areas. Blogger Yutaka Tomisawa [富澤豊] picks out one in Namidabashi (Tokyo) [泪橋] (link to Street View):
この他、よ〜く見てみると、「泪橋」のあたりも、小さな空白地帯になっていたりします。
ということは、グーグル社も、何らかの配慮をする意思はある。
だったら、うちの近所も、ゴッソリ空白地帯にしてもらうことも不可能ではないということ。
Google must be intentionally paying special attention [to certain areas].
If that's the case, it's not impossible that they would completely blank out for me the area where I live.
Meanwhile, blogger id:kanose at ARTIFACT@ハテナ系 wonders why their hometown of Nishitokyo is also blanked out:
西東京市は地元なんだけど、このエリアは政府施設がある訳でもなし、お屋敷街がある訳でもない。なぜ空白地帯になっているのか気になってる。
Coverage of part of Nishitokyo [西東京] in Street View. Follow this link to explore the area directly in Street View.
Finally, at the Osaka shi mondai matome site [大阪市問題まとめサイト], one blogger argues that the connection between blank zones and so-called assimilation districts [同和地区] (or burakumin areas) is just a new variation on an old theme:
同和地区だけ写真が縦覧できないという「空白地帯問題」は同和地区が周知されている何より証拠です。つまり公然の秘密ってわけ。それがストリートビューにより顕在化されただけのことです。パチンコが合法ギャンブルだとか飛田新地が合法売春地帯ってのと全く同じです。それは昔からのことで、今になって始まった話ではありません。
Thanks to Taku Nakajima for the suggestion to translate this article.
China: 2008 Internet Buzz Words Video
Want to have a sense of internet buzz words in China? Enjoy the video below.
The original MV is called 5 Mascots（吉祥五寶）and the video is produced by Zhang Zhang workshop （張樟工作室）. If the streaming is too busy, you can watch the video at 56.com.
Below is a translation of the funny lyrics and the buzz words are highlighted in italic.
我的媽媽她不會上網
成天到晚貎似很忙
她說網絡不是好東西
裡面的東西很黃很暴力
哎呦媽媽 你這是聽誰說地
哎呦媽媽 你這話是够雷的
哎呦媽媽 乖孩子我告訴你
我上網是打醬油地
My mother doesn't know how to go online
She looks very busy everyday
She says the internet is no good
Everything inside is very yellow and very violent
Oh mama, who tells you so?
Oh mama, what you say thunder-shocks me
Oh mama, let your son tell you
I go online to buy sauce (majority onlookers)
我的爸爸他是搞體育的
他也總冏我說網絡迷離
我略懂得問 這是為什麼的呢？
爸爸被我槑得他直喊：我暈!
哎呦爸爸 網絡都是普及體育
哎呦爸爸 你要學習謝主席
哎呦爸爸 你要多練叉腰肌
俯卧撐最好不要再練習
My father is a sport professional
He always sobers me and says the internet is too dizzy
I still know how to ask why's that so?
Because of my double dumbness , my father shouted: I faint
Oh papa, the internet is a kind of popular sport
Oh papa, you should learn from Chairman Xie (Chair of the China football team)
Oh papa, you should practice your waist muscle (a posture to teach people a lesson)
And don't do too many push-up exercise
我的奶奶她是高幹
脾氣很爆燥但對我庝愛
她總是說我很傻很天真
只會上網不會找女孩愛
哎呦奶奶 我現在只是小孩
哎呦奶奶 我找不到好女孩
哎呦奶奶 不要再逼我戀愛
找個紙老虎你也不光彩
My grandma is a government official
Her temper is very rough but she loves me very much
She always says I am very silly and innocent
That I only know how to go online but not looking for girlfriend
Oh grannie, I am still a children
Oh grannie, I can't find any good girl
Oh grannie, don't force me to love
A paper tiger will ruin your fame
我的哥哥 游手好閑的
總是在網上把女孩勾引
晚上開房被警察抓去
沒想到晚上就回到家里
哎呦哥哥 你是不是又越獄
哎呦哥哥 警察為啥放你
哎呦哥哥 我估計你跟男足學習
騙警察說你是去洗澡的
My brother is good for nothing
He always flirts with girls online
He was caught by police at night in a motel
But managed to return home in the morning
Oh brother, are you prison break again?
Oh brother, why do the police release you?
Oh brother, have you learned from the Chinese male football team?
And told them that you were just taking a shower?
Links for Thu, 2008-09
The Ivanov Report dissects the Washington Post's recent coverage of Russia: “What was somewhat surprising, though, was the level of the Post's attention to the topic: between August 9 and September 2, the Post has published a whopping 37 editorials and op-eds (and I might have missed some) — not to mention regular reports from on-the-ground.”
Estonian blogger Flasher T of AnTyx writes this in response to a post about Russia by the Economist's Edward Lucas: “I am disappointed in Edward Lucas for perpetuating this intellectual farce. They would have us believe that all the evil and injustice of Russia is down to the Chekists, or the Bolsheviks, or the Jews. But the bastards are only in the Kremlin because the common Russian people put them there.”
Vilhelm Konnander and Wu Wei weigh in on the debate on Russia vs. the West currently taking place on the Economist's website.
Window on Eurasia writes about Russia's “major victory on pipelines”: “[…] the Russian government will now have full and uncontested control over pipelines between the Caspian basin and the West which pass through Russian territory and will be able either directly or through its clients like the PKK to disrupt the only routes such as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan that bypass the Russian Federation.”
Window on Eurasia discusses a recent piece on Magomed Yevloev's murder: “Moreover, the West […] is too focused on talking to Moscow ‘about the interpretation of the third paragraph of the fourth point of ht Medvedev-Sarkozy plan' to be concerned with such ‘details' as a political murder, ‘lest it put at risk important mutual strategic interests'.” North Ossetian blogger Valery Dzutsev thinks that the EU's demand for a “[proper investigation of] the killing” may be perceived by Russia “only as supporting evidence of the western involvement in the ongoing Ingush surge of violence”: “In one of his recent interviews Putin pensively said, that Russian government ‘knows what is going on in Ingushetia'. Knowing Putin, it is not difficult to figure out what he knows. He must be thinking, that the West have organised a plot in North Caucasus for Russia.”
Hugo Miranda celebrates the unlikely 0-0 tie achieved by the Bolivian National football team against Brazil [es] in Rio de Janeiro for World Cup qualifiers.
After a long period of debate on donor cuts to Mozambican State Budget, Joe Hanlon, a British scholar joins the debate to comment on the Mozambican government positions. In his article tittled “Government stand up to donors-but is corruption the best place to stand and fight?“, Hanlon examines the whole issue of corruption and different sensitivities over its fight. Basically Hanlon agrees that in Mozambique, corruption is not being tackled and regrets the government’s slow pace in response to constant donor appeals for the need of urgent measures in the fight of corruption.
Wanted in Sierra Leone: Movie Stars!, “The search for new movie stars has kicked off in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown last weekend. The programme dubbed “The Next Movie Star” aims at discovering future actors and actresses in the West Africa region. Two people would be selected to represent Sierra Leone.”
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