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Egyptian Bloggers Ask: WHY?

Marwa Rakha · 23:56 · Middle East & North Africa

It seems that most posts from the Egyptian blogosphere are attempts at finding answers to the many whys and hows in their heads.

Sandmonkey asked why blame Egypt and answered:

Blame Egypt: All the cool kids are doing it

The rationale being that somehow, Egypt is not doing enough to support the palestinian cause, and is to blame for the Ghaza blockade. The rationale completely skips that 1) Egypt tends to honor it's international agreements, even if we don't like it, 2) The coordination for opening the border happens between us and the Palestinian authority, which was overthrown by a nice bloody coup exacted by Hamas, and 3) Hamas is the kind of islamist terrorist organization that we don't really wish to legitimize or support, let alone give access to a part of our country that witnessed 3 seperate terrorist attacks in the last 4 years, 2 of which targeting Israeli tourists. Also, in a great twist of irony, all of those people blaming us have a sordid history of letting down (and sometimes killing, in thousands I might add) the palestinians themselves: Jordanians with Black september, Lebanese with Sabra and Shatila, the syrians by stoking the fires and never actually doing anything to support them except getting beaten at wars, and the gulfies by being totally passive and never actually doing anything, ever. But yes, blame Egypt. We are clearly at fault here.

Sandmonkey also states here why Egypt should not be in charge of Gaza as a reaction to Drima's post:

1) It's not anybody's to give anyway!

2) Sure, it used to be our protectorate, until the Israelis took it over in 1967, a nice place where lefty seculars live. Now, they want to return it to us, with islamist militants running the show? Oh, thank you. Do you wanna give us blankets with chickenpox in them as well?

3) If we did end up taking over Ghaza, we will have to clean it from Hamas's presence and disarm the population, which means that we will kill and or arrest at least about 30,000 people , just in the initial sweep, and we really don;t want palestinian blood on our hands, or like anywhere near us to begin with. So, again, pass.

4) Do you really want the palestinians to enjoy the same “rights and freedoms” that Egyptians have under the blessed Mubarak regime? Really?

Egypt has always been everybody's surrogate Homeland, the place everyone can go to and make their temporary home, as the 4 million sudanese refugees (Hey drima, you wanna take them back?), the 2 million somalian refugees and the half million iraqi refugees we took in the past 5 years will tell you. But that's it. We are a stop on the way at best. We are to a homecountry for others what Tofu is to chicken. We don't give passports and we don't give rights, and honestly, the Ghazan's probably deserve better than this.

Sandmonkey lists here , here and here a few more reasons why people blame Egypt and one more time why he thinks Egypt should not get involved.

Perwin Ali also has a few more questions:

If the Hamas powers-that-be don't like Egypt so much, and have been screaming foul play since the beginning, why are they coming over for their Gaza Resolution meeting? Why of all the places in the world have they picked Egypt to meet their arch rival Fat-h (yes, the crazy irony of the Hamas- Fat-h situation isn't lost on me either)?

I really need someone to explain this… logically… to me.

As a footnote I have a couple more questions bugging me

1) If to this day Fat-h, Hamas, and the ever-forgotten Palestinian Authority (yeah, the one that supposedly rules/leads/whatever… their big tomato there (not cheese, tomato -squishy and messy), can't unite and get over their grudges and personal agendas, how do they plan on winning their war against Israel?
2) Where's Iran gone to, now that the fight has been taken to the ground and they have to either put up or shut up? What happened to all the slurs and supposed weapons that allegedly started this whole fiasco?

And as a bonus combined question (last one, I promise)… Where are all the other wagging tongues and mud slingers? Which holes did they crawl into now that it doesn't pay to talk, since the situation reeeeeeally needs actions? Who is left in the picture now? Who's picking up the proverbial pieces?… say it with me…. EGYPT!

I sooooooooo rest my case, people.

As I was saying before… “Yes I'm Egyptian, proud of it, and I will GLADLY gouge out the eyes of anyone who so much as thinks of looking funny at Egypt…أيوة فخورة اني مصرية واللي عنده مشكلة يوريني نفسه كده

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An Egyptian Blogger's take on Robert Fisk's Piece

Marwa Rakha · 23:47 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → fr

Perwin Ali's take on Robert Fisk's piece for The Independent: The Rotten State of Egypt is too Powerless and Corrupt to Act. The Egyptian blogger wrote:

I believe [that Fisk's piece] is the latest example of how formulaic and commercialized one can get… even a highly respected source. It shows you that one can't blindly follow and/or agree with someone or something all the time. We should always question things, and definitely think for ourselves

Now, While I have nothing but respect for Robert Fisk, I can't help but feel that what he's saying here, while true, is out of context… or at the very least needs the added layer of what happens to Egypt and Egyptians outside of “Egypt's economic foundations [crumbling]” as a result of crossing its so-called allies. Why isn't he talking about the fact that Egypt will stand alone in fighting the Israelis, Americans, Brits, and the other covert cohorts, if it does indeed open the Rafah gate? And fight them on her own land, the much-coveted Sinai? Why isn't he talking about how opening the gate will give Israel a much stronger footing in Gaza when Palestinians start leaving in droves?

She also highlights another instance where Fisk goes off point saying:

It also feels more like a formulaic piece than a true evaluation of the Gaza crisis and its implications on Egypt, since everybody seems hell bent on making Egypt a star in this catastrophe, albeit a notorious one. I mean, he does a good job of stating the key negatives of the government which we all know by heart now, but why is he talking about prison rapes and negligent doctors? Where is the context of how this fits in with what's going on right now? Is this what he needs to be talking about now?

After finding out what I think of this piece, a friend asked me in great surprise if I don't believe that Egypt is corrupt and corrupt to the core. The kind of corruption that would push many youth to embrace possible death at sea just to get out of here. So I explained to her that I'm not saying it's untrue, I'm saying the opposite. It's true… very true. But it's also very out of context here.

Fisk's tally of Egypt's degrees of corruption isn't what he should be talking about here if he really wants to talk about what he clearly believes to be Egypt's lack-luster role in all of this. I think he's just using his trusted technique, pulling out his old notes filed under ‘examples of corruption in Egypt' as a space filler for something he clearly doesn't want to look at objectively.

Concluding her post she advised Fisk:

If he had really wanted to use a constructive example he could've used something like the undeterred gas deal with Israel. Now that's much closer to home in this case, not the classic sensational stuff he used. But then again, it's not as scandalous as “…a religious facade in which the meaning of Islam has become effaced by its physical representation.” which is a sentence I'm not sure fits how exactly with the supposed abominable performance given by Egypt so far. Maybe when you read his article you can explain it to me.

Surely Fisk can do a better job at being unbiased, objective and analytical.

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Egypt: From Egyptian Artists to Artists of the World

Eman AbdElRahman · 21:19 · Middle East & North Africa

Egyptian artists are lending their voices to the Palestinian cause, explaining to the rest of the world the history of the Arab-Israeli struggle from their view point.

The initiative, spearheaded by Khaled El Sawy, a famous Egyptian actor and blogger, is called “A message from Egyptian artists to all artists of the world“, and is targeted towards non-Arabs.

Om Maryam translated El Sawy's message in one of the comments on the post.

Here's the actor's message in Arabic, followed by Om Maryam's translation:

فلنضغط من أجل إنقاذ غزة فورا
انعقد الليلة الماضية مؤتمرنا الحاشد للتضامن مع أهلنا العرب في قطاع غزة المحتل، وإدانة الدولة الصهيونية الإرهابية إسرائيل، وتحميل النظم العربية مجتمعة والمجتمع الدولي بأسره المسئولية الأخلاقية عن هذه المذبحة.
غزة تموت.. والقاتل هو إسرائيل.. ولكن إسرائيل ما كان لها أن تصبح دولة فوق القانون لولا الدعم المهول الذي تلقته من بريطانيا الاستعمارية التي زرعتها زرعا في بلادنا العربية، ولولا التكامل الاستعماري الذي يربط دولة إسرائيل الاستيطانية بالإمبريالية العالمية عموما وبالإمبريالية الأمريكية بالذات.

let's pressure to save Gaza immediately
A conference was held last night to express our solidarity with our Arab people in the occupied Gaza Strip, to condemn the terrorist Zionist state of Israel, and to accuse the Arab regimes and the entire international community of the moral responsibility for the massacre.
Gaza is dying .. The killer is Israel .. Israel, however, wouldn't have become a state above the law, if it hadn't been for the support it received from the colonial Great Britain which planted it in our Arab countries and the colonial integration, which links Israel with the global Imperialism in general and particularly American Imperialism.

Then he proceeds with clarifying history details:

يا فناني العالم..
لقد وقع أغلب شعوبكم ضحية مؤامرة خسيسة منذ عدة عقود حاكتها أيادي الاستعمار الرأسمالي والحركة الصهيونية معا، وبمقتضاها تم تلفيق أسطورة تاريخية ودينية مدعومة بأكاذيب إعلامية مستمرة تدعي أحقية شتات يهود العالم في استيطان أرض فلسطين العربية، وقد أضاف الصهاينة شعارهم الخبيث “من النيل للفرات” في ثنايا مشروعهم الغامض حتى تكون أراضي العرب من مصر إلى العراق سلبا متاحا مستقبلا.
لقد استخدم المشروع الإمبريالي-الصهيوني اضطهاد اليهود في أوروبا خاصة إبان النازية ليحقق عدة أهداف مضادة برمتها للعرب، فمن جهة “تتطهر” أوروبا من اليهود، ومن جهة أخرى تتأسس دولة عميلة بالقرب من منابع النفط، ومن جهة ثالثة يتم فصل مصر عن الشام وفصل المشرق العربي عن المغرب العربي بحيث لا تنهض أبدا أمة عربية موحدة.
وإذا كان الصهاينة قد استخدموا التاريخ والدين بعد أن زيفوهما، فإن الإمبريالية العالمية استخدمت مشاعر الاحتقان والاحتقار الغربية ضد المسلمين والعرب والتي هي ندوب غائرة في وجدان الشعوب على ضفتي المتوسط تركتها ضربات سيوف الحروب الصليبية من العصور الوسطى وحتى الآن.. وفي الحالتين، فقد تم خداع أغلب شعوبكم مرارا وتكرارا بينما كان الثمن في بلادنا أفدح مما تتخيلون.
فخلال ستين عاما اغتصبت إسرائيل أرض فلسطين وشردت وقتلت وعذبت شعبها، واعتدت على أراضي وشعوب أكثر من سبع دول عربية منها دول لا تربطها بها أية حدود، ودمرت كل محاولة جادة للوحدة العربية أو التنمية المستقلة للعالم العربي، كما أهانت مرارا وتكرارا مقدسات المسلمين والمسيحيين الشرقيين، ودون أي احترام للمجتمع الإنساني العالمي اخترقت القوانين الدولية برعاية خاصة من مجلس الأمن الدولي أو مجلس الدكتاتورية الدولية على الأصح.

Artists of the world ..
There have been victims of your people of a despicable conspiracy for several decades made by the hands of the colonial capital and the Zionist movement together, to fabricate the historical and religious myth -supported by ongoing media lies- claims the eligibility of the scattered Jews of the world in the settlement of the Arab land of Palestine. The Zionists added the vicious slogan “From the Nile to Forat” in The mysterious course of their project to make Arab lands from Egypt to Iraq available for their looting in future.
The Imperial - Zionist project used the persecution of the Jews in Europe specially during the Nazi to achieve several aims ,totally anti-Arab, on one hand, Europe gets rid of Jews, on the other hand a puppet state is established near the oil wells, and a third is separating Egypt from the Levant and the separation of the Arab Orient and Arab Maghreb so as not to ever promote a unified Arab nation .
If the Zionists have used history and religion after Counterfeiting them, the world imperialism used the feelings of contempt and resentment of The West against Muslims and Arabs, which are deep scars in the minds of people on both sides of the Mediterranean left by the Crusades of the Middle Ages and so far .. In both cases, the majority of your people have been deceived again and again while the price we paid has been much higher than imagine.
Over sixty years, Israel raped the land of Palestine and displaced ,killed and tortured Palestinian People. It assaulted the territory and peoples of more than seven Arab countries, including countries with which it has not any borders, and destroyed every serious attempt to Arab unity or the independent development of the Arab world, and repeatedly insulted Muslims and Eastern Christians holies .It broke the international laws under the Special care of The International UN Security Council ,or rather the International Council of dictatorship without any respect for the global humanitarian community.

He further continues:

يا فناني العالم..
لقد عانت شعوبنا على مدار التاريخ الحديث من الاستعمار الأوروبي الذي قسمها لدويلات ضعيفة وامتص ثرواتها وأذل إنسانها واستغله حتى النخاع ثم تركه فريسة هينة للديكتاتوريات العربية التي استلمت مقوده حتى الآن فبددت ما بقي فيه من قوة وامتصت ما بقي فيه من ثروات وقمعنه وحرمته من الحياة الكريمة مدعومة في ذلك كله بالإمبريالية العالمية.
وبينما كنا نحن ننزف في بلادنا إما من غارات الجيش الصهيوني أو من هراوات قوات الأمن المركزي كانت الحقائق تخفى عنكم وتشوه وتلوى فيتساوى القاتل بالمقتول، ويتم اتهام كل معارض لإسرائيل وللصهيونية العالمية التي تدعمها بمعاداة السامية، ويسمى كل من يقاوم احتلال بلاده بالمجرم الإرهابي.
لقد رأيتم بأعينكم كيف انهارت أخلاقيات الطبقات الحاكمة في العالم كله مع بوادر الأزمة الرأسمالية العالمية لتحول التفاؤل المقترن بمطلع قرن جديد إلى تشاؤم عالمي من همجية شاملة، وتعرت جميع تلك الطبقات الحاكمة أمام جماهيرها بشكل متسارع خاصة في الولايات المتحدة وبريطانيا اللتين مزجتا العنصرية والطائفية بمشروع العولمة الرأسمالية السفاحة.
يا فناني العالم..
تحية منا جميعا لحركة “ليس باسمنا” التي وقع بيانها التاريخي مثقفون وفنانون أمريكيون ضد سياسات بوش الدموية والقمعية خارج وداخل الولايات المتحدة، واستلهاما من نفس الروح نناشدكم أن نقف صفا واحدا لنقول لشعوب العالم الأجمع:
ليس باسمنا أبدا.. يتم قتل غزة خنقا لعامين ثم يتم الإجهاز عليها الآن ذبحا
لقد وقفت شعوبنا مع شعوبكم ضد كل من النازية والفاشية والحكم العنصري لجنوب إفريقيا حتى تمت إحالتها جميعها إلى مزبلة التاريخ، وها نحن اليوم جميعا مطالبون بالتصدي لدولة إسرائيل وللحركة الصهيونية العالمية وللحلف الإمبريالي القذر الذي يربطها بنفس الطبقات الحاكمة المأزومة في عالم فوضوي توحش حتى قارب الانهيار اقتصاديا وبيئيا وخلقيا معا.
يا فناني العالم..
تحملوا معنا هذه المسئولية واضغطوا على حكوماتكم التي طالما ظلمتنا رافعين معنا شعارا موحدا هو:
أنقذوا غزة الآن.. وأوقفوا إسرائيل
فليكن السابع من يناير 2009 وهو يوم عيد المسيحيين الشرقيين-أشقائنا في الوطن العربي- يوما يصرخ فيه فنانو العالم كله من كافة الأديان وبكل اللغات وبمختلف سبل التعبير وفي كل الأماكن المتاحة من أجل إنقاذ غزة ودفن المشروع الصهيوني الدموي الذي هو آخر مخلفات النظم العنصرية المنحطة.

Artists of the world ..
Our people have suffered over the recent history from European colonization, which divided them to small and weak states ,absorbed their wealth ,humiliated the humans and exploited them to the core and then left them as an easy prey for Arab dictatorships driving them so far, wasting their strength and absorbing
what was left of their wealth .They suppressed and deprived them of a decent life, supported in all this by global Imperialism.
While we bled in our country either from the Zionist army raids or the Central Security Forces, facts were hidden from you, distorted and twisted. The Slain and killer became equals.
Anyone who protested against Israel and world Zionism was accused by anti-Semitism, calling whoever tried to resist the occupation of his country as a criminal terrorist.

You have seen with your own eyes the collapsing of the ethics of the ruling classes throughout the world with signs of the crisis of global capitalism, which turned the optimism associated with the onset of a new century to global pessimism of comprehensive mess. All the ruling classes have been unmasked by their people , especially in the United States and Britain, which mixed racism and sectarianism with the murderous capitalist globalization.
to all artists of the world ..
Greetings from all of us to the “Not In Our Name” movement which was historically signed by American intellectuals and artists against Bush's repressive and bloody policies inside and outside the United States. Inspired by the same spirit, we appeal that we stand together and say to the entire peoples of the world:
Not in our name, never .. is being killed strangled Gaza for two years and then finished off now slaughtered
We have stood by our people with all of your people against Nazism , fascism and the apartheid of South Africa until all were transferred to the dustbin of history. Today we are all called upon to address the State of Israel , the Zionist movement and the dirty Imperialist alliance which links them to the same ruling classes-involved in the crisis- in a chaotic and brutal
world which is about to collapse economically , environmental and moral together.
To all artists of the world ..
Bear with us this responsibility and press on your Governments, which has long been unfair to us.Carry with us a common slogan which is:
Save Gaza now .. and Stop Israel
Let VII of January 2009-which is the Christmas of Eastern Christians - our brothers in the Arab world – to be a day of all the artists of the whole world from all religions ,in all languages and with the various ways of expression in all places available to save Gaza and bury the bloody Zionist project which is the last remnants of the depraved racist regimes.

At last, he signed off his message saying:

يا فناني العالم..
معا ضد الإمبريالية
أنقذوا غزة فورا.. قاتلوا الصهيونية
الثالث من يناير 2009

To the artists of the world ..
Together against Imperialism
Save Gaza immediately .. Fight Zionism
3rd of January 2009

The initiative has been welcomed by Egyptian bloggers and readers - and 3arabawy writes about it in this post.

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Americas: Celebrating the Visit of the Three Kings

Eduardo Avila · 19:36, January 6th, 2009 · Americas

lingua → es · zht · zhs

The holiday season continues across the Americas, even as Christmas and the New Year holiday have all passed. In many countries in the region, the feast of “Los Reyes Magos” (The Three Kings) is an equally important festivity in many households. The day falls around the time of Epiphany and is celebrated on January 6th (or often the Sunday before), which is closely related to the 12 Days of Christmas as referred to in popular holiday stories.

Photo by El Mundo de Laura and used under a Creative Commons license

Each country celebrates the holiday, sometimes with its own variations, but the day commemorates that story of the three wise men (or three kings), who visited the newborn baby Jesus in the town of Bethlehem. Children across the region leave out grass and water for the kings' camels, who in turn, leave behind toys and sweets for the children. Even though the holiday is a religious one, it is falling victim to commercialization, especially targeted at Latin American immigrants, as mentioned by Erwin C of The Latin Americanist:

However, the economic crisis across the region is having an effect on this long-standing tradition. Ingrid of Vivir México [es] writes about her experience in Mexico:

Hoy que salí a la calle, al centro, temía encontrarme hordas de compradores trabajando para los Reyes Magos y su visita anual a los niños de nuestro país. Y sí, sí me encontré muchos compradores pero nada que ver con años pasados.

Según leo, este año las ventas de juguetes se redujeron de un 50 a 60% en México debido a los problemas económicos que enfrentamos día a día con la crisis mundial. Es triste, porque aunque estamos hablando de juguetes, el fin lúdico es tierno y parte de las tradiciones mexicanas. Gracias a la falta de dinero, los Reyes Magos sólo tienen capacidad de comprar juguetes pequeños, de los más baratos.

Today I went downtown, and I was afraid to run into hordes of shoppers working for the Three Kings and their annual visit to our country's children. And yes, I did see a lot of shoppers, but nothing like previous years.

According to what I read, this year sales of toys decreased 50-60% in Mexico due to the daily economic problems because of the world crisis. It is sad, because even though we are talking about toys, it is about fun and part of Mexican traditions. Due to the lack of money, the Three Kings are only able to buy small and inexpensive toys.

This holiday often excites children with the prospect of more presents. Louis Cyphre of El Opinador Compulsivo [es] becomes a little nostalgic about his childhood in Argentina and publishes an essay about the Three Kings that he wrote when he was in the 7th grade. The mystery and magic of this holiday appeals especially to children, who continue the tradition, with a little help of parents and relatives. However, Zenia Regalado in Cuba, regrets the time when she revealed the true identity of the gift giver [es].

A propósito de la fecha recordaba hoy el día en que maté una ilusión de mi hija cuando tenía cinco años. Ella colocó entonces yerbitas bajo su cama a la espera de un juguete que había pedido: una muñeca.

Se la compré y la coloqué a los pies de su cama. Al despertar dio un salto de alegría al verla.

Entre desorientada y confundida le dije: “No fueron los reyes magos, fue tu reina maga”.

Defender la fantasía a esa edad infantil suele ser una tendencia que más de uno asume. También como madre creo en ello, aunque quizás cometí una herejía.

On this date, I recall the day that I destroyed the illusion of my daughter, when she was 5 years-old. She placed herbs under her bed in order to wait for the toy that she asked for: a doll.

I bought her the doll and placed it at the foot of her bed. When she awoke, she jumped with joy upon seeing the doll.

I entered (her room) disorientated and confused, and I said, “It wasn't the Three Kings, it was your Wise Queen.”

Defending a fantasy at that young age is usually something that one takes on. Also, as a mother I believe in it, although maybe I committed a heresy.

The holiday is very important in many of the Latin American countries, whose citizens are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic or from other Christian traditions. However, in the country of Haiti, there are differences in the way various religious and spiritual traditions celebrate the day. Darlie writes:

Cependant, cette fête de l'Epiphanie demeure jusqu'ici très controversée en Haïti par les 3 tendances religieuses les plus en vogue du pays. (protestant, catholique et vaudouisant).

Les catholiques célèbrent l'eucharistie pour marquer cette journée, pour les vaudouisants, c'est l'occasion de prendre leur bain de chance chez les “ougan”=prêtres du vaudou tandis que les chrétiens protestants ne s'en mêlent pas car pour eux cette fête reste une histoire catholique…

S'il y a une chose sur laquelle les haïtiens se mettent d'accord sur cette fête, c'est que l'Epiphanie constitue le pont qui relie la fête nationale aux festivités carnavalesques. Oui, les haïtiens n'attendent chaque année que ce jour là pour donner le coup d'envoi au carnaval. C'est surprenant mais vrai, le carnaval haïtien commence dans 7 jours soit dimanche prochain sur le Champs-de-Mars où de nombreux groupes musicaux ambulants dits les bandes à pied se donneront rendez-vous pour faire danser des centaines de milliers de gens venus de quatre coins du pays.

However, the Epiphany still remains controversial in Haiti for the country's three most popular religions (Protestantism, Catholicism, and Voodism).

To mark this day, Catholics celebrate the Eucharist. For the voodooists, it's a day to visit the “ougan” (voodoo priest) and take their lucky bath. While the Protestant christians don't join in because for them, the holiday is for the Catholics…

If there is one thing about the holiday Haitians agree on, it's that the Epiphany is the bridge between Haitian Independence Day and the festivities of Carnival. Yes, Haitians wait every year for this day to kick off Carnival. It's surprising, but true. Haitian Carnival begins next Sunday on the Champs-de-Mars were numerous traveling music groups [buskers], called “bands on foot”, will gather to make the hundreds of thousands of people, coming from all four corners of the country, dance.

Jennifer Brea contributed to this post.

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Palestine: UN School Hit By Israeli Shells; More than 40 Killed

Jillian C. York · 16:44, January 6th, 2009 · Middle East & North Africa , Western Europe

lingua → fr · bn · zht · zhs · ar · sw · es · mg

At approximately 6:00 p.m. (GMT+2), Al Jazeera English reported that a UN school was hit when two tank shells exploded outside of the school. The school, located in Jabaliya, had been set up days ago as a shelter for Gaza residents who had lost or evacuated their homes. According to Al Jazeera English, more than 40 people were killed. On Al Jazeera English's television station (accessible globally via Livestation.com), it was reported that the IDF had been given GPS coordinates to all UN schools.

The Philistine reported quickly on the incident:

Medical officials say the death toll from an Israeli airstrike outside a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip has risen to 30.

The attack occurred about 10 yards (meters) outside the school in northern Gaza. It was the second deadly Israeli attack to strike a UN school in the past few hours.

Hospital director Bassam Abu Warda confirmed the 30 deaths from the second airstrike.

In both cases, the schools had been used as shelters for people displaced by Israel’s offensive

A top U.N. humanitarian official has condemned the violence and demanded an investigation.

Israel isn’t commenting.

Syria News Wire also reported quickly, stating:

40 people have now died after Israel’s bombing of a UN school in Gaza. 400 Palestinians were being given shelter there by the UN.

Twitter user dominiccampbell, from London, reacted strongly to the news as well:

Finnish Twitter user haloefekti expresses shock at the lack of outcry:

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DR Congo: New mass killings, weak media attention

Elia Varela Serra · 15:52, January 6th, 2009 · Sub-Saharan Africa

lingua → de · fr · es · it · zht · zhs

While fighting in North Kivu - which displaced 250,000 people earlier this year - has been somewhat quiet of late, there are now reports of mass killings in a different part of Congo. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel group, has gone on a rampage in the Haut-Uélé region in northeastern Congo, near the Sudanese border. The attacks are in response to recent military operations against the LRA bases in the surroundings of the Garamba National Park, launched in December by Ugandan, Southern Sudanese and Congolese forces. According to the NGO Caritas, over 400 people have been killed around the towns of Faradje, Duru, Bangade, Gurba, and Doruma since the 25th of December:

The Director of Caritas Dungu-Doruma says that the Ugandan rebels attacked a Christmas Day concert in Faradje City organised by the Catholic church there. He says the rebels returned the next morning to continue their killing spree. He says approximately 150 people were killed over the two days.

At the same time, another attack was perpetrated in Duru, north of Dungu. Caritas reports 75 people killed and the Church burned down.

Caritas reports that the killing continued along the Sudan border, including in Bangadi, Doruma and Gurba. Caritas reports 48 dead in Bangadi and that in Gurba 213 people were killed. Approximately 6,500 people have found refuge in the area with the Catholic church.

Caritas also reports that children are being abducted by the LRA, who use them as child soldiers.

The MSF (Doctors without Borders) team in Dungu received the following report from the town of Faradje:

First information on the attack on Faradje, a city of 25,000 people in northeastern DRC, reached the MSF team in Dungu on the evening of Christmas Day. […] On the following morning, a nurse form Tadu, a small town 20 km south of Faradje, signaled by radio the arrival in his area of thousands of people fleeing the attack, probably around 15,000. The nurse confirmed that Faradje’s head physician and another civil servant had been killed in the attack. According to him, many seriously wounded victims were still stuck in the city’s hospital, which was left without proper equipment following looting by LRA soldiers.

The Caritas blog posted three pictures of survivors from the Christmas day killings in Faradje by Emmanuel Bofoe:

(Photo by Emmanuel Bofoe of Caritas Internationali)

The conservation blog Baraza of the WildlifeDirect network reported an LRA attack in the headquarters of Garamba National Park on January 2nd:

Despite strong resistance by the park rangers together with elements from the Congolese Armed Forces, numerous casualties and material damages have been incurred. A first report mentions 8 people killed, including two park rangers and two wives of wardens, and 13 injured, most of them by bullets. An unconfirmed number of rebels have also been killed or wounded.

Several essential buildings of the headquarters have also been destroyed, along with many items of transport and communications equipment, and stocks of fuel and food rations.

In a different post, the Baraza blog described the situation in the area as “much worse than before”:

One person has described the outcome of this failed military offensive against the LRA as the equivalent of “stirring up a hornets nest”

Dahee Nam at Impunity Watch Africa reports that on Sunday December 4 another attack was launched in the region but no casualties occurred since the targets had fled before the rebels arrived.

Michael Kleinman of the Humanitarian Relief blog comments on the humanitarian situation in the area:

In addition, as many as 30,000 villagers have fled the area. According to a recent IRIN article - Deadly LRA attacks prompts exodus in northeastern Congo - aid agencies are struggling to reach those in need: “The military operations and the LRA presence make it very difficult for humanitarian agencies to operate, and some areas are currently totally inaccessible to aid workers.”

Kakaluigi [Fr], an Italian missionary working in Eastern Congo, compares the media reaction to these massacres in Eastern Congo to the recent ones in Gaza in a post titled “Scandal!“:

À Gaza ( Palestine) les Israeliens viennent de massacrer 400 personnes en l'espace d'une semaine, il y'a eu manifestation à travers le monde et les mèdias de tout genre ne font que nous bombarder avec leurs images de sang et de morts.

À Dungu- Faradje (RDC) c'est en presence de la Monuc que la Rébellion Ougandaise vient d'assassiner plus de 400 personnes en l'espace d'une journée, mais silence total à travers le monde, pas une image et même pas une journée de deuil au pays concerné.

In Gaza (Palestine), Israelis have just massacred 400 people in a week, there have been demonstrations all over the world and all types of media have been bombarding us with images of blood and the dead.

In Dungu-Faradje (DRC), in the presence of Monuc Ugandan rebels have just assassinated over 400 people in a day, but there has been complete silence all over the world, not one image and not even a day of mourning in the affected country.

In a similar vein Hugues Serraf, blogging at La tribune du vaticinateur [Fr] of Rue 89, wonders:

Si un mort israélien vaut plusieurs morts palestiniens, combien faut-il de cadavres congolais pour un linceul gazaoui?

[…] Comment un conflit qui a déjà fait quatre millions de morts en dix ans, et tue encore plus d’un millier de civils chaque jour du fait du chaos alimentaire et sanitaire qu’il entraîne, peut-il être aussi peu couvert? Comment les 271 victimes de la LRA (hypothèse basse, rappelons-le) de ces dernières semaines ont-elles pu échapper à la vigilance de nos reporters, de nos analystes, voire de nos manifestants?

If an Israeli death is worth several Palestinian ones, how many Congolese corpses are needed for a Gazan shroud?

[…] How come a conflict that has already caused four million deaths in ten years, and that is still killing more than a thousand civilians every day as a result of the food and health crisis that it is causing, can receive such little coverage? How come the 271 victims of the LRA (a low estimate, let's not forget it) of the last couple of weeks could slip out of the vigilance of our reporters, analysts, even our demonstrators?

Stop the war in North Kivu, a blog written by an international aid worker in Eastern Congo, reflects on the “ignorance of African wars by Western public opinion and Western media”:

I am convinced that the thunderous silence of Western media regarding horror in African conflicts entails an enormous, and unavoidable, ethic question. If five million people die in a given place, we as human beings have the obligation to know that this has happened. It is a moral obligation. We must know, the same way that we all know that millions of Jewish men, women and children were exterminated in Germany in the Second World War. However, we don´t know that more than five million Congolese have died as a result of the war since 1998.

Citizens of an information age have a right to know about it, and victims have a right for their suffering to be told, and known.

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