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January 11th, 2009
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Guatemala: Powerful Images of War Victims Leave Some Uncomfortable
Photo by Surizar and used under a Creative Commons license
Capturing images on film is one way to ensure that the collective memory does not forget about a country's history. When that country's history includes gruesome events, those images can become powerful, yet uncomfortable reminders of the past. In Guatemala, a couple of photographers have become involved in documenting and representing images from the armed conflict that took place for 36 years.
The blogger Aly of the collective blog Dorsumi [es] writes about a French photographer who published a book called “La verdad bajo la tierra. Guatemala, el genocidio silenciado” (The buried truth. Guatemala, the silenced genocide).
En 1990, Miquel Dewever-Plana, fotógrafo francés de origen catalán, conoció en México a varios refugiados mayas guatemaltecos y decidió involucrarse a favor de los derechos humanos. Durante dos años Miquel documentó el proceso de exhumación de muchas víctimas del genocidio guatemalteco, informando así sobre un crimen contra la humanidad poco conocido: las masacres perpetradas por el Gobierno de Guatemala entre los indígenas mayas durante la década de 1980, y dar a conocer a las víctimas con nombres y apellidos, contribuyendo así a dignificarlas. Fruto de aquel reportaje se publicó este libro que acompaña la exposición con el mismo nombre que ha podido verse hasta el momento en ciudades como París, Barcelona o Palafrugell, entre otras.
In 1990, Miquel Dewever Plana, a French photographer of Catalonian roots, met several Guatemalan Mayan refugees in Mexico and he decided to become active in human rights issues. For two years, Miquel documented the exhumation process of many victims of the genocide in Guatemala, providing information of a crime against humanity that is not widely known: the masacres perpetrated by the Guatemalan Government against indigenous people during the 1980s and by doing so, provides information about the victims, with first names and last names, contributing to their dignity. As a result of that documentation, he published a book that accompanied the exhibition of the same name, which has been shown in places like Paris, Barcelona or Palafrugell, among others.
Another photographer, Daniel Hernández Salazar, also has made much effort to rescue the memory of the victims. He was recently invited to the Palace of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland to showcase his work. Some of the images depicted nude males representing the victims of the war, and were subsequently removed by some staff members of the United Nations Organization because they were said that they could be offensive to some groups. However, some people, like the blogger León Aguilera Radford of the blog Klavaza [es] thinks this was nothing more than censorship:
Guatemalan photographer Daniel Hernández-Salazar was invited to expose his photographs at the Palais des Nations , See of the United Nations Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Hernandez's images expose in an artistic and metaphoric way the horrors left by the civil war that devastated that Central American country during more than 30 years. One of his aims is to preserve the usually fragile memory of such events, in order to prevent its recurrence. In Guatemala, I am aware, many people would be glad to forget all that happened. However, History has the tendency to remember, like Borges Funes el Memorioso character.
It is fairly logical to imagine how difficult it must be to find a central point of agreement between the many representatives, officers, clerks, visitors, ambassadors and all such fauna, from a worldwide acquisition that conforms the UNO. But this is Art, Western Art if that matters, the same that has been a landmark of aesthetics since time immemorial. Therefore, it is impossible for me to justify UNO censorship, even after its officers accepted to expose three void spaces, to signal the missing images, and to send the visitors to this web site, where the images are in a permanent, albeit virtual, exposition. I advice to you to please visit that site, You'll enjoy it.
These images can help preserve the memory of individuals, who were victims of a tragic past. Many photographers like Plana and Hernández-Salazar want to use their works so that others can understand history, build a future, and make the phrase “Never Again” not simply rhetoric, but a promise for the future.
Thumbnail photo by James Rodríguez and used with permission
Addendum: To see Daniel Hernández' photos in question that were removed in Geneva, please visit this site.
Brazil: Reflecting On Our Very Own Gaza Strips
Graffiti reading:
BORN BECAUSE THEY LOVED ME
DIED BECAUSE THEY KILLED ME…
In Memory:
RENAN
GABRIEL
FELIPE
MARCELÃO
THIAGO
Rest In Peace
at Morro de Samba (Samba Hill), Rio de Janeiro, “Infamous for its heavy drug trafficking and violence, the Morro de Samba is renowned as one of the most dangerous communities in our region”, photo by carf used under a Creative Commons License
As the rest of the world, Brazilian bloggers are closely following the latest developments of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Opinions are divided, but the conflict has, nevertheless, led bloggers to reflect upon one thing: some feel that what is happening in Gaza has a parallel with the daily wars in the violence plagued shantytowns around the country – dubbed Brazil's very own Gaza Strips – where many innocent lives are claimed every day. Sérgio Vaz [pt] explains:
Aqui no Brasil, na Baixa do Sapateiro, faixa de gaza baiana, menino Matheus morreu com um tiro de Fuzil quando saía de casa para comprar pão, no mesmo momento em que a polícia invadia sua favela.
Mera coincidência, ou são sempre os mesmos que sangram nas calçadas, quer seja na faixa de Gaza brasileira ou na Faixa de Gaza Palestina? Será que a sede de sangue nunca cessa?
A Periferia debaixo de tiros, a Palestina debaixo de bombas. Será que deus foi passar o réveillon em Copacabana?
Is it just coincidence, or is it always the same [innocent people] who die on the pavements, either in the Brazilian Gaza Strips or in the Palestinian Gaza? Will the thirst for blood ever end?
The suburbs are under fire, Palestine is being bombed. Has God gone to spend New Year's eve in Copacabana?
On seeing the shocking pictures of the conflict on the internet, Anderson Vieira [pt] could not help but remember the days he used to visit one of Rio de Janeiro's slums where, he says, it was normal to see strongly armed drug dealers walking side by side with kids, pregnant women and the elderly. Every now and then the police would make a disastrous appearance there:
Acontece que não foram poucas as vezes que em incursões da polícia em morros e favelas cariocas, na troca de tiros, no fogo cruzado, pessoas inocentes acabavam sendo atingidas pelas famosas balas perdidas, que de perdidas não têm absolutamente nada.
A situação da Faixa de Gaza é de certa forma parecida com a das favelas e morros cariocas. Ali em meio aos terroristas do Hamas há crianças, mulheres, homens, cidadãos palestinos inocentes e desprotegidos. À semelhança dos traficantes que se escondem em barracos e casas de moradores a fim de fugir da polícia, os terroristas do Hamas também se valem dessa estratégia no mínimo covarde e se infiltram em casas de inocentes.
The situation in the Gaza Strip is somehow similar to that of the slum and shantytown hills in Rio. There, among children, women, men, vulnerable and innocent Palestinian citizens are Hamas terrorists. Resembling the drug dealers who hide themselves in resident's sheds and homes to evade police, the Hamas terrorists also make use of this cowardly – to say the least – strategy, and infiltrate innocent people's homes.
Aparecido José do Rosário [pt] agrees and adds that in these cases, the end justifies the means:
Mas voltando a questão sobre o que Israel deve fazer contra esses ataques, e faço um paralelo com o problema dos morros no Rio de Janeiro. Desculpem-me mas sou um tanto radical nesse sentido. Tenho a minha opinião de que a polícia e/ou exército deve atacar os morros a todo custo. Aqueles que nada tem a ver com os traficantes, que são inocentes devem sair de lá e deixar que as forças militares façam o serviço completo, agora, aqueles que protegem tais traficantes, são cúmplices e tão criminosos quanto eles, e portanto que sofram as conseqüências. Estarei eu sendo insensível?
“27/07/2005 - Police find three bodies burned in Inhaúma. The victims may have been killed when coming into the shantytown to try to recover a vehicle stolen by drug dealers from Favela do Alemão.” Photo Andréa Farias, used under a Creative Commons License.
Sonia Fancine [pt], a young and rising politician from São Paulo, says that blaming Hamas for the death of civilians is exactly what the Brazilian police does when justifying casualties by saying they are protecting the population, and “if a child dies because of a stray bullet, it is just an undesirable side effect of a successful operation”:
As mortes “acidentais” freqüentemente são justificadas como decorrentes de “autos de resistência” (aquelas trocas de tiros que, curiosamente, só deixam marcas de um dos lados) ou como sendo de ” pessoas ligadas ao tráfico” (aí fica fácil - se mora na favela, é ligado ao tráfico, pronto). Então ficamos assim: as crianças palestinas e das favelas do Rio morreram porque tiveram a idéia de jerico de estar em um lugar cheio de terroristas/ traficantes. E ainda foram botar o corpo bem na frente dos mísseis/ fuzis… Foi mal aê. Mas da próxima vez, as vítimas que tomem mais cuidado, pô!
In a comment on the above post, a reader called Fernando [pt] feels powerless in the face of both conflicts:
E como acabar com tudo isso? Seja no Rio ou lá em Gaza é a mesma coisa: desrespeito ao comum - incompreensão do diferente! E como eu posso ajudar para acabar com tudo isso?
Alberto Ricardo Präss [pt] thinks that Brazil should help by boycotting Israeli products and remembers the situation he witnessed when he lived there for six months in 1985 concluding that Brazil is not far from it:
Não é de se espantar que homens bombas surjam sem parar naquelas bandas. É muito evidente que pessoas acuadas tendem a ter reações radicais para sobreviver. Mais ou menos como os moradores das favelas do Rio, que reagem por estar sem muita saída.
On the other hand, Mr X [pt], a supporter of Israel, believes the Israel-Palestine conflict does not deserve so much media attention or popular commotion compared with other conflicts in the world, including in Brazil:
Mata muito menos do que qualquer conflito na África hoje em dia, menos do que a cólera no Zimbabwe, menos até do que os tiroteios nas favelas do Rio de Janeiro.
Tania Celidonio [pt] says she is shocked by the daily news on the violence in the Middle East, but that violence in Rio de Janeiro has been turned into a cliche:
Motorista da ONU assassinado, trinta civis palestinos mortos num abrigo, fim da ajuda humanitária…. Juro que travei. E ainda por cima, aqui na faixa tupiniquim do Rio de Janeiro, os tiros não esperaram passar a primeira semana de 2009. Os morros da Babilônia e Chapéu Mangueira foram sacudidos por várias saraivadas. Nós, do asfalto, ficamos torcendo para que nada de muito ruim aconteça por lá. O pior são as centenas de trabalhadores que voltam para suas casas, no cair da noite, e são recebidos por esse ambiente de terror que já virou rotina nos morros da cidade.
“Old fellow, don't you think it is a bit late to be walking around Bonsucesso?” – Blog do Bonitão's charge sets the Israel-Palestine conflict in a Rio de Janeiro neighborhood which is surrounded by slums and ravaged by a high level of violence
In Pernambuco, the murder counter on the PEBodyCount [pt] blog which provides daily statistics of the rates of crime related deaths has counted, as of today, only 11 days into the new year, 81 homicides in that state alone The blog counted 4,525 homicides in 2008, in 2007 4,592 and in 2006 4,638. Numbers are decreasing, but:
“Raciocinar que 78 pessoas a menos (pelas contas do Governo, pelas nossas, foram 67) perderam a vida não quer dizer que foram salvos 78 seres humanos. Continuamos tendo mais de 4.500 assassinatos. É um patamar que coloca nosso estado entre os locais mais violentos do mundo. São poucos os países que tem tantos crimes de morte por ano. A mudança tão apregoada precisa começar de verdade.”
Palestine: “I see hatred in every blast pounding Gaza”
In this roundup of Gaza's blogs we hear about living without electricity, ways of getting the latest news, and white phosphorus shells. And an 11-year-old girl jokes: “It's like we are a scary movie. I'm sure people eat popcorn as they watch.”
The team that brought us Alive in Baghdad has now set up Alive in Gaza, with first-hand accounts from the Gaza Strip. Mohamed Al-Jabowe reports:
The situation is not improving inside the strip, due to the constant bombing by the Israeli Army in the northern and middle areas of the strip. A battle started today between Hamas’ Marine forces and the Israeli Naval forces. The situation here is like a cage burning from the inside. […] My cousin has a Satellite TV system that works by a car battery, and what I see now in the news has nothing to do with reality, the loss of life must be more than 800. It’s very difficult to have even one hour without sounds of explosions, and this what I have to post for now. I will try to send you more information as soon as I have another chance. I have to go back and help my sister with getting milk for her baby. I hope I can make it alive back home tonight, I'll keep you posted.
Journalist Nazek Aburahma writes at AlJazeeraTalk and cross-posts to her blog:
[…]
أما إبراهيم 22 سنة وهو صحفي لإحدى الوكالات الأنباء العالمية في قطاع غزة والذي يتنقل بعجالة بين بيت لآخر باحثا عن كهرباء ليشحن بها هاتفه الخلوي كي يستطيع التواصل مع طاقم وكاله الأنباء التى يعمل معها فيقول على عجالة :” في الفترة الأخيرة اشعر كأنني كنغر انتقل من مكان الى مكان بحثا عن رائحة الكهرباء , فبطارية هاتفي الخلوي قد نفذت ويجب على ان اشحنها لأتواصل مع وكاله الأنباء التى اعمل معها في الخارج “.
[…]
As for Ibrahim, who is a 22 year old journalist for one of the international news agencies in Gaza, and who hurries from one house to the next, in search of electricity to charge his cell phone in order to be able to communicate with the agency's crew, he quickly says: “Lately I have been feeling as if I were a kangaroo, jumping from one place to the next, in search of a whiff of electricity. My cell phone battery has run out and I have to charge it in order to communicate with the news agency I work with abroad.”
Freelance journalist Safa Joudeh writes at the group blog Lamentations-Gaza:
Our entire lives is now one long chaotic stream of existence: waiting in line each morning to fill up containers with water from the only working tap on the ground floor of our building, baking homemade bread from the depleting supply of flour we managed to obtain a few days into the offensive, turning on the power generator for 30 to 50 minutes in the evening to charge phones and watch the news. Meanwhile, the constant in our lives has become the voice of the reporter on the small transistor radio giving reports every few seconds of the location and resulting losses from the explosion we just heard, or other attacks farther off on the Strip. This is not to mention the relentless sound of one or more of the Israeli Apache helicopters, F-16's or drones flying overhead. […] We are now unable to distinguish joy from fear. My 11-year old sister laughs as she imagines how people all over the world watch the horrific events taking place in the Gaza Strip. “It's like we are a scary movie. I'm sure people eat popcorn as they watch,” she says. My 12- and 14-year old brothers act out scenes from our reality while quoting Metal Gear Solid 4 and Guns of Patriots, their favorite video game, and we laugh hysterically at their performance. Moments later we tense up at the sound of a violent, close by earthquake-like explosion, and resume our laughter when the building stops shaking. Before returning to our building, I couldn't help but stare at it for a moment and think that our homes might not always be safe places. But, still, they give us a sense of warmth, security and protection that are worth fighting for till the very end. I also couldn't help staring at the sky. The stars were beautiful and seemed to shine brighter than ever. I could make out several constellations and I counted five Israeli warplanes.
Canadian activist, Eva Bartlett, blogs at In Gaza:
Some mornings I wake up from a new explosion and realize I’ve somehow managed to fall into a sleep despite the blasts. Other mornings, I wake up disoriented, first wondering where I am, as I’m sleeping in some hospital waiting room or ambulance office, or the house of a driver since the Red Crescent office in eastern Jabaliya was first shelled and then made off-limits by the invading Israeli forces in the eastern Jabaliya region…and the north, the northwest, the east, the south…
[…]
3:20 am: I’ve left the bed and given up on feigning sleep. Am watching the darkness explode with the political hatred that not only kills but silences truth. Hatred in every blast pounding Gaza.
[…]
Hours later, after the sun finally rises. Women are walking onto the hospital premises, large towel-covered platters on their heads. A small electric stove is plugged in, and they take turns baking bread for their families: no gas, no electricity at home. They are lucky to have the flour to bake with, and I guess that a trickle of that aid that only trickles in has reached them. But it’s never enough.
Prof. Said Abdelwahed, who teaches English at Al-Azhar University, writes at Moments of Gaza:
My family and I have been surprised by the electric power for the first time after 15 days of utter darkness! It was a moment of excitement for the children. Now they are not scared though aircrafts are over us! Also, we can watch some TV channels as others are jammed. Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya are among the jammed ones. Now, a blast in the distance! My family are okay; my mother, sister, brothers and their families are safer than me though it is not safe for anyone in Gaza those days, but everything in life is relative.
Lebanese activist Natalie Abou Shakra, who blogs at Moments of Gaza, is staying with a Palestinian family, and can't bear the thought of anything happening to the young son, Abdel Aziz:
If something happens to Abdel Aziz… I do not think I shall be able to go on…
Look into your child's eyes… what would happen if he was massacred the way the Israelis are massacring our children… look at them as they sleep at night… in their beds… would it be alright if you didn't know if they would make it till the next day? Would it?
As I left, Sitt Wafaa gave me some bread to take with me to eat… I go outside, and “BOMB”… I fly… they bombed the adjacent building… I shield myself from dust… the ringing in my ears is deafening… dust covers my hair… I hear Sitt Wafaa scream my name… am I dead, I ask myself? No, I can still smell my dirty clothes… I am alive… and the smell of dirt if wonderful… I am alive…
Xen Hasan from Manchester in the UK writes at the Electronic Intifada about calling her husband's family in Gaza:
My husband managed to get hold of his sister today in a short and crackly phone call. She is fine, they are all fine, thank God. They have rice still, and they've managed to get some candles. We'll phone again tomorrow. I pray that soon we'll be able to have normal conversations again — what did you do at school today? How was work? What are you making for dinner? I dream of being able to ask these ordinary questions. How many more days do we have to keep making that nerve-wracking phone call, and wondering who those statistics represent?
Mohammad is in Ramallah in the West Bank, and he too writes about the phone calls he has been making to his family in Gaza, at the Arab-American blog KABOBfest:
I called Khan Younis next. Jasim didn't pick up. I hoped he was sleeping. Mahmoud answered though, but he sounded distracted. I could hear the radio blaring. I asked him what was happening. He told me the Israelis had showered the village of Khuza'a in the east with white phosphorous and that many buildings there had been set alight. He had been calling friends there. People were running from house to house and from street to street, trying to avoid the chemicals. He was trying to find out who was being brought in to Naser Hospital, the hospital a few blocks away where I was born. He said there were a lot of injuries because people were inhaling the chemical and the smoke. Nobody is sure how to treat it, and nobody is sure how to avoid it when it rains down from the sky. […] The scary thing about Gaza these days is that even Israel doesn't seem to know what it is trying to do. As I said at the opening of this post, the goals seem to be ever changing, always getting smaller and less ambitious. It is using chemical weapons in heavily crowded neighborhoods, F-16 missiles on homes, mosques and schools. It has left many hundreds dead, many hundreds more so wounded that few will ever be able to live a normal life again.
Australian activist Sharyn Lock, who writes at Tales to Tell, also relays accounts that phosphorus shells are being used:
Mo has just been speaking to his sister, his family were receiving the phosphorous bombs all night last night, in Khuza’a, east of Khan Younis, she said the bombs smell like sewage. She said just in their area there were 110 injuries from the phosphorous. Today they fled their house and went to relatives. We called the Ministry of Health to ask if they have analysed the substances involved, but they said that unfortunately they simply don’t have the resources to do so and have to wait on outside confirmation.
We end with an impassioned statement by Natalie Abou Shakra:
Take note; our pens do sway, in every direction. They insist, persist and spit out the bullets of your oppression.
Take note; our journals are filled with the acts of your wretched intentions, of your day-to-day crimes against our existence, of your delirious threats and excruciating torture.
Take note; our tongues will live to narrate, tales of the history of your racism, your apartheid world, and your ignorant hatred.
Egypt: Reporting Live from Rafah
Egyptian blogger and human rights activist Nora Younis has been watching the situation in Gaza closely and reporting live from Rafah, where she spent her New Year's eve.
On the way to the border town of Rafah, a Palestinian town in the Gaza Strip, on the Egyptian border, Nora encountered a car accident which involved an Egyptian officer, who didn’t make her optimistic about the upcoming year:
“Turns out he is a high rank 3rd Army officer. I ask him where is our country heading? He says looking to sky pointing a cut finger “its all in god’s hands. It’s a mess”. I ask “even the army?”. He says “We’re approaching another 1967. The army has neither equipment nor human beings. We’re in god’s hands”
“It is now two hours into 2009. Israeli jets have been flying over our heads occasionally bombing Gaza side of the border. I can’t really say or wish for a happy new year. I only wish we come out of it on our feet.”
That being said Nora was also surprised with the New Year cheer among her friends in Palestine:
“As clock was ticking towards midnight 31 December, me on Egypt side of Rafah border, I got this SMS from my friends in Khan Yunis, Jabalia, Rafah…:
Look outside
F-16 SMILING for you
MISSILES dancing for you
ZANNANA singing for you
because I requested them ALL to wish you a *HAPPY NEW YEAR”
Nora, who is still in Rafah, is following up on developments and updating her followers on Jaiku, with constant updates on the number of Palestinians injured and killed since the Israeli bombardment of Gaza started on December 27. She has also posted an 8 page list of medication required for Gaza Hospital:
“I was able to capture this 8 page list of medical needs in Gaza by camera of mobile phone - which explains the quality. The list was with Mr. Khalil Alniss, activist with Justice for Gaza group”
Wildlife Tragedies and Happenings at WildlifeDirect Blogs
Attempts to flush out Uganda's Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group's leader, Joseph Kony, have not been very successful. Instead, the civilian casualties continue to pile up. One devastating tragedy for wildlife conservation, as reported on the conservation blog Baraza, was the attack on Garamba National Park rangers by the LRA rebels on 2 January 2009.
According to a press statement issued by the authorities at Garamba National Park on 6 January and distributed by WildlifeDirect, the rebels killed 8 people including 2 rangers and 2 wives of wardens in addition to causing untold damage to property. A debate has however ensued on Baraza as to who is indeed responsible for the attack.
In Kenya, the Whale Sharks blog reports an incident in Diani Beach on Kenya's Indian Ocean coastline where a Humpback Whale was caught in a fishing net donated to the local fishermen by a development NGO. This post is actually a protest since the Whale Shark Trust that runs this blog believe that the nets are inappropriate and illegal. They have reported a similar tragic entanglement of humpback whales before in their blog and are calling for intervention.
Still in Kenya, a bizarre occurrence has been reported in Samburu where a leopard preyed on another leopard. This case of cannibalism is indeed shocking. Cannibalism among mammals is reported occasionally but it commonly involves killing and eating of young (infanticide) by male animals to eliminate competition. The Ewaso Lions blog describes this incident here.
On a brighter note, 2009 is the year of the gorilla. Gorilla Protection blog introduces readers to the actions that have already been taken to kick start the celebration of this majestic Great Ape.
Lessons on libel: South African blogger sued for defamation
Update 14th of January 2009: According to a post to his Facebook support group Donn Edwards signed an out-of-court settlement agreement with Quality Vacation Club in which he agreed to remove articles about QVC from his blog and not to write about the company for the next five years .
If Quality Vacation Club (QVC) thought that by suing blogger, Donn Edwards, for defamation they would silence any criticism of their dubious marketing tactics, they were wrong. Instead, the blogger’s case has started an avalanche of attacks from sources both in the blogging and mainstream media arena. Unwilling and unable to take the case lying down, Donn Edwards initiated a campaign that has sparked the attention of bloggers throughout the country – with suggestions that the community form a permanent group to monitor blogger freedom in the country.
This is what we’ve learned:
1. Solidarity is our greatest weapon.
Donn Edwards did a great job of couching the QVC case as a case against all bloggers in South Africa rather than just a personal attack. According to Guy McLaren:
QVC’s attack on Donn was interpreted as an attack on Blogging. Now most bloggers have at least 4 readers, some have more. But facts are that blogs are a powerful medium and if you want negative publicity, attack the blogging world and I know that Bloggers know people in radio, on TV, in fact some bloggers are from the press.
Apart from the 40+ blog posts and 100s of comments supporting Edwards, a Facebook group with 300+ members was set up for people to express support for Edwards, as well as a wiki documenting the growing number of blog posts and articles dedicated to the case. With his logo entitled ‘Blogger court case’, Edwards contacted other bloggers early on, asking them to write about the case, and so start a distributed network attack that left QVC spinning. Then, instead of QVC attempting to silence what Eve Dmochowska called ‘One lonesome blog, that is mostly focused on writing about computer security, and whose audience is probably least likely to be talked into a QVC sale anyway’, they now had hundreds of people making similar statements.
The irony is that, what became a transparent, community-driven campaign will end up being settled privately out of court. This will prevent a legal precedent being set for cases that will inevitably come up against bloggers in the future.
2. The mainstream media loves a good David and Goliath story
My ears pricked up one morning in December when I heard popular talk show host, John Robbie, interviewing Edwards about the QVC case on Johannesburg Talk Radio 702. After the interview, Robbie took calls from others who had similar complaints about the company. And so the momentum grew. The Sunday Independent also wrote about the story – and more recently Noseweek.
The lesson? The traditional media love a good David and Goliath story. But add bloggers and social media to the mix and you might just start questioning who the David is in the story.
3. Be careful. Take some time to think about the people on the other side of our blog posts and learn about your rights and responsibilities.
Probably the first high-profile case against a local blogger, Donn Edwards’ experience has shown how important it is to recognise that, with our need to criticize, comes a need to understand our rights and responsibilities.
Paul Jacobson has a post cautioning bloggers from adopting the ‘controversial title of citizen journalists' but the fact is that whether we call ourselves ‘citizen journalists’ or not, a number of laws are triggered when we start publishing online.
Chris M. wrote:
‘This just goes to show that these days, as bloggers, we actually need to be really careful about what we say and about who we flame, because someone might be sitting on the other end, ready to pounce and take advance of us small bloggers.’
Perhaps the most insightful comment came from Tony Lankester.
There’s a warning in his experience that all bloggers, myself included, should heed. If you’re going to play in the sandpit of journalism, learn all the rules. Even if you plan on breaking them. At least learn from the dozens of court cases that have preceded you. Just because the online world is on screen only, it doesn’t mean that the real world laws of defamation and libel don’t apply. And just because you are your own headline writer, journalist, copy editor, editor and publisher, it doesn’t mean you have latitude to ignore the basic courtesies, practices and principles of good journalism.
Blogging has really grown up in the South Africa over the past year. Eve Dmochowska believes that we've learned a great deal about giving and receiving criticism well and has a great post on what she learned in 2008.
Most importantly, though, local bloggers have learned how important it is to work together. Hopefully something will come out of the Facebook wall post that Andrew Edwards (Donn’s brother) wrote on December 29, 2008:
Donn asked that I shut down the group once the last post about the saga is made on his blog. I thought we should then start a new group with a new name and mission. Any recommendations? Like “can a leopard change his snots” (a group to monitor blogger freedom and aggressive companies)??
Photo: ‘David vs Goliath' by maha-online on Flickr - CC BY-SA
Links for Sun, 2009-01
Belle of Catalyzing Change wonders why irregularities during the recent Presidential elections in Ghana have been overlooked: “Of all the media I have seen and heard though; both African and broader international, there has been little mention of any irregularities. This bothers me because it is not as if there were none”. A few days ago, Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah of Koranteng's Toli described one of these irregularities in which his uncle who was acting as a polling agent was beaten up.
World Bank economist and blogger Shanta Devarajan of the Africa Can blog, posted a letter sent by a friend in Zimbabwe describing the long lines at the ATM's and banks to withdraw money. On the other hand, This is Zimbabwe describes the confusion people experience with zeroes, since everything costs a few billions, trillions or zentillions?
The Son of the Empire comments that the numerous Honorary PhDs given to Cambodian leader Hun Sen are unnecessary: “Hun Sen doesn’t need such many fake Honorary Doctorate Degrees to be recognized as an educated and competent leader to Cambodian people if he can prove himself as a REAL Leader of Cambodia.”
Kaffein-nated from Singapore criticizes the inconsistency of a government minister who argues that it is honorable to be a chambermaid but working as a maid in other countries is a demeaning job.
Caroline Finlay uploads a translated article by a Vietnamese blogger who reminisces his childhood years in Hanoi.
Budiputra reports that Facebook in Indonesia registered a growth rate of 645 percent in 2008. Indonesia has been the fastest growing country on Facebook in Southeast Asia. However, Friendster is still the most popular networking site in the country.
Justin Hartman is upset about the ANC, the ruling South African party, condemning the attacks on Gaza by Israel: “…this upsets me is because our leaders are quick to jump on this political band-wagon while they’ve done absolutely nothing about the bigger problem just outside our borders - Zimbabwe. Why they’ve chosen to pick sides in this conflict and done nothing about the epidemic in Zimbabwe baffles me.”
Za3tar, a Palestinian blogger from Ramallah, wrote a simple guide to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza, including clarification for few used terms, as well as elaborating on the Palestinian perspective regarding the on going war.
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