Archive for
March 3rd, 2009
Stories
UK: ‘Stamping Out' Media Racism Against Indigenous Peoples
Amid growing awareness about indigenous peoples’ issues in the world, British periodicals The Guardian and The Observer have new guidelines against using two phrases that activists say marginalize and de-legitimize indigenous peoples.
Survival International's campaign to Stamp Out racism against tribal people
The campaign against using terms like “primitive people” and “stone age” is headed by Survival International. Its Stamp It Out project asks supporters to be on the lookout for derogatory descriptions of tribal peoples in the media, and send postcards or e-cards to editor via their website.
Survival International Blog details the recent discussion in UK media about reporting on indigenous peoples:
British newspaper The Independent today carried a prominent opinion piece from Survival’s director, Stephen Corry. Since former BBC man Michael Buerk put his foot in it, global debate on the use of terms like ‘primitive’ to describe tribal peoples has reached a new pitch.
[…]The Guardian and The Observer papers now warn against the use of terms like ‘primitive’ and ’stone-age’ in their renowned style guide.
The Wild Hunt, a blog by “committed polytheist” Jason Pitzl-Waters, informs:
Survival’s “Stamp It Out” campaign was recently successful in convincing British newspapers The Guardian and The Observer to ban the terms ‘primitive’ and ‘Stone Age’ to describe tribal peoples.
Commenting on Pitzl-Waters' post, Here In The Cave of Wonder writes:
“Primitive” and “Stone Age” both come from an outdated concept of evolution. There are no living “primitive” life forms or people. Evolut[i]on is merely a means of adapting to one's environment, not a ladder, so there is no way to progress from “primitive” to “advanced”.
[…]
In short, these terms are really just a kind of 19th century ethnocentrism/anthropocentrism that was rejected by scientists and anthropologists many years ago as being a scientifically inaccurate.
Colombia: More on the Illegal Wire Tappings
Last week, the illegal wire tapping scandal uncovered by Semana news magazine was the main headline in most news outlets and the talk of the day on some blogs in Colombia. On Thursday, February 26, President Álvaro Uribe announced that the Administrative Security Department (DAS, for its initials in Spanish) was no longer allowed to wire tap any suspect, and that “in addition to a court order, it must be done with the National Police and, exceptionally, with another institution of our Security Forces.”
At Censura 2.0 [es], Jkrincon tells President Uribe he is “afraid” and raises some questions on the issue:
- ¿Cómo es posible, que en un país blindado por la seguridad democrática, una mafia sea capaz de infiltrarse en el departamento encargado de la inteligencia nacional?
- ¿Cómo es posible, que un organismo subordinado directamente al presidente de la república, haya sufrido varios escandalos por el mismo tema en menos de 6 años?
- ¿Donde están las reformas prometidas después de cada escandalo?
- ¿Cuando las investigaciones darán frutos?
- Sí la seguridad de nuestro país ha mejorado tanto, sí los grupos que atentan contra la integridad del estado han perdido poder, ¿Cómo es posible que puedan espiar a periodistas, políticos e, incluso, miembros del alto gobierno?
- Sí el presidente no sabía nada, sí el director del DAS no tenía sospechas de infiltrados en su institución, ¿Cómo hacen estas mafias, en el país de la seguridad democrática, para operar de forma tan efectiva?
- ¿Por qué, si la corte suprema de justicia había denunciado irregularidades en los miembros del DAS, no se realizaron investigaciones?
- ¿Por qué es más efectivo el equipo de investigadores de una revista que todos los inocentes encargados de la inteligencia en nuestra nación?
- Sí las FARC están derrotadas, ¿Quién conforma la mafia que nos ataca? o ¿Acaso no están tan debilitadas como el gobierno afirma?
- How is it possible that in a country armoured by the democratic security [policy], a mafia is able to infiltrate the agency in charge of national intelligence?
- How come that an entity which is a direct subordinate of the President, has been embroiled in several scandals for the same reason in less than 6 years?
- Where are the reforms they promise after every scandal?
- When will the investigations give results?
- If security in our country has improved so much, if the groups attacking the integrity of the State have lost power, how come they can spy on journalists, politicians, and even high-ranking government officials?
- If the President didn't know anything, if the DAS director had no suspicions of infiltrations on his agency, how do these mafias, in the country of the democratic security, manage to act so effectively?
- Why were there no probes if the Supreme Court had denounced irregularities involving some DAS members?
- Why is a magazine's investigative journalism team more effective than all the innocents in charge of intelligence of our nation?
- If the FARC are defeated, who are the mafia attacking us? Or, is it that they haven't been weakened as the government claims?
With sarcasm, @juglardelzipa comments [es] Uribe's decision on Twitter:
«intercepciones legales serán hechas por la policía» http://rurl.org/1dzn las ilegales las seguirá haciendo el das.
Sentido Común [es] claims to have some answers [es], after updating his post on the issue on Sunday:
Con este enroque corto, Uribe pretende tres objetivos:
- Desviar la atención de la opinión pública, interesada en conocer al autor de la orden para espiar (en esta ocasión) a la oposición, a los magistrados a cargo de la parapolítica y a los medios de comunicación. El autor es obvio, pero es un secreto de Estado que no se puede revelar, o si no qué gracia.
- Dar cristiana sepultura al cuento chino de “la mafia infiltrada al interior del Gobierno”. También se sospecha quién es el Padrino, pero no se puede revelar, porque es otro secreto de Estado.
- Sacar al DAS de la mira de los medios y de la opinión, pues se supone que ya no seguirá haciendo interceptaciones secretas. Y si las sigue haciendo no se sabrá, pues son secretas.
- To divert the public's attention, which is interested in knowing the author of the order of (this time's) spying on the opposition, the magistrates in charge of the ‘parapolitics' scandal, and the media. The author['s name] is obvious, but it is a state secret which can't be revealed, or else what's the fun here?
- To bury the tall story about “the mafia that has infiltrated the government”. There are also suspicions on who could be the Godfather, but it can't be revealed, because it's another state secret.
- To take DAS out of the media and public opinion's spotlight, because it's supposed to not to do secret wiretaps any more. And if it keeps doing them it won't be known, because they're secret.
In a comment on this post, Lanark pokes fun [es] at the “conspirators”:
No sé si alegrarme de que “la mafia al interior del gobierno” se parezca más a los villanos de las aventuras tercermundistas de los magníficos, que a los de misión imposible. Igual que con tantas otras cosas, creo que Uribe está extrapolando al país la administración de su “finquita”, y maneja el DAS más o menos como se manejan las viejas chismosas de un pueblo.
Si realmente hubiera una conspiración de best-seller basura, de esas en las que los supervillanos tienen absoluto control, ya hubieran sido capaces de desaparecer a media oposición y exiliar al resto frente a la sonrisa bobalicona de la opinión. Colombia sería un gran campo de palma, coca y amapola, y llas ciudades serían enormes maquilas llenas de muertos de hambre trabajando 12 horas diarias por nada.
Yo creo que la ineptitud de nuestros tiranillos de república bananera igual que ha provocado problemas, también nos ha salvado de situaciones peores.
If there was really a trashy best-seller type conspiracy, of the kind where the super villains have absolute control, they'd been able to make “disappear” half of the opposition and the rest to exile in front of the silly smile of the [public] opinion. Colombia would be a huge ground for palm, coca, and poppy, and the cities would be big assembly plants filled with starving people working 12 hours a day in exchange of nothing.
I think the incompetence of our banana republic small tyrants, just as it has caused trouble, has saved us from worse situations.
On February 27, controversial presidential adviser José Obdulio Gaviria —who happens to be deceased drug lord Pablo Escobar Gaviria's cousin and who denied [es] being the one behind the phone buggings— told a radio network that Colombia's Attorney General (AG) Mario Iguarán, Semana magazine publisher Alejandro Santos Rubino, two people from the AG office, a delegate attorney in charge of the wire tapping probe, and other journalists met at a restaurant in uptown Bogotá on Tuesday. Gaviria suggested [es] that the AG office was apparently “selling information” to the media.
El Brujo expresses his outrage after Gaviria's claims on his blog Tienen Huevo [es]:
¿QUÍEN SERA ENTONCES EL QUE MANDA A PEDIR QUE CHUZEN A TODO EL MUNDO PARA DESPUES SALIR A ARMAR ESCANDALOS?
And Ricardo Buitrago asks for some prudence [es] as the investigations go on:
Si bien la información, por provenir de una entidad periodística respetable tiene visos de credibilidad y certeza, también es cierto, que pruebas del ilícito, por contenido de la misma indagación, se sabe han sido destruidas. Se crean así vacios que dificultan o imposibilitan la investigación. Vistas así las cosas, parecería prudente, dejar a un lado los juicios de responsabilidades, expresados sin plena comprobación de causa, mientras se adelantan las pesquisas y se determinan culpables.
But Jaime Restrepo finds Gaviria's claims quite useful to criticize [es] the Attorney General's Office and the opposition, and to question, again, Semana's journalism:
La actitud de Semana y de la fuente de altísima fidelidad de echarle toda el agua sucia al DAS podría tener una explicación: que dicha fuente no trabaja en el DAS sino en la Fiscalía General de la Nación. Esa fuente, para ser tan creíble, debe ostentar un cargo importante y tener acceso a los pormenores de los sistemas de interceptación. Otra forma de ganar credibilidad es filtrar información, como se ha denunciado que ocurre con frecuencia en la Fiscalía.
¿Quién podría ser esa fuente de altísima fidelidad que trabaja en la Fiscalía? ¿Acaso esa fuente se va de parranda con el director de Semana y con algunos periodistas de ese medio? ¿Será que Iguarán les estaba pidiendo colaboración para esclarecer el asunto o se estaba asegurando de que Alejandro Santos y su combo ratificaran el secreto profesional y sobre todo la reserva de la fuente?
Es que en general, el aparato judicial colombiano genera serias dudas, pero es evidente que la Fiscalía General de la Nación es un bastión clientelista para la izquierda “democrática”, que además se ha valido de esas “corbatas” para adelantar investigaciones y acceder a archivos e información que muchas veces está bajo reserva del sumario.
Semana and its high fidelity source's attitude of putting all the blame on DAS could have an explanation: this source doesn't work for DAS but for the Attorney General's Office. That source, in order to be so reliable, must be in an important position and have access to the details on the phonebugging systems. Another way to gain credibility is by leaking information, as it has been often denounced as being happening in the AG Office.
Who could be that high fidelity source working for the AG? Does this source go out partying with Semana's publisher and some of its journalists? It might be that [Mario] Iguarán was asking their co-operation in order to clarify the issue, or maybe making sure that Alejandro Santos and his pals ratify the professional secrecy and, above all, the confidentiality of the source?
In general, the Colombian legal system creates serious doubts, but it is evident that the Office of the Attorney General is a political patronage bastion for the “democratic” left-wing which has made use of those “neckties” to conduct investigations and access files and informations often restricted.
As Restrepo wishes the Inspector General Alejandro Ordóñez to “detect” those “obscure interests” inside the AG apparently leaking information to the media, as of Monday, March 2, no physical evidence of the illegal wire tappings has been found by the AG agents. Meanwhile, the current Deputy Attorney General revealed [es] that he is aware his home phone line had been bugged since 2005 [es], when he was a delegate attorney before the Supreme Court. The issue will remain in the news for a while, as some still try to find similarities [es] between this scandal and Fujimori's Peru one decade ago.
Pakistan: Terror Hits Cricket!
Today morning a dozen of gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team ahead of a cricket match with Pakistan team in Lahore. This bloody onslaught has left seven people including five Policemen dead and six Sri Lankan players were amongst the number of injured. The terrorists were armed with latest weapons including hand grenades, rockets, rifles etc. Luckily, there were no casualties among the Sri Lankan players and they are on the way back to their country.
I was in classroom when we heard the loud bangs of those firings. We got curious and started making speculations about what really was happening and one of my friends even passed on a joke as we carried on. But I was sensing that something is really wrong and something terrible has happened. After just five minutes I received an SMS from a friend and learned about the attack.
Everyone including our instructor got scared and he was kind enough to let us go. My University is just near the place of attack, Liberty Chowk. We could already see the traffic jam and a panic situation on the road outside my university. Rumors kept on coming from allover that there was a huge casualty in this attack, few said that Sri Lankans were also amongst them.
I immediately ran to the Internet lab hoping to watch the live TV streams about what had really happened. I was shocked to see the bloody fight between terrorists and the Police as SAMAA TV were airing the footage of the attack. I got relieved to know that Sri Lankans are safe, but at the same time, I was sad to hear about the casualties of the local Policemen.
For more details about my personal accounts, please go to my blog.
AlJazeeraEnglish uploaded the following video at YouTube including footage of the attack:
Naeem Sidhu breaks the news with the following words:
On Tuesday morning, our revered Cricketing friends from Sri Lanka were attacked in Lahore, leaving the whole nation embarrassed, shocked and with our heads shaken in disbelief. With the approval of the Colombo Government, SL team decided to tour Pakistan despite security fears and they courageously defied the advice by other Cricketing nations. India was more vocal against the tour by SL team. Due to our security lapse, Tuesday shooting has helped in vindication of their stance and has resulted in closing doors of International Cricket in Pakistan for many years to come – the worst set back to game in its history.
Yasir Imran tries to wake up the current government with these words:
Pakistani Housewife blog expresses frustration:
What has happened to the world we live in? Is there an end to this madness? The situation in the world in general and in Pakistan in particular is getting worse everyday. These are the streets we walk in, the roads we drive on with our kids but nothing seems to be the same. I think these terror attacks kill a few people but terrorize the minds of hundreds and thousands of us. They make us numb, takes away the desire to live and the hope for a happy future is missing from our lives, in these terrible times.
Teeth Maestro says:
It is now certain that this tragic event marks the end of Cricket in Pakistan for sometime, the blame game with India is already nearing a frenzy, analysts like Kamran Khan on Geo and Hamid Gul have pointed fingers towards India already. One must note that the attack looks erringly too similar to the Mumbai attack but logically one must understand that this could very well be a cover up to instigate a war of words between India and Pakistan. Our politicians, intelligence agencies and media were blood thirsty looking for an excuse to kick back at India for the Mumbai assault and todays events in Lahore might serve them with an opportunity.
Kamran Abbasi at cricinfo summarizes:
The least of the consequences of this disaster is that those who have advocated the continuation of international cricket in Pakistan - including me - have been proved wrong. No international team will now visit Pakistan, and the Pakistan Cricket Board should voluntarily arrange all future tours at neutral venues for the next year, may be longer. This the darkest day in the history of Pakistan cricket and it occurred in a pleasant suburb of Lahore, a once great city of gardens and tranquility,
Maneno: A Multilingual Blogging Platform Built For African Bloggers
Maneno is a new blogging platform that promises to offer blogging and communication solutions for bloggers with limited or narrow-bandwith in Sub-Saharan Africa. Maneno is a Swahili word, which means “words.”
Considering the multilingual nature of the region, Maneno was built to allow for multiple language versions of articles to “sit atop one another for immediate access.” The interface of the platform is also translated into different languages to remove linguistic barriers. At the moment, Maneno is readable in English, Spanish, French, Swahili and Portuguese. Maneno developers are also planning on enabling African bloggers to use mobile phones to blog.
Maneno is a non-profit registered in the United States. Its Directors, three of whom are regular Global Voices contributors are Rebecca Wanjiku, a journalist and blogger from Kenya, Elia Varela Serra, journalist and photographer with a background in humanitarian development, Saul Wainwright, a South African finance manager, researcher and strategist and Miquel Hudin Balsa, a web developer.
Translation of the site is open to people in the community:
Maneno relies on people in the community helping us to translate the site. We encourage anyone out there with knowledge of a Sub-Saharan language to contact us to offer their linguistic help. Please don't be discouraged if your langauge isn't widely spoken; we'd still love to have it as an option!
To create a translation is quite simple. Once we hear from you, we'll send you a basic text file. You substitute in the words for your language and send it back. If desired, we will happily thank you on this page and in our blog for your work.
White Africa tested the site and found it a lot faster than most blogging platforms. Do we need another blogging platform?, he asks:
When I first heard about Maneno, the first question that came to my mind was… “what about WordPress.com and Blogger.com?” Don’t those serve the same purpose? Realizing that my knowledge in this might be lacking, I contacted Miquel to answer a few answers. Here is his response:
“We travel quite a bit and I found that anything hosted in the US gets slower and slower the further you get from the US, so I worked to create a CMS/blog platform that was very stripped down, yet fully functional. Don’t get me wrong, Wordpress is a beautiful, fantastic system that I admire and also use, but when you’re on a satellite connection in Bukavu or very slow DSL in Sarajevo, it’s mighty slow to use, which is the same problem with GMail and other web based applications that were developed in North America and Europe. So, I realized that what I was doing for our personal blogs would translate very well in to a system that would meet a great many of the needs for a new blogging system for Sub-Saharan Africa.”
That makes sense. Any hosted web platform based in the US and Europe is going to have lag issues Africa. Every byte counts, so a system that has been custom built to work in this scenario can be useful.
Final thoughts
The site absolutely flies. It’s a lot faster than most other blogging platforms. I’m interested in hearing from others around the African continent on how fast the site loads for them.
Besides the standard text and images, Maneno allows you to add up to 10Mb audio files as a post. This is a great idea, and shows just how much they’re thinking about things differently, as many normal users of blogging platforms can’t figure out how to host podcasts or audio files to get them out in the public.
Aid Worker Daily considers Maneno a lightweight blogging platform for “folks heading to the field,” and wonders if its code or template will be released to the public as open source:
A few days ago I posted on Loband and how it’s the perfect tool for browsing the web in low bandwidth environments. Miquel dropped by to read the post but also to let us know about Maneno which is a lightweight blogging platform that he and his team have created. His comment sparked a discussion with Alan Jackson over at Aptivate, the creators of Loband, and while most of the back and forth is fairly technical Alan took the time to lay out some observations he has made of the Maneno platform. It looks like a great product and it seems like a perfect tool for that mass of aid workers that start blogs primarily to keep their friends back home updated and to let their families know that they are still alive. It has very low bandwidth demands and offers a clean and simple interface. Please check it out and let us know what you think but first head over and check out the rest of the comments. Here’s a taste:
Miguel it’s great to hear about your lightweight blogging system. We’ve been thinking there was a need for something like that for a while. Are you going to release the code / templates open source? You might be interested in our web design guidelines where we go through various techniques for optimising the size of web pages. We came up with a target page size of 25KB using estimates of the bandwidth you get on the desktop in African universities.
The 50KB typical page size of Maneno is fantastic, especially when you consider the average web page size is now over 300KB (which would have a 2 minute download time on a 20Kb/s connection). If you’re interested in shaving off even more, you might want to have a look at converting RGB images to images with indexed palettes or reducing the number of indexed colours down to something like 32.
What is the point of a new site or platform when other good ones are available?, asks Mike Blyth:
There are several advantages:
• The site is designed from scratch with the goal of making pages load fast over the slow connections that most of us have in Africa. There really is a noticeable difference.
• The site is easy to use. (Actually, I'm not sure it's any easier than Blogspot, but the authors are working to keep it simple.)
• Maneno is multilingual. Other sites do allow you to type your blog entries in your own language, but Maneno has the added feature of an easy interface that lets any member translate any blog post into another language, sort of a communal approach to making the entries themselves available in other languages. Of course, it's the African languages that are the focus.
• Maneno recognizes that many users in Africa do not have access a computer, so the site is exploring ways to allow people to access it through mobile phones and other relevant technology. (Blogspot also allows posting by mobile phone & email … will Maneno be better in some way? Probably it at least will be slimmer.)
• Maneno is focused on Africa. Unlike Blogspot, which is a place for any and every type of blog, Maneno is more topical, describing itself as striving “to provide a communication and development platform for Sub-Saharan Africa.”
TinderBlog hopes Maneno becomes the future of Content Management Systems:
So imagine my joy when I came across Maneno last week. A CMS blogging platform designed specifically with low bandwidth in mind and provided from servers in Africa, cutting down on slow internal connections. As the blurb says “Maneno strives to provide a communication and development platform for Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Good looking and providing all the functionality you need in a decent website, the online feedback I’ve seen so far has been universally positive, particularly around download times, which can massively increase the expense of browsing the net in the very places where this service needs to be as cheap as possible. That is really important. In the words of blogger White African “The site absolutely flies.”Although Maneno is still in a beta version it works like a dream and looks very impressive. It seems just the ticket if you are setting up a new site with little knowledge of design and want to ensure potential readers in Africa actually get the opportunity to read what you have to say.
Japan: To you who will graduate this year
Spring is fast approaching, and in Japan that means two things: the fall of cherry blossoms and the start of the new school year, which coincides with last year's graduates joining the workforce. With economies both global and local slumping to new lows, and no end in sight to the practice of un-hiring fresh graduates, the outlook for young people leaving Japanese universities this year is far from bright.
Japanese graduation (photo by Flickr user gnurou)
With these circumstances as backdrop, a blog post by Japanese blogger and university professor id:next49, addressed (anonymously) to a student, struck a chord with many readers and drew a huge reaction in the local blogosphere last month. Posted on February 22nd, the post begins:
卒業していく君へ。
卒業おめでとう。本当は面と向かって言ったほうが良いのだけど先生という立場だと私の発言が思った以上に重くなってしまうので直接君にはいえない。でも、君への言葉を一度形にしておかないと私の頭に一生こびりつきそうなのでここに書かせてもらうよ。
今年、君は卒論に苦しんだね。君が卒論に苦しんだ理由は自分でも分かっていると思うけど、常に外部に正解を求めたことにあるんだ。私が「どうして、それが正しいと思うの？その理由を教えて。」と聞くと、いつも君は表情を凍らせて黙ってしまったね。何度も何度も「研究には正解とか不正解とかない。誰も答えを知らないから研究になっているんだ。だから、自分の主張をとりあえず述べて、相手の反論が正しいと思えてから自分は間違っていたと考えれば良いんだよ。」と伝えたのだけど、最期最後まで君は自分の主張の正しさを自分の言葉で言えず、常に私の保証を求めたね。はっきり言ってそれが私にとっては本当につらかった。
君が雑談ならば私とも明るくおしゃべりできるのに、研究の話となった瞬間に凍り付いてしまうのは、雑談は自分の感情をベースに話せるので自信を持てる（自分の感情だもの、正しいも正しくないもない）のに対して、研究の話は自信がないからだよ。
どうして、自信がなかったのかといえば、たぶん、間違うことに対して恐怖をいだいているからだと思うよ。何で間違うことに対して恐怖を抱いているのかというと、まだ君には精神的な背骨が育っていないからだと思う。君は、自分の価値判断の基準を外部に委ねており、自分の内部にそれがない。君が自分の価値判断の基準だと思っているのは、外部に依存した「優等生な自分」「良くできる自分」という役に立たない基準なんだ。
もちろん、「良く出来る自分」というものをきっちりと咀嚼し、自分の精神的な背骨にしている人は大勢いる。でも、君のは、「他人が君をどう思うか」という基準なんだ。精神的な背骨として使えるのは「自分が自分をどう思うか」というものなんだ。ざっくり言えば、他人が君のことをかっこ悪いと思っていても自分が自分のことをかっこよいと思っていれば動じないというもの。何をもってかっこよいとするかは、親の見方、彼女の見方、友達の見方、小説内の見方、アニメの中での見方など何に由来していてもかまわないのだけど、自分が咀嚼しているのが重要。自分が咀嚼しているならば、周りの環境が急に変わっても、自分の背骨は急には不安定にならない。
私の判断基準の基礎は両親が作った。その基準をベースに、読んだ本、小学校・中学校・高校の素敵なあるいは面白い、個性的な先生達、見たテレビ番組、体験したいろいろなことをミックスして私の背骨はできている。大学での私の指導教員の発言や考え、教えも今や立派なに私の背骨の一部だ。いまでは、自分が研究を進めるとき指導教員の声が聞こえてくるくらいだ。「それは何の意味があるの？」「それの定義は何？」とか。私の美醜の基準は、明らかにいままで読んだ小説や漫画に由来しているよ。
精神的な背骨がある人は、自分が間違えることをだいたい許容できる。自分の判断基準からしてどうでも良いことならば、間違えたって直してより良いものにしていけば良いだけだから。自分の判断基準からして重要な間違いならば凹むかもしれないけどね。でも、一度背骨を作り上げている人ならば、背骨自体を強化したり、変更したりできるので案外タフだ。
一方、精神的な背骨が無い人は、いかなる間違いも許容できない。なぜならば、判断基準は外にあるためどの間違いが自分に致命的でどの間違いが自分に致命的でないかが判断できないから。だって、判断するのは他人。完璧に振舞いたいのだけど、どう振舞えば完璧かわからなくなり、自信が無くなり、自分が嫌いになる。まるで、プライドを殻にした甲殻類みたいになるんだ。判断基準は外にあるので、自分が取れる選択肢は「他人に嫌われないようにする」「他人にかっこ悪いと思われないようにする」「他人にできない奴とみられないようにする」というものしかない。強化も変更もできないんだ。
価値の判断基準が自分の外にある人間は表現者になれない。その表現の仕方が研究だろうと、スピーチだろうと、絵画だろうと、価値の判断基準は常に自分の内部にあり、その基準に基づいて自分の考えや思いを外に問うのが表現だ。価値の判断基準が外にある人間は、自分の内部にあるものが外に問うだけのクオリティに達しているかを常に悩んでしまい表現を外に出せない。外に出せない限り、いかなる人間も表現者とはなりえないんだ。
表現者は、外の世界に自分の考えや思いを問うのがその存在意義だ。外に問うということは反論を食らうということなので、皮膚は破れ、肉は断たれる。でも、骨は守る。傷を癒し、身のこなしを鍛え、骨を強化し、場合によっては骨を入れ替え、再び世の中に自分の考えや思いを問う。考えや思いを外に問わなければ何も始まらないから、ただ、そうする。
だから、君がもし表現者になりたいのだとしたら、精神的な背骨を手に入れる必要がある。それはどんなものでも良い。私が君をどう思うかではなく、君が君をどう思うかそれが重要だ。君は私じゃないし、私は君じゃない。究極的には、私が君をどう思おうが君はそれに左右される筋合いはない。
君が背骨を手に入れる手助けをしきれなかったことに悔いが残るが、この研究室で卒論をやった経験が数年後に役にたつことを祈っている。君が新たな場所で新たな師匠に立派に鍛えてもらえますように。さようなら、お元気で。
There are a huge number of reactions to this post, most prominently a highly-bookmarked response [ja] posted at Hatena's AnonymousDiary. For more reactions, see id:next49's follow-up post [ja], in which the blogger summarizes some of the main discussion points related to the original blog entry.
This blog entry was translated in its entirety with permission of the blogger.
Australian film on Lebanese gangs talk of the town
An Australian film depicting Lebanese gang life in Sydney's western suburbs has sparked more than a series of reviews.
The film, “The Combination“, was pulled from several cinemas in Sydney after brawls broke out, following the screenings.
“The Combination” was eventually re-scheduled, however extra security was added to keep the troublemakers at bay.
Written by and starring Lebanese-Australian actor George Basha, the gangster flick is set in the 2005 Cronulla race riots which saw white supremacist gangs pitted against Australians of Lebanese/Middle Eastern appearance.
The aim of the movie is to portray the real life and pressures facing the Lebanese in Sydney's west. Australians of Lebanese descent number roughly 400,000, a large proportion of whom reside in Sydney's western suburbs.
The controversial film has been the talk of the town, receiving wide media attention.
Australian film critic/blogger, Marc Fennell, gave his thoughts on the film:
Australian Lebanese gangster flick The Combination is special – it’s hooked into the zeitgeist and hit upon something very current and now. Above all things however, it’s marketed itself freakishly well. So far The Combination has been raking in the news coverage left, right and centre. It’s been generating heated comment, um, also from the left, right and centre and it’s even been accused of starting riots.
And all this for a movie that is actually not very good.
Okay, that’s not entirely fair. Lemme explain. The Combination takes place against the backdrop of the Cronulla Riots. It’s the tale of a Lebanese man (George Basha, also the writer) in Western Sydney who gets back from jail only to discover that his younger brother is shooting down the path that lead him to the big house. (Australian History X??). Meanwhile Basha falls in love with a white girl with racist parents and - judging by her acting ability - a penchant for horse tranquilizers.
I give this movie a serious A+ for ambition. And I mean that quite genuinely. I also LOVE the fact that we finally have a film about Western Sydney that focuses on the non-anglo character.
There are also some elements within this movie that just pop. The way it captures of Lebanese culture – the dancing, the food, the family - is brilliant. The movie just springs to life when these moments come along. And there are a couple of standout performances.
At the end of the day, I think it’s important that The Combination was attempted. It deals with issues that are relevant and important to our time and country – and over time, I suspect that it’ll become an important social document of Australia. I also think that the positive elements in this film are a pretty strong indication that George Basha and Director David Field have got some serious talent. I’d love to see what they come back with next, but for now The Combination only gets 2/5 from me.
Scott Henderson, on his blog Dark Habits, offers a similar review, with a focus on the issues “The Combination” seeks to explore:
It is through Sydney that audience experiences much of the cultural beauty within the Lebanese community, the food, the generosity, dancing in restaurants. Of course it is also through Sydney, and more specifically Sydney’s parents, that we experience some of the social observations about prejudice and xenophobia The Combination contends with. The long and short of the film's non-too subtle remarks being white people assume dark people are Muslims (which is like double points prejudice), Lebanese-Australians are Australians too, older generations don’t help matter by thinking the two should mix in affairs of the heart (“It’s not racist, that’s just the way it is”) and racism is, you know, bad.
Violence proliferates The Combination and the film makes explicit mention of the 2005 Cronulla Riots here in Sydney, during which the action takes place as a background to reference rather than a driving force in the narrative. Fights in school, street stabbings over video games and the tentacles of gang violence in general reach deep into the live's of the main protagonists. These actions (and involvement with drug dealers) are not without their repercussions as some boys go to jail and some to the morgue – violence is not the answer is the resolute message from screenwriter George Basha and director David Field. That is until it is necessary for a narrative exclamation mark of course.
In respect of this central meme of The Combination the film sacrifices much of effort to show the consequences of violence in favour of an act of vigilante justice which says it's okay when someone who deserves much worse instead just gets beaten senseless and humiliated in front of more upstanding members of the community. It is a moment that muddies the message and one showed a lack of courage or thought to go the whole way and complete the circle of violence leaving an ambiguity to the film's ending. Instead The Combination settles for the easy way out, a macho one audiences can really cheer for.
An Australian Muslim blogger, Nurisha Ali at Brisbane Qalam, is impressed by the film's risk-taking:
Links for Tue, 2009-03
Hungarian Spectrum writes about the Hungarian police - “for every 100,000 citizens there are 420 policemen” - and about crimes against gypsies (here and here).
Sheki, Azerbaijan informs its readers of Od Çərşənbəsi, a traditional observance that will eventually usher in the fire holiday of Newroz.
London, Lanka and drums reminds those who speculate that the LTTE is behind the attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore: “The Sri Lankan cricket team is a phenomenon, possibly the only one, that has united Sri Lanka through the last twenty or thirty years. We all know that. When it comes to cricket, to supporting it, the people of Lanka are Lankans first. Whether Tamil, Sinhalese or drummers who have London accents and don't know a googly from google, everyone gets behind the team.”
Indi.ca from Sri Lanka exclaims: “It’s absolutely shameful to shoot cricketers, I mean, who shoots cricketers? It’s the one glimmer that unites everyone across this godforsaken subcontinent. Sri Lanka is one of the few teams which has agreed to play in Pakistan recently, and now they’ve been shot.”
Construction and the widening of the Choferes del Chaco Avenue in Asunción Paraguay has meant the removal of many of the trees, as well as the installation of stop lights that have attracted vendors and beggars writes Pepa Kostianovsky of De Pe a Pa [es].
The Nicaraguan Twitter community Twittnic [es] is organizing its 4th meet-up, which will be a road trip to the city of Granada.
Muneeb Ali comments on the attack on Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore: “I must admit. I am scared. For the first time, the glaring reality that Pakistan is a failed state is sinking in. We are all waiting for a train-wreck, with everyone on board. And I believe that very recently we passed a tipping point. The stage is all set. All that is missing now is a religious revolution.”
Maulee.cl [es] writes that Hugo López Silva is the new Chilean national champion in chess and hails from Osorno in the Maule region.
Sergio Simpson provides the electronic version of the Nicaraguan social sciences magazine Idea [es], which includes articles on the communities of San Rafael del Norte - Jinotega, Matagalpa, Siuna, Puerto Cabezas and Bluefields.
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And from a Lebanese in the Middle East, Jad Aoun is not surprised to hear of the brawls at the film's screening: