Archive for
March 26th, 2009
Stories
Jordan: Blogger Exposes a State Secret
Jordanian blogger Rami Abdelrahman has blogged about a closely guarded secret about his government's involvement in the war on Afghanistan - and is getting unwelcome attention from the intelligence service.
It all started a few days ago, when the global journalist and media researcher who lives in Sweden, posted and commented on an excerpt from the Atlantic, which refers to a newly declassified NATO documents which reveals the extent of Jordan's involvement in the “war on terror.”
The document, according to the Atlantic:
…includes Jordan as being among the countries that are part of the international forces in Afghanistan, but it also includes the notice that Jordan doesn't want its name in the public domain, fearing the internal repercussions
The other Arab country named in the document is the United Arab Emirates.
Abdelrahman notes:
The kind of cooperation that has been long considered a national “secret,” by demand of the Jordanian government, but is well known to other partners involved.
On the not so secret “secret,” he wonders:
Wouldn't the NATO and its Middle Eastern allies do better if they were more transparent to their citizens about deals that would eventually be exposed? Why is there such need to hide, providing much space for opposition to fabricate stories and conspiracy theories and sell it cheap to the masses? Why leave us all, global citizens, resort to arbitrary interpretation, just when the need for public support is paramount? Anyone?
The next day, Abdelrahman follows up with another post, which includes a link to a PDF file of the declassified document “Jordan does not want to go public about.” The file is hosted on Wikileaks, a website that publishes anonymous submissions of sensitive documents.
The declassified NATO document
He notes:
I am publishing this just to be on the safe legal side, and to maintain the credibility of this blog and my reputation as a journalist, after publishing two days ago a blog post about Jordan keeping its participation from the international force in Afghanistan a secret to its own citizens. The original blog post can be found here.
Abdelrahman also tells us about some unwelcome visitors found lurking around his blog after his initial post:
Interestingly, analyzing readership statistics and domain addresses for those who monitored the blog, I found some interesting readers:
US Army Information Systems Engineering Command, (Headquarters Usaisc), visited 3 times on 24th March 2009, at 13:50:24, 13:50:38 and 13:51:22.
Royal Jordanian Hashemite Court (Rhc) visited once on 24th March 2009, 15:37:29
Jordanian Intelligence Department (gid.gov.jo) visited 12times (So far) on 24th March 2009 between 17:42:27, and 18:37
Jordanian Intelligence Department (gid.gov.jo) visited 12times (So far) on 24th March 2009 between 17:42:27, and 18:37:32
….among many other unique visitors between yesterday and today. I find it perplexing that no one leaves an official comment to explain, why does Jordan want to keep this a secret, when Jordanians understand and accept its alliances
Palestine: Testimonies Regarding Israeli War Crimes in Gaza
Bloggers in Gaza have not been surprised by the testimonies of Israeli soldiers documenting war crimes they committed or witnessed during the recent attacks on Gaza - or by any of the other stories now being reported regarding the Israeli military's conduct.
Canadian activist Eva Bartlett blogs at In Gaza:
What we knew of Israel’s war crimes during Israel’s war on Gaza, what the medics, the victims, the doctors, the witnesses have testified is now gaining growing recognition. The calls for international inquiry are growing, as are the reasons. […] The Guardian has just published an excellent series of articles and videos on Israel’s crimes of war in and on Gaza. Included in the reports are focuses on attacks on medical workers, Israel’s use of drones to target and kill with pinpoint accuracy civilians, and Israel’s use of civilians (including minors) as human shields during their military operations. […] People in Gaza were very acutely aware of the lethal drones, without having to be told thus by formal groups or experts. At new year’s the sordid text message about zanana (drone) missiles spread in a dark attempt at humour. We knew they were deadly.
Eva then provides links to other media sources, including Al Jazeera, Ha'aretz, The Independent, and The Times.
Australian activist Sharyn Lock writes at Tales to Tell:
Do you remember that before the ground incursion began, E and I were spending nights with our Jabalia friends as they hid in the basement while the bombs fell? And then we would go out in the morning (somewhat less bombs) to document the attacks. And you might remember a picture we took of a yellow truck in which a family had been blown up.
Well, what I didn’t know was that Israel was actually using footage of the last minutes of these people’s lives, taken from the air, as a youtube propaganda video about how they were just targeting Hamas rocket firers. However the locals told a B’Tselem field worker the same story they told us (the Guardian newspaper picked up on it also) and a very different version of events was posted to youtube here.
Louisa Waugh, who works in Gaza, writes at New Internationalist's Gaza Blog:
An American friend who has lived in Jerusalem for almost two years tells me she thinks Israel is unnerved by recent testimonies from soldiers who were recently in Gaza.
The Israeli soldiers were graduates of the Oranim College military academy, which has just published the testimonies. They describe attacks on civilians, including what one soldier described as ‘The cold-blooded murder' of an elderly Palestinian woman, and incidents of soldiers being ordered to trash civilian houses and throw the contents, furniture and all, out of the windows. The academy director, Dany Zamir, told an Israeli radio station that, ‘[The testimonies] conveyed an atmosphere in which one feels entitled to use unrestricted force against Palestinians.'
Alongside these disturbing but unsurprising revelations which the Israeli military says it will investigate, is the ugly scandal of T-shirts with vicious slogans being worn by some young Israeli soldiers. According to reports in the Israeli media, and BBC news, one of the T-shirts has the slogan ‘Bet you got Raped!' over a picture of a bruised woman in a head-scarf. Another shows the picture of a clearly pregnant head-scarved woman with the words, ‘One shot two kills.' […] I think my friend in Jerusalem is overly optimistic: it's hard to get any perspective on Israel from here in Gaza, especially so soon after the devastating offensive. But mainstream Israeli public opinion seems to be that although the Israeli military offensive in Gaza was clearly brutal and disproportionate, Palestinians got what they deserved.
Mango Girl, who is based in Egypt, refers to a report that a rabbi accompanied Israeli soldiers:
Dirty laundry from the recent military campaign against Gaza is being aired in Haaretz [newspaper], and one of the allegations is that a radical rabbi was brought in to exhort Israeli soldiers to do their religious duty in clearing the land of non-Jews so that Jews could realize their religious rights to it. Golly gee, do you think that maybe Israel is motivated by religion or religious identity? You mean they’re not super secular and liberal and democratic and are, just maybe, more similar to the unwashed wild-eyed jihadi Arabs they are fighting than different?
We end with a thought from Lebanese activist Natalie Abou Shakra, who blogs at Moments of Gaza; she asks about the images of warplanes she has posted:
Don't they look like insects, the ones that bite deep into your skin? […] And, to humanity's dismay, when one searches on the internet, the search results display artistic photos of the war planes, as if they can be added to a collection… perhaps they would like to also take artistic photos of the aftermath of using these man-slaughtering machines looking at the Israeli Apache… does it not look like an abnormally large insect (an abnormally large fly)… do you understand what i mean now that we lived a horror movie…? there were huge insects and parasites feeding on human flesh
Global Voices Book Challenge - Read Your Way Around the World!
April 23 is UNESCO World Book Day – and just because the Global Voices team loves blogs, doesn’t mean we have forgotten other forms of the written word! In fact, because we think reading literature is such an enjoyable way to learn about another culture, we have a fun challenge for all Global Voices contributors and readers, and bloggers everywhere.
The Global Voices Book Challenge is as follows:
2) Write a blog post about it during the week of April 23.
UPDATE: Tag your posts with #gvbook09 so we can find your posts.
If you would like to know what you should be reading from Vietnam, Bolivia, Mozambique or New Zealand, or any other country, just ask in the comments below! Someone is sure to give you suggestions.
And if you have any recommendations for any must-read works from your own country, please leave a comment too.
Once you have read your book (and written a post!) let us know – we’d love to discover what you learned on your literary expedition.
Feel free to use the images above and below to spread the word of the Global Voices Book Challenge!
Mexico: Unsolved Feminicide Along the Border
Violence along the United States - Mexico border has reached staggering levels. The killings in border cities like Ciudad Juárez has already totaled 400 in the first two months of 2009. It is not only those involved in the drug trade that fall victims to the kidnappings and murders, young women have become unfortunate casualties in this crisis.
According to Amnesty International, more than 370 women have been murdered in the cities of Juárez and Chihuahua “without the authorities taking proper measures to investigate and address the problem.” This crisis, often called feminicide, has been a cause for organizations and blogs to take to the internet to help raise awareness to the plight of the victims and their families.
Organizations are calling for justice and greater action by local and national authorities. Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa [es] (May Our Daughters Return Home) is an organization based in Ciudad Juárez co-founded by the mother and the teacher of Lilia Alejandra Garcia Andrade, who was abducted and was found dead in 2001. The organization writes on its blog about the context in which many families live [es]:
En Ciudad Juárez desaparecen mujeres y no se vuelve a saber más de ellas, a menos que sus raptores decidan hacer aparecer sus cuerpos sin vida y con evidencias claras de haber sido brutalmente torturadas y asesinadas, violadas de manera tumultuaria y arrancadas partes de su cuerpo o quemadas. Es un dolor terrible para esta sociedad. ¿No hay nada que mueva a quienes pueden hacer algo al respecto?
La desesperación y miedo de las familias de vivir en tal inseguridad al ver a las hijas salir del hogar sin saber si van a regresar, no son motivo que afecte la voluntad de nadie de poner un freno a estos hechos.
A la fecha estos crímenes están impunes, y a las mujeres desaparecidas nadie las busca… y los asesinatos y desapariciones continúan sin que a la fecha haya responsable alguno.
In Ciudad Juárez women disappear and are not seen or heard from again, unless their captors decide to make their lifeless bodies reappear and with clear signs that they were brutally tortured and murdered, gang raped or with their bodies dismembered or burned. It is a terrible pain for this society. Isn't there something that can push those who are able to do something?
The desperation and fear of the families who live in such insecurity when they see their daughters leave the house without knowing if they will return are not reasons to affect anyone's will to put an end to these incidents.
To date, these crimes have gone unpunished, and no one is looking for the disappeared women…and the murders and kidnappings continue without anyone being held responsible.
The organization has received threats [es] for their work to put an end to the killings, according to the blog Contra el Feminicidio en México [es] (Against Feminicide in Mexico).
Mexican-American filmmaker and videoblogger at Chicana Feliz, Zumla Aguiar took a special interest in this story and worked closely with the organization to produce the documentary “Juárez Mothers Fight Feminicide” which is licensed under a Creative Commons license. The film's description says:
The video does not try to pound you over the head with more information. It basically looks at the opinions of the mothers in regards to what was the final story with each case. Interviewed are mothers from all social strata but this film points out that the pain is equal and all valid emotions. The fact that the “women are poor” is pointed out by Marisela Ortiz from Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa as a reason why nobody does anything about these murders.
Another organization Red Solidaria Década Contra la Impunidad [es] (Decade Solidarity Network Against Impunity) uses its blog to share news about its activities fighting against impunity for human rights abuses including the murders of young women in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and other parts of Mexico.
The international organization Witness has used citizen media to raise awareness and collect signatures for a petition to presented to Mexican President Felipe Calderón. In 2003, in conjunction with the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights [es] (CMDPDH), they produced a short film called Dual Injustice. The story centers on the disappearance of Neyra Cervantes in Chihuahua, who disappeared in May 2003 and her cousin, David Meza, who who was tortured until he confessed to her murder.
Even though Cervantes' remains were recovered and Meza was released after being wrongfully imprisoned, those responsible for her death have gone unpunished. Witness is continuing its campaign through a petition drive, which will be presented to President Calderón by Witness founder Peter Gabriel, other well-known Mexican celebrities and the mother of Neyra Cervantes. Some Mexican bloggers are also writing about the presentation of the petition, such as the blog Resiste Chihuahua [es]
As the situation along the border towns remains dire and many crimes unresolved, the women from the organization May Our Daughters Return Home write about their struggles, but also about their hope [es]:
Las familias que participamos en este movimiento hemos convertido en fuerza nuestro dolor. Después de enfrentarnos, además del brutal asesinato de nuestras hijas, a la ineptitud, intransigencia, encubrimiento, corrupción, a la más indiferente actitud de funcionarios y autoridades.
Nos resulta complicado expresar con palabras el dolor desgarrador de saber asesinadas en tales circunstancias a nuestras jóvenes hijas, en un inmenso sufrimiento que no se extingue, y no podemos evitar las lágrimas cada vez que pensamos en ellas o miramos sus objetos personales y sus fotos. Nos angustia y crece nuestro suplicio al imaginar cómo pudieron ser los últimos momentos de nuestras hijas asesinadas a base de torturas y vivimos sin vivir…
Mantenemos la esperanza de que algún día la justicia para la desaparición y muerte prematura de nuestras hijas sea posible, ya que sería la única forma de recuperar nuestra propia vida. Solidaridad para quienes, sin ser nuestras compañeras, comparten ahora mismo la pena de haberles arrancado un pedazo de su vida.
The families that participate in this movement have turned our pain into our strength. After confronting, in addition to the brutal murder of our daughters, the incompetence, stubbornness, cover-up, corruption, and the indifferent attitude from the authorities.
It is difficult to express our heartbreaking pain into words, knowing that our daughters were murdered under those circumstances, it is an immense suffering that does not end, and we cannot stop the tears each time we think of them or see their personal things and their photos. Our anguish and torment grows when we imagine how our murdered daughters' last moments must have been with the torture and we live without living…
We maintain our hope that some day justice will be served for the disappearance and the premature death of our daughters, as that would be the only way to recuperate our own lives. There is solidarity for those, even those aren't our companions, who share their own sorrow of losing a part of their own lives.
Thailand: Ex-PM Thaksin Reveals Conspirators Behind 2006 Coup
Former Prime Minister in-exile Thaksin Shinawatra called his supporters two days ago in Chiang Mai via video conference and revealed the people who are behind the plot that took him down in the 2006 coup d'etat.
From The Nation:
Without mentioning any name, it is understood he quoted Jittanart Limthongkul of ASTV-Manager Group as saying his father and media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul had lunch with a privy councilor, hence bringing about the opposition movement.
Sondhi Limthongkul is one of PAD leaders, who seized Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport last November against Thaksin's party government.
The key point is the “privy councilor” who really is General Surayud Chulanont, the former Army Commander and Supreme Commander. He retired before the 2006 coup but after his successor committed the coup, Surayud became the next Prime Minister after Thaksin, in the junta-backed government. (more…)
Iraq: Six Years On
It's the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war and while bloggers remember the past, few seem to look to the future anymore.
Pioneering blogger, Salam Pax, who started the Iraq blogging phenomenon looks back six years to the beginning of the war. In a series of posts, Salam reveals previously unpublished notes from the days he did not have electricity to blog. His wish to break from the past is clear when he writes:
In three weeks time it’s the 6th anniversary for the fall/liberation of Baghdad.Baghdad Falls / Baghdad is liberated.. all semantics. What is fact is our life in Iraq as we knew it ended at that day.
Since the start of the war in 2003 we had to move house three times for various reasons…
While looking through the boxes of our belongings I found the notebook, with newspapers, photos and the flyers I had kept. As five years have passed and we’re entering the our seventh year of our post-war/post-Saddam lives I thought it would be good to look over these notes and share what I have from that time with you… I will upload it all online and throw the pieces of paper I have away. Hanging on to all of this for six years is enough.
For Sunshine, the war coincides with her time at high-school. At the leaving party for her school she remembers the good and bad events at her school in the six years that have passed:
My best memory [was] when I asked my friends to make a surprise for our friend R who lost her dad and several relatives, I thought she needed to feel excited and happy so I decided to buy her a PC computer, my friends participated with some of their savings and I bought the computer, wrapped it and took the present to school. The students, teachers, and R were shocked, it was the best birthday gift ever..Beside all the good events there has been very painful memories, when R lost her dad and several relatives, when M lost her mother, whenever a classmate have to leave Iraq, or get a threat, as well as all the times we had to hide under our desks when shooting starts, there has been terrifying battles near school, a mortar once fall, too many car bombs exploded, mines etc .. Many times we had to go walking among the tanks; our way to school is dangerous.
I'll always remember the good events and laugh, and the hard ones will only give me the strength, power and make me prepared for every hard thing I may face in the future
Sunshine.
Laith reviews his dreams and reality:
When the US military started what they called Operation Iraq Freedom, I really felt so happy for one thing. I thought Iraq would be free again and we would have real government with politicians who really care about Iraq future and its people. I had a real big hope that services will be the best again and we would live happily again. I never thought that we would start killing each other for the sake of some strangers or to kidnap each other for money but I was completely wrong. I was sure that the American administration had planned very well for the stage after the war but I was wrong again. Nothing really changed in Iraq after six years. To be honest, we have one big change. Now we have hundreds of political parties that do nothing to Iraq and all they care about is their interests. After six years, the Americans approved that they came without any plan because most Iraqis are still poor and deprived from the simplest human rights. Iraqi governments and the American administration failed completely in putting Iraq once again on the right path.I have to admit that after six years of the invasion, ALL MY DREAMS HAD GONE WITH THE WIND
After years away from Iraq, Attawie can only think of what she misses:
I'm away from beloved Baghdad. I'm away from family and friends. I'm away from the land I was born on; away of the soil I took my first step on, away from the house I was raised in, away from my neighbors, I'm away … but… not mind and soul.War, chaos, loss of uncountable people and things, unemployment, corrupted system, mysteries, sadness, chain of mischief, lost dreams, burnt houses, smell of death, widows, orphans, tears, sad stories, cruel memories… That's all what we are left with?… I don't want to sound devastated. I don't want to show despair. I just want to tell you the picture is not pleasant, And it needs a lot of repair. What's going on right now is unfair.
I lost my focus and lost my words. I'm not sure if it makes sense. But that's all you're going to get on a Day Like Today. Life is frozen… the clock is broken. The prayers you're saying are not answered today… Oh Iraq, returning has become the dream that makes my day. Your memory is the sweetness in this bitter life. You are the sound of laughter, background music for this noisy life, the kiss on a mother's forehead, the grip of an infant fist.
Faiza writes a long post of her feelings after six years of war and occupation and concludes:
I smile, at the sixth anniversary of occupying Iraq, in spite of the sadness weighting on my heart, but I will never give up hope, ever; that Iraq will come back to its people, that a brave nationalistic leadership will come, a leadership that wants only Iraq’s interest, will negotiate the occupation out, and will withdraw all the occupation’s powers.
When will that day come?
Only God knows…. But it will come, no doubt… for these are God’s laws on earth…
And, in the way that only Layla Anwar can, an essay comparing the creation of a new Iraq to a mother giving a forced birth of a mutant baby:
It was a monster infant. A hydra with a hundred heads, a hundred skulls, an octopus with a hundred arms, a deformed face with hundreds of eyes, bulging..its skin made of scaling scabs, its body made of slime, an invertebrate crawling, with no legs to stand, and from its mouth, instead of gurgles, it drooled a burning caustic froth…And it has kept crawling for 6 years already, sniffing like a rabid dog, sniffing for more…keeping scum for company and preying for more fresh blood…more fresh meat…
It was exactly six years ago and she is still lying in that delivery room which now looks like an overused, stenchy morgue…drowned in her own blood, mummified with slogans and jargon…her womb and mouth stuffed with newspaper articles and essays…with words…stuffed with a silent forgotten death, like the desolate forgotten walls of this city, where rats and roaches furtively scurry along, feeding on the monster's vomit and excrement…feeding on ashes and dust.
And on that note I will leave you to make up your own mind if the war in Iraq, six years ago, was really worthwhile.
Links for Thu, 2009-03
Rahul Katyayan scripted, shot and directed a movie on his life in Mumbai and posted in his blog. The movie (vlog) was made for American students who wants to know more about the students of their age from different part of world.
Shakthi at I , Me and Shakthi writes about what he wants from India's next Prime Minister.
On the occasion of the 38th birth anniversary of Bangladesh, Unheard Voice lists 10 remarkable events for pre-independence and post independence eras each.
Young Gazan blogger Lina AlSharif has made two videos to mark three months since the Israeli attacks on Gaza began.
According to several sources an Iranian Christian blogger was arrested in the city of Isfahan in Iran about one month ago. He is a convert from Islam and he used to write about Bible in his blog.
The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia publishes on its blog the route [es] the humanitarian minga is following since Monday in order to recover the corpses of the indigenous Awás murdered by FARC in February.
How does a vegetable seller's motorcycle looks like? R. Sa di from Indonesia posts a picture of this type of motorcycle.
The Aroengbinang posts pictures of old traditional Javanese artists based in Jakarta.
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