Archive for
April 16th, 2009
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Global: Hijablogging Fashionistas
In March, we caught up with a new crew of “hijabloggers” - women who wear the hijab and blog about it. Such bloggers span the globe, blogging about a wide variety of issues from parenting to fashion to travel to politics. In this post, we will re-visit the “hijablogosphere” to see what's new.
One fantastic new “hijablog” is Hijabs High, a collection of photographs of women around the world wearing hijab. Dubbed “the Muslim Sartorialist” by other bloggers, the blog's “about” section reads:
Hijabs High is inspired by the stylish and dynamic global community of Muslim women who fuse their identities and pronounce their place in the world everyday through beauty and fashion.
It is my hope that this blog inspires, motivates and encourages Muslims and non-Muslims alike to revisit their perceptions of the “look” of Muslim women who wear the veil and encourage us all to be a little bit more fabulous.
To the chic gang of Hijabs High photographers - you know who you are - thanks for doing it all with grace and panache. :)
Finally, Hijabs High owes a debt to The Sartorialist, who first helped focus our cameras on the everyday. Thank you.
Hijabi Style, another fashion-forward blog, has recently done a photo post on Egyptian designer Reham Farouq, who designs specifically for wearers of hijab. The Hijablog did a similar post recently on Farouq, which garnered a number of comments praising the outfits.
Last but not least on today's tour of “hijablogs” is a great post by Nuseiba, whose blog has the goal of amplifying and shedding light on “the myriad of voices and experiences of Muslim women.” In a post entitled “Why feminists need to start lovin’ the hijab,” the blogger writes:
So I was reading the news this morning and I chanced upon this. It seems the hijab has set off a national controversy in Norway. It all started when a Muslim woman petitioned to wear her hijab with her police uniform. And from there things pretty much went downhill when another Muslim woman set fire to a hijab on International Women’s Day. Oh, don’t you just love these gliberal feminists! They are quick to flutter their hankies on behalf of feminism, but rather see a Muslim woman’s brains splattered to the walls of her house than see her trapped in a hijab!
Macedonia: Alexander the Great as Media Bait
For several years now, Macedonian traditional media have been involved in relentless promotion of all and any claims and events related to Alexander the Great that were deemed “positive” in terms of generating public approval and more readers/viewers.
The only other person who can come close in this regard is the late pop singer-turned national hero Toshe Proeski (1981-2007), but he has been allowed to rest in peace for the last couple of weeks, after the closure of a defamation lawsuit between his girlfriend and his manager.
Alexander III of Macedon (356 BC – 323 BC), on the other hand, has no such luck – national TV Kanal 5 this Sunday descended to a new level of Hades when it literally “raised” his spirit in a so-called news item [MKD] about a “historian” who went to Florida with a camera crew to seek the services of an allegedly famous medium to provide contact with his (sic!) ancestors. In the video, the spiritualist claims that a young man dressed in lion's skin is standing in the room, saying he went to Persia not for conquest but to seek cultural exchange, and would like to know more about the contemporary Macedonian linguistics.
Marble portrait of Alexander the Great said to be from Alexandria, Egypt (2nd or 1st century BC), currently in the British Museum, London, UK. Photo: Filip Stojanovski
Razvigor blog, run by the author of this article, commented [MKD] on this quasi-news item asking how come the ancestral spirit could communicate in English, a contemporary language which developed thousands of years after his death, but had no information on Macedonian, which developed in a similar manner. In addition, this “communication” did not provide any exclusive information which would have been known by the historical Alexander, such as locations of treasures that can be unearthed by archeologists and used as evidence, or known by his spirit – like the location of the grave containing his earthly remains.
Two days later, a user on the social bookmarking service Kajmak.ot “unearthed” [MKD] an obviously faux news item [SRP] from a Serbian blog about the discovery of Alexander's tomb in the south of the Republic of Macedonia, near the Greek border. The article is written with the structure of a “real” news story, but any resident of Macedonia with minimal knowledge of local geography or social issues would immediately recognize it as a joke, since all the names of official institutions, functions, locations and persons involved are nonexistent.
Screen shot of the front page of Macedonian news portal Kirilica from April 14, 2009, prominently displaying the faux news about discovery of the grave of Alexander the Great as a real news item.
During that day, a number of Macedonian media, such as the news portal Kirilica [MKD], published Macedonian translations of this “news” in its entirety, adding just a small, barely noticeable disclaimer that the content has not been confirmed. Such gossipy items did not contain any fact-checking whatsoever, nor did they include a link to the original source. During the day, the site was frequently unavailable, possibly due to bandwidth overload.
Some bloggers took the bait, like Vojvodataa, the author of the blog Radikalno, who wrote [MKD]:
Please God, let this be true. The article contains many first names and surnames, I think there is some truth in it. If this is true, Our Lord is coming to aid our century-old struggle for our name and the elements of our identity, of which Alexander of Macedon is an indivisible part.
Other bloggers, such as Mojon and Azhder, reacted with lascivious humor, inviting the media to republish their posts about a discovery of a sexy photo of Alexander's seventh grade math teacher taken with his iPhone Ancient [MKD], and finding of the two sculls of King Marko [MKD].
On the other hand, the scientifically-grounded Archeological Diary documented the whole affair, providing an overview of the sensationalist (including A1, the most influential national TV station) and more somber media coverage of this affair. The blog's author Vasilka Dimitrovska, an archeologist, wrote [MKD]:
First and foremost, any information must be checked with at least three independent sources. Good God, even I—a non journalist—know that. It is nebulous to distribute news about anything connected to archeology without going in the field, even about the tomb and the spirit of Alexander of Macedon in person. Unless one checks all the options and removes even a shadow of doubt, the scientific public should be spared of such turbulent, emotionally charged media observations.
I suppose that the historians and the archeologists will continue to keep mum about these events [MKD], just like they kept silent about the world's first hamburger, the Copper Book, the Hunza and the Kalash, the Rosetta Stone affair, etc. There's nothing worse than such silence and ignoring, because it implies silent approval of such hypotheses and theories. We as society slowly move closer to the axiom “that the land has always been ours,” aiming to provide an united and monolithic view of a historical walkabout from the Paleolithic to Tito, even though some of the episodes are not quite “safe” and lead to the above mentioned failures of reason.
The view that history is a science based on immaculate myths, lacking elements that would contradict the fragile “officially ours Macedonian evolutionist schema” deserves criticism. We do not need to lie [MKD] – the truth is enough, no matter what it is. In spite of the fact that the same tendency spans from Greece to Sweden – recent research showed that national myths of all European countries are almost identical [MKD]. Dissemination of such trivial information provides a fake image to the world about strengthening of our identity (esp. the ancient Macedonian part), while lacking the scientific approach, published scientific papers and documented archeological findings. I really can't see why we should use a technique of self-identification through denial [MKD] to confirm any type of identity.
To conclude, I think that the Macedonian journalists covering culture, and especially the topic of history->identity should get more education about archeology as a science which deals with societies of the past, not the present. I for one would speak at such a seminar or a workshop. If need be, pro bono. :-)
India Elections ‘09: Netizens react to Political Campaigns - II
In our first post of this series, we had brought to you glimpses of how netizens were reacting to the BJP's online campaign. In this post, we will explore reactions to the election campaign of the Indian National Congress (INC).
Although initially the INC appeared to be lagging behind the online blitz unleashed by the BJP, very soon it woke up to the potential of the Social Web. However, being a late starter, the Congress party's campaign seemed to be always discussed in comparison to the BJP campaign.
The Congress party's new website launched mid-March 2009, sported the party's election slogan “Aam Aadmi Ke Badhte Kadam, Har Kadam Par Bharat Buland” (The ordinary man marches forward and with his every step, India is strengthened). Blogger Dimakh was not very impressed with the initial effort. He writes:
The website (of the INC) is not that attractive and not upto the mark of BJP which has lot of interesting features and seems to be updated more often. The site also seems to be done in frames technology which is very outdated and non search engine friendly. A very few ways to allow people interaction or no use of blogs and videos.
Apart from renewing their website, the Congress also launched online advertising featuring the party's Prime Ministerial candidate Dr. Manmohan Singh, the party's president Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and the party's general secretary, her son Mr. Rahul Gandhi.
screenshot of a Congress ad showing on Bollywood Frames, an entertainment blog.
As part of their online campaign strategy, the Congress also set up 600 Internet kiosks across the country. Taragana writes about the kiosks set up in Gujrat.
The kiosks have laptops to show the achievements of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
These kiosks will be installed across various public places like malls, restaurants where they are bound to attract the youth and will fill them on the successes of UPA through audio-visual presentations.
Around one-and-half-year has gone into planning and creating these kiosks, which will also allow the users, an access to free internet usage for 20 minutes along with highlights of the schemes and achievements of the UPA vis-’-vis its opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
However, the part of the campaign for which the Congress has been most in the news is their election videos. Having purchased the rights to the Oscar winning song “Jai Ho” from the much-in-the-news film Slumdog Millionaire, the Congress initially launched a video campaign with three 60-second ad films using the Jai Ho music and jingle.The lyrics in these videos (1, 2, 3) extolled the Congress party's heritage, leaders, achievements and various schemes launched for the Aam Aadmi (common man).The videos were splashed across TV channels, YouTube and the audio was played on radio. Though they became popular, the videos soon drew comparison with the BJP's “India Shining” campaign of 2004.
Vinod Sharma writes in his blog:
It is the Congress now that has all but copied the failed ‘India Shining' campaign of the BJP. ..Effectively, “Bharat buland” is all but India Shining/Rising in Hindi. Now go to that same poor man in the same hut five years after he was informed that India was shining, with this slogan. This time the Congress is returning the favour to the BJP, it seems.
The BJP, on it's part, was quick to retaliate with an ‘unofficial' parody “Bhay Ho” (Let there be fear) attacking the ‘celebratory stance' of the Congress at the time of terror attacks, inflation, recession, job losses etc.
Soon enough, the Congress pulled the videos off air, though they continued on YouTube. Twenty-22 writes:
Congress' ‘JAI HO’ is temporarily off the air. Negative feedback on the celebratory approach of the three short films, released earlier in March, has forced the party to reconsider using them…A senior party leader confirmed that the three ‘Jai Ho’ films prepared by Percept in early March will not be aired at all during the campaign. The initial response to the idea of using ‘Jai Ho’ as the theme song was that it sounded good, but it is a “delicate walk to the other side”. The argument is that there is an “underbelly to this song and film which is not very palatable to the Indian sensibility”. It is now feared that the campaign could expose Congress to attacks from the Opposition, which would argue that the party was responsible for the existence of slums. A message that would run counter to and cancel out Congress’ claim as the force of progress.
A fresh video campaign, focusing on empowerment of the common people, was launched and is now being aired on TV channels, their official website and on YouTube.
Apart from video, Congress party is now campaigning through Facebook and Orkut. The Gujrat wing of the Congress party and some support groups like JoinINC and InCIndia are also on Twitter now but relatively low on noise. In their own words
INCIndia @Gauravonomics This isn't the official Congress a/c but one that serves to compensate for the relatively meagre Congress presence online.
Sveta Singh at iStrat Digital Marketing Blog offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Congress' online campaign vis-vis that of the BJP. She writes:
Mr. Advani is not the only one wooing voter online now. With Congress waking up to the reality of online media, Election 2009 has truly turned into a digital war. Though Congress had stepped in late, still it is interesting to see what activities they are doing online.
Here are a few observations:
- Congress’s presence on Facebook and Orkut also leaves much to desire, when compared with BJP.
This post is part of the Global Voices special coverage on Indian Elections 2009
French Caribbean: “Les Scoops d'Or” Competition
[All the links in this post lead to French language sites]
Image by Scoopdor, on flickr, courtesy of Satyam Dorville for l'Agence Multiculturelle, used with permission.
On the blog Les Scoops d'or, Lagencedecom’ and Scoop announce the launch of a new blog and website competition in the West Indies [Fr]:
Après le succès de l’édition 2008, les Scoops d’or reviennent en 2009 avec un nouveau défi : faire découvrir non plus uniquement les sites internet de la Martinique, mais ceux aussi de Guadeloupe, Guyane et de la Diaspora antillaise.
A cette occasion nous lancons notre site Internet qui permettra à tout un chacun de visiter la première exposition virtuelle des meilleurs sites internet de la caraïbe francophone.
It gives us the opportunity to launch our website, so that users can visit the first virtual exhibition of the best French Caribbean websites.
Competing categories include:
Sites Perso/Blog, Sites de Ecommerce, Site ou blogs d’Entreprises, Sites de Media, Réseau Sociaux & Forums
At present, there are about 69 blogs registered in the competition and the leaders thus far are “Massacre sur Facebook” for Guadeloupe, with 88 votes and “Kasper Extended” in Martinique, with 144 votes. In French Guiana, the frontrunner is a blog with a pun on the French name “Guy' Yann“, which has had the most votes so far: 365. Finally, the West Indian diaspora is represented by “Zagriyen.fr” which has garnered only 9 votes - on par with Bondamanjak, a socially and politically-oriented Martinican blog, whose vote tally is also 9 at the time of this posting.
While the votes increase every day, there are great discrepancies in the numbers depending on the territory - French Guiana appears to be the most active, as compared with the poor showing for blogs from the diaspora. This is probably exactly why the “Scoops” team has launched the project - to encourage more interaction among bloggers. One way that the organizers of the contest try to keep the discussion going is by featuring interviews with bloggers in the blog section of the website.
If you want to know more about this fast-growing phenomenon in the French West Indies, “Les Scoops d'Or” can be easily found on Facebook and Twitter.
The deadline for this competition is May 10th 2009, and results in the different categories will be made public from May 11th to 17th in Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Paris. Don't forget to press the “J'aime” button to vote for your favorite blog!
Taiwan: If You Lost Your Job…
Photo of Jian Yi-hao
What would you feel if you are fired, your small business goes bankrupt, or you simply cannot find any way to make a living?
In this most disastrous moment of economic downturn, many Taiwanese are losing their jobs and helplessly waiting for for all the dreadful news to stop. Some begin to blame themselves for being unemployed. Business Weekly (商業週刊), one of Taiwan's most popular mainstream financial magazine shows this trend:
在台灣，就業市場也極嚴峻。勞委會估計，今年上半年，至少有九萬個正職工作消失，且今年七月畢業季，失業率將破六％，創歷年新高！
而對失業的恐懼感，甚至比實際的失業率還要高出好幾倍。
根據本刊和雅虎奇摩合作的網路民調顯示，近五成（四六．五％）民眾認為自己一年內可能被裁員。透過交叉分析更發現，就連碩、博士學歷者，也有四成以上認為自己可能被裁；而年齡越高，也越覺得自己會被裁。
不只如此，這份民調中，有近六成（五九．九％）民眾認為自己一旦被裁員，無法以現有技能在職場上獨立生存。其中，二十三歲到三十歲、三十一歲到四十歲者，認為自己難生存者超過六成。連碩士、博士學歷者，也有四成以上認為自己難生存。
The only solution offered by mainstream media is: be prepared to become a casual laborer and be ready to upgrade one's personal ability. For example, on Commonwealth Magazine: Who can give me a stable job?
全國的中高齡勞工都期待一支真正可以釣魚的魚竿，可以有尊嚴地工作，不必靠救濟金度日。
…and on United Daily News: Increase Personal Value by ACTION
「世界隨時在改變，你的『視界』也要隨之改變。」魏美蓉認為，自我鍛鍊成為「無可取代」的人，厚植個人的可雇用價值，而非技能的獨特性，逐步拉大與別人之間的距離，有朝一日，會找到職場的一片天。
However, to Jiang Yi-hao (江一豪), a worker and social activist, all these so-called solutions are nonsense. Jiang works in a remover company, writes for a left-wing citizen media Coolloud as a citizen reporter and fights for aborigines' living right as a Han Taiwanese. In a speech he gave in Tzu Chi University, he argued against these popular nonsense. He carried on the discussion in his blog, “Life is a Fight”:
「有人說：一定要有『靠救濟是一種墮落』的心態，才能讓自己不失業。怨天尤人、把責任都推給別人，不如『活在當下』『先動起來最重要』。」我相信，正是這種說法，才讓台灣勞工陷於今天的一敗塗地。
「美國華爾街掀起的金融海嘯，已延伸為大失業潮，潮水覆蓋全球，從美洲、歐洲而亞洲，無一倖免。」這句被王發行人拿來為這篇文章破題的話，精確地點出至今讓許多工人失業的罪魁禍首——擁有金融資本的權貴們透過衍生性商品在市場上興風作浪，並在搜刮財富後，將整個泡沫爆裂的代價以大規模的失業，推給無力自保的勞工階層來苦吞這場遊戲的惡果。
如果引發這次大失業潮的許多不公不義，至今還未被好好地清算；過程中受害最深的工人階層，正因為無法被制度保護而陷於生死邊緣之際，憑什麼要相信「靠救濟是一種墮落」的心態，來確保自己不失業？
這是什麼道理？！
然而攤開每天每日的報章，這樣偏廢的言論卻不斷地充斥在大眾的眼耳間。就拿天下、遠見雜誌的樣版企業——台積電來說，光是這個(3)月就備受主流媒體以大量篇幅來款待，不論是蟬連「天下企業公民獎」的大型企業首獎、或是其執行長蔡力行列名巴隆金融週刊（Barron's）年度全球最受敬重的執行長，連因為短期訂單增加取消無薪假，都能成為頭條新聞。但台積電於此同時發生的勞資爭議，卻遲遲無法在主流媒體曝光(註2)。
台灣的失業工人之所以會獨自走向貧窮、燒炭的命運，很大部分正是因為我們長期把失業當成個別勞工的錯誤與罪過，卻錯失集體面對、思考制度結構嚴重缺損的問題。如何透過這次因權貴階級把玩資本遊戲，而讓無辜勞工承擔痛苦的大失業潮，讓大眾至少能在「失業不只是我的錯」這個共識下，思考並推動妥善處理失業創傷的制度療法，才是一個正確的理絡，絕對不該再走回高唱勞工自我調適、增值的老路上。
在那天結束慈濟大學的分享後，有些同學仍意猶未盡地伴著我跟另一位講者提出他們的問題與感想，其中有位同學跟我說著她那同樣作為搬運工人的父親，我記得自己說了下面這段話：「我們工人的每一分錢都是靠著自己血汗，清清白白賺來的，沒有一分是不勞而獲、不義之財。」最後我說，「所以我覺得，當個勞動者是很光榮的一件事。」
明明不是我們不夠努力，而是這個社會給予我們的認識與尊重，太少。
Brazil: Does the country play a new role in the world?
“I love this guy. He is the most popular politician on Earth”. Those were US President Barack Obama's words towards the Brazilian President Lula da Silva, and they have intrigued and enchanted the international community, let alone Brazilians. For some, it was an absurd display: is the country doing so well? For others it was a moment that highlighted that the biggest nation in South America has increased its importance among other countries in the last years, and those seconds captured in video have crowned the epic career of the poor guy who was born in the Northeast Brazil and has done a great job as President. According to the Imprensa Marrom (pt) blog:
“Em 2002, o preconceito de boa parte dos brasileiros era muito nítido e o discurso bem treinado: esse presidente semi-analfabeto vai envergonhar o Brasil. Alguns ainda falam isso, com frases como “esse sapo barbudo nunca estudou” e “não se precisa mais estudar no Brasil: o Presidente só fez até a quarta série”.
Mas hoje, Luís Inácio Lula da Silva ouviu, sem dúvida, a frase mais gratificante de sua carreira, que simplesmente quebrou as pernas de todos esses pseudo-argumentos para criticar sua carreira política”.
But today [April the 2nd], Luís Inácio Lula da Silva has no doubt heard the most gratifying phrase of his career, which, simply, has broken the legs of all those pseudo-arguments that criticize his political career”.
“The most popular”. In the speech bubble: “Tell me the truth. Even you were a little bit envious of me…”. Charge by Benett, used with permission
In the family group shot of leaders at the reception with her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace, Lula sat alongside Queen Elizabeth II, in the middle of his counterparts, all of whom together run the most powerful nations on Earth. For other bloggers, the images are the answer to the question about Brazil's position on the planet, as (pt) puts it:
“Trata-se de uma imagem emblemática sobre a nova posição que o Brasil ocupa no mundo, pois até pouco tempo atrás não era tão comum o nosso país participar de reuniões deste porte, muito menos presidente brasileiro sair tão bem na foto, cheio de graça e moral”.
Has Brazil conquered a historical position in the international community with far-reaching results? Has Lula, the former metalworker who, unlike previous Brazilian presidents, does not have an academic background and can speak no English, become a symbol of this new Brazilian status?
Maybe the answers to all the questions above are more likely to be positive, but for Xico Lopes from the Em Pauta blog (pt), the biggest concern over G-20 and Brazil should be the 1 trillion US dollars that leaders promised to pump into the International Monetary Fund (IMF), aiming to help some countries out of the crisis. Brazil made available $10 billion during the G20 Summit and last week agreed to loan up to an extra $4.5 billion to the Fund. Using a mainstream media vehicle as a source, Lopes says:
“Este dinheiro conforme levantamento feito, corresponde a nada mais nada menos do que (a dias de hoje) mais do que o dobro do que já foi disponibilizado para o desenvolvimento. Ou seja, penso que estamos a ver nosso dinheiro, sim, porque os recursos não são dos países, são nossos, gerados pela nossa capacidade de trabalho e poupança, serem desperdiçados, basicamente para cobrir o monumental rombo gerado por banqueiros e investidores gananciosos, inescrupulosos e tentar assim, resgatar a credibilidade em tais instituições.”
Protesters in G-20 Meltdown which took place on London's streets on April 2009, a day before the G20 Summit. Photo: Thiana Biondo
Surprising many, this is the very first time in its history that Brazil is set to lend money to, instead of borrowing from, the Washington based IMF. The country that used to have an external debt in quantities beyond the governments' political ability to repay now sees things the other way around. “If it doesn't affect our international reserves, we will do so”, said Lula, with the country’s international reserves today boasting over 200 billion dollars.
Some bloggers did not let it go lightly that the IMF is the same institution that used to force Brazil into tightening its belt by controlling the governmental budgets – such as by cutting social expenditure and speeding up privatisation to meet targets – as part of the conditions for getting loans. In 2005, however, Brazil managed to pay off its debt of US$ 15.5 billions to the IMF, and the country has now offered money to the Fund. However, as Jose Correa writes at the collective blog Trezentos (pt), emphasizing that the economy and crisis are more twisted than we think and nothing has changed – the economic order remains the same:
“Mas falo tudo isso só para chamar a atenção para o que andam dizendo pessoas dentro do sistema que parecem entender alguma coisa do que está se passando (Stiglitz, Krugman e Roubini, este conhecido como Dr Destino). Eles parecem concordar que o último grande pacote proposto pelo Mantega do Obama (O secretário do Tesouro, Timothy Geithner, que também já trabalhava pro Bush) é dinheiro do contribuinte jogado pelo ralo. A posição mais dura veio do Joseph Stiglitz. ‘ O que a administração Obama está fazendo é mito pior que a nacionalização: é o capitalismo artificial, a privatização de ganhos e a socialização de perdas. É uma ‘parceria' em que um parceiro rouba o outro. E essas parcerias - com o setor privado no controle - têm incentivos perversos, piores até que os que nos colocaram na encrenca.
E o Doutor Destino, como é conhecido Nouriel Roubini, diz que tamanha injeção de dinheiro no sistema até pode tirar a economia do buraco (em 2011), mas então a conta terá que começar a ser paga.
Conclusão: apesar de toda a operação de relações públicas do G20, a política econômica do Obama continua sendo a do Bush e o horizonte para o capital continua sombrio
Mas tudo tem seu lado positivo: com a crise, o desmatamento na Amazônia está caindo”.
And Dr. Destiny, as Nouriel Roubini is known, said that such money injection into the system can even rescue the economy from the slump (in 2011), but then this bill will have to be paid.
Conclusion: Despite the incredible operation of the G-20's Public Relations, Obama's economic policy is still the same as Bush's and the horizon for the capital remains gloomy.
But everything has a bright side: with the crisis, the scale of deforestation of the Amazon is decreasing.
Aside from the question if Lula is the guy or note, others blogs revolves around the destiny of our money. Photo: Thiana Biondo
Links for Thu, 2009-04
There are potential problems for Jews who want to study yoga, but even its Buddhist teachings and Hindu chants can be justified as humanistic values and modified accordingly. “Hey, whatever floats your boat,” Israelity jests. “We’ve heard of kosher cell phones and kosher sex, so kosher yoga? Why not.”
Yoav, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, writes about celebrating the Passover holiday while on duty. Passover celebrates the freedom of the Jews from oppression. He blogs: “Only when celebrating the festival of freedom, while wearing a uniform and holding a gun, you can understand the importance of IDF's mere existence.”
The death of 23-year old Palestinian photographer Fadel Shana at the hands of the Israel Defense Forces remains unresolved one year later, Dion Nissenbaum of Checkpoint Jerusalem reports. The case is currently under investigation by the United Nations.
Beenish Khan at Kaleidoscope posts a hypothetical job advertisement for recruitment of Taliban members which concludes with: “Come and join us, because we just don't give you a job, we give you a career and a confirmed ticket to heaven.”
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