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Last week a Saudi supertanker was hijacked by Somali pirates off the coast of
Kenya, making it the largest ship ever to have been seized in this way. The problem of Somali
piracy is growing; in this post we hear bloggers' reactions from around the Middle East.
Saudi blogger Ahmed Ba Aboud wants Arab nations, and international bodies, to do
something about the reasons for the increase in piracy:
Syrian blogger Maysaloon believes there is more to the story than meets the eye:
Apparently this Somali piracy issue has only become a problem since 2005, around the time that
somebody started supplying the men with fast white speedboats. There is probably some truth to
this, and somebody is probably making a lot of money out of this, so the actual pirates are
getting only a fraction of the takings. Still, there are huge sums of money being paid in
ransoms, lots of good which are being stolen and I'm not so sure I understand how well these
goods are being sold in a country with practically no infrastructure. Recently a shipment of
Russian tanks was also seized. Interesting that Somalia was only recently “liberated”
by Ethiopian troops with US blessings.
Iraqi blogger Roads to Iraq also has a conspiracy theory, translating some opinions
found on Arabic news sites:
There is some truth behind Yemen accusations of Western countries with ignoring the piracy to
internationalize the Red Sea. ... This is also what Al-Akhbar reported today saying:
Western fleets raises doubts about the nature of their mission... Puntland’s Minister
of ports, Nur Said, the West fleet led by the United near the coast of Somalia was involved in
the increasing piracy operation...Chairman of the Red Sea shipping company, Abdul Majeed Matar,
recalled how the commander of a British warship, called the company to tell them the details of
hijacking the company’s ship (Al-Mansoura) rather than to militarily intervene to prevent
the operation.
The last clue is reported on Al-Sharq Al-Awsat by asking one of the pirates, who
revealed:
Some countries provide the pirates with information about the routes of the ships in the
area.
John Burgess, who writes about Saudi Arabia at Crossroads Arabia, reports on the
kingdom's plans to get more involved in the attempts to control piracy:
Saudi Arabia has decided that it needs to play its fair role in confronting international piracy,
particularly after the hijacking of Sirius Star, the Saudi-owned supertanker seized over the
weekend. The tanker, which holds 1/4 of one day’s production of Saudi oil is being held off
the coast of Somalia. While Saudi Arabia’s Navy is small, it does have
‘blue water’ capabilities. It can take part in anti-piracy patrols and
is sufficiently armed to sink any pirate vessel, from attack boats to ‘mother
ships’ from which they descend. The Saudi Navy is probably not large enough to do
port-to-port escort duty, even for only the super-est of tankers, but might manage shorter
escorts, through particularly dangerous waters. […] The new Saudi assertiveness is pretty
hot. Arab News, in an editorial, does call for attacks on the port cities of Somalia
that are hosting the pirate fleets. And yes, ‘collateral damage’ is
always a possibility when military action is taken. I don’t see any way to get around that.
But perhaps if Arab armed forces were required to face up to that reality, it might change some
of the overblown rhetoric about other unintended casualties in other wars.
In his post John Burgess mentioned that the Indian Navy sank a pirate ‘mother ship' earlier
this week, and commenter ratherdashingquipped:
Apparently the defense of shipping lanes has been outsourced to India just like everything else.
American-born Israeli Yisrael Medad is looking at the situation from a different
angle:
If these [Arab] countries can't handle a dozen pirates, what can we expect against Iran going
nuclear?
Jordanian blogger Hareega wants to offer the pirates a little encouragement - by linking
to a Japanese animated version of Treasure Island he watched as a child:
The U.S. geological agency says a strong earthquake has struck in the waters off western Indonesia.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
les deux acteurs espagnole ont crée un vent de panique au Maroc lors de la
cérémonie de clôture du Festival de cinéma espagnol à Tanger, ils
ont ils ont brandis une banderole en faveur de la liberté des sahraouis .
As soon as the Lone Ranger
started to be pulled into modern Hollywood, I knew other cowboys would follow. If Hi, Ho, and
Silver, aren't your idea of a good time, how about Bill "Hopalong" Cassidy?
Variety
reports that 300 producer Mark Canton is
joining forces with Pterodactyl Prods. on a film that will feature the iconic Hopalong. The hero,
who was created back in 1904, made his way through stories and novels before going Hollywood in
1935 and appearing in a whopping 66 films through the '30s, '40s, and '50s. Canton says: "We're
looking to ring in the modern age with a branded, well-loved hero that we approach in a fresh way."
(Hopalong had comics, serials, a series, and was the first image to be slapped on a lunchbox.
Of course this would appeal to cross-platform thinkers, but can we really call Hopalong well-loved
today? His fans are at least pushing 50, if not 80 or 90. Nevertheless, I'm intrigued by
this newfound love of cowboys. I guess after pirates, cowboys are the natural progression. And I
can't feel too irked about this all -- I'll save it for the Stooges. How about you?
Garry Trinh est un artiste travaillant avec la photographie. Ses Å“uvres d'art et de
photographies ont été publiées dans de nombreuses expositions et publications.
Il détient un BA en psychologie et un baccalauréat en arts visuels de communication /
Photographie et de l'imagerie numérique de l'Université de Western Sydney. Il a
été le lauréat du prix Life Sydney en 2007. Trinh vit et travaille à
Sydney, en Australie
Category: Travel
Released: Oct 05, 2008
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developer and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of this site or its staff.
The escalation of conflict between government troops and Muslim separatist rebels in several
areas of Mindanao Island has affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.
Mindanao is located in south Philippines.
The intensified fighting began after a peace agreement was rejected by many politicians, and
finally by the Philippine Supreme Court. Critics believe the agreement was unconstitutional since
it would compromise the sovereignty of the Republic of the Philippines. They added that the
agreement would pave the way for the establishment of a separate Moro-controlled state within the
territories of the country.
Angered by the rejection of the agreement, a rebel commander attacked military posts which
produced civilian casualties. The government retaliated by launching offensives against the
territories controlled by the rebels.
The fighting has not stopped. More than 610,000 people have been displaced already. The non-stop
fighting has created several “ghost
towns” in some provinces of Mindanao. The situation of
refugees is deteriorating. Children
are among those who are suffering the most.
Muslim groups want the government to stop the indiscriminate air strikes by the
military. Like a Rolling Store uploads a
report by a humanitarian mission which visited several evacuation sites in Mindanao:
“The offensives have led to mass evacuations. In the evacuation centers, the displaced
persons suffer from inadequate facilities. Most of them have set up tents in whatever public
place available. With heavy rains and flooding now common at this time of year, many child
evacuees are sick with cough, cold, fever, and diarrhea. A number of evacuees have died of
disease. There is also the trauma experienced by the evacuees, particularly the children.”
Dr. Carol Araullo, a member of the humanitarian mission, emphasizes that more help is
needed:
“The hunger, sickness and generalized misery; the listlessness, the yearning to go back to
their farms and homes safely; the appeal for a return to normalcy, for an end to the military
restrictions over their comings and goings – these images and plaints became
etched in our minds and hearts as we went from one evacuation center to another.
“Scores of victims of human rights abuses were interviewed: those wrongfully arrested,
those beaten up because they were rebel suspects or so that they would point to the rebels/rebel
sympathizers; those whose relatives had been killed or were injured in the course of the
government’s drive to flush out the “rogue elements” of the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front; those whose houses and other properties had been destroyed.
“After the teams had tallied the numbers of patients treated, families given relief goods
and victims of human rights violations attended to, we came to the sobering conclusion that what
the Mission had achieved was a mere drop in the bucket compared to the overwhelming needs.”
Journalist Edwin Espejo was affected by what he
witnessed:
“Deep into the heart of the conflict, trails of destruction – burnt
houses, abandoned homes and ubiquitous presence of checkpoints and war materiel
– are eerie testaments of the war.
“Of course, we are living in troubled times and disturbing scenes are fast numbing
one’s senses. Many would argue that journalists covering the conflict in Mindanao cannot
afford to be emotionally attached to events unfolding before their very eyes.
“Yet one cannot totally dissociate his or her self from realizing that the war is affecting
not only the combatants from both sides of the conflicts. It is also sublimely creating different
levels of consciousness and commitment on journalists covering the war and affecting the quality
of their reportage.”
“While many of the politicians and top government officials based in Manila are busy in
expressing their contrasting opinions about the issues related to the “ancestral
domain”, I wonder how the displaced locales of North Cotabato and neighboring provinces are
faring. Do they have any food to ease their hunger? Do they have any medicine or medical
attention to ease their pains? Can they ever sleep amidst the horror of the ongoing
circumstances, or to simplify my question, can they find a shelter, no matter how temporary it
is- for a night's sleep?”
The fighting is turning uglier everyday. An Al Jazeera team has learned that the government has
been recruiting
vigilantes to fight the rebels:
“Civilians are being given jobs normally the preserve of the police and army at an alarming
rate across Mindanao. In North Cotabato Al Jazeera met some new recruits being put through their
paces in a military-backed militia programme that normally takes three months. This training
programme has been accelerated to just six weeks in order to fill what the authorities regard as
a security vacuum.”
Watch the report of Al Jazeera:
And Part II of the report:
The rebel commander who is probably the most wanted man in the
Philippines today insists in a video interview that it was government troops who first
attacked the rebels.
Another controversy is the alleged involvement of
US troops in the fighting. Himagsik Kayumanggi reports:
“US Special Forces were sighted inside the 64th Infantry Battalion Camp in Datu Saudi
Ampatuan, Maguindanao. Bai Ali Indayla of the Moro human rights group Kawagip testified that the
soldiers were engaged in covert operations, such as the supervision of drones or spy planes and
predator missile strikes. This was confimed by Major Gen. Eugenio Cedo, then commander of the
Western Mindanao Command. As usual, the US Embassy denied that the soldiers were involved in
actual combat; they were only responding to the military request for aerial surveillance to
determine conditions of the terrain and visibility, for “future civil-military
projects,” to quote Rebecca Thompson, US Embassy Information Officer.”
Peace
advocates want both parties – the government and Muslim rebels
– to call for a ceasefire. There is an online petition
asking the government to cease its military operations in Mindanao. A letter
was sent to the Holy Pope to intervene. The Philippines is a Catholic-dominated country:
“We hope that Your Holiness could help us bring peace and justice to our brothers and
sisters in Mindanao by expressing concern about the unfolding humanitarian crisis and appeal for
restraint for the protection of all civilians, as well as for the opening of access for the
provision of speedy humanitarian assistance to the affected population.”
“Blogging might not only be limited to blogging about Mindanao and its peoples but also
helping the “voiceless” learn to blog so they, too, can blog about themselves.
“Of course it would be extremely difficult for existing Mindanao bloggers to access many of
the areas safely and for the people in communities to approach which local bloggers can help
them.
But bloggers must continue to try linking them and engaging them for mutual respect and
understanding in an effort to connect more and more people.
Many of us who are already blogging about the voiceless must continue doing it and infect others
to do the same.
We can focus on a Mindanao consciousness that is more inclusive, not exclusive.”
This guest post is written by Matt
Rutherford, Web Strategist and technology producer for Charlie
Rose. Matt focuses on the macro themes affecting the internet and the wider world.
In an intimate interview with Charlie Rose on PBS tonight, and available here, Stanford
professor Larry Lessig
reveals some profound views on copyright, remix culture, and the new hybrid economy that is
emerging.
In particular, Lessig speaks out against the abolitionist movement growing against copyright:
My real fear is that the last 10 years have unleashed a kind of revolutionary attitude among the
generation that will take over in 10 years. And it will be hard for them to distinguish between
sensible copyright legislation and the kind that we’ve got right now. So my real fear is
we’re going to lose control of this animal... I just want to reform [copyright] to make it
make sense.
A reform of copyright is clearly overdue. We require a new form of regulation that takes into
account the ease and speed of digital distribution and appropriation. Every week, books cross my
desk clamoring for this change - some of which are certainlyworthreading. And as Lessig
explains on the show, it’s counterproductive to continue to criminalize kids for
file-sharing, remixing and recreating with content. Copyright was established to encourage
creativity, not stifle it.
Cultural Roots
Lessig thinks on a macro time scale. For him, the emerging “read-write creativity”
seen on YouTube and elsewhere is actually a return to our natural cultural roots. Historically,
man has always absorbed and re-created culture – the symbolic retelling of
stories and re-interpreting of songs on the front porch. It is only the emergence of mass media
in the last century that caused us to accept a passive relationship with culture.
What’s so extraordinary about the last four years is that they’ve demonstrated that
the technology of the internet is giving us a chance to go back to the way culture has been from
the beginning…Only the 20th century was a deviation from this. But from the beginning of
culture, it was a normal thing for people to be able to create and recreate the most important
parts of culture that were around them.
As evidence of this, Lessig cites the numerous Charlie Rose remix videos that are floating around
the web.
I’ve seen some of these Rose remixes, and they are enormous. They’re fantastic. But I
would hope, you know, eventually you could be in a position to say I want to encourage this,
please. Please do it.
A lot of these remixes also come across my desk. In the spirit of research, here are a few of the
best so far: Beckett, Kung Fu, nuclear weapons.
They’re all superb. And yes, we do encourage this. As Lessig says, Please do it.
Hybrid Economy
There remains the fundamental question of how a ‘new’ copyright can
maintain revenue. After all, despite the ease of pointing out the flaws in the current system,
it’s quite another matter to propose a viable alternative. Lessig sees the solution, in
part, coming from a new hybrid economy, one that combines the traditional commercial economy with
sharing economies seen in Wikipedia, YouTube and elsewhere:
Businesses have begun to realize that the world is in part divided between commercial economies
like buying and selling books, and sharing economies like Wikipedia where enormous value is
produced for nothing, people are doing it all for free. The most interesting thing I think
we’ve seen though in the last five years is the development of a hybrid economy where
commercial entities are trying to leverage value out of these sharing economies or vice versa,
sharing economies trying to leverage value out of commercial entities. And this hybrid depends
upon the commercial entity showing the proper respect for the creation in the sharing economy,
and giving space to it, encouraging it so that the sharing economy can produce enormous value
that is beneficial to the people inside, and also to the commercial business.
Lessig’s Big Idea
Lessig concludes the interview with his ‘big idea’. It is an inspiring,
and elegant reminder that we are in the midst of an unprecedented social change. Just as the
Gutenberg press facilitated the spread of the Protestant Reformation, fundamentally altering the
course of Western civilization, so too is the internet beginning to spark tectonic changes, the
breadth of which we don’t yet have the historical perspective to grasp. As Lessig explains:
I think the big idea, as every big idea is, is just one amazing step beyond where we are right
now. And I think you think about the Obama campaign, something like Wikipedia, something like the
stuff that’s going on on the Internet, the kind that I think of as read write culture. What
it really is doing is reviving the sense that people can do something. Not the passive couch
potato politics or couch potato culture, but that they can do something. We’re close to
making it really effective. I think the next cycle, what you’re going to see in the way
politics functions, will be unrecognizable, even from today. But when we’re there, it will
be a revival of ideals, aspirations about democracy that will surprise us. The cynicism that we
had in the 20th century will look very 20th century.
Larry Lessig’s interview on Charlie Rose was first broadcast on Friday 11/21/08 on PBS, and
is available in full or in clips: Larry Lessig
(full segment), Larry Lessig
(clips). Matt Rutherford can be reached at matt@charlierose.com.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the
free database of technology companies, people, and investors
h4And other world news from the future/h4 pUnited States government intelligence hasn't exactly
been on a winning streak for predicting future events, but recently it's been painting a somewhat
bleak future for Western society..../p
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Western nations claimed a success on Friday when a U.N. General Assembly
resolution condemning human rights violations in Iran passed through a key committee more easily
than in the past.div class="feedflare" a
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On Nov. 15, Slovak prime minister Robert
Fico and his Hungarian counterpart, Ferenc Gyurcsány, met in the
border town of Komárno, Slovakia,
in an attempt to ease nationalist tensions that have escalated due to Nov. 1 football game
violence in Dunajská
Streda, Slovakia.
Eva S. Balogh of Hungarian Spectrum has been blogging a lot recently about the
Slovak-Hungarian relations, and here are some of the highlights.
While families made their yearly pilgrimage to cemeteries to place flowers on the graves of
relatives about five hundred Hungarian soccer fans went to the southern Slovak town of
Dunajská Streda (Dunaszerdahely) to create trouble. The town, situated fairly close to the
Slovak-Hungarian border, is predominantly Hungarian. Of the 23,000 inhabitants the Slovak
population is no more than about 3,000.
The soccer match between Slovan Bratislava and the locals was unlikely to be a nailbiter. But the
stadium, seating 10,000, was filled. One thousand people came from Bratislava and there was a
contingent of 500 from Hungary. The Slovak police must have known that trouble was brewing
because about 1,000 policemen were ordered to the scene. […] The Bratislava group was
attacked en route: rocks were thrown at them. Some people were arrested at that junction.
The Hungarians called attention to themselves by displaying signs saying: Perseverence
(Kitartás). Unfortunately that was the customary greeting of Hungarian Nazis in the late
30's and 40's. The stadium was full about an hour before kickoff, and the two sides spent the
time screaming obscenities at each other. Just before the match began the locals and the
Hungarian visitors sang the Hungarian national anthem. At last play started, but after eighteen
minutes the referee had to stop the match because the people from Bratislava threw a smoke bomb
onto the field. […]
On Nov. 9, Eva
noted that it was “difficult to know exactly what happened” when the Slovak
police chose to interfere:
[…] Each side has its own story. The Hungarian “fans” claim that there was no
disturbance in their sector of the arena and that the Slovak police brutally attacked them
without reason. The videos that circulated on the Internet indeed show Slovak policemen using
their nightsticks rather indiscriminately on the retreating Hungarians. But I'm a cautious sort,
and there is a very good possibility that the video segment we see doesn't tell the whole story.
Moreover, the breakdown of arrestees indicates that the Slovak police were not kinder to their
own extremists. About the same number of Slovaks and Hungarians were arrested and later released.
[…]
In Hungary, people were “outraged” by the presumed actions of the Slovak police:
[…] Yes, they do admit that it was not appropriate to go to Slovakia with pictures of
Greater Hungary, a Hungary that included as part of its territory present-day Slovakia, then
known as the Upland (Felvidék). And, yes, it was provocative to display irredentist
slogans. But, they add, neither justified the use of brutal force. […]
On Nov. 3, an ultra-nationalist rally was held in Budapest:
[…] They gathered close to 1,000 people in front of the Slovak embassy, burned at least one
Slovak flag, and displayed signs demanding “Death to Ján Slota.” Ján
Slota, head of SNS (Slovak National Party), is not a nice man. Hungarians are high up on his hate
list, but Gypsies and homosexuals are not exactly his favorites either. He considers the
Hungarian minority in Slovakia “a cancer in the body of the Slovak nation,” and a
couple of times he alluded to the joy he would feel someday moving into Budapest inside of a
tank. Every time Slota says something outrageous all of Hungary listens. Before the current
coalition which includes Slota's party came to power in 2006, Hungarian-Slovak relations were
cordial. But, of course, then the coalition partner was MKP (Magyar Koalició
Pártja/Strana Mad'arsklek Koalícije), a party of the Hungarian minority. […]
On Nov. 12, Eva
wrote pessimistically about the upcoming meeting between the prime ministers of the two
sabre-rattling neighbor nations:
At last. After months and months of strained relations between Slovakia and Hungary the two prime
ministers agreed to meet. […]
[…]
What can the meeting between Fico and Gyurcsány achieve? As far as I can see, nothing.
[…]
She also commented on the Hungarian politicians' stance:
[…] To wit, the Hungarian government and all the parties condemn the recent actions of the
Hungarian extreme right. They are against Hungarian nationalism, they are against extremists
entering Slovakia in Nazi uniforms. They are also against these little Nazis marching up and down
in Hungary, but what can the Hungarian government do? […]
[…] Predictably, Hungarian politicians are not of one mind on the recent incidents in
Slovakia. To give only one example. A Fidesz member of parliament, Béla
Túri-Kovács, is demanding the resignation of a colleague, Mátyás
Eörsi of [SZDSZ], who is the chairman of
the parliamentary committee on European affairs. Eörsi went to Slovakia for a meeting with
his Slovak counterparts. He said that both sides should accept some blame for the incidents and
did a mea culpa on behalf of Hungary. Well, Túri-Kovács sure didn't like this
admission of guilt. […]
The right-wing Fidesz
– Hungarian Civic Union, mentioned in the passage above, is Hungary's
largest opposition party; an earlier GV roundup of Hungarian Spectrum's posts on Fidesz
politics is
here. Also,
in this post, Eva discussed an article on the “managers of populism” - Austria's
late Jörg Haider, Hungary's
Viktor Orbán, and Slovakia's
Robert Fico - written by sociologist Pál Tamás.
In her
Nov. 15 post, Eva put part of the blame for the Hungarian government's failure to rein in
“small but vocal and active far-right groups” on Fidesz:
[…] One problem is that there is no united political resolve to deal with the extremists.
Viktor Orbán and his party, Fidesz, are masters of double-talk which encourages the
extremists. If Fidesz doesn't unequivocally support the extremists, the party doesn't condemn
them either. Or if they say something negative, they add: “but one can understand their
frustration.” After all, Orbán needs their votes. The extreme right is much larger
than the few hundred people who are ready to go out on the street to demonstrate. According to
one recent sociological study, those with extreme right-wing sentiments may be as high as 20% of
the population though only 5% are ready to take part in demonstrations that may end in violence.
The rest just watch and cheer their friends on. […]
[…]
The only hope is the force of public opinion. But it surely would be easier if Fidesz openly and
without reservation stood alongside the government in condemning these extremists. Alas, that is
not in the party's interest at the moment.
As for the meeting between Fico and Gyurcsány, it resulted in a joint statement, in which
the two leaders pledged to take steps towards eliminating “any kind of extremism,
xenophobia, intolerance, chauvinism, nationalism and every manifestation of violence.” Eva
commented on the meeting's outcome in her
Nov. 16 post:
[…] Let's face it, this is not much, although surely it is better than nothing. As far as I
know, the Hungarians wanted to have a satisfactory explanation of “police brutality”
at the soccer match as well as assurances of a more balanced treatment of Hungarian history in
Hungarian-language schools. They were also unhappy about the ban on Hungarian flags at games
[…]. None of these demands was met. Fico didn't arrive with any proof that the Hungarian
soccer fans used physical violence prior to the police attack on their ranks. Fico didn't budge
on the flag issue. […] While Gyurcsány complained about the nationalistic,
anti-Hungarian rhetoric of the Slovak government, Fico voiced his indignation over the appearance
of uniformed Hungarian extremists on Slovak soil. […]
In her Nov. 18
post, Eva wrote about the media coverage of the mee
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
As soon as the Lone Ranger
started to be pulled into modern Hollywood, I knew other cowboys would follow. If Hi, Ho, and
Silver, aren't your idea of a good time, how about 
Category: Travel
In an intimate interview with Charlie Rose on PBS tonight, and available 
