Frontline Club bloggers
Mexico City mural makeover
To some, the graffiti that covers miles of walls and public spaces across Mexico City is a thing of beauty and something to be encouraged and celebrated. To others, such as the local government’s Youth Institute, it’s an ugly nuisance. A government project mobilized more than 1,000 youngsters earlier this month to clean up and […]
Mexico beats U.S in soccer showdown
A T-shirt for sale outside Mexico City’s Stadium Azteca yesterday afternoon, during a World Cup qualifying match between the U.S and Mexico, which Mexico won 2:1. "Toma" means "take", or in this instance, "take this". More photos here on Flickr.
A Different Type of Food Security
There’s no need to bore you with my frankly hilarious attempts at reintegrating into western, capitalist society. Yesterday I got to grips with London’s Oyster card. Tomorrow I might try scanning my own groceries at Tesco. There are lots of differences from my old life in Africa, and I suspect you’d get tired of my […]
End of an epoch – dismantling Baku’s suburban railways
Photo from Aztelekom.org Starting on 12 August, Azerbaijani transportation authorities have begun to dismantle Baku’s celebrated, but rapidly degrading suburban railway system, which was founded by famous Swedish family of the Nobels and went through several major overhauls in its history. Constructed between 1878 and 1880, a short private railway line started to carry petrol […]
An Afghanistan strategy dialogue
Well worth tuning into this debate over at Abu Muqawama. If you want the background start here. Day One was a few days back now and they’re already up to Day Five.
Universal Church of the Kingdom of God accused of money laundering
The founder of the Brazilian Church Universal Kingdom of God, “bishop” Edir Macedo, and another 9 high members of the church are being charged for fraud against the church’s followers. Prosecutors in Sao Paulo claim that Macedo and other close allies channelled billions of dollars in donations for the church’s followers to build an empire […]
Escape from Somaliland
Xorriyo Airways, which ran flights from Dubai to Berbera in Somaliland, has collapsed. I found this out the hard way. I soon became one of more than 600 people stranded in Somaliland. At 7.40 pm one night the airline office phoned to say the flight had been ‘delayed until further notice’ and if someone […]
Dirty, Not Very Sexy Money
Cleared out my bedside table of five years of spare cash. There are torn notes from Ethiopia, Chad, Uganda and Tanzania. Smart colourful ones from Botswana, South Africa and Ghana. Assorted handfuls from Liberia, Sudan, Mozambique, Rwanda and the DRC. Then there is the fun stuff from holidays – India, the UAE and plastic […]
On the road with Mexico’s young military
At the end of last month, my partner Ulises and I were lucky enough to hit the road for a week’s break here in Mexico, and headed down to Tulum on the Caribbean. I was a loooooooong drive that, in retrospect, we won’t do again unless we have more time. President Felipe Calderon’s military campaign […]
Mexican day laborers are ‘Los Bastardos’ in fictional work
At first glance, “Los Bastardos” seems a surprising film for a Mexican director to make. The second movie from Amat Escalante, 30, is a disturbing fictional tale about 24 hours in the lives of two undocumented Mexican day laborers in Los Angeles. The documentary style of Escalante’s storytelling, which uses two non-actors in the main […]
Back from a country where stuff works
There is comfort in the raucous purr of garbage trucks and robotic street sweepers, in the familiar sweesh-pfff of a bus stopping and the off-beat chanting of a labor protest. They’re the sounds of a country where stuff works. Thirteen months and a day to my landing in Phnom Penh, I took off for 5 […]
Mexican image of Brazil wins World Press Photo prize
Mexican photographer Carlos Cazalis was one of the winners in this year’s World Press Photo contest. The photographer was given first prize in the Contemporary Issues section for this image he took in São Paulo, Brazil, last year. The photo shows a man sleeping, wrapped in a blanket against the cold, outside São Paulo’s elite […]
MoD (sort of) “encourages” use of Twitter, blogs, Facebook
The Ministry of Defence has issued a new set of social media guidelines "encouraging" their personnel to "talk about what they do, but within certain limits to protect security, reputation and privacy". In a notable development the policy allows soldiers to dicuss "their work online without prior authorisation from their chain of command" as long […]
Kandahar: City of Nobody’s Dreams
For outsiders, Kandahar was never really somewhere you could fall in love with. You know the kind of thing I mean: places people went to honeymoon, places with a certain ineluctable quality to them… Back in the seventies, when Kandahar was a popular stopover city on the hippy trail to Kabul and India, one such […]
What about Ibrahim Jassam?
Current.tv journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee are about to arrive in California after spending 140 days in a North Korean prison having been convicted of committing "hostile acts". The North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pardoned the duo after a surprise visit by Bill Clinton. You can watch the arrival of the two journalists […]
Read beyond the “Marines ban Twitter…” headline
Articles like this one with the headline ‘Marines Ban Twitter, Facebook, MySpace" have been doing the rounds in the media. But it’s important to read beyond the headline. Because if you just read headlines you end up with a really distorted picture of the world. (You always did but I’d suggest it’s even worse in […]
No End in Sight to South Sudan’s Violence over Land
By DAVID AXE Tribal fighting in South Sudan killed nearly 200 people on Sunday. Murle tribesmen reportedly attacked an encampment of refugees from the Lou Nuer tribe, killing 185, mostly women and children, but also including soldiers from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, the U.S.-backed armed force of the breakaway Government of South Sudan. The […]
Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma spotlights Mexico
The Dart Center, a Columbia University project for journalists who cover violence, got in touch with me after I published a video report on survival training for journalists in Mexico earlier this year. The Dart Center’s reason for being is laid out on its site: The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of […]
Video: Mexico’s Rivera murals get restoration treatment
Anyone with even a passing interest in Latin American art and culture will have heard of Diego Rivera, the Mexican painter and muralist. Rivera, who is credited with being one of the founders of the Mexican muralist art movement, was also an active communist and the husband of the equally famous Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. […]
Amanda Lindhout in TV plea
Amanda Lindhout, the Canadian journalist kidnapped in Somalia in August 2008, has reportedly made a plea over the telephone to Omni TV. The heart wrenching plea was broadcast earlier today in Ontario. Lindhout complains of stomach problems, dentistry issues and is worried she may die of illness or be killed by her captives. The kidnappers […]
Blogging NATO Sec General calls for openness
NATO’s new Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has used a video blog to call for NATO to be "as open and transparent as possible". Fogh Rasmussen, who took up his post on Saturday and has been outlining NATO’s strategic priorities today, said he wants to use the blog "to have a discussion" about the security […]
Discussing ‘The Ministry of Defeat’ at the Frontline Club
Last week, Defence of the Realm blogger Richard North dropped by struggled down from Bradford to London to discuss his book on Britain’s deployment in Iraq. Focussing on one of his specialities – procurement and provision of equipment for British troops – North painted a bleak picture of the Ministry of Defence and media coverage […]
Stranded in Somaliland
Alarmed by the recent infringements on press freedom in Somaliland I decided to find and join the union for journalists in the country. I applied to SOLJA… No that’s not slang for an armed group but the actual acronym of the Somaliland Journalists Association. When I picked up the letter confirming my membership I was […]
Somaliland Hires Freelance Diplomats
by DAVID AXE Somaliland, population 1 million, is a fully autonomous — but unrecognized, internationally — region of the Republic of Somalia, with its own laws, courts, currency and army. It’s also one of the handful of “unofficial” countries in the world that has few full-time diplomats, and so hires freelancers to sit at the […]
Exported toxic waste going back to the UK
The toxic waste found in 41 containers in the Santos port in the Southeast of Brazil must be shipped back to the UK by next Tuesday. The material is being loaded in a ship today at the same port. The shipment was authorized by federal judge André Muniz Mascarenhas de Souza, who considered Brazil must […]
Tensions rise but Lebanon’s only invasion is by tourists
The sun is shining and Beirut’s streets are busier than ever. Thousands of Europeans and Americans have gambled on the New York Times’ recommendation, Arabs from the Gulf have tightened their belts and chosen to vacation closer to home, and CNN is running reports on Beirut being the best party city in the world. Times […]
2 Rifles in Helmand
I tweeted about this a couple of days ago, but if you haven’t yet latched on to Michael Yon’s latest reports and photography from Afghanistan then you should do so now. And while we’re on the ‘blogging from Helmand theme’, this collection of British Commanders’ Diaries from Operation Panther’s Claw is also worth checking out.
Insight into The Times’ Afghanistan debate
Earlier today I ‘sat in’ on The Times’ liveblogging debate about whether the war in Afghanistan is winnable. The Times have been experimenting with Cover It Live for a while now, but haven’t put it to use to cover defence issues until today (as far as I’m aware). The debate featured Defence Editor, Michael Evans, […]
U.S. Trains South Sudan Air Experts?
by DAVID AXE The U.S. Air Force Special Operations School in Hurlburt, Florida, last week launched its inaugural "Building Partner Aviation Capacity Course." The training course in basic aviation planning "included representatives from the U.S., Costa Rica and Sudan," the Air Force reported. Costa Rica, sure. But Sudan? Since Washington does not have formal military […]
Here’s What I Won’t Miss
NAIROBI LETTER: THE POLICEMAN tucked his AK-47 under his arm and swaggered out of the dark towards the door of my car. As he reached my open window though, it became clear that his lurching walk was not so much of a swagger as a stagger… You can read the rest in yesterday’s Irish Times
