Frontline Club bloggers
In Photos: Police torture, Stormtroopers and the next Mexican Revolution
Coyoacan is a sleepy (at least for Mexico City), leafy and green middle class suburb in the south of Distrito Federal, home to many of the capital’s intellectuals and politicians. It is also where the National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM – one of the largest and most important universities in Mexico – has its […]
Panjwayi Taliban Interview
I know it’s a little old, but probably most of those reading this blog haven’t seen it, and a lot of what is said here hasn’t changed since early 2007. We made this interview with a Taliban commander in Panjwayi district of Kandahar province while AfghanWire was still up and running. For more of the […]
Mullah Omar releases his ‘eid message
Just like last year, Mullah Omar, the sort-of Taliban leader, has released a message on the occasion of ‘eid, the Muslim religious festival. Lots of interesting things in what he says, so you ought to read the full text (available in pretty passable English translation here). But before you get there make sure to read […]
It’s All Our Fault
It’s starting to look as if the problems in Somalia are all down to the inability of journalists to cover the conflict there properly – rather than say the complete hash of things made by the country’s neighbours, the United Nations’ and donors’ misguided attempts to prop up an unpopular government of warlords, and the […]
All at Sea
Don’t get me wrong. Somalia is one of my favourite countries in my patch – whether sipping cappuccinos in a bombed out hotel or admiring the golden white beaches it’s a fascinating place – and I’m lucky enough to count a handful of Somalis as friends, and never tire of listening to them explain the […]
Kenya, The Pirates and those Rather Embarrassing Tanks
Pirates with the MV Faina (US Navy pic) So where were the MV Faina’s 33 T-72 tanks heading? The fog of misinformation surrounding their destination suggests a fresh scandal brewing. As soon as I heard the ship had been hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia last week, I was content with the information […]
Arrests made in Mexico grenade attack raise questions
The attorney general’s office announced Friday afternoon that it arrested three men in connection with the two grenade explosions in Morelia, Michoacan, last week that killed 8 people and left more than a hundred injured. According to a statement from Asst. Atty. Gen. Maricela Morales Ibañez, the suspects were arrested in the town of Apatzingan, […]
US Army General challenges the military to embrace new media at Milblogging Conference
“We need to change the organisational culture of our military. A culture that emphasises control of all pertinent events within our battlespace. And yet the stark realisation is that we cannot control all aspects of this new media…” This is an extract from a video of Lieutenant General William Caldwell speaking at the recent Milblogging […]
Nightmare bureaucracy in Mexico? Share your story
The Mexican government launched a competition Thursday to find the worst examples of inefficiency within the bureaucratic machine. The initiative is asking people to submit the most outrageous examples of inefficiency and corruption they have experienced when dealing with officials and government agencies in Mexico. The effort is being overseen by la SecretarÃa de la […]
Pirates of the Indian Ocean
I thought it might be instructive for any students of journalism who read this blog to detail my typical interaction with one of the foreign desks for which I work. FD: Good morning, Foreign. ME: Morning. You are probably no doubt sick of pirates… FD: HAAAARGGGGH ME: …but I wondered whether you might have noticed […]
What Shall We Do with the Pirate Sailor?
So, what do you do when you arrest a bunch of Somali “fishermen” in two small speedboats loaded down with AK-47s and RPGs in the Gulf of Aden where pirates have come close to shutting down one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes? You let them go. Well you do if you are the Danish […]
Gael Garcia Bernal mocked for essay on Mexico attacks
Gael Garcia Bernal, the Mexican actor and heart throb, has responded to the bombings in the Mexican state of Michoacan last week with a column for the newspaper El Universal. The article, written from Europe in complicated Spanish, is a poetic tribute to the eight people who died in last week’s bombings in Morelia, and […]
The Uncertainty Principle: Somalia and the Art of Quantum Mechanics
Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it – Niels Bohr If you are not completely confused by quantum mechanics, you do not understand it – John Wheeler It is safe to say that nobody understands quantum mechanics – Richard Feynman For a small part of […]
Morelia: informality characterizes bombing investigation
It’s been a few days since I returned from the bomb site in Morelia, Michoacán. I visited there on Wednesday; two days after a double-grenade attack in the city’s centre during its Independence Day celebrations killed eight people. The death toll rose from 7 to 8 at the weekend when a 13-year-old boy died from […]
Shanty Soundtrack
HMCS Ville de Quebec So I’ve been able to do some pretty cool trips during the past four years in Africa. My five days aboard a Canadian frigate, HMCS Ville de Quebec, were probably among the most fun. The frigate was pulled away from its Nato duties in the Med a couple of months ago […]
Video: Mexico Bomb Victim Tells His Story
“And then I heard a thump. There was a patrol car parked in the street blocking the cars – a transport patrol – and I heard something hit the patrol car. I turned round to see and something rolled…when it stopped I realized that it was a grenade.” Rafael Bucio, a 30 year old car-parking […]
The last bunk
Mine was the very last empty bunk – or rack, as my new Canadian friends term it – left on the HMCS Ville de Quebec, a Halifax-class frigate. It’s not so much a bed as a fold-out mattress beneath a communications panel and next to a series of pipes that sounds as if they have […]
Morelia: the aftermath
I spent the day in Morelia yesterday – here are a few photos from the scene. A video and full report to follow…… Yesterday, the public paid their respects at a shrine to the side of the city’s main plaza in Morelia, remembering the seven people killed in Monday night’s bomb attack. A soldier stood […]
Video: Mexico’s Military Marches as Citizens React to Yesterday’s Bombings
Two explosions during Mexican Independence Day celebrations in the western state of Michoacan killed eight people Monday night and injured dozens more, we reported yesterday. I spent the day down on Reforma where, as Mexico’s military marched, people reacted to the bombings.
WRL: Reporting Afghanistan and the secret service blog
1. ‘Bill-and-Bob’, who describes himself as a ‘citizen soldier with 26 years of service’, comments on US media coverage of the war in Afghanistan: “Wars are expensive. The war became tedious on television news and the sensationalization of the American death toll became a daily litany that constantly reminded the American public that we were […]
Video: Mexico’s police reform – what do the public think?
Drug violence is Mexico is soaring. Crimes against the public are at a high, with kidnappings increasing and people living in a state of insecurity. But corruption within the Mexican police is rife, and inefficiency is the rule, rather than the exception. This video was made to go with this Los Angeles Times report by […]
Shanty Soundtrack
I’m off on an Indian Ocean cruise for the next few days. It promises to be an interesting voyage along Kenya’s palm-fringed shores to, erm, Somalia. Just me, a couple of books and the crew of a Canadian Halifax-class frigate, the HMCS Ville de Quebec. Naturally I have sought out the right music for the […]
Defense Dept responsible for more OPSEC breaches than milblogs
Ari Melber has written an article for ‘The Nation’ about blogging regulations and the US Army. Not much new here, but some interesting analysis. I found this paragraph particularly enlightening for those that are concerned about the threat from blogs to Operational Security (OPSEC): “Even when the web does expose problematic information about military operations, […]
9/11: “A galvanising point for the blogging world”
In Reporting War, Barbie Zelizer and Stuart Allan suggest that the attack on the World Trade Center seven years ago was a significant moment in the history of war reporting. As mainstream media servers struggled to cope with the volumes of traffic accessing their websites, bloggers inevitably dropped their usual subjects and began piecing together […]
‘CPT G’ takes up position in Information Operations
Captain Matthew Gallagher, the milblogger behind Kaboom: A Soldier’s War Journal, has been moved away from his frontline duties. According to his fiancée, he’s been given a role in Information Operations at a Forward Operating Base in Iraq. In May, a blog post written by Captain Gallagher about his refusal to accept a role away […]
Beware Yachts in Distress
Andrew Mwangura, who monitors piracy from his base in Mombasa, is warning shipping to look out for the Carre d’As which was snatched a week ago. He believes its French crew have been put ashore and it is now being used as a mother ship to snare other unwitting sailors. Typically, boats like these are […]
Senseless Somalia
The cousin of one of the kidnapped journalists being held in Somalia has spoken of her frustration at trying to stand up snippets of information coming out of the country. “To date, I have received so much conflicting information, it all depends what source I’m looking at as to which variety of the ‘truth’ I’m […]
Milbloggies 2008: Go vote for your favourite milblog
The 2008 Milblogging Awards have been open for a couple of days now. If you want to nominate a blog you’ll have to head on over to Milblogging.com before Wednesday. Voting will begin on Thursday. There are several categories: U.S. Air Force U.S. Army U.S. Marine Corps U.S. Military (Parent) U.S. Military (Spouse) U.S. Military […]
Feeding Africa
Julius Njoroge Kinuthia and his biotech bananas The biotech debate has been rumbling along nicely in Africa recently. A couple of days ago William Ruto, Kenya’s agriculture minister, said he planned to allow the planting of genetically modified crops as the best way to improve yields. Then this morning the UK’s former chief scientist, Professor […]
The Birmingham of Kenya
The road into Thika stretched before us. The hot, noon sun made the air shimmer above the Tarmac and to one side the first Jacarandas of the season were bursting into colour. An occasional flame tree added a dash of scarlet to the dusty green acacias that lined the verge. Pineapple orchards filled the hills […]
