Frontline Club bloggers
“No Peace Without Islam”
Received one of the irregular news update bulletins from Kavkaz Center just now. Was just googling to find the precise details of a reported press conference held by Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Mansur in Somalia this week. For more on Sheikh Mukhtar see this recent interview. “No Peace Without Islam” is the title of a new […]
Kandahar Police HQ Bombing
Just missed being caught up in a double suicide-bombing in Kandahar City. Bombers targeted the main police headquarters in an attack just three minutes after I exited the building. Detonations were at approx 13:21 and 13:23. The police commander was allegedly injured in the attack, but there are mainly only rumours at this point. The […]
Daman District
Went out to Daman district (Kandahar still) yesterday evening for a walk in the countryside. Shoran Dam is an area that has almost total sympathy with the Taliban, so we didn’t stay too long, but long enough to enjoy the peace of being outside the city. The days are getting longer, all the more so […]
Milblogger reflects on attacks at Camp Salerno
About two weeks ago, Camp Salerno in Afghanistan was attacked twice in two days by Afghan militants. Milblogger Rich Phillips, who spent some time at Salerno, says articles like the ones linked to above (BBC) are useful for the broader picture of what happened, but will not provide a close-up view: “I know from experience […]
Mexico’s drug violence is bad for business
The drug violence that continues to sweep across Mexico isn’t only damaging citizen confidence in the country’s government and public security. It also is taking a toll on Mexico’s economy, according to Treasury Secretary Agustin Carstens. The Mexican government estimates that the violence has slowed economic growth by more than 1%. Increased safety concerns have […]
The Vultures Start Circling
So at first glance this story in today’s Standard seemed a bit weird. Six months after post-election violence hit Kenya and when a new coalition government is still finding its feet, Kenya’s political heavy weights start jockeying for position… The post-Kibaki alliances started taking shape, on a day coalition partner ODM readied for its own […]
Reporter’s Notebook 4: Make sure you’re not left on the plane
[video:liveleak:61e_1219834360] British soldiers blow up a Hercules C130 transport plane. That’s an estimated £45 million pounds of aircraft biting the dust. In February 2007, the plane had been damaged on landing in Iraq. It was “deemed unrecoverable due to operational constraints” according to an MoD inquiry. More details at the Flight Blog.
Video: The thrill of the Huamantlada
Watch last weekend’s festivities in Huamantla, Mexico in which 23 people were injured trying to challenge 500-kilo bulls.
Ramazan Grape Trip
Went out of town this afternoon to get some grapes. Not that you can’t buy them in town, but actually driving 45 minutes into the districts to pick them yourself is always more fulfilling (and more interesting). So we headed to the land of a friend in Dand district. He has about 50,000 grapevines on […]
A Very Rash Bet
You may remember that a couple of weeks ago I took issue with the standard, lazy size comparisons used for Darfur. If you bother to check the facts (ridiculous I know) then France and Texas are not nearly as accurate an area comparison as Spain. At the time I offered a prize for the first […]
Kenyan Political Family Refuses Cash Shock
It was difficult to feel optimistic about Kenya’s post-crisis power-sharing deal. It seemed a classic case of jobs for the boys in a giant cabinet while the tribal and land tensions that exploded into violence had been left to fester. Although many Kenyans hailed the arrival of Raila Odinga as prime minister, many others thought […]
Russo-Georgia Conflict: a collection of links
I’ve been taking a break from blogging recently but I’m hoping to get going again now September is here and those not-so-balmy August days are behind us. If you’ve been following the conflict and ongoing confrontation between Russia and Georgia, you might be interested in my delicious links on the topic. (Delicious is a social […]
Photos: Peace march in Mexico
A girl wielded a photo of Monica Alejandrina, who was kidnapped in 2004, during this Saturday’s march for peace across Mexico. Thousands of protesters of all social classes hit the streets of cities across the country, expressing their anger and indignation at rising levels of kidnappings and crime across Mexico. Click here for the video […]
Somalia’s Exiled Press Pack
Speculation continues about the fate of the western journalists kidnapped with their Somali colleagues. As usual with Somalia there are lots of different theories floating around but I learned long ago to steer clear of anyone who claims to know what’s going on so I’m not going to pass on the various titbits I am […]
Mexicans march for peace
Tens of thousands of people of all social classes and ages marched across Mexico Saturday (August 30th 2008) in protest against high crime levels and rising kidnappings.
Obama’s Kenyan Roots
Granny Sarah and a calendar featuring her grandson as she celebrates Obama’s victory over Clinton When Barack Obama burst on to the scene four years ago at the Democratic Convention in Boston he was defined as the American Dream made real. His speech focused on his African background and the goatherd father. It is a […]
Filming bullfights is not worth dying for
The Huamantlada pits man against beast in potentially disastrous circumstances. The annual event, which takes place in the otherwise sleepy town of Huamantla in the Mexican state of Tlaxcala, saw 24 bulls let loose in the town’s narrow, uneven streets to be confronted by locals and visitors alike – many of which had been drinking […]
Shiver me timbers
Charity press officers working on Somalia like to bemoan the fact that it is almost impossible to get stories about their country into the mainstream media. (As if somehow journalists have a duty to run stories about how much more money is needed for a country whose leaders survive by erm stealing aid money, but […]
Freelancing on the frontline
[video:youtube:WGTKFqcyfk0] Vaughan Smith, Frontline Club founder, talks to Press TV Iran about the dangers of freelancing on the frontline in the light of the recent kidnapping of Amanda Lindhout, Nigel Brennan, their Somali driver and two Somali guards. Vaughan makes the point that most journalists who are kidnapped or killed are from the countries they […]
Taliban continue war against civilian contractors
Civilian construction companies and contractors working for the Canadians in Kandahar suffered another blow today as they were hit in an IED attack in Maiwand district, close to the Helmand border. One labourer was killed and 6 other workers were injured in the attack. The worker who was killed had just said he was going […]
Amateur bullfighting festival in Mexico ends with 23 injuries
More than 20 people were gored or injured by bulls this weekend in Huamantla in the Mexican state of Tlaxcala after taking on one of the 24 bulls let loose into the streets as part of an annual festival. The Huamantlada, which is often compared to the running of the bulls event in Pamplona, takes […]
Silver for Sudan
Ismail Ahmed Ismail trains in Khartoum’s decrepit athletics stadium Sudan has been celebrating its first Olympic medal after Ismail Ahmed Ismail battled all the way to the line for an 800m silver. The country’s big hope for a gold, the world number one this year Abubaker Kaki, crashed out in the semis but Ismail’s medal […]
Journalists kidnapped in Somalia
As Graham has already noted, 2 foreign journalists were kidnapped yesterday just outside Mogadishu. It’s an interesting story because not only were they working with the fixer I use out there, but also they were working probably with the same interpreter, same security guards, and the same car Philip and I used when we were […]
The Tale of Mullah Omar’s Eye
As the cliché goes, Mullah Omar is the ‘reclusive one-eyed leader of the Taliban’. You can see him in the photo above, one of only a handful that exist, his right eye just a socket. But how did he lose his eye? I’ve been doing some interviews for what I’m calling my idealistic oral history […]
Alive in Baghdad founder detained in China
Brian Conley, who runs the award-winning video blog Alive in Baghdad, has been detained in Beijing whilst documenting pro-Tibet protests in the city running alongside the Olypmics. Conley has been of incredible help to MexicoReporter.com, helping me with video editing and filming tips during the early days, and also helped the Frontline Club promote the […]
Blood Trail – the trailer
[video:youtube:FOeHVsuGzx8] Richard Parry and Vaughan Smith, both original Frontline TV Agency men and Vaughan is of course the founder of the Frontline Club, give us a sneak preview of the trailer to their film Blood Trail. The film was 15 years in the making and follows the career of war photographer Robert King. Richard, the […]
Finding George
Nairobi’s slums are filled with hundreds of thousands of people living cheek-by-jowl in tiny shacks. Each of the muddy streets looks the same and within minutes the visiting mzungu is completely disoriented. So finding Barack Obama’s half-brother George was never going to be easy. Especially as he had made a point of telling no-one but […]
The News finally launches website
Remember the English-language newspaper The News which launched last October, pledging independence? English language newspaper The News hit the streets of Mexico City today after a five year hiatus. Its directors have promised a more independent tone this time around. In its prior incarnation The News kept its head under the parapet, preferring to keep […]
Mexico wins its first gold medal in Beijing
Guillermo Pérez is to take home the first gold medal for Mexico from the Olympics in Beijing this year, after winning a four-round taekwondo match against Gabriel Mercedes of the Dominican Republic. “Perez won a decision over Dominican Republic’s Yulis Gabriel Mercedes by scoring early. Mercedes was unable to come back until just seconds before […]
Mexico church assailed for maligning miniskirt
Last week’s condemnation of the mini-skirt by the Mexican Catholic Church has enraged some Mexican women, who say that church’s statement that women should wear less provocative clothing makes it easier to justify rape and other forms of violence against them. Last week’s statement, which advised women not to get into “spicyâ€conversations with men if […]
