Frontline Club bloggers
New study contrasts native and immigrant Latinas in U.S
Fascinating statistics released yesterday on the demographic makeup of the female Latina community in the United States show some striking, if unsurprising, differences between non-Latina and Latina women, as well as the native-born and immigrant female Latina communities.
Hello pal
I suppose email scams are as much of a cultural record as anything else. Sgt Jarvis was thoughtful enough to send me this message today: Hello Pal, I do hope my email meet you in good health. I am Staff Sgt. Jarvis Maxwell Reeves Jr. a U.S. helicopter maintenance supervisor in the 3rd Infantry Division, […]
Is Buzzell going back to blogging?
Colby Buzzell served with the US Infantry in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003-4. He’s one of the more successful US milbloggers and in an article for the San Francisco Chronicle he has revealed that he has been called up for a second tour of duty. Back in 2004 Buzzell’s blog, ‘My War: Killing time in […]
Guest post: John Kelly
John Kelly is an American journalist currently living in Oxford – and on a mission: I’m studying citizen journalism, a buzzword which basically applies to anyone who isn’t like me doing what it is that I do. You can read his blog here [http://voxford.blogspot.com]. Below, he kindly reflects on his progress for the Frontline Club: […]
Why Nairobi is a Hub for Hacks
Interesting views reach me from Sudan where Blake Evans-Pritchard, a teacher and occasional freelance writer, has been casting a critical eye over journalists in general and the Nairobi press pack in particular. Well-known commentators in London and New York write prolifically on the country [Sudan], as though their word is God, whilst only a handful […]
Everyday life at an Iraqi checkpoint
Recently, the Long War Journal published an interview with ‘General Hamed’, who commands a number of Iraqi policemen in Baghdad. In the interview, General Hamed recognises that the effectiveness of both the Iraqi Army (IA) and the Iraqi Police (IP) are severely undermined by elements who are loyal to militias: “Lately, the government of Iraq […]
Crashed U.S. Navy Drone Reveals Somalia Commando Deployment?
“A U.S. military drone crashed in a Somali coastal area south of Mogadishu today,” a local government official and witnesses told AFP last week: “It’s a small unmanned American plane. It’s small and can be carried by three people,” said Mohamed Mohamoud Helmi, the government official in charge of security in the town of Merka. […]
Group Therapy
Who’d want to be an international aid worker trying to bring peace and stability to Somalia? Chatting to one last night, she told me how meetings on Somalia were coming to resemble group therapy sessions. “One person will start off by explaining how they were running a great little project, getting results and moving things […]
Somalia’s Only Hope for Peace?
Amnesty’s hard-hitting report on human rights abuses in Somalia should make everyone stop and think. Mogadishu has long been a city of death and destruction (apart from a six-month period of quiet as the Islamic Courts imposed their own brand of security on the city) so there is no great shock to hear that the […]
On the radio
Just popping in to post for Alex here… He’s back in Nairobi writing up the story he worked on in Somalia and he’s on deadline. Therefore, just a quick post from me to guide you to the BBC Radio 5 Live interview with Alex for the iPM show and, repeated again, for the Pods and […]
Amnesty on Somalia
Amnesty International UK PRESS RELEASE EMBARGOED: TUES 6 MAY 2008, 08:00hrs [for Wednesday’s newspapers] Somalia: Troops killing people ‘like goats’ by slitting throats – new Amnesty report Amnesty International today (6 May) released a report revealing the dire human rights and humanitarian crisis facing the people of Somalia. The report contains first-hand testimony from scores […]
Demonstrations against the Dollar
11am Somali time: Central and southern Mogadishu are currently awash with demonstrators protesting the massive inflation of the Somali national currency (Somali shilling) as well as shopkeepers who have started only accepting dollars on account of the near worthlessness of Somali bank notes. Previously there were denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500 […]
Tipping Point
“Every individual Somali fights to stay himself, a person.” (Gerard Hanley in ‘Warriors’) The atmosphere can change in a matter of seconds while working in Somalia. Today we were traveling with a militia south of Mogadishu in part so that Philip could take some photos of a ‘technical’, the well-known battlewagon in Somalia popularized in […]
What I’m Reading…
Usually when traveling and working abroad I like to be reading about something completely off-topic. For this trip I brought with me Dick Davis’ translation/reworking of Abu al-Qasim Ferdowsi’s 10th century Persian epic, the Shahnameh or Book of Kings. I studied parts of it in classes at university, always perplexed by the complexity of the […]
Mogadishu Day Four
Today was a burst of activity following a very slow day yesterday – to ensure our security following the assassination of a senior al-Shabab leader (Aden Hashi ‘Ayrow) we spent most of the day inside the hotel conducting interviews there. This morning, however, we began with an interview with Somalia’s TFG (transitional federal government) deputy […]
Reporter’s Notebook 1
Listening to and engaging with your media-savvy audience is a key component of the new journalistic landscape. But remember, you can’t please everybody.
Leonora Carrington on Mexico City’s Paseo de Reforma
Leonora Carrington is a British surrealist artist from Lancashire who left Europe during the Second World War, on the run from the Nazis. She finally settled in Mexico, and has produced an impressive body of work, some of which is currently on display on one of Mexico’s main thoroughfares – Paseo de Reforma.
The View from the Blogosphere
The view from Washington is no doubt that Thursday’s strike on Somalia, which killed Aden Hashi Ayro, was an unqualified success. Things are more difficult when viewed from Somalia. Royale Somalia points out that Somalis will be divided according to their support for or opposition to the Transitional Federal Government. He gives his colours away […]
Welcome to Somalia
I just got off the Skype chat with Alex in Mogadishu. He reckons he’s one of just three foreign reporters in Mogadishu at the moment. I thought of him when I read Janine Di Giovanni’s piece on Comment is free today about arriving at Moghadishu airport, A truckload of Kalashnikov wielding teenagers were waiting for […]
Negotiating to stay on the Web: the experience of The Destroyermen
My first post described how an RAF technician in Afghanistan became so concerned about the potential impact of his blog that he decided to close it down. He had been blogging without permission and deleted his blog after senior commanders became aware of its existence. At the end of the post, I posed a question […]
Ayrow: UPDATE 2
UPDATE 2: Al-Shabab official website has issued a statement on the death of Ayrow in Somali. “Airplanes of the enemy of Allah”, the text reads, have caused the “martyrdom of the mujahid and leader” Aden Ayrow as well as Sheikh Muhiyuddin Mohammad Omar (former Health Minister for the Islamic Courts). The statement said that a […]
Ayrow: UPDATE 1
UPDATE 1: Death toll from the attack seems to be 10. We have been speaking to people in Dhusa Mareb, including people digging in the rubble, and haven’t been able to confirm or find information on the speculated death toll of 30. Bakara Market area – stronghold of sorts of al-Shabab these days – in […]
Live from Somalia
Frontline blogger Alex Strick van Linschoten is in Somalia blogging as news breaks that the leader of Al-Shabab has been killed. Alex is working with the French photographer Philip Poupin in Mogadishu and as well as blogging he is posting his own pictures to his Flickr account.
Al-Shabab Leader Killed
Just a short note to confirm that Al-Shabab’s leader does seem to have died in an explosion (one presumes a missile) in Dhusa Mareb, central Somalia. Al-Shabab spokesperson held and press conference over the phone this morning with local radio stations in which they vowed they would retaliate against the attack. It makes working in […]
A Turning Point in Somalia?
Wires are reporting that Aden Hashi Ayro was killed in overnight US airstrikes on Somalia. If it’s true then it could be a turning point in the Islamist-led insurgency. He is/was the leader of the Shabaab, a nasty militia that acted as the military wing of the Islamic Courts Union. With the defeat of the […]
Ground Zero
“It is wonderful how little we have yet managed to impress the Somalis with our superior firepower.” (British officer following attempts to put down the ‘Mad Mullah’ in 1920s with R.A.F. bombers) Today was spent in a time capsule of sorts – visiting the destruction wreaked on the buildings of Mogadishu’s seafront at the end […]
Introducing ‘Kaboom: A Soldier’s War Journal’
I mentioned this blog in passing in yesterday’s post. But it deserves a proper mention and I thoroughly recommend it to Frontline readers. Kaboom: A soldier’s war journal is written by ‘LT G’. He’s serving with the US Army in Iraq and is stationed in a place he calls Anu al-Verona. As far as I’m […]
Demystifying the Congo
A video to promote a series of events at the Frontline Club. I wrote an article on the topic of Victorian-era clichés and the Congo for the current issue of the From the Frontline newsletter. I’m grateful to Tim Butcher and Rory MacLean for the friendly exchange that gave rise to the piece.
One Mean Diplomatic Mofo
Move aside you gangsta rappers The matatus of Nairobi are decorated in many and various ways. By far the most spectacular are those with murals of popular figures on the back. Footballers – particularly Stephen Gerrard – and gangsta rappers seem to dominate. Now there’s a new face in town following Kofi Annan’s success in […]
“Life and death are cheap”
In the words of Smith Hempstone, the former US ambassador to Kenya: “If you liked Beirut, you’ll love Mogadishu…” And so it is. Arriving in a delayed Daallo Airways plane, fellow travellers flying on to the north of the country wish us well. “Life and death are cheap in this city…take care,” said one, patting […]
