News
The Khmer Rouge trial gets substantial
I witnessed today the first day of substantive hearing of Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, the former chairman of the famed Phnom Penh detention center S-21 who was charged (among other things) with crimes against humanity. (From 1975 to 1979, under the Khmer Rouge, at least 12,380 men, women and children died at […]
Wait and See…
Tribal elders in Kandahar like to explain how they’re waiting to see what will happen before committing themselves to any particular ‘side’. Well, we’ve all been waiting to hear from President Obama on his grand plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan – or the latest neologism, ‘Af-Pax’. Two days ago, finally, we heard. In the words […]
Wait and See…
Tribal elders in Kandahar like to explain how they’re waiting to see what will happen before committing themselves to any particular ‘side’. Well, we’ve all been waiting to hear from President Obama on his grand plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan – or the latest neologism, ‘Af-Pax’. Two days ago, finally, we heard. In the words […]
Luxury temple owner is arrested in São Paulo
Yesterday the owner of the biggest luxury department store in Latin America was arrested in São Paulo and sentenced to 94 years in prison for fraudulent importing, organized crime and tax evasion. Her prison was somewhat spectacular: pictures of blond and chic Eliana Tranchesi, 53 years old, being escorted by policemen made all the headlines. […]
‘Those Who Remain’ focuses on families left behind in Mexico by migrants
The homes and families that those migrants come from are usually just a jumping-off point for filmmakers, but Rulfo and Hagerman chose to stay at the point of departure to see how those who remain deal with their reduced numbers.
Something I Should Have Read a Long Time Ago
I bought The Root Causes of Sudan’s Civil Wars more than four years ago when I was newly arrived in East Africa. I skimmed through it before a trip I did to Rumbek, but its dense text put me off using it as anything other than a reference book. It was kept on the shelf […]
Journalist shot dead in Rawalpindi
Raja Asad Hameed, a senior reporter with the English Language daily The Nation in Pakistan, was shot dead last night in Rawalpindi, Unidentified armed men on Thursday night killed Raja Asad Hameed, senior reporter of a local English daily. The incident took place at 10pm, when the armed men came to Hameed’s house and rang […]
Surveillance Tapes and ‘Secret Orders’
The release of surveillance tapes by the Georgian interior ministry in recent days – ‘evidence’ which allegedly suggests that opposition activists were buying weapons and making ready to use them to stage a coup during mass protests in early April – has a very familiar feeling to many people here in Georgia. The authorities have […]
Piracy War Escalates: Korean Sailor Shot
A Korean crewman aboard a ship sailing on the Indian Ocean was shot in the head by Somali pirates but survived, the AP reports. Despite the surge in East African piracy in the past 18 months, only two people have died as a result of pirates’ actions, by my count. One was the Russian […]
‘Two-bit blogging’: an example
A couple of bits and pieces I picked up today. Literally – a couple: 1. Noah Shachtman, editor of the Danger Room at Wired, is (almost) accused of being a ‘two-bit blogger’ by a spokesman for Donald Rumsfeld: "I think if you’re going to accuse Rumsfeld of ‘blowing the war in Afghanistan’ and do it […]
Credit Crunch Journalism
Africa is a big continent. The road network is not good. The rail network is non-existent. Getting from A to B can be very expensive. Last week one of my newspapers asked me to go to Tanzania. They gave me the name of the village, but no, they had no other idea where it was. […]
Gabon: Poverty amid Plenty
Due to the global recession, the six-nation Central African Economic and Monetary Community — Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon — is anticipating economic expansion of just 2.8 percent in 2009, versus 4.4 percent last year. That’s not bad, considering Germany could contract by as much as 7 percent, […]
Panoscope and the TB Partnership
Now a little bit about the Programme that brought me here. The newsletter Panoscope, which I am helping to edit at the conference, is produced by the Panos Global AIDS Pogramme with funding from the Stop TB Partnership. The initiative has brought 9 journalists from different nations to cover the conference and report back to […]
Rio Conference: fight against TB too slow
The world has been too slow in fighting tuberculosis – this seems to be the main conclusion of the 3rd Stop TB Partners’ Forum in Rio de Janeiro. I am attending the conference as subeditor of the official newsletter, and must say that new data revealed today are not very encouraging. According to the 2009 […]
Guadalajara Film Festival: ‘El Enemigo’ examines the morality of revenge
"El Enemigo" (The Enemy) is one of the movies competing for the Guadalajara International Film Festival‘s Best Ibero-American Fiction Feature Film this year. The feature film by Venezuelan director Luis Alberto Lamata is a harsh, realistic take on the relations between the poor and the law in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. Most of the drama unfolds […]
NATO must ‘plug in’ to the global conversation
A military officer assigned to NATO says the organisation needs to engage with the new media landscape. In a guest post for Mountain Runner, Tom Brouns argues that NATO’s relevance on the Internet will play an increasingly important role in the extent of success or failure in Afghanistan. He notes that according to some observers […]
Insurance Without Borders from Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders announced an insurance plan for journalists working in war zones yesterday. The scheme, called Insurance Without Borders, is aimed at journalists who often travel at a moment’s notice. The insurance can be put into effect within 48 hours and does not require a medical questionnaire, To mark the anniversary of the War […]
Book Preview: Fifth-Generation War in Africa
Daniel Abbott over at tdaxp is editing a new book on fifth-generation warfare, to be published by Nimble Books. I’m writing a chapter addressing Somalia, piracy (pictured), human security and 5GW in Africa. Here’s a brief sample: The “fourth generation” of war entailed irregular combatants fighting for an ideological cause, seeking to remake society […]
Video: Mexico’s butterfly reserve alights in the soul
They first catch the eye as tiny, ghost-like flashes. It takes a moment to fix the flitting shapes, reports Ken Ellingwood. You have come to these highland woods to see a natural marvel. The sparse, darting forms are not quite that. But they silently summon you deeper with the suggestion that this is just the […]
Secret special effects of ‘Hellboy’ and ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ revealed
Guillermo del Toro’s imagination is a fascinating abyss full of the kind of monsters that inhabit both our dreams and our nightmares. The Mexican mastermind behind films such as “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Hellboy” has created worlds full of the kind of fantastical creatures that amuse and terrify, often at the same time.
The most dangerous places for journalists
Iraq, Sierra Leone and Somalia are the most dangerous place for journalists according to the 2009 Imupunity index released by the Committee to Protect Journalists today. However, the report entitled Getting Away With Murder 2009, highlights worrying trends in South Asia, particularly in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, “We’re distressed to see justice worsen in […]
Somali-American Jihadist has “Change of Heart”
Last week Osama bin Laden exhorted Somalis to rise up in jihad against new president Shariff Sheikh Ahmed, a call that even Somali insurgent leaders rejected. Earlier, as many as two dozen Somalis living in the U.S. sneaked into Somalia to join Islamic fighters combating the U.S.-, U.N.- and A.U.-backed government. One recruit (pictured) […]
War in South Ossetia – The Movie
This is the trailer for Olympus Inferno, a propaganda action movie about last year’s war in South Ossetia that’s due to be shown on Russian television later this month. According to Reuters: "The fictional account tells of a U.S.-based entomologist and a female Russian journalist who unintentionally capture evidence that Georgia started the conflict using […]
Talk of the town: The UK’s unwanted immigrants
A sobering and substantial piece of work by London-based photographer Abbie Trayler-Smith seems to have made an instant impression in the city this week. An exhibition of her stark images of rejected asylum seekers still living in the UK has opened in the capital’s Host Gallery, winning both publicity and acclaim for the photographer. Among […]
Azerbaijan passing through referendum
On 18th March in a nationwide referendum aimed at amending country’s constitution Azerbaijan went to ballot box to decide whether to remove two-term limit imposed for holders of the Presidential office. The referendum, especially changes proposed for lifting presidential term limits from constitution stirred much controversy from the very beginning. In January, in my Frontline […]
Blogging military blogging
I came across a blog called Soldiers in the blogosphere recently. It’s run by an active duty US Army Major, Jakob Bruhl, and is part of his graduation requirement from the Air Command and Staff College. Maj Bruhl discusses whether soldiers should be encouraged to write blogs and over the last few weeks he has […]
JJ’s birthday
Thanks to everyone for joining JJ for birthday drinks last night. It was great fun. Here is a pic of JJ last night. He was very happy.
Robbed in São Paulo
Even though I live in one of the most violent cities in Latin America, I had never been robbed – until today. But there is a first time for anything. And unfortunately being robbed is part of the day-by-day in São Paulo, a city of 10-million inhabitants. Some people even carry extra money – say […]
Video: Narcocorridos inspire Mexico City mural
The music of Mexico’s drug trade has taken a beating lately. As we reported from Tijuana last year, some radio stations south of the border have stopped playing the songs and promoters have banned the music from many public events. Nightclub owners ask bands to turn down narcocorrido requests. Richard Marosi wrote: Narcocorridos still draw […]
Video: Be an illegal immigrant for a day
In El Alberto, a small village over 1000km from the border between Mexico and the US, tourists can pay to experience what it’s like being an illegal migrant. MexicoReporter.com accompanied the Guardian’s Jo Tuckman to film the video for her piece on the fake border crossing, where participants try to enter "America".
