Links for 18-11-2007

Aljazeera English: Singing for Somalia (youtube) A group of young Somali refugees in Kenya sing for peace in Somalia. The group have attracted the attention of international media, Aljazeera Arabic had a similar report on them few months back and so has the BBC.

Economist: Conversational marketing | Word of mouse An excellent article on the potential for social advertising, referring to MySpace and Facebook's new advertising models. But this raises serious concerns about user privacy.

BBC: China spying 'biggest US threat' American spies see China's cyber/technology spying as the most dangerous.There has been a number of high profile cases in the past few years.

Rueters Blog: Iranian shelling uproots Iraqi Kurds A less publicized story about Iran. The Iranian are fighting Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), and have been bombing Kurdish villages in the border with Iraq (often crossing the border). Poor Kurdish farmers and nomads have been losing their crops and animals to the bombing.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Iran leader dismisses US currency Iran adding to the debate for Opec to switch to stop using the weakening dollar as their main currency. Such a move is unlikely anytime soon, and US will fight it to the teeth, but speculation is growing, and so could be oil prices.

NYT - Bits: Inbox 2.0: Yahoo and Google to Turn E-Mail Into a Social Network Google and Yahoo are planning to turn emails into social networking, interesting but worrying. What's wrong with how it's now?

BBC: Nick Bryant's Australia: Who would you turn gay for? Though I've been away for few years, I still follow Aussie politics. In seems John Howard has serious challenger this time.

El Oso, El Moreno, and El Abogado » Blog Archive » A Virtual Global Organization Describing how Global Voice succeeded in creating a virtual newsroom. worth reading.

Somalia: Links for 17-11-07

AJ English - YouTube: 'Humanitarian crisis' in Somalia as fighting rocks capital
A brief interview with Jenday Frazer, Condi's assistant for African affairs, about the Ethiopian atrocities in Mogadishu (two weeks ago). She tries to defend what the Ethiopian troops are doing but more importantly, the interview shows - and I might be wrong - that US doesn't give a rat's ass about building a government in Somalia. In an earlier interview she said that US is waiting for 2009, when the TFG's mandate ends, to have an election in Somalia, the same as Afghanistan and Iraq, and we can see the results.

Reuters: Mogadishu mayor defends Somali media crackdown
Mogadishu mayor and former warlord Mohamed Dheere defends the TFG's closure of the three radio stations.

BBC: Africa | Somali rebels attack peacekeepers
Al-Shabab, a terrorist group allied with UIC in Mogadishu, threatened to attack African peacekeeping troops a week ago, and now they've done it. The same group threatened to kill some journalists.

Economist: Somalia | Cast adrift

Worse, perhaps, is a sense that Somalia is now being deserted by foreign countries. The harvest in central Somalia seems to have failed; some think it the worst in 13 years. Over 1m Somalis are now thought to be dependent on humanitarian assistance, but only a fraction of the needy are being reached.

Dubai World subsidiary buys Djibouti's Daallo Airlines UAE
Dallo airlines is one of the few ways to get to Somalia, and it does a pretty good job (and profitable). Like most Somali business it's based in Dubai, UAE.

Links for 15-11-2007

PressThink: These Beat Reporters Will Try the Social Network Way
Jay Rosen launches Beat Blogging, a new Journalism/social media experiment. A collaboration with the backing of 13 MSM.

Maybe a beat reporter could do a way better job if there was a “live” social network connected to the beat, made up of people who know the territory the beat covers, and want the reporting on that beat to be better.

Cybersoc: the privacy irony: more or less about social networks
Hamman looks at the problem of privacy vs social networking, and how people don't realize the info they're giving out.

To get the most from a social networking service you need to disclose personal information and the more you disclose, the more you are likely to benefit. If you and those in your network disclose more, you'll probably find it easy to remember social events and birthdays, easier to land a job through your friends and their contacts, easier to find a last minute date without asking someone who is busy, etc. But the irony is, although disclosure of information leads to greater gains, it also increases the danger that someone you don't know will find and use that information in dangerous ways.

FP Blog: 6.2 percent of your income is going to Iraq and Afghanistan
Based on Congressional report, interesting.

Links for 22-10-2007

• BBCArabic: الشرق الأوسط | أكراد العراق يوقعون عقودا نفطية مع شركات أجنبية
  Iraqi Kurdish administration says it has signed an oil deal with four foreign oil companies. This is sure to be a very controversial step as the famed oil law hasn't been passed through the parliament yet.
• BBC Analysis: Syria-Israel tensions
  Lyse Doucet reflects on her interview with the Syrian president in which he revealed that Israel bombed an empty building.
• NYT: Use My Photo? Not Without Permission
  An interesting case on Flickr, the photo of a teenage girl on Flickr was used by add agency for a mobile services.
• Kenyan Pundit » How does this person get to be a travel writer?
  Ory is rightly pissed with this stupid writer, and here's a quote for you: "the Kenyan capital is crime-ridden, traffic-jammed, and without a decent hotel"

Links for 02-10-2007

Lunch over IP: Tips for conference bloggers
This is an excellent resource, Bruno combines his thoughts and those of Ethan Zuckerman's on conference blogging. I've seen Ethan in action, he's an amazing conference blogger, I tried but couldn't keep up.

Links for 01-10-2007

• Guardian: Bolton calls for bombing of Iran
  If we were to strike Iran it should be accompanied by an effort at regime change ... The US once had the capability to engineer the clandestine overthrow of governments. I wish we could get it back
• BBC Editor's: Information from Burma
  Steve Herrman talks about BBC's coverage of Burma - and how they're getting content from there. interesting.
• Guardian: Sex changes and a draconian legal code: gay life in Iran
  I've heard this sometime back, the government actually pays for sex change ... this is really strange. But apparently it has to do with the Shia ruling on the issue.

Links for 27-09-2007

• Facebook: The $10 Billion Social Network?
  Can a website be worth this much, apparently so
• IHT: Killing the messengers
  An article about the targeting of journalists in Somalia. Since the takeover of Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu, the city has become probably the most dangerous place in the world for journalists
• The Daily Princetonian - A little humility
  Daoud Kuttab writes about the pathetic attack of Columbia University's president on his guest, the Iranian president Ahmadinejad. An excellent piece.
• BBC: Arab states named as more corrupt
  interesting research. It was expected that Arab states would be more corrept; in most cases the government's money goes into one man/family account.

Links for 26-08-2007

• Stadium designer blasts China Olympics (Youtube)
  The man behind the design of 2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium - which will host the opening and closing ceremonies - says he will boycott the games because of the insincerity of the government; the city is being beautified only for the Olympics, not for the Chinese people.
  

• Economist: Somalia is still a failed state
  The article makes the obvious point that there's a good chance for Somalia to stay stateless, despite the TFG's futile efforts. A great article except for the map which is grossly in accurate.

• BBC: Iraq violence: monitoring the surge
  Statistics and graphs on the effectiveness of the surge in Iraq. Interesting.

• BBC: 'Blasphemous' balls anger Afghans
  When will they learn? Coalition forces distributed balls with the name of Allah - Saudi Flag - on it, before they know there were demonstrations on the streets of Kabul. Before they do something like that why didn't they at least ask someone, anyone. Dimwits.
  

• Mugabe's ally speaks out (Youtube)
  Former Zambian president, Kaunda says Mugabe must be given a chance. He counts on Mugabe's genuine wish to bring his country back up, Kaunda also blames the West for Zimbabwe's current economic problems. Mugabe should be blamed for making his country so weak and dependent on foreign aid, so when the West cuts off the supplies the country is marching for collapse.
  

Links for 12-08-2007

• BBC: Doubts over US Mideast strategy
  US is planning a regional meeting for the peace process but it's trying to exclude Hamas and Syria, it simply won't work. You can not have peace process without Hamas.
  

• Bihari people: Pakistanis in Bangladesh (Youtube)
  The Bihari people in Begladesh are stateless, they don't have citizenship in any country. They've been in UN refugee camps in Dhaka since the Pakistani-Bangladesh partition but Bangladesh government says they're Pakistanis and the Pakistani government refuses to accept them as citizens. Now the third generation of the Bihari people continues to suffer.

• BBC - In pictures: Beijing prepares for Olympics
  A photojournal about the Chinese people's thoughts about the Olympics next year. interesting.
  

Links for 08-07-07

BBC: Somali soldiers protest over pay
Finally, Somalia has ordinary problems like workers demanding a higher pay, that's progress.

Reuters: Only African troops will end Somalia chaos-AU
African leaders stress for the need to send African troops urgently to Somalia, can they do it, I doubt it.

BBC: China's hunger for African minerals
China isn't only interested in Africa's oil but also minerals and trade.

Links for 02-05-2007

• Wide Angle: The State at Work
  A photojournal of the state at work, great

• MySpace: The Place for Friends Becomes a Place for News
  MySpace does news.

• Crackdown in Iran over dress codes
  Every now and then the security forces crack-down on women who aren't dressed "islamically"

• Putin steps up missiles warning
  Putin says that Russia will take American missiles on its borders seriously.

• Personal touch to Google homepage
  Google revising its web site design, looking forward to it.
• Outsourcing Breast Milk
  This is insane but it's a growing trend.
  

• Yemen's khat habit soaks up water
  The problem of Qat is also in Somalia, perhaps even worse that Yemen.

• Mali votes to elect new president: the elections are mostly peaceful and don't make it to the news, great.

• Tackling Afghanistan's opium problem
  Is there a solution to Afghan's opium problem.
• Sudan's 'wedding of the year'
  A lavish wedding in Sudan

• Morocco and Polisario agree talks
  Hopefully a good step forward.

• Breaking France's Africa habit
  Might France change its approach to Africa, i doubt it.

• Israeli anxiety over 'enemy within'
  Israeli-Arabs are seen as "enemy" by Jews

Links for 2007-04-15 [del.icio.us]

• Iran 'enters new nuclear phase'
  Iran claims to have made a crucial advance in its nuclear development, the Russians say they aren't
• Filial piety key to Chinese jobs
  You must be nice to your parent to get a job, only in China :)
• Iran celebrates nuclear advances
  Iran claims nuclear advances, but the Russian doubt it.
• Captured Faye's coffin terror
  "One morning, I heard the noise of wood sawing and nails being hammered near my cell. I couldn't work out what it was. Then a woman came into my cell to measure me up from head to toe with a tape. "She shouted the measurements to a man outside. I was conv
• India names street after Afghan icon
  Naming a street Ahmed Shah Masoud, an interesting initiative by the Indians
• Middle East fears broken Iraq
  Iraq is at the top of "scary stuff" list of all the governments in the middle east
• In pictures: Fall of Baghdad - four years on, Introduction
  A photojournal of the fall of Baghdad, four years on.
• How to get a handle on the axis

Links for 2007-04-08 [del.icio.us]

• …My heart’s in Accra » The moving circus, the post-national, the Global Soul and the xenophile
  An excellent discussion on the immigrants economic or otherwise and their contributions in both ideas and economy.
• …My heart’s in Accra » The rise of the African aggregator
  It seems African agregators are getting better, and moving beyong BlogAfrica. Some classify blogs by coutry but people like Ethan or I don't write about one country or even about Africa alone, so what's the solution. How about non-Africans blogging about
• YouTube tries to resolve Thai ban
  YouTube is offering Thai authories away to block some of the material on YouTube.
• EU warned of 'Somalia war crimes'
  The Somali government and their Ethiopian allies are accused of war crimes in Mogadishu. Hundreds died as a result of the fighting.
• Africa: How we killed our dreams of freedom
  What happened to African liberation movements? Why is Africa still ruled by dictators? I don't agree with everything in the article but I think it makes couple of good points.
• Iran - Ready to attack
  US and Israel are ready for an attack, I've yet to read this but it's the latest of many articles warning of an imminent war.
• Iran and the West | Sailing into troubled waters
  A gloomy piece on Iran
• Russia's Muslims | A benign growth
  Islam is growing in Russia
• Soros's $8.5 billion buys a whole lot of words
  Soros finally speaks out against the Israel Lobby, the guys @ FP don't seem to be happy about it.
• Job burn-out 'ups diabetes risk'
  Don't work too hard lest you cause yourself diabetes
• 'Cheating' the search engines
  A good piece about the bloggers and geeks who're cheating the search engines and making our web experience that little less productive
• Edward Said : Between Worlds
  A classic about but Edward Said about multicultural, multilingual upbringing. He discusses these ideas further in this book "Out of Place"