In bed with Mugabe

My following article appears in today’s ABC Unleashed: The recent rigged election in Zimbabwe has highlighted the impotence of the international community. Bloggers and activists continue to emphasise the need for President Robert Mugabe to relinquish his hold on power, a position shared by Washington. But not unlike the Burmese uprising in 2007 that saw…

Do we care about the women?

The face of Iraq in 2008, an explosion of honour killings: In the latest such case, it was reported yesterday that a 17-year-old girl, Rand Abdel-Qader, was stabbed to death last month by her father for becoming infatuated with a British soldier serving in southern Iraq. In Basra alone, police acknowledge that 15 women a…

How to escape a brutal American friend

A reliable American ally – Egypt continues to repress any kind of political activism – requires creative thinking by anybody caught up in its madness: James Karl Buck helped free himself from an Egyptian jail with a one-word blog post from his cell phone. Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in…

Selective outrage at the IDF

Reveal “state secrets” and watch out: A soldier serving in the IDF’s elite 8200 military intelligence unit was sentenced to 19 days in prison on Wednesday for uploading a picture onto the Facebook social networking site. Abuse the Palestinians and human rights group are forced to challenge the rules: Today, … 16 April 2008, The Public…

The Saudi godfather is back

Saudi blogger Fouad Al Farhan has been released from prison after more than four months away from family and friends. He is a friend and colleague (more on Fouad here.) The father of Saudi blogging is back, but I wonder how willing he will be to continue writing critically in his repressive regime.

Talking to each other now

Global Village TV, co-created by Baha’is and Muslims, aims to provide a forum for inter-faith understanding. One can never have enough debate between the major and minor religions.

One confused company

Yahoo goes green. (It’s a shame, therefore, that the company collaborates with the Chinese dictatorship, though it appears to be making progress towards protecting human rights): Yahoo boss Jerry Yang, whose company once allegedly helped Chinese police nab and jail cyber dissidents, is today in the forefront of a global campaign to free those languishing…

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

Site by Common