Now here’s a blogger with an interesting take on genocide.
Father Vazken is an Armenian Priest, working in Rwanda. Here he writes of being introduced to some survivors of the 1994 genocide:
He introduced me as a grandchild of Armenian Genocide survivors. The ladies listened attentively. I tried to speak but got choked up. Was this not the scene of our parents? It was like looking through time in the aftermath of our Genocide, where women, children came together… where good intentioned souls got together to help. Did our mothers have the same support that these women have? How could they go on with their lives?
Armenia, of course, suffered an horrific genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1915.
Another article on Belarus in the Guardian’s Comment is Free website – but oddly this one hasn’t got open comments.
The article, by Neil Almond is unsurprised by Lukashenko’s overwhelming election victory – according to Neil, its all because Lukashenko has built up the economy. Not a mention of electoral fraud.
By protecting Belarus from the ravages of free-market fundamentalists and delivering economic growth and prosperity for the mass of Belarussians, Lukashenko has sown the seeds of a pluralistic society far better than by handing the state’s assets over to half a dozen cronies of western advisers.
Belarus is far from perfect, but it is a country where masses of ordinary people are getting on with life and getting a bit better off. That is why Lukashenko inspires fear and loathing in the thinktanks and foreign ministries of the west. By saving Belarus from mass unemployment he set a terrible example. What if the neighbours tried to copy it?
I’m not upset at the Guardian for printing this view. What I am upset about is that they haven’t opened it up for comment. Unless we have the opportunity to point out the stupidity of unbalanced arguments such as this, what is the point of Comment is Free?
Lets hope I’m jumping the gun, it’s just an administrative hitch, and comments will be opened later this morning.
Timothy Garton Ash has a post about Belarus up at the Guardian’s new blog thingy, Comment is Free.
Most interesting about his post, though, is the way he is using it to gather ideas for a future column:
How do you think those who live in democracies – especially the democracies of Europe – should react? I’ll be writing about this in my Guardian column on Thursday. I’d appreciate your comments. Watch that post-Soviet space. Speak in this space.
My first reaction, I must admit, was to think… ‘why should I do your homework for you?’
But, on reflection, I find this a fascinating experiment. In my day job, I work in policy, and one of our mantras is ‘shape the debate’. By being the first organisation to speak on a subject, we can (if we do it right) set the parameters of any subsequent debate, ensuring that some topics are the centre of any discussion, and that others are more or less excluded.
In effect, instead of offering commentators the opportunity to respond to what he has already written, Garton Ash is offering commenters the chance to shape the debate on Belarus.
I have to applaud his experiment, and I really do look forward to seeing what he writes on Thursday, and comparing it to the comments he received. And – full disclosure - yes, I am one of those commenters who tried today to shape the debate. (Hint… I’m the one with the most well reasoned, wise and witty arguments).
I hope more commenters follow his example.
Tim Worstall has just posted the latest edition of his must read Britblog Roundup, and is good enough to include a link to my post on ipods.
However, I’m entirely sure I’m happy about his accusation that I indulge in investigative journalism here. Rumour and unfounded accusations are the order of the day here, and I’ll thank you all to remember that.
UK government minister David Miliband’s blog has gone live with a nicely self-depreciating post:
Arianna Huffington, queen of US media blogging, says:
“Blogs are by nature very personal – an intimate, often ferocious expression of the blogger’s passions.”
I don’t think this post quite qualifies.
But she also says “It really does become conversation”.
Let’s hope so.
He’s allowed comments, which is a positive sign.
It’s slightly disconcerting though to see that his blog has a page full of terms and conditions.
Like all things, news in excess can be bad for you, argues Bjorn Staerk:
To learn about the world primarily through the news is like studying a painting one millimeter at a time. To understand an event you need to understand its background and context, and the news give you little of that. News stories are time-biased: Nearly all their attention is given to today and yesterday, some to the last week and month, and anything beyond that gets a paragraph at the end.
So, read the news, by all means, says Bjorn, but you’ll get far more out of it if, rather than going on to read more news about the same story, you then go on to do some background reading as well.
Sage advice, which I am certain, as a blogger addicted to the news cycle, I will regularly fail to heed.
This week’s Britblog Roundup is up, slightly later than normal, as Tim felt the need to watch the French teach England how to play rugby.
The Futility of the Liberal Blogosphere? Amongst other points on this excellent Outside the Beltway piece, James Joyner outlines the difference between left-wing and right-wing blogs:
…the most prominent blogs of the Left are incredibly networked in ways that those on the Right are not. (Drum’s site and Josh Marshall’s main site are exceptions to this rule, focusing on analysis rather than activism, although even Marshall has launched a Borglike collective.) The tendency of these blogs has been toward a self-reinforcing mob mentality.
The most popular Righty blogs, by contrast, are those which speak with the voice of its authors, not its readers. (Again, there are exceptions, notably Little Green Footballs.)
A bit of a microcosm of the political divide really. Left wing politics is usually based in the theory of the community, people power, etc. Whereas the right, as any good political scientist will tell you, is based in large part on the primacy of the individual.
So, not really too much of a surprise to see that the lefty blogs tend towards community activism, and the righty blogs are more one-man affairs, based on political analysis.
So many blogs across the world in so many languages, and so few people with the language skills to read them.
But, fear not, as the Carnival of Blog Translation gallops across the globe, translating blog posts from Russia, Spanish, Bulgarian, Swedish and more, all for your education and entertainment.