Stories about War & Conflict from December, 2008
Northeast Asia: 2008 Review
The northeast Asia region is becoming more integrated politically, economically and socially. State leaders from China, Japan and South Korea recently signed a Joint Statement for Tripartite Partnership to address the serious challenges in the global economy and the financial markets. Peace talk between North and South Korea continues, while...
Christmas in Sri Lanka
At Groundviews, Ruki shares the experience of being in a Christmas Mass in a Sri Lankan conflict zone.
Pakistan: Policies Regarding NWFP
Manzoor Ali Shah at Pak Tea House argues that the policies of Pakistan government regarding the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) need a paradigm shift.
DRC: Football match to raise money for war-ravaged Kivu
Tomorrow in Kinshasa, the Congolese national football and a team of Congolese footballers from abroad will play a match to raise money for victims of the violence in the east of the country, Cedric Kalonji [Fr] writes.
Palestine: No Christmas in Gaza
In Gaza reports on the Christmas celebrations – or lack of them – of Gaza's Christians: “Father Manuel’s Christmas Eve service was lethargic. It was a desperate plea from a priest who has seen too many painful Christmases in Gaza and whose congregation has reached their breaking point.”
Russia-Georgia: The value of Russian passports
Eternal Remont refers to an Al Jazeera news story on South Ossetia to argue that Russian citizens’ passports handed out to South Ossetians in practice are used rather as Russian domestic passports.
Southeast Asia: Newsmakers of 2008
For Southeast Asia, 2008 was a year of terrible disasters, both natural and man-made. Rice consumption was reduced, milk products were contaminated with melamine, jobs were lost, bloggers were arrested, and homes were destroyed. But the situation is not hopeless.
India: No War with Pakistan
The Acorn quotes the Prime Minister of India to confirm that there is no war ahead with Pakistan, at least initiated by India.
Sri Lanka: Fighting during Christmas
Cerno reports on the ongoing civil war around Nevil in Northern Sri Lanka: “as the world celebrates Christmas lots of humans from a volunteer army are fighting a crumbling terrorist death cult in the torrential rain.”
Caucasus: 2008 Blog Review
Last year ended with a state of emergency declared in Georgia, but few could imagine that the events of 2008 would eclipse those of 2007. Three presidential elections, a war, and yet another state of emergency defined the South Caucasus this year, and bloggers were there to document events from...
Taiwan: Charter 08 and Taiwan
David on Formosa commented on Charter 08 along with quotes from Taiwan News and Financial Times. At the end he said: “In realising the dream of a free China lessons can certainly be learnt from Taiwan. A key lesson is the importance of transitional justice. If China can transform itself...
Myanmar: Shoes, politics and colonialism
Shoes had been a symbol of politics in Myanmar. Aung Zaw of The Irrawaddy writes about a “shoe incident” involving British colonizers who didn't remove their shoes when they met the Burmese king a century ago. This became a national issue.
Trinidad & Tobago, U.S.A.: Sock & Awe
Trinidadian blogger Attillah Springer is playing Sock and Awe, “the simply brilliant online game” in which more than 46 million people have pelted shoes at President Bush – but more importantly, she is “plotting ways to pelt intellectual shoes, coming up with ideas on how to bobolise those who would...
Gaza/Sderot: Israel and Palestine together on video
The Gaza/Sderot: Life in Spite of Everything Project is one of the prime examples of the variety of ways a bridge between different cultures and world-views can be created through online media. In this project created by ARTE.tv, a French-German cultural television station, twelve people going on their day to day business on either side of a violent border were exposed on a website for ten week project which ended on December 23rd. The two minute videos documented snippets of the lives of 6 characters in Gaza, Palestine and 6 characters on the other side of the border in Sderot, Israel during two months.
India: Talking Terrorism
Kavita Chhibber, a freelance journalist, shares at Desicritics some of her interviews with notable international personalities on the Mumbai Terror attacks.
MSF's Top 10 Humanitarian Crises in 2008
MSF (Doctors without borders) has released its annual list of Top 10 Humanitarian Crises of 2008 and the DR Congo, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Somalia and Ethiopia's Somali region made the cut. Several bloggers have commented on the list, including The Road to the Horizon who noted that there was “no under-reporting...
Georgia: Cannon Fodder
The Tbilisi Blues examines the state of the Georgian army before and especially during the August war with Russia. The blogger says that he saw with his own eyes how reservists were sent into action in Gori wearing nothing more than tennis shoes and ill-fitting uniforms to serve as cannon...
El Salvador: The Military
Luis writes on the history and role of the military in El Salvador in this blog post published at Dunlaps in San Salvador [es].
Pakistan: The forgotten silence of 1971
Raza Rumi at Pak Tea House discusses the tragic events of 1971 that lead to the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan: “The truth is that we as a state and society lost our majority province after pushing its people into a situation where independence through a War of Liberation was...
Pakistan: Airforce On High Alert!
Tensions are apparently running high between India and Pakistan as Lahore Metblogs reports: “Pakistan Air Force today conducted vigilance exercises throughout the central Punjab and North-Eastern parts of the country including Azad Kashmir.”
India: The ‘Conspicuous’ Indian Elites
Words From Solitude criticizes the role of the Indian elites after the recent Mumbai terror attacks.
