Women's Liberation arrives in Liberia.

by status symbols Sat Apr 28, 2007 14:47

& thus may trade its diamonds after all. Keen observers of the games the wicked play will recall back in the late 20th century the De Beers corporation got really worried about losing its monopoly on diamonds and the horrible truth (that there are enough of them in stock for them to be dirt cheap but only a few of them in supply to keep them valuable) might out.

(don't tell anyone. especially not anyone who took out a bank loan to show their love was serious - they might not like the idea of an engagement ring being really worth less gram for gram than their mortgaged pile of bricks)

But those diamonds which were "blood diamonds" last month are not now.
If you want "blood diamonds" now you'll have to buy them from Israel.
But we're boycotting them so you'd be wicked if you did that.
Diamonds aren't cool.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0428/liberia.html

by iosaf ipsiphi - (that's two names there) Fri Jun 01, 2007 17:17

As we know the man I nicknamed 9mm Willy as a counterpoint to "big swinging mickey mc dowell" did exactly the same thing (pointing and aiming an Irish Defence Forces weapon at civilians). But Willy o Dea didn't put his show on youtube or google vids. It somehow still made the front pages of all the newspapers & earned that most belittled of slights or ambivalent compliments - "an iosaf nickname".
The reason this article above was first published was to draw attention to the first women only contigent of UN soldiers. I had thought a feminist of the female type and up to scratch on gender issues and war would have taken the bait and treated us to a discussion of systematic rape and sexual mutilation in African conflicts. Take that as a challenge you new feminists of the female type who aren't publishing your news and analysis :-)
It is odd that Willy oDea became more popular after pointing a loaded 9mm pistol at journalists and for a while it looked like he too wanted to be taoiseach some day. The two disciplined Irish servicemen are not becoming more popular off their mess room and barracks for the moment. So let's get it straight all of us - once and for all - it is not ok to point a gun at someone. If you point a gun you fire it. It is not ok to kill someone nor is it ok to chop their genitals or breasts off but a decent limb shot will keep you out of protracted arguments. But soldiers if not government ministers are generally held to be slightly different and part of their job is pointing weapons at people and having the discipline to neither squeeze the trigger without order or to pop off that round or magazine if told to do so. Soldiers in professional armies of the standards we like to think we instil and insist upon in the West are not supposed to mock shoot civilians & certainly not to make a souvenir video. To do so in acountry with recent history of pure horror such as Liberia has (& I don't feel I need to dwell on the nature of that horror anymore) is really a "no-no" and a shame to the honour of the country.

But that is only one side of the issue & Iosaf's vocation is to present you with as many sides to issues so you can all then find a concensus without using dog latin ;-)

For several weeks now in underground circles at least there has been great concern at emergent uses of file share sites such as Youtube, Myspace and Second life. Morocco completely blocked Youtube till wednesday this week citing "technical reasons" like "crossed wires" but it was really about combing those furry sites for nits. There are many types of nits up for inspection. One is quite simply called "gun culture". Alas, it's not as simple as its name. I touched on this as reaction to the Virginia Tech shootings & certain security needs it raised for us on the left who like our scrawny brainy teachers without holes in their skulls (c/f http://www.indymedia.ie/article/82065 )

But it is unquestionable that the last years of highly televised war which conincided with cheap plentiful digital recording equipment saw an onslaught of "snuff" and "torture" videos and photos. By 2005 I had noted no less than ten cases in Europe where teenagers had used their mobile phones to record hate attacks on homeless people or other vulnerable types. In barcelona three posh kids burnt a woman to death as she slept in a 24 hour bank cash machine lobby. We really have to deal with these "nits" that are popping up on wide social catchment file sharing sites. They are marketed (not merely presented) at all types of individuals with all types of "reailty filter" and some very disturbing and criminal "other agenda" or "fantasies". The Japanese authors and performance rights association has joined the list of people going through Youtube with a fine comb, not just for enfringement but the "other agenda" I referred to. I'll give you an example which yet again I had hoped someone else would pick up on - http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75969#comment187253 this was an instance of a japanese porn site being introduced to minors and more importantly japanese porn code words which if searched from the mobile phone, parents computer or wherever the tech-ed up kids go these days when they surf will introduce said youngsters to networks and umbrellas of the Asian porn industry which is not subject to the same legal restrictions as any European or US based porn industry on data protection, age of actors, consent of actors or what type of worm they leave your harddisk. The individual who reposted the videoclip across the United states was a minor under US law, passing along a "weird japanese milk advert". It wasn't milk.

Now we can draw most appaling lines in the sand about all this and many begin by rejecting evolution and any inter-racial sex or allowing kids to leave the American bible belt. Indeed, the American christian right lobby will be one of the strongest to attack our core liberties of expression which I hold are currently exercised as "privileges" on or in cyberspace.

But I really don't see a long term interest in that. To be really honest even if it appears ironic to many, I could quite happily accept the end of the internet full stop. But I can not countenance erosion of the benefits offered the weakest in society and developing states at present by the "internet governance" system we have. (for more info on internet governance issues c/f http://www.indymedia.ie/article/72984 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/76361 ) Changes to Youtube can be acheived quite painlessly now that has been bought by Google and they've budgeted for costs. But taking out the servers and networks we don't want at the moment in the hulabaloo which would follow public discussion of these very delicate and horrific criminal issues would also see good use of internet freedoms in states such as Brazil or Romania. There is a problem and there is no concensus on a solution.

but one thing is clear as I reported recently http://www.indymedia.ie/article/82602 - youtube is off the menu for US soldiers and many other NATO forces look set to follow and ban their service personal using file sharing sites whilst on active tours of duty. Many reasons for that - best two are limiting intelligence leaks and of course noting that soldiers on active duty tend to go psycho.-

I'd suggest parents of children should consider carefully these emergent issues and problems on Youtube, My Space, Second Life and Emule. You'll be glad to know ( I hope ) that these issues do not affect the service provided and offered by either the indymedia group or wikipedia.

There are now no more Irish soldiers left in Liberia. RTE reports that the last boys and girls of 98th battalion are on their way home after arriving in Eire last night. Let's see if the next minister of defence learns the lessons.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0531/liberia.html
http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0601/defence.html

It's ok for a FF minister to mock aim an Irish army weapon. But it's not cool for Irish squaddies to do it.