I have been planning for a posting on Afghanistan again for a while. First, a recent Konflikt on the situation in the country.
Also, a favourite book with a story of people from Afghanistan was this spring released as a film, The Kite Runner.
BBC has a set of pictures right now. Also an article on the heritage of Herat.
And I always like to push for the work of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan. One development is a cooperation with a webshop of children's clothes in Sweden.
ICG has a theme page on Afghanistan too, but no newly-released material right now.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Two churches
The St Anne and Bernadino churches - I have shown them before but then in summertime. Now in winter the trees are more delicate and the cold fresh air is almost tangible.
Napoleon wanted to bring St Anne home, by the way...
Napoleon wanted to bring St Anne home, by the way...
Saturday, May 03, 2008
ICG on Iraq
World press freedom day
Reporters without borders published this report for today's World press freedom day, on press freedom in Europe. In addition, they yesterday published this list of predators...
Trees
Living in a town close to the desert, sights like these were heavenly to a sore eye. Nordic winter/spring...
Friday, May 02, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Towards the cathedral
... and as we came nearer to Cathedral square, the sun started to break through.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Radio favourites
I listen to a lot of Swedish radio, you probably know by now. Some real favourites from this weekend are the following:
Konflikt (as usual) on European jihadists. I was in a recent discussion on this live, about how to target recruitment candidates with soft policies and whether it is worth targeting ideological hardliners at all. Also how isolated hardliners seem to be, historically and philosophically, while still taking up a large part of the public debating space and consciousness... - interesting poignant issues all of them.
and
Teologiska rummet (Theology room?) with Jan Hjärpe and Mohammed Fazlhashemi discussing the role of man's free will in Islam, adding to the philosophical dimension of the discussion above also. Both gentlemen really come through in this discussion format too, leaving me as a listener feeling truly enlightened and wiser.
Konflikt (as usual) on European jihadists. I was in a recent discussion on this live, about how to target recruitment candidates with soft policies and whether it is worth targeting ideological hardliners at all. Also how isolated hardliners seem to be, historically and philosophically, while still taking up a large part of the public debating space and consciousness... - interesting poignant issues all of them.
and
Teologiska rummet (Theology room?) with Jan Hjärpe and Mohammed Fazlhashemi discussing the role of man's free will in Islam, adding to the philosophical dimension of the discussion above also. Both gentlemen really come through in this discussion format too, leaving me as a listener feeling truly enlightened and wiser.
Happy Orthodox Easter!
All across the orthodox world, this weekend is actually Easter. BBC has some photos to show.
More reading
As usual, the selection is determined by my personal interests.
So I start today with an interview with a biographer of Sir Vidya Naipaul. I have long held the strong opinion that recent decades of English-language fiction and writing has a strong tilt towards the subcontinent, and Naipaul was an early representative of that trend.
A Finnish artist has placed burqa-clad women in a Nordic forest...
An Iranian-american artist exhibits in Århus, with a monumental depiction of Iran in 1953.
The National takes a look at the future of culture in Abu Dhabi Saadiyat Island.
I would like to call attention to the work of ECPAT against sexual exploitation of children.
Svenska Dagbladet highlights the importance of developments in Kirkuk and Iraqis attending a course on post-conflict conciliation in Finland.
Aftonbladet calls for Sweden and Carl Bildt to follow in the footsteps of Jimmy Carter and start a dialogue with Hamas.
While Svenska Dagbladet is more sceptical to the political developments in the Middle East. Al-Jazeera also discusses the issues of Arab unity and regional trends.
Also new Abu Dhabi paper The National takes a look at the regional human rights agenda.
BBC reports on Human Rights Watch criticism against the situation of women in Saudi Arabia. Saudi blogger Fouad has been freed, BBC reports.
Middle East Reports looks at the connections and conflicts between the ruling AKP and the Alevi community.
BBC continues to look into the food crisis in Egypt.
BBC also writes of the dream of a Palestinian village.
Samantha Power recently visited Stockholm. Her position as Anna Lindh professor at Harvard University gives her a strong connection with Sweden, regardless of her US-political affiliations.
Merete Mazzarella writes for Svenska Dagbladet on the burden of generations of family (dynasty) entrepreneurship.
Hans Ingvar Roth writes on global democracy, oil and the middle class...
BBC reports on the strengthening hardliners in Iran.
Swedish radio reports on a German-Afghan spy scandal, perhaps kicking in the wrong direction...
Anders Lago, the mayor of Södertälje, has visited the US Congress and spoken of the responsibility his town takes for refugees from Iraq. Here he is interviewed by Svenska Dagbladet.
Swedish media has published pictures of a planned Swedish wartime currency - in me raising more questions than giving answers... Currency is trust, and who would trust and use this and who one could trust to use it, in dire times of occupation, I really don't know.
So I start today with an interview with a biographer of Sir Vidya Naipaul. I have long held the strong opinion that recent decades of English-language fiction and writing has a strong tilt towards the subcontinent, and Naipaul was an early representative of that trend.
A Finnish artist has placed burqa-clad women in a Nordic forest...
An Iranian-american artist exhibits in Århus, with a monumental depiction of Iran in 1953.
The National takes a look at the future of culture in Abu Dhabi Saadiyat Island.
I would like to call attention to the work of ECPAT against sexual exploitation of children.
Svenska Dagbladet highlights the importance of developments in Kirkuk and Iraqis attending a course on post-conflict conciliation in Finland.
Aftonbladet calls for Sweden and Carl Bildt to follow in the footsteps of Jimmy Carter and start a dialogue with Hamas.
While Svenska Dagbladet is more sceptical to the political developments in the Middle East. Al-Jazeera also discusses the issues of Arab unity and regional trends.
Also new Abu Dhabi paper The National takes a look at the regional human rights agenda.
BBC reports on Human Rights Watch criticism against the situation of women in Saudi Arabia. Saudi blogger Fouad has been freed, BBC reports.
Middle East Reports looks at the connections and conflicts between the ruling AKP and the Alevi community.
BBC continues to look into the food crisis in Egypt.
BBC also writes of the dream of a Palestinian village.
Samantha Power recently visited Stockholm. Her position as Anna Lindh professor at Harvard University gives her a strong connection with Sweden, regardless of her US-political affiliations.
Merete Mazzarella writes for Svenska Dagbladet on the burden of generations of family (dynasty) entrepreneurship.
Hans Ingvar Roth writes on global democracy, oil and the middle class...
BBC reports on the strengthening hardliners in Iran.
Swedish radio reports on a German-Afghan spy scandal, perhaps kicking in the wrong direction...
Anders Lago, the mayor of Södertälje, has visited the US Congress and spoken of the responsibility his town takes for refugees from Iraq. Here he is interviewed by Svenska Dagbladet.
Swedish media has published pictures of a planned Swedish wartime currency - in me raising more questions than giving answers... Currency is trust, and who would trust and use this and who one could trust to use it, in dire times of occupation, I really don't know.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Gedimino
Walking down Gedimino prospekt, the main street of Vilnius, with shopping and banks and government buildings.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Back out in the open...
Coming back outside, the wide open spaces and trees and air were almost surreal in their serenity.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Long lost belongings
Seeing the lost personal articles under the glass flooring was heartbreaking.
69, 73
69, 73
Monday, April 21, 2008
Dim lighting
Trying to show you the chamber and it's special ambience. Finding one's feet across the fiber glass floor covering also gives a feeling of needing to step carefully, adding to the spooky sense of the vaults.
Tracing steps
The strongest feeling came perhaps from the personal objects of victims, exhibited in the dim chamber... These rows of people entering represented by shoes was especially suggestive.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Execution chamber...
Eeriest and most gruesome of all is the basement execution chamber. Somehow the ambience is permanently disturbed by the fate of the people once brought there to never leave again.
The glass fiber covering of the sand floor shows relics of those whose lives ended in this sad spot.
The glass fiber covering of the sand floor shows relics of those whose lives ended in this sad spot.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
It get's only worse...
Details from the solitary confinement cell where prisoners were tortured with ice-cold water...
Readings tips again
I have quite a lot this week (and some older material too) that I would like to share.
I'd like to start this week with BBC's photos of Druze at the Israeli-Syrian border. A written report on the same theme here.
Dagens Nyheter has met Åsne Seierstad to talk about her most recent book The Angel of Grozny. Swedish radio reports on power struggles growing in Chechnya.
Patrick Seale writes for Gulf News on Sarkozy's Mediterranean Union.
Gulf News also wrote about films in the Gulf film festival.
Again from Gulf News, the lives and situation of Muslim women is discussed. On a similar theme, Gulf News interviews Fatima Rafsanjani. BBC reports on a case in Yemen were a young girl gets a marriage annulled.
BBC reports on a women's rights campaigner in Iran.
From Turkey, al-Jazeera reports on new protests against ruling AKP. Swedish radio interviews AKP-parlamentarian Haluk Özdalga on the political crisis in Turkey. BBC here reports on the freedom of expression in Turkey and the focus on the "insulting Turkishness". Svenska dagbladet interviews a Turkish comedian.
The discussion on food prices and globalization continues in Al Jazeera.
BBC shows photos of protests in Egypt, on themes of food prices, against the government. Swedish radio reports on the threat against the government in the food crisis in Egypt.
In IWPR, and Iraqi woman tells of her family's life in Baghdad. BBC reports on a journalist being freed.
Swedish radio's Konflikt last week was on Afghanistan.
Svenska Dagbladet writes on falafel and the symbolism of ethnic food in conflict situations.
Rarely in focus here but very much so globally and in Sweden today is China. Svenska Dagbladet here interviews an Uighur dissident in China when visiting Sweden. BBC tells the story of Tibetan exiles in India.
Maciej Zaremba in Dagens Nyheter writes critically on the issue of islam and freedom of speech. I am not sure I agree with him, but the discussion is important.
Perry Andersson traces the history of Cyprus and the conflict on the island for London Review of Books.
My sense of absurdity is tickled by this BBC description of the Kosovo phone system. and funnily, it has mattered practically to me, but that's a long story.
Eurasianet reports on a Neolithic site outside Urfa where German archaeologists are excavating. If we had had more time when we were there alsmot 1 1/2 years ago, we could have gone to the site (but no digging in the winter), but unfortunately we didn't.
Svenska Dagbladet interviews Swedish lawyer Elisabeth Massi Fritz, known for representing women in difficult situations, especially in honor-tainted cases.
Dagens Nyheter had an article on the traces of the Second World War in Finland.
I'd like to start this week with BBC's photos of Druze at the Israeli-Syrian border. A written report on the same theme here.
Dagens Nyheter has met Åsne Seierstad to talk about her most recent book The Angel of Grozny. Swedish radio reports on power struggles growing in Chechnya.
Patrick Seale writes for Gulf News on Sarkozy's Mediterranean Union.
Gulf News also wrote about films in the Gulf film festival.
Again from Gulf News, the lives and situation of Muslim women is discussed. On a similar theme, Gulf News interviews Fatima Rafsanjani. BBC reports on a case in Yemen were a young girl gets a marriage annulled.
BBC reports on a women's rights campaigner in Iran.
From Turkey, al-Jazeera reports on new protests against ruling AKP. Swedish radio interviews AKP-parlamentarian Haluk Özdalga on the political crisis in Turkey. BBC here reports on the freedom of expression in Turkey and the focus on the "insulting Turkishness". Svenska dagbladet interviews a Turkish comedian.
The discussion on food prices and globalization continues in Al Jazeera.
BBC shows photos of protests in Egypt, on themes of food prices, against the government. Swedish radio reports on the threat against the government in the food crisis in Egypt.
In IWPR, and Iraqi woman tells of her family's life in Baghdad. BBC reports on a journalist being freed.
Swedish radio's Konflikt last week was on Afghanistan.
Svenska Dagbladet writes on falafel and the symbolism of ethnic food in conflict situations.
Rarely in focus here but very much so globally and in Sweden today is China. Svenska Dagbladet here interviews an Uighur dissident in China when visiting Sweden. BBC tells the story of Tibetan exiles in India.
Maciej Zaremba in Dagens Nyheter writes critically on the issue of islam and freedom of speech. I am not sure I agree with him, but the discussion is important.
Perry Andersson traces the history of Cyprus and the conflict on the island for London Review of Books.
My sense of absurdity is tickled by this BBC description of the Kosovo phone system. and funnily, it has mattered practically to me, but that's a long story.
Eurasianet reports on a Neolithic site outside Urfa where German archaeologists are excavating. If we had had more time when we were there alsmot 1 1/2 years ago, we could have gone to the site (but no digging in the winter), but unfortunately we didn't.
Svenska Dagbladet interviews Swedish lawyer Elisabeth Massi Fritz, known for representing women in difficult situations, especially in honor-tainted cases.
Dagens Nyheter had an article on the traces of the Second World War in Finland.
Friday, April 18, 2008
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