Communicating Arts - Main Web SitePosterbating, first thing in the morning--I may have moved 585 feet up into the valley past the first substantial mountain in Maryland, but I'm as much a creature of the Washington, D.C. swamps as anyone. This is from modelmayhem.com:
N3 Media: For the right, it’s government; for the left, soldiers. No one much loves authority unless it directly makes them money or saves their collective ass.
Observation: among other things, Vietnam has been characterized as the first televised war, the network news serving up the body count over breakfast and supper. This struggle may be characterized as the first true Internet war, it’s entire scope, background, and “heat” made available through the front page that is the monitor of a desktop computer. In this environment, there are no back page stories.
Taray: if you think I’m difficult (and verbose), try this for breakfast:
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Area=sr&ID=SR3404&Page=archives
Actually, I shouldn’t ascribe to Menahem Milson faults that are my own. As lengthy as his article is, it’s credible, direct, and thorough. Match it up to the news; compare to alternative analyses; independently see how it holds up in light of your--or mine or anyone else’s--interpretation of events.
On the Internet, it's true: there is no "back page" news--I could mosey over to Somalia and check in on the obscure Farah Blue's blog, not that I know who he is, really, but he has posted as a correspondent with allafrica.com through the Shabelle Media Network, and there he is in blog space, poised to report either on the conflict or about his life or both.
Speaking of Somalia and the missing Mr. Blue (well, missing from his blog since the middle of January) aside, Aweys Osman Yusuf reports through Shabelle that 35 foreign Islamist extremists in two speedboats clashed with government forces while landing in the Baar-Gaal settlement of Puntland. The government has given chase, moving in "battlewagons" and personnel.
The daily and weekly death tolls accruing from Islamic and other violence in Somalia may be described as epidemic for their predictable and relentless character: assassinations, bombs, small arms cross-fire. Strangely, however, the reporting often tells a perfunctory who, what, where and leaves the "why" a mystery, possibly because in the Somalian theater, deaths not immediately attributed to "Islamists" may, possibly, represent murder with only a political tint.
I am only guessing--but why guess when a reporter's but an e-mail away?
This question may be directed to Aweys Osman Yusuf, who seems to be covering his share of murders: how efficient have police been as regards investigating and laying out the complete stories of that such as Dhage Adde?
Moreover, are you inclined or do you expect to follow the one story—the murder of Dhage Adde—until it yields a complete picture of the event, or do you expect that it will be buried by any number of similar incidents taking place in the course of a week?
I would enjoy hearing from you on this if it suits inclination and you have the moment to bang out an answer.
With best regards,
There are no slow news days in Somalia.
Correspondence and Permissions: James S. Oppenheim
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