Today “Reporters Without Borders”, an international NGO advocating the freedom of the press, issued its 2007 annual press freedom survey. The survey analyses 98 countries and includes the main violations of journalists’ rights in 2006 and regional aspects of media freedom.



In January 2007 alone six journalists and four media assistants have been killed. And at the moment more than 100 journalists are in prison for "crimes" such as revealing inconvenient information, calling for greater personal freedoms and refusing to be censored or follow an imposed line with Eritrea, China and Cuba as the countries leading in these “initiatives” (actually you can sign the petition for the release of Eritrean journalists: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=3789).

Although it is not surprising that the worst violations are noticed in such states as North Korea, Eritrea, Cuba, Belarus, Iran, Turkmenistan, much more shocking are the results about democracies, for example, Argentina, Brazil, India and Turkey, where, following the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink on January 19, more than a dozen writers have been assigned bodyguards. Even the U.S., Australia and France are labeled as having only “satisfactory situation”.



According to the report:

Media workers in the Middle East were once again the victims of the region’s chronic instability. 65 journalists and media assistants were killed in Iraq and kidnappings were more frequent there and in the Palestinian Territories.

In Latin America, the murder of nearly a dozen journalists in Mexico with virtual impunity, the continued imprisonment of more than a score in Cuba and the deteriorating situation in Bolivia (nevertheless the best-ranked country of the South in the “Reporters Without Borders” annual press freedom index) are all signals to the international community to be very vigilant.

Press freedom violations in Asia peaked with 16 media workers killed, at least 328 arrested, 517 physically attacked or threatened and 478 media outlets censored in 2006. Censorship is very widespread and complete freedom to speak and write is rare in Asia.

Many African governments, especially those in the Horn of Africa, distrust media workers. The killers of journalists are also not being punished and are still being protected by governments and all-powerful politicians in Gambia and Burkina Faso.

Dictatorships also seem to be tightening their grip on the Internet and at least 60 people are in prison for posting criticism of the government online. China, the leading offender, is being copied by Vietnam, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Iran and more and more bloggers and cyber-dissidents are in jail.

The full 156-page report (by regions and countries and with maps) can be found here:

http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/rapport_en_md-2.pdf

Democratic and Republican lawmakers introduced a resolution urging the U.S. government to recognize as genocide the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians at the end of World War I, Assotiated Press reported Tuesday evening.

(photo by R. Donnell, NY Times)

The champion horse - Barbaro, winner of the Kentucky Derby, - was euthanized yesterday after eight months of trying to heal his shattered bones.

Despite my deep love and respect for horses peoples' reaction to the death of their hero is still stunning... maybe even exagerated... but very interesting.

Here are readers' comments from "The New York Times":

http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/barbaro-is-euthanized-after-struggle-with-injury/

For example one reader writes:

"Barbaro’s death deeply saddened me and my thoughts and prayers go out to his owners, the surgeon and medical staff who cared for him. Barbaro was a true champion in every sense of the word. He blessed us with his beauty and dignity and grace His spirit and will to live were truly inspirational.I held out hope that there would be a miracle and he would survive, despite the overwhelming odds against him. Animals teach us so much about life, love, compassion, kindness and responsibility. We are all interconnected in the web of life. May Barbaro rest in peace and may he continue to inspire us all."

"VALIANT, BEAUTIFUL BARBARO–YOU ARE AN
INSPIRATION! YOUR FIGHT TO BE FREE OF PAIN WAS LONG AND HARD–MAY YOU REST IN PEACE. ENCOURAGEMENT AND SUPPORT FOR THOSE WHO LOVED AND CARED FOR YOU!!"

And another:

"It’s always sad to have a great spirit extinguished but I think they tried everything they could. I just hope he had a chance to go outside and enjoy his last day with the sky and the grass."

The other comments are rather different:

"This is a horse. Just because he was a special horse that won a race, is no reason to expend this much emotional energy. We shoot horses every day and do worse to other animals. Barbaro had bad luck. Children in this world, people in Darfu, people in Baghdad are treated much worse with less care than we are giving a horse."

"an all too common tragedy…barbaro is simply the public face for many horses who needlessly suffer for human’s greed."

Euthanasia is forbidden among people, but not among horses. Maybe it is time to rethink it.

Does it prove that a new Jewish subculture is emerging?



Eric Silverman, now an Associate Professor, who got an undergraduate degree in anthropology at Brandeis some twenty years ago, says it does. And since last week’s colloquium the anthropology faculty have been tearing him into pieces for lack of evidence – he hasn’t asked a single person actually wearing these clothing items what significance they attribute to them. It is only according to him that yarmulke with Mickey Mouse, Little Mermaid or Harry Potter and T-shirts or even underwear carrying “Eat Me, I’m Kosher” signs are means of identification for “Generation J” Jews.

Yes, the proliferation of this new production is an interesting phenomenon and some Brandeis students do wear similar T-shirts on Friday parties in the dorms. For fun? Because of pride? Aiming to change the conservatism of traditional Jewish culture? The reasons might be different. Only in one of the dozens of pictures of these products shown in the colloquium was Hitler mentioned. And there was one more reference to Jihad. Besides these two cases, it is obvious that the construction of this new identity is entirely self-referential, de-essentializing, re-contextualizing, maybe even treating with irony the core symbols of being Jewish. The new Jew is not created in opposition to the Other, be it a Nazi or an Islamic fundamentalist.

But Eric did not talk about this at all. He was jumping from one image to another, sometimes laughing, sometimes embarrassed to translate what the words in Hebrew mean for a majority of graduate students who do not come from a Jewish background. For the first time I saw how openly critical for methodological failures Brandeis professors can be. This might have been good enough as a project in cultural studies, but not in anthropology, one professor observed.

In any case the phenomenon itself is worth attention. The only question that I am worried about is: Isn't it just an assemblage of quite different things instead of a uniformed subculture? A yarmulke with Disney characters is not really the same as a "Mensch" T-shirt. Or is it?

Some websites with the products mentioned above:

http://www.cafepress.com/awesomeseminars

http://www.jewishbride.com/store/children_babies.html

http://www.kippah.com/

The streaming of the event:

http://www.brandeis.edu/offices/communications/events/200701carter.html



(Photo - Associated Press)