GhostNet

John Markoff, Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries, New York Times, 3.29.09.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technology/29spy.html

TORONTO — A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers have concluded.

…

The researchers, who are based at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto, had been asked by the office of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader whom China regularly denounces, to examine its computers for signs of malicious software, or malware…

Globe and Mail, 2.39.09: Meet the Canadians Who Busted GhostNet, by Omar El Akkad:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090329.wcomputerspy0329/BNStory/Technology/home

Against the backdrop of humming computers in the underground lab in Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies, a screen flickered, and the most politically explosive cyber-spy network in the world began to reveal itself.

Mobile Phones: The New Talking Drums of Everyday Africa.

Mobile Phones: The New Talking Drums of Everyday Africa.

Edited by Mirjam de Bruijn, Francis Nyamnjoh and Inge Brinkman.

Langaa Publishers / ASC, 2009. Available on amazon.com 
http://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Phones-Talking-Everyday-Africa/dp/9956558532/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237981472&sr=1-1>
and ABC Books.

We cannot imagine life now without a mobile phone is a
frequent comment when Africans are asked about mobile phones. 
They have become part and parcel of the communication 
landscape in many urban and rural  areas of Africa and 
the growth of mobile telephony is amazing: from 1 in 
50 people being users in 2000 to 1 in 3 in 2008. Such 
growth is impressive but it does not even begin to tell 
us about the many ways in which mobile phones are being 
appropriated by Africans and how they are transforming or 
are being transformed by society in Africa. This volume 
ventures into such appropriation and mutual shaping. 
Rich in theoretical innovation and empirical substantiation, 
it brings together reflections on developments around 
the mobile phone by scholars of six African countries 
(Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Sudan and Tanzania) 
who explore the economic, social and cultural contexts in 
which the mobile phone is being adopted, adapted and 
harnessed by mobile Africa.

Radio Okapi

A joint project in the DRC by the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) and the Fondation Hirondelle

http://www.radiookapi.net/

It celebrates its seventh anniversary:
http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/radio-okapi-celebrates-its-7th-anniversary

On 25 February, Radio Okapi celebrated seven years of broadcasts to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Its launch coincided with the launch of the Inter Congolese Talks in Sun City, South Africa, which culminated in the transition to peace. Radio Okapi broadcasts to a large part of DR Congo’s territory, with impartial, reliable, objective and professional information to accompany the peace process.

Radio Okapi is the fruit of a great ambition shared by its two founders: the United Nations and Fondation Hirondelle, which is a Swiss Non Governmental Organisation specialising in media projects in countries devastated by armed conflicts.

Along with its head studio in Kinshasa, Radio Okapi has nine regional stations and about twenty relay stations. It employs more than 200 staff, including journalists, presenters and technicians who work seven days a week to broadcast reliable and credible information in French, as well as the four national languages of Lingala, Swahili, Tshiluba and Kikongo.

Chantal Kanyimbo, President of the DRC National Press Union, said that “Radio Okapi shows that Congolese journalists are professionals; that they have the capacity to do their job correctly when the conditions are right, in terms of salaries and equipment.”

November, 2008: DIDACE NAMUJIMBO, RADIO OKAPI JOURNALIST MURDERED IN BUKAVU (DRC)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/218498/122747194989.htm

and notice from WACC: http://www.waccglobal.org/component/content/article/1491:radio-okapi-journalist-.html

Shock Waves, Hélène Magny and Pierre Mignault
http://www3.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/?id=55981

Missile Dick Chicks

http://www.missiledickchicks.net/

Singing Raging Grannies

In Edmonton at International Peace Day:

The Barenaked Grannies – If I had a Billion Dollars

An oral history of the Grannies

Raging Grannies – No Granny Left Behind!

A film by Ethan Coonen, Eureka Peace Festival, March 2006

Code Pink

Code Pink: www.codepink4peace.org/

Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice, right, is confronted by CodePink member Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz, her hands painted red, as she arrives to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007, before the House Foreign Relations Committee hearing regarding US policy in the Middle East ,where she spoke about Iraq, Iran, and the Israel Palestinian conflict. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Code Pink Removed from Petraeus Hearing

Media Benjamin Arrested October 24 2007 for holding up peace sign at Congressional hearing on war

Code Pink Does Shoe-In at White House Rally, Dec 18, 2008

Code Pink War on Foreclosure (on CNN)

Jane Meyer on torture and 24

http://mefeedia.com/entry/newyorker-com-making-them-talk-jane-mayer-on-24/13720294

Shephard Fairey and CR

In Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/09/shepard-fairey-sues-ap-ov_n_165357.html

Lessig blog on Fairey
http://www.lessig.org/blog/2009/02/shepard_faireys_ap_troubles.html

Shephard Fairey’s Image Problem
http://www.justseeds.org/blog/2008/06/shepard_faireys_image_problem.html

A critique by Mark Vallen
http://art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm

Seymour Hersh on Abu Ghraib

Annals of National Security, Torture at Abu Ghraib
The  New Yorker, May 10, 2004
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/05/10/040510fa_fact