Nothing Funny About it

World Where You Live--04 Feb 2006 Edition

Let's take a spin 'round the globe and seehat's happening outside the confined media borders of the U.S. today. In this edition, we cover the continuing saga of reporting Iran to the UN, UN strategies for Sudan, tragedies in Egypt and the Philippines, and an intriguing new game show in Guatemala.

But first, let's start with the growing tsunami-like tide of anger towards the most unexpected of recipients: Scandanavians.

BBC - Embassies burn in cartoon protest
Syrians have set fire to the Norwegian and Danish embassies in Damascus to protest at the publication of newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Protesters stormed the Danish site amid chants of "God is great", before moving on to attack the Norwegian mission. Police fired tear gas to try to disperse crowds at the second site, but protesters broke in and set it ablaze.

The cartoons have sparked Muslim outrage across the world, following their publication in a Danish paper.

In other developments:

• Palestinians protest in Gaza and the West Bank, as other demonstrators gather at the Danish embassy in London
  
• A Jordanian editor sacked after publishing the cartoons is arrested
  
• Iran says it should consider abandoning commercial and trade deals with countries where the cartoons have appeared
  
• The Vatican says the right to freedom of expression does not imply the right to offend religious beliefs.

Confused by all this? Here' some back story from The Economist (a new feature here at Cracks--just click the Full Post link below):

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IF THE aim was to provoke a reasoned debate about self-censorship, religious intolerance and the freedom of speech, the editors of Jyllands-Posten failed miserably. Last September Denmark’s biggest-selling daily broadsheet noted that a local author could not find artists to illustrate his book about Muhammad. So the paper published a series of cartoons depicting the prophet in various guises, along with an article arguing that “self-censorship…rules large parts of the western world”. Though the editors said they were “quietly” making their opinion known, the response has been tumultuous.

Any visual representations of the prophet are frowned upon by the faithful. And Jyllands-Posten’s cartoons were undeniably strong stuff: one showed Muhammad in bomb-shaped headgear, another depicted him wielding a cutlass and a third had him saying that paradise was running short of virgins for suicide-bombers (see cartoons). The paper insisted that it meant no offence and refused to say sorry. But the pressure on it continued to grow, and on Monday January 30th its editors apologised for any upset they may have caused, while defending their right to publish the cartoons.
[...]
A number of newspapers have fuelled the controversy by reprinting the Danish cartoons. On Wednesday a French daily, France Soir, ran the pictures along with drawings of Buddha and Christian and Jewish gods. Its editor declared that “no religious dogma can impose its view on a democratic and secular society…we will never apologise for being free to speak, to think and to believe.” Representatives of France's 5m-strong Muslim community called the newspaper's decision “appalling” and “a real provocation”, and French flags were burned alongside Denmark's in demonstrations across the Middle East. The editor was promptly sacked.

[As an aside, back in the US we have our own little cartoon controversy brewing over this Tom Toles editorial cartoon from the WaPo, which prompted a letter of complaint from the Joint Chiefs of Staff (as if they didn't have better things to keep their eye on). You can read about it at Editor & Publisher as well as some commentary by John Aravosis about all the fuss over at AmericaBlog.]

Staying in the Middle East, Iran has now officially been reported to the UN Security Council:

WaPo
The United Nations nuclear agency reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council on Saturday, signaling growing worldwide unease about the nature and intent of Iran's nuclear program, and concern that it might be military.

Iran responded Saturday by announcing that it would resume "commercial-scale uranium enrichment" and halt snap checks of its nuclear facilities by U.N. inspectors.
[...]
In forwarding the matter to the Security Council, the board's resolution cited "Iran's many failures and breaches of its obligations to comply" with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the "absence of confidence that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes resulting from the history of concealment." It demanded that Iran "reestablish full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and processing activities, including research and development."

Speaking of the UN, there might be some movement toward a peacekeeping force for the Sudan:

WaPo
The U.N. Security Council asked Secretary General Kofi Annan on Friday to prepare contingency plans to authorize a peacekeeping force to halt the violence against civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The move was part of a push by the Bush administration to use its month-long presidency of the 15-nation council to reinvigorate peace efforts in Darfur by authorizing a U.N. peacekeeping mission that would be able to stop the killings. Annan has appealed to governments with advanced militaries, primarily the United States and the European powers, to participate in a new peacekeeping mission in Darfur. A senior U.S. official said that the United States is not considering sending U.S. troops but would focus on supporting African troops.

The council's action represented a recognition that the African Union peacekeeping force of 7,000 troops lacks the capacity to stop Sudanese-backed militia that are believed responsible for killing as many as 200,000 civilians and driving millions of people from their homes in the past three years. Those African forces are expected to be placed under the command of a new U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Moving the the northeast of Africa, yesterday's sinking of an Egyptian ferry has proven quite deadly:

London Independent
More than 1,000 people are feared dead after an Egyptian-owned passenger and cargo ferry sank in rough seas off the eastern coast of Egypt yesterday, in one of the region's worst maritime disasters.
[...]
By late yesterday, rescue workers had found about 314 survivors in lifeboats. At least 185 bodies were found, raising the prospect that some 1,100 people might have drowned.
[...]
The majority of those on board were poor Egyptian workers returning home to their families in the south of Egypt after periods of work in Saudi Arabia. Families of workers visiting loved ones in Saudi were also among those on board. It was likely that they were asleep at the time.

And another tragedy in the Philippines:

WaPo
A stampede broke out early Saturday outside a stadium near Manila where tens of thousands of people had lined up to watch a popular game show. At least 88 members of the crowd were killed and 280 were injured, the Philippine Red Cross said.

The crowd was waiting to get inside the stadium when the mayhem erupted, said Vicente Eusebio, mayor of Pasig, the Manila suburb where the stampede occurred. Most of the dead were elderly women.
[...]
People had lined up for two days to get tickets for the show, organized by ABS-CBN TV.

Agence France Presse
Even after the stampede, hundreds of people remained in the area -- some curious bystanders, others wandering around in confusion and many more still lining up, still hoping to attend the airing of the show.

They had hoped to win minibuses or houses or even the top prize of one million pesos (19,250 dollars), a special offering for the show's one-year anniversary.

Around 40 percent of the people in the Philippines live on two dollars a day, and game shows like "Wowowee" that offer substantial prizes have a huge following.

Speaking of game/reality shows, here's one I'd definitely set my TiVo for:

Guardian - Reality TV show tries to reform ex-gangsters
Guatemalan television viewers can look forward to a new reality show in which 10 former gangsters live together for two weeks and learn the basic skills in accounting, customer service, human resources, sales and marketing needed to become small business owners.

The five-episode programme, dubbed Challenge 10: Peace for the Ex, has been sponsored by local businesses and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and will air in March. At the end of the show, the gangsters will establish a car wash and a shoe repair businesses.