"In Sweden’s sun city, Karlstad, Internet researchers from some 30 countries surfed through the cultural specifics of the Web. The motto of this 4th conference on "Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology and Communication" was "Off the shelf or up from the ground" – in consequence and with regard to the dissolving utopia of the "global village," the Internet researchers from about 30 countries focused on the differences, the potential conflicts and cultural discrepancies in cyberspace understood as a "urban metropolis"." Read more at Telepolis.

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Who's interested in details about the western Sudanese province of Darfur should have a lecture of this article in the Cairo weekly al-Ahram. It supplies an outline of the confronting forces at the Tchadian border. It's questioning economic issues aswell as common/ opposing interests of the linked or hostile groups that battle. The war costed the live of 50 000 people and left 1mill. people homeless (according to the UN). Under the pressure of the U.S. and the EU there was an ultimatum issued until the 29th of August. Why is it difficult for the Sudanese regime to comply with the term and to disarm the local Arab militias (so called Janjaweed)? The answer is the mutual dependence of the government and the militia and the danger that "the fightings get out of hand". (1)Al-Ahram: "The problem is not simply that the Janjaweed are being sheltered from justice. It is that the Sudanese government appears to be trying to protect itself from the consequences of chastising the Janjaweed.

The Sudanese government has staked its political future on disarming the Janjaweed accused of war crimes in Darfur. Observers, however, note that it would be very difficult for either doves or hawks to castigate the Janjaweed. Such a move could be tantamount to political suicide, for the Janjaweed are an important component of the Sudanese regime's constituency.

"The Sudanese authorities have a moral obligation to protect the Janjaweed. They know the type of weapons they armed the Janjaweed with. They find it difficult to turn against the Janjaweed, when the latter have so faithfully served the Sudanese government interests in Darfur," Farouk Abu Issa, former head of the Cairo-based Arab Lawyers Union and official spokesman for the NDA told Al- Ahram Weekly. "The Sudanese regime turned to the Janjaweed for help only after the army failed to quell the Darfur uprising. The Janjaweed came to the government's rescue," he added.

As often happens within such contexts, infighting among former allies could get out of hand. Already there are signs of tension. The hawks are even persuading the Janjaweed militias, who are accused by the UN and human rights groups of war crimes, to dissolve quietly into the Sudanese army."

How's the view on the issue in the Arab World itself? There is another article in the same publication stating that there was a huge wave of solidarity in the Bosnian war among the Arabs -but it lacks charity towards the Darfur people as they are considered as non-Arabs. The problem is that there are no Non-islamist organisations in the arab wold coping with the issue. Some islamist orientated NGO's, i.e. those who are dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood do not criticise the Janjaweed which are held as responsible for the murder (esp. by the western media). This second article mentioned here shows a local point of view and gives some information on the question how egyption/ arab NGO's face the war in Darfur: doing nothing or talking a lot of gibberish with no outcome.

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Here's an interesting story on darfur-refugees in Cairo. The men describe how they suffered under the war in western Sudan, how they made it to Egypt and under which conditions they now live.

It's especially interesting as the article entails a large section which entails some personal views of the Darfurian refugees interviewed. Historically there are broad ties between Egypt and Sudan. The Darfurians here are the more shocked about the rassism and discrimination they have to face in their daily life in the metropolis of Cairo. (1) "Additionally, both Egyptian locals and authorities show a lack of trust towards the Sudanese refugees. "Any crime that takes place in a street on which we live is usually blamed on us," lamented Maki. He recounted one incident in which a resident in their apartment building threw a bucket of water over the coffee shop at the ground floor. "Immediately all the customers at the coffee shop raced to the apartment with the Darfur refugees carrying huge knives.""

I was really affected when I read it, especially because I thougt there were more sympathies towards the people of the neighbouring country...

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Jungle world, probably the only undogmatic left-wing weekly magazine in Germany is in danger of going bankrupt and being closed. They desperately need your support. More information

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Deutschlandradio about the nigerian film industry (audio, german) Download MP3

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Hi, I wrote some short tutorial (german) explaining how to use audio files in online publications. This is the easy way, not to be confused with my more elabroted project. If you have audio recordings from your fieldwork and want to make them available without forcing the user to download files and to wait (streaming), give this solution a try.

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Just found the archive of the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Parliament. Have a look at it, If you are curious how the german government evaluates new technologies. www.tab.fzk.de

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Intangible Heritage means all the imaginative expressions of a culture, e.g. dance, music, oral traditions, but also knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe (see UNESCO definition).

For the competition you have to hand in only proposals, not finished works. If anyone is interested in taking part, for example students interested in Visual Anthropology, get in contact with me, I would be interested to join or to deliver some ideas at least.

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A Ghanaian newspaper comments on "the power of film to change human behaviour and influence culture" and is alerted about the recent invasion of Nigerian films on Ghana's TV channels and about "the dangers they pose to the mental and psychological development of the people". The cultural aspect comes in when Nigerian (admittedly bloody) movies are accused of portraying "negative stereotypes of the black man" characterised as "typically superstitious, juju-seeking and materialist-minded (>>) [The movies] seem to be made for a non-thinking audience, which can only be titillated by gory and ugly scenes and plots that only show the worst in African men and women caught in situations of poverty.".

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An African woman uses a bleaching cream she hopes will lighten her skin tone. (>>)Paler hue is still equated with greater beauty in some cultures. Skin bleaching is big business, despite the fact that lighteners contain toxic chemicals that have been linked to weakened immune systems, organ failure, and even death. (National Geographic News)

Ghanaian Chronicle reports on the dangers of skin bleaching practiced among African women and laments over their desire "to change their naturally beautiful skins which God, in his Wisdom, had infused with dark pigmentation as a protection from harmful ultra-violet rays from the sun." Particularly interesting are the reasons given for this harmful practice: "[It] can only be explained by our feeling of low esteem which is a direct result of our colonial experiences." And: have a look at the 'Ads by Google' on the left side of this article. Ironically, products such as the "strongest skin lightener" or "creams with high bleaching results" are properly inflicted on the black-skinned readers of AllAfrica.com...

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Have a look at Cherchez le chercheur again ...

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The Humboldtuniversitaet is opening an interdisciplinary PhD programme entitled 'gender as a category of knowledge'. They offer 13 doctoral scholarships for 3 years. more information

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