Posts by Chris Waugh
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Odd building, hurried shot.
And great work, Doug.
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Hard News: Circumstance and coincidence, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
closet claustrophobe
That can't be terribly comfortable.
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So somehow nobody, not even those who failed to communicate, can be criticised for failing to communicate. Can anyone be held to account for the fact real people's lives are still being screwed around with?
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Pensive.
Reflective.
And yes, I have posted pics of this dude before, but I went looking for some different light at lunchtime.
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So Martyn Bradbury weighs in saying not terribly much, but holy shit what are those words somebody scribbled over the picture at the bottom of that post?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Hard News: Softly, softly, in reply to Russell Brown,
Boko Haram continues to back down.
Interesting kind of back down if they're getting some of their own prisoners back. And oddly buried near the bottom of the article:
The Daily Telegraph source said Boko Haram leaders had been upset by the declaration of "war" at the Paris summit, and that this could encourage it to withdraw its offer.
Also:
He said that among the prisoners that the group wanted released would be wives and families of Boko Haram fighters, some of whom have been taken into custody by the Nigerian government in order to exert emotional pressure on the fighters.
Mmhmmm.
And another point I had been wondering about:
Details of Boko Haram's offer emerged as officials investigated reports that it was responsible for the kidnapping of up to 10 Chinese workers in neighbouring Cameroon, where the group now also has a presence.
So China could get dragged in, too? What's that going to look like?
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Hard News: Softly, softly, in reply to Dave Guerin,
All true, but I'm wondering more if it fits into a wider pattern, what with recent events in Mali, violence in Centrafrique, and Chad never seems entirely stable. I don't know, when I get time I need to sift through the Francophone newspapers. For now, real world work calls.
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Hard News: What rules are these?, in reply to Old Hack,
I am a visible minority where I live. My daughter blends in better than me, but becomes just as visible as me whenever I'm around. I can tell you, it is invasive to have people talking about you right in front of your face as if you are an object for public discussion, even more so when people start taking photos of you, even more so when they don't bother to seek your consent for those photos. It is especially irritating when there is a minor involved (and so what if Lorde was 17? Still a minor).
There is a hell of a difference between going about your business in a public place visible to everybody and perhaps winding up in somebody's photo because you happened to be there as they pushed the button, and being specifically targeted by a photographer as you are going about your business in a public place simply because of who you are (or in the case of myself and my daughter, simply what you look like). I only have to deal with racist pricks taking photos of my daughter so they can go home and tell their friends and family "Hey look! I saw a little foreigner today! And she's so cute!" (and yeah, pretty mild form of racism, but she's getting big enough to start noticing this Othering), but in the case of Runting vs. Lorde, Runting was deliberately photographing her to make money for himself.
Or just imagine this: One day you're in the queue at the supermarket bored out of your brains waiting for the person in front with three trolley loads of junk food and a bizarre insistence on examining the minute, intimate details of every item on the docket with the check out operator before finally getting out of the way so you can buy your stuff. To while away the hours as you wait, you pick up one of the magazines on the rack in front of you, not even really paying attention to which one, Womens Day, Womens Weekly, The Listener, whatever.... Then you realise that emblazoned on the cover in big, gaudy letters is "Exclusive! Old Hack at the beach in a bikini with boyfriend!" and pictures of you and said boyfriend at the beach. Sure, you were in a public space, but it's not like you were planning the Ukrainian invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh* or dumping toxic waste or otherwise doing anything of public interest. Sure, some of the public may be interested in what you get up to in your spare time, but you hanging out at the beach is not likely to threaten NZ's political stability or property values in Taumarunui**, so why the hell do photos of you going about your life as you see fit need to be broadcast to the world? And what kind of freak goes sticking their lens into other people's private lives and selling the resulting photos to publications of dubious merit and worse quality?
*just in case it's not obvious, that is a deliberately silly example.
**more examples not to be taken entirely seriously. -
What I'm curious about, but have seen precious little comment on so far, is what Francois Hollande is getting up to with his recent West African summit, and how involved France is intending to get in this new "war on Boko Haram". Sure, traditionally Francophone (including former Belgian) Africa is to France what Latin America is to the USA, but Nigeria isn't part of that...
