Author: Justin Podur

Author of Siegebreakers. Ecology. Environmental Science. Political Science. Anti-imperialism. Political fiction.

Pillar of Defense Deaths until November 18

A map of deaths from Israel’s Pillar of Defense operation, inspired by the UK Guardian’s map of “incidents”. I added a timeline and removed anything that didn’t result in deaths, on the basis that war is mainly a collection of deaths, and not a collection of “incidents”. The geographical information could be more accurate, and I am happy to correct if anyone sends me corrections (I’ll also be updating as time goes on, using Maan News’s excellent feed). 2D version without timeline:

3D version with timeline (requires google earth plugin), or download the KML file to your computer and view it in google earth.

And the Google Fusion Table, another easy way to get this data, below.

Thanks to Jon Elmer for putting me on to the relevant data sources.

One less reader

Writing political books about, for example, Haiti, means knowing that every reader who gets the book is a victory. Consequently, having one less reader get the book is a serious matter.

I tried to send my book to Alex Hundert, a G20 defendant who is currently locked up in Penatanguishene. I was told that books have to go direct from the publisher, so I asked my Canadian publisher, BTL, to do it for me. They were quick and efficient and sent the book off.

The other day I got this back from my publisher:

Continue reading “One less reader”

The Latest Colombian Peace Process

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has reinitiated a dialogue with the FARC. Talks began in Oslo and will continue in Havana. The Colombian government suspended orders to capture the 29 members of FARC’s negotiating team as long as the negotiations take place, but have warned that they will be arrested if they try to leave Cuba.

The talks will deal with five issues: the end of armed conflict; land reform; guarantees for the exercise of political opposition and citizen participation; drug trafficking; and the rights of the victims of the conflict.

Continue reading “The Latest Colombian Peace Process”

Updating my archives – Palestine 2002, Chiapas 2000

I have been updating my Writings Archive (see the tab above) and making sure that all of the links are working, putting copies of the material published elsewhere into this blog so it’s all searchable and such. Part of this is re-posting work that hasn’t been on the internet in a long time, so it’s been interesting memories.

One of the most was this photo essay from Palestine in the summer of 2002, 10 years ago now.

Another is Continue reading “Updating my archives – Palestine 2002, Chiapas 2000”

Two small outrages

While these aren’t the worst things in the world, a couple of things from the world of information and journalism that were surprising enough to me, even though I think I ought to be pretty hardened to these things by now.

(1)

Through Wikileaks’ twitter feed, I saw this story about one of the founders of the Pirate Bay – a statement, by one of said founders, Peter Sunde. Lots to find outrageous in here, but one aspect of the story that Sunde quoted was amazing:

Continue reading “Two small outrages”