”KHARTOUM, Sudan - Sudan carried out fresh helicopter attacks in Darfur Tuesday, worsening an already desperate humanitarian situation, while Arab militia targeted refugees trying to escape the conflict, the United Nations said.

"Fresh violence today included helicopter-gunship bombings by the Sudanese government and Janjaweed attacks in South Darfur. The violence has already led to more displacement," the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement from Geneva. “ (WashingtonPost)

I've been spending so much time lately figuring out a new way of managing projects done distributedly, connecting people in different geographical areas, sometimes connected, with different motivation, with different level of knoweldge, enabling “good enough” details on most aspect of the project while keeping everybody that's interested in the loop. And at the same time, make people that involve in the project ENJOY using the system/method (I've been subjected to many methods of project management and honestly I hate all of them. Most are created to benefits the manager, instead helping the person subjected to it to organize properly and become more productive).

Well, last night, I gave up on trying to mold the existing project management methodology and software into our structure and decided to start do away from existing paradigm.

 Rethinking project management. It is a scary thing to do, thinking that you have better ideas than all those practictioners that have been spending their whole lives doing it. I could be totally wrong in this but well, that's what I'm gonna do.

later: Yeah, I've read VSTS description alright. Nope, I hate the project management part of the system.

“One month and six days after that assurance, the question is what the United States is going to do. The Sudanese government's intentions are obvious: to stall the international community by half-complying with its ultimatums, all the while sticking to the goal of destroying Darfur's African population. To defuse foreign pressure, the government has made a show of punishing members of the Janjaweed militia that it armed to destroy villagers, but reports from the region suggest that many of these supposed militiamen are common criminals fished out of the local jails. Likewise the government has made a show of deploying more police officers in Darfur, supposedly to protect civilians, but some of these new police officers turn out to be Janjaweed killers wearing a different uniform. As Mr. Powell himself wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Sudan has not taken decisive steps to end the violence.

The United States has done more to help Darfur than any other country; France, which for a long time was reluctant to antagonize Sudan's government, has now used its military base in neighboring Chad to assist Darfuri refugees; the Netherlands has given generously, most recently to finance relief helicopters. But the leaders of these countries should not be measuring their efforts against one another, still less calibrating their actions to avoid the blame for genocide in future historical accounting. The task for the Bush administration and its allies is more concrete: to get relief and peacekeepers to Darfur's people before hundreds of thousands of them die.   " (WashingtonPost)

”Why is it so hard for Arabs to act together to solve the region’s manifold problems, from the humanitarian crisis in Sudan to the turmoil in Iraq and Palestine?”(Economist)

”Sudan won help from Arab countries yesterday in its attempt to head off sanctions the UN has threatened to impose if it fails to rein in militias accused of atrocities in the Darfur region.

In a statement released after an emergency meeting in Cairo, the Arab League said last night that Sudan needed more time to end the crisis and that sanctions would "only result in negative effects for the whole Sudanese people and complicate the crisis in Darfur".

The UN security council has set a deadline of August 29 for Sudan to show it is serious about disarming nomadic Arab militias engaged in a 15-month conflict with black African farmers that has killed at least 50,000 people and displaced more than a million, according to UN estimates.

Khartoum has portrayed sanctions as western meddling - an argument that resonates with Arab public opinion. “ ( Guardian )

Complicate the crisis in Darfur ?!! We have a wholesale human slaughter here goddamit and it gotta stop. What's complicated about it?

If the UN Security Council fails to act decisively this time, they are dead to me. What kind of role are they playing in this world if they are allowing genocide every fucking decade (Rwanda was 1994. As scheduled, Darfur 2004. Neat 10 years period).

“A day in Darfur is as close as you'll ever get to walking back and forth through the looking glass. In Darfur you might, as I did, witness an eight-pound 3-year-old who will be dead in a few hours; then the next day you're back in the United States, where 60 percent of the population is overweight.

This is something few can grasp even if they see it. I spent a troubled period recovering from injuries received in the Vietnam War. After that I believed I was immune to personal tragedies. I'm not. Darfur is as close to hell on earth as we can imagine.

We need boots on the ground and for those boots to kick some asses, hard.

” The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has elevated its assessment of the crisis in the Darfur region in western Sudan to a "genocide emergency" in response to the increasing level of violence and death.

This is the first time in the museum's 11-year history that it has made such a declaration, which is intended to draw world attention to the situation and to apply pressure for a response from Sudan's government. “

( NYTimes )

The alarm over Sudan has reach a feverish pitch;Genocide, Genocide, Genocide;

Let's see if the world will intervene this time or let another atrocities pass. C'mon, let move ! Now ! I'll be tracking this event this week. More on information will be posted to 7oriya.net

This is my younger sister

and her dog

Right now she's living in GhuangZou, China.

”Its a damn shame that AIESEC United States have decided to limit new blogs on the AIESEC.ws stystem to US members and trainees. One one hand, I can understand - if by lowering the amount of blogs they can make the system more stable and acessible all day round (important when you have people reading and writing from all around the world in multiple time zones, not just US time) then this will be a good thing for the system. And because they are the ones paying for it, its only fair that it should be US members/trainees given priority. “ ( Tom )

The house I (not singlehandedly mind you) built is apparently under fire. It doesn't have to end this way. More later (I know one bit or two about weblog communities).

A new Irish phrase stuck in my mind.

”Decades worth of detailed, accumulated geographical information is now available to front-line special operations troops in a concentrated, portable, easy-to-use laptop package created by the University of Southern California.
” (ISI)

I spent the whole day caring for a friend yesterday, doing post operative (dental)  care, converting my bedroom to an instant clinic (yup, including puke basket), cutting pills, cooking 'sick' meal, getting medicine, cleaning and feeding. I had the 'patient' for twelve hours.

Other friends that come to visit later on managed to tack a new nickname for me, Florence (from the famous female nurse Florence Nightingale) for being a nurse for the day. Lucky me.

I enjoyed it although it was hard work. I did three years work as a carer for a disabled pensioner back when I was in Australia and I think I'll be a good doctor if I somehow choose to go to Medical School (unlikely)

It is amazing to see the amount encouragement and kind words I've received for the past 24 hours, from people I know very well and other generous strangers. Thank you, I appreciate it.

I'm a bit embarassed to be so emotional on my latest failure. That was my passionate Italian side showing up loud and clear. The cold calculating sarcastic side is on summer vacation.

I'm OK now, sorta.

”Couraggio Dody” is all the content of one email from Italy last night, from my comrade in Assisi. He and I fought six drunks who tried to mug us in late morning of 99's Spring. We were still standing when it was over, except for bruises, with our dignity intact and none of our stuff taken. Thanks for the reminder Antonio.

Again thank you for the generousity, this brief break will end soon and the affair of living life will commence again.

This makes my day. Thank you for sharing it with me.

”Thank God for people like you Dody. You're not afraid to be who you are.”

Take care Henry, send my warm greetings to your family. I will still owe you a promise to visit you in Monrovia. I'm trying and wish me luck. I can probably drop by and teach some classes at Don Bosco as well, we'll see. (Let me know if you need a website :)

”DodyG,

Greetings. Long time!

I have not been writing of late because of my basic
schedule. The new  realities in Liberia are bringing
forth a whole batch of possibilities and
opportunities; I am trying to dig in as much as is
possible:)

I am presently the Manager and Partner of a business
(Service Unlimited International - Liberia) that a
friend of mine, in the states - James, and I are
doing. We are into all sorts of things: bring in
barrels, boxes, do money transfer, and ... from the
States. I received our first container (1' x 40')
yesterday.

Security environment here is improving. Again I am
proud of LIBERIA. Thank God for United Nations Mission
In Liberia (UNMIL).

Later.

Henry
”

Thank you.

””VI FACCIO VEDERE COME SA MORIRE UN ITALIANO”

The Italian who was the first civilian hostage to be killed in Iraq was today hailed as a hero who defied his captors and told them: "Now I'll show you how an Italian dies." (The Guardian)

Thru MetaFilter:

“Ghosts of Rwanda
10 years later, FRONTLINE delivers one of the most powerful episodes in their excellent series of reports. Also covered in The Economist last week, and a couple years ago in The Atlantic in a sublime article: "Bystanders to Genocide". When you first heard about the tragedy did you wish you could have done something, if you had only known more?
”

For the sake of your humanity, read the article “Bystanders to Genocide” and check out the Frontline documentary.

Digs is moving to Singapore in May for a DHL job.

I moved there for  a bit in November 18, 2001. Definately one of the best place to be for a growing career.

Congrats.

But again, it's a disneyland with a capital punishment. If you like disneyland, great.

”Mohamed Suharto has received a dubious honor from Transparency International, which named the former Indonesian president the most corrupt world leader of the past 20 years. With his family's takings estimated at between $15 billion and $35 billion, Suharto topped such notorious kleptocrats as Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines ($5 billion to $10 billion) and Nigeria's Sani Abacha ($2 billion to $5 billion). How did the longtime Indonesian strongman amass his wealth?” (Slate)

I was involved a couple of anti-suharto campaign while I was a student back in Brisbane. Man, those were the days, being involved in home politics from abroad, organizing with other students, writing plays and poems, and street demonstration.

They must have some files on me somewhere down there.

Usually I do my round of quick book reviews on Saturdays, but I have just finished reading book of an extraordinary tales of a Chechnyan surgeon named Khassan Baiev who stayed in Chechnya operating the wounded during the first and second Chechnyan war in the 90's .

The book is a vivid and moving personal story to the tragedy that is Chechnya. A destruction of war and conflict from the ground level. His account on the terrible toll he saw as he operated on his patients (in once case, three days straight, as he was the lone doctor, helped with volunteer nurses) is sickening. You will find yourself cringe from time to time. It's a tale filled with tragedy and unbelievable cruelty that one human being can do to another. Yes, those shocking pictures and moving videos of Chechnya, people lived there throughout the war, during the intense bombardment, without electricity and water.

If you do not care much about the conflict before, you will after.

You will learn about the culture of the Chechnyan people.

And you will be inspired by the strength and compassion of those people who survive through the whole ordeal.

If you think you have it tough, you will feel lucky after you finish this book.

This is a book you can draw inner strength from.

“The Oath : A Surgeon under fire“ (by Khassan Baiev)

A must read.

Plaza de la Cibeles  , Madrid.

NYTimes editorial : ”We are all Madrileños now.”

Let me introduce you to stupid :

From New York Times:

”Now, though, producers here are facing a serious new challenge in their biggest market. On Dec. 31, the Southern Shrimp Alliance filed a dumping complaint against Brazil and five other countries, seeking to impose tariffs of up to 300 percent, and last month the Commerce Department ruled that there were grounds to proceed because there were indications of a "danger of injury" to American producers.”

“Shrimp producers here argue that there is simply no way for American shrimpers operating from trawlers to compete against more efficient farms. Production in the United States has stalled over the last decade, they maintain, because of the vagaries of weather, overfishing, high costs and a reluctance to embrace aquaculture.

"We saw the writing on the wall," said Mark Kleinberg, an American who formerly had a shrimp fleet in Brownsville, Tex., and has shifted operations to northeast Brazil. "Shrimp boats cannot compete because insurance premiums and the cost of diesel fuel, repairs and maintenance are so high, and if you try to keep that around, you're just dragging out the misery."

But American shrimpers dispute that claim. "All we are doing is harvesting, which is cheaper than trying to raise shrimp yourself," Mr. Gordon said. "It's much harder and requires a lot more effort and cost to raise shrimp larvae and build a pond for them than to just go out to harvest them at sea."”

I was on a phone with a high school friend I haven't talked to for about nine years. She is currently in Western Australia and will be completing a PhD in June. From her, I learn that another friend is currently living in Paris (another PhD) and yet another PhD candidate in Munich, Germany.

I know of another friend currently pursuing her third degree in the US. One friend is currently residing in Sydney, pursuing her CPA certification after completing her 2nd degree. Vancouver also hosts another still in study friend.

These are all friends back from my Catholic high school in Surabaya, Indonesia back 9 years ago. My class (class of '95) probably represents the highest percentage of graduates that go, study and live overseas (close to 50%).

That is something.

Will the next generation of leaders in Indonesia come from that line of gungho internationalists? Only time will tell.

Henry's the Nation is back baby:

”I tell you what! Businesses are sprouting here and there every day. I have not seen any thing like this in Liberia for many, many years!!!! Well, I think this is the just the beginning!! The new Liberia I had long dreamt of is sure on its way!!”

Henry's daughter (currently in Liberia. I presume Monrovia, but I don't know for sure). And if you haven't read Henry's remarkable piece on Liberia, you should.

Sending off Becky to New Zealand and Australia for a three weeks of funs. On a coffee breakfast, with Dave. The travelling season starts.

I won't be left behind this time.

Ellisa is graduating on March 22nd from University of Ancona, Italy.

From Mercury News: ”

Eastern Europe and Central Asia are experiencing the fastest-growing HIV epidemic in the world, said Peter Piot, the executive director of the U.N. AIDS organization.

In 1998, Piot noted, there were only 30,000 people known to be infected with HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. That figure has since risen to 1.5 million, he said.”

“DogyG,

Long time, Brother! So much doing of late, trying to position myself for the
new reality in Liberia.”

create your own visited country map

This map utility has been the rage in Aiesec weblog community for the past two days. That maps counts to 32 countries. I'm still missing Latin America and Africa totally.   

From The Jakarta Post

“After keeping the bird flu from the public since September, allegedly due to pressure from several well-connected poultry businessmen, the government finally confirmed on Sunday the avian influenza, or bird flu, outbreak in the country.”

Strap on folks, we're going to global def-con 1 pretty soon. Indonesia is the 7th country in Asia that got hit by the virus (and guess what, the spread of the virus actually happened months ago) after Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

Damn, my whole family is in the region. Eat fish instead.

This is the second time in three days I went to bed before midnight and wake up around 2.30 am.

And yet again Asia become the most productive trans-species virus producer. Ain't I proud ?

From the Grey Lady

“Provincial governments in west central Thailand dispatched hundreds of soldiers and prisoners on Sunday to slaughter chickens in flocks infected with avian influenza, as hospitals across Southeast Asia remained on high alert for further human cases of the disease.”

If my day count is correct, Andrea would be in Bangkok by now, leaving the hectic Tokyo behind. I hope this virus scare doesn't ruin her travel plans.

And the virus just claimed its first victim in Thailand.

Bugger.

From Wired

“Nearly 100,000 people from around the world have descended on Ghatkopar, one of Mumbai's suburbs, for the World Social Forum, one of the largest gatherings of social activists and nongovernmental organizations.”

From WashingtonPost

“After three weeks of raw emotional debate and intense private negotiations, members of a constitutional assembly in Afghanistan agreed yesterday on a new charter for the volatile postwar nation, clearing the way for its first democratic elections in 25 years. “

It is quite remarkable to observe the turnaround of a failed state such as Afghanistan which was beyond hope just a little more than two years ago until the US special forces routed the Taliban out of power (and the allied nations committed to stay and rebuild the country).

“The 162-article constitution grants men and women equal rights, a dramatic advance in a conservative rural society in which women have traditionally been subjugated to decisions by their male relatives, with little access to legal protections. “

Look at that progress. It is indeed a great news. If you read the article, you will notice that there are still some contentious issues to be solved. However, this constutition paves the way for the political system in Afghanistan to establish itself and allow its people to learn the ropes of democracy.

They will no doubt stumble in their learning, but as long as there is a strong committment from the Afghan people (and persistent nudge from the world) to the democractic process, we will see a transformed country in this decade.

It's a good start to the year. Good luck folks.