2 comments »

1. John Wilpers, Global Blog Coordinator, GlobalPost.com on May 5th, 2009 at 7:33 pm:
   

   Dear “GlobalDashboard” team,

   First of all, I apologize for using your comment area to reach out to you, but I could not find an e-mail address on your blog.

   Secondly, I want to tell you what you probably already know (but it’s always nice to hear it from someone else): Your “GlobalDashboard” blog is fantastic. All the posts are well-written, well-researched, intelligent, provocative, wide-ranging, and accessible for the non-expert in foreign policy. The range of subjects and your writing style make what could be tough sledding very enjoyable reading indeed.

   Anyway, suffice to say we love “GlobalDashboard” and we would like to give your work more exposure here in the United States and around the world.

   My name is John Wilpers. I am the Global Blog Coordinator for GlobalPost, a new international news organization that launched on Jan. 12. We were featured in the New York Times last month. We have also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, MSNBC, MediaShift on PBS, the Columbia Journalism Review, the Online Journalism Review, and many more. In barely three months, we have had 250,000 unique visitors and 1.1 million page views. Our readers have come from every country in the world except North Korea, Chad, and Eritrea!

   My job is to build a list of blogs that will appear on GlobalPost where we have approximately 65 correspondents in some 46 countries plus high-profile correspondents writing about nine major themes.

   We are looking for enlightening, informative posts from bloggers writing (in English) about one of nine themes, including Diplomacy. We were very, very pleased and excited to find “GlobalDashboard.”

   So, I would like to extend an invitation to you to have the most recent post of “GlobalDashboard” included on the Diplomacy page of GlobalPost.com as part of our “Global Blogs” service.

   The way it would work if you accept our invitation is that we would use your RSS full-text feed to place your most recent post on your personal page on GlobalPost.com. We would point back to your actual blog for comments and for archives, hopefully driving lots of traffic to your site. Each time you write a new post, it would replace the older one so only one post would appear on GlobalPost.com at any one time.

   By appearing on Global Post’s exciting new international news website, your words, viewpoints, and pictures would gain worldwide exposure.

   You do not need to do anything differently. We do request that you point back to us from your blog (we will send out the code for our badge if you accept). We also ask that you use our GlobalPost headlines widget, but that’s not a requirement.

   You should know that we have a few guidelines that we observe here at Global Post (but reading your work, these rules don’t really apply, but they give you a good sense of our culture):

   1) We do not publish racist, sexist, or misogynist comments (unless those comments are the subject of the post).
   2) We do not publish obscene language or photos. While we recognize that obscenity can be difficult to define, we know it when we see it and we will let you know if we think you have crossed our line.
   3) We do not permit plagiarism. Any work taken from another source must be attributed to that source.
   4) We do not publish libelous or slanderous language.
   5) We do not tolerate repeated errors of fact or misrepresentations of facts or quotes.
   6) We do not publish work inciting violence.

   Failure to observe these guidelines would result in the removal of your blog from GlobalPost. We would contact you, of course, to discuss the post in question.

   Because we have a broad multicultural audience holding every conceivable political and religious viewpoint, we want to respect their views while also possibly challenging them. We will host controversial work. We will encourage robust debate of the hottest topics. We will not stifle discussion, only abuse of people, belief systems, and laws.

   We hope these guidelines are acceptable to you.

   I look forward getting your permission to put your full-text RSS feed on our site. Thank you!

   Sincerely,

   John Wilpers

   Global Blog Coordinator
   GlobalPost.com
   jwilpers@globalpost.com

2. Wakfield Tolbert on May 11th, 2009 at 8:27 pm:
   

   Do you then publish items, as does THIS particular site, that has missives from some of the many contributors of little meaning to the topic at hand and serve merely to try and score points with their buds, but never get around to addressing items?

   And then, at that shut down any possibility of a response on the same thread?

   THUS FOR EXAMPLE:

   David Steven on April 30th, 2009 at 5:45 pm:

   Re [43] if readers want verbatim (and uncited) extracts from Wikipedia, Wakefield, I am sure they can find the relevant page themselves. Mark was simply pointing out that female circumcision is not just practised by Muslims. As for the absurd ideas that we’re likely to have ‘clitorectomy clinics’ in the UK, the practice is illegal here and will remain so.

   See below

   Paul C on April 30th, 2009 at 7:50 pm:

   As I explained, if a system is not in conflict with national and local law, neither you or I or anybody else has any grounds for prohibiting it. If you do want to dismiss my position, Wakefield, you would probably help your case by demonstrating that you had actually read what I wrote.

   p.s. I am no expert on Islam, but even I can tell that your historical grasp of Sharia is somewhat lacking for this discussion.

   (see below again. I don’t have to be doctrinaire in the history and use of metallurgy to know that some knives can nip you nice and good. So it would be with edicts and laws that have rules and cultural expectations alien to Western legal tradition–which Sharia, of all legal systems on the planet, certainly WOULD.)

   Mark Weston on May 1st, 2009 at 1:21 pm:

   Thanks for clearing that up Wakefield. As you observe, many Christians in Africa practise female circumcision too, as well as Muslims. Your use of this to damn Islam makes no sense, therefore, as it seems you’ve now realised.
   ___________________________________________

   HUH? Apparently thouest is unclear on the clarification; NO–there are tribal chieftains and some others who practice this. They are “Christian” in the same way I’m a “Confucian”, when I go get take out for dinner from Ring Mr. Ching’s Chinese Bistro Delights just off the access road on Hwy 120.

   Of course, ever so conveniently, the commentary section is closed. For those who don’t live their lives on the Net from their parents’ basements and have to work for a living, this can be, admittedly, a little problematic.

   In any case, three different individuals failed to note the points I made.

   No, I did not seriously suggest that clitoral mutilation was coming to Britain, but we all know well that some Christian comparison of say, EXODUS LAW–in whatever manifestation–would not be allowed in even the mildest forms. Even under the glorious auspices of the above where one claim (above) is that “if a system is not in conflict with national and local law, neither you or I or anybody else has any grounds for prohibiting it..” The very serious considerations of polygamy, however, are NOT part of Western legal tradition, and for reasons both obvious, genetic, obscure, but all very real, we got rid of that misanthropic scourge long, long ago as dangerous to the commonweal. That is but one example of some nettles to wade through. We are not talking someone’s choice of piñata and celebration in the streets here or how or whether dogs are revered or eaten. Sharia is all-encompassing and goes beyond these kinds of usual cultural curiosities as one might find in the shops of Chinatown. It is not good enough to simply quip that “well, “x” topic is off limits and against the law, so that will keep certain habits in check.”

   Well, hombre, little Miss Sharia IS in conflict with Western legal tradition. That’s part of the problem, ya see.

   My interlocutors ARE correct about Wikipedia. It is not always reliable, and lousy sources should be called out to the mat. True enough.

   Mea culpa.

   Though in this case it is spot on. NOT that THAT has much bearing here, I see, except to note for some others looking in, that in this case I was correct in that clitoral mutilation is NOT part of doctrinaire, CANONICAL Christian doctrine. AS IT IS WITH ISLAM’s most virulent form now sweeping whatever is left of the Western hemisphere. I would say in fairness that’s a distinction that bears a difference.

   There ARE better sources than Wikipedia. For example, the canonical works of the faiths in question themselves. Blow the dust off a Bible in some old cathedral in town, such as you might find, and you might see this. A handy list from several sources, should you want THAT, indicates the predominance of this in those nations where the primary focus is “controlling” the sexual appetites of slatternly females, with scant evidence that it is something other than Islamic inspired. Right. Enough of that for now.

   As to my understanding of Sharia, it is enough for some raised eyebrows (if only my own, it seems) and would seem that for a putatively Western society (as Britain claims to be…..I think…..maybe….) averse (supposedly) to grievous cultural atrocities that persecute people and create disparities, one would be VERY careful in allowing the mere existence of Sharia.
   It is wholly asinine that it even is up for consideration in the land of Magna Carta. Astonishing.

   While no Islamic expert, me, I can tell you from conversations with Muslims I’ve had as well as the man-on-the-street interviews with everyone from London Imams to the mosque attendees here in the Atlanta area, sharia is an all-encompassing doctrine. It does NOT allow for diverse opinions or legal norms.

   They BEG us to stop having this split notion about what rules apply and when. I am told over and over and over and over and over and over and over that Islam is to be embraced by ALL of humanity. No exceptions. Not even for nice little proper boys and girls from Britain who want to have the Headnip Brigade join the international peace conga line. Legal norms–if we can call it that–that hail from desert realms and go to the extremes on issues of “honor” regarding females and hold the Jews to be monkies and pigs and the others to be worthy of enslavement are probably not what Her Majesty has in mind for progress. May the Lord Bless and Keep her. (God save the Queen.)

   Do you not understand or believe THAT? Do you think this lovely, PC, multi-culti Cloud Cuckooland cross-cultural pollination does not work both ways, and often to the negative for Western society?