informage

Brazilian Paulo Coelho writes some positivity in today's Observer. Much-needed in a sea of otherwise negative - one way or another - media.

Tim Bray gives his view of the peace movement's worst nightmare, countering a pro-war blogger's assertion that this is Iraqi children happily greeting US soldiers.

Well said Mr Bray.

You know I said it was lucky that no digital record remains of Tim, Saj and my failed web experiment 'Carnival'. I lied!

Protests continue.

Even blogs I read for geek reasons suggest that Bush has far less support than our media portrays.

Think dialectics, think synthesis, think positive.

Tim links to Salam Pax's blog Where is Raed ?, a small but potent taste of life as an Iraqi.

Not a blog, but Suzanne Godlberg's article Suddenly, the war is very real is a very human angle.

I must work hard myself to stay aware of the human tragedy that is this war. Bush et al aren't merely wrong, they are doing evil things with horrific consequences for people just like me.

And to remind me that some Americans are still cool (beyond being reminded daily by my wife-to-be) This Modern World is a blog by Tom Tomorrow, author of the razor-sharp eponymous cartoons.

Found this here:

"Two fish cutters from New York report that a carp about to be made into gefilte fish uttered dire warnings for the fate of humankind. "

I hate to say it, but I can see where the fish is coming from...

No great revelation, but this is Boutrous Boutros Ghali saying it.

Instead of devoting their energy to securing food, jobs and land, social movements around the world are being forced to spend their time fighting the low-level war against their own criminalisation.

The great irony is that these movements are actually waging the real war on terrorism - not with law and order but by providing alternatives to the fundamentalist tendencies that exist wherever there is true desperation.

I never paid that much attention to Naomi Klein or 'No Logo', writing her off as part of the fashionably vacuous anti-globalisation movement. This makes me think I may have been rather hasty - good writing and perfectly timed.

I was just reminded of perhaps my first web-project, called - topically enough - 'Carnival'. Tim, Ken, Saj and I decided to create a web forum for creativity in 1996 or so. Fortunately no digital record remains of my sad early effort at web design - although I still maintain that the many animated GIFs and dodgy backgrounds were very fashionable at the time. Anyhow Tim just found his story Grammar of Cities, the only thing that deserves to remain from the whole sorry experiment. It was the first time I had read a piece of Tim's fiction, and I like to think that right then I realised he was destined for greatness. I certainly remember I thought it was pretty cool anyway - the last paragraph particularly.

The astonishing range and ferocity of US insults and arbitrary protests against the French is by now common knowledge.

So my question is: when is America going to send back the Statue of Liberty?