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| Gaza damage 'not being addressed' Not enough is being done to repair damage done to Gaza by Israeli military action one year ago, says the UN. news.bbc.co.uk |
The best local festivals of 2010 | June to December You may only just be getting over your hangover, but don't hang up your dancing shoes just yet. Here's where to party like a local in 2010, as chosen by our expertsRead part one - January to MayJuneLa Giostra del Saracino, ItalyGetting a glimpse of Siena's famous Palio horse race involves either standing for hours in the centre of the square or making very good friends with someone well-connected in the city. Arezzo's Joust of the Saracen in Tuscany isn't any less exclusive – tickets are available by email (giostradelsaracino@comune.arezzo.it) and strictly limited in numbers – but the event has been spared too much attention from tourists and expats. If you can squeeze your way in, expect a faithful re-enactment of medieval dress and horsemanship. Knights charge a wooden carving of a Saracen aiming to score points for their district, with the much-coveted Golden Lance as a prize for the victors.• 19 June (and 5 September, provisional dates), giostradelsaracino.arezzo.it. Hotel Patio (hotelpatio.it) has rooms from €110 per night.Tom Hall, travel editor, Lonely PlanetJulyCork X Southwest Festival, IrelandThis one-day event in Skibbereen, West Cork, is fast becoming one of the most popular festivals in Ireland. The main tent has hosted The Waterboys, Lisa Hannigan, and Fred. The De Barra's Tent, my favourite, houses a mix of music and comedy, with acts such as Luka Bloom, Nell Bryden, John Spillane and The Guggenheim Grotto, and there's also Irish trad and folk music. In the week leading up to the festival, Irish bands play in venues around Skibbereen as part of the fringe festival.• Date and ticket prices TBC; camping available. Jessie Kennedy, local musician.Fête des Gayants, FranceIn the town of Douai in Nord-Pas de Calais, the locals have been celebrating the Fete des Gayants since the 16th century. Gayants, the Picard word for giants, come in the shape of 8.5m-tall wicker models of the Gayant family – Monsieur, Madame and their 2.4m children Jacquot, Fillon and Binbin – which are carried through the town by up to six men hidden underneath each one. The Gayant family, which weigh up to 370kg each, meet and greet the townspeople and local children are encouraged to plant a kiss on cross-eyed Binbin's cheek, to prevent them it is said, from developing eye problems themselves. There are around 300 festivals of giants in Nord-Pas de Calais and Belgium and they were granted Unesco world heritage status in November 2005. • 11 July, ville-douai.fr. Includes links to accommodation in Douai, such as the B&B, Les Foulons from €75 per night. Carolyn Boyd, editor France magazine.AugustOutside Lands, California, USAOutside Lands, which takes place in San Francisco's famous Golden Gate Park, is a great opportunity to revisit the city's glory days, when the park served as a gathering place for the city's counterculture. The three-day festival rounds up a variety of musical acts (2009's headliners were Pearl Jam, Incubus, Dave Matthews Band, Black Eyed Peas, Tenacious D and M.I.A.) in an attempt to recreate the unity of the 60s. • Dates TBC, sfoutsidelands.com, includes info on hotels and transfers to festival.Karen Ruttner, music and travel writerNational Day, LiechtensteinLiechtenstein's national day on 15 August is the biggest event in one of Europe's smallest countries. It starts with an open-air mass beside the royal castle on a hillside above the capital, Vaduz, followed by a garden party in the Prince's castle, to which everyone is invited, tourists included. There's free food and drink for everyone, and the chance to meet the royal family, who mingle with all and sundry. The day-long party is rounded off with fireworks using the hill-top castle as the backdrop, and at the end the words "For God, Prince and Fatherland" are lit up in flames on the castle walls. All very patriotic. It ends at 2am, with free bus rides home for everyone. The population of Leichtenstein is only 32,000, but they all seem to be in Vaduz on 15 August. It's rather Ruritanian, but in a lovely way.• liechtenstein.li. See tourismus.li for hotels, such as the Suite 13 guesthouse in Vaduz, doubles from €126 per night. Diccon Bewes, travel book authorLikumbi Lya Mize, ZambiaRainbow-clad dancers? Check. Intense tribal music and lots of alcohol consumption? Of course. Proud cultural heritage? Definitely. Dust, disorganisation and never-ending speeches? Naturally. Zambia's Likumbi Lya Mize (The Day of Mize) is in many ways a classic African festival, full of chaos and colour. Crucially though, it's largely unknown to tourists, making it as authentic as it is energetic. Held every August beside the Zambezi in a specially-constructed, rather makeshift arena beside Senior Chief Ndungu's palace, the festival lasts four to five days, and celebrates the traditions of the Luvale tribe. Under the eyes of the revered chief (normally carried in on a throne), there are displays by local artists, musical performances and, the highlight, dance performances by the Makishi, locals dressed up as the spirits of the dead, reawakened in honour of their chief. There's plenty of very-powerful local brew and dancing and festivities continue into the night. One morning features a much more sober circumcision ceremony, followed by the burning of a temporary building where the procedures take place. Avoid this building beforehand – circumcision is understandably very private. Afterwards boys, who have now become men, are returned to their parents after six months apart. It's an emotional moment.• visitzambia.co.zm.Stay at the Zambezi Motel.Chris McIntyre, author of many guidebooks on Africa and managing director of tour operator Expert Africa .Tarnetar Mela, IndiaThis festival in Saurashtra, Gujarat is a vibrant three-day affair at the start of August – part marriage market, part tribal knees up – held in the small village of Tarnetar. Ostensibly a celebration of the wedding of Mahabharat heroes Arjuna and Draupadi, highlights include the Rasada, a folk dance in which hundreds of women move in a single circle to drums and flutes. But the real business of the fair is matchmaking. Prospective grooms pitch up in gaudy turbans and embroidered jackets, topped off with a large umbrella decorated with elaborate mirror work. Female visitors might bear in mind that tradition dictates that talking to one of these young men is tantamount to accepting a proposal of marriage.• tarnetarmela.com. The Hotel Kavery in Rajkot, 75km away, has doubles from around £20 per night.Gethin Chamberlain, India correspondent for the Guardian. SeptemberFiesta Nacional de la Empanada, ArgentinaDon't be put off by the "national" in the name of Argentina's Fiesta Nacional de la Empanada. It takes place in the city of Famaillá, a backwater of Tucumán province in the north-west, and draws mainly local diners and passing tourists – though cooks do come in from way beyond the region. The classic empanada Argentina is semi-circular, filled with meat, onions and spice (usually cumin, paprika and chile pepper), perhaps olives and egg, and sometimes dried fruit and other extras. As one local saying has it, "if the empanada is good you have to spread your legs". This is because a good empanada will drip its juices when you bite in. At Famaillá, 40-50 rustic stalls and 160-odd dome-shaped mud ovens are set up for this homage to the other cuisine of Argentina; yes, empanadas do rival steaks in the national menu, as viewers of the recent F Word will have noticed. About 400,000 empanadas are devoured during the three-day pie orgy.• Exact dates TBC, September 2010, fiestadelaempanada.famailla.gov.ar. Doubles at the Hotel Famailla from $150 per night. Chris Moss, editor of 1,000 Great Holiday Ideas, published by Time Out Guides, £9.99.Two Moors Festival Exmoor & Dartmoor, Devon/SomersetThis is a wonderful small classical music festival lasting just over a week in autumn, as the colours change over Dartmoor and Exmoor. Utilising churches across both moors, it features up-and-coming and established singers, instrumentalists and ensembles. Adventurous programming and beautiful surroundings make for an intriguing mix, although you really need a car to get from venue to venue. The festival gained notoriety a couple of years back when the piano they'd saved up for for years quite literally fell off the back of the delivery lorry. However, those nice people at Bösendorfer clearly saw the great publicity they could get and gave the festival a brand new instrument!• 30 Sep-10 Oct, thetwomoorsfestival.com. The Mill End Hotel (01647 432 282) in Chagford has doubles from £90 per night.Nick Breckenfield, travel writer and author for Frommers travel guides.International Mariachi Festival, MexicoWith its trumpets and soaring violins and impassioned vocals, mariachi music is central to Mexican culture. It evolved in tiny towns not far from Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco, so this festival, which is held in the city over 10 days every September, is the place to experience it. There are countless shows in the area, in concert halls as well as smaller venues. There's even a lavish parade through the middle of town, complete with mariachis performing on floats to throngs of cheering spectators. Great fun.• mariachi-jalisco.com. Start of September, dates TBC. La Villa del Ensueno boutique hotel (villadelensueno.com) in Tlaquepaque, 20 mins from Guadalajara, has doubles from $95 per night. Jim Benning, co-editor of travel website worldhum.comOctoberFelabration, NigeriaHeld in a building in Lagos that resembles an aircraft hangar, attracting crowds of thousands and featuring some of the best music on the continent, the annual Felabration festival is one of Africa's wildest parties. The festival celebrates the life of Fela Kuti, who used his jazz and funk-infused Afrobeat to attack Nigeria's despotic military regime and the social injustice of his country until his death in 1997. The festival, a week of hip-hop, highlife, Afrobeat and classic Nigerian music such as fuji and juju, is held at the New Africa Shrine in Ikeja, run by Fela's musician son, Femi, and his indomitable daughter, Yeni, who keeps the whole show alive. Being a celebration of the life of one of the most rebellious characters in African music history, the thousands that gather at the Shrine come to dance madly, smoke copiously and drink Guinness to escape the harsh realities of life in Nigeria. But despite the chaotic appearance of the place, the Shrine is about the safest place in Lagos, mostly because the federal police won't step foot in there, and it has its own police force. People are friendly and know how to party, so bring a sense of adventure and some comfortable shoes.• 11-17 October, felabration.net.The Sheraton Lagos Hotel (starwoodhotels.com) has rooms from around £230 per night.Rose Skelton, music journalist NovemberBon Om Tuk, CambodiaFew other gatherings in the Khmer calendar are as exuberant as Cambodia's Bon Om Tuk (Water Festival), a 400-boat regatta on the banks of Phnom Penh's Tonle Sap river. Usually held in early November, the festival is watched by up to a million spectators who pour into the capital from the provinces to cheer on their local team. Elaborate dug-out canoes have large, brightly-painted eyes on the prows to ward off evil spirits. Boats are raced in pairs along a 1km course as oarsmen frantically paddle and chant. An evening pageant of gaily-decorated floats is illuminated by a sky of fireworks, heralding the nightly drinking, music, feasting and dancing in a carnival atmosphere. Dating back to the era of powerful King Jayavarman II, the 9th-century founder of the great Angkorian empire, the festival marks the changing flow of the Tonle Sap river. This remarkable phenomenon sees the course reverse as the rainy season progresses. The Water Festival coincides with the full moon of the Buddhist calendar month of Kadeuk – a good omen that promises a bountiful harvest.• Asia Adventures (asia-adventures.com) runs a week long trip to Cambodia including the festival, for $615pp.Sarah Woods, author of The Time, The Place (a guide to 365 festivals around the world), published by New Holland Publishers, £14.99. DecemberFestival les Blues du Fleuve, SenegalOrganised by the singer Baaba Maal, the second most famous Senegalese musician after Youssou N'Dour, this festival explores the music of Senegal and Mauritania, from the haunting voices of the singers from the Fulaani ethnic group to the raw guitar notes that were the precursors of the American blues. Taking place in small towns along the lush river Senegal, the festival includes homestays with local families and a "musical caravan", led by Baaba himself, from venue to venue. • festivallesbluesdufleuve.com. Around 24-26 December. Rose Skelton, music journalist Rhythm and Vines New ZealandRhythm and Vines is held over New Year at a vineyard in the hills above the seaside city of Gisborne on North Island – the first place in the world to see the sun rise in the New Year. Moby, 2manyDJs and Empire of the Sun headlined 2009 and there are pyrotechnics, a forest stage and a waterslide.• 29-31 Dec, rhythmandvines.co.nz. Camping on the beach and local properties available through the website.Mylo, DJ FestivalsFestivalsItalyFood and drinkIrelandCorkFranceCalaisCaliforniaUnited StatesLiechtensteinZambiaIndiaCultural tripsArgentinaDevonMexicoNigeriaCambodiaSenegalNew Zealandguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
China's creeping censorship | Alice Xin Liu The steadily growing list of banned websites makes it impossible to predict, let alone stop, your favourite sites being blockedMost Chinese bloggers, Twitter users and internet-savvy folk are happy about the suing of the Green Dam by Cybersitter LLC, who this week claimed that China's software developers stole 3,000 lines of code directly from them and used it for the controversial Green Dam Youth Escort software.The reaction from internet supporters in China isn't positive. "It serves them right," Michael Anti, long-time online media guru and outspoken Twitter user, told me. Another internet personality and wanderer around China, "Zola", supports the suing of the Green Dam. He said, "The Green Dam is not something that I support, the people behind it should be punished." But a more concise explanation was offered by a software developer based in Guangzhou, who goes by the name "Lemoned": "First, it's a sign that software developers and users in China have limited awareness of intellectual property rights. Second, those in power and the policymakers have not accrued enough information about computers and new technology. Finally, this is China in the far east that we're talking about. Don't think that it's in the west."Lemoned is certain about one thing: although the lawsuit is somewhat expected and the software fills a gap, he directs his argument towards the trend that online control has become stricter in China.For example, the Beijing News recently wrote about the blacklist of websites and that the government intends to create a "white-list" of approved sites taken from all around the world. All foreign sites would need to register with the government before they launched or continued having their site open to visitors within China. No headway has been made since the regulations were announced. As the Beijing News hinted, it might be that the Green Dam is taking a different form.The end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 saw the attempt to block websites hosted on servers outside of China. The PKU media professor Hu Yong's blog, internet essayist Hecaitou and agony uncle Lian Yue also had their external websites blocked. The fact that these were all prominent internet writers, and that their writings were hosted on external servers, made them the target. The frustration of not knowing what will happen to your website or the website you work for is bad in China. Waking up and finding your favourite download site no longer available isn't easy, especially when certain types of material, such as university learning tools, cannot easily be accessed otherwise. Some of the headaches are minor, such as downloading a TV series that would be deemed as illegal copyright infringement in any country (it's just more rife in China). But when it comes to the seemingly random, but actually calculated, selection of things that are blocked, it's hard to guess what will be next.The Guardian has been translated into Chinese by a translation group called Yeeyan. Their website, Yeeyan.com, has been down since the beginning of December, but the founders have said that republishing would begin this week, with a closer watch on their material. The demise of a translation community, and the now unclear status of its return, is yet one more indicator that as there is no stopping, and little way of telling, what will happen next.Green DamBloggingInternetCensorshipChinaAlice Xin Liuguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Pakistan Taliban claims its leader is alive Leader left Waziristan compound before attack, say insurgents, while intelligence source concedes it is highly unlikely he diedThe Pakistani Taliban have denied reports that their leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed in a American drone strike in Waziristan this morning.Twelve militants were reportedly killed in the attack on a remote compound on the border between North and South Waziristan, prompting rumours that Mehsud was among them.A Taliban spokesman told Dawn News television that Mehsud had been in the targeted compound but left moments before the attack, avoiding injury.An official with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency said it was seeking to confirm reports of Mehsud's death. "We haven't been able to get any independent confirmation one way or the other," he told the Guardian.Another source with intelligence links said it was "highly unlikely" Mehsud had been killed.The CIA has stepped up its campaign of covert drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal belt since the 30 December suicide bombing of a remote spy post in southern Afghanistan, which killed seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence official.Last week Hakimullah Mehsud appeared in a video alongside the Jordanian double agent who carried out the attack, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi – an image suggesting the Taliban played a major role in the CIA's greatest loss for decades.Wearing a combat green jacket, Balawi called for revenge for the death of Baitullah Mehsud, Hakimullah's predecessor, who was killed in a CIA drone strike last August. "We tell our emir Baitullah Mehsud we will never forget his blood," he said.The CIA has launched eight missile strikes in Waziristan since the attack – the most intense campaign since the programme began in 2004.Mehsud, a fiery tribesman in his early 30s with a reputation for recklessness, rose to prominence through attacks on Nato convoys heading for Afghanistan via the Khyber Pass. He was once photographed riding triumphantly in a captured American Humvee truck.Last October the Pakistani army launched a major assault on the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan at the southern end of the tribal belt. But while the army captured most towns and roads in the area, the Taliban leadership, including Mehsud, escaped.The most likely destination, analysts say, is adjoining North Waziristan, which is under the sway of the powerful warlord Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has links with al-Qaida. Speculation has grown in recent weeks that the military operation will be extended to that area.The Pakistani drive has failed to stop a wave of suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed more than 600 people in the past three months. More than 100 people died in an attack on a volleyball game near South Waziristan on New Year's Day.The Obama administration is increasingly reliant on drone attacks despite stiff opposition in Pakistan, where they are widely seen as an unacceptable breach of sovereignty. Last year there were at least 45 attacks, compared with 27 in 2008."People are scared as they are coming every night," Israr Khan Dawar, a 17-year-old student from Mir Ali, told the Associated Press.The US special envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, has faced familiar hostile questioning about drones during a three-day visit to Pakistan. Without mentioning them specifically, Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, warned the US against crossing certain "red lines".Today Holbrooke is visiting Swat, the one-time Taliban stronghold where the army launched a major operation last summer. Senator Carl Levin, the chairman of the US armed services committee, said on Wednesday that Washington should consider extending the drone strike campaign to Yemen.TalibanPakistanUS militaryUS foreign policyDeclan Walshguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Haiti Rescue: Saving the Man Who Saved My Life When E. Benjamin Skinner heard the news about the collapse of a shelter for homeless boys in Port-au-Prince, he knew he had to act to repay a debt feedproxy.google.com |