A friend of mine has started a blog. He is brand new at this blogging stuff, but he is a guy who will grasp the technology soon.
He is also a guy who consistently speaks from his heart.
Bill is a paramedic, you might like to read his first post called Last Breath. Welcome to the blogosphere Mr. Bill. Blog on!

SARS
Another Canadian died from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome yesterday.
Now the chief of Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority is sick with a pneumonia-like illness. At least 242 people in Hong Kong has contracted SARS.
In Canada, there are 10 suspected cases and four probable new ones.
22 people have died world wide.
The USA Institute of Medicine is warning the US to take the lead in this outbreak.

It also said the United States should help reduce the global health threat by working with the World Health Organization, concentrating in particular on threats in developing countries. It said global surveillance, especially for new infections, is critical.

“Infectious diseases cross national borders and require a global response,” said Margaret Hamburg, chairwoman of the committee that prepared the new study for the Institute of Medicine, which advises the government on medical questions.

Guantanamo

Nineteen Afghans held at the United States high security military prison at Guantanamo Bay have been released, Afghan officials say.
US investigators have decided the men are not terrorists, an official working for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said.

The men were among more than 600 detainees being held at Camp Delta, on the coast of Cuba, following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

However….

In the US, a Pentagon spokesman said on Sunday that 30 more detainees had been flown to Guantanamo, taking the total number of detainees there to 660.

And…

Three had been previously released, 2 of them believed to be in their 70’s.

Zimbabwe
I’ve blogged many times about the situation in this country of 7 million and how political analysts believe it to be in stage 7 of 8 on the genocide scale.

There have been brutal crackdowns following the general strike last week with over 500 people being detained and tortured.
Children are being treated in hospitals in Harare after being beaten by the military, women are being treated after being savagely raped.

The Language of War
I was talking with a friend last night about TV coverage of Iraq and decrying the language that we will slip into conversation. I was also complaining about people who form opinions based on one source or form of media. To be honest I find our ability to pick up terminology as annoying and sly as religious speak. Poynter has an interview with Chris Hedges, an experienced war correspondent who has things to say about the state and military highjacking understanding of how we pick up sanitized language.

In terms of the phrases, I think that’s a really good point. You know, one of the things that always happens in wartime is that the state gives us the language by which to speak. It hijacks language, and the press parrots it back to us. “Showdown with Iraq,” “Countdown to Iraq,” even using the term “shock and awe” — I have this notion of Iraqis standing back in Baghdad being shocked and awed. Well, you know, what they are going to be is dismembered, eviscerated, and killed.

Hedges talks about military control of the media.

We will end up with a situation that will be similar to the first Persian Gulf war. The problem is that when media organizations send reporters to cover a conflict they have no experience at all, they have no language skills, they’ve probably not been in the military. And this really hurts the coverage because they just don’t have either the skills or the self-confidence to strike out on their own.

And that’s what the military really fears. It fears the independent reporters who break free from the pack, who have their own transportation. We saw this in Afghanistan, we saw it in the first Persian Gulf war, and I am sure that we will see it once again.

When you talk to friends and co-workers today, see if you can avoid the political and military language and use your own words.

Bloggedyblog has some more posts on language.
Daimnation posts on European media coverage and Real Live Preacher has been reading Where is Raed?
Fragments from Floyd isn’t too impressed either, saying the term embedded journalists reminds him of phrases like impacted colon. Ouch. That is definitely Fred’s unique ability with word pictures.

How we perceive
Quantum Tea contrasts G.W. Bush’s speech to the American people with a talk given by a British commander on the border with his troops.

We go to liberate not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their country. We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Show respect for them. There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly. Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send. As for the others I expect you to rock their world. Wipe them out if that is what they choose. But if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory.

Iraq is steeped in history. It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham. Tread lightly there. You will see things that no man could pay to see and you will have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than the Iraqis. You will be embarrassed by their hospitality even though they have nothing. Don’t treat them as refugees for they are in their own country. Their children will be poor, in years to come they will know that the light of liberation in their lives was brought by you.

If there are casualties of war then remember that when they woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day. Allow them dignity in death. Bury them properly and mark their graves.

And US Marines were complaining because they had to be under British command? This is humbling.

I like Dash House’s idea about the Iraq body counter.

Roll up the Rim
Tim Horton is a national identity thing for Canadians. (And, they make great coffee, eh?) In Cornwall a car thief who had stolen a set of wheels got nabbed at the Tim Horton’s drive through because a police officer who was ahead of him in the line up was also picking up a coffee.

Asleep Thief
If you are going to rob a pub, don’t sample the liqueurs…they make you sleepy.