Some good news out of Mali
Most of the manuscripts in Timbuktu are safe, thanks in no small part to librarians. The Islamists "damaged or stole only a limited number" of them before fleeing; none of them destroyed an entire library or collection.The manuscripts cover subjects from science, astrology and medicine to history, theology, grammar and geography. They date back to the late 12th century, the start of a 300-year golden age for Timbuktu as a spiritual and intellectual capital for the propagation of Islam.
I'd heard the reports of widespread, wanton destruction of the manuscripts last week, and I was infuriated. I'm glad the reports were based on rumor, not fact. You do not have to be an adherent or admirer of Islam to recognize the value of the historical record these manuscripts represent.
Regarding the conflict itself, there's a good article here (requires free registration) about the paucity of useful English-language coverage, and it starts with a backgrounder. (Though do see the comments regarding the author's claim that French colonization of Mali was "largely peaceful.")
ETA: A comment on the LG&M thread whence I found the Foreign Policy link:I learned to read Spanish pretty well in the last year and have started reading Latin American and Spanish newspapers and websites. I have learned from this experience not to trust ANYTHING in the English-language press about the Spanish-speaking parts of the world unless the article was written by someone that I can confirm speaks Spanish. Any journalist who relies on a translator is getting the opinion of the translator and not necessarily the opinion of the original speaker, and that’s even assuming the journalist has any contact with people who speak the language. All too often, American journalists use only English-speakers as sources, which means in Spain and Latin America, their sources are far more conservative, generally, than is typical for the country. Nowhere is this more obvious that articles discussing the Spanish economic catastrophe and that country’s ever-more-fraught relationship with Germany.
Spanish is an easy language, and Spain is a developed country. I imagine that the problem of relying on English-speaking sources, and their biases, is very much worse in Third World countries - where English speakers are almost all from the educated upper classes - or places where the dominant language is really hard to learn, like Greece or Russia.
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I'd heard the reports of widespread, wanton destruction of the manuscripts last week, and I was infuriated. I'm glad the reports were based on rumor, not fact. You do not have to be an adherent or admirer of Islam to recognize the value of the historical record these manuscripts represent.
Regarding the conflict itself, there's a good article here (requires free registration) about the paucity of useful English-language coverage, and it starts with a backgrounder. (Though do see the comments regarding the author's claim that French colonization of Mali was "largely peaceful.")
ETA: A comment on the LG&M thread whence I found the Foreign Policy link:I learned to read Spanish pretty well in the last year and have started reading Latin American and Spanish newspapers and websites. I have learned from this experience not to trust ANYTHING in the English-language press about the Spanish-speaking parts of the world unless the article was written by someone that I can confirm speaks Spanish. Any journalist who relies on a translator is getting the opinion of the translator and not necessarily the opinion of the original speaker, and that’s even assuming the journalist has any contact with people who speak the language. All too often, American journalists use only English-speakers as sources, which means in Spain and Latin America, their sources are far more conservative, generally, than is typical for the country. Nowhere is this more obvious that articles discussing the Spanish economic catastrophe and that country’s ever-more-fraught relationship with Germany.
Spanish is an easy language, and Spain is a developed country. I imagine that the problem of relying on English-speaking sources, and their biases, is very much worse in Third World countries - where English speakers are almost all from the educated upper classes - or places where the dominant language is really hard to learn, like Greece or Russia.
Unlocked.
This entry was originally posted at http://ms-daisy-cutter.dreamwidth.org/1955520.html. Please comment there using either your DW account or OpenID.