Fieldnotes on Humanity

This post is written Philippe R. in Courrier International , you can read this in original version in French language . My friend Jean-Baptiste Perrin translated into English. --- With his personal blog Afghan Lord , Nasim Fekrat, 25, is a real fighter. His country Afghanistan has been on the front page of Western and foreign media for so many years, at the heart of what is called "the fight against international terrorism." In Kabul, Nasim fights too. With his own weapons and for a cause much braver and more difficult: freedom of expression. Nasim Fekrat is an Afghan journalist, internationally recognized for his blog Afghan Lord that exists in English and Farsi . In 2005 already, Reporters Without Borders has awarded him its first prize to reward his work, his courage, his commitment. Afghan Lord is currently competing for the best South Asia blog 2008 awarded by the Brass Crescent Awards , oriented towards the Muslim world's blogosphere. Most recently, Nasim ...

I appreciate you a lot for supporting me to receive Honorable Mention in the Fifth Annual of the Brass Crescent Awards in 2008 . I received this prize in the category of Best South Asian Blog as Honorable Mention and it means a lot for me. I would like to thank Jeffrey Stern and Javaid Zirak who supported me and thank from all of you. This really give me hope and encourage to be updated. I salute Brass Crescent people and their spirit and innovation. Just to add this that i think you all have seen that I tend to gravitate toward enlightening and more a voice from inside a wounded land, a forgotten land and horror land (for many), of course there is always not only horror but also love, trust, honesty and culture which i like to write you. I don’t like to be too negative but also remember that i don't born optimistic too. My childhood story is scaring, i born in the time of war and you can understand what means that. Oh, and by the way, i owe you much!

The video is taken by Pino Scaccia from the Award Ceremony in Siena. At the end of the video you can see me at the corner. The women in the Burqa are a group who perform widely in Italy.

I had to write and publish this piece sooner but I couldn't because of hectic schedule. Now, I have to tell you to everyone why I became an award winner for the freedom of expression by ISF (Information Safety and Freedom) in Siana, Italy. On Friday morning, November 28 in Siena , in Tuscany region, the award for the freedom of expression given to two Afghan journalists. I also got Kambakhsh's award. It was painful for me to receive my award while the other winner Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh is still in prison only for reading an article in the internet. Many of you may ask me that why you became the award winner while there were many journalists who were fighting for the freedom of speech, even some of them lost their lives, some of them exiled and some of them beaten and harassed by local warlords and drug lords. I am awarded because my satire/cartoon magazine was shot down in 2004, I am awarded because I got several death threats and exiled for seven months. I am award for my ...

George Bush, Jacques René Chirac, and Hamed Karzia the president of Afghanistan die and they all go to hell. The devil sees their faces and asks: 'why are you so depressed?' Bush says 'I left USA so fast, I did not have time to kiss my family and say good bye, I wish I could call home in Texas. The devil gives him a phone, Bush calls home, talks with his family. Bus gives a couple of instructions to Condoleza Rice... When he's finished, the devil asks for 2 million USD, Bush says: 'What? 2 million bucks? I only spoke for 10 minutes that's insane'. The devil answers 'but you are in hell man, that's some distance call!' Chirac then tells the devil: if Bush could call the USA, I want to call France! And so he did. When he is finished, devil asks for 3 million Euros. Chirac is shocked: 'what? 3 million Euros for 15 minutes talk?', 'well you call from hell...' answers the devil. Finally Karzai asks for the telephone to call Afghanista...

Today, on the way coming to Berlin, I was reading USA-Today in plane from 5 December about Condolleza Rice’s meeting in Islamabad about Mumbai case. This report was saying, Rice satisfied with Pakistan’s readiness to peruse lead in the attacks in India that have sharply raised tensions between the two nuclear power. It is really funny to hear that after her talks with Islamabad, Pakistani leaders is committed to the war on terror and does not want to be associated with terrorism. The funniest part is that when Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari told to Rice that the attack were a chance to strengthen efforts against terrorism in his country and promised to take “strong action”. Once again, look at this sentence: “Asif Ali Zardari told to Rice that the attack were a chance to strengthen efforts against terrorism in his country and promised to take “strong action”. As Afghan who is living in Pakistan neighborhood which is directly affected by its extremism and radicals Muslim groups, fo...

I just came back from L'Aquila , the capital of Abruzzo region. Today, there was a photo exhibition and one of my Photos was also exhibited among 50 photos from different photographers there. The association which called themselves “ the Cultural Association “L’Idea di Clèves” was born and developed in the provincial reality of L’Aquila ” organizes this competition every year. This year they had two categories, prize for online competition and the one which jury had to choose among 200 pictures. The photo which was selected by the jury was a red lip and with white face and side red colored. I didn’t understand why the jury selected this picture as the winner as I found lot of great shots there. I have doubt nepotism is so strong and influenced here in Italy. I am tired, my domain kabuli.net is expired and my kabuli.org is still not working, it was hacked before and a few days before the data moved to a new server but the DNS is not fixed I don’t know why. I wrote several times to ...

My Farsi blog was hacked once by someone who called himself Aljera7, Saudi hacker but this time it is worse. I don't know what is going wrong with the host and my blog. The only thing i have access is the domain kabuli.org which is registered with aplus.net but my blog which was hosted with Hostiran.net, since five days i don't have access to it nor i have the info login. Just a few days before this happen, i was receiving the below message periodically but i ignored because i was thinking that they want to steal my password. But when i saw my account was suspended and the host gave me this reason which they received similar e-mail that i did. I don't know who should feel responsible, the host instead to solve the problem and feel responsible to provide security, they blocked my account. Please let me know if you can help me with this i am getting mad. Read the below message which caused to block my account. HIS IS AN URGENT MATTER Hello, I work for and represent Westpac B...

Afghan LORD has been nominated under the “ BEST SOUTH ASIAN BLOG ” category for the Fifth Annual Brass Crescent Awards in 2008. It would be great if you vote for your humble Afghan blogger. How to vote? Please browse the Brass Crescent page and go to the bottom of the page, look at the second category from down, there you can find Afghan Lord, you have to click where to select the blog then go to the lowest page, enter your e-mail address, before you have to tick mark this option: " I certify that I am only voting once for the Brass Crescent Awards ". Finally click to submit your vote. Check your inbox, an approval will be send to your e-mail address with a link, in order to complete and your vote submitted please click on the link. Voting Directions: Use the form below to select one nominee from each category. We will ask you for your email address to confirm your vote, but don't worry - we will discard your email address after votes have been tallied. What is the Bra...