Aside

Just a quick reminder: I’ll be speaking in Madison to kick off the “Africa Forward” lecture series this Thursday on the UW-Madison campus: Thursday, March 26, 2009 3:30pm – 5:30pm 5055 Vilas Hall 821 University Avenue I’ll also be speaking on Friday and Saturday (March 27-28) at the Engineers without Borders conference in Milwaukee, talking about how to best leverage information technology in Africa. Tell your friends, and if you’re a blog reader/Twitter follower, please come say hi!

Happy New Year! While I’m unable to celebrate Noruz with my family in California this year, I will be thinking of them and all others who are celebrating this holiday. Feel free to enjoy a photo of the haft seen at Le Vent de Perse, the local Lyon shop where I’ve been taking Persian lessons, and to enjoy this recent piece of Noruz reportage on Pulse of the Planet. Oh, and here’s my haft seen from last year, in Oakland.…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on the death of Iranian blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi is airing today. It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): New York – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 8 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg Boston – 4 pm Eastern – WGBH –…

Reporters Without Borders: Reporters Without Borders said today it was deeply shocked at the death in a Tehran prison of blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi and called for the immediate opening of an investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy. His lawyer, Mohamed Ali Dadkhah, was informed of the blogger’s death by a doctor, Hesem Firozi, who is himself imprisoned. The young blogger had been depressed and no longer able to cope with prison conditions. The doctor said, “The death of this…

Radio Free Europe: March 14, 2009 By Golnaz Esfandiari Farid Hashemi’s latest “status update” on his Facebook page says a lot about his state of mind. “It’s better to be born as a dog in a democracy than to be a human in a dictatorship,” he writes. Twenty-eight-year-old Hashemi is a senior member of Iran’s largest pro-reform student group, Daftar Tahkim Vahdat, which is a regular target of pressure from the state. He is also one of the thousands of…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on the recent LIFT conference that I attended in Geneva is airing tomorrow on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. That’s right, my radio career has gone international! It will be available on your local CBC station at the following times: Wednesdays at 11:30 a.m. (12:00 NT) Saturdays at 4:00 p.m. (4:30 NT) If you find yourself outside the reach of the CBC’s antennae, feel free to listen to it online, here, or…

Human Rights Watch, February 10 2009: Authorities arrested Omid Memarian, Roozbeh Mirebrahimi, Shahram Rafizadeh, and Javad Gholamtamimi in September and October 2004, and detained them without charge. The four said that they were subjected in detention to physical and psychological abuse, as well as prolonged periods of solitary confinement in a secret detention center without access to counsel or family. Three of the men subsequently described the abuse at a meeting with Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the head of the…

As a little preview to my appearance this week on CBC’s Spark, the team up in Toronto has posted a 35-minute interview that I did with Vint Cerf a couple weeks ago while at the LIFT conference in Geneva. The full podcast should be available later this week. Also, if you’re in Canada, let me know if you hear me on the radio!

Africa Forward with Cyrus Farivar Thursday, March 26, 2009 3:30pm – 5:30pm 5055 Vilas Hall 821 University Avenue Madison, WI Need inspiration on how to apply your interests in African Studies and Journalism after graduation? Come and meet Cyrus Farivar to find out how he went from studying abroad in UW’s Senegal program in 2003 to reporting for National Public Radio and The New York Times within five years of graduation. Cyrus Farivar is a freelance technology journalist, radio reporter/producer,…

Update (March 12, 2:17 am Pacific): Hillar Aarelaid points out to me in an email that this was reported almost two years ago in the Russian-language press. Google Translated version here. Financial Times: By Charles Clover in Moscow Published: March 11 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 11 2009 02:00 Members of a Kremlin-backed youth movement have claimed responsibility for May 2007 cyber attacks that crippled Estonia’s internet in the midst of a diplomatic argument with Russia. It is believed…