Machaho Tellem Chaho

Found on FATEA's website: femmes au travail en Algerie .

Photo taken from the pages of Al-Akhbar English for the Week in Photos: link here . Women wait in line to see the sacred Buddha's tooth relic on display at a temple in Yangon. (Photo: REUTERS - Damir Sagolj)

Just discovered through an article on the Economist (its articles aren't always useless) the Tunisian cartoonist Z. Here is a cracking cartoon of Rachid El-Ghannouchi: Sheikh Dracullah!

50 years today. Algerians in Paris peacefully demonstrated for an independent Algeria on 17 October 1961. Hundreds of them were attacked and massacred by French police and thrown into the river Seine. These killings were never acknowledged by the French authorities. Today, demonstrations all over France are taking place to ask that this massacre be formally recognised.

This is a translation of Algeria Watch's page on Baba Nadjar here (in French) and part of Kalima DZ's latest communiqué about this young man's case (in French). "Mohamed Baba-Nadjar, born on 4 January 1984 is from Ghardaïa. He was 21 years-old when Brahim Bazine was attacked and assassinated in October 2005. Brahim Bazine was a member of the Red Crescent's local office and a former militant of the FFS [Algeria's socialist party]. With no proof whatsoever, Mohamed Baba-Nadjar was accused of having murdered Bazine, his sentence on 6 June 2006 was the death penalty. Since then he has been incarcerated in Ghardaïa’s prison where he was tortured. On Saturday 03 January 2009 the appeal of young Mohamed Baba Nadjar should have been heard. It was postponed for the second time running. No other date was fixed for the case to be heard. The prosecutor general had apparently asked the Supreme Court on 23 December 2008 that his trial be postpostoned and heard outsid...

Ce droit de vivre de poser une pierre de couper la toile d'araignée où je me démène me le donneras-tu ? Ce droit de défense et d'insulte des crétins je l'exige sans retenue j'en userai sans sobriété Puis-je entrer dans cette citadelle ? Puis-je traverser ce pont-levis ? Fraternellement très poliment j'accept ce coup de pied. Youcef Sebti Algerian poète and writer Poème extrait de L'enfer et la folie

I have translated below from the French an article from Le Soir d'Algerie just published on 23 August. I think this article is quite important as a first document to the saga of the Algerian diplomacy's yawn when 'Libya' is mentioned v. the TNC's accusation of lukewarm love from Algeria. It looks like the TNC is a little emotionally needy and keeps bawling for Algerian attention (you won't get it that way guys, no Algerian responds well to whining). In the papers this morning, there is a proliferation of articles pointing the finger to the dormancy of the Algerian governement who is staying mute throughout all developments of the Libyan situation. (It should be noted however: when is the government not mute these days, don't take it so hard.) As I am reading these articles I can't help being amused at their tone. Anyways, what is noteworthy in Le Soir's article is the four interviews of civilians who all worry about security in Algeria. It s...

There is a beautiful photo essay on Southern Ethiopia by Anastasia Karpenko, posted on African Digital Art. Full album HERE .

I've found Mohamed Benchicou 's book "Bouteflika une Imposture Algerienne " floating on the net and available for download ( click here to access pdf ). I feel a little guilty for posting it here, bearing in mind authors' rights. I bought the book and it is doubtless a very important document on Algerian history, on Algeria's present even, which is why I thought I'd share this link, because not everyone can afford it and it is a vital read. Rare are the books on Bouteflika, he is a shadowy figure and I believe it took some guts to publish, bearing in mind Benchicou spent two years in prison. Mohamed Benchicou is an Algerian journalist, formerly director of the newspaper Le Matin, which he founded in 1991 (and before that he was the director of the paper Alger Republicain). Benchicou was famously arrested on false grounds in 2003 and imprisonned for two years from 2004 to 2006 and Le Matin was closed. In 2004, he published his book 'Bouteflika,...

I found this book floating in cyber space ( specifically on Zoom Algerie ) about El Manchar . El Manchar was a politically charged and daring satyrical bi-monthly founded by the late Sid Ali Melouah - a renown cartoonist - in the early 90s, for which some of the best Algerian cartoonists drew and wrote from 1990 to 1992, until the magazine had to stop publishing. El Manchar was the place where readers first encountered Dilem, Sour, Fathy, Hic, Benyezzar, Bouss, Aknouche, Ayoub, Abi, Gyps, Dahmani, Beneddine and Nedjmedine . Take a quick read here, so much of it is still current. You can download the book here . Enjoy.

I've just discovered the cartoonist Carlos Latuff, based in Rio, who draws about Palestine and Iraq. His work, as he titles it, is ArtIntifada, he site is here . Here are a couple of my favourites: