Tuesday, September 11, 2007

#98: 9/11 and Ramadan

Today is the 6th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. With Afghanistan ignored and left to the mercy of warlords and Iraq on the brink of a fiasco, the world is no safer place than six year ago. Russia's 1Kanal showed a documentary (not sure if it was Spielberg's movie) commemorating the tragedy.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, Orozo in Kyrgyz. Today families will gather for arapa dinner to mark the beginning of the fast. I fasted the whole month last year, but I am thinking about it this year. Last week I signed up to a gym, but with fasting I don't think I will be able to do any of the weight-lifting exercises. Kyrgyz in general are very relaxed about religion. Fasting the first and the last three days of the month counts as well. Ramadan Mubarak! Orozonor kabyl bolsun!

Russian TV Channel, Rossiya, reported about the neo-Nazi gang arrested in Israel, but hid the fact that the arrestees were of Russian descent. Russia's FOX News. Fair and Balanced! @#$%&!

1 comment:

Konstantin said...

Oh, man, Russian's 1 Channel has been an object of my entertainment for years now. I read something in, say, NY Times, and then Russians either don't report it all if it's not favorable to the country/government, or certain facts are omitted, or on opposite the black PR (which is so well developed in Russia) focuses attention on a different issue that would counteract the unfavorable news event. Sometimes, Russian 1 Channel blows up something small that's happened in the US into a major news piece, if it serves the purpose of subtly instilling the negative perception of the US.