Were bloggers being too mean to you, Waters?

John Waters is in the Irish Times today, whining about bloggers aka citizens journalists. Away he went pontificating about mob mentality and whinging about bloggers being mean to his bestest buddy Bono. Naturally, he doesn't name the blogs he quotes because the backlash would be too much for his delicate feefees. Isn't that journalism fail right there? Isn't one supposed to credit when appropriating another person's words?

I've trashed Waters before because he is an arrogant misogynist asshole who thinks the whole world thinks like him - the essence of his straight, white man privilege. He disses bloggers for critizing his beloved Bono but makes no mention of his appropriation of poverty in the developing world in comparing it to Dublin. Yeah and I've actually been to and worked in parts of the developing world.

In another spectacular fail, he obsessed about infantile toilet humour rather than the civil rights violation and government influence on our supposedly free media.

You see, the bloggers don't agree with the special snowflake that is John Waters.

It was an interesting enough overview of a subject that will be much analysed in the coming weeks. More interesting, though for the wrong reasons, were the responses in the thread of posts from readers that grew on to the article. Of the 89 posts I could find, only four were vaguely and somewhat unenthusiastically positive about the article, aid, Geldof, Bono or indeed anything at all. A further eight might be called neutral, in that they sought to make some elliptical points about the issues raised, without rubbishing anyone.

Aid is a thorny issue. It raises serious concerns about colonialism, racism, poverty, the IMF, autonomy, government, corruption and strings to name but a few. Simplistic analyses do not add to the debate but obscure the real issues to be tackled.

The rest – roughly 85 per cent – were abusive, expressing rage, scorn, hatred, jealously, cynicism and an authorial self-righteousness lacking any visible means of support. Not a single post indicated that its author had been to Africa, or had any special knowledge of, or even interest in, that continent.

So says the man who compared Dublin to developing world poverty. Name your sources Waters. Did you cherry pick to find what you were looking for? Was 4chan one of your sources? Politics dot IE? That's the thing about the internet, you can prove your idiotic argument through subjective sources.

In broad strokes Waters dismisses citizen journalists. I find it fascinating considering the analysis being done by Irish bloggers to expose the corruption and petty meanness in our political system.

Waters, read The Story, Irish Election, Irish Economy and The Cedar Lounge Revolution to begin with and then think about what you wrote, asshole.

Sudan kidnapping

According to the Irish Times

THE SUDANESE government says it is doing everything in its power to secure the release of a Dublin aid worker and her Ugandan colleague, both of whom worked for Irish aid agency Goal, after they were kidnapped in Darfur last week.

Unfortunately, Darfur is not controlled by the government, but the war lords who are at war with the government. They just about permit agencies to distribute aid but even so they take 50% of it, according to friends of mine who work there.

Hope they are released unharmed. As John O'Shea says, it is unlikely to be a political grab. Rather some war lords hoping to raise cash to continue the war.

ETA: my information comes from people on the ground and some of it is in dispute.