Pirate Video and a little bit on Aljazeera

Like many Americans, I've been a bit wary of Aljazeera as a network, because well, for a while there I had the paranoid thought that if I logged into it big brother would think I'm a terrorist. Which was silly but it was like 2005 and paranoia was all the rage, then I just sort of forgot about it when I considered a news source though I would see it in google news results. Well, it was silly to let paranoia keep me from reading a news source and examining different sources.

Well, long story short, Aljazeera English is frickin' awesome. I read Mission Aljazeera by Josh Rushing (also awesome, and it definitely gave me some perspective on the goals and history and effects of aljazeera on journalism and media in the Arab world, and the non-western world. It made me reconsider my pretty narrow idea of what aljazeera might be, which was totally uninformed, and frankly, is right now based on a single book that was highly convincing and made me feel more than a little sheepish about my intellectual laziness, and general wimpiness.

AND www.aljazeera.net/english is the site if you want news, and www.aljazeera.com is actually not associated with the news network, and tends to carry stories that seem to be aimed at discrediting the news organization. Which had actually fooled me, I didn't realize they were different and they very much are.

So check out it's amazing coverage on Somalia, which is in active fighting right now in addition to being all piratey, and apparently the US backing the "government" with weapons which is just a bit ... well... I have no specific words but it makes my gut hurt a little. It just feels a little like throwing napalm into a swampy quagmire of alligators fighting pythons and komodo dragons and some giant spiders, Michael Bay should get the movie rights to make that, 'cause my analogy here is clearly directed by him.
Aljazeera has awesome coverage on Somalia by land and sea, and generally is a fascinating news source. My point, watch the video, read/watch Aljazeera.net (in English or your language of choice), and decide what you think of it for yourself.