David lafontaine's
Sips from the firehose
A site that attempts to render the internet down into one easy-to consume mental beverage.
Kazakhstan: Old Stalinist Repression in a New CyberWar Wrapper
I conducted a series of interviews with journalists, bloggers, opposition political leaders and human rights workers in the cities of Astana and Almaty, Kazakhstan. They are begging for help to combat increased government attacks, censorship, harassment and intimidation.
Transcript of Kazakh Journalist Interview
Beatings, midnight phone calls and a culture of fear This is the transcript of my interview with an independent journalist in Kazakhstan. He was commiserating with me about my hospital stay, and mentioned that he too, had suffered because of his political beliefs. ...
On the Way Home from Kazakhstan – Eagles and the Gobi Desert
I was impressed by the enthusiasm and hope of the students that I met in my last stop – the ancient city of Almaty, nestled in a valley, surrounded by the foothills of the Himalayas. And I was also humbled by the courage being shown by the few remaining opposition journalists.
These people have been hounded from their jobs at newspapers and TV stations. The papers are being shut down – in fact, this morning, a famous journalist is being kept in jail – allegedly for murdering a man in a car accident. But everyone in the country pretty much knows the score.
A Test of TypePad’s E-mail Blogging Functionality
It seems that more and more blogging services are turning on to the fact that most blogging input templates are pretty damn annoying. I say this as an advocate for the medium. I also speak as one who has seen hours of work evaporate as the interface crashed, or...
Happy Students in Astana, Kazakhstan
This is the last class I taught in Astana - they were very engaged with the idea of moving from traditional media to "New Media," particularly with blogging. The main question on everyone's mind was "How do I drive more traffic to my site?" I showed them some of the...
The Endless Sub-Siberian Steppes of Kazakhstan
I got a real lesson in why the Huns, Tatars & Golden Horde were both nomads & ferocious warriors today. The plane flight from Astana the Gleaming to Almaty the Ancient took me over an incredible stretch of flat, brown steppe. I looked down on this from the...