Here’s the 4am edition of my news site: Firefight nego ends (Ch News Asia headline: “Diplomatic efforts hit a roadblock”); PNoy calls on sultan followers to stand down (surrender was the word he used in his statement) ( abs-cbn headline: “Aquino addresses Sabah conflict”); “Sabah, Malaysia’s ‘Wild East’” (Agence France Presse, storified by interaksyon, rappler); “Aquino says Sabah is a conspiracy” (rappler); “Sultan daughter blasts Aquino over conspiracy claim” (abs-cbn); “Only an intervention can end Sabah conflict” (Inquirer); “KL sends ‘cavalry’ to Sabah” (Agence France Presse, Associated Press, the star, Asia News Network, storified by Inquirer). Read all the stories, to have a panoramic view of the Sabah firefight, with details and context, at:
Here’s the story on which the blog post title was based.From Agence France Presse :
” xxx
“The exact identities of the armed men remains a mystery, but Malaysia’s military chief, Zulkifeli Zin, told a press conference in Sabah on Sunday that the intruders appeared to have combat experience.
“Their “insurgency guerrilla technique is quite good,” he was quoted as saying.
“Zulkifeli said Malaysia’s military and the police were adopting a cautious approach in their plan to resolve the standoff with Agbimuddin’s group in Tanduao.
“He noted that Agbimuddin’s group had planned their location around the village in such a way that they would inflict casualties if Malaysian security forces enter the area.
“They are at the center and have people spread out, including snipers,” Zulkifeli said.
” “They know we will suffer casualties if we go in as the area is open,” he said.
” “They are under close surveillance by our special forces,” Zulkifeli said.
“But he added that while Malaysia was determined to “bring this episode to a close” as soon as possible, any action would take a little more time.”
4:40 pm update: i have eight stories on the Sabah firefight, eight versions, eight points of view: The number of fatalities range from zero to one, two , three, to four to ten; the accounts even more varied; plus two backgrounder articles.
Maybe that’s the advantage of the news aggregator: all the versions of the story can be collected in one page and all possible points of view of the event are available in one place — it’s like a fish-eye lens that creates a panoramic view. Here it is, pls click link: 8 versions Sabah firefightMarch1, 13 What’s Trending marichulambino
1.Floods submerge houses of 6,100 families in Butuan
2.PNoy calls on Sultan to stand down
3.USS Guardian being chopped up
4.Greenpeace pickets Comelec in costume
and these stories all appear above the fold (above the fold should be in quotes), i disagreed with the algorithm of the robot and put them above the fold (or at first glance on the screen).
This blog here has been using the word sultan although the news organizations have now started to use the family name instead in their headlines. Technically, you’d put the word sultan in quotes because our laws do not confer royal titles; I have never put them in quotes out of respect for the cultural heritage and tradition which I consider part of our own Philippine heritage and tradition and not just of one region/ ethnicity/ religion, etc.
Pres. PNoy mentioned the inciting-to-war provision of the Revised Penal Code in his statement when he called on the followers of the Sultan to stand down, although in the later news casts, the sound byte was on the Constitution, declaration of principles… Well let me wait for them to file a complaint for inciting to war against the Sultan and his followers — that should be a sight. As to the declaration of principles… anobur; declaration-of-principles na kaso ba iyon… I’ll wait for them to file a case before typin’ up sumthin’ ,
I’ve tried to be more balanced by including more news sites from the regions from North to South – you’d be surprised that I found only two “regional” news organizations on twitter tweeting news daily (i’ve put the word “regional” in quotes because the internet has made it possible for the “community newspapers” to have a worldwide reach thru daily or hourly tweets of the reports if this could be done).
Then, to rend a little the hegemony of the American press (geez, I’ve promised never to use that word “hegemony” – but there it is), I have Moscow Times, Sudan News (it appeared in an earlier edition, the algorithm takes care of the foreign news), the Community to Protect Journalists, Global Voices (citizen journalists), Channel News Asia, Al Jazeera, etc.
In the masthead, it says “What’s Trending”, but a couple of the stories are not “What’s Trending” because there’s an effort to include the underreported regions/ areas/ topics.
Well, I also have vegetarianism, yoga, chi running, a bit of celebrityhood etc etc. – there’s a story there for you! Happy reading!
