Translations
Translations
Translations
Last Updated on Wednesday, 02 February 2011 17:40 Written by Barb Tuesday, 28 December 2010 01:21
I have been a volunteer translator for an online news service called World Meets Us (formerly Watching America) since 2006. Below are links to some of my translations for them. Please note I do not always endorse the opinions expressed in the articles I translate.
- Assange: The Mick Jagger of the Media (El Pais, Spain)
- Gonzales: The executor of Injustice (La Jornada, Mexico)
- US complains of Nicaragua's friendship with Iran (La Prensa, Nicaragua)
- Mexico's Hypocrisy on Immigration (La Jornada, Mexico)
- Fancy footwork needed to avert new Cold War (Clarin, Argentina)
- A-bomb gaffe by Japan's Defense Chief shows War's Trauma remains (El Espectador, Colombia)
Julian Assange: The Twenty First Century 'Mick Jagger' of Data
Written by Barb Wednesday, 02 February 2011 17:40
El Mundo, Spain
Julian Assange: The Twenty First Century 'Mick Jagger' of Data
"As much as we whine about the constant media diet of WikiLeaks, Assange is clearly the ultimate Mick Jagger of the digital age. He’s done it all: blown the whistle on the truth of Yankee diplomacy; outlined a map of the web woven by the world's economic and political powers; revealed widespread journalistic apathy; and sounded the death knell of today's information business."
By Quico Alsedo
Translated By Barbara Howe
December 21, 2010
Spain - El Mundo - Original Article (Spanish)
|
Besides starring in a top story in a world without a great supply of tales anything like it, and having exposed more than a few of the mysteries of power, an act that left a blot on many a reputation, Julian Assange has acquired something even more potent: the power to polarize, shake up, and leave no one indifferent to a look that's not only baleful, but fierce, and just as provocative as the famous tongue of the Rolling Stones. His groupies even demand it! And that says it all.
As much as we whine about the constant media diet from WikiLeaks, Assange is clearly the ultimate Mick Jagger of the digital age. He’s done it all: blown the whistle on the truth of Yankee diplomacy; outlined a map of the web woven by the world's economic and political powers; revealed widespread journalistic apathy; and sounded the death knell for today's information business, thereby scaring the hell out of the old ladies of the news world.
Like a Keith Richards caught with a stash of cocaine in his suitcase, the guy ends up in the slammer for two alleged acts involving skirts. Two groupies, which is what his accusers have turned out to be, since one boasted of bedding him and the other made eyes at him at a conference - say he forced them to do bad things. As justice dictates, sex crimes are no joking matter, but let us not confuse the personal with the professional.
Assange has a runaway ego, and the messianic vibe of this business with Wikileaks is a tree that obscures the forest. It sounds ridiculous enough that El Pais, as arthritic as the rest of the press (if not more so), has thrust its youthful chest out - which is an opinion shared by more than a few of my colleagues. That's the blubber of the story. But there is no escaping that underneath that, the meat is the news which has been made. Some of it is brutal, but it is news, period. And yes, there are also some anecdotal jests that have grabbed the right-wing press and its spokespeople.
If the subject of Jose Couso [a Spanish journalist killed by U.S. fire in Iraq], the corruption of the king of Morocco, the U.S. single-handedly defending Mexico's southern border, etc., etc., etc. isn't news, then what is? One might as well suggest exchanging The Odyssey for a notebook. None are so blind as those who refuse to see.