Sunday, April 20, 2014

Update on the "Saker correspondents" idea

Dear friends,

A few days ago I posted an idea to create a network of "Saker correspondents".  Here is what I wrote:
I think that it might be extremely useful to create a group of "correspondents" of this blog.  Here is what I mean by that:
I need local folks to go through the local Internet resources (not the big national news, those I parse myself) to seek out interesting stuff and then simply send me the links.  Though a commentary or evaluation of these links could be helpful, the links alone would be helpful enough.  Here are the languages which I can read more or less decently: very easily: French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, and English, of course.  With some difficulties Portuguese, and Dutch.  Slowly and preferably with the help of a machine translator,  I can also understand a text written in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Polish, Afrikaans, Slovak and Macedonian.
Also, there are four languages which I don't know at all and with which I would really need a person willing to translate or even just summarize interesting articles in the local Internet (in order of priority): Arabic, Chinese, Farsi and Hebrew.
Should that work, my goal would be to completely bypass the AngloZionist media and to offer the readers of this blog information from the small news sources which are little known but which are trying hard to become more visible.  Sure, we all know about RussiaToday, PressTV or TeleSur, but who knows what kind of interesting stuff is published on the local Internet in Omsk, Isfahan or Cochabamba?
Tlaxcala does a great job of translating "alternative" information in many languages and IPS tried to being local information sources.  But for the former does not use local correspondents or specialize in English-language information while the latter has, shall we say, a "not always adequate political agenda" with some pretty darn big blind spots.
So here is my idea: if some of you are interested in becoming "Saker correspondents" we could have your just scan the local press in your area (it don't need to be in Timbuktu - the local press in France or Romania might be very interesting too) and send me the links.  I could then either publish the full article if it is worth it, or just post a few links so those interested can read it for themselves, or simply read the stuff myself to help me understand a region or a current event.  If there will be Arabic, Chinese, Farsi or Hebrew speakers willing to be "Saker correspondents" then they would work somewhat differently: they could email me and say, "the local website has a reader's forum where one guy just posted his impression after a 3 day trip to the town of X and he is describing something interesting.  Do you want a summary or full translation?"  Depending on the place, situation and source I would have to decide whether this is worth the correspondent's effort.
Alternatively, you could bypass me completely and contact each other directly and jointly decide to try to get the local information sources to the English-speaking world, either through my blog or through any other outlet you like (God knows there are many very good ones today).  Then my role would be just to help put you in touch with each other and then you could work without intermediaries.
Just think about it.  All I know is that there are regular readers here from all over the planet, with lots of languages and excellent expertise and education.  Not to flatter you all, but there is *a lot* of brainpower available which we could put together if you guys are interested.
 As of today, I got replies from the following countries or regions:
  • Hawaii
  • Canada
  • Scandinavian countries
  • Balkan countries
  • France 
  • French speaking Africa
  • Benelux
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Italy
  • Czech Republic

Which is pretty good, but I still have a DIRE NEED of the following regions:
  • Latin America
  • China
  • India
  • Afghanistan
  • Pakistan
  • Lebanon
  • Israel
  • KSA
  • Far East Asia
  • Central Asia
  • Russia
  • The Ukraine
  • Maghreb
  • Australia and New Zealand
  • Turkey
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Syria
  • Korean Peninsula
  • Vietnam
  • Indonesia
  • English speaking Africa
  • Portuguese speaking Africa
  • Japan
  • United Kingdom
  • Mexico
  • Cuba
  • Central America
So, please, if you live, come from, travel to, or are in frequent contact with any of those countries and if you can volunteer a little time each week to reply to a question, scan the local Internet, maybe translate a short article or check an information - please email me and let me know.

You can write to me using an alias, pen name or nick - I don't need to know your real identity.  If you would like to write sort articles about developments about you area of responsibility and if I find them to be interesting for this blog, I will publish them here and give you full credit for it under whatever identity you prefer.

I hope that many of you will reply and that we can set up a pretty decent network of correspondents.

Many thanks and kind regards,

The Saker