{"id":258,"date":"2009-07-02T18:30:14","date_gmt":"2009-07-02T18:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomathon.com\/mphp\/?p=258"},"modified":"2010-02-23T18:38:42","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T23:38:42","slug":"getting-unwanted-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2009\/07\/getting-unwanted-attention\/","title":{"rendered":"Niger: Getting Unwanted Attention"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Foreign governments are beginning to put public pressure of Tandja Mamadou, following his seizure of the power last Friday.\u00a0 Did anyone mention oil?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After hearing the US State Department\u00a0 is getting all their information on Niger from Italian reporters in press briefings<\/a>, it seems only fair to follow up.\u00a0 One may scoff at the importance of the US, notoriously ill informed about Africa, but when the US speaks, others listen. The White House released a one paragraph condemnation <\/a>yesterday, and suddenly every news source from Mexico City<\/a> to Idaho<\/a> has a blurb about Tandja’s coup. Even right-wing US bloggers<\/a> were busy digging out maps. It’s the one north of Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Never mind that the unattributed White House statement is just a rewrite of the State Department text<\/a> from a May: the attention one heading on the White House website seems to = worldwide press coverage. We’re supposed to be concerned about print journalism going downhill why?<\/p>\n

Also a note to journalists: if you lift text verbatim from Wikipedia, you’re supposed to attribute it<\/a>. If I see the aside about “Tandja’s oath on the Koran\u00a0 being a big deal in a Muslim nation<\/a>” on any more newspaper websites, printed word for word from Wikipedia, I will scream.<\/p>\n

But Tandja and company should be paying closer attention to increasingly stronger statements from Ban-Ki Moon<\/a>, the EU (who provided roughly double Niger’s government budget in aid to the nation last year)<\/a>, and\u00a0 Abdou Diouf from La Francophonie<\/a>.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just in case none of this dissuades President Tandja from continuing his drive to dictatorship, I’d like to address the following to the Government of the United States of America:\u00a0 Niger now has oil<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Round up on today’s events coming up shortly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Foreign governments are beginning to put public pressure of Tandja Mamadou, following his seizure of the power last Friday.\u00a0 Did anyone mention oil?<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[106,66],"tags":[569,91],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1050,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/05\/niger-innovative-reforms-amid-famine\/","url_meta":{"origin":258,"position":0},"title":"Niger: Innovative reforms amid famine","date":"May 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"From 2005: \"Drought has turned farmland into useless dirt...\" Image via Wikipedia An unsigned editorial from Le Pays (Ouagadougou): A quite good reflection on the educational and other restrictions coming for future governments in Niger, but tying the famine. The papers in Niamey have little mention of the small farmers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":290,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2009\/07\/niger-the-very-very-democratic-republic-of-tandja\/","url_meta":{"origin":258,"position":1},"title":"Niger: The Very Very Democratic Republic of Tandja","date":"July 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The President of Niger releases his \"new\" constitution. Can the opposition slow him down?","rel":"","context":"In "Afrique"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":462,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2009\/11\/nigerpiling-on-the-pressure\/","url_meta":{"origin":258,"position":2},"title":"Niger:Piling on the Pressure","date":"November 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"As the \"Abuja I\" talks begin with ECOWAS, President Tandja of Niger is increasingly backed into a political and financial corner. Will his \"6th Republic\" be sacrificed as a way out?","rel":"","context":"In "Featured"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1054,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/05\/niger-mali-hunger-famine-or-both\/","url_meta":{"origin":258,"position":3},"title":"Niger, Mali: Hunger, famine or both","date":"May 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Hopefully by now everyone knows that parts of West Africa, especially pockets of Chad and Niger, are struggling with the worst food shortages since 2005. Alex Thurston reports that international humanitarian agencies, as well as increasingly concerned governments, are now worried that this crisis is more generalized than first reported\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"Kidal Region dead herds","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/N-S\u00e9cheresse-41.jpg?fit=520%2C390&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":342,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2009\/08\/niger-write-a-letter-to-protest-detentions-of-activists\/","url_meta":{"origin":258,"position":4},"title":"Niger: Write a letter to protest detention of activists","date":"August 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Please demand the release of these activists. A sample letter, addresses, and statements by Nigerien and international rights groups are below. Further links to background material follows sample letter and statements.","rel":"","context":"In "Afrique"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":998,"url":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/2010\/03\/niger-prominent-tandja-ministers-re-arrested\/","url_meta":{"origin":258,"position":5},"title":"Niger: Prominent Tandja Ministers re-arrested","date":"March 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Reuters reports \"a dozen\" former ministers were arrested \" in suspected plot \" on Monday (the 29th). They include Lamine Zeine (finance), Garba Lompo (justice), and Lamido Oumarou (mines), all of whom were detained after the coup when financial crimes were...","rel":"","context":"In "Afrique"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mYFK-4a","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":741,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions\/741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tomathon.com\/mphp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}