(identity 'myron)

Tue, 16 May 2006

Whoa [/World]

Who knows if this story about the US gov't spying on news agencies using phone records to investigate leaks is true (if it is, who didn't see it coming?)... but the comments on that page—my oh my. I keep wondering if it's someone's idea of a joke, as a kind of parody of citizens under totalitarian rule: "Excellent the Media needs looking after, Traitors most of them", "'Bout time you guys are roped in", "Good! I hope they do find out who is leaking national security info to the press. I'm tired of the press helping our enemies". Heh, heh...?

// posted at 07:00. permalink   comments

Sun, 31 Jul 2005

Hope and Memory [/World]

Found this quite timely since American foreign policy has come up more than a few times in conversation recently: Hope and Memory, an archive of 163 US interventions, a multi-faceted catalogue of coups, humanitarian incursions, covert actions, proxy armies, freedom fighters/terrorists and multilateral offensives. Via mefi.

// posted at 09:49. permalink   comments

Fri, 15 Jul 2005

That Damned Geneva Convention [/World]

Just caught this story on CBC, Geneva Convention not for al-Qaeda, U.S. court says. Outta the way pesky Geneva Convention, fuck you, World!

// posted at 14:13. permalink   comments

Mon, 09 May 2005

The Secret Memo [/World]

The secret Downing Street memo is making news in the UK, but not so much here. It contains such gems as, "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." Say again? The facts were being "fixed around the policy".

And of course, this memo being dated July 23, 2002 puts it well before war was even proposed to congress. Oops. So now a letter, written by one congressman, signed by eighty-seven others, is being sent to the President asking five questions:

1. Do you or anyone in your Administration dispute the accuracy of the leaked document?
2. Were arrangements being made, including the recruitment of allies, before you sought Congressional authorization go to war? Did you or anyone in your Administration obtain Britain's commitment to invade prior to this time?
3. Was there an effort to create an ultimatum about weapons inspectors in order to help with the justification for the war as the minutes indicate?
4. At what point in time did you and Prime Minister Blair first agree it was necessary to invade Iraq?
5. Was there a coordinated effort with the U.S. intelligence community and/or British officials to "fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy as the leaked document states?

Dunce caps for Bush supporters out there.

// posted at 21:28. permalink   comments

Thu, 21 Apr 2005

These are strange days on planet Earth [/World]

Caught the first part of a really good PBS documentary last night, Strange Days on Planet Earth hosted by Ed Norton. The documentary covers different aspects of environmental change that are unprecedented in Earth history, as far as we know. Combined, these changes have potentially cataclysmic effects that we barely even begin to understand.

The best example from the show is the chain of events that causes a major hike in the number of asthmatics and coral disease in Trinidad. Seemingly unrelated, different researchers trace the cause back to a common source, African dust. While dust traveling over the Atlantic is normally a natural phenomenon, it's now being intensified by global warming. The chain is then global warming -> intensified weather patterns -> increase in African dust settling in the Americas -> increase in dust and certain harmful particles in the air -> higher rates of asthma and dying coral reefs in the Carribeans.

It really reminds you of how complex and interconnected the world is. When a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world.... I can't help but feel cynical here though, because people rarely think on a global perspective, much less one that's global and looking at cause and effect spanning years, if not decades or centuries. Combine this with consumerism and corporations that only care about the bottom line and it's like we're locked in to a lifestyle that will nver respond quickly enough to fix what we've done. The darker side of me also thinks maybe we deserve whatever happens for our greed, arrogance and techological hubris.

// posted at 10:20. permalink   comments

Sun, 09 Jan 2005

How Arabs view terrorism? [/World]

I found this survey and the conclusions made about it pretty illuminating.

Looking at Lebanese national sample data by religion, 56% of Muslims and 88% of Christian respondents defined al-Qaeda as a terrorist organization. Interestingly, however, both groups defined Islamic Jihad, Hamas, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Hizbullah as legitimate resistance organizations (see table 1 below). This is clear evidence that the problem of differences of perception between Western countries and Middle East one is not religious or cultural, but rather political. If it were cultural and rooted in religion we would have found the definitions given by Muslims to all of these organizations to stand in stark contrast to labels assigned by Christians. But 74% of Lebanese Christians labelled Hizbullah a legitimate resistance organization, making the point even clearer that the key to dialogue and conflict resolution in Arab-West relations is politics, not religion.

Picked this up via another blog, Politics, language and cultures of the Arab world.

// posted at 13:02. permalink   comments

Wed, 05 Jan 2005

The Jesus Factor [/World]

Just wanted to point out a really good documentary about Dubya, his faith and the role it plays in his political career. I only caught the last quarter of it, but luckily, PBS has posted the entire documentary online along with some great reading material from various sources (yay PBS!). Not to be missed is the full interview with Jim Wallis, whose views on the issue coincide with mine, even though I'm not a Christian. As always, some quotes:

But when one believes that you've been appointed by God for a particular mission in history, you have to be very careful about that, how you speak about that. Where is the self-reflection in that? Where is the humility in that? Are we asking whether we are being accountable to God's intentions and purposes? Or are we asking for God's blessing on our activities? They're very different things.

I think when we are so sure that God is on our side, and that those who are not with us are against us, or even with the terrorists, that's taking another step. I believe God is in our world, in our history, in our lives, in our choices. To ask what God's calling is for me is a fair question, a necessary question, for any Christian. That's not a problem.

But when we place God on our side of things, that we are now ridding the world of evil—that's very dangerous, that one nation has this role to rid the world of [evil]. What about the evil we have committed, that we are complicit in? The richest nation in this global economic system, in which 2 billion of God's children are poor [and] live on less than $2 a day?

Well, there are things to look at ourselves here, if we're presiding over that global economy. Does this language allow us to look at ourselves, or does it give us a kind of certainty, and a sanction, and even a sense of divine righteousness for our political position? Are we blinded to things that we're otherwise not willing to look at?

And best of all, "You can't be evangelical and associate yourself with Jesus and what he says about the poor and just have no other domestic concerns than tax cuts for wealthy people." Amen.

A little digging turned up Jim Wallis' magazine, Sojourners and an interesting petition for Christians, God Is Not a Republican. Or a Democrat.

// posted at 17:59. permalink   comments

Thu, 02 Sep 2004

The Palm [/World]

It's been featured on Pilot Guides (fka Lonely Planet) and I just came from watching a journalistic piece on it on TV5. The Palm Islands is a resort built on a man-made island in Dubai. A giant resort in the shape of a palm tree, protected by a kind of circular jetty. Visible from space, it's already being called the eighth wonder of the world.

This, Dubai hopes, will help continue to power an economy turning to tourism in anticipation of its oil wells drying up. You can't help but be awestruck by the sheer enormity of such a project.... And in case you're wondering, the website has a Canadian domain because the company's international office is based in Halifax.

// posted at 11:53. permalink   comments

Sat, 07 Aug 2004

Interview with Bin Ladin's former bodyguard [/World]

Via metafilter. It's translated into English. I hunted down the original in Arabic too, if you're interested.

// posted at 08:58. permalink   comments

Mon, 07 Jun 2004

You know.... [/World]

That's always the problem with those damn morals of ours--they get in the way of getting anything done!

// posted at 11:53. permalink   comments

Sat, 20 Mar 2004

Eco [/World]

Yet another eco-apocalyptic story though not quite as bad as the last one.

This study goes a long way to confirm what we expected. It's also a strong argument to counter those who deny that we are in the midst of a massive extinction of life forms.

....

Vast areas of the tropics that have lost their forests will have the same damn weeds, bushes and scrawny eucalyptus trees so that you don't know if you're in Africa or the Americas.

Those damn weeds, we should bring back Captain Planet.

// posted at 11:13. permalink   comments

Sat, 21 Feb 2004

Climate Change [/World]

The Pentagon's not your usual apocalyptic organization, but then... what's this? Maybe it's time to start worrying.

// posted at 20:45. permalink   comments