Iceland: Case Study in Economic Crisis?

Canary in the Coal Mine?

Although I was only there briefly, I liked Iceland. Hope they're on the mend soon.

From Somalia: Nearly Unbelievable Cruelty

A 13-year-old Somali girl reports that she had been raped by three men and is accused of adultery and stoned to death, in a stadium full of 1,000 onlookers.

It's almost unbelievable, a caricature of senseless cruelty. But this sort of incident isn't a vestige of an unmodernized culture. It's part of a very "modern," in the sense of "recent" (I guess "anti-modern" would be more accurate) movement in the region, a consciously cultivated practice of misogynistic violence that is perpetrated by militias with a war criminal mindset. If people want a definition of "terrorism," they shouldn't go looking too hard, because this is it.

There is no "lesson" from this for 13-year-old girls in Somalia except to cower behind closed doors, because if they venture outside and are raped, they will be punished with death for the crime of enduring it and living to tell.

More from Zimbabwe's Sokwanele blog

Enough with the patronizing either/or, says this understandably highly annoyed blogger.

I love seeing dichotomies smashed.

Mugabe's Calling Card

Rare, moving, and quite disturbing hidden-camera reporting from within Zimbabwe, with transcript, from Australia's SBS Dateline.

It's both inspiring and tragic what risks people will take just to place a vote. These are people who know the meaning of democracy, and want it desperately, and yet it is being brutally withheld from them.

Isn't there anything the international community can do to support these people?

An Inside View from Zimbabwe...

... on the day democracy finally died there (if it wasn't dead already.)

from Sokwanele blog, which has been faithfully chronicling the whole catastrophic implosion of the country, including the gruesome violence of the past days.

Here's the AP story.

The only possible good...

... that could come of this shameful tragedy in Burma/Myanmar is that the way the military government has refused and/or co-opted international aid and willfully bungled the disaster recovery (making FEMA look good) will finally prompt the rest of the world to take some kind of definitive action to help the Burmese people, instead looking the other way for another 20 years.

Free Tibet: Made in China

Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.

No further comment needed.

Last of the Iraqis

A blog worth checking out:
http://last-of-iraqis.blogspot.com
The blogger describes himself:

i'm a 25 years old dentist i live in iraq (Baghdad) i was born and raised here but unfortunately i'm thinking that the iraqis are going to extinct so i made this blog wishing that i can make a difference or even share my greif with the whole world and give them an idea about what's happening here from the point of view of a civilian living in the war zone not from the politicians nor people who gets their benefits from the conditions.

Maybe the paradox of rioting Tibetan monks...

... is easily explained, based on the past precedent exhibited in this photo. The Dalai Lama has made a credible claim that this kind of staged protest was responsible for the surprising recent violence in Lhasa.

Things that just aren't cool, in any culture...

... in my opinion. And I consider myself pretty darn tolerant.

Frying dolphins that have been inhumanely slaughtered. And frying dolphins, in general.

Countries having more than one set of laws. It seems like a slippery slope to me.

And I would say that even if sharia law didn't consider the testimony of two women equivalent to that of one man in a rape case.

Darfur: Out of the Headlines; Still Really Messed Up

U.N. special envoy to Darfur Jan Eliasson is taking questions, on PBS's NewsHour website, on the current situation there, which, after five years of unalleviated misery, isn't getting much better, and could get worse due to problems next door in Chad.
Answers will be posted on February 13.

Recommended Viewing: Persepolis

We'd been trying to see this movie, about a young girl growing up in and away from Iran in the wake of the revolution and war, since sometime in November, I think, but two advanced showings at two separate theaters were canceled, and then technical difficulties of a sort interrupted us half way through our third attempted viewing. We finally saw it in its entirety last night, and it was actually worth the wait.
Now that it's up for the animation Oscar, it should be around for a while, and I highly recommend it.
Original, sweet, funny, sad, quirky, and genuine. I'm actually going to go buy the graphic novel, too.

Sad on so many levels...

... one being that such a thing is taking up courtroom time from cases of injustice against women that will never even be recognized or considered, much less brought to court.

Forced annulment keeps Saudi Arabian couple apart.

If any good comes of this...

... nearly unbelievable case of injustice in Saudi Arabia, it's an awakening of the rest of the world, and indeed, Saudi Arabia itself, which is actually engaging in debate on the issue, to both the haphazard state of the justice system in that country and the hopeless state of women, whose lives are limited in every aspect from the cradle to the grave.

Although, of course, the State Department doesn't have much to say on the issue, beyond "astonishment." But that's no huge surprise.

Speaking of off-the-radar countries...

This blog by Sokwanele Civic Action Support Group is documenting the catastrophic economic collapse within Zimbabwe.

This is Zimbabwe

Sokwanele is local slang for "enough is enough."

Belgium is not for sale...

... not any more, at least. (And I love the way the PR guy from eBay Belgium phrased it: "We decided to take [the ad] down, just to avoid confusion.")

This is the biggest headline I've seen involving Belgium since I left Belgium two weeks ago (and pretty much at any time in my life before traveling there as well.)

But seriously, folks, this is a great country in the heart of Europe with a history that's central to the story of Europe. It would be a darn shame to see it split into little sub-kingdoms and Brussels made into a no man's land like D.C., even if it would be so wealthy that no one actually living in city limits would probably care (quite unlike D.C.)

U.S. exchange students in Germany moonlight as scapegoats (I mean goodwill ambassadors)

I went through the checklist:

Did I vote for Bush? No, not once.
Pro-war in Iraq? Nope, was out carrying "No Blood for Oil" signs, even when Hillary was still game for it.
The death penalty? No.
Gun control? Yeah, pretty much. (No comment please, Mr. X. ;)
Climate protection? Yep, for it.
I love organic grocery stores,
and to sweeten the deal, I'm not even from Texas.

What more do they want from me?
I'm kinda afraid to ask.

Ah well, I'm too old to be an exchange student, so maybe I shouldn't take it personally, but I am headed on vacation soon to two of Germany's next-door neighbors (who have, from all accounts, not much more love for us Yanks) so I guess I'm feeling a little defensive.

Play Pumps: just heard about this...

Someone had a good idea:
Children playing instead of their mothers or themselves spending hours a day carrying water from the river.

New Sudan Sanctions: A Different Perspective

Not everyone agrees that the U.S.'s unilateral sanctions are the best approach. My sense remains that they are necessary, but the truth is, I don't have a clue what's actually going on over there, so how could I possibly say for certain?

This guy, the Sudanese ambassador, John Ukec Lueth, a former government dissident now representing the so-called unity government, spoke rather passionately to the National Press Club yesterday about his perspective:

We just want the people of the United States to know that their government is going the wrong way. The situation in Darfur is more complex. You know, don't run away with the issue of genocide. We do not like any woman to be raped. We do not like anybody to be killed. These are our brothers and sisters. We are more concerned about them than anybody who pretends to say that. If they have a fiduciary interest, they should stop that. They should think that, "These are our brothers. They are our brothers and our sisters."

And in the end, I was fighting the Sudanese government. I am back now. They embraced me, and we are trying to build a new Sudan. That's what we said. And as a result, leave the custody of our people in our hands. Leave the solutions of the problem in our hands and help us where we ask for.

We have asked for the African Union to come and help us. Let them come. We will determine on the ground how many troops we need. We will also provide them with what we have. And we will have the U.N. and the African Union, as well as the Europeans, to help us also.

We appreciate also the help that the United States has given us. They have spent $1.3 billion in Darfur and southern Sudan. We do not ignore that.

We must go on the right track. And this unilateral taking of decisions is not a good thing in diplomacy, in good neighborlihood. You know, even though a country is so small, like my country, it has its guts. It belongs -- it is -- we own that country. It is our home. And we cannot be overtrodden about it.

Anything else?

I appreciate you all coming. I am available any time. If you want to know more, I will give you more. I'm around here. I came here to do this. And I want people out there -- you are the medium for getting the truth out there. You know better of how things should be constructive and objective.

I believe most of you are objective. That's what made you come here this afternoon. And thank you for coming. Thank you very much.

Today in Darfur...

... is probably much like yesterday, last week, last year...

Stuff like this is still happening regularly.

This is the same world we live in, "over here," but if we truly felt it to be the same world, wouldn't something effective have been done by now to stop it? Does the world lie in thrall to the government of Sudan? What's the deal here?