Sam PF's Journal
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Sam PF" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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12:18 am
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60 Years
Today Israel starts a week of celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of their formation as a state, culminating in their Independence Day of May 14th.
Amidst the chorus of fawning congratulations from world leaders, artists and celebrities, it is fortunately (as the BBC article shows) becoming harder - at least outside the US - to ignore the other side of the events of 60 years ago, the Palestinian Nakba, or Catastrophe.
In the course of the Israeli 'War of Independence', around 700,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes and land as the result of a campaign of massacres and ethnic cleansing by forces of the nascent Israeli state. Many were forcibly expelled, many others fled the fighting - all were subsequently denied the right to return to their homes, in defiance of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Over 530 Palestinian villages were destroyed. With the Absentee Property Act of 1950, Israel subsequently confiscated the land of the exiled Palestinians without compensation.
Israel's apologists have long tried to deny these facts, but such denials increasingly lack intellectual credibility given the wealth of documentation - including from Israeli sources - that substantiates them. This fact sheet from Jewish Voice for Peace presents one of the most compact but comprehensive accounts I've seen. If you only follow one link from this post, that's probably the one to go for.
The orchestrated nature of the campaign is amde clear by Plan Dalet, adopted by the Zionist leadership early in 1948: (from JVP factsheet)
These operations can be carried out in the following manner: either by destroying villages (by setting fire to them, by blowing them up, and by planting mines in their debris) and especially of those population centers which are difficult to control continuously; or by mounting combing and control operations according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the villages, conducting a search inside them. In case of resistance, the armed forces must be wiped out and the population expelled outside the borders of the state (Plan Dalet, 10 March,
1948)
The diaries of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin - who signed the Oslo accords with Yasser Arafat - record his role as leader of the Israeli forces attacking Lydda in July 1947:
After attacking Lydda Ben-Gurion would repeat the question: What is to be done with the population?, waving his hand in a gesture which said: Drive them out!.' Driving out' is a term with a harsh ring, .... Psychologically, this was one of the most difficult actions we undertook.
Rabin signed the order that "The residents of Lydda must be expelled quickly without attention to age" on July 12th 2008.
This is the reality behind the foundation of the state of Israel, this is what lies behind all the subsequent wars and conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians and the other states in the region. And until this fundamental wrong is acknowledged and given redress, Israel will never know peace.
( A digression on Zionism )
There is a demonstration in London on Saturday to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Nakba, calling for an end to the seige of Gaza, an end to the Occupation, and for the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Ah, there is one in Stockholm on the 15th, that's good.
Tags: palestine
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01:22 am
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Decisions, decisions
So, tomorrow is the 1st of May, international labour day, and here in Sweden they take it quite seriously and there are all sorts of demonstrations and stuff by left parties (and, curiously, the centre party), trade unions and others. I'm rather inclined to go on one in Stockholm, the question is which?
The Anarchists could be fun, but they meet at 9.30am. Since when did Anarchists get out of bed so early?
The VänsterPartiet (Left Party), who seem to be Socialist Feminists (Marxist origins but now fluffier), meet at 12pm at Medborgarsplatsen down in Södermalm, marching up to Kungsträdgården, which is a nice route and a civilised time.
There's a Syndicalist gathering in Sergels Torg at 11am. Another leftist party with them, just called something like "The Socialists". Not sure who exactly they are. Still a little early, particularly if I watch the episode of Bones that's just downloaded.
The Socialdemokraterna (Social Democrats), all I can find on their website is the talk by some of their leader-like people in the afternoon. I can't believe they don't have a march as well, but I can't find it. They're wishy-washy reformists of course, but they'd probably have the unions with them. Hmm. From the Swedish Trade Unions federation (Landsorganisationen) website, they give exactly the same as the Social Dems. Just talking the talk, not walking the walk. Very strange.
Oh, finally. Shoulda been looking at the local website, not the national. Ah, a whole program which actually includes the Anarchists' thing. It's a demonstration for the Spanienfrivilliga. Spanish free will? Aaaaaaaah, the monument to the volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. Then there's visits to Anna Lindh's and Olof Palme's graves, then a gathering at 1 and a march at 2 followed by the talks. That's better.
Pretty much comes down to a choice bewteen the main moderaty socialist/trade union demo or the Vänsters, and either way there's an option on getting up hideously early for a holiday to honour the Spanish Civil War martyrs. The Vänsterpartiet are probably closer to me ideologically (apart from wanting to leave the EU which I don't), although there's something to be said for the big demo with all the trade unions and stuff.
Either way, I clearly need to learn the Internationale properly. (Yes I know, shocking that I haven't already.) But will they be singing it in Swedish or the original French?
Well, all this calls for:
Poll #1180499
Open to: All, results viewable to: AllWhich 1st May demo should I go to? Should I honour the Spanish Civil War martyrs? What language should I learn the Internationale in?
And Happy May Day/Beltaine!
ETAOh yes, and Happy Ascencion Day too! (Yep, going to that too later on.)
Tags: politics, sweden
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12:54 am
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Busyness
Long time no post - trying to keep up at least once a week, but somehow let two weeks and a bit zip past. Ah well. Been a fairly busy time at work, though now eased off, having got a number of projects completed more or less at the same time.
Spent the last few days in Britain for a short but action- (and alcohol-) packed multi-tasking visit. Flew over Wednesday evening, arriving with some trepidation at T5, though they seem to have got it sorted now and I got my baggage very quickly. Then off to Bristol, staying at Pauls, to give a seminar at my old Uni, UWE, on Thursday, on the research we've been doing on the military services industry (which should lead to a SIPRI publication fairly soon, so watch this space.)
But also got to a talk by a couple of Palestinian academics earlier in the day, who are doing a tour of Britain. They were promoting academic links between western and Palestinian academia, and also an academic boycott of Israel. I've always tended to support this on the grounds that any way of driving home to Israeli society just how unacceptable Israel's actions are - breaking the illusion of normalcy - is to the good. But Paul had some fairly cogent arguments afterwards that this particular tactic isn't likely to be all that effective, and that economic boycotts are the way to go. Not sure now. Perhaps targetted boycotts of institutions with specific involvement in the occupation.
Anyway, my seminar went down well, with a reasonable audience having been advertised a bit beyond the department, and it was good to catch up with all the Economics folks.
Friday I had free, stopped off in Oxford for lunch with ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) shreena, then on to Hayes to meet Iain WINOLJ who I was staying with for the weekend. More beer ensued, as well as curry, which is one of the things Stockholm doesn't do so well.
Saturday was the original purpose of the trip, a meeting of Economists for Peace and Security (UK) (publishers of the online Economics of Peace and Security Journal I'm involved with). Then a quick visit to the Forbidden Planet megastore and on to a demo opposite Downing Street calling for an end to the seige of Gaza that happened to be on that day. Not a fantastic turnout, but not too bad and made a reasonable amount of noise. On which, the stoppage of fuel supplies by Israel has now led to the UN having to stop food distribution. Which is apparently still not bad enough for anyone to care. My prediction? There will be Gazans dying of malnutrition before very long. Israel is just pushing that envelope out little by little, and every time they get no serious response from the rest of the world, they push it just a little further.
So, back to Iain & Rachel's after that and well now it seems kinda out of place to squee about Doctor Who, but there we are. Anyway, good to catch up with them too. Iain is now brewing actually decidedly drinkable lemon beer. Then Sunday met up with Laura WINOLJ who I knew from Bristol and Bil'in. Then Heathrow and home.
Got home rather horribly late last night. I have realised that 5 and a half hours sleep just doesn't seem to work for me any more.
Spring has very definitely sprung here in Stockholm. Thoroughly gorgeous weather, and will hopefully start using my bike rather more. Last Sunday I cycled along the main road across my island, and carried on until I ran out of island, then turned back. About 55km in all.
But, on the getting a sensible night's sleep note, I'd better call it a night for now.
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01:48 am
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Speculating on starvation
Probably anyone who's been vaguely following the news has seen the reports of rising basic food prices, global hunger increasing for the first time in many years, riots resulting in various countries - the World Bank President said today that it could mean putting back the fight against poverty by 7 years.
Like, I suspect many people, I'd heard of biofuels as being one of the major causes of the problem - supposed to be the way we can stop global warming while keeping driving, but now revealed as basically involving BURNING FOOD. George Monbiot was going on about this ages ago, but he's one of those lefty journalists that liberals like to dismiss as too ranty and polemic, poo poo, Cassandra, poo poo. Other factors I've often seen mentioned include increasing demand from China and India's rapid economic growth, and global warming reducing crop yields. I must admit to not having followed this in detail.
So this article is one of the first I've seen going into detail about another major factor, which is commodity speculation. With the fall of the dollar, speculators looking for a safe reserve have gone into food commodities as an alternative, massively pushing up prices. So poor people are not only competing with western drivers for the world's food supply (which is already monumentally fucked up), but with global investment funds pushing blocks of food around as virtual casino chips. For which... there are no words.
Capitalism is fucked up. Irredeemably so. You can focus on an issue for reforming it, like debt for example, and with enough public pressure you might get some real progress that actually ameliorate some of the system's worst excesses. Which is worth doing, because it will mean less people dying than if you didn't make that effort. But Capitalists will always be looking for new ways of gaining and protecting wealth, regardless of the effect on human beings. So long as this system drives the world, whenever you patch up one tear you'll soon find another opening up somewhere else.
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11:26 am
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BAE Pwned?
The UK High Court has ruled that the Serious Fraud Office acted unlawfully in calling off its investigation into BAE Systems arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The case was brought by Campaign Against Arms Trade and The Cornerhouse.
(See here and here for some of my previous posts on the subject.)
Not sure yet whether this means they'll have to re-open it (of course it wasn't the SFO's decision, except in the technical sense, it was Blair's), but still very good news, and many congratulations to Ann and Nick and all the others at CAAT who have put a monumental amount of work into this. Having been involved myself on the Steering Committee in CAAT's decision-making around this (and in particular on the BAE spying subplot), very pleased on a personal level too.
Update: Aha, surprisingly enough Yahoo News comes through before the Beeb or the Grauniad. Judges to make further ruling on what happens next. Most likely that SFO will have to reconsider the decision. Nick G. also replied to my querying text with: "Nature of court intervention still argue but fantastic win nevertheless!" Indeed!
Tags: arms trade, caat, corruption, wolfram & hart (uk)
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10:51 pm
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Travel plans again
Something of a change of plan - it seems I will be wanted at work for the period just before the Ankara conference (which is 11-13 June) - it's the SIPRI Yearbook launch, so all hands on deck for that. So instead I will take holday after the conference, (not going to the other thing), visiting Istanbul then going to Bulgaria, and thence home to Stockholm. The weekend in London for the Bardcamp reunion will be just a weekend in London.
Judging by the air fares at the moment, that reduces the price differential somewhat, though not by much. Anyway, following the discussion on the last post, I am fairly sure I will take the train. Combining the Sofia-London and London-Stockholm journeys as recommended by The Man in Seat 61, I come up with the following itinerary:
Day 1: car to Svilengrad, then the 05:05 (guuuuuh) Balkan Express to Sofia, arriving 11.40. Then catch the sleeper from Sofia to Vienna at 12:40
Day 2: Arrive Vienna 08:57. Spend the day in Vienna. Then the 20:35 overnight train to Cologne.
Day 3: Arrive Cologne 08:42. Spend the day in Cologne. Then catch the 22:58 overnight from Cologne to Copenhagen.
Day 4: Arrive Copenhagen 09:59, then get the 12:31 to Stockholm, arriving 17:35.
Alternatively, I expect there are quicker ways of doing the Cologne to Stockholm journey. Ah, yes, I can get a train from Cologne 10:49 on day 3, arriving (via various changes) at Copenhagen 20:35, then there are any number of trains hopping across the bridge to Malmö, and then I can get the 23:08 from Malmö, arriving in Stockholm Day 4 at 07:47. (Which seems to be rather a lot cheaper than the fancy tilting train Seat 61 suggests from Copenhagen to Stockholm).
I could even go straight into work on day 4. So long as they're not expecting me to do anything involving the use of my brain.
Tags: travel
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12:10 am
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Travel plans
I am pondering a great journey. No, not Palestine this time, this one is a crazy composite journey in May/June of this year.
The fixed points of this journey are as follows:
On Saturday the 31st May is the Bardcamp reunion in London, so I will be flying Stockholm to London on the 30th.
The 11th-13th June is a conference in Ankara - the annual conference on Economics & Security, where I will be presenting a paper.
Between times, I will be visiting my mother in S. East Bulgaria, and hopefully spend a day or so in Istanbul.
To add to the crazy, almost immediately after the conference I may well be attending a SUPER-SEKRIT event in Paris. Which would mean flying back to Stockholm on the 14th, picking up some stuff and spending one or maybe two nights at home, before flying out to Paris.
Yeah, a lot of flying. Bad, bad stuff. I can pay some carbon offsets, but I know there's an awful lot of question marks about whether they really work. Probably better than not ofsetting, but still.
Anyway, so the only missing piece of this jigsaw is the London-Bulgaria stage. In that, as there's a fair bit of time between the 31st and the 10th, I am actually contemplating getting the train across Europe instead of flying for that leg.
( the details )
So, the pros and cons:
For the plane:
- Two extra days, to spend either at my mum's or in Istanbul
- £80 saved
For the train:
- One less flight, even if it is offset, and the accompanying smug glow of virtue even if I am getting four other flights within the space of three weeks.
- Reliving the glory days of my youth, Inter-railing across Europe
- Getting to see all teh awesome places and scenery inbetween, albeit mostly out the window.
- Like, showing that it can be done - it is still possible to travel long distances other than by plane in this world.
Hum. The train idea is rather appealing. But the plane seems more sensible, even accounting for the carbon. (Like, supposing carbon offsets are only 50% effective, I could offset double and still save.) It is annoying that planes are not only faster but cheaper than trains.
Well, one can hardly make an entry like this without putting in a poll:
Poll #1164882
Open to: All, results viewable to: AllHow should I travel from London to Sofia?
Tags: family, travel, work
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01:30 am
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Meanwhile in Tibet
I often feel I don't post enough about things like Tibet and Darfur, where it's not "Us" in the West that are so much the bad guys. (OK, I could have finished that sentence after the seventh word). The left gets accused of this quite a lot. Partly I think it's entirely proper that one focuses on the wrongs one is most able to affect via the governments one elects. (Though living in neutral Sweden, I am still a voter in warlike Britain.) Plus there's the whole "take the beam out of your own eye" thing. But still.
So anyway, here is an internet petition on Tibet from Avaaz, who seem to do a fair amount of good stuff. (I note with mild amusement that UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband lists them as one of his favourite organisations on his blog.) Petitions are fairly lame, internet petitions doubly so, especially when the target is a government that doesn't have to worry about votes. But hey, they've got over 1 million signatures, which is rather impressive, and the Chinese really do want to have a happy Olympics, so maybe it can do some good.
Then again it is worth bothering Western governments about such situations, even though it's China that has more direct influence. Bush and Brown etc. say that Darfur is a terrible thing, and that China really ought to put more pressure on their allies in Khartoum; but when it comes to the whole range of issues on the agenda between, say the US or the EU and China, such as trade, terrorism, what to do about Iran, etc. - which will be things where each side will have things they want of the other, matters of quid pro quo rather than one side telling the other what to do - just how high up the list of priorities do you reckon human rights in Darfur and Tibet come? Answers on a postcard. So if public pressure in the West can push such things higher up the agenda, that is all to the good.
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11:59 pm
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Every problem a nail
Yet more craziness and slaughter in Iraq, as forces of Nouri al-Maliki's government continue their assault on the Mehdi army militia in Basra. This attack has been loudly praised by George Bush, and US and UK planes have chimed in with air attacks.
Things have been pretty horrendous in Basra, controlled by rival Shia militias (including the Badr brigade, which is the militia of al-Maliki's Dawa party.), and their rule has not been pretty, especially for women. But so this is the way to solve it? Start an all-out civil war (on top of the various other civil wars still raging in Iraq) in an attempt to destroy the official 'bad guys'?
Juan Cole is probably the best available regular commentary in English on what's going on in Iraq. He reckons (amongst others) that this move is linked to forthcoming provincial elections in Iraq in October, in which al-Maliki and the US are distinctly afraid that Muqtada al-Sadr's party, of which the Mehdi is the militia, will win in the Shia provinces. The Sadrists are strongly against the US presence in Iraq, and have at times been engaged in direct armed resistance against US and UK forces, though currently they are on ceasefire. (Not that the other Shiite parties are that thrilled about the occupation, and Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the spiritual leader of many Shia, including Maliki's party, has been a strong critic of the US presence. But US forces are what keep the government in power, so they go along.) So, destroy the militia, destroy the party may be the thinking. Whether it works is another matter, as the Sadrists are rather popular amongst the Shia, and the US - not so much.
So, Maliki, with the hand up his back moving his mouth barely hidden, vows to fight the Sadrists to the death. Attempts at negotiations are stifled. Basra - and now many other areas of southern Iraq - is turned into a warzone, the US and UK drop righteous bombs which only ever kill "militants" (except that Iraqi sources, including police and medical, have an annoying habit of revealing that actually they were civilians), and the humanitarian situation - never good, with the chronic failure of the 'rebuilding' project in Iraq to provide basic services - deteriorates further.
Thing is, it's not just Iraq. It's the same pattern in every conflict at the moment where the US see their interests as at stake. In Afghanistan, the heavy-handed military approach to dealing with the Taliban insurgency, where Coalition forces appear to be killing more civilians than the Taliban. President Hamid Karzai occasionally makes protests for form's sake, but he's not the one calling the shots. Talk to the Hand.
Then there's Somalia. Without a government since 1991, it was largely controlled by various warlords [1], although there was a theoretical Transitional Government that controlled only the town of Baidoa. In 2006, an Islamist group, the Union of Islamic Courts, captured a large chunk of territory, including the capital Mogadishu, temporarily ending the warlords' rule.
Now these were probably not an entirely nice bunch, but maybe that might have been an opportunity for, say, some sort of negotiations between the UIC and the Transitional Government? Maybe there'd have even been a vague chance of uniting the country? But noooo, the US decides (without any actual evidence) that the UIC are linked to Al-Qaida, and instead back an invasion by Ethiopia. The Ethiopians force the UIC out of Mogadishu in short order, but then comes the inevitable insurgency, plus the warlords return to Mogadishu, as always no-one is particularly keen on foreign occupation (and Somalia and Ethiopia have something of a history) and now aid agencies say that a humanitarian catastrophe is impending. Another triumph of US policy!
Then there's Palestine. Leaving aside the US's ongoing unconditional support for Israel, there's their role in the intra-Palestinian conflict between Fatah and Hamas. which has been, of course, to stoke it up as much as possible. Ever since Hamas unexpectedly won the 2006 elections, they have been doing their darndest to overturn that result, leading an international boycott of the PA, plunging the Palestinians into even deeper poverty, and opposing all attempts at dialogue between the parties, continuing to boycott the unity government that was set up early in 2007.
Then of course there was the Hamas coup in Gaza, since when that territory has been kept under siege. As I said at the time, there was a lot to suggest this was pretty much the inevitable outcome of US policy of playing the two sides against each other. But recently there's been evidence that their role was even more direct than this, with Vanity Fair claiming to have leaked documents showing that the US was arming Fatah forces under Mohammed Dahlan, their strongman in Gaza, and was seeking to orchestrate a coup against Hamas - a policy which of course went horribly wrong with Hamas winning the battle instead.
Every time, every situation, the US policy is the same. Pick an ally, decide who the bad guys are, and pursue a military solution to wipe the bad guys out, and never mind how many innocent people suffer in the process. Pretty much every case where the US's baleful influence is felt, the result is humanitarian catastrophe. You think they might have noticed by now that it doesn't work? Except at one level it does work. Doesn't solve the problem, but it does succeed in dividing and ruling, preventing any unity amongst the subject population that might oppose US interests.
One final case where things may be going a little bit differently - Pakistan. There, the US had President Musharraf as their friendly dictator, pursuing the usual strategy against Taliban insurgents in the North-West Frontier Province. Rather horribly ineffectually, and with the usual dire consequences. But in February, parliamentary elections led to the overwhelming defeat of Musharraf's allies, and a governing coalition that has left the President isolated. And now the new government, unbeholden to the US, wants to try a different approach, with more talk and less killing. No, not suddenly becoming pacifist, and yes the insurgents they're dealing with are an extremely unpleasant bunch, but now that the Pakistanis are free(r) to choose their own approach, they've decided that maybe there's a better way than fighting until every last enemy is dead, no matter the cost. Good luck to them.
I hope, hope to God that things might be a little different with a new Administration - not that evil began with Bush and every past US government was pure as the driven, but there does seem to be a strong current in US opinion that is heartily sick of perpetual war, which might just find a voice in a Democrat Whitehouse. McCain, who gets far too easy a ride in the British press, let alone the American, quite clearly represents more, even more of the same - if anything, "no more Mr. Nice Guy", and I shudder to think what the future holds if he wins.
[1]Except for the self-declared republic of Somaliland in the North, which I gather is fairly peaceful, although it is not recognised by the UN, and the region of Puntland which is likewise de-facto self-governing
Tags: iraq, palestine, peace, politics, us politics, war
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11:51 pm
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Obama
Well, I must say I'm moderately impressed with Obama's speech in response to the furore over Rev. Wright.
I mean, there were some things that made my blood boil - notably:
Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
God forbid that anyone should point out the nasty bodies in the closet of American foreign policy. And no, Mr. Obama, the origin of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not in "hateful ideologies of radical Islam", but in the fact that the nascent state of Israel forcibly expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes to make that state possible.
But I hardly expect any different from a serious US presidential candidate who pretty much has to kowtow to the Israeli lobby if they want to stand any chance. One hopes he might be slightly more inclined to listen to advisors with a more balanced view if elected, and somewhat less to the batshit insane Christian Zionist movement that has Bush's ear, but anyway.
But for the rest. I like the fact that he went beyond the platitudes about one happy united American family, and pointed out the rather obvious points about the continuing legacy of racism, continuing Black disadvantage, continuing discrimination - in fact, spelled it out in some detail. That America is in many ways still a segregated society. That he acknowledged the anger this generates, though it's not usually expressed 'in polite company'.
I liked that he didn't simply disassociate himself from Wright, but pointed out where such views come from (albeit that I would tend to think that what Rev. Wright said has much more validity than Obama gives it credit for.) "I can no more disown him than I can the black community". That he acknowledged that people can be full of contradictions.
I liked that he dared to raise the issue - if not the word - of class. Acknowledging also the anger of disadvantaged whites, but pointing out how that's been taken advantage of by the right, and how that is misdirected.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many.
(Though, ha! at 'middle class' - no-one is working class these days.)
That the struggle for racial justice has to be linked to the struggle for gender justice and economic justice:
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans - the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family.
I like also the way he turned round his criticism of Rev. Wright:
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country... is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.
Neat. Politically pretty clever.
No, I don't see Obama as some sort of messiah - wherever he comes from personally (and he has a rather more radical background than he expresses now), he is bound by the limitations of the corporate-dominated American political system. With Obama is elected all the big corporate funders on whom he depends.
But I do see something potentially positive in where he comes from and the way of thinking he represents. The view of Christianity he comes from, as is also clear from that speech - the Christ who is on the side of the poor and downtrodden against the powerful and mighty - basically a form of liberation theology, as currently repackaged by organisations like the Sojourners, whose founder Jim Wallis I gather knows Obama pretty well. Maybe his candidacy represents a chance, or is part of a chance, to reclaim American Christianity from the forces of darkness that have held sway these past 30 years. (And even if you're not a Christian, given how pervasive Christianity is in America, something that's not likely to change in the near future, that has to be a good thing.)
I don't really expect a lot of electoral politics. It is not the whole of politics, not even the most important part. Whether you get your guy elected or not, you have to keep on pushing in the streets and in your workplaces and in your church, and hassling your representatives and giving them hell, even the ones you voted for when they're not doing what you want. That's what the Right has done, and that's a large part of why they've been winning. But electoral politics do matter, and if there's one thing I learnt from 2000, it's that the difference between an apparent Tweedledum and Tweedledee can be soooo much bigger than you could possibly imagine.
And as far as electoral politics go, Obama seems to me the best on offer Stateside at the moment. For a start, the fact that he does seem to have enthused such a movement behind him could be very important, if - if it keeps going beyond November.
(Yeah, not a US voter, though I am an American citizen (dual national), aside from the fact that what happens over there has enormous implications for the whole planet. 25% of the CO2 for a start. And gosh, my brother actually (I presume) will get to vote over there in November now he's in Cali. Hmm, interesting times.)
Tags: politics
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11:36 pm
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Jeremiah
Some interesting comments from a fellow-United Church of Christ Minister on Revd. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's pastor, whom he has now repudiated over videos of a sermon in which he condemned the USA for its racism and described 9/11 as chickens coming home to roost. Also some good comments here. Hat-tip to kynn in both cases.
Inclined to agree - his language might be somewhat OTT - but basically, OMG saying true stuff about America, and clearly stuff that resonates a lot with much of America's black population. Can't have that. As the first link points out, he is also speaking in the prophetic tradition of "speaking truth to power".
One thing I haven't seen commented on though is his name. Hello, JEREMIAH! Perhaps some of those so shocked and horrified that he could say such horrid things about the Best Country in the World (TM) should go back and read what the original Jeremiah had to say about his country and its rulers, who also believed themselves to be chosen by God and unique. And how it was the FALSE prophets who insisted that everything was fine, God was on their side, God bless America Judah.
A shame that Obama's felt the need to repudiate his mentor and friend, but I don't entirely blame him. Politicians may listen and hopefully learn from prophets, but they can't afford to be quite as honest.
Tags: politics, religion
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09:08 pm
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Stoppa kriget!
Went on an anti-Iraq war demonstration today, one of a number around the world to mark the fifth anniversary of the war in a few days time. Hum, trying to find a picture. Ah, here are a few. Not such a trendy activity these days, but the turnout was better than I expected - maybe up to 1,000. Dagens Nyheter said 'hundreds', which is consistent with that.
A lot of Iraqis there, who were carrying a giganimous Iraqi flag near the head of the demo. Sweden has been very good at taking in Iraqi refugees from the war, compared to other EU countries - though now they are apparently being monumentally stupid, with the immigration authorities apparently now deciding that there is not a war in Iraq, so they can refuse asylum claims to new arrivals. (Not sure of the details, whether they're actually sending people back). Also a large number of Iraqis, principally Kurds, from a previous generation of refugees, though I imagine many of their attitudes towards the war might be (understandably) rather different.
A plus point compared to the British demos was that there was a bit of a rally at the start as well as the end. With music, including a blues band from the Left Party, who gained loads of awesome points in my books by playing A las Barricadas. Also some hip-hoppers.
Lots of chanting in Swedish of course, which makes a change from the British ones - also quite good for language in terms of getting one's mouth properly round the sounds - somewhat like. I think my favourite was
Vad tänker vi om Bush?
Illa! Illa!
Hur illa?
Skit illa! Usch! Usch! Usch!
Also nice clear, slowly-spoken speeches, which is good listening practice, as my ear is lagging badly behind my reading and even my speaking. Could actually get a reasonable proportion of what they were saying, which is encouraging.
More seriously, a young Iraqi teenager, Ayat Suleiman and her father Ismail spoke - she had been badly injured by a US cluster bomb, leaving her with 65% burns. Four of her brothers, Ishak, Yakub, Yosef and Yassin (sp?) were killed in the explosion.
Cluster munitions are weapons that spread a large number - sometimes hundreds of small submunitions or bomblets over a wide area. Delivered from land or air, their aim is to act as an area-denial weapon. This makes them fundamentally indiscriminate, and even if there are no civilians in the area at the time, a significant proportion of submunitions (even so-called 'smart' ones) fail to explode, and remain as a deadly leftover - especially as a lot of them are brightly coloured and can look like children's toys. (One of Ayat's brothers did just that and brought one home, the source of the Suleimans' tragedy.) War is always hell, but cluster bombs add one more gruesome circle. There is an international campaign to ban them.
Current Music: A las barricadas
Tags: peace, politics, sweden, war
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09:48 pm
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Logistics and life
A while since I've made a general update - not a whole lot to report it must be said - mostly the usual rounds of work and Swedish classes and choir practice and spending too much time on the internet and watching DS9.
I did spend a couple of days in Brussels the week before last, on work, which I'd totally meant to write about but you know how it is. I was at the European Defence Agency (EDA) confernce on "Commercialising Logistics?", which they'd invited SIPRI to send someone too, and which was of considerable interest as we're writing about the privatizing and outsourcing of military activities right now.
The focus of the conference was on the potential for outsourcing logistical supply for EU Crisis Management missions such as those in Chad and DRC.
( Logistical geekiness )
The best talk though was from Amer Daoudi from the World Food Programme, who'se the head of their Logistics Service. He was basically "We're the biggest logistical operation on the planet, we have 3,000 people doing this alone, we shift so many gazillion tonnes a year, we do it cheaper and faster than anyone else, over the worst terrain imaginable - you guys are amateurs!" (well, he didn't say the last bit.) Oh, and they use elephants where necessary to deliver stuff when the going gets really bad! He sort of stole the show.
Moving in rather fluffier circles, I found it very noticeable just how male-dominated the whole thing was. (Not that I should be surprised.) There were maybe an 10-15% of the participants women, but all the speakers, panellists, moderators, and all the people making questions and comments from the floor (quite a number) were men.
Also not surprisingly, very white - I think Amer Daoudi may have been the only non-white person there out of about 300. Though I can't really claim that the fluffier circles are often much better on that score.
( general pootling (SPOILER for Buffy S8.12) )
In other news, my brother is now in New York, visiting our grandmother for 10 days before going on to California where he will be living. (As mentioned here which can be unlocked now I've sent him the tunes.)
Also I have finally got round to going to the doctor over my persistent sleeping problems. I basically tend to fail at sleep a lot of the time, which is not good for my productivity or general well-being. Getting a full examination next week. Should have gone ages ago, but I am an avoidant idiot.
Tags: family, life, logistics, war, work
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12:24 am
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CaliforniadreamingicationhereIcome
So, my brother, anguscoull (no content in LJ) is emigrating from Scotland to California on Monday. He decided this a few months ago, but it's not as crazy as it sounds. Our mother is American, and we all have US citizenship (as well as British), we have relatives round SF (where he'll be living), also his dad's wife's family. So he'll have contacts, people to stay with initially while he finds work and a place to live, and he thinks SF should be a good place to develop his musical ambitions (though that has recently started going quite well here - he got a couple of gigs playing keyboard with a band whose lead singer was actually moderately famous in the 1970s.)
Anyhow, it has occured to me to put together a mix of California-themed tracks as a small going-away present. Any genre, songs mentioning California, and specifically emigration to California. For general California-themed songs, California here I come, California Dreaming and Californication (am I right in thinking that's a song as well as a TV show?) come to mind. On the emigration to California, I can think of Goodbye Muirsheen Durkin and (somewhat depressingly) Spancil Hill.
But can any of you guys think of any others? Any that mention California are good, bonus for the migration theme, and extra bonus points for any that relate to someone going there from Scotland. (Though I doubt there's so many of those. Most of the Scots went further north and didn't sing about it quite so much as the Irish.)
Well, we are a wandering family. My mum's in Bulgaria (having originally been from the US herself), I'm in Sweden, my sister's lived in Barcelona and Prague, but Angus is taking the prize for now!
Current Music: Goodbye Muirsheen Durkin
Tags: family
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10:12 pm
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On genre and boundaries
I'm currently reading George R. R. Martin's Dream Songs - a retrospective of his short fiction from his teenage fanzine efforts pretty much up to the present. Before anything else is said, let me say it is brilliant, and go read it, fan of GRRM's other stuff or no. It's an extraordinary eclectic collection, spanning sci-fi, fantasy, horror, the 'superhero' genre (though not as we know it), and many that cross these boundaries - sci-fi horrors, fantasy-sci fi, and some that defy classification.
Which is a question that gets touched upon quite frequently in the interstitial introductions where he sets the forthcoming stories against the backdrop of his life and career: what are these categories, and just when is a story to be considered sci-fi or horror or whatever.
( more on this )
Thoughts?
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01:32 am
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Addendum
Also following Bardcamp, I have serious Stan Rogers love. Alas, the CDs at Amazon UK are out of stock and bloody expensive, and the bastards won't sell MP3 download versions outside the US. But there are YouTube versions for learning tunes and dozens of sites for lyrics, and many good music shops in Stockholm, so no great trouble.
Current Music: Stan Rogers: Mary Ellen Carter
Tags: folk music
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11:38 pm
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King John
So, King John. As I said in my last post, it's a bit of an odd play, and can seem rather unsatisfactory in that the story seems a bit random in some ways, and in particular doesn't resolve itself in any satisfactory way, with John fading away and being randomly poisoned by a monk, just before the French invasion decides to pack up and go home with some sort of compromise agreement. (Both the French and the English have lost half their forces in random accidents.)
As I played John, I've pondered the play a fair bit, and so am going to suggest that, while it may not be one of the Bard's finest works, there's actually more to it than meets the eye, and it holds together rather better than at first sight.
OK, first of all forget about Robin Hood and Magna Carta, the things most associated with John's reign in the popular imagination. The former apparently wasn't so big in Shakespeare's time, and the second - well, not really a prudent subject to bring up in the time of Tudor absolutism, and Shakespeare was nothing if not an expert brown-noser. It's based very loosely around John's actual reign, though with events telescoped and re-ordered heavily, but also based in plot though not text on a contemporary work, a troublesome reign, which was much more of a Protestant propaganda piece. (So the Intro to my Penguin Shakespeare version tells me.)
( plot summary )
( the analysis )
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09:46 pm
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Bardcamp
So, last weekend was our annual marathon Shakespeare readthrough, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) bardcamp, organised by the magnificent the_alchemist, an even longer long weekend than usual this time, running from Thursday evening till Sunday. We did King Lear, King John, Edward II (Marlowe guest spot - and happy belated 444th from yesterday to the good ol' Gay Atheist Spy, so the_red_shoes informs us), Edward III (disputed but now apparently believed authentic), Henry VIII, Thomas More (a collaboration in which he apparently wrote a scene), Macbeth and Cymbeline. (The theme was Britain, at least those British-set plays we hadn't done in the Histories.)
Photographs available courtesy of mostly_a_cat. Not many of me, which is probably just as well, but I did make an icon out of one of them, as you can see.
( And so to the plays. Starting with King Lear. )
( King John )
( Edward II )
( Edward III )
( Thomas More & Henry VIII, and a roleplay )
( Sunday, shorter as running out of narrative steam here )
( On the efficacy of cross-dressing )
Apart from all this there was much folk music, always enjoy hearing romauld and taimatsu's voices, an unexpected Ceilidh called by atreic and of course much good food, drink and company. Sad to day I will probably not see most of those present for another year, or at least the best part thereof, but such is the way of things.
Spent a couple of days after at my dad's in Brum, and got home late Wednesday night. I'd somehow convinced myself that Ash Wednesday was the following Wednesday, and so was travelling all day and un-ashed. But just as well it is Lent already, as after Bardcamp my liver could do with 40 alcohol-free days.
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12:30 am
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Irony
Oh, irony of ironies! The 'yellow bulldozer' that was used today by Palestinians to drive another hole through the Gaza-Egypt border, just as the Egyptians were trying to seal it - was (as I rather suspected) a Caterpillar. You can see the logo if you look closely at the picture on the BBC News story above.
A Caterpillar, like the D9 military bulldozers that are used to destroy Palestinian homes and land, including to build the illegal wall in the West Bank, and which crushed Rachel Corrie to death - in the same town, Rafah, where a Caterpillar is now used to destroy an imprisoning wall.
Well I guess there probably aren't many other sorts of bulldozers around there, the Palestinians probably buy stuff Israel imports, so it's not really that ironic.
I'm still not buying their boots though.
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11:34 pm
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Jailbreak
For once, heartwarming scenes from Gaza.
The world's biggest jailbreak
According to Al Jazeera (above), as many as 350,000 Gazans - out of a population of 1.5m - crossed the border into Egypt today after Hamas fighters blew up two thirds of the wall guarding the border, buying vital supplies blocked by Israel, who tightened their siege still further on Friday.
See kids? Non-violent direct action does work. Even if you have to use explosives once in a while.
And good for Egypt for refusing to continue to act as Israel's co-jailer. Probably because they wouldn't dare face their people's anger if they did. I wonder if the behaviour of the Egyptian police in not trying to stop the Palestinians - as they did the day before, with teargas and gunfire - was the result or the cause of their government's decision.
Of course this is hardly a long-term solution for Gaza's problesms, but for now Israel's siege is broken, and maybe they'll have to think of a smarter way of dealing with Gaza and Hamas. And maybe Hamas'll realise that there's smarter things they can do than lobbing random rockets at Sderot, which achieve less than nothing and - while far less devastating in effect than Israel's actions - are based on exactly the same obnoxious principle of punishing an entire population for the crimes of their leaders.
Tags: palestine
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