Why the neighbors are calling the shots. By Daniel Engber
More of the incredibly complex recent history of the Middle East.
The land was under Ottoman control until World War I and then was part of independent Syria for two years. In 1920, Greater Syria (including what is now Lebanon) fell under French control. Lebanon, which the French had designated as a separate Christian state, gained independence in 1943.
Lebanon, gained independence as a separate Christian state during World War II! I am astounded.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Ambulance Clamped
The Dublin Airport Authority has voiced regret after an ambulance waiting for a seriously injured patient was clamped by airport police.
The privately-run ambulance was clamped on Saturday despite being parked in a section reserved for emergency crews.
An airport spokeswoman said the incident was 'deeply regrettable' and promised a policy review.
Paramedics had to use a cash machine to pay for the clamp's removal. Their boss said the clamping was 'mind-blowing'.
The airport said it would refund the clamping charge of 63 euros (�43; $82)."
BBC NEWS
The privately-run ambulance was clamped on Saturday despite being parked in a section reserved for emergency crews.
An airport spokeswoman said the incident was 'deeply regrettable' and promised a policy review.
Paramedics had to use a cash machine to pay for the clamp's removal. Their boss said the clamping was 'mind-blowing'.
The airport said it would refund the clamping charge of 63 euros (�43; $82)."
BBC NEWS
Iran: Objects of Emulation
Objects of Emulation are senior Ayatollahs in Qom in Iran.
Christopher de Bellaigue writing in the New York Review of Books in the middle of 2002 reports:
At the revolution's outset, most of the half-dozen "Objects of Emulation" who were living in Iran and Iraq either opposed the principle of clerical rule or remained silent about it. Qom's subsequent resistance to attempts to impose on it a uniform reading of political Islam has much to do with the pluralistic tradition of the seminary. Seminarians are free to join the study circles of the "master" they most admire. He can teach pretty much what he wants, provided he does not disseminate contentious views outside the seminary.
... which sounds very reasonable and,as he says, "pluralistic".
Compare and contrast this from last December; Mentally-ill girl who was sold for sex faces death penalty in Iran.
A teenage girl with a mental age of eight is facing the death penalty for prostitution in Iran. The trial comes only four months after the hanging of another mentally ill girl for sex before marriage in a case that has prompted a human rights lawyer to prepare a charge of wrongful execution against the presiding judge.
The girl, known as Leyla M, is in prison while the Supreme Court decides on her "acts contrary to chastity", among the most serious charges under Iranian law. Under the penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can be executed.
Possibly a little dissemniation of "contentious views outside the seminary", might be appropriate here.
Axis of Evil?
Christopher de Bellaigue writing in the New York Review of Books in the middle of 2002 reports:
At the revolution's outset, most of the half-dozen "Objects of Emulation" who were living in Iran and Iraq either opposed the principle of clerical rule or remained silent about it. Qom's subsequent resistance to attempts to impose on it a uniform reading of political Islam has much to do with the pluralistic tradition of the seminary. Seminarians are free to join the study circles of the "master" they most admire. He can teach pretty much what he wants, provided he does not disseminate contentious views outside the seminary.
... which sounds very reasonable and,as he says, "pluralistic".
Compare and contrast this from last December; Mentally-ill girl who was sold for sex faces death penalty in Iran.
A teenage girl with a mental age of eight is facing the death penalty for prostitution in Iran. The trial comes only four months after the hanging of another mentally ill girl for sex before marriage in a case that has prompted a human rights lawyer to prepare a charge of wrongful execution against the presiding judge.
The girl, known as Leyla M, is in prison while the Supreme Court decides on her "acts contrary to chastity", among the most serious charges under Iranian law. Under the penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can be executed.
Possibly a little dissemniation of "contentious views outside the seminary", might be appropriate here.
Axis of Evil?
Toothache man finds nail in skull
A Colorado man who went to the dentist complaining of toothache found he had a 4-inch (10cm) nail in his skull.
A lucky guy it seems, but then the last line of the story says:
Doctors at the hospital said it was the second time a patient had failed to notice a nailgun had fired a nail into their heads.
Which makes it sound like just another day in the office.
A lucky guy it seems, but then the last line of the story says:
Doctors at the hospital said it was the second time a patient had failed to notice a nailgun had fired a nail into their heads.
Which makes it sound like just another day in the office.
Friday, February 11, 2005
Prince of Wales
If he knew the meaning of the word honour, Prince Charles would choose once and for all between private life and public duty. But he doesn't, and he never has, so he won't - he will simply continue, in the typical soft, decadent style that marks every aspect of his life, to demand the best of both worlds.
Julie Burchill sticks it to Charles in the Times.
We had a street party in Cardiff on the occasion of the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969. I can remember the trestle tables and the souvenir mugs quite clearly even though it was more than 35 years ago and I was only eight.
It seems almost inconceivable that people would celebrate like that these days. In my case male pattern baldness means that I have been deprived of a forelock to tug anyway.
Julie Burchill sticks it to Charles in the Times.
We had a street party in Cardiff on the occasion of the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969. I can remember the trestle tables and the souvenir mugs quite clearly even though it was more than 35 years ago and I was only eight.
It seems almost inconceivable that people would celebrate like that these days. In my case male pattern baldness means that I have been deprived of a forelock to tug anyway.
El Vergel
We lunched on churrasco palta, a torta, mussel empanada and tortilla followed by cheese cake and washed down with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon yesterday for just £18 for the two of us. Everyone eats together on a long wooden table.
Jane stumbled on on El Vergel when she was on jury service - there are two courts in the vicinity.
I can cross Chile off the list now in my project to eat my way around the world in London. I have also learned that there is a - to me unexpected - German influence on Chilean food to which we owe completos - frankfurter in a roll with avocado, mayo, tomato and onion.
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Baluchistan
It seems that the Baluchis, in Kuwait - and for that matter, I suppose, everywhere else come from Baluchistan, a place of which I do not ever recall hearing.
Its a province of Pakistan apparently and contains the Makran desert through which Alexander the Great lead his troops at such terrible cost on the way back from India to Babylon and is also one of the places that Bin Laden was rumoured to be holed up.
It really is amazing how much information seems to fail to stick with me, I feel if I have done little but read and learn about Alexander for the last few months.
Its a province of Pakistan apparently and contains the Makran desert through which Alexander the Great lead his troops at such terrible cost on the way back from India to Babylon and is also one of the places that Bin Laden was rumoured to be holed up.
It really is amazing how much information seems to fail to stick with me, I feel if I have done little but read and learn about Alexander for the last few months.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
The Crescent
We are meeting at the nearest pub to Mornington Crescent tube station at 6:30 this evening.
This means that after tonight we will have completed our project at drinking our way around all 30 Northern Line tube stations south of and including Camden Town and will be looking for a new project for Wednesday nights.
This means that after tonight we will have completed our project at drinking our way around all 30 Northern Line tube stations south of and including Camden Town and will be looking for a new project for Wednesday nights.
The Perpetrator's Prejudice
The English Centre of International PEN has sent Open Letter to Charles Clarke on
The proposed offence of 'incitement of religious hatred' in the Serious and Organised Crime and Police Bill, signed by a long and impressive list of writers.
I happen to agree with the PEN letter, but the backlash againt the bill is too little, too late. The flawed, absurd and corrosive notion of hate crime, has already buried itself too deeply in too many institutions.
In the UK, for example, the Association of Police Officers (ACPO) has a Hate Crime Manual in which we are told that "hate crime is taken to mean any crime where the perpetrator's prejudice against an identifiable group of people is a factor in determining who is victimised".
This is how the rot sets in. Firstly, attention is deflected from the definite human victims of genuine crimes, to abstract communities of the victimised. And secondly, the hair splitting effort required to decide if an offence can be classified as a hate crime, will inevitably result in an atmosphere in which the same act is regarded as more reprehensibe if it is a hate crime than if it is not.
We can dawdle further with ACPO's cheese paring, and remember that this is how the police are being instructed by their most senior officers.
Domestic violence is not included within this guide. Many of its features are not common to hate crime as defined here. Specific guidance to ensure that domestic violence is dealt with effectively and sensitively is best given in a separate document. It is recognised that domestic violence can be racist or homophobic. Such hate crimes must be dealt with in line with guidance for domestic violence as well as with the hate crime guidance provided here.
But, let's cut to the chase. Where does this mind set lead? Last week, the BBC reported that the UN HAD RULED OUT GENOCIDE IN DARFUR. As Mark Steyn said,
That's great news, isn't it? For as yet another Annan-appointed UN committee boldly declared in December: "Genocide anywhere is a threat to the security of all and should never be tolerated." So thank goodness this isn't genocide. Instead, it's just 70,000 corpses who all happen to be from the same ethnic group - which means the UN can go on tolerating it until everyone's dead, and Polly and Clare don't have to worry their pretty little heads about it.
It's worse you see when "the perpetrator's prejudice against an identifiable group of people is a factor".
The proposed offence of 'incitement of religious hatred' in the Serious and Organised Crime and Police Bill, signed by a long and impressive list of writers.
I happen to agree with the PEN letter, but the backlash againt the bill is too little, too late. The flawed, absurd and corrosive notion of hate crime, has already buried itself too deeply in too many institutions.
In the UK, for example, the Association of Police Officers (ACPO) has a Hate Crime Manual in which we are told that "hate crime is taken to mean any crime where the perpetrator's prejudice against an identifiable group of people is a factor in determining who is victimised".
This is how the rot sets in. Firstly, attention is deflected from the definite human victims of genuine crimes, to abstract communities of the victimised. And secondly, the hair splitting effort required to decide if an offence can be classified as a hate crime, will inevitably result in an atmosphere in which the same act is regarded as more reprehensibe if it is a hate crime than if it is not.
We can dawdle further with ACPO's cheese paring, and remember that this is how the police are being instructed by their most senior officers.
Domestic violence is not included within this guide. Many of its features are not common to hate crime as defined here. Specific guidance to ensure that domestic violence is dealt with effectively and sensitively is best given in a separate document. It is recognised that domestic violence can be racist or homophobic. Such hate crimes must be dealt with in line with guidance for domestic violence as well as with the hate crime guidance provided here.
But, let's cut to the chase. Where does this mind set lead? Last week, the BBC reported that the UN HAD RULED OUT GENOCIDE IN DARFUR. As Mark Steyn said,
That's great news, isn't it? For as yet another Annan-appointed UN committee boldly declared in December: "Genocide anywhere is a threat to the security of all and should never be tolerated." So thank goodness this isn't genocide. Instead, it's just 70,000 corpses who all happen to be from the same ethnic group - which means the UN can go on tolerating it until everyone's dead, and Polly and Clare don't have to worry their pretty little heads about it.
It's worse you see when "the perpetrator's prejudice against an identifiable group of people is a factor".
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Drinking in Dubai
I have started to wonder about booze in the run up to the Dubai trip. According to DubaiCityGuide.com, alcohol is available in all clubs and restaurants and pubs/bars, that are located in hotels. Restaurants outside a hotel are not allowed to sell or serve alcohol. Muslims are not permitted to buy alcohol. Residents need an Alcohol License to purchase alcohol.
Someone who's been there however has told me that you do see Arabs drinking as well, but that they wrap paper napkins around the bottom of the glasses to disguise the contents.
Someone who's been there however has told me that you do see Arabs drinking as well, but that they wrap paper napkins around the bottom of the glasses to disguise the contents.
New Balls Please
A Welsh rugby fan cut off his own testicles after his team beat England, police confirmed today.
The man was rushed to hospital after the incident at Leigh Social Club in Caerphilly, South Wales.
A Gwent Police spokeswoman said: "We received a call from the ambulance service at approximately 9pm on the 5th to inform us of a situation at the Leigh Social Club in which a man had indeed severed his own testicles."
She said the man was taken to Heath Hospital but could not confirm his condition.
It was reported that the man told his friends: "If Wales win I'll cut my own balls off."
After the 11-9 victory in the Six Nations clash, the man is reported to have gone outside and severed his testicles before bringing them back into the club to show fellow drinkers.
A local was reported as saying that the man was on medication and should not have been drinking.
ThisisLondon
The man was rushed to hospital after the incident at Leigh Social Club in Caerphilly, South Wales.
A Gwent Police spokeswoman said: "We received a call from the ambulance service at approximately 9pm on the 5th to inform us of a situation at the Leigh Social Club in which a man had indeed severed his own testicles."
She said the man was taken to Heath Hospital but could not confirm his condition.
It was reported that the man told his friends: "If Wales win I'll cut my own balls off."
After the 11-9 victory in the Six Nations clash, the man is reported to have gone outside and severed his testicles before bringing them back into the club to show fellow drinkers.
A local was reported as saying that the man was on medication and should not have been drinking.
ThisisLondon
Intolerable Cruelty
I watched Intolerable Cruelty last night for the first time since it was out in the cinema. Thought again that it was hilarious.
Herb Myerson - the intestineless - head of the law firm, speaks for his noble profession.
"I'm going to talk to you about the law. We serve the law. We honor the law. And sometimes, we obey the law. But this is not one of those times."
Herb Myerson - the intestineless - head of the law firm, speaks for his noble profession.
"I'm going to talk to you about the law. We serve the law. We honor the law. And sometimes, we obey the law. But this is not one of those times."
Monday, February 07, 2005
Maximum City
Suketu Mehta's astonishing story of Bombay, "Maximum City" is now out in the UK and was reviewed on Saturday in the Times.
This should be a depressing and disturbing book. The relentless thuggery and brutality of the street life that he describes is harrowing, and the venal corruption of the police and politicians implies an irredeemable civic breakdown.
Somehow however you come away from the book with an impression of the unquenchable vitality of the city and its inhabitants. At one part Mehta tentatively proposes a parallel between Mumbai's robust politics with the US Democratic party politial machines like Tammany Hall in New York in the latter part of the 19th Century, and perhaps that does offer a glimmer of hope that the process may evolve into something better.
This BBC report of slum clearances in Annabhau Sattenagar last week suggests nothing is going to change soon.
This should be a depressing and disturbing book. The relentless thuggery and brutality of the street life that he describes is harrowing, and the venal corruption of the police and politicians implies an irredeemable civic breakdown.
Somehow however you come away from the book with an impression of the unquenchable vitality of the city and its inhabitants. At one part Mehta tentatively proposes a parallel between Mumbai's robust politics with the US Democratic party politial machines like Tammany Hall in New York in the latter part of the 19th Century, and perhaps that does offer a glimmer of hope that the process may evolve into something better.
This BBC report of slum clearances in Annabhau Sattenagar last week suggests nothing is going to change soon.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Secrets of wartime spies revealed
Among the other wartime secrets in the book Nigel West is that British agents painted one foot blue in an attempt to fool German spies.
It makes the Goon Show sound like a documentary.
It makes the Goon Show sound like a documentary.
Friday, February 04, 2005
Diwana Bhel Poori House
Stumbled accross the Diwana Bhel Poori House in Drummond Street when I was out in Euston earlier this week. Looks like I have finally found somewhere in London where I can get the Bombay street and beach food I have been looking for.
Still looking for Vada Pav though.
Still looking for Vada Pav though.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
The Hours
There are many fine moments in Stephen Daldry's lugubrious 2002 film The Hours, but one gag is improved by a little background knowledge.
In the film Virginia (Nicole Kidman behind comedy nose)and Leonard Woolf are languishing in dull, provincial Richmond in Surrey. When I worked in Richmond, our offices were only a few doors away from the building in which they founded the Hogarth Press.
In the scene below Leonard catches Virginia at the train station as she is running away to London because she can't stand the isolation. Richmond Station, incidently, is about 5 minutes from their house.
Richmond to the centre of London takes about twenty minutes. You can see a timetable here.
I think she could have got from her house to Bloomsbury in about half an hour with a following wind.
It takes most kids longer than that to get to school. Its scarcely exile in Siberia.
In the film Virginia (Nicole Kidman behind comedy nose)and Leonard Woolf are languishing in dull, provincial Richmond in Surrey. When I worked in Richmond, our offices were only a few doors away from the building in which they founded the Hogarth Press.
In the scene below Leonard catches Virginia at the train station as she is running away to London because she can't stand the isolation. Richmond Station, incidently, is about 5 minutes from their house.
Richmond to the centre of London takes about twenty minutes. You can see a timetable here.
I think she could have got from her house to Bloomsbury in about half an hour with a following wind.
It takes most kids longer than that to get to school. Its scarcely exile in Siberia.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Dubai
I have booked our trip to Dubai for late in April, so its time to start trying to learn more about it.
By the turn of the 20th century Dubai was a sufficiently prosperous port to attract settlers from Iran, India and Baluchistan, while the souk on Deira side was thought to be the largest on the coast, with some 350 shops. The facilities for trade and free enterprise were enough to make Dubai a natural haven for merchants who left Lingah, on the Persian coast, after the introduction of high customs dues there in 1902. These people were mostly of distant Arab origin and Sunni, unlike most Persians, and naturally looked across to the Arab shore of the Gulf finally making their homes in Dubai. They continued to trade with Lingah, however, as do many of the dhows in Dubai Creek today, and they named their district Bastakiya, after the Bastak region in southern Persia.
Meanwhile a flourishing Indian population had also settled in Dubai and was particularly active in the shops and alleys of the souk. The cosmopolitan atmosphere and air of tolerance began to attract other foreigners too: by the 1930s, nearly a quarter of the 20,000 population was foreign, including 2,000 Persians, 1,000 Baluchis, many Indians and substantial communities from Bahrain, Kuwait and the Hasa province in eastern South Arabia. Some years later the British also made it their center on the coast, establishing a political agency in 1954.
Seems extraordinarily that it is reported as so mixed and relaxed when you think that it is so near to Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and faces Iran across the Persian Gulf.
By the turn of the 20th century Dubai was a sufficiently prosperous port to attract settlers from Iran, India and Baluchistan, while the souk on Deira side was thought to be the largest on the coast, with some 350 shops. The facilities for trade and free enterprise were enough to make Dubai a natural haven for merchants who left Lingah, on the Persian coast, after the introduction of high customs dues there in 1902. These people were mostly of distant Arab origin and Sunni, unlike most Persians, and naturally looked across to the Arab shore of the Gulf finally making their homes in Dubai. They continued to trade with Lingah, however, as do many of the dhows in Dubai Creek today, and they named their district Bastakiya, after the Bastak region in southern Persia.
Meanwhile a flourishing Indian population had also settled in Dubai and was particularly active in the shops and alleys of the souk. The cosmopolitan atmosphere and air of tolerance began to attract other foreigners too: by the 1930s, nearly a quarter of the 20,000 population was foreign, including 2,000 Persians, 1,000 Baluchis, many Indians and substantial communities from Bahrain, Kuwait and the Hasa province in eastern South Arabia. Some years later the British also made it their center on the coast, establishing a political agency in 1954.
Seems extraordinarily that it is reported as so mixed and relaxed when you think that it is so near to Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and faces Iran across the Persian Gulf.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Jackson Boomlet
According the Evening Standard, the citizens and businesses of Santa Maria are set for a huge economic boost for a few months as a side effect of the Michael Jakson trial circus. Demand for pole dancers is up (a key 21st century economic indicator) and a coffee shop is charging $265 an hour for internet access.
The only people not preparing are at the shopping centre's music store, where a single Michael Jackson CD stands out in its loneliness. 'We just don't have a big call for Michael Jackson any more,' said an assistant.
The only people not preparing are at the shopping centre's music store, where a single Michael Jackson CD stands out in its loneliness. 'We just don't have a big call for Michael Jackson any more,' said an assistant.
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