Hundreds of people have died in the new attacks made by the Sudanese military against towns and villages in southern Darfur.
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Occupation Army Kills Mother, 4 Children Among 11 Palestinians
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Continued Israeli extra-judicial killing of Palestinians would have a similar effect. IOF wanton killing has claimed the lives of eleven Palestinians since January 17. Early Wednesday, an IOF mortar shell killed a 3-year-old Palestinian girl in the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Deir Al-Balah, and injured four others. On Tuesday, more than 40 IOF military vehicles have stormed into and imposed curfew on the Palestinian village of Saida, near Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, detaining scores of Palestinians. On Monday, IOF soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who allegedly was “in a no-go zone” near the Karni crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. His body was handed over to Palestinian authorities Tuesday night but his identity was still unknown on Wednesday. The same day Yaser Jabarin, 30, succumbed to wounds he received when IOF troops opened fire on his car in the southern West Bank town of Thahyria on December 26. During the Muslim festivity of Eid Al Adha, IOF shot dead three Palestinian children: Salah Abuleish, 13, Salahudddin Iqab Daraghmah, 12, Mohammad Hosni Abu Errub, 15, and 19-year old Fata Eddin Mohammad Al-Khouri, in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Earlier, the IOF killed Nidal Abdul Hakim Sadeq, 19, and Ahmad Mahmoud Ashoor, 20, on a bypass road (Kissufim) leading from Israel to the illegal Jewish settlement bloc of Gush Katif. The latest killings raised the Palestinian death toll to 3,818 since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada (uprising) against the 37-year old Israeli occupation on September 28, 2000.
Quote:
Continued Israeli extra-judicial killing of Palestinians would have a similar effect. IOF wanton killing has claimed the lives of eleven Palestinians since January 17. Early Wednesday, an IOF mortar shell killed a 3-year-old Palestinian girl in the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Deir Al-Balah, and injured four others. On Tuesday, more than 40 IOF military vehicles have stormed into and imposed curfew on the Palestinian village of Saida, near Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, detaining scores of Palestinians. On Monday, IOF soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who allegedly was “in a no-go zone” near the Karni crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. His body was handed over to Palestinian authorities Tuesday night but his identity was still unknown on Wednesday. The same day Yaser Jabarin, 30, succumbed to wounds he received when IOF troops opened fire on his car in the southern West Bank town of Thahyria on December 26. During the Muslim festivity of Eid Al Adha, IOF shot dead three Palestinian children: Salah Abuleish, 13, Salahudddin Iqab Daraghmah, 12, Mohammad Hosni Abu Errub, 15, and 19-year old Fata Eddin Mohammad Al-Khouri, in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Earlier, the IOF killed Nidal Abdul Hakim Sadeq, 19, and Ahmad Mahmoud Ashoor, 20, on a bypass road (Kissufim) leading from Israel to the illegal Jewish settlement bloc of Gush Katif. The latest killings raised the Palestinian death toll to 3,818 since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada (uprising) against the 37-year old Israeli occupation on September 28, 2000.
The end of days: a self-fulfilling prophecy
I wonder how a specialist of the Reformation can in the end hope that the United Kingdom could be a bridge between the "real old Europe" of the US Christian fundamentalists and Europe. He of all people should know that there can´t be any bridge building until the religious fervor has been exhausted by wars and spilled blood. In the pre-modern Europe the Reformation unleashed wars that raged 130 years before people confessing different branches of Christianity were weary enough to live side by side. And now the US must be defeated, maybe several times, so that it´s foreign policy goals don´t succeed - and then they maybe weary enough to embrace a more secular worldview.
I wonder how a specialist of the Reformation can in the end hope that the United Kingdom could be a bridge between the "real old Europe" of the US Christian fundamentalists and Europe. He of all people should know that there can´t be any bridge building until the religious fervor has been exhausted by wars and spilled blood. In the pre-modern Europe the Reformation unleashed wars that raged 130 years before people confessing different branches of Christianity were weary enough to live side by side. And now the US must be defeated, maybe several times, so that it´s foreign policy goals don´t succeed - and then they maybe weary enough to embrace a more secular worldview.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Greenhouse effect may raise the Earth´s average temperature as much as 11,5 degrees Celsius. More and more. Inaction endangeres the future of whole humanity.
60 years from the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Lots of stuff about this in the web, but I am bothered by the ease by how world leaders, who themselves many have started bloody conflicts and have done little to stop other conflicts, can come to Auschwitz and start preaching how awful the Holocaust was and how we must never again allow such things to happen and how sorry they are and how they and their countries are ready to accept their guilt etc. Inaction for today´s victims, praise for those that have lain dead for 60 years. As they say, words are cheap.
They should start by ending the many conflicts that are raging around the world today. I couldn´t imagine a better way to commemorate the memory of the people killed in Auschwitz than saving the lives of people that can still be saved. In Aceh, in Chechnya, in the DR of Congo, in Darfur, in Iraq, in Palestine etc. These world leaders could bring justice and peace to places like Western Sahara and Palestine tomorrow if they would want to, and could do much to promote peace in such messy places like DR of Congo, where maybe over 6 million people have died in the last 7 years of fighting. Imagine that - 6 million people. And the world is obsessed with terrorists, that have killed thousands of people... But no.
It´s easier to be apolegetic and speak poetically about crimes that happened 60 years ago than to do something to help the victims of today. Certainly the victims of Auschwitz deserve to be remembered, but the thing is, there is nothing we can do to help those that are dead. We can only help those that are still alive and can be saved. In a world where there is an ongoing genocide - not an industrial genocide which the Holocaust is usually seen to be, somewhat wrongly when it comes to parts of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union - that claims more and more lives, it´s something of a travesty to speak those noble words in Oswieczim and then to do nothing in Darfur.
They should start by ending the many conflicts that are raging around the world today. I couldn´t imagine a better way to commemorate the memory of the people killed in Auschwitz than saving the lives of people that can still be saved. In Aceh, in Chechnya, in the DR of Congo, in Darfur, in Iraq, in Palestine etc. These world leaders could bring justice and peace to places like Western Sahara and Palestine tomorrow if they would want to, and could do much to promote peace in such messy places like DR of Congo, where maybe over 6 million people have died in the last 7 years of fighting. Imagine that - 6 million people. And the world is obsessed with terrorists, that have killed thousands of people... But no.
It´s easier to be apolegetic and speak poetically about crimes that happened 60 years ago than to do something to help the victims of today. Certainly the victims of Auschwitz deserve to be remembered, but the thing is, there is nothing we can do to help those that are dead. We can only help those that are still alive and can be saved. In a world where there is an ongoing genocide - not an industrial genocide which the Holocaust is usually seen to be, somewhat wrongly when it comes to parts of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union - that claims more and more lives, it´s something of a travesty to speak those noble words in Oswieczim and then to do nothing in Darfur.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Bloodiest day yet for US troops in Iraq, as 35 US marines and one army soldier die. This is the way to go. More.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Monday I went after a lecture and a visit to the library to a cinema to see the BBC´s nature movie "Deep Blue", which is based on the material of BBC´s "Blue Planet" -series, which was made for the TV. I had watched some of the episodes in the serie, and the movie had the same good and bad points as those episodes.
First, it´s a beautiful movie and the views of marine animals are beautiful on the big screen. Especially the animals of the deep ocean are just amazing. Secondly, there are disturbing scenes of violence. Well, nature is cruel and violence is of course part of the life in the seas, but some of the scenes felt a little bit sensational and especially the drowning of the baby whale seemed to be made as cruel as possible by the script. And I felt that the makers were putting human emotions to animals, describing the killer whales just as "killers" and trying to make the scene as weepy as possible. Anyway, in the series it was made clear what kind of role dead whales have in the ecosystem of the seas and here it lacked. I first was thinking the actions of animals in the movie too much in human terms, but then I thought the awful things that humans do to other humans all the time and even if that didn´t make the suffering of the unfortunate sea lions less sad, it certainly made me feel better. Even if the killer whales were playing with the dying sea lion, it was necessary practice for their future. One can´t say the same when one reads from the day´s newspaper about the recent violent crimes.
It was a good movie, but it ended abruptly. I would give it four stars.
First, it´s a beautiful movie and the views of marine animals are beautiful on the big screen. Especially the animals of the deep ocean are just amazing. Secondly, there are disturbing scenes of violence. Well, nature is cruel and violence is of course part of the life in the seas, but some of the scenes felt a little bit sensational and especially the drowning of the baby whale seemed to be made as cruel as possible by the script. And I felt that the makers were putting human emotions to animals, describing the killer whales just as "killers" and trying to make the scene as weepy as possible. Anyway, in the series it was made clear what kind of role dead whales have in the ecosystem of the seas and here it lacked. I first was thinking the actions of animals in the movie too much in human terms, but then I thought the awful things that humans do to other humans all the time and even if that didn´t make the suffering of the unfortunate sea lions less sad, it certainly made me feel better. Even if the killer whales were playing with the dying sea lion, it was necessary practice for their future. One can´t say the same when one reads from the day´s newspaper about the recent violent crimes.
It was a good movie, but it ended abruptly. I would give it four stars.
Friday, January 21, 2005
New bombings against Shiites in Baghdad area. Thanks to the aggression and incompetence of the US government, Iraq seems to be settling as the new Lebanon of Middle East.
Injustice and stupidity in Jerusalem.
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In July 2004, Israel's cabinet adopted a decision that was neither made public nor even published in the official government gazette, Reshumot: to apply the Absentee Property Law to East Jerusalem, and thereby to confiscate thousands of dunams of land from owners who live in the West Bank. The reason for the decision was security-related: Since in practice, West Bank residents are barred from entering East Jerusalem because of the intifada, the cabinet decided to enact an official measure that would prevent any use of these lands by their owners in the future as well, and would explicitly state that henceforth their property belongs to the State of Israel... The decision to once again apply this law has caused thousands of Palestinians, including many who live right next to their confiscated lands, to lose property overnight worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and for which no one intends to compensate them... It is impossible not to deem the cabinet's decision theft, as well as an act of state stupidity of the highest order.
Quote:
In July 2004, Israel's cabinet adopted a decision that was neither made public nor even published in the official government gazette, Reshumot: to apply the Absentee Property Law to East Jerusalem, and thereby to confiscate thousands of dunams of land from owners who live in the West Bank. The reason for the decision was security-related: Since in practice, West Bank residents are barred from entering East Jerusalem because of the intifada, the cabinet decided to enact an official measure that would prevent any use of these lands by their owners in the future as well, and would explicitly state that henceforth their property belongs to the State of Israel... The decision to once again apply this law has caused thousands of Palestinians, including many who live right next to their confiscated lands, to lose property overnight worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and for which no one intends to compensate them... It is impossible not to deem the cabinet's decision theft, as well as an act of state stupidity of the highest order.
Methane rain feeds Titan's rivers. More.
Latest images released by ESA. More (of the same) from ESA.
Latest images released by ESA. More (of the same) from ESA.
Mummy scan furore.
The CT scan carried out last week on Tutankhamun's mummy has triggered a fierce debate among archaeologists.
The CT scan carried out last week on Tutankhamun's mummy has triggered a fierce debate among archaeologists.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Indonesia has been claiming that GAM is going to attack relief workers in Aceh, whereas it will honour the truce. And today Indonesian army claims that it has killed 120 GAM fighters during the last two weeks. Of course, according to neutral sources, large part of those that Indonesian army kills claiming them to be members of GAM are just civilians that are killed to fill the quota.
Israeli army - according to it´s commander, "The most moral army in the world" - kills 2 13-year old boys in Gaza.
US strategy in the Iraq: No exit, stay forever. One wonders how they think they can achieve this and wage war against Iran at the same time. But nothing probably seems impossible to people that have God on their side - except confronting Ariel Sharon...
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Seems that the position of the president of the Harvard University will soon be open. Not a bad thing. Summers´foreign policy views are as crap as his views of the abilities of women in the field of science.
Monday, January 17, 2005
Mosaic of Huygens landing area from 8-13 kilometers up, small raw images and more sounds from Titan.
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Attempt to save the last northern white rhinos living free by airlifting them to safety is approved by the government of DR of Congo.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
US and Polish troops have caused "substantial damage" in Babylon according to a British Museum report.
Friday, January 14, 2005
After that déja-vu posting, I read Immanuel Wallerstein´s newest "Commentary".
Quote:
We shall see probably some desultory negotiations which will get nowhere. Sharon will continue to insist that Abbas arrest all those who engage in violence. Abbas will continue to refuse to do this, limiting his efforts to trying to persuade al-Aqsa, Hamas, and others to engage in an indefinite truce. When this doesn't succeed, as it will probably not, Sharon will begin to accuse Abbas of being Arafat II. Or, if Abbas does do what Sharon wants, before getting a state for the Palestinians with boundaries that are acceptable, he will lose the temporary legitimacy that he has, and probably be isolated among his people.
Israel´s Prime Murderer was quicker than even Wallerstein could have expected.
Quote:
We shall see probably some desultory negotiations which will get nowhere. Sharon will continue to insist that Abbas arrest all those who engage in violence. Abbas will continue to refuse to do this, limiting his efforts to trying to persuade al-Aqsa, Hamas, and others to engage in an indefinite truce. When this doesn't succeed, as it will probably not, Sharon will begin to accuse Abbas of being Arafat II. Or, if Abbas does do what Sharon wants, before getting a state for the Palestinians with boundaries that are acceptable, he will lose the temporary legitimacy that he has, and probably be isolated among his people.
Israel´s Prime Murderer was quicker than even Wallerstein could have expected.
As Huygens still survives on Titan - but sadly Cassini is no longer receiving the data it´s sending - this is a another "first" news from space: Opportunity seems to have found a nickel-iron meteorite in the Meridiani, which would be the first meteorite to be found from the surface of an another planet.
Huygens has landed succesfully on Titan and it has survived on the surface for over two hours. Live updates from Spaceflightnow.com.
I´m watching the press conference at ESOC from NASA TV live. Great moment!
I´m watching the press conference at ESOC from NASA TV live. Great moment!
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Extent of tsunami destruction along African coast slowly emerges
Quote:According to press reports, one person was killed in the Seychelles, one in Kenya and 13 in Tanzania. Worst affected was Somalia where, according to the BBC News website, nearly 300 people have died. In Tanzania, it is reported that mainly children were killed by the giant wave but the death toll also included three fishermen who drowned when the tsunami capsized their boat. Tanzanian fishermen have been reluctant to put to sea since the tsunami and this has led to a shortage of fish, with prices doubling or trebling. For many Tanzanians living along the coast, fish is their major source of protein... Most of the destruction in Somalia occurred in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, on the northeast coast, where an estimated 85 percent of the infrastructure has been damaged. The Hafun Peninsula has been particularly affected, with a road bridge connecting the peninsula to the mainland washed away. Other settlements in the Puntland region, including Bandar, Murdayo, Rass Caseyr and Bargul, were also hit. A recent report in Britain’s Guardian newspaper cited Hafun mayor, Abshir Abdi Tangi, saying that 51 fishing boats had been destroyed, with dozens more missing. The tsunami hit during the peak fishing season when many Somalis move to the coast and live in temporary fishing settlements. In most cases they have lost their fishing equipment, all their belongings, and any means of livelihood. In some areas the wave travelled inland for up to two miles along riverbeds. As well as destroying fishing boats and equipment, the salt water has also spoilt pastoral grasslands as well as wells and reservoirs. Access to safe fresh water is now difficult. Health problems, including pneumonia and diarrhoea, are reportedly spreading. According to the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 18,000 households or around 54,000 people have been directly affected. While the UN has conducted aerial reconnaissance of the northeast, it said the survey did not provide a complete assessment because the area is remote and harsh and accessibility difficult. The UN estimates that nearly 1,200 homes and 2,400 boats have been destroyed.
Huygens probe to descent to the surface of Titan tomorrow.
I have a bad feeling about this. I hope that I am wrong, but I bet nothing will be heard of it tomorrow.
I have a bad feeling about this. I hope that I am wrong, but I bet nothing will be heard of it tomorrow.
Is Al Qaeda Just a Bush Boogeyman?
Is it conceivable that Al Qaeda, as defined by President Bush as the center of a vast and well-organized international terrorist conspiracy, does not exist?
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Consider, for example, that neither the 9/11 commission nor any court of law has been able to directly take evidence from the key post-9/11 terror detainees held by the United States. Everything we know comes from two sides that both have a great stake in exaggerating the threat posed by Al Qaeda: the terrorists themselves and the military and intelligence agencies that have a vested interest in maintaining the facade of an overwhelmingly dangerous enemy.
Is it conceivable that Al Qaeda, as defined by President Bush as the center of a vast and well-organized international terrorist conspiracy, does not exist?
Quote:
Consider, for example, that neither the 9/11 commission nor any court of law has been able to directly take evidence from the key post-9/11 terror detainees held by the United States. Everything we know comes from two sides that both have a great stake in exaggerating the threat posed by Al Qaeda: the terrorists themselves and the military and intelligence agencies that have a vested interest in maintaining the facade of an overwhelmingly dangerous enemy.
New species may have relatives in next villlage
There´s one HUGE problem with this "brain disease" theory. People with this disease are totally and utterly helpless for their entire lives. And the best specimen of Homo floresiensis is that of a 30-year old person. How likely it would have been that a person with microcephaly could have lived to an age which a healthy person at the same era often didn´t make? I think that the answer is very close to a zero. I don´t think for a second that they would have survived in any other society than the modern industrialized one, which can afford to save their lives and care for them.
And then it´s quite questionable to link 13 000 year old remains to modern people living at the same place, even if both are dwarf sized. At least without a DNA test. And I doubt that the modern persons are aflicted with microcephaly.
There´s one HUGE problem with this "brain disease" theory. People with this disease are totally and utterly helpless for their entire lives. And the best specimen of Homo floresiensis is that of a 30-year old person. How likely it would have been that a person with microcephaly could have lived to an age which a healthy person at the same era often didn´t make? I think that the answer is very close to a zero. I don´t think for a second that they would have survived in any other society than the modern industrialized one, which can afford to save their lives and care for them.
And then it´s quite questionable to link 13 000 year old remains to modern people living at the same place, even if both are dwarf sized. At least without a DNA test. And I doubt that the modern persons are aflicted with microcephaly.
The Normalization of Horror
American Gulags Become Permanent
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American Gulags Become Permanent
Quote:
Bush plans to divide U.S. concentration camp victims into two groups. One set of "lifers" will end up in U.S.-run stalags like Gitmo's new Camp 6, built to hold 200 "detainees who are unlikely to ever go through a military tribunal for lack of evidence, according to defense officials." But not to worry: Camp 6 would "allow socializing among inmates." Others captured in the "war on terrorism" will be outsourced "to third countries willing to hold them indefinitely and without proceedings" in foreign-run gulags that pledge to make victims available for torture by American interrogators. This practice, some claim, is "an effective method of disrupting terrorist cells and persuading detainees to reveal information."
Toll of Missing, Dead in Indonesia Estimated Near 210,000
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An official document posted here says that nearly 210,000 people in Indonesia are dead or missing from the Dec. 26 tsunami, a toll that appears to be far higher than officials have reported publicly. Rescue workers think even that number may be low. The larger Indonesia toll would bring the total of dead and missing from the tidal surge across the Indian Ocean to nearly 272,000, ranking the tsunami as the fifth or sixth deadliest natural disaster in about 250 years.
Quote:
An official document posted here says that nearly 210,000 people in Indonesia are dead or missing from the Dec. 26 tsunami, a toll that appears to be far higher than officials have reported publicly. Rescue workers think even that number may be low. The larger Indonesia toll would bring the total of dead and missing from the tidal surge across the Indian Ocean to nearly 272,000, ranking the tsunami as the fifth or sixth deadliest natural disaster in about 250 years.
U.S. Lowers Expectations On Iraq Vote
Process Emphasized, Not Turnout or Results
Quote:
"I would . . . really encourage people not to focus on numbers, which in themselves don't have any meaning, but to look on the outcome and to look at the government that will be the product of these elections," a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity at a White House briefing yesterday. The official highlighted the low voter turnout in U.S. elections as evidence that polling numbers are not essential to legitimacy... For months, the administration has promoted the elections as a major milestone in its efforts to bring democracy to Iraq and then the wider Middle East and Islamic world. But the continuing insurgency and the inability of U.S. forces to stabilize Iraq almost two years after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein has forced the administration to redefine the context, goals and role of this first vote.
Process Emphasized, Not Turnout or Results
Quote:
"I would . . . really encourage people not to focus on numbers, which in themselves don't have any meaning, but to look on the outcome and to look at the government that will be the product of these elections," a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity at a White House briefing yesterday. The official highlighted the low voter turnout in U.S. elections as evidence that polling numbers are not essential to legitimacy... For months, the administration has promoted the elections as a major milestone in its efforts to bring democracy to Iraq and then the wider Middle East and Islamic world. But the continuing insurgency and the inability of U.S. forces to stabilize Iraq almost two years after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein has forced the administration to redefine the context, goals and role of this first vote.
US ignored warning on Iraqi oil smuggling
Quote:
For months, the US Congress has been investigating activities that violated the United Nations oil-for-food programme and helped Saddam Hussein build secret funds to acquire arms and buy influence. President George W. Bush has linked future US funding of the international body to a clear account of what went on under the multi-billion dollar programme. But a joint investigation by the Financial Times and Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, shows that the single largest and boldest smuggling operation in the oil-for-food programme was conducted with the knowledge of the US government. “Although the financial beneficiaries were Iraqis and Jordanians, the fact remains that the US government participated in a major conspiracy that violated sanctions and enriched Saddam's cronies,” a former UN official said. “That is exactly what many in the US are now accusing other countries of having done. I think it's pretty ironic.”
Quote:
For months, the US Congress has been investigating activities that violated the United Nations oil-for-food programme and helped Saddam Hussein build secret funds to acquire arms and buy influence. President George W. Bush has linked future US funding of the international body to a clear account of what went on under the multi-billion dollar programme. But a joint investigation by the Financial Times and Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, shows that the single largest and boldest smuggling operation in the oil-for-food programme was conducted with the knowledge of the US government. “Although the financial beneficiaries were Iraqis and Jordanians, the fact remains that the US government participated in a major conspiracy that violated sanctions and enriched Saddam's cronies,” a former UN official said. “That is exactly what many in the US are now accusing other countries of having done. I think it's pretty ironic.”
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Iran denies executing juveniles.
But it has to be said that human rights activists claim that Iran has executed, among others, mentally retarded 16-year old(according to them), that the courts claimed was in her twenties.
But it has to be said that human rights activists claim that Iran has executed, among others, mentally retarded 16-year old(according to them), that the courts claimed was in her twenties.
The western countries praise Israel´s "withdrawal" from Gaza. In the mean time, Israel continues with plans to destroy Gaza´s border area with Egypt by digging a huge moat and destroying thousands of homes. And why? To help them to continue the occupation of Gaza, of course! Aren´t those nice, humane Israelis really eager to attain peace?
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Comet Machholz has been observable here for several days now, but the skies have been clouded. So it was also today that in the early evening the sky was overcast and it rained - water. But when I went outside after eight o´clock, the sky was completely clear and I took my binoculars and went to an open field beside my home. I didn´t see the comet with my bare eyes, but it didn´t took longer than a couple of minutes to find it with the binoculars. It really wasn´t much to look at - of course, my eyes weren´t adapted to the dark yet - nothing that could really be said to be a tail, just a bright nucleus and the less bright outer part. And not a hint of the beautiful green that the photos show. But it was the first comet that I had seen in 7 years, as I missed Ikeya-Zhang.
Monday, January 10, 2005
ESA´s XMM-Newton space telescope sees individual clumps of matter racing around the black hole in the center of the galaxy Markarian 766.
Daniel Fischer wants ESA to offer as "live" feed from the Huygens mission as possible. I agree in principle, but I also understand ESA in that the mission is a tricky one and if ESA would create a huge media event and then Huygens would vanish à la Beagle 2, it would be very, very bad for ESA´s image and it´s future financing.
Mars Express is not the only Mars orbiter, which doesn´t get it´s fair share of the glory. 2001 Mars Odyssey is another one.
Mars Express is not the only Mars orbiter, which doesn´t get it´s fair share of the glory. 2001 Mars Odyssey is another one.
Mahmoud Abbas wins and gets 62,3% of the votes. Much praise from the usual suspects, but is this just another day of false hope?
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Palestinians vote in key election.
Quote:
Voting is said to be brisk in Gaza and the West Bank, but in Jerusalem hundreds of voters were turned away from an Israeli-run polling station. Former US President Jimmy Carter, who was monitoring the poll at the station, said he was unhappy with the incident. The favourite to win is ex-Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who is calling for peace talks and an end to the armed Palestinian uprising. The BBC's Paul Wood reports chaotic scenes at the largest polling station in East Jerusalem. Voters are complaining that Israeli officials are not allowing them to vote even though the Palestinian central election commission has properly registered them. One election monitor said he thought up to 500 voters had been turned away.
Quote:
Voting is said to be brisk in Gaza and the West Bank, but in Jerusalem hundreds of voters were turned away from an Israeli-run polling station. Former US President Jimmy Carter, who was monitoring the poll at the station, said he was unhappy with the incident. The favourite to win is ex-Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who is calling for peace talks and an end to the armed Palestinian uprising. The BBC's Paul Wood reports chaotic scenes at the largest polling station in East Jerusalem. Voters are complaining that Israeli officials are not allowing them to vote even though the Palestinian central election commission has properly registered them. One election monitor said he thought up to 500 voters had been turned away.
After the Palestinian Elections.
Don't expect a sea-change when Abbas succeeds Arafat.
Quotes:
It's not as if Abbas is actually changing his tune; he's simply emphasizing, as any candidate would, his fealty to the core beliefs of the vast majority of his electorate — beliefs which the U.S. media and administration have tended to ignore in their bid to project a fantasy persona onto Abbas as the White Knight who will deliver Palestinian consent to Ariel Sharon's peace terms... It'll be a lot harder for Israel and the U.S. to strike a political deal with a democratically accountable Palestinian leader than with an authoritarian national symbol such as Arafat — although such a deal might be far more durable. The Palestinian election season that begins on Sunday, runs through the legislative elections due in the Spring and extending to the internal Fatah elections that have been promised for August, are an instance of an emerging Arab democracy in action. And in the Palestinian territories, just as in Iraq, the U.S. may have to get used to the idea that the outcome it produces may not be exactly what Washington had in mind.
Don't expect a sea-change when Abbas succeeds Arafat.
Quotes:
It's not as if Abbas is actually changing his tune; he's simply emphasizing, as any candidate would, his fealty to the core beliefs of the vast majority of his electorate — beliefs which the U.S. media and administration have tended to ignore in their bid to project a fantasy persona onto Abbas as the White Knight who will deliver Palestinian consent to Ariel Sharon's peace terms... It'll be a lot harder for Israel and the U.S. to strike a political deal with a democratically accountable Palestinian leader than with an authoritarian national symbol such as Arafat — although such a deal might be far more durable. The Palestinian election season that begins on Sunday, runs through the legislative elections due in the Spring and extending to the internal Fatah elections that have been promised for August, are an instance of an emerging Arab democracy in action. And in the Palestinian territories, just as in Iraq, the U.S. may have to get used to the idea that the outcome it produces may not be exactly what Washington had in mind.
Thousands of people are still waiting for aid in Aceh as the identification of victims in Thailand becomes even harder.
After a Hezbollah attack in the occupied Shebaa area that killed one Israeli soldier, Israel bombs UN peacekeeper positions in Lebanon and kills one French peacekeeper.
Pentagon to establish and train death squads in Iraq?
Model would be the US trained death squads in El Salvador, that killed 40 000 people between 1981-84. That´s one of the reasons why the capital has been firmly in the hands of the left for years, as large part of the killings happened in there and in it´s neighbourhood.
Model would be the US trained death squads in El Salvador, that killed 40 000 people between 1981-84. That´s one of the reasons why the capital has been firmly in the hands of the left for years, as large part of the killings happened in there and in it´s neighbourhood.
Disaster Ignites Debate: ‘Was God In the Tsunami?’
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As surely as the tsunami followed the earthquake, the questions—the perennial, never-satisfactorily-resolved questions—of theodicy followed the tsunami. Theodicy, of course, is the subdiscipline of theology devoted to the attempt to reconcile the idea of an all-powerful, just and loving God who intervenes in history—the God most Western religions believe in—with the recurrence of catastrophic slaughter from "natural" causes such as tsunamis and man-made evils such as genocides.
Why do people spend so much time pondering, defending or critizing things that can´t be proved one way or the other?
Good article.
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As surely as the tsunami followed the earthquake, the questions—the perennial, never-satisfactorily-resolved questions—of theodicy followed the tsunami. Theodicy, of course, is the subdiscipline of theology devoted to the attempt to reconcile the idea of an all-powerful, just and loving God who intervenes in history—the God most Western religions believe in—with the recurrence of catastrophic slaughter from "natural" causes such as tsunamis and man-made evils such as genocides.
Why do people spend so much time pondering, defending or critizing things that can´t be proved one way or the other?
Good article.
Friday, January 07, 2005
Literary biographer Humphrey Carpenter has died at the age of 58. I have been reading his biography of the "angry young men" movement and it´s participants in the 1950´s Britain the last few weeks. So slowly, because even if Carpenter´s style is the kind I like - informative, a little bit dry and somehow very "British" - I don´t really like the book´s subjects. They were not especially nice nor politically bright men and the fact that every one of them failed more or less in their careers is a happy thing. One can´t say the same about Carpenter. He was succesful in his chosen field, and if not a great master (á la Plutarchos), then at least a master craftsman.
On this dark world falls an occasional ray of light, like the death of 9 US soldiers in Iraq, which rises the number of US dead in Iraq to 1350 and the whole number of "Coalition" casualties to 1500. So this is a happy day, a day to celebrate!
Zionists arrest Mustafa Barghouti again and forced him to leave East Jerusalem, which this all about. Stealing East Jerusalem. I don´t want to fall on stereotypes here, but the Israeli Jews are greedy bastards. They got 78% of the British Palestine. And now they want between 15% and 58% of the occupied areas.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Devastation on the east coast of Sri Lanka
Quote:
While the government puts the death toll at 13,703, the actual figure is probably twice as high. Those we spoke to, including several divisional secretaries, estimated the number killed at nearly 25,000, with more than 2,500 still missing. It is a terrible tragedy: out of a population of 512,000, nearly 5 percent or 1 in 20 are dead. Many more people have been left homeless without food, clean water and medical care. In Ampara district alone, there are nearly 100 refugee camps housing over 80,000 people. At least 166,000 people have been affected by the disaster—one in three people in the district. In the wake of the tsunami, the east coast has also been hit by monsoonal flooding, cutting roads and leaving thousands of people stranded. The district itself is divided between areas under army control and those controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). It will take weeks to establish the extent of the destruction in the district and the number of dead.
A new, cruel massacre of 18 children and young adults near Mosul.
14 year old Shia children working in a US military camp in a Sunni area where hundreds have died in fighting? Whose bright idea that was?
14 year old Shia children working in a US military camp in a Sunni area where hundreds have died in fighting? Whose bright idea that was?
US troops 'laughed as Iraqi died'
Quote:
"We started to beg them not to throw us in the water," he said through a translator.
"We said in English, 'Please, please', but it was in vain.
"The soldiers had their rifles aimed at us. They were laughing.
Quote:
"We started to beg them not to throw us in the water," he said through a translator.
"We said in English, 'Please, please', but it was in vain.
"The soldiers had their rifles aimed at us. They were laughing.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Russia, The Sick Man of Europe
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The Russian Federation today is in the grip of a steadily tightening mesh of serious demographic problems, for which the term "crisis" is no overstatement. This crisis is altering the realm of the possible for the country and its people—continuously, directly, and adversely. Russian social conditions, economic potential, military power, and international influence are today all subject to negative demographic constraints—and these constraints stand only to worsen over the years immediately ahead. Russia is now at the brink of a steep population decline—a peacetime hemorrhage framed by a collapse of the birth rate and a catastrophic surge in the death rate.
Quote:
The Russian Federation today is in the grip of a steadily tightening mesh of serious demographic problems, for which the term "crisis" is no overstatement. This crisis is altering the realm of the possible for the country and its people—continuously, directly, and adversely. Russian social conditions, economic potential, military power, and international influence are today all subject to negative demographic constraints—and these constraints stand only to worsen over the years immediately ahead. Russia is now at the brink of a steep population decline—a peacetime hemorrhage framed by a collapse of the birth rate and a catastrophic surge in the death rate.
Dump the checkpoints
Everybody knows what is needed for peace, but the leadership of Israel and US are not ready to accept that price.
Everybody knows what is needed for peace, but the leadership of Israel and US are not ready to accept that price.
Mars rover Spirit has been on Mars for a one Earth year. Hopefully either of the Mars rovers achieves a one full Mars year of operation. More.
When deadly force bumps into hearts and minds
Quote:
THERE is only one traffic law in Ramadi these days: when Americans approach, Iraqis scatter. Horns blaring, brakes screaming, the midday traffic skids to the side of the road as a line of Humvee jeeps ferrying American marines rolls the wrong way up the main street. Every vehicle, that is, except one beat-up old taxi. Its elderly driver, flapping his outstretched hand, seems, amazingly, to be trying to turn the convoy back. Gun turrets swivel and lock on to him, as a hefty marine sergeant leaps into the road, levels an assault rifle at his turbanned head, and screams: “Back this bitch up, motherfucker!” The old man should have read the bilingual notices that American soldiers tack to their rear bumpers in Iraq: “Keep 50m or deadly force will be applied”. In Ramadi, the capital of central Anbar province, where 17 suicide-bombs struck American forces during the month-long Muslim fast of Ramadan in the autumn, the marines are jumpy. Sometimes, they say, they fire on vehicles encroaching within 30 metres, sometimes they fire at 20 metres: “If anyone gets too close to us we fucking waste them,” says a bullish lieutenant. “It's kind of a shame, because it means we've killed a lot of innocent people.”
Quote:
THERE is only one traffic law in Ramadi these days: when Americans approach, Iraqis scatter. Horns blaring, brakes screaming, the midday traffic skids to the side of the road as a line of Humvee jeeps ferrying American marines rolls the wrong way up the main street. Every vehicle, that is, except one beat-up old taxi. Its elderly driver, flapping his outstretched hand, seems, amazingly, to be trying to turn the convoy back. Gun turrets swivel and lock on to him, as a hefty marine sergeant leaps into the road, levels an assault rifle at his turbanned head, and screams: “Back this bitch up, motherfucker!” The old man should have read the bilingual notices that American soldiers tack to their rear bumpers in Iraq: “Keep 50m or deadly force will be applied”. In Ramadi, the capital of central Anbar province, where 17 suicide-bombs struck American forces during the month-long Muslim fast of Ramadan in the autumn, the marines are jumpy. Sometimes, they say, they fire on vehicles encroaching within 30 metres, sometimes they fire at 20 metres: “If anyone gets too close to us we fucking waste them,” says a bullish lieutenant. “It's kind of a shame, because it means we've killed a lot of innocent people.”
Tsunami's salt water may leave islands uninhabitable
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Some Indian Ocean islands could have been made permanently uninhabitable by the salt water that flooded them during the devastating Asian tsunami of 26 December. Water experts are now warning that, in the long run, the salt invasion may prove almost as destructive to the land as the tsunami itself. It could leave some communities dependent on outside aid for food and water for months or years to come. There are widespread reports from across the stricken region that seawater has filled wells, invaded the porous rocks on which communities depend for water, and poisoned soils.
Washington prepares international network of permanent detention camps
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The Bush administration is crafting a series of measures to secure the permanent detention without trial of alleged terrorists and those it designates as enemy combatants, the Washington Post reported Sunday. In gross violation of international law, detainees may soon be held in new US-constructed prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, without access to lawyers or family members.
4500 people are missing on Katchall island in the Andaman islands. UNICEF begins to register thousands of children left orphans in Aceh, and a lone survivor from Aceh is found on sea.
The sea took everything, says asylum-seeker who lost his wife and more than 100 relatives
Quote:
Sinnathamby Ponniah's family have lived in the southern Sri Lankan village of Alliyawalai for 15 generations. Traumatised after years of civil war, they thought it was their fellow man that posed the biggest threat. But it was nature that was their undoing. "The sea snatched everything," the former fisherman now living in Britain said yesterday as he explained how more than 100 of his relatives, including his wife, Nagalauxmy, 32, and two daughters, Yasintha, 13, and Yasotha, 11, were lost in the tsunami which followed the Indian Ocean earthquake on Boxing Day. His 15-year-old son, Thanis, was one of the extended family's few survivors, eluding death by grabbing hold of a tree. It was three days before his father knew he was safe and a further two before they could talk to each other. Gone, however, are brothers, sisters, parents, cousins and grandparents. From the village's population of 17,000, some 3,000 are confirmed dead. Another 2,500 are still missing, with little hope they will be found.
Quote:
Sinnathamby Ponniah's family have lived in the southern Sri Lankan village of Alliyawalai for 15 generations. Traumatised after years of civil war, they thought it was their fellow man that posed the biggest threat. But it was nature that was their undoing. "The sea snatched everything," the former fisherman now living in Britain said yesterday as he explained how more than 100 of his relatives, including his wife, Nagalauxmy, 32, and two daughters, Yasintha, 13, and Yasotha, 11, were lost in the tsunami which followed the Indian Ocean earthquake on Boxing Day. His 15-year-old son, Thanis, was one of the extended family's few survivors, eluding death by grabbing hold of a tree. It was three days before his father knew he was safe and a further two before they could talk to each other. Gone, however, are brothers, sisters, parents, cousins and grandparents. From the village's population of 17,000, some 3,000 are confirmed dead. Another 2,500 are still missing, with little hope they will be found.
Criminals may be trafficking orphans
Quote:
Fears are growing for children orphaned in the tsunami disaster after a senior UN official warned of credible reports that criminal gangs in Indonesia are offering them for adoption or exploitation.
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Fears are growing for children orphaned in the tsunami disaster after a senior UN official warned of credible reports that criminal gangs in Indonesia are offering them for adoption or exploitation.
Carol Bellamy, executive director of Unicef, said yesterday that organised syndicates were exploiting the crisis in Aceh province. "They have been using sophisticated technology such as SMS messages to people throughout this region offering children for adoption," she said, citing reports from Unicef's partner agencies in Indonesia.
She continued: "Whether it is [for] adoption or exploitation purposes or sex trafficking, these are criminal elements so it is very important not to let them get a foothold."
Zionists murder 7 children, aged 10-17, in Gaza, and wound 11 people, 4 of them critically. Israeli army spokeswoman lied like this:
"It's unacceptable that there should be attacks upon civilians. A group of six to eight masked men were spotted firing a mortar and preparing to fire another. We opened fire and we saw we had hit them."
Of course, what happened was that they summarily murdered children and then claimed that they fired at armed men. Disgusting statement from a disgusting entity. More.
"It's unacceptable that there should be attacks upon civilians. A group of six to eight masked men were spotted firing a mortar and preparing to fire another. We opened fire and we saw we had hit them."
Of course, what happened was that they summarily murdered children and then claimed that they fired at armed men. Disgusting statement from a disgusting entity. More.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
State clampdown on `Saudi spring´.
Quote:
A few days before last week’s attack by armed militants on the US consulate in the port city of Jeddah, a scuffle was taking place outside a courthouse in the capital, Riyadh. Dozens attended the trial of the “Riyadh Triad”—the three pro-democracy activists jailed since March for calling for a constitutional monarchy. Several people, including journalists and relatives of the trio, were arrested and detained, and the trial proceeded behind closed doors. The trio’s lead attorney, Abdulrahman Al-Lahem, was also absent—he had been arrested and jailed a few weeks earlier for his criticism of judicial practices.
Quote:
A few days before last week’s attack by armed militants on the US consulate in the port city of Jeddah, a scuffle was taking place outside a courthouse in the capital, Riyadh. Dozens attended the trial of the “Riyadh Triad”—the three pro-democracy activists jailed since March for calling for a constitutional monarchy. Several people, including journalists and relatives of the trio, were arrested and detained, and the trial proceeded behind closed doors. The trio’s lead attorney, Abdulrahman Al-Lahem, was also absent—he had been arrested and jailed a few weeks earlier for his criticism of judicial practices.
The aid operation for the victims of the earthquakes and the tsunami progresses slowly. But how much of the promised cash in the end will be really paid? Sri Lanka´s fishing fleet has been obliterated by the tsunami.
US plans permanent Guantanamo jails.
Quote:
The United States is preparing to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely without trial, replacing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp with permanent prisons in the Cuban enclave and elsewhere, it was reported yesterday. The new prisons are intended for captives the Pentagon and the CIA suspect of terrorist links but do not wish to set free or put on trial for lack of hard evidence.
Isn´t American democracy great? The greatest country in the world! At least when it comes to the greatest number of bastards with heads full of piss.
Quote:
The United States is preparing to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely without trial, replacing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp with permanent prisons in the Cuban enclave and elsewhere, it was reported yesterday. The new prisons are intended for captives the Pentagon and the CIA suspect of terrorist links but do not wish to set free or put on trial for lack of hard evidence.
Isn´t American democracy great? The greatest country in the world! At least when it comes to the greatest number of bastards with heads full of piss.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
The politics of disaster.
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On Wednesday the hacks on the New Light of Myanmar, the junta's mouthpiece, admitted that 43 people had died and 25 were missing. Few believed them. Ever since Boxing Day, opponents of the regime who produce the Democratic Voice of Burma website have been receiving leads from scattered sources. An anonymous naval officer told them that a military installation on Coco Island in the Indian Ocean had been washed away. Magye Island in the Gulf of Bengalmay also had been swamped, other sources said. There were reports of the Maubin University building being torn apart, possibly by an earthquake which hit after the waves, of fishermen never returning from the sea and of villages losing dozens of inhabitants. One rumour doing the rounds says that 500 died in one district alone, and it sounds plausible. Like everyone outside the military, the opium barons and the Chinese plutocrats who have bought up much of the country, the inhabitants of the coastal districts are desperately poor. Their flimsy shacks never looked as if they could withstand a raging sea.
Quote:
On Wednesday the hacks on the New Light of Myanmar, the junta's mouthpiece, admitted that 43 people had died and 25 were missing. Few believed them. Ever since Boxing Day, opponents of the regime who produce the Democratic Voice of Burma website have been receiving leads from scattered sources. An anonymous naval officer told them that a military installation on Coco Island in the Indian Ocean had been washed away. Magye Island in the Gulf of Bengalmay also had been swamped, other sources said. There were reports of the Maubin University building being torn apart, possibly by an earthquake which hit after the waves, of fishermen never returning from the sea and of villages losing dozens of inhabitants. One rumour doing the rounds says that 500 died in one district alone, and it sounds plausible. Like everyone outside the military, the opium barons and the Chinese plutocrats who have bought up much of the country, the inhabitants of the coastal districts are desperately poor. Their flimsy shacks never looked as if they could withstand a raging sea.
Before the Next Catastrophe.
Quote:
Let’s imagine for a moment that the huge tidal waves had hit the western shores of Europe, that more than a hundred thousand English, Irish, Dutch, Belgian, French, Spanish and Portuguese had fallen victim to the tsunami, and that the east coast of the United States had also suffered. How the world would have sprung into action! How the governments would have been galvanized! What huge sums of money would have materialized within hours to save what could be saved and prevent the epidemics that threatened millions!
Quote:
Let’s imagine for a moment that the huge tidal waves had hit the western shores of Europe, that more than a hundred thousand English, Irish, Dutch, Belgian, French, Spanish and Portuguese had fallen victim to the tsunami, and that the east coast of the United States had also suffered. How the world would have sprung into action! How the governments would have been galvanized! What huge sums of money would have materialized within hours to save what could be saved and prevent the epidemics that threatened millions!
Bodies rot into the soil and poison the water in the land of death.
Quote:
Emergency supplies, meanwhile, are stacked up in a hangar at the military airfield in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, while the homeless go hungry and the sick beg for medicines. A strange air of inactivity pervades Aceh, located in the far north-west of the Indonesian archipelago, near the epicentre of the earthquake that triggered the tsunamis across the region. After a catastrophe that killed at least 80,000 people in the province and created tens of thousands of refugees, you would expect volunteers and equipment to be pouring in from all corners of a country of 200 million people and a large army and police force. But in Krueng Raya, a once pretty fishing village, locals have been left to excavate bodies from the ruins of their homes, with the help of one mechanical digger. "We need 10," says Jabar bin Yasim, the village head. More than half of the town's 7,000 inhabitants lost their lives in the disaster, which flattened Krueng Raya. Survivors are living in three crowded refugee camps, existing on the meagre hand-outs that have reached them in recent days. "This is our daily ration," says Norkyalis bin Ibrahim, angrily shaking a blue plastic mug filled with rice. "I'm hungry. The children have no milk. We are short of clean water and medicines. We are using petrol to treat infected wounds.''
Quote:
Emergency supplies, meanwhile, are stacked up in a hangar at the military airfield in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, while the homeless go hungry and the sick beg for medicines. A strange air of inactivity pervades Aceh, located in the far north-west of the Indonesian archipelago, near the epicentre of the earthquake that triggered the tsunamis across the region. After a catastrophe that killed at least 80,000 people in the province and created tens of thousands of refugees, you would expect volunteers and equipment to be pouring in from all corners of a country of 200 million people and a large army and police force. But in Krueng Raya, a once pretty fishing village, locals have been left to excavate bodies from the ruins of their homes, with the help of one mechanical digger. "We need 10," says Jabar bin Yasim, the village head. More than half of the town's 7,000 inhabitants lost their lives in the disaster, which flattened Krueng Raya. Survivors are living in three crowded refugee camps, existing on the meagre hand-outs that have reached them in recent days. "This is our daily ration," says Norkyalis bin Ibrahim, angrily shaking a blue plastic mug filled with rice. "I'm hungry. The children have no milk. We are short of clean water and medicines. We are using petrol to treat infected wounds.''
Aid begins to reach Aceh, in whose capital, Banda Aceh, 3500-4000 bodies are buried every day. In Sri Lanka, foreign aid concentrates on some areas, leaving others without aid. UN secretary general Kofi Annan warns that recovery could take 10 years in the worst hit countries.
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Somalia wave victims 'forgotten'.
Quote:
Aid workers have described a scene of devastation on the Somali island of Hafun, a fishing community of 2,500. The floods killed 120 in Somalia with 35 missing and some 50,000 displaced, its prime minister said on Thursday. Displaced families on Hafun desperately need aid as they have no clean water, food, medicine or shelter as most of their homes and possession were swept away. "Cases of diarrhoea and other diseases are already being reported," the UN's World Food Programme said in a statement.
Quote:
Aid workers have described a scene of devastation on the Somali island of Hafun, a fishing community of 2,500. The floods killed 120 in Somalia with 35 missing and some 50,000 displaced, its prime minister said on Thursday. Displaced families on Hafun desperately need aid as they have no clean water, food, medicine or shelter as most of their homes and possession were swept away. "Cases of diarrhoea and other diseases are already being reported," the UN's World Food Programme said in a statement.
Never Again?
Without urgent action, we'll be watching Hotel Congo in 2014.
Quote:
In order to succeed in Congo, the United Nations needs a robust troop presence to disarm the militias, secure Congo's borders and natural resources, and keep the peace. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has requested 23,900 troops. So far, he's received 16,700. It's not clear if the international community (particularly the United States) is still blinded by it´s guilt and sympathy for the Tutsis of Rwanda, if it can't deal with complexity, or if it just doesn't want to deal with Africa.
Without urgent action, we'll be watching Hotel Congo in 2014.
Quote:
In order to succeed in Congo, the United Nations needs a robust troop presence to disarm the militias, secure Congo's borders and natural resources, and keep the peace. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has requested 23,900 troops. So far, he's received 16,700. It's not clear if the international community (particularly the United States) is still blinded by it´s guilt and sympathy for the Tutsis of Rwanda, if it can't deal with complexity, or if it just doesn't want to deal with Africa.
The number of dead in the earthquakes and the tsunami are nearing 150 000. In Aceh, the coast is a scene of utter devastation. Entire towns have vanished.
Prime minister of Thailand promises inquiry on why no warning was issued even when the authorities knew a tsunami was a possible result of the earthquake. But to many these inquiries will come too late.
Our authorities have said that the ambulance flights have been the last chance for our injured, because they wouldn´t have survived in Thailand. Thinking of this, I have to wonder how many thousands of people have died and will die because they will not get the kind of treatment that the evacuated foreigners will get in their homelands. There´s no justice in this. Injured tourists fly home and to possible salvation, the locals are left to die. And those in Thailand are still in a far better circumstances than those in Sumatra.
Prime minister of Thailand promises inquiry on why no warning was issued even when the authorities knew a tsunami was a possible result of the earthquake. But to many these inquiries will come too late.
Our authorities have said that the ambulance flights have been the last chance for our injured, because they wouldn´t have survived in Thailand. Thinking of this, I have to wonder how many thousands of people have died and will die because they will not get the kind of treatment that the evacuated foreigners will get in their homelands. There´s no justice in this. Injured tourists fly home and to possible salvation, the locals are left to die. And those in Thailand are still in a far better circumstances than those in Sumatra.
A new year. Hopefully better than 2004.
2005 was once a year far in the future, unimaginable really. And now it´s here and it´s not looking pretty. The planet is in trouble and humanity is as inept as ever. The compassion of last few days is probably a false hope. We are very emotional beings with a short memory.
2005 was once a year far in the future, unimaginable really. And now it´s here and it´s not looking pretty. The planet is in trouble and humanity is as inept as ever. The compassion of last few days is probably a false hope. We are very emotional beings with a short memory.
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