Monthly Archives: May 2006

An Excellent Way to Settle Disputes Between Iran and Israel

Let me just preface this post with one thing I want to be clear on: I’m not being sarcastic on this one. Matter of fact, remind me not to use sarcasm as a regular method of blogging, it’s a lazy cop out I occasionally fall into. I digress, here’s the headline from the BBC today:

A group of Israeli diplomats wants to sue Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide.

Incitement to genocide is what it sounds like. And under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, it is a crime. Nevermind the punishment, I’m not here to worry about that. What interests me is the method this group of Israeli’s have chosen to use to combat the statements and the potential implications of those statements by the Iranian president. This is what I called civilized. Not bombs or soldiers or threats, legal action on an international scale. It’s how it would work in my slightly more idealistic version of the world.

But this interests me for another reason. During my days as a masters student here in the Amsterdam, I had a professor who was very involved with the UN and particularly concerned about the role of media that incites genocide. Think Rwanda, for example, where radio was the tool used by Hutu extremists to first incite more and more hate and eventually culminating in violence which, if I recall correctly, was coordinated by use of radio programs as well.

So my professor had this idea for the creation of a monitor under the UN umbrella. It would be a media monitor, and its function would be to watch media (all types) to proactively detect if and when it is being used to incite genocide. Now, you might already be asking “then what” but like I said before, one step at a time; and it would be a very important step to be able to catch these things BEFORE they happen.

It has been some time since I sat and talked with that professor, and this is all reminding me of his plan. And although this situation with Israel and Iran is slightly different, and I don’t claim to know if the Iranian president is guilty or not-STILL- I have the utmost respect for any government or group of citizens who put together a case to be presented before the international court and before the eyes of the entire world, pointing out the violation of a very important treaty, and when a leader could be inciting violence on a mass scale.

So we’ll see what happens. And whatever happens, the symbolic value, the example such an action represents in the form of using non-people killing methods, is big in itself.

Who Gave What to New Orleans

Catching up on news from the past few days, I found time to look into some details until now I had not seen. As I read the list of who gave what for the Hurricane Recovery from around the world, it’s really interesting to see how the world can be. Take a look for yourselves:

  • Kuwait: 500 million (makes sense considering what the US spends on Kuwait)
  • Qatar: 100 millon, including 17.5 mil to Xavier University
  • Saudi Arabia and UAE: 100 million each
  • India and China, 5 million each
  • Bangladesh: 1 million (I’m impressed.)
  • Sri Lanka: 25,000
  • Cyprus and Dominican Republic: 50,000 each
  • Ghana: 15,000
  • Denmark: An oceanliner docked in Baton Rouge which houses evacuees

Of course there’s alot more. Some is direct, but much is actually through organizations. Lots of donor countries, especially the EU, didn’t do the direct money thing, probably because they’re well aware how many can be mismanaged. Hopefully that doesn’t happen in Louisiana… but considering how corrupt the national government and the shakey record of the local government in places like New Orleans.. everyone should keep on eye on this.

Speaking of eyes on New Orleans and hurricane recovery, I’m subscribed to miss B. havens vlog, and you should see their place down there.

Back Like Old Times

“So who’s still around?” Brooke asked me, fresh off the plane from Berlin. Who is still around. Tricky question in most beloved European cities these days. I tried to name names, stumbling when I’d realize she never knew this person or that person. Sometimes I’d name someone I knew from 4 years ago, other times I’d mention someone I’d only met in the last year… in both cases it reminded me of how tricky time is, resulting in this pseudo-expat-amsterdamer-alzheimers. Where you forget the year, mix up the name, or just go blank.

Photo Hosted at Buzznet.comStill having one of the allstars of my Amsterdam past back in town after a year in Berlin is a great thing. She looks at the city with great excitement, with a certain giddyness that in the daily routine, I sometimes forget. It is, as they say, a breath of fresh air.

Funny thing, as I look up at my first two paragraphs, I think I’ve said similar before when someone returns. It is the way, after all, around these parts. People come and go. They often come back, though it’s not the same. Sometimes they fall right back into things, sometimes they cherish the little things more than the last time. However you go about it, it is a tradition.

Oh.. and as a bonus today, a captivating video of my first mate and I navigating the ruthless sea.

Crisis at the Server

Hello dear readers. As a result of a massive computer problem at the bicyclemark.org secret server location somewhere in the northwest of the United States, the entire blog has been taken back in time by one week. Fear not, I have backups – sort of. So all the posts of the past week will be put back up and hopefully I didn’t lose too much.

Thanks for all the emails and messages saying “hey its broken”. The people in charge are recovering and fixing what they can. Regular posting will resume this evening, complete with a new videoblog and other shtuff.

ams050667

**update** painstakingly posted this past weeks posts back up, luckily I had the text opened from before the collapse of the server. Oh misery.

bm129 Playing Politics with Immigration in the Netherlands

Anyone who remembers the murder of the film director Theo Van Gogh is likely to remember the person who wrote the film that he would later be murdered over. Somali born asylum seeker and member of Dutch parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali has won international admiration as well as cirticism over the past few years, as an outspoken critic of Islam. Now a new chapter in her political career, the attempted deportation and the political and perhaps social fallout that follows. Famed videoblogger Marc the Mindcaster returns to the program to explain it to we the non-Dutch who are trying to make sense of it all.

AudioCommunique #129 (mp3)

Useful Links:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is all over YouTube, go watch
The NYTimes article about the recent events

Music:

K’Naan – Hoobaale
Neil Young – We Need a Leader

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podcast made possible by you the listener and also Springheeljack.net

Seeking the Truth about Charles Taylor

Tonight I was hoping to get the “ok” from Pauline in Ivory Coast to do the podcast that focuses on Charles Taylor, which we’ve been discussing in sporatic email. Anyone who either reads the Known Universe or heard my program about the conflict in Ivory Coast remembers Pauline, the roving reporter transplanted from Amsterdam to Abidjan. Last I spoke with her she had just returned from a visit to Dakar, Senegal. Talk about adventure!

You may recall my post about a month ago bringing up the topic of Charles Taylor and pondering whether or not he is a sociopath, and generally discussing his alleged crimes. Pauline read it, and offered another point of view on the whole thing. She’d just returned from Liberia, and mentioned how in reality, many people there still support their former president and despite all the things he stands accused of, think his actions were justified. I was a bit surprised to hear it, although I think it’s a normal response in many cases that the abused still love the abuser.

But I leave the details and the closer analysis to the podcast, as soon as I reconnect with her. In the mean time I’m sorting through more details of his life, things I hadn’t considered before. Here are some eye-opening highlights:

– Taylor actually broke out of a Massachesetts prison back in in 1984! Where he was being held for embezzling almost 1 million dollars from a Liberia related institution. When I say broke out, I mean hollywood style, complete with rope of bed sheets, sawing through bars, and a getaway car. Talk about good training for later becoming president.

– In 1997, after leading one faction of a civil war in Liberia, elections were held and he ran for president. One of his campaign slogans was, “He killed my Ma, he killed my Pa, but I will vote for him.” – He went on to win by a landslide.

– Pat Robertson, famous televangelist who occasionally urges his viewers to assasinate world leaders, struck a deal with Taylor back in 1994. The deal gave Robertson the right to the diamond rich mines of Liberia, which were transported via airplane through his Operation Blessing relief organization. Robertson told his viewers that those flights were actually flying relief supplies to the victims of the genocide in Rwanda.

All this being said. I’ve never been to Liberia. I’ve never walked a day in the shoes of a Liberian, and certainly will never fully understand how all that trauma from so much war and manipulation can effect you. All the more reason I look forward to hearing from Pauline, who fortunately for all of us, has been looking into these questions, and trying to gather more information and testimony from people who lived it and continue to live in the new Liberia, post-Charles Taylor.