'A 60-year-old woman has been found stabbed to death in her home in south-east London.
Police have launched a murder inquiry after discovering her body in Kenbury Gardens, Camberwell, at about 1830 GMT on Sunday.'

'Six teenagers, including a girl, have denied murdering a 16-year-old boy who was beaten with a baseball bat and repeatedly stabbed in south London.
Shakilus Townsend was attacked in Thornton Heath, in July and died in hospital the next day.'

SLA approach Elephant Pass

p.s.
B92 writes "This week's stabbing of a Serb boy, and the arrest of the Gnjilane Group have added turbulence to Kosovo's poor security situation, an expert warns."
(here.)

and what of that Gnjilane group?

(monsters in the Balkans.)

"We're looking here at the arrest of a significant number of individuals, members of the so-called Gnjilane Group of the Kosovo Liberation Army suspected of kidnapping 159 Serb civilians and killing at least 51 between June-October 1999."
...
Many of the victims were killed in a boarding school in the town. They were first taken there, stripped naked, tied up, severely beaten and stabbed with knives. Parts of their bodies were cut off before they were viciously murdered.

Nick Cohen reprises a theme of his, under 'A man condemned by psychobabble', concerning the killer and predator Robert Napper, and Colin Stagg, the guy wrongly hounded for the murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common in 1992.

i started to get into William Easterly at the end of the summer (someone very close to me was boning up on him), and then saw Alex de Waal quote him in the updated (2005) edition of Famine that Kills.

incidentally, if you've not read de Waal's preface to his update (even if you've read the book itself previously), it's worth getting hold of.
sources include Leo Kuper on genocide, David Maybury-Lewis on the anthropology of genocide, stuff on Sudanese land law and epidemiology, and the landmark 1995 study from African Rights on the Nuba people of central Sudan (which he actually co-authored with Yoanes Ajawin).

the second part of the preface is about the origins of the Darfur crisis, 2003-4 (basically a shortened version of his history with Flint) but it's the first section concerning "Famine theory and Humanitarian Practice" that's of interest here.

de Waal discusses how, between 1991 and 2000, Ethiopia saw an average growth in GDP annually of 2.9%, a stat that obscures significant ups and downs. (during the same period, one year saw a contraction of 3.64%, whilst in other years the economy grew by up to 9.4%.)
citing Easterly, he continues, observing Macro-economic figures show that more people are plunged into poverty by an economic contraction than are lifted out of it by a comparable expansion.

he then considers an IMF paper published as Ethiopia was being ear-marked for debt relief under the HIPC programme.

(going to quote a considerable chunk now, and the initial emphases left in are his, as the text will make clear, whilst the final part of de Waal's final sentence contains my emphasis.)

suggests that the country should be able to double its growth rate to an average of 6% per annum, thereby enabling it to halve its number of poor people by 2015 (IMF 2004). But the IMF smuggles a caveat into this rosy outlook: 'While this is an ambitious objective, in the view of the staffs it is achievable if the government pursues an ambitious reform agenda and sound macroeconomic policies that would promote higher private savings and investment, and provided there is adequate rainfall and a favorable external environment' (p.4, emphasis added). What a dumbfounding assumption is contained in that final clause! An average of 6% growth in a volatile economy may lead to little or no decrease in the poverty headcount whatsoever.

Famine that Kills: Darfur, Sudan (revised edn.) Alex de Waal
The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics William Easterly
'The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia: Joint Staff Assessment of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Annual Progress Report' IMF Country Report No. 04/59 (here.)

my mate on his ten fave TV shows

i saw about 26 first-runs (or new enough, in the sense that maybe they dated from 2006 or 2007 when not actually of this year - often the case for Anglophones seeing non-English language films) at cinemas this year, and the following is a list of my ten best.

(i will probably say something in the new year about near misses to this list, and about repertory in 2008.)

10. Lars and the real girl
9. Persepolis
8. Gone, baby, gone
7. Trouble the water
6. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
5. In Bruges
4. Wall-E
3. No country for old men
2. There will be blood
1. 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days

happy new year!

[ETA: lists, lists, lists. dear me. 9. and 7. probably under-counted anyway lbr]

list link

i was at the pad of my oldest friend recently and saw a copy of the Uncut end of year booklet: a handsome little insert in the magazine.
i've not touched Uncut for years, although - for Kulkarni on Stevie Wonder some time ago, which i mentioned here once, and SR on the 'oceans of sound' in reggae, to name two - i remain fond of it.
the cinema and genre categories were particularly enjoyable.

so, without further ado, there follows.

The Ex, Mississippi Records, snd and beautiful on Bangles: it's Jon, here, with 25 exquisite capsules.
(writes, on Lionel Marchetti: "Because he was the only person I would reach for when I needed to scratch that musique concrete itch. There’s an itch associated with that, right?")

Jane's typically epic singles run-down has gone from 40 to 2 now, and i'll plug in specifically here, with 30 to 21.

it could have been anywhere, but, really
Couldn’t "Urban Paisley" be a whole new musical style (not in evidence here)? Couldn’t "Paisley Urban" be a good name for a character on Gossip Girl?

Fact are rolling out across everywhere: 100 best tracks, 20 best mixes, etc.
i'm going to roll on to the re-issues list, because it's such archaeology.

the best gig i saw this year was the Sparrow Quartet in Vancouver: a formidable group.

at the theatre, a bracing reading of After the Fall by Our American Theater Co. in Seattle (an Arthur Miller i had not even heard of prior, must admit).

BRISTOL PIRATE RADIO RECORDINGS

football performance attended had to be Barcelona's demolition of Valencia earlier this month. (though being among La Barra Brava toward the end of a DC United game was fun.)

pizza a toss up between a buffalo mozzarella in Milan or a slice of cheese from some Manhattan hole in the wall.

street food (i would blog about all sorts of meals but i deleted my grub blog) a toss up between a Montreal poppyseed (preferred to New York), or one of two cheesesteaks from one of two titchy Philadelphia walk-ups (one with onions).

my own sandwich: salami and leaves on rolls (meat from the Cheshire Smokehouse near Wilmslow).

food, probably carrot.

bowl food a goulash and white beer in Brooklyn.

best chowder in Galway, actually.

best Mexican outlets visited in Britain and Ireland: Mannamexico, Cambridge and Boojum, Belfast.
(though i did always like Thomasina when she was on 'Masterchef'.)

beer would be Daleside Porter from the Harrogate micro, a very good version, recently sampled on two pints at the Guy Fawkes Tavern (an old contender for urban pub of the year: gas lamps, rickety wood, tallow splats on uneven tables, dark solid stone) in York.
i was inducted into the charms of the Cardinal - hail Sam Smith's bargains in London - in Victoria, and have to note.
loveliest English cities Norwich and Cambridge.

the best pint of Guinness i had was probably in Sligo or Derry (i drank a lot of Guinness this spring in Ireland), and the most impressive American craft brewing situation was certainly in Portland.
Antwerp remains the best overall beer city visited this year.

going back to the incredible Dissensus, getting turned on to new writers (American election night was the date, and i now have theory in my head; Roberto Bolaño - thanks to Philip Mind; and history - thanks to Ollie, to mention some) and acquiring a taste for grappa (i'd had it before, but rarely) are other personal faves.

film experience probably popping my Ikiru cherry on the big screen. amazing.
(more movies later.)

an ambition next year will be to have Luka make me a coffee. the best coffee i was given this year was from a Stuttgart-bred man in Seattle who discussed dour Austrian tactics.

OH AND SPAIN WON THE EUROPEAN FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP AND NADAL AND CHOF CHOF CHOF

I speak Thai. I know what they're saying

I remember a story. Two fools are waiting for their kidney transplants but only one kidney is available.
The two guys thus play a game.
They each put a playing card into the other's pocket.
Whoever guesses the card in his own pocket wins.

You know I can see your card.

I think so too.

(Infernal Affairs, Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, 2002.)

Gaza health official Moawiya Hassanain confirmed the report, saying 120 Palestinians have been killed in the airstrikes...Plumes of black smoke rose over Gaza City, sirens wailed through the streets and women frantically looked for their children.

(+ A rocket apparently fired by Palestinians on Friday killed the two Palestinians aged five and 13, Palestinian medics said.)

MSF 'list'

"Craig Brown was shot in Loftus Road, Shepherd's Bush, on Wednesday afternoon after returning from a shopping trip."

a perfect ten
(as some Hullite band once sang)

for those that missed it, some highlights from Channel 4's edgy, courageous and vital "spiritual...seasonal goodwill"-filled Alternative Christmas Message:

(1). All the nations, including those of Europe, are being harmed.

(2). It should be of no pride to the American society to say that they defend homosexuals and support it.

(3). State repression of Iran’s ethnic minorities, which have been demanding greater recognition of their cultural and political rights, has intensified in recent years.

(4). Particularly troubling are President Ahmadinejad’s choices for the powerful positions of
Minister of Interior, Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi, and Minister of Information,
Gholamhussein Mohseni Ezhei.

(5). Discrimination against women remained entrenched in law and practice.

(6). Kurdpour's brother, who lives in Sweden, said the family has been in touch with him in prison, and that when they last saw him a few days ago he had lost weight and said he had been mistreated.

(7). I've been called an orientalist and a neo-con.

(8). Here are some of the current serious human rights abuses in Iran to bear in mind
during President Ahmadinejad's visit to the UN.

(9). There have been some reactions on the fact that the Iranian authorities have chosen to execute so many people on the Christmas eve.

(10). Nineteen-year-old Mehdi Kazemi was more fortunate.

RIP Harold Pinter

this seems fair (including the responses of the author to commenter commonsguy).
(via.)

News from Guinea and Friends of Guinea

If I saw Mr Haughey buried at midnight at a crossroads, with a stake driven through his heart - politically speaking - I should continue to wear a clove of garlic round my neck, just in case.

It is thought the victim, who has not been named, may also have been stabbed before his body was found in Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell.

we knew this was coming

it was always going to be obsessive, unhealthy love-at-first-encounter for me and the DAF debut (and so it proved with its re-issue nearly nine years ago now), and look at this!
the fine folk at Discogs have this pretty image cap, including the Biba Kopf words on the back.

happy as a gambolling lamb.

all here

i have had a massive crush on Sandra Jordan for a very long time

Behind the men firing with revolvers was another PAD supporter holding up a picture of the country’s monarch.

dog, snaps

Germaine Greer embarrasses herself

i like what the wonderful hakmao has to say here about Toby Young, 'lecturing the rest of us on non-existent pseudo-scientific categories'.

and you know what?

Toby Young is not someone i come across often, but i have this nagging doubt at the back of my mind he was mentioned somewhere else online once, in a very clear-eyed, magisterial, politically literate and morally wealthy article by some Guardian journalist.

trouble is, i can't remember the piece in question.

oh yes.

"Hungry for controversy, a sizeable portion of London's intelligentsia lined up to support Living Marxism. They rallied round those who had named me and others as liars in the name of free speech - so why not name them too, the great, the good and the up-and-coming? Fay Weldon, Doris Lessing, Harold Evans, Toby Young, and even a handful of contributors to this newspaper. A diverse coterie, eager to sip Living Marxism's apparently excellent claret at the ICA, to eat their canapés and run alongside the rotten bandwagon of revisionism."

here.

somedisco blog election results round-up special

USA: good, especially as libertarians - appallingly - wanting no income tax in Mass got told to do one, although less good in California on gay marriage of course

Canadian: bad, although the NDP got their first in Quebec

New Zealand: bad

Glenrothes: good

Palua: Toribiong innit

'and, in a curve-ball of a move, the Guardian decided to publish another shit article about Israel'

more garbage from Simon Jenkins

i'm not quite sure what it is with Jenkins and this tough-minded pose of his, throwing out his little hard jewels of insight.

he reads a bit like the National Review's David Freddoso in Grant Park last night (though that is unfair on Freddoso)

if Obsolete isn't on your blog roll i feel i must link to their take on something disgraceful Ed Balls has come out with: who, after all, needs a living wage in London?

Labour isn't working, indeed

ticket dot ntdtv dot com / fsc / index_eng dot html

Sixty corpses of would-be refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia were found on a beach in Yemen over the weekend after smugglers forced many of them overboard, an international aid agency said on Monday.

David T: 'This Government Cannot Be Trusted On Islamism'

i'm particularly glad he calls out Peter Bergen. i remember reading the article in question in the print version with mounting unease as Bergen heaped undeserved cream and candy on Lambert

+

Shannyn Sossamon

BLAM! BLAM BLAM!

BLAM BLAM BLAM!

Inhofe, R, OK

Inhofe believes that 9/11 was divine retribution. He believes that our Middle East policy should be based on the text of the Bible. He denies the science behind global warming. Doesn't like students. Doesn't care for poor people. Hates government. Like Jesse Helms, without the charm. We made a mistake on our "10 Worst" list: Inhofe stands alone as the worst member of Congress.

Esquire tells the time

"most of us do not hang out in metrosexual social circles and consort on the fringes of minor celebrity we live in the fucking north"

then again, what do i know?

if one takes pride in their work, perhaps a slow-down would annoy.

then again, what do i know?

Shiraz Socialist, rightly angry, flags up this Ghaith Abdul-Ahad piece cataloguing the appalling miseries and exploitation on which Dubai has grown disgracefully awful.

elsewhere, in their latest piece in a series they call Immigrant vs. Immigrant, the NYT also has a desperately sad article reporting from Grand Island, Nebraska, about divisions between different immigrant communities, available here.

(a little like a recent long NYT piece about food policy challenges for the next POTUSA which mentioned in the politest passing breath fundamentally unfair trade policies being driven by the wealthy world at the deliberate expense of developing economies - and should have been far more explicit on that point - there is, kindly, nobody making the point in the above report that if production was shut down for awhile for various reasons then it is, let's be frank, not the workers that are going to be particularly upset on the whole, just management. you know. if i were a gambling man, like..)

Press TV (and, therefore, the Iranian regime) seem to think that taking the piss out of organised religion (an often amusing pose, although of course discounting humourless zealots like Dawkins) is as bad as advancing the filthy lies of Holocaust denial.

of course it is

Shuggy on Alex Salmond

OH YES INDEED

http://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/formGuide.jsp?comp=5

rewarding a super criminal

"The people had little chance - either they had to die in the hands of the smugglers or the sea."

Normblog on Noam Chomsky

what the fuck.

The policeman went off in the direction of the Rua da Alfândega, reflecting on the madness of certain people who appeared in the middle of the night.
Whatever possessed this man to think he could enjoy a view of the river in such weather, if he were obliged like me to patrol the docks night after night he would soon find it tiresome.

The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, Saramago.

Let's make no mistake, that is what the word 'totalitarianism' should describe and that is why a loose use of the term is dangerous. I am not going to do a full dissection of his post, instead I just want to make three main points.

Peter Ryley debates

area man, 53, controversially calls implement for digging 'implement for digging'

Hitch on the rancid Kissinger and his fan-club network in D.C.

Hitch also has a piece in the current Vanity Fair, about their photographs. it's Hitch to a 'T' - like Paul Morley doing his Sunday Telegraph magazine gig reviews, i guess [i would say that, and have to Ollie and SR].
it's here.
as with the above piece, the closing paragraph is worth checking.

elsewhere, Eric Margolis had a column today in the Toronto Sun. it was shabby, especially the closing paragraph, which was offensive in its disingenuousness.

'It's no longer for any struggle, apart from their own selfish motivations..It's for money. They kidnap children now.'

Styvn Obodoekwe, Port Harcourt.

"The city is already half-dead..Something has to be done, otherwise the city is completely dead."

Per Stafsen.

Police come at any time and arrest anybody. They pass by and harass my customers. If I say, 'Officer, you are disturbing my business,' they say, 'Don't talk or we'll arrest you.' People are afraid of the police. They don't come and eat.

Moabel Nwosu.

The federal government contributes 150 million naira to the military every month. So now someone who was sleeping in the military quarters is suddenly in a duplex with free food, people at his beck and call, and you want him to accept peace in the creeks? No, he will create more conflict.

Professor Elias Courson, Niger Delta University.

We have no hope now and I think this is the end of Mogadishu

"There's no doubt that we have our work cut out for us when it comes to the haredim," said Avraham Kroizer, one of her strategic consultants.

"Their media are never going to change the no-photograph policy, so it comes down to arranging face time for her with leading haredi figures who can spread the word."

google image results for Tzipi Livni

The A-30 road cuts through open grasslands lined with coconut palms and peacocks.

Stewart Bell in Mahdu, Sri Lanka

Mick Hartley: Our Bastard

www dot seiu32bj dot org

oh no it's the bloody Jews

[it's not been up long but at time of writing there's already a few half-baked comments, although i suppose that is about as predictable as Manchester City's continual status as vaguely comedic telenovela]

'you've got to laugh'

more of the same from spiked-online

- perhaps they are one giant satire site?

in Rittenhouse Square, in Philadelphia's Center City the other lunchtime, i saw a bunch of young boys playing football, play-roughing each other up and such.

they were supervised by a couple of Y guys.
good stuff.
it was wonderful.

a church group building on the edge of Rittenhouse Square flies a large black banner over its doorway. the message on the banner reads (something like) TORTURE IS WRONG.

+

what he said

P.S.

'As any competent antifascist would know David Duke is an ex-grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, had a love of dressing up like a Nazi and disseminates racist filth from his web site.'

I still got friends and relatives that deal with the everyday economy. I have clothing lines and businesses that felt the pinch. But I'm maintaining. I do that very well...It's like people don't think that you think things or you're that articulate...Things go on every day in our community..so I speak on it.

Young Jeezy

["He does have a philanthropic flair that could get overlooked, considering. He let four Hurricane Katrina victims stay in his home in 2005. Last Christmas, he hosted a toy drive. This month, he rented a bowling alley and gave 350 kids school supplies."]

The things I saw beggar description...I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first hand evidence of these things, if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to propaganda.

Dwight D Eisenhower, April 12, 1945.
Ohrdruf camp.

Terry Glavin on Seumas Milne

We will not turn a blind eye to issues of a serious nature

Richard Scudamore, English Premier League chief executive, discusses Thaksin Shinawatra going on the lam

er.

except you already turned two blind eyes the first time around

Branches banged and broke beneath the tires and you could feel them spring up like busted bones or spikes and scrape beneath your bare feet on the floor.

Peter Carey

"The message then warned that those who continued their businesses after the 15-day deadline expired would be dealt with sternly.

Acid: The second paragraph said that within five days of the receipt of the letter, every woman not wearing Hijab would be disfigured with acid. "

what the Taliban Pakistan threaten in the town of Kot Addu

(hat-tip: Mick H.)

+

Claire Spencer replies to Amir Taheri

emcee XXXX from Stepney Green

WHO'S OUT OF LONDON CUZ I KNOW RINSE IS STREAMING

(over pulled steel, guyed, long lines, stretching, way out; no, further back, go as far back as you think you can throw it, and then go further back again)

Airport food is often dire, but it achieves great heights at Diego-Suarez Antsiranana, on the northern tip of Madagascar. Local folk arrive in fleets of yellow Renault 4 taxis to crowd the tiny cafeteria and greet the daily plane. My flight was two hours late, a blow softened by many plates of perfectly crisp, deep-fried frogs' legs served with sauce made from a chilli called "Five men can't eat one".

"Longing is a somewhat strange film, and perhaps rather slight, but it is none the less perfect in its own way, like a fragment of stubborn poetry that one cannot easily forget."

Jenny McCartney

His dreams kept returning to the moment when he was walking down the stairs and met the spy coming the other way, doffing his hat to him. He saw himself sliding down a smooth ramp of stone. He took no more pleasure in women, his duties bored him, he didn't get on with his comrades, the Colonel was dull. The town was dull, and life was even worse. There wasn't a word for it in Taittinger's vocabulary.
He slipped and sank even lower. He felt himself doing it. He would have liked to talk to someone about it, perhaps to Mizzi Schinagl who also appeared in his dreams. But he felt too torpid and too dumbstruck to be able to say anything honest and truthful. So he didn't talk. And he drank.

The String of Pearls, Joseph Roth.

what's that? what's that, you say?

it's a Friday?

true.

true enough.

well, in that case, it must be about time for Baroness Tonge to chat some more shit

'What do the figures for the Bosnian war-dead tell us ?'

I was informed by our colleagues in Belgrade about the successful operation which resulted in the arrest of Radovan Karadžić. On behalf of the Office of the Prosecutor, I would like to congratulate the Serbian authorities, especially the National Security Council, Serbia’s Action Team in charge of tracking fugitives and the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor, on achieving this milestone in cooperation with the ICTY.

This is a very important day for the victims who have waited for this arrest for over a decade. It is also an important day for international justice because it clearly demonstrates that nobody is beyond the reach of the law and that sooner or later all fugitives will be brought to justice.

indictment

a little bit of hope from the Netherlands

BOWLED 'IM WARNER!! (was '..she gives me a biscuit...')

"Take Liberty's recent appointment of the fashion consultant Yasmin Sewell. One of fashion's most stylish players, Sewell was head of buying at the influential Brown's boutique until last year. She is now transforming Liberty's muddled fashion floors into something sharper and more glamorous."

i did not know this [source: London Telegraph, Money section, 13/07/2008].

good on ya Sewell

why do mod boys tend to wear their collared shirts with the top button done up?

don't get me wrong, i like it, you get me.

a good style, very good.

i will try and find a few things out about butter soon, and also about the manufacture of the plastic cartons or tubs that margarine comes in. i may then post the results here

(yes hold your seats for that one)

+

a lot of kids going up to Cumbria (that's in northwest England) for some festival i see

+

i got DVDs of Vertigo and The Long Good Friday and a paperback copy of Madame Bovary in your UK high-street store sale for GBP £10 £2 today! [ETA: the DVDs were woefully defective, despite brand-new wrapped-up status; but hey! Flaubert for two coins..]
and the kids in England break up from school for the summer. (dunno about Northern Ireland or Wales i must admit. in Scotland they have already broken up. plead ignorance on every other country on earth, to be precise about it. i'm not having a joke about being parochial here, more write what you know.)

"Arabian Desert and East Sahero-Arabian xeric shrublands"

a take down (again, and rightly so) from Obsolete about the front-cover of today's Express, which - as with many of their fronts - suffers somewhat from being quite appallingly bone-headed.

interestingly, today's Express carries a worried piece from Anna Pukas (certainly one of their finer writers; she has often been quite large-hearted for them in various corners of the world *) going on about that New Yorker cover.
clearly, she needn't look as far as Manhattan for printed material that may - intentionally or not - give comfort to unsavoury characters.

---

*
for the record, their environment editor, John Ingham, can sometimes be decent, and their television reviewer is actually good (his politics are nothing like the leaders of his employers: he is even-handed and humane and, gosh darn, sounds rather socially liberal). they also have some fine sports writers.
people like these are admittedly balanced out by politics editor Macer Hall (he's done some unbelievably bad pieces), the almost-beyond-parody Leo McKinstry (a common theme of my tabloid laments is how a man who can write decent books about English football can churn out some awful guff in the press, though i know that's a naïve lament, given the age-old recollections of Heffer actually being able to write full-length books in between spewing out his bile in the dailies) and the witless Patrick O'Flynn (the comment editor and chief politics writer IIRC).

P.S.
check this out for yourself but pick up the Express and go to the cartoons section where Calvin and Hobbes is about. (so too Dilbert.) every day when the cartoon appears American English references are doctored by the Express to British English ones. the most obvious has Calvin saying "mum" instead of "mom".
i don't know why they do that (well, one could hazard a few simplistic, unsatisfying guesses), but - on a small and far more benign level than some of their other handiwork - for me, this speaks volumes about the mostly crap Daily Express..

"Fine lot these government chaps – are they not?" he went on, speaking English with great precision and considerable bitterness.

"It is funny what some people will do for a few francs a-month. I wonder what becomes of that kind when it goes up country?"

I said to him I expected to see that soon.

"So-o-o!" he exclaimed. He shuffled athwart, keeping one eye ahead vigilantly.
"Don’t be too sure," he continued.
"The other day I took up a man who hanged himself on the road. He was a Swede, too."

"Hanged himself! Why, in God’s name?" I cried.

He kept on looking out watchfully.

"Who knows? The sun too much for him, or the country perhaps."

Milne's description of the "increasingly extreme" Ed Husain is an utter disgrace.

i thought Milne was on the left?

Seumas Milne's piece on IslamExpo is truly poor.

"Talking to Kim Jong Il"

the WSJ Asia has a piece about the death of Park Wang-ja, and attempts to tease out a few wider strands from this individual tragedy and crime.

The circumstances surrounding the death of Park Wang-ja, a housewife vacationing at the North Korean resort of Mount Kumgang, are unclear. The 53-year-old was reportedly walking on a beach when a soldier shot her twice: in the chest and in the buttock...
The murder of its citizen by the military of a foreign power creates a diplomatic challenge for any government...
His [Lee Myung-bak] immediate reaction upon hearing of the killing Friday was to go ahead with a parliamentary speech calling for the resumption of "full dialogue between the two Koreas." Yesterday his Grand National Party called for direct talks with the North to smooth things over.

Pyongyang responded to the Lee government's low-key reaction with its usual subtlety. The President's proposal was "deceitful," it said, and the GNP's call for talks was "an intolerable insult."...
Rather, the North is demanding an apology from the South for suspending tourist traffic to Mount Kumgang in the wake of the killing.

Owen, formidable as usual, with some very convincing reasons to oppose the Skylon-come-again

incidentally, among all the heart-stopping Gothic, Baroque (and neo-Baroque), and more recent treasures in Antwerpen, the 1970's municipal theatre, the Stadsschouwburg, bosses the game for me.
the white poles that hold up a hangar-style roof in the plaza out the front are a remarkable usage of space and air, whether the square is deserted, or full of gobby market traders or daredevil bicyclists weaving in and out.

at night-time - even before a few bollekes - giant bird legs or a marina in the middle distance are two of the more immediate analogies..

a very good point from Norman Geras here (with an excellent, brief, final sentence). oh and another good point from the same person here

was Franco Frattini mistranslated?

The European Parliament has come up with some sensible proposals re. the plight of the marginalised in his country, at the same time as giving Italy a dressing-down.

disgustingly, Frattini claims that this appropriate slap in the face is "politically motivated and based on prejudices".

obviously, a discussion about the Italian govt and her Roma community certainly needs to include the word prejudice.

factionalism roils the junta?

i don't know what to make of this but give them links anyway, and self-evidently, the way Hari frames his debate about Davis and Berlin and liberties here makes it clear where your sympathies should lie, but on the other hand this (far shorter) piece from The Sharpener offers a slightly contrary take.

in other news, i have only just found out via SR (cheers Simon!) about the return of skykicking. blow me!

big up all the Aussie crew

Blackadder: Never mind, never mind, just saddle the Prince's horse.

Baldrick: That'll be difficult, he wrapped it round that gas lamp in the
Strand last night.

Well saddle my horse then.

What d'you think you've been eating for the last two months?

Well go out into the street and hire me a horse.

Hire you a horse? For ninepence? On Jewish New Year in the rain? A
bare fortnight after the dreaded horse plague of old London Town? With
the blacksmith's strike in its fifteenth week and the Dorset horse
fetishists fair tomorrow?

big up Serbia

a shabby, toxic little denier

MAH sticks the boot into Sarko

Brett on those Anglican bishops bigots

MURDEROUS NIGHT-TIMES

[yes, i am listening to the Nas debut album]

Brownie is magnificent in this Harry's Place thread (warning: thick fools lurk, and indeed comment, there)

TONS OF JEWISH NEO-CONS, LOADS OF THE BUGGERS
[off the record, you understand]

as part of his incredibly enjoyable 'is shrill' series, Brad DeLong links to a Joe Klein piece at TIME re Lieberman, the Commentary crew, Bush and Cheney & Co.

without getting into very reasonable sharp words for Max Boot (there's an Andrew Sullivan piece up too) and urgently needed words of condemnation for no bid contracts, can we agree to call Joe Klein on 'divided loyalties'?

also, the description of the venerable country of Iraq as an extremely complicated, devout and ancient culture is indeed lovely and true, but with regards to what Klein is discussing, perhaps adding 'a giant Baath torture house' might have been equally helpful and illuminating..

Muslims and gays

Nazir-Ali not attending the Lambeth Conference.

well there's a surprise. we didn't see that coming, eh?

yes sticking up for his beliefs and within the framework of what he believes he is, of course, in the right, technically *. but come on, you cannot deny me this. Nazir-Ali chats out of his backside about Islam with both fierce stupidity and awful cunning, and now, this, is, well, not a shock.. ...you remember, David Goodhart, in a recent Prospect with the Mai 68'ers feature, rightly excoriated Christopher Hitchens for his intellectual absolutism and lack of interest in progressive incrementalism that makes a genuine difference to people (there again, of course when not writing good science, the function of Dawkins clearly is to write bad atheism, and that's not going to change anytime soon, so Hitch's failings can be balanced against his pugnacious prose which at least remains enjoyable - which is more than can be said for David Goodhart's immigration essay)

* or is he? he could always go, argue his corner, and yes a very blatant point this, but it must be one he's thought of and discounted, his 'red line', which incidentally, is a concept (a term devalued by frequent usage from the likes of Tony Blair or, oh i don't know, Ben Bradshaw, as, say, Robin Carmody might remind us) that has been missing - in some commentary - from certain of the entirely accurate accounts about some of David Davis' regrettable views, no?
also socially liberal people of faith that know about theology, i am sure, could debate with Nazir-Ali until the cows come home and ferociously be able to impress upon him that they are in the right and his views are in fact wrong. though what i know about Christian theology is nothing.
but the fact remains that for all the above window-dressing, Nazir-Ali, in siding with the other conservatives, is getting a theological fig-leaf for bigotry (or, at the very least, opposition to progress), and what makes him so different from the folk across the pond who are also in his church and did go against him with their bold moves.
so give over Nazir-Ali, and your mate in the Telegraph, that bloke whose name escapes me who sometimes writes the most shabby, insulting, witless guff about Islam in some Sunday editions. (though i have not seen one of his bylines for a long time, well over a year IIRC.)

speaking of Hitch, the lovely J-Clo had a little piece up recently on Hitch's far-from-world-beating, tossed-off (Morley writing in the London Telegraph his short gig reviews, as one would say to SR) Slate article about wine in a restaurant. and whilst there are very amusing points put forth (and usage of "margrave") in the piece here, i remain at a loss. (there again, jane is busy engaging with SFJ at a high level, and the merit of sugarhigh! is always everything isn't it, the essays and the asides, all of it.)

simply put, if the cod-psychology (or whatever i should call it) is meant unironically and plainly and, just so as at face-value, then, well..

the utterly superb Obsolete (who i have only recently discovered, thanks to the equally utterly superb The gaping silence, they being a mate of Pearsall AFAIK, Pears? anyway) writes a sane antidote to tabloid hysteria over the Abu Qatada case here.

Obsolete has also recently written on the govt's former respect chief Louise Casey, which nails what to me seem banged-on points, as whenever you saw Casey back in the day, there was an air of inflexibility about her, it always seemed.
it must be said as we all know that Manchester city council (when not dreaming up tinpot schemes regarding a 'Thaitown' on her northside, similar to her centrally located - small but perfectly formed - Chinatown, or failing to get big screens for sporting events working, or going after office smokers with commendable zeal) hands out ASBOs a bit like Dunkin Donuts selling you a hazelnut coffee and morning bagel

i.e.
cheaply and frequently (albeit not usually in Spanish)

what some of the British newspapers should be flagging up more about Equatorial Guinea

really enjoyed Mentasms on the Irish vote - "Joe-Higgins’ dogged workerism"

Derek feeling - includes, brilliantly, Ninjaman

very happy to read Geeta - Bubble.. (bubble bubble bubble under and over always and over and always)

(see also this .pdf, this, and here.)

A simple but fundamental principle is at stake here: the principle that a policy of mass terror against a civilian population should not be rewarded.

Noel Malcolm, from the preface to the second edition of his short history of Kosovo

RIP Tim Russert

as i write today, this is from the previous edition of The Zimbabwean (last week to yesterday), but, another instalment of their heroes and villains

Heroes:
1. Shepherd Jani - MDC Senatorial candidate for Murehwa - abducted and murdered
2. Taurai Matanda - shot dead by soldiers at Murambinda growth point, Manicaland
3. 78 year old grandmother, 13 year old brother, plus mother and other relatives of MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa. Savagely beaten for 2 hours by armed soldiers in Gutu
4. Mabel Penisara - wife of election campaign manager for MDC MP Ian Kay. Abducted and tortured, left for dead by a roadside.

Villains:
1. Mashava - ZPF Murehwa district Vice chairperson - threatened to kill children of MDC officials
2. Colonel Chineta - alleged to have been involved in the murder of Jani
3. Matemachani - war vet - known for his violence, he is now attacking people in Triangle again
4. Sidney Somai - CIO Marondera - jumped out of vehicle and attacked MDC district chairman Potifa Bakaaiman with a rifle butt and then abducted him
5. Colonel Morgan Mzilikazi - led attack on Murambinda growth point, to 'flush out' MDC supporters - leaving one dead, 31 hospitalised
6. Major General Engelbert Rugejo - responsible for the attack on Nelson Chamisa's family
7. Ignatius Chombo - local government minister who has illegally appointed commissions to run towns, ignoring the council elections, predominantly won by the MDC
8. Grace Mugabe - for saying that Mugabe will never step down for Tsvangirai, even if he loses the election.

+

Robin writes to Auntie

the cricket.

the rugby.

boxing.

watching boxing in a pub.

tennis.

football.

stabbing at things.
like foreheads, and leaving a long scar that runs from your right-hand ear - more or less - across the plate of your forehead, all the way to the other side.

arguments about silly things in the backs of cabs that are soon forgotten.

running.
both away and for sport.

some long-distance running. and some middle-distance.

and lots of people 'fun' running, to raise capital for good causes. this is how it goes.

lying to the police. (but our conscience is clear. i think. let me chew it over.)

refusing to help that woman out with loose change.

two boys in prison and another, not. but two were. asking for it, really.

stretched out. alone. shudder to a halt, eventually.

buy some cigarettes and a paper.
leaf through the paper in a frazzled, hormonal hurry.

dicing up food. nutrients.

returning to the same place because their food is just so.

thinking the angles when you are the person the approach is made to. before wanting to get on a train, or a bus, or a coach. and leaving. but not for good. although for a very long time, in all likelihood.
a very long time.
maybe not wanting. but needing. never the less. nonetheless.

ecclesiastical history that was unknown.

a pint.
oh, just a pint.

go on, then. stay for more.
but that has to be it.
(and is, perhaps surprisingly.)

doing the rounds.
and making farewells.