Saturday, December 06, 2008

A Typical French Viewpoint: In the Russian-Georgian Conflict, Tbilisi Was the Hunter, While the Kremlin Was the Rabbit!

Le véritable moyen de juger de la légitimité des actions menées par la Russie n'est pas de se demander si le gouvernement démocratiquement élu de la Géorgie est venu à la rescousse de son peuple, sur son propre territoire, mais plutôt de répondre aux questions suivantes. Est-ce la Géorgie ou est-ce la Russie qui a : recherché une annexion de facto du territoire souverain d'un état voisin; délivré illégalement des passeports aux résidents d'une démocratie voisine afin de créer un prétexte à l'invasion; envoyé des centaines de chars et des milliers de soldats au-delà des frontières internationalement reconnues d'une démocratie voisine; été l'instigatrice d'une série de provocations mortelles et d'attaques ouvertes pendant de nombreux mois ayant entraîné la mort de nombreux civils ?
Georgian President Mikheïl Saakachvili answers his detractors (on the same page appears a sort of reply by Frank-Walter Steinmeier), stating that Moscow's campaign to convince the world that Tbilisi acted in an irresponsible manner during Russia's August invasion has manifestly borne fruit.
A en juger par la couverture médiatique récente, cette campagne a été un succès.
This is proven by the vast majority of Le Monde readers, who show that the French still like to listen to the Kremlin as the readers tell Le Monde to stop letting people like Mikheïl Saakachvili have a tribune (regulating speech they do not like, i.e., that does not square with la pensée unique).

The readers fume with scorn, calling the Georgian president an "irresponsible person", a "fantoche", an "agent of the CIA", somebody "filled with contradictions and imprecision", with "a degree zero in idiocy", a "hunter" who accuses the "rabbit" (Russia!!) of having started the conflict, and "un branquignol mégalomane et incontrôlable qui trouvera toujours normal de visiter une usine de fusées avec des briquets plein les poches". "J'allucine de voir des articles comme celui-ci dans le Monde" adds another reader, while another likens Le Monde to the ordinary Russian propagandist using the same Putin methods so often decried. "Le 'Monde' s'honorerait en ne lui [Mikheïl Saakachvili] servant pas de relai !"

To remember one definition of the danger of a one-party state: "contrary voices are regulated, barred, banned when possible, mocked and marginalized when not." There is only one truth: "Mais les faits sont têtus et ils s'imposent. L'agresseur fut la Géorgie! Pourquoi Le Monde insiste encore?" So keep quiet, nom de Dieu! And in case you don't understand that, get this: "La Géorgie, qui a été libérée de l'empire Ottoman par les Russes fait partie de l'ensemble russe !" So, enough already!

Thank goodness for people like Georges GIEN who says:
Les propagandistes zélés de l'ambassade russe sont en service commandé. Il est amusant d'ailleurs de constater, que les critiques portent uniquement sur l'homme, (comme à l'époque soviétique) que l'on présente comme un malade ou un fou...
Georges GIEN also answers Frank-Walter Steinmeier's column on the same page of Le Monde:
Et bla, bla, bli et bla, bla, bla. C'est creux et sans intérêt. Car pour espérer être crédible il ne faut pas accepter que la Russie envahisse et occupe un pays, membre de l'Onu, dont les frontières sont internationalement reconnues. reprendre les discussions avec la Russie, sans poser au préalable l'arrêt de l'occupation en Géorgie est inadmissible. Voulez-vous aussi, comme Schroeder devenir administrateur chez gazprom ?

Friday, December 05, 2008

Tsk, tsk

What will they say at the next drum circle:

This year is set to be the coolest since 2000, according to a preliminary estimate of global average temperature that is due to be released next week by the Met Office. The global average for 2008 should come in close to 14.3C, which is 0.14C below the average temperature for 2001-07.
Lest you think that more cooling means less warming (even writ small):

The relatively chilly temperatures compared with recent years are not evidence that global warming is slowing however, say climate scientists at the Met Office. "Absolutely not," said Dr Peter Stott, the manager of understanding and attributing climate change at the Met Office's Hadley Centre. "If we are going to understand climate change we need to look at long-term trends."
Of course the (publicly-funded) scientific community now is into the nuance game (eg. the facts are not fitting the models afterall). When it was time to pin the blame for Hurricane Katrina, natch ......... immediate pronouncement that it was AGW. It must be true, there is even a powerpoint.

One wonders with the scientific community, which is more important: long-term trends related to scientific facts -or- long-term trends related to funding.

Hmmmmmmm

Hold on to you Grundgesetz, People

German courts have found a way to extend the great warm-fuzzy of compassion to aggressive men incarcerated together.

The Federal Constitutional Court said the plaintiff was right in challenging a prison policy which allowed only female inmates to spend 25 euros (£21) of their own money on cosmetic and skin care products each month.

"Although the interest in cosmetics may be more widespread or frequently stronger among women than among men, it is not a biologically determined interest among women," the court ruled.

"Members of one sex cannot be denied their wellness choices simply because they are more typically found among the opposite sex."
It's just what they need in the crowbar hotel. Better smelling trany prison bitches.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

In Memoriam

China Considers France a Female Country Which Acts Like a Vassal and Is Europe's Weak Link

Les diplomates français ont de tout temps été fascinés par la Chine et en ont une vision totalement déconnectée de la réalité
says a China specialist, Jean-Vincent Brisset, directeur de recherche à l'Institut de relations internationales et stratégiques, to Soren Seelow (Nee hau to José).
Nous sommes persuadés qu'il faut être gentils avec les Chinois pour que les Chinois soient gentils en échange. Parmi les pays ayant joué un grand rôle au niveau mondial, le nôtre est celui qui s'est montré le plus faible vis-à-vis de la Chine. Nous sommes ainsi considérés comme un pays femelle, faible et qui change tout le temps d'avis. Or la Chine ne respecte que la force.

…Pour [les Chinois], c'est extrêmement clair : la France est un pays vassal. … Nous n'y avons gagné que du mépris. … Il y a heureusement beaucoup de gens en Europe qui commencent à comprendre que la Chine n'est pas un pays ami. C'est un pays égoïste qui a des rapports rugueux avec le reste du monde, avec lequel il faut prendre un peu de distance.

… Si l'Europe faiblit, la Chine pourra piétiner tous les pays européens l'un après l'autre, sauf la Grande-Bretagne, qui ne se laissera jamais faire.

A Venezuelan Whose First Name Is Hitler? A Frenchman is Shocked; A Venezuelan Whose First Name Is Stalin? The Frenchman Is Amused

In Le Monde, Jean-Pierre Langellier has an article about the strange and funny first names that Venezuelans give their children.

There is Jefferson, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Elvis, John Wayne, Usnavi, and, in the oil-producing region of Maracaibo, there are even kids (since grown up) named General Electric, Max Donald, and Made in USA. Along with Danger as well as Yesaidu and Juan Jondre, local adaptations of "Yes, I do" and "One hundred".

So far, so good. But here is where the French particularity comes out. Jean-Pierre Langellier points out there are some names of dubious taste, such as Iroshima Jennifer Bravo Queredo and Hitler Eufemio Sanchez Mayora, Jr, son of Hitler Eufemio Sanchez Mayora, Sr, and one of 60 people in the country with the first name Hitler.

The problem is whom the Frenchman did not include in the dubious name category. Indeed, see how the entire article started:
Lenin Danieri travaille comme reporter pour une chaîne de télévision vénézuélienne. Stalin Gonzalez, ex-leader étudiant, vient d'être battu aux élections municipales. Hochiminh Jesus Delgado Sierra dirige une entreprise à Barquisimento, une capitale provinciale. Mao Pinto est publicitaire.
Having Hitler for a first name is dubious (as we can all agree), but, obviously, for a Frenchman like Jean-Pierre Langellier, having Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hochiminh, or Chegueva as a first name is not, and is obviously nothing less than as cute as Jefferson or Kennedy. In the country where, we are told, it is not at all true that people regret the Soviet era, note that (at the time of this writing) no reader has come forward to protest (or even offer a comment).

(True, Jean-Pierre Langellier goes on to bemoan the "sad" example of Carlos the Jackel, but that seems to be because the terrorist born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (his brothers were named Lenin and Vladimir) brings disfavor to Lenin's (original first) name, not because Lenin's name brings disrepute to the terrorist.)

Election Monitors, Training Program in Civic Fairness Needed

What? Someone finally noticed? How can this be twisted to mean "George Bush shredded the constitution?

Belgium 'placed on democracy watch list'
The global champions of cultural fascism have turned to sneering on themselves: Belgium has banned three elected mayors from office for speaking French.
The COE has demanded that the mayors be immediately appointed and called for a review of Belgium's linguistic laws that have been used by Flemish nationalists to ban the use of the French language in municipalities around Brussels, home to the EU.
Good luck with all that.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

"I cannot walk 200 meters in the streets" of Saint Petersburg, says the African native, "without getting fingers pointed at me"

Hamidou Bakayoko … est malien et vit depuis vingt-six ans à Saint-Pétersbourg. Agé de 46 ans, il est marié à une Russe, ils ont un enfant. Il est mordu de foot, mais ne mettra jamais les pieds au stade. Plombier dans le quartier de Petrogradskaya, il grille cigarette sur cigarette dans son atelier vétuste en méditant sur son sort : "La Russie, c'est pas un pays pour les Noirs. Le racisme, c'est la maladie principale ici. Je ne peux pas faire 200 mètres dans la rue sans me faire pointer du doigt."

Il met son manteau, allume une énième cigarette, et c'est parti pour une promenade. Deux cents mètres plus loin, une femme, la quarantaine, sourire moqueur, montre du doigt Hamidou à ses deux amis. "Comme un animal, souffle-t-il. Et encore, on ne m'a pas demandé si je me suis lavé aujourd'hui."
While all eyes are eternally on America on outlook for instances of racism, intolerance, greed, treachery, stupidity, and other "crimes" against humanity, other societies, such as Russia, with far worse "sins", only get passing interest in the media.
Pour accueillir les joueurs de l'OM, surtout les Noirs, des "ultras" se sont recouverts le visage de la fameuse cagoule blanche du Ku Klux Klan, ont imité des cris de singe, lancé des bananes. Dans une tribune, un singe en peluche portant le maillot marseillais a été pendu au bout d'une corde. "C'était amusant, lance Dmitri, 22 ans, un fan du Zénith qui dit appartenir à un groupe de supporteurs, les Members, proche des mouvements néonazis. C'est important de montrer aux nègres qu'ils sont des nègres. Nous sommes des patriotes de la ville, la place des Noirs n'est pas chez nous, mais dans les arbres en Afrique."
Needless to say, a number of Le Monde readers look back at Soviet times with nostalgia.

Monday, December 01, 2008

"Pull Down Your Underwear, Turn Around, and Cough Three Times"

"On se demande dans quel pays on vit", dit [Vittorio de Filippis, journaliste à Libération, membre de la direction du journal].
The French press is up in arms because a member of Libération has been allegedly mistreated by French police. Arrested at his home in the early hours of dawn for defamation (for "allowing" a website vistor's comment on a controversial businessman to remain on the website), Vittorio de Filippis was brought to the police station and told to get undressed. Then he was directed to lower his underpants… «Baissez votre slip, tournez-vous et toussez trois fois!»

The editor of Le Monde calls the police methods unacceptable but the police say that the Filippis version of events is exaggerrated.

Underwhelming

The European Union has launched its mission to strengthen the rule of law in Kosovo, after months of delay.  
 
Nearly 2,000 officials are taking over police, justice and customs duties from United Nations staff.  
 
Serbia rejected Kosovo's declaration of independence in February and still regards Kosovo as one of its provinces, but it has accepted the new EU mission.  
The UN will leave Kosovo after more than a decade in charge, retaining only a small political role.
After making a big point some time ago about the EU in Kosovo, the EU is making a big deal about ‘taking over the operation’ from the UN.  It has to be said that the same people who are effectively the government of Kosovo will be changing hats for this new effort to ‘take over the operation’again in a bid to do something slightly less parasitic looking than the year before.  From the BBC:
Eulex is the EU's biggest-ever mission and will operate across all of Kosovo. The 1,900 international officials will be supported by about 1,100 local staff.
Yup.  That’s it. Their ‘biggest ever mission’ is IN Europe and is composed of only 3000 people, more than a third of which are local hires, all to somehow make good on decades of cultural babble on what Casper should be doing for the world.  Oh, what a grand day as they continue to not ever find a way out of that quagmire they’ve been in, albeit looking like they’re passing around by re-re-redeclaring it an mission of some other alphabet soup operation: OECD, EU, UN, NATO, CoE, or who knows what next. 
 
A simpler point needs to be made: while the UN have been there since 1999, and realistically outside organizations have been there longer given the interventions in the region, they really have no way out.  All the while the region has been rotting in the EU’s back yard, and the EU decided to try to take as least visible a role as it could for more than a decade.  These are the people who we’re told are lighting the way to sunshine, lollipops, and peace for the world.  
 
 On the other hand, Iraq has been administered by Iraqis for some time.  I can’t help wondering if the real goal of those that idealize ‘internationalism’ is anything more than self-flattery. 
 
To begin with UNMIK after celebrating an 18 month anniversary of being a “renerwed commitment’ amounted to:
UNMIK budget for the fiscal year 2007/08 US$210,676,800.00 (Budget for the fiscal year 
2006/2007 amounts to US$217,962,000. The budget for the fiscal year 2005/06 (until 30 June 
2006): US$239,889,800.) 
UN Staff: (Police not included): International 462, National 1892, UNV’s 125. (as of Jan. ‘08) 
OSCE: A total of 999 staff. 283 International and 716 Local staff (as of 2007)
4194 personnel, 2608 of which are local hires.  How this is a “Kosavarizing” of the activity or with apparently fewer people a “renewed commitment” is, I suppose, a matter of being able to imagine a better world.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Man bites dog

Lawyers seek the creation of a new organisation which helps ensure lawyers are employed.

Film at 11