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Saturday, November 15, 2003
posted by gbarto at 1:12 PM:
Bad news day12 Die Touring Queen Mary II
Gangway collapses as people board world's largest passenger ship.
– Keith B. Richburg
12 Soliders Killed in Crash
Witnesses say two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters collided over Mosul.
– Associated Press
And the really bad news, intentionally made:
20 Dead in Istanbul Synagogue Bombings
At least 257 injured after two cars explode; Turkish authorities suspect al Qaeda link.– Associated Press
Just a little bit more of the rising anti-Semitism there. While I don't agree with everything Friedman says here, his lead-in touches nicely on where that anti-Semitism is and where it might be going. Here's the link for that:
A Saudi-Israeli Deal
While we're at it, is it bad news that the attitude is again circulating that Jews are the cause of all the world's problems or good news that at least a few people have been called on the carpet for it, as with this a-hole in the German Parliament:
German Legislator Is Ousted for Slur on Jews
Finally, in a note for the French readers in our little invitation to worrying about anti-Semitism, let us note that the European Parliament was going to formally criticize the President of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, for saying:
"We sacrifice lives unnecessarily, achieving nothing other than to attract more massive retaliation and humiliation. [But] we are up against a people who think. [The Jews] survived 2,000 years of pogroms not by hitting back, but by thinking. . . . We cannot fight them through brawn alone. We must use our brains also."The fear, that this promoted the idea that the Jews were to be fought, not lived with. Chi-Chi (as Le Canard would call him), wasn't quite sure how he felt about it. Here's a rundown of stories culled by google news:
Mahathir thanks Chirac for blocking summit declaration on Jewish ...
Taipei Times, Taiwan - Oct 19, 2003
... A French diplomat, who asked not to be named, said while Chirac disagreed with Mahathir's
strident views, he argued that an EU summit declaration "would not ...
Chirac rebukes Malasian 'Jews rule' jibe
Expatica, Netherlands - Oct 20, 2003
... In his letter to Mahathir, Chirac said: "Although you and your government have taken
care to rebut any accusation of anti-Semitism, these remarks can only be ...
Israel praises Chirac for condemning Mahathir ’ s remarks
Daily Times, Pakistan - Oct 20, 2003
... In his letter to Mahathir, Chirac said: “Although you and your government have
taken care to rebut any accusation of anti-Semitism, these remarks can only be ...
So, the French did eventually come 'round, but they do seem to take the long way around when it comes to getting exercised over this sort of thing. Having just seen story number three in this round-up, one remembers how long it took before they got worried about all the synagogue burnings a year ago. (Though in fairness, it took a thousand dead before they started health precautions for the heat wave; maybe it's incompetence, not malice.)
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posted by gbarto at 7:06 AM:
Le Monde: Bush wants to transfer power to Iraqis in June.Liberation: Double Bombing of Synagogues in Istanbul, 23 dead. The religion of peace is on the march, it would seem. But, without belaboring the point, we will again wonder if the Islamicists can construct anything of battle. Let's face it, their biggest impact on the artworld is the destruction of the Bamayan Buddhas; their governmental triumph is the mess that was the Taliban regime; their scientific apex is the use of Western made objects for other purposes in the manner in which a monkey might use a broom to knock down some bananas.
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Thursday, November 13, 2003
posted by gbarto at 11:59 PM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Economy registers a slight rebound. It looks like the French GDP grew at .35% last quarter, not great but at least on the right side of the ledger.
Libération: Science Unfinanced. The research budget before the Assembly falls far short of the government's ambitions.
Ouest-France: Taliban Still Present. Or at least they're linked to the deaths of 350 people in the last few months.
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posted by gbarto at 12:07 AM:
Here's an excellent piece of the sort that only Den Beste could write: The boxing concept connecting the fall of Netscape and the coming of democracy to the Middle East. It's all tied to a speech Bush just made to the National Endowment for Democracy.* * *
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
posted by gbarto at 11:45 PM:
What does Martin Sheen Think of You?A Dog's Life has some notes on the egotism of the media "dissenters" and what they think of us.
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posted by gbarto at 11:39 PM:
Libération: Italy Newest Terror Victim In Iraq. After the car bombing mentioned in the previous French news update. Casualties up to 26 Italians and Iraqis.Le Monde: Elf Scandal: Hard Time for 3 Higher-Ups. What were the crimes? Too numerous to catch them all. For starters, payoffs to facilitate unprofitable deals for the benefit of individual players, political games to get paperwork through, spinning off of money to diverse parties for reasons not involving the bottom line. To put it succinctly, the French Enron.
Le Figaro: Laďcité: Debré mission favors law - banning the wearing of visible religious signs in official public settings like schools. That mission being a parliamentary commission studying the issue.
Ouest-France: Elf: The Trio Behind Bars.
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posted by gbarto at 7:57 AM:
Wow! We'll see if he sticks to it this time:Arafat Urges End to Mideast Violence
Israel has right to peace, he says; Qureia's Cabinet OKd by lawmakers
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posted by gbarto at 7:55 AM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: One Year After Prestige, Aquitaine Coast Dirty. That's the oil tanker that went to pieces last year.
Libération: At least 22 dead in bomb attack against Italian Army in Iraq. That's 15 Italians and seven Iraqis.
Ouest-France: Veils: The Debate That Keeps Blowing Up.
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Monday, November 10, 2003
posted by gbarto at 11:45 PM:
Common Sense and Wonder has some good advice for how to behave on subways worldwide. Hint: No smoking in America.* * *
posted by gbarto at 11:42 PM:
Cross your fingers for A Dog's Life. He survived the first round of lay-offs in his office today.* * *
posted by gbarto at 11:38 PM:
Readers of our TurkeyBlog French news updates will recall a couple mentions of the challenges France is facing trying to simultaneosly integrate Islam into the society and maintain its laic/securlarist bent. Cicero has translated two of the relevant articles and in addition provides invaluable background commentary. A must-read for anyone concerned about what advocates of Western religious toleration are to do in the face of militant Islam.Further up the page, there are also useful observations on why the formulas for defending partial birth abortion are a little too pat.
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posted by gbarto at 11:24 PM:
French news headlines:Le Monde: Iran Announces Agreement with IAEA. Purportedly, they will stop their uranium enrichment program. Phew. I feel much safer now.
Le Figaro's headline writer seems to be working with the editorial, rather than the news staff. How else to explain this front page teaser:
American Clumsiness Slows Reconstruction
La maladresse des Américains freine la reconstructionThe story over the jump concerns, in part, whether a French journalist's difficulties getting through for an interview are indicative of the difficulties an Iraqi would have getting through to warn of a bomb threat, give a tip on a bad guy, etc. But it takes until paragraph four to even start that line of thought. Which is to say that Le Figaro's lead reads like two stories. First there is a story of American success and then there is the "yeah but" that is obligatory for any story in a Parisian newspaper that doesn't prophesy American doom up top. And, of course, the headline goes to the "yeah but." The "yeah but" is a legitimate story, incidentally, but one wonders why it was tacked on and presented as the lead story instead of appearing as a separate analysis article. Or, actually, one doesn't wonder. One merely notices that the organs of French elite opinion are up to their usual tricks.
American troops multiplied their raids in the last 24 hours, capturing more than 100 suspects and getting hold of arms caches. The chief of a Northern tribe accused of having welcomed the old regime's number two man, Ezzat Ibrahim, was arrested...
Libération: The Shipwreck of European Prevention. Says Libé, in the wake of the Prestige mess last year, the EU has drafted new regulations. Too bad they're not doing anything to stop crime on the high seas.
Ouest-France has World War I on the brain. Up top, an editorial notes that with all the later horrors, we forget just what a tragic horror World War I was. Below is a historian's piece on why the memory of World War I must be kept alive.
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posted by gbarto at 11:54 AM:
WTO: American Steel Duties IllegalEU may slap sanctions on U.S. imports
One hopes this will get the US back on the free trade path. And it will be even better if we can do textiles next. The big guns in the US steel industry have received protection for years so that they could undertake a costly modernization to be competitive against overseas producers. They've consistently spent it on everything except new technology. In the meantime, the old steel producers have faced some competition at home in the face of the minimills. Here in the US, making steel the 1950s way should not be the standard. We should be working at making better steel and similar materials for an era when the '57 Chevy is no longer the height of American ingenuity. And the forces that hold us back by draining capital and resources to keep the old racket going should finally be subject to the forces of the market.
Our textile industry is in a similar shameful state. At a time when the lingering effects of the recession are keeping the most economically challenged parts of the country down, the last thing we need is for the clothes on one's back to be sold at a premium to keep an outdated industry going.
Out here in Silicon Valley, we've seen one hell of a downturn as the cooling of the internet sector and the emergence of overseas technology companies drive down the prices of our products in a market that was already unfriendly. Yet when the Mercury News runs an article wondering whether Sun Microsystems will survive, it is not accompanied by a photo of the senator who's going to keep Asian-produced workstations and software written in India off the market. The market here, and most everywhere, is a reality that must be faced. We do not want the protections received by a handful of old-guard union-dominated industries. But it would be nice, as we work through our own economic struggles, if we weren't paying government inflated prices for our cars and clothing so that high school graduates in South Carolina could have greater job and income security than PhDs in software engineering in California.
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posted by gbarto at 12:55 AM:
French news headlines:Libé: St. Denis: alterglobo capital - where the non-globalist but not anti-globalists are planning to meet. That they've set it up and drawn interest at all gives them, apparently, hope of making a difference.
Saudi Arabia: Target of Choice for Al-Qaeda. So says Libé, and with what's been going on, it's not easy to argue. But again it is worth remembering that Al-Qaeda's problem with the Saudis is the presence of Americans, not that millions of Muslims live in the meanest of circumstances so that a select few can live in a way that even kings wouldn't dream of living ordinarily. And no, that's not a critique of capitalism, for Saudi Arabia is not a free trade place; it's just like Soviet communism except that a king, rather than a faceless state apparatus, is the beneficiary of the racket.
Ouest-France: Says the Archbishop of Marseilles, "Islam must learn about secularism," i.e. coexisting with a free state. Tough words. Good to see them used. It's been really interesting watching French dubiousness about religion - which has, after all, been the cause of countless civil wars, changes in government, etc, clash with Islamic fundamentalism and see the extent to which the French prefer their Enlightenment values to the bland tolerance seen elsewhere in which pieties replace efforts to understand, respond to or assimilate religions that seek a place in the public sphere.
In the same vein, Le Figaro has Bishops Hostile to Single Law on Secularism, because they can't decide what it means for their religion if uniform standards are applied to them and to Islam. It's a tough call, because Catholicism has done enough damage to France for the French to see a real historical reason for being wary, yet Islam probably poses a greater threat to order at the moment.
Le Monde: Japan: Incumbent Coalition Shaken. It still has the lower house, but there's news in the results that bids ill for the Koizumi government. First, he now needs a coalition - his own party can't hold power alone. Second, his biggest opposition has surged.
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