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9367. alistairConnor - 6/19/2009 9:16:02 PM About the Somali piracy thing. I was talking to a guy at a party the other day, he was just back from an international piracy conference in Dubai, or somewhere like that. He made the point that the people involved are in fact victims of the statelessness of the zone formerly known as Somalia.
They are simple fisherfolk. Somalia has a fishing zone, just like everywhere else. But no government or navy to defend it. So they get systematically poached by commercial fishing fleets from all over the world, and there's very little left for the locals.
So they start by trying to drive the foreign fishing boats away with shotguns etc. And, well, you can see the rest. 9371. wabbit - 6/19/2009 10:08:36 PM I'm going to delete 9368-70 and repost for vonKreedon, just in case. 9372. wabbit - 6/19/2009 10:09:09 PM 9368. vonKreedon - 6/19/2009 4:29:34 PMRight, they quickly discover that there's little profit to be made in driving rival fishing boats away compared to taking freighters hostage. IMO, that's a significant step beyond poor victimized fishermen to....well...piracy.
Yeah, the Somalis are well and truly fucked, except for those in the Puntland State of Somalia, but they've fucked themselves as much or more than they've been fucked by others. 9373. vonKreedon - 6/19/2009 10:35:25 PM Thanks Wabbit, order is returned to the Mote continuum. 9374. alistairConnor - 6/20/2009 12:18:26 AM I wasn't justifying piracy. Just sociologising it. 9375. Wombat - 6/20/2009 2:44:22 AM Now it gets rough. Khameini has essentially told the protestors that the election will stand, and that there could be severe consequences for continuing the protests.
Over to Moussavi... 9376. robertjayb - 7/6/2009 5:07:41 AM Oh, Canada! The best place on earth...Macleans)
...we’re wealthier than the Americans, we live longer than the Swedes, we’re more industrious than the Germans, we have more lovers than the Italians, we eat better than the French and we have more TVs than the Japanese.
In so many areas—the economy, health, education, public safety, and living standards—the numbers, it seems, back up what we’ve always quietly believed deep in our patriotic hearts. Sorry to brag, but it looks like Canada is the best place on earth.
Canadians bragging?
9377. wabbit - 8/1/2009 1:03:52 AM RIP Corazon Aquino: Former President Corazon Aquino, who swept away a dictator with a "people power" revolt and then sustained democracy by fighting off seven coup attempts in six years, died on Saturday, her son said. She was 76... 9378. vonKreedon - 9/17/2009 4:08:48 PM US Admin cancels E. European missile shield
I'm hoping that the Admin has extracted some assurances from Russia on supporting sanctions against Iran in return for this. Assuming that they have then this is a good deal, otherwise kind of unwise IMO. 9379. alistairConnor - 9/18/2009 10:45:22 PM I think it confirms the existing "international" perception of Obama as naive and flaky. On its face, it just hands the Russians a huge bargaining chip for free. They will say "thanks" and grin.
Terrible thing to say. I hope there's more to it than that. 9380. arkymalarky - 9/19/2009 3:06:51 AM Indications in news reports about it were that the purpose was to advance the US interests wrt Iran. I have yet to be proven wrong that anyone from anywhere underestimates Obama at their peril. And I don't think most of them do. I think his whole administration plays almost everything close to the vest and he's communicating with people nonstop.
He reminds me of the most brilliant person I ever worked for. He could have been anything with his talents, but he has too much heart. I didn't realize until I'd known him for years how much groundwork and networking and pre-planning he put into absolutely everything he accomplished. He was tireless, regarded and adored by everyone who knew him, and he always had time for you and made you feel like you were a close friend--and it was real. We still stay in touch.
People are incredibly loyal to someone like that and someone like that knows and has the network and connections to pick the right people to work for him. And he does the vast amount of his work under the radar, which is why he's so successful and is often underestimated--because he's open and honest and friendly with everyone and people tend to take each other at face value. Bill Clinton's a lot like that, as well, but his character flaws kept him from accomplishing as much as he could have.. 9381. Wombat - 9/19/2009 3:26:58 AM The star wars installations in Poland And the Czech Republic were a joke from the beginning. The majority polled in both countries didn't want them, the technology is as yet unreliable, and it needlessly antagonised Russia. Good riddance. 9382. arkymalarky - 9/19/2009 4:13:47 AM One of the main points of my post that I neglected to make was that I'd be surprised if leaks come out of the Obama administration and there's likely a lot more going on wrt to any action they take than it seems on the surface. Wombat's post is key. They're not going to toss something of value for no reason. 9383. alistairconnor - 10/6/2009 1:20:02 PM Obama is involved in a complex crisis with Iran and Russia. It's not getting all that much public attention, but it seems to me that it's his first real foreign policy test. If he resolves it well, then he's a safe pair of hands...
The fuss about the hidden Iranian facility is one thing, but there's a lot more going on. The IAEA has concluded that they have all the science required to make a bomb. And Israeli intelligence has concluded that Russian scientists are helping them.
I had been of the opinion that the Iran/bomb thing was an elaborate double bluff rather like Saddam's : no we're not making a bomb; nudge nudge wink wink yes we are (mostly for domestic consumption), but that actually they weren't (this was the US intelligence assessment until recently).
But what it looks like to me is a concerted joint effort by Obama and the Israelis, based on compelling evidence, to get the Iranians to back down, and the Russians to back off.
They seem to be soft-pedalling it, relatively speaking. Any sanctions against Iran require Russian co-operation to be effective; Russia will not wish to be seen to be bullied, they are interested in harrassing the US as much as possible to preserve their sphere of influence, but they are open to bargaining, and have perhaps been persuaded to dump the Iranians, who aren't really a strategic ally for them.
So the relatively conciliatory tone of the Iranians just recently may well represent a fundamental shift, and the start of the untying of the Gordian knot...
If, on the other hand, the Russians perceive Obama as weak, and unwilling to go to war over the issue, then they may push the Iranians to be intransigent. And that, considering the short fuse of the Israelis, could well lead to war with Iran, which would necessarily involve the US. 9384. vonKreedon - 10/9/2009 5:10:15 PM Obama awarded Nobel Peace Prize
What the fucking fuck?!? As much of a travesty as it was to award the prize to Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, at least they had in fact negotiated a peace treaty and ended the US involvement in the Viet-Nam War. What the fucking fuck has Obama done to date to merit this? 9385. Wombat - 10/9/2009 5:29:37 PM It appears to be an aspirational award, and a reflection on how the world status of the United States has revived since the election. I think it is premature. And, of course, anything that pisses off the loony-toonies in this country cannot be all bad... 9386. vonKreedon - 10/9/2009 5:47:15 PM I disagree about pissing off the "loony-toonies" as this actually gives them some measure of apparent legitimacy in the "Obama as faux Messiah" meme that they are so fond of promoting. And yeah, it's inspirational and that's just wrong when there are people and organizations that have been working long and effectively for peace, such as the Cluster Munitions Coalition that was instrumental in getting the munitions banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitions and signed by 107 countries, though NOT the US or Israel. 9387. vonKreedon - 10/9/2009 5:48:49 PM Edit: Actually the CCM treaty banning cluster munitions has not yet banned the munitions as it requires ratification by 30 countries and at this point only 27 of the signatories have ratified the treaty. 9388. vonKreedon - 10/9/2009 5:49:57 PM To edit further: Actually reading my google for comprehension reveals that 21 rather than 27 countries have ratified the treaty. Carry on. 9389. iiibbb - 10/9/2009 9:47:13 PM I like Obama, but if I were him I'd wave off the award.
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