Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Recommended reading: Tim's The authentic temptations of interventionism. When I started drifting in this direction with my work on this book, it was early in the year 2001, and I thought that the book would be relevant largely to audiences with a particular interest in Africa, or perhaps at best a wider audience of readers interested in the role of individuals and the nature of human agency in history. In the past year, some of my thinking has developed an uncomfortable new relevance, in an unexpected direction. Many intellectuals, from many different perspectives, now assert that the United States has taken a huge step towards ruling a formal empire, one that more than a few commentators have likened to the British Empire as it stood just prior to the 1870s. Empire and imperialism are terms loosely used and abused by many. Virginia Postrel is right to be skeptical about the word, but only up to a point. Most centrally, empires have territorial holdings in places that they do not regard as being part of their own national sovereignity--and we appear to be on the brink of that. This is a good time to revisit the 19th Century establishment of the modern British Empire, not to for the purpose of taking cheap shots at the Iraq War via analogy but so that we can understand the authentic appeal of empire. . . . The British Empire failed because not because it violated sovereignities, but because it was hypocritical in its mission to civilize. It killed and imprisoned and punished those who sought no more than to defend their legitimately different ways of life, using military force where dialogic suasion was the only moral strategy. It defined the parochial and local virtues of English society as the central values of civilization. Civilization is not tea and lawn bowling. The British Empire democratized at home and constructed new autocracies abroad. It promised the rule of law and respect for citizens and then made imperial subjects into permanent subjects denied legal recourse and forever condemned to servitude. It held forth the promise of rights and snatched them back the moment that men and women walked forward eagerly to claim them. It ruled without hope or interest in understanding its subjects, and dismissed the many genuine moments of connection that presented themselves as graspable possibilities. We are already well down the road to similar failures. One of the best things I've read this week. Thanks, Tim. 2:28:11 PM    comment []

S tates Seen As Lax on Database Security: Study Faults Efforts To Police Insurers, by Jonathan Krim, Washington Post. 12:27:49 PM    comment []

Scam casts doubt on eBay's anti-fraud software, Rachel Konrad, Associated Press. 10:27:35 AM    comment []

Social Software panel at PC Forum 2003, impressionistic transcript by Cory Doctorow. 7:27:02 AM    comment []

According to the referer logs, someone or more folks are looking for the IP address for aljazeera.net (of Al Jazeera, the Arab television network). Looks to me like www.aljazeera.net resolves to 217.26.193.10 (although the hop after Nice.francetelecom.net is for naught right now). Happy to help where I can. 6:38:20 AM    comment []

World Summit on the Information Society. The World Summit on the Information Society is to be held in Geneva 10-12 December 2003 and in Tunis 16-18 November 2005. The objective of the Summit is to develop a declaration of principles and an action plan that will ensure the benefits and rights of the information society are extended to all. The working documents outline an information society with citizens and communities at its core, and include input from observers and are available for comment by sending an email to wsis.ap@itu.int . All comments received by 31 May 2003 will be included in a reference document that will easily identify where these contributions may be included in the basic working documents of the Summit. These draft documents are available from the ITU [Smart Mobs] 6:32:49 AM    comment []

Hope in a Hollow for a Girl Who Dreamed: West Virginia Town Prays for the Return of Missing U.S. Soldier, by Tamara Jones, Washington Post. [Washington Post: Front Page] That proves to be an odd subhed, as you'll see if you read the story. But maybe still intentional. 6:31:51 AM    comment []

"Iraq rebuilding contracts awarded - Mar. 25, 2003" [Daypop Top 40] 6:27:14 AM    comment []

English Al-Jazeera Website Hacked. Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera launched an English-language website Monday. On Tuesday, its Web host says it was hit with a denial-of-service attack, but an Al-Jazeera representative blames the problem on unexpectedly high traffic. [Wired News] 6:25:08 AM    comment []

IT worker burnout gets critical, by John Leyden, The Register. Among IT managers surveyed, more than 71 per cent indicate that IT employee burnout is currently a serious issue in their organizations. Unless the problem is addressed, turnover, productivity, and shareholder value will suffer, Meta warns. Working through this prolonged recession, which has seen budget cuts across the enterprise, numerous staff cutbacks, and general sector uncertainty, has definitely taken its toll on IT employee morale. Unfortunately, it is those same budget cuts that are impeding managers from combating the problem by way of making concrete improvements, said Maria Schafer, programme director of Meta Group's IT Human Capital Management Strategies, and author of the guide. 2:26:05 AM    comment []