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6. januar 2003
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UK culture minister faces heat for rap music statements
Kim Howells earlier lay quite a bit of the blame of Britain's gun violence on British "idiot" rappers, who are accused of glamourising the gun culture in their lyrics. He now faces fierce criticism for failing to understand that music reflects society, it does not create it. However, furthest went Conor McNicholas, editor of New Musical Express, who called the statement "deeply racist."
I don't know who is the biggest idiot here. Yes, Howells was simplistic and shallow. No, the statement was not racist. Playing the race card against any criticism of anyone or anything black is ridiculous and counter-productive.
10:51:18 PM 
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Sloppiest site admin of the year
"Hack-proofing a website is hard enough. But the task becomes gargantuan when you accidentally publish the administrator's password on one of your site's most heavily trafficked pages." (Wired; typo corrected)
The easiest computer system to hack is the human brain.
9:39:36 PM
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UN inspectors rejects Saddam's espinionage allegation
 Saddam Hussein (picture) surely escalated the war of words today by accusing the UN arms inspectors of spying for the United States, and at the same time, in his usual language, said that Iraq would be victorious in a conflict with the western coaltion.
The UN and the inspectors today rejected the accusations, and said all inspection work is in accordance with Unmovic's objective and charter. A US spokesman just commented that the words were "unfortunate."
In a parallel development UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw stated that the likelyhood of conflict has now fallen from 60% to 40%. He may be the only person in the world making that conclusion right now.
Saddam's war rhetoric is not new, and not particularly unexpected on 'army day.' The Iraqi army did a pathetic job in Gulf War I, yet Saddam has insisted Iraq won the war. There is really little reason to expect the much worse equipped Iraqi army of today is able to put up much more of a resistance, even though the prospect of urban warfare does not appeal very much to the coalition.
His accusations against Unmovic were more significant at this time. Though stopping short of demanding the inspectors' withdrawal, it is surely a hint in that direction. It will be hard to interpret active opposition to inspections, if that should happen, as anything short of a direct declaration of war, and one not anyone in the Security Council is likely to avoid drawing the logical conclusion of. Even if Saddam is absolutely convinced war will happen no matter what he does, this move makes little sense, as it will make his own propaganda war more difficult. So it's most likely the anti-Unmovic stance will remain rhetoric. Or Saddam Hussein is even more insane than we thought.
An apropos: Slate has just updated its "saddameter" and estimates the chance of war is now 69%. Of course Jack Straw knows far more than these journalists. But then again, his political interests may override his personal convictions.
9:16:11 PM
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UK tightens gun control laws
The death of two teenage girls apparently caught in the crossfire between gival gangs in Birmingham, England, again raises the question of a growing gun culture among young men. The government has announced, unrelated to this incident it claims, a tightening of gun laws. The UK, which already has some of the strictest gun laws in the world, will now introduce a mandatory minimum five-year prison sentence for illegally owning or using a firearm.
This publicised case notwithstanding, there has been an actual decrease in gun related crimes in Britain over the last year. Yet, there is growing concern over guns being a fashion object in some young urban cultures, and coupled with territorial conflicts over drugs and an emphasis on 'honour,' the situation can easily escalate. Politicians hope that these stricts laws will deter at least some criminals from carrying firearms.
In a related development, Home Secretary David Blunkett has launched an attack on rap music that glorifies gangster and gun culture. He argues that groups like Jay-Z glorifies and thereby encourages gun culture and violence.
While violence always have more complex causes than most politicians will admit, I think there is a point thast strict laws probably will deter at least some criminals (not to mention wannabes) from carrying illegal firearms. This again, obviously will prevent them being used. This is probably very alien thinking for Americans, but frankly rightist Americans are pretty alone in the world in thinking easy availability of instruments of murder brings peace.
As for the attack on rap music, I think it's a typical case of putting the cart before the horse. These rappers glorify a culture that already exists, and that they associate with. It can be argued, I guessed, that popular music may serve to strengthen it in a feedback process between mass media and individuals. Yet, it is attacking the problem from the wrong angle. I guess a rapper is a more convenient target. Besides, the music sucks.
8:16:29 PM
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Geography lesson
"Blizzards hit northern Europe," CNN declares in a recent headline. Living in Northern Europe, I wondered if I had missed a weather forecast, or if my senses were confusing me. It is quite cold, partly clouded, but no snow and no wind where I am.
Of course, the problem is one of CNN's geographic confusion. It is northern France, but that is in southern or, at best, central Europe.
Perhaps CNN not only fired in-depth anchors, but everybody with basic geographic knowledge? It will be 'interesting' to see how CNN develops.
5:49:06 PM
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War, if you will, but be gentlemen about it
A very interesting piece about war and valiance in Morgan's Gnosis blog. Even the losers of a 'proper' war, he argues, are better off than 'winners' in wars fought ruthlessly with hordes of undisciplined and non-uniformed combattants.
This made me, for some reason, think about a few popular but odd stories of victorers who were valiant towards fallen foes. Civilised nations, while having no short list of cruelty and barbarism, still retains at least the idea of a code of honour about warfare that seems oddly romanticised and is in deep contrast with the cruelty of the battlefield.
3:29:56 PM
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Ketchup, however, works
A recent discussion about the urban legends related to the cleaning properties of Coka Cola lead somebody to ask: How about the old advice to clean copper coins in ketchup? Is that an urban legend, too?
Direct contact with people who had performed controlled experiments (yes, some people do that!) leads to the conclusion that it does work to clean copper pennies in ketchup. The procedure is also described on this coin collector's page.
2:43:29 PM
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Arab representatives barred from Knesset
 The two Arab representatives Ahmed Tibi and Azmi Bishara are barred from serving in the Israeli parliament Knesset in a decision from the highly politicised Central Elections Committee. The two are accused of being enemies of the state. The CEC chairman, Supreme Court justice Mishael Cheshin, strongly advised against this decison, but the other representatives, members of the various Jewish parties of the Knesset, disregarded his words. At the same time, the committee chose to not bar Baruch Marzel, a Jewish extremist who once advocated forced explusion of all Arabs from Israel, again against the charman's advice. Both decisions went against the findings of Israeli prosecutors.
For a state praising itself on being a democratic oasis among Middle East dictatures, this is highly embarrassing. To their credit, many Israeli officials and newspapers condemned the decision. Ha'aretz, for example, condemned both this decision and criticised the wide powers to expunge elected members given to "an organization whose members are almost all involved in day-to-day politics and are motivated by political considerations". Some of the CEC members even voted without having read through the relevant documents or attended the procedings.
This decision will surely support the claim that Israel is becoming more and more an apatheid state where Arabs, even those who are Israeli citizens, are second-class.
2:16:20 PM
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Happy thoughts!
It will now be around ten months until the radio DJs start getting the asinine idea of playing those crappy xmas songs again.
10:42:32 AM
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Tel Aviv bombing
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up and killed at least 23 other people in Tel Aviv. Hundreds are wounded. Hours later Israeli gunships attacked a metalworking factory in Gaza City, injuring some people.
Another year has started in the Middle East. Are we getting desentisized to the point where we'd rather prefer somebody took the whole region off the map?
7:19:05 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.02.03; 00:36:30.
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