3. mai 2003

France calls on muslim council to reject fundamentalism In what can be described as a large-scale experiment to integrate muslims into a western democracy, France has instituted CFCM, the French Council of the Muslim Faith. One of the controversial issues is the veil, which opinion polls show that more than a third of Frenchmen want to ban outright. The government received its first hint that the muslims aren't too eager for compromise either when Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy was booed for saying women had to remove headscarves for identity photography. In elections last month, a fundamentalist Islamist group won a third of the seats in the council. Yet, the government hopes it will elect a moderate president, and that seems to be accomplished. 11:03:55 PM    comment []

Georgia prom for whites only Taylor County High School in rural Georgia had the first integrated school prom only last year (checking calendar warily here), but this year a group of white students wants to go back to segregation. Apparently, many whites plan to go to the intergated prom, they are also planning their own private party where blacks are not welcome. 8:30:47 PM    comment []

Women in parliaments Only eleven of the world's nations have so far met a 1995 goal of at least 30% female representation in parliaments. These countries are Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Netherlands, Germany, Argentina, Costa Rica, South Africa and Mozambique. Seven of these countries are in western Europe, but perhaps surprisingly, many countries in Africa south of Sahara have met or are close to meeting the goal. They are doing better than Britain (17.9%), the United States (12%) and France (11.8%). A number of Gulf states are even worse, banning female representation outright. Women still account for only 14% of parliamentaries worldwide. 7:50:04 PM    comment []

Columbia 'could not be saved' A NASA report says that even if mission control knew exactly what had happened to the shuttle Columbia, there would probably be no way to save the crew. 7:05:10 PM    comment []

About Jack Chick Robert Ito, writing in Los Angeles Magazine, finds out that famous fundamentalist crackpot comic author Jack T. Chick is paranoid and shy, and the world's most published author. 6:17:01 PM    comment []

— US Patriot Act erodes 4th Amandment "A month ago I experienced a very small taste of what hundreds of South Asian immigrants and U.S. citizens of South Asian descent have gone through since 9/11, and what thousands of others have come to fear. I was held, against my will and without warrant or cause, under the USA PATRIOT Act." [Read the rest at AlterNet] 6:00:05 PM    comment []

US warns Canada against decriminalizing pot The US administration is very uneasy about Canada moving to decriminalize pot possession. Canada's move is in line with similar developments in a number of European countries, but the US hardliners does not want such a move close to its borders: David Murray, right-hand man to U.S. "drug czar" John Walters, says he doesn't want to tread on another country's sovereignty, but warned there would be consequences if Canada proceeds with a plan to decriminalize the possession of marijuana. Note the doublespeak here. So what are they most afraid of? That decriminalizing will have good effects, or that it will have bad effects? Of course the former. 5:35:42 PM    comment []

Size matters, indeed These women finalise a fallos statue for the annual fertility festival in Oosawas in north Japan. Apparently, this festival is supposed to harmonise the relationship between husband and wife. Let's hope the size of that thing doesn't break the guys' self confidence completely. (From a Norwegian article in Nettavisen) 4:26:36 PM    comment []

Bush's war, Clinton's arsenal Conservatives do not like to be reminded that the military that performed so brilliantly in Iraq, was based on the arsenal left by Bill Clinton. 3:27:01 PM    comment []

On to the windmills, Don Luddites come in many disguises. Bill McKibben, who has written a long, extremely ignorant article in the Guardian, does not have much camouflage except his extreme verbosity, which coupled with total ignorance about the topic he discusses is an entirely bad thing. He doesn't like the idea that parents could chose the genes of their children, enhancing their strength, intelligence, etc.That is fine. Neither do I. But somebody should tell McKibben that science is not even remotely close to delivering this product. We eagerly foresee his warnings against interstellar travel in a forthcoming article. 2:52:21 PM    comment []

British police arrested five over Tel Aviv bombing It was a shock to many British that two persons involved in the Tel Aviv bombing were citizens of the UK. Now British anti-terror police has arrested two men and three women in East Midlands in connection with the terror attack. An Islamic cleric in north London, Sheikh Omar Bakri, admitted that he had been a teacher for Asif Muhammad Hanif, who blew himself up in Tel Aviv, and his accomplice Omar Khan Sharif. He has refused to condemn the suicide bombing. 3:13:28 AM    comment []

Iraq no turn of tides Many intelligence and security experts take Bush to task for claiming that the military victory in Iraq means that "we have seen the turning of the tide" in the war on terrorism. Even if we accept the Bush administration's rationale for the war in Iraq, this is obviously stretching the truth. At best, the Iraq war was tangential to the war against Islamic terrorism, removing one possible safe haven and source of WMDs for future terrorists. That, to put it mildly, is being kind to Bush. A turning point, this war was not. Islamic terrorism consists of nets of individuals, not regimes. True, it is imperative to deny terrorists safe havens where they can regroup, reequip themselves and stage propaganda and recruitment campaigns. It is very unclear whether Iraq was such a safe haven. The only terrorist groups there probably linked to al Qaeda was Kurdic groups, and they resided in parts of the country outside Saddam's control to begin with. By going after Syria for supporting Hezbollah, Bush is essentially doing Israel's bidding, not its own. It is again, tangential at best to targeting the culprits behind 9/11. Hezbollah originated because Israel occupied parts of Lebanon. Israel is still an occuppying power, and the US administration will wreack havoc on its alliances by aligning itself with Israel. Essentially, in the rest of the world, sympathy has for a long time been swinging towards the Palestinians, despite the Palestinian's disastrous strategic choice of launching suicide bombings against civilians. The decisive battles in the war against terror will still need to be faught one by one against terror cells in Islamic countries and (we have seen) among Muslims in western countries. Unfortunately for Bush, who has his eyes fixed on the reelection campaign, those battles no longer make the big headlines. Not before they catch the ever elusive Bin Laden, at any rate. 2:35:45 AM    comment []

Stop that blog! Repressive governments are beginning to discover blogs, and they want to silence this outlet for freedom of speech in the only way they know: persecution, threats and imprisonment. I have earlier written about Sina Motallebi, an Iranian blogger imprisoned by the police. As blogging grows steadily across the world, we have every reason to fear that oppressive regimes like those in Iran, China and Saudi Arabia will respond in the same way. 1:04:07 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.06.2003; 03:29:19.