24. september 2003

Majority of Baghdad residents: war was worth it A Gallup poll of residents in Baghdad found that 62 % believe that the hardships they have gone through has been worth getting rid of Saddam Hussein's regime. While more  think they are worse (47%) than better (33%) off right now, Baghdad people are on the whole optimistic: Two-thirds believe they will be better off in five years than they were before the war. Around 60% said that so far have a favourable view of the new Governing council, and half said they are doing better than earlier, while most think its priorities are really set by the coalition. Currently, it seems the strongest support in the world for Bush's handling of the Iraq conflict can be found within Iraq itself. No doubt, outside Israel, Iraq is the Middle-East stronghold of pro-American sentiment, despite having been the target of its bombs. 11:44:18 PM    comment []  trackback []

Global gag rule takes a toll worldwide Shortly after coming to power, president Bush reinstated Reagan's and Bush Sr's anti-abortion "gag rule", also called the Mexico City rule, which prevents foreign NGOs from receiving US funds if they are in any way providing services related to abortions (even referrals or information). An abortion ban have been declared constitutionally illegal in the US itself, but the executive order circumvents domestic rules to force foreign nationals to abide with right wing Christian rules. Now, Population Action International and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America have conducted a survey in a number of countries, finding that the rule has forced clinics to close and caused many people without contracptives and AIDS prevention. "Our research has found that the Global Gag Rule is taking a toll on the lives and health of women, children and families around the world," the report reads. Five family planning clinics run by nongovernmental organizations have closed in Kenya because they broke the rule and lost funding from the U.S. Agency for International development, the report said. "The NGOs have also had to cut their staffing by as much as 30 percent, reduce services in remaining clinics and raise fees in order to remain viable." "In Lesotho, one in four women is infected with HIV/AIDS -- one of the highest rates in southern Africa. Over a three-year period from 1998 to 2000, the Lesotho Planned Parenthood Association received 426,000 condoms ... all donated by USAID," the report added. "Because of their refusal to agree to the gag rule restrictions, they no longer receive USAID contraceptives." In Kenya's Mathare Valley a clinic closed, leaving 300,000 people with no healthcare services. "And there is no other family planning or reproductive health clinic nearby," the report said. The report is available on globalgagrule.org. 10:40:08 PM    comment []  trackback []

Bush: humbled or arrogant? Somewhat confusingly, the leftist press has chosen to attack president Bush from two opposing sides lately. First, he was attacked and ridiculed for coming crawling back to the UN, humbled, begging for help, after members of his administration a year ago dismissed the world body as irrelevant. Second, and obviously contradictory, Bush is now being attacked for not admitting any mistakes and making a defiant speech at the UN that did not win the US any new friends. Now, one or the other could be true, but not both at the same time. Bush may not have won many new friends, but German chancellor Schröder has for a time distanced himself from the French anti-Americanism, and he and Bush has now fully agreed that past differences are over, and that Germany will support Iraqi reconstruction. There are also other signs that it is France, not the US, that currently finds itself isolated over Iraq. Russia appears to be eager to put differences behind as well. There will continue to be a lot of fuming in the corridors of the UN, revealing very well who really feel humiliated, but there are few actors in this game that don't understand the meaning of the good German word 'realpolitik.' 9:03:56 PM    comment []  trackback []

Indian secularist I received a nice email from Madhukar Narayan Gogate, a retired engineer in Pune, India. He shares some of his English language writings on popularising science, making English more understandable for foreign readers (I can empathise!) and encourages compromises in the ongoing conflict between superstition and science. 8:35:26 PM    comment []  trackback []

Toys for Iraqi children Chief Wiggles, who blogs from Iraq, has organised a collection of toys for Iraqi children. Pass the word! Note: no violent toys (like toy guns, action figures) or scantily clad dolls like Barbies. 5:34:06 PM    comment []  trackback []

Lindh suspect released, new man arrested Swedish police has released the 35-year old man who was suspected for the murder of foreign minister Anna Lindh, and arrested another man. As I hinted earlier, there was sparse evidence linking the 35-year old man, named by the press as Per Olof Svensson, to the crime. The new suspect, however, has been arrested on a 'higher degree of suspicion,' which I assume means the police actually has some evidence this time. Mr Svensson may well have some substantial compensation coming his way. 3:44:58 PM    comment []  trackback []

Sexed up or fucked up? Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's outgoing director of communications, has inadvertedly caused a little revolution in the British press. His diary had a note making it known it would be a good thing to name Dr David Kelly publicly in order to "fuck Andrew Gilligan", the BBC reporter at the center of the row. As early as three years ago, the Finanical Times became the first newspaper to use "fuck" on the front page, causing a massive uproar. This time, both the FT, the Guardian and the Independent used the word spelled out over its front page. The Times and the Telegraph chose the substitute "f***", while other media chose other creative methods to hide the full impact of the word. The infamous f-word is slowly making headway. 3:34:44 PM    comment []  trackback []

Dem lawmakers: press is 'unduly negative' about Iraq A bipartisan group from the US Congress that has just visited Iraq has said that the press is giving a slanted and 'unduly negative' account of what is going on in the country. Lawmakers charged that reporters rarely stray from Baghdad and have a “police-blotter” mindset that results in terror attacks, deaths and injuries displacing accounts of progress in other areas. Comparisons with Vietnam were farfetched, members said. Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the committee’s ranking member, said, “The media stresses the wounds, the injuries, and the deaths, as they should, but for instance in Northern Iraq, Gen. [Dave] Petraeus has 3,100 projects — from soccer fields to schools to refineries — all good stuff and that isn’t being reported.” Skelton and other Democrats on the trip said they plan to reach out to all members of their caucus and explain what they observed. [...] Another member of the delegation, Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), agreed that the stabilization effort is making headway. “In fairness, the war is neither going as well as the administration says it’s going or as badly as the media says it is going,” Taylor said. Republicans were left out of the press conference, but they stressed that they shared their Democratic counterparts’ assessments about the bravery of the troops and the innovative programs, especially in the northern part of the country. Democrats concurred that the delegation of Armed Services Committee members was a model of harmony and bipartisan consensus. “We agreed on 99 percent of what we saw,” Skelton told The Hill. If the democrats and republicans can agree, there must be hope for the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds in Iraq, too. 4:09:27 AM    comment []  trackback []

MSN to shut down chatrooms Microsoft's MSN is to shut down all its unmoderated chat room services in Europe and some other places from October 14, institute a payment-only service for chatrooms in the US, and put up  24 hour moderation in Canada, Australia and Japan. MSN says that concern over abuse of children has caused them to take this drastic step.  People will still be able to chat with people added to their MSN 'buddy' or friends-lists, because it allows a level of supervision. 1:39:01 AM    comment []  trackback []

Google maps Google has an experimental map search engine out for us to play with. Enter a search term and an address in the US, and it will plot the found items in on a map for you. Be aware this is just a work-in-progress beta, so don't expect the normal quality you find in the finished google products. For one, it's not very forgiving on very partial addresses. 1:16:09 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.10.2003; 02:25:18.