1. oktober 2003

Back home in Iraq A fascinating story about a group of exiled Iraqi students returning home to see for themselves how their country fared. They found reality to be dramatically at odds with western media reports. Swinging her legs, happy and relaxed like I have never seen her before, Sama says: "If we hadn't been to Iraq, we'd be really depressed right now. I came back, saw the news and thought, `Are they talking about the same Iraq?'" Is this, I wonder, because the media can only deal with Arabs as victims or terrorists? The IPO members don't think so. Rather, Yasser says, there are several reasons why the reporting from Iraq is stressing the negative over the positive. "First, buildings being bombed is a much better story than the formation of the Baghdad city council to clear up the rubbish and sort out the sewers. Angry Iraqis make a better story than hopeful Iraqis." "Second, a lot of the media was openly anti-war, so now that there are hundreds of thousands of mass graves being opened up and all the evidence shows that the Iraqis supported [the war], the media are latching on to the few things, like the looting and, of course, the weapons issue - that was always a red herring - that seem to vindicate their position. And third - I know this sounds like a petty point, but it's very important - a lot of journalists are using the same guides and translators that they used before the war, because they know them. They don't seem to realise that those people were carefully selected by the regime because of their loyalty to Saddam's line. So most journalists are getting a totally distorted picture." You should absolutely read the whole thing. Via Steven Den Beste. 11:13:41 PM    comment []  trackback []

You can sleep cancer away A study has concluded that a good night's sleep is a good way to help your body beat off cancer. Previous studies have found people with cancer who go through group therapy or have a strong social network fare better than those with weaker social support. The question has been how psychosocial factors exert their influence on cancer cells. David Spiegel, MD, the Jack, Lulu and Sam Willson Professor in the School of Medicine, and Sandra Sephton, PhD, Spiegel's former postdoctoral fellow now at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, suggest that a person's sleep/wake cycle might be the connection. Their work will be published in the October issue of Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. "Psychosocial factors affect your behavior patterns, such as exercise, what you eat and drink, and your sleep," Spiegel said. Of these factors, how well you sleep can seriously alter the balance of hormones in your body. This makes the sleep/wake cycle, also called the circadian rhythm, a good candidate for linking a person's social network to their cancer prognosis. In that case, I'd be screwed. 11:08:34 PM    comment []  trackback []

Iraqi children back to school This morning, millions of Iraqi children start a new school year, and they will experience some dramatic changes. For one, many run-down school buildings have been refurnished and rebuilt. In recent months, tens of thousands of local contractors, appointed by the US-led coalition, embarked on a massive programme to rebuild and refurbish. It is still under way, but as the new school year starts, more than 1,000 schools have been declared finished. Also in the curriculum there are changes, and UN agencies are busy printing 70 million new school books. Children will no longer have to start the school day chanting Saddam Hussein's praises. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was that this article appeared on the BBC's newssite! Perhaps the criticism is starting to work. 9:55:07 AM    comment []  trackback []

Plan in US Congress to make Iraq aid into loans A bipartisan effort in Congress is working to make some parts of the aid to Iraq, up to $20bn, into a loan instead of a grant. The proposal is gaining popularity among both democrats and republicans, uneasy about the huge bill of the reconstruction of Iraq. They argue that with Iraq's huge oil reserves, the country should be able to repay the money, which will go towards recunstruction of infrastructure. The Bush administration and Iraq's administrator L. Paul Bremer strongly opposes the measure. This is a particularly dangerous and stupid idea. Iraq is already up to its ears in foreign debt, and the US is about to lobby to have the large creditors, France, Germany, Russia and Saudi Arabia, forgive Iraq some of its debt. If the US adds $20bn on top of existing debt, even demanding preferential repayment, they can forget that. Supporters of a direct grant said any loan secured with Iraqi oil revenue would reinforce perceptions abroad that the United States waged war in Iraq to gain access to more oil. "Every despot, every extremist, every opponent all over the world will say, `See, the United States was only there for one reason, and that's the oil,' " said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "That's what they'll say, and there will be some legitimacy to it." Exactly. If this loan idea is not killed, it will cause the US more than $20bn worth in headaches in the future. 8:08:57 AM    comment []  trackback []

Norwegians the least religious Europeans According to a recent survey, Norway ranks lowest among Europeans in religiousity. One out of ten considers themselves completely irrelligious, while the majority is only moderately so. The survey, financed by the European Commission, asked respondents to rank how religious they were on a scale from zero to 10. Only 9 percent of Norwegians questioned ranked themselves with an "8" or higher, reports newspaper Vaart Land. None of the other 15 countries participating in the survey scored so low. Something to be proud of. Ironic that Norway still has a Lutheran state church in face of a very secularlised population. Professor Harald Hegstad at the University of Oslo said Norwegians are "spiritually lazy." Earlier studies have suggested that while the vast majority of Norwegians are members of the state church because they're automatically born into it, only around 4 percent regularly attend church services. What you would expect to hear from a theologist. In fact, when people rank themselves as irreligious, it is because they don't think religious thought has any value in their lives. One could just as well say that religious people are intellectually lazy, and be more correct. The most religious Europeans are in Poland, Greece, Portugal and Ireland. 5:10:18 AM    comment []  trackback []

Does the world need more of this? HowTo: Write bad documentation that looks good. It portrays to be a satire, but I think a lot of people actually follow this advice. Spend lots of time on the appearance and presentation of your documentation. Your management is easily distracted by shiny things, and will not realize that your binders contain information that could easily be recreated by anyone. This works for presentations, so surely it should work for documentation, too. 2:25:42 AM    comment []  trackback []

King Karl of America The White House leak probe has lead to increased attention to Bush's powerful adviser Karl Rove. Ron Suskind wrote a very fascinating article, an "inside look" as it's called, for Esquire in January. 2:13:16 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.11.2003; 03:17:55.