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23. januar 2005
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How to prevent Mullahs with nukes
Edward Luttwak is certainly right when he writes that the scariest prospect of all is Iranian mullahs with nukes.
There are certainly good reasons for believing that the Bush administration is considering the possibility of air strikes. Iran is ruled by fiercely reactionary clerics under the "supreme guide" Ayatollah Khameini. Between them, they have reduced the elected civilian government of President Khatami to almost total impotence. Khameini is pushing Iran down a more radically fundamentalist path than even Ayatollah Khomeini, the architect of the Islamic revolution in Iran, ever contemplated. Ayatollah Khomeini tolerated civilian government. He was not so restrictive in deciding who could stand for election in Iran's parliament. He never persecuted the hundreds of thousands of Iran's Muslims who practise a different variety of Shi'ism to that aproved by the ruling orthodoxy. Khameini, however, has declared all those people heretics, and started bullying them mercilessly. Abroad, the clique around Khameini funds suicide bombers in Israel and Iraq.
None of this would matter, however, if Ayatollah Khameini wasn't also determined to acquire a nuclear arsenal. Some members of the government have even boasted how they would use them: to destroy Israel. "Islam could survive the retaliation," they insist, "but Israel would be gone forever." The thought of ayatollahs with nuclear bombs should terrify everyone – especially in Europe, because the Iranians could soon put those bombs on the top of rockets that could reach European capitals.
Obviously, a Europe in denial appears much more scared of Americans destroying Iran's nuclear facilities (if such a thing can actually be done).
The Mullahs no doubt have some good reason to be afraid, even more so than the Canadians.
11:45:07 PM 
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The search for moderate muslims continues
Britain is going to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz this week, but it may very well be without the leading muslim organisations:
BRITISH Muslims are to boycott this week’s commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz because they claim it is not racially inclusive and does not commemorate the victims of the Palestinian conflict.
Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, has written to Charles Clarke, the home secretary, saying the body will not attend the event unless it includes the “holocaust” of the Palestinian intifada.
This is utterly inexcusable and outragous. The "intifada" has been a terror campaign to kill Jews, often inspired by nazi-like propaganda. Any attempt to link the Israeli defense against this terror, however heavy handed it may have been at times, with the industrial genocide in World War II is so beyond reason that these groups should be summarily cut off from any contact with the government unless they back down and apologise. Of course, the government will do no such thing:
Home Office officials have told the council, which represents more than 350 Muslim organisations, that they are considering the request. But officials have no plans to broaden the remit of the occasion because they fear it would infuriate the Jewish community.
No kidding! Even the groveling response is utterly embarrassing. There must be some limit to what Islamic organisations can say and do without rebuke.
Remember, these are mainstream "moderate" Muslim groups, not jihadists.
11:36:24 PM
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Look to Ireland!
In the 1970s, Ireland was one of the poorer nations in Europe. Now, based on per capita GDP, Ireland has joined the exclusive top five "high income" nations along with the USA, Norway, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Ireland lacks the abundant national resources of Norway, it doesn't have the banking system of Switzerland and Luxembourg, and it certianly doesn't have the massive industrial and economic power of the US.
So what exactly has Ireland done right, as opposed to its neighbours in France and Germany, which have for years been stuck in a quagmire of economic stagnation?
"The big lesson is that you have to open up," says Danny McCoy, a senior research officer at the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin. "The Irish economy really liberalised, and there was a lot of encouragement for foreigners to come in."
There are three main lessons that other countries should draw from the transformation of the Irish economy.
Firstly, history doesn't count for anything. Few countries had as dismal an economic history as Ireland. It was dominated by a colonial power and suffered from famine, civil unrest and mass emigration. That hasn't prevented its transformation.
Next, resources and geography don't count for much either.
Ireland has few natural resources to speak of. And its geographic position isn't great. Stuck out on the western fringe of Europe, it's a long way from the region's main markets, and you need a boat or a plane to get there.
Lastly, policy makes a difference. Ireland got a few big things right. It has lowered taxes.
The corporate tax rate is just 12.5 percent, one of the lowest in the developed world. Income taxes are in line with European averages, with a top rate of 42 percent. Overall, government spending in 2003 was slightly more than 35 percent of GDP, about the same as the US and relatively low by European standards.
In its 2005 report on economic freedom, the Washington-based Heritage Foundation ranked Ireland as the fifth-freest country in the world, just behind Estonia, and eight places above the US.
Ireland has also encouraged companies from around the world to base themselves there. "There are no conflicts between capital and labour here," McCoy says. "There is a recognition that we are all in this together."
Low taxes have been combined with excellent education, good infrastructure and a willingness to make global investors feel welcome.
Low corporate taxes and an open economy. Another victory for globalisation, but don't expect the leaders in Berlin, Paris or Brussels to take note of this lesson.
6:50:33 PM
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Imperialism by girlie mags
The US forces lose another heart and mind in Iraq with its brutal occupation, as told to us by WaPo's Jackie Spinner:
On the night of Jan. 5, Imaad and his mother, Um Imaad -- both of whom declined to give their full names for fear of retribution -- were watching a movie in the living room. As in most other parts of the capital for the past two months, their Adhimiya neighborhood has electricity about two hours a day. So the generators outside were humming at about 9 that night, and the television was turned up so they could hear.
Imaad said they were startled by a loud banging at the door. He went quickly to open it. When he did, Imaad said, there were about a dozen U.S. soldiers standing with their guns pointed at his head.
Imaad and his mother said the soldiers rushed in, ordering them to sit together while they searched the house. "You look poor," Imaad recalled one of the soldiers saying. "Why?"
Imaad answered in English: "I have not been able to find a job, although I'm a graduate of the College of Arts." His heart was pounding, Imaad said. His mother, a chatty widow who adores her son, sat next to him, shaking.
The soldiers went to search his bedroom. He heard laughing, and then they called for him, he said. Imaad went to his room and saw that the soldiers had found several magazines he kept hidden from his mother. They had pictures of girls in swimsuits and erotic poses. Imaad said the soldiers spread the magazines on his bed and put his Koran in the middle.
"This is a good match," Imaad said one of the soldiers told him.
"It was a nightmare," he said. "I will never forget those bad soldiers when they put the Koran among the magazines."
Within 20 minutes, the soldiers left without arresting him or his mother. While the soldiers went next door to search his neighbor's house, Imaad began to slap his mother, he said. "The American people are devils," Um Imaad recalled her son repeating.
He left her and went to a mosque to spend the night. "I asked God to forgive me," Imaad said, "because I could not prevent American sins."
Well, maybe they lost a heart and a mind, but not a very sound mind to begin with, judging by how he treated his mother.
Where is Amnesty International when you need them? How can we accept such brutal behaviour? This ranks right up there with the concentration camps.
5:40:21 PM
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UN relief coordinator loses track of his coordinators
Readers of the blogosphere, especially the Diplomad, are certainly not ignorant about the bureocratic mess that is the United Nations. Those who have followed international news over the last decades know that UNocrats have presided over one mess after another, from Rwanda to Srebrenica. Yet, in Scandinavia the UN is a sacred cow. Children sing its praises. Politicians sing its praises. Journalists sing its praises louder than anyone.
So it must come as something of a shock to be exposed to the inner workings, or lack thereof, in the UN system. That, of course, only happens when it suddenly affects one of our own.
Today's Aftenposten reveals that a Norwegian, Jan-Egil Mosand, has become a "victim" of the UN mess. Never mind the tsunami victims. We're talking about a Norwegian relief bureaucrat being victimised by the office of another Norwegian relief bureaucrat. That's serious!
Norwegian victim of UN mess
The UN has issued a warning against Jan-Egil Mosand, who has stood up as the UN's international relief coordinator after the tsunami. It may be due to a misunderstanding.
Before the weekend the UN in New York issued a statement warning against believing that "a certain Jan-Egil Mosand" is appointed to coordinate relief to tsunami-victims in Thailand and Indonesia.
- The truth is that Mosand doesn't have any relationship to the UN at all. We don't know him and he doesn't represent us, says Jan Egeland's spokeswoman in the UN Stephanie Bunker to Aftenposten in New York.
It is mostly in Norwegian and other Scandinavian media that Mosand has appeared as the UN emergency relief coordinator, but he is also cited in Spanish media, according to Stephanie Bunker [ed: no mention of Mosand in any English-speaking media, two mentions in Spanish].
January 7 the NTB [Norwegian News Agency] sent out a news wire printed in several Norwegian newspapers that the Norwegian Church Aid's [Kirkens Nødhjelp] country representative in Zambia, Jan-Egil Mosand, was being directly picked by Jan Egeland to coordinate the relief work in Indonesia and Thailand. [...]
Now it is revealed that the UN warning is probably due to a misunderstanding and bad communications within the UN system. The Norwegian Church Aid general secretary Atle Sommerfeldt confirms that Jan-Egil Mosand normally is the organisation's representative in Zambia.
- He has also been listed on the standby list to the UN high commissioner for refugees and was therefor asked to accept a three week job as coordinator for the UN's logistics organisation in Indonesia and Thailand after the tsunami. This work ended Saturday, general secretary Sommerfeldt says.
Norwegian Church Aid knows about the statement from Jan Egeland's spokeswoman Thursday and thinks the warning is due to a misunderstanding.
- We have received a written confirmation from the high commissioner that he has had work for the UN related to the relief work, says Sommerfeldt.
If you don't understand anything, and wonder what this is all about, you are not alone. Remember, the UN is supposed to coordinate (they love that word) everybody else. And here the UN can't even keep track of its own coordinators. If there weren't real people suffering while this mess is going on, this would be a great joke.
4:06:30 PM
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Yushchenko sworn in
Viktor Yushchenko, the reformist candidate who was sweeped to victory by Ukraine's orange revolution, has taken the oath of office.
The new president takes over a deeply split country, and will from day one be faced with the huge tasks of battling corruption, improving the economy, easing tensions within his country, and balancing the country's relationship with Russia and western Europe.
11:57:13 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.02.2005; 02:17:43.
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