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27. januar 2006
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Today marks the 250th birthday of one of the greatest, if not the greatest, composer of all time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His birthplace Salzburg is of course making the most of the occasion, as is Vienna where he produced and first performed so many of his breathtaking masterpieces.
I grew up in a home with a good collection of classical music, of course including Mozart, but admit that as I grew up I was more interested in the more passing fads in pop music. What truly awakened me to Mozart, and classical music generally, was Milos Forman's epic 1984 movie Amadeus, starring Tom Hulce as the troubled composer. Yes, I am aware that the movie wasn't exactly true to history (it is almost certainly false that Salieri murdered Mozart), but the movie did give his music - even 'chestnuts' we had heard thousand times before - new vitality.
Like countless others, I did obtain the two LPs from the movie, performed by Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin's in the Fields. I will not proclaim to be a serious expert in the field by any means, but these performances have to rank with the very best. Later, I discovered other, older conductors who really took Mozart seriously, my favourite being Wilhelm Furtwängler, despite the fact that recordings of his performances we may listen to today betray their age.
I am confident that as long as civilisation exists, Mozart's music will be remembered, played and enjoyed by millions.
5:24:25 PM 
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Gerard Baker writes on the unthinkable prospect of a war against Iran.
The unavoidable reality is that we now need urgently to steel ourselves to the ugly probability that diplomacy will not now suffice: one or way or another, unconscionable acts of war may now be unavoidable.
Those who say war is unthinkable are right. Military strikes, even limited, targeted and accurate ones, will have devastating consequences for the region and for the world. They will, quite probably entrench and harden the Iranian regime. Even the young, hopeful democrats who despise their theocratic rulers and crave the freedoms of the West will pause at the sight of their country burnt and humiliated by the infidels.
A war, even a limited one, will almost certainly raise oil prices to recession-inducing levels, as Iran cuts itself off from global markets. The loss of Iranian supply and the already stretched nature of production in the Arab world and elsewhere means prices of $150 per barrel are easily imaginable. Military strikes will foster more violence in the Middle East, strengthen the insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan, fuel anti-Western sentiment among Muslims everywhere and encourage more terrorism against us at home.
All true. All fearfully powerful arguments against the use of the military option. But multiplied together, squared, and then cubed, the weight of these arguments does not come close to matching the case for us to stop, by whatever means may be necessary, Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
Iran's nuclear gamble is that the west has no stomach for another war, entangled as the US and the UK finds itself in the Iraqi insurgency. That gamble appears to pay off. Impressive as the united front of the US and the EU may appear, in the end the threat of sanctions is unlikely to deter the Mullahs. Russia is mediating, apparently constructively, to solve the conflict, but it is unclear precisely how much Mullahs with nukes scare Mr Putin.
China, which just played host to Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and came out against referring Iran to the Security Council, will almost certainly block forceful sanctions. An oil price in the $150s will bring China's rapid economic expansion to a painful halt, and if faced with a recession, the very life of China's ruling communist party is at risk.
Knowing this, Iran can brush off criticism and threats of sanctions and go ahead with its nuclear programme, and depending on which analyst you ask, proclaim itself a nuclear power next year or a few more years down the line.
Iran going nuclear is such a devastating threat to the region, and to the world, that the lesser evil may well be the unthinkable, which we just have to force ourselves to at least consider.
Update: One step further down that road.
Iran reiterated today that a plan to allow it to enrich uranium in Russia was not acceptable in its present form, but was worth taking further in negotiations. [...]
In Moscow, Ivan Safranchuk, an executive of the Centre for Defence Information, a private think-tank, said Iran was not really interested in the proposal and “does not need it”.
“Iran will not immediately accept any proposal. It is in Iran’s interest to buy time,” Safranchuk told the Interfax news agency.
My impression, too.
3:17:41 PM
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Ah, heck, let's censor them all:
Google's new China search engine not only censors many Web sites that question the Chinese government, but it goes further than similar services from Microsoft and Yahoo by targeting teen pregnancy, homosexuality, dating, beer and jokes.
In addition, CNET News.com has found that contrary to Google co-founder Sergey Brin's promise to inform users when their search results are censored, the company frequently filters out sites without revealing it.
Some of the blackballing appeared to be a mistake. The University of Pennsylvania's entire engineering school server--which hosted one Falun Gong site--was blocked from Google's Google.cn China site. So was an Essex County Web site, which sports the word "sex"--as in "Essex"--in its domain name. Google.cn also doesn't display search.msn.com to someone who's hunting for the rival Microsoft service.
This is turning into a public relations disaster for Google that I doubt it had anticipated.
Michelle Malking hosts a China Google Protest Album, with funny and biting photoshopped logos and screenshots.
4:58:39 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.02.2006; 17:46:21.
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