25. februar 2006

Between Iraq and civil war In the last days of the fragile Roman Republic, total chaos was held at bay, or so we are lead to believe, by Cicero. When the later western Roman empire collapsed and left Italy helpless, it fell to the unlikely figure Pope Gregory the Great to avert total disaster. If we are to believe The Times' Anthony Lloyd, today Iraqi unrest is prevented from degenerating into full civil war by a curfew and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The supreme spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shias has consistently blocked retaliation over three years of escalating violence against his people. He stands between Iraq and civil war.   If Sistani succeeds, I would say he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, except that I think the prize is now so soiled that it would be an insult. There is a funny cartoon that goes with the story, btw, which refers to the Millennium Dome fiasco. 8:32:22 PM    comment []  trackback []

Supporting Denmark - with Lego banners Christopher Hitchens wanted a pro-Danish rally in Washington DC, and he got one. Stephen Green is photoblogging. PS: Ian has a video of Hitchens' speech at the rally. PS 2: For all these years of my childhood I played with Legos, I never imagined it would be used to express solidarity with Denmark and freedom of speech. Danish daily Politiken writes (my translation): But today Denmark received some much needed support from around a 100 Americans, who had taken the time to gather in front of the Danish embassy in Washington. And today the slogans were among others "Support Denmark", "We are all Danish today" and "Freedom of speech." Those meeting up had used Lego pieces to make banners, praised the good Danish cheese and had in many cases dressed up in red and white, while the Danish flag for a change was allowed to fly in the wind. Know your friends. 10:42:38 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.03.2006; 16:51:34.