war

Somewhere over Istanbul

The East begins here for me. I guess that from here I shall have to be aware of my own preconceived ideas of what is to be expected but despite my understanding of this my hopes and expectations are battling with my understanding that all my impressions should be neutral. A myth if nothing else.

Jonas and I were early at the airport. The plane however was not. Due to weather conditions the plane was so late that we missed our connection and after a great deal of confusion were rebooked. As I write this we are flying towards Goa. Once in Goa we transfer to a plane to Mumbai. Unfortunately this plane is 1.5 hours late so we will probably miss this connection too. At least we are on the right continent.

Missing connections is a stressful experience â?? but we are both very relaxed. We have discussed taking a train as an alternative method of reaching Mumbai. Why this relaxed attitude. In part itâ??s because we have no alternative. In part itâ??s because this is the way we both are. In part itâ??s because of the corpse in Frankfurt.

Airline delays fade into insignificance. While walking rapidly to our gate hoping that our plane was still there we walked past a part of the corridor which was cordoned off. First I saw the police, then the medics and finally the patient (ex-patient) lying on the floor. Stripped to the waist. A tube in his mouth. The medics were packing up their equipment. There was an eerie air of professionalism among the police and medics packing their equipment and waiting for transportation as we powerwalked past the scene.

All of a sudden rushing to gates, delayed flights and deadlines seemed insignificant. Still in Germany but human life is in the forefront. How petty are the problems I focus uponâ?¦

Posted on by mklang

Not your forward planning type

Remember the fable of the The Ant and the Cricket (sometimes the cricket is a grasshopper) by Aesop? They were among the first things that popped into my head in a dream this morning. Basically the little hard working ant works all summer collecting and storing food while the cricket sings the summer away. When the winter comes the cricket goes to the ant to beg for food only to hear the harsh ant reply: “Since you sang like a fool in the summer you better be prepared to dance the winter away!”. The moral is that lazy people lose, but could also be that greedy ants dislike to share.

OK so its easy pop-psychology to say that I am concerned about my work and not being prepared enough. But I also have an alternate interpretation (surely not unique) that the cricket is actually not lazy but rather is busy doing other necessary work. Maybe the ant enjoyed listening to the crickets music while gathering winter supplies. Oh, dear you might think, while returning to more pop-psychology he is either in denial (which would be the wrong pop-psych term) or he is rationalising his actions after the fact.

The good news is that I was reminded of my childhood attachment to Aesop’s Fables and I intend to get a copy to replace the one I lost decades ago. For now I will make do with Bestiaria Latina since they have an enormous collection of myths and fables online.

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Depiction of Resistance

Ever wondered who gets to be portrayed as a brave resistance fighter and why? The role of the media in bringing â??the storyâ?? to the attention of the public is crucial. Unfortunately the public (thatâ??s us) is too occupied to carry out real investigations so we generally tend to accept anything the media tells us. Naturally with varying degrees of skepticism.

The skepticism depends to a large degree on several factors: the trustworthiness of the source, the importance of what is being said, the personal impact on our lives, our beliefs and cultures. But mostly we (the public) tend to accept what is being presented before us. Sad, but true.

The first main barrier is the choice to tell the story or not. Certain stories get a great deal of press attention while others get little or none. The next barrier is the presentation of the story. Will those resisting be described as the white or the black hats? Will resistance be legitimized or criminalized? The third barrier is the reconstruction after the fact. What will the victor say of the vanquished? What will be the persistent historic truth once the conflict is over?

Julius Caesar vanquished all of Gaul. After the task he wrote his account of the wars. Generations of children have since then learned their basic Latin language by reading exciting excerpts from his book. Even if we no longer learn Latin Caesars version of the truth remains the dominant story. He was â??forcedâ?? to attack the Gaul in order to protect the Gallic friends of Rome. The fact that he achieved personal fame, an enormous fortune and eventually sole power of Rome was beside the point.

The ability to resist does not build upon the ability to control the dominant truth â?? but no resistance (from a local protest to outright war) can afford to ignore it.

An exciting example of this is the 1966 film The Battle of Algiers from wikipedia:

The film depicts an episode in the war of independence in the then French Algeria, in the capital city of Algiers. It is loosely based on the account of one of the military commanders of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN), Saadi Yacef, in his memoir Souvenirs de la Bataille d’Alger. The book, written by Yacef while a prisoner of the French, was meant as propaganda to boost morale among FLN militants. After independence, Yacef was released and became a part of the new government. The Algerian government gave its backing to have a film of his memoirs made and he approached the Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo and screenwriter Franco Solinas with the project. The two dismissed Yacef’s initial treatment as biased toward the Algerian side. While sympathetic with the cause of Algerian nationalism, they insisted on dealing with the events from a distanced point-of-view.

Posted on by mklang

Chomsky in Uppsala

Battleangel reports that Noam Chomsky is to be awarded an honorary degree by the faculty of languages, Uppsala University. Since Chomsky is one of the greats then maybe it would be interesting to go to Uppsala in May. I wonder if there will be a public lecture?
For the purpose of enlightenment Battleangel also provides a bio:

Professor Noam Chomsky took his doctorate in 1955, with a dissertation on formal grammar that laid the foundation for his groundbreaking work in linguistics. Since then he has been at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as Professor since 1961, and has fundamentally transformed the methods and theory of the subject of linguistics. By opposing explanations of language based on behaviorist psychology and emphasizing instead the innateness of the basic components of grammar as unique to the human species, his rejuvenation of linguistics constituted a paradigm shift. Chomskyâ??s work with formal grammar also established the research field of mathematical linguistics, which became the foundation of a major component in modern computational science. Few scholars have dominated their research fields the way Chomsky has, and as a leftist-oriented critic of U.S. foreign policy he has also attained a considerable reputation outside academic circles, standing out as one of the most outreaching and truly creative humanists in history.

Read the university press release.

Posted on by mklang

University building

The university in Namur is a large concrete building in the middle of town. Despite the building material it is not a very ugly building â?? in fact its bare concrete finish (inside and out) has a very retro feel to it. Usually I do not have any such feelings towards concrete.

The meeting room was at the dept. of informatics in the Alan Turing room â?? I do like when peoples names are used for rooms, even if this could be considered a dubious honor. Alan Turing is a bright room with a high ceiling, blue carpet and windows on three walls. No big surprise here. What is more than a bit unusual are three rings mounted in the ceiling intended for climbing…

Apparently the rings are not used by abseiling computer scientists (as I had hoped) but are rather there to be used by the window cleaners. Once again reality spoils a really good theory.

Posted on by mklang

Sweet Spot

Sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to Belgium and I found an open network. My mac asked me nicely if I wanted to join a network which I recognised as the pay per surf that the airport charges – I declined. Then I saw a network which I had never heard of, joined and presto! I am online.

Finding a sweet spot in business areas is kind of like finding a four-leaf clover – much too rare.

I’m early so I have a bit of a wait but I am looking forward to leaving the eternally raining city of Göteborg to see something new. The city of Namur seems to be an old and beautiful medieval city so I shall hopefully have some time to do some sightseeing. I shall definitely go an visit the citadelle.

Apparently Namur and Sweden have a connection through Blanche of Namur. Apparently Magnus II Eriksson, king of Sweden and Norway, met her in the summer of 1334 while on his way for a holiday in France (looking for a wife). Two years later they married in Stockholm and Blanche was crowned queen of Norway, Sweden and Scania.

The things you learn on the web…

Posted on by mklang

Are torturers evil?

It is very difficult to break out of some of one’s gut instincts. Since I was raised in the west, spoon-fed Hollywoodisms from my youngest days and all in the shadow of the cold war east-west mentality it is difficult to really get past some of the “facts of life”.

One such fact is that only evil people torture. Evil torturers fall into different categories such as (1) medieval (e.g. Spanish inquisition), foreign despot (e.g. Idi Amin), (3) total raving nutter (e.g. Hitler). Now despite the fact that I know that these simplifications are not true. Works by people such as Hannah Arendt (Eichamnn in Jerusalem) and Stanley Milgram (Obedience to Authority Study) show that acts of evil are conducted without much passion and by ordinary people.

Reports of torture being carried out by ordinary people systematically appear – and I am shocked. In particular since the organisation carrying them out is bringing democracy and attempting to win the hearts and minds of the people.

Why am I shocked? If I know that people are capable of evil? The only explanation I can think of right now is the lame idea of them and us. Stated simply evil people are them, we are good even though sometimes in error. How depressing that in the face of all the evidence I still cannot get beyond this gut reaction that they are evil while we are good.

Oh and don’t try to explain the whole thing away by speaking of a few bad apples at the Abu Ghraib prison. That simplification does not work. See for example an editorial in the New York Times (Only the Jailers are Safe, 20 December 2006, via Battleangel)

Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago, was a whistle-blower who prompted the raid by tipping off the F.B.I. to suspicious activity at the company where he worked, including possible weapons trafficking. He was arrested and held for 97 days â?? shackled and blindfolded, prevented from sleeping by blaring music and round-the-clock lights. In other words, he was subjected to the same mistreatment that thousands of non-Americans have been subjected to since the 2003 invasion.

The culture of cruelty (i.e. the acceptance or tolerance for evil deeds among organisations and in society) is spreading and the more we hear the more we accept. We become (as a society) de-sensitized and tolerant to suffering.

What is the point of fighting for democracy, rights and freedom if the methods used are cruel, inhuman and against democracy, rights and freedom? If we win this fight (against whom?) is it a victory worth having? Or will we like King Pyrrhus declare, after beating the Romans at Asculum (279 BCE) declare that a victory at such a cost is not worth having?

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Ideology of the cancer cell

The dream of economic growth is an overpowering myth, despite the fact that constant growth on a planet of limited resources is impossible. I came across this quote a couple of days ago:

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.

Edward Abbey

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Video Campaigns and Responses

Starbucks and the government of Ethiopia have been discussing the trademark rights to some of the finest coffee in the world. The root of the conflict is that Starbucks has not recognised Ethiopia’s ownership of the Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe names. (BBC News 26 October & 30 November 2006).

Oxfam began a campaign against Starbucks in order to help the Ethiopian coffee farmers. The idea is that if Starbucks signs the agreement with the Ethiopian intellectual property office the Ethiopian farmers will have more control over their products and this will result in better prices.

The Oxfam campaign is a typical online/offline mix with physical demonstrations being augmented with an information website containing documentation, photographs etc, and an â??act nowâ?? part where individuals can get involved on their own. A textbook example of an information campaign.

Oxfam have also created a video shot from their â??The Starbucks Day of Actionâ?? on December 16. The most natural place to leave a video on the Internet today is on the site YouTube so naturally Oxfam posted their video on YouTube (Watch it here). The video features demonstrators explaining their views and the positive reactions of people they meet.

What is interesting is not that the Internet is being used in this way but rather the Starbucks response. Starbucks created their own video response on December 20th  featuring the Head of Starbucks Coffee team answering questions. They too posted their video on YouTube (watch the Starbucks response on YouTube).

What is unique about the whole story is the way in which Starbucks as a corporation reacted to the unconventional protest use of YouTube. By responding in kind they showed that they understand the way in which information is created and consumed on the Internet.

Digital video cameras – and in particular mobile phone video cameras – have made the documentation of resistance a necessity. Websites such as YouTube and Google video have created an infrastructure for sharing of the results. By removing the need for camera crews, production teams and broadcast capabilities the creation and distribution of film has fallen into the hands of the creative amateur. The implications of this is that both the protesters and their corporate targets need to quickly master and use this medium of communication.

Whatever the outcome of the Oxfam campaign â?? this is the future of resistance information warfare.

Posted on by mklang

Iron Harvest

If we ignore the nationalistic/romantic ramblings of some deranged people there is a consensus that war is not a good thing. Certain wars (unfortunately not all) get a great deal of media attention – which may lead to popular cries for peace. â??Secretâ?? or unpublicized wars are harder to end.

The end of war is naturally worth working for. But it also brings with it a loss of interest in the region and the people involved. This is natural since most people (me included) tend to see the end of fighting as the solution. Naturally there is a need for reconciliation and rebuilding but thatâ??s about it.

But, this complacent attitude of mine was too be rudely disturbed when I came across the term â??iron harvestâ??.

The term is used by farmers in Belgium and France to describe the yearly amount of WWI ordinance found while plowing their fields. It’s more than 80 years since the war ended and still enough war garbage appears to motivate a term of its own.  â??The French Département du Déminage recover about 900 tons of unexploded munitions every year. Since 1945, approximately 630 French démineurs have died handling unexploded munitions.â?? (Wikipedia)

But naturally the problems do not stop with an old war. As recently as 2006 the conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah in Lebanon resulted in up to one million unexploded cluster bombs (BBC News). Estimates made by U.N. officials indicate that 90 of all cluster bombs used were launched during the last 72 hours of the conflict (Washington Post)

These small lethal bombs are left lying about in fields and in ruins. This slows the pace of economic and social recovery since the fields are too dangerous to use and rebuilding takes much longer. Not to mention all the accidental casualties and fatalities which occur when people come into contact with these lethal bombs.

Theoretically such ordinance should be easily prohibited by the present rules of war but unfortunately they are not. Therefore special legislation is required. Belgium has gone the furthest among countries and banned cluster bombs completely. Other countries are also working towards this goal.

Replying to questions in Parliament, the Swedish Minister of Defence (December 2006) has stated the governments is going to play an active role in international work against cluster bombs including working for an international ban and actively participated in the coming Norwegian conference on banning cluster bombs. The minister also stated that he was going to do away with Swedenâ??s supply of a (all?) cluster bombs (bombkapsel 90), create a Swedish ban on cluster bombs, and stop the production of bombkapsel 90 for the Swedish JAS 39 Gripen fighter.
Lets hope he keeps his promise.

Unsurprisingly, the UK and US are for cluster bombs â?? or rather against the banning of the bombs (great article by Monbiot)

Somewhere behind all the politics there is a designer. Once again we need to ask â?? what kind of mind designs technology like this? After a hard day at the drawing board does he or she go home to his family and smile? What will he/she till his/her children when they ask what he does? â??Daddy designs bombs which kill childrenâ??

I donâ??t think soâ?¦

Posted on by mklang