Music of ze week

Which is your favourite?

I like both Coldplay and Buena Vista, so I find the first song pretty interesting. It works!

Want to understand the Middle East?

Here are two excellent summaries of why things are the way they are in the middle east :-)

http://www.idleworm.com/nws/2002/11/iraq2.shtml
thanks Jasmina


click here if you have trouble loading the clip

Genocide

Genocide is a word that is bothering me these days. The mere fact that we have such a word in our vocabulary is absurd to me. But we have it and unfortunately we need it. It describes a phenomenon that is painfully real, also in our time.

The book I'm reading at the moment is Shaking Hands With the Devil by Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire (right) who was the commander of the UN peace keeping force in Rwanda during the genocide there in '94. It lasted for one hundred days.

You know how many people were slaughtered every minute during those hundred days, on average? 5,5. Human beings, a minute. And that is based on conservative figures.

I'd recommend the book, but if it's too time consuming watch the film Shooting Dogs in stead. It's like a punch in the gut, but still highly recommendable.

I wanted to write about the question of the alleged Turkish genocide on the Armenians and its very real consequences for people today, but that will have to wait for my next post. The pub is calling, Sunday night is soccer night..

Crash and Burn

Ouch, seems my guess that Fred Thompson will become the next American President was a bad one. He had a relatively poor showing in his first debate, appearing at times confused and completely witout energy.

His campaign is also generally off to a slow start. He has cancelled a bunch of appearances and his advisors are struggling to get him more active. He's been bleeding badly in the polls and seems to be fading away.


So maybe there's hope for Hillary after all! Or was it Obama I wanted...?