Changes and Changeling

I just saw Changeling and it was the scariest film I've ever seen directed by Clint Eastwood. And I cried as well. It was maybe a bit too obvious sometimes, and I missed the typical sardonic humour which Eastwood is so good at, but on the whole it was a good film, and beautiful to look at.

It was set in Los Angeles in the late 20s, and it was not a pretty picture it painted of the city. "How could people be so cruel back then" you wondered. And then you read a story in the International Herald Tribune about a Palestinian mother who watched her children burn to death after being bombarded with white phosphorous and you realize that people are just as cruel today.

In Washington Post today, ex-president Bush's speechwriter Marc A. Thiessen wrote a column where he bragged about the fact that Bush could say that on his watch no terrorist attack occurred on American soil since 9/11, and he wondered (or rather questioned) if Obama would be able to say the same. That's a bit of a thin argument, since it's equally true that on Bush's watch the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil took place. But never mind, I understand if the team around Bush are upset and maybe even scared. 

Me, I'm tired after a very long and varied day. Good night.

Island weekends and inaugurations

I spent the weekend in Visby, at the island of Gotland, and it was heavenly. So quiet and relaxed it was almost unreal. I've been there many times, every time with someone different, and every time I've felt I must buy a house there. Not to live there permanently, but to have as a retreat, a haven. I think I need that since I seem to be incapable of relaxing at home. But would I be able to relax, even if I had my own house there? Wasn't the fact that I visited my best friend in her home there, and the fact that our relationship is so very relaxed and comfortable, why I felt so good and so at ease? If I had been there all alone I would probably not have felt the same kind of wellbeing.

I saw Obama's inauguration speech and it was the first speech of his I've seen in full. It was about time, and now that I've got a taste for it I want more. It was a sometimes beautiful speech, surprisingly critical of Bush, who sat next to him, but also full of the humble self-confidence that has all along been Obama's greatest asset. If he stays on message and watches his back he might actually be able to (almost) live up to the ridiculously high expectations everybody has.

It was very nifty by the way how the gas war between Russia and Ukraine broke out the day after France handed over the EU presidency to the Czech Republic and ended the day before the inauguration of Obama, as did the war in Gaza.

Cold days and no gas

The fact that most of the EU is currently without gas is of course totally unacceptable. A liberalization of the energy market and the building of a more flexible supply system between EU Member States must now get priority once and for all. It'll make the EU more secure and more solidary, and maybe even keep gas prices down. The EU also needs to move ahead with getting more gas from other countries and sources than Russia and Ukraine. But that's easier said than done of course.

The EU must also improve their crisis management and work closer together. When Russia or Ukraine, or any other country, causes trouble the EU should answer in one voice. Various countries shouldn't send their own missions to Moscow. That's perhaps understandable, but it's still objectionable.

But it's the same old story. When trouble brews, the EU splinters. I think that that is what annoys me most.

Political blogging (on Gaza and other conflicts)

Two things are all too common when it comes to blog posts on the war between Hamas and Israel, and indeed postings on most of the various conflicts around the world. The first thing is that the blogger is saying that whatever story he or she is telling, mainstream media is either not aware of it or deliberately keeping quiet about it. The other thing is that the blogger complains about how biased and unbalanced the mainstream media coverage of the conflict is. 

Well, the first these statement is almost never true. The story is usually out there. As for the unbiased and unbalanced reporting, this is almost always much much worse in the blog posts and the comments to them. My mainstream sources such as The Guardian, BBC, The Economist, International Herald Tribune or Svenska Dagbladet are handling the Israel/Hamas conflict very well, with the occasional blunder. (I will return with a list of recommened reading.)

It sometimes seems that to be a political blogger you have to be self delusional. Which obviously isn't true either (as this blog is a living proof of...) but is so depressingly often the case. I will not give any specific examples now, but just look at any random blog and chances are you'll see a good example of my point.

The conflict is much to complicated to get right in a few short lines in a blogpost, that goes without saying, but maybe if the bloggers (or facebook group instigators for that matter) spent more time actually trying to understand the conflict instead of raving about their own high moral standing and/or raging against mainstream media, it would make the world a slightly better place.

The world according to The Economist (2)

Each week I will chose some interesting articles from recent issues of The Economist.

From number 8597 (september 13th 2008):

In a long briefing the huge problems facing Egypt are discussed. What will happen when the current president Hosni Mubarak steps down? He is not likely to leave voluntarily but he is 80 years old and will not hang on for much longer. The country is corrupt, authoritarian, poor and violent, and Mubarak bears a lot of responsibility for that. Even though Egypt has made some progress when it comes to the economy, hardship will continue and around 45% of the population is still poor or very poor according to the article. So what's going to happen? Will Mubarak's son Gamal take over? Will there be civil war? What will the Muslim Brotherhood do?

A short but telling article, How dukes improved diversity, is musing over the fact that New Labour's effort to make the House of Lords more representative and "less posh, less white and less male" has mostly succeeded in making it less representative due to the fact that most members are now from the London area, leaving the rest of Britain with very few voices in Westminister. Voices that were there before.

In Brazil, as in so many other developing countries where the economy has taken off, the middle class is rising. An article, Half the nation, a hundred million citizens strong, looks at what that might mean for Brazilian politics. Less people are poor, more children go to school, more people work in the "white" sector and the number of cosmetic operations done each year is increasing (it is now the second highest in the world). The growing clout of the middle class may make Brazil more stable, more conservative, more predictable. Well, more middle class.

The world according to The Economist (1)

Each week I will chose some interesting articles from recent issues of The Economist.

From number 8596 (september 6th 2008):

Lexington (the weekly column about USA) wrote about Sarah Palin and the frustrating fact that John McCain continues the Republican habit of chosing candidates based on their views on moral issues and especially abortion, which they of course must be against, and not based on their competence.

In an article about aid, the theme was the fact that there are so many aid organisations working in poor countries that it has gone out of hand and become counterproductive. They are competing with each other and doesn't co-ordinate the ground work and the countries they are supposed to help are simply swamped. For one thing the bureaucracy is overwhelming recieving countries and the article qoutes African health workers that has to spend their days sitting in meetings with western delegates instead of doing there job, working with those that are sick.

Another article, a report from the West Bank, tells about how the Palestinians are more and more cut of from their land and their neighbours by Israel's security barrier. The reasons for building it is to stop suicide bombings in Israel, but the way it zigzags deep into Palestinian areas and not along the pre-1967 border suggests another reason. Grabbing land for settlers, which will make peace even more difficult to achive.

The Bear and the Hare

With Russia behaving like a hoodlum screaming for respect, Europe must speed up diversifying it's energy network. The EU should make gas and oil supplies flow more easily between EU-countries and so get less dependent on Russia's mood swings. If one member state should get it's supplies from Russia cut, they should be able to get the stuff from another EU-country, at the press of a button.

And why's Germany so soft with the Russians? I'm not expecting anything less from Berlusconi's Italy but Germany should be more muscular. And if they were, others would maybe follow. The EU needs to get tougher with Russia. This is no time to be vague and queasy.