7/15/2010: uk complicity in torture of uk citizens

hitherto secret documents now released by the uk government prove beyond doubt that the uk (its embassies, secret service and government offices) actively supported the abduction, deportation and torture of uk citizens by the usa, typically to/in guantanamo. this policy did not just apply to uk residents but also to uk nationals. uk officials were informed about the treatment of these people by their us captors, and the uk provided logistical support for the flights that transferred them to guantanamo and other secret torture camps. according to jack straw, the then foreign secretary, this was "the best way to meet [the uk's] counter-terrorism objectives".

3/05/2010: shell companies

two well-established characteristics of modern society and business conduct collude to create a ridiculous situation i call the "shell company":

firstly, organising, "managing" other people's work is largely considered to carry more prestige than actually performing that work. this is true for all so-called un-skilled labour (harvesting, cleaning) but also for classical blue-collar jobs (electrical engineering, plumbing) and, even more surprisingly, for many highly-skilled jobs (software development, computer network administration, accounting). the possible exceptions are the classical "professions" (lawyers, doctors). but by-and-large, there's a strong tendency to define personal "progress" as moving up a corporate hierarchy, away from doing towards watching other people do.

secondly, outsourcing and sub-contracting are still hugely popular - for many good reasons. however, these approaches are particularly useful and widespread when applied to jobs that require the actual delivery of tangible results. the exception here are the many forms of "pure" consulting, especially management consulting. but mostly, what is contracted-out is the cleaning of a house, the laying of pipes in a building, the construction of a piece of software, the building of a computer network, and so forth. of course, bigger contracts are not awarded to individuals, but to companies showing the exact same tendency to outsource and sub-contract these jobs - and so on (a nice example of recursive decomposition).

the ridiculous end result is that when dealing with a firm one all-to-often discovers that there is really no-one there to actually do the work. the company is just a shell, claiming to do useful work but actually having no-one at hand to be able to do it. the gamble by that company is, of course, that once a piece of work has been assigned to them they will surely find someone - a sub-contractor?, one of the very few, completely over-worked employees hiding somewhere under a pile of tasks? - to do it. after all, it's "just doing it", how difficult can that be? when dealing with these companies in negotiating a skilled task, one interacts with "managers" of all sorts (engagement managers, project managers, etc.) who, for the most part, do not know - and can not know - the intricacies of the work they are offering. by definition, complex activities are best understood by the people performing those activities, and not by anyone having second-hand or third-hand knowledge about it. this is the most frustrating aspect of it all: being forced to deal with a shell of management unable to fully comprehend what the people they "manage" are doing, yet being obliged to shield those people from the outside world, either because there are so few of them that they must keep on working in conveyor belt mode, or because there actually aren't any at all. it is no surprise that with a partner like this "communication" about a complex activity is impossible. yet at the same time "rising" to management status is the end-all, be-all of most career plans - both personally and in the public eye.

11/20/2009: british nationalistic mainstream

on the day when it became increasingly likely that van rompuy, the belgian prime minister, may become the first president of the european council, the daily express front-page ranted "britain ruled by a belgian? you must be joking" only to go on to ridicule belgium and belgians as "non-entities". this is the same paper that greeted the final signing of the lisbon treaty 2 weeks ago with the headline "britain: the end. as lisbon treaty becomes law, we've been sold down the river". of course this is almost feeble compared to the sun's "signed. sealed. delivered. up yours!". this is not the continually self-aggrandising, chest-pounding us-american form of every-day nationalism - this is the mean, small, hostile and sad nationalism that is at the very heart of the british mainstream.

3/24/2009: number of executions doubled in 2008

the number of executions in 2008 was 2400, up from 1250 in 2007. 75% of executions in 2008 were carried out by china. the only country in (geographic) europe to still execute prisoners in belarus.

3/24/2009: evidence for israeli war crimes during gaza offensive

in the operation by the israel military that was intended to crush hamas after their continued missile attacks on israeli targets, 1400 palestinians died, among them 300 children. it now transpires that the israeli troops 1. executed at least 24 palestinian men as an act of revenge (according to ai), 2. used palestinian teenagers as human shields, 3. attached and killed medics, 4. bombed more than half of gaza hospitals and clinics (according to the who), 5. used drones to attack targets that were obviously civilian in nature and 6. repeatedly fired air-burst white phosphorus artillery shells over crowded areas in gaza (according to human rights watch).

2/03/2009: extraordinary rendition to continue - likely supported by eu governments

obama has signed an order permitting the cia to continue abducting terrorist suspects in foreign countries. this is essentially the same practice that has seen (according to the council of europe) about 100 people being kidnapped from eu territory, typically with the un-disclosed help of eu governments.

12/05/2008: cluster bombs still acceptable to some

the usual suspects have failed to sign the new convention banning the production, use, stockpiling and trade in cluster bombs: usa, russia, china, india, pakistan and israel. more shockingly, finland, poland, romania, slovakia, greece and cyprus also refused to sign, with poland apparently claiming that more civilian-friendly weapons were too expensive.

the official term for cluster bomblets that have been dropped but failed to explode and thus act like mines seems to be uxo - "unexploded ordnance".

from 1964 to 1973 the usa dropped on average 1 plane load of cluster bombs every 8 minutes for 24 hours a day on laos. that's 260m bomblets, of which, unfortunately, 80m still have not exploded and hence endanger the every-day life of farmers and just about anyone who happens to step on one.

8/19/2008: russian peacekeepers: pulling back or withdrawing?

8/18/2008: 160000 people displaced in 10 days of war in georgia

7/04/2008: man-made catastrophe

the world bank says that food prices have risen by 82 percent since 2006, pushing an additional 100 million people worldwide into extreme poverty. more than 30 countries have seen food riots as a result. the biofuel policies of the us and eu are estimated (again by the world bank) to account for 75 percent of these increases in food prices.

6/04/2008: biofuels vs. food

jacques diouf, director general of the un's fao (food and agriculture organisation) says that in 2006 the usa spent 11-12 billion dollars in subsidies for biofuels which had the effect of diverting 100m tonnes of cereals (read: food) away from human consumption - to power vehicles instead. of course, there is hope in so-called second-generation biofuels which are produced from inedible sources.

4/03/2008: us department of justice memo on interrogation practices

quoted from a hitherto secret memo by the us department of justice from march 14, 2003:

"[...] we conclude that the Fifth and Eighth Amendments, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, do not extend to alien enemy combatants held abroad."

note that "held abroad" includes Guantanamo.

for reference, the 5th amendment states "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury [...]; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use [...]"

the 8th amendment reads "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."

"[...] we address the U.S. obligation under CAT to undertake to prevent the commission of "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment." We conclude that based on its reservation, the the United States' obligation extends only to conduct that is "cruel and unusual" [...] or otherwise "shocks the conscience" [...]."

(CAT is the un convention against torture.) in other words, treatment or punishment may be inhuman or degrading.

"[...] our previous opinions make clear that customary international law is not federal law and that the President is free to override it at his discretion."

"[...] we discuss defenses to an allegation that an interrogation method might violate any of the various criminal prohibitions [...]. We believe that necessity or self-defense could provide defenses to a prosecution."

11/22/2007: identity give-away

a civil servant in england has sent 2 cds containing names, dates of birth, addresses, bank account details and social security numbers of 50% of the british population to another goverment agency by normal post - and the letter got lost and has not been found to date. the assumption is that the data on the cds is password-protected - and that the password is contained in the same letter as the cds.

11/02/2007: lambs culled for economic reasons

england saw an outbreak of foot and mouth disease earlier this year which resulted in movement restrictions for lambs. one of the repercussions is that there is now a "surplus" of 500,000 (perfectly healthy!) lambs in the UK that either would need to be fed through winter or slaughtered now. since the former is considered uneconomical the decision has been made to slaughter all 500,000 lambs. but since selling the meat of so many lambs would lead to "market distortion" ( i.e., meat prices would fall) the barbaric "solution" is to destroy the meat by incinerating the carcasses or converting them to biofuel. (this seems to give the word "biofuel" a whole new meaning.) in other words: half a million healthy lambs will be burned because this is the most economical solution.

10/10/2007: us supreme court doesn't allow detention lawsuit

khaled al-masri is a german citizen who has convicingly claimed that he was "detained" and tortured by the cia in an afghan "prison" and then released because it was found that he was mistaken for someone else. mr al-masri tried to sue the us government before a us court but his case was now finally dismissed by the us supreme court because the case would reveal "state secrets". neither the administration nor the cia have either confirmed or denied his claims.

9/18/2007: iraq snapshot

elbaradei, the un iaea chief, referred to an estimated 700,000 civilian casualties in iraq so far. the number of american deaths in iraq since the invasian began in 2003 is currently below 4000. the number of "private security operators" (aka mercenaries), on which westerners rely heavily for their security in iraq, is estimated at 180,000.

8/31/2007: us-american gay hunt

a republican senator in the usa is under pressure to resign after it has emerged that he was arrested and charged with lewd conduct after "tapping his foot" in a toilet stall. apparently, this is a well-known signal for wanting to initiate homosexual contact in that part of the world. he was unlucky because the neighbouring stall was occupied by a policeman who was lurking there to investigate reports on indecency on who promptly arrested the senator. of course, the senator is married and has been hostile against homosexuality in the past.

8/23/2007: east-german racism

a mob has chased 8 indian guest workers through a city in sachsen (east germany). bystanders did not intervene and the indians had to be rescued by the police.

8/13/2007: heathrow protests and anti-terrorism powers

environmentalists currently protest against an enlargement of heathrow airport. police have last year received new anti-terrorism powers, including the right to detain suspects for up to 30 days without charge. police say they will use these powers against the protesters. this is not because the protesters are assumed to be terrorists themselves, but rather because they may stand in the way of fighting terrorism!