En defensa de l'OTAN

John Sullivan defensa contra un sector de l'opinió elit americana. Aquest sector influent veu l'OTAN com obselta i un pes que impedeix els americans a fer que volen. Tanmateix com Sullivan recorda que l'OTAN té una importància: per devenir membre s'ha de tenir un política democràtica, un estat de dret i un mercat més o menys orientat al mercat. Un cop entrat a l'al.liança, ses valors reesforcen les del pais. Ademés Sullivan proposa una molt bona idea:en lloc d'exigir que tots el països membres imiten als Estat-units en terme de gastos a la defensa o comprar equipament caríssim però cadascu podria especialitzar-se: per exemple: el txecs son molt bons en contrar la guerra quimica i detectar radioactivitat. Doncs cada pais contribuiria i la summa superaria les parts individuals.
En tot cas, es bastant molest que alguns sectors de l'opinió pública influent americana veuen l'OTAN amb tan males ganes que els volen acabar amb ella.

Interreligious dialogue isn't from yesterday

Telford Work's latest post is a very interesting one. It shows just how complex and nuanced the relationship between Christians and Moslems have been. Nonetheless, I'm growing both consternated and disgusted by the present conduct of the Moslems. We had a missionary shot dead in Lebanon because she counseled Moslem pregnant women; in Nigeria, Moslems rioted and burned down churches over a newspaper article and the bus blown up in Jerusalem and so on. Yet I hear no voices denouncing those atrocities and I ask myself are we once again experiencing the parable of the prodigal son? Will the Moslems have to experience total degradation and fall into the abyss before they repent? Will the world be like the dad or the indignant older brother?

Les Croisaides: arretez donc!

Cet article frise le riducule lorsque des islamistes influents dénoncent le déclenchement d'une nouvelle croisade Vachement hypocritique puisque ces même penseurs n'ont jamais denoncé les atrocités commis par leurs correligieux partout dans le monde. En outre, c'est stupide de parler de croisade lorsqu'on vise Iraq. Ce pays a violé les resolution de l'ONU et on sait que Hussein dévéloppe les armes de destruction en masse. En plus, c'est stupide parce que la plupart de pays occientaux sont laïques o acofessionnels et personne s'inspirait point d'un telle appel.
En tout cas, ils m'ennuyent avec leurs dénonciations clichées.

  ¶ 14:52

 

Vidéo doméstico durante una fiesta de la familia Castro

Gracias a Andrew Sullivan quien ha mencionado este reportaje de un video tomado durante una fiesta con la familia del dictador cubano y sadcado del país subrepticiamente. Expone sin la menor duda que los máximos dirigentes comunistas cubanos viven una vida de lujo mientras que el resto de la población muere de hambre y pervive de la escasez de todo. Desafortundamente no cambiará la mente de los apologistas forasteros del régimen.Inventarán nuevas mentiras para desprestigar el vidéo y la persona que les llevó con ella afuera del la isla. Es triste por que vemos una la realización de la lema escrita por George Orwell que algunos animales son más iguales que los demás. Que más me indigna es como este dicatadura ha tenido- y sigue teniendo la sinverguenza de privar los húmiles de los mismos beneficios que los alto mandatarios comunistas. Este vidéo no cambiará mentes pero si envenarà paulatinamente el régimen   ¶ 16:58

 

Defending Islam isn't Bush's responsibility

Barbra Ferguson can complain that Bush and the American administration must defend Islam but quite frankly it's not his responsibility; it's the Moslem. The ill-temperate comments made by Fawell and Roberston are reprehensible. At the the same time, the Moselms themselves have done nothing to denounce in clear, unequivocal and public language or actions, the hijacking of their religion by the extremists. In fact, the silence of the vast Moslem majority is perceived- correctly in my view- as overt support for the extremists murderous, hateful genocidal strategy. No one but the Moselms will defend their religion; if they feel demoralized or resentful of the alleged misperceptions by non-Moslems, they're to blame for this dismal state of affairs.

De Caprio's wisdom

I'm so glad that I woke up this morning so that I could read DiCaprio's wisdom. It,s better to succed than to fail. Man I can understand why women freak out at this presence and consider him to be such a hearthrob. O to be alive in such wonderous times

Vivendi bajo investigación por la SEC americana

Vaya que sorpresa. La SEC- la autoridad que vigila la bolsa y las valores mobilarios- investiga Vivendi durante la presidencia de Jean Marie Messier. Parece que la autoridad americana así como el fiscal de instancia de Paris averigüeran sobre la precision y de la oportunidad de la divulgacion de la informacion financiera de la empresa. No me sorprendería nada si habría ocurrido chanchullos.
  ¶ 17:29

 

Alberta, Canada and Kyoto: some quick thoughts

J

ames Bennett has written a thoughtful article on the Kyoto treaty and Canada. Although I live in Quebec, I oppose the treaty. That's somewhat unusual as that province is one of the feverent supporters of the treaty- thanks to its abundance of 'clean' hydroelectrical energy. My reasons for opposing the treaty are quite straightfoward: it's a bad faith convention designed to cripple the western economies while discouraging egregious polluters like China and India from adopting cleaner energy sources as well as a less polluting development model. What's particularly appaling is that the federal prime minister- Chrétin- unilaterally decided to sign the treaty without bothering to consult his cabinet. In fact the federal energy minister found out by reading a newspaper headline.

Chrétien knew full well that had submitted treaty ratification before the cabient never mind the caucus, he would've faced a point blank refusal to bind canada to the treaty. Worse is that Chrétien's unilateral decision merely highlights the federal and some provincial governments' compulsion to entrench the society's oligarchical nature and to impoverish as thourougly as possible Canadians. A national trait that transnational progressivism aggravates.

Nonetheless, if I do have one criticism about Alberta's urban development model, and one that North American Anglophone society shares, is the wide-open Western pattern of settlement or as Claudi Véliz stated more succiently in The Centralist Tradition of Latin America the agglomerative non-nucleated patterns of settlement. I've always been dissatisfied by the Anglophone preference to spread out its settlements. As if freedom is somehow better guaranteed by diffusion than by concentration. Practically, Anglophone urbanism has always struck me as encouraging all forms of transport except by foot. Moreover, I've always found such settlement patterns rather inefficient and wasteful of land. I'd like to know how much land are parking lots and roads
I've alway found Catholic urbanism in the America's- French, Spanish and Portuguese- to be much sounder and made more efficient use of land as well as being more people-oriented rather than favouring 'elite' transport modes such as horses, carriages, cars and planes.

The ratification of Kyoto will undoubtedly be one of the most acerbic and conflictual moments in Canadian history surpassing the acrimonious free trade debate in the '86 federal elections. I hope that Canada rejects the treaty before it's too late.

  ¶ 17:55

 

The Anglosphere: its golden touch and the Other

Reading one of John's posts reminds me why I sometimes bristle at the Anglospherists. They don't have very much sympathy for the Other; yet, they never meditate as to why the Anglosphere- and more specifically- Britain and America have a golden touch, that everything they do or try is a brilliant success. while the rest of Europe's efforts are pathetic, abysmal and embarrassing failures.

I complained to John at the blog's comment section that he was a bit patronizing towards the French- that they're lousy in business and war but should take pride in their culture. What the hell for? What's there to be proud of? The French have failed miserably in every sphere for the past 250 years. We can raffle off each European failure and for how long each country has been in the doldrums.

Indeed when one looks at British and American history and how they're one long laundry list of glory, success and achievement, it's easy to understand why the the rest of Europe (and eventually the world) sometimes go off the deep end and embrace bizarre X file type conspiracies of Masons, City financiers, the CIA or whatever weirdness enters their heads; yet, the original question isn't that farfetched- how come Britain and America have been so successful while everyone else has failed so spectacularly?

Reading Rapille's question and answer, it finally struck me what bothers him. It's much more banal than hurt nationalist pride; thus more tragic. Fracasomanía. Short of adopting totalitarianism, the worse thing a country can succumb to, is a persistent belief that it's a failure-prone fuck up that will never succeed no matter what it does or doesn't do. Soon, the attitude becomes sufficiently internalized that subsequent behaviour becomes self-fulfilling. The Anglospherists dismiss too facilely fracasomanía but then again the Anglosphere does convey a cheerfulness and an optimism that others want to smack.

The most effective way to break out of this condition is for the country to have an experience that beats the odds and is totally counterintuitive from previous experience. The Spanish Transition since 1975 is a classical example. The fact that the the citizenry were able to transit from a totalitarian dictatorship to a fledgling democracy with no bloodshed and with relative tranquility defied the the past 250 years of Spanish history. The same argument holds for Portugal and its Carnation Revolution in 1974. I'm convinced that if France has a similar event- say decentralizing the political structure without too much havoc, political instability or bitterness that's characterized past French history, I'm convinced France would snap out of its malaise and be less bitter and contribute more positively.

Europa no es tan fluixa

Aquest article de Carla exasperarà Den Beste en particular que creu que els europeus son excerables que no serveixen per a res- excepte per demonstrar la superioritat militar, cultura i econòmica americana. En tot cas, crec que un exèrcit comú europeu contribuirira de manera positiva al món i callaria una mica els jingosites que clamen que el europeus son parasits. En tot cas, m'agradaria veure com reaccionaran els americans si mai els europeus es posin seriosos en crear tal exèrcit.


  ¶ 20:02

 

Challenges of Saudi women in the workforce

Arabnews has posted an interesting article on the employment situation of Saudi women. I was particularly struck by an interesting statistic: only 20% of medical doctors are Saudi. I've known for some time that the country has imported doctors and nurses from other countries. The columnist signals that the fact that Saudi women are by and large excluded from the labour market exacerbates the country's lack of development.
The biggest obstacle I see is the rigid gender separation. Until the Saudis reinterpret the Koranic injunctions and resolve how men and women can work together in a professional environment, Saudi Arabia is condemned to stagnate.

Avant qu'on dénonce les français

Dans la blogsphère anglophone, il existe un sport qui consiste à dresser tous les maux de l'Occident et la lâchété morale aux Français. Grâce a cet article posté par le Prof Glenn les bloguers jingositics devoront se calmer.
Selon le reportage, la France a laissé les Américains à entraîner

Tweaking the jingoistic

Over at International Sentinel there's a post that's sure to rile the jingoists and the Anglospherists snobs. I don't necessarily agree with all of Mooraq's comments but it's certainly pleasing to see the comment box light up like magnesium. Well worth reading the post and visiting the blog.

National review online interviews Stephan Schwartz

Katheryn Jean asks Stephan Schwartz about his new book about Wahhabism and Islam. I encourage everyone to read it. One correction: the French who stormed the Gran Mosque in 1979 weren't paratroopers but from the French anti-terrorist unit of the national police: GIGN- Groupe d'internevtion de la Gendarmerie nationale. What's even more fascinating is that the commander of the unit was Captain Barril a devout Roman Catholic. He and his men underwent a special ceremony to make them 'Moselms' so that they could enter into the mosque.
  ¶ 11:43