Saturday, 30 August, 2003Global Reach IV: Hail Iceland!I'll admit I don't know much about Iceland, other than what I can find in the CIA World Factbook, and what little I can remember from an attempt to read Njal's Saga well over a decade ago. But not too long ago, 4% of my hits originated from Icelandic servers. Pretty impressive for a country with a population half the size of my old hometown. But then again, according to The Economist Pocket World in Figures 2003, Iceland has the second highest number of internet hosts per capita in the world (205.6 per 1,000 pop.), surpassed only by the US (and as the figures note, since all ".com," ".net" and ".org" sites are counted as American, this pads the numbers). I see I've also had some hits from Slovenia (looking for "legal regulation of adultery"? what were you hoping to find?) and Croatia (bog!), which expands the number of former Yugoslav republics from which I've received hits to three. posted 0338 Z-8 [link] Tuesday, 26 August, 2003Canal Hotel supplementalIn my previous entry, I remarked on the security, or lack thereof, at the Canal Hotel. Now, I want to make it unambiguously clear that I'm not about to point fingers at the United States that this incident took place; but Ralph Peters, the author of this op-ed piece in the New York Post (via normblog), is barking up the wrong tree. posted 0530 Z-8 [more..] Monday, 25 August, 2003Terrorism and the Canal Hotel BombingThe Economist runs a weekly obituary, and unsurprisingly this week's is devoted to the late Sérgio Vieira de Mello. However one may feel about the institution of the United Nations as a whole, I don't see how anyone can read the record of someone like Vieira de Mello's and not see at least some good in the organisation. The Canal Hotel bombing does bring up certain questions. Via au currant, I came upon a column by one Lowell Phillips on a site called "Toogood Reports." The opening paragraph reads as follows: A cement truck laden with explosives plows into the Baghdad headquarters of the United Nations and, presto-chango, there are "terrorists" in Iraq. That's right, not "guerrillas," not "resistance fighters," but "terrorists." And the press is appalled at their wickedness. Suddenly journalists and pundits who could scarcely bring themselves to utter the T-word now find themselves compelled to use it. Strange how when a U.S. serviceman is killed while guarding a hospital or when Israeli women and children are obliterated on a city bus, the perpetrators are often referred to as "militants," "extremists," or simply "bombers" and "gunmen." But when U.N. officials are the victims... Pardon me. Considering who does the talking, it isn't strange at all.I do not find this as strange as Phillips makes it out to be, and this has everything to do with the thorny problem of what terrorism actually is. posted 0636 Z-8 [more..] |
Navigation: home archives backgrounder Blogs:
au currant Miscellanea:
Care to contribute |
