Articles for July 2006

Meanwhile, Somewhere On The Turkish Border…

Every day we move closer towards the precipice of a regional conflagration …

Turkey In “Iraq Buildup” After PKK Attacks

Major troop deployment reported along Iraqi border after government tells military to plan and prepare for an incursion. PM rebuffs US Ambassador’s warning against unilateral action, says government will decide on what to do.

BIA News Center

18/07/2006

B?A (Ankara) – A major troop buildup along Turkey’s border with Iraq reportedly concentrating on the “Devil’s Triangle” where the borders of the two countries meet that with Iran continued on Tuesday, a day after a cabinet summit on anti-terrorism measures heard proposed measures in Ankara including the possible declaration of a State of Emergency in the region.

The developments come in wake of the death of at least 12 Turkish soldiers, 2 police officers, a village guard and 3 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in an upsurge of violence in the troubled Southeast region this week.

[…]

Press reports coming amid local reports of growing troop deployment in the border region have it that the government has practically issued a “political directive” for the Turkish military to “plan and prepare” for a possible incursion into Northern Iraq.

While local media reports have it that the military buildup continues, pro-Kurdish Firat News Agency (ANF) alleged on July 18 that military aircraft had been carrying new supplies to Diyarbakir province throughout Monday night. It also claimed that all leaves of military personnel in the region had been cancelled.

[…]

Coinciding with the fast track developments in Ankara, the PKK’s armed flank Peoples’ Defense Forces (HPG) issued its own statement on Monday where it warned that it had come to the “end of patience”.

The statement, carried by the pro-Kurdish Firat News Agency (ANF) in full, said the region was going through “a real war condition” and blamed Turkey’s preparations and operations since the beginning of the year for “escalating the war”.

Referring to the new Anti-Terror Law approved by the president as a “war decision”, the organization repeated that the government and army would be responsible of the consequences. (II/YE)

[My emphasis]

Read More…

What Would You Do With $18,000?

You could buy :
An A2003 Chevy Silverado K1500
A refurbished veterinary storage building
David Boyd’s Children Flying Kites
10 kilos of maize meal in Zimbabwe
1,800 troy oz of gold
House rental for a month on the Golden Mile in St Petersburg
A small residential plot in British Columbia
A week’s timeshare in the Cayman Islands
Your very own Nascar

You could even :

Fund a recovery plan for the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat
Treat a schizophrenic for a year
Sponsor a pro-cyclist in the RAAM road race
Give an Australian shepherd dog a new kidney
Train 8 basic-skills computer trainers for a week

Why do I ask, you wonder?

Because $18,000 per Iraqi citizen is what the Iraq war has cost so far. Steve Clemons has the figures:

[…]

The costs of America’s invasion and occupation of Iraq have tied up a staggering amount of resources that could have otherwise been deployed to great and necessary purposes elsewhere — at home and abroad.

I am not going to include in this brief comment the tragic human costs of those killed and injured on all sides of this debacle — but I’m just going to outline the Congressional Budget Office cost estimates of costs related to Iraq and the “war on terror” released today.

The figure — according to the CBO — is a whopping $432 billion.

To put that in perspective, this is $18,000 per person in Iraq. If computing just working age Iraqis, the per capita amount of these costs is $30,857.

The CIA fact book lists the purchasing power parity per capita GDP in Iraq as $3400. However, anyone with any genuine experience on the ground experience knows that the real income of families is much lower with individuals fortunate to earn something between $1500 and $2000 a year.

[…]

I expect most Iraqi citizens would rather that their portion had gone on the wombats than on destroying their country, or better still, into their bank accounts. No doubt it would’ve been used a lot more sensibly and creatively had that happened.

The Joy Of Huisvrouw-ery

Sometimes it’s good to be the strictly domestic partner, though I hasten to say it’s by medical necessity rather than choice, which should preserve my feminist credentials a little while longer.

I’m so glad I’m beholden to no-one, not an employer nor any advertisers, and that I can write what I like whenever I like.

Some don’t have that luxury; apparently popular British blogger/expat in Paris La Petite Anglaise has been sacked by her accountant employers:

When the La Petite Anglaise blog began two years ago, it was described by its thirtysomething author as a “whim” offering a wry look at life as a PA and mother of a bilingual toddler in France.

By yesterday, the secretary who wishes to be known only by her first name – Catherine – was fighting to set a legal precedent in France and coping with a media onslaught after she was dismissed by her employers, a firm of Anglo-French accountants, for allegedly bringing them into disrepute with her postings. The single mother and award-winning “blogeuse”, whose online diary gets up to 3,000 hits a day, has never revealed her identity; that of “Mr Frog”, her French former partner and the father of “Tadpole”, her three-year-old daughter; or that of her employers.

But management at Dixon Wilson, which has offices in London and Paris offering a “personal service to wealthy individuals and their businesses”, took a dim view when word of Catherine’s pens?es on love and work became known. On 26 April this year, she was summoned before a senior partner and told she was being suspended pending dismissal for gross misconduct. The grounds for her sacking were eventually downgraded to a lesser offence but she is fighting a claim for compensation, one of the first in France over alleged transgressions relating to a blog.

She does not know how knowledge of her blog, which she kept secret from colleagues, reached her employers. “I’m not sure how it came out,” she said. “I didn’t talk to anyone at work about it. But then one day I noticed from the feedback on the blog that someone had looked at all 200 pages in a single day. I thought it was a bit odd but thought nothing more of it. But shortly afterwards I was called in and told I was being suspended. I was told that what I had written had brought the company into disrepute and given five minutes to clear my desk and leave.”

This is going to be an interesting case. I don’t know what the French legal position is, but when it comes down to it Art. 10 of the ECHR guarantees a limited right to freedom of expression:

ARTICLE 10

Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. this right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.

The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or the rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.

How that’ll work out in a French tribunal I don’t know. Anyone got any info on French employment law?

Looks like La Petite may have a book deal though. Success is the best revenge. She could also be awarded up to eight months’ pay or ?18,000 in compensation if her employment tribunal case (note to US ‘at will’ employees – employment protections are all part of being a Euroweenie) is successful.

Her former employers also look like putzes, which is always a plus.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe…

I was going to hold this blog to its lofty, Olympian ideals and refrain from entering the vulgar fray, but British amour-propre demands I defend the Prog Gold honour.

This is for the scamps at SN and all the other non-state actors involved in the Great Assy-metrical YouTube War of ’06.

I give you… The Heroes of Hull:

We British bow to no-one in our video craposity.

Bonsai Mountain Range Discovered

The Register:

Those among you who like your skies darkened by black helicopters are invited to mosey on down to the remote Chinese village of Huangyangtan which hosts what must be the strangest military installation ever spotted by the Google Earth Community:

[…]

..complete with lakes, valleys and snow-capped peaks:

[…]

Truly bizarre. Google Earth aficionados can examine the evidence for themselves here (.kmz) while wondering what on Earth, or where on Earth for that matter, this remarkable landscaping project is.

Don’t, however, spend the next three days scouring the world’s mountain ranges trying to find a geographical match: the legwork has already been done for you by this enterprising Google Earth Community member who correctly identified the model as representing this disputed area on the Chinese/Indian border.

[…]

It’s clear that a huge amount of time and resources has been invested in this perplexing scale model, which incidentally represents an area of around 450 by 350 kilometers. The big question is: why?

The only sensible explanation we can come up with is that it’s a training aid for pilots – possibly helicopter jockeys – designed to familiarise them with the landscape should military action ever be required.No doubt you lot can come up with some better suggestions, but while you ponder this mystery keep one eye open for the black helicopters of Huangyangtan. ?

Don’t know anything about why they did it, or what they’re planning, but that’s beautiful; whoever made it is an artist. I wonder, could they make me a tiny Dartmoor for the back garden?

Full story and more pictures here.