-The Sri Lankan army may have finally entered endgame with the Tamil Tigers, and despite that sounding like a minor league baseball team, they are much more fearsome.
-The president of Taiwan resigned, so did the president of Pakistan, as did Mark Spitz's record.
-Russia signed a cease-fire, said they'd bail out of Georgia, and then didn't, because hey! They're being all mysterious. That's how you'se get the ladies.
-Did you know that when Georgia's president passed on NATO's opinion regarding the invasion to Putin that Putin told him to "Shove it up your ass."? Well, you know it now.
-A bunch of Indian protesters in Peru blocked the two oil and gas installations and Peru freaked out, mostly because they didn't realize they were still calling their indigenous people "Indians."
-Venezuala couldn't get a deal going with Mexico regarding the sale of Mexican owned cement plants, so Venezuela pulled a neat trick: they took them. I am going to use this trick to buy milk from now on.
-Al-Qaeda may have killed 43 people in Algiers, and that was at a school for gendarmes. Really?
-Israel is letting out 200 Palestinian prisoners solely to bolster Mahmoud Abbas' authority among Palestinians, which sort of begs the question: if you can so easily release people, for purely political motives, what the hell were they in jail for in the first place?
-Electronic Arts won't be buying Take-Two, at least not anytime soon, making the day when Grand Theft Auto crosses over with Madden to completely blow your mind that much further away.
-Guess what's doing well? Gold. Gold is doing well. Avast?
-Home Depot keeps running into problems, which is what happens when people stop fixing their house because, you know, they don't have one anymore.
Leaders
-The Economist joined the rest of the magazine publishing world, including Time, Women's Wear Daily, etc, with an Obama cover and a quite a bit of Obama themed articles. First up, it's these guys admitting that the Economist "is less impressed" with Obama's politics, as they're still holding the NATO-bashing thing against him, they're still not happy with him wanting to deny more funding to the "surge" in Iraq, and they don't like what they've seen of his tax policies so far. (There's more, but considering that those are the three they've brought up in every Obama article for the last three months, that's the flavor of the drum they beat.) But for the most part, this is an article about what a brilliant campaigner Obama is and what he could do to cement an election that's still up for grabs. It's an opinion piece, yes, but it's a decent one.
-Here's one that won't get top billing, but it's pretty unusual information I hadn't been aware of: space technology, which America used to be responsible for 80% of manufacturing, has fallen to a US share of 50%, with no end in sight. It's not because of "globalization" or "out-sourcing," but becasue the State Department has such a ridiculously asine system of export controls that it's impossible to get a simple screw through without being checked on by a bunch of lazy goverment officials in hopes of job security. Meanwhile, France and Canada are moving on, and the US isn't offering any carrots to bring them back.
-It's sort of hilarious to read that Russia isn't as scary as people imagine--not because it isn't true, it totally is; their economy continues to spiral towards a crash and the population is dropping at a rate of 800,000 a year--but it's hilarious because it's sort of like looking at a burnt out crater and saying "well, they aren't as tough as they look." Here's the thing--we're not worried about Cold War mutually assured destruction type fantasies, were worried about more Georgia's occuring in the Ukraine, more conflicts with the Poles, more death, more lunacy. Of course it's not going to be a World War. The goal should be not to have another Georgia. Man up, brainaics.
-There's probably somebody in the White House who is shedding tears for Pervez Musharraf, but this has to be near the top of the "not awful" ejection of a US-backed leader in a foreign country list. Musharraf was a friend to the US, yes, but he was a terrible president. Not as terrible as a monkey with a flame thrower, but again: it's not about trying not to be awful. It's about trying to be mediocre, with a hint of okay.
-Will Morgan Tsvangirai ever get the deal he deserves? (A good one?) Will Robert Mugabe ever get the one he deserves? (A really evil one?) All signs point to: not yet, maybe so, I wish prayer worked.
Letters
-Some pretty heavy critics show up, and I have to give them a "Well played" this week. Top of the "you guys suck" stack would definitely be Grigory Ioffe, from Virginia, who writes in to say that the recent articles about the sorry state of intellectualism in Russia may easily be due to the intellectuals walking lockstep with the authoriarian regimes in agreement. It's an excellent point, and one the Economist failed to realistically address. All these guys did was say "Well, they are either in jail or they've been bought off." Obviously, some of them are just incapable of seeing it as a problem at all. Here's how Ioffe closes his letter, which is so pungent with contempt that I'm surprised to see it printed: "You badly need a crash course in the cultures you are writing about." So do I, Grigory.
United States
-The battle for Congressional seats between the Democrats, hoping for a a filibuster-proof majority of 60, and the Republicans, who are just looking to keep things as close as possible, gets a check-up via the Economist, who have subtitled the article in such a way that points to a disgust with the "arcane rules" that govern the American legislative process. The states that get the temperature taken include New Hampshire, Minnesota, North Carlina, Virginia, New Mexico, Colorado, Alaska, Mississippi, and Louisiana. There's only a couple of sentences of information given to each contested seat, so it's mostly just names and such. Still, interesting enough.
-If you've an American worker who has been wondering whether or not you'll be getting enough of a raise to offset the 5.6% rise in the cost of consumer products, heres' an article about why that's both unlikely, and, if you can tolerate it without lighting your hair on fire, probably better off. (Mostly because rising unemployment means that job safety is preferable to being replaced by someone willing to take anything, even peanuts and Saran Wrap sculptures.) The Federal Reserve is hoping against a wage-price spiral, and is unlikely to raise interest rates this year--but the Economist is relatively hopeful for now, saying at one point that "this may be as bad as it gets."
-There's some suspicion that John McCain might have cheated and heard the questions Rick Warren was asking the two candidates at the recent "Churchfight!" they threw in California--that would have been an unimpressively mean thing to do, considering it being pretty unlikely that Obama was going to come across as the winner anyway. It's a debate moderated by the guy who wrote "Purpose Driven-Life" which, if I'm not mistaken, has a chapter called "All Democrats And Liberals Are Demon-Rapist Evildoers." Actually, I couldn't finish the first chapter, and I was reading it on a dare. Not exactly a fair playing field.
-Fifty states in America have their own wineries. There's North Dakota wine? That can't be very good.
-Lexington is back, and he's here to give you the background of David Axelrod, who is Obama's version of Karl Rove--with more porno mustache and less overall body mass. For those who hate to find out that their father's greasy fingers are the ones who slipped the penny under your pillow for a molar, look away: Axelrod came up with the "Yes We Can" slogan, which Obama wasn't a fan of, and he fought from the beginning to base the whole juggernaut of a campaign on "hope" and "change." The only question Lexington has about the guy is whether or not he's got what it takes for the final sprint across the line.
The Americas
-The murder rate in San Paulo has dropped enough to to make a dent in Brazil's overall murder rate, which had continually gone up since 1980. It's still the fourth-highest in the world, which is bad, but it may go down even more when the national figures for the last few years are released. Which is good. There's a lot of good reasons it's happened--a better police force, stronger gun control and a changing demographic that has seen the proportion of 15-24 year-olds drop--and one particularly bad one, which is that Primerio Comando da Capital, a San Paulo gang, has succeeded in cementing their rule by killing off all of their rivals.
-Argentinian's consistent growth rate in the face of most logic has finally started to slow down, here's an article about why, about what Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is not doing to make things better, about what she is doing to make things worse, and also why none of this really means that a crash is in the cards. So it's an article about Argentina, and it's interest to anyone is dependent on how far they want to go into learning about the current state of affairs in Argentina. You make the call.
Asia
-Looks like Kashmir got worried that no one was going to pay attention to them, or maybe they are just capitalizing on the resignation of Pervez Musharraf, or maybe Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir will just never get along, or maybe, just maybe, freakshow religious zealots are right and the world is going to end in fire and brimstone with creeps chanting "Kali Ma, Kali MA" and i'm going to get my heart ripped out. Either way: Kashmir! Never, never, never go there.
-Look, if Nepal and the Maoist guerillas actually pull off the whole peaceful transition thing that they, by all evidence, seem to be heading towards, then those business negotiator guys (who set the whole thing up) should be elected president of the world, just like Zeus "Tiny" Lister.
-Weird quote from China this week: "I don't think any country in the world, apart from North Korea, could get such a quality of performance from its actors as we did." That was Zhang Yimou who, when not creating garbage like "The Curse of the Golden Flower," also directs the opening/closing ceremonies for the Olympics--and is apparently a big supporter of North Korea's policy of...well, what, exactly? Starving people? Telling them that he's 11 feet tall and can fly?
Middle East and Africa
-The title to this loving tribute to Zambia's recently deceased president, Levy Mwanawasa (natural causes) is "Why Africa needs more cabbage." Odd enough title, but apparently political opponents had called him "the cabbage" because--well...because it was a mean thing to say? I'm not really sure. Anyway, Mwanawasa was one of the few African leaders to stand up to Robert Mugabe, and his death is that continent, and this world's, loss.
-Saudi Arabia has started to deal with it's rising price of food by seeking out farms in the poorest parts of the world--like Pakistan and Sudan. This isn't going to work out well.
-Finally, things may start to change for those mercenaries in Iraq, and there might be some court of law that has jurisdictation over there basically unchecked behavior. While the focus in war complaints seems to be on the White House, one of the most glaring problems has been the free reign given to ex-Special Forces guys who have gone merc. All that aside, i've made a ridiculous amount of money investing in Blackwater over the last few years. Blood! On my hands!
Europe
-Man, you gots to check out that cartoon. It's awesome. Anyway, here's the thing about the Economist and Russia/Georgia: these articles are great, but they're a timed out around Wednesday the 20th. A lot happens in nine days when you're dealing with war, ceasefires, aggressive intentions, the new season of Dragon's Den, etc. Don't read this. Read today's article, which you and I both know you don't need me to link for you.
-The missile defense shield is here, and it is getting intercept placement in Poland--they signed the agreement about fourteen seconds after Russia invaded Georgia. Prior to that, they'd been dragging their feet. Full disclosure! My high-school girlfriend works on this project, has for years. She's a f'real rocket scientist! Now, i've got nothing but nice, supportive feelings for her, she's a real princess. That being said, the idea of spending $10 billion a year on upkeep for a trillion dollar system that is totally unproven, to the point that most involved seem to think is more likely NOT to work is completely and totally absurd. And stupid.
-Still no regular column from these guys, which is starting to get odd. Did I miss a notice somewhere? He's not dead, is he? Anyway, here's everything you may want to know about Turkey and the Caucasus, the sort of got-his-shit-together Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the magic spice that will curse us all. Wait that's Dune, isn't it?
Britain
-God, the British really hate their airport, don't they? And British Airlines? This has to be the 900th article I've read in the Economist about tearing apart BAA and building more runways at Heathrow, and that's not counting all the Brit-centric articles that are only published on the web.
-The UK had their best Olympics since 1908, although the public seems to have gotten sick of the whole public funding of elite athletes policy, which is unsurprising considering how awful utilites pricing is getting in Britain. If one has to deal with higher heating bills and paying for cyclists to get better bikes, I think gold medal bragging rights is probably on the way out.
-Bagehot returns, and brings the thunder--David Cameron is sort of amazing, isn't he? Not that I like or would vote for him, but the way he just says "Bang this" and hopes on a plane for Tbilisi, beating his own prime minister there and behaving, well, like he's in charge of the country. Things couldn't get worse for Gordon Brown short of him getting eaten by a gigantic golden retriever wearing a cape.
International (Human Interest Stories Bore Me)
-There are Chinese merchants in Greece, and you know what: don't care. Who cares? Why does there have to be a story about this? Why does it have to use the odd theme of the diaspora connection? Long and boring. Long and boring! If you're going to waste my time Economist, why not talk about that British lad-mag that paid for some woman to get her breasts enlarged from DD to GG? That's about as useless to know about, and it's easier to make fun of.
-People in the US go to movies, Brazil stays home and Russians like clothes. I don't think an article this short can be any less valuable.
Business
The other topic that never gets ignored for long is the state of water--which, according to people who would know, is not good. Here's the thing about an article like this that I think is worth looking into: when companies like Dow and Coca Cola are purposely spending money and manpower to deal with water as if it's running out, that's an indication that's far more reliable then anything you'll hear from a politician. Coca Cola, Dow--both companies with a tendency to plan for the future. Both of them are pure corporations, meaning they ignore value judgments like good or bad--they focus on how to make money, and how to make money forever; not just this week, or this quarter, or this four-year cycle, or until 2014. Forever. And if they are worried about water supplies, then regular people should probably worry too.
-Chinese subsidies have been criticized and condemned by the WTO for being against the rules, and that's totally true. It's been impossible to compete over there with their protectionism, which levied a special 25% tariff on imported car parts. So now they've come up with a 40% sales tax on cars taht happen to be gas-guzzlers, which is totally within WTO rules, decent for the environment, and keeps foreign cars in the same place they were before: the shitter. Well played!
-Well, this can't be a good idea for some, but I'm going to buy shares in gigantic law firms, and I'll bet I get even more rich than I already am. Awesome for me!
-Google has a Second Life thing, but no one likes it. Google, however, does not care what you like.
Finance and Economics
-I didn't read this section but once, which means I'm not able to really distill it, but I will say that I watched Point Blank a bunch of times, and that was fun.
Science and Technology
-Some scientists are trying to breathe life back into physiognomy, which is the idea that you can predict inward character from outward human forms. (And yes, this is apparently where the "fat people are jolly" idea may have originally came from, and let me be the first to tell you, if you don't already know: It's not true, the overweight are no more likely to be more pleasant to be around then the skinny, the monstrous, or the LA Raiders circa 1992.) However, there may be some flimsy evidence based on pictures of ice hockey players that men with wide facers are more likely to throw down and whip out the Queensbury Rules. There are clearly avenues of scientific research that are far easier to major in then analytical biochemistry.
-Ha, Infra-red. When's the last time you thought about Infra-red? Really? Recently? Then I guess you don't care that they might make a infra-red solar cell. Seriously, the last time I heard that was in one of those weird sci-fi movies the Criterion Collection puts out. I think Robert Stack was talking about it.
Books and Arts
-Are you someone who really enjoys long, heady books abuot music, music theory, and prefers the term "music" to only define classical compositions? Well, here's two pricey hardcovers for you to talk about with all your non-existent friends.
-How difficult can it be to write a biography of John Keats? He died at 25, it's not like there's a lot to cover.
-Woody Allen has a new movie, the Economist likes it, and it's funny to me how all you have to do is fix Javiar Bardem's haircut and he kind of completely blows your mind in a way that makes me question previous lifestyle choices. Oh, and Scarlett Johansson is still pretending she can act.
Obituary: Mahmoud Darwish
-Most new poetry strikes me as too cloying and sentimental, but what I've read of Darwish was never, never that. He was a true artist that ignored the specifity of political engagement, the wages of time and wrote about the Palestine of his memory--a Palestine that had died in 1948 when his family abandoned their ancestral home in fear of an advancing Israeli military. While a bitter anger is apparent in his earlier, overtly political work, he matured into a magnificiently subtle artist, one whose work will, hopefully, outlast the uglier aspects of that part of the world.
-The Economist Versus Idiot apologizes for missing another week. Things look to be on track again.
damn you're smart. I like reading these posts more than the Times
Posted by: frank santoro | 2008.08.29 at 12:19
Not a Zhang Yimou fan? I thought Curse of the Golden Flower was one of his weaker movies, but it still looked beautiful. Some of his other stuff is incredible though, especially Hero and Happy Times. I just watched Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles, and I thought it was pretty good. I think he's generally pretty great, even if he has some weird views. But hey, who doesn't?
Posted by: Matthew J. Brady | 2008.08.31 at 12:20
Thanks Frank, sorry about the typos. This was a from the road piece.
Matt, I haven't seen most of Yimou's work, but for me, Hero is a testament to great cinematography more then anything else. I love watching it, because it's gorgeous, but the storytelling is clunky and the acting kind of pathetic. I'll admit that I'm always kind of rough on propaganda films anyway, (I kind of feel like Eisenstein is the only guy who ever did them justice), and also that Yimou makes himself an easy target with that line--what does that even mean?
Posted by: Tucker Stone | 2008.08.31 at 14:27