-There is something pretty audacious about attacking an offshore oil rig and then immediately declaring a cease fire. The oil rig is still on fire, and you set it on fire, and they haven't gotten fifty percent of the fire under control, and you call up and say, "hey, no punch-backs." Nigerian rebels? I salute your arrogance.
-While it's pretty great, if they are all guilty, that Saudi Arabia caught 520 suspected militants, it certainly seems to come a little suspiciously close to a certain spike in oil prices. Could have we caught these cats before the whole 135 dollar barrel thing?
-Slobodan Milosevic's former party decided to back up a Serbian party called the "Democratic Party." Milosevic? Really? How many of his buddies didn't go the way of the Hague?
-According to a torture poll in 19 countries, the majority of the world doesn't like 24. Their loss! Tony's back!
-If you like to keep up with the news more often then these little ditties, which God hopes you do, because I'm an idiot with a computer, keep your eyes on Bolivia--the number of provinces that have voted for autonomy from the government is now at four. The four provinces make up, basically, the entire GNP of the country.
-Here's a quote from Obama that's kind of...well, less pretty and heartwarming than usual: "Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified." Which is sort of like saying, "We lie about shit to get votes, and sometimes when we're lying we raise our voices and stuff, but it doesn't mean anything."
-John McCain's response was "You know I was a POW right? I can't lift my arms above my head, it's really fucked up."
-Ha, if you want to get hired by the Justice Department, don't write the words "social" or "environmental" on your application, because it turns out that they throw those applications away. I do the same thing when models send in cards that I didn't ask for if the models are American. Weird!
-Two of the largest garbage companies in America will merge and form the greatest garbage company the world has ever known, and they will begin a new ad campaign featuring an animated animal with a celebrity voice. Part of what I wrote is untrue. Or not?
Leaders
-You know who is a big deal? Bill Gates is a big deal. On the eve of his official departure from that company that he created, Micro-something, The Economist gives him a mighty send-off: cover duties, which is pretty rare for a non-politician, first billing in the Leaders section (where they focus on his past) and then a state-of-Soft piece later in the magazine. It's all interesting stuff, albeit a bit of a retread--there's the futurist mindset that showed up when Gates was able to predict what could be done with PC technology part, the antagonistic relationship with the government portion, the failures of Vista updates--most of this stuff you've read before, even if you have the barest knowledge of what Microsoft does. The only thing missing is the part where they offer predictions on whether this is a straight-up retire to the Gates Foundation thing, or whether he's going to pull a Shawn Carter. We'll see.
-After last weeks aggravation--I say a lot of mean shit, but I don't think I've ever proclaimed that someone should straight up die, which is exactly what I said about Robert Mugabe last week--I was curious as to what the Economist would say after Morgan Tsvangirai's withdrawal. After all, it's their journalism, coupled with the horrific propaganda that shows up on the Internet courtesy of Zanu-PF supporters that has brought about my own ire--what, exactly, were the writers who helped get me boiling going to say?
"It would be glorious if he were removed by any method at all."
I stand by my original statement. The sooner Mugabe is out of power--whether it's by a fanatics gun or some unprecedented (and unlikely) courage on the part of the African Union or the Southern African Development Community--the better for the people of Zimbabwe and the world in general. He can't be gone soon enough. Until he is, the campaign of abduction, torture, rape and murder that he and his thugs have wrecked on that country will continue, and the proportion of blame for his actions that the rest of Africa, and the world in general, is responsible for will continue to grow. Mugabe is never going to stop killing people.
-The Economist rarely runs articles like this one about the potential for an Israeli air strike on Iranian weapons facilities--if you read it, you'll notice that the only source for the article is "a spike in chatter" over "recent weeks." The quotes in the article, from John Bolton and Mohamed ElBaradei are certainly relevant, although neither seem to have come to the Economist by their own journalists in pursuit of this specific story. While that sort of mysterious sourcing usually makes a news article, to my mind, a bit suspect, having it occur in a publication (that so rarely does that type of reporting) works in the opposite fashion, making it rather unnerving.
-The last time Compartamos (the Mexican bank earning huge profits on it's microloans) showed up in the Economist, the article was far less supportive then it is on this little go-round--when I read the previous article, the focus was on their usurious interest rates, now settled to be around 79% on the low side. After reading the article, I can't say that I disagree with their assessment: Compartamos certainly has a frighteningly high interest rate, and the majority of loans are too the poorest of the poor, but they certainly seem to be helping a lot of people out, and they are completely open to public scrutiny. Maybe these guys aren't as bad as the legbreakers in a cop drama.
Letters
-There's two people who I just find ridiculously precious this week-a musician from New York who seems to have bought the "Iraq is getting better" issue because the cover featured an Iraqi luthier, which is a sort of lute, and wrote in that all the readers should go buy one, because...oh why not? Anybody who opens a letter with "I am a musician by profession..." is always going to finish their statement with something silly. Always. The other person is somebody who wrote in to say that he prefers to be called Joe Sixpack instead of Joe Couchpotato. Somebody took time out of their life to do that, and now I'm taking time out of yours to tell you that it irritated me. It's like that song in the Lion King.
United States
-One of the minor footnotes to the Supreme Court's ruling against Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban comes directly from Shirley Franklin, the mayor of Atlanta--the pot of money that goes towards dealing with the litigation that the Supreme Court's ruling will likely create also happens to be the pot of money used to fight crime--meaning that resources that could be better occupied may end up stuck in the morass of individual states dealing with the weight of gun-lovers fighting to change local legislation. While there aren't many times that I've found myself in agreement with Justice Scalia, who I find to be a bit of a troll, it's somewhat difficult to disagree with his contention that the Supreme Court is not the venue for re-writing the Constitution. (The fact that Scalia didn't say the same thing the 900 times previous is a bit repugnant.) That being said, this is an event that's going to have some pretty extensive effects over the coming months, months I hope will be like the first Die Hard movie, because regardless of what the last one would have you believe computer crime is goddamn boring. Ho Ho Ho! [Lame pop cultural reference]
-If you like your fast food to be an ethical enterprise, then you probably want to make sure that you order the locations you visit like this: Taco Bell, then McDonald's followed by Burger King. That's the order in which those corporations agreed to give raises to Florida's tomato pickers, who haven't received one in 30 years. (The raise is an extra cent a pound.) Another interesting point--Burger King officials had referred to the tomato pickers--who are mostly South American and Haitian immigrants--as "bloodsuckers" and "the lowest form of human life." Finally, and here's the part I love the most: If you shop at Whole Foods, Subway, Wal-Mart or Chipotle? They've refused to give the raise for years. Which means that people who eat at Taco Bell are more ethical tomato consumers than people who re-use canvas bags at Whole Foods. In your face, San Francisco!
-I haven't been to Missouri in years, and it looks like I better go soon, because this article about the economic problems and the fear of a Budweiser buy-out make it sound like the state is going to turn into a giant version of Flint, Michigan. By the way, if you don't click on this article, you won't get to see what the asshole titled the article. What a dick!
-This one is for the Factual Opinion's regular music columnist: Lexington takes a look at Lil Wayne and Dead Prez. I can't believe I just wrote that, but hey, it's totally true. The esteemed political correspondant for the Economist who handles the America beat wrote the sentence, "The disrespect in question was a suggestion that the judge perform fellatio on him."
The Americas
-Most of the South American correspondents probably got tasked with working on the big feature on the status of migration near the opening of this weeks issue, which might explain why the only thing I found worth checking recommending out of this section was the article about how the way America treats Cuba isn't as make-out-sesh worthy as the way the European Union does. Still, not a whole lot of cash changing hands except for that marked "care of Venezuela."
Asia
-North Korea blew up a cooling tower, and might get off the terror list in 45 days. The people of North Korea? Still starving. It would go against all of Kim Jong Il's history to make a sacrifice of whatever nuclear program he had (or has) for the sake of aid to the people suffering in North Korea, so whatever it is that China put on the table (regardless of their meaningless threats), it must be pretty special.
-China is pulling a scorched earth policy with the latest outbreak of avian flu, which showed up again on June 11th. Why they are going to the lengths they are (at least 25,000 birds killed in just over a week) hasn't leaked out yet--they're keeping the information as secret as they can (which is easy, because, you know, it's China.) There's still no cases where avian flu has passed from human to human, but somewhere in the past month, Chinese government policy is now treating it like it could. That's awesome?
-Another ferry disaster in the Philippines, and as the article points out, little has changed to make future disasters unlikely. There's no money, but plenty demand, for ferries in the Philippines--which means a lot of people without the qualifications to be in the charge of 862 human lives are currently calling themselves "Captain."
Middle East and Africa
-I think this section has been covered enough this week.
Europe
-Lech Walsea has been accused of being a former informant to the secret police during the early 70's. While he obviously disputes the accusation, it's sad to see that someone who worked so hard (and admittedly advertised how hard he worked) to bring democracy to his native country of Poland now having to deal with the slings and arrows at during the winter of his life. Jesus, I just wrote "winter of his life." What the hell is wrong with me? Awesome 'stache, by the by.
-I know we all love Charlemagne, how can we not all love Charlemagne, but he/she already turned in a "The European Union hates a 'no' vote" column last week. There's already two other articles about the recent Irish referendum in the issue. I got it. We all got it. At least get some new quotes if you're going to cover the same ground.
Britain
-More and more American's are bailing out of London due to job cuts and the credit crunch, despite the fact that Brits are starting to dig them again. (A May poll revealed that only 35% of the population believe that the US is a "force for evil," which also means George Bush and James Dobson don't have a monopoly on really ridiculous usages of the English language when it comes to describing people they don't agree with. "Force for evil." Fucking children and lunatics talk like that.)
-Britain seems to finally be moving towards doing away with anonymous witnesses, which is that oh-so-terrible idea where you allow people to testify in a court of law behind a screen, so people can't see them. Which I guess looks like that part in the Golden Child were Eddie Murphy hits on the snake lady.
-Bagehot decides to tear down Gordon Brown, a man who we'd all probably make fun of more often if there wasn't a certain American president who dismantles sayings and cliches all the time--apparently Gordon Brown actually said Nelson Mandela would be freed "in our lunch time" and pronounces the Dalai Lama "Dial-eye Lama." There's more here, but honestly, I just ruined the best bit. (Which is really early in the piece, so don't get all pissy.)
International (Project Failure Returns)
-Things no one should get paid to write about: Finnish schools, devoted Classics scholars, and motherfuckingblogs.
Business
-While the usual article about micropayment set-ups is one that consists of all the companies that failed to pull it off, it seems to be working extraordinarily well for a bunch of online games. I've never quite understood the attraction of spending hours wandering a virtual world and paying real money for a fake cloak, but enough people do that for some people to get rich. I wonder what bread paid for by obsessive-compulsives tastes like?
-Spaniards have been receiving electricity subsidies for so long that the electricity "tariff deficit" is now around $22 billion. Not only that, but the power companies have been forced to sell electricity at prices too low to cover the actual costs for years, continuing to make the problem even worse. Bizarre.
-In a story that will probably follow me around in my own daytime job far more than I care to imagine, the incredibly successful South Korean department store Lotte will now attempt to move into China, a land lacking in department stores where sociopathic spinsters can spend thousands under the watchful wings of personal escorts.
Finance and Economics
-Japanese banks are some of the only gigantic financial institutes to escape the subprime crisis relatively unscathed, so now they are on the warpath to make sure that they can find themselves in a hole of their own because hey, it's not like things can get any worse, right?
-The Economist plays it light while dealing with the relationship between Bank of America and Countrywide, because hey, it's not like Bank of America is actually going to say "you know, we really shouldn't have done this."
-The big full page Economics Focus this week is focused on inflation expectations, something that's never been a strong suit when it came to divination, but what surprised me (and shouldn't have) was the reference to Milton Friedman as a "great economist" when I'd pretty much agreed with Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine analysis--that Friedman was sort of a queasy sociopath whose economic strategies seemed at best, optimistic, at worst, disgustingly cruel. But hey, that's why Naomi writes for the Nation, right?
Science and Technology
-While individual genome readings and personalized medicine isn't far enough along to refer to as being in the infancy stage, there is an aspect of individual diagnosis that is moving along a little quicker: metabolomics, or, as my friends like to call it "the study of metabolotes." While the article doesn't delve into the possible science fiction future of metabolomics, I think any sufficiently immature individual will walk away from this article with the same thought I had: eventually, after you use the toilet, the toilet will be the one who tells you that you have cancer. Because it will read it in your leavings.
-Keeping up with a gastro-themed newsweek, there's a group of people working on the Human Microbiome Project who are tasked with classifying bacterial genes, of which there could end up being around 200,000. So far, they have produced enough information to theorize that antibiotics, vaccines and improved sanitation are responsible for a "massive rise in inflammatory bowel disease." Did you know there was a massive rise in that? I didn't. I guess that isn't something a lot of people talk about. Just something that a lot of people have.
Books and Arts
-I'm not going to read Joseph O'Neill's new novel Netherland. Why? Because of this: "Yet the plot is light and fragile. Single pleasing paragraphs do not a sound novel make. However beguiling the decor, however beautiful the carved cornices, the gleaming brass fixtures, if the joists of a building are made of balsa wood it is not a good investment." Dude you totally burned that guy
-The Economist has a heart, as evidenced by how upset they were made by reading Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West, which certainly sounds like a book made to produce sadness. There's only about 25,000 wild horses out roaming public land, about 30,000 in holding pens, and about 8,000 of the 30 are on their way to the slaughterhouse. The ones roaming around get hustled off to death with helicopters. Ain't no good times coming.
-The Economist usually likes it when academic books read like academic books, but nothing boils their oil then when writers take an important subject, do a shitload of research, and then turn out a book that's unreadable but to academics--hence their quiet contempt for Fixing Failed States, a book that they clearly wish had been published with the goal of a mass reader in mind. It's an easy argument to climb on board with--Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia are some major examples of collapsed countries, and it would've been pretty great to have a policy manual from brainaics while there's still time to do something about it.
Obituary: Arthur Galston
-While I doubt few knew his name, Arthur Galston's dual legacy as the scientist whose accidental discovery of usages for 2,3,4-triiodenzoic acid led to the creation of Agent Orange, and as the scientist who then fought to end the mass spraying of the herbicide is one of those classic stories of 20th century science that won't be foreign to but a few. While he'll probably be most missed by those who took his popular bioethics course at Yale over the last twenty years, he was certainly a rare individual--a man whose dedication to knowledge and science never fell out of step with his belief, and fervent practice, of intellectual responsibility. With hope, he instilled those some ideals in those with the chance to study underneath him--just as it was instilled in him by those who had him as a student.
-Next week in the Economist they hopefully had time to talk about the hostage rescue in Columbia, which is one of those stories I'd hoped would have a happy ending, and am delirious to find out it did.
Man, that Lil Wayne/Dead Prez editorial makes me sad. Did he just photocopy an editorial from 1992 and change out the names?
Posted by: Marty Brown | 2008.07.05 at 15:23