Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

After years of acting as Chancellor Gerhard's Schröder's mouthpiece, Germany's leading newsweekly, Der Spiegel, seems to have had enough. The straw that broke the lapdog's back is the German leader's deranged insistence on ending the EU arms embargo imposed on the Chinese communists in the wake of their massacre of pro-democracy protestors in Tiananmen Square in 1989. In a blistering attack today, the magazine's website pokes into Schröder's past and comes up with some choice stuff about his empathy for tyrants. For example: With the East German dictatorship on the verge of collapse in 1989, Schröder was still saying the likes of: "After 40 years of the Federal Republic one shouldn't delude a new generation in Germany about the chances of reunification. It's not going to happen."

Long depicted here as an iniquitous opportunist who stoked the fires of anti-Americanism to secure his re-election, Schröder has now gone off the deep end and seems intent on ripping up the tattered remains of what counts for German foreign policy. But why? Well, seeing that his economic policy has delivered nothing but zero growth and mass unemployment, Schröder is cornered and the only card he can play is the pro-China, anti-American one. With a crucial regional election in May in the state of North Rhein-Westphalia, which is seen as dress rehearsal for next year's general election, and the polls showing Schröder's SPD losing after having ruled the state for 39 years, desperation is in the air. History shows us that it is in exactly such times that unprincipled men such as Schröder can be expected to do crazy things. Things such as calling for the arming of despots.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 31 March 2005 at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Terri Schiavo case has pitted left against right and right-to-die supporters against right-to-life advocates. The debate is passionate, heated, fierce. Take this post by William Sjostrom over at his Atlantic Blog:

"I had an angry idea about the killing of Terri Schiavo. I note the sheer joy of James Carville and the cretinous Atrios (via Professor Bainbridge, who apparently has a stronger stomach for Atrios stench than I do), and even from the normally decent Mark Kleiman, who confuses Terri Schiavo with his Tom DeLay obsession. Peggy Noonan and Tom Smith at The Right Coast are no doubt being wiser than me, but I am too tired to be generous. I think it stems from this: they lost the last election, with all their Ph.D.s and vast superiority and all the rest, they still got their collective butts kicked. Killing Terri Schiavo means they beat George Bush and Tom DeLay, and so they recover their manhood. When Terri Schiavo is finally killed off, they can get it up again. I hope the sex is lousy."

That certainly hit home. Talking of home, William Sjostrom is politically at home in the conservative-libertarian segment of the spectrum, and that's where Neal Boortz can be found as well. Unlike Sjostrom, though, he feels that Schiavo should be allowed to die. Here he speaks directly to those Christains who are fighting for her life:

"Do you believe that the human soul can make the transition to everlasting life while the human body that carried that soul through life clings to life on this earth? If you do, then you must surely believe that Terri Schiavo has earned and is already enjoying her reward in heaven. That being the case, why is it so important to you that the now-unneeded body of Terri Schiavo is kept alive?

But perhaps you believe, as I do, that the human soul is so connected to and integrated with its earthly body that any transition will not be made until that body ceases functioning — until death occurs. That being the case, why do you so ardently desire that the soul of Terri Schiavo spend five, ten, perhaps 30 years or more trapped in a useless and non-functioning body, unable to move on to whatever reward awaits her? Isn't 15 years enough?"

Whatever about the ethics and the morals of the Schiavo debate, reality is somewhat different. A medical professional, who once worked in one of the world's most famous cancer clinics in New York City, told me recently that we have no idea of how common the practice of "pulling the plug" is. For example, when patients "arrest" (experience heart stoppage), the medical team swings into action and "does a code" — conducts a resuscitation procedure. If the patient has, however, a terminal cancerous brain tumour, a "slow code" might be done, meaning that no active measures will be taken to revive the patient. Life and death decisions are often taken without consulting anyone. We may not want to know about this, but many people are happy that it is so.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Talking to the Rainy Day mother on the phone at the weekend, I was. "Isn't it awful about that poor woman in America," said I, meaning Terri Schiavo, and preparing for a discussion on ethics and morals. "Oh, a fright entirely," replied the mother. "And she with two young children and all."

HERE, I paused, because I was pretty sure that Terri Schiavo didn't have any kids. "What children?" I asked, thinking that I might have missed out on something. "She had two sons," went on the mother, "Sure, Marie [a neighbour] knows the husband." At this point I felt that something was awry. Although our neighbour is well travelled, she has never been to Pinellas Park, Florida. So, here's the horrifying story that unravelled:

Earlier this year, Kay Kelly Cregan, 42, from Croom, County Limerick, e-mailed a Manhattan plastic surgeon, Dr Michael Sachs, regarding a nose job and face-lift. She had read about him a local newspaper. "I believe when you meet me that you will think me suitable for that procedure (I am 42 years old but look 56-58 approx)," she wrote. "I have become very self-conscious when meeting people and [I am] becoming more and more anti-social by the day." Surgery was scheduled for mid-March, to be followed by two weeks of recovery in an apartment provided by Sachs. The package was to cost $32,000.

WHAT Kay Kelly Cregan didn't know, and what the article didn't mention, is that Dr Sachs is one of the most sued doctors in New York. According to the New York Daily News, the National Practitioner Data Bank public file shows that he has made 33 malpractice payments during the past decade, more than any other doctor in New York. As well, there are two malpractice suits pending against him alleging breathing difficulties arising from botched nose jobs. On top of this, New York state health officials, citing negligence, last year banned Sachs from ever performing complex nasal procedures without the supervision of another doctor.

Medical records show that on Monday, 14 March, Kay Kelly Cregan was anesthetized in Sachs' Central Park South office at 6 pm. The operation lasted 2 hours, 55 minutes. When it was over, the time was 9.15 pm, and Cregan was taken to a recovery room in Sachs' office. A nurse checked her every hour and reported that at 6.30 am on the following morning Cregan said she felt dizzy. The nurse wrote:

"I assisted her to lay on the floor because I don't want her to hit her head somewhere. Because she's heavy, I put her on the floor and connected [her] to the monitor."

CREGAN'S blood pressure and pulse were falling. "Started CPR after a minute, I called 911," the nurse's last note reads. At 6.37 am, a call from Sachs' office about a patient in cardiac arrest was registered at the 911 switchboard. When Cregan arrived in an ambulance at the Roosevelt Hospital emergency room at 7:06 am, she was brain-dead. Doctors took her off life support on Thursday 17 March, St Patrick's Day.

In light of the controversy surrounding the Schiavo case, one of the most interesting things about this tragic story is that most US news reports contain the phrases "She was taken off life support" or "her life support machine was switched off". No debate. No protests. By the way, Ireland's Examiner uses the neutral formulation "died in St Luke's Roosevelt Hospital". The same newspaper was prurient enough, though, to write, "Without telling her family, she went to New York for the nose job and facelift."

FINALLY, as the New York Daily News commented: "One element compounding the tragedy of Kay Kelly Cregan, the Irish mother of two who died after a nose job, wasn't mentioned in the story, but is plain to anyone who looked at the 42-year-old woman's picture: Her nose was fine. She might not have been the prettiest of women, but she didn't need a nose job."

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 30 March 2005 at 12:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The IT challenge facing the New York Road Runners Club (NYRR) was daunting: to digitize all its race results since 1990 and make the data available online in a searchable database. By the way, the database would have to include the results of all race finishers — NYRR members and non-members alike. So, we're talking about scanning endless pages of race result, some of which are hand written. Then there's the painstaking task of cleaning up the scanner's misinterpretations. Where the results are incomplete, the club has to refer to local newspapers and back issues of specialist magazines such as New York Runner. Alice Schneider, NYRR's outgoing VP of IT, spearheaded the project and also wrote a program to upload the results to the NYRR's data system. Take a look at this work in progress at www.nyrr.org/results.

This is actually the second phase of a project started three years ago. Back then Schneider and her team developed a search engine to comb results of past New York City Marathons. The engine can access results by entrant name, year, time range, country and other parameters. To see it in operation, check out www.ingnycmarathon.org/results. And, who knows, maybe we can get the name in there this year.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 29 March 2005 at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

OK, you've only got until Thursday, but that should give you enough time to rattle off 1,000 words. Yes, that's right, the deadline is at hand for this year's Nico Colchester Journalism Fellowship. Your topic, should you decide to accept the mission, is "Integration v Multiculturalism: What can European countries learn from each other?"

Two fellowships are being offered this year: one for a British or Irish applicant and one for an applicant from elsewhere in the European Union. The prize is a three-month stint at The Economist or the Financial Times and the two winners get £4,000 each to cover travel and accommodation expenses. Send your entry to: ncprize@economist.com. In November 2002, Rainy Day paid tribute to Nico Colchester in "Making words dance".

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 28 March 2005 at 8:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Did you know that in 1958 a home movie was secretly made of Pope Pius XII's dying moments and then offered for an exorbitant price to the media? The Vatican hired a private detective who traced the film back to the Pope's physician Dr Riccardo Galeazzi Lisi. The man paid for his greed with his career; he was struck off the doctors' register. Brushing up on our Holy See facts, we are. Here's another cinematic one: The papal election scene in The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) with Anthony Quinn as pope had to be shot in a cardboard Sistine Chapel because the Vatican refused permission to film in situ.

Talking of the Sistine Chapel, it was once home to a magnificent Renaissance tapestry the size of a tennis court designed by Raphael and all luminous with gold thread. Part of a series of ten, which are currently undergoing restoration, this particular one formed the backdrop to 15th century Pope Leo X's orgies. "Since God has given us the papacy," he famously said, "let us enjoy it."

Despite the sexual, political and financial scandals that have beset it over the past 2,000 years, the Vatican persists and evolves. In our time, the Latinist department of the Curia, the Vatican's civil service, has had to find translations for "television" (imaginum transmission per electricas undas) and "domino theory" (tessera surrogata), and although John Paul II is seen as the great conservative pope, he is the first pontiff to wear a wrist watch and have satellite TV installed so that he could look at international football. If you would like to call the Vatican (+39 6 69 88 35 11) and pass on your best wishes for his health, you'll be greeted by "Pronto. Vaticano?" If you'd prefer to use e-mail, here's the address: john_paul_ii@vatican.va.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

David Galbraith has created an exciting new product, which aims to bridge the gap between blogging and bookmarking. The goal is to "evolve a tool for managing and syndicating image headlines". Anyway, to further develop Wists he's relocated from San Francisco to New York and in the process of moving, he's had to live light, which led him to note: "The curious thing is that it feels better to have a bag of clothes, a cellphone and a laptop and nothing else, which begs the question as to why I ever buy anything."

His comment on the advantages of decluttering reminded me of an interview with Jonathan Aitken in the February issue of Magill, Ireland's political and cultural monthly. Aitken, some of you may recall, was a Tory minister who told a foolish lie about a hotel bill, which led to him being imprisoned for committing perjury. The Guardian has the full story. While serving time in HMP Belmarsh, Aitkin reflected on life and came to a number of conclusions. Here's the money quote:

Magill: Your legal travails have cost you million of pounds. How have you coped with your new, reduced circumstances?

Aitken: I was once the chairman of a London merchant bank. In prison I was a lavatory cleaner, earning £5.60 a week — with a bonus of £1 if I did a good job — which I learnt to budget down to the last 2p. My greatest luxuries were miniature pots of Marmite and packet soups from the canteen. But I can honestly say that having had both a luxury lifestyle and a frugal one. I am more content living frugally. I don't think possessions are important. I believe that travelling light is the happiest way for living. Despite all that has happened , I am personally and spiritually very happy. So life has not given me a bad deal."

Prayers for People Under Pressure by Jonathan Aitken is published by Continuum.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 27 March 2005 at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When it came to criticism of the church, T.S. Eliot could be unsparing. He is sarcastic and vicious in The Hippopotamus. The poem uses a simple "abab" rhyming scheme and the final line, with its image of an institution wallowing in eternal stagnation, is memorable.

The Hippopotamus

The broad-backed hippopotamus
Rests on his belly in the mud;
Although he seems so firm to us
He is merely flesh and blood.

Flesh and blood is weak and frail,
Susceptible to nervous shock;
While the true church can never fail
For it is based upon a rock.

The hippo's feeble steps may err
In compassing material ends,
While the True Church need never stir
To gather in its dividends.

The 'potamus can never reach
The mango on the mango-tree;
But fruits of pomegranate and peach
Refresh the Church from over sea.

At mating time the hippo's voice
Betrays inflexions hoarse and odd,
But every week we hear rejoice
The Church, at being one with God.

The hippopotamus's day
Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts;
God works in a mysterious way —
The church can sleep and feed at once

I saw the 'potamus take wing
Ascending from the damp savannas,
And quiring angels round him sing
The praise of God, in loud hosannas.

Blood of the Lamb shall wash him clean
And him shall heavenly arms enfold,
Among the saints he shall be seen
Performing on a harp of gold.

He shall be washed as white as snow,
By all martyr'd virgins kist,
While the True Church remains below
Wrapt in old miasmal mist.

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)

In the collection of essays For Lancelot Andrewes (1928), T. S. Eliot famously described his position as that of a classicist in literature, a royalist in politics, and an Anglo-Catholic in religion. Four Quartets (1943), considered by many critics his finest work, sees him using a language rich with paradox to wrestle with the big issues such as redemption and the meaning of time: "Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future, / And time future contained in time past."

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 26 March 2005 at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A week ago, the death took place at 101 of George Kennan, one of America's greatest public servants who represented his country with honour in Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Riga, Lisbon, Moscow and Washington. In May 1959, The Atlantic Monthly published his article "Foreign Policy and Christian Conscience" (subscription required) and seeing that this is Good Friday, I thought that this would be an appropriate day to quote from it.

While Kennan warned those involved in the political process "of pouring Christian enthusiasm into unsuitable vessels which were at best designed to contain the earthy calculations of the practical politicians", he did stress that there were phases of government work in which Christian meaning could be looked for. "We can look for it, first of all, in the methods of our diplomacy, where decency and humanity of spirit can never fail to serve the Christian cause," he noted and concluded:

"Beyond that there loom the truly apocalyptic dangers of our time, the ones that threaten to put an end to the very continuity of history outside which we would have no identity, no face, either in civilization, in culture, or in morals. These dangers represent for us not only political questions but stupendous moral problems, to which we cannot deny the courageous Christian answer. Here our main concern must be to see that man, whose own folly once drove him from the Garden of Eden, does not now commit the blasphemous act of destroying, whether in fear or in anger or in greed, the great and lovely world in which, even in his fallen state, he has been permitted by the grace of God to live."

Timeless. God rest George Kennan.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 25 March 2005 at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Take an unscrupulous opportunist such as the German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, partner him with a vainglorious opportunist such as the French president Jacques Chirac and you have the makings of a very unsavoury souffle indeed. Puffed up by their near success in preventing the liberation of Iraq two years ago, they recently came up with another breakthrough — ending the EU embargo on selling arms to China. For one of them, this might lead to desperately needed contracts to prop up his dysfunctional economy; for the other, it's a chance to add the multi-polar card to the hand he hopes to play in the Great Game.

NATURALLY, neither of these two characters has a regional role in the theatre where the arms might be used and you can be sure that neither of them would put a single soldier on the ground to defend the Taiwanese, South Koreans, Japanese or Americans who might end at the sharp end of Euro weapons in Chinese hands. But that's the world we find ourselves in.

Somewhat embarrassingly for our intrepid duo, the scheme has turned sour during the past few days. First came Beijing's passage of a law allowing China to use force against Taiwan if it moved towards declaring independence; on Sunday, US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, warned the EU to keep its weapons out of Asia; on Tuesday EU leaders meeting in Brussels signalled that the Old-New Europe crevice might open again if the plan went ahead, and now 500 Chinese human rights activists have written to the EU to keep the ban. Worst of all, the farce is shining a blinding light on the crime that led to all this in the first place.

IT'S ALMOST 16 years now since Chinese soldiers slaughtered thousands of their fellow citizens valiantly protesting corruption and repression. Despite the collapse of the Soviet empire, civil war in the Balkans, dot-com billionaires and bankrupts and 9/11, the ghosts of Tiananmen are still with us. Their sacrifices live on because China's government hides the truth about June 1989. Meanwhile, China's turned into a global economic power and a regional military giant, but it still remains an irredentist Communist dictatorship that continues to abuse the human rights of its people.

Today, another principled voice, that of Timothy Garton Ash, was added to the argument against lifting the embargo. Writing in the Guardian under the headline "Chasing the dragon", he doesn't spare the charlatans:

Consider. Europeans claim moral superiority over Bush's America on the grounds that we always favour the peaceful resolution of conflicts and respect for human rights. Last week, China's National People's Congress passed a law which authorises the use of "non-peaceful means" to prevent moves towards Taiwanese independence. "Non-peaceful means" is an Orwellian euphemism for war.

These are not mere words. There is a serious Chinese military build-up, directed at Taiwan, the world's first Chinese democracy. The veteran Singaporean leader, Lee Kuan Yew, recently told a visitor that he saw a 40% probability of war between China and Taiwan at some point over the next 10 years. And at this perilous moment, peace-loving Europe should be hurrying to sell arms to China?

The main motive for wanting to lift the arms embargo is not political but, as one senior European commissioner put it to me, "mercantilist". With sluggish growth and high unemployment, France and Germany are desperate to secure more export contracts from the world's largest emerging economy. On the eve of his own wooing journey to Beijing, Chancellor Schröder described this policy as an expression of "true patriotism". Translation: jobs for Germans take precedence over human rights for Chinese.

YES, it's been a pretty awful week for Schröder and Chirac, but it's been a very good one for those who demand that Beijing tells us what exactly happened 16 years ago in Tiananmen Square. Not until then and not until it stops threatening Taiwan should the EU consider lifting its arms embargo.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 24 March 2005 at 8:32 PM | Permalink

It's shaping up to be a turbulent year for France's heavyweight newspaper, Le Monde. In order of importance, here are the upcoming makeovers: an editorial redefinition and a major redesign. Although the paper's situation is grave, there's no point in rushing things, so the changes won't take place until September, but because cyberspace is a more flexible dimension, the virtual paper has just relaunched itself there. We've got horizontal top navigation with roll-down menus, which is practical, but the right-hand side is a mess of boxes with all kinds of coloured frames and the main content area feels squashed as a result. Navigation within the main body of the site uses headlines as links and story teasers as links and most are followed by an odd meta language rich in terms such as "Zoom", "Verbatim" and "Dossier". Overkill.

Compare this with the Washington Post, which relaunched its site just one month ago. In a welcome move, the WaPo got rid of its left navigation (homepage real estate is too valuable for that kind of thing these days) and moved to a top navigation bar, featuring drop-down menus for the sub pages. The background for this bar runs from black to light blue across the screen, suggesting a change of weight as one moves from left to right. Le Monde "borrows" this idea but for some bizarre reason switches to a cheap gold effect half-way through. Overall, the WaPo is uncluttered and clean, at least the top half is, but Le Monde appears dense and heavy throughout.

And all this is going on under the supervision of the paper's new Redacteur-en-Chef, Gerard Courtois, who took over from the hapless Edwy Plenel, who resigned in November. But regardless of who's in the editor's chair, the changes at Le Monde cannot disguise the fact that France's paper of record is losing readers, bleeding huge amounts of money and casting about for a new role.

Despite its imperious stance on everything from literature to politics to sport, the harsh fact of life is that Le Monde is now perceived as being more Parisian and elite than French and popular. Contrast its 360,000 daily circulation with the 800,000 of Ouest France, which is published in Rennes. The Ouest France blend of regional, national and international news is much more appealing to today's readers. Le Monde, on the other hand, has stodgy writing, a costly product, a Byzantine ownership structure, a shrinking revenue base, no viable business plan and now, a poorly redesigned website. Not very good news at all, mes amis. Note: If you would like to get an idea of the Le Monde line in hatred, le monde watch has some shocking stuff.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on at 7:22 AM | Permalink

So, the European Union has agreed to rewrite its Stability and Growth pact, opening the door to "flexible fiscal regulations", as Brussels puts it. But wasn't the whole point of the Stability and Growth Pact to guarantee against wastrel governments whose shoddy public finances could undermine the euro? Under the new deal, the country that was one of the pact's authors and staunchest defenders is now citing the costs of reunification as an excuse for breaking the rules. With failure staring it in the face, Germany is so determined to stick to its futile eastern strategy that it is willing to upset the sacrosanct "European Project". Now, who would have thought that? According to the Financial Times, supporters of the stability pact, including the Netherlands and Austria, were given assurances that pact breakers would only be able to invoke the opt-out clause if their deficits were "slightly and temporarily" above three per cent. Does that mean 3.1 or 3.9 percent? And did the Dutch and the Austrians believe it? Let's see how the "No" vote side in Holland's referendum on the EU constitution responds.

For the British, this blatant dilution of the rules demonstrates once more the half-baked nature of the whole thing. Sceptics will have noticed, too, the arbitrary nature of the EU approach to enforcement of agreements. When Ireland and Portugal infringe by growing too rapidly or too slowly, they are swiftly ordered to change their ways; when France and Germany go unilateral, the goalposts are moved.

But maybe it is for the best that the Stability and Growth pact is mocked because it has delivered neither stability nor growth. Deep down, anyway, everyone knows that it doesn't matter.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 23 March 2005 at 8:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The world woke up Monday to the news was that Barry Diller had bought the Ask Jeeves search engine for $1.9 billion. The Los Angeles Times reported that "Diller's Search May Now Be Over" and to test that hypothesis we asked Jeeves "Will Barry Diller Buy Rainy Day?" It's not easy to interpret the outcome but topping the list of results was the story "One theory is that Google will save the cash for a rainy day..." Interestingly, it was from Fool.com. Oh, well. Google's money is just as welcome here, so send it along lads.

With the New York Times buying About.com for $410 million cash and Yahoo! acquiring Flickr for an undisclosed but supposedly hefty sum, it feels like 1998 all over again, as many commentators have alreday pointed out, but surely the best of all the time warp moments was the AFP's brain-dead decision yesterday to sue Google for daring to link to its stories. Google has politely started removing all links with the result that AFP is now less relevant than ever. Why bother publishing online at all if you block one of the best marketing channels in the world? No Google links means lots less traffic. Soooooooo 1996.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on at 6:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Talking to the Rainy Day mother last night. Neither Iraq nor the North (Ireland or the Caucasus) was mentioned during our phone conference. Those "bothers" were put in their proper place by hens and eggs. Rainy Day readers will recall that we diversified into the poultry business last year and the good news is that our brood of hens, for "brood" is the correct collective term, is producing magnificently. And why wouldn't it? These lucky hens roam the farmyard and adjoining fields every day, dining on luscious grass and plump worms, pecking at everything that arouses their curiosity and snoozing in the spring sun. It is an enviable life. The only the danger is Mr Fox, but the hen house is snug and secure.

Are you an egg lover? Does battery hen farming disgust you? Is Faberge beyond your budget? Are you tired of chocolate Easter eggs? If you answered yes to any of those questions good news is at hand. You see, it's never been easier to get into the real egg business. A company in Oxfordshire, charmingly called Omlet, is selling compact hen houses that are ideal for suburban back gardens. The package comes complete with a brace of hens and the price includes delivery and installation of the "eglu". The only catch is that you must live within two hours' drive of the Omlet HQ. Still, the idea has great franchise potential so entrepreneurial egg lovers can kill the proverbial two birds, as it were, if they get in now.

And the chicken&egg meme is spreading. In May, Darina Allen, owner of the famed Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork, will hold a one-day course titled "How to Keep a Few Chickens in the Garden". As Ballymaloe was recently the subject of a gushing portrayal in the New York Times, you might want to book soon. For those of more modest means, there's always eBay, God bless it.

So, shall we have more egg-related posts here this Easter Week, or is un oeuf enough? As Hilaire Belloc once asked.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 22 March 2005 at 6:25 AM | Permalink

No, those are not made-up names taken from some cool video game. They're just four of dozens of peoples stuffed into the North Caucasus. (Dagestan alone has 36 constituent nationalities). And most of them hate each other. And the pot's been on the boil since the Iron Curtain came down. And it's ready to blow.

All very bad news, of course, for Comrade Putin, lately seen in Paris at a meeting of the Gang of Four. Most of us think that Putin's suffocation of democracy is the real crisis in Russia but the gathering clouds over the North Caucasian front show the enormous dangers that now face the federation on its flanks. If this segment were to spiral off into a "failed states" universe, Putin would go down in history as the man who lost the Caucasus and he'd find himself early retired, or worse.

Terrorism, corruption, crime, ethnic hatred and radical Islam are all part of the regional combustible mix as Chechnya has shown, but it's no different in its neighbours: Adygea, Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, North Ossetia and Dagestan. All are racked with tension and all are currently experiencing some form of upheaval. Putin's plight, alas, does not mean a plus for the West. If the North Caucasus crumbles, southern Caucasian states such as Georgia and Azerbaijan, which are currently facing West, would be in danger, which means that trans-national crime and terror would spill over Eastern Europe's borders.

Russia's geo-strategic position is being challenged as never before and everything we've seen of late suggests that the remnants of the ex-Soviet Union aren't up to the task of dealing with the complexity. Which makes one wonder about the quality of the assurances Putin gave in Paris about Russia's ability to guarantee Iran's compliance with its nuclear commitments. Oh, oh. Meanwhile, this article from the 10 February issue of The Economist provides an excellent overview of the North Caucus nightmare. One sample sentence sums up the horror of it all: "During the war, Stalin ordered the wholesale deportation of four north Caucasian Muslim nations, along with several others, at an enormous cost in lives: the Chechens and Ingush (ethnic cousins), Karachays, Balkars and Meskhetian Turks."

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 21 March 2005 at 7:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Times for scooping the world by getting its hands on a draft copy of the UN reform blueprint Kofi Annan will present in New York tomorrow. In the space of two sentences, the plan titled "In Larger Freedom: Towards Security, Development and Human Rights for All", is described as "providing a historic opportunity to reinvent the UN" and "a last-gasp bid to restore the organization's relevance". Which one is it to be, then? A quick look at the main reform proposals shows how far the organization has fallen into the mire:

Nations that violate human rights should not have a place on the UN panel that monitors such actions.

Given the corruption associated with of the UN's "oil-for-food" program for Iraq, better oversight of UN contracts and sanctions is needed.

A policy of zero tolerance for sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers or other personnel should be put in place.

Problems? Well, yes, three big ones. First, there's a report due at the end of this month on whether Annan's son exploited his family connections to win a contract from the Iraq oil-for-food program. That could sink the captain's ship. Secondly, the reforms depend on the endorsement of the 191-member General Assembly and the agreement of world leaders attending a UN summit in New York in September. This suggests nothing will happen before next year. Thirdly, the US, the organization's biggest funder, is slated to contribute some $22 billion to the UN next year. A lot of people feel that the money would be better spent somewhere else.

Regardless of whether you support the UN and think it should become the world's government, or whether you despise it and feel its New York HQ should be turned into a shopping mall, nothing reveals the need for radical reform more than the Human Rights Commission, which is currently meeting in Geneva. Those famous bastions of human freedom, Sudan, Libya, Cuba and China, have seats on the 53-member commission and these nations are accorded the same privileges as the countries that regularly provide sanctuary for their victims. The word "scandal" and its synonyms "disgrace" and "shame" cannot begin to convey the awfulness of it all. Does Kofi Annan plan to throw the tyrants and the despots off the commission? Here's how the LA Times puts it: "But rather than establish criteria to exclude violator nations from the council, he gently suggests that they have no place on it." Love the "gently" there. "Those elected to the council should undertake to abide by the highest human rights standards," the report says. You know: Maybe the time has come to close the whole rotten thing down. Meanwhile, you can get a jump on tomorrow's news by reading In Larger Freedom: Towards Security, Development and Human Rights for All.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 20 March 2005 at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On the day that the world celebrates the liberation of Iraq, the Washington Post has produced an excellent piece of journalism that looks at unvarnished life in Baghdad through the eyes of Mohammed Hayawi, a Baghdad bookseller. Quote:

In his bookstore, once-banned titles were selling well. Most were Iranian imports by Shiite clerics. Also popular were titles by radical Sunnis: Mohammed ibn Abd Wahhab, the 18th-century godfather of Saudi Arabia's strict brand of Islam; the austere medieval thinker Ibn Taimiya; and Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian author of the seminal militant tract "Signposts on the Road" who was executed in 1966.

Even more sought after were language books -- English, French, Turkish and Farsi -- what Hayawi called passports to the rest of the world. The bestseller of all: books on astrology by Lebanese writers made famous by satellite television.

"People want to know what their destiny is," he said, smiling.

That destiny is still unclear, but what is clear is that it will be determined by the people of Iraq and not by Saddam and his sons and their clan. Those who were denied the right to vote in free and fair elections, to own mobile phones and to buy critical literature are now free to do so. Those who worked hard to prevent this and those who demonstrated against this must live with their consciences. "Two Years of War, Taking Stock: Resilience Buoys Struggle To Survive" by Anthony Shadid is recommended reading.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A singular honour has been bestowed upon Rainy Day. Your humble blogger has become the subject of the weekly normblog profile. Coming in at No. 78, means that 77 stars of the 'sphere, from Andrew Sullivan to Anne Cunningham, have preceded us, but as this is not a hierarchical thing, we are chuffed by the inclusion.

If you would like to learn more about Norman Geras, the author of normblog, read "Stormin' Marxist is toast of the neocons", which appeared in the Sunday Times on 6 February.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 19 March 2005 at 6:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thanks to Mrs Rainy Day (lately returned from Tanzania), the most recent addition to our language library is a 64-page, compact phrase book called "English-Swahili" by Aime F. Lacasse and published by Tanganyika Mission Press. Apart from those minimal details, the work is completely free of unessential information: no ISBN number, no price tag, no copyright symbol, no pretentious declaration that it's printed on environmentally-friendly, chlorine-free paper — nothing.

What the booklet lacks in clutter, it makes up for in charm. The Table of Contents ranges from "Agricultural terms" to "X-Ray" and includes such vital lexical fields as "Body (parts)", "Insects (dangerous)", "Objects (common)" and "Week (days)". Here now, a few choice phrases:

Good morning or good day. — Jamba. Shikamoo. (used by inferiors to their superiors. The superior answers: Marahaba.)

Do you speak English? — Unasema Kilingerza?

I was bitten by a... — Niliumwa no ...
mosquito/mbu.
snake/nyoka.
scorpion/ng'e.

Are you married (male)? — Umeoa?
Are you married (female)? — Umeolewa?
Female organ — Uke
Male organ — Uume

Tanzania Socialism is called Ujamaa (familyhood) — Usoshalisti wa Kitanzania huitwas Ujamaa.

It declares also that the principal means of production should be nationalized. — Lilitangaza pia kuwa njia kuu za kuzalisha mali sherti zitaifishwe.

With regard to the latter phrase, which is surely indispensable and should be used upon arrival and departure, life expectancy in Tanzania, according to the WHO, is 45.5 years, and the World Bank says of Tanzania: "Today, almost all transactions with people in every facet of both private and public sectors, involve some sort of bribery."

Meanwhile, if you would like to learn Swahili, the BBC has a wonderful site devoted to world news in the language. Yesterday, for example, one could read: " Waziri wa mambo ya nje wa Marekani, Condoleeza Rice, anatembelea Afghanistan kwa mara ya kwanza wakati akiendelea na ziara yake ya nchi sita za kusini na mashariki ya Asia."

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 18 March 2005 at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

The partner and two sisters of Robert McCartney, who was murdered in January by the IRA, meet President George W. Bush in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House. From left: sister Paula Arnold; partner Bridgeen Hagans; sister Catherine McCartney.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 17 March 2005 at 10:48 PM | Permalink

St Patrick's Day is primarily an occasion for exiles and emigrants to enjoy that nebulous thing called "Irishness". To be sure, the green beer and the "Kiss-me-I'm-Irish" hats mightily annoy those who scorn sentimentality, but these people should lighten up a bit. Purism in regard to celebrating identity ends up resembling Puritanism. But that's very Irish, too, because behind the image of conviviality that the Irish like to present to the world, there's no shortage of self-hatred. Anyone who has spent time reading this blog will be familiar with a troll called "Ted" who typifies this phenomenon. Ireland, for him, is crawling with snakes. St Patrick didn't banish them after all. Another big lie.

And there's no doubt that there's much about Ireland in its latest manifestation that's contradictory, which makes the celebration of its achievements all the more complicated. But, achievements they are, nonetheless. One example: This time last year a consortium of Irish investors led by Derek Quinlan went to London and bought the Savoy Hotel, the Savoy Theatre, Claridge's, the Connaught, the Berkeley and Simpon's-on-the-Strand for £1 billion. These bastions of Britishness, these institutions of England's ruling class were acquired by Irish Catholics. And, yes, it is important to mention their religion because 120 years ago when the British Empire was in its heyday and the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan were being performed at the Savoy, the first Home Rule Bill, which would have granted a measure of freedom to Ireland's majority, was defeated in the House of Commons. Today, the people who were regarded as unfit to rule themselves, have created an economy that's enjoyed a decade of enviable growth with immigrants queuing at the door, eager to share the prosperity.

But that's not the only conundrum. When President George W. Bush greets the McCartney sisters today in the White House, Ireland's schizoid personality will be exposed for all to see. The five sisters represent something truly admirable — fearlessness in the face of terrorism — but the men who murdered their brother are members of a gangster movement that enjoys widespread support throughout the island. You cannot have the parliamentary and the paramilitary in a healthy society, yet a significant number of Irish people seem to want both. A paradox.

While we wait for the real Ireland to stand up and account for itself, we'll wet the shamrock, as they say. This is rather difficult when one is observing a Lenten fast that excludes alcohol but there is a tradition of allowing an exception for St Patrick's Day. Sláinte!

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Our title there is taken from an article in the current edition of The Economist. By the way, is it any wonder that the weekly's circulation topped the one million mark recently? Its prescience is simply uncanny. I mean, what a week to go with an article about the neo-con movement? The penultimate sentence of "Back in their pomp" reads: "The neo-conservatives have every reason to be feeling good about themselves at the moment." And, sure enough, as if to reward The Economist for its foresight, President Bush went ahead today and nominated Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank.

Sadly, not everyone was pleased with this decision. "We are horrified that the US is seriously nominating Wolfowitz to run the World Bank," said the sour pusses who run Who will be next? A blog devoted to World Bank succession race. They'd have been happier if Bono had landed the gig but he's booked out for years.

Expect lots of wailing from the usual quarters tomorrow, but maybe the Guardian will be a little more careful than it was in the past in re Wolfowitz. Two years ago, in June 2003, it ran a hit job under the headline "Wolfowitz: Iraq war was about oil". The paper reported that he had made a distinction between Iraq and North Korea based on the fact that Iraq "floats on a sea of oil." On the following day, the paper printed this humiliating climbdown:

"He did not say that. He said, according to the Department of Defense website: 'The difference between North Korea and Iraq is that we had virtually no economic options with Iraq because the country floats on a sea of oil. In the case of North Korea, the country is teetering on the edge of economic collapse and that I believe is a major point of leverage whereas the military picture with North Korea is very different from that with Iraq.' The sense was clearly that the US had no economic options by means of which to achieve its objectives, not that the economic value of the oil motivated the war."

If there's a reason why The Economist is regarded with more respect than the Guardian, you've just read it and you can confirm it here. Anyway, with Paul Wolfowitz nominated for the World Bank today and John Bolton getting the nod as America's ambassador to the United Nations last week, neo-cons will go to bed happy tonight.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 16 March 2005 at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here's the scene: Britain has decided to drop the pound in favour of the euro and there's just ten days to go before the kingdom's old currency joins the franc, the lira and the mark in the dustbin of history. This is when two young brothers find a bag containing £250,000 stolen from a local bank. Damian, 8, wants to give it to the poor but he can't find any as house prices have driven them out of the area. Anthony, 10, thinks they should tell no one and spend it; otherwise the government will take 40 percent in tax. It's the stuff of comedy drama and Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, The Beach, 28 Days) is the director.

To help promote Millions, for that is what the film is titled, Boyle has taken to keeping a blog called Weekend Read and, interestingly, the first entry is available as a podcast as well. In fact, it looks as if the emphasis will be on the podcasting as opposed to the posting as the film publicity tour proceeds.

What an up-and-down decade it's been for Danny Boyle since Trainspotting hit the screen. By the way, it's still the second-most successful British film of all time, with only Four Weddings and a Funeral having done better at the box office. The Beach was widely panned, although it proved popular in the Rainy Day viewing room, and it took 28 Days to restore the Manchester-born director's fortunes. Boyle's harrowing vision of a post-apocalyptic London ravaged by a "rage virus" was a critical and financial success on both sides of the Atlantic thanks to positive word of mouth. On a curious historical note, the film is something of a rarity because, months after its initial US release in June 2003, it was re-released with an alternate ending attached to the last reel.

Come to think of it, there is a 28 Days element to Boyle's new film. You know: the end of the pound, the triumph of the euro. What was that again about "a harrowing vision" and "a post-apocalyptic" London?

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Big media meme of the moment is the people-fired-for-blogging story. Except that it's a non-story. Millions of people are blogging but neither millions nor thousands nor hundreds are getting fired for doing it. Some very bright sparks have blogs now, Tim Bray, for example. The Extensible Markup Language guru joined Sun Microsystems' software group last year to work on XML-based syndication and advanced search. In his position as technical director in the software group, he's looking at how content syndication based on the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) format can be integrated into Sun's software. If you're in the job market, Bray says blog. Why? Well...

You have to get noticed to get promoted.

You have to get noticed to get hired.

No matter how great you are, your career depends on communicating. The way to get better at anything, including communication, is by practicing. Blogging is good practice.

Bloggers are better-informed than non-bloggers. Knowing more is a career advantage.

Knowing more also means you're more likely to hear about interesting jobs coming open.

Tim Bray knows enough about the real world to realize that "not blogging won't protect you from career-limiting moves," but his Ten Reasons Why Blogging Is Good For Your Career makes sense in a world where the ability to find information and articulate the results has become a survival skill.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 15 March 2005 at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wild weekend down on Spain's Costa del Crime. That's the coastal strip stretching from Marbella to Malaga to you, mate. Spanish police said they smashed a massive international money-laundering ring suspected of processing some €250 million ($336 million) for gangs involved in murder, drug trafficking, arms dealing and prostitution. Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, French and Finnish nationals were hauled in and a boat, two planes and more than 40 luxury cars were also seized. Spanish authorities said they suspected some of the cash was siphoned from Russian oil company Yukos, then diverted to a Dutch company and then piped to one of its Spanish branches. Sounds very much like a hit film from 1993. Remember La Tapadera? Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook, Tom Cruise (Mitch McDeere) and Gene Hackman (Avery Tolar), "el socio de la firma al que designan instructor de Mitch", as they say in Spain.

And the uncanny/delightful/predictable bit is that seven lawyers were among those rounded up in the raid. Very Grishamist. Let the casting commence!

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 14 March 2005 at 12:01 AM | Permalink

At this point, all that's certain is that we cannot believe anything the Italian government says and we can believe nothing Giuliana Sgrena says. The rest is subject to an investigation. To recap: on the evening of Friday 5 March a car approached a US military checkpoint on Route Irish, the road to Baghdad Airport, which is patrolled by soldiers from New York's Fighting 69th battalion, and when it came to a halt Nicola Calipari, an Italian intelligence agent, was dead and Giuliana Sgrena, a reporter with the communist newspaper Il Manifesto, who had been held hostage by Iraqi terrorists, was slightly injured.

DESPITE a deficit of information and a surfeit of speculation about this tragic incident, the mainstream media did not hesitate to jump to all the familiar, poisonous conclusions. Typical, was the German magazine, Stern, which declared that the US troops had "murdered" Calipari. Luckily, the days when the only response to media lies was a letter to the editor are gone forever. Today, we live in the age of blogs and, whether issued by Dan Rather or Eason Jordon or Stern, falsehoods can now be nailed within minutes and displayed for the world to see. Thanks to Davids Medienkritik, Stern was compelled to replace the word "murdered" with "killed". That a blog could effect such a change is remarkable and it shows how new media activism is finally beginning to make its mark on this side of the Atlantic.

IN LIGHT OF yesterday's revelations by La Repubblica that the Italians deliberately decided not to inform the US of their plan to hand over a huge ransom to the thugs who had kidnapped Sgrena, it is time for bloggers to focus on Giovanni di Lorenzo, the editor-in-chief of Die Zeit, the German weekly, which is a long-time publisher of her work. In the conclusion to his editorial this week called "Imperial arrogance", di Lorenzo shoots from the lip:

"The circumstances of the shooting are scandalous enough. What kind of bungling occupation policy is it that allows apparently badly trained, panicky soldiers to shoot at everything that moves? President Bush promised clarification. One would like to know which instructions, which precautionary measures US soldiers must observe at their checkpoints. How many innocent Iraqis have already been regarded as suicide killers? Why in the case of Giuliana Sgrena and her killed rescuer, Nicola Calipari, did the patrol not appear to know what commanders a few hundred metres away were long informed about? So long as this clarification is outstanding, there is no excuse. One could come to terms with an accident perhaps. But not with imperial arrogance."

I DOUBT if one could ever come to terms with such intellectual arrogance. That di Lorenzo would go ahead with this kind of screed on the strength of Segrena's discredited statements and the increasingly bizarre way she keeps changing her story as well as the growing evidence of Italian double dealing is appalling. How many innocent Iraqis will die as a result of the car bombs that are going to be paid for with the millions Calipari handed over for the woman who was totally opposed to their liberation? That is the primary scandal here. The secondary one is the depressingly predictable way in which the media deals with such stories. Is it any wonder readers are turning away from newspapers?

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 13 March 2005 at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With St Patrick's Day to be celebrated on the coming Thursday, one's thoughts turn to the Irish Diaspora, past and present. It's hard today to grasp the scope of Ireland's population outflow especially during the 19th century but if there's one indicator of its vastness it's that the waves it generated are still resonating from New York to Iraq. "Tell on," as my mother says, when she senses there's a story to be related.

Well, let's consider this example: In early 1851 a group of Irish immigrants in New York City formed a militia which later that year was incorporated in the New York State Militia and designated the Sixty-Ninth Regiment. When President Lincoln made his first call for reinforcements following the bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861, the "69th", as it became known, was quick to volunteer, and it went on to fight under General Sherman at the First Battle of Bull Run, where its Gaelic war cry "Fag a' bealach!" (Clear the way!), left a lasting impression on those who heard it. It was a Confederate officer, however, who gave the 69th its legendary nickname. After hearing that the regiment was to face him during one critical encounter, General Robert E. Lee remarked, "Ah yes, that Fighting 69th."

When the First World War came, the Irish component of the regiment was still dominant and for bravery displayed in Lorraine, Chamapgne-Marne and Meuse-Argonne, the Medal of Honor was awarded to regiment members with names such as William Donovan and Richard O'Neil. By the time the Second World War came, the Irish influence had diminished somewhat but was still very much present as the records show.

And this brings us to the present day because the first members of the Fighting 69th to die in combat since the Second World War were killed on 29 November last year on a country road northwest of Baghdad. The attackers had buried a 200-pound bomb attached to two 155-millimeter artillery shells and detonated the charge by remote control. The blast killed Sergeant Christian Engeldrum, 39, and Specialist Wilfredo Urbina, 29. Not very Irish, those names, and as a further indicator of how New York's changed mosaic is now represented in the regiment, the New York Times reported: "In the battalion's personnel office alone, the staff includes a Puerto Rican real estate agent raised in Lower Manhattan, a Jew from the Bronx, a white Manhattan publishing executive from Oklahoma, an Ecuadorean student living in Queens, an Italian-American from Staten Island and naturalized American citizens from Barbados and China who now live in Brooklyn."

Despite the changing demographics, the Irish tradition is not completely forgotten. At the beginning of the year, the unit was given the job of safeguarding the five-mile stretch of highway linking Baghdad Airport and the "Green Zone", the fortified compound that houses American and Iraqi government buildings. The highway is frequently called the most dangerous road in Iraq and is now referred to within the military as "Route Irish". And it was along Route Irish a week ago that a car carrying the Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was traveling. More tomorrow.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 12 March 2005 at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If you're reading a blog, the chances are that you're familiar with Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia whose entries are written by a global community of users. Despite the doubters who cast aspersions on the project from the moment it came online, Wikipedia has grown to become an encyclopedia that's six times as large as Britannica by number of entries and, a fairer comparison, as Wikipedia configures its entries differently, twice the size of Britannica by word count. But the really interesting statistic is traffic — not compared with Britannica, though, but with the major players on the web. Wikipedia, with 400 million pageviews a month, now has more traffic than Paypal, more than USAToday.com (300 million pageviews and 180 online staff), and it's getting close to NYTimes.com. All this with volunteers, by the way.

When Mark Hurst of Good Experience recently spoke to Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, the following exchange took place:

Hurst: Do you have any plans to sell Wikipedia or make money from it?

Wales: Not Wikipedia. I do have Wikicities, a for-profit venture, on the side. But I'm pretty firm about the big-picture mission about Wikipedia: it's a free encyclopedia for every person on the planet. That's what drives my entire life. I have enough money that I don't need money. I mean, I have a Ferrari. OK, now what? Let's do something cool. It's more cool to think about totally changing the landscape — for example, by radically undercutting the market for proprietary textbooks.

Hurst: Textbooks?

Wales: On Wikibooks, there's a growing community of people working on textbooks: a complete K through 12 curriculum, and on through university level, for all subjects. It's just getting started, and it's a long-term project. But how cool is that?

Hurst: Very cool.

Jimmy Wales is a man with a vision. And they're the ones to watch. Here's Mark Hurst's cool interview with Wikipedia's visionary founder.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 11 March 2005 at 12:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With its pro-West stance and its commitment to the free market, The Freedom Institute is a rapidly growing and increasingly influential body of businesspeople, policy makers, academics, journalists and students based in Ireland. It is currently holding an essay competition and those who'd like to enter are asked to study the following excerpt from the 2002 State of the Union speech by President George W. Bush, in which he singled out a group of rogue nations:

"States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic... And all nations should know: America will do what is necessary to ensure our nation's security".

Essay entrants are requested, in 1,000 words or less, to answer one of these questions:

1. Was the United States and its allies correct in enforcing regime change in Iraq and Afghanistan?

2. Should regime change be brought about in all undemocratic nations?

Up for it? Then, click along and get the necessary details. Good luck!

The directors of the Freedom Institute are Philip O'Sullivan, who works in the financial services industry in Dublin, Darren O'Brien, an Irish technology entrepreneur and Richard Waghorne, former University College Dublin Philosophy Society Auditor and member of the College Board.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 10 March 2005 at 6:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Regular readers of this blog will know that Mrs Rainy Day is currently in Africa; in Tanzania, to be exact, where she's volunteering two weeks of her open-heart surgery skills to help train the staff of the Tanzania Heart Institute. The frequent, detailed updates we had hoped for have been sidelined by more pressing matters — crisis management, life-and-death decisions and all the other facts of life in the developing world. However, a text message arrives daily. Typical one: "Gr8 day! Important patient and gr8 result. Tricky conditions but wonderful team!" And now, we have our first email from Dar es Salam:

"We look neither East nor West
We look forward
There is no place like Africa!"

I read that on a poster on the dusty way to the internet cafe. We are a week here now and so much has happened... We have had successful operations but in very difficult circumstances where the electricity blacked out and the steriliser and ventilator broke down. We ended up improvising power for the ventilator, and it worked! Phew! Our own hearts stopped many times along with those of the patients, but luckily we have all survived. The most rewarding part is to see our patients sitting up in bed with big smiles on their faces, they are all so grateful. Naturally our results are so good because we have a brilliant team who are excellent, experienced and very flexible.

We were overpowered by the local press at the airport when we arrived and Dar es Salaam TV came to the OR one day to film us in action. Our team leader, Dr Gregory Eising, is filming us constantly with his cool camcorder and hopes to make a documentary when he gets home. As I have been so busy co-ordinating everything, especially with the things that have broke down, I am not in many of the scenes. It ain't easy. Sometimes when I say I need something repaired the usual answer is "Does it need to be done today?" My answer is "It needs to be done this second otherwise the patient may die!"

Otherwise hot, hot, hot, dusty, mosquitoes, but super friendly, and adventurous!

Have to go...

Thank you, Mrs Rainy Day. The daily headlines, with their focus on the terrible, fill us with cynicism about humanity but we shouldn't give up. There are good people out there doing marvellous things.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 9 March 2005 at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A neighbour died last Wednesday, two days before her 84th birthday. Gretl Bradl was an institution in our apartment house, having lived there for 50 years, and everyone along the street knew her and cherished her. The Second World War, in which she served as a nurse, was the formative experience of her life and subsequent events were contrasted with the horrors and deprivations of those years. In memoriam, then, here's Emily Dickinson's poem XXII from her meditations on Time and Eternity:

The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth, —

The sweeping up the heart,
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity.

Gretl Bradl will be commemorated tomorrow by family and friends — the terms are interchangeable — in Munich's Westfriedhof.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 8 March 2005 at 7:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

No, don't take my word for it. Listen to what the neuroscientists are saying:

1. Blogs promote analytical thinking: "Because blogs are text-based, bloggers must write and visitors must read (rather than passively view) the postings."

2. Blogging promotes associational thinking: "Blogging is ideally suited to follow the plan for promoting creativity advocated by pioneering molecular biologist Max Delbruck's 'Principle of Limited Sloppiness' ".

3. Blogs promote analogical thinking: "Because professionals like attorneys, philosophers, and academicians run many excellent blogs, we all can benefit from their intellectual rigor, and their use of analogical thinking when communicating to the common world of the blogosphere."

4. Blogs increase access to quality information: "Because blogs link many facts and arguments in branching 'threads' and webs, and append primary source materials and reference works, they foster deeper understanding and exposure to quality information."

5. Blogging combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction: "Bloggers have solitary time to plan their posts, but they can also receive rapid feedback on their ideas."

Here's the Brain of a Blogger story that spurred this post, and here's the Neurolearning Blog of Fernette Eide and Brock Eide who did the research. Well, this certainly puts me in a good mood. Off I go to meet the day now, convinced that I'll be smart enough to deal with the traps and snares that wait along the way. High ho, high ho...

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on at 6:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Take a look at del.icio.us/eamonn and then come back. But what does it mean? Hmmm Where to start? How about with a question your correspondent is often asked: Why write a blog? Well, there are about as many answers as blogs, some eight million now, but in this particular case it's a means to an end. One of the goals here is keeping in touch with internet developments. Take "tagging", a hot new metadata area. It's developing so fast and it's being expanded so quickly that unless one blogged, it would hard to keep up with the developments.

So what's tagging and how does it work and what can it do? Let's start with your browser. If you use Internet Explorer, you've got your list of "Favorites"; if you use Firefox or Opera, you've got your "Bookmarks". I can't see them, though, and maybe that's the way you'd prefer it to stay, but the protocols of the internet are open and the spirit of the internet is one of sharing and the dynamic of open source is enormously creative. All these forces have come together recently to produce tagging, which is central to "social bookmarking".

IN SHORT, social bookmarking lets you assemble a collection of links, similar to the bookmarks or favourites in your browser, but they are also accessible to others on a public page. With tagging, when you save a link to your collection, you supplement it with one or more keywords that describe it. Hundreds, thousands can use the same words, so when you search for everything tagged with "art" to "xml" you get the entire archive of everything that those using the service have tagged with that term. In other words, you get resources that you never would have found on your own.

The leader in the social bookmarking services space is del.icio.us. It offers free registration, easy pop-up saving forms and a nice feature for suggesting tags. Fine and dandy you say, but does it have, like, any practical application? Sure it does. Take education, for example.

"Toward a Literacy of Cooperation" is a class being taught at Stanford by Howard Reingold and his students can gain credit by contributing links to del.icio.us/tag/cooperation. As one would expect, the class has got its own blog. On a smaller scale, Joy Weese Moll set up del.icio.us/tag/sislt9409 for her Digital Libraries class. It doesn't take too much imagination to see that those outside a class could add bookmarks as well, meaning that people from all over the world, if provided with a del.icio.us password, could contribute to a course. We're talking collective projects in which a group can establish a unique tag to mark all group-related links. That's the "social" part of social bookmarking. Next week, a photo bookmarking service with some clever annotation features.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 7 March 2005 at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sinn Fein, the public face of the IRA, is holding its Ard Fheis (annual convention) this weekend. And which venue did the "volunteers" pick for their gab fest? Why, The Royal Dublin Society, founded in 1731 by the forces of occupation and their lackeys. So much for irony. By the way, Richard Delevan is doing a splendid job blogging the affair.

Anyway, if the convention delegates would like to take in some culture during their stay in Dublin, a brisk walk will bring them to another impressive colonial structure, the National Gallery of Ireland at Merrion Square West, and there they can wonder at the nation's artistic treasures, especially its sole Vermeer, Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid. Oh, and isn't the Essential Vermeer one of the most impressive sites on the web?

Now, it's quite possible that some of the Sinn Fein members will have a déjà vu moment when they stand in front of the Dutch master's 72.2 x 59.7 cm painting. "I'm sure I've seen this one before, Gerry," they might say. "Aye, surely", would be the reply from the graying guerilla. You see, the IRA knows its Old Master.

This particular Vermeer, like the Royal Dublin Society and the Georgian building that's home to Ireland's National Gallery, is another colonial legacy and Sir Alfred Beit (1903-1994) is to be thanked for it. A Conservative MP from 1931 until the Labour landslide of 1945, he served in the RAF in the Second World War and went on to be Secretary for the Colonies. The family wealth came from gold mines and diamond dealing in South Africa and in 1952 he moved to Ireland and bought and restored Russborough House, an important Palladian mansion, as a suitable setting for the family's collection of Old Masters.

Anyway, one evening in 1974, Sir Alfred and his wife, Clementine, were having dinner when the door burst open and in marched the IRA. After the usual session of terror — tying up their victims, ripping priceless objects from the walls — the revolutionaries liberated 19 paintings, including Vermeer's Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid. The masterpiece was recovered a week later, having sustained only minor damage. Did money change hands? What do you think?

Tranquility restored itself at Russborough and in 1986 Sir Alfred decided to donate seventeen Old Masters to the National Gallery of Ireland, including Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid. A week before the ceremony was due to take place the Beits were having dinner when the door burst open and in marched The General, the violently unpredictable head of the Dublin underworld. After the usual session of terror, his gang made off with the Vermeer and the other sixteen works. Only after seven years of secret negotiations and worldwide police work was the painting recovered. The Old Master didn't bring much luck to the General, though. He was shot dead by in broad daylight in Dublin by, that's right, the IRA.

When one looks back at the last 30 years of terrorism and crime and the growing political power of Sinn Fein, it does appear as if it's taking rather too long for the people of Ireland to grasp the nature of the hydra they've nurtured. Meanwhile, back at the Royal Dublin Society...

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 6 March 2005 at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If I began a post "Has Osama bin Laden started a democratic revolution in the Middle East?" you'd be entitled to hurry away as quickly as possible, convinced that I had gone over to the dark side. That Timothy Garton Ash would begin an article in this fashion simply beggars belief. But he did. And he didn't stop there: "What is happening on the streets of Beirut is not a result of the invasion of Iraq, nor does it retrospectively justify that invasion. But it does, obviously, have something to do with American policy." Er, yes, Timothy. Isn't his second sentence so lame? Isn't his first one so tired?

From its offensive beginning to its pathetic conclusion, the entire article suggests a confused mindset. For some reason, Garton Ash has allowed himself to be forced into viewing the geopolitical through a Brussels prism, come what may, and this has led him to deform his arguments to the point that they're sounding more and more absurd as the weeks go by. It's a shame, really, as he produced some fine commentary in his more balanced days.

As to why I consider his opening sentence offensive, here's an excerpt from "102 Minutes: The Untold Story of Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers" by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn.

"For hundreds of people on the upper floor of the north tower, death had come in a thunderous instant. The remains of one man who worked for Marsh & McLennan, which occupied space on the 93rd to 100th floors, would later be found five blocks from the tower. American Airlines Flight 11 had flown directly into the company's offices. The impact killed scores of people who could never have known what hit them.

Flight 11 hit 1 World Trade Center, the north tower, at 450 miles an hour, having traveled the full length of Manhattan Island, fourteen miles from north and south, in less than two minutes. When it slammed into the north side of the building, the plane's forward motion came to a halt. The plane itself was fractionalized. Hunks of it erupted from the south side of the tower, opposite to where it had entered."

In their admirable book, Dwyer and Flynn depict the full horror of mass murder committed in the name of a new fascism. The monstrous crime they describe was the work of the disciples of the man who is now being put forward by Timothy Garton Ash as the possible founder of a democratic revolution in the Middle East. Regardless of the writer's desire to catch the attention of his readers, the opening argument is deeply offensive and utterly false.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 5 March 2005 at 9:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

ECONOMY A: On Tuesday, this country announced unemployment of 12.4 percent amounting to its highest jobless rate since the 1930s. As well, its expected growth rate was revised down from a predicted 1.4 percent to 1 percent. Germany or the USA?

ECONOMY B: Yesterday, this country announced that it had added 262,000 jobs in February — double the number for January, which is consistent with growth of 4 percent. The median duration of unemployment decreased to 9.3 weeks. Germany or the USA?

Economy A is Germany. Economy B is the USA. The most important contrastive statistic from those quoted above is the one about the median duration of unemployment in the US because when someone loses their job in Germany they rarely reenter the job market. The doors are shut firmly in their faces. On top of this dreadful fact, some 30,000 businesses go broke each month in Germany. To sum up: Compared with the neo-liberal, Anglo-Saxon model that's keeping unemployment at around 5 percent or lower and is powering growth in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Britain and Ireland, the German statist model has failed. Or do you consider mass unemployment and almost zero growth signs of success?

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It looks like Gladwell, it reads like Gladwell but it's not Gladwell. What is it? Sounds like one of those riddles used for tormenting those ancient heroes who had to save the princess from the ogre. They were usually in a hurry, too, the heroes, and with the clock ticking, the last thing they needed was for some crazy old oracle to block their path and insist on an IQ test. The answer, by the way, in case you're ever asked this is Surowiecki.

First came The Tipping Point and then came Blink. Both books have been very well received, which is delightful for their author, Malcolm Gladwell, and reflects well on the magazine that employs him, the New Yorker. After all, any publication that's smart enough to see what Gladwell's got deserves to bask a little in the glory. With the market so bullish on Gladwell, it's inevitable that others would want to follow the trail he's hacked out and that brings us to James Surowiecki, another New Yorker staffer. He writes a bi-weekly business column "The Financial Page", which has been praised here for its clarity and fluency, and last year he authored what many called the best business book of the year, The Wisdom of Crowds, in which he argues that under the right circumstances groups are often smarter than even their smartest members. If you've read Gladwell, you can decide if the Surowiecki comparison is fair. If you think it's unfair, let's hear your opinion.

Anyway, James Surowiecki will be speaking on 14 March at the 4th Annual O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego. The title of his talk is "Independent Individuals and Wise Crowds, or Is It Possible to Be Too Connected?" and here's what he wants his audience to think about:

Groups, instead of falling to their lowest common denominator, can often rise to the level of their best member and beyond. The paradox, though, is that groups are typically smartest when the people in them act as much like individuals as possible — when they rely primarily on their own private information, when their opinions are independent, and when their judgments are not determined by their peers. And in an ever-more connected world, this creates a challenge: how can we reap the benefits of collaboration and collective decision-making, while still ensuring that people remain independent actors? Are networks problems as well as solutions? What might it mean to be too connected?"

Should be a great old debate, this. So, what might it mean to be too connected? Too many tools, technologies? Hardly, as they're useless if you don't have contacts. Too many distractions? Too many meetings? Possibly. A bigger problem, surely, though, than being too connected is being disconnected or badly connected, because those who don't know enough people or don't know the right people or don't network are in trouble. Dr Johnson twigged this 300 years ago when he said "If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone." The ideal state, one assumes, is to be well connected, just as James Surowiecki is, no slight on his hard work, talent and intelligence intended, by the way.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 4 March 2005 at 7:11 AM | Permalink

Greg Djerejian, who famously called Saddam Hussein "a grotesque neo-Stalinist genocidaire", has this to say to those who are still in denial:

"Look, anyone who thinks Bush's forward-leaning posture on the entire democratization issue has had no impact on the Lebanese filling the streets of downtown Beirut are in denial of reality; or rabidly partisan fools, or both. There are many variables at play, yes, but Bush's post 9/11 policies have been an undeniable and major motor driving the developments we are currently witnessing with such expectation and hope. No one serious can deny this anymore."

Greg is blogging up a storm these days at his Belgravia Dispatch. His posts sing with the joy of one who feels in his bones that the awful Pax Syriaca imposed on Lebanon by Hafiz al-Assad and continued by his son Bashar is ending. The vibrant hub of the Middle East that was Lebanon could recover much of its past glory but not while it remains a Syrian protectorate. For far too long, the world has accepted the paralysis imposed on the country by a dictatorship and sponsor of terror but the time has come to let the Lebanese decide their destiny in free and fair elections. A precondition is a complete withdrawal of Syrian troops and the ending by Damascus of its political stranglehold on its neighbour.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 3 March 2005 at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Miscellaneous fact: caw, fen, sylph and gab are useful words — for word games.

Miscellaneous fact: In 1599, Nandabayin, a Burmese king, laughed to death when informed by a visiting Italian merchant that Venice was a free state without a king.

Miscellaneous fact: passersby, bodies politic, daddies-long-legs and gins and tonic are all plural compounds.

Miscellaneous fact: In Cockney Rhyming Slang a "Jam Jar" is a car, "Tomfoolery" is jewellery, "Trouble and Strife" is the wife and "Brass Tacks" are facts.

Facts there from Schott's Original Miscellany, a book that's become a mini-cult, and a hobby that's become a lucrative one-man industry for Ben Schott. What is it about his collection of trivia that has made it such a success? Which brings us to the bigger question: Why can some people see gaps in the market before others do? Another example is Jakob Nielsen, who has turned his thoughts on "website usability" into a very profitable business. Both Nielsen and Schott have spawned copies and clones but the original is what most people prefer. Is it easier to win the lottery than come up with an idea, a concept, a book that millions want to use or own?

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's turning into quite a week for news about news. On Saturday, the Observer newspaper presented its new blog and yesterday the popular German media website, perlentaucher, launched an English-language service, signandsight. In his introduction to the service, Thierry Chervel, the co-founder, made a plea for declaring English the European lingua franca.

Chervel argues that although German newspapers may have the world's finest feuilletons (think-piece sections), their content is hidden "because the German language has the status of a modern-day ancient Greek, and few people speak it abroad." He then poses the BIG question: "Isn't it time to translate some of it into English? For the benefit of Europe, and of course for China, Russia, India, Burkina Faso and the USA?" Well, Chervel feels that the time has come and from now on "signandsight.com will present English translations of the German-language feuilletons. Regional differences need the idiom of globalisation to articulate themselves."

Particularly pleasing about Chervel's argument is the drubbing he gives to Bernard Cassen, whose recent article in Le Monde diplomatique called for the quelling of the influence of English. Cassen ranted: "The imperial power of the USA is not only based on material factors (such as military clout, scientific expertise, the production of goods and services and control over financial and energy channels etc.): it above all represents the dominance over the mind, in other words, over cultural signs and frames of reference — and in particular over signs of language." Doncha love that "signs of language" bit? Chervel's response is measured and eloquent:

"In Cassen's picture, Europe is at best a Brussels-based institution threatening to buckle under the influence of English. In his anti-discourse, pan-European debate falls to dust. His hopes lie with the Romanic languages, which he likes to think of as 'a single united language' capable of forming a mighty counterweight to the loathed language of capitalism. The enemies of America fall prey to their own fixation."

This won't please the French, but seeing that they cannot be pleased anyway, the rest of us should move on. "Is it really the fault of Bill Gates or Steven Spielberg that the French are learning less and less German, and the Germans less French?" asks Chervel. And there we have it, the heart of the matter. Thierry Chervel is to be congratulated for his courage and initiative. Read his manifesto.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 2 March 2005 at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's all a bit like that scene in Alien. Remember? The crew of the deep space mining ship Nostromo are sitting down to dinner and having a right old natter when Kane, played by John Hurt, who happens to reside in Ireland these days (A coincidence? Ed.), is stricken by violent spasms in the abdominal area. Much to the horror of his colleagues and much to the glee of the film's viewers, the dramatic seizures climax with Hurt's thorax exploding and the emergence of a fiendish alien head from his guts. Ugh! And that's exactly what happened in Ireland in February. The body politic, which could no longer endure the extraterrestrial within, began to convulsive and retch and out spewed the most disgusting slime the island has witnessed these past decades. And the island has seen some pretty awful stuff these past decades, I can tell you.

Where to begin? Actually, there's almost no point in doing a synopsis anymore as each day brings its own spectacular that puts the preceding one in the shade. Speechlessness would the only logical response, except that those of us charged with the noble office of punditry must carry on, even in the face of the most grotesque events. To sum up, then: the month of February 2005 will enter the history books as the time frame during which the true designs of the space-invader conspiracy known as Sinn Fein/IRA to subvert democracy on the island of Ireland was fully exposed. The enormity of what's come to light is staggering and it seems that all the little green men and women, from the organization's rank and file thugs who continue to murder and maim, to its smooth corporate operators who have spent the past decade laundering vast amounts of racketeering money, were running a shadow state with its own parliamentarians (Surely you mean "paramilitaries"? Ed), mass media apologists (right to the top of RTE, the state broadcaster), bars (republican publicans) and economy (provisional private banking).

The goal of the rulers of this parallel society, which came into being after a spacecraft landed in the north-eastern region of the island in the mid-20th century, was to infiltrate Irish society to the point where the parasite would kill the host, just as in Alien, and then assume control. If the balaclava had not slipped, the people of Ireland would have sat down one evening to their traditional bacon and cabbage dinner and then, just as they would be about to begin the ritual disputation on house prices, their bellies would have burst open and out would have popped replicants bearing convincing-sounding Irish names such as Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Pat Doherty, Bairbre de Brún, Alex Maskey, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and Martin Ferris. The good news is that the intruder cat is out of the bag, as it were, but the bad news is that life's not a movie so we can't go home after the credits stop rolling and put our feet up. Still, the creature's true face has been exposed and now the country knows what it's up against. This just in! The people are taking back the streets from the aliens. This one might have a happy end after all.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 1 March 2005 at 7:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)