The Capital Letter

Further to my post about the Greatest American of all time, there's been a survey conducted in New Zealand looking at who the most trustworthy New Zealander is. Today's New Zealand Herald reports that the most trustworthy New Zealander is Sir Edmund Hillary who, with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, was the first man to climb Mt. Everest. [Hat-tip to Secretsamurai for the link.]

For whatever reason, New Zealand's sports stars fill the top positions in this poll. Exactly what makes them so trustworthy is beyond me. Some of them are very likeable, sure, and some of them are certainly people to be admired, but it's beyond me what exactly makes them so trustworthy.

What cracked me up the most about this poll was how badly the politicians fared. No surprise really, since they surely do the job with the worst reputation of all for trustworthiness, but still amusing.

Politicians, who have ranked bottom of the profession category every year, took the lowest two places in the individual category, with Dr Brash narrowly beating New Zealand First leader Winston Peters to the unenviable least-trusted award. Prime Minister Helen Clark fared slightly better, coming in 43rd.

And politicians were regarded as being members of the least-trustworthy profession, in the online survey of more than 500 people. Firefighters were the most trusted.

I also love the way the Herald reports that more than 500 people participated in this poll, as if that's a large number. In fact, it's laughably small and unrepresentative, even in a country as small and empty as New Zealand, but there you go.

Basically, I think this poll is even more worthless than the "Greatest ... of all time" polls, because it is just so spectacularly subjective, and because trust, even more so than greatness, just can't be quantified. It's much more visceral than that, just a gut feeling about whether or not the person being polled likes someone and would trust them. Still interesting though.

I wonder where my Mum came in this survey? She's certainly my most trustworthy New Zealander!

[Note: tBlog is playing silly buggers again today. (It had been all of two weeks, so we were due for another hiccough). So, if the layout on my blog is all funny, please accept my apologies. It's beyond my control.]

A while ago Mr Bear extended the invitation to me to post a guest blog. Today another positive development occurred and I am grateful he once again extended the invitation to me. - Kiwi in Zurich

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~

"Canada's Parliament approved legislation to allow same-sex marriages across the country, despite fierce opposition from conservative politicians and religious groups.

Legislators voted by 158-133 to support the bill, which makes Canada only the third country in the world after Belgium and the Netherlands to permit gay marriages.

Canada's relaxed stance on gay marriage, and on other social issues, stands in contrast to that of the United States, where President George W. Bush wants Congress to back a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.

"We are a nation of minorities and in a nation of minorities, it is important that you don't cherry pick rights. A right is a right and that is what this vote tonight is all about," Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said shortly before the vote.

Thousands of gay and lesbian couples have already been wed in Canada. Some came up from the United States, although their unions are not recognized back home.

Church groups and the main opposition Conservative Party say the law is an attack on organized religion, and some have suggested that it could lead to the legalization of polygamy.

The bill still needs to be approved by the Liberal-dominated Senate upper chamber, but that is seen as a formality."

[Source NZoom.]

I applaud Canada and I echo the words of Canada’s prime minister. Not because of the issue itself, but because of what it represents: that we are all treated the same under the law. Let me explain. I have been in a monogamous relationship with my partner *bless his cotton socks* for 7 odd (has it been that long?
:) ) years. We live together, raise two incorrigible cats together (Caruso is monitoring my work right now), share our bank accounts, travel together, laugh and fight together and at the end of the day curl up and sleep together. But if he was to get sick, I wouldn’t have the right to stay home and look after him. If he died, I wouldn’t be able to choose if he should get cremated or buried, nor would I be protected by the inheritance laws or the tax laws or the pension laws ... the list goes on and on.

On the other hand, if I was a bloke who met some lass in a casino in Vegas and got married by Elvis himself that same night, I would immediately have all of these rights.

Equitable and fair? I don’t think so.

Canada has taken steps to make sure that everyone is treated the same and I congratulate the politicians on their decision.

[BerlinBear adds: This story is also covered in the Globe and Mail and CTV.]

(Drumroll please!) ...

Ronald Reagan. Or so says a survey conducted by AOL and the Discovery Channel, in which some 2.4 million Americans cast their votes, and which is reported here by BBC News.

Mr Reagan, who died last year aged 93, topped a list of 10 contenders, which featured six former presidents.

He edged out Abraham Lincoln, who abolished slavery, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

Some of the most notable names of US history such as Albert Einstein and Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon, did not make the top 10. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey is the highest ranked female contender at ninth place, making her the greatest American woman.

George Washington, the first US president who is considered the father of the nation, comes in at fourth place.

Umm, sorry?!? No disrespect to President Reagan, who certainly played an important role in the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, but what a load of nonsense! The greatest American of all time? I think not. And then the next paragraph makes my estimation of this survey plummet still further:

Current US President George W Bush and his predecessor Bill Clinton, whose presidency was tarnished by the Monica Lewinski sex scandal, are both in the top 10.

Specifically, Bush and Clinton came in at spots 6 and 7 respectively. Come on! Neither of those two should even be in the top fifty. In fact, I wouldn't even put Bush in the top twenty U.S. Presidents of all time, let alone at number 6 of all Americans. And where, I wonder, are America's great artists, great authors, scientists, etc?

But then you only have to look at the results of similar surveys in other countries to see how wacky some of the results are.

In a similar exercise held in the UK in 2002, wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill was voted the greatest Briton. More than one million votes were cast to select the final 10 which included inventor Brunel and scientists Darwin and Newton.

In France, where former President Charles de Gaulle finished first in April 2005, the final list also contained two scientists, Louis Pasteur and Marie Curie.

In a poll held in Germany in 2003, former Chancellor Konrad Adenauer beat Reformation monk Martin Luther and political thinker Karl Marx into second and third place in a top 10 that included Albert Einstein and the inventor of the printing press Johannes Gutenberg.

My feeling is that surveys like this are worthless in terms of finding who the greatest anything of all time is. All they serve to illustrate is how short our memories are, how unimaginative we are and, above all, how worthless surveys like this really are.

So, what I would like to know from the Americans who read this blog is this: a) did any of you participate in this survey? And b) if so, who did you vote for, and why?

Here are some interesting quotes on climate change and what to do about it:

We have roughly 45 years. And if we start NOW, not in 10 or 15 years' time, we have a chance of hitting those targets. But we've got to start now. We have no time to lose.

Governments tend to feel limited in their ability to introduce new policies for reducing emissions because they fear business resistance, while companies are unable to take their investments in low-carbon solutions to scale because of lack of long-term policies.

Regulate biofuels. Or subsidise. Or tax.

The boat is sinking, and we have to use everything that we possibly can.

An alarmist, lefty-pinko, loony green environmentalist with an agenda? You'd be forgiven for thinking so. In fact, it's Lord Ron Oxburgh, the Chairman of Shell, no less, talking to The Guardian.

When you have the guy at the head of one of the world's largest energy companies talking like that, is it any wonder that I get frustrated with the sort of head-in-the-sand climate change sceptic nonsense that the leader of the New Zealand National Party, Dr. Don Brash, is spouting?

Let's just do a quick check of National policy, based on Lord Oxburgh's recommendations:
(1) Regulate biofuels.
Nope, no suggestion of such a plan, that I can find, in National's Climate Change policy ("Sorry, your search for biofuels returned no results" What?!?). And, while National has a Spokesman for Energy, their website does not contain an explicit energy policy as such. Oops.

(2) Subsidise
Here, Oxburgh is talking about governments subsidising research and development of sustainable energy sources. Where would I look for National's policy on that? Oh, yeah, their energy policy. Oops. Wait, let me check the Climate Change policy again. There I find an undertaking to "support cost effective voluntary measures that encourage energy efficiency, insulation and research and development investment in new energy technologies." That could be it, though there's no indication of what the criteria for cost-effectiveness are, nor what concrete form this "encouragement" might take. And there's certainly no mention of a National government subsidising anything in this sphere. And forgive me if I'm just a tad sceptical about industry's record on picking up on voluntary measures that will not directly benefit them or their shareholders financially. You only need to look at how utterly ineffective such voluntary measures have been in the US to know that such a ploy is neither enough of a carrot nor enough of a stick.

(3) Or tax
Oh, so something like, say, a carbon tax then, so that those doing the polluting are forced to pay for it and have an incentive to reduce their emissions? Yes, much like the carbon tax put forward by the Labour-led government and due to be implemented in 2008. So what's National's policy on that? Simple: scrap it. In fact, that's so important it's under bullet point one of the climate change policy:

National will:
* Oppose Labour’s carbon tax, to be introduced in 2008, and will repeal any legislation passed to require it.

Looking good on the climate change policy National and Dr. Don! It's right in line with scientific and industry opinion. Good stuff. Or, umm, not. Forgive me for saying so, but based on this policy area, you're not running any risk whatsoever of receiving my party vote come general election time later this year.

And don't even get me started on Australia and the U.S. and their policies on this issue!

I have received no (non-automated) response yet from any of the addressees of my Open Letter to the Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs regarding the situation in Zimbabwe. But still, it's only been a week and I can be patient when required. Nor did either of the news outlets I submitted it to choose to publish it. (Or at least not to my knowledge: neither of them deigned to reply). No matter. I shall give the recipients a few more days' grace and then chase them up.

On the other hand, I did get a very nice reply from Mawuse Anyidoho, Coordinator of the Africa Programme at the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, to whom I had CC'd the letter, thanking me for my trouble and asking me to keep her informed of any developments.

On the plus side though, the New Zealand government seems to have got very active in the last week on trying to manoeuvre to prevent the upcoming New Zealand Cricket tour to Zimbabwe. By the sounds of things, Foreign Minister Phil Goff has been busy approaching his counterparts in the UK and Australia, asking them to assist him in making a joint bid to the International Cricket Council requesting the cancellation of planned tours to Zimbabwe. Better later than never, Phil. It's not the government action I'd like to see on this issue, but it's better than nothing.

Back when the ruling Social Democrats (SPD) lost the North-Rhine Westphalian elections, I blogged first that the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, had called an early election, and subsequently an explanation of the complicated process by which the early elections were intended to occur. Well, in the last couple of days, there have been new developments on that front.

Chancellor Schröder has now officially called for the required vote of confidence to be held on July 1st, this coming Friday. Meanwhile, the leader of his SPD party, Franz Müntefering, has asked (but not ordered) the members of his party who hold seats in parliament to abstain from the vote, in the hope that the Chancellor will therefore lose the vote of confidence, thus inducing the German President, Horst Köhler, to dissolve parliament and call an early election.

But it's not going to be as simple as the Chancellor would have wished. For one thing, the Greens - who are the SPD's coalition partner in government - have yet to decide whether to play along and do what the Chancellor wants in a vote that a) by association casts them in a bad light, and b) some of their parliamentarians see as a farce. What's more, several politicians have announced their intention to appeal to the Constitutional Court if the vote is lost, because they see Schröder's actions as unconstitutional. This would mean a hold-up preventing the President from dissolving parliament while the issue was resolved. And, if the appeal were to be upheld, the President may even be prevented from dissolving the parliament at all.

And while all this goes on, there has been a new political alliance formed to the left of Schröder's SPD, the so-called Linksbündnis, or Left Alliance, and according to the polls the SPD are haemorraging votes to this new alliance that they call ill-afford to lose. Spiegel Online has the low-down:

Could the situation get any worse for German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his center-left Social Democrats (SPD)? His popularity ratings are more akin to what one might expect from a Bush candidacy in France. The frumpy Angela Merkel from the center-right Christian Democrats -- and Schroeder's opponent in the autumn elections -- has a new hairdo and a growing following. And now he is being attacked by a leftist alliance made up of a former East German communist fresh out of the hospital following a massive heart attack and brain surgery, and a former SPD heavyweight and Schroeder foil who combines narcissism with a unique recipe for making left-wing politics using right-wing-populist rhetoric as chief ingredients.

Meet Gregor Gysi (the communist) and Oskar Lafontaine (the narcissist) and their new political party with the preliminary name of "Linksbuendnis," or "Left Alliance." Even without much in the way of a campaign platform, the two well-known politicians form a formidable union. After years as the post Cold-War intellectual head of the post-communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), Gysi is well-loved in former East Germany. Indeed, his party received a solid 17 percent support in 2002 in the east. Lafontaine, on the other hand, was head of the SPD and then Schroeder's finance minister following his entry into the chancellery in 1998.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Personally, I find the new leftist alliance rather distasteful, being a hodge-podge of former East German communists on the one hand and the followers of a populist and unreliable leftist maverick on the other. But that is neither here nor there, as I am not allowed to vote here in Germany.

In any case, these are interesting and tumultuous political times here in Germany. Watch this space.

The world's largest naval fleet review took place today to commerate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. This is of interest to me, not just because of the spectacle (see photo below), but also because a good friend of mine, a New Zealand naval officer, was participating in it. His ship, the HMS Enterprise (insert Star Trek jokes here, he's heard them all before), was playing host to Prince Andrew today. I hope it went well.

It must have been quite a sight to behold as 167 vessels, representing 36 countries, gathered in the Solent for inspection by the Queen.


The Italian three-masted sailing ship Amerigo Vespucci makes a striking contrast
against a backdrop of modern, grey-painted warships. [Source: BBC.]

BBC News has the full story and plenty more pictures.

More than 250,000 spectators then watched a fly-past by maritime aircraft and sail-pasts ahead of this evening's mock Napoleonic battle.

The day is part of a series of celebrations marking Britain's 1805 victory over France and Spain.

It took about two hours for Endurance to sail up and down the lines of anchored vessels, which the Queen inspected from a specially constructed viewing platform. The 167 naval, merchant and tall ships came from 36 countries.

As the Queen passed each vessel, she was saluted by its crew. The vessels, including ships from the US, France, Spain, India, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan, Nigeria and South Africa, lined up at the Spithead mooring in the Solent with between 25,000 and 30,000 sailors on board.

The celebrations, which include a mock battle, have not been without controversy, however. The decision to stage the mock-battle between the red and blue teams, rather than between Britain and its one-time foes Spain and France, was dismissed by descendants of Horatio Nelson as "political correctness" and "pretty stupid," as Reuters reports:

A highlight of the world's biggest naval review was featuring two fleets enacting a 19th century sea battle.

But they have been called simply the red and the blue fleet rather than by country names, which has sparked a shot across the bows from Nelson's great great great granddaughter.

"I am anti-political correctness. Very much against it. It makes fools of us," said 75-year-old Anna Tribe.

"I think the idea of the blue team fighting the red team is pretty stupid. I am sure the French and Spanish are adult enough to appreciate we did win that battle," she added.

The historian playing Nelson in the mock battle is equally annoyed.

"If you obliterate history for the sake of political correctness, you can't learn from the past. Nelson thought politicians were cowards. I tend to agree," Alex Naylor said.

I can sort of see where they're coming from, though I would hesitate to write it off simply a political correctness. I'd be more inclined to view it as a delicate and diplomatic move, given that Britain's then foes are now among its closest partners. It doesn't matter to me that much, really, but I'd certainly have loved to see the spectacle off Portsmouth today. It must have been amazing.

I found an interesting article in the Guardian Weekly today, entitled US v China: the next superbout, which I thought was worth highlighting and commenting upon.

The article discusses China's rapidly expanding economy and, hand in hand with that expansion, its status as a nascent superpower. It also considers the potential for friction between China as an emerging global player and the US as the current sole superpower, even going so far as to raise the spectre of a new Cold War-like situation developing between the two.

Ever since 9/11 the US and China have been rubbing along nicely. The US needed China's support in the war against terror, and China is anxious to create the best conditions for its economic growth. But how long will this latest honeymoon last? A string of recent announcements coming out of Washington suggest that the Bush administration may be adopting a rather more abrasive position.

...

Earlier this month the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, claimed that Chinese military spending was much higher than officially admitted, questioned the motives behind the increased expenditure, and called on Beijing to embrace a "more open and representative government". Two weeks earlier it had been reported that the Pentagon is preparing to release a report on the Chinese military that warns that the US should take more seriously the possibility that China might emerge as a strategic rival to America: indeed, such was the tenor of the report that it has generated some controversy within the Bush administration.

The article is at pains to stress that any new global power struggle would certainly not be a carbon copy of the Cold War, and gives good reasons why that is. Nonetheless, it does not make for particularly optimistic reading.

Read the rest of the article here.

I find myself torn when it comes to China's apparently increasingly inevitable future status as a global superpower.

On the one hand, I do not under any circumstances want to see some sort of Cold War: The Sequel. That is a potential development which fills me with horror, the more so having now lived in the city that was for forty years on the front line of the last Cold War. Nor am I comfortable with a country whose record on human rights is as bad as China's currently is, and whose Foreign Policy is as amoral (note that I do not write immoral, but rather amoral - China will seemingly deal with all comers, regardless of regime, human rights record, etc. etc., as and when it is expedient and profitable for them to do so) rising to superpower status. I am also more than a little nervous about what the reaction of the United States might be to the prospect of having to share the perch - or, heaven forbid, being knocked off the perch - to which it has become so accustomed in recent years.

But then on the other hand, I can see that there might be benefits for much of the world, if a new world order were to emerge in which there were no longer one all-encompassing, overwhelming superpower (the USA), but rather two or more global superpowers to offset and balance one another. Of course, those benefits would only hold as long as said superpowers did not enter into the sort of arms race and all-encompassing battle for global dominance that we have seen once in our lifetime already. Ideally, I would like to see at least three such superpowers, not permanently aligned in blocs, but rather dealing with each other at the top table on a peaceful case-by-case basis. In my mind's eye, these superpowers would keep each other in check, if you will.

For a while I had hoped that the European Union might eventually become one such superpower. However, developments within the EU this year have led me to realise that a) this isn't going to happen any time soon, and b) it may not be such a good thing even if it did happen, given the extreme differences and opposing elements within the EU itself. So that would seem to leave the US and China and one more country that the above article does not deal with, India, as the possible candidates. Personally, I would far rather see all three of those countries as global superpowers than just the first two. I believe that would mke for a much more stable long term geo-political situation. But then I'm no international relations expert, nor a political scientist, so there's every chance I have read developments completely wrongly. Besides, I'm really just musing. Only time will tell how things will develop in the race to become, or remain, a global superpower.

Either way, I'd be interested to hear what you think, and what reaction that Guardian Weekly argument or my own waxing political sparks in you. As they are fond of saying in exams: Discuss.

Not so long ago, I blogged about how to speak New Zullander, in a post which was fairly well received. Well, along the same lines, there's an Australian website which has info on how to speak "journalese", if you will.

Crikey (I love that name!) is an online Australian news service. Earlier this month, it published A user's guide to journalistic cliches, and it's hilarious. [Hat-tip to Russell Brown.] Here's a little sample:

Feisty: Short, old female

Flamboyant: Homosexual

Controversial: He did something bad but we're not sure what

Scandal-plagued: Guilty

Informed source: Reads the newspaper

Confirmed bachelor: see "Flamboyant"

War-torn: We can't find it on a map

Venerable: Should be dead but isn't (eg: Gough Whitlam)

Knowledgable observer: The reporter

Knowledgable observers: The reporter and the person at the next desk

...

Recently: We lost the press release

First in the modern history of ... : no entries in NewsLink

Never: Not in NewsLink or Google

Source who spoke on condition of anonymity: PR flack

Prestigious: has indoor plumbing

Exclusive neighborhood/school/club: the reporter can't get in

Mean streets: slums

Street-wise: Hasn't been hit by a bus so far

Allegedly: He did it but we can't prove it

Shocking revelation: leaked on a slow news day

Highly placed source: one who would talk

Read the rest of A user's guide to journalistic cliches here.

You gotta laugh. Some days, and with some news services and papers more than others, I get the impression that much of this stuff is bang on. I'll never read the paper in exactly the same way again.

PS: For those who were wondering, Secretsamurai got closest to the right answer in yesterday's pop quiz. It was in fact a photo of beads in a German bead store, so SecretSam was pretty darn close with his guess of "beads in an alernative German clothing store". And for anyone who was wondering what the greater motivation was for posting that pic: there was none, other than I thought it would make for a post with a bit of a difference, that it fascinates me that something as specific and niche-y as an out-and-out bead store can survive and thrive in Berlin, and that I thought that the original photo was really cool and I wanted a chance to show it off.

Pop Quiz, Hotshot

Below is a blown up section of a photo I took recently. It's a bit grainy because I've blown it up bigger than it ought to be, and because tBlog images reduces the image quality considerably. Any ideas what it might be?

Don Getty, Wildlife and Nature Photography

When I first set up this blog, I hunted around for a bear image to use for my header, profile and avatar. In my search, I stumbled upon Don Getty's wildlife and nature photography and was impressed. I found just the image I wanted, so I sent him an email asking him if he'd mind if I used it for my blog. Don got back to me quick smart saying that I was welcome to do so, which is how I came by the image that became BearlinBear.

Since then, every once in a while, I head over to Don Getty's website and enjoy some more of his photography. As some of it is truly spectacular, I thought I'd share a few samples.

In the What's new section of his website, Don is currently featuring, amongst other things, photos from a recent safari in Kenya and from a trip to vince Chute bear sanctuary. Here are a few of the highlights from those two collections. Each photo is a link which will take you directly to the relevant page on Don's site, where there is a little blurb about each picture.
Grand Teton Bear Sanctuary

On location in Kenya

I think those are some pretty amazing shots, and there's plenty more where they came from. I just wanted to profile Don's photography a little since I like it and since he was kind enough to let me use one of his images. If you like the taster you see here, check out the rest of his site: Don Getty wildlife and nature photography.

I got tagged by themarina for this meme and I thought I'd play along.

A Lifetime:

10 years ago:
Ten years ago I was half way through my second year of an Arts degree at university in New Zealand. I was probably sitting in the quad drinking coffee from the coffee cart, sheltering from the rain (June's the middle of winter in NZ) and failing to attend yet another lecture that I hadn't done the reading for.

5 years ago:
I had just finished my first year at Oxford. I hadn't made much progress on my degree in my first year and was having a bit of a crisis about whether or not to continue, or change to a different course. My parents were visiting from NZ.

1 year ago:
I was co-hosting (with the lovely Ms. Bear) a "Love your Lava-Lava, Love!" party, as a combined birthday and leaving Oxford party. The party was a huge success and I had a blast.

Yesterday:
Procrastinating, sweltering in 32 degree heat, spending too much time online.

Today:
Celebrating my birthday. It began with an early morning trip to an Irish Pub to watch the All Blacks trounce the Lions. That was followed by phone calls from my family, a barbeque in the garden with Ms. Bear and her family and now a nice quiet evening in.

Tomorrow: Going to the cinema to see Batman Begins, followed by belated birthday dinner at a Morroccan restaurant. Can't wait.



5 Snacks I Enjoy:
1) Chocolate
2) Crisps (especially corn chips, such as Doritos)
3) Nectarines
4) Royal Gala apples
5)Did I mention chocolate?!


5 Songs I Know All The Words To:
1) Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
2) If I had $1,000,000 - Barenaked Ladies
3) Principal's Office - Young MC
4) Die Da! - Die Fantastischen Vier
5) Something Stupid - Frank and Nancy Sinatra

5 Things I Would Do With $100,000,000:

Gee, a hundred million dollars is a lot of money, let's see ...

1) Buy two houses, one here and one in New Zealand
2)Buy my sister a house and pay off my brother's mortgage
3) Invest $50 million and live off the interest
4) Endow a scholarship at my university in New Zealand
5) Donate generously to a carefully selected list of charities, including but not limited to: Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, the SPCA and the World Wildlife Fund.


5 Locations I'd Like to Run Away To:
1) Paris
2) Stockholm
3) The Seychelles
4) Capetown
5) Santiago de Chile

5 Bad Habits I Have:
1) I procrastinate
2) I go to bed too late
3) I spend too much time online
4) I interrupt people
5) I'm rubbish at keeping in touch with people

5 Things I like Doing:
1) Going for walks in the woods
2) Going to the cinema
3) Reading newspapers and online news
4) Talking with friends over a bottle of wine
5) Sleeping (should perhaps have been number 1)

5 Things I Would Never Wear:
1) Acid-wash jeans
2) Ugg boots
3) A rugby-league jersey
4) Horizontal stripes
5) Lime green

5 T.V. Shows I Like:
1) Lost
2) King of Queens
3) Friends
4) The West Wing
5) Blackadder

5 Movies I Like:
1) The Godfather
2) Fight Club
3) The Castle
4) Austin Powers
5) Taxi (the French one, not the American rip-off of it with Queen Latifah)

5 Famous People I'd like to Meet:
1) Robert DeNiro
2) Mikhail Gorbachev
3) Nelson Mandela
4) Aung San Suu Kyi
5) Erik Zabel

5 Biggest Joys at the Moment:
1) Ms. Bear
2) The summer weather
3) Living in Berlin - a constant source of amazement and new discoveries
4) Barnaby M. Cat
5) Walks in the forest

5 Favorite Toys:
1) My laptop
2) My digital camera
3) My breadmaker
4) My blog
5) My cat (again)

5 people to tag.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass on the tagging as this meme seems to have pretty much done the rounds already. But if you spot this and want to pick up, please be my guest.

Today's good news is a no brainer: this morning, much to my delight as I watched in an Irish pub here in Berlin, the All Blacks gave the British and Irish Lions an object lesson in how to play possession rugby. The ABs thumped the Lions 21-3 in appalling conditions in Christchurch, and by god did the All Blacks play well. Made my day.

BBC Sport and Planet Rugby have reports on the match:

New Zealand Tame Lions [BBC]
Lions Mauled in Series Opener [Planet Rugby]

Woohoo!

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, New Zealand last year finally signed into law the so-called Civil Union Act. This law allows couples, regardless of whether they are of the same sex or different sexes, to enter into a civil union which gives them legal status similar to those of a married couple. Note that the Act did not enable homosexual couples to marry per se, but it's headed in that direction. It was a progressive law that was a long time in coming and was controversial and hard fought. But in the end, it got passed, making New Zealand, legally speaking at least, a more tolerant and progressive place.

Enter the Destiny Church, a fundamentalist evangelical Christian church, led by the charismatic but, frankly, wacko and terrifying Bishop Brian Tamaki. To accompany its fundamentalist Christian values and beliefs, the Destiny Church unfortunately also has politcal aspirations and has founded a party called the Destiny New Zealand Party, led by one Richard Lewis. This party will be on the polling card when this year's general election rolls around. And, predictably, they have the Civil Union Act in their sights.

I've chosen not to blog about Destiny until now, in the (apparently vain) hope that they would prove to be a flash in the pan and would disappear of their own accord. But, as time goes by it becomes ever more evident that Destiny is not just a blip on the radar and that, alongside their massive campaign funding (ah, let's here it for tithing!) they also appear to have a hard core of voter support for their intolerant, bigoted agenda and their desire to "return" New Zealand to the homogeneous Christian roots they incorrectly suppose the country to have. I'd be very surprised if they make it over the 5% threshold required to win seats in parliament this time around, but it is certainly starting to look as if they will garner enough support to fan the flames of their political aspirations and they may well be a fringe element in the parliament after next (i.e. in four years time), if the current trend continues. I find this alarming. These are the sorts of "Christians" who give the rest of Christianity a bad name. Here's a sample of why.

Yesterday's New Zealand Herald reports on a Destiny rally held in Rotorua earlier this week, at which Brian Tamaki gave a taste of the kind of platform the Destiny Church party is campaigning on.

Mr Tamaki addressed a meeting of about 400 people in the Rotorua Boys' High School Hall, in which he left the audience in no doubt about his views on the "evil Government" and its "radical homosexual agenda", as well as the media's practice of "modern-day witchcraft".
...
Prime Minister Helen Clark's Government bore much of the responsibility for the decline in the nation's moral values, he told the crowd -- particularly since the introduction of the civil union bill, now the Civil Union Act.

"Sodomy had a 10-year prison sentence [in New Zealand] once upon a time.

"You thought it was just so a few people in a corner could practise their homosexuality ... we knew the deeper agenda.

"They ordered it law so they could get your child and your grandchild."

Mr Tamaki also lambasted those Government's MPs who chose not to acknowledge the Bible when they were sworn in to Parliament.

"One even swore on the Koran -- in my Christian nation."

That is the sort of bigotry we are dealing with here: harking back to the "golden age" when adults could be imprisoned for ten years for having consensual sex (Gosh, weren't those great times?!?); pulling the age old stunt of blurring the boundaries between homosexuality and paedophilia; lamenting the ethnic and religious diversity which has developed in New Zealand as a result of being a nation (largely) of immigrants; and making out that there is a vast homosexual agenda afoot in New Zealand politics. And I just love the claim that New Zealand is any more his nation than that of the Muslim MP in question, or mine for that matter. Pardon my French, but what a crock of shit! This kind of nonsense really makes my blood boil. But evidently, these lies find support amongst a section of the electorate:

Many of the bishop's pronouncements were met with fervent shouts of "that's right" and "awesome" from supporters interspersed throughout the crowd.

Terrifying. I can only hope that there aren't enough of these unthinking, intolerant numbskulls for Destiny to get anywhere near 5% of the party vote come election time. But actually, it breaks my heart that there are any.

According to the Herald, Bishop Tamaki then went on to his own little sob story about how wronged he and his party are:

The media were also guilty of perpetuating moral decline, he said.

"[They] give full coverage to everything that's negative.

The media had also been "allowed to get away with portraying us as Nazis and haters and a cult".

Umm, I hate to be the one to break it to you Brian, but the media gives full coverage to the negative aspects of your message, because 1) the negative aspects of your message vastly outweigh the positive aspects, 2) sections of the media can think for themselves and 3) you are a freak touting an intolerant, bigoted load of nonsense. And as for the Nazi comparisons and portraying your followers as haters and a cult, well, that would be because there are real similarities between what you're about and what the Nazis were about, because your messages, such as those quoted here, are filled with hate, and because your Church exhibits a lot of the features of cults.

Sometimes, Bishop Tamaki, the truth hurts. May you take a pasting at the polls.

I'm not much of a fan of the New Zealand Herald. Generally, it's a pretty average paper, kind of a tabloid disguised as a broadsheet, and all too often it contains shonky reporting and poor writing and sub-editing. But, today in its leader/editorial, the New Zealand Herald got it exactly right on the subject of the upcoming New Zealand cricket tour to Zimbabwe, which I've blogged about several times before.

Government must act to stop cricket tour

Let's not kid ourselves that cancelling New Zealand's scheduled cricket tour of Zimbabwe would help the desperate and despairing people of that country. It would not. This is not a situation akin to apartheid-era South Africa. But that is no reason to blithely proceed with the tour. New Zealand, in a small way, has the opportunity to reinforce Zimbabwe's pariah status, while denouncing yet again President Robert Mugabe's flouting of human rights and democratic principles. It should take it.

At the moment, thanks to an all-pervasive timidity, the tour is still on course to start in August. The Government says it would prefer the Black Caps stayed at home, but will not tell New Zealand Cricket to cancel the exercise. Cricket's administrators, for their part, seem preoccupied with player safety and the US$2 million penalty for calling off the tour without justification.

New Zealand Cricket's attitude is reasonably understandable. Sports bodies would invite only a succession of headaches if they were to use standards of Government as the basis for their international commitments. In an ideal world, Governments, also, would not be in the business of dictating to national sporting associations. Preventing sports people from playing on the international stage, or of fulfilling contractual obligations, is no trifling matter. Nonetheless, it most properly falls to Governments, either individually or through international agreements, to impose such sanctions when they think it is necessary. Any other course is simply passing the buck.

Bang on! Read the rest here. Let's hope that the Foreign Minister, Phil Goff, whom I've praised for other stances vis à vis Zimbabwe in recent days, is listening and decides, belatedly, to take action. Fingers crossed.

Ever get the feeling that problems are following you? I spent almost all of my childhood aware that I was living under an ozone hole in New Zealand. And now it turns out that, for the next week at least, I'm living under a new one that has nestled over Central Europe:

New ozone hole over Germany poses health risk

Could the ozone holes please stop following me around the world!?

In the comments section of my recent post entitled "Europe is in a profound crisis", the following exchange took place between regular commenter Kiwi in Zurich and myself:

Kiwi in Zurich (in Paris): Did I hear right that Jacques called Tony pathetic? Surely not? I've a mind to walk down the road and remind Jacques that reducing the debate to the level of North Korea and US diplomacy is hardly becoming of either the French President or the British PM.

Berlin Bear: Oh I know mate. I wondered when I read that if he was aware of the hypocrisy/irony of his words. After all, had he been prepared to compromise on the farming subsidies, things would have looked very different indeed. It's odd how they have both ended up defending indefensible positions as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Well it seems that my favourite Guardian columnist, Timothy Garton Ash, whose columns I've touted on here before, agrees with Kiwi's and my assessment of the war of words going on between London and Paris at present. In a column published yesterday in the Guardian, though before Tony Blair's speech to the European parliament, Garton Ash has a fair old crack at both leaders. The column is entitled No time for petty rivalry.

In the immediate run-up to the Iraq war, Tony Blair seized upon a remark made by Jacques Chirac to blame on France our failure to get a second UN resolution. By pointing the finger at Britain's ancient "sweet enemy", he just managed to win the Commons vote for war. In the aftermath of the French no vote on the constitutional treaty, Jacques Chirac has deftly shifted the spotlight on to the British budget rebate, so he can blame Europe's crisis on perfidious Albion rather than France. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose .

Well, I have news for leaders on both sides of the Channel: we are living in the 21st century, not the 14th. This needle match between France and Britain dates back at least to the hundred years war. It is probably the oldest continuous national rivalry in the world, with the possible exception of that between China and Japan. It has now become ridiculous, damaging, demeaning and pathetic.

When they now talk bitterly of "national egoism", new members of the European Union mean both Britain and France - the two countries that used to be, for them, the model of what it is to be a "normal" European country. The Bush administration in Washington, which has belatedly and tentatively held out a hand of partnership to the EU, watches with dismay, tinged with contempt.

As ever from Garton Ash, it's an insightful piece, and very readable. He goes on to assert that the only way forward for Europe is for the UK and France to come up with a serious compromise on the issues which divide them, and then to outline what he sees as the challenges facing Blair and (British Prime Minister-in-waiting) Gordon Brown as the British Presidency of the EU approaches.

Perhaps Kiwi in Zurich and I ought to team up in some sort of political punditry capacity, alongside our plans to get Rent-a-Kiwi off the ground? Just a thought.

..., as they say, like a woman scorned. Especially not this woman, who sold her husband's £25,000 Lotus for 50p on EBay.

"Tim Shaw's wife, Hayley, put the Lotus Espirit Turbo on eBay after her husband propositioned glamour model Jodie Marsh live on-air on his Kerrang! FM show.

Mrs Shaw, 27, said the flirtatious interview had been the "last straw" in their relationship.

The car sold within minutes of it being posted on the internet site. Mr Shaw upset his wife when he announced over the air that he would leave her and their two young children for Ms Marsh."

I gotta tell ya, the guy sounds like he deserved it. What sort of a tosser suggests, in jest or not, leaving his wife and two kids for a worthless floozy model while live on air? My heart bleeds for him, or not.

The Independent has the story too, with a handy guide to other uxorial revenge stories at the bottom.

[Hat-tip to the wonderful, never-bested, Miss Behaviour for the link.]

Remember how I blogged yesterday that, unfortunately, the New Zealand cricket team had decided to go ahead with its tour to Zimbabwe in August? Well, the Zimbabwean team is due to tour New Zealand this year too, namely in December. But now, that tour is starting to look in jeopardy, thanks to some strong words today from New Zealand foreign affairs minister, Phil Goff. [Hat-tip to Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn for the heads up.] Here's the press release, word for word:

"I have been advised today that a cricket tour of New Zealand by the Zimbabwean team is scheduled for December this year," Foreign Minister Phil Goff said today.

"This is not a matter I have yet discussed with my Cabinet colleagues, and nor have I sought legal advice on it from my Ministry.

"However, given the current appalling abuses of human rights and relentless trend of the Zimbabwe government towards a dictatorship, the New Zealand government would not welcome a visit from a side representing Zimbabwe at this time.

"The Zimbabwe cricket team should not anticipate that it will be granted entry to New Zealand.

"The imposition of a ban on the team would send a strong message to the Mugabe regime that New Zealanders and their government abhor the actions it is taking against its people," Mr Goff said.

I like it. I like it a lot. I like the strong words and the no-holds-barred approach. It will be interesting to see how Mugabe reacts. I've already written to Mr Goff to congratulate him on this stance and to encourage him to ensure that his words are followed with actions when the time comes. If you'd like to email him too, go for it.

PS: Foreign Minister Goff was one of the addressees of my open letter. I've not yet received any response to that (and there's certainly no connection between this statement of his today and my letter - I did not address the pcoming cricket tours at all), but then it's only been a couple of days. I will be sure to post any (non-automated) response I receive to that letter.

[Upate: The Green Party has issued a press release on this issue: Bouquet and brickbat to Government on Zimbabwe. I must say, I agree with Green co-leader Rod Donald on this issue entirely.]

Right, time for a change of topic and a change of pace.

Those of you who know me, or have been reading this blog for long enough, will know that I am quite a fan of dictionaries. In fact, I'm really quite passionate about dictionaries. Sadly, geekily so. One of my favourite smells in the whole world is the smell of a new dictionary when you've just taken it out of the plastic shrink-wrapping and opened it up to a random page in the middle. ... But that is not the point of this post. I've sidetracked myself already.

My favourite dictionary of all is the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). It's huge (20 volumes) and it's the most comprehensive dictionary of English there is or ever will be. My linguistic research has involved a lot of working with dictionaries of English, German and French, and the OED is far and away the best dictionary I've ever worked with or consulted. As a work of lexicography it is unparalleled the world over. Can you tell I'm a fan? [If you're interested in finding out more about the OED, try here.]

So, why am I banging on about the OED then? Well, because the BBC and the OED have launched a joint project called the BBC-OED Wordhunt, in which members of the public are invited to provide the OED lexicographers with extra information on a set of words they don't yet know enough about.

We are appealing to the nation to help solve some of the most intriguing recent word mysteries in the language.

The OED seeks to find the earliest verifiable usage of every single word in the English language. The 50 words on the appeal list all have a date next to them, corresponding to the earliest evidence the dictionary currently has for that word or phrase. Can you trump that?

To join the word hunt, you might find an earlier appearance of the word in a book or a magazine, in a movie script, a fanzine, or even in a private letter. The most important thing is that it can be dated.

Sometimes the OED can't tell how a word was invented - so if you can fill us in, so much the better. We've indicated next to these words that they are 'origin uncertain'. If you have a convincing theory, we'd like to hear from you. If you can prove you're right, you might help in rewriting the dictionary.

Some of my favourite examples from the list include:

• balti
  
• full monty
  
• minger
  
• naff
  
• on the pull
  
• phwoar
  

There are two homepages for this appeal. The BBC has one here, while the OED has one here. (They basically contain all the same information).

In each case, you can click on each word in the list to see exactly what it is the OED are trying to find out for that word. Thus, for example, clicking on mullet, you get the following:

mullet
Wanted: printed evidence before 1994; information of the word's origin

The infamous hairstyle. Did you sport a mullet and call it that before the 1994 Beastie Boys' song Mullet Head? A mullet-head is 'a stupid person', after the earlier meaning 'an imaginary fish with no brains'. Is this the origin? There are other offers.

Then, once you've found out what they're after, given it some thought, consulted your written sources and got your lexicographical soldiers all in a row, get it touch with the campaign to fill them in on what you've found.

To join the word hunt, you might find an earlier appearance of the word in a book or a magazine, in a movie script, a fanzine, or even in unpublished papers or letter or a post-marked postcard. It might appear first online or in a sound recording. The most important thing is that it can be dated. Send your evidence to the BBC (email wordhunt@bbc.co.uk) and it might feature in the big series coming to BBC2 next year.

No dictionary is ever finished, and so the appeal is also for new words that aren't yet in the OED, but should be. What do you think is the biggest word on your street at the moment? Again, send your answers and evidence to the BBC: email here for postal address.

This is a cool campaign, and it's a chance to contribute to the best dictionary in the world. In a former life, or at least in an earlier chapter of this life, I actually got paid (a pittance) to do just this sort of stuff for the OED on a freelance basis. It's very satisfying when you come up with something that you know will be useful to the lexicographers writing the dictionary, I assure you. There's no glory in it, that's for sure, but it is quietly rewarding. So, if you reckon you can provide more info on any of the words in the wordlist, get on it! And even if you can't, spread the word.

Here's some encouraging news from inside Zimbabwe. Sokwanele - Zvakwana, which is a Zimbwabean "peoples' movement, embracing supporters of all pro-democratic political parties, civic organizations and institutions" and which seeks to end oppression is Zimbabwe and restore democracy, reports today on two civil disobedience protests against Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo, last weekend. The two protests were both brief and very different in nature, but they are a sign that resistance within Zimbabwe is growing.

20 - 30 young men stage a brief protest in a Bulawayo carpark

Read about the protests in full here.

As the story on the Sokwanele website concludes: "Let the nation salute the courage of these protesters and follow their brave example."

Yeah, and it wouldn't hurt if a few more people, especially political leaders, outside Zimbabwe did a bit more saluting of bravery and applying pressure on Mugabe either.

I'll start with the good news. British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has started to talk a bit tougher on Operation Murambatsvina. The New Zealand Herald reports today that Straw has urged African leaders to get tough on Mugabe and his regime.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged African leaders on Wednesday to condemn Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, saying they needed to acknowledge the "horror" he was perpetrating against his own people.

...

"We have done everything we can to raise Zimbabwe's international profile and raise the condemnation across the world, with some success," Straw told reporters ahead of a conference on Iraq. "The problem that we face is a lack of real commitment by all of Africa's leaders to recognise the scale of the horror that is taking place in Zimbabwe."

...

"Bluntly, unless and until African leaders as a whole recognise what is going on and take action, not only to condemn it but to deal with it, we are likely to be in for many more months of this kind of tyranny until President Mugabe moves aside," he said.

Good! We need more forceful messages like this from the highest level. And the leaders of Southern African countries need to heed them and apply pressure on Mugabe to shape up or, preferably, ship out.

Now the bad news. Reuters reports today that Operation Murambatsvina continues unabated:

Zimbabwe said on Wednesday more than 42,000 people had been arrested or had their goods seized as it pressed ahead with a crackdown on shanty-towns that has sparked worldwide condemnation.

Police said crime in the capital Harare had fallen by nearly a fifth since the start of "Operation Restore Order" in early May.

"This shows that the operation, despite being condemned, has started bearing fruit," police spokesman Inspector Whisper Bondai told the official Herald newspaper.

President Robert Mugabe says the operation is necessary to flush out criminals who have turned informal townships into sanctuaries for illegal trading in anything from food to foreign currency.

But critics say the exercise has left tens of thousands homeless or without jobs, piling pressure on Zimbabweans facing 70 percent unemployment and chronic shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said on Wednesday the operation had slashed crime in Harare adding that 42,415 people had been arrested, fined or had their goods seized. He said 120,000 people were left homeless after their structures were demolished. Aid groups and churches, who have condemned the operation, put the figure at 200,000. "We observe that crimes such as plain robbery, murder and theft have declined because we have cut the ready market that criminals had for stolen goods," Bvudzijena told Reuters.

No let up in the state-sponsored terror then. And Mugabe notes that crime has fallen markedly in the affected areas. Interesting. A couple of points on that: Firstly, I believe Mugabe's assertions on that about as much as I believe that he received two-thirds of the vote in the recent Presidential election. Secondly, don't forget that freedom of the press is severaly limited in Mugabe's Zimbabwe, meaning that the Herald is not free to report objectve facts, or to counter the rhetoric of official government spokespeople. Thirdly, even if Mugabe's assertions are true, it is hardly surprising is it? For starters, the areas in question have been, as I understand it, largely de-populated by means of mass arrests on the one hand and dispersing now homeless people into the countryside on the other. And finally, let us not forget that the victims of this operation, many of them now homeless and destitute, fear for their lives and their livelihoods. Is it any wonder that they will be taking the utmost care not to do anything which will lead them into the hands of the brutal state apparatus? Of course it's not.

And finally, the so-so news. The New Zealand Herald reports today that the New Zealand cricket team will definitely be touring Zimbabwe in August and they'll be sending a full strength team.

New Zealand Cricket yesterday vowed to go full steam ahead to Zimbabwe in August, but will avoid any contact with President Robert Mugabe's Government.

NZC chief executive Martin Snedden said an independent security report from Zimbabwe this week had given the all-clear for New Zealand to tour and that player safety wouldn't be an issue.

In response, the players unanimously agreed to the five-week tour, involving two tests then a one-day tri-series with the hosts and India.

A Zimbabwe-based security expert, who advised England and Australia it was safe to tour there in the past year, provided Snedden with a detailed report.

That means, evidently, that the petition against the tour, which I advertised on this blog, did not have the desired effect, and nor did the direct appeals of Green MP Rod Donald to the New Zealand cricketers. That is disappointing. I think it's a shame that the New Zealand government did not step in on this matter and at least indemnify New Zealand cricket against any fine they may have faced from the International Cricket Council for breaking their tour contract.

However, given that they did not, and that the players have decided to tour, the one bright side is that New Zealand cricket has undertaken to avoid any contact with President Mugabe or members of his government.

"They've given us some helpful advice, [Foreign Affairs Minister] Phil Goff has suggested that it's a good thing if we can avoid putting our players in situations where they have any contact with Zimbabwean Government officials, and we'll be working to achieve that," Snedden said.

That's something, I suppose. Not really ideal, but better than nothing.

Well, I did it. I wrote my first ever open letter. I decided I'd been banging on about the Zimbabwean situation long enough and it was time to get active and do something about it. Accordingly, I decided to write an open letter to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs. I based my letter on information I'd received from the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, to whom I forwarded a copy of the letter. In addition, I've submitted it to Scoop and the New Zealand Herald for publication. We'll see what happens on that front. So far, I've received automated replies from the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. If and when I receive proper replies, I'll post them here too.

Here is my letter:

An open letter to:
Helen Clark, Prime Minster of New Zealand;
Phil Goff, Minister of Foreign Affairs;
Marian Hobbs, Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs

Wednesday, 21 June 2005

Dear government ministers,

I am writing to you in your various capacities as Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs respectively, with regard to the ongoing situation in Zimbabwe, in particular the so-called Operation Murambatsvina (or Clean Sweep and Restore Order).

Upon searching the New Zealand government website, I was very encouraged to discover that, on the 16th of this month, Mr Goff had already written to Zimbabwe's Parliamentary Speaker, Mr. John Nkomo, addressing various aspects of Zimbabwean government policy. However, I would like to impress upon you the urgent need to take further steps to express New Zealand's displeasure at, and to protest in the strongest terms against, Operation Murambatsvina.

Earlier this month, the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) reported that this operation had been marked by "brutality and violations of numerous human rights." Further, COHRE reported that "police have used flamethrowers, sledgehammers, police batons and dogs and have ordered some residents to tear down their own houses at gunpoint."

COHRE believes that the evictions constitute gross and systematic violations of human rights, including the right to housing and sanctity of the home found in the following international treaties ratified by Zimbabwe: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Article 14(2); Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 27(3)); International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 17); International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Article 11). The evictions also constitute a form of cruel and degrading treatment in direct violation of Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

What is more, various credible news sources, such as AllAfrica.com and the Times of London, have reported in recent days that, four weeks down the line, Operation Murambatsvina continues unabated, that as many as one million Zimbabweans may by now have been left homeless, and that humanitarian groups have been barred by President Mugabe's government from assisting those affected by this operation.

This is an unacceptable state of affairs. I therefore urge you to renew and strengthen New Zealand's protest against this inhumane operation. Ideally, I would like to see some or all of the following steps taken: further communication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to the relevant authorities in Zimbabwe; communication from the highest level of government, the Prime Minister, directly to President Mugabe himself; intervention by the New Zealand High Commissioner accredited to Zimbabwe, His Excellency Mr. Brian Sanders, at the highest possible level.

Such communication could, for example, take the form of demanding of the Zimbabwean Government the following urgent remedial action recommended by COHRE:

1. Formally cease Operation Restore Order (Murambatsvina) permanently and unconditionally;
   
2. Provide emergency relief supplies including blankets, temporary emergency shelters, sanitation facilities and food supplies to those displaced;
   
3. Provide emergency health care treatment and required drugs in the form of mobile clinics;
   
4. Provide alternative and adequate accommodation to those who have been made homeless in locations close to where they have been residing.
   
5. Establish a compensation fund for those whose legally recognized property was destroyed;
   
6. Establish a national consultative committee to resolve the issues of informal trading and settlements, rural labour shortages, and other relevant health and safety concerns. Such consultation should aim for solutions adopted voluntarily by all parties, and transparent procedures and policies to guide the implementation process.
   
7. Provide those whose livelihoods were destroyed because of the operation with alternative means of livelihood.
   

Our nation has a long history of speaking out in support of human rights on the world stage. This is a record of which I, as a New Zealander, am proud. I ask you to continue this tradition by raising the above issues with President Mugabe and the Zimbabwean authorities in the strongest possible terms. Come election time later this year, I will be judging your government on, amongst other things, its response to this important humanitarian issue.

Sincerely,

BerlinBear
The Capital Letter

Any of you who feel similar inclined to do something about the disgraceful situation in Zimbabwe by writing to your own representatives or ministers, please feel free to borrow as much or as little of my letter as you see fit. The more of us who raise our voice on this, the better the chances of achieving change.

OK, I know I've posted links to some weird news on this blog, but this one, surely, takes the cake. I can't think of anything to say which could add to the quirky humour of this story, so I shant even try:

"A stationer's shop in a Russian town is counting the cost of a passionate fling involving a bull which followed a cow after it trotted in from the street.

There may not have been much china in the shop in Pionersk but eight panes of glass got smashed in the process, Russia's Interfax news agency reports.

A startled salesgirl fled outside where help was summoned with a mobile phone. Yet there was nothing for it but to wait for the "end of the act" after which the pair vacated the premises.

The owners of the shop in the port on the Baltic, in the Kaliningrad region, were counting the damage on Monday as the owners of the offending beasts were sought, local police told Interfax.

So shocked was the salesgirl that she forgot to press the shop's "panic button" in her haste to escape. Security guards and passers-by gathered in the street but were powerless to intervene."

[Source: BBC News.]

I wonder what you write on the insurance form where it says "Cause of damage"? Is there a delicate way to say a cow and a bull shagged in my shop and smashed the windows? Yikes.

Oh my goodness! I've found two things that the New Zealand government has got right in the space of just a few hours. I realise that this is starting to make me sound like a Labour party hack, or at the very least an apologist, but in reality, I'm not. However, credit where credit is due. I was searching the New Zealand government website to see whether any statements had been issued regarding the situation in Zimbabwe, which I have blogged about numerous times before, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that, in fact, one had.

New Zealand's foreign minister, Phil Goff, wrote a letter to Zimbabwe's Parliamentary Speaker John Nkomo on 16th June 2005, condemning the actions of Zimbabwe's government.

Foreign Minister Phil Goff has written to Zimbabwe's Parliamentary Speaker John Nkomo strongly protesting the inhumane prison conditions in which Opposition MP Roy Bennett is being held.

Mr Bennett was jailed with hard labour last year for pushing a government minister during a heated debate on land reform in Parliament. At the time, Mr Goff said the way the matter was handled raised serious concerns that the Zimbabwe government was trying to stifle and intimidate opposition politicians.

...

Mr Goff also condemned the Zimbabwe government's recent actions against squatter settlements as a further attempt to stifle opposition to the regime.

“New Zealand condemns the government’s so-called 'Operation Clean Sweep and Restore Order' policy. The brutal actions carried out under this policy have resulted in over 20,000 people being arrested and hundreds of thousands displaced and their homes and livelihoods destroyed.

"This constitutes a gross abuse of human rights, and a blatant disregard for the rule of law. The Zimbabwean government must protect, not destroy, the welfare and rights of this already disadvantaged section of the community.

Read the full press release here.

How very encouraging. I applaud Mr Goff for taking this action and I hope that his letter and others like it from governments around the world will make a difference. I still think I might write a letter to Mr Goff and the New Zealand Prime Minister regarding this issue.

Watch this space.

Sometimes - not very often, but sometimes - one's government gets it exactly right. One's government says or does something, or takes a stand, that is bang on and you can sit back, congratulate them quietly and be just a little bit proud that these are the people running, and speaking for, your country. Of course, such a feeling never lasts long, and the next blunder or disgrace or act of rank stupidity is always just around the corner, so it's best to enjoy it while you can. I had such a moment yesterday, when I read of the New Zealand Conservation Minister, Chris Carter, taking a stand against Japanese whaling at the International Whaling Commission in Korea.

Back in April, I blogged about my displeasure at Japan's announcement that it intended to extend its whaling programme under the guise of "scientific research." Well, this week in Korea, the International Whaling Commission is meeting and is reviewing Japan's whaling programme (though I believe the commission is not empowered to curtail it). At that meeting Chris Carter went in to bat against the Japanese proposal, and boy did he come out swinging:

"I deplore Japan's stand on this issue," Mr Carter told a press conference at the IWC attended by ministers from Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and New Zealand.

"Japan is a proud nation, and a model world citizen, but its new scientific whaling programme, JARPA II, is provocative and goes completely against world opinion," Mr Carter said.

"Under JARPA II, Japan plans to kill over 1000 whales a year for scientific purposes. That figure is almost half the total number taken for scientific purposes by the rest of world combined over the entire 57 year history of the International Whaling Commission."

"How can any nation argue butchery on this scale is necessary every year in the name of science, particularly when most of the rest of the world is now conducting far more credible research on whales without killing any at all?

"Some 63 leading international scientists, including some from New Zealand, have examined the scientific basis for JARPA II and can't find one," Mr Carter said.

"Either Japan's scientists have hopelessly archaic techniques, which the world knows isn't true, or this scientific programme is a complete sham.

"It is interesting to note that although Japan has been scientific whaling in Antarctic waters for 18 years, the results of this programme have never been reviewed by the IWC's scientific committee, and there has been absolutely no peer review of data from this programme," Mr Carter said.

It doesn't end there either. Read the rest of the press release here.

How encouraging to see New Zealand's representative at the Commission standing up and making his voice heard. I agree with him entirely, and am pleased he is taking such a strong stand on this issue. Japanese whaling for "scientific purposes" is a farce and should be stopped for at least as long as the whale species concerned are endangered.

If only that feeling of the government getting it exactly right came along more frequently.

Pop quiz, Hotshot:

Your detention centre at Guantánamo Bay, where suspected terrorists are held indefinitely without charge, without access to lawyers, without the protection of the Geneva Conventions, and where various charges of torture and ill-treatment of detainees have emerged and continue to emerge comes under widespread worldwide criticism. In particular, one of the world's largest and best respected human rights organisations condemns your detention centre in its annual report, calling it and other facilities of yours "the Gulag of our times" and calls for it to be closed down. Following that, several of your own prominent politicians and a former President come out and say publicly that they too believe it's time to close down your detention centre. What do you do?

Do you:
a) Heed the calls of large sections of the international community, the warnings and castigations of said human rights organisation, and the advice of various far-sighted politicians and move to close down the detention centre as soon as practicable?

b) Explain carefully exactly the reasons why it is not possible at this time to shut down the detention centre, but acknowledge the criticisms and take steps to address at least some of the issues which are causing concern, in addition to allowing international observers to audit your detention centre?

c) Ignore all the calls, warnings, castigations and advice, disassemble dissemble frantically to explain that you couldn't possibly shut the detention centre down because you can't think of anywhere else to put the inmates and also because you've already spent quite a lot of money on it [What?!? Under that logic, the US would still be perservering with the Apollo moon missions! - Ed. note], and - best of all, this will knock them flat - hand a $30 million contract to expand the detention centre to a subsidiary of the company that your vice-president used to run?

Next week's quiz: Does the Bush administration have an image problem abroad? If so, why?

Unbelievable! Who does strategy for these guys? Go figure.

[Extra for experts: See also Amnesty International's press release and check out the Daily Show's take on the Gitmo debates over at Onegoodmove.]

I'm not really that keen on golf. I like to play, badly and infrequently, but it's not one of my favourite spectator sports. In fact, as far as spectator sports go, it's probably not even in my top twenty. However, today I'm going to make an exception, because something big has happened in the world of golf.

New Zealander Michael Campbell has won the US Open Golf at Pinehurst! He won by two shots from Tiger Woods.

Excuse me for a moment while I just ... WOOHOO!! ... ahem. Sorry. I just needed to get that out.

Why is this such a big deal? Well, for one, I've always just liked Michael Campbell. He's always struck me as a really nice guy, so I'm pleased to see him hit the golfing big time. Secondly, it's his first ever win in a major, so it's a big deal for him. And thirdly, it's the first time a New Zealander has won a golf major since Bob Charles won the British open in 1963. That's a long time between drinks.

BBC Sport and the New Zealand Herald have all the details.

And just in case you thought that a New Zealander winning the U.S. Open wasn't a big deal in our tiny land at the end of the earth, it may interest you to know that Cabinet delayed its session to watch the final holes of the tournament. Also, here is part of the Prime Minister's statement of congratulations:

“His win is a triumph of immense skill, determination and perseverance, along with great modesty and humility. It is one of New Zealand’s greatest sporting achievements, and his place as one of New Zealand’s sporting greats is cemented.

“New Zealanders have watched Michael’s career since his emergence as an amateur in the Eisenhower Cup winning team. We have watched his highs, and we have watched him in more troubled times. Nobody deserves such an immense victory more than Michael.

“All New Zealand will join with me in sending our congratulations to Michael, and his family. He has done his family, his community in Titahi Bay, Wellington, and New Zealand proud,”

[Source: Scoop.]

See? We don't hold back when our boys do well on the world sporting stage. Congratulations Michael. Go you good thing!

I've been toying for a while with the idea of doing the occasional photo-essay on this blog, documenting and providing brief comments on different parts of Berlin. More recently, I've been inspired by Badaunt, who frequently pulls off fascinating photo-essays from Japan. Accordingly, here is my first ever effort, which will be part one of an irregular series, if it is well-received.

Ms. Bear and I are lucky enough to live in Wannsee, on the south-westernmost outskirts of Berlin, just before you get to Potsdam. Back when the Wall was still standing, Wannsee was in West-Berlin, but only just. The wall ran just a couple of kilometres from our house, many of the waterways you see in the pictures below were mined, and all were patrolled by East German border guards. I've circled Wannsee in red on the map below to give you an idea of where we are in relation to the rest of the city.

Click on the thumbnails to view full sized images. [Map sources: Berlin Map, Wannsee Map.]


As you can see from the second map above, Wannsee is a suburb with plenty of forest on all sides, and surrounded by a plethora of lakes, canals and the river Havel.

The Grosser Wannsee is the largest of the lakes around here, and is a favourite location for yachting, rowing and other water sports. It is also home to the Strandbad Wannsee (left click on the picture behind the link, hold your mouse button down and move the mouse to the left or right to see a 360 degree panorama shot), which is the biggest inland beach in Europe. You can see part of the Strandbad Wannsee in the background of one of the pictures above.

There are a couple of boat companies which run tourist cruises of varying lengths around the lakes and waterways in boats such as this. On most of these trips, you'll pass the Haus der Wannseekonferenz, a beautiful villa set in an idyllic location on the shore of the Grosser Wannsee, but with a dark past. This is the villa in which the top Nazi officials met to discuss and settle upon the so-called "Final Solution" for the extermination of the Jews. It is now a museum with an excellent but haunting exhibition.

There are also some interesting buildings aroud these parts, including a little castle on a nearby island called Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island) which looks authentic but is actually made of wood, and Wannsee's very own Rathaus, or town hall (not that Wannsee is really a town, or much in need of a town hall).

The forests in and around Wannsee are home to deer, wild boar and moufflons, but they also provide for wonderful walks and are constantly changing with the seasons.

The road heading south-east out of Wannsee towards Potsdam (the capital of Brandenburg, just a few kilometres away) leads across Glienicker Brücke. When the Berlin Wall was still standing, this bridge was a border crossing (you've heard of Checkpoint Charlie, this was Checkpoint Bravo), with an East German checkpoint at the southern end and an Allied/West Berlin checkpoint at the Northern end. This bridge is famous because it was the location of choice for spy exchanges during the Cold War.

And finally, to round it all off, two views across lakes near where we live. The top picture is taken looking across Pohlesee towards the village of Stolpe, while the bottom picture is a sunset view across Stoelpchensee looking towards the forest and the communication tower.

And that's it, for now. Let me know if you liked this little insight into this one area of Berlin. I am a reasonably keen photographer, so I have lots of photos of different parts of Berlin which I could put together into more posts like this if they are of interest. Feel free to use the comments section to tell me whether or not you'd like to see more from time to time.

Today is The Capital Letter's three month blogiversary. I've read in a number of places that many bloggers tend to peter out or stop blogging completely after about three months, and I've witnessed that phenomenon with several blogs I used to frequent recently. Not this one. I'm sticking around beyond the three month mark, because I'm enjoying myself, because I've learnt a lot already and continue to do so, and because this blogging project is coming along much better than I'd even dared to hope.

My tBlog stats tell me that my blog has been viewed 23,406 times since it started in March. I am very sceptical about those numbers, not least because I have a Sitemeter installed which tells a very different, and I think much more realistic, story. In just over two months since I installed the Sitemeter on 10th April, The Capital Letter has received 5,987 individual visits and 8,675 page views (I have set it not to count my own visits to my blog, because that just feels like cheating!). That comes out at an average of 83 visits and 131 page views per day, which I'm pretty pleased with really. The more, the merrier.

While I'm talking meta-blog stuff, you may have noticed that I this week installed a nifty new map thingy in the right-hand sidebar. It's called a BlogMap, and I think it's quite cool. As you can see, it accurately locates me near Wannsee in the south-west of Berlin. But better than that, it also keeps a tally of other bloggers nearby who are also registered. I see there are 40 today, which means someone new must have signed up since yesterday. It's really easy to sign up for, and it's free, so if you're interested, click on the link above, or click on the map in my sidebar.

And now that I've told you all exactly where I live, the next post will be a little photo-essay of some of the sights in the immediate vicinity.

As you enjoy your Sunday today, doing whatever it is you do of a Sunday, going about your business, spare a thought for Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese politician, pro-democracy campaigner and Nobel peace prize laureate.

Today is her birthday. Her 60th birthday no less. But rather than celebrating with her friends and family, she will be spending it at home in Rangoon, under house arrest, just as she has spent over nine of her 60 years. Her children will not be able to visit her, as they live in the UK and have been consistently denied entry visas to Burma. And why? Because she is a non-violent campaigner for democracy is a country ruled by a military junta that does not wish others to hear her political message.



BBC News has the full story.

Happy Birthday Aung San Suu Kyi! Stay strong. You are right, and your message is one Burma and the world need to hear!

"Europe is in a profound crisis." Those are the words of Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who currently holds the EU presidency, after the failure yesterday to reach a budgetary agreement at the EU summit in Brussels.

I wrote yesterday:

"So, on the budget, the EU is currently stuck between a rock and a hard place and, frankly, I'm not sure how they're going to get out of this bind. Time will tell, but I certainly don't expect this issue to be resolved today."

I was right as it turned out, but let's face it, you didn't need to be a rocket scientist to pick that. No agreement was reached, and the summit ended with no real lasting solutions to either of the two major issues on its agenda and amid much finger-pointing, blame apportioning and, in some cases, downright acrimony.

Deutsche Welle has the full story here, as well as a handy and very revealing series of post-summit quotes from various European leaders here. Note the tone of doom and gloom from almost all of them, the alacrity with which Chirac and Schröder lay the blame at the door of the UK and the Netherlands, and the profound disbelief on the part of the 10, poorer, new members over the selfishness and bickering of the old, rich members.

Just to offer a bit of perspective, here is today's leader from the UK daily The Guardian, which has less finger pointing and a slightly cooler head.

First up in today's instalment of Good news Saturday is time travel. A team of physicists from the US and Austria has postulated that, even though time travel may well be possible, it would not allow people to go back in time to alter the future. Though this completely buggers up the plots of movies like Back to the Future and Time Cop, it is nonetheless very comforting. It means, for example, that no dastardly enemy could go back in time and kill your parents before you were born to ensure that you never even existed. That, I'm sure you'll agree, is good news for all (except perhaps Hollywood directors and evildoers plotting to take over the world. Back to the drawing board for them, eh?)

Researchers speculate that time travel can occur within a kind of feedback loop where backwards movement is possible, but only in a way that is "complementary" to the present.

In other words, you can pop back in time and have a look around, but you cannot do anything that will alter the present you left behind. The new model, which uses the laws of quantum mechanics, gets rid of the famous paradox surrounding time travel.

Read the rest of this article here.

In other good news, Jamaican athlete Asafa Powell became the fastest man in the world this week, breaking the world record for 100m. Powell set a new record time of 9.77sec, shaving just 0.01sec off the previous world record, set by Tim Montgomery in 2002. That is mighty fast, and all the more exciting because Powell is just 22 years old, so we can expect him to get even faster in the next few years.

And to round off today's good news instalment, two pieces of good news from Africa. The first one is the big one, namely that this week (strictly speaking Saturday of last week), the finance ministers of the world's eight richest countries - the so-called G8 countries - finally agreed a deal to cancel 100% of debt for 18 of the poorest African countries. BBC News has the full story. This is an important first step, but it is by no means enough. This intitial debt cancellation must be followed up by debt cancellation for more countries which are also in need, and by significant increases in no-strings-attached aid from the world's richest countries. Still, this first step is definitely good news for the countries concerned and for Africa as a whole, and it bodes well for the G8 conference coming up in Gleneagles in July.

The second piece of good news from Africa this week is the news from Tanzania that the government has pledged to provide free anti-retroviral drugs treatment for at least 100,000 people living with HIV/Aids by the end of 2006. Allafrica.com has the story. Good news indeed, and another step in the right direction.

It's encouraging to see, week for week, that the good news is out there waiting to be highlighted, despite the misery and disaster and negativity that tend to dominate our news bulletins on a daily basis. You just have to know where to look.

Oh dear. It's worse even than the picture The Times paints in the article linked to in my previous post. Reported today on Allafrica.com is the alarming news that the Zimbabwean government has barred humanitarian groups from assisting people affected by Operation Murambatsvina.

GOVERNMENT has barred humanitarian groups from assisting thousands of families whose shanty homes and informal businesses were destroyed under the controversial "Operation Murambatsvina" in a move described by observers as a desperate attempt by government to cover up the catastrophe the campaign has created.

The clean-up campaign has left more than 300 000 urban families homeless, jobless and destitute after flea markets, stalls, tuckshops as well as backyard lodgings were destroyed.

The operation, which government alleges is meant to rid urban areas of criminals, has been met with condemnation from all angles.

Diplomatic sources who had availed food, blankets and medicines to the destitute victims living in the open have been told to stop their activities forthwith.

Read the rest of this sorry tale here.

Can you explain your actions on this issue, President Mugabe? Disgraceful.

Don't be lulled into a false sense of security by the two-week silence since I last posted about events in Zimbabwe. Things have not improved. In fact, they've got worse.

Operation Murambatsvina (which means "throw out the rubbish") is now in its fourth week and continues unabated. The Times reports today on the fates of some of the Zimbabweans who have been rendered homeless and destitute by Mugabe's latest operation.

“No job, no money, no food and nothing in the shops. Our brains are going cockeye,” says Crispen Musanhi, warming himself by the embers against the midwinter cold.

Next to him is all he owns — a wardrobe, a few sacks of maize for a bed, blankets and two suitcases. “My friend, this is a tsunami disaster.”

Now in its fourth week, Operation Murambatsvina (“throw out the rubbish”) has indeed created misery and devastation on the scale of a natural disaster. The ruthless “clean-up” operation in Zimbabwe’s urban areas has driven possibly a million people from their homes.

In nearly every poor township of the country it has left thousands of acres of grey concrete rubble where homes and small businesses stood, and created a vast tide of refugees seeking shelter and food.

Read the rest of this chilling article here.

I think I've found a channel through which to do something constructive about this latest Mugabe-driven outrage. I'm looking into it a little further and will post about it when I know more.

I love the BBC News website. In my opinion, it's the best news presence on the internet anywhere. The scope is amazing, the interface is user-friendly and easy on the eye, it's quick to load, always up-to-date and the archive searches actually work. Moreover, it's all free, you don't have to sign up or watch ads, and the articles remain in the archives permanently, rather than disappearing after a few days or weeks, like some other news providers. Accordingly, BBC News is my first stop on the internet for news of all kinds.

That little outburst of waxing lyrical was inspired by the fact that I just headed to the BBC News website and within the space of a couple of minutes found two great articles that I wanted to blog about.

The first one is quirky, but kind of sad. You may recall, assuming that this story made it onto your news radar, that in August last year an 80 year-old Italian widower took the novel step of advertising in a newspaper asking for a family to "adopt" him as a grandfather. Well, his ad was successful and he quickly found a family who happily adopted him as their grandfather. So much for the background.

Well, it turns out that the grandfather in question, Giorgio Angelozzi, was a bit dodgy. He appears to have "run away" from his adoptive family and stolen cheques to pay his debts to them.

Giorgio Angelozzi moved in with the Riva family last year after placing an ad offering his services as a grandad. But last month he left, saying he was going to Rome. According to the Rivas, he in fact went to another family where he stole cheques to cover his debts.

He has reportedly now been found in a retirement home, and denies stealing. Italian officials said the 80-year-old turned up at the home near Milan last week with no money. He is currently being questioned by police.

Read the rest of this story here.

At the time that this story surfaced I thought it was kind of cute, but pretty weird. I remember thinking to myself that there was no way in the world that I would "adopt" someone to be my family's "granddad" based on an advertisement in a newspaper, someone I'd never met, and about whose past I knew nothing whatsoever. I realised that that was perhaps a bit cynical and jaded of me, but it turns out that my gut feeling on that was right. Still, it's a weird and interesting story, I reckon.

The other BBC article which caught my eye just now, was an article about an extinct flightless New Zealand bird called the moa. Ever since I was a kid and learnt about it at school, I've been fascinated by the moa. Whenever I went to the Auckland Museum (which was fairly frequently), I would stand in front of the stuffed moa they had they, looking up at how huge it was, and marvelling that there could ever have been such a bird.

Anyhow, it turns out that scientists think they have discovered part of the reason why the moa became extinct: it grew too slowly and did not reach sexual maturity fast enough.

"UK and New Zealand scientists studied growth rings (similar to tree rings) in leg bones from the giant birds.

They found that moa took about 10 years to reach full size and then several more to reach sexual maturity.

This left them vulnerable to human hunters who got to New Zealand 700 years ago, the team writes in Nature.

The hunters may simply have wiped out the birds by picking them off before they had a chance to become parents."

Read the rest of this article here.

Interesting, I think. It makes perfect sense. It's amazing to note the difference between how fast living birds reach maturity - 12 months - and how slowly moas apparently reached adult size - 10 years. That's quite a discrepancy.

Meanwhile, those of us here in Europe wait with bated breath to hear the result of ongoing budget negotiations at the EU summit currently underway in Brussels. Yesterday, the EU leaders decided to push back the deadline for ratifying the EU constitution treaty. This doesn't solve anything, of course, but at least it gives the EU itself and the member countries yet to ratify the treaty time to get their ducks in a row and decide how best to proceed.

But on the other big issue at this summit, the EU budget, it's not looking at all good for the chances of a resolution by the end of the summit this evening. At this stage, it sounds a lot like Britain and France have assumed their regular stances as an immovable object meeting an irresistible force. Tony Blair has made it clear he has no intention of surrendering Britain's enormous EU rebate (unless farming subsidies are renegotiated), while Jacques Chirac has made it clear that he's not interested in having the farming subsidies (which are disproportionately beneficial and lucrative for France) renegotiated. Not now, and not any time between now and 2013. And with two of Europe's biggest and most powerful member states at loggerheads in this way, what are the chances of finding a solution? Slim.

I'm no economist, but if you ask me, both Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac are wrong but they must assume the stances they have in order not to commit political suicide at home. The British rebate should be scrapped, because the economic conditions and the discrepancy in wealth between the UK and other rich EU members which obtained when the rebate was first negotiated have changed. Similarly, the agriciultural policy (especially the farming subsidies) should be renegotiated. (In fact, I think farming subsidies should be scrapped entirely, but that is never going to happen). But for either of the two leaders to give in on these issues would be viewed by their respective electorates at home as "selling out" national interest to Brussels. So, on the budget, the EU is currently stuck between a rock and a hard place and, frankly, I'm not sure how they're going to get out of this bind.

Time will tell, but I certainly don't expect this issue to be resolved today.

[BBC News has a very informative Q&A: EU budget rows if these issues are new to you and you're interested.]

Well, if you do sleepwalk, and if you don't sleep on the ground floor of your house or the building your apartment is in, might I politely suggest locking your bathroom window at night, before you go the way of this exceptionally lucky sleepwalker near Wiesbaden a couple of nights ago?

"A rooftop sleepwalker in Germany plunged six metres to the ground overnight on Wednesday, amazingly suffering nothing more serious than bruises.

Totally oblivious to his surroundings, the 39-year-old man crawled out of his upper story bathroom window in the Main River valley town of Eltville and was ambling across the roof when he apparently lost his footing and slid off into the back garden, police said.

"The only thing that saved him was the fact that he fell onto a lawn that was soggy from a rain shower," a police spokesman said.

He was taken to hospital, where stunned doctors said he had a few bad bruises but no broken bones. The man, who said he has a
long history of sleepwalking, was put in touch with a sleep laboratory in Frankfurt for a course of therapy."

[Source: Expatica.]

Yikes! I have, to the best of my knowledge, only ever sleep-walked once. It was when I was living in a shared house with five other students. Suffice it to say that I didn't end up sleep-walking back to my own bed that night, resulting in a rather embarrassing situation for me, and for him.

Although I was not even born when Watergate went down and although I previously knew nothing but the absolute basics about the scandal and its aftermath, I've found the recent revelations regarding the identity of Deep Throat fascinating. In particular, I've been fascinated by the way the right-wing media and blogosphere has focussed pretty much solely on assertions that former FBI assistant director W. Mark Felt broke the law and was traitorous in leaking the details that he did, while the liberal blogosphere has barely stopped short of hailing Felt as a national hero for bringing down a Republican President. I don't have an opinion either way, and to be honest I think that by now it's neither here nor there, but I've found all the posturing very interesting to read.

But a couple of days ago (though it only came to my attention today), it got even better. In a truly delicious ironic twist, it turns out that the person that the FBI placed in charge of finding out who Deep Throat was and stopping the leaks was ... wait for it .... Deep Throat himself! Someone call Alanis Morrissette and tell her, that is ironic. You have to laugh.

But Felt's role as the most famous anonymous source in US history was even more complex and intrigue-loaded than the newly revised public account suggests. According to originally confidential FBI documents--some written by Felt--that were obtained by The Nation from the FBI's archives, Felt played another heretofore unknown part in the Watergate tale: He was, at heated moments during the scandal, in charge of finding the source of Woodward and Bernstein's Watergate scoops. In a twist worthy of le Carré, Deep Throat was assigned the mission of unearthing--and stopping--Deep Throat.

This placed Felt, who as the FBI's associate director oversaw the bureau's Watergate probe, in an unusual position. He was essentially in charge of investigating himself. From this vantage point Felt, who had developed espionage skills running FBI counterintelligence operations against German spies in World War II, was able to watch his own back and protect his ability to guide the two reporters whose exposés would help topple the President he served.

Felt at different points became an FBI plumber--in the parlance of the Nixon White House, a "plumber" was an operative who took care of leaks--even though he was the number-one leaker. He was in the perfect spot to deflect any accusations that might implicate him and to misdirect suspicion. And when President Nixon and his top aides became convinced that Felt was a key source for the Washington Post--they still couldn't touch him because of what he knew about their skulduggery.

How good is that? I love it. I reckon that Bernstein and Woodward's upcoming post-revelation book is going to be a must-read. In the meantime, read the rest of a very long but fascinating article in The Nation here. [Hat-tip to phil u for the link.]

Another interesting article with background on the whole Watergate and Deep Throat story is this account by Bob Woodward himself, which was published a couple of weeks ago in the Guardian.

From time to time I spot Women's and Fashion magazines like these at the news-stand and shake my head at the marketing machine that assails us on a daily basis with an unrealistic and unhealthy ideal for women's bodies. We all know that most of the pictures in women's magazines (and magazine advertisements in general) are air-brushed, tweaked and touched up to make the subjects look better, thinner and adhere more closely to that ideal. However, until today [Hat-tip to Miss Behaviour for the link], I did not know quite how much the air-brush could do. Now I do and, frankly, I am shocked.



Click on the image above to get to Greg's Digital Archive. Move your mouse over the picture to see before and after air-brush shots of that woman. In the left-hand bar, you'll find four different shots. Check them all out, it's absolutely astonishing. Note the difference in her face, the size of her hips and bust, and the change in her belly button. I am still recovering.

There's an interesting discussion going on over on Beyourself's blog Welcome to my Asylum about China, Communism, fear thereof, trade with China and (now also) the death penalty. The discussion started here and is continuing here. If you're interested in any of those topics, head on over and check it out. It's worth the click.

I wrote this blog entry yesterday, but then never got a chance to post it. So here, after a brief delay, it is:

The EU's European Council has indicated that it will consider taking diplomatic and/or economic action against Uzbekistan. About time too! Mannheimer Morgen [Warning: German link] and Reuters are reporting that the European Union is threatening to withdraw its political and economic co-operation with the Uzbek regime unless President Karimov submits to an independent investigation into recent bloodshed in Andijan.

At this stage the EU is only threatening this action, but there does appear to have been a deadline set:

"The Council (EU ministers) urges the Uzbek authorities to reconsider their position by the end of June 2005," the ministers said in a statement.

They said EU services would follow closely the situation in Uzbekistan and "they will keep under review the case for a partial suspension of cooperation mechanisms between the EU and Uzbekistan".

The statement added that any EU measures would be meant to spare the Uzbek population, which could mean that the bloc was considering a freeze in diplomatic ties or travel ban for government officials rather than trade sanctions.

I personally feel that this step should have been taken several weeks ago in the aftermath of the bloody crackdown in Uzbekistan and Karimov's refusal to allow independent investigations into events, but it's better late than never. I appreciate that high-level diplomacy such as this is a delicate matter and must be handled deliberately and without undue haste, so perhaps the delay is understandable. In any case, it is certainly true that pressure on Karimov and his regime in the form of threats such as those being reported here is better than nothing at all. I just hope that the EU foreign ministers will be true to their word and actually follow throuh if and when the deadline they have proposed passes.

In rather more sobering news on the same topic, the International Herald Tribune reports that NATO had wanted to call unequivocally for an international investigation into the events in Andijan but was prevented from doing so by the United States and Russia.

U.S. and other diplomatic officials told The Post that Britain and other European countries had wanted to include in the final statement a demand for an international investigation of the clash on May 13 in the Uzbek city of Andijon, but that they were stopped by Russia and the United States.

...

According to The Post's sources, whom it did not identify, the U.S. delegation at the meeting, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and State Department officials, disagreed over whether to investigative [sic] the clash.

Defense officials prevailed over a State Department view by arguing that an inquiry could compromise U.S. access to a military base in Uzbekistan that they said was crucial in the fight against international terrorism.

If ever you needed to see a clear indication of the United States' double standards when it comes to spreading freedom and democracy throughout the world, that's it right there folks! Is it any wonder that much of the rest of the world is sceptical of the Bush administration's motivations in its much-vaunted crusade for freedom when we see hypocrisy like this? The message that the US stance on this issue sends to the world is this: "We are for democracy and freedom around the world, except in situations where we judge your democracy and freedom to be less important than our "war on terror." In such cases we will turn a blind eye, cooperate with and fund the dictator who takes away your freedom as long as it is expedient."

Russia, of course, is no better. The Kremlin's support for Karimov throughout these events has been a cause for dismay. But at least any disappointment in Russia's action is not compounded by hypocrisy. The Russians make no claim to be looking out for anyone other than themselves.

Can you tell that this issue really has me riled?

If you've been reading The Capital Letter for some time, you may recall that I blogged about a month ago about the Rent-a-German website. In that post I linked to a Deutsche Welle article which suggested that Rent-a-German was started as a gag and was never intended actually to provide a serious service.

Well ... evidently someone at the British newspaper The Times thought they should put it to the test, went to rentagerman.de, and rented a bona fide German for a weekend in London.

WHAT started as an artist’s joke — a website that offers Germans for hire — has become an internet phenomenon.

Rentagerman.de opened in March and has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors and more than 200 requests for Germans from as far afield as Houston and Venice.

It is not clear why. The site promises that “renting a German was never so easy”, which is probably true but hardly irresistible. It offers “a wide range of Germans for [your] personal and social needs” but does not suggest what those might be. The Times would have to hire a German to find out.

Johannes Blank, a conceptual artist from Munich, never expected anyone to take his site seriously but was happy to take my money. He sent over a contract (no “sexual acts” or “discriminating actions”), we agreed a fee of £800 and my German was booked on a plane to Stansted. The phone rang just after 7am the next day. It was the German to say that he had arrived in England and caught the train to London an hour early. “That’s German efficiency for you,” my wife mumbled, sleepily.

Read the rest of what is a very amusing article here.

I particularly love the summary of his day in London written by the rented German himself, which appears at the bottom of the Times article:

3.30am I never thought that someone would hire me for being a German. I had to wake up so early to catch the flight.

8am: I arrive in London to meet the Times journalist. The Stansted Express was awful. It smelt of puke. Neither of us knows exactly why I was rented.

11am: The Tower of London looked better in my English schoolbook but the Tower Bridge is just as I imagined it. I ask myself what can a German man do that a British one can’t.

3pm: Abdul in the the Jobcentre said German girls had nothing in their brains. Nobody wants to hear this about his country!

8pm: It was hard carrying around the sign that said “German for Hire”, but when I watched the crowd looking at me it was funny.

11pm: It has been a long day and I feel I earned the money. But next time I want to be rented out to someone in Rio de Janeiro.

Now if only I could have a cunning niche-like idea like that. Hmmmm...

The charges in the Michael Jackson case, with their respective verdicts, are as follows:

Count 1: Conspiracy to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion between 1 February and 31 March 2003. Verdict: Not Guilty

Count 2: Lewd act upon a child between 20 February and 12 March 2003. Verdict: Not Guilty

Count 3: Lewd act upon a child between 20 February and 12 March 2003. Verdict: Not Guilty

Count 4: Lewd act upon a child between 20 February and 12 March 2003. Verdict: Not Guilty

Count 5: Lewd act upon a child between 20 February and 12 March 2003. Verdict: Not Guilty

Count 6: Attempt to commit a lewd act upon a child between 20 February and 12 March 2003. Verdict: Not Guilty

Count 7: Administering an intoxicating agent to assist in the commission of a felony (child molestation) between 20 February and 12 March 2003. Verdict: Not Guilty (also Not guilty on lesser offence)

Count 8: Administering an intoxicating agent to assist in the commission of a felony (child molestation) between 20 February and 12 March 2003. Verdict: Not Guilty (also Not guilty on lesser offence)

Count 9: Administering an intoxicating agent to assist in the commission of a felony (child molestation) between 20 February and 12 March 2003. Verdict: Not Guilty (also Not guilty on lesser offence)

Count 10: Administering an intoxicating agent to assist in the commission of a felony (child molestation) between 20 February and 12 March 2003. Verdict: Not Guilty (also Not guilty on lesser offence)

The jury in this case deliberated for 32 hours over a seven day period. Normally, after such a long deliberation, I'd have expected a hung jury - which would eventually have meant a re-trial - but it turns out I was wrong.

It's interesting also that the judge allowed a live audio feed out of the courtroom during the reading of the verdict. This, apparently, is the very first time this has been done, and is an indication of the enormous interest in this case, not just in the States, but right around the world.

Wow! Michael Jackson has got off completely. I must confess to being rather surprised. It will be interesting to see what the media makes of this. Bring on the media frenzy.

The BBC News website is reporting that the jury in the Michael Jackson trial has reached a verdict and will be reporting soon.

Watch this space.

[Update: CNN is reporting that the verdict will be read out in just under half an hour at 1:30pm local time.]

[Update 2: CNN online is now reporting that 1:45pm is the scheduled time for the reading of the verdict. However, CNN television is reporting that Jackson and his entourage may be late to the courthouse, which would of course delay the reading of the verdict.]

What is it with Germans and their phones? In the past week there have been a couple of odd stories that have been reported here in Germany which both revolve around telephones. The first has to do with the public variety, the second to do with the mobile (or cellular) variety.

Expatica reported early last week that the German telecommunications company which runs all the public phone boxes, Deutsche Telekom, had decided to recalibrate all its public telephones to accept the old Deutsche Mark coins in addition to Euro coins. What?!? Why?!? The Mark went out on 1st January 2002. That's more than three years ago. And Deutsche Telekom reckon that people still carry the old coins around with them and are likely to have them handy at the exact moment they need to make a call from a phone-box?! What nonsense. In fact, in this day and age when even eight year-olds seem to have mobile phones, does anyone actually make calls from phone boxes anyway? Perhaps that's the point. Perhaps noone does, and so this is nothing but a publicity stunt by Deutsche Telekom just to remind us all that phone boxes do still exist and that we should feel free to use them with our stacks of old Deutsche Mark coins when our mobile phone batteries and our Euro change both run out simultaneously. Who knows?

This second piece, though, is considerbaly weirder. If you thought that it was odd that, as I blogged about last week, in Gloucestershire there is a sporting event which involes chasing cheese down a hill, you'll be intrigued to know that in two weeks' time on the 25th June, the German national mobile phone throwing championships are being held in Bielefeld. But it's better than that even, because the winner of said championships will be off to Finland to compete in the world mobile phone throwing championships. Expatica has the story:

Disciplines include the furthest throw and the most creative in the freestyle event. Winners will be eligible for the sixth world championships at a lakeside site in Finland in August, with Baltic ferry operators sponsoring the transport.

Organiser Virpi Staar said she expected 160 competitors at the German event, which will use old cellphones that do not work, supplied by an electronics recycling company.

"Sometimes you get really mad at your mobile phone and want to hurl it as far as you can," she said. "This is a chance to do it." The mobiles weigh between 200 and 400 grams.

If that sounds like you, get in training. You've got two weeks to get your arm in and make your way to Bielefeld. If you can read German and you're interested, there are more details in the Neue Westfälische online.

Add to all that the fact that it is a German pop group that is responsible for the truly infuriating Crazy Frog song that went straight to the top of the UK charts last week, and I'm sure you'll join me in wondering, what is it with these Germans and their phones?

Well, it had to happen sometime: I got tagged for my very first meme. This post, then, is me losing my meme virginity, and you get to watch, free of charge. Here goes:

I got tagged by Badaunt, whose blog lives here, or here, depending on whether you're the tBlog type, or the Blogger type. (The blogs are identical, by the way).

Name 5 things you miss about your childhood:

This was surprisingly easy. There are, it turns out, lots of things I miss about my childhood. I had to cull lots, and I could easily have listed 10 things. Anyway, for what it's worth, here goes:

I miss the sight of Auckland's Waitemata Harbour jam-packed with yachts and boats of all sizes, shapes and colours participating in the Anniversary day regatta in late January (i.e. mid-Summer). For much of my childhood I could see this astonishing spectacle from my bedroom window, and I'd take in the sights every year. Not being a yachtie myself, I never participated, but I certainly enjoyed the view.

I miss the sound of weekend cricket commentary or horse racing commentary coming from my Dad's really old (even back then) leather-covered portable transitor radio. This radio followed him around the garden in the summer as he did the gardening or the pruning or the lawn mowing, always close by so that he didn't miss the crucial wicket in the cricket, or the big race at the gallops. It provided the acoustic backdrop to many a day of summer backyard fun for me and to this day the sound of radio cricket or racing commentary conjures up very happy memories.

I miss the taste of fresh, juicy summer fruit. I especially miss the watermelon, the peaches, the nectarines and the royal gala apples. Oh, and the fresh boysenberries we got by the bucketload from my aunt and uncle's orchard. In all the places I've lived since then, I've never found fruit of the freshness and juiciness to even approach the fruit that I enjoyed as a kid growing up in New Zealand.

I miss the smell of freshly mown grass on a Saturday morning. I hardly ever smell that around these parts (partly because so few people actually have any lawn to mow) but it's one of my favourite smells in the world.

And finally, I miss the feeling of being squished between my Dad and my brother, one man and two boys squeezing into two seats in the North Stand at Eden Park watching rugby and loving every minute of it. You see, my Dad was the proud owner of two season tickets to Eden Park, but also the proud father of two little boys who were each just as keen to see their Auckland rugby heroes (the likes of Gary Whetton, Michael Jones and John Kirwan), so he hatched a cunning plan, which worked a treat every time. Back then, the seats were not the bucket seats you get in stadia these days. They were long wooden benches, with lines and numbers painted on them to indicate where you were to sit. My Dad reckoned, rightly as it turned out, that he and two little boys could pretty much squeeze in between two lines without anyone on either side being inconvenienced. Now he just had to get us all in there on only two tickets. Easy: we'd all walk up to the fence close to the turnstiles. I would be instructed to stand right there and wait till my Dad came back. Then he and my brother would go in through the turnstiles with the two tickets. Dad would take brother Bear up to our seats, plant him there and tell him not to move until he got back, then he'd run back down (armed with both tickets, naughty naughty), go out through the turnstiles, pick me up from where he'd left me and we'd go in through a different turnstile (so as not to be recognised) and join my brother in the stands to enjoy the game. It worked a charm, but only because they were season tickets which in those days only got looked at in their plastic protective covers, rather than scanned or stamped or something. As a result, I have wonderful childhood memories of the feeling of being squished in between my brother and my Dad and following developments on the field below with rapt excitement.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~

The rules:

Remove the #1 item from the following list, bump everyone up one place and add your blog's name in the #5 spot. You should link to these urls - which means that this could take a while. (YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.) You see, this is a meme with a built-in trap. You click on the links so you can get the urls, and then you start reading, and the next thing you know you've missed dinner!

Feisty Repartee
Chaos Theory
Wired JAFA
Bad Aunt
BerlinBear

Then pass the meme on...

There seems to be a little bit of cunfusion about how many people to pass this meme on to, so I'm going to just do what Badaunt did and pass to five. There is no method to my choosing, it's just madness.

I tag Lindy, Juniperflux, TheJongleur (even though this will be a real departure from the normal form of his blog, there's a chance he might play along. We'll see), Beyourself, and, last but certainly not least Uroskin. I look forward to reading what those people have to say.

I've got a wide variety of good news for your enjoyment this fine Saturday. No political and/or democratic developments around the world caught my eye this week, so for this post I've turned to the disparate worlds of computer games, lexicography, football and rugby, in that order.

From Singapore comes the good news for those who, like me, grew up playing arcade games such as Pacman, that researchers are developing a virtual-reality human version of the game which will be played in the real world (known to some as BBC News reports:

"Players equipped with a wearable computer, headset and goggles can physically enter a real world game space by choosing to play the role of Pacman or one of the Ghosts.

A central computer system keeps track of all their movements with the aid of GPS receivers and a wireless local area network.

The Human Pacman was developed by Adrian David Cheok and his team at the Mixed Reality Lab, National University of Singapore. Merging different technologies such as GPS, Bluetooth, virtual reality, wi-fi, infrared and sensing mechanisms, the augmented reality game allows gamers to play in a digitally-enhanced maze-like version of the real world.

It has been selected as one of the world's top 100 high-impact and visionary technologies and will showcased at the Wired NextFest 2005 in Chicago, US, which runs from June 24 to 26."

It sounds geeky but cool to me. In the meantime, while that is still being tested, click on the Pacman image for an online version of the original arcade game if you fancy a blast from the past to tide you over. Enjoy.

Next up, from the UK and Collins publishers comes the excellent news that the likes of chav, chavtastic, Asbo, bouncebackability and property porn are no longer uncodified, overlooked items of English vocabulary, but rather have been elevated to dictionary status in the latest edition of the Collins English Dictionary which was published this week. BBC News defines all of the above vocabulary items and covers the full story. If the BBC's highlighting of those few items isn't enough for you and you want the real thing to hold in your hot little hands for a mere £30, you can order it online from Collins here.

Moving to football now (or soccer, if you must), this week brought the very good news that Europe's footballing body Uefa has seen the light and altered the Champions League regulations to ensure that this season's champions, Liverpool, will be able to defend their title. Since Liverpool finished 5th in the English Premier League this season and only the top four English teams qualify for the Champions League, it was looking for a couple of weeks like the 2005/6 Champions League was going to be in the ridiculous position of being forced to exclude the defending champion. Thankfully, the powers that be at Uefa this week understood that such a scenario would be a travesty and have tweaked the rules accordingly. Good news for Liverpool, good news for Uefa, and good news for next season's Champions League. I can't wait.

And finally, just briefly, two pieces of good rugby news from New Zealand, where the British and Irish Lions are currently on tour. This weekend, the All Blacks played Fiji as part of their build-up to the three tests against the Lions (the first of which is in two weeks' time on the 25th June), and absolutely thumped them 91 - 0. That, for those not familiar with rugby scoring, is an absolute drubbing. Planet Rugby has a match report. But even better news is that the New Zealand Maori side beat the Lions for the first time ever. In what sounds like a pretty dull game, the NZ Maori downed the Lions 19 - 13 with a commanding performance. Planet Rugby has all the details. Unfortunately I didn't see either of these games (it's pretty hard to get access to rugby on television here in Germany), but they would both certainly seem to bode well for the All Blacks for the upcoming test matches against the Lions (which I will definitely be watching). Good news indeed. Unless, of course, you're supporting the Lions.

Yet again, tBlog was playing silly buggers yesterday and I was unable to access my blog at all, despite multiple attempts at various times of the day. I see from my site statistics that yesterday's hits were down by about 80%, which suggests that the server was playing up almost all day. It's frustrating and annoying, but unfortunately completely beyond my control. My apologies for the inconvenience and the down time. Please bear with me though, and keep coming back.

Big news in politics here in Germany this week: the latest polls have the centre-right Christian Democrat grouping (CDU/CSU) not just leading by a big margin, but actually polling high enough to secure an absolute majority in the lower house, or Bundestag.

"Germany's conservative opposition, led by Angela Merkel, continues to surge ahead of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's battered Social Democrats and would now win an absolute majority in upcoming elections, a poll showed on Wednesday.

Merkel's Christian Democratic alliance (CDU/CSU) is currently at 49 percent, which would give it an absolute majority in parliament's lower house, the Bundestag, due to the presence of several smaller parties in the chamber.

With Merkel's Free Democratic (FDP) ally, a potential centre-right German government would have a stable majority of 55 percent, said the Stern magazine/RTL TV poll. Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD) are scraping along at 28 percent with his Greens coalition partner at 8 percent, the poll said." [Source: Expatica.]

Things are not looking good at all for Gerhard Schröder and his centre-left coalition. This poll result comes at a time when it remains unclear whether German President Horst Köhler will even agree to dissolve parliament as the SPD wishes in order to allow early elections to proceed this coming Autumn. At this stage it looks almost certain that, if indeed those early elections are allowed to go ahead, Germany will see a change of government later this year.

The same Stern/RTL poll cited above, (which I have linked to behind the image) also contains some bad news, or at least a word of warning for the EU project. The poll respondents were also asked whether they felt that too many EU decisions were taken in Brussels over the heads of EU-citizens. A spectacularly high 83% said yes, and only 12% said no.

[Stern magazine] said the survey taken by the Forsa polling institute found that 83 percent felt that the EU makes too many decisions over the heads of the citizenry.

Only 12 percent of the 1,003 persons questioned on 2-3 June felt otherwise, while 5 percent had no opinion, Stern reported.

The antipathy about the EU shown in the German poll is the latest sign of trouble for Brussels after French and Dutch referendum votes rejected the EU constitution and Britain has indefinitely postponed holding a referendum on the issue.

At the political level, Germany is one of the staunchest backers of the EU, but the Forsa poll indicates that at the grass-roots level, German citizens are also having their doubts. [Source: Expatica.]

Interesting stuff, and yet further evidence - as if we hadn't seen enough already with the French and Dutch referendum results last week - that the EU project is in urgent need of tweaking and redirecting.

I was sent this little gem by email last week and thought I'd share the mirth. The New Zealanders amongst you will presumably smile cringe in recognition, just as I did. The rest of you can just laugh at what is, sadly, a fairly accurate representation of our funny accent.

How to Speak New Zullander - For bist effict, rid these out loud

Milburn ............... capital of Victoria

Peck .................. to fill a suitcase

Pissed aside .......... chemical which kills insects

Pigs .................. for hanging out washing with

Pug ................... large pink animal with a curly tail

Nin tin dough ......... computer game

Munner stroney ........ soup

Min ................... male of the species

Mess Kara ............. eye makeup

McKennock ............. person who fixes cars

Mere .................. Mayor

Leather ............... foam produced from soap

Lift .................. departed

Kiri Pecker ........... famous Australian businessman

Kittle crusps ......... potato chips

Ken's ................. Cairns

Jumbo ................. pet name for someone called Jim

Jungle Bills .......... Christmas carol

Inner me .............. enemy

Guess ................. vapour

Fush .................. marine creatures

Fitter cheney ......... type of pasta

Ever cardeau .......... avocado

Fear hear ............. blonde

Ear ................... mix of nitrogen and oxygen

Ear roebucks .......... exercise at the gym

Duffy cult ............ not easy

Amejen ................ visualise

Bug hut ............... popular recording

Bun button ............ been bitten by insect

Beard ................. a place to sleep

Chully Bun ............ Esky

Sucks Peck ............ Half a dozen beers

Ear New Zulland ....... an airline

Beers ................. large savage animals found in U.S. forests (and one in Berlin)

Veerjun ............... mythical New Zealand maiden

One Doze .............. wellknown computer program

Brudge ................ structure spanning a stream

Sex ................... one less than sivven

Tin ................... onemore than nine

Iggs Ecktly ........... Precisely

Earplane .............. large flying machine

Beggage Chucken ....... place to leave your suitcase at the earport

Sivven Sucks Sivven ... large Boeing aircraft

Sivven FourSivven...... larger Boeing aircraft

Cuds .................. children

Pits .................. domestic animals

Cuttin ................ baby cat

Munce................. usually served on toast

On a completely unrelated note, here are some weird and quirky pieces of news which have come to my attention recently. First, take a look at a fairly unique thing to do with cheese in Gloucestershire.

Once you regain your composure after reading that, check out this story about a very honest woman who found a fortune in an old laundry basket she bought at a German flea-market and turned the whole lot over to the police. Good on her. I hope that if I were in the same position, I would do the same. I think I would, but of course, until you're actually put in that position you never know, do you?

And finally, with a hat-tip to Lindy, here is one of the weirdest websites I've ever seen. I have no idea whether it's serious, or even for real, or what the point is supposed to be, but it's worth a look nonetheless: Crying While Eating.

I know it's not Saturday, but thanks to the Swiss, a U.S. Senator and Bob Geldof, this post consists almost entirely of good news. How nice.

Firstly (with a hat-tip to regular reader and commenter Kiwi in Zurich for the heads-up), there have been some exciting developments in Switzerland. In national referenda yesterday, Swiss citizens voted Oui, Ja, Si and Gea to approve government plans to join the EU's Schengen and Dublin agreements and to enable homosexual couples to register their partnerships.

The Schengen treaty is an agreement between various European nations to end border checkpoints and harmonise external borders. The Dublin convention is an EU law which streamlines the application process for refugees seeking political asylum in European nations. Essentially, the Swiss electorate's approval of these two agreements means that Switzerland will now open its borders, and become part of Europe's passport free zone, as well as sharing information with their EU colleagues on crime and asylum applications. And all this despite not being a member of the EU. This is a big and important step for a country which takes its independence and strict neutrality very very seriously indeed. This is, after all, a country whose citizens wouldn't even commit to being a member of the UN until 2002, so this referendum result is not to be sniffed at. BBC News and Deutsche Welle have all the details.

The other referendum result in Switzerland yesterday is also good news. Swissinfo reports:

Homosexual couples are to be able to register their partnerships, after voters approved a law giving gays some of the rights enjoyed by married couples.

The new law means gay couples will have the same pension, inheritance and tax rights and obligations. But they will not be allowed to adopt children or have access to fertility treatment.

Homosexual organisations were very satisfied by the result, considering it a symbolic recognition of their status.

"It's a magnificent victory," said Jean-Paul Guisan of Pink Cross. "When I was younger, I would never have imagined this could happen. I am very proud of Swiss voters who have shown their openness and their courage."

Exit polls showed that some 58 per cent of voters supported putting gay partnerships on a sound legal footing.

That is good news indeed. To my mind, it does not go far enough, but it is certainly a step in the right direction, and these things take time.

All in all, then, hats off to the Swiss for getting it absolutely right in their referenda yesterday.

On a completely different note, but also very welcome news, U.S. Senator Joseph Biden (D-Delaware), a leading Democrat and member of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee has finally come out and said that it is time to close down the U.S. detention centre at Guantanamo Bay. His reasoning is that the camp's poor reputation makes it counter-productive, because rather than preventing terrorism, it helps to recruit new terrorists.

A leading senator, Joseph Biden of Delaware, suggested the time had come to consider a gradual closure of the facility, arguing its worsening reputation around the world was helping to recruit people bent on hurting the US.

"This has become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world. And it is unnecessary to be in that position."

For a start, the senator argued, there should at least be an independent commission established to address the value of keeping Guantanamo. "The end result is, I think we should end up shutting it down, moving those prisoners."

"Those that we have reason to keep, keep. And those we don't, let go." [Source: Independent.]

He is, of course, absolutely right, and it's about time someone influential came out and said so. Hats off to Senator Biden for having the gumption to stand up and make his voice on this issue heard. I don't doubt for a moment that he will be attacked as un-patriotic by sections of the right-wing media and blogosphere. But make no mistake: what he has said is not unpatriotic. It is correct. And it shows considerably more appreciation for what is impacting on America's reputation and standing in the world than we have seen from anyone of import in the Bush administration. If you're an American and reading this, and especially if you're from Delaware, perhaps you'd consider emailing Senator Biden to tell him what you think of his stance.

And finally, you may have heard about bob Geldof's latest project, called Live8, in which he is organising free concerts around the world to coincide with the G8 conference coming up in Gleneagles. The concerts take place on 2nd July 2005, in the following locations:

UK – Hyde Park, London
France – Palais de Versailles, Paris
Germany – Brandenberg Gate, Berlin
Italy – Circus Maximus, Rome
USA –Museum of Art, Philadelphia

The line-ups for the various concerts look great. Check out all the details at the Live8Live website. If you want to go to the London concert, you'll need to enter a text message sweepstake (details here), but all the other concerts are ticketless and free. If you're in, or can get to, one of those locations, mark the 2nd July in your diary as a red-letter day, because these concerts sound like they're going to be great and the cause is a very good one indeed. Another relevant website a makepovertyhistory.org.

And that, I think, is plenty for one post.

It's been a while since I wrote one of my updates about web searches which have been leading people here, so I think it's time I indulged once more. I've also spent a couple of hours today getting my blog listed in a wide variety of blog search engines and directories, so it seems appropriate to combine the two topics in one post.

There are links to all the directories I've submitted my blog to in the right-hand sidebar. So, if ever you need to search for a blog on a particular topic or from a particular place, those are the tools you need. They vary in size and scope, but they all have something to offer. Also, if you already have a blog of your own and want to get it listed to get some extra exposure and get your message out there to a wider audience, just follow the links and submit your blog.

In addition to those search engines and directories, I've also signed up to The Truth Laid Bear's TTLB Ecosystem, which uses linking and hits to measure how much of a splash one is making in the giant and ever-growing pond of the blogosphere. As you can see in the right-hand sidebar, I am but a crawly amphibian at this stage. Both the visits and the external links are gradually creeping up though, which is gratifying, and means I must be doing something right.

Anyway, enough of that. What about search results? Well, I've been getting an awful lot of hits recently from people searching for merkins or for pubic wigs. Terrifyingly enough, a Google search for pubic+wig has The Capital Letter at 5th spot. Even more worrying than that: if you search for fanny wig instead, I still come up at 9th on the list. Yikes!

Other searches which seem to have brought me a lot of traffic recently have been those relating to the EU constitution referendum results, which is hardly surprising since that's been the hot news around these parts for a week or so. Searches for the piano man, George Weah, pimp my bike and Summer Eights continue to lead people here with alacrity too. You are all welcome and I trust you each found something that helped you on your way, piqued your interest, or both.

I'm afraid there's been a disappointing lack of dodgy searches for sex-related things to report on recently. That said, I did discover that a google search for bashful bladder puts this blog right at the top of the results, which is terrifying and rather makes me think I should have kept that poem to myself. Maybe only slightly less alarming than that was the discovery that an msn search for photos/ images of regular homosexual couples has The Capital Letter at fifth on the list. I'm sure Ms. Bear would be a little surprised to discover that I've made an appearance there. I think I might have some explaining to do...

As the title suggests, there are three unrelated things I want to highlight in this post. The first is that today, 4th June, marks the 16th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, in which the Chinese government ordered the Chinese Army (PLA) to put down peaceful, student-led, pro-Democracy protests in the capital Beijing with brutal and deadly force. There has never been an explanation, admission of guilt, or an apology from the Chinese government for these events. Accordingly, Hong Kong is the only place in China where this anniversary has been recognised today. BBC News reports that tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong have held a vigil to remember the victims. If you get a chance today, please take a moment to remember the hundreds - or was it thousands? Noone is quite sure - of peaceful protesters who died in Tiananmen Square 16 years ago today for their belief that democracy was a better option that Maoist totalitarianism.

Several days ago I expressed my disgust at the latest developments in Zimbabwe. Today, Reuters is reporting that Zimbabwean police have announced their intention to act to prevent protests at the ongoing eviction and destruction campaign being waged in Zimbabwe's shanty towns. In other words, Mugabe's iron grip on his country is being tightened at this very moment, disgruntled and increasingly desperate citizens are now also being denied the right to peaceful protest, and the rest of the world stands by and watches.

"We have a very grave crisis on our hands ... It is quite clearly a gross violation (of human rights)," Miloon Kothari, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing told journalists in Geneva.

And yet where is the outrage? Where is the pressure from the international community? Where are the statements of grave concern from leaders who are in a position to put pressure on Mugabe and his henchmen? They are all missing in action. We hear nothing. Instead we get this craven nonsense from the President of Tanzania. No wonder Mugabe feels empowered to do whatever he pleases while his country, once the so-called breadbasket of Africa, rots and starves.

And finally, today's Times reports on the publication of what looks like a fascinating new atlas, entitled: One Planet, Many People. It is put out by the United Nations Environment Program to mark World Environment Day (today), and it contains, amongst other things, comparative satellite pictures illustrating our impact on the planet.

Here is part of the blurb from the publisher's website:

One Planet, Many People is intended for environmental policy makers, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, academics, teachers and citizens. This colorful and approachable atlas contains photographs, satellite images, maps and narratives that provide insights into the many ways people around the world have changed, and continue to change, the environment.

Objectives
The main purpose of this hard-cover, 332-page, large-format atlas is to document visual evidence of global environmental changes resulting from natural processes and human-induced activities. Special objectives of One Planet, Many People include:

generating awareness of human interactions with the environment that alter the environment in demonstrable ways

providing scientific measurement of over-exploitation of the environment and consequences of such action.

To meet these objectives, the atlas provides:

a collection of spectacular “before and after” satellite image pairs on various themes for 80 sites around the world;

over 30 environmental case studies supported by narratives, images and ground photographs;

and a compilation of recently released environmental maps.

At US$150 it's pretty steep, but it looks like an amazing book. All the details, including great pdf posters of some of the satellite images are here.

Morning all. Time for another good news update this fine Saturday morning. I've got two good news gems for you today.

We start in the middle of the Indian Ocean, in the Maldives, where a new political era was ushered in this past week. In a welcome departure from a long tradition of autocratic rule, the Maldivian parliament voted unanimously on Thursday to allow the formation of political parties.
These had, until now, been banned. Those who wish to form new political parties will be allowed to do so from tomorrow. It is expected that there will probably be some five political parties founded. BBC News has the full story, and it is good news indeed. Another brick in the wall in the direction of democracy rather than autoritarian rule.

(If, like mine, your knowledge of the Maldives extends no further than knowing that it took a pummeling in the recent Indian Ocean Tsunami, then the link behind the map is the one for you: it's a link to the BBC country profile for the Maldives. Alternatively, try the CIA World Factbook entry, which is even more detailed.)

Today's second piece of good news comes via the New York Times. In today's edition, it is reported that Amnesty International has come out strongly in defence of its stinging criticisms of the United States' human rights record in 2004 in the recently published Amnesty International Report 2004. Instead of cravenly rolling over and backing down in the face of angry dismissal of the report and of the organisation as a whole from a Bush administration uncomfortable with its findings and the language chosen to describe them, Amnesty International have chosen to fight their corner and defend their chastisement of the United States' current record on human rights. The New York Times has the full story [Requires (free) registration], as well as a letter to the editor from the Executive Director of Amnesty International, which I will reproduce in full here because it is brief and pithy:

Published: June 4, 2005
To the Editor:

President Bush's characterization of Amnesty International's criticisms of United States human rights abuses as "absurd" is ironic (news article, June 1).

If our reports are so "absurd," why did the administration repeatedly cite our findings about Saddam Hussein before the Iraq war? Why does it welcome our criticisms of Cuba, China and North Korea? And why does it cite our research in its own annual human rights reports?

No amount of spin can erase the myriad human rights abuses committed by United States officials in the "war on terror." The United States cannot simultaneously claim that it "promotes freedom around the world" while detaining tens of thousands at Guantánamo Bay, Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and in Iraq and other locations without charge or trial and allowing those civilian and military officials responsible for orchestrating a systematic policy of torture to escape accountability.

Instead of attacking us, President Bush should insist upon a truly thorough, independent investigation of those who tried to circumvent global prohibitions on torture, and he should open all detention centers to scrutiny by independent human rights groups.

Only then will the world be able to judge whether it is Amnesty International or the president whose perspective deserves to be called "absurd."

William F. Schulz
Exec. Dir., Amnesty International
New York, June 1, 2005

This response from Amnesty International is, to me, good news. It is important that someone stand up to this U.S. Administration, highlight its wrongdoings and hold it accountable. And since it appears that it's not going to be the U.S. media to play this role, then it has to be international non-governmental organisations like AI. I for one am very glad to see that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld's bully boy tactics do not appear to be working on Amnesty International. In fact, it makes me quite tempted to make a donation.

[Important note: Don't let the right wing blogs and media - or George Bush's rhetoric for that matter - fool you into thinking that the AI report levels criticism solely at the U.S., at the expense of admonishing other states whose human rights records are not up to scratch either. It does not. Instead, it documents the human rights situation in fully 155 countries. The report contains, for example, extensive assessments and criticisms of the status quo in China, Cuba, North Korea and Uzbekistan. Even Germany, Australia and New Zealand do not escape Amnesty International's critical gaze. This is not about an anti-American stitch-up. It's about Amnesty International not being afraid to call it like it is, all over the world.]

Alert readers may have noted that my blogroll has disappeared for the moment. This is not my doing. The Blogrolling.com server appears to be down. Please bear with me in the meantime and use one of the blog search engine tools linked to in the right sidebar to find the next blog you were after. Apologies for the inconvenience (if indeed it is one).

Oh, and while I'm about it, please remember to add a comment to the My Favourite Things post. There's a nice little collection of words you love and hate in there, but the more the merrier!

[Update: Blogrolling is back. Good news indeed.]

Almost exactly a month ago, I blogged about a fairly childish spat involving George W. Bush and Kim Jong-Il trading insults over who was the biggest meanie. Well, this week, round two of the trans-Pacific toy-throwing has got into full swing, after DPRK officials responded to derogatory comments made by Vice-President Dick Cheney by calling him a "blood-thirsty beast." Quite a comeback, I'm sure you'll agree.

Stuff and Xinhua online both have the full story.

This round of the insult-throwing began when Dick Cheney used a television interview to hurl the latest volley of insults Kom Jong-Il's way.

Cheney said in a TV interview with CNN aired on Monday that Kim was "one of the world's more irresponsible leaders". "He runs a police state. He's got one of the most heavily militarised societies in the world," Cheney said. "He doesn't take care of his people at all. And he obviously wants to throw his weight around and become a nuclear power." [Stuff]

Those comments, of course, are pretty much true. But, and it's a big but, in the situation that the US, the EU and Russia are currently in, in which they are desperately trying to coax North Korea back into six-party talks to get them to abandon their nuclear ambitions, is this really the best time for America's second in command to be airing criticisms like that? Is there any chance of getting a bit of diplomacy from this US administration? I just don't get what Dick Cheney thinks remarks like that can possibly achieve, except to irritate and humiliate Kim Jong-Il and make him even less likely than he already is to comply.

In any case, the North Korean response has been typically belligerent and fairly comedic. Xinhua online quotes a North Korean spokesman as saying:

"Cheney's remarks, made at a time when the DPRK-US New York contact has kicked off in the direction of resuming the six-party talks, clearly indicate his inveterate rejection of the political system in the DPRK and his intention to put a brake on the process of the talks." ...

"What Cheney uttered at a time when the issue of the six-party talks is high on the agenda is little short of telling the DPRK not to come out for the talks,"...

"If the US has a real intention to peacefully settle the nuclear issue through dialogue, it should retract its remarks suchas 'outpost of tyranny' and provide a justification and conditions necessary for the resumption of the talks." ...[Xinhua]

And Stuff reports on the more insulting parts of the spokesman's words, which my Chinese news source had delicately omitted:

North Korea called United States vice president Dick Cheney a "blood thirsty beast" yesterday, in response to Cheney saying the North's leader Kim Jong-il was irresponsible and runs a police state.

"Cheney is hated as the most cruel monster and blood-thirsty beast, as he has drenched various parts of the world in blood," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency.

I've said it before, but I think it bears saying again: my amusement over this spat is tempered by concern that this sort of rhetoric between a nuclear power and an almost-nuclear power is how world wars start. I am not confident that a peaceful solution to the North Korean problem will be found. In fact, after the undiplomatic comments coming out of Washington in recent months, I'm no longer even sure that this US administration actually wants a peaceful solution. Oh dear. Watch this space.

A few months ago, New Zealand blogger David Slack asked his readers to write in and name their favourite and least favourite words. The results, apparently distilled from several hundred emails on the subject, were interesting to say the least. Since several months have passed since then, since I never wrote in to tell David Slack my favourite words, and since his readership and my readership are presumably fairly mutually exclusive, but mostly just because I felt like it, I thought I'd pinch his idea for my own blog.

In the spirit of "first the good news, then the bad news", I shall begin with my favourite words.

exoteric

floccinaucinihilipilifica tion

discombobulate

cleave

And here's why: For exoteric, it's the irony I love. The fact that a word meaning 'knowledge that is readily and publicly available' is known by next to noone really tickles me. Why I love floccinaucinihilipilifica tion is surely obvious. It's huge, and it's got all those i's, and boy does it ever roll off the tongue. With discombobulate I love the sound and it reminds me of one of my favourite children's stories, The Great Piratical Rumbustification, by Margaret Mahy. And, last but not least, I really like cleave, because it is one of only two words I know that can mean it's own exact opposite (the other is inflammable) and that, in my opinion, is quite something for a little word.

As for my least favourite words, words I hate, words that make my skin crawl, well..

acclimate

moist

ironical

Now a real intense dislike of a random word is a pretty irrational thing. Accordingly, I can't really give genuinely good reasons for why these three make my stomach turn. In the case of acclimate and ironical, it's really just that I vastly prefer the alternative forms acclimatise/acclimatize and ironic. I know that the two forms that I hate are (regionally speaking at least) acceptable, but I still hate hearing them. As for moist, I just don't know. It's just a yucky, yucky word. Ugly, and ugly sounding, and it conjures up images of cold and damp and general discomfort. As I said, it ain't rational!

So, here's where you come in, dear reader. I want to know which words you love, which you hate, and even which ones you love to hate. Either leave a comment (it can be anonymous if you're shy) or send me an e-mail. I'll blog the results in due course.

Q: What do you do if poverty in your country has become so rife that many thousands of people have been forced to set up shacks in shantytowns and are suffering from acute food shortages?

A: If you're Robert Mugabe, Tyrant President of Zimbabwe, you order your Police Force to =http://allafrica.com/stories/..."demolish the shacks, leaving thousands of people homeless and destitute. You then solve the homeless problem by arresting over 22,000 of the people whose homes you've just destroyed. You then summon the head of the UN World Food Programme to ask for assistance in solving the food crisis which a) is largely brought about by your own injust land grab, and which b) just last year you denied existed, claiming instead that your people were "choking" with too much food.

Disgusting.

And that, he said, is that. Or at least I think it's probably that. The EU Constitution Treaty is surely now dead in the water. With the Dutch apparently voting overwhelmingly against the treaty in today's referendum, two out of 25 countries have now said no.

According to Reuters, the scale of the Dutch rejection is even greater than the French 'Non' on Sunday.

With 66.8 percent of votes counted, Dutch news agency ANP said 62.2 percent had voted "No" to 37.8 percent in favour with turnout at 63.9 percent, well above the 39 percent that voted in last year's European Parliament election.

"No" campaigners from the Socialist Party at a celebration in Amsterdam greeted the outcome with wild cheers, punching the air in jubilation after a campaign which united disparate fringe parties from left and right in hostility to the charter.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was quick to concede defeat for a "Yes" campaign led by his unpopular centre-right government but urged other countries in the bloc of 25 member states to press ahead with ratification.

"The voters have given a clear signal that cannot be misunderstood," he said. "We must do everything we can to involve citizens in the Europe of the future." The Dutch vote is not legally binding, but Balkenende said the government would respect the result.

Even if the ratification process were to continue and the remaining 14 member states were to ratify the treaty, the constitution still couldn't now come into force. But that will never happen anyway. With the French and Dutch having already voted against, it'd be a cold day in hell before the British and Czechs would lend their support to the treaty. And I wouldn't have thought that Denmark was a shoo-in this time around either. To my mind, that means that this particular draft is toast and, in one way or another, it's back to the drawing board for Europe's politicians. It certainly means that the upcoming European Council summit in Brussels in mid-June will be a tense, soul-searching affair. I'd love to be a fly on the wall at that.

The BBC News website offers a handy summary of what these two No votes mean.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Welle and BBC News are both covering the Dutch no vote story with readable and informative articles.

The next member state to step up to the constitution plate is Latvia, whose parliament is expected to vote overwhelming in favour of ratification tomorrow. After that though, who knows what will happen. This has not been a good week for the EU project.