Dead militiamen found in Benghazi

It sounds like the people of Benghazi are not interested in seeing the extremists have their way in the area. The Guardian:

The Libyan city of Benghazi was tense after the bodies of six militiamen apparently executed after the storming of a base on the southern outskirts were discovered in a field.

The bodies were found the day after crowds marched on three militia bases, including that of Ansar al-Sharia, blamed by many in the city for the murder of the US ambassador, Chris Stevens, earlier this month. Funerals were held for nine protesters killed when crowds tried to force their way into the Rafallah al-Sahati militia base early on Saturday morning.

The militia was the only one of three to fire back when demonstrators swarmed over their bases, following a rally on Friday in which 30,000 people vowed to retake the streets of the city.

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Toward a climate solution: Why all of the current "solutions" deepen the crisis

UPDATE: A complete list of climate series pieces is available here:
The Climate series: a reference post.

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(Button via Shutterstock)

This is a preface to a series of posts on climate crisis solutions. This series contains my own suggestions for solving the problem I've described in the previous posts — avoiding climate catastrophe.

I'm obviously not the only person thinking about this, but I think I have a perspective that's not shared by many, so I offer these for consideration.

Assumptions

My thinking makes the following assumptions:

1. The problem is essentially political, not technological. To avoid the worst consequences of global warming involves the use of power along with education and technology. Without addressing the power dimension, the solutions project will continue to fail. (More on this below.)
   
   
2. The only "baked in" consequences are those that come with the 1½°C (3°F) increase we can't avoid. None of the other, more drastic scenarios is inevitable.
   
   
3. The war is worth fighting and we haven't lost yet, regardless of the odds against us.
   
   
4. Playing to win means playing to the end of the game.

If you don't share those assumptions, this series may not be for you. That said, onward to the preface.

Why technology alone is not the answer

There are several baseline ideas we need to accept in order to design effective solutions. They provide context and help us understand why no attempt at a solution has yet worked.

The fact is, we haven't even come close to a solution. We're drifting, circling ever closer to the climate catastrophe drain. And it's not because we're stupid.

In fact, our species is the opposite of stupid — we're the most effective, adaptive hominid species ever evolved on the planet.

We are the most recent of our relatives and the last to leave Africa. Even though we're the babies on the block and shared the planet with millions of our genetic cousins — homo habilis and homo erectus, Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons — we out-thought and out-competed them all till we stood alone. There's no one on earth this good at problem-solving.

If we cannot solve this problem, it's not because of brains and technology. The truth is more stark. The lack of a solution proves that the answer isn't brains — that the key must lie elsewhere.

This series is an attempt to find that elsewhere. Make no mistake — new technology is critical. But it's not enough.

What we need to know to design a solution

The writer Naomi Klein comes as close as anyone to succinctly identifying the roadblocks to a climate crisis solution. Simply put, solving the climate crisis forces fundamental change.

Here she talks with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. Listen first. I'll offer some notes after the video.



If you want to relisten, this segment starts at 42:45. For readers, a transcript is here.

First, on why denialism has taken such a strong hold, even recently, even while the message of our senses says denial is wrong:

[The increase in denialism in countries with strong culture wars is] remarkable, because what it means is that it no longer really has anything to do with the science. And the environmental movement has just been shocked by how it would be possible to lose so much ground so quickly when there is so much more scientific evidence[.] ...

And the reason is that climate change is now seen as an identity issue on the right. ... [When you] ask why people don’t believe in it, they say that it’s because they think it’s a socialist plot to redistribute wealth.

This is the critical insight — it's what you need to know to solve this problem.

Note, this is not an insight about the right-wing rubes. There will always be right-wing rubes. It's an insight about the threat felt by Our Betters, who are ginning up rube-resistance as hard and fast as they can.

The rubes are being led to scream "wealth redistribution" because that's exactly the threat. As with other modern crises, wealth redistribution is precisely what this one is about. But it's not about the wealth of the rubes.

The solution to global warming is a direct threat to the greed and wealth of the lords of carbon, the Rex Tillersons, the David Kochs of the world.

These are powerful, wealthy, driven people, and fixing global warming threatens their whole way of life. Klein again:

Why is climate change seen as such a threat? I don’t believe it’s an unreasonable fear. ... [A]ctually, climate change really is a profound threat to a great many things that right-wing ideologues believe in. ... [H]ere’s just a few examples what it would mean.

Well, it would mean upending the whole free trade agenda, because it would mean that we would have to localize our economies, because we have the most energy-inefficient trade system that you could imagine. ... You would have to deal with inequality. You would have to redistribute wealth, because this is a crisis that was created in the North, and the effects are being felt in the South. ... You would have to regulate corporations. ... You would have to subsidize renewable energy[.] ...

And finally:

And then, layered on top of that is the fact that many of the "solutions" to climate change ... play shell games, right? We have to have carbon offsets there. We have to — we can keep polluting, but we’ll plant — you know, we’ll protect a forest in the Congo[.] [But] all of these solutions are actually deepening the climate crisis [elsewhere].

We have a problem that challenges our way of life, made many times worse by the monomaniacal greed of the very wealthy few, who offer "solutions" that solve nothing.

The "solutions" in fact are part of the problem, since they only serve to delay. Delay is the win-scenario of the other side; it's their only goal.

This is an excellent explanation of the context within which we're trying to solve our planet-wide global warming crisis. We can't be effective, in my view, if we don't start here.

That context again:

• Solving the climate crisis forces fundamental change.
• Education and technology are not enough.
• Negotiated "solutions" create delay.
• The other side is powerful and doesn't want to change.

Devolution scenarios — our comic-book future

It's an unfortunate accident of history that the worst political and social event of our time — the rise of the rich in the wake of the Nixon impeachment and the total capture of our government by greedy hippie-hating monomaniacs (every word a true one) — coincides with the eve of potential self-destruction.

More than coincides — to stop the self-destruction, we must stop the rich.

No other choice is pretty. How far backward would we like to devolve?

  ■ Where do the consequences of "only" 1½°C (3°F) warming take us? Combined with the rapidly widening wealth inequality, we could devolve to life in the 1930s — post-electricity but pre–middle class.

  ■ What about the consequences of 3°C (5½°F) — by 2100? James Hansen calls that "game over", leading to a "mass extinction" scenario. Easily a famine, drought, epidemic, mass-migration scenario. (Check the chart here for U.S. temperature predictions. Translate weeks to months to get the full effect.)

At that point, would most of the country be pre-industrial? I would think so. Politically, a famine-ridden, disease-infested, mass-dying, mass-migration America would certainly not be an orderly society. For starters, say goodbye to Safeway. And gas stations. And farming. Picture that life.

More food for thought: How much of the country would be under the control of the central government? Would the central government even try, or would they see as their mandate the only mandate they see today — protection of the very rich?

Who would run your town at that point? A state governor? A county strongman? This is a real science fiction scenario, and we're not at the worst one yet.

  ■ At what temperature point would global warming level off simply because of societal collapse? We're currently on track for 6°C–7°C (11°F–12½°F) — again, by 2100.

Would the Carbon Lords be able to drill, pump and sell enough CO2 to get us to those temperatures before the collapse that stops them? Because I swear to god they will try. If they succeed, the humans who follow will be mainly hunter-gatherers — they will look and live just like the homeless on our streets today.

The more I think about this, the more I want to laugh — this is so like a comic book story:

Daddy Doom (that's him in all-black pinstripes) has a planet-eating machine that will end life as we know it.

Will the Carbon Avenger, our green-draped hero, save us in time? Look, he's flying off to the final showdown now.

Actually, it's just half a comic book story. Daddy Doom (our aggregate Lord of Carbon) really does have that machine; it's called his psychopathic greed and our current way of life.

But there's no Carbon Avenger to save us. We have to do that for ourselves.

The problem in a nutshell

Which brings us to the umbrella problem statement. This is where we hug the monster, face facts, and focus our action where it counts.

Unless all of the science is wrong, the problem in a nutshell is to put the carbon industry out of business. And everything noted by Ms. Klein above is what's in the way.

How fast should that happen? Look back at the devolution scenarios and pick one.

Death of the carbon industry — if we don't do that soon, we lose. But if we do meet that goal, I'll guarantee that the rest — all the good technology — will follow as fast as man can do it.

Is is fair to them, the carbon lords, to destroy their businesses? Of course it is. They're risking the lives of 7 billion humans to satisfy hubris and greed. What could be more monstrous? Their offices are crime scenes. What could be more fair than stopping them in their tracks?

We don't have to negotiate. We don't have to discuss. We don't have to explain. No one needs to seek their permission, or slow to a rate of their choosing.

And we certainly don't have to reimburse them for their lost future profits — the real beneficiaries of this psychopathic process are wealthy enough already. In a truly just world, they'd be stripped of every dime to help pay to clean up the mess we're inevitably going to face.

What we do have to be is effective (sound familiar?). It will take a combination of actions — education, technology, and multiple applications of power — to mitigate the disaster.

But especially the latter — multiple applications of power — because these men and women are digging in and doubling down. They won't stop until we stop them.

Bottom line

This sounds daunting, I know, but I really don't think it's over, and as I said above, it's a fight worth taking on. I don't pretend to have the answers. I just want to help us think our way to solutions that work.

If none of this helps, it's mainly my own time that's lost, and it pleases me to use it this way.

Thank you for reading this far. The next post will look at layers of the solution — drilling down in a process that identifies goals worth achieving, targets of action (I see five groups) and tactics applied to those targets.

Much of what I'll say is already clear to many, but maybe this thinking hasn't been assembled in one place.

Until then, in the words of Alan Grayson — courage.

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius
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Warlord sentenced to prison for recruiting child soldiers

The recruitment of kids to fight wars is not new, but prosecuting someone who does this is very new. Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend to lock of adults who take advantage of kids to do their dirty work with guns or for sex. The Guardian:

The international criminal court has handed down its first sentence, jailing for 14 years a Congolese warlord who recruited and used child soldiers.

Thomas Lubanga was found guilty in March of abducting boys and girls under the age of 15 and forcing them to fight in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's eastern Ituri region in 2002-2003.

Lubanga, 51, is the first person convicted by the permanent war crimes tribunal.

The prosecution had asked for a "severe sentence" of 30 years. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, then chief prosecutor, said it was seeking the punishment "in the name of each child recruited, in the name of the Ituri region".

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China now building ghost towns in Africa

China has been building ghost cities at home for a few years, but now it's done the same in oil rich Angola as well. It must be nice to have that many billions to throw down the toilet like this.

Nova Cidade de Kilamba is a brand-new mixed residential development of 750 eight-storey apartment buildings, a dozen schools and more than 100 retail units.

Designed to house up to half a million people when complete, Kilamba has been built by the state-owned China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) in under three years at a reported cost of $3.5bn (£2.2bn).

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Chomsky: U.S. security requires something approaching absolute global control

I'm approaching a short trip, so posting will be light. But I want to put this up before I head out. Not that this — the headline statement — is surprising, but that it's said out loud.

This is from a recent set of pieces by Noam Chomsky printed at Alternet. I believe these are excepted from his new book, Making the Future: Occupations, Interventions, Empire and Resistance, a collection of commentaries on U.S. politics and policies, written between 2007 and 2011.

The piece at Alternet is in two parts. Its subject is America's self-inflicted decline and covers a lot of topics — George Kennan and the 1948 foreign policy decision; Vietnam; Iraq; South American democracy; China; the twins Israel & Palestine; and Iran. Here's Part 1; and here's Part 2.

This is from near the end of Part 2. It deals with Iran and includes some of the conclusion (my emphasis and some reparagraphing):

Let us turn finally to the third of the leading issues addressed in the establishment journals cited earlier, the “threat of Iran.” Among elites and the political class this is generally taken to be the primary threat to world order -- though not among populations.

In Europe, polls show that Israel is regarded as the leading threat to peace. In the MENA [Middle East/North Africa] countries, that status is shared with the U.S., to the extent that in Egypt, on the eve of the Tahrir Square uprising, 80% felt that the region would be more secure if Iran had nuclear weapons. The same polls found that only 10% regard Iran as a threat -- unlike the ruling dictators, who have their own concerns. ...

Why exactly is Iran regarded as such a colossal threat? The question is rarely discussed, but it is not hard to find a serious answer -- though not, as usual, in the fevered pronouncements. The most authoritative answer is provided by the Pentagon and the intelligence services in their regular reports to Congress on global security. They report that Iran does not pose a military threat. Its military spending is very low even by the standards of the region, minuscule of course in comparison with the U.S. ...

It makes very good sense to try to prevent Iran from joining the nuclear weapons states, including the three that have refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty -- Israel, India, and Pakistan, all of which have been assisted in developing nuclear weapons by the U.S., and are still being assisted by them. ...

[But] the primary threat to the U.S. and Israel is that Iran might deter their free exercise of violence. A further threat is that the Iranians clearly seek to extend their influence to neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan, and beyond as well.

Those “illegitimate” acts are called “destabilizing” (or worse). In contrast, forceful imposition of U.S. influence halfway around the world contributes to “stability” and order, in accord with traditional doctrine about who owns the world.

Then, after discussing the U.S. rule about coastal waters (we can come near yours; you can't come near ours), we find this (natural) conclusion:

This “classic security dilemma” makes sense, again, on the assumption that the U.S. has a right to control most of the world, and that U.S. security requires something approaching absolute global control.

Who can argue that this is how the U.S. and its military-minded supporters think? Chomsky and the militarists differ only in their justification (or lack of it) for these acts.

This is, after all, the fact assumed by American Exceptionalism, the belief that rocks many domestic boats, swells many heads with pride. In fact, this idea is almost mainstream, and usually applauded in its more carefully worded forms.

Noam Chomsky is not a popular guy, but (or because) it's hard to say where he's wrong. Read through and see if you don't agree with most or all of what he says.

GP

(To follow on Twitter or to send links: @Gaius_Publius)
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Spain's king Juan Carlos is a cowardly elephant hunter

Much like the lowlife CEO of GoDaddy, Juan Carlos also likes to pay big money to kill elephants in Africa. I am admittedly not a hunter but generally have no issue with people hunting what they eat. Killing one of the "Big Five" in Africa these days is mostly the domain of the ultra rich who spend tens of thousands of dollars to kill.

I traveled through Southern Africa and visited dozens of game parks throughout the region. Along the way I bumped into a number of these hunters and heard about the industry from locals. It's sickening. Perhaps the most disgusting story was how they used old lions that were sold off from zoos because they were in bad shape and easier to kill. If the hunter was a bad shot, the guides would drug the animals so they were even easier to kill.

We really don't know how good of a shot Juan Carlos may be, but what is certain is that this type of hunting is known for his type taking advantage of local communities who are need of money. When you have kings money, it's easy to throw around and participate in the seediest of seedy industries. Even worse, why is the king throwing around such cash on such a stupid event during this economic crisis in Spain? It's not macho, it's cowardly and abusive. Read the rest of this post...

Some mixed feelings on the KONY 2012 movement

The most recent social fad among young people like myself has been the KONY 2012 Movement, started by Invisible Children, an organization dedicated to bringing about the arrest of Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Central Africa. Millions of Facebook statuses, tweets, memes and Youtube videos have flooded cyberspace over the past ten days, proving once again that anyone can be an activist with the push of a button.

But Invisible Children appears to have played fast and loose with the facts, which I'll get to in a moment.

To its credit, the organization has proven adept at using social media to achieve its stated goal of making Joseph Kony famous for the atrocities he has committed. If you haven't watched the Youtube video yet, I'll do my part and link to it here. The video, more or less, recounts the following:

Joseph Kony is the most wanted man in the international community. He has fought against the Ugandan government for decades by abducting children, forcing them to commit heinous war crimes, and mutilating them if they refuse. Invisible Children successfully petitioned the U.S. government to send one hundred advisory consultants (read: troops) to aid the Ugandan military in arresting him so that he can be tried in International Court for war crimes. But there is more work to be done: The movement needs to keep pressure on the American government so that they don't remove the advisory consultants, so we need everyone to do their part to make Joseph Kony famous. The higher his name-ID, the bigger a story it is if the government bails on the operation, and the bigger the political fallout would be. Doing your part includes sharing the Youtube video, signing the pledge, contacting cultural and political leaders, and buying an action kit, which provides the tools for engaging in a more 'boots on the ground' manner.

However, as Michael Wilkerson points out in his guest column for Foreign Policy, the Invisible Children video leaves out a few crucial details, omissions that have served to misinform millions of would-be activists for social justice:

Following a successful campaign by the Ugandan military and failed peace talks in 2006, the LRA was pushed out of Uganda and has been operating in extremely remote areas of the DRC, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic -- where Kony himself is believed to be now 

...Additionally, the LRA (thankfully!) does not have 30,000 mindless child soldiers. This grim figure, cited by Invisible Children in the film (and by others) refers to the total number of kids abducted by the LRA over nearly 30 years. Eerily, it is also the same number estimated for the total killed in the more than 20 years of conflict in Northern Uganda.

...the small remaining LRA forces are still wreaking havoc and very hard to catch, but Northern Uganda has had tremendous recovery in the 6 years of peace since the LRA left.

It appears that, in an attempt to garner broader and more enthusiastic support, Invisible Children has fudged a few important details and portrayed Northern Uganda as something that it is not: a war zone in which children are taken from their beds and either massacred immediately or indoctrinated into the LRA. This may have been the case ten years ago, but has not been since 2006. Wilkerson goes on to write that there are a plenty of other problems facing Northern Uganda that an influx of money from Invisible Children projects could serve to worsen rather than alleviate.

It is also unclear what the organization's overarching goals are now that Joseph Kony IS famous, other than raising a lot of money and planning a day of action that coincides with National Weed Day (I can't tell if that's a really good idea or really bad idea...). As Wilkerson points out:

[The] goal is to make sure that President Obama doesn't withdraw the advisors he deployed until Kony is captured or killed. That seems noble enough, except that there has been no mention by the government of withdrawing those forces -- at least any I can find. Does anyone else have any evidence about this urgent threat of cancellation? One that justifies such a massive production campaign and surely lucrative donation drive?

And what happens if the advisors stay in Uganda but fail to kill or capture Kony, which seems like the most probable outcome considering that Kony has not been in the country for six years?

It seems that one of the reasons that KONY 2012 has garnered such a wide base of involvement is that it requires very little investment for a very small goal. While the movement will almost certainly succeed in keeping American advisors in Uganda, I worry that it will not be able to ensure the arrest of Joseph Kony because it is asking too little; it is low-risk/low-reward activism at the greatest scope possible.

What is so troubling about setting the bar for 'success' so low with the KONY 2012 movement is that more is possible. Invisible Children took in over 15 million dollars in revenue over the past ten days simply from the sales of their action kits (it is safe to assume they took in considerable additional revenue in donations and purchases of other merchandise); much of that could be directed towards direct aid to those affected by the LRA. However, as Jedidiah Jenkins (one of the creators of KONY 2012) said on Sunday, "the truth about Invisible Children is that we are not an aid organization, and we don't intend to be."

If Invisible Children insists on remaining an advocacy and awareness organization, then why not advocate for something more than maintaining the status quo? 100 advisory consultants will likely not be enough to arrest Joseph Kony; those who are serious about seeing him brought to justice must be willing to turn their voices into demands for a legitimate humanitarian force to neutralize the LRA entirely. I do not necessarily agree with that course of action, but it would be far more effective in ending the crisis than leaving some token consultants in Uganda and hoping that Kony hops the border to turn himself in.

Like everyone else, Wilkerson included, I believe that Joseph Kony is evil and should be stopped. But I feel that the KONY 2012 movement in its present form lends itself to slacktivism more than it does to real activism, and there is a better way to go about solving the crisis of the LRA than posting a Youtube video and, if you are feeling especially 'in touch,' buying a bracelet. The movement, like many similar movements, has garnered broad support that is incredibly shallow, as most of the people who have gotten involved are misinformed regarding basic facts surrounding the issue and have no intention of investing themselves beyond what they can do from their dorm room.

If those involved in KONY 2012 were correctly informed by Invisible Children, rather than being misled into thinking that the problem is far simpler than it actually is, the movement may look quite different. Perhaps not as many people would be involved, but those who were would be far more active in pressuring Congress to do what needs to be done and aiding Ugandans in need. It would be far more productive than the mindless re-tweeting to preserve the current situation that we see today. Read the rest of this post...

Mandela leaves hospital after short procedure

Let's hope that it's a speedy recovery for the 93 year old. He's been through a lot and at his age, even something small can become a big problem. Though he's been out of the public eye for a few years, hopefully he still inspires leaders to do the right thing, as he did following the horrible years of apartheid. BBC News:

Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been discharged from hospital after a diagnostic procedure for an abdominal problem, the government says. President Jacob Zuma's office said he was sent home after the checks "did not indicate anything seriously wrong". Officials earlier said the 93-year-old Nobel Prize laureate had undergone a laparoscopy but was recovering well.

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Gaddafi loyalists continue the battle, take over town

Few expected any resistance once Gaddafi was killed so this won't be good news for the new regime. This will be something to follow in the coming months as the new government is formed. The Guardian:

Fighters loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have seized back the town of Bani Walid and raised the late dictator's green flag, in a blow to Libya's struggling provisional government. Reports said at least four people were killed during clashes between besieged forces loyal to the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) and armed and well-organised supporters of Gaddafi. "They control the town now. They are roaming the town," one militia member was quoted as saying of the pro-Gaddafi fighters, according to Reuters. Bani Walid, a former regime stronghold 110 miles south-east of Tripoli, was one of the last to succumb to pro-government forces after the capital fell in August. The latest clashes mark the most significant loyalist attack since Libya was officially "liberated" on 23 October. It appears further evidence of the NTC's weakness, incapacity and internal divisions ahead of supposed national elections later this year.

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Noam Chomsky: Who are the Unpeople?

Who are the Unpeople?

In this talk, Noam Chomsky starts with specifics — the Unpeople of Libya, the Unpeople of Africa — but the heart is the general, the concept itself. Who are the Unpeople of the earth?

Here's a taste. Chomsky starts with the unilateral bombing of Libya "by their traditional imperial aggressors: France and Britain, joined by the United States" — in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 which "called for a no-fly zone, a cease-fire and measures to protect civilians."

The "triumvirate" blew right past that with their bombing, and the African Union (A.U.) went to the U.N. to object (my emphasis and some reparagraphing throughout):

The A.U. call to the Security Council also laid out the background for their concerns: “Sovereignty has been a tool of emancipation of the peoples of Africa who are beginning to chart transformational paths for most of the African countries after centuries of predation by the slave trade, colonialism and neocolonialism. Careless assaults on the sovereignty of African countries are, therefore, tantamount to inflicting fresh wounds on the destiny of the African peoples.”

The African appeal can be found in the Indian journal Frontline, but was mostly unheard in the West. That comes as no surprise: Africans are “unpeople,” to adapt George Orwell’s term for those unfit to enter history.

You can see where this is headed.

On March 12, the Arab League gained the status of people by supporting U.N. Resolution 1973. But approval soon faded when the League withheld support for the subsequent Western bombardment of Libya. And [then] on April 10, the Arab League reverted to unpeople by calling on the U.N. also to impose a no-fly zone over Gaza and to lift the Israeli siege, virtually ignored.

That too makes good sense. Palestinians are prototypical unpeople, as we see regularly.

Read the rest; it's very good (and available as a video here.)

Who are the Unpeople? Unpeople are those you can abuse and kill, decimate and dislocate, without conscience or consequence, because they aren't fully human — or human at all — in the minds of their abusers.

American Indians were Unpeople, squatting on land just waiting to be "settled" as whites spread across the "empty" American West. Arabs were Unpeople who "crawled like flies" through Palestine (per Agatha Christie), until white Europeans, the only true humans, infiltrated, moved them out, and took over.

Oddly, those same Europeans — ethnic Jews — were Unpeople in the lands they were fleeing. Suffering doesn't always lead to wisdom.

It goes without saying, or should, that the drone-dead in Pakistan are Unpeople. (Feel a tad guilty? Me too.)

Here at home, Unpeople are all around us — the poor, the brown, the black, the homeless, the hopeless, the drugged-out, the cast-out — the wrecks and the unruly. The old. The "losers" in that hyper-Christian "take back America" formulation. The Occupyers and the foreclosed.

All Unpeople are the modern n-word, broadened to include the Unincluded everywhere you find them.

Are you the Unpeople? If you find yourself scooped up by the National Security state, you will be; even that white skin, if you have it, will not set you free.

GP Read the rest of this post...

EU reviewing land raids to combat pirates

Something needs to be done to stop the problem, though this is a significant escalation. Taking the battle to the beaches might easily become ugly though, unless there's a clear idea about who is on the beaches. Despite all of the talk about pinpoint accuracy with the modern military, the reality is that a lot of innocent civilians are still being killed. If this new policy starts, civilian deaths are certain to be part of the future. Just because the future dead civilians are likely to be poor Africans, doesn't make it any less of a problem. The western military doesn't see it that way, but the political leadership should. Al Jazeera:

Germany's foreign ministry has said that the European Union is considering giving its anti-piracy forces the go-ahead to attack Somali pirate bases on the ground. Anti-piracy operations currently take place in the Indian Ocean, but in future the forces could be allowed to attack pirates' arms dumps, boats and bases. Andreas Peschke, German foreign ministry spokesman, said on Friday that the "limited destruction of piracy logistics on the beach" is under discussion but "no deployment on land".

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Nigeria declares state of emergency following bombings

What a way to start the new year. Al Jazeera:

"While the search for lasting solutions is ongoing, it has become imperative to take some decisive measures necessary to restore normalcy in the country, especially within the affected communities," Jonathan said in the nationwide broadcast. "The temporary closure of our borders in the affected areas is only an interim measure designed to address the current security challenges and will be resumed as soon as normalcy is restored," he said. Jonathan said the move was necessary "as terrorists have taken advantage of the present situation to strike at targets in Nigeria and retreat beyond the reach of our law enforcement personnel".

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Wild mountain gorillas ’groom’ human

If you're an animal person it's hard not to love this video. It's one of those rare and amazing experiences that not many people have the chance to enjoy first hand. My wife Joelle and I are both animal fans and loved our time in Africa, so this is especially fantastic to watch. Seeing the mountain gorillas up close is way up there on our to do list. Read the rest of this post...

Terrorist attacks claim at least 65 in Nigeria

Even in a country that is familiar with violence, this is enormous. The Guardian:

At least 65 people were killed in a spate of coordinated gun and bomb attacks in the Nigerian city of Damaturu on Friday, with witnesses describing dozens of bodies piling up in morgues.

Gunmen raided the city and nearby village of Potiskum – both in Yobe state in the north east – on Friday evening, and engaged in several hours of running gun battles with security forces, witnesses said.

Militants bombed churches, mosques and police stations.

Though no one has claimed responsibility, the Islamist sect Boko Haram has been behind previous attacks.

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Video: Lion cubs say goodbye

I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon playing with 2 month old lion cubs and a 9 month old cub while in Africa a few years back, and they were two of my favorite moments ever. Well, that and the time Jojo and I played with two cheetahs who purred like our house cats when they received a back scratch. If you click through to YouTube, this guy has a bunch of other incredible videos of him with lions of all sizes. Read the rest of this post...

African Union summit falls short of famine relief goal

This is pathetic. Oil rich Angola did manage to do the right thing but the other oil producing countries such as Nigeria fell dramatically short. The target numbers were already low so this is beyond shameful. The wealthy African Union countries really needs to step things up to help their neighbors. Not every country in Africa has the financial capabilities to assist but some definitely could and should do more.

African leaders have come under fierce criticism after a much-delayed African Union summit to tackle the food crisis in the Horn of Africa raised less than 4 per cent of the shortfall needed. Only four heads of state – from Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Equatorial Guinea – attended the meeting, designed to gather urgently needed funds to help save the nearly 13 million people now at risk of starvation on the continent.

Only 21 out of the 54 countries in the AU made pledges, with $20m of the $46m promised coming from three states – Algeria, Angola and Egypt. Aid groups say they need $1.4bn to meet the shortfall in tackling the emergency. Jean Ping, chairman of the AU commission, announced the summit had raised more than $350m, but the bulk of the sum was in fact a $300m loan from the African development bank and not a grant at all.

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Jeremy Scahill: Libya could be unstable for a long time

UPDATE: For a great chart of troops in Afghanistan from 2001 to the present, click here. (Hmm, did something happen in January of 2009?)
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Great segment; Scahill gives an excellent summary of where we are with Libya.

The roundtable with Tina Brown and Gov. Howard Dean is interesting as well. Scahill is treated with respect (I was surprised at that, given the venue). Not that everyone agrees, but the discussion was ... normal.

Listen as Scahill gets off the best line of the day: "Not to rain on your drone-loving parade here, but..." (via Glenn Greenwald on Twitter).



About the spelling (for you Arabic-English transliteration freaks): "Kh" is wrong; that's the usual transliteration of the Arabic consonant kha (خـ). It's a breathy sound, like the "ch" in "challah."

"G" or "Q" looks correct to me. The Arabic letter in the name "al-Gaddafi" (Arabic: القَذَّافِي) is qaf (قَ), the bolded third letter in from the right (Arabic reads right-to-left); the first two letters (ال) are the "al". The sound of the consonant qaf is halfway between our /k/ and /g/. You can click the two links above and listen to each consonant as spoken.

And now you know. (Odd that MSNBC got that wrong; they have Arabic-speaking Richard Engel on staff.)

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Ousted Tunisian dictator sentenced in absentia

Pity he is no longer in Tunisia for this moment. Al Jazeera:

A Tunisian court has sentenced ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, his daughter and son-in-law in absentia, to serve prison terms and to pay a collective $100m in damages.

The court, on Thursday, found the trio guilty of corruption in property deals. A nephew of Ben Ali was also convicted of drug charges in the proceedings.

Ben Ali has already been convicted in absentia twice in Tunisian courts in recent weeks, for embezzlement and gun and drug smuggling.

He fled to Saudi Arabia in January after a popular uprising against his autocratic, 23-year rule that sparked revolts around the Arab world.

Corruption in Ben Ali's inner circle was one of the drivers of anger at his regime that fueled the protests earlier this year.

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Saudi royals fight reform while voters support reform in Morocco

Two kingdoms, two responses to the changing world. The Saudis have managed to maintain their grip on power thanks to oil money but those days won't last forever. Morocco may not be going far enough, but at least there should be some credit for the king showing some ability to change. Of course, without the petro-dollars his options are a bit more limited.

Moroccans voted on Friday on whether to adopt a new constitution that the king has championed as an answer to demands for greater freedoms – but that protesters say will still leave the monarch firmly in control.

The referendum on the constitution is near certain to result in a resounding yes vote, like all past referendums in this North African country and generally throughout the Arab world.

It is buoyed by a huge media and government campaign, and is seen by some as a way to tentatively open up Moroccan politics, while heading off the kind of tumultuous regime change seen elsewhere in the region.

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Former Tunisian president sentenced to 35 years for corruption

It may be a tough fight to get the $60 million in fines from Ben Ali but at least he's gone. The Guardian:

The former Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife have been sentenced to 35 years in jail after being found guilty of theft in absentia by a Tunisian court.

Ben Ali and his wife, Leila Trabelsi, were accused of theft and unlawful possession of large sums of foreign currency, jewellery, archaeological artefacts, drugs and weapons.

The case was brought in absentia after Ben Ali fled Tunisia on 14 January following mass protests across the country. Ben Ali, who has since said he was deceived into leaving Tunisia, has accumulated vast wealth from his involvement in some of the country's biggest businesses during his 23-year reign.

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