Just did a BBC World Service interview about Ratko Mladic. Anyone hear me?

Thought not.

Watching the Pan-Albanianism report – over which I sweated so much last year and early this year – being used as evidence by the prosecution in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic in the Hague. Feeling a thrill going down my back.

3) A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility, by the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change (website)

I read this at the weekend and have been wondering whether to include it on my list of books read. Seeing as it’s over 100 pages long, I think I will. Also my boss had (possibly quite a substantial) part in writing it.

I found it more interesting than I had expected, especially the first bit, reflecting at some length on both a) what states’ mutual and internal obligations now are in the 21st century, and the way in which we have moved on from the Westphalian (or Montevideo) conventions. Also the reflections on what the new security threats actually are, and what can in fact be done about them, made the whole mess feel rather less like the ineluctable foreces of nature that it sometimes does feel like, and more like something that one can actually do things about.

The core of the report is of course the specific set of proposals for UN reform, and as someone who’s not close enough to that policy nexus I can’t really judge how utopian or likely the proposals are; they all seem to make sense anyway.

From the Exile, giving a particular view from Moscow:

Russian take on Ukrainian elections

Both Yanukovitch and Yushchenko are big huge swine-looking bureaucrats, both ex-prime-ministers… Those Ukranian gentlemen cannot be trusted… the strongest argument was that Yanukovitch was twice or three times sentenced for criminal offences. I argued them, me also. I was sentenced to four years but does it make me less honest man, then my fellows Russians? Journalists have said — No, it doesn’t make you less honest.

More on Ukrainian elections

The official outcome was hardly surprising. Viktor Yanukovich’s campaign manager predicted that he’d win by 3 percent months before the election, which, surprise, is exactly what he won by.

Ancient history revisited

“Written languages may be useful for Romans, but it does not suit our specific culture.”

The 2004 Quagmire Bowl: Iraq vs. Chechnya

There were about 1.3 million people living in Chechnya in 1991, but the population has since shrunk faster than a penis in icewater.

Marketing Bacardi

Sasha has proved that Russia can be guided forward correctly. You think perhaps it is “undemocratic” to not let the patrons to drink what they want. But you are wrong

Today – meeting with prime minister of Montenegro.

Tomorrow – breakfast with foreign minister of Armenia.

Generally – report that has to be published next week.

Sleepy time now.

I just had a note from my contact inside the election observing mission:

I heard today that they will ask for 900 observers. The only route is through Foreign Ministries who will send official observers. I am unsure if we will get this number – when we asked for 600 we got 350. Some of the “big” states sent 0!

By all means ask people to apply to their respective Foreign Ministries. I am unsure what effect the clash with xmas will have – surprisingly it has not been too much of a problem in other years, but then this number of observers was never requested before.

However, if you’re Irish, don’t put yourself out. I got this note from the relevant person in the Department for Foreign Affairs in Dublin:

The OSCE have requested that priority be given to those who have already participated in the Election Observation Missions on the two previous occasions [ie the two rounds of the presidential election in November]; so far, two people are available to return (for the third time) to Ukraine. There will also be representation from the Department. I also have Observers on our Roster who participated in the Elections in Ukraine last time [ie the parliamentary elections in 2002]. I therefore would not require any new offers at this stage.

However, I invite anyone who is interested in being part of our Roster to complete our application form; following that we invite applicants for an interview at this office. These interviews take place regularly here.

She did send me a copy of the form, and I’ll happily pass that on, together with her contact details, to interested parties (ie Irish citizens interested in future election observation missions).

I’ve called off my planned trip to Albania this week – too much end-of-year stuff at work. That means I have been to 20 different countries this year (though in three cases it was just passing through, changing planes in Vienna and Prague, and driving through Luxembourg en route to somewhere else). It takes it out of you…

After a disputed election result, it can be difficult to get the formalities right:

According to [new president’s campaign organiser], “in accordance with the law, the inauguration ceremony will be attended by parliamentarians, officials of the Supreme Court, CEC and the government.”

He said that no official invitations to participate in the ceremony had been sent. [!!!]

“We did not invite anybody. Everyone knows about it and if they decide to come, they will come,” [new president] said.

The security during the ceremony will be ensured by the units of the [local] Interior Ministry. Operatives have already received the plan of events, [campaign organiser] announced.

Right after the ceremony, the new president will immediately assume his responsibilities. According to [campaign organiser], it is possible that the presidential office will be occupied.

“If representatives of the incumbent president refuse to vacate the office, we will not storm it. There are plenty of offices around,” the [campaign organiser] emphasized.

Full details here.

Monday morning update: Let’s call the whole thing off.

Information is here.

Will update as more details become available.

2) A Contract With God, And Other Tenement Stories, by Will Eisner.

More comics education. This is very good. The title story in particular (I have actually been to the synagogue in Tbilisi/Tiflis, where the main character starts his life), and the last story, “Cookalein” which juggles about a dozen characters and storylines and stays on top of them all in only 50-odd pages are very memorable; I was a bit less satisfied with the middle two, which both feature nasty male characters who exploit those around them and then get their come-uppance. Will copntinue working my way through that list, it’s got me two good reads out of two so far.

1) Cyteen by CJ Cherryh

Jeepers, it’s incredible that this won the Hugo award in 1989. The competition was not so impressive, of course: Red Prophet, by Orson Scott Card, has its merits but isn’t science fiction; Falling Free is not Lois McMaster Bujold’s best (though oddly enough it did win the Nebula that year; I haven’t read Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling, and while I have read the other nominee, Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson, I can’t remember a single thing about the plot, which indeed is my complaint about most William Gibson novels starting with Neuromancer (I’ve read that book at least five times and still have no idea what happens).

Anyway, after cudgelling myself through the first 250 pages, it actually started to pick up, taken as a Bildungsroman of young Ari Emory, clone and heir of a fiendish political manipulator. This carried my interest quite well for another 400 pages and then at the end it all fell apart again; I have no idea what happened at the climax. Cherryh’s style is very dense; she doesn’t believe in telling you much about the background or setting. I have one more book of hers on the “to read” shelf but I think it may linger there for a while.

The one interesting thing I picked up is that Lois McMaster Bujold’s take on the social norms regarding clones and genetically engineered people seems to be at least in part a reaction to Cherryh’s much more brutal (and I think unrealistic) take on this issue. Some of Bujold’s best stuff is written directly around the question – think Mirror Dance and Brothers in Arms, obviously, but also the Taura stories, Falling Free and Ethan of Athos – and much of the rest of her work has it in the background. I find myself much more satisfied with Bujold’s treatment of it than Cherryh’s.

Note from A Fistful of Euros that the rerun Ukrainian presidential election will be on the same day as the parliamentary election in Uzbekistan, and worries that there will therefore be a shortage of observers. There will only be 20 obervers in Uzbekistan, but I suppose that is twenty fewer people available in the pool of potential election observers at a difficult time of year. You know what I think.

Someone wrote her thesis about my employers. Look pretty good – though of little use to non-Dutch speakers.

that an elected representative should have slurry tipped over him.

Isn’t it.

Behind the scenes at Google. (From Electrolite.)

asks about the international observers for the recent US election. Yes, it did happen. The OSCE deployed 92 observers, of whom 56 were members of parliament in their own countries. This is comparatively top-heavy for an OSCE election observation mission, which normally would have a few heavyweight political figures and then mostly much younger activists on the ground. They published an 11-page preliminary report on November 4th and promised a more exhaustive final report six weeks after the election, so the week after next by my tally.

The preliminary report (11 pages pdf, 68k) is here. It mainly concentrates on the incomplete implementation of the Help America Vote Act and on variations of practice in different parts of the country. The observers note the pre-election allegations of fraud but don’t make any assessment of them; they seem to take a very slightly stronger line on stories of intimidation of minority voters. If I notice when the full report is published I’ll note it here.

MMR doctor’s commercial gains.

Full gory details.

If I was young, free and single, I would now be calling my countries’ foreign ministries (the joys of dual citizenship) to see if I could get a place as an international election observer in the repeated second round of presidential elections in Ukraine. As it is, of course, it’s going to be on December 26th and I have three small children and a wife who will (quite rightly) demand my presence at Christmas. But seriously, folks, they are going to have real difficulty finding intelligent and motivated people who want to observe this crucial election to make sure it goes right. If you are even remotely interested in spending a few days in Ukraine this month, and want some idea of how to try and get on the list, drop me a note.

I see my good friend Dov and another friend of his compiled a separatist statelet tour a while back. To read later.

but I will as well: the 10 least successful Christmas Specials of all time. Including:

Ayn Rand’s A Selfish Christmas (1951)

In this hour-long radio drama, Santa struggles with the increasing demands of providing gifts for millions of spoiled, ungrateful brats across the world, until a single elf, in the engineering department of his workshop, convinces Santa to go on strike. The special ends with the entropic collapse of the civilization of takers and the spectacle of children trudging across the bitterly cold, dark tundra to offer Santa cash for his services, acknowledging at last that his genius makes the gifts — and therefore Christmas — possible. Prior to broadcast, Mutual Broadcast System executives raised objections to the radio play, noting that 56 minutes of the hour-long broadcast went to a philosophical manifesto by the elf and of the four remaining minutes, three went to a love scene between Santa and the cold, practical Mrs. Claus that was rendered into radio through the use of grunts and the shattering of several dozen whiskey tumblers.

and also another episode featuring a person I have had professional dealings with, which reduced me to tears of helpless laughter.

Hey, , you’re welcome to come to embassy receptions with me any time – especially if you write such nice things about me!

http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/2004/12/john-laughland-no-laughing-matter.html

“For the BHHRG, monitoring human rights and democracy seems to consist of waiting what the United States and Great Britain are saying, and then saying the opposite.”

http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/001759.html

“Basically, if a cartoon version of Edmund Burke were divined into existence and asked to monitor elections in regions outside Western Christendom, the result would be BHHRG. In the former Soviet bloc, this means they expect voters to prefer Slavophiles over Western reformers — and if they prefer the latter, it must be because of perfidious Western interference.”

http://www.registan.net/index.php?p=4357

“BHHRG is a perfect example of how easy it is to pull the wool over people’s eyes with a simple name. To put it plainly, just because you have “human rights” in your name doesn’t mean that’s what you really care about. I’ve encountered their slime in the past. Then, as now, BHHRG is much more interested in criticizing the West than advancing human rights and they will employ any tools to do so.”

And a more balanced piece in The Guardian.

Timothy Garton Ash gets it right.

Any feminists out there who have read The Gods Themselves? Your assistance will be much appreciated!

From

1. What time did you get up this morning?
Eleven. Nursing a sore throat so I took the morning off.

2.If you could eat lunch with one person, who would it be?
Nelson Mandela.

3. Gold or silver?
Gold

4. What was the last film you saw?
ROTK.

5. What is your favorite TV show(s)?
Buffy. University Challenge. Mastermind. Have I Got News For You.

6. What did you have for breakfast?
Two cups of coffee made on milk. I would normally try to make time for for a poached egg on buttered toast as well.

7. Who would you hate to be stuck in a room with?
Anyone with a gun.

8. What/Who inspires you?
Lofty political ideals, and the people who profess them!

9. What is your middle name?
Henry

10. Beach, city or country?
All three, though mostly city.

11. Favorite ice cream?
Mint Choc Chip.

12. Butter, plain, or salted popcorn?
Butter.

13. Favorite color??
Green

14. What kind of car do you drive?
Renault Espace.

15. Favorite sandwich?
Salmon and mozzarella

16. What characteristics do you despise?
Insincerity, indecision.

17. Favorite flower?
What’s a flower?

18. If you could go anywhere in the world on a vacation, where would it be?
Torn between Central Asia and the Pacific islands…

19. What color is your bathrobe?
Blue

20. Favorite brand of clothing??
I have no idea what clothes I am wearing!

21. Where would you like to retire?
Ireland

22. Favorite day of the week?
Saturday

23. What did you do on your last birthday?
Went out for dinner with my wife and some colleagues

25. Favorite sport to watch?
Soccer (but only world cup)

26. What fabric detergent do you use?
Am ashamed to say that I don’t do the laundry…

27. Coke or Pepsi?
Coke

29. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Night Owl.

30. What is your shoe size?
42 and a half (European)

31. Do you have any pets?
There are some feral cats that sometimes get fed out of our household budget…

32. Favorite alcohol and drink?
Guinness; Irish whiskey

33. Favorite kind of vacation?
Cultural and historical rather than sunshiney beach.

34.Thunderstorms?
Yes, as long as I’m indoors

35. Freelance or 9-5?
If this is about my current status, then it’s 9.30-6.30, though of course the hours tend to be longer and there are a lot of weekends. As for the future, I think I prefer to work for other people than work for myself.

From

1. What time did you get up this morning?
Eleven. Nursing a sore throat so I took the morning off.

2.If you could eat lunch with one person, who would it be?
Nelson Mandela.

3. Gold or silver?
Gold

4. What was the last film you saw?
ROTK.

5. What is your favorite TV show(s)?
Buffy. University Challenge. Mastermind. Have I Got News For You.

6. What did you have for breakfast?
Two cups of coffee made on milk. I would normally try to make time for for a poached egg on buttered toast as well.

7. Who would you hate to be stuck in a room with?
Anyone with a gun.

8. What/Who inspires you?
Lofty political ideals, and the people who profess them!

9. What is your middle name?
Henry

10. Beach, city or country?
All three, though mostly city.

11. Favorite ice cream?
Mint Choc Chip.

12. Butter, plain, or salted popcorn?
Butter.

13. Favorite color??
Green

14. What kind of car do you drive?
Renault Espace.

15. Favorite sandwich?
Salmon and mozzarella

16. What characteristics do you despise?
Insincerity, indecision.

17. Favorite flower?
What’s a flower?

18. If you could go anywhere in the world on a vacation, where would it be?
Torn between Central Asia and the Pacific islands…

19. What color is your bathrobe?
Blue

20. Favorite brand of clothing??
I have no idea what clothes I am wearing!

21. Where would you like to retire?
Ireland

22. Favorite day of the week?
Saturday

23. What did you do on your last birthday?
Went out for dinner with my wife and some colleagues

25. Favorite sport to watch?
Soccer (but only world cup)

26. What fabric detergent do you use?
Am ashamed to say that I don’t do the laundry…

27. Coke or Pepsi?
Coke

29. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Night Owl.

30. What is your shoe size?
42 and a half (European)

31. Do you have any pets?
There are some feral cats that sometimes get fed out of our household budget…

32. Favorite alcohol and drink?
Guinness; Irish whiskey

33. Favorite kind of vacation?
Cultural and historical rather than sunshiney beach.

34.Thunderstorms?
Yes, as long as I’m indoors

35. Freelance or 9-5?
If this is about my current status, then it’s 9.30-6.30, though of course the hours tend to be longer and there are a lot of weekends. As for the future, I think I prefer to work for other people than work for myself.

From

1. What time did you get up this morning?
Eleven. Nursing a sore throat so I took the morning off.

2.If you could eat lunch with one person, who would it be?
Nelson Mandela.

3. Gold or silver?
Gold

4. What was the last film you saw?
ROTK.

5. What is your favorite TV show(s)?
Buffy. University Challenge. Mastermind. Have I Got News For You.

6. What did you have for breakfast?
Two cups of coffee made on milk. I would normally try to make time for for a poached egg on buttered toast as well.

7. Who would you hate to be stuck in a room with?
Anyone with a gun.

8. What/Who inspires you?
Lofty political ideals, and the people who profess them!

9. What is your middle name?
Henry

10. Beach, city or country?
All three, though mostly city.

11. Favorite ice cream?
Mint Choc Chip.

12. Butter, plain, or salted popcorn?
Butter.

13. Favorite color??
Green

14. What kind of car do you drive?
Renault Espace.

15. Favorite sandwich?
Salmon and mozzarella

16. What characteristics do you despise?
Insincerity, indecision.

17. Favorite flower?
What’s a flower?

18. If you could go anywhere in the world on a vacation, where would it be?
Torn between Central Asia and the Pacific islands…

19. What color is your bathrobe?
Blue

20. Favorite brand of clothing??
I have no idea what clothes I am wearing!

21. Where would you like to retire?
Ireland

22. Favorite day of the week?
Saturday

23. What did you do on your last birthday?
Went out for dinner with my wife and some colleagues

25. Favorite sport to watch?
Soccer (but only world cup)

26. What fabric detergent do you use?
Am ashamed to say that I don’t do the laundry…

27. Coke or Pepsi?
Coke

29. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Night Owl.

30. What is your shoe size?
42 and a half (European)

31. Do you have any pets?
There are some feral cats that sometimes get fed out of our household budget…

32. Favorite alcohol and drink?
Guinness; Irish whiskey

33. Favorite kind of vacation?
Cultural and historical rather than sunshiney beach.

34.Thunderstorms?
Yes, as long as I’m indoors

35. Freelance or 9-5?
If this is about my current status, then it’s 9.30-6.30, though of course the hours tend to be longer and there are a lot of weekends. As for the future, I think I prefer to work for other people than work for myself.

The scourge of insomnia.

Bosnia latest (from OHR website:

Commenting on the revelation of Ratko Mladic’s personnel military file published in today’s press, the High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, said that the document indicates that the RS, through the VRS, had for a full seven years, been in flagrant breach of Dayton and their international obligations by formally retaining Ratko Mladic on their books and perhaps even paying him while claiming they didn’t know where he was.

“We have now seen for ourselves Ratko Mladic’s personnel file,” said the High Representative. “The fact that as recently as two years ago, the VRS had an employer/employee relationship with Mr Mladic is scandalous, and is an indication of the flagrant disregard that the RS authorities and especially the VRS have held towards their Dayton commitments and their obligations to the International Tribunal in The Hague.”

He said that this document supports comments made by the ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte last week, in which she noted that there are fundamental systemic weaknesses built into the law enforcement and security structures in the RS.

“What does this tell us about the collusion of the VRS in Mr Mladic’s continued evasion of justice and their willingness to co-operate with the ICTY?,” said the High Representative. “This is proof of systemic institutional weaknesses that exist – in particular in the RS MoI and MoD. The RS must break with the past if it wants a modern European future.”

He noted that the document also contradicts the claim by the RS authorities that the institutional links between the VJ and VRS were severed back in 2000 and 2001. “If Mr Mladic was registered with both the VJ and the VRS, why did his personnel file never appear back in 2000 and 2001 when the authorities were claiming to have severed the link?” said the High Representative.

Ratko Mladic’s personnel military file was published today. It showed that he was discharged from the VJ in 2001 and from the VRS in 2002. His discharge from the VRS was issued by decree of the then RS President Mirko Sarovic in March 2002.

So, I bought this big chunk of boneless turkey at the supermarket yesterday. This evening I took a deep oven dish, lined the bottom of it with onions, olive oil, tarragon, and sage from the garden, put in the turkey, shoved it in the oven at 180°C, took it out halfway through to turn over the meat and put in some mushrooms and more herbs, and finally served it to my hungry wife with loads of potatoes, Brussels sprouts and peas.

It tasted disgusting. Oh well, you can’t win ’em all. At least there were enough potatoes to make a proper meal, and the gravy was tasty even if the meat wan’t.