Armenia was a blast. And we seemed to make much better time coming back up the road to Georgia last night (and no hassle from traffic police at all). I was just about able to communicate with our Armenian driver – his Russian was bad but mine much much worse. (I need to get some practice with when I get back.)

Tesco apparently were in Prague long before they were in Belfast, the first serious sign of capitalism. Unforunately I left my razor and shaving gel behind in the first night’s hotel in Tbilisi. Fortunately I still had spare blades.

In Tbilisi now. Fun.

So, yesterday morning woke up after an awful night’s sleep. Got on 0900 plane to Tbilisi via Prague, with four hour stopover in Prague.

Good. Enough time to find the Tesco’s in Prague and buy 1) summer coat 2) jeans 3) shaving kit. Return to Prague airport.

Gobsmacked to see that plane to Tbilisi is “cancelled”. It turns out that this is a pessimistic interpretation of events. In fact it is simply redirected; still going to Tbilisi, but via Amsterdam. (From Prague. Yes. Right.)

We land in Amsterdam at 1800. I could have driven to Amsterdam airport in time if I had left home at 1430, seven hours after I went out the door. I would have liked seven more hors with my family, on my wife’s birthday. But there we go.

Finally arrive in Tbilisi at 0200 local time this morning. Zoom to hotel. Bed in time to watch Ukraine triumph in Eurovision song contest. Awaiting early morning start again.

In car by 0730, driving from Georgia to Armenia. Impressive works for Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Stopped twice by Georgian traffic cops asking for bribes. Pay them, continue. Last 20 km of road from Georgia to Armenia (along which 80% of Armenia’s exports go) is in shocking state. No decent surface, livestock wandering freely over it. (Perhaps germane that local population largely Azeri rather than Georgian or Armenian?)

Long stop at border. Impressed by my own Russian when I understand my colleague ask “Там нудо пройти?” [Do we have to go over there?] Еventually released into Armenia, my 40th country. Beuatiful place, reminiscent of Ireland (partly because of the soft rain). Livestock still wandering across road, but road in much better condition than in Georgia.

Finally arrive Yerevan at 1500. Sleep briefly. Meet up with boss and his wife (who is also a fan of superb novel Ali and Nino set in these parts 90 years ago). Out to dinner for fantastic Armenian meal at restaurant with authentic folk dancing. Turns out this is not for our benefit but because most of restaurant booked out by sales taskforce for Armenian brandy, mostly young Russian women with dyed hair. We enjoy watching them dance, and sample product.

Back to hotel. Internet. Now bed.

Right, off I go for a week in the Southern Caucasus. See you when I get back.

Excellent Hugo-nominated story from Shadows over Baker Street, now online on author’s website:
http://www.neilgaiman.com/exclusive/StudyinEmerald.asp

5) Singularity Sky by

This is the first of this year’s Hugo nominees that I’ve read after the shortlist was announced (I’d already read Ilium and Paladin of Souls). I’ve been somewhat struck by those who have already done roundups of the shortlists tending to make comments along the lines of, well is a great guy but this isn’t a Hugo-quality book. Quite apart from the fact that after last year’s winner, the concept of a “Hugo-quality” book seems not quite as exalted as perhaps we would like, I think it’s really unfair. Let me state then that is a great guy and this is also a very good book.

As well as reflecting and refracting the very different future universes described by his friends Iain Banks and Ken MacLeod, there are all kinds of other influences in there, including slightly subversive genuflections towards both Bujoldian space opera and Boris Pasternak. Apart from its complex literary heritage, there is a core political message about freedom of information defeating repressive political regimes, obviously of relevance in today’s world, and a rather good love story. Recommended.

The livejournal “friends list” is a real misnomer. It’s actually two things: either people whose journals you like reading, or people who you have decided should be allowed access to (some of) your locked posts. Most of you are people who I consider, or would like to consider, as friends.

There are 43 “real” people on my “friends-of” list, ie 43 people who see my postings on their “friends” pages. None of the automated tools for comparing these things seems to be working at the moment but I’ve had a go at cranking through by hand an analysis of which other livejournals are thought to be worth reading by the people who read mine.

The “friends lists” of the 43 people on my “friends-of” list have a total of 1276 entries for 388 other livejournal users (not counting communities or feeds) on them, ie you guys are reading an average of 29.7 other lj users, each of whom is listed by on average 3.3 of you. They are:

43 mentions (not surprisingly)
14 mentions
12 mentions
11 mentions
10 mentions
9 mentions
8 mentions
7 mentions
6 mentions
5 mentions
4 mentions
3 mentions
2 mentions
1 mention for

I dunno what it all means…

Pleasant lunch with an ex-boss, much discussion of the joys of management and the problems of tracking EU policy (financial services legislation in his case).

Not so pleasant to learn that a former colleague, who left the organisation at the same time as I did, committed suicide a few months later. Rest in peace, Feli.

I see Quicksilver won the Arthur C. Clarke award. Of the four I’d read on the shortlist of six, probably my favourite, ahead of Pattern Recognition.

Pollster John Zogby thinks Kerry will win.

I said so in February.

The boss has given the go-ahead for publishing our Azerbaijan report tomorrow!

The Green Party’s candidate in next month’s European election in Northern Ireland has withdrawn after a sporting injury last weekend, and seems likely to be replaced by their co-leader Lindsay Whitcroft. Lindsay and I were both on the Alliance Party ticket in North Belfast in 1996, and her husband Pete and I (and Kathy of Kate and Pansy) were on the same University Challenge team in 1994, so I wish her well. If I had a vote back home I would be backing John Gilliland with my first preference, but would certainly give Lindsay my second.

Broken Engagement – why Iraq is not like the Cold War.

As I expected, all but one of the Hugo nominees in the short fiction categories can now be found on-line, in some cases three times over

Best Novella (five out of five)

* “Empress of Mars” by Kage Baker (Asimov’s, July 2003)
http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0406/empressofmars.shtml
http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?t=book.htm&bookid=18503&id=8474 (for $2.69)

* “The Green Leopard Plague” by Walter Jon Williams (Asimov’s, Oct.-Nov. 2003)
http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0406/greenleopards.shtml

* “Just Like the Ones We Used to Know” by Connie Willis (Asimov’s, Dec. 2003)
http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0406/liketheonesweusedtono.shtml

* “The Cookie Monster” by Vernor Vinge (Analog, Oct. 2003)
http://www.analogsf.com/0406/cookiemonster.shtml

* “Walk in Silence” by Catherine Asaro (Analog, April 2003)
http://www.analogsf.com/0406/silence.shtml

Best Novelette (six out of six)

* “The Empire of Ice Cream” by Jeffrey Ford (Sci Fiction, scifi.com, Feb. 2003)
http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/originals/originals_archive/ford4/

* “Bernardo’s House” by James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s, June 2003)
http://www.jimkelly.net/pages/bernardo’s_house.htm
http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0406/bernardoshouse.shtml
http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?t=book.htm&bookid=22109&id=8474

* “Into the Gardens of Sweet Night” by Jay Lake (Writers of the Future XIX, Bridge, 2003)
http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?t=book.htm&bookid=21594&id=8474

* “Hexagons” by Robert Reed (Asimov’s, July 2003)
http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0406/hexagons.shtml

* “Nightfall” by Charles Stross (Asimov’s, April 2003)
http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0406/nightfall.shtml

* “Legions in Time” by Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s, April 2003)
http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0406/legionsintime.shtml

Best Short Story (four out of five)

* “Paying It Forward” by Michael A. Burstein (Analog, Sept. 2003)
http://www.analogsf.com/0406/payingforward.shtml

* “A Study in Emerald” by Neil Gaiman (Shadows over Baker Street, Del Rey, 2003)
(not yet)

* “Four Short Novels” by Joe Haldeman (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Nov. 2003)
http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/fiction/jh01.htm

* “The Tale of the Golden Eagle” by David D. Levine (Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 2003); free from FictionWise
http://www.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw?t=book.htm&bookid=21805&id=8474

* “Robots Don’t Cry” by Mike Resnick (Asimov’s, July 2003)
http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0406/robotsdontcry.shtml
http://tinyurl.com/33zl4 (gives you a text file from Compuserve)

Interview. Fantastic.

It’s the place everyone’s talking about.

Dear ,

I was very regreted to hear that news about your colleague, who I really respect and we become friends while he was viziting Borduria. What happened really touched not only your organisation but me personally as well, because I may suppose that he also was asked questions about my personality and so.

Unfgortunately I was not in Borduria that days and I told your colleague about long time ago, I am in Western Europe now.

As soon as I arrive I am going to take an adequate measures and have very seriouse discussions on this matter with my authorities, especially with Security Service. Please accept my apologisez. I really hope that this outreageous fact would not complicate our very good realtions. With best regards…

So that’s a relief.

[edited to add:] Obviously a) he is all right b) he is aware of the political stakes in Borduria and c) he was clever enough to read my “message of protest” for what I really meant to say in it.

4) Shadows over Baker Street, edited by Michael Reaves and John Pelan

This is the first of the Hugo nominees package I gave myself for my birthday; Neil Gaiman’s “A Study in Emerald” has been nominated for Best Short Story and is the lead item in this anthology of authors attempting to meld the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft.

I’ve always had a liking for Holmes pastiches, and vividly remember as a teenager devouring John Dickson Carr’s The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, based around adventures mentioned but not fully recounted in the canonical stories, and Robert Lee Hall’s Exit Sherlock Holmes in which both Holmes and Moriarty turn out to be time-travelling clones from the 24th century, but it’s very well done as far as I remember. Also of course there’s the early long-unpublished Bujold story, “The Adventure of the Lady on the Embankment”.

And as for H.P. Lovecraft – indeed, some (all?) of the original stories are pastiche, most overtly the one where his friend and fellow author Clark Ashton Smith turns out to be the Whisperer in Darkness, Klarkash-Ton. And the tradition of Cthulhu pastiche has been alive and well for decades; an earlier Holmes/Elder Gods crossover which I much enjoyed was Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October.

I’m sorry therefore to report that this is a pretty poor showing. Over and over the same themes get rewarmed – unspeakable entities in or from Afghanistan; the truth behind Colonel Moran and/or Irene Adler and/or (once or twice) Moriarty; dark hints, never fully explained, about bees. The editors have done a poor job with details of the setting – Guildford in Surrey has a “d”, folks; Fylingdales in Yorkshire has no “r”; “Inswich” is a poor attempt to combine Innsmouth and Dunwich from Lovecraft with Bram Stoker’s Whitby; the less said about the attempts at Welsh and Dutch the better (though I was amused to read the tale involving the young Princess Wilhelmina at Noordeinde Palace just two weeks after I helped celebrate her great-grandson’s wedding there).

The jewel (the emerald?) of the collection is certainly the Gaiman story, which turns everything on its head to combine irony with horror. Three others, by Steve Perry, co-editor Michael Reaves and F. Gwynplaine McIntyre, deserve honorable mentions. But it would be better to leave the rest sleeping in R’lyeh with the Great Old One himself.

On my own site:
Georgia On My Mind, by Charles Sheffield

On Infinity Plus:
Floater by Lucius Shepard
Carolan’s Concerto, by Caiseal Mór

I'm feeling much more chirpy now. I was very hungry and grouchy earlier in the evening and got out of it by cooking – steak and rice and chicons and peas and spinach for this evening, and marinading a big chunk of turkey for lunch tomorrow.

And we just watched an entire video together for the first time since U arrived sixteen months ago.

And it was a fantastic one as well – Chocolat, starring the ever wondrous Juliette Binoche. Brilliant bits include the north wind, the statue, the priest singing Elvis, the scene where Vianne and Anouk come downstairs and find the party being prepared (and the Count's awakening – in more ways than one – shortly after) and lots more.

And I see checking IMDB that Lena Olin was also in The Unbearable Lightness of Being along with JB. And Leslie Caron and JB were both also in Damage.

And every paragraph in this entry after the first starts with "and". Time for bed.

Living with Caucasians.

Incidentally, this time next week I shall be in Georgia.
15 May: fly Brussels-Tbilisi via Prague
16 May: drive Tbilisi-Yerevan in afternoon
17 May: drive back in evening
20 May (first thing): fly Tbilisi-Baku
21 May (late): return Baku-Tbilisi
22 May: fly home, Tbilisi-Brussels via Prague

I’m looking forward to the 23rd…

Flags of the world, graded from A (Gambia) to F (Northern Mariana Islands).

Choice comments based on a stringent methodology include:
Central African Republic: Do not attempt to disprove the four-colour theorem on your flag! (This goes for you, too, Mauritius).
Dominica: Do not put a picture of a parrot on your flag! (This goes for you too, Guatamala!)
Falkland Islands: Worst UK colonial flag. Has a sheep on it. Actually, if you look closely, you can see that the sheep is riding on top of an island, which is riding on top of a ship. Also the stupid slogan is in English, and is a platitude.
Marshall Islands: Looks like an airline logo.
Mozambique: Automatic weapons on a flag are especially bad. Appears to have been designed by a committee all of whom had stupid ideas for pictures of extra things to put on the flag.

Glorious.

Another weblog of someone who works in international affairs in Brussels:

My Boyfriend is a Twat

Much drama in the afternoon. Another of my staff, visiting a place I shall call Borduria, had got detained by the Bordurian secret police this morning. They’d been perfectly polite but “borrowed” his laptop long enough to hoover all the data out of it, including sensitive interviews with a leading liberal in the Bordurian government who I happen to know as well. My colleague made his excuses and left Borduria, probably for ever as they withdrew his visa.

Very alarming. Knowing that his email is almost certainly monitored as well, I sent my Bordurian liberal friend an message that on a vague reading would look like a protest at the treatment of my colleague by the secret police, but I am pretty sure he is smart enough to realise that it was really a warning that they know what he’s been saying to us. (Of course they probably have a good idea anyway.)

Ulp.

My talk about Norn Iron to the 18-yr-olds went well, but the day started much too early.

Much negotiation with one of my heads of office who wanted to fire one of his staff. By the time we’d got the paperwork sorted out, the person he was trying to get rid of had jumped before being pushed.

Other drama too but I will say no more here.

Good to meet last night – the first time I’ve met someone who I knew only from their livejournal. Good fun.

Off now to small town near Antwerp to tell sixth-formers what is was like to grow up in Northern Ireland. Then work.

SF clichés

Horror clichés

(Thanks to Teresa Nielsen Hayden)

3) Manifesto for a New World Order, by George Monbiot

I usually read Monbiot’s articles in the Guardian (including the very silly one about the Wright brothers) but, thanks to my sister, this is the first time I’ve tried him at book length.

It’s a mixed bag, written really for people who already count themselves as sympathisers with the anti-globalisation movement (and I suspect Monbiot would classify me as on the inside pissing out, rather than like him on the outside pissing in). There are four substantive chapters each with a different proposal. The first of these I completely agreed with, a rousing defence of democracy against communism and anarchism, though I myself do not move in circles where this is much debated.

The second is a proposal for a World Parliament of 600 single-member transnational constituencies of 10 million people. Hmm. I’d have liked to see some actual figures here, for what such a parliament would look like. By country, as of 2002, there would be 128 Chinese MPs, 105 Indian, 29 from the United States, 21 from Indonesia, 17 from Brazil, 14 from Pakistan, Russia and Bangladesh, 13 from Nigeria and Japan. Monbiot quite reasonably snarls at those who would object to thus empowering the poor, but there is also the matter of empowering dictatorships by giving them representation (and his idea of handicapping less democratic regimes in an upper chamber is ludicrously unrealistic even by the standards of his other proposals). It’s not an evil idea, but the way he puts it forward indicates to me how unfamiliar he is with the range of democratic practices worldwide.

The third is an appeal to implement Keynes’ rather than Dexter White’s plans for the Bretton Woods institutions. I don’t know enough about the history or economics of this to comment properly, but several aspects of Monbiot’s presentation seemed to me dishonest. Lumping together the IMF, World Bank and currency speculators as if they were one evil mass signed up to the same agenda is simply not fair. My personal experience of the World Bank has been rather positive, of an organisation of able people who could be earning far more in the private sector but instead are trying to reduce poverty; he seems to be writing about some other institution entirely. Likewise, the only currency speculator Monbiot actually names is one whom I happen to know, George Soros, who indeed gets a duly positive write-up. That the IMF sometimes behaves with crass insensitivity is well known, but to say that it is also evil is a step further and I don’t find the case convincing. My conclusion is that I must read Skidelsky’s biography of Keynes, and decide for myself.

The fourth is about the international trade system. Here I found the presentation unsatisfactory because it has been slightly overtaken by events, specifically the Cancún débâcle of last September. But it’s unarguable to me at least that many poor countries need some trade barriers, and that rich countries tend to cheat on the arrangements. I’ve even put my name to a 114 kb pdf file which makes that argument, though within the paradigm of trade liberalisation all round rather than just for the rich. A crucial aspect that is omitted from Monbiot’s calculation, but is more and more something I’m saying in private to my official contacts and increasingly also in public, is the question of the movement of people as well as goods, services and capital. “Fortress Europe” penalises the honest traveller and rewards the trafficker of human beings. So of the three policy-oriented chapters, this one came closest to my own views.

In the short concluding chapter, Monbiot wonders if he got it the wrong way round and should have started off with his thoughts on trade and then moved on to Bretton Woods and finished with the World Parliament. For me, it doesn’t really matter. The book’s big failing is its lack of engagement with what the “enemy” actually say about themselves. Its success is that at least it puts forward ideas.

I am having immense difficulty in getting the best spelling of the surname of an Avar warlord who was assassinated in Baku in 1997.

So far I’ve been told Antsukski, Ansukhskii, Ansuthsky, Antsusky, and various modifications on the theme.

Of course the problem is that the Avar alphabet is being transliterated either into the similar Russian alphabet and then into the quite different English alphabet or else coming into English via the completely inappropriate Azeri transliteration.

I thought to myself, I’ll try Googling to see if I can identify an academic expert on the Avar language (or магIарул мацI as they like to call it). Found one who looked ideal, a Dutch woman working in Berlin. But on closer examination she turns out to be no use for my purposes because she died last year.

Not that many people will notice.

It’s all over in Ajara. Abashidze has lost control of the police and the Russians are sending a senior minister to tell him to leave quietly. No shooting, thank heavens.

I see my friend Kathy now has a blog. *waves*!