Libyan rebel general killed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14336122

Shady business this. As the article itself points out there aren't really enough details to work out what actually happened. Reminds me a bit of the assassination of Francois Darlan in Algeria during WW2, which remains unclear to this day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Darlan#Assassination).

On a wider scale everything seems to be proceeding in the right direction, albeit slowly, in Libya. The UN, USA and Western Europeans continue to support the rebels despite Russia's grumbling. Recognising the rebels and expelling Libyan diplomats was an especially strong symbolic gesture as usually the UK makes a point of only recognising such groups after they have attained governmental power.

It is harder to make out how the military campaign of the rebels is going. The Economist and the BBC are sparse with exact details suggesting that no one really knows (possibly including the Libyans themselves). However, so long as the rebels continue to benefit from diplomatic and military support from the UN it is difficult to see how Gaddafi will avoid being forced into negotiations or even surrendering power completely in the long term.

Islamicist

Islamicist (def.) - I have absolutely no idea. The people who write the newspapers must know what it means though as they use it often enough. They wouldn't try to stir up tension between religions for little or no reason, would they? Oh wait, yes they probably would.

See also: 'Islamisation' - a term possibly coined by Geert Wilder as he furiously tried to back peddle after it was revealed that the Norway youth killer deeply admired his party. (http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief-cover/799051-wilders-distances-himself-breivik).

China Mieville

This man sounds awesome. I've just read 'Embassytown' and am definitely going to look out for more of his books in the future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_meiville

He also has the same birthday as me :)

'Embassytown' was a science fiction novel with a strong linguistic bent although it seems like the author practices many genres. I have a mixed record with books that focus on linguistics - I can rarely handle the non-fiction ones. They seem too full of jargon that I managed to get through primary school without ever getting a firm handle on and so I get bogged down and bored.

However, while I may not always fully understand linguistic themes when I encounter them in science fiction, I recognise that it can provide a very powerful hook for a story line. Babel 17 by Samuel Delany is one of my favourite books ever. It manages to keep the plot line simple by focussing mainly on two linguistic points:
1) How do you distinguish a language from a code via cryptography?
2) What effect it would have on a person not to be able to conceive of 'I'. Could they develop a sense of self or an ethical framework?

By repeated examination of these issues from different viewpoints the reader gets multiple chances to understand the nuances of them, bypassing the dangers of excessive jargon and high complexity.

China Meiville follows a similar line of focussed enquiry in 'Embassytown'. The 'Host' alien race in his book is incapable of speaking untruths. However, in engaging with humans they are forced to develop a limited facility for lying and they do so by physically examining individuals and objects in the world around them that they recognise as significant similes or concepts e.g. 'the man who swims with fishes' is like X or 'the girl who ate what was given to her in the dark' is like Y. I won't ruin the plot but it hinges around their learning to move from similes to metaphor, a transition which is seen as necessary for individual agency.

It is a very good book and not as heavy-going as it sounds. It reminded me a bit of 'A Case of Conscience' by James Blish but also seemed quite Samuel Delany or Iain Banks like at times.

'Into the Wild' and the self in modern society (spoilers)

I watched 'Into the Wild' last night and enjoyed it very much. It was one of those films where you empathise with every character and genuinely feel happy when they succeed and upset when they meet with tragedy. The acting was superb and the flashback structure kept me engaged and interested in the character of Christopher throughout what is, in the end, a rather long film.

However, under the happy and photogenic exterior it dealt with some difficult questions about what it means to live as a human among the structures and expectations of modern society. 'Alexander Supertramp' starts off from a privileged position as the academically gifted son of rich business owners. A fervent non-conformist he quickly rejects this heritage in order to search for happiness and the freedom to express himself. This self sufficient, individualist philosophy is generally portrayed positively. You can't help but like the dishevelled yet still handsome 'Alexander' ( who looks vaguely Che Guevara-ish at some points in the movie) and the impact that his innocent friendliness has on the people he meets during his travels.

However beneath the surface the film accepts that there are ugly sides to this lifestyle choice. The most obvious is Christopher's rejection of his parents and the obvious pain that this causes them. He leaves university without telling them and actively takes steps to ensure they will not know where he is or be able to track him down. The film's portrayal of the violent and argumentative atmosphere he was raised in makes you feel some sympathy for his need to cut all ties but at the same time it seems a major over reaction. His parents were not perfect but they did provide him with an education and spontaneous acts of kindness and support. It wasn't their fault that his ascetic moral code meant he saw these gestures as criticisms and hypocrisy rather than generosity. This youthful rejection of the smugness of elders is a recurring theme in both American and European films and social history. Ever since the late 60's there has been a current of rebellion among younger generations against the prosperous baby boomer's born in the immediate post-war period (which has frequently developed into violent protest such as that of the 1968 uprisings or the 1970s terrorism in Germany or Italy). Christopher's parents seem to receive excessive punishment for what is generally understood to be a society-wide lack of intergenerational understanding and compromise.

Other negative aspects of 'Alexander's' position are shown in a more ambivalent manner. He has to sleep in rough conditions and get unskilled, casual jobs in burger bars and on shady Southern farms but he seems to enjoy this and sees it as necessary to fulfil his self-set goal of reaching Alaska and living in the wild. Times when he experiences failure are also painful to watch but are shown as necessary to the project of self development he has embarked on. He might feel bad about killing a moose and failing to dress the corpse before it rots but he realises that there can be no challenge without risk of frustration.

However, there is one negative aspect of Alexander's life that gains greater importance to him and to the viewer throughout the film as the character isolates himself further from human society. After spending some weeks in Alaska he writes down the phrase, 'Happiness only real when shared' between the lines of Tolstoy's 'Family Happiness and other short stories'. His personal goal of reaching Alaska has all along contained a contradiction between his contentment and his need to escape. During the flashbacks to his previous travels you have seen that he is a sociable individual and enjoys meeting sympathetic and interesting characters that he can relate to and build meaningful relationships with (in some cases seeming to identify surrogate parent figures). However, in Alaska he lives without company for an inconceivably long amount of time. This life in the wild has its times of happiness as he has achieved his goal of total escape. However, he gets more and more lonely and the viewer is eventually left to question whether his own goals were not in the end as incoherent as those offered to him by his elders, even before the risks of living alone are further illustrated by his tragic and unnecessary but not entirely unforeseen death.

Therefore the ultimate message of the film is largely left up to the watcher. Those who believe that it is better to live a few years of glorious happiness than a long but conventional life will be saddened by 'Alexander's' death but see it as a reasonable price for his happy 'Supertramp' years. Those who take a more typical utilitarian view of what happiness is might think that his early death is pointless and that he would have been better off living a less risky bohemian life (that could have retained much of the unconventional freedom and sociability he enjoyed) or even accepting the conventions of society in order to enjoy the safer satisfactions it could bring. A related question, the answer to which again depends largely on the fundamental principles of the viewer, is whether Christopher is selfish to pass up the chances and expectations of society in order to live his individualist life. He gives most of his savings to charity, an uncomplicated act of goodness. However, some might argue that in return for raising him and educating him society could be forgiven for having expecting him to use his obvious talents to help others, rather than in pursuit of his own ends to the exclusion of all else. These deeper questions turn what could have been a heart warming film with a bit of a depressive ending into a real brain teaser that challenges you to compare your life to that of the protagonist and consider whether your own lifestyle might benefit from making some 'wild' choices.

Communism

Communism (def.) - A revolutionary ideology of fair economy that will never suffer from a lack of martyrs. Unfortunately those adherents who survive this rigorous selection process invariably turn out to be complete bastards.

Neo Nazis

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,775764,00.html

Briefly skimmed this article on the upbringing of the children of far right Neo-Nazis (although I've always wandered about the automatic correlation of Nazism with right wing policies. Sure the conservative social values, racism and fervent nationalism fit the bill but what about the Keynesian economics and nationalization of large parts of industry? Maybe fascism is primarily defined by its authoritarian attempt to control all aspects of a citizen's life rather than by a position on the left-right spectrum.)

This paragraph caught my eye, "Experts are worried about the children of Germany's neo-Nazis growing up in isolated extremist communities. The children read Nazi-era books, put together puzzles showing maps with 1937 borders and attend camps with ideological instruction. Is it time for the state to intervene?"

Maybe I'm jaded but my first thought was, "Could be worse. At least they aren't using maps with the 1942 borders."

Mau Mau legacy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14232049

Just read this interesting article about the attempts of victims of the Mau Mau repression to claim compensation from the British Government. It claims that, "Ministers say the UK government is not responsible for the actions of the colonial administration". I was initially a bit sceptical as no specific ministers are mentioned, however another article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12994190) goes into further detail and attributes the statement to Robert Jay, Foreign Office Counsel.

Needless to say this is untrue and inexcusable. True, Kenya was run by a colonial administration rather than directly from London. However, it was the British Army that led the campaign against the Kenyan rebels and committed the alleged atrocities. A British Governor declared the state of Emergency and the UK Government gave its implicit approval by not criticising these acts.

If home administrations cannot be condemned for the acts of their colonial governors we may need to rethink the Nuremburg trials. Many of the atrocities that the leading Nazis were executed for were committed in Hans Frank's 'Generalgouvernement' of Poland, which had a similar standing in relation to the Berlin government as that of Kenya in the 1950s did to London. However, while most of those who ran the death camps eventually received their just punishment it seems that the crimes against humanity of our own colonial empire are off limits and the victims ignored.

Ps - I really need to get round to reading 'Imperial Reckoning; The Untold Story of Britain's Gulags in Kenya'. I read a Guardian article written by the author about the Kenyan compensation claims and she really seemed to know her stuff and made a strong case for the legitimacy of the victim's claims.

History of a Joke

1952 - Evelyn Waugh - Men at Arms

"The normal relationship in the Halberdiers between platoon commander and sergeant was that of child and nannie. The sergeant should keep his officer out of mischief. The officer's job was to sign things, to take the blame and quite simply to walk ahead and get shot first".

1971 - Terry Pratchett - The Carpet People

"Most armies are in fact run by their sergeants — the officers are there just to give things a bit of tone and prevent warfare becoming a mere lower-class brawl."

1972-1983 - M*A*S*H

Radar O'Reilly. Need I say any more?

2000 - 2011 - Schlock Mercenary

Running gag throughout the archive of this monster web comic. The message that a good officer always listens to their sergeant is muted a bit in practice because Captain Tagon is such a badass and generally competent if ethically-challenged and short sighted. Sergeant Schlock, on the other hand, is an all-round psychopath who should only be listened to when collateral damage is not an issue!

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- Compare and contrast with: relationship between civil servants and elected ministers as hilariously portrayed in 'Yes Minister', 'Yes Prime Minister' and the brilliant 'In the Loop' which often shares a similar dynamic.

Sign up for Socialism....

30 seconds on the 'Pravda' website and I'm confronted with the delightfully phrased, 'Will be connected to the Social Web?' banner, asking me to support their site on Facebook.

Skim reading this I, of course, read 'Social Web' as 'Socialist Web'.

Liebestraum and Lebensraum

Just back from the Condon family weekend and it was wonderful as usual. All of the family made it except Rob and it was great to see everyone again. The cumulative effect of alcohol, sleep loss and constant chaos took its usual effect and everyone was a bit groggy travelling back yesterday.

Still I am fairly well recovered now and enjoying my last full day of holiday. Normal schedule of updates should resume soon.

Economist foresees the end of the Space Age

Read this interesting article on the economist website: http://www.economist.com/node/18897425.

Basically it claims that today's nations lack the incentive to go into space and therefore the Space Age is coming to a natural end. It provides plenty of evidence for this thesis. America is decommissioning its shuttles as the International Space Station is reaching the end of its operational lifetime. Russia has exited the field entirely as it has had other things to worry about since its early Cold War triumphs.

This could just mean the drive for space research and exploration has shifted to more energetic developing nations but the author is sceptical about this. While China claims it will push some of its hefty economic muscle towards a Moon landing he sees it as none too eager to set concrete dates for this mission or contemplate further space exploration beyond this goal.

He sees private enterprise as no more promising. Space tourism has been bandied around as a concept for years but remains a high-end luxury for a wealthy minority. The costs become exorbitent once you leave low-Earth orbit, making it a bit of a dead end in view of long term space exploration or colonisation.

Instead the author pins his hopes on continued development of the 'technosphere'. With a smugness that could only come from someone accustomed to being on the right side of the satellite-guided smart bombs, he praises the advances in warfare and communication brought by the increasing artificial presence in near-Earth space.

This is all true as far as it goes. However, I think he underestimates the extent that we should be worried about this. He seems to believe that humanity has a viable future in further building up the 'technosphere' and rarely venturing beyond. He likens this possible future to Antarctic scientists who relax in heated research bases with food supplies and consumer luxuries between exploratory missions. In the same way, he says, man will predominantly stick to building in near-Earth orbit and only send the occasional probe beyond.

This would be fine if the analogy held. However, in the case of the Earth (and attendant satellite zone) it is unclear that it does. The author's hypothetical Antarctic base will continue to be provided with the food and goods it needs for as long as the owners can afford to run it. The population is kept stable or if not provisions are made for the feeding and comfort of new arrivals. Although this base may be expensive to heat and maintain there is little physical threat to it after it has been set up. Antarctica is demilitarized and engineers are ingenious in dealing with the challenges of extreme cold and changeable weather conditions.

Earth, in the long run, is in a completely different situation. Unlike the demographically stable Antarctic base it has to cope with the demands of a populations that seems to grow faster every century. Barring a super-Malthusian disaster, the population of the Earth is likely to eventually reach the stage where even if resources were distributed based on absolute necessity (a situation that certain influential sections of our society seem to have little interest in attaining anyway) there will not be enough to go around. The likely consequences of mass starvation, global war and spreading pandemics should surely be enough to motivate today's nation states to spend adequately on space exploration.

Earth is also vulnerable to physical attack. Not, of course, in the B-movie sense of alien invasion but from the far more likely threat of a collision with an asteroid. Scientists agree that there have been large impacts in the past, which may have contributed to mass extinctions. Space travel is the only credible way to escape this risk of total annihilation. If we do ever see an asteroid approaching I'm sure we will be glad if we have prepared methods for evacuation. At the very least settlements on other planets would have a chance of allowing the human race to survive such a catastrophe.

Therefore, the author might be better off attempting to drum up some support for projects that attempt to escape Earth's gravity well rather than focussing on past technological successes. The nationalist drive of the Cold War to inspire space missions may have faded but it is in the interest of the entire human race that such projects and research continue.

Maybe a hiatus....

Post frequency may well drop for a bit now, due to two main causes:

1) Valve made Team Fortress 2 free to play - If this is the future of PC gaming bring it on! A most excellent and addictive game and all you have to do to avoid paying for it in any way is resist the temptation to acquire an awesome hat for your character! I think I can just about manage that. Needless to say I've been playing this a lot this week and am not quite as clueless as I was originally although still flummoxed by some situations (mostly involving attacking entrenched sentry gun positions. You can get in as Spy to disable them but you then tend to die 2.7 seconds later as the surrounding infantry mow you down!). However, it has reduced my time available for more meaningful leisure time activities.

2) I am taking my first serious holiday since Easter! - Looking forward to some down time as I've been getting incredibly fatigued lately (although going eight days without a day off last week probably didn't help). Also means I'll be able to go to the Condon family reunion which is always an enjoyable affair. Bit scary as once I get back I'll only be a few weeks away from finishing this job.

So, so long and thanks for all the hits. This will almost certainly be a hiatus rather than a lingering death as I have rather enjoyed ranting on here about my eclectic interests and neurotic foibles.