1. Followups
Bird’s Eye: Another “View from the Other Side”, this one from Africa by Mama Hope. As the tragic civil war in Syria goes on, Western realists such as Stephen Walt argue increasingly against Western involvement (TL:DR Libya) leaving Turkey as the only relevant outside power. And in Canada, a panicked Conservative Government argues that independent scientists really want to be controlled: Environment Minister Peter Kent claims, “Many of our younger scientists seek advice from our departmental communications staff.” Pull the other one, Peter….
* African Men, Hollywood Stereotypes (video) -via Boing Boing
Wouldn’t it be better if African men weren’t always depicted as warlords or victims?
* Europe Has Left Syria To A Distinctly Ottoman Fate Timothy Garton Ash The Guardian
US president Barack Obama and French president Nicolas Sarkozy have elections to win. British prime minister David Cameron is too busy eating cold pasties and drumming up trade in the Far East. They will express outrage, and try to ratchet up economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure through the UN, but don’t expect any Libya or Kosovo-type intervention any time soon.
In these circumstances, it is other powers that will determine the fate of the Syrian people. In the near future, Turkey will be more important than Britain, Iran than Germany, Saudi Arabia than France, Russia than America. In Syria, all these regional powers pursue their own national interests, defined not just in economic and military but also in cultural and ideological terms. So there’s a struggle between Shia, post-revolutionary Iran and Sunni, reactionary Saudi Arabia, post-imperial Russia and neo-Ottoman Turkey, not to mention distant but mighty China – a vital swing vote among the permanent members of the UN security council.
* Environment Canada To Monitor What Scientists Say
Government media minders are being dispatched to an international polar conference in Montreal to monitor and record what Environment Canada scientists say to reporters.The scientists will present the latest findings on everything from seabirds to Arctic ice, and Environment Canada’s media office plans to intervene when the media approaches the researchers, Postmedia News has learned.
…“Until now such a crude heavy-handed approach to muzzle Canadian scientists, prior to a significant international Arctic science conference hosted by Canada, would have been unthinkable,” says a senior scientist, who has worked for Environment Canada for decades. He asked not to be identified due to the possibility of repercussions from Ottawa. “The memo is clearly designed to intimidate government scientists from Environment Canada,” he says. “Why they would do such an unethical thing, I can’t even begin to imagine, but it is enormously embarrassing to us in the international world of science.”
