KINSHASA (Reuters) - Millions of Congolese will vote on Sunday in historic elections aimed at ending years of war and chaos in the heart of Africa and protected by the world's biggest U.N. peacekeeping force.
From the crumbling capital Kinshasa through the thick jungles of the Congo river basin and the mist-shrouded peaks of the east, Congolese will participate in their first free elections in more than 40 years. Schools, churches and tents in Democratic Republic of Congo will be transformed into 50,000 polling stations for more than 25 million voters.
Over 17,000 United Nations peacekeepers -- backed by 1,000 European soldiers recently dispatched to the country -- will try to ensure voting can take place across the former Belgian colony the size of Western Europe. "Everyone wants to go and vote to finish this for once for all," Godefrod Shimatsu, a 47 year-old secretary, told Reuters in Kinshasa.
Sunday's elections are the culmination of a three-year peace process which ended Congo's last war -- a 1998-2003 conflict that sucked in six neighboring countries and killed 4 million people, mostly from hunger and disease.
Because as we all know a vote cures everything. Sorry to be a cynic; hope the vote goes well but I don't expect it to solve all the problems in Congo.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/30/2006 00:04 ||
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South Africa is not a safe place to go on holiday - it's official. Major Western countries are warning their clients and citizens that a holiday here could be very dangerous and now international insurance companies are acting as cautionary choruses to prospective tourists.
Norwich Union, an insurance company in the United Kingdom, undertook a survey based on their clients' travel insurance claims and found South Africa to be at the top of the list of countries for serious crime. The survey said travellers to South Africa were the most likely to suffer violent robberies or lose their belongings in transit. South Africa has been earmarked as the country where tourists' luggage goes missing most often and where the most crimes take place. South Africa was also high on the list for food poisoning and road accidents.
'South Africa was highest for claims made as a result of robbery with violence'
Continued on Page 49
"Road accidents" my aching arss, read that car and bakkie jackings - mind the new road signage. They're just setting the stage for a Zimbob-lite takeover. In another 5-10 years there won't be enough whites left in Jhb for a good poker game.
#2
The survey said travellers to South Africa were the most likely to suffer violent robberies or lose their belongings in transit.
Wishful thinking I know, but Issue small hand grenades to be (Professionaly) put in all passengers luggage, wired to the lock, if opened anyway except with the proper key "BOOM".
Shortly, no more missing luggage, a self-curing problem, all the thieves are now dead.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/30/2006 11:22 Comments ||
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#3
Jim:
The gummit over there could stop the crime, car-jackings, genecidal farm murders (an untold story). They're using crime to rid the country of the undesirables, and speed up the exodus. It's all very well orchestrated, all very tribal African I'm afraid.
PRAGUE, July 28, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has ordered the Abkhaz government in exile to move from Tbilisi to the Kodori Gorge. The move is a bold step toward restoring central control over the breakaway province. The Kodori Gorge, a remote mountain valley in the northeast of Abkhazia, is the only part of the province still controlled by the Georgian authorities. Most of Abkhazia has been ruled independently of Tbilisi since achieving de facto independence in 1993.
By ridding the Kodori Gorge of Emzar Kvitsiani's rebel militia so quickly and with so little loss, the Georgian authorities had passed an important test, he declared on national television July 27. The operation had been a "huge success."
The strategic significance of the gorge is enormous for Georgia -- it cuts down into the heart of the breakaway province of Abkhazia -- but its use to Tbilisi depends on the loyalty of the local administration. By turning Kodori into a private fiefdom, Kvitsiani, a former government official, turned a strategic advantage into a strategic liability.
Saakashvili has been so quick to use this week's military success to seize the political initiative. Today he ordered the Abkhaz government in exile, which is recognized and supported by Georgia, to move its offices from Tbilisi to Kodori. "We have decided to move the [representatives] of the Abkhaz government to the Kodori Gorge, where they will exercise the full jurisdiction of the Georgian authorities and take full control of the territory, normalize life, and begin reconstruction work," Saakashvili said on national television.
He also signaled to the Abkhaz separatist authorities in Sukhumi that Georgia intends to maintain a much more aggressive presence in Kodori than it has in the past. "For the first time since 1993, a government emerges -- a government enters the territory of our Abkhazia that will exercise full Georgian jurisdiction and maintain Georgia's constitutional order in the very middle of Abkhazia, on a very important part of Abkhaz territory," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/30/2006 00:00 ||
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Already famed for angry labor strikes and philosophical debates in smoke-filled cafés, the French have now brought these passions online to become some of the world's most intensive bloggers. The French distinguish themselves, both statistically and anecdotally, ahead of Germans, Britons and even Americans in their obsession with blogs, the personal and public journals of the Internet age.
Sixty percent of French Internet users visited a blog in May, ahead of Britain with 40 percent and little more than a third in the United States, according to Comscore, an Internet ratings service. Likewise, French bloggers spent more than an hour in June visiting France's top-rated blog site, far ahead of the 12 minutes spent by Americans doing the same and less than 3 minutes for Germans, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
More than three million Internet users, or more than 12 percent of those online in France, have created a blog, according a study released in June by the ratings agency Médiamétrie.
"You cannot be elected president of France without a blog," said Benjamin Griveaux, director of Web strategy for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister who in 2004 was among the first politicians to start a blog. "Blogs have not replaced traditional media, but they are absolutely necessary for every politician."
"With so many blogs, I'm hoping for fewer protests and strikes in Paris this fall," said Loïc Le Meur, a pioneer French blogger and European managing director of the blog-hosting company Six Apart. "If people can express themselves online, then maybe they don't need to block the streets."
French blogs stands out in other measurable ways. They are noticeably longer, more critical, more negative, more egocentric and more provocative than their U.S. counterparts, said Laurent Florès, the French-born, New York-based chief executive of CRM Metrix, a company that monitors blogs and other online conversations on behalf of companies seeking feedback on their brands.
"Bloggers in the United States listen to each other and incorporate rival ideas in the discussion," he said. "French bloggers never compromise their opinions."
Cultural explanations describe blogs as a natural outgrowth of the French national character. "It is clear that in France we have very large egos and love to speak about ourselves," Le Meur said. "If you look at Germans or Scandinavians - off- line and on the Internet - they really don't talk about themselves."
"The Minitel was a classic, centrally controlled and top-down creation of the French elite," Billaut said. "Blogs have been embraced by ordinary people, and this will flip the rigid power pyramid of French society."
Like elsewhere, the grass-roots freedom of blogs has proved problematic for French companies, with activist groups and skeptical consumers taking their strong views online, said Cyril Klein, marketing director of Scanblog, a blog-monitoring firm in Paris.
"Consumers in France have few outlets to make their views heard, so blogs have become their counterpower," Klein said, citing as an example ChiennesDeGarde.org, a Web site that fights against sexist displays of women. "The difficulty for brands is that French culture encourages people to express unhappiness and criticize."
But the French can be quirky as well as serious. One of the most popular video blogs, Bonjour America (www.bonjour-america.com), was started by Cyrille de Lasteyrie to explain France to foreigners - and to find a way for him to meet his hero, Clint Eastwood.
Other popular blogs include a cooking diary called C'est Moi Qui l'Ai Fait and a journal by an advertising executive called Dark Planneur.
Griveaux, the director of Web strategy for Strauss-Kahn, reckons the popularity of blogs comes down to France being a nation where each and every citizen thinks he or she should be in charge.
"We had 16 presidential candidates at the last election, and we will probably have the same number next year," Griveaux said. "Every French person wants to run the country - a blog is the next best option."
"If people can express themselves online, then maybe they don't need to block the streets."
Hahahahaha! Sure, yewbetcha. The people who "espress themselves online" and the clowns who riot are exactly the same. I'm sure that next car-b-que season, the "disaffected yutes" will just blog about their hatred of the West instead of attacking Jews and burning cars.
"Bloggers in the United States listen to each other and incorporate rival ideas in the discussion," he said. "French bloggers never compromise their opinions." "It is clear that in France we have very large egos and love to speak about ourselves,"
Quelle surprise.
"French culture encourages people to express unhappiness and criticize."
No, really, Bunky? Hooda thunk it?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/30/2006 16:11 Comments ||
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#2
I don't care for french blogs, most are made by leftists rehashing each other's and msm's talking points.
IMHO, this is bogus. Froggies like to talk about ideas anyway, we're a Nation of theorists and words tossers. Just look at me, poser and pseudo intellectual ("intello").
Some conservative blogs are actually very good, though they cover a wide span of the french right, IE often anti-american and/or anti-israeli. Blogs written by french jews are also often interesting, in that they don't follow the pro-arab/ROP party line of 99,9999% of the msm.
Some :
http://www.ludovicmonnerat.com/ (swiss)
http://www.precaution.ch/ (swiss, excellent, hosts a french online traduction of Spencer's Politically Incorrect Guide to islam somewhere)
http://dahuvariable.blogspot.com/ (swiss)
http://www.extremecentre.org/ (excellent, actually evolved from a yahoo groups where I used to lurk)
http://balagan.blog-city.com/ (sort of french jew MIF)
http://politiquearabedelafrance.net/ (excellent)
http://observatoire-islam-europe.blogspot.com/
http://www.occidentalis-leblog.info/
http://jcdurbant.blog.lemonde.fr/
http://www.lmae.net/
http://lesalonbeige.blogs.com/my_weblog/
http://www.peres-fondateurs.com/taranne/ (on stay; all the links in the blogroll are interesting, they're blogs from the Père fondateurs/Founding Fathers forum, a pro-Us freemarketers lair)
http://zekii.blogspot.com/ (excellent, very caustic, and well written, but really depressed and a depressing)
http://www.rechimot.blog-city.com/
http://voxgalliae.blogspot.com/
http://www.fdesouche.com/index.php
http://www.ilikeyourstyle.net/blog/
#3
"Bloggers in the United States listen to each other and incorporate rival ideas in the discussion," he said. "French bloggers never compromise their opinions."
I believe that trait is referred to in some quarters as simply arrogance and stupidity.
#4
Hahahahaha! Sure, yewbetcha. The people who "espress themselves online" and the clowns who riot are exactly the same.
Actually, a whole subset of blogs are the SKYBLOGS, IE the blogs hosted by the rap radio Skyrock. A whole lot of them, millions IIRC... reading them is a real insight into the "Youth" subculture, complete with phonetic writing, pics taken by cellphones, religious and cultural orientations,... very interesting, but also it makes you really wonder about the future of french culture... Btw, the guys blogging there WERE the ones torching the 20 000 cars in november 2005, they even used them to have a modicum of coordination.
#7
I read this whole thing in the local paper this morning, and thought "Oh, another installation of the old intellectual wheeze 'they do everything better in France'"
Really, isn't it well past time we got up off our knees and stopped genuflecting towards that superior continental culture?
Except for that food thing, of course, and I speak as a woman with three shelves worth of French cookbooks... ;-)
#10
yep - that REALLY hurts them, too....like another Merkin winning the Tour
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/30/2006 18:16 Comments ||
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#11
"the guys blogging there WERE the ones torching the 20 000 cars in november 2005"
I'll take your word for it, #4 anon, but that sort of negates Loïc Le Meur's wishful thinking theory.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/30/2006 18:19 Comments ||
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#12
Oops, hit post too soon.
My point was that violent people rarely spend too much time "discussing" - they coordinate with others who lean to violence, of course, but they rarely (if ever) substitute discussion for violence.
Kind of the opposite of the DU, Koskiddies, etc., who do nothing but run their mouths.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/30/2006 18:24 Comments ||
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#13
Food prep, and wine is about all they've been able to do better than us in the last fifty years, and we've caught up on the wine, and are getting closer on the food...Still, they used to be great and sometimes I am nostalgic about that old 'la belle France' thing...
Come to think on it, though, they haven't come close to doing a proper breakfast taco, which is truely the food of the gods.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/30/2006 19:20 Comments ||
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#15
We'd caught up on the wine 35 years ago when the first tasting was done. Food prep? That's a matter of taste. I don't know how they can grill anything better than a Webber myself.
But consider what Pak President Pervez Musharraf has had to swallow, according to testimony by US Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs John F Hillen to the House International Relations Committee, the same panel that first voted for the nuclear deal.
US government has done a security site survey of Pak bases and facilities, drawn up security plans of these sites where the F-16s will be located and it has been put in the deal that Pakistan will comply with the approved security plans.
US presence to monitor compliance with the security plan and a very enhanced end-use monitoring programme.
Two-man rule for access to equipment and restricted areas, wherein Pakistan cannot use these F-16s in exercises and operations with third countries without prior approval of the US.
The planes are not equipped with technology that would allow them to carry out offensive action to penetrate airspace of another country that is highly defended. They cannot deliver nuclear weapons.
F-16 maintenance and parts storage has to be in dedicated facilities run by Air Force personneland not sub-contractorswhich are part of the overall surveillance plan.
No supply of the aircraft unless US finds Pakistan fully compliant with the security plan requirements.
Routine access to F-16 aircraft also restricted to Pakistan Air Force personnel pre-approved by the US. And only the PAF can perform maintenance, no Pakistan contractors, industry or third countries to be involved.
The security plan greatly exceeds US Air Force standards for our own security of these weapons systems, Hillen said while urging the House panel to approve the sale. Even this did not fully convince the members as Hillen then went on to say there was more which he would discuss in detail in a closed session.
Posted by: john ||
07/30/2006 08:15 ||
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#1
no discussion of the hidden C4 packages in the tail that can be remotely triggered by USAF monitors, or automatically by entrance into China airspace?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/30/2006 8:32 Comments ||
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#2
This is typical FMS. The reason for the tight monitoring is largly because the ground crews, at the direction of the generals, will strip and sell the parts off the aircraft. All the parts in the warehouse would be gone is a week without US gatekeepers.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/30/2006 9:22 Comments ||
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#3
Exactly what advantages has the US secured from the post 9-11 relations with Pakistan?
#4
US government has done a security site survey of Pak bases and facilities, drawn up security plans of these sites where the F-16s will be located and it has been put in the deal that Pakistan will comply with the approved security plans.
I wonder if this includes a brief tally of where their nuclear weapons are stored. You know, just in case we have to prevent them from falling into the hands of even worse terrorist organizations.
US armaments major Raytheon has said it is ready to supply to India the advanced AESA radar, which has not been offered to Pakistan, for use with the F-16 and F-18 fighter jets.
The F-16 and F-18 are being considered for an Indian Air Force contract to purchase 126 multi-role combat aircraft, and the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar will significantly boost the war-fighting capabilities of both the jets, Raytheon officials said.
Significantly, Raytheon said it is also willing to "work to secure US government approval" for exporting sensitive technologies like the AESA radar to India. It pointed out that the US government has not offered either the F-18 or the AESA system to Pakistan.
Torkel Patterson, President of Raytheon International, told PTI "Raytheon is looking at a long-term partnership approach in India, rather than a buyer-seller relationship. This approach will be based on establishing partnerships with Indian companies for technology transfer for localised production of certain components." Once the Indo-US nuclear deal is finalised, it would "herald a new era in bilateral relations, especially in defence", Patterson said.
The AESA system, which steers radar beams at nearly the speed of light and is lighter and more accurate than conventional radars, is fitted on the US Navy's F-18 jets. Raytheon officials said it could also be fitted on the F-16 if the jet is chosen by India for the Air Force contract.
Raytheon has also offered other potent systems like the air-to-air AMRAAM missiles and ATFLIR infra-red targeting pod for use with the F-16 and and F-18, company officials said. PTI
Posted by: john ||
07/30/2006 08:01 ||
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#1
The AESA and the air to ground weaponry that the F-18 Super Hornet can deliver will likely swing the deal
Posted by: john ||
07/30/2006 8:15 Comments ||
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Tehran, Iran, Jul. 29 Iran will soon launch new womens only parks in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran. The City Islamic Council in Qom announced that it had put forward a plan to segregate four of the citys parks.
In August, the National Womens Council announced that a sex-segregated park was under development in the north-eastern city of Mashad.
The development of sex-segregated parks was given a big boost after hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former Revolutionary Guards commander, became Irans president. Prior to his rise to the presidency, Ahmadinejad was the Mayor of Tehran. One of his first decisions in the city hall was to order gender segregation on elevators.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
What's the point of going to the park with other women?
Ah'ma-dinnah-jacket gives a whole new meaning to "that boy ain't right."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/30/2006 0:17 Comments ||
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#2
Geeze -- No wonder muzzies are so sexually immature and frustrated.
Can't even enjoy the sight of a pretty girl at the park....
#3
The parks had become quite the singles scene - one of very few places where couples could find any privacy. The Mullahs have been stewing about it for a couple of years, now, and the crackdown took longer I thought it would. Some sillies have said they were trying not to alienate the youth segment. Fat chance, now. You screw around with hormones at your peril. All of Islam fixates on this - and thoroughly screws up its people in the effort.
#6
watch out for the flannel-print burkas, wallet chains, and comfortable shoes.....
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/30/2006 11:04 Comments ||
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#7
Besoeker and Nimble Spemble, am I reading y'all right.....do you think Lafayette Park in D.C. is for gays? Having spent 18 years in the city the only thing Lafayette Park had was an overabundance of "tin foil hat" protesters and yuppie govt. workers. There may have been some gay groups in Lafayette Park, but the park of choice for gays was Dupont Circle.
#12
Used to be Volunteer park in Seattle. Remember the news report warning people not to take kids there because of the condoms and needles. I think its spread since then.
Women, minorities most affected, and of course it's Bush's fault. Heavy EFL, hit the link if you want the personal testimonies.
STEELE, N.D. (AP) - More than 60 percent of the United States now has abnormally dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to Arizona and across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin, said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
An area stretching from south central North Dakota to central South Dakota is the most drought-stricken region in the nation, Svoboda said. ``It's the epicenter,'' he said. ``It's just like a wasteland in north central South Dakota.'' Fields of wheat, durum and barley in the Dakotas this dry summer will never end up as pasta, bread or beer. What is left of the stifled crops has been salvaged to feed livestock struggling on pastures where hot winds blow clouds of dirt from dried-out ponds.
Some ranchers have been forced to sell their entire herds, and others are either moving their cattle to greener pastures or buying more already-costly feed. Hundreds of acres of grasslands have been blackened by fires sparked by lightning or farm equipment.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/30/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
We are in the 5th years of the cold cycle of the North Pacific Oscillation...which appears to have a ~25 year period. Look back at the 50s and early 60s for an analog.
#6
Up till this last month, New Mexico had been in a multi-year drought. Then for the first time since 1999, the regular monsoons have returned. Weve had rain, lots and soaking, and the temps have dropped down to the 80s. While the rest of the country has roasted this week, its been rather comfortable in this area. I expect the next update of the drought listings to have our area fade from extreme to moderate or abnormally dry. You can keep track of the drought conditions here.
http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html
Last year, eastern Oregon and Northern Illinois were in particular extreme drought. This year the problem is elsewhere. Its like that with the weather, over time.
Yeah, weather cycles occur and this isn't the first serious drought in the midwest. But it DOES affect our economy when it hits the wheat producing areas, or the corn stock that feeds pigs etc.
#9
...when it hits the wheat producing areas, or the corn stock that feeds pigs etc.
Or environmentalists who want to substitute 'renewable' energy which is based upon grain stock that is subject to such irregularities. Their big sale doesnt include problems like this when touting their program. What happens when its bad enough that you have to make a decision whether we gas up our cars or gas up our diets?
#16
Seriously...ENSO (La Nina/El Nino) is a higher frequency cycle (21/2- 4 years) that only modulates lower frequency, and more significant cycles like the NPO.
The multi-year Arctic Ice Pack is further south in the Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea are significantly further south at this point than at anytime in the past 30 years (i.e., 1975-1976). That will have profound effects on the strength of the polar jetstream this fall and winter...and the type of winder North America experiences.
#17
In addition to the drought problems, the huge Ogallala aquifer previously used to irrigat crops during dry times is being depleted. The fast-growing western cities such as Phoenix also draw on the rivers, diverting valuable midwestern water. Water wars in Nebraska and Colorado have nice neighbors suing one another. The new nanotech that would make large scale desalination feasable should be seriously looked into for drinking water so the farmland can be preserved as this is a serious economic issue that Washington ignores.
#18
er...Phoenix diverting Midwest water? not likely. Different watersheds....remember the Rockies?
Desal is definitely the way to go on the coasts, but inland, the purification process can help with graywater reuse, but that's about it...recharge of aquifers is a good idea when there's spare water. The tough part is in getting people to use less than 100% of what's available. Alaska Paul is more of a water guy than I....he can give you more info
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/30/2006 15:31 Comments ||
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#19
Diverting the Peace river will solve all our problems.
#20
The latest weather report shows that this heat wave is moving northeast. I feel sorry for youze Yankees. Time to open up the hydrant's in the Bronx for that neighborhood get together. We're freezing here in the South, it's only 92oF.
#21
Less beer? Steve, it's not just women and minorities affected here, dont forget us beer drinkers! And I do think it is a bushs fault (see tamarisk)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Millions of Congolese will vote on Sunday in historic elections aimed at ending years of war and chaos in the heart of Africa and protected by the world's biggest U.N. peacekeeping force.
South Africa is not a safe place to go on holiday - it's official. Major Western countries are warning their clients and citizens that a holiday here could be very dangerous and now international insurance companies are acting as cautionary choruses to prospective tourists. 
Tehran, Iran, Jul. 29 Iran will soon launch new womens only parks in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran. The City Islamic Council in Qom announced that it had put forward a plan to segregate four of the citys parks.
