My alarm went off this morning just as the dj (do we call them djs anymore?) says “and now Naomi from the Blue Mountains”, introducing this woman with a lovely voice telling everyone about her community forum this afternoon, or did I imagine it?
Very interesting comments on the famine in Niger in the last Economist (which is subscribers only, so I can’t link). I know this as extensively discussed in a thread not long ago (which I missed most of, so this ground may have been covered) - and I also acknowledge that all this dry theorising looks like bullshit in the face of such misery. But here goes anyway - one rather long chunk of one article:
“Niger’s distress shows up most clearly in prices, not quantities. A pastoralist’s terms of trade depend on two prices in particular: the price of what he can sell (his livestock) and the price of what he must buy (food). In Niger this year, the latter has soared; the former has plummeted. According to one report, the price of millet and sorghum rose to 75-80% above its average for the last five years. By June, the sale of one goat bought half as much millet as it had six months earlier. It is precisely this kind of cruel twist in the terms of trade, Mr Sen argued, that can bring a community to its knees. These unfortunates will suffer a lack of power to purchase food, even if there is no lack of food to purchase. Why did prices move against Niger’s pastoralists so far and so fast?
The spike in the food price may have reflected high foreign demand as much as low domestic supply. Traditionally, during the lean months before their harvest, Niger’s farmers import cereals that are cheaper to grow in wetter, coastal neighbouring countries than in their own country. But according to CILSS, an intergovernmental body responsible for the region’s food security, significant amounts of grain have this year been flowing in the opposite direction. Ghana, Benin, C√¥te d’Ivoire and Nigeria have all been buying up grain in the region.
This is partly because these countries’ own harvests were disappointing. But in Nigeria’s case, the FAO thinks that government policies were also to blame. Nigeria has imposed controls on imports of rice and wheat products; it has also taken steps to protect and promote its millers and poultry farmers. Both of these policies have raised demand in the country for millet and sorghum, which provide alternative sources of flour as well as chicken-feed. As a result, Nigerian cereals that might have found their way to Niger are instead being consumed at home. Nigeria has twice Niger’s income per head and more than ten times its population. Its powerful market pull may have helped to undermine the purchasing power of Niger’s pastoralists. “In the fight for market command over food,” Mr Sen noted in his book, “one group can suffer precisely from another group’s prosperity, with the Devil taking the hindmost.”
Nigeria, with Burkina Faso and Mali, has also restricted grain exports to Niger this year, violating its trade treaties with the country. Such restrictions have often played an ignoble, supporting role in the history of famine. A ban on cereal exports between India’s provinces, for example, condemned Bengal to ruinously high prices in its great famine of 1943.
What of the other term in the terms of trade? Livestock prices have fallen in the past year, partly because northern pastures were damaged and animals were emaciated as a result. But the deterioration in the terms of trade can also generate its own momentum. Higher cereals prices prompt herdsmen to sell more of their livestock. These distress sales drive the price of animals down further, forcing pastoralists to sell still more of their herd. In his book, Mr Sen raised the theoretical possibility that a pastoralist’s supply curve might actually bend back on itself: as the relative price of livestock falls, a hungry pastoralist might supply more animals to the market, not fewer as elementary economic principles would imply.
If mass hunger were simply the result of there not being enough to eat, the remedy would be obvious: more food. The emergency rations now being shipped, flown and trucked into the Sahel are indeed necessary and urgent by the time hunger and destitution are acute and widespread. But if mass hunger begins with a collapse in purchasing power, rather than a shortage of food, it does not take an airlift to prevent it. What is needed is a way to restore lost purchasing power by, for example, offering employment, at a suitable wage, on public works. The market respects demand, not need. But give the needy enough pull in the market, and the market will do most of the rest.”
Well, I hope you got the weather for it - lovely day here. Rural Central Queensland hasn’t got much going for it (almost nothing, in fact), but the days are sublime this time of year.
As a shameful counterpoint to the excerpt above, there’s this. The laissez-faire aren’t supposed to feel guilt, are we?
Liam at a certain domestic airport in Australia, 8pm Friday night.
Also present: couple with toddler in stroller, who is joyfully playing up, throwing her toys away.
Mother:
Great interview in the SMH with one of my favorite bands of the last 10 years, The Dandy Warhols. Their last album was gorgeous, looking forward to the new one.
I watched Hotel Rwanda last night. Anyone seen it? Devestating. I sobbed through the whole film.
I also had no idea that the Hutus and Tutsis weren’t ethnic groups: they were basically divisions created by the Belgian colonial power, based on things like height and skin tone. Divide and conquer, right?
Kate, you shouldn’t believe the revisionist history peddled by politically interested filmmakers. The Hutus and Tutsis were separate peoples long before the Belgians arrived.
Next you’ll be telling us that Rabbit Proof Fence was based on a true story.
Re: Hotel Rwanda.
Yes. I bought “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.” By Samantha Power. New York: Basic Books, 2002 last year after reading the article Power wrote about the Rwandan Genocide for The Atlantic.
It is an impressive book.
If you want an illustration of Realpolitik then this is it.
She interviewed several of the people depicted in the film and used transcripts of the radio station throughout the Rwanda bit. The story of the Canadian Colonel (played by Nick Nolte) is heartbreaking.
He was so traumatised that he developed a death wish, and took to driving around the Rwandan countryside by himself in the hope of getting shot because of his feelings of impotence and grief.
I ground my teeth the whole way through the film.
It is good to see high profile actors (Jaoquim Pheonix and others) making a film so obviously worthwhile.
Listening to the politicians and UN talk about Dafur was nothing but an exercise in word substitution: Dafur for Rwanda. And all that pussyfooting around the actual term of Genocide.
The story of Lemkin, who invented the term, and his lifetime dedication to getting Genocide recognised as a crime by the UN is immensely sobering and humbling. He died of a heartattack in the UN building. He literally worked himself to death. He was originally prompted to action by a mentor of his who was an Armenian who lost his family in their genocide of 1915.
[Hey wow a worldwide google search of ‘genocide robert history’ has Rob Corr of Redrag at number four!]
EP - even your link makes it quite clear that what was an existing economic caste division was exploited and exacerbated, divide and rule style, by the Belgians, until it became a state sanctioned form of ethnic identity. While Belgian colonialism was among the worst - this was hardly an unusual colonial tactic. These divisions seemed to have hardened further after independence, so no, not just colonialism. But hardly an example of benign European influence.
All of these points, coupled with his hectic round of electorate visits, suggest Howard has not yet made up his mind to go. It doesn’t mean he has made up his mind to stay, just that the option is still open.
I’m with you there, big ‘un - that column was crap. You could almost hear him getting to the end of it and thinking, “Hang on, I haven’t actually said anything here - I wonder if they’ll publish this?”
Let me then just super-recommend Goldfrapp’s new album “Supernature”.
Not only is it great for drunk dancing on a Melbourne CBD rooftop, it’s also the best contemporay reworking of early 70s glam pop I have ever heard.
Think a much smarter, sly and sexier female version of Marc Bolan (with well dashed dabs of Roxy Music, Sweet, John Foxx era Ultravox and Uffa Fox behind the ears)- and with a Mick Harvey-whipsmartlike co-composer, arranger and band leader fluffing it up behind the scenes.
OK, it may not last the season for some but it’s sure gonna be one of my spring/summer of 2005 driving, drinking, drugging and fucking cds.
Feminism is evil, and was created by the devil (who is a lefty)
All Muslims are evil
All those who don’t support the war in Iraq are having sex with bin laden and saddam, and are personally responsible for every evil act ever committed.
When faced with a crisis, you must always blame the victim.
When making a point, It is necessary to use an isolated example, and present it as a majority example - unless of course it doesn’t prove my point, in which case it is just an isolated example.
Regardless of the current conversation thread, the above points must be emphasised ad-nausea.
Hint - Some people think that I am an “anonymous pussy”
Maybe C.L. is a Vatican expert. He seems well connected:
CL has spawned several related groups: Memores Domini, a group of lay men and woman consecrated to virginity; the Priestly Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo, for diocesan priests formed in the spirit of Giussani; the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Assumption; and the Fraternity of St. Joseph, a group of lay people who dedicate themselves to virginity and poverty, but who remain in their normal secular occupations and do not live in common.
Second, this is also the first major CL event in the pontificate of Benedict XVI, who is arguably closer to the cielini than to any other movement in the Catholic church.
Well, EP, that link proved only that the Hutu and Tutsi division was extremely exacerbated by the Belgian colonialists, so I’m not sure what your point was, but thanks for correcting my inital assumption.
So yes, the Hutus and Tutsi were separate economic castes and this was made much worse by European colonialism.
It’s a bit more than that, Kate. The link proves that the Hutu and Tutsi were distinct ethnic groups that existed before the Belgian occupation.
This demonstrates that the filmmaker was engaged in fabricating history, if your previous impression was derived from the movie.
As Keith Windschuttle has proven, much of what is commonly taught as “history” has been falsified for political reasons, so it’s important to catch these falsehoods and correct them.
Ah no, it doesn’t prove that at all. Indeed it does prove that the hutus and tutsi were separate groups but that the division is not ethnic — it was as much geographical and economic as it was ‘ethnic’.
From wikipedia:
“Today’s scholarship focuses on the many cultural and genetic similarities between Hutus and Tutsis. Many scholars today believe that the differences have been greatly exaggerated and are largely culturally constructed. Many researchers point out that both groups speak the same language, have a history of intermarriage and share many cultural characteristics. Traditionally, the differences between the two groups were occupational rather than ethnic.”
That’s like saying that the Brahmins and the Untouchables in the Indian caste system are different ethnicities.
These division were played upon by the Belgian colonialists which lead, in part, to the genocide. It wasn’t the only cause as the previous link indicates.
Frankly, EP, neither you nor I are experts in the history of Rwanda, so perhaps this isn’t a stoush either of us should get into.
For me, the film was very moving. The causes of the genocide weren’t really explored by the film but rather the experiences of those who lived through it. And the horror of all that death. And the indifference of the rest of the world.
So maybe you should watch the film yourself and write a critique of it in your own blog, rather than accusing it of ‘revisionism’ before you’ve even seen it, and without much knowledge on the region or it’s people.
As for me, I’m now bowing out of this particular stoush. Feel free to continue as you wish, quote Keith Windschuttle as much as you want, etc etc, but I’m going to enjoy the rest of my weekend.
David, you therefore are fortunate, but forewarned is forearmed. When you least expect it –whammo, a verbal barrage of an ambush where translation is akin to swimming in a semantic treacle. Leaves a code at the end which we haven’t broken yet.
Getting people to talk at all is the battle today Tony, now you’re there, how’s central Australia weather/rain wise and what are the long term prospects for Oz agriculture in a globalised world? They should be issues that concern you and it would be interesting to hear yr response.
At least I’m not dreaming about you! That’s a relief. I look forward to travelling up the mountains for slow Sunday lunch in the spring, and the troll can make his own arrangements.
Nice pithy summary of the Brogden situation Lefty. Listening to Quentin Dempster on 702 this morning, it sounds as though release of this story was kicked along by Liberal party sources in Canberra. Dempster described Brogden as having Liberal HQ fingerprints around his throat.
I think it’s (way past) time for the libs to roll Brogden and give Barry O’Farrell a crack.
Please be right Andrew. I’m moving back to NSW in December and I can’t stand the thought of that smarmy git winning the next state election. Not that I’ve lost faith in the Labor Party, but I think many believe it’s time for a change. I could almost cope if it wasn’t Brogden.
J-Bro’s outing as a drunken racist buffoon has the fingerprints of the right wing extremist faction aka Alex Hawke all over it. So Mindy don’t be wishing for that lot to be running Macquarie St any time now.
Ps - I think Mark has the hots for Irish girls with sexy accents, dark hair, freckles and blue eyes. Pity those of us who can only do sexy accents and dark hair… Just saying…
This raises an issue that perhapsFXH can help us with in his psychoanalytic capacity, Lefty E - I’ve always been attracted to dark haired, tall, blue eyed women - and my mum fits that picture. Are we programmed to be attracted to someone who looks like our opposite sex parent, as Freud would have it?
I think there’s a lot of truth in that analysis. Having said that, Freud’s better at describing heterosexual attraction than same-sex attraction - and in particular, the reasons therefore.
A serious answer: Im convinced of it Mark. I find a range of people attractive, but there’s a subset of women who just blow my fuse, and make a blathering goggling fool of me, instantly.
They are invariably tall brunettes with fair skin. Sure, I can be put off if the first words she says are “youse c*nts are all up yerselves” or somesuch (not entirely random example), but Im convinced the early months of the basic structure and colour of the mothers face and form forever structure attraction.
Which of course, raises intersting questions about women’s hetero attractions, which Im unable to answer.
Essential info ommitted above - tall brunettes with fair skin fits the picture for my opp sex parent. My partner fits the bill, except average height. As Ive mentioned here earlier, the first time I laid eyes on her, she had my steam whistles blowing full tilt , and I went quite odd, singing sweet nothings in Spanish from a live stage mic. But the feeling was inexplicable, almost uncontrollable levels of attraction. she just had the look. I didnt realise till later that it was certain facial features - not unlike those of me Ma - that just make me go spare.
marko - as to be expected - it depends. It depends on the degree of bonding and care. In theory done just right, not too cold not too cloying and you’ll be free to pursue woman of all heights and colours. Get it slightly skewif and you’ll either be irrationally lusting after archytypes like the parent or skewif the other way you’ll be running away from likenesses of the parent.
It might also have to do with the degree of erotisization of the Mo/Kid relationship, too much and unrequited it would lead to wanting to complete the act woith the mother symbol.
However the Mother as symbol might not = physical looks but may in fact be centred on issues of personality and intereaction, eg - you may wish to be punished verbally to feel close to the erotic mother, looks may not matter. On the other hand, Sherlock, it may be long black hair that does it or a red dress or a swish of a skirt or petticoat.
For me its a weakness for upper class protestant girls from private schools. I know its wrong but I fall. It never works. For as we all know. Women fuck down but marry up.
I fink Frankie was starting to put his finger on it…so to speak.
I found the real trigger for when erotic and emotional memories collide and then become a id-programming consesus for between what you want, need, desire and end up settling for, will always draw upon the parent who’s attention you wanted the most, the first public icon that erocharged your awareness of others and the first person you wanted to have sex with again.
Or in my case, wit and spit, eyes and great lies, and lips and hips. And that goes for the girls too.
Or if you want it real simple like, Charlotte Rampling and Robert Mitchum encompass my overall yin and yang take on things.
Charlotte Rampling and Robert Mitchum also exude sex, Nabs. Which is good.
Did you see Charlotte in the tv adaptation of The Radetzky March? Any young red-blooded Austro-Hungarian officer would be insane to pass up an affair with such a Countess!
Is that who that is?? Ive seen that photo around - Mark’s link (thought it was a band or something) and it led to sinful ruminations of a wicked, wicked nature.
Still, reckon her Mum’s even spunkier, what with the tallness. See ‘my dysfunction’ above.
Kim - I just read that and totally agreed with the strident defence of being left - robot style, of course! Will reply thoughtfully tomorrow. You really are a very good writer. As is Mark. Which is why I choose to stay at LP when in virtual Brisvegas.
PS Are you having that lewd flirty IW fantasy again? I was more yer GT105 man!
“Any young red-blooded Austro-Hungarian officer would be insane to pass up an affair with such a Countess!”
She was also great in a not dissimular movie, “Spy Game”, where, in what supposed to be a small cameo, she effortlessly stole the scene - and the movie’s real emotional through line from a glib Bob Redford and a tightarsed Brad Pitt.
And why wasn’t she in Szabo’s mittle Europa trilogy tragedy?
On the other hand though, she provided the emotional heartbeat for flicks like “Georgy Girl”, “The Damned “and “The Night Porter” while Mitchum did the same for “Night of The Hunter”, “Cape fear” and “Ryan’s daughter.”
Between the two of them, they pretty much limned out the key archetypes of high-style hypercharged and oversexed western drama. Shame they never got to do King Lear together.
And liking Susan S has the desirable side-effect of enticing people to check out Delibes’ opera Lahkme (an aria from which was the soundtrack to the Sarandon-Deneuve love scene in The Hunger).
Meanwhile yer all ignoring Robert Mitchum, the ultimate barrel-chested fatalistic male non-drama queen.
“I can play anything except a dwarf or a lesbian. I’m no damn good at either.” Thus spake the first Hollywood leading man publically busted for pot.
Robert Downey Jr, busted in a sleazy motel with proscribed drugs and a Wonder Women costume, is his natural sucessor.
For those of yer here unaware of just how fucking good these guys are, watch “Night Of The Hunter” and “Soapdish” back to back. Now that’s America at its most mythical excitable- as rendered by Bob and Bob.
Downey also effortlessly steals “The Wonder Boys” the way Rampling did “Spy Game” - but even more so.
Tyro Rex - come back Brogden all is forgiven, I have now seen the puppet master and he is scary as hell.
On attractions to partners, I noticed after I had been married to my husband for a few years that his height and body shape were very close to my Dad. Superficially they are completely different, my Dad being dark skinned and black haired, and my husband mousy brown hair and whitish skin (that tans easily though). But they both are the tallest of the short men, and with great muscly legs, and most importantly good ankles. Can’t go out with men with skinny ankles.
‘Hero of Waterloo’ in the Rocks.
Thick-rimmed glasses. Brown hair to the small of her back; perilous to look any lower. And eyes that just….
I asked her where the Bistro was.
Her voice washed over me like warm honey.
I have no idea where the bistro is in the Hero of Waterloo.
Nabakov, don’t forget Mitchum in ‘Out of the Past’, directed by Jacques Tourneur of ‘I Walked With a Zombie’ fame. The first and perhaps the greatest of the films noir.
Irish fecking accents?! As an ex-resident of Kings X all I can say is no fecking way!!! Drenk! Gelh! Feck!
But … Scottish gels, now there’s something charmin’ my pants off.
However that said I have to agree with the following: Brunettes are much more the hotness than blondes (Brunette bobs, like say the one sported by Louise Brooks in Pandora’s Box make me instantly melt at the knees). Robert Mitchum is just to die for (and Night Of The Hunter one of the best films ever). Alex Hawke is scarier than a Japanese horror film.
My alarm went off this morning just as the dj (do we call them djs anymore?) says “and now Naomi from the Blue Mountains”, introducing this woman with a lovely voice telling everyone about her community forum this afternoon, or did I imagine it?
Very interesting comments on the famine in Niger in the last Economist (which is subscribers only, so I can’t link). I know this as extensively discussed in a thread not long ago (which I missed most of, so this ground may have been covered) - and I also acknowledge that all this dry theorising looks like bullshit in the face of such misery. But here goes anyway - one rather long chunk of one article:
“Niger’s distress shows up most clearly in prices, not quantities. A pastoralist’s terms of trade depend on two prices in particular: the price of what he can sell (his livestock) and the price of what he must buy (food). In Niger this year, the latter has soared; the former has plummeted. According to one report, the price of millet and sorghum rose to 75-80% above its average for the last five years. By June, the sale of one goat bought half as much millet as it had six months earlier. It is precisely this kind of cruel twist in the terms of trade, Mr Sen argued, that can bring a community to its knees. These unfortunates will suffer a lack of power to purchase food, even if there is no lack of food to purchase. Why did prices move against Niger’s pastoralists so far and so fast?
The spike in the food price may have reflected high foreign demand as much as low domestic supply. Traditionally, during the lean months before their harvest, Niger’s farmers import cereals that are cheaper to grow in wetter, coastal neighbouring countries than in their own country. But according to CILSS, an intergovernmental body responsible for the region’s food security, significant amounts of grain have this year been flowing in the opposite direction. Ghana, Benin, C√¥te d’Ivoire and Nigeria have all been buying up grain in the region.
This is partly because these countries’ own harvests were disappointing. But in Nigeria’s case, the FAO thinks that government policies were also to blame. Nigeria has imposed controls on imports of rice and wheat products; it has also taken steps to protect and promote its millers and poultry farmers. Both of these policies have raised demand in the country for millet and sorghum, which provide alternative sources of flour as well as chicken-feed. As a result, Nigerian cereals that might have found their way to Niger are instead being consumed at home. Nigeria has twice Niger’s income per head and more than ten times its population. Its powerful market pull may have helped to undermine the purchasing power of Niger’s pastoralists. “In the fight for market command over food,” Mr Sen noted in his book, “one group can suffer precisely from another group’s prosperity, with the Devil taking the hindmost.”
Nigeria, with Burkina Faso and Mali, has also restricted grain exports to Niger this year, violating its trade treaties with the country. Such restrictions have often played an ignoble, supporting role in the history of famine. A ban on cereal exports between India’s provinces, for example, condemned Bengal to ruinously high prices in its great famine of 1943.
What of the other term in the terms of trade? Livestock prices have fallen in the past year, partly because northern pastures were damaged and animals were emaciated as a result. But the deterioration in the terms of trade can also generate its own momentum. Higher cereals prices prompt herdsmen to sell more of their livestock. These distress sales drive the price of animals down further, forcing pastoralists to sell still more of their herd. In his book, Mr Sen raised the theoretical possibility that a pastoralist’s supply curve might actually bend back on itself: as the relative price of livestock falls, a hungry pastoralist might supply more animals to the market, not fewer as elementary economic principles would imply.
If mass hunger were simply the result of there not being enough to eat, the remedy would be obvious: more food. The emergency rations now being shipped, flown and trucked into the Sahel are indeed necessary and urgent by the time hunger and destitution are acute and widespread. But if mass hunger begins with a collapse in purchasing power, rather than a shortage of food, it does not take an airlift to prevent it. What is needed is a way to restore lost purchasing power by, for example, offering employment, at a suitable wage, on public works. The market respects demand, not need. But give the needy enough pull in the market, and the market will do most of the rest.”
Mornin’ Doc - what’s got you setting your alarm on a Saturday anyway? I’m only out of bed because my little daughter kicked me in the face.
Fence painting Tony. What else are Saturday’s for?
Indeed.
Well, I hope you got the weather for it - lovely day here. Rural Central Queensland hasn’t got much going for it (almost nothing, in fact), but the days are sublime this time of year.
As a shameful counterpoint to the excerpt above, there’s this. The laissez-faire aren’t supposed to feel guilt, are we?
Ha ha!!! Suck it up Broncos!!! Say goodbye to that 100 grand.
((sorry to lower the tone, I just have to))
Liam at a certain domestic airport in Australia, 8pm Friday night.
Also present: couple with toddler in stroller, who is joyfully playing up, throwing her toys away.
Mother:
Liam and rest of Gate 4 stifle hysterics.
Great interview in the SMH with one of my favorite bands of the last 10 years, The Dandy Warhols. Their last album was gorgeous, looking forward to the new one.
I watched Hotel Rwanda last night. Anyone seen it? Devestating. I sobbed through the whole film.
I also had no idea that the Hutus and Tutsis weren’t ethnic groups: they were basically divisions created by the Belgian colonial power, based on things like height and skin tone. Divide and conquer, right?
Kate, you shouldn’t believe the revisionist history peddled by politically interested filmmakers. The Hutus and Tutsis were separate peoples long before the Belgians arrived.
Next you’ll be telling us that Rabbit Proof Fence was based on a true story.
Re: Hotel Rwanda.
Yes. I bought “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.” By Samantha Power. New York: Basic Books, 2002 last year after reading the article Power wrote about the Rwandan Genocide for The Atlantic.
It is an impressive book.
If you want an illustration of Realpolitik then this is it.
She interviewed several of the people depicted in the film and used transcripts of the radio station throughout the Rwanda bit. The story of the Canadian Colonel (played by Nick Nolte) is heartbreaking.
He was so traumatised that he developed a death wish, and took to driving around the Rwandan countryside by himself in the hope of getting shot because of his feelings of impotence and grief.
I ground my teeth the whole way through the film.
It is good to see high profile actors (Jaoquim Pheonix and others) making a film so obviously worthwhile.
Listening to the politicians and UN talk about Dafur was nothing but an exercise in word substitution: Dafur for Rwanda. And all that pussyfooting around the actual term of Genocide.
The story of Lemkin, who invented the term, and his lifetime dedication to getting Genocide recognised as a crime by the UN is immensely sobering and humbling. He died of a heartattack in the UN building. He literally worked himself to death. He was originally prompted to action by a mentor of his who was an Armenian who lost his family in their genocide of 1915.
[Hey wow a worldwide google search of ‘genocide robert history’ has Rob Corr of Redrag at number four!]
“Kate, you shouldn‚Äôt believe the revisionist history peddled by politically interested filmmakers.”
Thanks for the link EP. It’s good to know they were killing each other for a REASON!
The significance of my link, Harry, is to expose the attempt to blame Europeans for all African problems as hostorical revisionism.
We won’t be able to solve problems if we insist on misrepresenting their causes.
EP - even your link makes it quite clear that what was an existing economic caste division was exploited and exacerbated, divide and rule style, by the Belgians, until it became a state sanctioned form of ethnic identity. While Belgian colonialism was among the worst - this was hardly an unusual colonial tactic. These divisions seemed to have hardened further after independence, so no, not just colonialism. But hardly an example of benign European influence.
Why I no longer buy The Australian reason #6890 -
Denis Shanahan’s lazy column:
.
Whatever.
I’m with you there, big ‘un - that column was crap. You could almost hear him getting to the end of it and thinking, “Hang on, I haven’t actually said anything here - I wonder if they’ll publish this?”
The other one on Beazley was OK, though.
It’s an open thread right!??
Let me then just super-recommend Goldfrapp’s new album “Supernature”.
Not only is it great for drunk dancing on a Melbourne CBD rooftop, it’s also the best contemporay reworking of early 70s glam pop I have ever heard.
Think a much smarter, sly and sexier female version of Marc Bolan (with well dashed dabs of Roxy Music, Sweet, John Foxx era Ultravox and Uffa Fox behind the ears)- and with a Mick Harvey-whipsmartlike co-composer, arranger and band leader fluffing it up behind the scenes.
OK, it may not last the season for some but it’s sure gonna be one of my spring/summer of 2005 driving, drinking, drugging and fucking cds.
ewww nabs, too much detail there in that last sentence.
Let’s play charades. Who am I?
The left is completely dishonest
Feminism is evil, and was created by the devil (who is a lefty)
All Muslims are evil
All those who don’t support the war in Iraq are having sex with bin laden and saddam, and are personally responsible for every evil act ever committed.
When faced with a crisis, you must always blame the victim.
When making a point, It is necessary to use an isolated example, and present it as a majority example - unless of course it doesn’t prove my point, in which case it is just an isolated example.
Regardless of the current conversation thread, the above points must be emphasised ad-nausea.
Hint - Some people think that I am an “anonymous pussy”
David, that’s plain and simple a character portrait of our favourite Lad, Sterling Boy.
Crikey David, that’s the closest you’ve ever come to saying something sensible.
Stay with it, you might reach sanity one day.
Maybe C.L. is a Vatican expert. He seems well connected:
Mumma mia, I thought there was this ecCLesiastical random phrase generator out there but it was Communioni de Liberazione all along.
Good one Kim, suckered right in on that one.
David H, you forgot the disease suffered by that cat: (its a real link!)
http://kitties.i8.com/healthlibrary/diseases/distemper/symptoms.html
Well, EP, that link proved only that the Hutu and Tutsi division was extremely exacerbated by the Belgian colonialists, so I’m not sure what your point was, but thanks for correcting my inital assumption.
So yes, the Hutus and Tutsi were separate economic castes and this was made much worse by European colonialism.
And, here’s another interesting link discussing the genocide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide#Other_causes_of_the_violence
(I heart wikipedia.)
It’s a bit more than that, Kate. The link proves that the Hutu and Tutsi were distinct ethnic groups that existed before the Belgian occupation.
This demonstrates that the filmmaker was engaged in fabricating history, if your previous impression was derived from the movie.
As Keith Windschuttle has proven, much of what is commonly taught as “history” has been falsified for political reasons, so it’s important to catch these falsehoods and correct them.
Ah no, it doesn’t prove that at all. Indeed it does prove that the hutus and tutsi were separate groups but that the division is not ethnic — it was as much geographical and economic as it was ‘ethnic’.
From wikipedia:
“Today’s scholarship focuses on the many cultural and genetic similarities between Hutus and Tutsis. Many scholars today believe that the differences have been greatly exaggerated and are largely culturally constructed. Many researchers point out that both groups speak the same language, have a history of intermarriage and share many cultural characteristics. Traditionally, the differences between the two groups were occupational rather than ethnic.”
That’s like saying that the Brahmins and the Untouchables in the Indian caste system are different ethnicities.
These division were played upon by the Belgian colonialists which lead, in part, to the genocide. It wasn’t the only cause as the previous link indicates.
Sorry, link from here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Rwanda
Frankly, EP, neither you nor I are experts in the history of Rwanda, so perhaps this isn’t a stoush either of us should get into.
For me, the film was very moving. The causes of the genocide weren’t really explored by the film but rather the experiences of those who lived through it. And the horror of all that death. And the indifference of the rest of the world.
So maybe you should watch the film yourself and write a critique of it in your own blog, rather than accusing it of ‘revisionism’ before you’ve even seen it, and without much knowledge on the region or it’s people.
As for me, I’m now bowing out of this particular stoush. Feel free to continue as you wish, quote Keith Windschuttle as much as you want, etc etc, but I’m going to enjoy the rest of my weekend.
David H, here’s another one:
Who am I?
I am a repository for all useless military information.
For example, how many flies were there on the arse of Napoleon’s
horse at the battle of Waterloo?
I write long missives with the central message that I am ”casting my
pearls before swine.”
Most problems can be solved with the application of summary execution.
All lefties must have a disease because they disagree with me.
My latest study is called ”Taxonomy*: Wikstrom and Norman 1994,”
specifically how to distinguish between information and skill/understanding.
*as distinct from taxidermy of my enemies.
I must have missed Keith’s book on Rwanda.
Peter,
I have absolutely no idea who you are referring to.
David H
Bundaberg
David, you therefore are fortunate, but forewarned is forearmed. When you least expect it –whammo, a verbal barrage of an ambush where translation is akin to swimming in a semantic treacle. Leaves a code at the end which we haven’t broken yet.
Peter Kemp.
Outer Barcoo
Pete, it’s an open thread, not a primaryschool playground. And that last bit is sounding just a teensy bit paranoid.
Getting people to talk at all is the battle today Tony, now you’re there, how’s central Australia weather/rain wise and what are the long term prospects for Oz agriculture in a globalised world? They should be issues that concern you and it would be interesting to hear yr response.
Tony’s more central Queensland than central Australia, Peter.
The wonders of prosthetic science roll on - now, a solution to that troubling VPL (visible prosthetic line).
At least I’m not dreaming about you! That’s a relief. I look forward to travelling up the mountains for slow Sunday lunch in the spring, and the troll can make his own arrangements.
“Who am I?
I am a repository for all useless military information.
For example, how many flies were there on the arse of Napoleon’s
horse at the battle of Waterloo?
I write long missives with the central message that I am ‘‚Äôcasting my
pearls before swine.’‚Äô”
I’m taking a punt here. Is this Nab’s old friend Mike Jericho?
I don’t think so, Jason.
MarkB
Brisbane
Thanks Mark but central Queensland seems incommunicado.
No more clues allowed Jason.
Brogden has three beers, wakes in pool of own vomit.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1447942.htm
Nice pithy summary of the Brogden situation Lefty. Listening to Quentin Dempster on 702 this morning, it sounds as though release of this story was kicked along by Liberal party sources in Canberra. Dempster described Brogden as having Liberal HQ fingerprints around his throat.
I think it’s (way past) time for the libs to roll Brogden and give Barry O’Farrell a crack.
Please be right Andrew. I’m moving back to NSW in December and I can’t stand the thought of that smarmy git winning the next state election. Not that I’ve lost faith in the Labor Party, but I think many believe it’s time for a change. I could almost cope if it wasn’t Brogden.
No fear of that Mindy. J-Bro is having a press conference at 1130.
Gone, like my last paycheck
Gone, like the car I wrecked
Gone, like a fifth of gin
Gone, like the shape I’m in
Shorten trumps Turnbull in idiotic tax plan stakes:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/
union-chief-joins-call-for-big-tax-cuts/2005/08/28/1125167554222.html
Attention ALP: increasing tax free threshold offer progressive taxation relief; creates no losers.
Sorry Naomi strange error message from that trackback.
Brogden officially toast.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1448203.htm
J-Bro’s outing as a drunken racist buffoon has the fingerprints of the right wing extremist faction aka Alex Hawke all over it. So Mindy don’t be wishing for that lot to be running Macquarie St any time now.
Yeah Lefty E, sounds like Brolga needed some mail order brains while he was male ordering harassment.
Irish accents are the hotness. Discuss.
Accents, I don’t know. Names, to be sure, to be sure.
Irish accents are exceptionally sexy.
I have a Californian accent.
Love Irish accents. A female northern accent best (from ‘Norn Iron’ that is). The perpetually surprised tone. Deeply, deeply enhotificating.
I have, in this lifetime, experienced Gaelic pillow talk. Sure, I didnt understand any of it, but all else since has been nought but a bonus.
Ps - I think Mark has the hots for Irish girls with sexy accents, dark hair, freckles and blue eyes. Pity those of us who can only do sexy accents and dark hair… Just saying…
Kim, as FU once said -
That’s not quite true, though, but dark hair goes a long way with me.
Good combo Mark. Always been a dark hair man myself.
As I always say when Im round at Broggers for an arse-pinching evening of mid-strength beers and racial jibes: ‘no blonde chicks’!
This raises an issue that perhaps FXH can help us with in his psychoanalytic capacity, Lefty E - I’ve always been attracted to dark haired, tall, blue eyed women - and my mum fits that picture. Are we programmed to be attracted to someone who looks like our opposite sex parent, as Freud would have it?
A serious question.
It is.
I think there’s a lot of truth in that analysis. Having said that, Freud’s better at describing heterosexual attraction than same-sex attraction - and in particular, the reasons therefore.
A serious answer: Im convinced of it Mark. I find a range of people attractive, but there’s a subset of women who just blow my fuse, and make a blathering goggling fool of me, instantly.
They are invariably tall brunettes with fair skin. Sure, I can be put off if the first words she says are “youse c*nts are all up yerselves” or somesuch (not entirely random example), but Im convinced the early months of the basic structure and colour of the mothers face and form forever structure attraction.
Which of course, raises intersting questions about women’s hetero attractions, which Im unable to answer.
It did strike me recently, Lefty E, when I was thinking about this. I’m hesitant to say I have a “type”, but when I think about it, I do…
Essential info ommitted above - tall brunettes with fair skin fits the picture for my opp sex parent. My partner fits the bill, except average height. As Ive mentioned here earlier, the first time I laid eyes on her, she had my steam whistles blowing full tilt , and I went quite odd, singing sweet nothings in Spanish from a live stage mic. But the feeling was inexplicable, almost uncontrollable levels of attraction. she just had the look. I didnt realise till later that it was certain facial features - not unlike those of me Ma - that just make me go spare.
Sigmund went alright. Back in his day most ppl were still genuflecting before false idols.
marko - as to be expected - it depends. It depends on the degree of bonding and care. In theory done just right, not too cold not too cloying and you’ll be free to pursue woman of all heights and colours. Get it slightly skewif and you’ll either be irrationally lusting after archytypes like the parent or skewif the other way you’ll be running away from likenesses of the parent.
It might also have to do with the degree of erotisization of the Mo/Kid relationship, too much and unrequited it would lead to wanting to complete the act woith the mother symbol.
However the Mother as symbol might not = physical looks but may in fact be centred on issues of personality and intereaction, eg - you may wish to be punished verbally to feel close to the erotic mother, looks may not matter. On the other hand, Sherlock, it may be long black hair that does it or a red dress or a swish of a skirt or petticoat.
For me its a weakness for upper class protestant girls from private schools. I know its wrong but I fall. It never works. For as we all know. Women fuck down but marry up.
No doubt, FXH, that’s after you’ve had experience of North Shore Catholic private school girls.
Very interesting FXH. I definitely came out irrationally lusting after one type of look. Will have to dwell on my dysfunctions at length…
Or just hit the beers with the Brogster.
We’ll be the ones yelling “where’d you get that one mate, on E-bay?”
Shorter FXH: Mark and Lefty E = insufficiently individuated.
I fink Frankie was starting to put his finger on it…so to speak.
I found the real trigger for when erotic and emotional memories collide and then become a id-programming consesus for between what you want, need, desire and end up settling for, will always draw upon the parent who’s attention you wanted the most, the first public icon that erocharged your awareness of others and the first person you wanted to have sex with again.
Or in my case, wit and spit, eyes and great lies, and lips and hips. And that goes for the girls too.
Or if you want it real simple like, Charlotte Rampling and Robert Mitchum encompass my overall yin and yang take on things.
Charlotte Rampling and Robert Mitchum also exude sex, Nabs. Which is good.
Did you see Charlotte in the tv adaptation of The Radetzky March? Any young red-blooded Austro-Hungarian officer would be insane to pass up an affair with such a Countess!
Shorter Kim - Countess Von Taussig = the irresistable hotness!
Couldn’t agree more!
Both are also wonderful actors!
Well, Im individuated enough to admit that some years ago I had some counselling which suggested exactly the same. Well diagnosed FXH & Kim.
Still, Mrs Peel is something i dont wish to be cured of.
Lefty E, have you seen Tipping the Velvet starring the delectable daughter of Diana Rigg Rachael Stirling [on the right in the linked photo]?
It’s on Video/DVD.
You must, if you haven’t, Lefty E. She is the hotness, as you can also see here.
Also, Lefty E, more prosaically, I’ve put up something on political philosophy. Your feedback welcomed [as my former esteemed GT100 tutor
]…
Is that who that is?? Ive seen that photo around - Mark’s link (thought it was a band or something) and it led to sinful ruminations of a wicked, wicked nature.
Still, reckon her Mum’s even spunkier, what with the tallness. See ‘my dysfunction’ above.
Kim - I just read that and totally agreed with the strident defence of being left - robot style, of course! Will reply thoughtfully tomorrow. You really are a very good writer. As is Mark. Which is why I choose to stay at LP when in virtual Brisvegas.
PS Are you having that lewd flirty IW fantasy again? I was more yer GT105 man!
“Any young red-blooded Austro-Hungarian officer would be insane to pass up an affair with such a Countess!”
She was also great in a not dissimular movie, “Spy Game”, where, in what supposed to be a small cameo, she effortlessly stole the scene - and the movie’s real emotional through line from a glib Bob Redford and a tightarsed Brad Pitt.
And why wasn’t she in Szabo’s mittle Europa trilogy tragedy?
On the other hand though, she provided the emotional heartbeat for flicks like “Georgy Girl”, “The Damned “and “The Night Porter” while Mitchum did the same for “Night of The Hunter”, “Cape fear” and “Ryan’s daughter.”
Between the two of them, they pretty much limned out the key archetypes of high-style hypercharged and oversexed western drama. Shame they never got to do King Lear together.
And she was also good in a very underrated movie - The Verdict, Nabs.
Ooops, yeah, IW not so sexy. GT105 of course, Lefty E! I plead effluxion of time!
Nabs and Mark, Charlotte is also proof that women in their 40s and/or 50s can be the absolute hotness.
If you see the series, Lefty E, they were the Tatu of Victorian music halls. Perhaps that’s where the confusion enters…
Are you talking about Charlotte Rampling, Nabakov? (Sorry, not read whole thread.) Great in Zardoz - hugely underrated movie.
Charlotte Rampling was one of my earliest loves, to return to a comment above, Rob.
Ahah, Tatu rings a bell. In more ways than one.
We’re on the same page here. Charlotte Rampling is wax-hot.
Mind you, to break the typecast, give me Susan Sarandon, at any age.
For Charlotte comments, start from this one by Nabs and read down, Rob.
And liking Susan S has the desirable side-effect of enticing people to check out Delibes’ opera Lahkme (an aria from which was the soundtrack to the Sarandon-Deneuve love scene in The Hunger).
That should be Lakhme.
Got it.
Georgy Girl, how that takes me (far) back. Surprisingly dark film, when you stand back from it.
Meanwhile yer all ignoring Robert Mitchum, the ultimate barrel-chested fatalistic male non-drama queen.
“I can play anything except a dwarf or a lesbian. I’m no damn good at either.” Thus spake the first Hollywood leading man publically busted for pot.
Robert Downey Jr, busted in a sleazy motel with proscribed drugs and a Wonder Women costume, is his natural sucessor.
For those of yer here unaware of just how fucking good these guys are, watch “Night Of The Hunter” and “Soapdish” back to back. Now that’s America at its most mythical excitable- as rendered by Bob and Bob.
Downey also effortlessly steals “The Wonder Boys” the way Rampling did “Spy Game” - but even more so.
Zardoz is hugely underrated. Rampling fantastic in it. Hayek always said so.
Tyro Rex - come back Brogden all is forgiven, I have now seen the puppet master and he is scary as hell.
On attractions to partners, I noticed after I had been married to my husband for a few years that his height and body shape were very close to my Dad. Superficially they are completely different, my Dad being dark skinned and black haired, and my husband mousy brown hair and whitish skin (that tans easily though). But they both are the tallest of the short men, and with great muscly legs, and most importantly good ankles. Can’t go out with men with skinny ankles.
“Irish accents are the hotness. Discuss.”
‘Hero of Waterloo’ in the Rocks.
Thick-rimmed glasses. Brown hair to the small of her back; perilous to look any lower. And eyes that just….
I asked her where the Bistro was.
Her voice washed over me like warm honey.
I have no idea where the bistro is in the Hero of Waterloo.
Nabakov, don’t forget Mitchum in ‘Out of the Past’, directed by Jacques Tourneur of ‘I Walked With a Zombie’ fame. The first and perhaps the greatest of the films noir.
Has there been any blog commentary on Brack’s new Federalism anywhere?
Irish fecking accents?! As an ex-resident of Kings X all I can say is no fecking way!!! Drenk! Gelh! Feck!
But … Scottish gels, now there’s something charmin’ my pants off.
However that said I have to agree with the following: Brunettes are much more the hotness than blondes (Brunette bobs, like say the one sported by Louise Brooks in Pandora’s Box make me instantly melt at the knees). Robert Mitchum is just to die for (and Night Of The Hunter one of the best films ever). Alex Hawke is scarier than a Japanese horror film.
Subject: White people “find” things. Black people “loot” things.
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 11:01:00 +1000
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/photos_ts_afp/050830071810_shxwaoma_photo1
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/480/ladm10208301530
Note captions carefully.