Nothing to See Here - Move Along Please...

In the old BBC TV series, Yes Prime Minister, the death of a former PM provides a wonderful opportunity for high level international diplomacy, minus the expectations that accompany a summit. The death of the pope apparently provided just such an opportunity...
Haaretz - Katsav: Handshakes were a matter of being polite

President Moshe Katsav told Channel Two television Friday that his handshakes with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iranian President Mohammed Khatami were a matter of being polite, and had no policy implications.

Katsav, who was at the Vatican as part of Israel's delegation to the funeral of Pope John Paul II, twice shook hands with Assad on Friday.

The two men were in close proximity to one another throughout the procession due to the fact that the Israel and Syrian delegations to the funeral were positioned next to one another.

Katsav said that it was Assad who initiated the handshake, and that he obliged. Syrian television Friday denied the two had shaken hands.

At the conclusion of funeral services, the Iranian-born Katsav also shook hands with President Mohammed Khatami. The two spoke for almost an hour in Farsi.

Sorry About That Y'All...

Last week the New York Times cut a deal with Columbia University on how they would write-up the investigation into intimidation of students by faculty members. In exchange for not interviewing students about their reaction to the report, the NYT received the document a day before its release, and was thus able to set the tone for the rest of the MSM coverage of the conclusions. This kind of journalism turns media into public spokesmen for powerful institutions.

Today, the NYT issued an apology:

Under The Times's policy on unidentified sources, writers are not permitted to forgo follow-up reporting in exchange for information. In this case, editors and the writer did not recall the policy and agreed to delay additional reporting until the document had become public.

That is to say, they forgot. Slipped everybody's mind. An unfortunate oversight. Nobody's fault really. Could have happened to any large mainstream media institution with a penchant for providing cover to anti-semites and bigots.

Deadly Genes Released into the Wild

Last week, the Swiss agritech company Syngenta revealed it had mistakenly sold farmers an unapproved strain of transgenic corn. No big deal, they claimed, the strain was practically identical to an approved strain. The US Environmental Protection Agency helped Syngenta to control 'spin' on the story.

This week, Nature reports that this was a baldfaced lie. Unlike the approved crop, the accidentally released corn strain contains a gene confering resistance to an important penicillin family antibiotic, ampicillin. The ampicillin resistance gene is a workhorse for genetic engineers, so its not surprising that it ended up in the corn strain. The appalling thing is that (1) Syngenta allowed it to be released into the wild and (2) That having done so they (and the EPA) lied about it.

We are already facing an emerging public health crisis with the rise of multi-drug resistant pathogens. It's idiotic to flood ecosystems with the very genes that confer antibiotic resistance upon deadly bacteria.

Its exactly this sort of accident that makes food engineering dangerous and undesirable. We consumers do not profit from food engineering - anybody want to claim that vegetable prices in the US are substantially cheaper (say, than Europe) thanks to widespread sale of genetically modified crops? No - the beneficiaries are reckless multinational agicultural corporations. The rest of us face unpredictable consequences.

Guardian - How many more must die before Kofi quits?

Kofi Annan is savaged by ... the Guardian!? Kenneth Cain writes:

Having worked as a UN human rights observer in Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti and Liberia, there are two savage paradoxes for me here. The first is that, while the media and conservative politicians and pundits have suddenly discovered that the UN has been catastrophically incompetent, this is very old news to anyone with the mud (or blood) of a UN peacekeeping mission on his boots.

One very personal example: when I worked in Liberia in the mid-Nineties a new chief administrative officer was dispatched to Monrovia by the UN to replace the previous CAO, who was removed (then reassigned elsewhere) for taking a 15 per cent kickback on UN procurement contracts. In the name of cleaning up the old corruption, the new CAO tapped our phones, paid locals to spy for him and threatened to send home anyone who opposed him, all to facilitate his own quest for a 15 per cent kickback on everything we purchased.

The worst part was watching him try to coerce as many of his young 'local staff' to sleep with him as possible. A UN salary is enough money to support an entire extended family in a country such as Liberia, so these vulnerable women were in a tortuously compromised position by their boss's unwanted advances.

I was the human rights lawyer and these girls would come to my office in tears asking for help. I wrote memo after memo of complaint to my chain of command, but no one did anything. I even confronted the CAO personally. To no effect. When I visited the UN human resources office in New York to complain personally, they laughed at my naive outrage: 'It happens all the time in the field,' they said. 'There's nothing we can do.'

In the meantime, a quarter of a million Liberians died, and warring factions committed war crimes. And the UN did - nothing. Just as it was simultaneously doing nothing, more infamously, in Rwanda and Bosnia.

But wait, there's more - UN 'peacekeeping' is no better than its inactivity:

I am co-author of a book critical of Annan's peacekeeping legacy, Emergency Sex (and Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone . My co-author, Dr Andrew Thomson, penned a line that drove the UN leadership to fire him. Lamenting UN negligence in failing Bosnian Muslims whom it had promised to protect in its 'safe area' of Srebrenica - where 8,000 men were slaughtered - Thomson wrote: 'If blue-helmeted UN peacekeepers show up in your town or village and offer to protect you, run. Or else get weapons. Your lives are worth so much less than theirs.'

Mindless Jerks in Ivory Towers

It's so infuriating that I find it difficult to quote from this Jerusalem Post article

British motion to boycott Israeli Academics
The Birmingham University branch of the AUT (the older of the UK's two academic trade unions) has put four motions on the council's agenda, one of which is also being supported by the Open University's union branch. Three of these motions call for a boycott of specific academic institutions – Haifa University, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and Bar-Ilan University.

Writer A.B. Yehoshua observes with perhaps a hint of sarcasm:

"The incredible sensitivity of the British is very encouraging precisely at this time, while the British army is still in Iraq," said prominent Israeli writer and peace activist A. B. Yehoshua. "Are these esteemed academics also boycotting their British and American colleagues who are not speaking out against the war in Iraq?"

"We are very flattered," Yehoshua added, "by the expectation that Israel remain unblemished. But there is a great distance between academic dialogue and an academic boycott. If they cared to dialogue with Israeli academics and intellectuals, they would discover how many of them have been struggling for years against the occupation and for recognition of a Palestinian state, even in a very complex situation of war and terror. Perhaps they would realize that part of the positive steps towards resolution of the conflict taken by the Israeli government are the result, in part, of such intellectuals' efforts. If they choose to boycott, let them boycott everyone in the world who doesn't think like them. And if they choose to dialogue, we are always ready to talk things over for the sake of peace."

It's not the first time European academics have singled out Jews for special attention. As recently as 2002, hundreds of European academics signed on to an academic boycott of Israel. The website, www.pjpo.org, is no longer in existance. However, thanks to the inexorable caching of web pages, the list of signatories, in all their shame, is still available here

So fundamental is cooperation to the efficient pursuit of science that most journals mandate that contributers agree to provide reagents upon request. But obviously individuals who publically declare that they don't wish to participate in free cooperation, should not benefit from the system. Therefore, in the interests of fairness, I decline to provide reagents or support to any of the people on the petition above, and signatories to similar efforts. Should this motion pass, I see no course than to refuse academic cooperation with members of the AUT. Anybody who feels similarly might like to point this out to the President of the AUT, Angela Roger (president@aut.org.uk).

Israel Bans Foie Gras

This is something to be proud of. Foie gras is one of the most repulsive, inhumane foods on the market. A handful of countries have banned its production. Until recently, Israel was a significant producer of foie gras, but nevertheless, thanks to the High Court's intervention, no longer.
Haaretz - Force-feeding geese illegal as of today

Force-feeding geese for foie gras is illegal as of today, the High Court of Justice decided yesterday. The court ruled more than a year ago that the practice was illegal, but granted an extension to geese growers for them to develop an alternate career or prove that geese can be fattened without violating the law against harming animals. The court yesterday rejected an Agriculture Ministry request to extend the reprieve period, citing the Knesset's refusal to approve legislation allowing for further extensions. The original court ruling came as a result of a petition filed by animal-rights groups. (Zafrir Rinat)

Every Day a Little Less Mess-o-potamia

Another indication that Sunni - Shiite reproachment is deepening in Iraq. I've been amazed by commentators on television hinting darkly at civil war and suggesting that the outcome of the invasion was sure to be a Iranian style theocracy.

BAGHDAD -- Influential Sunni clerics who once condemned Iraqi security-force members made an unexpected announcement yesterday, encouraging citizens to join the nascent police and army.
...
Criticizing members of the security forces, he said joining their ranks is necessary to prevent the country's police and army from falling into "the hands of those who have caused chaos, destruction and violated the sanctities.
Globe and Mail - Sunni clerics now urging Iraqis to join army

Environmentally Friendly Air Travel

For most of us, air travel is essential, but is a major source of carbon emissions. For example, one flight to london and back is about as environmentally destructive as it would be for me to drive an SUV every day to work for a year.

But finally, a practical way to neurtralize the environmental impact of air travel - NRDC - How to fly the Guilt Free Skies

First, calculate your air mileage

Then plug your miles into the carbon calculator and plant trees online.