Hate Crimes

The FBI Hate Crime Statistics 2005 makes for sad reading. There are some curiosities however. According to the report, four incidents were classified as "anti-atheism" (all carried out by the same individual). Believe or die, infidel...

While its unclear what the Muslim population of the U.S. actually is, serious estimates seem to put the number at about 2 million, that is, half the Jewish population. From the data then, hate crimes occur at about the rate of 1 per 7000 Jews, and 1 per 16,000 Muslims. Clearly, Muslims are beginning to experience similar levels of hostility to Jews in the United States. However, given that the U.S. is currently at war with Muslim terrorists, its surprising that the number is not higher.

UN intervention in Sudan runs into trouble

The UN's Sudan policy is running into trouble.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - The chief U.N. envoy to Sudan planned to leave the country Monday after the government ordered him out for saying its forces had suffered two major defeats in fighting in the Darfur region, a U.N. spokeswoman said.

Unbelievable. But I guess having declared that its not a genocide they really don't need to do anything about it....

New Death Politics from the Lancet

England's leading political journal of medicine is publishing a new study claiming 655,000 excess Iraqi deaths due to the war. Given the shoddy quality of their last paper claiming mass casualties in Iraq, its hard to imagine this one will be much better.

Ban Ki-moon to Assume New Irresponsibility

How is it that the UN is about to select a new Secretary General, one Ban Ki-moon, and there is almost zero media coverage? At the bottom of an article about the North Korean nuclear test, I found this:

On Monday, members of the U.N. Security Council are expected to select South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon to succeed Kofi Annan as secretary-general of the world body.

Remarkable. I suspect public discussion is avoided to prevent the choice falling prey to nationalist sentiments. Still, given the appalling corruption and incompetence of Kofi Annan, its hard to argue that the system currently works. In fact, all indications are that Ki-moon is set to continue the tradition of ineffectual UN leaders. According to Wikipedia

Ban has been actively involved in issues relating to inter-Korean relations. In 1992, he served as Vice Chairman of the South-North Joint Nuclear Control Commission, following the adoption by South and North Korea of the Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. In September 2005, as Foreign Minister, he played a leading role in the diplomatic efforts to adopt the Joint Statement on resolving the North Korean nuclear issue at the Fourth Round of the Six-Party Talks held in Beijing, China

In other words, the day after the international community's strategy for dealing with North Korea has been shown to be a wreck, one of its architects is to assume leadership of UN. Unbelievable!