loose ends

For those of you who actually have noticed the sterile condition in which this blog navigates of late, I'd like to banish your fears and provide a little explanation in the mean time.

I was stranded - computerless, in a world of sylicon chips and bytes - until yesterday, when I invested a considerable sum of money into a machine that will probably be out of date by autumn. I specifically went out to buy a reliable piece of technology to indulge me in my futile and beloved online meanderings this winter but came home withe the second cheapest set the store had on offer. It'll have to do i suppose.

Anyhow, when i last left there were some loose ends that i'd like to try and wrap up on this blog, in order to move on to something else by the end of the summer.

A number of issues have sprung to mind recently that have struck me as "worth a post" but which will unfortunately only be scantly mention below:

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Court of Justice has indicted Omar al Bashir, Sudan's autocratic President who is widely held to be responsible, inter alia, for the bombing of darfur and the Janjaweed's atrocities perpetrated since 2003 in the region. (see the debate going on here to find out if this is a good or bad idea).

Silvio Berlusconi's government has been working on introducing a number of highly controversial laws for: i) taking the fingerprints of all Roma children living in Italy, ii) suspending for twelve months all criminal trials for crimes whose punishment is less than 10 years' imprisonment, and iii) introducing immunity from all judiciary proceedings for the President, the Prime Minister and the presidents of the two houses of parliament. All three are inconstitutional: the first discriminates on the basis of race, the second impinges on the reasonable length of trials and the third runs agaisnt the principle that all citizens are equal in the eyes of the law.

On the 8th of July there was a demonstration against these laws in Piazza Navona, Rome. Tones got heated and a number of high-profiled (sic) characters in the Italian political scene were allegedly badly insulted. Amongst them Berlusconi, many exponents of his government (Mara Carfagna in particular), the president of the republic, that of the senate and Pope Benedict XVI. Somehow, according to all mainstream media, this detail overruled any other message that the demonstration might have had.

The G8 meeting in Japan achived nothing meaningful.

There was a meeting hosted by the FAO in Rome about the current crisis in food prices. It too did not achieve much. During the conference Berlusconi was told that Italy would not be allowed to join the "5+1" group in dealing with Iran's nuclear ambition.

Iran fired a nondescript (or rather... misdescript?!?) number of missiles that range up to 20-odd-thousand kilometers. Strategically a display of force, it was very amatorially "buffed up" by reporting that the missiles launched were more than were actually there. All these missiles can be loaded with nuclear warheads. Israel replied saying it would not allow Iran to develop a bomb and would react immediately and unflinchingly should it feel under imminent threat.

Israel also collected the bodies of the two soldiers kidnapped by Hisbullah in August 2006. In return in handed over to Beirut 5 political prisoners and fivehundred-plus arab militants dead in past wars. The event was perceived as a success for Lebanon - image which Nasrallah helped elucidate - but a sordid defeat for Israel.

McCain and Obama are still battling it out over int he US for who gets to be in the front seat. Karl Unterkircher, Eluana Englaro and a girl in Barcelona died (together with many more i am sure). I am over with exams, slowly starting to work on my thesis, planning to set up a local newsletter (more on this soon), looking to improve my french and my physical condition and reading the kite runner as well as flicking through another few items that the bookshelf in my parent's living room coughed up.