Blood & Treasure

on the persistence of small minds in small countries

So it goes...

UPDATE: From this thread:

The idea that anyone should hold up Switzerland as a libertarian wonderland is a bit ridiculous. Quite apart from the minaret ban there are a host of stupid, pointless, interfering laws covering such vital matters as when you are allowed to mow your lawn, when you are allowed to have a shower, when you are allowed to wash your car.

This, incidentally, is why I'm very leery of localism with it's inherent potential for rule by local busybody.

they had no choice

Legions, legions. Here’s the Tory’s Latvian chum from back in October:

Thousands of Latvians were conscripted by both Nazi Germany and the Soviets, under threat of imprisonment or death, to fight in the second world war. Members of the Latvian Legion, though carrying the German-imposed designation "SS", served as combat soldiers and were exonerated by the Nuremberg trials.

That bit about "under threat of imprisonment or death" isn’t really true: the alternatives were service with the Wehrmacht as hilfswillige or labour service in Germany: not a particularly pleasant set of choices, but choices nonetheless.

Anyway, today we read this:

Demjanjuk's lawyer, Ulrich Busch, immediately submitted an appeal to the judge to abandon the trial on the grounds that his client had "been a victim". He listed a string of more senior camp guards, some of them members of the SS, who had been tried for their roles in the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland but had either received minimal sentences or been exonerated of any wrongdoing.

How, Busch asked, was it possible that Demjanjuk, a "subordinate" to those men, who had been forced to work at the camp as a Nazi prisoner of war, was standing trial? "He is as much as victim as those people who were imprisoned in the camp but he is being treated as if he was a mass murderer, when in fact he didn't even have any choice whether he was there or not." His statement brought gasps from the public gallery.

Demjanjuk was originally a soldier with the Red army and became a Trawniki - a member of the local security forces employed in nazi occupied Eastern Europe - after he was captured by the Germans. Around two thirds of all Soviet Soldiers captured by the Germans in the first year of the war died, most from starvation. So the compulsion argument is probably stronger in Demjanjuk's case than in that of the Latvian Legion at least up to the point where he decided to collaborate. After that I suppose it's a matter of extending it to override what he actually did.

Well, "only obeying orders" seems to be a fashionable argument once again so I guess it's worth a try.

beat this, Rupert

Apple Daily in Taiwan recently started a mobile service, sending podcasts of what probably isn’t describable as “news” out to people’s mobiles. Here’s how they covered Tiger Wood’s car crash. Look out for the imaginative animated reconstructions. Apple use a lot of computer generated graphics in preference to photographs. Here’s a collection from previous news stories. Both via.

down these mean streets a hack must walk

Reporting the news in provincial China:

On November 4 this year, the newspaper published the report based upon a hotline tip from a reader. This report involves a consumer rights incident at a certain large supermarket chain in Shejiazhuang. On the day when the report came out, several dozen supermarket workers congregated in front of the newspaper office building. On November 5, 6, 7 and 9, the blockade continued involving as many as several hundred supermarket workers. The matter was put under control after the public security bureau intervened directly.

On October 16, the reporter Liu Fei was gathering news on a fire at a leatheroid factory in Xizhaotong. He was assaulted by persons claiming to be Xizhaotong security patrol members, who took away his camera, batteries and memory cards. On June 24, photojournalist Zhu Bing went to cover a fire at the Xinyuan Building at the Xinhuaji Trade Market and was assaulted by unidentified persons. He was beaten unconscious twice and hospitalized. On May 28, reporters Xu Fei and Li Qiang were forcibly detained during their investigation of the silicon tetrachloride leakage in Yuting town, Xiantang county and had to be rescued by the police. On May 24, photojournalist Cui Jing was covering the incident at the elevated bridge at Friendship Street and Huai'an Road when he was attacked by the construction crew who took away his camera. On October 29, 2008, reporters Li Qiang, Ren Li, Liu Feiyue and Li Jie went to Zhao County to investigate the matter of town cadres playing mahjong and were surrounded and attacked by unidentified persons. The reporters were injured and hospitalized and two cameras were vandalized.

All this culminated last week with Le Qian, Deputy Editor of the Hebei Youth Daily being beaten around the head by a man with a brick outside her apartment, the man shouting “report this!” as he did it. Meanwhile, when the Beijing-based Legal System Evening News exposed a local property developer building on toxic land...

As a consequence, the city government spent several hundred thousand yuan to mobilize more than 2,000 persons to buy up copies of all over the city. Meanwhile, the real estate developer Sinochem Fangxing incurred a vast amount of "public relations" expenses.

uncle bill

I saw William Burroughs giving a reading in the old Heaven nightclub in London back in 1982, hanging over the balcony as the disco boys gyrated on the dancefloor below. Good times, man, good times: and best wishes only a day late to all my readers of the turkey murdering persuasion: via.

chitter-chattering

Well here’s a first. Our very own Narcocorrido:

"Its connection to this case and its chilling message were immediately obvious to the officers," Mr Glasgow told the court.

"The video had but one purpose - to threaten any witness to this incident to frighten them to such an extent that they would refuse to co-operate with the police.

"They made it clear exactly what it was they wanted to do to them. "Namely, kill them or to use their own words, 'I can't wait for the snitch to drop, I still show up at his wake just to see him off'."

Old Bailey Judge Richard Hone said the lyrics meant: "Those who went chitter-chattering to police were themselves in danger of being shot"

Chitter-chattering, eh? Judges: God love ‘em. Anyway, since it’s Friday night, let’s all singalong to Larry Hernandez:

you can beat something with nothing after all

It all depends on the something:

61% of the British public believe van Rompuy is preferable to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was strongly linked with the role of President. Just 23% would have preferred Blair to take the role.

Naturally, people would prefer someone they are confident that they’ll never hear of in the future to someone they don’t want to hear any more of ever again. Kind of zen really. And who says we have an unsophisticated electorate? Via.

pseudo-cannibalism is the new i-pod

This chap’s getting a little overexcited about artificially made meat:

In-Vitro Meat will be fashioned from any creature, not just domestics that were affordable to farm. Yes, ANY ANIMAL, even rare beasts like snow leopard, or Komodo Dragon. We will want to taste them all. Some researchers believe we will also be able to create IVM using the DNA of extinct beasts -- obviously, "DinoBurgers" will be served at every six-year-old boy's birthday party.

Humans are animals, so every hipster will try Cannibalism. Perhaps we'll just eat people we don't like, as author Iain M. Banks predicted in his short story, "The State of the Art" with diners feasting on "Stewed Idi Amin." But I imagine passionate lovers literally eating each other, growing sausages from their co-mingled tissues overnight in tabletop appliances similar to bread-making machines. And of course, masturbatory gourmands will simply gobble their own meat.

via. He’s right about the hipster thing. I mean, I’d be curious about pseudo-cannibalism now, but fifteen or so years ago I’d have been quite enthusiastic. Twenty five years ago I’d have been positively stupid enough to think it would impress women. Who knows? A couple of them might have been drunk enough to prove me right. Paths not taken...

cadre's end

Someone’s done a survey on the health problems of China’s officials:

The itch of hemorrhoids is also a problem: 24% of Chinese officials surveyed identified themselves as sufferers.

OK. That’s around ten million people shifting about uncomfortably on chairs across China as we speak. Somewhere the ghost of Iron Arse is looking down and saying “lightweights”.

Someone should do a 3000 word chin-stroker on this. Do piles impel Chinese bureaucrats to be up and about, taking an active, vigorous role in driving forward the economy? Or does the constant urge for a surreptitious scratch prevent the necessary laserlike focus on bringing about China’s peaceful rise? What say you, professor Jacques?

llareggub

A bit more lively today at the Chilcott Enquiry with the appearance of former ambassador and quipmaster in General Practice Christopher Meyer, as per Paul Waugh:

The 'Route Map' on the Middle East peace process "led to bugger all."

It’s the “road map” but “bugger all” can’t be faulted. And here’s what our man in Washington thought we should have got in exchange for supporting the US:

We were "taken for granted" he said. Meyer even included in his 'payback' that the US should drop its tariffs on British steel and that Richard Branson and BA should be given better access to transatlantic flight slots.

That would have made it all worthwhile.