Michael Jackson: 5 Songs That Reflect His Genius
July 29, 2009
| Written by Kris Millett |
| Wednesday, 01 July 2009 |
| By the time you read this, you will probably be so oversaturated by Michael Jackson coverage that it will pain you to finish this sentence. I will try to spare you from unnecessary eulogizing. As I write this on the evening of his death, I feel nothing but a sense of shame – for this man will not get the opportunity to regain respectability as a musician and a person. It is also shameful that he will not bear witness to the inevitable public outpour of love that is sure to follow his passing, something that I feel would’ve happened in time anyway. And it is a shame that Michael Jackson passed away at what could arguably be considered his low point.
Jackson’s passing comes just as he was set to make a realistic bid for artistic redemption: a sold-out string of 50 shows slated for London’s O2 Arena starting in July, and a new album reportedly with the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am collaborating to come (like him or not, Will.i.am has a unparalleled nose for chart success). Everything was unfolding according to my plan until this morning when Jackson collapsed in his rented mansion. So, until demos from the Will.i.am sessions inevitably surface, here are a few sometimes overlooked (but not unknown) songs that reflect the man’s genius: 1. “BEN” – Michael Jackson’s solo career was spawned at age 14 with this song paving the road for two decades of unprecedented success. Strip away the overblown 1972 production, and you hear the unique phrasing, melodic sense, and that iconic voice – steeped in R&B tradition, yet unmistakable. His singing at the key jump near the end is nothing short of exhilarating. Who cares if parts of it sound a bit like Eric Cartman?
2. “BLAME IT ON THE BOOGIE” (w/ The Jacksons) – At the beginning, MJ flashes his pearly whites, and exclaims “eeee, hee-eeee!”. It’s 1978 and the boy has grown into a man. If you’ve worn out your copy of Off The Wall, here’s something else to sink your teeth into. It almost sounds like an extra track from Off The Wall — albeit cheesier –, setting a template for the groundbreaking work on that album. In my opinion, Michael never looked cooler than he did in this video, dated as it may be. If it wasn’t already obvious, the older brothers were just cluttering up the stage at this point. A full solo turn was inevitable.
3. “SAY SAY SAY” (feat. Paul McCartney) – This is a song I had avoided listening to until a few months ago. I had written the whole McCartney-Jackson compilation period off as tragedy. I like both artists, but the 1983 pairing of the 60s English pop songsmith with the Black American R&B sensation clashes as poorly as . . . well, let’s just say it clashes very badly. Fortunately, in “Say Say Say,” one only has to put up with roughly 30 seconds of insipid McCartney pop before Jacko steps in to rock your world. The 80s, Golden Earring-esque backbeat only sweetens the deal. That Jackson pre-chorus knocks me off my feet every time it appears. The hook is undeniable. Even Linda McCartney is bopping . . . This reminds me to tell you to NEVER to watch the video for it. I’ve included it below to test your willpower.
4. “THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL” – You know what I like? When an artist, at the peak of their popularity, comes out with their best material, and the whole world starts dancing. It rarely ever happens. It probably last happened when Eminem released “Without Me,” or anything released by Chris Gaines . . .Anyway, after Thriller sold 40 million copies in just 3 years, the pressure to deliver a follow-up must have been unimaginable. From that perspective, 1987’s Bad could be viewed as a disappointment. But it did spawn the perfect single, four other singles that went #1, and “Smooth Criminal,” which peaked at #7. The video for “The Way You Make Me Feel” may be the last one where Jackson looked relatively normal before he started to emotionally regress backwards in a reversed-Benjamin Button fashion.
5. “THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT US” – Beat me, hate me You can never break me Will me, thrill me You can never kill me Jew me, sue me Everybody do me Kick me, kike me Don’t you black or white me This song marks Michael Jackson’s final attempt to circumvent the media filter and tell it his way. This would prove futile, as the song’s lyrics were changed after people like Steven Spielberg found it offensive. Anti-Semitic concerns aside, this is the type of provocative song important artists are supposed to make. Its lyrics, along with 1991’s “Jam,” lead me to think that Michael Jackson had more of his marbles than we’re told to believe.
F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said, “There are no second acts in American lives.” This may be true, and I was not under the assumption that the ‘Elvis Presley of the music video era’ could rescue the music industry again today. But I had hoped that, unlike Elvis, Michael Jackson would at least get the opportunity to age gracefully, to earn and be privy to the power of human forgiveness. Post script — Also be sure to check out his 2001 30th Anniversary Celebration concert and witness footage of Jackson giving his last great performances. culturemagazin.ca |
For years, I’ve been waiting for the moment in which the world would fall back in love with Michael Jackson. It seemed destined to happen. His disturbing childhood (or lack thereof) had become common knowledge due to endless news magazine specials and philosophizing TV psychologists, and we’ve come to accept that anyone who began in the entertainment business at age 6 is going to end up a little fucked up. There is no guidebook to handling stardom before puberty.
I mourn when I listen to “They Don’t Care About Us.” Nevertheless, it’s not really related to what transpired earlier today. For years, we have all longed for the return of the man who at least physically – due to a series of tragic accidents, illness, and bad operations – has not been with us for decades. After numerous public humiliations, we determined him to be a wacko and his music was never again given the chance to be credible. I always will mourn the loss of generational talents and transformative pop icons such as MJ – individuals that bring the whole world together.microsoft and yahoo against google
July 29, 2009
reuters picture
By Alexei Oreskovic and Bill Rigby
SAN FRANCISCO/SEATTLE (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc inked a 10-year Web search deal to challenge market leader Google Inc but stopped short of combining their display advertising businesses.
The long-expected deal effectively means Microsoft’s new Bing search engine will be combined with Yahoo’s experience attracting advertisers to pose the first serious threat to Google, if the companies get regulatory approval and can make the partnership work.
Yahoo shares fell 11 percent as some investors were disappointed by the limited scope of the deal, which did not include upfront payments for Yahoo, which could have been $1.5 billion or more, according to a Sanford Bernstein research report last week.
“Microsoft will be able to report a greater share in terms of search… And Yahoo doesn’t have to spend any more money on search,” said Barry Diller, chief executive of IAC/InterActiveCorp, which owns rival search engine Ask.com.
Shares of Microsoft were flat, while Google shares fell 1.2 percent.
Microsoft and Yahoo still face antitrust and privacy issues and likely opposition from Google, which dropped its plans for an advertising partnership with Yahoo last year under pressure from the U.S. Justice Department.
The companies said they expect the deal to be “closely reviewed” by regulators, but were “hopeful” it can close in early 2010.
Google said on Wednesday only that it was “interested” in the Microsoft/Yahoo partnership, while the chairman of the U.S. Senate antitrust panel said the deal warrants “careful scrutiny.”
The deal culminates a lengthy, and at times contentious, dance between the two companies. They have been in on-and-off-again talks on a search partnership since Yahoo rebuffed Microsoft’s $47.5 billion takeover bid last year.
Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer clashed last year with former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, who was strongly opposed to an all-out acquisition. Relations between the two companies improved under new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, who took the reins in January and started to shake up Yahoo’s top management.
Ballmer and Bartz met “three or four times” over the past six months as they hammered out a deal, according to Ballmer.
HOW THE DEAL WORKS
Under the deal announced on Wednesday, Microsoft’s Bing search engine will power search queries on Yahoo’s sites. Yahoo’s sales force will be responsible for selling premium advertising based on search terms for both companies.
Microsoft’s AdCenter technology will serve the standard sponsored links that appear alongside search results.
While Yahoo CEO Bartz had previously said that any deal would require a partner with “boatloads of money,” she said on Wednesday that the agreement provided “boatloads of value”, saying the revenue share agreement in the Microsoft deal was more valuable to Yahoo than a one-time payment. Continued…
reuters.com
Defence Industry Daily
July 29, 2009
ASDS Mini-Sub Program Sinks, As Replacement Rises
29-Jul-2009 14:05 EDT
Related Stories: Americas – USA, Britain/U.K., Budgets, Coastal & Littoral, FOCUS Articles, Forces – Special Ops, Issues – Political, New Systems Tech, Northrop-Grumman, Project Failures, R&D – Contracted, Submarines
(click to view full)
In a program that began with great promise but soon spiraled out of control, Northrop Grumman has been building the ASDS “Advanced SEAL delivery System” mini-subs, the successors to the previous SDV (SEAL/Swimmer Delivery Vehicle) carried on US Benjamin Franklin Class (SSBN-640) attack submarines.
Unlike the SDV, which is flooded and requires SCUBA gear, the 16 Navy SEALs, MARSOC, or other covert action personnel in an ASDS can arrive at their mission drier, warmer, and less fatigued[1]. The ASDS was meant to be launched from the converted SSGN Ohio Class Special Ops/Land Strike submarines, and also from Virginia Class (SSN-744) submarines, from the improved Los Angeles Class SSN-688I subs Charlotte [SSN 766] and Greeneville [SSN 772], or from the well decks of amphibious assault ships like the LHD Wasp Class or LPD-17 San Antonio Class. The new mini-sub also fits in a C-17 Globemaster or C-5 Galaxy aircraft for rapid transport to an appropriate launch platform.
In the end, however, technical, reliability, and 400% cost overrun issues proved nearly insuperable. The ASDS has been canceled for all intents and purposes; all that’s left is Kenneth Krieg’s April 6, 2006 acquisition decision memorandum directed the Navy and SOCOM to establish an ASDS-1 improvement program to boost the performance of the existing sub, and complete its operational testing. Which limps on, still, as the ARIP…
A400M Delays Creating Contract Controversies
28-Jul-2009 19:12 EDT
Related Stories: Africa, Aircraft, Alliances, Asia – Other, Britain/U.K., Budgets, Corporate Financials, EADS, Europe – France, Europe – Other, Events, Partnerships & Consortia, People, Rumours, Spotlight articles
(click to view full)
Airbus’ A400M is a EUR 20+ billion program that aimed to repeat Airbus’ civilian successes in the military market. A series of smart design decisions were made around capacity (35-37 tonnes/ 38-40 US tons, large enough for survivable armored vehicles), extensive use of modern materials, multi-role capability as a refueling tanker, and a multinational industrial program; all of which leave the aircraft well positioned to take overall market share from Lockheed Martin’s C-130 Hercules. If the USA’s C-17 is allowed to go out of production, the A400M would also have a strong position in the strategic transport market, with only Russian IL-76 and AN-124 aircraft as competition. To date, orders have been placed by Germany (60), France (50), Spain (27), Britain (25), Turkey (10), South Africa (8), Belgium (7), Malaysia (4), Chile (3, to finalize), and Luxembourg (1).
Right now, the firm’s biggest issue is timing. In November 2007, “Airbus A400M Program Delayed 6-12 Months” covered ongoing issues with Airbus’ new military transport. Those issues escalated, and project is currently under moratorium as all parties decide what to do. Cancellation is not a realistic option, but late deliveries can be refused. This DID Spotlight article (which will soon become members-only content) covers the latest developments as the A400M project slides toward production.
A key multinational agreement has now extended the program’s moratorium, even as Airbus and Thales book significant losses related to the project…
- The A400M Program: A Snapshot
- The A400M Program: Airbus’ Dilemmas
- Updates & Key Events [updated]
- Additional Readings
Continue Reading… »
$142M to Lockheed Martin for AH-64 Apache Helicopter Arrowhead Sensors
28-Jul-2009 16:22 EDT
Related Stories: Americas – USA, Contracts – Awards, Contracts – Modifications, Helicopters & Rotary, Lockheed Martin, Sensors & Guidance
with Arrowhead sensor
(click to view full)
Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control received a $142 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for 55 Arrowhead kits for U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopters and kits for several international customers.
Arrowhead is an advanced electro-optical and fire control system that AH-64 Apache helicopter pilots use for combat targeting of their Hellfire missiles and other weapons, as well as safe flight in day, night, or bad weather missions.
DID has more on the Arrowhead sensor contract, including a breakdown of the 6 Lots awarded to Lockheed Martin…
Continue Reading… »
Alaska Native Corporations: IGs and Issues
28-Jul-2009 15:21 EDT
Related Stories: Americas – USA, Bases & Infrastructure, Contracts – Awards, Industry & Trends, Issues – Political, Legal, Official Reports, Other Corporation, Policy – Procurement, Small Business
Last week, Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Corporation Chugach World Services Inc in Anchorage, Alaska received a $55 million Indefinite Quantity firm-fixed-price contract to revitalize Buildings 2266 and 2264 at Fort Sam Houston, TX. Work is to be performed in San Antonio, TX with an estimated completion date of July 30/11. One bid solicited with one bid received by the U.S. Army Engineer District in Fort Worth, TX (W9126G-09-C-0055).
If an Alaska corporation seems like an odd single-solicitation choice for work in Texas, you’re not alone. Chugach has a long history of federal contracts for similar work all over the USA, however, which makes them an experienced partner. They’re not alone, either. ANCs’ share of federal contracting has grown from $1.1 billion in FY 2004 to $3.9 billion in 2008, including some key front-line contracts. That’s 26% of 8(a) dollars, going to 2% of registered 8(a) firms. Meanwhile, the US Small Business Administration’s Inspector General has released a pair of reports in the past 2 years, documenting issues with ANCs…
Continue Reading… »
Khmer rock revival seeks new audience
|
By Sarah Cuddon
|
Chhom Nimol fronts the LA-based Khmer rock band Dengue Fever
|
Decades after Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge silenced the sound of Westernised music in Cambodia, the little-known 60s genre “Khmer rock” is finding new fans.
Khmer rock is the sound of the West meeting the East in the 1960s – a mixture of US surf guitar music, early rock and doo-wop mixed with Cambodian traditional instruments.
At the time, the music was virtually unknown outside Asia but its followers in the West are now burgeoning.
Music writer Nik Cohn is a new fan who stumbled across the sound by chance.
He said: “One night I was watching (the film) City of Ghosts, and there’s an amazing moment when Matt Dillon jumps on a motorbike and rides through Phnom Penh and this incredible music comes on. An unbelievable voice.
“(I’d) not heard anything that good since Ronnie and Ronettes… and then I began to think about it musically.”
Today, the sounds of the old Phnom Penh are being revived in the West by the Los Angeles-based band Dengue Fever, which is fronted by a Cambodian singer, Chhom Nimol, the daughter of musicians who played with the original Khmer rockers.
The band’s guitarist Zac Holtzman loves the sound and stories of Phnom Penh’s music scene.
“It was modern city, with lots of musicians. By day they played traditional stuff and by night they’d rock out.
Music writer Nik Cohn likened the Khmer rock sound to The Ronettes
|
“In general the Khmer culture is reserved, but this is the closest to stepping out and going crazy. We can really have fun here.”
The country’s former controversial ruler, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, was a big influence on the sound.
Despite presiding over an often corrupt and repressive regime, he was passionate and liberal about the arts, and encouraged the traditional court musicians to experiment with Western styles.
But influences also came directly from the US – as the American military presence in Vietnam increased, the American Forces Radio Network also became more well-known.
Flying studios operated by the US Navy spread the sound of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and country music to Cambodia.
Phnom Penh’s young musicians did not necessarily know who Jimi Hendrix, the Doors or the Beach Boys actually were, but they loved the sound and they started to imitate it.
“They just took the sound and re-channelled it through instruments equivalent to guitars… a primitive drum kit, and they certainly had bass guitar,” Nik Cohn said.
The Khmer rock musicians did not have elaborate studios, and most of the songs were recorded live – often in one take – with any keyboards or guitars they could find, and incorporated traditional instruments.
For a decade, this experimental Khmer rock music transformed the nightlife of the capital, Phnom Penh.
But in 1975 the fanatically anti-Western Khmer Rouge marched in, led by Pol Pot, and the vibrant rock and roll scene was silenced.
Within four years, the Khmer Rouge killed an estimated two million Cambodians in the notorious killing fields, including many of the Khmer musicians.
Him Sophy was one of those sent to a labour camp.
The scene’s leading lights were all extinguished by the Khmer Rouge
|
“Ninety percent of the famous singers were killed. I saw the prisoners they took,” he said.
Jon Swain, who was the Sunday Times war correspondent in South Vietnam and Cambodia at the time, said: “Educated people, musicians, people with glasses… a lot were taken to the killing fields… so the great singers disappeared.”
All the local heroes the scene had produced – like Sinn Sisamouth, who became known as “the King of Khmer music” – were wiped out, killed by the Khmer Rouge.
Cambodian musician and composer Sophy Him was a young music student in Phnom Penh and remembered him well.
“Sinn Sisamouth would play (royal) court music, then rock music… improvisation from traditional and rock.”
Guitarist Zac Holtzman said Sinn Sisamouth was a songwriter who he initially thought “was like the Elvis of Cambodia”, but then he found his lyrics were more like the “Bob Dylan of Cambodia”.
 |
 When you know that every one them was wiped out by the Khmer Rouge, many in hideous ways, it deepens the experience of listening to it  Nik Cohn, music writer
|
No one quite knows what happened to the famous diva of the time, Ros Sereysothea, but it is believe she also died under Pol Pot.
Like almost all the Khmer rock artists, Ros Sereysothea came from a poor farming family.
She moved to Phnom Penh, where was heard singing by Prince Sihanouk, who later honoured her as “The Golden Voice of the Royal Capital”.
It was her voice that Nik Cohn first heard on the soundtrack for film City Of Ghosts, and he said there was always “something tragic about her”.
The music was wild and anarchic, but the lyrics often told a different story of teenage angst, death, betrayal and sorrow.
The translation to Ros Sereysothea’s funky rock song “Have You Seen My Love” is: “I drink until I get drunk, but I can’t seem to get drunk. The sky is all black, love has wings to fly.”
It is this strange mix that appeals to fans like Nik Cohn. “It’s the sound of innocence, teenagers and innocence, symbolising everything that was lost – and when you know that every one them was wiped out by the Khmer Rouge, many in hideous ways, it deepens the experience of listening to it.”
Khmer Rock is adored in Cambodia. It survived on bootlegged cassette tapes and vintage vinyl kept hidden during the Communist years at enormous risk to the owners.
“The name of Sinn Sisamouth is still there… after Khmer Rouge was overthrown, his songs came back on the radio.
“I remember hearing them again and they are still going on now,” Jon Swain said.
And the old songs are winning new fans through reissues and compilations, a presence on the internet, and the new recordings by Dengue Fever.
Khmer Rock and the Killing Fields presented by Robin Denselow, is to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Tuesday, 28 July, at 1330 BST.
bbc.co.uk
Beer diplomacy
July 29, 2009
BBC News
To the already long list of improbable White House get-togethers – Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon, Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, Princess Diana and John Travolta – we will be able to add the names of a black professor and a white policeman at the centre of a national uproar over race relations.
Sgt Crowley and Prof Gates are to meet at the White House
|
Cambridge police sergeant Jim Crowley and Henry Louis Gates, the Harvard scholar he arrested after responding to a report of a possible break-in at Mr Gates’s home, will sit down with Mr Obama on Thursday for a conciliatory beer.
Admittedly, it is tempting to view the invitation as the ultimate conflation of the age of Obama and the age of Oprah.
Aside from the choice of beverage, there is something very daytime television, something very soft focus, something very soft sofa, about this attempt to defuse the controversy.
Mr Gates was held for disorderly conduct, after he allegedly criticised police behaviour during the incident at the scholar’s home on 16 July. President Obama – a friend of Mr Gates – got involved in the case, saying the police had acted “stupidily”.
Yet startling and novel as Mr Obama’s attempts to defuse the controversy are, he is merely upholding a long tradition. Presidential racial politics have often been conducted with gestures, symbols and photo opportunities, and this is but the latest example of a well-worn genre.
Obvious gestures
Ever since the war, when black voters – or the Negro vote, as it was then known – became a potentially election-deciding force, presidents have embraced symbolic gestures, for the simple reason that they allow them to appeal to blacks without alienating whites.
Often the gestures have been rather obvious. Sometimes they have been so subtle as to be almost subliminal.
Alert to the growing strategic importance of the black vote in key northern battleground states, Dwight D Eisenhower invited the black contralto, Marian Anderson, to perform at his 1956 inauguration. It was a gesture especially redolent with meaning, since in 1939 she had been barred from singing at Constitution Hall in Washington.
His successor, John F Kennedy, happily extended a White House invitation to the world heavyweight boxing champion, Floyd Patterson, hoping it would compensate for his stubborn refusal to offer similar hospitality to Martin Luther King.
|
Throughout the campaign, Mr Obama deliberately de-emphasised his race  |
Not to be outdone by President Eisenhower, JFK also invited Marian Anderson to sing at his inaugural, but then went a few notable steps further by dancing with black women at the balls later on that night.
This kind of imagery has also been used in reverse, using more harmful symbolism.
Ronald Reagan delivered the first major speech of his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi – the town memorialised in the Hollywood movie, Mississippi Burning – where three civil rights workers were brutally murdered in 1964.
The subject of his speech was “states rights”, for some a euphemism for white supremacy.
In 1992, the then Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, famously attacked the black singer Sister Souljah; and, more infamously, made sure he returned home to Little Rock mid-campaign to oversee the lethal injection of Ricky Ray Rector, a brain damaged black man who had killed a police officer.
Fears and grievances
These kinds of techniques are so commonly deployed, largely because they can have such a dramatic effect.
Even as black leaders attacked him for his timidity on civil rights, Mr Kennedy enjoyed high approval ratings among black voters, partly because they had been such full participants in his inaugural celebrations.
Nothing underscored Bill Clinton’s moderate, New Democrat credentials better than his attack on a black hip-hop artist.
So history suggests it would be foolish to underestimate the reconciliatory potential of this Budweiser moment, however dubious it sounds.
After all, conflict resolution often turns on the mutual and public acknowledgement of each side’s fears and grievances, along with the photo-opportunity that accompanies it.
Mr Obama talked about black self-improvement at the NAACP conference
|
By extending this invitation, Mr Obama also appears to be signalling that neither Prof Gates nor Sgt Crowley was wholly in the right or wholly in the wrong.
The beer at the White House, then, marks an attempt to balance white fears about black lawlessness, whether real or imagined, with black middle-class grievances about white racism, whether real or imagined.
Throughout the campaign, Mr Obama deliberately de-emphasised his race. To be a history-defying candidate he became a history-denying figure, and left others to attach racial meaning to his candidacy.
Since winning the presidency, however, he has been much more expansive on the issue, starting with his victory speech at Grant Park in Chicago, where he located his achievement in the context of Montgomery, Birmingham and Selma, the climactic moments of the civil rights era.
During his recent speech before the civil rights group, the NAACP, he made reference to these events to emphasise his theme of black self-improvement.
“I know that nine little children did not walk through a schoolhouse door in Little Rock so that we could stand by and let our children drop out of school and turn to gangs for the support they are not getting elsewhere,” he said accusingly.
Biblical language
The Gates controversy has been harder for him to deal with because it deals with more awkward history and touches on the ambiguous legacy of the civil rights era.
White support for the civil rights movement started to wane when blacks demanded affirmative action and reparations. Conversely, racial profiling is an area where blacks feel they are still treated as second-class citizens.
This controversy not only taps into that milieu, but inadvertently brings together two unlikely protagonists: Prof Gates, one of America’s most eloquent advocates of affirmative action, and Sgt Crowley, who for five years taught a class on racial profiling at a local police academy which cautioned against stereotyping.
When you reach back into American history, you often find that racial progress has come when the case for reform or reconciliation has been framed in Biblical language or used faith-based allegories.
Rev King’s I Have a Dream speech is the most obvious and glorious example.
Now Barack Obama is conjuring up a modern-day parable: the story of the professor, the policeman and the president. But can he turn beer into progress?
Nick Bryant is the author of The Bystander: John F. Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality.
bbc.co.uk
US troops back on patrol
July 29, 2009
|
By Gabriel Gatehouse
BBC News, Mosul |
Nearly a month after American troops officially withdrew from urban areas in Iraq, they are quietly going back in again, patrolling the streets of towns and cities where, despite improvements in security, violence remains an everyday occurrence.
By the US military’s own reckoning, Mosul and its surrounding region is the most dangerous area in Iraq.
On average they calculate there are four attacks here every day – explosions, shootings, suicide bombings. That is down from six per day in January – progress, of sorts.
Since 30 June, Iraqi forces have been entirely responsible for maintaining security in urban areas. But the Americans want to keep a close eye. So they are maintaining a limited number of joint patrols inside cities like Mosul.
Lt Joel Brown was going into Mosul for the first time since the handover. When he and his platoon were last in the city, they came under attack – a grenade was thrown at their convoy from one of the many narrow alleyways along their route.
“The grenade thrower was right behind that red car,” Lt Brown said, pointing out of the window of his armoured Humvee. “It bounced off the Humvee and blew up on the ground.”
On the roof of the vehicle, a gunner swept the road from right to left, watching for similar threats. Many of the buildings on the way into town had either been reduced to rubble or were pockmarked by bullets. Six years after the US-led invasion, Mosul still looks like a city at war.
Visible presence
The convoy consisted of five heavily armed vehicles: three American and two Iraqi, one each at the front and back – our escort, required under the terms of the handover agreement.
The Iraqi security forces were maintaining a highly visible presence on the streets of Mosul: checkpoints at almost every corner, watchtowers and more armoured vehicles.
|
The Iraqi police have come a long way… Their proficiency, their ability to get the job done, is going to work me out of a job, which is good, which I’m looking forward to Cpt Brian Panaro, US Army
|
Our destination was a large area of wasteland in the south-west of the city. Officially, the reason for the US patrol was to oversee a project to clear rubbish from the area.
“What we’re trying to do is to is get all these wrecked vehicles, trash, get that all moved out of here,” Lt Brown said. “It’ll help stimulate the economy as well as accomplish a major project here in the west side of Mosul.”
There was plenty to do. An open sewer ran along the street, as goats and geese nosed around in the rubbish, discarded shoes, bottles and plastic bags. A dog with three legs barked mournfully as it sat in the blazing sun outside a house built of concrete breeze-blocks.
But Lt Brown and the roughly 130,000 other US troops still stationed in Iraq are more than just heavily armed garbage men. In Mosul, the threat of violence is never far off.
Suddenly a shot rang out from the direction of a sandbagged watchtower at the end of the street. A warning shot, Lt Brown said, fired by one of the Iraqis manning a checkpoint.
No one was injured in the shooting, but the Americans didn’t stay to find what had prompted it.
The patrol was attracting increasingly unfriendly-looking attention from many of the local residents in the area, unused by now to the presence of US forces in town. So they got back in their Humvees and headed back to base.
New rules
Following the handover, patrols to monitor reconstruction projects are a good way for the Americans to get their boots, eyes and ears back on the ground inside the cities.
But there are new rules in place – they have to ask for permission and an escort from the local Iraqi security forces.
Lt Gen Abbas negotiates the details of a convoy from a position of strength
|
Co-operation is not always smooth, involving patient persuasion and impassioned gesticulation – plenty of head-scratching, the comparing of maps and a little bargaining.
“How many vehicles do you have?” Lt Gen Majed Abbas of the Iraqi Police Force asked Lt Brown before they set off. When he was told they had four, he told the Americans could bring only three. One would have to be left behind.
The whole process took place with the help of interpreters, and the traditional glasses of sweet black tea.
Everyone was friendly, but the Iraqis were clearly keen to emphasise that they were now in charge.
Gains
The smaller towns and villages just a few kilometres south of Mosul present a different picture from the city itself. Here US troops are freer in their movements, though they still bring an Iraqi escort when they go out on patrol.
In one such village, Cpt Brian Panaro and his men were soon surrounded by local children, asking for their watches and sunglasses. The problems people complain about here are often not matters of security, but of infrastructure – dirty water, bad roads, no jobs.
Ali Mustafa, an elderly man dressed in white, was sitting on the doorstep of his home.
There are still 130,000 US soldiers in Iraq
“The Americans invaded our country,” he said, “so they should be responsible for these things too, not just security.”
But in a little over two years’ time, the Americans don’t want to be responsible for any of it. They want out.
“The Iraqi police have come a long way since the beginning of our deployment here,” Capt Panaro said. “Their proficiency, their ability to get the job done, is going to work me out of a job, which is good, which I’m looking forward to.”
Many of the soldiers stationed at Forward Operating Base Marez, the US military’s main camp outside Mosul, are effectively out of a job already, confined to barracks.
Joint patrols in cities like Mosul are relatively rare compared to what they were before 30 June. If the Pentagon has its way, they will soon cease altogether.
As the Americans shift their attentions towards Afghanistan, they are hoping that the security gains they’ve achieved in Iraq will hold once they do finally pack up and leave.
bbc.co.uk
struggle for power in Iran
July 29, 2009
BBC Middle East Analyst
How are we to understand the tumultuous events in Iran over the last few weeks?
In the 30 years since the Islamic revolution which overthrew the Shah, there have been no shortage of rows, crises and factional squabbles.
But this time is different. This time the disputes are out in the open – and the stakes could not be higher.
There is a sense that Iran is at a crossroads.
At the heart of the current crisis is the role of the Supreme Leader. This is the office created by the revolution’s founding father, Ayatollah Khomeini.
It put him at the top of the pyramid of political power, giving him the final say in all important decisions.
|
The office has been de-legitimised because the Leader has chosen to take sides Farideh Farhi, University of Hawaii
|
But since Khomeini’s death in 1989, the office has been held by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who lacks the charisma and religious authority of his revered predecessor.
It was Ayatollah Khamenei’s intervention in June’s presidential elections that plunged the country into turmoil.
By endorsing the conservative candidate, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as the winner, he abandoned the Supreme Leader’s traditional neutrality as a figure above the political fray.
“The office has been de-legitimised,” says Iranian political scientist Farideh Farhi of the University of Hawaii, “because the Leader has chosen to take sides – and has come out in support of a violent approach to demonstrators.”
So, given that the stakes were so high, why did the Leader act as he did?
Barbara Slavin of the Washington Times is the author of a book on US-Iranian relations.
Although there are plenty of conspiracy theories, she says, it is possible that the answer is hubris.
After 20 years in the office, power went to the Leader’s head – and he overreached.
Besides, she points out, Ayatollah Khamenei – like many other Iranians – genuinely believed that, at a time of tension between Iran and the West, the country needed a strong president rather than some “lily-livered reformist”.
Enough is enough
Thousands protested against what they said was a rigged election
|
But whatever the Leader’s calculations, it was a costly mistake.
Endorsing Mr Ahmadinejad as president for a second term, after what many saw as a fraudulent election, provoked protest on an unprecedented scale.
It also left the regime more dependent than ever on two paramilitary forces – the Revolutionary Guard and the volunteer militia known as the Basij.
Many clerics are appalled.
In their eyes, says Jon Alterman of the Washington think-tank, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the point of Islamic government is to lead the public – not to beat the public.
He thinks some clerics may now be inclined to say, “Enough with one man being Leader. We’ll have three, we’ll have a committee. The Leader will advise, the Leader won’t rule.”
That would pitch the Islamic Republic into uncharted waters.
But it is an option that seems to be favoured by one of the key figures in the power struggle – the former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Salvaging the system?
Mr Ahmadinejad is due to be sworn into office again in August
|
During the elections, Mr Rafsanjani supported the main reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi – and was clearly shocked when Mr Ahmadinejad was declared the winner.
Speaking at Friday prayers at Tehran University on 12 July, he presented himself as a loyal supporter of the system whose duty was to rescue it from crisis and division.
It must have been a difficult decision, says political scientist Farideh Farhi, but he decided to say openly that the leadership had taken the wrong path.
“What he’s trying to do,” says journalist Barbara Slavin, “is somehow salvage the system in a way that retains some figment of legitimacy – and that’s not going to be easy.”
Mr Rafsanjani has had a chequered career. He has come under fire because of his great wealth and because of the human rights abuses which tarnished his presidency in the 1990s.
It would be ironic, says Ms Slavin, if this was his legacy – to preserve the legitimacy of the regime and at the same time rehabilitate his own rather tattered reputation.
Whether that is possible must be an open question.
With Mr Ahmadinejad due to be sworn in for a second term on 5 August, the government has a tough choice.
If it makes concessions in the face of continuing demonstrations, that would be a humiliating climb down.
If, as seems more likely, it clings to power, it will do so as a wounded regime whose credibility is ebbing away.
bbc.co.uk
Anatomical entertainment
July 29, 2009
Intricate wax models of humans – and their internal organs – helped educate medical students during the 19th Century. But they also offered the general public an unusual afternoon’s entertainment.
As the Wellcome Collection in central London tells the curious and grotesque story of the anatomical model – take a tour with curator Kate Forde.
Exquisite Bodies
30 July-18 October
In the 19th century, despite the best efforts of body snatchers, the demand from medical schools for fresh cadavers far outstripped the supply. One solution to this gruesome problem came in the form of lifelike wax models. These models often took the form of alluring female figures that could be stripped and split into different sections. Other models were more macabre, showing the body ravaged by ’social diseases’ such as venereal disease, tuberculosis and alcohol and drug addiction.
Explore image galleries covering some of the themes examined by the exhibition
With their capacity to titillate as well as educate, anatomical models became sought-after curiosities; displayed not only in dissecting rooms but also in sideshows and the curiosity cabinets of wealthy Victorian gentlemen. For a small admission fee, visitors seeking an unusual afternoon’s entertainment could visit displays of these strange dolls in London, Paris, Brussels and Barcelona.
Explore our interactive anatomical Venus to find out more about the uses of these models
This exhibition explores the forgotten history of the anatomical model, which with its unique combination of serious science and fairground horror provides a rare insight into 19th-century beliefs about the body.
This exhibition is free. See opening hours
Please note that the exhibition contains explicit material that some visitors may find disturbing. As such it is not recommended for under 18s.
However, if you are planning to visit with younger visitors and would like to make an informed decision about the exhibition’s suitability, please see our staff at the Information Point, where images of the exhibits are available to view. More information for parents
bbc.co.uk
Moldova: Divided as ever
July 29, 2009
BBC News, Chisinau, Moldova
The last time Moldovans went to the polls – less than four months ago – the result was disputed and the subsequent opposition protests descended into violence.
Igor Strechi says he came onto the streets to demand democracy
|
Political stalemate over the selection of a new president has forced the dissolution of parliament and fresh elections.
As they head to the polls again, voters are concerned that the real issues facing the country are not being addressed.
Opposition supporter Igor Strechi says he was one of those who protested at the result of the 5 April poll.
“I wanted to take part in a peaceful protest, like thousands of others. We disputed the result of the election. We wanted democracy, freedom of speech and press liberalisation,” he says, pointing to parliament.
“Then it turned violent.”
Crowds poured into the parliament building. They looted it and then set fire to it. it was only the next day that police took back control.
More than three months later it is still being repaired and the government and opposition are arguing about who was responsible for the violence.
‘Propaganda’
“Definitely we are not interested in destroying the parliament because we won the elections,” says Grigore Petrenco, a member of the ruling Communist Party.
“We got 60 seats of 101. What was our interest in dividing society?”
 |
The deputy leader of the Liberal Party, Dorin Chirtoaca, has been singled out by the authorities for alleged involvement.
His party performed best out of the three principal opposition parties during April’s election. But he says he is the victim of government propaganda.
“They see me as Hitler, they see me as a Nazi,” he says.
“They need to create an image of an enemy. They need arguments to convince the citizens because they don’t have anything to offer for them.”
Mr Chirtoaca’s party strongly favours integration into the European Union. His supporters have been out on the streets in the build up to the vote, wearing blue and yellow T-shirts and handing out flyers emblazoned with the EU logo.
“People will vote to prevent the situation from getting worse than it is now after eight years of Communist Party rule,” says Mr Chirtoaca, referring to the fact that Moldova, Europe’s poorest country, is heavily reliant on handouts from the IMF and, recently, from Russia.
To get a sense of what people really think about Moldova’s economy I travelled to a food market on the edge of Chisinau.
The Communist Party’s support base is concentrated in rural areas
|
“Everyone will vote for Mr Chirtoaca’s party,” says Maria, 48, who runs a stall.
“I have to sell vegetables. I have no choice. People do not have money to buy the things I sell. It would be better if we could join the European Union, then at least we could travel more easily.”
The Communist Party support base is generally located in the rural areas. But in Chisinau, too, its younger supporters have been out in force.
Teenagers wearing red T-shirts and waving hammer-and-sickle flags gathered outside the government buildings this week.
“Lenin! Lenin!” they chanted.
But their T-shirts, too, carried the EU logo and their party vocally supports a path to EU membership.
Luke-warm relationship
However, analysts say the route to the EU would be faster under one of the more Western-leaning opposition parties because the Communists are also supported by Russia.
The Communists also have a lukewarm relationship with EU-member Romania, Moldova’s neighbour.
Outgoing President Voronin had backed Prime Minister Greceanii’s candidacy
|
Igor Botan, from the Association for Participatory Democracy in Chisinau, says: “There is an understanding that for Moldova to modernise quickly there is no other way than to join the European Union. Also the EU will help Moldova because it does not want to have an unstable country at its borders.”
But Moldovans go to the polls amid a great deal of uncertainty.
It is far from clear whether the opposition parties can muster enough support to gain power.
Some pollsters have suggested they would need to enter a coalition with the Communists to do so.
“The main hurdle to political stability is that the two opposing sides may have to enter a coalition. But the relationship between the Communists and the rest is so poisoned by what happened in April that it is hard to see how that can happen,” says Mr Botan.
It is also unclear whether or not the opposition would accept the results were they to hand power to the Communist Party – just as they did on 5 April.
bbc.co.uk
Happy future moon landers,
July 23, 2009
Dear F. I’m gled that you look to the future so practical and full of nature , after all green is life.
My kind regards and may all people be like you in the next hundred years
Live with moderation, intelligence and sharing,
I wish you a beautiful summer,
Burca Alice Larisa
ps. I shall post one of youre bouques here
Comment: on” flowers on the moon ”
”Glad to know that it possible to plant herbs on the Moon. This a really great news. Thanks for sharing it. Nice blog.”
by F
