Author: Mick Hartley

From Reuters:

A suspected Islamist zealot shot dead a Pakistani woman provincial government minister on Tuesday because he believed women should not be in politics, officials said.

Zil-e-Huma, social welfare minister of the Punjab government, a women’s activist and supporter of President Pervez Musharraf, was about to give a speech to dozens of people when the lone attacker shot her in the head. She died later in hospital.

The gunman, identified as Mohammad Sarwar, was immediately arrested.

Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat told Reuters the gunman had been implicated in six previous murder cases but had never been convicted because of a lack of evidence.

“He is basically a fanatic,” Basharat said. “He is against the involvement of women in politics and government affairs.”

The shooting occurred at Huma’s party office in the town of Gujranwala, 70 km (43 miles) north of the provincial capital, Lahore.

“He considers it contrary to the teachings of Allah for a woman to become a minister or a ruler. That’s why he committed this action,” the police said in a statement.

also overthrew the Taliban, which was slaughtering the Hazara Shiite minority in Afghanistan.) But where are the denunciations from centers of Sunni and Shiite authority of the daily murder and torture of Islamic co-religionists? Of the regular desecration of holy sites and holy books? Of the paranoid insults thrown so carelessly and callously by one Muslim group at another? This mounting ghastliness is a bit more worthy of condemnation, surely, than a few Danish cartoons or a false rumor about a profaned copy of the Quran in Guantanamo. The civilized world—yes I do mean to say that—should find its own voice and state firmly to Muslim leaders and citizens that respect is something to be earned and not demanded with menace. A short way of phrasing this would be to say, “See how the Muslims respect each other!”

Oh good. The demographic of my readership becomes all too horribly clear: I’m reached by a google search for “no social life”.

The North Koreans certainly know how to give a measured and appropriate diplomatic response (via):

In August, Japanese police arrested a pro-North Korean resident in Japan for allegedly exporting machinery to the North that could be used to make biological weapons.

A statement from North Korea’s Foreign Ministry called the actions a ”brutal political suppression” and an ”unpardonable infringement upon the sovereignty of our country and an unprecedented crime against humanity.”

It also said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ”will have to pay dearly for this” but did not elaborate.

Other North Korean news: in a surprise development, the International Kim Il Sung Prize has been awarded to Kim Jong Il “in high recognition of his distinguished feats”.

The general secretary of the Central Committee of the People’s Socialist Party of Mexico made public a statement on Feb. 6 on the occasion of the February holiday.
The statement said that Kim Jong Il authored “The Historical Lesson in Building Socialism and the General Line of Our Party,” “Abuses of Socialism Are Intolerable,” “Socialism Is a Science” and other works, giving great hope and inspiration to the people in their struggle for socialism and putting the world socialist movement on a higher stage.

Referring to the fact that Kim Jong Il has firmly protected the sovereignty and dignity of socialist Korea with his unique Songun politics, the statement went on:

The “International Kim Il Sung Prize” Council decided to award the “International Kim Il Sung Prize” to Kim Jong Il in high recognition of his distinguished feats. It is the expression of the feelings of the world revolutionaries and progressives lauding his idea and exploits.

I think Barabara Ellen’s got it about right on that Unicef report:

Neglected? Deprived? Those living below the poverty line are one thing, but the majority of UK adolescents are, if anything, spoiled brats. I would challenge anyone to fill a small car park with British 15-year-olds (from any social class) who don’t own a mobile phone. It is also debatable whether our children are as ‘disenfranchised’ as depicted in the report. At one point, we’re breathlessly informed that ‘only 81 per cent of them really like school’ (only?). But never mind that. When listening to British children talking about the spiritual wasteland that is their existence, those nice Unicef people with their clipboards failed to include the most crucial factor of all – the contrary bolshie nature of the people they were talking to; the fact that British teenagers have always loved nothing more than to pose, bitch, rebel, slag everything and everyone off, and blow endless anti-establishment raspberries.

Indeed, British teenagers are, have always been, by nature, rebellious, stroppy, and a lot less interested in being fair than they are in being interesting. Which to my mind is much less creepy and disturbing than the thought of all those sucky-up kids from Holland and Sweden (henceforth known as the apple-polishing nations) chirruping away about how much they respect their elders. Bearing this in mind, this was the only possible result for this study.

Unlike their Dutch or Swedish counterparts, British children were never going to answer such questions as ‘Are your contemporaries kind and helpful?’ with po-faced sincerity; to piously and publicly abhor the idea of sex, drugs, and other ‘bad behaviour’; and pour anything other than molten scorn upon the status quo. Indeed, the vast majority of British adolescents are as they always were, as most of us were – vile, stroppy, preternaturally sarcastic ingrates, who would doubtless be labelled dangerous, disaffected sociopaths in any other European country. And this is supposed to be a bad thing?

The UK, in fact, does especially badly at “risk behaviours”, where we languish at the foot of the rankings by “a considerable distance”. Risk is bad, apparently.

Risk behaviours considered in the study include smoking, being drunk, using cannabis, fighting and bullying, and sexual behaviour.

Only about a third of young people eat fruit daily.

Shocking.

The English Russia website often features weird and wonderful photos. Like this train, for instance.

A couple of excellent pieces by David Thompson, here and here.

Well, I suppose it’s the logical next step (via):

A leading Malaysian Muslim cleric has suggested that all women should be fitted with chastity belts as a deterrent to rape and incest, a news report said Friday.

Abu Hassan Al-Hafiz, an influential cleric from the northeastern Terengganu state, said that women were most safe from sexual predators if they donned some form of barrier to their sexual organs.

‘We have even come across a number of unusual sex cases, where even senior citizens and children are not spared. The best way to avert sex perpetrators is to wear protection,’ Abu Hassan said in a sermon late Thursday, quoted by the Star daily.

‘My intention is not to offend women but to safeguard them from sex maniacs. Besides, husbands could also feel more secure, if you know what I mean.’

Oh yes, I think we know what you mean.

using anecdotes you’d like to share with us?

Um, well, no, I don’t think I know any anecdotes actually…

Oh come along now! Don’t be shy. I’m sure a young man like you has some interesting tales to tell. Eh? We’re not prudish here, you know!

Ah, let’s see….well, I do know this rather amusing joke.

Oh good – just the ticket! We like jokes here, eh, Cecil?

Oh absolutely.

OK then. Well…coughs… clears throat…I say, I say, I say! My dog’s got no nose!

I beg your pardon.

My dog’s got no nose!

Your dog’s got no nose? How absolutely frightful! Did it get bitten off in a fight or something?

No no, you don’t….

Don’t tell me it was a Jack Russell. I don’t think I could bear it if it was a Jack Russell, after all we’ve been through with Biddles.

Now now Marjory, don’t go getting yourself all upset. We agreed it was for the best.

I don’t think you quite understand. My dog hasn’t really got no nose. It’s a joke, you see.

A joke?

Yes, the thing is, you’re meant to say…

I don’t like to criticise another chap’s sense of humour, old man, but it sounds like a bit of a rum joke to me.

Now then George, let the poor young man explain. I’m sure it’s a very good joke. So come along Nick, you were telling us about your dog.

It’s Mick, actually.

Your dog’s called Mick?

No no, that’s my name.

Ah, I see. Jolly good. And your dog’s called…?

Um, I don’t have a dog actually.

…silence…

I don’t think I’m quite with this. You’re telling us about your dog having its nose bitten off – but now you say you don’t have a dog.

Um, no. It’s a joke, you see…

Look here, whatever your name is, I think I’ve just about had enough of this. There’s nothing funny about animals having bits bitten off. We’re not in Spain you know, where they think it’s jolly clever to stick spears in a cow.

I think you’ll find it’s a bull, Reggie dear.

Cow, bull. Whatever. It’s not funny. It’s not the way we behave here. Come along Marjory old girl, I think it’s time we got you home.

Oh Reggie, no! You’re not leaving already, surely?

Sorry, Cicely, but you can see the state poor Marjory’s in. It’s not long since Biddles….well, I’ll say no more.

I think we’ll be off too Cicely. It’s been a wonderful evening, but I’m afraid there’s only so much I can take of this modern sense of humour. I suppose I must be frightfully old-fashioned, but I don’t see what’s funny about suffering animals.

Oh must you, Archie? I’m sure poor Nick didn’t mean any harm.

No no, absolutely not. And, um, it’s Mick, actually.

Well, the invitations dried up after that. My social life shrank to nothing. That’s why I started blogging, if truth be told. Well, it may not be like having real friends, but it’s the next best thing.

The Darfur tragedy has for some time been spreading across the border into Chad. Here’s the latest BBC report:

The violence in Chad could turn into a genocide similar to that in Rwanda in 1994, the UN refugee agency has warned.
The UNHCR says the killing tactics from neighbouring Darfur in Sudan have been transported to eastern Chad in full. […]

Eastern Chad and Darfur have a similar ethnic make-up, with nomadic Arab groups and black African farmers both seeking access to land and scarce water points.

Our reporter says the violence in Chad follows the same pattern as in Darfur – mostly Arabs on camels and horseback attacking non-Arab villages.

Without an international protection force, there is no-one to stop the Janjaweed, she says.

In recent days, our reporter followed the trail of the Janjaweed through the ghost villages of eastern Chad, finding torched huts and smashed pots.

She met some of their victims, including a young man stabbed in both eyes and a frail old woman, badly beaten when she dared to look for food.

The UN Security Council is preparing to discuss proposals to send a peacekeeping force to Chad but a decision is not expected immediately.