Author: Mick Hartley

The Times mentions only the alcohol:

The Speaker of Belgium’s parliament cancelled a lunch with his Iranian counterpart because the visiting delegation from Tehran insisted that no alcohol be served. The lunch, scheduled for today, was called off because “we didn’t want to bow to outside rules”, a spokesman said.

Turns out there’s more to it though:

Iranian officials on a visit to Belgium have upset their hosts by trying to ban alcohol from the lunch table and refusing to shake women’s hands.

Belgium’s parliament speaker, Herman De Croo, decided to cancel a lunch rather than hosting a meal with no wine.

Strict Islamic teaching instructs Muslims to avoid looking at alcohol, as well as to avoid drinking it.

Belgian Senate president Anne-Marie Lizin later cancelled talks with the visitors over the handshake issue.

“We tried to find a solution, but they held fast to their position of not wanting to shake her hand,” spokesman Patrick Peremans said.

The Senate said the meeting with the 12-strong delegation had been called off because of the “continued refusal” of Ms Lizin’s counterpart to shake her hand.

of convictions of top generals and politicians under its belt in war crimes trials for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the UN is confident that it has the legal precedents to try Sudanese officials.

However, human rights activists fear that if, as seems likely, top Sudanese officials including the president are indicted for war crimes, Sudan will stop co-operating.

In the case of Bosnia, the UN has used commandos to arrest main suspects and economic threats to persuade key figures, such as Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president, to come forward.

But the Security Council is deeply divided and human rights officials fear it lacks the will for the kind of arm-twisting that may be needed to get Sudan to surrender senior leaders.

So, the politicians have certainly been busy. Will the ICC succeed in the teeth of Security Council dithering? We’ll have to wait and see. Meanwhile there’s a small point which it’s easy to lose sight of. It creeps in at the bottom of the article:

Another problem for Mr Ocampo’s investigators is that the war in Sudan rumbles on, despite ongoing peace talks.

Ah yes, the war. You can see how it would be a problem for Mr Ocampo’s investigators. Bit of a problem too for the people still being killed and raped, nevermind living under the imminent threat of starvation.

o problem with the hijab, or with Sikhs’ turbans, or Rastas’ red gold and green woolly hats, or Hasidic Jews with their locks, hats, and glasses (is it all that poring over the Talmud that makes glasses practically universal among male Hasidics?).

Having just queued up in Tesco’s in front of a woman dressed in a burqa – the business with the slit for eyes – I have to say though that, yes, that is something I find offensive. It’s not so much the implication of women’s subservience, though that’s there of course, but the covering up of the face. There’s something about an open society that it works when everyone in a social setting – in the street, shopping – has their face visible; a sort of democracy of social interaction. It offends me when people don’t respect that.

history. Many regimes based on religion ended up making a Faustian pact with their military for protection against the people. And in every case the military, once in power, eliminated its masters. Islamic history knows such military rulers as the “mamelukes” — literally, “the owned ones,” individuals who were supposed to serve the caliph but ended up chopping off his head and seizing power for themselves.

There is no doubt that Mr. Ahamadinejad, and beyond him the military elite of the regime, owe their victory to Ayatollah Khamenei, who broke with his fellow mullahs to help the military win the struggle within the regime. Theoretically, Ayatollah Khamenei now controls all the levers of power in the establishment. In reality, however, he is a lone mullah who will be increasingly opposed by the clergy for different reasons. At the same time, because he lacks a popular base of his own, he will in time become a hostage to the new “mamelukes” symbolized by Mr. Ahamadinejad. […]

Political mullahs like Messrs. Khatami and Rafsanjani tried to deceive Europeans, and often succeeded, by pretending to be Davos-style liberals abroad while telling women at home to cover their hair because it emanates a dangerous ray that makes men wild. With Mr. Ahamadinejad, however, you’ll get what you see. Unlike Mr. Khatami, who claimed that Islam was the same thing as democracy, Mr. Ahamadinejad has no qualms about saying that the two are incompatible. He is also open about his belief that women are not the equal of men and that non-Muslims cannot have equal rights with Muslims.

Messrs. Khatami and Rafsanjani tried to present to the Western world an “other” that was really the same bar the beard and the turban. Mr. Ahamadinejad, however, is proud of acting as the “other” that can never abandon its otherness.

I love this story: a guy shows Putin his diamond-studded gold ring, and Putin pockets it.

At a press conference, Mr Kraft, who made his fortune in paper products, is said to have been urged by Sanford Weill, the chairman of Citigroup, to show Mr Putin his flashy 2005 Super Bowl ring. The 14-carat white-gold ring, awarded to all members of the winning team, weighs more than four ounces, making it the heaviest so far, and is studded with 124 diamonds arranged to form the team ’s logo and the words “World Champions”.

When Mr Kraft presented the Super Bowl rings to his team two weeks ago, the club boasted: “These rings pack plenty of bling.”

The rings are also avidly sought by collectors. A less lavish Super Bowl ring previously owned by a member of the San Francisco 49ers sold on eBay last year for $49,000 (£27,000)….

The New York Sun reported that Mr Kraft did not intend to give Mr Putin the ring and was trying quietly to retrieve it.

Best of all is the statement put out by Kraft:

“At the end of a very productive three-hour business meeting with President Putin, organised by my good friend Sandy Weill, I showed the president my most recent Super Bowl ring,” Mr Kraft said.

“Upon seeing the ring, President Putin, a great and knowledgeable sports fan, was clearly taken with its uniqueness. At that point, I decided to give him the ring as a symbol of the respect and admiration that I have for the Russian people and the leadership of President Putin. It was truly an act of serendipity and one that I am honoured to have experienced. It touched me to see President Putin’s reaction to the ring.”

I bet it did.

After the prosecution accepted a plea of diminished responsibility on behalf of parent-killer Brian Blackwell, on the grounds that he suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Oliver James helpfully provides some guidelines to help identify this horrifying new syndrome:

That Brian Blackwell should have been diagnosed as suffering from a personality disorder is not surprising.

Eighty per cent of all convicted prisoners do, and 74 per cent have more than one. More intriguing is that the narcissistic variant has been diagnosed, which could explain a propensity for violence.

To qualify as pathologically narcissistic the psychiatrist’s bible requires that you have five or more of these characteristics: a grandiose sense of self-importance; preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty or ideal love; believe you are special and can only be understood by similar special people; excessive demands for admiration from others; unreasonable sense of entitlements; exploitative of others; lack of empathy; often envious of others or believe they envy you; and arrogant or haughty.

It’s certainly shocking that 74% of all prisoners have more than one personality disorder. How many, I wonder, have more than two? 47%? 34.3%? I hope someone’s doing some research on this. And if they know these people have these personality disorders, why on earth don’t they lock them up before they commit a crime?

There’s a whole world of personality disorders out there. Extreme Aggressive Personality Disorder manifests itself through acts of violence against third parties; Wealth Envy Personality Disorder through uncontrollable feelings of jealousy when the sufferer is confronted with the fact that others are richer than them. Combine these with Low Property Respect Personality Disorder and you have a potentially explosive combination where the victims feel compelled to go round violently robbing people of the objects without which they feel their lives to be worthless.

It’s not just in prisons either. Thousands are wandering around untreated with Unpleasant Personality Disorder. And then there’s Therapeutic Diagnoses Personality Disorder, rampant in the psychiatric profession.

Apropos of James Lileks’ comments on Woody Allen (via Norm), I have two comments:

First, I proudly present the last paragraph of a letter I had published in the LRB some years back, on the subject of psychoanalysis (I don’t remember what I was writing in response to):

What comes through clearly when you study Freud, amusingly for someone supposed to have probed more deeply into the human mind than any other thinker, is his remarkable lack of self-awareness. What about his grotesque decision to psychoanalyse his own daughter, the hapless Anna? I’m reminded of Woody Allen, who took as his lover a girl to whom he’d been a father, and failed to see what all the fuss was about. It takes years of psychoanalysis to get that obtuse.

And second, I saw the man himself last Thursday evening in Belgrave Square. He was standing on a corner with a couple of women, one I’m sure his young wife, looking like he was sizing up shots for his next movie.

Just thought you’d be interested….

/storyville/sophiatown-artists.shtml”>old musicians associated with the place, like Dollar Brand, the Manhattan Brothers, and Dolly Rathebe. From this interview, it’s clear that Pascale Lamche, the director, is hoping for a “Buena Vista Social Club” effect, whereby these old performers will see some recognition in their twilight years. Well, let’s hope so, but the Cuban musicians like Ruben Gonzalez were still, in their eighties, playing with a strength and vitality that the South Africans, to judge from the clips we saw, have largely lost. They were pretty much going through the motions. Still, there’s a point there: South Africa’s musical culture has always been vibrant, and was, until the recent rise of World Music, perhaps the only one in Africa which had an influence outside the continent. There’s Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight), Miriam Makeba with her Click Song, the penny whistle (Kwela) of Tom Hart….

There’s a useful history of South African music here.

For me there were three main entry points to the music. First township jazz: South Africa uniquely developed its own jazz culture, with musicians like Dollar Brand, Hugh Masakela, Bheki Mseleku, most of whom were forced into exile. The Blue Notes (Chris MacGregor, Dudu Pukwana, Mongezi Feza, Johnny Dyani and Louis Moholo) relocated in London, put on a great show at a time when a lot of jazz tended towards the over-cerebral, and were hugely influential.

Then there was the series put out by Earthworks (associated with London’s great African music shop Stern’s), “The Indestructible Beat of Soweto“, introducing Mbaqanga, hard-driving urban sounds, with undoubted stars Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens (who put on one of my all-time best concerts at the Forum in London).

Finally there was the Zulu choral tradition, Iscathamiya. I confess I’m not a great fan of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, but I have a memory of a quite extraordinary TV programme back in the Eighties, whose name I’ve forgotten, which featured the efforts of migrant workers, living in squalid dormitories hundreds of miles from their homelands and families, to organise a competition between different choirs. To ensure impartiality the judge was picked from outside: a poor white drunk who was paid in booze and who looked totally bemused by the whole affair. It lasted all night, and the prize if I remember right was a chicken. I was inspired to search out this (no longer available) album. The Easy Walkers version of Mbube (Lion Sleeps Tonight), recorded at Glebelands Hostel, is a wonder.

The music world is, we’re constantly told, awaiting the next big thing. It’s assumed, of course, that it’ll come from the West, but maybe it won’t. Maybe, like reggae, a new music will appear in some urban centre in….well, what about South Africa? They’re constantly taking American music and making something new. Kwaito is the latest thing – a hybrid of House music and Rap, but unmistakeably South African. There’s not much chance though – Africa for Western musicians is just another market, whether for our music, or for our charity.

at she should divorce her husband, give up her children, who are aged seven to two, and become her father-in-law’s second wife.

Local clerics backed the ruling, sparking a storm of protest. Mrs Ilahi appealed to the All India Muslim Personal Law Board after it condemned the decision. The board ruled on Monday that, although Mrs Ilahi should not have to marry her alleged attacker, she must be divorced from her husband and return to her parents’ village. Further, her husband should be given custody of their children.

“Imrana’s conjugal relationship with her husband stood dissolved since she had been raped by the latter’s blood relative,” Begum Naseem Iqtader Ali, the lone female member of the board, said.Mrs Ilahi’s children remain at her in-laws’ home.

“Let the mullahs look after my children,” she said.

Pakistan’s Daily Times has more on the thinking behind the decision:

“According to the Holy Quran, Imrana’s conjugal relationship with her husband stood dissolved since she has been raped by the latter’s blood relative,” the board’s woman member Begum Naseem Iqtedar Ali told reporters here. “Had she been raped by anyone other than a blood relation, she could have stayed with her husband … but here a sacred relationship had been violated, the consequences of which have to be borne by Imrana and her husband Noor Ilahi,” she said. But Imrana could remarry if she wanted to, she added.

Why the consequences could not have been borne by the rapist isn’t entirely clear.

on a three-night stay in the Presidential Suite of the Plaza Hotel in New York.

After his guilty plea today, Liverpool Crown Court heard how Blackwell, a straight-A student described as “exemplary” by his former teachers, suffered from NPD, a clinically recognised mental illness.

The disorder made Blackwell obsessed with fantasies of unlimited success, power and brilliance. He created a web of lies about his life, including claiming he was a professional tennis player, and funded his fantasies by applying for 13 credit cards in his father’s name. […]

He was charged with murder and was due to stand trial earlier this week. However, prosecutors dropped the charge and accepted his guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after a team of five experts reached a diagnosis of NPD.

It can’t be long before murderers plead reduced responsibility on the grounds that they’re psychopaths.