After 20 years, Bhopal victims still wait for justice
The worst industrial disaster of all time struck about midnight, December 3 1984. A cloud of deadly gas erupted from Union Carbide's pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, hugging the ground and littering...
View ArticleSaddam was a force for women's rights
In response to calls for European perspectives on current events I have taken the liberty to translate and post a whole article from today's edition of my local newspaper, Bergens Tidende. It tells a...
View ArticleRobbing the Congo I: A deal with the Devil
In theory the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) should be among the richest countries on earth. Its vast territory virtually brims with cobalt, copper, cadmium, oil, industrial and gem diamonds,...
View ArticleThe juvenile death penalty through European eyes
Infamously, only the USA and Somalia have failed to ratify the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In the case of the former, this galling situation may be rectified if the USSC rules it...
View ArticleRobbing the Congo II: Unspeakable richness
In theory the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) should be among the richest countries on earth. Its vast territory virtually brims with cobalt, copper, cadmium, oil, industrial and gem diamonds,...
View ArticleFrom Roosevelt to Rumsfeld in 60 years: Why Iraq?
Some Saturdays I offer a translation of a readworthy piece from the Scandinavian press. Today's item is a brief article from yesterday's edition of Aftenposten, a quality full-format daily. Taking as...
View ArticleAn outsider's view of US health care
If Theresa Schiavo had lacked health coverage fifteen years ago, would we ever have heard of her plight? With a view to the right wing's anguished insistence on the tax-payer financed life support of...
View ArticleZimbabwe elections - the background (Part I of II)
Voting booths in Zimbabwe have closed following what observers call 'a peaceful poll,'reports the BBC. Yet the context of today's parliamentary election could not be more dramatic. President Robert...
View ArticleZimbabwe elections - the background (Part II of II)
In a poll deemed dubious by regional observers and dismissed as a sham by the opposition, Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF won 78 of 150 seats. 30 of the remaining ones will be filled by the President's...
View ArticleHitler on the couch
The man whose name is more or less synonymous with evil remains mysterious. Though we have now passed the 60 year anniversary of his suicide on April 30 1945, shrinks and laypeople alike continue to...
View ArticleUK elections: Why strategic voting isn't
As disenchantment with Tony Blair boosted the Liberal Democrats, Labour has been playing a familiar card for all it's worth: "Join ranks against the Tory menace!" But should the LibDem supporters pay...
View ArticlePersonal heroes I: Leif 'Shetland' Larsen (1906-1990)
This will be an occasional series on people I especially admire. Most have made sacrifices opposing tyranny or other forms of evil; some are undeservedly unsung. Today's entry is dedicated to all who...
View ArticleThey come at night: The holy war on childhood
Every day at sunset in northern Uganda, a unique phenomenon is seen: Up to 40,000 children leave their rural homes for the towns, spending the night under streetlights or in empty buildings. Known as...
View ArticleIn defense of prostitution
As the only country in the world, Sweden in 1998 made it illegal to pay for sex but not to offer it for sale. For my occasional Saturday series of translations from the Scandinavian press, I have...
View ArticleNorway: the last Soviet state
This summer Norway celebrates the centennial of its peaceful break-up with Sweden, which UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan lauds as "an example to aspire to in... a world still riven by conflict." It is...
View ArticlePlay it again, Uncle Sam!
I did not adopt my pen name in honor of Sirocco (1951). This is a dull Casablanca knock-off, casting Bogart as another jaded ex-pat with a conscience buried so deep underneath his trenchcoat that it...
View ArticleCole: Third world should fight the USA's war
Cross-posted from my blog and at Booman Tribune. The astute Juan Cole, who does more to make sense of the waking nightmare in Iraq than most of the media outlets combined, outlines a plan for US...
View ArticleRichard Perle: 'Europe is lost'
Crossposted from European Tribune and my blog.Jyllands-Posten's Flemming Rose -- yes, the man who commissioned certain caricatures -- has interviewed the influential neo-conman in his Washington home....
View ArticleThe Iraq War is a success
Crossposted from Booman Tribune. Three years ago, the US President co-piloted a fighter aircraft onto the deck of the USS Lincoln to declare "the end of major hostilities" in Iraq. Above him a banner...
View ArticleIt's the geography, stupid
Crossposted from my blog and European Tribune. War is God's way of teaching Americans geography, quipped Ambrose Bierce. Memo to God: it isn't working. In 2002 a National Geographic-Roper study found...
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Dulce bellum inexpertis -- America and war
If Western humanism has a preeminent advocate of the ages, it is Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1456--1536). His Adagia (1515), a collection of proverbs with commentary, was the first bestseller in...
View Article'Fighting them over there'
Anyone who hasn't been living under a rock on Mars during the last three years has heard one particular phrase rehashed ad nauseam: that it is better to be "fighting the terrorists over...
View ArticleNorway dumps Wal-Mart stock over human rights abuse
Citing "serious and systematic" abuse of human and labor rights, Norway's Finance Ministry today banned Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer and employer, from the $250 bn Norwegian Government...
View ArticleJohn Bolton melts down at UN
Crossposted from my blog and Booman Tribune. Since there is a five-minutes recess in the threat-making against Iran, the fulminating fascist John Bolton gets off by threatening the United Nations, FOX...
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A medieval Islamic theory of Daily Kos
Who would have thought that a Tunisian scholar who perished 600 years ago developed a theory of the US Democratic netroots in the early 21st century? Right. And I will grant, off the cuff, that he...
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Whale and circus
Crossposted from European Tribune and my blog.It's that time again. Today the International Whaling Commission (IWC) opens its annual session on St. Kitts. Among the close to 70 member states whose...
View ArticleExactly why Afghanistan is going to Hell
In this informative op-ed (kronikk) from the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, two researchers at the Chr. Michelsen Institute for development and human rights studies explain why the situation in...
View ArticleSt. Vitus Day: a brief history of Kosovo
The Balkans region has a penchant for producing more history than it can consume. ~ Winston ChurchillGetting history wrong is an essential part of being a nation. ~ Ernest RenanToday is the five...
View ArticleA new symbol of America
The United States of America has no problem with Israel burning the skin off children's bodies with incendiary weapons, reducing cities to rubble, targeting UN positions and Red Cross ambulances,...
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