Syria, in Light of a Free Libya

With dozens of pro-democracy protestors being being slaughtered by Assad's forces almost daily, in addition to calls for a no-fly zone over the country, the situation in Syria is unfolding almost identically to the start of the Libyan Civil War this year. And now an armed anti-government force has emerged.

The New York Times has reported that the Turkish military is providing shelter to an armed opposition group fighting against Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president. While Turkish officials describe the relationship as purely humanitarian, whereby their primary concern is the safety of the defectors, the group, which calls itself the Free Syrian Army (FSA), is said to have claimed responsibility for killing nine Syrian soldiers. Colonel Riad Asa'ad, the leader of the group, has asked the international community to provide them with weapons to use against the Syrian government. He has also said the FSA are ready for military operations.

While the defeat of the Gaddafi regime is certainly a cautionary tale for other violent despots such as Assad, it also makes it that much more difficult for NATO and the UN to look upon the bloodshed and do nothing. We've set a precedent. We acted in Libya; how can we justify not acting in Syria?

From Cinephile: The Green Wave

Perhaps what fascinates me the most about Iranian cinema is the urgent, visceral interaction between the zeitgeist of oppression in the country and the craft the filmmakers use to react to and comment on it. With renowned directors like Jafar Panahi (Offside) and Mohammad Rasoulof (The White Meadows) being arrested and banned from filmmaking by the Iranian regime, the stakes are so high for all filmmakers in Iran that such jeopardy cannot help but coat the characters and stories in their films.

The latest example is Dog Sweat, wherein young Tehranis pursue such innocent desires as alcohol, companionship, and musical expression, all in the face of systematic oppression.

See the trailer and read more at Cinephile.

(Photo: Iranian underground rock band Take It Easy Hospital from the film No One Knows About Persian Cats. 2010)

Remain Shocked

As the US prepares to withdraw all troops from Iraq, and NATO's no-fly zone over a newly free Libya is brought to an end, let us not forget that the long war still rages in Afghanistan.

The attacker detonated explosives in a Toyota vehicle at 11:20am local time in the southwest of the city just as a military bus carrying US soldiers was passing by, becoming the deadliest attack against foreign troops in Kabul for many years.

I feel a sense of duty to remain shocked by each new bombing; it's the least I can do for each new batch of victims. Perhaps almost as tragic as the violence itself is the familiarity of it. For years now, when I read about yet another suicide bombing, I feel sad for those killed and maimed, but then I am further saddened when I realize I am not surprised. Each act of violence, each dead and injured person, deserves our grief, sadness, and reflection. Let us remain shocked.

(Photo: "Foreign and Afghan forces arrived at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul on Saturday." Massoud Hossaini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

What just happened in Stockholm?

Al Jazeera is reporting that a pair of explosions has rocked downtown Stockholm, Sweden.

A car exploded near Drottninggatan, a busy shopping street in the center of the city, Ulf Goranzen, a spokesman for the Swedish police, told al Jazeera on Saturday.
Shortly afterward, a second explosion was heard higher up on the same street, and a man was found injured on the ground. Goranzen said that it is still unclear what caused the blasts.
"There was series of minor explosions, causing a fire in one of the cars in the street. Some minutes later, we found a man seriously injured 300 metres away from the scene of the first explosion. This man died."

The exact cause, and whether this was intentional or accidental are both still under investigation. One cannot help but wonder if this is some kind of angry, if sloppy, lashing out against Wikileaks, which is based in Sweden, by a party affected by the recent cable disclosures.
Or perhaps Al Qaeda is making good on its vague threats to terrorize major European cities.

Fears are rising across Europe of an al-Qaeda outrage before Christmas as intelligence services work frantically to track down radicalised western nationals returning from terror camps in Pakistan.
Two scenarios are on the table; a Mumbai-style massacre using automatic weapons stored at safe houses or suicide bomb attacks using explosives also stored among radicals within the country’s massive Muslim population.

 Or maybe a car just exploded and nothing sinister is at work.

Growing Pains

A pair of truly horrific building related calamities in the world's two most populous countries this week. First, a high rise fire killed 53 people in Shanghai, a city of 20 million that has seen an explosion of construction in recent years, and unsound building practices seem to be the culprit:

Chinese police are holding four suspects after a Shanghai apartment fire that killed 53 people and injured 70 others was blamed on unlicensed welding, state media said.

The fire, which gutted a 28-storey building in China's commercial hub, was sparked by "unlicensed welding carried out contrary to rules," Xinhua, the official news agency, reported without citing a source.

The report did not say whether those detained were workers or managers. 

The swift arrests come as authorities tackle public concern over why the fire took more than four and a half hours to extinguish.

A second and even more deadly disaster transpired in New Delhi, when a tenement housing mostly migrant workers from India's eastern countryside collapsed, killing 64 people. Apparently, it might as well have been built on a swamp:

The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear, but suspicions immediately centered on this year’s heavy monsoon rains, the building’s location near a swollen river and shoddy, illicit construction.

“There is already a question mark on the legality of the construction of buildings in this area,” said Tajendra Khanna, the city’s lieutenant governor, and the owner of the building, Amrit Singh, was being sought for arrest.

 New Delhi has upwards of 15 million people, and some say it is poised to overtake Mumbai in the that arena if current rates persist. China's and India's big cities are swelling so rapidly they seem tragically overwhelmed and at a loss to keep up; these twin disasters are certainly symptoms of that.

Top: A high rise burns in Shanghai (AP) Bottom: Rescuers search for survivors in New Delhi (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

A New Faith

On Veterans' Day I was inspired to pluck the Civil War novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara off my shelf and began reading it. The book is enthralling and magnificently written. I attempted to read it once when I was 14, but I remember it only being a chore. Now, however, I can't put it down. Each page is so packed with deep brilliance and revelation, yet at the same time is spartan and to the point.
One passage I found fascinating and rather timely comes early in the book when Colonel Chamberlain of the 20th Maine Regiment is lost in thought:

He had grown up believing in America and the individual and it was a stronger faith than his faith in God.
...
But he was fighting for the dignity of man and in that way he was fighting for himself. If men were equal in America, all these former Poles and English and Czechs and blacks, then they were equal everywhere, and there was really no such thing as foreigners; there were only free men and slaves. And so it was not even patriotism but a new faith. The Frenchman may fight for France, but the American fights for mankind, for freedom; for the people, not the land.

 Photo: November 12th, 2010, U.S. Marines help their wounded comrade to a helicopter during a Medevac mission in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province. (REUTERS/Peter Andrews)

Sometimes Creeps Do Look Like Creeps

CNN reports on developments in an ongoing missing persons case out of Ohio:



And witness accounts of the alleged perpetrator, Matthew J. Hoffman, now in custody, don't line up with the typical "he was normal but quiet" descriptions of men who turn out to be rapists and serial killer:

Donna Davis, who lives on the same street as the home where the girl was found, told WBNS Hoffman was a "weirdo" and that she made her children come indoors when he was outside.

 The rescued 13-year-old's brother, mother, and her mother's friend are still missing.