Earlier this evening I stopped off at the ICA to listen to a panel discussion on the subject The End of the Line for the UN?. Naturally the discussion revolved quite strongly on the interplay between the UN and the USA & UK during the recent invasion of Iraq, but also considered past conflicts such as Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia, even way back to Korea, one of the earliest conflicts in UN history. While there was disagreement on the legality of these conflicts, there was in the end firm agreement that despite initial outward appearances, the UN is not actually redundant in todays world. The conclusion. On the contrary, discounting the admittedly significant blib on the issue of Iraq, the UN is recent years has become much more effective in its role than it was for much of the early years during the cold war. The issue is more one of perception, with people pushing the organization meet ever higher standards in the work it does, and while it is making corresponding improvements there is inevitably always more that can be done. In addition, if one takes a look at the areas where the UN has not been so successful, the reasons for many problems can be attributed to a lack of political will, or conflicting vested interests. For such things you can’t critize the UN itself, but rather it is the duty of the general populace of [democratic] countries to hold their governments accountable to their wishes. A democratic society is not something one can or should take for granted, people must maintain awareness & pressure to keep their governements honest. In summary, far from us witnessing a decline in the UN, we’re merely seeing it evolving & beginning to take on a stronger form in the post-Cold War world.
I’ve picked up a fair few new albums over the past month. After an abrupt change in style with his last album, Sea Change, Beck has returned to making awesome funky music again in the form of Guero. Also recently released is Moby’s new album Hotel, in which he’s managed to evolve past the style that was pervasive in Play and 18 . On the film front I’ve got hold of the DVD of Lars von Trier’s Dogville, which after a second viewing is just as excellant as it was the first time around, although the theatrical set does loose its presence on the small screen. DogVille is aledgedly only the first of three films Lars von Trier is making looking at American society, so I’ll be interested to see how the next two pan out. Finally, just released in the cinema is the german film, The Edukators. It starts off as an, ever so slightly cliched, film about a couple of anti-capitalist activists, but when Jan & Jule get end up kidnapping a business man (after getting caught breaking into his house), it turns into a much deeper film, and more of a thriller. I won’t say anymore about it to avoid spoiling it, but suffice to say its well worth a viewing.
Ever wondered where you’d end up if you starting digging straight down, all the way through the Earth to the other side of the globe? Well as you can see from this map, it turns out that unless you’re in China / Chile you’d probably end up in the Ocean. Oh well, better take my scuba gear with me.
Thought the cold war was over? Well how would you like to know that the US has 100 nuclear weapons stationed in Suffolk – that’s three times more than they previously admitted to having here in the UK! Oh and that’s out of a total of almost 500 they hold across Europe. The Guardian dishes the dirt
“The fact that the United States has some 480 nuclear weapons still stationed in Europe will come as a surprise to a lot of Europeans,”
“The big question is: ‘Why are they still there more than a decade after the cold war ended?’ Neither the United States nor Nato has been able to articulate a credible mission for the weapons.”
Not only that, but in the event of war, the US would give the bombs to other Nato members’ airforces to drop on their behalf. Never mind the fact that some of these countries, Belguim, for example, are not nuclear powers. Oh well, if it ever got to that point, nuclear non-proliferation treaties would be the least of our worries.
But getting back to the point, with the cold war over, its surely about time to get rid of these weapons – they’re surely not too practical in the current ‘war on terrorism’ which rather transcends nation states and focuses on small groups / individuals. And please don’t mention the Dr Stangelove scenario!
On a lighter (sic) note, it no doubt came as some surprise to the Sudanese government to discover their country used to be a US nuclear test ground. Finally, those crazy particle physicists have created what looks remarkably like a small black hole in their lab. Guess the feasiblity rating for item number 7 in How to destroy the World just increased in magnitude a little and/or came forward a few hundred years.
So I’ve just spent a worthy couple of hours watching the film Sideways. Billed as a film about two men on a trip to experience the (Californian) world of wine, this is really just providing the backbone on which the real story. On the one hand is a guy in search of new direction in life 2 years after his divorce, while on the other is a guy in search of confirmation that his forthcoming marriage is right move for him to take. The resulting film forms an absorbing story with a surprising amount of subtle & not so subtle humour thrown in. And although its perhaps a little sad for what it says about relationships, for example, both leading characters ultimately getting away with their lies / transgressions, it does end on an optimistic with the film ending with both characters finding some sort of direction in which to continue their lives.
