Russian war correspondent Arkady Babchenko presents these amazing images of the war in Ossetia as he travels with Russian soldiers to Gori (hat tip Coming Anarchy). Warning: the photographs on the linked site contain many graphic images of corpses. The photographer did not get too close to the actual fighting, but he got close enough.

4GW, Catastrophes, Europe, Failed states, Firearms, Photos, World | No Comments »

Or should that be “fragmegration”, James Rosenau’s coinage which links fragmentation with the inevitable integration that comes with globalization? Passport reports the latest on Belgium’s political crisis, which threatens to split the bicultural state. Miss Belgium, a Czech immigrant, sparked anger when it was revealed that she could not speak Dutch. Bolivia (Passport again) is [...]

4GW, Americas, Europe, Failed states, New Zealand | No Comments »

Boris Yeltsin, the first President of the Russian Federation, died yesterday aged 76. Rather than start from scratch, I’ll begin this post with quotes from the best obituaries I’ve seen so far. First up, Not PC: Yeltsin brought a measure of political freedom, for a time, but economic freedom and fuller supermarkets proved somewhat more [...]

Empire, Europe, World | 1 Comment »

The Reuters analysis reads “Africa bombers signal growing regional threat.” Four suicide bombers and one policeman died during a raid in Morocco, while car bombs hit the Prime Minister’s office and a police station in Algiers, killing 33. And suicide bombers struck again today: in two ineffective attacks against fortified American diplomatic targets in Casablanca. [...]

Africa, Europe, Islam, Terrorism | 2 Comments »

50 years ago today, the Treaty of Rome was signed. It brought into being the European Economic Community, including France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The idea of European integration had existed since before the Second World War, but it took that devastating war – and the external threat of the Soviet [...]

Empire, Europe | 2 Comments »

Illicit trade continues to increase: Each year, German officials give a press conference displaying some of the contraband seized by customs police. This year, they reported that German customs seized over five times as many pirated goods in 2006 as they did in 2005. What else did they find? More drugs. They seized twice as [...]

Black globalization, Europe | 2 Comments »

Washington Post: A group called Motorists Against Detection claims to have done $40 million worth of damage by destroying 1,000 speed cameras since 2000. The group’s fugitive leader, who identifies himself only as Captain Gatso (after the company that makes the speed cameras), said in a telephone interview that he and his 200 followers had [...]

Europe, Non-state actors | No Comments »

We are nearing the end of the age of nation-states. One of the chief signifiers of this change is the decline of nationalism, as people find new sources of loyalty and, as states transform, they look for new sources of legitimacy. It’s interesting to look at events in Europe through that lens. (see this previous [...]

Europe, World | 6 Comments »

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. (Nietzsche) I see a link between these two stories: “BNP verdict ‘may change race laws’” (Scotsman) “Burka ban in the Netherlands?” (FP Passport) The [...]

Europe, Islam, Politics | 1 Comment »

Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives, you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours. You, the mothers who sent their sons [...]

Empire, Europe, New Zealand, Wellington | 1 Comment »