Joseph Stalin statue in Gori removed

Georgia's pro-western government has taken down a statue of Joseph Stalin from the central square in Gori. The six-meter bronze statue will likely end up in the courtyard of Gori's Stalin museum. The take-down was carried out by a crew of municipal workers during the night. Once hoisted off the pedestal, the statue was placed face-down in a flatbed truck.

A local named Gocha Suriashvili who arrived in the square along with others to check out the empty pedestal said: “They were afraid of the people’s reaction, that’s why they did it at night.”

The dismantling of the Stalin landmark is liable to offend many Georgians, especially older citizens who remain proud that the former Soviet leader was a native son. Stalin was born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili on 18 December, 1878.

A Guardian article includes a few comments by Zaza Gachechiladze, editor of the Georgian Messenger newspaper:

I think it's a sign of Georgia's western orientation, and of cutting links with the communist past.

But it's also a controversial move. There are still some sentiments towards Stalin in Georgia. He's seen as a local boy who achieved great heights and for 30 years was No 1 in the world together with Hitler.

There is a kind of local patriotism here. This will be a personal insult for many elderly people in particular, who still love and worship him.

In place of Stalin, Georgia's president Mikheil Saakashvili plans to erect a monument to the victims of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war. According to a culture ministry spokesperson there will be a competition for the design of the monument.

The decision to erect a monument to recent war casualties on the same spot as the former Stalin statue, is likely to anger the Kremlin. There is the not-so-subtle suggestion that Stalin's crimes can be equated with the actions of the current Russian leadership. Moscow believes that its military response in 2008 was morally justified by what it viewed as Georgian aggression.

Opinions on the removal of the Stalin statue were divided. A woman named only Irina, said on Georgia public television: "How could they remove it? ... Stalin was a great individual and the most famous Georgian in the world."

Culture minister Nika Rerua was less impressed: "There is no place for such an ugly idol in Georgia."

More on the story - New York Times

Jack Abramoff hired by kosher pizzeria

Former Washington lobbyist and con artist extraordinaire Jack Abramoff was released this month to a halfway house after serving 31/2 years of a six year sentence. He has been hired by Tov Pizza, a kosher pizza restaurant in Baltimore. In a somewhat ironic twist of fate he will reportedly be paid between seven and a half and 10 dollars an hour.

In 2006, Abramoff was sentenced to six years for defrauding American Indian tribes out of millions of dollars on issues associated with Indian gaming. He got a concurrent four-year sentence in 2008 for conspiring to defraud the government, corrupting public officials and defrauding his clients in a separate case.

For a period he enjoyed unusual access to the Bush White House. According to a bipartisan congressional report (2008), he was instrumental in influencing a number of key decisions.

Abramoff, who is Jewish, claims he became a Baal teshuva or a "born again" Orthodox Jew at the age of 12 after seeing the movie adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof. His religious convictions didn't appear to get in the way of his shady activities - here.

The recently released jailbird is apparently a welcome addition at Tov Pizza which serves such tasty items as the Tov Supreme Slice, falafel balls with humus, babaganoush and baked ziti. No word if Abramoff will be flipping pizza dough in the kitchen while whistling the theme tune from Red Scorpion.

Guardian:

The owner of Tov Pizza, Ron Rosenbluth, told the Baltimore Jewish Times that giving a fellow Jew a fresh start was part of what Judaism stood for. He was happy that Tov Pizza could provide Abramoff with that new beginning: "We're all Jews, we're all on the same team."

It's unclear if Abramoff has been trying out his Michael Corleone routine to entertain Ron and the crew at Tov Pizza. Back in the day when motivating fellow lobbyists on Capitol Hill Abramoff liked to imitate the godfather. He particularly liked the words of Corleone when addressing a politician seeking a cut of Mafia profits: "Senator, you can have my answer now if you like. My offer is this: nothing."

Link also to Guardian - Huffington Post

Pizza with extras

Greencoat Boy pub: LGBT Labour group refused service

Top: The Greencoat Boy pub Below: Labour LGBT group

Around 50 members of the British Labour Party's LGBT group showed up at the Greencoat Boy pub in central London following the group's annual general meeting.

According to reports it was a quiet Saturday afternoon in the pub. The campaigns officer for the group, James Murray, said members carried an "innocuous" banner bearing the slogan: "Only Labour can deliver equality." Murray said there was no problem except for one customer who appeared to take exception to the group's presence. He added "that seemed to start something going."

Members were reportedly refused drinks and a manager told them he wouldn't have accepted the booking if he had known the group was gay. The group got word out on Twitter: "Manager at The Greencoat Boy near Westminster told members he would have refused the #LGBT Labour booking if he'd known it was an LGBT group!"

The story attracted attention and prominent Labour Party figures weighed in. Sarah Brown posted: "Very sad to hear that the Greencoat Boy shown as homophobic in taking LGBT booking – but good to see so many are concerned here."

Former deputy PM John Prescott also offered support: "40 years ago we campaigned against a Hull pub that banned 'women & queers' This is disgraceful. Fully back you #greencoatboy."

As of last check over a thousand people had signed up for a Facebook campaign to protest the incident and to call for a boycott.

A Metropolitan police spokeswoman said: "We can confirm an allegation that a homophobic incident took place at a premises in the SW1 area and was reported to police on Saturday 5 June... Enquiries by officers continue."

The Greencoat Boy is owned by Punch Taverns which has "apologized unreservedly" for the incident. A spokesman said the company had contacted all pubs in the chain to remind them of equality standards.

He said: "We would like to stress that this is an isolated incident, we have a good track record on equal opportunities and we do not tolerate homophobia in our pubs, whether from guests to other guests, or involving our employees... We are currently conducting a full investigation of the incident and the deputy general manager will not be on site until the investigation is concluded."

The incident is reminiscent of discriminatory practices directed toward homosexuals in the not-so-distant past. As a society we like to believe we have moved beyond that type of anti-gay bigotry but homophobic attitudes remain entrenched in certain quarters and it doesn't take a lot to bring it out.

Not long ago a gay couple, Michael Black and John Morgan, were turned away from a B & B in Cookham, Berkshire, because the proprietor had objections to them sharing the same bed.

More on the story - Guardian - BBC - Independent

Birmingham: hundreds of surveillance cameras in Muslim areas

Top: UK surveillance cameras / Below: A CCTV camera beside an

automatic numberplate recognition camera in Sparkbrook, Birmingham.

British deputy PM, Nick Clegg, has expressed concerns about Britain's 'surveillance society' and has promised to stop unnecessary infringements on privacy. If you happen to be a resident of a Muslim area of Birmingham, you might believe that the trend is rather toward more surveillance on a massive scale.

Guardian:

About 150 automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) cameras have been installed in Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook in recent months. Birmingham's two predominantly Muslim suburbs will be covered by three times more ANPR cameras than are used to monitor the entire city centre. They include about 40 cameras classed as "covert", meaning they have been concealed from public view.

Councillors weren't exactly given the straight goods about the purpose of the cameras and the source of the funding. The project was promoted as part of an effort to combat anti-social behavior, vehicle crime and drug dealing. They were told that the funding had come from the Home Office. The £3m pound grant in fact came from the Terrorism and Allied Matters Fund which is administered by the Association of Chief Police Officers.

The Guardian quotes a councillor for Sparkbrook, Respect Party member Salma Yaqoob: "I raised my concern then: is this really about spying? The terrorism aspect was certainly not emphasized in that meeting. In fact it was me having to be portrayed as the awkward squad, or even paranoid, for even raising the issue of whether this was really about counterterrorism. They were very much saying, 'No, this is about burglary and crime.'"

According to police sources the initiative, code-named Project Champion, seeks to monitor a population seen as "at risk" of terrorism. When the operation is fully underway residents won't be able to come and go from their neighborhoods without having their every movement tracked.

Intensive surveillance at this level will almost certainly be perceived by many law-abiding residents as a gross intrusion and an infringement of civil liberties. It signals to the community under-watch that the residents are potential suspects, never entirely to be trusted. No amount of surveillance will deter the small minority who are radicalized and angry, but it may have the effect of alienating residents who pose no threat to anyone.

Story in Guardian - also here.

Every move you make

German sewage plant plays Mozart to speed up biomass breakdown

Mozart and random sewage plant image.

A German sewage center in Treuenbrietzen, south-west of Berlin, pipes music by Mozart into the plant - allegedly to speed up the rate at which microbes breakdown waste material. The sound system is quite elaborate, with an acoustic effect similar to that in a concert hall.

Chief operator of the site Anton Stucki believes that in order to do the trick the music has to have the "right frequencies" and in his opinion Mozart "hits the spot."

Stucki is quoted in a Guardian article as saying: "We think the secret is in the vibrations of the music, which penetrate everything – including the water, the sewage and the cells. It creates a certain resonance that stimulates the microbes and helps them to work better. We're still in the test phase, but I've already noticed that the sewage breakdown is more efficient."

The "Mozart effect" is a hard-to-prove claim, somewhat like the claims for the Q-Ray bracelet. There's no way to validate assertions along the lines of "Since wearing the Q-Ray I've noticed that I feel great."

There has been no scientific testing I'm aware of for the Mozart-microbe effect. A smaller sewage plant in Austria that first tried the Mozart approach claims it helped to reduce the cost of waste management treatment, but it's entirely possible other variables added to the small increase in efficiency claimed.

Stucki's explanation is more esoteric than scientific. He believes that the composer managed to "transpose universal laws of nature into his music" and adds "It has an effect on people of every age and every cultural background. So why not on microbes? After all, they're living organisms just like us."

Classical music does have an effect, but not always an efficacious one. Sometimes it's more of a culture-clash reaction. Malls with a teen problem have found that piping in classical music helps to drive away mall rats.

The popularization of the "Mozart effect" has led to many fanciful claims, for example the belief that exposing infants to classical music will improve intelligence and learning. There is no proof for this. Studies have looked at the relation between music, cognitive function and other physiological metrics and have come up with no definitive results.

It makes a good story though. I'm sure even Amadeus would be amused to know that some are convinced The Magic Flute is helping to accelerate the breakdown of biomass at the sewage center.

Link to Guardian story - here.

Israeli pundits on flotilla attack: 'siege becoming Israel's Vietnam'

Protests worldwide: From top left to right: Belgium,

Netherlands, Turkey, UK, Lebanon and Israel

Shortly after the Israeli commando attack on the aid flotilla, the new British foreign secretary William Hague said: "The closure of Gaza is unacceptable and counter-productive... There can be no better response from the international community to this tragedy than to achieve urgently a durable resolution to the Gaza crisis."

The siege of Gaza is untenable and unjust. But try telling that to fired up Israeli nationalists who buy the spin of the Israeli government and military. Needless to say following the raid on the flotilla the Israeli publicity machine has gone into overdrive.

But not every Israeli buys the official version.

Writing in Haaretz, Bradley Burston said: "... We are no longer defending Israel. We are now defending the siege. The siege itself is becoming Israel's Vietnam."

Burston goes on to say:

We explain, time and again, that we are not at war with the people of Gaza. We say it time and again because we ourselves need to believe it, and because, deep down, we do not.

There was a time, when it could be said that we knew ourselves only in wartime. No longer. Now we know nothing. Yet another problem with refraining from talks with Hamas and Iran: They know us so much better than we know ourselves.

They know, as the song about the Lebanon War suggested ("Lo Yachol La'atzor Et Zeh") that we, unable to see ourselves in any clarity, are no longer capable of stopping ourselves.

Also in Haaretz, Gideon Levy's article "Operation Mini Cast Lead" points out the mistakes Israel seems doomed to keep repeating:

If Cast Lead was a turning point in the attitude of the world toward us, this operation is the second horror film of the apparently ongoing series. Israel proved yesterday that it learned nothing from the first movie.

Yesterday's fiasco could and should have been prevented. This flotilla should have been allowed to pass and the blockade should be brought to an end.

This should have happened a long time ago. In four years Hamas has not weakened and Gilad Shalit was not released. There was not even a sign of a gain.

And what have we instead? A country that is quickly becoming completely isolated. This is a place that turns away intellectuals, shoots peace activists, cuts off Gaza and now finds itself in an international blockade. Once more yesterday it seemed, and not for the first time, that Israel is increasingly breaking away from the mother ship, and losing touch with the world - which does not accept its actions and does not understand its motives.

Former Israeli PM Abba Eban once said that when it comes to peace the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. It could be said of Israel that when it comes to turning the world against it - Israel never misses an opportunity to seize an opportunity.

The attack on the aid convoy in international waters will further deepen Israel's isolation, and in the eyes of many confirm its status as a pariah state. Yet many in Israel who seek security, seem blind to the truth that the siege and the actions of the IDF in Gaza and now at sea is doing deep and lasting damage to the prospect of peace and security.

No security concerns gives Israel the right to effectively imprison one and a half million Palestinians. The use of force to maintain the untenable situation in Gaza can never and will never lead to anything constructive... just ongoing barriers, deepening hate and distrust.

The plight of the Palestinian people and the ramifications of the siege have consequences that go well beyond Israel's borders. Israel cannot be allowed to persist along its blinkered path when so much is at stake.

Link also to BBC - Guardian - Guardian - range of videos on flotilla attack can be found - here.

Minister wants Ulster Museum to promote creationism

Top right: Nelson McCausland / Middle right: Mervyn Storey

Bottom: Ulster Museum in Belfast, N. I.

A Darwin-versus-creationism row has been making the news in Northern Ireland.

Minister of Culture, Nelson McCausland, recently made a request of the Ulster Museum in Belfast. He wrote to the board of trustees to say that the museum ought to be more reflective of creationism and intelligent design theories. McCausland believes that since a third (by his claim) of the population of N. Ireland believes in either the creationist tale or intelligent design it therefore follows that the Ulster Museum should reflect those views - kind of like Sky News at six.

While it's true that Northern Ireland has the reputation for being religious, there are a few problems with McCausland's point of view. If the majority in some hypothetical country happen to believe that pointy headed pink dwarves inhabit the dark side of the moon is science obliged to reflect that conviction in museums and other institutions? Creationist myths are no less fantastical. There is no more evidence to support them than there is evidence for UFO's and the Tooth Fairy.

If the number of 'ayes' determines what position a museum takes on matters relating to human origins we could be in deep trouble. Scientific theory and the manner in which those findings are reflected in institutions such as museums is about standards a little higher than a politician's urge to represent the views of a segment of society. As Richard Dawkins put it "If the museum was to go down that road then perhaps they should bring in the stork theory of where babies come from..."

Aside from creationism, McCausland holds views that even eccentrics might find well... eccentric. According to a Guardian article he believes that Ulster Protestants are one of the lost tribes of Israel. He also believes that the inclusion of anti-Darwinian theory in the museum is no less than a "human rights issue." No mention if lack of compliance will result in picketing by outraged Free Presbyterians and activist Orangemen.

But then as the Guardian article points out oddball beliefs aren't uncommon in the religious community of Northern Ireland:

The belief that the Earth was divinely created in 4004 BC originates with the writings of another Ulster-based Protestant, Archbishop of Armagh James Ussher, in 1654. Ussher calculated the date based on textual clues in the Old Testament, even settling on a date and time for the moment of creation: in the early hours of 23 October.

McCausland, who has been suspended twice by the Northern Ireland Assembly for using unparliamentary language, by his own account wrote a "very balanced" letter to the museum trustees because he wanted to "reflect the views of all the people in Northern Ireland in all its richness and diversity."

McCausland's party colleague, Mervyn Storey, is a former chair of the Northern Ireland Assembly's education committee. Storey believes in the literal truth of the bible, so is presumably a believer in the Garden of Eden... talking snake... clay-sculpting-God version of events.

As the Guardian article notes, a stumbling block to the 'young earth' theory is posed by a famous Irish landmark - the Giant's Causeway. According to geological evidence it is millions of years old. Despite his lack of scientific expertise in the area, Storey has raised objections to this finding, believing as he does that the earth was created several thousands of years before the birth of Jesus.

Link to Guardian

Link also to "Northern Ireland culture is apparently cuckoo" on Pharyngula

Back to the garden

Greta Van Susteren polls viewers on her intelligence - and loses

Fox News host, Greta Van Susteren, was apparently irked by an email she received from a viewer who said she had a "mind like a sieve."

'Brian' from Tahlequah, Oklahoma, also informed Van Susteren that her "brain is empty." He elaborated: "Matter of fact, it is so empty, if you put a pea in your skull it would rattle around like a BB in a boxcar."

Van Susteren decided to take the bait and commented on her blog "Why does Brian watch if he thinks I am so stupid?... How stupid is that????"

She went further and polled the viewing audience on who is dumber - Greta Van S or Brian... the dude who watches a show he claims is hosted by a dimwit?

Perhaps Van Susteren naively imagined her fans would rally in her defence. If so, it was a rash calculation. As of May 29, 78% of the respondents agreed with the view that Van Susteren is dumber than Brian.

Van Susteren posted on her blog Friday that the poll was meant to be "a joke." She said: "Well...turns out that I am now losing the poll but only in the last 18 hours have the votes spiked. It turns out that since midnight, the poll has gotten an inexplicable number of hits even though it is 4 days old... Of course this is now a cyberspace game and I think it funny. I lost."

It's not difficult to understand why 'Brian' might view Van Susteren as challenged. She's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. When she interviews big name guests she comes across like an ingenue, a bit like a kid who appears slightly overawed to be in adult company. She seems more about stroking her guest's ego and facilitating responses than asking hard questions.

Van Susteren's fluffball Alaska interviews with Sarah Palin lacked critical rigor and were mainly about showcasing Palin as an Alaskan chili-making-mom-next-door type who Americans only need to know a little better in order to love. Van Susteren's partisan approach when it came to the Palin interviews speaks poorly of her objectivity as a journalist.

Her down-home persona and distinctive look, add up in the minds of some viewers to credibility. It's her middle-of-the-road facade that makes her approach all the more insidious... after all she works in the Murdoch trenches and is a facilitator of a brand of right-wing ideology that America doesn't need.

Whether or not she has a "mind like a sieve" is open to debate, but there is no doubt that Greta Van Susteren knows how to make her seeming deficits work to her advantage.

Link also to Raw Story - Yahoo News

Berlusconi quotes Mussolini at news conference

Italian PM Berlusconi quoted Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini recently while complaining about what he perceives as his lack of real power as head of government.

At the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, Berlusconi lamented: "As prime minister, I have never had the feeling that I was in power... Sometimes as a businessman, with 56,000 employees, sometimes I've had the feeling of being able to decide and be in control. But today in a democracy, I am in the service of everyone and anyone can criticize me and perhaps even insult me."

The PM prefaced his Il Duce quotation by saying "I will dare to quote a phrase from someone considered a dictator, a great, powerful dictator, Benito Mussolini."

Mussolini: "They say I have power. It isn't true. Maybe my party officials do. But I don't know. All I can do is say to my horse go right or left. And I have to be happy with that."

This is by no means the first time Berlusconi has invoked the late dictator. The PM's fascination with Mussolini seems almost a private fetish. On slow days when there are no topless models-turned-politicians to entertain him, Berlo probably leafs lovingly through his Mussolini photo collections and checks out pics of Il Duce doing his thing. Who knows, he might even have Mussolini uniforms for dress-up thrills.

In an interview that appeared in the Spectator Berlusconi tried to minimize the extent of Mussolini's crimes: "Mussonlini never killed anyone... [he] sent people on holiday to confine them."

The PM's benign take on Mussolini conveniently plays down the ex-dictator's brutal occupation of Ethiopia (1935-36) and the rounding up of Italian Jews to dispatch to concentration camps.

Berlusconi's complaint about never having the feeling that he is "in power" is difficult to take seriously. Italians though shouldn't be fooled. Berlusconi's leash is badly in need of shortening, not lengthening.

Opposition members haven't been slow to voice their views on the PM's Mussolini references. Alessandro Pignatiello of the Italian Communist Party said that the comparison of the premier with Mussolini is a valid one. Nicola Tranfaglia of the IDV [Italia dei Valori Party] said that Berlusconi’s remark proves that he wants to govern “with dictatorial powers”.

Link to Reuters - Italy Mag

Good old Benny