by Alex Evans | Mar 31, 2008 | Conflict and security, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia
Barney Rubin does know how to start a blog post:
Last week I was at a meeting in Madrid to discuss a “Political Solution” to the conflict in Afghanistan. Among the topics discussed was prospects for talking to the Taliban. I was surprised, however, at how literally some of the participants seemed to take it. One of my friends was interrupted over tea by a call from a Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan who was trying to figure out who was behind an incident in which some of his men were killed by a remote-controlled mine.
by Charlie Edwards | Mar 31, 2008 | UK
Banned from discussing issues of national security with the media, officials and serving officers from the MoD have turned their attention to the internet. Civil servants have been busy editing Wikipedia. Some 5,614 changes to the website were made from Ministry of Defence computers, 1,500 from the Department of Health, 103 from the DCMS and 25 at HMGCC.
According to the Telegraph newspaper the real life equivalents of James Bond’s “gadget man” Q from Her Majesty’s Government Communications Centre (HMGCC) have been updating the Wikipedia entry for Avril Lavigne, the Canadian pop star A description of her song Girlfriend as a “riff off the ever-classic love triangle” was amended to “based around the ever-classic love triangle” a story made all the more amusing given the following quote from their website:
HMGCC is much more than a centre of expertise – we are a community of exceptional minds. Over five hundred of us work here on a whole range of customer-driven projects. And make no mistake, our work is seriously challenging…
But beware all you bloggers and amateur editors the thought police are on to you… officials will now look at the electronic records to determine whether the Wikipedia changes were made while staff were supposed to be working, and if necessary will issue “reminders” about the need to prioritise work.
(Note: this blog was written during my ‘lunch break’)
by Charlie Edwards | Mar 31, 2008 | Climate and resource scarcity
Alex and I have recently posted on the WFP’s appeal for more funds as the price of food continues to rise. Last week the price of rice began to shoot upwards sparking fears of a major rice shortage in Asia. According to experts global rice stocks are at their lowest since 1976. However some commentators aren’t convinced and argue that despite the sharp increase the fundamental balance between supply and demand remains largely intact. But are their voices loud and frequent enough for prices to drop and calm to return.
Not at the moment… last week’s turbulence (trigged by Egypt and Cambodia which banned rice exports) saw rice stocks jump 30 per cent in international markets causing the Vietnamese Government to announced it would reduce rice exports this year to 3.5m tons, from a projection of between 4m and 4.5m tons. India meanwhile has raised its minimum export price to $1,000 (€635, £500) per ton, up from $650 per ton, in a bid to keep domestic prices low.
One possible consequence of this run on rice is an increase in social unrest (food riots have broken out in Egypt, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso in the past week) which has led donor organisations to ask for more funding to maintain food distribution programmes.
According to the WFP $50m would buy 189,000 tons of food last year in Afghanistan, which would feed 3.5m people. This year, the same amount would buy only 112,000 tons to feed 1.9m.
by Mark Weston | Mar 31, 2008 | Middle East and North Africa
The latest move in the long game between Turkey’s hardline secularists and its moderate Islamist government is perhaps the most worrying yet. The chief prosecutor in the country’s constitutional court has filed a petition to close the governing AK Party and ban its leaders from politics for five years, including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdo?an and President Abdullah Gul. The reason? Anti-secular activities, apparently, and in particular AK’s lifting of the headscarf ban in universities. Some think a more likely cause is the government’s bid to root out Turkey’s shadowy “deep state“, an extremist group of nationalists linked to the army, many of whose alleged members were arrested in January (the last time a religious-leaning government was banned, in the 1990s, it had been conducting a similar investigation).
Turkey has been doing pretty well since the AK Party came to power, but shares plunged as news of the prosecutor’s move leaked out and the European Union has warned that the country’s bid to join it will be jeopardised if AK is banned. Your move, Mr Erdo?an.
by Mark Weston | Mar 31, 2008 | Africa, Economics and development
A useful travel guide for would-be migrants, from Foreign Policy magazine. My only quibble would be their listing of Spain as one of the best countries to migrate to. This might be true if you’re a retired Brit with a fondness for sherry or cheap wine, but it will be interesting to see how tolerance towards poor African immigrants holds up if the country hits economic meltdown.
