Ian Williams

I resurrected this, as sovereignty, self determination, religious sectarianism and similar obsessions are resurgent. It has relevance, I do not know where to be heartened, by my prescience, or disheartened at the lack of progress. In particular, the debate about the Responsibility to Protect seems to have been subject to even more caution than was warranted at the time, as Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the US all show total insouciance to the UN Charter and bask in impunity.

Friday, October 26, 2007

WRMEA

https://www.wrmea.org/2026-november-december/november-december-2026-tabl...

The Norwegians Inspire, the U.N. Not So Much    

By Ian Williams

Cleese becomes a brain dead Blueshirt parrot

John Cleese is parodying his own finer moments all. He might not "be dead yet," but brain death is an inexorably visible process.

When Charlie Chaplin played the Great Dictator, he could separate himself from the roles he played, a Thespian feat that Cleese has failed to emulate after years of playing very funny parts as outrageous bigots, We thought they were parodies when for Cleese it was Method Acting.

Dept of deferential reporting

NYT says "Trump’s new press secretary made her debut. It was a bumpy one." No it wasnt: it was smooth uninterrupted downhill rush! Even before her legal (mis)qualifications were exposed.

An interesting angle! As I remember after the 1917 Revolution, a Soviet conference of English Language teachers decided to adopt American English because the "King's English" was a class dialect. It was and still is! Personally I would recommend Scots, Welsh or Irish forms - more musical and class neutral. Hell, even Aussie and Kiwi  or Doon School Indian English!åç

Can we put the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in charge of the EU, NATO and UN Security Council, since it seems to possess the last spine standing? Loved Navai Pillai's offer of the prize to Trump - courage and a sense of humour and a sense of justice!

It is sad news about Benon Sevan who died yesterday  after spending his last years in exile in his native Cyprus as a pillar of the local Armenian community. A life long UN staffer with extensive experience, he was impatient with bullshit and bureaucracy (do I repeat myself?). I butted heads with him a few times as President of the UN Correspondents Association but never doubted his sincere support for the UN nor his willingness to speak his mind. In Afghanistan he sheltered the former President Najibullah from murder by a US backed war lord.

To everything there is a season - but Nazi apologetics disguised as historical fact-checking never go out of fashion! The promiscuous canards from conservative apologists have an intellectual (if one might presume) lineage back to the thirties, when opposition to the New Deal combined with pro-Nazism, overt racism and antisemitism.  The Palestinians need all the help they can get in the face of attempted genocide, but our enemy's enemy is not always our friend , and some current expedient friends do indeed evoke  ghosts of yellow stars.

I also came across  Upton Sinclair's Millennium which I had not even heard of before. It is pertinent and amusing. Set in 2000 but conceived in 1907,  it posits a Pleasure Palace in Central Park,  100 plus stories high, with of course, an opulent Ball Room. There is a senescent  plus size President- out of condition - who is very rich and surrounded by a selfish crowd of manipulative Oligarchs. 

As the Pfizer building droops and buckles at the hands of the developers, it's an ironic memorial to their money-grubbing attempts to make the non-union edifice longer, straighter and stronger. Should they have tried mixing Viagra in the concrete? Or remembered "the Union makes us strong?"