Not only a victory for Libyans but for humanity ^_^
I wish they had gotten more support in their struggle, that more help had been given (and it really ought to be possible), that fewer had died.
Tunis, Egypt, Libya, it is and will still be a struggle to win the peace and prosperity they and many more deserve but at least it is now possible in these three countries.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Updated and comforted
Nearly one and a half days later and getting increasingly impressed by our politicians and at least some of the experts (though others do provide for some groan-inducing moments). It seems our prime minister is in excellent company when it comes to making enlightened statements.
The main source of relief came from a NRK special news series called "Aktuelt" broadcast at about 21:00 GMT+1 or so "today" (23rd of July). The opening discussion/conversation between experts (well a bit of a mix really but I'll call them that) as well as the later political bit with Storberget (from labour), Solberg (from the conservatives), and Jensen (from the progress party) were both superbly good with extremely important points made and lots of intelligent reasoning.
Among the experts Tore Bjørgo and Swedish David Poohl in particular were absolutely outstanding, I think I only had the most minor quibble with one or two statements made! The third expert/person was foreign minister Støre, unfortunately the name of the fourth person escaped me. Reassuring and comforting viewing of extremely sensible and intelligent stances by Bjørgo and Poohl and the two other both added some very salient points/advice.
It has alleviated many of my current worries; some mentioned or hinted at in my previous blog post and some resulting from the "institutionalized bigotry" that quickly reared its ugly heads on NRK (and elsewhere as well).
It would be nice if those parts of this episode of "Aktuelt" could be released with English subtitling for global viewing on the internet, I think a lot of people would benefit from --and/or outright appreciate-- viewing it (and it probably ought to be required watching for US politicians who seem to often needlessly aggravate their own population(s)).
...
HMKG were deployed in various locations in Oslo today in full gear (in addition to the ordinary locations). Couldn't help noticing that their weapons had the ammunition chambered and ready to fire on select fire (my old military friends would laugh hard at me instantly noticing that even after all these years ^_^).
Most local residents probably haven't ever seen a real battle ready soldier in real life before, must be an even weirder experience for them.
...
I've noticed a group of police cars and a bomb squad special vehicle zipping past hither and dither throughout the day responding to reports of suspicious packages. Later on news media said fewer reports were being made.
The main source of relief came from a NRK special news series called "Aktuelt" broadcast at about 21:00 GMT+1 or so "today" (23rd of July). The opening discussion/conversation between experts (well a bit of a mix really but I'll call them that) as well as the later political bit with Storberget (from labour), Solberg (from the conservatives), and Jensen (from the progress party) were both superbly good with extremely important points made and lots of intelligent reasoning.
Among the experts Tore Bjørgo and Swedish David Poohl in particular were absolutely outstanding, I think I only had the most minor quibble with one or two statements made! The third expert/person was foreign minister Støre, unfortunately the name of the fourth person escaped me. Reassuring and comforting viewing of extremely sensible and intelligent stances by Bjørgo and Poohl and the two other both added some very salient points/advice.
It has alleviated many of my current worries; some mentioned or hinted at in my previous blog post and some resulting from the "institutionalized bigotry" that quickly reared its ugly heads on NRK (and elsewhere as well).
It would be nice if those parts of this episode of "Aktuelt" could be released with English subtitling for global viewing on the internet, I think a lot of people would benefit from --and/or outright appreciate-- viewing it (and it probably ought to be required watching for US politicians who seem to often needlessly aggravate their own population(s)).
...
HMKG were deployed in various locations in Oslo today in full gear (in addition to the ordinary locations). Couldn't help noticing that their weapons had the ammunition chambered and ready to fire on select fire (my old military friends would laugh hard at me instantly noticing that even after all these years ^_^).
Most local residents probably haven't ever seen a real battle ready soldier in real life before, must be an even weirder experience for them.
...
I've noticed a group of police cars and a bomb squad special vehicle zipping past hither and dither throughout the day responding to reports of suspicious packages. Later on news media said fewer reports were being made.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Early thoughts on the attacks in Norway
Condolences to the bereaved.
Gratitude to the police (can they get proper funding now please? But not for the Orwellian stuff unconstitutionally making everyone criminals by default) and emergency services (again: can they get proper funding now please? Those copters wouldn't exist without private voluntary donations and the University Hospital Ullevål branch that received the badly wounded has buildings held together by duct tape) and everyone helping each other.
I find the attacks themselves sad and surreal yet entirely unsurprising.
Despite having no special knowledge I find it all far too unsurprising, uncomfortably so since everyone else seems to be surprised. Are they only pretending? Feigning surprise? Were my depressing expectations just a "lucky" fluke? It might not matter but if they're all honestly surprised it unnerves me far more than any attack no matter who did it. It's the widespread existence of at least one massive political blind spot. To me that's far more scary than violence (and I do find the human capabilities for violence --both physical and psychological-- frightening!). Not that I don't have my own blind spots, I'm all too keenly aware of some of them and there is sure to be more.
The reasons for finding it surreal are so bountiful I'm not sure where I would start but if in fact the perpetrator(s) self-identified as (an) anti-islamic and anti-multicultural nationalistic conservative(s) it certainly adds to it. So many who will be maligned by this or that part of his alleged ideological pedigrees (a slightly strange mix depending on the definitions) wanted nothing more than to avoid exactly this kind of outcome (intra-societal and/or local inter-cultural violence) and some have been raising a stink about it for decades, an outcome deemed unavoidable if the political course stayed on the same general bearing as the last twenty years. Yeah I'm one of those who wanted to avoid it, maybe we ran out of time or maybe more will start to understand the challenges we all face.
It's a toss-up.
...
There was sluggish rolling thunder, the occasional lightning, and oscillating levels of rain early this morning in Oslo. It's over now as I've spent time whittling down this entry to size; maybe I'll go fight some windmills later in another blog post, maybe I'll refrain (I'm not even sure I can bear watching the meandering political labyrinth of denial and self-delusion that is likely next). I've been awake since the bomb woke me yesterday afternoon (and I have to stay up for at least four more hours), it woke me but I didn't realize and only two hours later did I happen to check the news (all this despite me living fairly close to the blast and my normal sleep quality being below dismal, in addition I had only slept for about four hours... go figure). This morning before the weather started I was looking out over most of the surrounding hills and a good portion of the city, I've been thinking a lot because the future I wanted to avoid seems to be here.
Not getting any broken windows is about the only silver lining I see.
Well there's the prime minister's noble and enlightened words --pure perfection--, but does he truly understand the meaning of what he said, and does the rest? If he and they do then an awful lot of changes for the better needs being made to make our society able to try to live up to those words.
It's started raining again, and stopped again.
Wondering if it's even worthwhile writing this in Norwegian later on, primary language or not.
Gratitude to the police (can they get proper funding now please? But not for the Orwellian stuff unconstitutionally making everyone criminals by default) and emergency services (again: can they get proper funding now please? Those copters wouldn't exist without private voluntary donations and the University Hospital Ullevål branch that received the badly wounded has buildings held together by duct tape) and everyone helping each other.
I find the attacks themselves sad and surreal yet entirely unsurprising.
Despite having no special knowledge I find it all far too unsurprising, uncomfortably so since everyone else seems to be surprised. Are they only pretending? Feigning surprise? Were my depressing expectations just a "lucky" fluke? It might not matter but if they're all honestly surprised it unnerves me far more than any attack no matter who did it. It's the widespread existence of at least one massive political blind spot. To me that's far more scary than violence (and I do find the human capabilities for violence --both physical and psychological-- frightening!). Not that I don't have my own blind spots, I'm all too keenly aware of some of them and there is sure to be more.
The reasons for finding it surreal are so bountiful I'm not sure where I would start but if in fact the perpetrator(s) self-identified as (an) anti-islamic and anti-multicultural nationalistic conservative(s) it certainly adds to it. So many who will be maligned by this or that part of his alleged ideological pedigrees (a slightly strange mix depending on the definitions) wanted nothing more than to avoid exactly this kind of outcome (intra-societal and/or local inter-cultural violence) and some have been raising a stink about it for decades, an outcome deemed unavoidable if the political course stayed on the same general bearing as the last twenty years. Yeah I'm one of those who wanted to avoid it, maybe we ran out of time or maybe more will start to understand the challenges we all face.
It's a toss-up.
...
There was sluggish rolling thunder, the occasional lightning, and oscillating levels of rain early this morning in Oslo. It's over now as I've spent time whittling down this entry to size; maybe I'll go fight some windmills later in another blog post, maybe I'll refrain (I'm not even sure I can bear watching the meandering political labyrinth of denial and self-delusion that is likely next). I've been awake since the bomb woke me yesterday afternoon (and I have to stay up for at least four more hours), it woke me but I didn't realize and only two hours later did I happen to check the news (all this despite me living fairly close to the blast and my normal sleep quality being below dismal, in addition I had only slept for about four hours... go figure). This morning before the weather started I was looking out over most of the surrounding hills and a good portion of the city, I've been thinking a lot because the future I wanted to avoid seems to be here.
Not getting any broken windows is about the only silver lining I see.
Well there's the prime minister's noble and enlightened words --pure perfection--, but does he truly understand the meaning of what he said, and does the rest? If he and they do then an awful lot of changes for the better needs being made to make our society able to try to live up to those words.
It's started raining again, and stopped again.
Wondering if it's even worthwhile writing this in Norwegian later on, primary language or not.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Headshot
There's a lot that has gone wrong but killing Osama Bin Laden is definitely not one of them.
Original photo by Flickr user muckingfajic (Kasper Duhn), used and remixed by Gla'funk under a Creative Commons license.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
In salute of the spirit of the Egyptian people and their sense of humor
So he has made preparations to take half a tonne of dirt with him on the plane... ^_^
P.S. Sign your support for the people of Egypt and their battle for freedom by going to Avaaz.
Original photo by Flickr user Jeff Werner, used and remixed by Gla'funk under a Creative Commons license.
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