That’s the result of a conference that took place last week in Yakutsk, the middle-of-nowhere capital of the biggest chunk of Siberia, one that was attended by representatives of the US and Russian governments, but also the Chinese and the British. The total cost is calculated at €68 billion, of which the US and Russian governments will each cover 25% and investors and international financial institutions the rest. It will take between 10 and 15 years to build.

This is in line with the Russian plans to substantially broaden railroad coverage within Siberia, with a view towards further developing that region’s economic potential (and perhaps thus not leave it so devoid of people, and so such a temptation to Chinese encroachment). This mega-project will also (eventually) enable someone to travel from, say, London to Washington exclusively overland, by train – taking the long way eastward through much of the EurAsian continent!

                          

De ongemakkelijke kussen van Merkel en Sarkozy http://bit.ly/oL54CI #merkozy

July 22, 2011 9:34 am via bitlyReplyRetweetFavorite

@volkskrant

De Volkskrant

One little-known roadblock to the EU’s ability to come up with a collective solutions to Greece and any number of other problems is the sheer antipathy said to prevail between the heads of the two most-powerful member-states, i.e. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. Indeed, the dominating primacy of this “Franco-German axis” long ago reached cliché status among analysts of the European Union (though it’s no longer quite so true, naturally), meaning that the personal chemistry between the inhabitants of L’Élysée and the Reich Chancellery assumed a outsized importance to the two nations’ fortunes.

Unfortunately so, because Merkel and Sarkozy have apparently not been on speaking terms – at the personal level; their offices communicate just fine, thank you – for quite some time. Or maybe you don’t believe me and would like to see for yourself – well, the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant now enables you to do that by presenting this fantastically-awesome photo-series compilation of thirty-six (yes! count ‘em!) kisses, embraces and similar close encounters – all fully-clothed: s’il vous plaît, je vous en prie! – between the two, entitled “The uneasy kisses of Merkel and Sarkozy” (and soon to be a major motion picture!).

So check them out, if you’re into analyzing that sort of thing. I imagine €S’s female readership will be particularly good at this. Do they look comfortable with each other? Here, let me help you out with what I’ve heard, although none of the following is really surprising if you think about these two characters for just a bit. Sarkozy thinks Merkel is a dull, unimaginative cow; for her part, Merkel regards Sarkozy (who is certainly shorter than she is, BTW, no matter what the photos might imply) as an excitable, flashy “bling-bling” fellow – as does indeed much of the entire French electorate, it seems.

C’mon, waddaya think? Frankly, the accompanying Dutch text gives the game away, in detail, so I’m not going to translate it for you – ha! Other than this remarkable part: “They do have to overcome even a certain repugnance in each other’s presence. But History has sentenced them to each other, so there’s nothing else to do but get over that repulsion.” Aint it the truth!

                          

Naturally, such pieces are already forthcoming. One of the best I’ve seen so far comes from an expected source, Prof. Juan Cole’s blog Informed Comment, although it does veer at the end to the realm of personal reminiscences. (The September 11, 2001 attacks were after all the inspiration for setting up that blog, as they were for so many other things e.g. US Army/Marines enlistments.)

Plus, as always Prof. Cole’s treatment is in English, which is not really within the remit of the blog you’re reading now. Let’s turn to Der Spiegel instead:

Osama Bin Laden: Der Terrorfürst… http://tinyurl.com/635z5g5

May 2, 2011 5:19 am via SPIEGEL ONLINEReplyRetweetFavorite

@SPIEGEL_Politik

SPIEGEL Politik

That link leads to an article entitled The Prince of Terror, by Yassin Musharbash. (Despite the name, a born-and-bred German journalist.) The photo-series you’ll find starting at the article’s head – basically a series of Osama TV-stills – is nothing to write home about, but what Musharbash writes about his historical background is quite interesting. For the world’s premier terrorist could very well have become its leading playboy instead; he was born into quite a wealthy Saudi family, which had made its money in the construction business. But no, he chose religion over worldly things, and became known over his lifetime for his qualities of patience, modest living, and friendliness – “friendliness” to a select few, at least, since he never was so enthusiastic about Westerners and his strict religious convictions kept him from shaking any female’s hand from an early age, as well from any music, photography, or television (except for the news).

Nonetheless, from a position as an outsider he soon became one of the leading heroes within the Afghan resistance to Soviet occupation. Of course, it was from the (mostly Arab) fighting elements he assembled there for that original purpose that he would go on to build his “Al-Qaeda” network. (The name in Arabic literally means “network,” as well as a number of other things.) But Musharbash helpfully reminds us of another, later instance when the West’s and Bin Laden’s military interests coincided, namely in Bosnia during the Yugoslav wars of the early 1990s: A nascent Al-Qaeda then supplied fighters to defend that break-away republic from Serb depredations long before Europe or the US had made up their mind what to do themselves.

The Dutch paper De Volkskrant is also quick off the blocks with its own Profile: This is how Bin Laden became the most-wanted terrorist on Earth. No photo-series this time – but really, by now haven’t we all had to gaze on his face more times than we have really wanted? – just a Bin Laden background, with a couple new and interesting facts. Supposedly he originally started working in Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion there just to try to recruit for and supply the resistance, not take up arms himself, but he changed his mind one day when he happened to be attacked by some Russian helicopters. Also, although after his success there he returned to his native Saudi Arabia as a famous hero, he soon fell afoul of the authorities there by shooting his mouth off against them too often, to the point that they confiscated both his passport and much of his property. (Of course, that didn’t stop him from moving to Sudan, by way of Yemen, and thence back to Afghanistan.)

There’s just one strange thing here: the (unnamed) Volkskrant reporter writes about how, even after the US invasion of Afghanistan, Bin Laden still managed to run Al-Qaeda – in a loose way – “with his satellite and computer.” I can easily imagine Bin Laden weilding a laptop (although the power-supply could have been problematic), but not a “satellite” as the world’s authorities keep careful tabs on what’s allowed up into space. Perhaps the author meant “satellite-telephone.”

                          

For anyone reasonably informed about recent nuclear weapons history, the name “Pakistan” does call forth many associations – but all of them related precisely to the sort of nuclear misuse that the IAEA is supposed to stop. Admittedly, the Volkskrant piece does devote a full three-quarters of its exiguous length to listing some of these doubts: Pakistan has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; Pakistan has been locked in a dangerous nuclear stand-off with arch-rival India ever since first conducting nuclear explosions in 1998; the Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was primarily responsible not only for his own country gaining a nuclear weapons capability, but also (for a price) North Korea, Libya (since dismantled) and potentially Iran.

Still, the irony of another Pakistani being chosen to chair the IAEA’s governors was better captured by the lead paragraph in this report from the AFP (and not just because it’s in English):

VIENNA, Austria — Pakistan, which refuses to sign the nuclear [sic] Non-Proliferation Treaty and was home to a notorious nuclear smuggling ring, was named head of the UN nuclear watchdog’s governing board here Monday.

The AFP also judiciously supplements the previous reasons to doubt Pakistan’s anti-nuclear credentials with the additional fact that that country’s atomic weapons stockpiles are now the focus of widespread worry that they will somehow fall into Taliban and/or Al-Qaeda hands.

Yet, strangely, the tail-end of this AFP piece describes how many at the top levels of international nuclear policy find this new situation not to be at all unusual. “They are a member” of the IAEA after all, notes one diplomat, quoted anonymously. And the US ambassador to the IAEA declares that “The United States of America looks forward very much to working with the Pakistani governor as chairman of the board of governors.” In this light, appointing a Greenlander, say, to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization would be positively a breath of fresh air; at least no Greenlander has been known to go around burning grain warehouses to the ground.

                          

Notice something? That tragedy (almost) happened, not in Baghdad or some exotic place like that, but in one of the most American of American places. And don’t forget Major Hasan and his homicidal rage at another bastion of the red-white-and-blue, Fort Hood, TX. What ever happened to President George W. Bush’s 2003 promise: “We are fighting that enemy [i.e. terrorists] in Iraq and Afghanistan today so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities”? I guess American soldiers are not fighting so much anymore in Iraq, at least; could that be the reason?

Get real. The potential for “home-grown” terrorists operating on US soil since the 9/11 attacks – and even before – should have been evident at least from the time that the “American Taliban,” John Walker Lindh, found his way into the US criminal justice system. Nonetheless, as discussed in this interesting article by Janny Groen from De Volkskrant, for a long while the American authorities proceeded as if the terrorist threat was indeed something located only outside the country, to be fought with military methods.

Now they’re starting to know better and devote more attention to addressing that “home-grown” terrorism, and the article’s main message is how they seem to be desirous to learn more about the Dutch approach, namely a hyper-local methodology relying upon police work but also that of social workers and other community personnel, all of whom know a neighborhood and its key Muslim authority figures well. How do we know they’re interested in what the Dutch have to say here? Well, how about from the time the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, took off recently from a very busy week (featuring a gigantic oil-spill in the Gulf of Mexico) to meet with visiting Dutch Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs, Ernst Hirsch Ballin? Oh, and as another example the New York City police have already been in contact – well before the Times Square car-bomb, then – with the Dutch National Coordinator for Combating Terrorism (Dutch initials “NCTb”) about arranging for some trainng programs.

Yes, American police and justice officials seem to have woken up (finallly) to the need to address terrorism of the “home-grown” variety, and so are increasingly interested in learning about “best practice” from other countries, not only Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, but also other places that are more culturally-similar yet which have also succeeded in keeping the lid on internal terrorist threats: the Netherlands, but also the UK and Denmark.

Then again, Groen asks: Has the Netherlands really “succeeded”? Relative to what? Her article cites the viewpoints of plenty of terrorism academics, some of whom note the growth of a substantial “anti-radicalisation industry” of security firms, counselors, etc. in many of these countries but who doubt that that necessarily means that they are “succeeding” against terrorism. Anyway, even if the US would want to adopt Dutch methods, there is a big obstacle in the way: there is no equivalent in the Netherlands to the FBI, which in the US tends to be antagonistic towards local police but also to take over terrorist-incident investigations, despite its personnel’s lack of local knowledge. The Americans will have to do something about this jurisdictional dispute first.

                          

Even if you don’t read Dutch, that article might be worth a click anyway due to the attractive, if “canned” (i.e. from one of those photo agencies, in this case Colourbox), photo of roses at the top. ‘Cause if there’s one thing everyone associates with Holland, it’s flowers, and that business is heavily dependent on air transport for product-delivery that usually has to happen within a span of a few days, at most. What may come as a surprise is that much of that flower product-delivery to buyers is within the Netherlands – or within the immediate vicinity in Northwest Europe – and sourced with flowers usually flown in from more exotic locales like Kenya and Ecuador. Those are of course now cut-off, and that is the main cause for the steep price-rises now seen here for flowers, whether for foreign ones that got here anyway (or were here before the Eyjafjallajökull volcano blew) or the domestically-grown variety. Still, never fear (if you’ve got the money to pay): “There are sufficient Dutch flowers to supply the European market,” declares Herman de Boon, who is the Dutch answer to Mr. Bean even as he serves at the same time as Chairman of the Dutch Association of Flower Wholesalers.

The situation is similar when it comes to other exotic things that have to be flown in: fruits & vegetables, for instance. There’s still enough in stock, just don’t expect to be able to take your Spring sweetheart to a restaurant to enjoy things like Peruvian asparagus or Egyptian green beans for a while. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical and medical sectors have also felt the flight-ban’s effects; for example, apparently some radiation-based medicines for fighting cancer must be used within 24 hours or they go to waste.

Here’s an informative English-language run-down from Global Post on how the Dutch flower industry has been dealing with a difficult week – including some good news at least for those hospitals, mentioned at the very end.

                          

For now, though, Wilders’ anti-Islam stance has earned him top-billing in a documentary film, with his name even in the title, “Islam Rising: Geert Wilders’ Warning to the West,” produced by PRB films, an American company, in cooperation with the Christian Action Network. And, as both the Volkskrant and Trouw report, he was supposed to travel to Los Angeles to attend the film’s premiere on 1 May.

Those plans are off now, however, based on a scoop achieved by yet another Dutch newspaper, De Pers, whose reporters discovered some public letters circulated in the past by that Christian Action Network containing some rather nasty remarks about homosexuals. A sample: “They have sex with hundreds of other perverts in ‘one-night-stands,’ spread their disgusting sex-diseases, abuse innocent children . . . commit more murders and sex-crimes than any other group. (The De Pers article, which of course offers the most complete coverage, also reminds us that this same Christian Action Network was pushing the idea that Hillary Clinton is a lesbian back in the year 2000.)

Whoops! The PVV’s positions – which are one-and-the-same as those of its leader, Wilders – should not have been that hard to figure out for those who issued his invitation to come to LA. Yes, they are against Muslim immigrants, but they are for homosexuals. Indeed, homosexuals in these modern times encounter no problems with any other segments of the Dutch population – except, of course, the Muslims! Wilders has sent his regrets.

                          

American relations with Kenya will always be of special interest during the term of the Obama administration because of Obama’s personal ties and family history there, as will be relations with Indonesia for the same reason. However, and very interestingly, so far this effect is operating in the opposite way that you would expect. It almost seems as if both countries need to suffer a little bit, just to show that Obama is not going to play any favorites. In mid-November, for example, the American president is scheduled for an important tour of Asian countries: China, Japan, Korea, of course, also Singapore – but not Indonesia. Of course, it’s merely the most-populous Muslim nation; perhaps Obama is taking a break now from his “Arab outreach” efforts that previously featured a speech to Iranians and a speech directed to the Arab World, given in Cairo.

And then there is Kenya and the ANP report. The US “threat” is namely directed against high government officials and other “high-earners” there, and amounts to a refusal to give them visas anymore to visit the US. That apparently really hurts; rich Kenyans just love to head to the States to spend their money. But in the judgment of the US government nothing has been done to bring about promised reforms ever since the mess of the disputed national election at the end of 2007/beginning of 2008, which led to violence in which around 1,300 people died. In fact, no one has even been prosecuted in connection with that violence. So a fire needs to be lit under some people there.

The thing that caught my eye here, though – other than that it involves Kenya, homeland of Barack Obama Sr. – was the US official charged with paying a visit to Nairobi to deliver the bad news: Johnnie Carson, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. Of course he’s not the real Johnny Carson (also note the different spelling), or he would be showing up just to practice his golf-swing. He’s merely a distinguished American career diplomat, a multiple award-winner for his service (including for directing the US Government’s anti-HIV/AIDS efforts in Kenya), who previously served as American ambassador to Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Uganda.

                          

Really now – where does it end? You do your best to ensure a healthy and happy life for all your human family members, but then the inconvenient prospect pops up that the housecat may well be bonkers. Although it seems we have at least had canine psychiatric care covered here for a while now, at least according to one Sonja van Leeuwen quoted in the article, who states “. . . it is already quite normal to have your dog with behavioral problems treated, but for cats this is not really accepted yet.” Instead, too many cat-owners here (who among them own 3 million cats) still have to suffer from feline friends which become too aggressive, or which urinate inside the house as an expression of some problem they are trying to communicate. Or which expropriate the seat of the only family scooter and refuse to move from it.

Then again, perhaps Ms. Van Leeuwen has an interest in talking up the potential travails of cat-ownership, since she intends next year to start a new course in cat-behavior therapy, in cooperation with a local dog-training academy. If you’re interested, well, you’ll have to know Dutch, and then be ready to make yourself available over the year-and-a-half course – at Lelystad, in the relatively-new province of Flevoland – to attend a total of 43 lesson-days. You’ll get to know a lot about cats, of course, but you’ll also get some insights into human psychology as well since, as Ms. Van Leeuwen is at pains to note, “Many problems are caused or worsened by the owner.”

                          

OK, so on second thought maybe the example of Afghanistan has little to teach the US in the realm of health care after all. Indeed, the Americans (along with the Europeans, and the World Bank) are in fact the country’s medical paymasters. Nonetheless, an inspection may still be in order (to the extent hostile conditions within the country allow) of this nascent health structure that some do regard as “a minor miracle” because of the progress it has made. Reporter Rob Vreeken of the Netherlands’ De Volkskrant has taken on the challenge, in an account he entitles Come now, this isn’t Switzerland.

It may sound strange, but it’s true: it’s foreign NGOs that run health care in Afghanistan (including a couple – HealthNet, Cordaid – that are Dutch, which accounts for De Volkskrant’s local interest). To be sure, there’s a Ministry of Health in Kabul, and these NGOs all report to it quarterly, but its main function is that of coordinating everything according to the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) master-plan for setting up that health infrastructure that the Ministry completed in 2002. This BPHS establishes what seems to be a reasonable hierarchical national structure. At the bottom of the pyramid are the “health posts” in the far-flung Afghan villages, each serviced by two “community health workers” (CHWs) who should be one male, one female (preferably a married couple). These provide basic examination and medicines, as well as referrals up to the structure’s next layer, the “basic health centers” (BHCs) in the somewhat larger villages – still not proper hospitals, but better-equipped, and with more and better personnel, to provide more expert basic care. The pyramid continues up to even-larger institutions like the proper medical centers (for some reason abbreviated as “CHCs”) in the larger cities.

That’s the way the Afghan health system is structured, at least. Understandably, though, the BPHS still falls somewhat short in practice – even though according to Vreeken the Taliban generally respect the health workers and so leave them alone when they encounter them. Then again, one important reason for that is that, really by necessity, those workers are generally native Afghanis. Yes, it’s charity NGOs who are running things (generally deployed geographically by assigned provinces), but the foreigners are to be found mostly in the higher administrative ranks, i.e. back in Kabul, with their Afghani employees actually out in the countryside.

How Ya Gonna Bring Docs Down to the Farm . . .

Unfortunately, it is rather hard to get good people. Those CHWs, for one thing, almost always don’t know what they’re doing: they are only trained in a three-week course, and in fact they work for free. As one in-country observer (Lisa Aaen of the Danish Afghanistan Comité, another NGO) notes, often a CHW who is present, and thinks s/he knows what s/he is doing, can be worse than no one present at all. Native doctors are also scarce, and even the generous pay-bonuses made available seem to have no influence in attracting these out to work in the countryside – particularly not for the female doctors, but those are especially needed out there because no Muslim will ever let his female acquaintances be examined by a male stranger, no matter what. (This also explains the prescribed one-male, one-female quota for CHWs.) No, any Afghan with medical expertise somewhat understandably prefers to set up a private practice – mostly back in Kabul – and make big money treating only those who can pay.

In addition, Afghanistan is a big country, with an extremely primitive transportation infrastructure, often meaning that that referral for your serious medical case to the next level up in the medical hierarchy – located beyond that next ridge of mountains, say – had better not be urgent. On the medicines front, those are free up to a certain level of supply, namely that which the annual plan calculates will be required, yet that amount never turns out to be enough – or the distribution is wrong – so that soon patients are asked to pay for the drugs they need.

But still . . . well, this ain’t Switzerland we’re talking about here, anyway. For all the shortcomings, there is little doubt that the situation is certainly better than what was in place before the US/NATO intervention in the country starting in late 2001, particularly when it comes to sheer citizen access to some sort of care. Whether you want to call it even a “minor miracle” must first depend upon which numbers you come to trust. The government claims that 80% of the Afghan population now has access to medical care; Ms. Aaen of the Danish Afghanistan Comité, in view of her concern over the basic incompetence of the local CHWs, thinks that figure should be closer to 20%.