Crimes by humanity, against humanity

(Disclaimer: This post may contain optimism due to the interest I personally have in this subject)

February 26th, 2007 – It has been nearly twelve years since the massacre of Srebrenica in 1995 that made just under twenty thousand victims in just under a month. The International criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) determined a few years back that this episode constituted an act of genocide on the part of the Belgrade government at the time under Slobodan Milosevic. Along with this last head of state, which regretfully died before his trial ended, such characters as Ratko Mladic (General in charge of the Srebrenica incident) as well as Radovan Karadzic (Bosnian Serb leader) have been mandated to appear in court at The Hague, Belgium. These last two are still on the run, rumoured to be hidden by the Serbian Orthodox Church as well as by the Serbian and Montenegrin police forces. The European Union has said that Serbia and Montenegro will have to hand over these two as well as other «war criminals» before their candidacy can be taken seriously.

A second party was also being judged in The Hague until today, the Serbian and Montenegrin people. It definitely is a much more controversial subject as well as a very vague one to judge. The ICTY "ruled that Serbia and Montenegro had violated the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide by not preventing or punishing the perpetrators of the genocide" (BBC News Service) in accordance to the Geneva Convention. Despite these findings, the Serbian and Montenegrin people as a whole were found innocent of the Bosnian/Muslim genocide of 1995.

The verdict has two important, direct consequences; firstly, the Serbian and Montenegrin peoples will not have to ‘do time’ by apologising and carrying this burden of internationally recognised guilt for decades if not centuries. Secondly, the Serbian and Montenegrin peoples/gouvernments can not be dragged in front of international tribunals by Bosnian/Muslim class-action suits that aim financial restitution. A very important, indirect consequence of the verdict is the improvement of diplomatic relations between Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as between Serbia and Croatia who were also invaded by the Serbian army (APY) in 1992.

Inevitably, this week’s historical link is with the condemning of the German and Austrian people following the First and Second World Wars. The Germanic populations of Europe carry the burden of Wilhelm II’s aggression in 1914 and the Nazi Regime/holocaust of 1938-1944. They have collectively been found guilty in various treaties of not preventing certain atrocities that have lead to over a hundred-million deaths. I am certainly an advocate for nuancing this accusation of ultimate responsibility, we could likely make a case for the non-intervention of France under Daladier and Great-Britain under Chamberlain when they simply sat by (and even signed a treaty in Munich) and allow Hitler to invade and take control of Czechoslovakia in 1938. It is certainly a thing of the past on which we cannot come back on by the touchiness of the subject. Nevertheless, the financial and especially moral burden that Germany carries is still visible decades later as is demonstrated when the German chancellor apologised to the Jewish people of the world and when all Nazi or extreme-right activities and merchandise is explicitly illegal.

Responsibility lies with the aggressor and with provokers but I believe that generalised responsibility should not be carried indefinitely by people that were present without participation as well as by their children and their grand-children. Reconstruction and reconciliation in the Balkans must go through a time-demanding process of forgiveness and cooperation, as Germany and Austria went through, to resolve the loose ends of the destructive wars (1992-2001) across the peninsula.

(Pictured: The current German flag with its crest)

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a cure, A CURE!

Last week, a Canadian laboratory mapped out the genetic components and structure of type two diabetes. This debilitating and widespread condition is caused by a genetic defect causing insulin resistance; it is the fastest spreading type of diabetes and the CDC (center for disease control) are characterising the increase as an epidemic. Merely 5 years after scientists have finished mapping the human genome, a medical revolution is nearing. With this discovery and other experimental trials, such as an AIDS vaccine that is being tested on thousands of Africans, we are on the verge of seriously altering our way of life.

Medical breakthroughs and eradication of widespread diseases such as Cancer, AIDS, Tuberculosis and general heart disease, will have massively important consequences such as the considerable extension of lifespan.

In late eighteenth century France, England and Germany, the removal of flowing sewage in the streets by creating underground networks of pipelines greatly improved the general hygiene of the metropolitan populations. The British parliament could not hold session anymore because the scent from the Thames River was so overpowering and nauseating. It was said in the early nineteenth century, that Berlin could be smelled from 10 Km away. The improvement reduced the virulence and prevalence of infectious diseases (Plague notably) that had decimated European urban centers in the past centuries. Consequently, the life expectancy from the 1800s to the 1960s almost tripled in Western Europe and North America.

Without exaggerating, I believe we could expect a similar process by eliminating the diseases that plague this early 21st century. A dramatic increase in life spans, let's say from 80 to 130 would call for the rethinking of every infrastructure of the known world, may it be political, economic, social or even cultural. The reason why an American president must be 35 to hold office is because when this rule was instated, 35 was above middle-aged. New rules would be applied, despots would rule for decades upon decades, economic progress would have to be measured in a different way and social support programs would have to be readjusted.

Another consequence of hygiene and medical breakthroughs in renaissance and industrial Europe was the development of a strong middle class. Today, the possibility of working more years or spending more years in college represents the possibility of social mobility where there was formerly a very strict hierarchy. The working class could create a larger capitalist bourgeoisie but this in no turn guarantees a positive outcome for the lower classes and the ultimately poor. New legislation caused by these breakthroughs would assuredly keep the poor at their helpless level and increase the riches of the upper echelons. This is (unfortunately or not) how a capitalist economy works and a revolution in this field, as the French revolutionaries tried in the 1790s or the soviets tried in 1917, is foolish without much theoretical study and, more importantly, more practical application studies.

Perhaps I am presenting this in a futuristic or Orwellian perspective but we must be realistic, a medical revolution in today's world will overturn all our preconceived notions of society. In accordance with Maslow's pyramid of human needs, when our basic fears and preoccupations with health will be lessened or eradicated, society will move up and worry about less primal things. Who knows, maybe more people will realise that they are a spec in the timeline and that by working and limiting themselves to a dead-end job, they are simply waiting to pass into oblivion. Maybe the next, healthy generation will get involved with their increased free time.

(Pictured: Sewers - DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid strands)

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''Glastnost'' or Transparency

February 10th, 2007 – This weekend, the 43rd Munich conference on security policy was held in the Bavarian capital. At this particular event in the past, US secretary of state Donald Rumsfeld was the person who stole the show and indeed inspired reluctance and indignation from the other delegates. This time around, Russian president Vladimir Putin was the pundit everyone would be talking about.

In what some are calling a declaration for a new cold war and others are calling a burst of steam from a frustrated and once powerful country, president Putin accused the United States of establishing a "uni-polar" world. He announced "The United States has overstepped its borders in all spheres - economic, political and humanitarian, and has imposed itself on other states," (BBC News service, 11/02/2007), he went on to deplore the wars that the US get have been involved in and have then left for another before the work is done.

One could very well agree with Vladimir that the United-States constitute the one and only superpower in the world, until the sleeping dragon (China) awakens. Also, since the last cold war ended on Christmas of 1991, the American gouvernment has been involved in all matters of international and civil conflicts (Croatia in 1992, Bosnia & Herzegovina from 1993-1995, Kosovo in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001-2003 and Iraq from 2003 to today). Nevertheless, the "infrastructure of global security" as Mr. Putin called it needs cooperation and diplomacy rather than resentment and demagogy.

Previous Russian and soviet heads of state have made similar speeches on the superiority of the United-States as a threat and provocation against the free and democratic world. Stalin, Khrushchev, Brejnev, Andropov and Gorbatchev to a lesser extent, have feared for the state of international cooperation in the face of the growing nuclear, imperialist and capitalist threat personified by the Americans.

For me, Putin’s speech, like the ones of his predecessors have very little weight coming from a country where liberty and democracy are not only novelties but also things that are limited and controlled. At the conference, Senator John McCain echoed this sentiment by affirming that it was rather an autocratic Russia that needed to change its behaviour, obviously referring to the constant sale of military equipment and technology to Iran as well as the violent repressing of nationalist minorities in the Russian federation (Ossetia, Chechnya…).

In 1962, the U.S.S.R head of the communist party, Nikita Khrushchev, made similar concerns known about President Kennedy’s involvement in African and Asian affairs. He was calling attention to the hegemony of intricate alliances that the Americans were making internationally. At the very same time, Khrushchev was installing ballistic missiles in Cuba and encouraging, financially and militarily, newborn or developing communist dictatorships in Zaire and in South-East Asia.

Without dismissing the Russian claim at the 2007 security conference, the heads of state for that country have an unfortunately well documented history of a pot calling the kettle black.

(Pictured: Gorbatchev and Kennedy, during the Cuban missile crisis - Vladimir Putin at the conference saying hmmmm.)

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Bread and games...and chili and beer

February 3rd, 2007 - What a great event is the superbowl. While considering the never-ending pregame, the food, the party, the booze, the friends, the commercials, the half-time show, the cheerleaders and the shear force of mass gathering around a single event, one almost forgets about the football. Although most of the half-time shows have been mediocre since the early nineties, the other ''accessories'' that garnish the superbowl Sunday every year have an interesting sociological aspect. For a whole day, we will forget wars, famines, diseases, bad jobs, bad relationships and an inevitable hangover (all of this, of course, given enough booze and excitement) to gather around the stadium or boob tube and watch a little football.

I am not going to defend the core game of the extravaganza because, for the past few decades, the game has usually been quite long and without any tumultuous variations in score. Different teams make it every year and therefore real dynasty can be rooted for anymore (not since the Cowboys and Dolphins).

This power to congregate, assemble and reconciliate, if only for a day, could possible take strong root in the Roman republic. Senates, Consuls and Dictators of the Palatine hill would announce ''bread and games'' for a set number of days. These were shamelessly made to help the population forget about a stagnating civil war, a costly victory against Samnites, Etruscans, Carthaginians or Hannibal himself, a brewing situation of social inequality and unrest and/or a general climate of fear caused by the ever-impending doom that the Gauls could bring from the Alps. The priority was shifted towards having a good time in a world where work and war was the daily meal. Shameless as it might have been, the break (and bread) was welcomed. The spectacle escalated to ridiculous heights with the filling of the coliseum with water for a staged naval battle and the later participation and wounding of an Emperor in a gladiator fight (Imagine the scope of pottery, wheat and slave commercials).

Today's world proposes millions more of life's intricacies and preoccupations as well as millions of nuances for these. To be able to stop and laugh at a dissonant combo of raggedy Steve Tyler from Aerosmith, incoherent Axel Rose from Gun's and Roses and a stumbling Keith Richards from the Rolling stones at a halftime show is the reason why living in the twentieth century is so great. A Christian/lion fest would also be great but we will make due with the football.

(Pictured: Roman gladiators)

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«Reasonable» accommodations

Dec-Jan 2006-2007 - North America is currently experiencing a wave of, what can only be described as, excessive tolerance. Seattle (9th of December, 2006), Christmas trees at Tacoma-Seattle airport had to be brought down after a rabbi deplored the Christian connotation of the tree and therefore the anti-Semitic double-entendre of the symbol. Further measures in Canada have allowed and tolerated the carrying of the Sikh kirpan (small knife) in schools as well as the circumvention of parking laws for Jewish people on Saturdays (Jewish Sabbath) and the clouding of fitness club windows to hide the sweaty women from the Hassidic Jews.

I must now establish that racism, sexism and all forms of senseless discrimination based solely on race, colour or sexual orientation not only disgust me but also bore me greatly by their irrelevance and conterproductivity. This blog entry is not a commentary against immigration but rather on the accommodations we must concede while in our own home.

In the fourth century BC, Alexander the Great imposed such measures of «reasonable» accommodations on his world empire. His Greek and Macedonian soldiers (and mercenaries) were forced to marry Indian and Persian women ''for the Empire'' when most of them had wives and children back home. Furthermore, Persian cities were forced to teach and learn Greek art, theatre and philosophy. Finally, the Greek people were forced to bow down to Alexander as sovereign (concept of proskynesis) as the Persians did with their previous masters, this the Greeks and Macedonians would only do towards a god and never a mortal. These measures first annoyed and then angered the indigenous people of the western and eastern worlds. By making concessions in this way, Alexander III of Macedon disrupted the cultural continuity of the Middle-East and compromised his home supporters in Greece. At his death in 323 BC, he was not a beloved emperor and a schism was soon to rupture the world empire into dozens of kingdoms and fiefdoms from Epirus and Macedonia on the Adriatic to Bactria and Sogdia in today's Pakistan. the next 300 years of succession wars would destroy the uniform cohesion he tried to accomplish. Some cultural and social differences were obviously not meant to clash.

By imposing small restrictions in the liberty of citizens to benefit others, an imbalance of privileges is created and in the long run, there is no winner. It has simply created a precedent to bypass certain laws and restrict certain liberties. This also creates a climate of xenophobia that can already be ascertained in certain small cities of Canada that have drafted «cultural living standards» to inform immigrants of local custom.

We must not sacrifice civil peace and cooperation through the use of these ''accommodations'' for the sake of social comfort and the respect of our customs. My girlfriend, for example, would never wear a tank top while on vacation in Lebanon, but would wear whatever she wished in her home town.

(Pictured: Pompei depiction of Alexander the Great - A holiday tree)

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