Posts, February 2003:

Krekar. Death tastes good.: Aftenposten asks a social anthropologist and a brand builder why Mullah Krekar is doing so well in the Norwegian media. Unni Wikan, social anthropologist and Islam expert: This is to cry and laugh over. My first thought is to quote [...]

But he didn't inhale: Mullah Krekar has repeatedly denied any connections between Ansar al-Islam and al-Qaeda. He has denied ever meeting Osama bin Laden. There are good reasons to doubt the first, and the second is a lie. According to VG, Krekar did meet [...]

Lars, Carl and Pia: Markku Nordstrom writes in a comment: I must confess I'm quite unfamiliar with the changing party demographics of the rest of the Nordic countries, outside of Finland. The Progressive Party of Carl I. Hagen sounds very interesting. I don't think [...]

Condition Anemic: I think I've made a right choice in supporting the Progress Party. To me, this is not about one party having captured the ideal of a good society. It's about making short-term choices about which currently available political force is [...]

Blessed with oil, crushed by Saddam: Would a major Norwegian newspaper print a daily column by Saddam Hussein? To show us what life really is like behind the scenes in a totalitarian state? Of course not. Hussein's a dictator and a liar, and no self-respecting newspaper [...]

Let my mullah go: The Norwegian Government has decided to have Mullah Krekar expelled. Minister of Justice Erna Solberg (already dubbed iron-Erna by Nettavisen) announced today that Krekar's involvment with wacko-fundamentalists makes him a threat to state security. "Ansar al-Islam is an armed Islamic, [...]

Not in our time: Some of the clearest opposition to war in Norway has come from Christian leaders, who argue against the war on principled neo-pacifist grounds: Saddam is evil, but war far more. As bishop Rosemarie Köhn puts it, I'm against war. I [...]

The city fathers of Carthage: I bought a book on the Falklands war on my way to see the anti-war protest in Oslo today, something to calm my hawkish nerves with if everyone started to sing Kumbayah. The police have estimated a crowd of 60 [...]

The Oslo Syndrome: Mullah Krekar has confirmed that his Ansar al-Islam really was behind the murder of the PUK Parliamentarian Shawkat Hajji-Mushir. Not that there were much doubt, but Krekar's word carries a lot of weight in Norway these days. Krekar justified the [...]

A Farewell to Ev's: I've switched the blog from Blogger to Movable Type. Being a techie, I can only assume that everyone else is as interested in the technical details of changing ones blog software as I am. So I wrote a 4000 word [...]

See no evil, fear no evil: Gill Doyle wonders why this story about Ansar al-Islam's assasination of Shawkat Hajji Mushir, a prominent PUK member, and several other people, haven't made big news in Norway. It's been briefly mentioned as a regular foreign news item, (and only [...]

Yellow vs True Blue: Bruce Bawer has made a map over yellow vs blue Europe, "old" vs "new", based on official statements of support/opposition to an Iraq war. Doesn't look all that united behind Schröder and Chirac to me. I'm not sure about coloring [...]

Eamonn Fitzgerald: Our tour of Euroblogs worth reading brings us to Eamonn Fitzgerald in Munich, who reports from Rumsfeld's visit to Munich. Looking today at such signs today in Munich, I was struck by the sheer absurdity of the pro-Saddam apologists. They [...]

Hazardous punditry: I'm still recovering from the attempt I made yesterday to sum up, as promised, the Norwegian punditry's response to Powell's UN speech. I fractured my leg in two places when Nettavisen referred to Powell as Powellpoint, and received a light [...]

Powell's evidence: Norwegian reactions to Powell's presentation to the Security Council today, on how Iraq violates resolution 1441: Foreign Minister Jan Petersen calls it "thorough and detailed" and "impossible to overlook". The always optimistic leader of the Conservative Party is still afraid [...]

Chicago and Finland: Reader Hans Ze Beeman (is that a real name? I'm suspicious about the ze, but who am I to complain), recommends Chicago Boyz, another good blog with eyes on Germany and Europe. Also: If you're curious about the language situation [...]

Lethal bullets: I mentioned a minor scandal here over the export of MK 211 bullets to the US military. Apparently, these bullets are quite dangerous - even lethal. Captain J. M. Heinrichs explains: This is from memory. 1. The prohibition against explosive [...]

Language and culture: Tobias Schwarz has an interesting reply to my post about language, culture and blogging. He agrees with some of it, but I don't believe linguistic protectionism carries the day when it comes to explaining the absence of political blogs from, [...]