Witnessing history

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Robert Hopkins was a US Army photographer assigned to make a pictorial record of the 1943 Yalta conference between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin which sealed the fate of Eastern Europe (and of a lot else besides). He’s published a riveting account of the event, larded with intimate details and some of his pictures.

This is not a piece about high politics, but about the daily life that goes on in the background and yields clues to the personalities involved — FDR in a jeep which has been made presentable by the addition of oriental rugs; or two maids making up the President’s bed. A five-hour drive over cratered roads to get from the aerodrome at Saki in the Crimea to the Livadia Palace — with the entire 90-mile route lined by Russian troops, each one in sight of the next. Bedbugs everywhere. Piles of caviare — but no decent food — for breakfast. FDR made Stalin a Martini but remarked that he couldn’t add a twist of lemon because he didn’t have any. The next morning, a lemon tree appeared. Stalin had had one flown in from Georgia overnight. Unforgettable.

Go on. Be an idiot.

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A lot of general promotional advertising is daft, but the campaign run by Accenture, the big consulting firm, is completely bonkers. It features Tiger Woods, who may be a great golfer (though now past his best) but is not widely known for consulting services.

I’m looking at two pages in last week’s Financial Times Magazine. The first shows him hacking his way out of what appears to be ferocious rough. The slogan reads “Never be intimidated. Go on. Be a tiger”. The back page of the mag shows Tiger bending down to consider a putt. Slogan reads: “Waiting for local conditions is rarely an option. Go on. Be a tiger”. What, pray, has this to do with anything? And who gets paid to produce this garbage?

Interesting fact #2354: Accenture (in itself a daft name, produced by corporate brainstorming) emerged from the wreckage of an earlier international firm, Andersen Consulting.

Interesting fact #2355: the current CEO of Accenture is one Joe W. Forehand. Maybe he will drop Tiger in favour of a leading tennis player. At least they could then talk about ‘forehand drive’.

The Iraqi quagmire

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It may not be top of the news agenda any more, but the situation in Iraq is terrible. This week’s Economist has a sobering Special Report. Here’s an extract on how the home-grown Iraqi security forces (on which the Bush Administration bases its fantasies about early withdrawal) are faring:

A recent night-time raid with Iraqi soldiers and police commandos in Khalis, a mostly Sunni district north of Baghdad, illustrated both progress and shortcomings. The Iraqi officers were stirred to issue orders to move only on learning that their American mentors—part of a new scheme to embed 10,000 American troops in the ISF—were on the way. The orders then sparked terror in the ranks. Soldiers asked to be excused from the mission, complaining of sore limbs or faulty weapons. Many took sedatives, which Iraqi troops use to control their panic. “Better they take drugs than run away,” an Iraqi officer explained. “Most of these guys haven’t had much military experience or training and the insurgents are ferocious.”

Having encircled the first target-house, the stoned warriors charged, firing their Kalashnikov assault rifles into the night sky. Inside the house, they grabbed two youths and shot a third in the shoulder as he tried to escape. They then ransacked every room, found a video camera and several cassettes and threatened the prisoners with summary execution. The youths admitted to having filmed insurgent attacks. Both were soldiers of the old regime and former residents of Fallujah. The injured prisoner received no medical attention as the ISF rampaged on to the next target.

It gets worse…

No wonder they were scared. The past two months have seen a staggering explosion in violence, even by Iraq’s standards. Over 1,000 people have been killed, mostly by some 160 suicide bombers. On June 14th, a suicide bomber killed 22 people and injured more than 80 in Kirkuk, an oil-rich city disputed between Kurds and Arabs. Throughout this week, dozens of bodies of soldiers and government contractors were found littered across western Iraq, most of them shot in the head.

So much for the notion that Iraq’s elections in January had quelled the insurgency—a delusion to which some American officials are still prone. “I think everyone understands that it’s getting better every day,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Gibler last week in Mosul, which was hit by over 30 suicide bombers in April and early May. “Of course, every nation that’s got IEDs [improvised explosive devices] and drive-by shootings and suicide bombers has definitely got some security issues, and this country has got those. But we’re working to change that.” The colonel received a phone call minutes later, informing him that four of his men had been injured by a suicide bomber.

There’s no way out. If the Americans pull out (as Bush and Co would like to do), the country will rapidly degenerate into worse violence. If they stay, the only way to make progress is to pour in yet more troops. That’s my definition of a quagmire.

Africa and the G8

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The G8 plan to save Africa comes with conditions that make it little more than an extortion racket.

Thus George Monbiot, writing in the Guardian.

Good piece, by a writer who, like yours truly, chokes on the notion of Blair & Co as ministering angels to the world’s poor.

eBay digs deeper

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Healey’s First Law of Holes: when you’re in one, stop digging. Advice lost on eBay’s management, which has discovered that dealing with St Bob Geldof is not at all like handling Wall Street.

Yesterday, St Bob attacked eBay because people were selling Live 8 concert tickets on it for vast sums. eBay replied primly that the sellers were doing nothing illegal. Geldof then called for people to put in “impossible bids” to frustrate the sellers. Some conscientious folks obliged, putting in bids like £10 million. Now they discover that they have been blacklisted by eBay — at the same time that eBay has decided to ban the hitherto “perfectly legal” ticket auctions.

That free market Africa needs so badly

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Well, well. Some folks who won tickets for the Live 8 concert have been auctioning them on eBay. Tut, tut. Terrible thing, capitalism — though of course just what Africa needs, according to Western finance ministers.

Meanwhile, St. Bob Geldof is not amused.

Geldof demanded the immediate removal of tickets being sold on the site.

He said: “I am sick with this. It is a disgrace. It is completely against the interests of the poor.

“The people who are selling these tickets on websites are miserable wretches who are capitalising on people’s misery. I am appealing to their sense of decency to stop this disgusting greed.”

An eBay spokeswoman said: “We have offered to make a donation to the Live 8 organisers at least equivalent to the fees we collect from the sale of Live 8 tickets.”

Microsoft deletes ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ in China

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From a Register story:

Microsoft has bowed to Beijing’s political censors and has banned the use of the words “freedom” and “democracy” on some areas of its Chinese internet portal, along with a host of other politically sensitive words such as “Taiwan independence” and “demonstration”.

According to the Financial Times, portal operators have imposed the restriction on the names users give their blogs, although the words can still be used within blog’s text. Users who try to use the offensive terminology are met with error messages informing them that they have used “forbidden speech”, which they are asked to delete from the item.

Microsoft’s statement on ‘Corporate Citizenship’ says:

Microsoft is committed to being a responsible industry partner. We work with businesses, communities, and governments to help advance social and economic well–being, and to enable people around the world to realize their full potential.

Er, except, it seems, in China.

Apple goes for ‘Intel inside’

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From this morning’s Observer column.

Here’s one way of looking at it. Apple’s position in the PC industry is very like that of BMW in the car business: small market share; innovative and much-admired products; and a fanatically loyal customer base. I don’t think I ever met a BMW driver who would willingly change to another marque. And much the same goes for Apple users. For these reasons, the rest of the automobile industry is perpetually fascinated by everything that BMW does. Same goes for Apple. In those terms, the processor decision is analogous to BMW deciding that instead of having its engines made by, say, Mercedes, it would henceforth get them from Ford. And that would be big news in the car business.

Thinking ahead

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I’ve just received a most helpful letter from the government’s ‘Retirement Pension Forecasting Team’. “Dear Mr Naughton”, they write,

have you thought about how much money you will have when you retire?

Er, no, not really.

We are writing to tell you how much State Pension you may get when you reach State Pension age. The State Pension will give you a start. However, to have the lifestyle you want, you might need to think about saving some more, working longer or retiring later.

[Hmm…, how do those last two options differ?] Then they get to the nub of the matter. Apparently my forecast State Pension is £85.98 a week. After tax, that should be enough to keep me in cigars. Why, I feel better already.

En passant, I can’t abide people who have lifestyles. They are the sort who aspire to hot tubs, en-suite bathrooms and — God help us — patio heaters.