The blog to end all blogs. Reviews and comments about all and everything. This blog is NOT affiliated with YouTube, Wikipedia, Microsoft Bing, Gemini, ChatGPT or any commercial vendor! Links don´t imply endorsement. Many posts and comments are ironic. The blogger is not responsible for comments made by others. The languages used are English and Swedish. Content warning: Essentially everything.
So certain TV networks and artists want to exclude Israel from next year´s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) despite the fact that Israel and Hamas has agreed on a peace plan?! OK. And for how long should this boycott be in force, I wonder?
Note also that *literally nobody* want to exclude Azerbaijan from the ESC. Why not? Isn´t (Shia Muslim-majority) Azerbaijan (which hardly allows Pride marches) responsible for ethnically cleansing Christian Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh and then perpetually occupying the region?
Or is there something *very special* with Israel in particular? Hint, hint, hint. Note also the irony that Azerbaijan, as far as I know, haven´t threatened to boycott the ESC...
A short addendum to my blog post "Suspicions". It struck me that Russia has dumped two long-term allies in the Transcaucasus and the Middle East: Armenia and the Baathist regime in Syria. In return, they have gained new allies which are surely more fickle: Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Not sure if that´s the best Machiavellian power move. Sometimes, faithfulness pays.
Nämen, Wolfgang Hansson låter ju nästan som Romina Pourmokhtari här. Ovanligt realistisk artikel om det ganska så uppenbara bluffmötet i Baku nyligen. Och om klimatkrisen. Ja, så när som på en liten detalj. Hansson tror fortfarande att man faktiskt kan stoppa den på något sätt...
The Club of Rome (which apparently still exists) complains about the ongoing UN-sponsored climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. They argue that its been hijacked by lobbyists working for the fossil fuel industry. Which might even be true, who knows.
Sweden has decided to give 8 billion Swedish kronor to a global fund to fight climate change.
Meanwhile, Argentina has decided to withdraw from COP29 or whatever that UN conference in Baku is called. The Argentine president is apparently a climate change denialist or something.
Weird. I mean, Argentina is a Third World country. Don´t they want all those Swedish aid money? :P
You don´t have to be a climate denialist to realize that some of the points in this attack on COP29 are...well, true. Note also that the anti-fossil fuel conference is held in Azerbaijan, a nation that has a large fossil fuel industry!
From the first article:
>>>Somehow the climate movement is just fine with the world’s largest greenhouse gas polluter, China, doing little except mouthing some lip service at climate conferences and making money off other nations buying solar panels and electric vehicle batteries, markets China has completely cornered.
>>>China announced last year that it will exceed its Paris Agreement emissions goals by over 110 percent by 2030, and growing industrial powerhouse India has likewise ignored its “commitments” to reduce carbon emissions.
>>>China, India, and Russia are all founding members of BRICS, a rapidly-expanding economic bloc that openly declares its members will not make any sacrifices for climate change because they view it as purely a U.S. and European responsibility.
>>>China’s white-knuckled grip on green energy components might be loosened someday — assuming environmentalists are willing to stand by and allow other countries to dig up their rare earth minerals with enthusiasm approaching China’s — but that day will not be soon.
>>>China has enough power over the rare-earths market to keep competitors out by surging supply and cratering prices, which makes fabulously expensive mining start-ups look like bad risks.
From the second article (published in 2023):
>>>The report surveyed 20 countries that produce and consume the majority of the world’s fossil fuels, headed up by India and China. Both have rapidly growing industrial sectors and neither is interested in restraining their energy needs to appease climate activists, although China loves to talk about it while exhorting Western countries to make greater sacrifices, and it wholeheartedly favors growing the electric vehicle (EV) industry, which Beijing has under hammerlock control.
>>>China is already producing and burning peak amounts of coal, producing 57 percent of the world’s output and importing even more to fuel its energy appetite.
>>>The report gave China a great deal of credit for spending heavily on green energy and pledging to “achieve carbon neutrality before 2060,” without dwelling on how China’s feverish construction of new coal-burning power plants might call the sincerity of its climate promises into question. If China’s climate pledges are serious, then it is currently spending billions of dollars to build coal plants that it will stop using a year or two after they come online and spending billions more to stockpile mountains of coal that it will never use.
The climate change conferences continue their downward spiral, now in Azerbaijan, a nation mostly known for its oil industry. They have natural gas, too. Since the Azeri regime is authoritarian, the number of radical leftist protesters should be minimal.
The Taliban of Afghanistan participate at the conference as "observers". I suppose they could pitch their enormously large and untapped reserves of rare earth minerals as some kind of Green transition thing. Or they could just sell ice cream...
Two links to recent UN-related reports on climate change. Apparently, there will be some kind of UN climate conference in Baku next month. Since Azerbaijan is an authoritarian state, I don´t expect that many climate activist protesters in the street. Maybe they will be busy in DC against Trump, yes? But then, I don´t expect much action from the UN member-states either. I mean, what could that even *be* at this point?
Some key sections:
>>>Echoing the UN chief’s longstanding appeals, WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett told journalists that carbon dioxide(CO2) – one of the three main greenhouse gases, along with methane and nitrous oxide - is now accumulating in the atmosphere “faster than at any time experienced during human existence”. Because of the extremely long lifetime of CO2 in the atmosphere, “we are committed to rising temperatures for many, many years to come,” she added.
>>>Senior scientific officer at WMO, Oksana Tarasova, described last year’s wildfires in Canada as “absolutely dramatic” in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced. Today’s CO2 levels have not been seen “in the history of humanity”, she said. “The last time we see 400 parts per million of CO2 was three to five million years ago, and during that time, the temperature was three to four degrees warmer” and sea levels 10 to 20 metres higher.
>>>According to the report, the 1.5°C goal will be gone within a few years unless nations collectively commit to cut 42 per cent of annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 57 per cent by 2035 in the next round of nationally determined contributions and back this up with rapid action.
>>>Without dramatic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, the world could face an inevitable and catastrophic 3.1°C temperature rise, according to the report, which comes at a time when governments are failing to fully deliver on their promises.
Kanaker och fransmän har ju aldrig gillat varandra, men den senaste tidens våldsamheter på Nya Kaledonien verkar vara orsakade av Kina, Ryssland och Azerbaijan (sic).
Kina expanderar i Söderhavet. Ryssland expanderar på Frankrikes bekostnad i Västafrika. Och Azerbaijan är sura på Frankrikes stöd till Armenien. Eftersom Ryssland för närvarande har dåliga relationer med Armenien (annars en traditionell allierad), så kan man väl inte utesluta något slags rysk koppling även här.
Frankrikes president Macron har åtminstone retoriskt intagit en offensiv hållning i konflikten i Ukraina. Säkerligen p.g.a. de geopolitiska spänningarna med Ryssland. Kinas expansion i Stilla Havs-regionen kolliderar givetvis också med franska intressen. Har för mig att vissa småländer i regionen faktiskt varit pro-ryska tidigare, men jag antar att Kina är huvudaktören där.
Återstår att se om detta bara är en försöksballong, eller ett allvarligt menat försök att öppna en ny anti-västlig front från Rysslands och Kinas sida.
Some people demand that Israel be kicked out of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) due to the war in Gaza. You know, genocide, ethnic cleansing, that kind of stuff.
But there is *another* nation that could also be accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing by the same logic, which also participates in the ESC, and yet, almost nobody protests *its* participation.
I long wondered why on earth the United States tolerates Turkey´s and Hungary´s rather obvious attempts to bloc Swedish NATO membership. Which only plays into the hands of Russia, with which NATO is presently involved in a proxy war in Ukraine.
My best current guess is bureaucratic inertia. NATO coyly calculates that no NATO member-state will ever be attacked, cuz nuclear deterrent or something. And the United States can fix their own specific problems by going it alone. Proxy wars, targeted assassinations, that kind of stuff. So the apparatchiks might very well wheel and deal with the likes of Erdogan, cuz who cares? Fill in complaint about lucrative military-industrial complex contracts here! As for Hungary, well, read up on how the EU "works" sometimes (or, really, don´t).
All these applecarts were upset when Russia launched its full-scale unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Suddenly, Sweden and Finland wanted to join NATO. And the United States wanted them in. There is just one little problem. Yes, you´ve guessed it: Turkey (and their quasi-conquered little Hungarian vilayet). The old wheeling and dealing approach doesn´t work anymore. Instead, Erdogan´s notorious multi-vectoralism has pushed NATO further and further towards a split. The recent events in the Transcaucasus and now the Hamas pogroms in southern Israel may be the Rubicon. Turkey clearly doesn´t want to line up behind the United States and Israel (a "partner" to NATO). Suggesting they won´t clear Sweden for NATO membership this time around either.
Perhaps it´s time for the other NATO member-states to finally realize that geopolitical realities have changed. Yes, maybe it´s time to de-ratify Türkiye´s NATO membership? Make no mistake: it would be a huge blow to the alliance and its "southern flank". But the damage has already been done. In the long run, and maybe even in the short, NATO is better off without being blocked by a Putinversteher heading a quasi-Islamist autocracy with geopolitical goals clearly incompatible with those of the Western world.
What is the alternative? Regime change, perhaps. But that´s hardly on the table. Wheeling and dealing with the mercurial Erdogan if and when Putin decides to test NATO´s resolve by taking the Suwalki corridor or bomb some island off the Swedish coast?
It´s time for Erdogan to chose. Once and for all. Otherwise, we´re better off without a "southern flank" that for all intents and purposes may already have fallen...
The link below goes to a review of a German documentary on future wars I posted in 2021. Note the relevance for the present "discussion" on AI...and the war in Ukraine!
Turkey and Azerbaijan are notorious multi-vectoralists, trying to maintain good relations with both Russia and the West. With a certain pro-Russian slant. But where does that leave Armenia, one of Russia´s oldest allies in the region, but also an enemy of the Turks and Azeris?
According to this CNN report, Armenia has began doing some multi-vectoralist dance moves themselves...away from Putin and towards the West. Although it´s probably at the level of trial balloons at this stage, since Russia apparently still has a huge military base in the country!
Ukrainas moderna gränser är faktiskt en kommunistisk skapelse. Det gäller alla gamla sovjetrepubliker utom Estland, Lettland och Litauen. När Sovjetunionen upplöstes 1991 behöll de nya staterna de gamla sovjetrepublikernas gränser. Det kanske var den mest pragmatiska lösningen just då, men det orsakade även en hel del problem och konflikter. Områden med rysk befolkning hamnade plötsligt på "fel" sida nygamla gränser. Exempelvis de mångomtalade regionerna Krim, Donetsk och Luhansk. Något svenska liberaler såklart skiter i. Men ryssarna skiter inte i det.
Och inte armenierna heller...
Rötterna till konflikten om Nagorno-Karabach går också tillbaka till Sovjets upplösning. Under den sovjetiska tiden lydde Nagorno-Karabach under den azeriska sovjetrepubliken. Den nya staten Azerbaijan fick alltså behålla Nagorno-Karabach. Problemet är att en stor del av området har armenisk befolkning. De ville tillhöra Armenien. Det tyckte Armenien också. Och då blev det krig.
Naturligtvis gäller även det motsatta: områden där det knappt bor några ryssar hamnade i Ryssland. Ett välkänt exempel är Tjetjenien. Området ville bli självständigt, men eftersom Tjetjenien inte varit en "riktig" sovjetrepublik utan sorterat under den ryska sovjetrepubliken (RSFSR) var detta omöjligt. Tjetjenien fortsatte att vara under rysk kontroll även efter kommunismens fall. När Tjetjenien trots detta utropade sin självständighet, svarade Ryssland med att bomba området tillbaka till stenåldern.
Ovanstående är inte i sig självt ett argument för att ändra de nuvarande "sovjetiska" gränserna (även om det givetvis *kan* vara det). Det är likväl viktigt att känna till bakgrunden. Annars framstår man som ett korkat mähä som i stort sett inte fattar just någonting alls. Svenska reportrar verkar genuint förbryllade över att befolkningen i Donbass hälsade Putins erkännande av "folkrepublikerna" med att hissa ryska flaggor och smälla av fyrverkerier. De är fortfarande förvirrade över att i stort sett alla på Krim röstade för Rysslands annektering av halvön 2014. Men varför är det konstigt att ryssar vill tillhöra Ryssland? Det är väl inte konstigare än att ukrainare i allmänhet *inte* vill göra det. Eller balter. Eller tjetjener. Eller judar...
Jag tror att många förståsigpåare i Sverige fortfarande inte har förlikat sig med att de flesta i det forna östblocket faktiskt inte var goda västerländska liberaler (och absolut inte vänsterliberaler). De bara låtsades vara det så länge detta renderade dem stöd från västvärlden. I själva verket var de alltid i grunden auktoritära nationalister, religiösa konservativa, eller rena skurkar. De gillade inte judar heller. Jag är fortfarande uppriktigt förvånad över att Zelenskyj kunde bli vald till Ukrainas president. De anti-semitiska traditionerna i Ukraina har länge varit ungefär lika militanta som i Ryssland. (Zelenskyj är alltså jude.)
Jag undrar vad som händer när den svenska medieeliten inser att ukrainarna faktiskt inte är homosexliberala Femen-aktivister med drömmar om att bli konsulter i Wärdegrund på TikTok, utan i allmänhet är grekisk-katoliker med en märklig fixering vid "språket" (ja, detta märkliga "språk" som underligt nog har något med nationell identitet att göra, tänka sig). Förmodligen händer just ingenting alls, eftersom de fortfarande inte kommer att gilla Putte. Vilket jag inte tenderar att göra heller. Fast bakom kulisserna kan moralpaniken ju bli riktigt, riktigt intressant...
"The future of modern warfare" is one of the scariest documentaries I´ve ever seen. I somehow assumed, a bit cynically to be sure, that the existence of nuclear weapons made world war *less* likely, indeed, almost impossible. This production, made by the German public broadcaster DW but with most content in English, shows how a nuclear war can start anyway. The reason? IT. Or more precisely, cyber attacks...
Apparently, many of NATO´s early warning systems against Russian nuclear missiles are vulnerable, since they use digital signals rather than the good old analogous ones. Digital technology can be hacked. Indeed, in a world where everything and everyone is hacked on a daily basis by both state and private actors, it´s difficult to see a situation in which military systems would somehow be exempted from this. Further, the early warning systems are often "multi-task", and are used to track both nuclear and conventional missiles. This means that Russia has a vested interest in hacking them even if they *don´t* intend to start a nuclear war, a move that would then be interpreted by the United States as a preparation for exactly such a war! Thus, an escalation of cyber hostilites between the superpowers could potentially lead to a nuclear conflagration, as both sides misinterpret the purpose of the other side´s actions...
Another thing that could transform the battlefields of the future are "autonomous systems", weapons based on Artificial Intelligence that can operate on their own, without any human guiding them. One example is called "loitering munitions", really a kind of weaponized drones that can fly around autonomously for hours after launch ("loiter"), scanning a wide area for targets, and then destroy it by essentially flying right at it, hence their nickname "kamikaze drones". Israel is a leading manufacturer of this technology, and it was used by Azerbaijan in its recent war against Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The documentary shows some pretty absurd Azeri propaganda clips showing this deadly weapon. Even more problematic are "swarms", i.e. swarms of drones used to confuse or attack the air defence systems of the enemy. Swarms can only be fought by other swarms, and will therefore lead to a new arms race. Since the swarming drones are autonomous, we might even get a situation in which a war escalates with no human imput whatever! This is known as a "flash war".
Like cyber attacks, drone development is virtually impossible to stop, since drone technology and AI also have a host of civilian applications. Another thing making arms control extremely difficult is that these new weapon systems are "software" rather than "hardware". It´s one thing to control physical missiles, quite another to regulate the programming capabilities of the enemy. The great powers are reluctant to get onboard any control measures. For instance, China opposes "use" of these killer robots, but not their development.
One thing never explained in "The future of modern warfare" is where the microchips come from. I assume drones have such? Is this state of the art technology just as dependent on Taiwan as the mobile phone or computer industries? If so, what happens if China takes Taiwan? Also, can terrorist groups or even individuals somehow get their hands on these drones, and if so, can they learn how to use them? Private actors can certainly learn how to hack sensitive systems...
As usual, I tend to become "philosophical" when watching stuff like this. Since our problems seem downright impossible to solve, what in heaven´s name are we supposed to *learn* from our human-earthly existence? That the material world really, truly sucks? OK, message recieved.
If DW is right, I wouldn´t be too surprised if a nuclear war (á la Dr Strangelove) might take place at some point during the 21st century. Perhaps even within my lifetime...
The diversity of the Alt Right is truly stunning. I´m beginning to suspect that the Alt Right is more diverse than the liberals at this point. I mean, the main representatives of the Alt Right are: an Azerbaijani immigrant from Iran, Barack Obama´s Kenyan brother, a White supremacist claiming to be an American Indian, another supposed White supremacist who works with Jews, gays and Sikhs, a pro-Muslim Serbian-American Jew, a Catholic Jewish homosexual poser with a Black boy friend, a Green frog, and a 14-year old girl who is really a boy (the latest addition to the Alt-bouquet). Hmmm... Somehow, I suspect that this is a transitional phase we´re going through, and that the real beast, if and when it comes, will really be blonde! A blonde female, perhaps? :P
I dissed the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 pretty
badly. My first reaction on hearing the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was:
Eurovision Song Contest 2010, come back, all is forgiven!
Happily, most of the dead dross was voted out already during the semi-finales.
The finale was therefore relatively tolerable. Besides, I'm partial to Irish
twins on met, Moldovans in dunce caps, Ukrainian "sand artists" and
Georgian metal freaks who desperately attempt to mimic the Devil himself. And,
of course, Stefan Raab! (What drug *he* was on, is open to some speculation.)
My only regret is that Belarus didn't make it to the finale. Their song,
complete with balalaikas, was actually called "I love Belarus". And
yes, Belarus is the last Communist regime in Europe. According to
counter-revolutionary sources, the song was originally titled "I was born
in Byelorussian ASSR". But perhaps that is just SMOT propaganda?
This CD contains all the participating songs, including the dead dross, the
living dodos and...Belarus. As usual, however, the ESC should really be watched
live. It never *really* works on a CD.
I have a pretty varied taste in music, so my favourites this year included
Finland, Russia, Azerbaijan, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Hungary, Germany and
France (Corsican opera!). Entertainment value only: Moldova. And, of course,
Byelorussian USSR. Incidentally, my co-workers had pretty strange favourites,
including the black metal dodo from Georgia!
The biggest disappointment was the British entry. Superstars who can't sing?!
But then, I suppose *really* successful bands are used to playback. In the ESC,
you have to sing live...
After a dramatic round of voting, Azerbaijan won the contest. Next year, the
ESC will therefore be organized in Baku (rather than in Minsk)!
All in all, not a bad show. But, as I said, it really should be devoured live
on TV, or at a DVD player near you.
_(cropped).jpg)
_warriors_posing_with_penis_gourds_and_spears%2C_New_Caledonia.jpg)
_01_cropped.jpg)
.jpg)