xer-files
Sunday, December 24, 2006
For the record: Streamtime = down
Anyone trying to get to http://streamtime.org,
it's happening again: the site is down.
However, my best wishes to you all!
(and i just admit, in these days i always feel a slight preference for atheists ;)
Image taken from: Monty Python's completely useless website
UPDATE - 29/12/06:
Streamtime is still down, but do read the Iraqi blogs!
Like a lovely Xmas story, written by The Iraqi Roulette:
Or Riverbend's post:
Or i fish a bit around in some commentsections to read under Treasure of Baghdad's last post:
¶ Sunday, December 24, 2006 3 Comments
Anyone trying to get to http://streamtime.org,
it's happening again: the site is down.
However, my best wishes to you all!
(and i just admit, in these days i always feel a slight preference for atheists ;)
Image taken from: Monty Python's completely useless website
UPDATE - 29/12/06:
Streamtime is still down, but do read the Iraqi blogs!
Like a lovely Xmas story, written by The Iraqi Roulette:
"Rudolph the old reindeer, Santa's faithful companion was fooling around hanging all sorts of colored ornaments and light bulbs on his horns.
- 'I have finished!, I give up, I can’t find anything wrong' said Santa looking through his golden rimmed spectacles at Rudolph, who was in a great mess with all the wires tangled around him.
- You say that every darn year, then somehow we always end up breaking someone's heart. By the way, are you going to Iraq this year?
Or Riverbend's post:
"This last year especially has been a turning point. Nearly every Iraqi has lost so much. So much. There's no way to describe the loss we've experienced with this war and occupation. There are no words to relay the feelings that come with the knowledge that daily almost 40 corpses are found in different states of decay and mutilation. There is no compensation for the dense, black cloud of fear that hangs over the head of every Iraqi. Fear of things so out of ones hands, it borders on the ridiculous- like whether your name is 'too Sunni' or 'too Shia'. Fear of the larger things- like the Americans in the tank, the police patrolling your area in black bandanas and green banners, and the Iraqi soldiers wearing black masks at the checkpoint.
Again, I can't help but ask myself why this was all done?
Or i fish a bit around in some commentsections to read under Treasure of Baghdad's last post:
"Saddam's execution? But who the hell decided on that? In what kind of upside down world r we living? Did this man's crimes end ONLY in the Dujail & Anfal cases? How about the millions of Iraqis died during the 40 years of his Baath ideology? How about the double invasions of Iran & Kuwait? How about the orders of executions & oppression he made during the 1991 rebellions? How about the numerous cases of corruption he started within & without Iraq? How about the secrets of his rise to power or of his life as a CIA/MI5-6 agent? & the secrets of his execution of his comrades in 1979? How about the millions he scoundered here & there? Last how about the secrets he knows of the American support to his regime or to others during all his lifetime?
How.. & how.. & how... & many other endless hows. "
¶ Sunday, December 24, 2006 3 Comments
Friday, December 15, 2006
The beginning of a reconstituting of sovereignty
Denationalized states and global assemblages
Saskia Sassen: -- There is a revolutionary clause in all the new constitutions framed in the 1990s - Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, South Africa, the central European countries, and some others. It has gotten very little attention, which surprises me. It says that the sovereign (the state, in the language of international law) even if democratically elected cannot presume to be the exclusive representative of its people in international fora.
What lies behind this is the claim making (back to my informal politics) by a variety of groups that do not want to be merged into some sort of collective identity represented by the state.
We can think of first-nation peoples, minoritized citizens of all sorts, new types of feminisms that are transnational, political dissenters, and probably all kinds of other actors now in the making, as we speak.
This clause is revolutionary in that it goes beyond, indeed, contests, the major achievement of the French and American revolutions, which was to posit that the people are the sovereign and the sovereign is the people. The achievement of these earlier revolutions was to eliminate the distance between the people and a putatively divine sovereign (state).
This signals for me the beginning of a reconstituting of sovereignty.
With the notion of denationalization I try to capture and make visible a mix of dynamics that is also altering sovereignty but is doing so from the inside out, and on the ground, so to speak - the multiple micro-processes that are reorienting the historic national project towards the new global project. National state policies may still be couched in the language of the national, but at least some of them no longer are: they are now oriented towards building global systems
inside the national state.
From there, then, the term denationalization.
Interview with Saskia Sassen in Eurozine ¶ Friday, December 15, 2006 0 Comments
Saskia Sassen: -- There is a revolutionary clause in all the new constitutions framed in the 1990s - Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, South Africa, the central European countries, and some others. It has gotten very little attention, which surprises me. It says that the sovereign (the state, in the language of international law) even if democratically elected cannot presume to be the exclusive representative of its people in international fora.
What lies behind this is the claim making (back to my informal politics) by a variety of groups that do not want to be merged into some sort of collective identity represented by the state.
We can think of first-nation peoples, minoritized citizens of all sorts, new types of feminisms that are transnational, political dissenters, and probably all kinds of other actors now in the making, as we speak.
This clause is revolutionary in that it goes beyond, indeed, contests, the major achievement of the French and American revolutions, which was to posit that the people are the sovereign and the sovereign is the people. The achievement of these earlier revolutions was to eliminate the distance between the people and a putatively divine sovereign (state).
This signals for me the beginning of a reconstituting of sovereignty.
With the notion of denationalization I try to capture and make visible a mix of dynamics that is also altering sovereignty but is doing so from the inside out, and on the ground, so to speak - the multiple micro-processes that are reorienting the historic national project towards the new global project. National state policies may still be couched in the language of the national, but at least some of them no longer are: they are now oriented towards building global systems
inside the national state.
From there, then, the term denationalization.
Interview with Saskia Sassen in Eurozine ¶ Friday, December 15, 2006 0 Comments
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Mathematics of defeat
TORA BORA, AFGHANISTAN — An emaciated and heavily bandaged Osama bin Laden offered the U.S. a final chance to surrender Monday.
Speaking via satellite, bin Laden issues a final warning to the U.S.
"Enemies of Allah, this is your last chance to leave Afghanistan alive," said a battered, soot-covered bin Laden in a videotaped statement broadcast on the Al Jazeera satellite network. "I mean it."
Staring directly into the camera with his good eye, bin Laden reiterated his vow to drive the U.S. from the country.
"You may have dozens of bases in Afghanistan. You may have thousands of bombs," bin Laden said. "But know this: We still have three or four guns and a full crate of bullets. And some knives, I think. You cannot hope to prevail."
A nearby goatherder then helped bin Laden brandish a rifle over his head. [..]
"Turn your weapons over to Kamal and Azir, these two guys who should still be there. Kamal will be the one with the bad limp. --
In The Onion ¶ Thursday, December 14, 2006 0 Comments
TORA BORA, AFGHANISTAN — An emaciated and heavily bandaged Osama bin Laden offered the U.S. a final chance to surrender Monday.Speaking via satellite, bin Laden issues a final warning to the U.S.
"Enemies of Allah, this is your last chance to leave Afghanistan alive," said a battered, soot-covered bin Laden in a videotaped statement broadcast on the Al Jazeera satellite network. "I mean it."
Staring directly into the camera with his good eye, bin Laden reiterated his vow to drive the U.S. from the country.
"You may have dozens of bases in Afghanistan. You may have thousands of bombs," bin Laden said. "But know this: We still have three or four guns and a full crate of bullets. And some knives, I think. You cannot hope to prevail."
A nearby goatherder then helped bin Laden brandish a rifle over his head. [..]
"Turn your weapons over to Kamal and Azir, these two guys who should still be there. Kamal will be the one with the bad limp. --
In The Onion ¶ Thursday, December 14, 2006 0 Comments
