Sunday, December 30, 2012

Crumbing Syria and the future of Kurds and Shia Iraq


The American Interest Magazine has publish a thorough analysis of the effect the crumbling of Syria will l likely have on the Kurds in Syria,
 Iraq, Iran, and Turkey; and on the Shia government of Iraq.

Spinoff: The Syrian Crisis and the Future of Iraq - Henri J. Barkey - The American Interest Magazine.

The full article is reproduced after the jump.  The article's conclusions are not hopeful, and well worth considering.

The article is comprehensive in its scope, with two curious omissions:   

∼  Russia is not mentioned and Russia's interests are central, but perhaps not to the focus of the article.

∼  Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa's fatwa declaring the schism between Shia and Sunni to be over is not mentioned; and much is made in the article of  Shia-Sunni enmity.Perhaps Grand Mufti Gomaa's fatwas are effective only in Egypt.


A sentence in the article, not explained, rushes me to google to find out what it's about: 
Turcoman groups have closely aligned themselves with Turkey and have occasionally entangled Turkish authorities in their dangerous plans. 
If you know who the Turcoman groups are and what dangerous plans they have devised, tell.

Images, not intended to be representative, follow:



Kurds in Iraq:

Erbil, Kurdish Region, Iraq, Luis Dafos, Photographer 


Erbil street Stars and Stripes



Peshmerga, a powerful military force
 for the Iraqi Kurds. Shawn Baldwin

  Golden Era for Iraqi Kurdistan


Football in the small Kurdish town of Salahdin al-Massif. 


Kurds in Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq:

In 1921, England and France promise the Kurds 
a united Kurdistan
Thy broke their promise.
Kurds have not forgotten nor forgiven.
Many Kurds still intend for there to be
 a United Kurdistan.

Kurds in Syria:


Kurds in Turkey:


Kurds in Iran (you will detect a bias on my part):
Said to be Kurds hanged by Iranians, 
but blogged so often I can't confirm it.  
Before getting a self-righteous feeling,
 remember indefinite detention in solitary confinement at 
Pelican Bay prison in California 
which drives men insane.  
There's worse things
 than hanging. . . .


Kurdish farmers in Iran


Bag dad scenes
"Handcuffed suspects seen in the
 state Terrorist Combat and Organized Crime department 
in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012. 
Iraqi officials say they have arrested a ring of insurgents 
allegedly involved in attacks in Baghdad, 
the 21-person cell is linked to the 
outlawed Baath party" 



  A famous hotel across the river.  Panoramio



  The result of a Bagdad suicide bomb. Worldnews.com



 An Iraqi football victory over South Korea.  Reuters


Here's the article:

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Sharing Tuva with Richard Feynman

The AutonomousTurkic Republic of Tuva, Russia; and Richard Feynman
I share something with Richard Feynman, the great physicist.

 It isn't Richard's understanding of particle physics, though I share his interest.

It isn't his incomparable diagrams, making the inconceivable appear coherent:



It is his deep ambition to visit Tuva, a Turkic, Tibetan Buddhist county, nearly untouched by the decades of Soviet rule, going about its business with sirene indifference to the frenetic modern world,  smak in the middle of troubled Asia.

Here is a Youtube video of Richard, as he explains his passion:



More on Tuva soonish.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Gaza through defensive and sympathetic Israeli eyes

Gaza is usually presented by news media and google images like this (DON'T BOMB IRAN!):





The following images are presented by an Israeli (Pictures Of The Real Gaza (Album 1) | Israel Muse Portal) whose intention, I think, is to show another side of Gaza, and one more favorable to Israel.

The life-as-ordinary of the pictures surprised and delighted me.  I do not think they excuse the Israeli Settlements moving onto Palestinian land, nor the second-class citizenship imposed on Palestinians living in Occupied Territories, and I like the images quite a bit.  Thanks to the blog author!

I would like to be in Gaza, so like Honolulu, it seems, to see for myself.