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INKYTEXT 292
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ANOTHER SECRET WEDDING: WHO IS NEXT?
Lonsdale Bar Happy Hour: another oxymoron?
Issue No 292 Wednesday 5 May 1999
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Editorial correspondence should be sent to InkyText@lancaster.ac.uk
Subscription requests to Inkytext-distribution-request@lists.lancaster.ac.uk
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
NATIONAL PROTEST DEMONSTRATION
There will be a national demonstration in London this Saturday
(May 8th) against the war in the Balkans. A coach will pick up
people in the underpass at 6.00 am and be back in Lancaster that
night. The cost of transport is 10 pounds. Anyone interested
should contact g.lambert@lancaster.ac.uk or phone (01524) 593411
or 592469 for further details.
AGENDA
Minutes, Amendments, Matters arising
1. Editorial: Opinion, News and Propaganda.
2. News: Wedding, Lonsdale Bar Happy Hour, Staff Association, Postcode Scam.
3. "The Proposed New World Order" by Professor Sol Picciotto
4. "Palestine and Kosovo" by Dr Gerd Nonnemann [for specialists only]
5. Small Ads: House for sale, Accommodation to let and wanted, Studentships,
Cars, Automobility seminar.
6. Readers' Letters: Local Election, Israel, Kosovo, Pataphysics, Reactors.
MINUTES, AMENDMENTS, MATTERS ARISING
------------------------------------
The happy couple and their witnesses had a meal in the Posthouse
before leaving for their cruise. They are expected back late on
Saturday evening.
1. EDITORIAL: OPINION, NEWS AND PROPAGANDA
------------------------------------------
News is, of course, the objective information we receive from our
media, whereas propaganda is the vile, lying and tendentious distortion
put out by the enemy to further its own cause.
Before readers less sensitive to irony nod in agreement, one should
point out that everyone is enemy to someone, even us, and that
'someone' will no doubt reciprocrate by adopting the same naive view.
Even absence of news can be propaganda. So can alternative news. With
endless bombs being dropped in our name, on our behalf, paid for by our
taxes and most of them never individually reported, it is frankly an
obscene distraction to feed us a 'life goes on as normal' diet of
end-of-season tussles, deaths of celebrities and snooker sensations.
And as for Beckham's rear tattoo and Brooklyn's birthday presents to
daddy....
The shameful and arrogant campaign in the Balkans has, as was entirely
predictable, changed its objectives. So much so that the increasingly
unconvincing Defence Secretary strenuously denied to John Humphries
that it had ever been intended to stop ethnic cleansing or the murder
of Kosovan Albanians.
No, insisted Mr Robertson, from the outset the aim was merely to
'degrade and diminish' the 'Serb war machine', and in that we were
succeeding admirably.
Happily some opinion remains independent, not least the reporting and
analysis of Lancaster's most illustrious alumnus, reporter and war
correspondent of so many years, Robert Fisk, writing for The
Independent.
An even more surprising opponent of the war is former Times' editor
Lord Rees-Mogg. On Monday he pointed out that Nato's 'arrogant,
ill-judged Balkan campaign has already produced disaster'.
'War' he pointed out, 'is not an optional extra of diplomatic policy,
or a gesture or irritation at being unable to impose one's own power.
It should never be resorted to except under absolute necessity; neither
necessity nor common prudence dictated the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia,
which has already produced the humanitarian catastrophe it was intended
to prevent'.
In 1648, after 6 years of civil war, John Milton, himself a
Parliamentarian, wrote a sonnet to 'Lord General Fairfax at the siege
of Colchester'. 'For what can war, but endless war, still breed?' he
asked. Quite. As always, it's time to, in the words of a more recent but
rather lesser poet, 'give peace a chance.'
2. NEWS
-------
CONGRATULATIONS TO CAROLINE SCHWALLER AND PAUL HARROP who were
secretly married in Kendal on 31 March. Caroline, a biker, is a former
denizen of the Sociology and Engineering departments and Grizedale
College. Paul, formerly Caroline's lodger, is a network manager. The
celebratory party is in the Brewery Arts Centre on 31 May.
LONSDALE BAR HAPPY HOUR has been assumed to be, like Microsoft Works,
an entry in the world's greatest oxymoron competition. Wrongly. The
experimental sale of Theakston's Bitter and Carslberg Lager at a pound
a pint twixt 6.00 and 7.00 has significantly increased consumption over
the past 10 days and is to be continued Mondays to Thusdays. The
Licensee has even been seen to smile.
A POSTCODE SCAM IS BEING OPERATED in certain parts of the country at
the moment, according to a memo circulated to staff at Manchester.
Female employees are being targeted. They receive an external call from
the Post office asking for their company's postcode. If the information
is provided the recipient of the call is advised that they have become
eligible for some gift vouchers. The caller then asks for a home
address or postcode in order that the gift vouchers may be dispatched.
The criminals involved in the scam then have an address and assume
that the house is unoccupied during the day. There are reports of
houses being burgled shortly after the call. The Post Office have
confirmed that no survey is being carried out by them.
STAFF ASSOCIATION: The Assistant Staff Association had its modest
subsidy removed by the University a coupple of years back and lost the
purpose-built premises (ASH House) opened by Princess Alexandra 25
years ago. It reconstituted itself, in a spirit of inclusiveness, as
the Staff Association, open to ALL staff for a subscription of a pound
a month deducted from salary at source.
This is an excellent bargain of which barely a handful of academic
staff have taken advantage. Well worth it, even for non snooker
players, if only just to see what computer circulars should _really_
look like. The recent 4 pub family hike round the Langdales was
reported a huge success and attracted over 50 walkers. An all-day
Saturday coach trip to the Trafford Centre (4 pounds ) comes next.
Contact Jayne Crook, ISS.
3. "THE PROPOSED NEW WORLD ORDER" BY PROFESSOR SOL PICCIOTTO
------------------------------------------------------------
I'm happy to respond to your invitation for a comment from the Law
department on the legality of the NATO bombing, and Peter Rowe will I
hope comment separately on the aspect which is his speciality, the "jus
in bello" (i.e. the laws governing armed conflict rather than the
resort to the use of force). I have ended up being more prolix than I
intended, so your readers with more pressing concerns may wish to skim
or skip this.
I'm not a particular expert on this area, but no special expertise is
necessary to establish what I think has been generally conceded: that
the NATO attack is contrary to all existing principles of international
law. It is also a clear breach of the UN Charter, widely accepted as
having established generally applicable rules in relation to the use of
force, which are also considered to be "jus cogens" (i.e. overriding
other obligations or rules). The Charter prohibits any "threat or use
of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of
any state". The only exception is in respect of self-defence if an
"armed attack" has occured on a state, but any self-defence measures
must be immediately reported to the Security Council.
Those who wish to find legal arguments justifying the NATO action
therefore have a pretty tough task. One view was expressed by Professor
Tom Franck, the outgoing President of the American Society of
International Law, and an acknowledged expert in this field, at the
recent annual conference of the Society, which took place in Washington
DC just as the first NATO attacks were launched.
His comments came after a rather surreal session (devised prior to
Rambouillet), which assembled various legal advisers to the US armed
forces, as well as some academics, on a Panel to play the roles of
Security Council members discussing a hypothetical case of a NATO
intervention in a Balkan country, the facts of which almost exactly
matched the real and bloody conflict which had just begun. Addressing
the real-life case, Prof. Franck confessed himself torn between human
sympathy for the Kosovan Albanians and responsibility to international
law.
His conclusion, an immediate rather than a considered response (but
none the worse for that), was that this action should frankly be
accepted as an exceptional one which should not be regarded as setting
a precedent.
A second perspective was provided the following Sunday in The Observer
by Prof. Christopher Greenwood, recently appointed to the chair of
international law at the LSE (following Rosalyn Higgins on her
appointment as the first woman judge of the International Court of
Justice). Prof. Greenwood has an active international law practice at
the Bar, including advising HMG. His piece accepted that the action
cannot be justified under pre-existing international law or the UN
Charter, but put forward a case for its being part of a new customary
international law, in which fundamental principles of humanitarian law
are accepted as overriding national sovereignty. An instance of this
was the recent House of Lords decision in the Pinochet case.
However, it is one thing to say that principles of international
humanitarian law should be upheld by legal procedures, i.e. by putting
alleged violators on trial before national or international courts, and
a rather different matter to say that they can be used to justify a
military intervention of massive proportions. This argument was I think
graphically illustrated by Steve Bell's drawing in the Guardian last
Friday : "Humanitarian Law comes out of the barrel of a gun", with
Sheriff Clinton wielding the weapon and our own Tony as the grinning
gunsight.
The best spin that could be put on this is that NATO may be acting as
a catalyst for the emergence of new principles for world order, since
the existing legal principles are outdated, and the institutions (the
UN and in particular the Security Council) are too rigid to adapt.
There seem to me to be at least two rather fundamental objections to
this. First, the NATO action has clearly been counter-productive, and
illustrates precisely how the proposed principle is untenable. To
justify a military intervention for humanitarian purposes, it should,
on an analogy with self-defence, authorise the use of force to the
least extent necessary and in a way clearly designed to secure the
objective. Thus, a limited ground force sent in to protect the Kosovan
population might have been justifiable.
By ruling this out, the US government (which essentially took this
decision, it seems) in my view showed that the primary aim is not
humanitarian protection, but the need to demonstrate US power, through
NATO if necessary, in laying down the new world order rules.
The second point is that any plausible modification of the UN Charter
principles to reflect new realities should put forward general
principles which can command broad international acceptance. What
concerns me most is not just that Russia, China and others clearly do
not accept the justification advanced, but that NATO countries also
could not accept the justification if it is put forward as a legal
norm.
Expressed as a legal norm, it would justify an armed attack by any
group of states against another which they accuse of actions violating
international humanitarian law. Thus, the Arab League could justify an
attack against Israel, which has been often enough condemned in
Security Council resolutions. The proposed principle would be a recipe
for widespread warfare, from which we would only be protected by the
overwhelming military superiority of the US.
This reasoning I think shows why responsible international lawyers
should go no further than did Prof. Franck, although events may by now
have caused him to doubt whether the action could even be justified as
an exceptional one. It also shows why there has been so little
discussion of the legality of the matter, at least on the NATO side.
The proposed new world order rules essentially boil down to the
assertion that US might is right. The US has shown that it is quite
willing to act unilaterally if necessary, as in the bombings of the
Sudan and Afghanistan. By going along with the present action it may be
that NATO governments dreamed of being admitted to the inner councils
of the new world order, but it is pretty clear who is in charge.
4. "PALESTINE AND KOSOVO" BY DR GERD NONNEMANN
----------------------------------------------
Terribly sorry, but when so many myths keep making their appearance,
and when these myths sustain a kind of national blindness (as it does,
of course, at varous times amongst most nations), then perhaps a quick
correction is in order. Let me quote Robert Segal's main arguments and
add a brief rejoinder to each.
"The analogy between 1948 Israel and 1999 Serbia is tenuous (a) because
Israel was fighting for its existence;"
What does one think the Serbs believe they are fighting for? ("Their
soul", "The heartland of their nation", etc.) And what does one think
the Palestinian Arabs were afraid of losing in 1947-49? (They did,
too).
"(b) because Israel was being attacked by larger, better-trained,
better equipped armies of half a dozen Arab nations, all sworn to its
extermination;"
Plainly factually wrong: no "armies" invaded, only some badly trained,
badly equipped, armed *units* from 5 states, quite uncoordinated
between themselves, and among whom the only half-effective force, that
of Trans-Jordan, had already reached an agreement with the Jewish
leadership over the division of Palestine. Numerically, too, the Arab
forces were in fact very soon very significantly outnumbered by the
Jewish forces.
"(c) because the attacks on Israel were contrary to the UN declaration of
Israeli independence;"
There was no UN declaration of Israeli independence, only a 1947
General Assembly resolution proposing the establishment of two states -
one Jewish, one Arab - in Palestine. The declaration of Israel's
independence (or rather, creation) was a unilateral affair by the
Jewish leadership in May 1948.
Let us pass over the debate on how the 1947 UN vote was squeezed
through after some last minute changes of mind following US pressure,
or over whether it was reasonable to expect the local population or
other Arabs to find it acceptable that 55 % of Palestine was being
turned into the state of what was then a minority in that land (1/2
million vs. nearly 1 million), which had been persecuted not by the
Arabs but by the Europeans.
One can, however, reasonably make the point that the military/militia
operations (to which my original contribution in the main referred)
began well before this declaration and the Arab reaction, and were
aimed at, and succeeded in, stretching the territory proposed in the
1947 partition resolution from 55 % to 77 %. It is in the course of
these operations that the events occurred to which I, or the MEI
article, referred originally.
"(d) because the land Israel secured did not come primarily by
throwing out present occupants;"
I refer to the above.
"(e) because many Arabs living in what became Israel left voluntarily,
expecting to return once Israelis had been defeated by the combined
Arab forces."
Just so, of course, the Kosovar Albanians are leaving in the hope they
can return to their homes. The 'voluntary exit' of the Palestinians has
long been a mantra in Israeli post-independence mythology. Perfectly
understandable -- and no more than the history-writing of most nations.
But nevertheless false. Here, also, is the point to scotch any
accusations of 'anti-Semitism': much of the best research disproving
this particular myth has been done in the past decade by Jewish-Israeli
historians. Names of villages cleared, and of "the odd massacre" can be
supplied....
"A tighter analogy, I suggested, between oppressor and oppressed in
Serbia was that in 1948 between Arab nations and the Jews who had been
living there."
Jews were not first-class citizens in many parts of the Arab world.
But they, just as the Christian communities, were on the whole
well-integrated in the surrounding society, though distinct in worship,
social rites, and economic activity (In Yemen they crafted the most
highly prized jewelry, for instance). Their lot did worsen
dramatically AFTER the establishment of Israel in Palestine, and the
resentment that this brought among Arabs and Muslims. (If we go back in
history a little further, an eminent Jewish colleague of Robert's gave
a memorable series of lectures here at Lancaster a few years ago,
showing that the revival of Jewish cultural life in the Middle Ages can
be explained in part by the protection enjoyed under the Arab-Islamic
empire of the time).
"I objected to the demonization of Israel--as if somehow the keenest
analogy in all of history to the plight of Albanians at the hands of
Serbians is the treatment of Arabs at the hands of Israelis in 1948."
I do not wish at all to demonize Israel. Given the circumstances of
Jewish history, and in the context of how peoples and nations have
generally behaved, it would be pointless and quite unfair to do so. I
also do not claim that this particular analogy is "the keenest in all
of history". A keen analogy there nevertheless is, not least in the
consequences. I used this particular analogy also because (1) it is
another issue which remains in the news; (2) the Palestinian refugees
problem remains today numerically the largest single such problem; (3)
a cautionary tale is implicit in the 50-year history of that problem,
for our own days and for Kosovo in particular. Surely one should be
allowed to point this out without being accused of anti-Semitism or the
like?
A final, but quite important, point of terminology. One can, in fact,
be anti-Zionist without being anti-Jewish. Political Zionism does not
equate with Jewishness: it is, rather, a political movement created at
the end of the 19th century with the specific aim of establishing a
Jewish state in Palestine (even if that was not always the official
version).
It was not initially supported by world Jewry at large, although the
terrible events in Europe lent it much credibility. The Ultra-Orthodox,
even those living in Israel, even today still reject the Zionist idea.
One can be a Jew, and even an Israeli, without being a Zionist. And one
can be a Zionist without objecting to anything I have written above.
Indeed, I know several who could have written it much better.
[NOTE: I think, unless Dr Segal has some correction to suggest, we had
better declare this increasingly specialised public correspondence
closed. (Ed.)]
5. SMALL ADS
------------
ACCOMMODATION WANTED: I am a Research Fellow looking for accommodation
from June 1999 to August 2000 (inclusive). I am hoping to find a one or
two bed-roomed apartment or house to rent as sole tenant for that
period and would be grateful for any leads. Please email
cmp3@st-andrews.ac.uk. Corinna Peniston-Bird.
----------------------
FOR SALE: FIVE BEDROOMED HOUSE; two reception rooms, study etc. within
easy reach of the University, schools and city. 144,550 o.n.o. Contact:
E J Dunn (01524) 63668 or Susan Bridges, Estate Agent Tel: (01524)
68811; Fax: (01524) 844277
---------------
FOR SALE: ROVER 216i (T-Bar) COUPE, M Reg (1994). Excellent condition,
full service history, 31,000 miles, recently serviced, taxed and
tested, 4 brand new tyres, metalic platinum silver, part walnut dash,
black cloth interior. Factory-fitted alarm and immobiliser. Two careful
lady owners. 7,200 ONO Extension: 594177 (day) Telephone: (01524)
410667 (evening) or Contact: c.odonnell@lancaster.ac.uk
----------
FOR SALE: HONDA (VF 500 FII), C Reg. Good Condition, 26,000 miles,
long MOT, red, white and blue. 1700 GBP. Contact: 01524 421408 (after
7pm).
-----------
WANTED: House or Flat to rent for the summer vacation. For single
person who will have to commute to campus everyday (so ideally in 4
mile radius of Baillrigg). Looking for somewhere tidy and peaceful, to
live alone - quite like the idea of a "house-sitting" arrangement, small
budget, but am quite prepared to water the plants and (hopefully) the
garden!! If you have or know anyone who has such a palace, please call
Robert on X53757 (evenings) or mobile, 0410-755045
-----------------
TWO 3-YEAR CASE (ESRC) PHD STUDENTSHIPS
CO-ORDINATING CONSTRUCTION with Bovis Construction Group - on the
making of buildings in an age of pre-fabrication and modularisation
DEMONSTRATING BENEFITS: EVIDENCE AND INNOVATION with the Department of
the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) - on the transmission
of craft knowledge across time and place
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: Friday 7 June 1999
For further information and application forms please contact:
Lesley Waite
Centre for Science Studies
Bowland Tower South
l.waite@lancaster.ac.uk Tel 94508
And check our web pages: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/scistud/index.html
-------------
Technological Cultures
ICR Work-in-Progress Summer Seminar Series
All Welcome
All seminars are in Bowland Seminar Room C70
(above Birketts)
on Wednesdays from 1-2
THIS WEEK
John Urry and Mimi Sheller
Department of Sociology/ICR
'Automobility'
------------
HOUSE FOR RENT: August 15th -January 28th 1999. Ideal for visiting academic.
200 year-old terraced cottage, overlooking the Forest of Bowland, in small,
quiet village 5 miles from University campus (car essential). Double
Bedroom/study, bath/shower, fully-equipped kitchen and lounge with sofa bed.
375 GBP. Contact: j.stacey@lancaster.ac.uk (01524-594184).
-----------------
6. READERS' LETTERS
-------------------
Are Lancaster's academics not interested in the local elections? If so
why does InkyText only seem to concern itself with the Serbian tyrant
and not the local one?
[NOTE: Because it is an international bulletin and one that tries to
keep a sense of proportion and get its priorities right. And whatever
critical terms might be applied to Stan Henig, 'tyrant' is surely not
one of them. (Ed.)]
The present leader of the City Council has carpet-bagged off to Castle
Ward. No doubt he hopes that a sense of Labour loyalty amongst the
socially-housed and artisans of the Marsh, plus the inbred sociality of
the student and academic population west of King Street will get him
home. This in spite of his profligacy with public money on doubtful
ventures over the last few years. Success on Thursday will put him in
line to become the first elected mayor.
The voters of Castle Ward, by not voting for this one Labour candidate
could, for the benefit of all Lancaster / Morecambe, deflate the
balloon of gratuitous and patronising pomposity that has inflated over
the last eight years. Whilst statesmen are hard to spot amongst the
composition of the majority party on the City Council, the present
Mayor of Lancaster could step into the leadership role and bring some
rational consideration into the formulation of Lancaster's development
policies.
Two officers, eight years ago and rather like a Satan who successfully
tempted Jesus in the 40 days [that can't be the correct simile!], led
the present leader onto his ego trip.They are gone - one curiously
honoured by the university for his efforts. The resulting bill for
their personal ego-trips included unnecessary compulsory purchases
around the market and bus-station, the non-returning investment in the
equity of Marketgate, and the Unhappy Mount Park; a total well over 5
million pounds.
The contribution by Lancaster and Lancashire Councils to the
Millennium Bridge will be another 2 million. [Interestingly, more than
half of the persons logged in the foot and cycle survey which attempted
to justify the Millennium bridge were pupils at Our Lady's and Skerton
schools -either going to/from school or nipping into town for a
lunchtime bite. Only a few of these would logically divert to the
bridge - except perhaps to play aerial Pooh-sticks.
It is remarkable that a few hundred voters in Castle Ward, choosing
their candidates for reasons probably totally unrelated to the above
financial issues, will determine whether this self-gratification
at public expense will continue. Will Inkytext readers in
the ward face up to their responsibility?
Michael Jackson
Hest Bank
-------------------------------------
Since I feel concision is the better part of valour, I apologise in
advance if my all-too-brief comments seem brusque and impolite. I write
with regard to the comments of Dr. Segal on Israel-Kosovo comparisons.
I should suspect that the complete denial of any form of nationhood to
the Palestinians for some 40 years (including refusing to allow them to
be Israeli citizens), together with concurrent loss of civil rights
(i.e. the right not to have ones home bulldozed by the Israeli army),
coupled with the clearance of East Jerusalem, might be grounds for
seeing the Palestinians as an oppressed minority in the same mould as
the Kosovo Albanians.
That said, it is difficult to find any nation-state that was not
carved out of the flesh of some Other. England was built by Cromwell
upon the corpses of the Cornish and the Irish; America was born in a
sea of native blood (and as some wit recently pointed out to me the
Americans are sending *Apache* hellicopters to stop the genocide).
Etc., etc.
This does not excuse any of the aforementioned actions, but rather,
raises the tricky question of what is what I worryingly heard called in
Searchlight, 'legitimate nationalism'? And how does it differ from
legitimite racism? Recently, so I hear, the Knesset seriously sat down
and tried to discuss 'what is Jewishness'... so presumably even the
Israelis do not know.
However, since Israel is a western client sate, formed in the 1940s as
part of the USA's 'Twin Pillar' policy of getting local states (Isreal
and Persia) to police the Middle East for it, everything there was
over-looked by the compassionate leaders of the western powers. Just
as, today, they overlook slaughter in Turkey, Columbia, Laos and
Indonesia.
Given, then, this tendency to overlook misdemeanors in our allies, we
must take with, say, a handful of salt, the pleas of the Saintly Blair
that our war in Kosova is a compassionate war, just as presumably
killing thousands of Iraqis a month is a compassionate genocide.
We must presume, with the Atlantic Alliance, given its record, that
power and privilege are its primary motivations, and that the driving
force behind this quest for power, is not the nation-state per se, but
the very (very bloody) motor behind that: the property system.
All nations are in effect units of property, demarcations of
ownership, which must, with utmost violence if need be, defend their
own integrity, and later, by extension, their own interests. (There is
a delicious quote that I will pass on when I have the time to dig it
up, where Allbright explicitly states that there is a geo-political
interest at stake).
The state, and the wars it causes, are an effect of the property
system, and all appeals to rule of law, natural justice, the Love of
Bob (or whoever) will fall on its rapaciously deafened ears. Wars
aren't stopped by polite requests, and wars will always come about as
long as the property system remains.
Bill Martin (Captain of the Rant)
----------------------------------
1. Re. your latest editorial on 'nailing the bombers', I was reminded
of a 'bon mot' some time ago re. US bombing of 'terrorist' Libya:
Q. Definition of a terrorist?
A. Someone with a bomb, but without an airforce to deliver it.
An old one, but maybe pertinent.
2. Re. Jill Dando. I was asked last week how long it would be before
the 'jokes' started (a la Princess Di-type thanatograms). I guessed a
couple of days. Within forty-eight hours I was asked what J.D.'s killer
and Jehovah's Witnesses have in common. Didn't know. Answer: they both
stop on your doorstep and 'do yer ******* 'ead in'. Ah, well.
Alan Wood
------------------------------
You ask what would happen if a cruise missile hit Heysham B. Exactly
the same as would happen if one hit Lonsdale College. There would be a
big flash and a bang and then quite a lot of damage to buildings and
people around the impact.
In the case of Heysham II the pressure vessel would remain intact as
it is designed to withstand missiles plunging into it. It has 4
separate systems, all working independently, and each is capable of
maintaining the safety of the reactors. It would be much safer to sit
in than the Department of European Languages and Culture, which was
almost certainly not designed with those safety features in mind.
Bombing nuclear reactors is not in the same league as bombing a bus.
One is really, really dangerous, and one is not.
Stella Birchall
Music
[NOTE: Goodness. You certainly believe the manufacturer's blurb a lot
more readily than I do. I just hope Serbian reactors have been built to
the same specifications. (Ed.)]
--------------------------
Many thanks for the explanation of pataphysics. When we have finished
kicking the daylights [and the night light] out of the Balkans we must
declare war on the weather for its partisan support for the former
Partisans. The weather has prolonged this war and we must teach it a
jolly good lesson.
Readers may like to point their browsers at the cartoonist Martyn
Turner's page http://www.irish-times.com/irish-times/turner/ Just
before Easter, he drew a particularly good 'toon of Tony Blair, who was
holding a newspaper with a headline about the ineffectiveness of NATO's
activities on our behalf, lecturing the various parties involved in the
Northern Ireland peace process "Bombing doesn't work. Believe me, I
know".
Pascal Desmond.
--------------------------