Books I've recently read:

Fred Deux is a local artist, living in La Châtre.
His art reminds somewhat about H.R. Giger but has its own specific style.
I will hopefully write about his art for a journal in Stockholm later on.
This not least as Fred Deux deserves being better known, outside France.

This book gives us an insight into one of the worst mass murderers of all time, Mao Zedong.
We are presented a person, not only hungry for power but also loving to see people suffer,
leaving his own family and others behind, using every single person for his own purposes.
Mao was also a perverted person, loving to see his troups torture, rape and humiliate
both women, men, children and elderly people, just because he saw them as
an obstacle for his ambition to become The Great Leader but also Leader of the World!
To this one can add that he was an incredibly coward person, avoiding all confrontation,
hiding himself behind collaborators and his life guard,
being a highly uncharismatic and deeply evil person.

If the Chinese government has the ambition being regarded seriously
It would be of outmost importance to take a stand against this dictator,
his rule and clear up the history by pointing at the terror of Mao:s regime,
declaring this epoch the greatest failure in the history of China.
Unfortunately it seems as if the next Chinese leader is less liberal,
more conservative and nationalistic but the future will tell.

This also goes for the left wing parties in Europe.
If they would like to be taken serioulsy by others than their own voters,
they should publically race their voice and criticize the Mao-era.
They should also question the current leaders as many of them
have been raised and politically trained during this terrible period in Chinese history.

In times when the 'Green Peril' has displaced the 'Read Peril' when it comes to terror,
I recommend people to read this book (unfortunately only written in Swedish as far as I know).
It takes a broad and deep look into the history of Islam and the Arab origin of this world religion.
We get to follow the islamic influence in the history of Europe and we realize that
without Islam or muslims, Europe actually could have been
even more uncivilized than it today de facto is.
The contributions on every level - literature, music, science - are extensive and important.
Can Islam and muslims be said to share most ideas emerging from the Quran
or is the Holy Scripture interpreted differently depending on who you are,
where you live, your upbringing and historical circumstances?
I would say the latter even if both the fundamentalistic islamists
and the opponents to islam - for different reasons - tries to depict the muslim Umma as united.

This is an interesting book about the history of the Celtic women.
It displays the strong and independent women at the time when
an almost 'matriarchal' society could have been said existing.
We also get to see how men in reality and throught 'myth-making'
tried to diminish the female influence and power
displaying the women as dangerous and the source of evil.
Not much has changed!

This last book is interesting for all of you who think that meritocracy actually exists.
The author on the contrary displays how you reach a level of incompetence,
often the highest level of your career, more or less because of your incompetence
or the fact that you were competent at lower levels in the hierarchy
but not up to the highest post you've reached, as one confound certain competence with others.
This latter is explained with the facta that one can't allow
a competent person running a company or an organization.
I believe we've often noticed this phenomena.

Tchad: 40 killed 18-19/12 and the conflicts in Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Svenska (English below):

I Tchad dödades fyrtio personer i milisattacker efter sammandrabbningar mellan säkerhetsstyrkor och beväpnade milismän.

Milismännen uppges tillhöra Janjawid-milisen och de sägs ha attackerat två byar i östra Tchad, bränt ned hus och stympat sina offer, enligt regeringen.
Bland offren fanns 15 tchadiska civila och fem sudanesiska flyktingar.

Det är fr.a Östra Tchad som drabbats av en våldsvåg de senaste månaderna.
Vad skall hända med dessa länder och regioner?

Till detta kommer det oroliga Sudan med Drafurprovinsen och nu har också allvarliga oroligheter - för att uttrycka sig milt - uppstått på Afrikas horn mellan Somalia och Etiopien.

Vad gör det internationella samfundet?
Förenta Nationerna har tidigare diskuterat den mer eller mindre retoriska frågan kring vad som skall betraktas som folkmord eller ej.
Denna fråga kan för utomstående framstå som fullständigt absurd och jag kan inte finna skäl till att inte hålla med om det.

Afrikanska Unionens insatser har inte varit framgångsrika och vi vet inte vad F.N. kan göra heller men det är inget skäl för att inte agera överhuvud.

Människor mördas, våldtages, stympas och förföljs dagligen.
Flyktingströmmarna blir större och det kommer ta än längre tid att ta de länder på den afrikanska kontinenten som är i behov av detta, ur fattigdom.

Att vi inte lär av historien som vi ofta tror visar att i stort sett en identisk händelse för tolv år sedan - folkmordet i Rwanda 1994 (länk: folkmordet i Rwanda) - också ledde till diskussioner huruvida det som skedde var ett folkmord eller ej. Under tiden mördades, mellan april och juli det året, 800 000 tutsis av hutuer.

Medsänder en länk til 'Läkare utan gränser's' ('Läkare utan gränser') hemsida där man kan läsa ur det F.N.-dokument som skrevs 1948 och som stipulerar vad som är att betrakta som folkmord eller ej och vilka följder ett folkmord ur folkrättsligt perspektiv skall/bör föra med sig ('Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of Genocide', New York 1948).

English:

Forty persons were killed in militia attacks after struggles between safety forces and armed militia in Chad.
The militia is said to belong to the Janjaweed forces and they attacked villages, burnt them, killed and mutilated innocent people living there.

The situation on 'Africas Horn' between Somalia and Ethiopia is also very alarming with the recent actions of war between the two countries.

While these crimes are being committed, the United Nations continue to discuss whether or not these and similar crimes are to be regarded as genocide.
This primarily in connection with the problems in Sudan and the Darfur province but also in this particular case.

This is not the first time this happens and we all remember the situation in Rwanda in 1994 and the conflict between hutus and tutsis where 800 000 tutsis where 'exterminated' - to use a strong but correct word for the tragedy in Rwanda - between april to july that year (link: genocide in Rwanda).

What did the United Nations do? Discuss whether or not it was to be regarded as genocide!

Now and then UN concludes that one have to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again but unfortunately it will happen again. We seldom learn from history.

'Medecins Sans Frontières' have been working in these areas and I attach a link to their site where one can read from the document 'Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of Genocide' (New York 1948).

(Picture map of Tchad copied from: http://www.rfi.fr/radiofr/images/094/tchad432.jpg)