One of the things social theorists seem to be slow to pick up on is the extend to which media shape our inner world. Even ISterrorists are caught up; for where analysts deride them for being deluded with Hollywood images of heroism and action, Hollywood has little to do with it. It is media power pure and simple which is at work. And which they feel free to use. Nobody stupid here!
They are not concerned that the Prophet was represented, but that he was misrepresented. Where in medieval painting, Muhammad might be shown with a veil covering his face - for he was long gone, and no longer accessible in truth - his integrity needs to be guarded even today. Clearly , cartooning put the perpetrators in the category of the ill-intentioned. Am I the only one to notice how cheerful the Caliphate fighters appear? This is not staged mirth, they are on a roll. It is not the cheerful relief of those who have won the war; it is something else, ongoing in a nascent conflict. Perhaps they caught cheerfulness from us; that is one thing Hollywood exports a lot of.
Conflict in the Middle East is far from new; hey, the Middle East have invented the genre. Perhaps it is a rising up, taking action at last. And an unspeakable resentment at impersonal warfare, bombs falling indiscriminately, that is starting to break. A rising against evil. We, we will, strike indiscriminately as well. Until there is a planetary caliphate ie peace on earth.
So there is a lot of testosterone in action, here. And yes, it is a warrior state model and not a peace one. Because peace is only possible in world of - no, not eternal vigilance - concurrent struggle with the infidel. Close but not quite!!
So France is starting on a program of counter propaganda, telling the truth about the djihadist lifestyle to counter all that romantic misinformation. Good luck with that, and LOL.
Am I being a hopeless reactionary in not applauding satire as a necessity in a state separate from religion. Where the professed atheist can have his laugh, as well as the sophisticate believer. As a professional of thought - someone who has studied philosopĥy - I recognize the power of prayer, which some religions practice as meditation. The possibility of an island of inner peace needs to be defended, even where it does not require an elaborate belief system. In effect, mocking the prophet might itself be construed as a form of naivety. Does anyone make Julius Caesar jokes any more? He lived a long time ago and is largely left to his time. Why take religious figures out for a spin? It just seems unnecessary, in my humble view.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Monday, January 26, 2015
Musings
It’s actually very odd to watch this massive snow storm hitting New York and Boston,
and nothing here. Makes one realize how serious global warming is. In effect,
New York is now going through the big sloppy wet-kiss storms we in Montreal used to know;
I recognize the look and feel from pictures. That is because the jet stream is running lower.
We in Montreal are stuck in bitter cold, can’t walk home from the supermarket with lettuce
because it will freeze. Not a warming for either, but a cooling as weather events become
more extreme albeit short-lived.
It used to be funny, how Americans with a little snow were so ill prepared. We in Canada
have ample supply of snow removal trucks of monstruous size while to this day New York is
making do with shovels on the front of garbage trucks. No wonder they have to shut down everything.
But it isn’t so funny anymore and the fact that the Eastern Seaboard is so heavily developed does
mean that everyone has to be ordered off the roads periodically. Hard for me to imagine; Boston is
so heavily congested like, all the time.
The novelty hasn’t worn out yet, but another bout of Sandy-like flooding: I shudder to think.
And sweet little St-Jean sur Richelieu has an ample snow-removal budget and a hair-raising
municipal tax structure to match. Not a good omen for New York, which good-naturedly likes
to entertain hyperluxurious city spaces. Expenses are best considered head taxes, but who can
afford that at this stage. Those merry twitter politicians have some fig’ring to do...
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Movie Time
Totally enjoyed the One hundred year old man... movie. As the
box said, not suitable for children. I was disappointed it didn't
make the Oscar nominations as Best Foreign Film ( It is a Swedish movie).
Totally charming.
I particularly chuckled at one of the corpse jokes: ..., that could have hurt.
Sometimes it's a good thing to be dead. Seemed timely, somehow.
But seriously - because it is a terribly serious funny film - we trample through a century
with a narrator with a dynamite habit, likes to blow things up. (Alfred Noble, of Noble prize fame,
was a Swedish chemist and arms maker who invented dynamite).
And our hero, Allan Karlsohn, no peacenik but the consciousness of a Godless century
where things are what they are.
I remember learning that Sartre had refused the Noble prize for literature during my studies,
for a set of elaborate reasons, and thinking the man was such a poseur. Need to look at that again...
box said, not suitable for children. I was disappointed it didn't
make the Oscar nominations as Best Foreign Film ( It is a Swedish movie).
Totally charming.
I particularly chuckled at one of the corpse jokes: ..., that could have hurt.
Sometimes it's a good thing to be dead. Seemed timely, somehow.
But seriously - because it is a terribly serious funny film - we trample through a century
with a narrator with a dynamite habit, likes to blow things up. (Alfred Noble, of Noble prize fame,
was a Swedish chemist and arms maker who invented dynamite).
And our hero, Allan Karlsohn, no peacenik but the consciousness of a Godless century
where things are what they are.
I remember learning that Sartre had refused the Noble prize for literature during my studies,
for a set of elaborate reasons, and thinking the man was such a poseur. Need to look at that again...
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Quantitative Easing
source: Le Nouvel Observateur
author: Pascal Riché
translation: doxa-louise
The ECB Thursday January 22 disturbed a number of economists in appealing to QE: it is going to buy State debts, to the tune of 60 billion euros per month, between March 2015 and September 2016. Before this, the Central Banks of the US, Britain and Japan have made use of this method. Yet this approach is considered by many observers to be highly 'adventurous'.
What precisely is QE?
QE, or Quantitative Easing, is the fact, for a Central Bank, to make asset purchases (generally bonds) with money it is creating.
Hence it is a tool permitting one to inject money into the economy, with the hope of having it restart.
One says the Central Bank is 'printing money' which is obviously a metaphor: there is no printing press, no paper money, only a play with numbers. The Central Bank will note in its books the sum of money used to buy the security, and the deed is done.
Why is this considered an unusual procedure?
Normally, when a Central Bank wants to stimulate the economy, it does not use QE. It merely in the very short term lends a bit more money to Banks than usual, in order to lower interest rates. These savings are passed on from the banks to their clients, which stimulates borrowing. This is a stimulus to economic activity.
Where interest rates in the short term approach zero, this mechanism no longer works. One needs to turn to something else. Banks will then use less usual procedures (an 'extraordinary' measure), starting with QE.
For a Central Bank, QE consists of creating money no longer to finance the lending activities of banks, but to buy securities directly in the market. What is being bought? In general, state-backed bonds: securities which represent a debit on this or that State and which are in currency on the market, hand to hand, some long standing.
Does Qe mean we are lessening the debt load of States?
It is misleading to say that the Central Bank is 'buying the debt'. When a Central Bank acquires these bonds, initially offered by States, there is no reduction in public debt. The money created is not going to the State: it is going to bond holders, who can be individuals, trusts, insurance companies, banks, etc.
It is like buying a second-hand car: Renault never sees the money, because it is going to the person selling you the car.
Those selling these bonds to the Central Bank receive a sum of money which they will either invest or spend: these are the acts which will (theoretically) promote economic activity.
Why does the ECB think that QE is needed?
The aim, is for those selling their bonds to make loans or investments that are riskier. In effect, the bonds have become less interesting as investments. Why is this?
1- The ECB is buying bonds
2- Demand for this kind of product has thus grown
3-Their prices then go up
4- If the price of a security goes up, its yield goes down.
Point 4 is not clear? Let us just concentrate a minute, and work through the following three paragraphs.
Let us take the example of a State which borrows 100 euros (not very greedy, fine) which it promises to reward at 3% per year. This loan takes the form of offering bonds at 10 euros each, freely available on the market.
If the ECB buys these bonds, demand goes up, price goes higher: this is the result of a simple law of supply and demand. In our example, they go from 10 euros to 12
.
The interest rate stays at 3%, but to find the true yield, one has to use 12 euros instead of 10. The yield has thus gone from 3% to 2,5%.
We have thus noticed that the fact of massively buying bonds lessens their yield. Investors will then be tempted by other products than these securities which yield less than they did: banks will want to lend to companies and individuals, others will turn to more risky investments in start-ups, in small and medium businesses...
Another advantage: the lowering of bonds yields, contagious, will lead to lower lending rates. There again, we have vitamins for the economy.
What does the Central Bank do with these assets?
So long as it is in ownership, a Central Bank engaging in QE will be in receipt of the interests tied to the State bonds it has acquired. Which is somewhat startling: the snake biting its own tail.
Theoretically, once the economy is revitalized, the Central Bank sells off the bonds it has purchased. It is said to 'sterilize the operation': it destroys the money it has temporarily created, which will avoid an inflationary surge.
Owning securities has a down-side: their value can plunge. For the case before us - the program announced Thursday -, the risk has been mutualized a mere 20%: it is the ECB which carries this part of the risk. But 80% of the securities( and thus of the risks) will be in the accounts of the Central Banks of each State( for France: the Banque de France). In real terms, each Bank will be buying the bonds of its own government... European solidarity will thus carry to a mere 20% of the program!
Is inflation a concern?
Where there is too much money in circulation with respect to the level of economic activity, inflation has the nasty habit of showing up.
This risk is not much of a problem for the moment: the euro zone is threatened by deflation (which would be, when it strikes, a true nightmare), and not by inflation.
A bit of inflation is not a bad thing. It would permit a soft erosion of debt, a continuation of a falling euro ( and thus a help to exports), and certain adjustments ( the management of salaries in certain sectors, for example).
What the anti-QE economists are afraid of ( and this is true in Germany), is that inflation might snowball and distort economic policy.
Why would inflation be bad for the economy?
The answer to this question is far from obvious. Imagine that we multiply by 100 all prices,
all salaries, and the monetary mass in circulation. This would be a mere convention without real consequence for the economy ( France had indeed done the inverse in 1958, with the creation of the 'heavy' Franc).
But inflation is not a mere convention, orchestrated in advance. it is a phenomenon with winners and losers, wherein each - enterprise, employee, investor, supplier - tries to manoeuvre to his advantage, not get left behind. And this phenomenon always tends to snowball. Sooner or later, the Central Bank or the government must intervene to stop this snowballing, with hikes in interest hard on the economy and/or austerity policies.
The principle cost of inflation, is the return of the stick, which beats down growth.
The other cost, is a deformation of relative prices. Prices evolve one with respect to the other. If their evolution is not predictable, enterprises will make bad decisions. They might for example bow out of investment projects that suddenly seem too risky.
We are not there yet. For the ECB, the priority, notwithstanding the anti-QE, is to break the spiral currently pulling the euro zone into deflation.
author: Pascal Riché
translation: doxa-louise
Quantitative Easing Explained to a 5 Year Old. Allright, 12 Year Old.
In order to understand QE, which the European Central Bank will be resorting to,
no need for a high IQ, but merely some curiosity. And hanging in there.
The ECB Thursday January 22 disturbed a number of economists in appealing to QE: it is going to buy State debts, to the tune of 60 billion euros per month, between March 2015 and September 2016. Before this, the Central Banks of the US, Britain and Japan have made use of this method. Yet this approach is considered by many observers to be highly 'adventurous'.
What precisely is QE?
QE, or Quantitative Easing, is the fact, for a Central Bank, to make asset purchases (generally bonds) with money it is creating.
Hence it is a tool permitting one to inject money into the economy, with the hope of having it restart.
One says the Central Bank is 'printing money' which is obviously a metaphor: there is no printing press, no paper money, only a play with numbers. The Central Bank will note in its books the sum of money used to buy the security, and the deed is done.
Why is this considered an unusual procedure?
Normally, when a Central Bank wants to stimulate the economy, it does not use QE. It merely in the very short term lends a bit more money to Banks than usual, in order to lower interest rates. These savings are passed on from the banks to their clients, which stimulates borrowing. This is a stimulus to economic activity.
Where interest rates in the short term approach zero, this mechanism no longer works. One needs to turn to something else. Banks will then use less usual procedures (an 'extraordinary' measure), starting with QE.
For a Central Bank, QE consists of creating money no longer to finance the lending activities of banks, but to buy securities directly in the market. What is being bought? In general, state-backed bonds: securities which represent a debit on this or that State and which are in currency on the market, hand to hand, some long standing.
Does Qe mean we are lessening the debt load of States?
It is misleading to say that the Central Bank is 'buying the debt'. When a Central Bank acquires these bonds, initially offered by States, there is no reduction in public debt. The money created is not going to the State: it is going to bond holders, who can be individuals, trusts, insurance companies, banks, etc.
It is like buying a second-hand car: Renault never sees the money, because it is going to the person selling you the car.
Those selling these bonds to the Central Bank receive a sum of money which they will either invest or spend: these are the acts which will (theoretically) promote economic activity.
Why does the ECB think that QE is needed?
The aim, is for those selling their bonds to make loans or investments that are riskier. In effect, the bonds have become less interesting as investments. Why is this?
1- The ECB is buying bonds
2- Demand for this kind of product has thus grown
3-Their prices then go up
4- If the price of a security goes up, its yield goes down.
Point 4 is not clear? Let us just concentrate a minute, and work through the following three paragraphs.
Let us take the example of a State which borrows 100 euros (not very greedy, fine) which it promises to reward at 3% per year. This loan takes the form of offering bonds at 10 euros each, freely available on the market.
If the ECB buys these bonds, demand goes up, price goes higher: this is the result of a simple law of supply and demand. In our example, they go from 10 euros to 12
.
The interest rate stays at 3%, but to find the true yield, one has to use 12 euros instead of 10. The yield has thus gone from 3% to 2,5%.
We have thus noticed that the fact of massively buying bonds lessens their yield. Investors will then be tempted by other products than these securities which yield less than they did: banks will want to lend to companies and individuals, others will turn to more risky investments in start-ups, in small and medium businesses...
Another advantage: the lowering of bonds yields, contagious, will lead to lower lending rates. There again, we have vitamins for the economy.
What does the Central Bank do with these assets?
So long as it is in ownership, a Central Bank engaging in QE will be in receipt of the interests tied to the State bonds it has acquired. Which is somewhat startling: the snake biting its own tail.
Theoretically, once the economy is revitalized, the Central Bank sells off the bonds it has purchased. It is said to 'sterilize the operation': it destroys the money it has temporarily created, which will avoid an inflationary surge.
Owning securities has a down-side: their value can plunge. For the case before us - the program announced Thursday -, the risk has been mutualized a mere 20%: it is the ECB which carries this part of the risk. But 80% of the securities( and thus of the risks) will be in the accounts of the Central Banks of each State( for France: the Banque de France). In real terms, each Bank will be buying the bonds of its own government... European solidarity will thus carry to a mere 20% of the program!
Is inflation a concern?
Where there is too much money in circulation with respect to the level of economic activity, inflation has the nasty habit of showing up.
This risk is not much of a problem for the moment: the euro zone is threatened by deflation (which would be, when it strikes, a true nightmare), and not by inflation.
A bit of inflation is not a bad thing. It would permit a soft erosion of debt, a continuation of a falling euro ( and thus a help to exports), and certain adjustments ( the management of salaries in certain sectors, for example).
What the anti-QE economists are afraid of ( and this is true in Germany), is that inflation might snowball and distort economic policy.
Why would inflation be bad for the economy?
The answer to this question is far from obvious. Imagine that we multiply by 100 all prices,
all salaries, and the monetary mass in circulation. This would be a mere convention without real consequence for the economy ( France had indeed done the inverse in 1958, with the creation of the 'heavy' Franc).
But inflation is not a mere convention, orchestrated in advance. it is a phenomenon with winners and losers, wherein each - enterprise, employee, investor, supplier - tries to manoeuvre to his advantage, not get left behind. And this phenomenon always tends to snowball. Sooner or later, the Central Bank or the government must intervene to stop this snowballing, with hikes in interest hard on the economy and/or austerity policies.
The principle cost of inflation, is the return of the stick, which beats down growth.
The other cost, is a deformation of relative prices. Prices evolve one with respect to the other. If their evolution is not predictable, enterprises will make bad decisions. They might for example bow out of investment projects that suddenly seem too risky.
We are not there yet. For the ECB, the priority, notwithstanding the anti-QE, is to break the spiral currently pulling the euro zone into deflation.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Ottoman
The following is a fascinating documentary. It also allows some insight into how
a sultan with many wives (slaves form East European captives) would have one male child
with each; it would not do for a leader to share a mother with a brother and potential rival;
a policy that makes no sense for demographic replacement, but is powerful in a context of war and conquest.
Incidentally, the Janissary elite troops mentioned herein were made of Europeans.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Annoucement
bin means son of (as does Ibn).
al means from (place or family).
It is evident here that the new king is brother to the deceased.
source: Sciences Po, Paris.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Inside Hyper Cacher
source: MSN reprint from Paris Match
tanslation: doxa-louise
«To my mind, it is the Sabbbath which saved us!»
Paris-Match: Zarie, you are an employee of the Hyper Cacher at Porte de
Vincennes. How did the attack begin?
Zarie. It was between 13hr and 13hr30. There was a father with a two-year old child at my check-out when I heard a gunshot on Yohann (Cohen), the young man who works with me, and was the first to be hit. He shouted the name of the boss who, wounded, managed to leave the store. I didn’t realize at first it had been a real gunshot.
You were not hurt?
No. I heard gunshots and screams, and steps coming in my direction. I heard the voice of the killer telling me: «Aren’t you dead yet, you?» And a shot noise in my direction.
How many were you in the store?
We were 25 at first, but after the shots, there were only six people left in my vicinity. I got that the others were in hiding. The terrorist ordered me to help him and I asked him to stop killing. When I entered the office where he told us to go, I saw someone in a pool of blood. (Philippe Braham). For the first time, I saw the face of the terrorist and his armements.
What did he say?
He told us what his plans were: «I want to die a martyr and avenge the name of Allah. The diffrence between us, is that for you Jews, life is the most important thing, while for us it is death».
Then he told us to put all our things and identity papers on the desk. He told me to shut the glass door to the store. I was staring to do this when I saw a man trying to get in. I begged him to leave in a panicked voice. But he thought I was merely closing the store. He told me: «I only need a ‘hallapour chabbath!’» I wasn’t able to stop him or warn him there was a killer just behind me.
Was is François-Michel Saada?
Yes...Yohan was suffereing terribly. He was moaning and there was nothing we could do for him. In fact, he had received a bullet in a cheek which totally tore his face. He agonized for three quarters of an hour. It was truly awful. He died as blood left his body.
And the killer did nothing?
No, he wanted to finish him off because of the moaning but we stopped him, thinking he might make it. The terrorist had with him two kalachnikovs and a submachine gun on his shoulder, explosives, a ton of ammunition and a knife. He ordered me to go down to get the other clients and gave me 20 seconds to do it, or else he would kill two women he had designated.
You went down to the cold rooms?
Yes, some were hiding there but did not want to come out. I went back to tell him and he told me to call the police while putting on the loudspeaker. Dialing 17, we reached the police operator. We waited some long minutes, which was crazy, given the situation. Finally, he explained that this was a hostage taking and the policewoman said she would have to contact her superiors. The conversation was interrupted as prisonners started coming back up.
Did the killer explain what his motives were?
Yes, he explained that his commando had split in two: the Kouachi brothers to get rid of Charlie Hebdo and himself to look after the police and us.
Her sent someone else downstairs to get the hiding clients and two or three people came up with among them, Yoav (Hattab). The latter started to analyse the situation, in order to take action. He couldn’t see the dead and didn’t fully realize what was going on. At that moment, I crept away. Yoav started to speak to the killer who had put down one of his kalachikovs, trying to seize one. But the terrorist was quicker than him and shot two bullets in his head. I was at a few meters, and someone told me to lift the iron curtain, something which normally takes a few minutes. The terrorist started to yell in my direction. Yoav fell, bent on himslef and there was a lot of blood, I have never seen so much. I thought the terrorist was going to kill me, but he asked me to follow him into the office. I had to push away the caddy holding up Yoav who then fell to the ground.
How many hostages were you?
We were 18. I know because he asked me to do the count. He was talking to the police and annouced that there were three dead and one wounded. We all sat on the caddies lining the back of the store. The killer sat down and started to talk to us. He asked us for our names and religions. Everybody was Jewish except one woman who was Catholic and an old lady who insised she was not Jewish. He mocked her saying: «If you are not Jewish, why are you shopping at Hyper Cacher? I, for one, am from Mali and a Muslim. I have come to seek vengeance for my brothers from the French State which you support with your taxes». While loading his arms, he told us how the French army was killing people in his country but nobody was talking about it. We were sure these were our last moments on earth. In point of fact, he wanted his hostage taking to receive media attention. He called BFM TV and left us free so I coud call my father who re-assured me and told me to pray. I then talked to my mother and I was very moved. I started to cry. She told me to find strength in laemouna (faith). I then explained to Andrea (the other cashier) that we were going to get through this but that we had to strengthen ourselves through lesmitsvoth (good deeds). Next to us there was a woman not afraid at all who told us all was in the hands of hachem (divine Providence) , for good. I recited the psalm «essa enaï el heharim» (Chir Hamaalothn 121), it is the first that came to my mind. «I lift my eyes toward the mountains, to see whence my savation will come. My salvation will come from the Eternal, who made heaven and earth.»
He left you alone?
In point of fact, the hostage taking lasted almost five hours and a situation of relative trust emerged. He left us free to move around and after having asked someone to break all the cameras in the store, he offered us drink. He then started to talk to us about geopolitics and we were in agreement with him hoping to calm him down. At one point, he pointed his arms toward Andrea who covered her face with her hands to protect heself, but he reassured her, saying: «I am not going to shoot you!». He had just killed four people in cold blood yet was surprised that we could be scared. Thankfully we were many. We helped each other at the moment when one would break down. I encouraged the hostages to make good resolutions and find strength in respect for the Torah.
Was he ever violent with you?
His attitude was actually bizarre. He would occilate between pitiless crime and a reassuring tone. he kept repeating that, if he got what he wanted, he would not kill us. He wanted to get a message to the media so that the French army would leave all the countries where it had operations and asked as well that the Kouachi brothes n their printer’s lair be let go. I was sure we would never get out alive, given the nature of the demands. He said that if he was allowed to make his declaration on television, the two-year old baby would be released.
Meanwhile, Aviel, the security agent (who was not one of the hostages) , gave information to the police. He called the armed forces and gave them the floorplan to the store, where the exits were etc. Patrice, the boss, who had managed to flee at the beginning, had been taken to hospital in serious condition.
The terrorist talked to us for a long moment about media, Ben laden, etc. and told us his story: he had just left prison after four years, although he had been condemned to five. We started giving drinks to people. He was overlooking us while making a sandwich. He was cracking jokes about security in the store. The phone kept ringing incessantly. When we answered, people would ask us what was going on. At one point, we got a call from someone who was concerned that terrorism was giving a bad name to Muslims. We unplugged the phone. We were in wait mode. Inside the store, there was blood everywhere.
Was the police there?
We had no idea what was going on outside. Initially, the killer had asked me where the emergency exit was and had asked someone to block it. After his speech, he decided to recite his prayer. We feared the worst. Then we heard banging on the barricaded emergency door. We hid on the other side, in back of Andrea’s check-out. It was total panic. We all lay on the floor, with our hands on our heads. We heard four gunshots then banging on the door.
It was the end?
There was a strong explosion and the police opened the iron curtain with a key. This lasted many minutes, an eternity with respect to the situation and the fact the terrorist could finish us all in a few seconds: it is a miracle he did not shoot us. The police entered with shields. And then, we heard perhaps fifty gunshots, a harrowing noise. We heard «He is dead!» and everybody left. I knew there were still people downstairs and they saw the carnage coming up. We got into a bus, thinking of the victims. We became aware that we had lived a miracle, because we had been saved.
Is there a message you would like to transmit after that terrifying experience?
For me, the central message is emouna, faith in God: the terrorist was armed to the nines and yet, we got through it. Only emouna made it so we could keep to a semblance of normality, speak, move, act. I was able to pray during the whole of the hostage taking. I who live mainly in Israel, I pray so that those near me can come to Erets Israel. All happened before Sabbath and we were freed an hour into Sabbath. I wish people to light their candles early with all their fervour. To my mind, the Sabbath saved us.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Free
The government of Canada is running a contest for post-secondary students in Canada: the
mission, to design a logo for Canada 150 which we will be celebrating in 2017.
Contest rules specify the entries must have an .eps format, normally associated with Adobe
Illustrator, and mucho dineros.
Not so, one can create vector art in this format with Libre Office drawing. Below, a few
ideas:
http://canada150.gc.ca/eng/1407417717020?utm_campaign=ADV_1415-0269&utm_source=1608195%5EFacebook%5EFaceb
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Thursday, January 8, 2015
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