Ankara

Attack on Istanbul: the underside to the cards  

author: Eléonore de Vulpillières
translation: doxa-louise source Le Figaro, Figarovox (here, free of charge)

FIGAROVOX/INTERVIEW - Alain Rodier decyphers for us the geopolitical context for Turkey after the attack on the Istanbul airport. To his mind, the Kurdish independence movement, well before the Islamic State, remains Ankara’s number one enemy. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________
Specialized in terrorism and organized crime, earlier officer with French Intelliegence, Alain Rodier is currently director with the Centre Français de Recherche et Renseignement. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

FIGAROVOX - The attacks on the Istanbul airport, a metropolis attacked for the third time this year, left 41 dead and 239 wounded. How do you read this?

Alain RODIER - They are part and parcel of the ‘war context’ in which Turkey actually finds itself mired. They bear witness to the failure of the foreign policy approach of Recep Tayyip Erdogan since the Arab Spring in general and the Syrian revolution in particular.

Are these the work of the Islamic State? If so, how to explain that they have not been acknowledged?

It is too soon to know for sure. According to Binali Yildirim, the new Turkish Prime Minister, consistent details point to Daech. Knowing how Turkish authorities easily blame Kurdish separatists for any disturbance, there is a strong probability that Turkish Intelligence possess some proof that would allow them to make this claim. It is true that the modus operandi resembles other actions claimed by Daech such as the attack on Brussels' airport.

Up until now, Daech has never admitted to operations attributed to it in Turkey (in particular the 2015 attacks in Suruç and at the Central Station Ankara). This is odd because everywhere else, Daech claims to all attacks it could have waged or others waged in its name. It is possible that this could be a way of not directly ‘humiliating’ the Turkish government in order to preserve a way out (and in) via Turkey. In point of fact, it is the only country through which volunteers and logistics can transit. That said, it appears to me that a limit has been reached and that Ankara will no longer be so magnanimous.

Turkey has of late come closer to Russia - giving financial compensation for having downed a Russian fighter aircraft in November 2015, declarations from the head of the Turkish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly for Economic Cooperation on the Black Sea on the necessity to cooperate with Russia in the antiterrorist struggle - and with Israel. Could this explain the attack on the airport?

It is true that President Erdogan seems to be making a 180° turn on his Foreign Affairs stance. The excuses made to Russia concerning its fighter plane brought down as it was quite momentarily over Turkish air space ( president Erdogan might be reviewing the compensations given by Ankara to Moscow) and the renewal of normal diplomatic relations with Israel are its standout moments. President Erdogan is a very intelligent man who knows how to be pragmatic. His approach to Foreign Policy has failed and he is attempting to change it. This will be easy to achieve with Israel but might take longer with Russia.

Are these attacks due to the ambiguity which Turkey entertains on the subject of fighting the Islamic State?

Back in 2011, Erdogan’s ruling idea, while he was yet Prime Minister, was to give back to Turkey a central role in the sunnite Muslim world, especially with respect to its old Iranian (shiite) enemy. He was encouraged in this by the Muslim Brotherhood - then a success story - with whom he was affiliated, if not more... Given this aim, he felt that the destitution of Bachar el-Assad repudiated by the entire sunnite world was a prerequisite and that Turkey should play a preponderant role in this. This was his first error as he underestimated the resilience of the Syrian regime and especially of its unwavering allies Iran and Russia. He was not alone in this misperception but he clung to this view the longest.

Everything was possible to get rid of Assad, in particular helping any salafists-jihadists group, many of whom were part of Al-Qaida, historically the al-Nusra Front. Daech only withdrew from this family in 2014. This Front was merely another islamist group with which to form an alliance, which explains the subsequent leniency in its favour. When Daech became the most powerful salafists-jihadists group, Turkey’s aid became proportional. Moreover, Erdogan nourished the machiavellian idea of unleashing Daech against the Syrian Kurds considered as cousins to the separatist Kurds of the PKK (which is far from false). For him, the creation of a Kurdish state in Northern Syria is unacceptable because it represents a long-term risk for the very unity of Turkey, wherein the PKK separatists could use such as a base of operations.

Are we seeing a change in attitude from Turkey toward the Islamic State. Is it becoming the number one enemy, in front of the independence seeking Kurds?

Kurdish separatists remain the number one enemy for Turkish nationalists who form the majority in public opinion and the various political parties including the ruling AKP. Indeed, they are considered a true menace to the stability and unity of the country. But the salafists-jihadists are also becoming menacing especially for the Turkish economy and tourism. Ideologically, it is a fight to the finish between the Muslim Brotherhood of Ankara and Daech salafists-jihadists.

One should also note that President Erdogan, by playing the police and justice against the army (Ergenekon trial) and then the reverse, has considerably weakened security within Turkey, experienced managers finding themselves at best retired, at worst in jail. This might explain the glaring security lapses much maligned by foreign observers. He is much obsessed with getting rid of the Gülen Mouvement (very powerful in political-judiciary circles) which initially helped him gain leadership of the country but has become too heavy for his personal ambition: a presidential regime appropriate to himself.

ISIS seems ready to strike anywhere and everywhere, Muslim countries included. Are we witnessing a planetary expansion to the asymmetrical war of the Islamic State against all comers?

The Islamic State is capable of striking anywhere in the world to the point where Brazil is starting to worry about the Olympic Games set for August.

Party Prep

Leading up to Canada Day tomorrow, here are a few
party worthy recipes from the French Web:

Thew first two are fried wonders, for  young adults:
Quinoa Galettes and Polenta Croquettes. The third is a
party cake made with tea time cookies, and which I remember
from my own childhood (although our family recipe had coffee it,
which set me up for a life long addiction).

My father's view was that one should have an early and measured
introduction to things like coffee, gin, and cards.

Moving on,

The idea on these galettes is that the quinoa is cooked, the broccoli chopped 

and fried, and the two made into friable galettes with a lot of egg.

Polenta is an Italian sidedish of  cornmeal much like glutinous rice, often made 

with an addition of cheese.The Comté cheese cited in the recipe is a variety of

Swiss. Once a sheet of polenta is made, one makes small rolls which go through

the usual flour, egg, breading routine, and fried, much like mozza sticks.

Add parsley.

A chocolate batter is made, using dark chocolate, and alternate rows of batter 

and chopped cookies are assembled, baked briefly, and served with powdered cocoa.

Serve with gin!

More

In point of fact, France as well is meeting with resistance
in embracing EU standards. French workers have been protesting
a neoliberal reform of labour laws. What is at issue is explained in the below
video from last April, featuring the beloved Le Monde potato characters:

A_M

« Les Français ont voté pour le programme de la gauche française, et ils ont eu la politique de la droite allemande. »

                                                                                   Arnaud Montebourg

source: Le Monde

Guys

So Boris Johnson - if not outright lying - did telegraph it during the Brexit debate:
the amount of money he cited as available for National Health was twice that
actually paid to the EU (the original requested amount), and that amount bought
privileges  for Britain. Which he undoubtedly realised. So he was saying that amount
could be controlled differently, like refusing automatic payments from one's account
for utilities. Fine and good.

But he was passionate about the issue of Brexit, and declared after the vote that
Britain could finally extricate itself from the EU corpus of laws. What laws might
those be.

Yes, there is administrative law, and God knows that can be painful to live with.
Anyone who has haggled with the tax department can attest to this. The government
is plaintiff, judge and jury.

I have also found references to the EU wanting to move to a unified system of
criminal law, on a model quite different from English common law. Could this
be the concern.

From the French press, the one positive seen from the Brexit vote is that the Union
itself might now move forward to greater unification, principally France and Germany.
I personally think this is an awesome idea, but there is a lot of history, there.

À suivre...

source: Wikipedia

Brexit Still

Brexit everywhere on the Web.

Found the following two bits of analysis from the MSN Brussels site; the second might explain the first. ie the young might brain-drain to London.

*   *   *

From the Telegraph:

Just Desserts

I must be delirious: looking at dessert inspiration for today's Quebec holiday as well
as Canada and Independence Day to come:

 Doughnut Ice Cream Sandwiches for today.

S'mores cubes (Graham crackers, butter and marshmallow and Hershey

bars) for Canada Day.

And this unfortunately named wonder for the 4th (that cookie dough at the bottom remains uncooked).

Yup, I'm delirious.What might I find for Bastille Day, mid-July?

http://www.delish.com/cooking/g1631/summer-dessert-recipes/?

Happy SJB!

9:30 am St-Jean Baptiste day - and a legal holiday - and things are quiet.

The park, not far from where I live, has cute exercise machines. There is a home for the elderly just across, but they have indoor facilities. Should throw myself outside some morning and try these out!!

Riverside, where tonight's fireworks will be lit:

J.W.W.

Missed Selfie Day yesterday:(. But it did give me an occasion to reflect on a 'selfie' - i.e. relatable hero - of the 20th century, J. Wellington Wimpy, from the creator of Popeye cartoons, E. C. Segar(1894-1938).

Initially, the newspaper where Segar worked had an amusing custom that whoever accepted an invitation to a hamburger lunch got to pick up the tab. By 1934, Wimpy was a full-blown financier of hamburgers.

*   *   *

                                                                                 

EU

No doubt about it, those Eurocrats working out of Brussels can be
pretty - excuse me the expression - galling. Belgium was the original
homeland of the Francs, not today's France, and the symbolism is there.

Strasbourg as the seat of the European Parliament is a bit better. It is
located in Alsace - Lorraine, the historical region of much conflict between
France and Germany... A sort of sharing that peanut butter and jelly
sandwich.

On the question de fond, the deeper problem, an Oxford University professor 
has commented that what is at issue for Britain is nothing less than the supremacy
of Parliament. Which for the British is inviolate, the very cornerstone of democracy.
Here, hard to judge at a distance what the precise hold-up is. Perhaps the European
Parliament needs to be shaken up, given more  life as a Parliament than a place for
pretty speeches.

There is no doubt that the creation of a common currency was and remains
desirable for Europeans. Which might be why the administrative authority of
Brussels is iron-clad; they go hand-in-hand. And there is continuing squabble
about in whose favour monetary policy plays, exporters or importers. So that the
mirroring of eventual integration might be working to soothe a few frayed nerves.

My hunch is that, so long as Britain maintains a distinct currency, and given the
importance of the City, it would be in the good for all if it became more involved
on financial questions. Yes, I've said it, some sort of new body dealing  with common
research and policies for economic harmonization. As I like to tell myself when
shopping for clothes, if I don't buy this outrageous garment and wear it proud, who
will!?

Wondering

So I was reading this morning in the French Montreal web press about a young university student named Alexis, who is a non gender identified militant.  A. was assigned a gender at birth - won't say which - but refuses to even answer that, because why are we concerned about genitals in the everyday, anyway!? The University of Montreal  now has a gender neutral toilet, life goes on.

As I was making breakfast for myself, I began top wonder if I were to write a short story about Alexis set in the future, what would happen. I ended up concluding that the real Alexis already was living in that future - my 'future' - and confronting own adventures. Problem with this real Alexis is not realizing the artistic nature of that quest.

Just saying...

http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2016/06/20/ni-madame-ni-monsieur

F_Day

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Cycling Healthy

Cyclists are starting to arrive on the riverside drive,  at the end of the 130 km biking

event being held today in St-Jean. They are tired and it is blistering hot. Good work

to these ambassadors of healthy living!

They are 1000 strong, doing 1000 kms in 13 different events. And one is free to join

them in one's community. Ouf!!

http://www.ville.saint-jean-sur-richelieu.qc.ca/evenements-enjeux/Documents/programme-officiel-gdpl.pdf

Imagination

"Eh bien, docteur, les fées existent précisément parce qu’elles sont imaginaires..."

The above phrase is from Anatole France (Anatole Thibault,1844-1924), a French
writer who is known for historical novels set  during the French revolution. (His father
owned the best library on the Revolutionary period, and he grew up in the atmosphere
of discussion on the topic). He was arguing here against a too strident approach to a
scientific world view in education.

Why go back to AFrance now? The Literature exam in this year's BAC has a
AFrance question, wherein the student is asked to reflect on competing views of man in  modernism (with respect to his work).

I must admit he is someone I was never tempted to read. He was a prominent figure
of the Third Republic, a defender of Dreyfus, a Nobel prize in Literature; had a chaotic
love life with many more or less successful affairs, suicidal mistresses, a wife he
divorced to his disadvantage. Yawn! Nothing for me. Sounds like someone for whom
women were imaginary creatures who exist.

But then again, it's going to be a scorchingly hot week-end, and my apartment will be
getting too uncomfortable to do much. His masterpiece, Les dieux ont soif(1912), is
available free to read on the Web. Why not!? On with the adventures of Evariste Gamelin, revolutionary.

I'll be reporting back.

Desire

French candidates to the BAC - in effect, the exams that decide on who will gain
access to higher education - were confronted this Wednesday Juy 16 with the fearful
philosophy exams. To give an idea of the process, below, one of the questions to
those students in the Literature program, and a suggested approach from a philosophy
professor - Brice Casanova - that takes into account the year’s readings.


source: l'express
translation: doxa-louise


Is desire(wanting), by its very nature, without limits?

The question seems to take for granted that, indeed, it is. This presupposition puts it
dependent on a philosophical tradition which then needs to be cited and which sees
the absence of limits as one of the defining characteristics of desire. The problem
facing this presupposition is whether this absence of limits is essential. Because one
could also suspect that it is rather the product of a culture which would promote unlimited
desire for reasons that one could explain and thus make known. If on the contrary, it
is essential, then one needs to explain its nature and why this nature could lead to the
absence of limits.


PART ONE

One could begin in a classical fashion by making a distinction between desire and
will. Certainly we can desire and be responsible for our wants in such a way as desire
and will seem one and the same thing. But we can also refuse and work against our
desires. One can will against one’s desire, and even will again and again what our
desire seeks to the point of mastering it. Within this opposition, desire and will are
distinct and will appears as a limiting power. But in order to oppose this desiring t
ension, our will needs to surpass its limits to finally become unlimited. Thus it would
be will that is unlimited rather than desire. Could then unlimited desire be more
apparent than real?

PART TWO

This dummy character is, without doubt, produced, cultivated and maintained by
the general commoditization within which the modern subject moves quite ‘naturally’.
Of course, this alledged essence which eats at spontaneity is the result of a culture.
And it is in Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations that
one could find what is needed to elaborate the concept from the point of view of its
engineering, its discourse and its objective. Nothing could be less under our control
that our desire through which we are indefinitely caught up in the indefinitely rebooted
cycle of the markerplace. Yet one could well wonder whether this indefinitely repeated
cycle of the markerplace is a proper expression of our unlimited desire.

PART THREE

In effect the fact that desire can be unlimited does not imply it should be indefinitely
recycled though the dummy play of the marketplace. As Plato illustrates though Socrate’s
discourse in The Banquet, it rather means that desire gives to the subject which feels it a
meaning which transcends the limits of his own existence. it is wanting which makes us
immortal and lets us experience immortality in a way proper to beings who will
nonetheless die and know it. This authentic unlimied condition can for this reason
be considered natural, that is in fine essential and metaphysical. it can also be cultivated
in an authentic fashion through a consideration of one’s mortality.

CONCLUSION One can conclude that desire can, in effect, be considered unlimited
by nature if one recognizes as its nature the metaphysical dimension to existence.

Turn

My new desktop: a colorized photo of Grant's Tomb, Riverside Park in NewYork City,
at the turn of the 20th century.

source: The Telegraph

Like That

Been eating Oat Bran for breakfast lately. Macros similar to oatmeal and -

like oatmeal - a soluble fiber that is very satisfying for a long time.

Below, straight up, with milk and banana. One could add sugar, butter, cinnamon;

oat bran is a very good way to enrich muffins.

I like it like that.

All Wrong!

Many in the fitness community take on the Rock's - Dwayne Johnson's - legendary
cheat day. It is, in effect, something of a rite de passage for aspiring body builders
and fitness enthusiasts. 12 pancakes, 3 pizzas, and a mountain of brownies. and, as
one would expect, there is a certain leeway in the interpretation: with or without
syrup for the pancakes, different toppings on the pizza etc.

Yet there is one aspect in which you've been getting it all wrong, fellas: those are
double-dough pizzas, the pasta from two pizzas put together to make one.
Bunch'a wimps...

New Dish

Imagine my joy, last night, when I found the long awaited Lime flavoured diet jello 

at a friendly supermarket. Although it is cold enough to turn the heat back on, here in 

St-J (9°C this morning), I am still enjoying a fruit, veg and jello breakfast, just because 

it's possible. 

This is a rare mix for me: cucumber, radish, nectarine, grapes, pear, grapefruit juice and 

Lime jello, and I think I'll name it the #Sinkie. Thinking of you, Ottawa! 

Arg!

I'm a glutton for punishment; I just downloaded Sketchup for my Game tutorial:

Bavaria

BDAY, K

                                                         ♪  ♪  ♪  ♪  ♪  ♪  ♪  ♪  ♪  ♪

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY!   

Scenes

One of the features of the Unity game engine, which serves to keep up the pace of play,
is that each scene or level starts from anew. All the project assets and scripts are always listed, what  happens when I press play will depend on which scene I have opened.

Below, in Scene 1, the three upward cubes appear programmatically ( the script is appended to the directional light). I have to press the space bar, and they will show up and start rotating.

When I open Scene 2, the script is on the camera. Again, I press the space bar but I make the cubes rotate manually pressing either A, B, or C. There is an additional bit of code which moves the middle cube when I use the arrow keys.

 The light and camera are givens in every scene, although one can add additional views - and thus cameras and lighting -  within a scene.

Rive Gauche

The Seine river is up by some 4 meters, which is rather dramatic. Not so bad as the 8 meter rise which had inundated the Metro in 1910.

Note that the Eiffel Tower is on the Left Bank. One looks toward the river's

flow, and assigns handedness from there.

I can say that - from Saint-Jean sur Richelieu - I am on the left bank of the Richelieu river!!