The other day I ran up on this map of the Middle East. You have to drag the name of the country onto its place on the map. I did okay on my first try, but not as well as I would have hoped. Mauritania? Isn’t that an island? Or is that Mauritius? Mali? Isn’t that somewhere in Africa? Kyrgyzstan? Forget about it.
Of course, now I know where all of them are. How did you do? Let me know in the comments.
I appreciate a good photograph. Three times a week, Alan Taylor, a web developer at the Boston Globe, posts a couple dozen or more good, occasionally great, photographs based on a central theme on his blog, The Big Picture.
Since I subscribed to the blog a few weeks ago, I’ve particularly enjoyed 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony, War in South Ossetia, Beijing 2008 – It’s a wrap, Preparing to rescue Hubble, and Scenes from Iraq. Of course not every post is as awesome as those, but most are worth having a look at, and the good ones are certainly worth the wait.
I learned about The Big Picture from an equally interesting source. (Yes, I read too many blogs.) Jeffrey Friedl is an American living in Kyoto, Japan, with his wife and son. He is a computer scientist, photographer, and father, so he and I have a lot in common. He is the author of O’Reilly’s Mastering Regular Expressions. His posts on life in Japan are very interesting. If you’re interested in photography, life in Japan, or just like reading about the lives of interesting people, his blog is well worth reading.
The short war between Russia and Georgia is technically over, but things are far from settled. Both presidents have signed a truce that essentially puts things back to the way they were before the war. However, the Russians say they are staying where they are, deep inside Georgia, until an international force arrives to monitor the ceasefire. Until Russia leaves Georgian territory, anything could happen. There have also been rumors that Russian troops are not allowing some aid into Georgia. The group Human Rights Watch has alleged that Russia was using cluster bombs against Georgian civilians. According to them, cluster bombs have been banned by 107 countries.
While Russia is seen as the villian here in the West, Georgia is not at all blameless. South Ossetia won de facto independence from Georgia after a civil war in the early nineties. However, it is still considered to be part of Georgia by virtually everyone. This whole thing started when Georgia tried to regain South Ossetia about a week and a half ago. If you ask South Ossetians, Georgia is the villian and Russia is the protector. Of course, the whole thing had been brewing for years.
Ties between Russia and the US had already been strained by this whole situation. However, on Thursday, Poland signed a deal with the US to host part of the US missile defense system. This did not sit well with the Russians. They say it “cannot go unpunished” and have threatened military action against Poland. Poland is part of NATO, so if Russia followed through with their threats, things could get interesting quickly.
Late last week Russia invaded Georgia after Georgia attempted to regain South Ossetia, a pro-Russian enclave inside Georgian borders that has been a de facto republic since Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union in the early nineties.
Violating a country’s sovereign territory is not something to be taken lightly, and Georgia has the support of the United States, NATO, the United Nations, and the European Union. However, currently none of its allies are willing to back them up militarily.
Today the Russian military pushed past the pro-Russian enclaves they claimed to be defending and attacked Gori, a large city in central Georgia. Georgia has offered a cease-fire, but has been refused. It is believed that Russia is attempting to weaken the Georgian military and overthrow Georgia’s pro-democracy and pro-US president.
The New York Times has an very interesting article on the events leading up to this conflict. Georgia has been a thorn in Russia’s side for a long time. They want to join NATO, which Russia finds completely unacceptable. The entire situation is too complex for me to do a good job summarizing. If you’re interested, read the article.
As the article mentions, Georgia has been comparing themselves to Czechoslovakia prior to World War II. I think it is a very apt comparison. If the West allows Russia to take over all, or even a portion of Georgia, things could get ugly. Russia doesn’t like the position it’s been in since the Soviet Union broke up, and it means to change it.
This is going to get very interesting before all is said and done.