A Political Education

Turkey, Armenia, and the US

There is a vote by a US congressional committee recognising as genocide the 1915-17 mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

Apparently a sizable group of people of Armenian ancestry has been lobbying for this in the US for some time, and the Turks are furious about it, and moving towards cooperating less with the United States.

I do not get this. Or rather, I do, but surely an event nearly a hundred years ago is a matter for historians, rather than modern politicians? There can't be many people who were involved still alive. So the congressional committee, the resolution, and the reaction all mystify me.

Can we get something done about the Potato Famine in Ireland? How about a congressional investigation of the Moorish Occupation of Iberia? Maybe one to find out what happened to the Neanderthals?

posted by Drew Shiel @ 10/11/2007 01:01:00 p.m. 1 comments

China Miéville: Anti-Libertarianism At Sea

One of my favourite authors, China Miéville, is also a fairly active figure in socialist politics. In this article in On These Times, he's going all-out on the notion of libertarian seasteading - the notion of ships and artifical islands as offshore tax-havens. It's an interesting read.

posted by Drew Shiel @ 10/10/2007 01:11:00 p.m. 0 comments