Except this one.

Realized rather late in the game that I'm not particularly well equipped to carry out an effective evaluation of an article for publication that involves international contract law. I should have let the editor know earlier. Oh, well.  Ironically, one of the clauses of the Article that is the focus of the work (Article 79 of CISG) might remotely apply to my current predicament:

"A party is not liable for a failure to perform any of his obligations if he proves that the failure was due to an impediment beyond his control and that he could not reasonably be expected to have taken the impediment into account at the time of the conclusion of the contract or to have avoided or overcome it or its consequences."

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne

Archbishop Desmond Tutu pulls out of event with Tony Blair because of Iraq War - Telegraph

Retired Anglican bishop and South African peace campaigner Desmond Tutu has pulled out of an event because he cannot share a platform with Tony Blair because of the Iraq War.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner who was the first black archbishop of Cape Town made the protest because of the former Prime Minister's "morally indefensible" decision to lead British forces into Iraq in 2003.

However Mr Blair hit back in a statement, insisting that such "decisions are never easy morally or politically".

Mr Blair and Archbishop Tutu, who received the Nobel Prize in 1984 for campaigning against apartheid, were due to appear at a leadership summit in Johannesburg later this week.

A local Muslim party has already announced that it would attempt to arrest Blair when he arrives in Johannesburg for "crimes against humanity".

Has anyone seen Silmido, or heard of its subject, Unit 684? This is South Korea's The Dirty Dozen, but with a darker outcome and a historical truth behind it, which was the blackest black op in South Korea's known history. I happened upon this two days ago, and watched the film yesterday.

In January 1968, a North Korean elite commando unit of 31 men crossed the border in an attempt to assassinate South Korea's then dictator. They failed on something almost laughable: instead of killing the first civilians to discover them, they tried to convert them to communism and let them walk free, but the civilians told authorities. The commando was exposed at a checkpoint near the presidential palace, then a manhunt ensued, in which only one was captured alive and only another probably escaped north.

Three months later, South Korea decided to establish an even tougher commando unit of the exact same size to assassinate Kim Il-sung. They gathered 31 people, including jobless men, and street thugs and probably even kidnapped peasants; carted them off to a remote island and subjected them to a hellish training in which three died, and four more were beaten to death after escape attempts. Then there was a thaw in inter-Korea relations and the mission was called off, and the unit was held indefinitely on the island.

Three years later, on 23 August 1971, the 24 remaining members of Unit 684 staged a mutiny: they killed all but six of the equal-numbered guards, landed on the mainland, hijacked a bus and set off for Seoul to make their existence known to the world. They staged a big firefight on the streets when the bus came to a stop here with tyre punctured, then tried to commit suicide with hand grenades.

The four survivors were executed after a secret military tribunal. I found no data on the number of military and civilian casualties. The public was told they were escaped convicts or North Korean spies, relatives weren't told anything.

First rumours came up in the nineties, then a book was written on the event, which led to the 2003 film. The film dramatised the events, including stuff like:

• the North Korean raid was compressed into a manhunt right after crossing the border;
  
• the unit members are all criminals taken from death row (this was actually the original plan, dumped because the body has to be produced to relatives after executions, the full truth on this wasn't released until 2006);
  
• the mutiny is shown to be a direct reaction to an order to liquidate the unit (from what I found, there is no evidence of such an order, though it's not unrealistic).

The existence of Unit 684 was only recognised a year after the movie, then a truth commission searched archives and dug for the remains of the soldiers. In the movie, the emotional climax is before the mass suicide when the soldiers write their names on the bus interior wall with their own blood. Indeed identifying the unit members was one of the tasks of the truth commission, succeeding for at least 21 of them, because their families sued for and received compensation from the government in 2010.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Prince Harry Facebook group strips in support of party-loving royal in naked Vegas photos furore | Mail Online

As royal military displays go, it is hardly trooping the colour - and it is unlikely the Queen would approve.

But soldiers and fans of the Armed Forces have taken to the internet to strip off in support of Prince Harry, who has been in hot water after pictures emerged of him in the nude during his infamous Las Vegas holiday.

Almost 12,000 people have joined the Facebook group 'Support Prince Harry with a naked salute!'

An important speech by ECB council member Jörg Asmussen in Hamburg on Monday, available (for the time being at least) only in German at the ECB site: Zwischenbericht auf dem Weg in eine stabilere Wirtschafts- und Währungsunion (27.08.2012)

Die Lage an den Finanzmärkten in der Eurozone hat sich seit Mitte letzten Jahres noch einmal verschlechtert. Die Risikoprämien, die von Investoren in Staatsanleihen verlangt werden, spiegeln mittlerweile nicht nur das Insolvenzrisiko einzelner Staaten wider, sondern sogar ein Wechselkursrisiko, das es theoretisch in der Währungsunion nicht geben dürfte. Das heißt, die Märkte preisen ein Auseinanderbrechen des Euroraums ein. Solche systemischen Zweifel sind dramatisch - und für die Europäische Zentralbank nicht akzeptabel. Nur eine Währung, an deren Bestand es keinen Zweifel gibt, ist eine stabile Währung.

...

Der Euro selbst ist nicht in der Krise: Wir erleben derzeit eine Abfolge unterschiedlicher Krisen in Europa: Manche Länder haben mit der Staatsverschuldung zu kämpfen, in anderen geht es vorrangig um eine Krise im Bankensektor und bei manchen ist eher die Verschuldung des Privatsektors das drängendste Problem. In einigen Staaten ist das schwerwiegendste Problem ein jahrelanger Verlust an Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und in manchen treten die vorgenannten Ursachen gleichzeitig auf, so zum Beispiel in Irland, wo wir eine Bankenkrise bei hoher privater Verschuldung erleben. Insgesamt ist daraus mittlerweile eine Vertrauenskrise größeren Ausmaßes geworden. Genau deswegen versuchen wir - gemeinsam in Europa - diese Krise anzugehen. Anpassungsprogramme, Rettungsschirme, vertiefte Integration, EZB-Sondermaßnahmen. Die Liste, der wichtigen Weichenstellung, die innerhalb der vergangenen zwei Jahre getroffen wurden, ist lang. Sicher, nicht immer lief der Prozess effektiv und zügig. Aber wann immer Entscheidungen nötig waren, wurden sie auch getroffen.

...

Deshalb hat die EZB Anfang August ein neues Anleihekaufprogramm angekündigt, das eine bessere Transmission gewährleisten wird. Gegenüber dem alten Anleihekaufprogramm SMP wird es folgende Verbesserungen umfassen:

• Die EZB wird nur noch parallel mit dem EFSF und dem späteren ESM tätig werden. Dazu muss ein Staat einen Hilfsantrag stellen und umfangreiche wirtschaftspolitische Auflagenerfüllen. Darüber hinaussollte meiner Meinung nach der EFSF bzw. der ESM auf Antrag des betroffenen Landes am Primärmarkt intervenieren, bevor die EZB eingreift. Ein solcher Antrag ist aber nur die notwendige Bedingung für ein Tätigwerden der EZB. Der EZB-Rat wird weiterhin in voller Unabhängigkeit entscheiden, ob, wann und wie die EZB Anleihen auf dem Sekundärmarkt erwirbt. Mit diesem Verfahren kann sichergestellt werden, dass das betroffene Land auch alle notwendigen und vereinbarten Reformmaßnahmen umsetzt. Der Fehler mit Italien im Sommer des letzten Jahres, als die EZB italienische Staatsanleihen gekauft hat und die Zeit leider nicht für notwendige Anpassungsmaßnahmen genutzt wurde, darf sich nicht wiederholen.

• Außerdem wird das neue Programm so aufgestellt sein, dass das Problem der Wahrnehmung eines bevorzugten Gläubigerstatus der EZB angegangen wird. Denn diese Wahrnehmung erschwert den betroffenen Ländern eine Rückkehr an den Kapitalmarkt, weil private Investoren ihren Status als unsicher empfinden und sich vom betroffenen Land abwenden.

• Schließlich wird die EZB im Rahmen des neuen Programms nur noch Anleihen mit kurzen Laufzeiten kaufen. Die Steuerung der kurzfristigen Geldmärkt ist das klassische Metier der Geldpolitik. Außerdem sind die Verwerfungen am kurzen Ende der Zinskurve in Krisenzeiten besonders stark.

Progress report on the way to a stable economic and monetary union (27.08.2012)

The situation in the Eurozone financial markets has worsened again since the middle of last year. Risk premia demanded by investors on government bonds widen, reflecting not only insolvence risks of individual states, but even a currency conversion risk, which theoretically couldn't exist in the monetary union. That means that the markets are pricing in a breakup of the Eurozone. Such systemic doubts are dramatic --- and unacceptable for the European Central Bank. Only a currency whose continued existance is not in doubt can be a stable currency.

This is a nice rhetorical point to disarm critics arguing that the ECB is acting outside its mandate. You cannot work on price stability when your currency area is disintegrating.

The Euro itself is not in crisis: we are experiencing a succession of diverse crises in Europe: certain countries have to contend with government debt, in others there is a banking sector crisis and in some the most urgent problem is the indebtedness of the private sector. In some states the biggest burden is the loss of competitiveness over the years and in some the previously mentioned causes occur simultaneously, as for instance in Ireland, where we're experiencing a banking crisis together with high private indebtedness. In the meantime a confidence crisis has become larger. Indeed because of this we're seeking --- together in Europe --- to take measures against this crisis. Adjustment programmes, rescue programmes, deepened integration, ECB extraordinary measures. The list of important changes of course that have taken place in the last two years is long. To be sure, the process did not run effectively or quickly. But whenever decisions were necessary, they were met.

As I have said before, with balanced trade, stable exchange rates and negligible foreign-denominated debt, the Eurozone as a whole does not present bad monetary statistics. The crisis is entirely an internal distributional crisis.

Therefore the ECB announced a new bond purchase program at the beginning of August, that will guarantee a better [monetary policy] transmission. It will contain the following improvements in contrast with the old bond program SMP:

The ECB will only act in parallel with the EFSF and later the ESM. For that a state must make an aid request and fulfill extensive economic policy conditions. Over and above this, in my opinion the EFSF or the ESM should intervene in the primary market of the country in question before the ECB joins in. Such a request is however only a necessary condition for ECB action. The ECB council will further decide in full independence whether, when and how the ECB will acquire bonds in the secondary market. With this procedure it can be assured that the country in question is also carrying out all the necessary and consistent reform measures. The mistake with Italy in the Summer of last year, when the ECB bought Italian government bonds and the time was not used for necessary adjustment measures, will not repeat itself.

In addition the new program will be so constituted that the problem of a perceived privileged creditor status of the ECB will be addressed. This is because this perception hinders the return of the countries in question to the capital markets, asprivate investors feel an insecure status and turn away from the country in question.

Finally the ECB will only buy bonds with short maturities in the context of this program. The steering of the short-term money market is the classic job of monetary policy. Besides, the distortions of the short end of the interest rate curve are quite stark in a crisis.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

France, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

Moon shot, no chaser.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

Beppe Grillo's Blog

Maurizio Pallante, founder of the "movimento Decrescita felice" (literally the "Happy Downscaling" movement).
Today I would like to talk to you about our proposals for overcoming the crisis that we are currently experiencing, which are simultaneously an economic, employment, energy and environmental crisis.
The unanimous chorus of voices claiming that in order to overcome this crisis we have to re-launch growth, without much success it appears, seems to be more like the longing of a powerless man who really wants to do something but is somehow unable to get it done. We believe that growth is in fact the cause of the crisis that we are experiencing and, therefore, it cannot possibly be the solution because one cannot think of resolving a problem by strengthening the causes that have brought it about. We also say that growth is the cause of both aspects of the crisis that we are seeing, on the one hand the stagnation in production and the consequent unemployment and, on the other hand, the increase in public debt, which here in Italy has reached a level of 120% of GDP, and private debt, which must also be added to the public debt.

Growth is the cause of the crisis that we are currently experiencing because economic growth results in an ongoing increase in the supply of goods, however, in order to increase the supply of goods, better performing technologies have to be adopted in the production processes, which reduces the impact of labour costs on the added value, in other words in the unit times, so these technologies enable the producers to produce more and more with fewer and fewer people.
But if you keep on producing more and more, you are increasing the supply of goods, however, if there are fewer and fewer people involved in the various production processes, this decreases the demand for goods because of the decline in the disposable income that people use to purchase the things that are produced.
Therefore, if demand decreases and supply increases, eventually, in order to maintain the equilibrium over time we have had to increasingly resort to making more and more debt in order to sustain the demand.
Now this is an age-old story, it's not something that we have only recently discovered. The debt rise began with the growth-based economy back in the 1960s, when people were lured into buying all the new things that were being marketed by the producers, even if it meant getting into debt in order to be able to purchase them.
Now, in the light of this type of crisis, the traditional economic policies are proving to be totally powerless. We can even take all the best economics professors around, but if those economics professors apply the traditional economic policies they will not be able to help us get through this crisis, as the Monti Government is currently demonstrating, notwithstanding all the triumphant announcements with which it was introduced.
But why do the traditional economic policies seem to be so totally unable to resolve the crisis? Well, because if we work towards reducing the level of debt, since the demand for goods is largely based on creating debt, we would effectively be reducing demand, which would in fact worsen the crisis. If, instead, we want to re-launch the economy, then we have to increase demand and to do this we would have to increase the level of debt.
So now some or other economic genius, one of those economists who have graduated from the best educational institutions, has come out and said that we somehow need to press both the brake and the accelerator pedals simultaneously, the brake pedal being debt reduction and the accelerator pedal being increasing production.
However, as most of you with drivers licences know only too well, if you were to try to climb into a motorcar, start the engine and then simultaneously press both the accelerator and the brake pedals, you would merely waste petrol and potentially burn out the engine and the brakes without moving an inch. This is kind of the situation that we are in at the moment.

It's a fine line between homage, parody, and consumer opportunism. Jess Walter