[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Acts of Minor Treason’s Andrew Barton photographs the ever-changing and increasingly condo-ized intersection of Queen Street West with Dufferin.
• James Bow points to a McDonald’s in Scarborough that appears for all the world to be abandoned. (Suburbia can be a wasteland.)
• Centauri Dreams notes that astronomers have ingeniously managed to determine the characteristics of the atmosphere of exoplanet GJ3470b, a hot Neptune closely orbiting a red dwarf.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that South Asia was repopulated by migrants from Africa after the Toba volcanic explosion.
• GNXP takes a look at some interesting genetic analysis of Caribbean populations.
• Joe. My. God. notes, with others, the irony of anti-Castro Cuban-American Marco Rubio defending the same homophobic policies that Castro would have advanced.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money does not think that internships can be defended.
• Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen and The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer both note that Honduras seems interested in charter cities. The latter doesn’t think much will come of it.
• Elsewhere at The Power and the Money, Noel Maurer observes that Colombia is actually a very close ally of the United States and sees, in the relationship of Brazil with an Ecuador that has tried to harass Brazilian companies, the birth of a Brazilian hegemony in South America.
• Torontoist notes that ambitious plans for expanding St. Lawrence Market North have been sharply downgraded.
• Window on Eurasia notes an Uzbek writer who argues that the death of the Aral Sea will affect even upstream countries in Central Asia like Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, whether directly through environmental catastrophe or indirectly through regional tensions.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Beyond the Beyond’s Bruce Sterling is skeptical that plans to archive vast quantities of archived data accumulated over decades, even centuries, are going to be viable.
• The Burgh Diaspora notes that for southern Europeans, Latin America is once again emerging as a destination–this time, the migration is of professionals seeking opportunities they can’t find at home.
• The Dragon’s Tales’ Will Baird links to a proposal by biologists that life initially evolved in highly saline environments.
• Democracy is still fragile in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Eastern Approaches notes.
• Odd placenames in Minnesota are analyzed at Far Outliers.
• A Fistful of Euros’ Alex Harrowell notes the translation problems surrounding the Nazi term volkisch, liking one recent translator’s suggestion that “racist” works best.
• Razib Khan at GNXP introduces readers to the historical background behind the recent ethnic conflict in Burma.
• Itching for Eestimaa’s Guistino takes a look at same-sex marriage in Estonia.
• Savage Minds reviews Nicholas Shaxson’s book Treasure Islands, which took a look at offshore banking centres like Cyprus.
• Torontoist’s Kevin Plummer describes the background behind Elvis’ 1957 performances in Toronto.
• The negative effects of mass migration to Russia from Central Asia on sending countries, especially the republics of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, are introduced at Window on Eurasia.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Bag News Notes’ Michael Shaw wonders whether the real problem with the attempted Nelson Mandela photo op wasn’t that it took advantage of a man in ill health but that it did so badly.
• What does it mean, Daniel Drezner asks, that almost all transactions one’s likely to encounter in China–even ones that would be handled electronically–are handled in cash? (A lack of trust in the banks, perhaps?)
• The issue of anti-Semitism in Hungary as it hosts the World Jewish Congress is tackled at Eastern Approaches.
• A Fistful of Euros’ Edward Hugh is skeptical about Shinzo Abe’s inflationary experiment in Japan, since–he argues–shifting demographics are pushing Japan towards deflation and economic decline.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money places the recent catastrophe in Bangladesh in perspective. Clothing manufacturers have almost always made use of easily-exploited, marginal, and–literally–disposable labour.
• Registan notes that, after the arrest of two Kazakhstani students in Boston for complicity with the younger Tsarnaev brother after the fact, people are now looking at Islam in Kazakhstan. (It’s historically quite placid, FWIW.)
• The Volokh Conspiracy’s Eugene Volokh reacts to a report finding a disturbingly high level of support for honour killings in many parts of the Muslim world.
• Window on Eurasia reports that Tajikistan is trying to limit the abuse of its migrant workers in Russia by stationing diplomatic personnel to greet and guide new arrivals.
• Wonkman makes the case for the utility of labels in referring to people, since they can legitimately help guide and identify them. (He’s talking about GLBT/queer identities, but I think the principle is portable.)

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Behind the Numbers’ Carl Haub notes that most of the recent fall in American fertility is a consequence of falling Mexican-American fertility, with fertility in other groups remaining stable.
• Daniel Drezner is upset that, according to its star Brad Pitt, the film version of World War Z will minimize the international politics of the anti-zombie war inasmuch as those politics made the book.
• Eastern Approaches notes ongoing tensions in Slovakia over that nation’s history of collaboration with the Nazis in the Second World War.
• At Language Log, Steven Bird links to his account of how he’s using Android tablets to record the languages of indigenous tribes in the Brazilian Amazon.
• Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen thinks that Cyprus would have done better to leave the Eurozone altogether and adopt a new currency rather than stay in the Eurozone.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer is surprised that Cypriots are willing to tolerate the Euro even with the terrible costs it imposes on their economy.
• Visual Science’s Perrin Ireland documents the biosphere discovered to exist in some oceanic crustal areas.
• Window on Eurasia’s Paul Goble notes that, as a result of emigration, the once-large Russophone community of Tajikistan has almost entirely disappeared.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Crooked Timber has two posts on David Cameron’s announcement of a referendum, hopefully, on British membership in the European Union, to be held in a few years.
• Eastern Approaches had two posts on the recent Czech election, noting that the defeated candidate, Prince Schwarzenberg, was hobbled as much by his German associations as by his links to the previous government.
• Far Outliers notes the Americanization of Buddhism, and of the Japanese-Americans who practiced it, in post-Second World War Hawai’i.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money’s Dave Brockington also comments on Britain’s relationship with the European Union.
• Norman Geras notes the hatred of Mali’s insurgents for music.
• Registan’s Nathan Hamm warns that a post-Karimov Uzbekistan might intervene on behalf of Uzbek minorities in neighbouring states.
• Torontoist posted an excerpt from Edward Keenan’s new book about Toronto, Some Great Idea.
• Might Iran buy water from Tajikistan? Windows on Eurasia notes the statement of interest.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Andrew Barton at Acts of Minor Treason observes that the invade-the-United-States meme hasn’t become more plausible over time, the differences between the first Red Dawn (featuring a Soviet invasion) and the second (featuring North Korea) being a case in point.
• Centauri Dreams offers more commentary on the non-detection of Earth-size planets orbiting Barnard’s Star.
• Far Outliers posts from Bill Hayton’s book on Vietnam describing how the entrepreneurial southern provinces of Vietnam helped save the national economy after reunification.
• Geocurrents notes the revival of Berbera, city in unrecognized Somaliland, over the past two decades.
• Marginal Revolution notes the importance of the shipping pallet.
• Can oil really make things better for Tajikistan, wonders?

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Andrew Barton at Acts of Minor Treason observes that the invade-the-United-States meme hasn’t become more plausible over time, the differences between the first Red Dawn (featuring a Soviet invasion) and the second (featuring North Korea) being a case in point.
• Centauri Dreams offers more commentary on the non-detection of Earth-size planets orbiting Barnard’s Star.
• Far Outliers posts from Bill Hayton’s book on Vietnam describing how the entrepreneurial southern provinces of Vietnam helped save the national economy after reunification.
• Geocurrents notes the revival of Berbera, city in unrecognized Somaliland, over the past two decades.
• Marginal Revolution notes the importance of the shipping pallet.
• Can oil really make things better for Tajikistan, wonders?

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Daniel Drezner has to point out that the comparisons some Israelis like Netanyahu are making between Idi Amin’s Uganda and modern Iran, with the implication that a successful strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities will discredit Iran the way the Israeli commande attack at Entebbe did Amin is just, well, argh.
• Eastern Approaches is decidedly unimpressed with Romania’s education system, and not only because it prompts many talented young people to leave their country to pursue their dreams.
• Far Outliers’ Joel quotes from Christopher Clark’s Iron Kingdom to describe how post-German unification Prussia’s Kulturkampf against Roman Catholics–at least partly a campaign against potential separatists–ended up backfiring and consolidated German Catholics behind their faith.
• Geocurrents’ Asya Pereltsvaig documents how the words sounding like, alternatively, “tea” and “chai” have diffused around the world into different languages following patterns of culture, history, and geography.
• Language Hat is intrigued by a New York Times story describing how a Spanish felt hat factory is kept afloat by orders from the couple hundred thousand Satmar Hasidim.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money’s Erik Loomis commemorated on the 4th the creation in 1942 by the United States of the bracero guest workers program with Mexico, criticized for its poor treatment of the guest workers but in so doing preparing the ground for later Chicano rights movements.
• New APPS Blog’s John Protevi starts with Plato’s suggestion in the Republic that suitably capable women could belong to the class of protectors in his ideal polity to consider the complexely-gendered presentation of women athletes and the significant variations in performance within gender.
• Registan’s guest blogger Navruz Nekbakhtshoev reports from Tajikistan’s recently conflict-hit Badakhshan region, noting that the recent conflict wasn’t an ethnic conflict mobilizing different groups on ethnoreligious lines but rather something more limited.
• Towleroad reports on Gaymercon, a proposed con for gay geeks that could conceivably take off.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Daniel Drezner has to point out that the comparisons some Israelis like Netanyahu are making between Idi Amin’s Uganda and modern Iran, with the implication that a successful strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities will discredit Iran the way the Israeli commande attack at Entebbe did Amin is just, well, argh.
• Eastern Approaches is decidedly unimpressed with Romania’s education system, and not only because it prompts many talented young people to leave their country to pursue their dreams.
• Far Outliers’ Joel quotes from Christopher Clark’s Iron Kingdom to describe how post-German unification Prussia’s Kulturkampf against Roman Catholics–at least partly a campaign against potential separatists–ended up backfiring and consolidated German Catholics behind their faith.
• Geocurrents’ Asya Pereltsvaig documents how the words sounding like, alternatively, “tea” and “chai” have diffused around the world into different languages following patterns of culture, history, and geography.
• Language Hat is intrigued by a New York Times story describing how a Spanish felt hat factory is kept afloat by orders from the couple hundred thousand Satmar Hasidim.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money’s Erik Loomis commemorated on the 4th the creation in 1942 by the United States of the bracero guest workers program with Mexico, criticized for its poor treatment of the guest workers but in so doing preparing the ground for later Chicano rights movements.
• New APPS Blog’s John Protevi starts with Plato’s suggestion in the Republic that suitably capable women could belong to the class of protectors in his ideal polity to consider the complexely-gendered presentation of women athletes and the significant variations in performance within gender.
• Registan’s guest blogger Navruz Nekbakhtshoev reports from Tajikistan’s recently conflict-hit Badakhshan region, noting that the recent conflict wasn’t an ethnic conflict mobilizing different groups on ethnoreligious lines but rather something more limited.
• Towleroad reports on Gaymercon, a proposed con for gay geeks that could conceivably take off.

[LINK] “Framing the Conflict in Khorog”

Zohra Ismail-Beben’s Registan post analyzing the causes of the recent clashes between government and local militias in Gorno-Badakhshan, an autonomous province occupying most of the eastern half of Tajikistan, is a depressingly plausible analysis. Briefly, the government is using the rhetoric of fighting Islamists to deal with issues of power-sharing in such a way as to (inadvertantly?) encourage the consolidation of a local ethnic identity at odds at the Tajikistani state. Great news for the poorest successor state of the Soviet Union, and one of the poorest in the world, I’m sure.

Taking a page straight from the government book, they suggest that the troops are fighting Islamists and the remnants of the civil war that plagued the country in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. But others have focused on a more nuanced portrait, suggesting that this is really about is control of the lucrative drug traffic in the region. Before he became the most wanted suspect in Tajikistan, Ayombekov was on government payroll as the commander of a border guard unit responsible for policing the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. People have pointed out that he has been engaged now for a number of years in drug trafficking, as well as other smuggling operations, of which he has only now been accused by the government. However, it is highly unlikely that the officials in Dushanbe were unaware of what was taking place for some time. As the International Crisis Group laid out in 2009 in its report Tajikistan: On the Road to Failure, there has been a strong belief amongst many observers in Central Asia that officials at the highest levels in the government are complicit in the drug trade. The influx of wealth and the display of material goods in this impoverished country attest to this in the minds of Tajiks. Even in Khorog it is not unusual to see expensive cars owned by those with no visible source of livelihood or income, and it is not unusual to hear comments about it either.

[. . .]

What has happened in the past few years, according to both those allied to the government of President Rahmon and those in the opposition, is the gradual sidelining of anyone deemed a potential rival, shrinking the political space to the point where very few people find themselves part of the trusted inner circle. The lack of a broad coalition has not necessarily reduced the possibility of dissent, as the information control in and out of the country is nearly not as controlled as it is in Uzbekistan. But it has reduced the possibility of being heard, which makes life very uncertain and subject to the whims of those in power. What happened in Khorog seems to have taken many by surprise–even though there have been indications that the government had planned to deal with the local drug traffickers at some point–because it sets up a direct confrontation between the center and MBAP as a whole, something none of them would have wished. Although reliable figures are unavailable, it is widely reported that gun battles in the city have brought a number of civilian casualties. Furthermore, the total communication blackout imposed on MBAP has effectively made hostages out of the people of Khorog, as well as their friends and family outside the region who are unable to contact them.

[. . .]

Some news reports have emphasized the differences between the Pamiris, the largest ethnic group of the area, and the rest of the country. The Pamiris are an ethnic minority who belong to the Shia Ismaili branch of Islam, while the people in the rest of the country are Sunni Muslims. There are differences of language and traditions within the Pamiris, but on the whole they have come to see themselves as set apart from other Tajiks. To some this fact of difference has the greatest bearing on the crisis unfolding now. A sense of a united Pamiri identity against any outside intrusions has found a footing amongst those whose sense of helplessness grows as the siege of Khorog continues. While it has roots in a long history, the increasing vigor of the Pamiri identity was forged by the traumas of the civil war, in which Pamiris were targeted not just as members of the opposition, but for merely being Pamiri.