Shuarian’s Weblog

19 March 2008: Bush vows to support Georgia’s hopes at NATO meeting

President George W. Bush assured President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia on Wednesday that he would press for Georgia’s inclusion in a NATO membership program at the alliance’s meeting next month.

Bush also called for a peaceful resolution of differences with Georgia’s two breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

21 March 2008: Duma wants Putin to back Georgian separatists

The lower house of Parliament, the State Duma, voted overwhelmingly to adopt a statement calling on President Vladimir Putin and the government to “consider the question of the expediency of recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”

International politics at its best…

If you are about to die shortly, you better try to avoid the French village of Sarpourenx, which has made it illegal to die on its territory. Apparently, the mayor is prepared to enforce severe penalties in case of non-compliance, although no details on these punishments were made public. Full story (and some background) at Yahoo News or at APF (in French).

I think this gives the entry vie du territorie a whole new meaning….

Source: sarpourenx.fr

Oh, and happy Easter to everyone, enjoy that special time of the year when the Easter Bunny isn’t evil.

After the controversy about Barack Obama’s relation to his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama, in a speech given today, addressed the role of race in America, and for his campaign. The full transcript of the speech - which he wrote himself - is below, together with a video clip of it.

“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

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While searching Google for a good map of Switzerland, I stumbled upon a map called “Muslimkarte”. Being an avid reader of strangemaps (a blog which, as the name says, collects all kind of strange and interesting maps), I couldn’t resist to investigate this particular map for a bit. The map is hosted on winkelried.info, which seems to be a site closely associated with the SVP, a national conservative political party in Switzerland.

Source: Muslimkarte Schweiz

Cantons (administrative districts of Switzerland) whose Muslim population is above 4% of the general population are rendered green. The average for Switzerland is given as 4.5%. Below the map, the text assorts that in Europe (beside the countries of the Balkan region) only France has a higher percental of Muslims.

Unfortunately, the map has some flaws and errors:

* First, the average for Switzerland is 4.26%, according to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) of Switzerland.

* Second, the assumption that Switzerland has the second highest percental Muslim population is factually wrong. France has indeed a higher percentage than Switzerland, but so do the Netherlands (5%) and Austria (4.8%). And the numbers for Germany (4%), Liechtenstein (4%), Sweden (3.9%) and Belgium (3.8%) aren’t so far away from Switzerland’s average. Sources: Wikipedia: Muslims in Western Europe, Wikipedia: Islam in Liechtenstein.

* In addition to these errors, the use of a 4% as a threshold seems a bit arbitrary.

Thus I tried to address these points and made my own version of the map. As basis for my work, I used the data provided by the FSO in its report Wohnbevölkerung nach Religion, nach Kantonen und Städten, which is available as Excel sheet (at the bottom of the page). The same sheet together with my calculations can also be downloaded.

Taking the average of 4.26%, I chose to highlight cantons whose Muslim population is above average (meaning at least 10% higher than the Swiss average) in dark blue. Cantons with an average percentage (meaning their average differs by more or less than 10% to the Swiss average) in light violet. Cantons which are below average are in grey. Here’s the resulting map:

The two maps look similar, yet the Canton of Lucerne is included in the original map, but actually is below average by my calculations. Overall, I believe my method to be more representative. Still, the possible room for interpretation is pretty limited:

* The Muslim population is more represented in the cantons along the Swiss-German border, as well as in and around the Canton of Geneva. Maybe this means that many of them come from or through Germany and France? Both countries have large Muslim populations (Germany: approx. 3.3 Mio; France: approx. 6 Mio.).

* The most obvious correlation of the Muslim population in Switzerland is with the greater metropolitan area of Zurich, which is also the most important economical area of Switzerland. However, correlation does not imply causation.

And that’s about it. Maybe some further studies could help to understand the distribution of Switzerland’s Muslim population better? The data avaible through the FOS is pretty limited itself, breaking these numbers down to a city or municipality level could offer a broader picture.

I’ve read a couple of books recently, so you’ll hopefully get some more short reviews. I used to read both fictional and non-fictional books evenly, but nowadays fictional books take the lion’s share. I guess having to read (and learn) on so many subjects for school lowers my enthusiasm for yet more factual content. It’s not as if I wouldn’t read any non fictional books anymore, but they just take me a lot longer, so right now, I enjoy fictional books better.

One such fictional book is The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, which I finished a few days ago. The book is about a young Pakistani named Changez who went as an exchange student to the United States, where he started a promising career and was ready to settle for a new life. Yet his outlook on life changed, and so he is back in Lahore, where he tells his story to an American visitor.

So much for the story. The book immediately draw me in, and I could have read it in one go. Which I did not. Not because I lacked the time, no, but the delight of reading was so high I wanted to prolong it. It’s not surprisingly, then, that I consider the writing to be marvellous, and the story kept me from the beginning to the end.

This certainly has to do with the unusual topic, which Mohsin Hamid unfolds skillfully piece by piece. Another fine aspect is Changez himself, who’s very self-reflective about his emotions and his divided feelings. My only point of critique is the way the author closes Changez’ relationship to Erica, which is a bit too convenient for the story and sadly damages the overall impression that substory leaves.

Even if this is only a fictional account, I found it interesting that the fundamentalism isn’t necessarily one of religion, but one of nationalism and pride as well. The sociological aspect and perspective on America’s business community, as well as the nation’s responses to 9/11 are also fascinating to read.

If this sounds like the kind of book you might like, I can highly recommend it. There are many reviews out for this book, the two I found the most informativ and elaborate are at The New York Times and Democratiya.

In case you rely solely on my blog for news (and that’s about the only possible explanation if you haven’t heard of this already), the new trailer for the next Indiana Jones movie - the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - has been released.

I’m not one to fall for big Hollywood productions, but this one certainly looks gooood. Can’t wait to see the final product on the big screen!

The big day is over, and it certainly looks like Hillary Clinton has won the day. Obama clearly won Vermont, as expected; likewise, Clinton won Rhode Island easily. Her victory in Ohio (54% to 44%) is broader than I had anticipated. Texas was a very close call; it is important to note that she not only won the popular vote, but (probably) also the delegate count, which is the most surprising result of them all.

So, what does this mean?

First, she was able to win two big races. She and her campaing did a very good job. Critics like to point out that one month ago, it looked like she would win these two states without any problems. But that doesn’t count. What counts is that she had to win, and she did. Now she certainly will stay in the race.

Second, the situation more or less remains unchanged - the net gain of delegates for Clinton will be around ten, so Obama still leads in the elected delegate vote, he still leads in the overall delegate vote, and he also leads in the popular and state vote.

Third, while Obama still enjoys and advantage, neither candidate is able to settle this deal yet. Given the close margins between the two, and the unclear situation with superdelegates and with the counting of delegates from Florida and Michigan, this will remain that way.

Some people think that such a long race harms the Democratic candidate. This may be true if the campaigning gets too negative, or if the divided Democratic electorate can’t unite in time for the general election.

Otherwise, I think such a long race doesn’t affect the chances all that much. For one, it gives the Democratic party a lot of media coverage. And no matter whether Clinton or Obama will become the eventual nominee, the general election will not be won easily. So this is a good opportunity for them to demonstrate that yes indeed, the can handle elections. Let the race continue, may the better candidate win!