Obama´s words

Barack Hussein Obama called on Americans to confront “our collective failure to make hard choices.” Watch video and analysis here.

Bad cold

You never understand politics in central europe until you find -30 C, Now Ukraine has to promise not to steal gas. But Russian blackmail will continue. Several lessons: if you are independent to support Georgia, then dont expect gifts in gas. If non EU members heating is not working, yours can stop soon. And third, an agreement may not have a nice smell, but it is always cleaner than a negociation.

Things we watch

Israel is banning foreign correspondents from Gaza, despite a ruling from the Israeli Supreme Court.The Israeli propaganda effort is being directed to achieve two main aims.The first is to justify the air attacks. The second is to show that there is no humanitarian calamity in Gaza. So writes Paul Reynolds World affairs correspondent of the BBC. And he points out what it seems to be an example of propaganda. The video remains on You Tube.

Israel released video of an air attack on 28 December, which appeared to show rockets being loaded onto a lorry. The truck and those close to it were then destroyed by a missile. The YouTube video has a large caption on it saying "Grad missiles being loaded onto the Hamas vehicle." But a 55-year-old Gaza resident named Ahmed Sanur, or Samur, claimed that the truck was his and that he and members of his family and his workers were moving oxygen cylinders from his workshop. Mr Sanur said that eight people, one of them his son, had been killed.

Israeli human rights group B'Tselem put Mr Sanur's account on its website, together with a photograph of burned out oxygen cylinders. According to Sanur’s testimony, he and members of his family were trying to salvage material from a metal workshop he owns, which was next door to a bombed house, in order to prevent looting. He denies any connection to militants, or military activity, and is willing to talk to any journalist, or investigator.



Thanks to Andrius for sending the story.

Some extra analisis, in spanish, here.

Freezing again

Hungary, Poland and Romania said Russian gas deliveries via pipelines in Ukraine began falling on Friday. Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine on Thursday after talks on a deal for this year collapsed. Both sides have guaranteed supplies to the rest of Europe, which relies on Russian gas via Ukrainian pipelines to meet 20 per cent of its demand. Russia and Ukraine vied for European support on Friday as the European Union struggled vainly to avoid intervening in their gas dispute as it began to affect member states, FT reports. 

Bohdan Sokolovsky, an energy adviser to Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's president, said the European Commission had shown "understanding" during talks. However, Oleksandr Hudyma, energy adviser to Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukrainian prime minister, said unwillingness to confront Russia was "no surprise. Ukraine does not have any misconceptions about the support it would get from [the] European Union, which showed itself during the Georgian conflict."

Russia after de gulag

In 2006 at Lgov prison south of Moscow, more than 300 inmates slashed their bodies with razor blades. Many prisoners cut at their wrists, necks, or stomachs. This was organised self mutilation in protest against alleged abuse by prison officials; its sheer scale shocked many Russians, who are used to hearing appalling tales of life inside Russia's dilapidated and overcrowded prison system.
Theotherrussia.org provides a roundup of news stories coming out of Russia’s prisons and penal colonies, which are notorious for cruel treatment and arbitrariness.
NYT presents an slide show about russian jail that reveals aspects of the country's contradictory penal system. Russia jails a greater proportion of its people than any other major country apart from the US. According to the 2006 figures from the Russian Government, there are 829,000 people serving prison sentences.
As Lev Ponomarev, from the Movement For Human Rights, told the BBC the regime itself is the real issue now, a system he says which can lead to a culture of cruelty.



Some interesting facts about criminal tatoos in russian prisons.

Promises to keep... fighting for

A promise is a psychological contract indicating a transaction between two persons whereby the first person undertakes in the future to render some service or gift to the second person or devotes something valuable now and here to his or her use. A promise may also refer to any kind of vow or guarantee.

On this day nine years and one day ago, Vladimir Putin was sworn into office.

Putin said in the address:

'Freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of the mass media -- these basic freedoms will be reliably protected by the State,'

Thanks to Robert Amsterdam for reminding it.

2009 oh yea(r)!

This time last year Walking Randomly asked the question 'What is interesting about the number 2008?' and it turned out to be rather popular so they thought I would do the same with 2009.

• Both 2009 and its reversal 9002 are multiples of 7.
• The 2009th prime (17471) is palindromic.
• You can express 2009 as the sum of 4 positive cubes in exactly 3 ways.

More about 2009 here
And the 13 most famous numbers, here. (in spanish)