Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: Dinner in District 2

John Quinn

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 23:22:49 +1200

Yi-Gods! Is Queen's Hotel STILL there? I passed through Singapore as a backpacker almost 20 years ago and well remember the threadbare sheets. I assumed it must be on the demolition list even then--it was extremely tat but the cheapest place I could find from the airport listings

The massage…

Ben Austin

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 22:53:23 +1200

Rawr numbers is one thing, actual capacity to move said rawr numbers to a far away point and supply them is different.

Simon Grigg

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:08:37 +1200

if Europe wants to act as any sort of counter-weight to the US then it has to have something to do that with and at present that's not the case.

I'd say those that observed such are wrong. Western Europe, whilst not at Cold War levels, remains fairly heavily armed…

Neil Morrison

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:05:32 +1200

No-one but the US has the logistical capacity to pull something like a Darfur intervention off, and they would seem to be rather busy right now...

Damn that GWB for not sending the troops in and using diplomacy instead.

But seriously, the current UN proposal is for a mainly African…

Marcus Neiman

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 13:03:08 +1200

As a really minor point – I believe that the Germans did send conscripts to the Balkans in the late 90s.

But I think Ben is on the right track, as far as I can tell the German military is more or less orientated to mopping up youth unemployment and…

Rich of Observationz

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:35:07 +1200

The Bundeswehr has 250,000 personnel, of which 50,000 are conscripts. They probably need 50,000 of the professionals to shout at and feed/pay the conscripts, leaving 150,000 for actual defence.

I think the only reason they have the conscripts is to prevent the military becoming an isolated caste. They can't go…

Ben Austin

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:20:09 +1200

Well sending soldiers overseas is about force projection, few countries have the ability to send soldiers to say Dafur or Timor and keep them supplied and the like. They rely on countries that can do so, and there are not too many of those.

If we look at say Germany,…

Neil Morrison

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:29:53 +1200

Yeah, really.

No, really.

You're talking in hypotheticals. Show me some examples.

Let's look at some post invasion situations.

Lebanon – the international community were pretty quick to insert a beefed up UN force in south Lebanon after the Israel-Hezbollah war. France played a large role in that. Chirac did…

Che Tibby

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:06:03 +1200

he wouldn't not not say jaunty.

dc_red

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:02:13 +1200

Would Russell really use the word "jaunty"? Even in addressing food?

Che Tibby

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 07:48:08 +1200

Best breakfast buffet I've ever encountered

cue: rb in dressing gown.

russell: "why... aren't you just a jaunty, spicy wee muffin"

muffin: "why yes stranger, yes i am... take me! take me and devour me like no muffin has been devoured before!"

russell: "i will, sweet, spicy muffin... because it…

Russell Brown

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 01:24:35 +1200

Never been there (thank goodness!) but on our stopover last year we stayed at the Carlton on Bras Basah – not far away – and thought it was excellent. I think it was NZ$160/170 a night but our rooms were big, clean and well equipped, and the service was great.

…

Ben Austin

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 00:53:26 +1200

There is a lot of international intervention going on at the moment (not sure if it is more/less than 10 years ago). I have a suspicion that military capacity for further efforts amongst the usual suspects is probably quite low, especially if the Iraq mercenaries are still getting paid so…

Venetia King

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:51:17 +1200

If you're ever thinking of staying at the Royal @ Queens Hotel, think about staying somewhere else

Never been there (thank goodness!) but on our stopover last year we stayed at the Carlton on Bras Basah – not far away – and thought it was excellent. I think it was…

Russell Brown

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:26:43 +1200

I've read this sort of thing on numerous occasions – one of the lasting legacies of the Iraq war will be the death of Liberal Interventionism, no more stopping Milosevic etc etc.
Really?

Yeah, really.

Try thinking of it this way and see if it makes a difference: assuming the…

Russell Brown

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:19:49 +1200

A pity you couldn't wangle a mention of Millie Holmes into your paragraph about drugs in Vietnam, Russell!! I note 4 responses, 358 views for this blog; compared with 59 responses, 1314 views for David Slack's piece on Millie's arrest. Kinda puts it in perspective, eh? PA readers say they…

Simon Grigg

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:59:38 +1200

But with all the lying that went on with Iraq, and the hideous mistakes made in post war reconstruction how can that not affect humanitarian intervention?

but I also note that's its not affected the ability of the right (the ones ElBaradei calls the "crazies") to sell to the US…

InternationalObserver

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:49:38 +1200

but back to topic: that link you gave to the Guardian story is excellent. So much I could mention but I'll just highlight this:

A stark picture emerges of Bush making promises and giving assurances to Blair which were not delivered because Iraq was being run by Donald Rumsfeld and…

InternationalObserver

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:35:10 +1200

A pity you couldn't wangle a mention of Millie Holmes into your paragraph about drugs in Vietnam, Russell!! I note 4 responses, 358 views for this blog; compared with 59 responses, 1314 views for David Slack's piece on Millie's arrest. Kinda puts it in perspective, eh? PA readers say they…

Ben Austin

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:32:39 +1200

Well perhaps you are right Neil, that people will use this as an excuse to cover their general unwillingness.

But with all the lying that went on with Iraq, and the hideous mistakes made in post war reconstruction how can that not affect humanitarian intervention? Also with the willingness of…

Neil Morrison

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:22:49 +1200

The casualties of war are to be found not just in Iraq. The deaths will also be counted in Darfur and future Darfurs, Rwandas and Bosnias, where murderous regimes will put people to the slaughter with much less to fear from western intervention. That is the most rending victim of…

Rich of Observationz

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:11:18 +1200

Priests get jailed (how many years would Tamaki get?), drug dealing tolerated, and a 200% tax on private cars!

Can we get the Communist Party of Vietnam to run at the next NZ elections? Or at least see if Nguyễn Tấn Dũng wants to be Mayor of Auckland?

David Slack

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:05:57 +1200

deep-friend till crunch and eaten whole

I presume this is the work of misplaced thumbs, but I hope you will let this stand in its present form as a fantasy of Asian culinary exotica.

Public Address

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:05:57 +1200

Discussion from blog post.