2004 Highlights

or just an excuse to blog things I didn't get around to at the time

The European Social Forum was mentioned a couple of times on Harry's Place before they rightly described it as 'so-called' (The stench of betrayal, 16 Oct). I heard a little bit on the BBC World Service. One attendee said he was really looking forward to hearing John Pilger, George Galloway and George Monbiot (OK, it's not fair to classify  Monbiot with the others). Another said 'The Iraq war was an ecological disaster.' Not heard that one before.   (more here)

---------------

On a more serious note, Vladimir Putin, after Beslan: 'The weak are beaten'.

---------------

Not from 2004, but from a book published in 1999, which I happened to read last year,
Timothy Garton Ash's  'History of the Present'. Linguist Max Weinreich in 1945 : 'A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.'

---------------

I had a look at a weblog called susurration because it reminds me of something I read by Ralph (David's  Dad) Miliband. Sadly, it did not seem to have been updated recently. But it did give a link to a comparison between the US and Rome, which was interesting, if a little prone to fantasy when projecting into the future.   

Cato the Censor's "Carthago delenda est" reminds us what empires are like when they are really ruthless.

And I did get to find out what a meme really is (and how to spell 'susurration').