Month: August 2008

Sun-Sentinel.com, FL

August 11, 2008

Errol Flynn was missing character in novel set in Jamaica

Chauncey Mabe | Book Editor August 10, 2008

Errol Flynn invited himself into Margaret Cezair-Thompson’s life.

The author of a well-regarded first novel, The True History of
Paradise (1999), Cezair-Thompson was in the process of planning her
second, set in Port Antonio on the northeastern coast of Jamaica, when
she remembered the golden-age movie star had lived there during the
1940s.

"I had the setting and several of the characters in mind, especially
Ida, the mother, and May, the daughter," Cezair-Thompson says by phone
from Massachusetts, where she teaches at Wellesley College. "Then
Errol Flynn popped into my head."

Taking a closer look at Flynn’s life in Jamaica, she read books,
including his autobiography. She talked with people in Jamaica who had
known him. "He began to loom larger and larger until he seemed the
right father for May," she says.

The resulting novel, The Pirate’s Daughter ‘ Flynn played glamorous
pirates in Hollywood movies of the ’30s ‘ proved to be
Cezair-Thompson’s breakout book, reaching No. 3 on Amazon.com.uk after
being featured on Richard & Judy, a popular British afternoon talk
show. It didn’t sell quite so well in the United States, but it did
receive positive reviews in Publisher’s Weekly, Vogue, People magazine
and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, among others, when it first came
out last fall.

"I think the book has gone beyond people’s expectations," says
Cezair-Thompson, now touring in support of the softcover
edition. "It’s had an interesting journey. I can’t say enough about my
publisher, Unbridled Books. They’re a great group of people who have
great relationships with booksellers."

The story of May, the illegitimate child of the rakish (and sometimes
dastardly) Flynn and a teenage Jamaican beauty, The Pirate’s Daughter
is set against the historic changes that shook the island nation from
the late colonial times of the 1940s through independence in the 1960s
and into the social violence of the 1970s. May is abandoned first by
Flynn, who never acknowledges paternity, and then by her mother, who
leaves the island to seek fortune in New York.

Booksellers gave The Pirate’s Daughter a big boost, Cezair-Thompson
says, recommending it to their customers in this country. So did book
groups, who found the novel’s mix of literary and pop-fiction elements
appealing.

"I wanted to write something that people from all walks of life would
be able to enjoy," she says. "I never want to write a book that has to
be taught in the classroom to be understood."

Cezair-Thompson should know. At 51, she’s a well-established academic
who teaches those kinds of writers ‘ James Joyce, William Faulkner,
Virginia Woolf ‘ for a living.

Growing up in Jamaica, her ambitions lay with theater, not literature,
though she was an avid reader. At 19 she left for the United States,
where she studied drama until her senior year of college. Then she
came under the influence of Marjorie Housepian-Dobkin, an
Armenian-American novelist and historian who had best-selling books in
the 1950s.

"I took the class for fun," she says. "She thought I had something
original to say, and encouraged me. She was a great teacher in that
way teachers can sometimes be wonderful."

Turned down for graduate programs in both drama and creative writing,
Cezair-Thompson went instead for a master’s degree in literature ‘ a
choice she now says helped make her a better writer.

"I’m very happy I moved in an academic direction," she says. "It made
me a better reader, and a better writer. I have a confident sense of
what makes for good writing. You can start to see the flaws of even
great writers, and the challenges they faced. They’re not just figures
on pedestals. It’s very inspiring."

Readers often ask Cezair-Thompson if The Pirate’s Daughter is
autobiographical. She is of the same generation as May and lived
through the same Jamaican upheavals. But she says The True History of
Paradise is her autobiographical novel. In fact, she worked hard not
to repeat material from that book.

"In terms of the characters being completely made up, this book is not
at all autobiographical," Cezair-Thompson says. "But May wants to
write. She is growing up with all these literary interests she doesn’t
know what to do with. We didn’t have a lot of Caribbean literature on
the island. You grow up with the great English writers, and copy them
until you find your own voice. I drew on my own experience there."

Many readers, especially in book clubs, also demand to know why
Cezair-Thompson isn’t harder on Flynn, who, after all, was a notorious
libertine tried (and acquitted) for statutory rape after being accused
of seducing a 13-year-old girl. In some ways, Cezair-Thompson says,
she found it easier to sympathize with Flynn than with May.

"I was moved by the fact he really loved Jamaica," she says. "I felt
it was important to penetrate the tabloid bad-boy image, to show him
from [an] angle not seen before, to show an Errol Flynn who was tired,
fearful and troubled, and worried about aging. What came through my
research was a man not entirely happy with himself. I feel it’s up to
the reader to judge his actions."

Getting into the mind of a child proved a tougher challenge, says
Cezair-Thompson, the divorced single mother of a son.

"I have lots of close male friends," she says. "I wasn’t daunted by
writing in a male inner voice. But I can’t quite remember being a
little girl. And May is a boyish little girl. I studied the children
around me, especially my goddaughter, who was growing up as I wrote."

As a Jamaican-born novelist of rising stature, Cezair-Thompson says
she is always aware of her responsibility as a voice of her people.

"Really good fiction cannot be didactic, and I always try to stick to
the rules of good writing," she says. "I don’t want to offend
Jamaicans, but I also feel it’s important not to misrepresent the
country and its history. The violence of the ’70s, seeing Jamaicans
become fearful in their own country, is a hurtful memory for me. It’s
important to remember that and talk about it."

So far, she’s gotten little negative reaction.

"Jamaicans are a very vocal and down-to-earth people," Cezair-Thompson
says. "If I wrote things misrepresenting the country, they’d let me
know about it."

Chauncey Mabe can be reached at [email protected] or
954-356-4710.

IF YOU GO
Margaret Cezair-Thompson will read and discuss her novel of midcentury
Jamaica, The Pirate’s Daughter, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Books &
Books, Bal Harbour Shops, 9700 Collins Ave. Free; 305-864-4241 or
booksandbooks.com.

Le Point, France

Lundi 11 août 200

Publié le 10/08/2008 à 12:54 – Modifié le 10/08/2008 à 12:57 Le Point.fr

Conflit en Ossétie du Sud : vers un affrontement est-ouest ?
AFP

George Bush ne devrait pas prendre le risque de défier la Russie alors
qu’il termine son mandat et que l’armée américaine est mobilisée sur
le thétre irakien @ AFP PHOTO/ Guang Niu/Pool

Imprimez Réagissez Classez Le déclenchement des hostilités en Ossétie
du Sud éveille des craintes d’un affrontement Est-Ouest dans la
poudrière du Caucase même si ni la Russie ni les Occidentaux ne
semblent avoir d’appétit pour une guerre en Géorgie, soulignent samedi
les analystes. Le conflit alarme les Etats-Unis et l’Europe –
notamment parce que la Géorgie est un débouché clef pour le pétrole de
la Caspienne – et plusieurs observateurs estiment que Tbilissi a
commis une erreur en provoquant son puissant voisin.

"Les Occidentaux sont à la fois divisés et préoccupés par autre
chose. Les Américains seront furieux s’il se confirme que des avions
russes ont bombardé une base où le Pentagone avait des conseillers
militaires", observe Edward Lucas, auteur de "La Nouvelle Guerre
froide". Mais George W. Bush, "un président en fin de règne ne va pas
risquer la Troisième guerre mondiale pour la Géorgie", alors qu’il
doit déjà faire face aux conflits irakiens et afghans, écrit-il dans
une tribune pour le Times samedi.

La réponse massive des forces russes à une tentative géorgienne de
reprendre le contrôle de l’Ossétie du Sud vendredi, avec des
bombardements bien au delà de la région séparatiste, a poussé le
président géorgien Mikhaïl Saakachvili à déclarer "l’état de
guerre". Ces affrontements dans un pays pro-occidental, candidat à
l’Otan et l’Union européenne, qui a largement bénéficié de l’aide
militaire américaine, menacent directement les intérêts
occidentaux. Et Tbilissi montre de son côté des signes favorables à
une internationalisation du conflit.

"Risque de contagion, d’engrenage"

Mais le ministre des Affaires étrangères russe Sergueï Lavrov conteste
l’état de guerre et affirme que la Russie cherche à rétablir le statu
quo dans la région disputée. Michael Denison, professeur associé au
centre de recherche en relations internationales Chatham House, juge
aussi qu’il est encore trop tôt pour parler de guerre ouverte. "Les
Russes ont pénétré sur le territoire géorgien et cela est très réel,
mais je ne pense pas que l’objectif des Russes soit de détruire
complètement les capacités militaires de la Géorgie. C’est une
démonstration côté russe visant à affaiblir les capacité des
Géorgiens", estime Michael Denison. "L’escalade militaire est
possible, mais je ne suis pas sûre qu’elle soit inévitable, parce que
personne n’y a vraiment intérêt.

La Russie n’a pas intérêt à une escalade tout simplement parce qu’il y
a un Caucase du Sud, mais il y a aussi un Caucase du Nord, avec un
risque de contagion, d’engrenage", souligne Laure Delcour, directrice
de recherche à l’Institut de relations internationales et stratégiques
(Iris) à Paris. "Ni l’Union européenne ni les Etats-Unis n’ont envie
d’envoyer des forces dans la région", renchérit Michael Denison.

Un bras de fer entre les États-Unis et la Russie

Pourtant, souligne Christopher Langton, analyste de L’Institut
stratégique pour les recherches internationales (IISS), ce conflit est
autant "une affaire entre la Géorgie et l’Ossétie du Sud, qu’entre les
Etats-Unis et la Russie". "La Russie est violemment opposée à ce que
la Géorgie devienne membre de l’Otan et les Etat-Unis sont allés à la
confrontation avec la Russie sur ce sujet", souligne-t-il. Et "si la
Géorgie tombe (sous l’influence russe), alors les espoirs européens
d’une indépendance énergétique de la Russie s’écrouleront", ajoute
Edward Lucas, soulignant que la Géorgie, par où passe l’oléoduc
Bakou-Tbilissi-Ceyhan (BTC), est l’unique voie pour acheminer le
pétrole de la Caspienne échappant au monopole des routes
d’exportations russes. Laure Delcour souligne aussi le risque d’un
embrasement du Caucase, qui compte d’autres conflits gelés comme
l’Abkhazie, autre région séparatiste de Géorgie, ou le Nagorny
Karabakh, région disputée entre l’Arménie et l’Azerbaïdjan.

Signe de l’inquiétude croissante de la communauté internationale, le
secrétaire général de l’ONU Ban Ki-Moon a appelé samedi soir à la fin
immédiate des hostilités entre la Géorgie et la Russie, et à un
règlement négocié du conflit. "Le secrétaire général croit que pour
que les négociations soient fructueuses, tous les contingents armés
qui ne sont pas autorisés à être sur place par les accords respectifs
sur l’OssétieduSud devraient quitter la zone de conflit", est-il écrit
dans un communiqué.

Tskhinvali "presque entièrement détruite"

Un calme précaire était revenu dimanche matin à Tskhinvali, capitale
de ce territoire séparatiste géorgien pro-russe, après des tirs
d’artillerie intenses qui ont duré toute la nuit, selon la
porte-parole du gouvernement rebelle. Les forces géorgiennes "ont tiré
méthodiquement sur Tskhinvali toute la nuit. Mais, pour l’instant, une
accalmie relative règne dans la ville", a dit cette responsable, Irina
Gagloïeva. Elle assure que les nouveaux tirs géorgiens ont fait près
de 20 morts et 150 blessés.

Tskhinvali "est presque entièrement détruite. Les habitants se
réfugient dans les sous-sols", a déclaré dimanche le gouvernement
rebelle sur son site internet. "Des produits alimentaires de première
nécessité nous manquent, il n’y a pas de gaz, ni d’électricité",
a-t-il indiqué, qualifiant la situation à Tskhinvali de "catastrophe
humanitaire". L’OssétieduSud avait affirmé plus tôt avoir repoussé une
attaque de chars géorgiens contre Tskhinvali et avoir abattu un
bombardier géorgien.

Le Premier ministre russe Vladimir Poutine a pour sa part demandé
dimanche à une enquête sur les actes de "génocide" commis par les
forces géorgiennes en OssétieduSud, où la Géorgie a déclenché une
offensive militaire dans la nuit de jeudi à vendredi. Les témoignages
des réfugiés ossètes "dépassent le cadre de la compréhension des
actions militaires", a dit M. Poutine, au cours d’une rencontre avec
le président russe Dmitri Medvedev, qui a été retransmise en direct
par la chaîne russe Vesti 24. "A mon avis, ce sont déjà des éléments
d’une sorte de génocide contre le peuple ossète. Je crois qu’il serait
juste, que vous ordonniez au parquet militaire d’enquêter sur de tels
incidents, surtout parce que la majorité de la population ossète est
composée de citoyens russes", a déclaré M. Poutine au chef de
l’Etat. "Bien sûr, je donnerai un tel ordre", a répondu M. Medvedev,
tout en assurant que les responsables de ces actes seraient poursuivis
en justice.

Lire aussi :

Ossétie du Sud : des couloirs humanitaires pour évacuer les blessés

l

The Christian Science Monitor
Russo-Georgian conflict is not all Russia’s fault
But war could ignite further disputes in the region.
By Charles King

from the August 11, 2008 edition

Washington – Following a series of provocative attacks in its
secessionist region of South Ossetia late last week, Georgia launched
an all-out attempt to reestablish control in the tiny enclave. Russia
then intervened by dropping bombs on Georgia to protect the South
Ossetians, halt the growing tide of refugees flooding into southern
Russia, and aid its own peacekeepers there.

Now, the story goes, Russia has at last found a way of undermining
Georgia’s Western aspirations, nipping the country’s budding
democracy, and countering American influence across Eurasia. But this
view of events is simplistic.

American and European diplomats, who have rushed to the region to try
to stop the conflict, would do well to consider the broader effects of
this latest round of Caucasus bloodletting – and to seek perspectives
on the conflict beyond the story of embattled democracy and cynical
comparisons with the Prague Spring of 1968.

Russia illegally attacked Georgia and imperiled a small and feeble
neighbor. But by dispatching his own ill-prepared military to resolve
a secessionist dispute by force, Georgian President Mikheil
Saakashvili has managed to lead his country down the path of a
disastrous and ultimately self-defeating war.

Speaking on CNN, Mr. Saakashvili compared Russia’s intervention in
Georgia to the Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in
1968, and Afghanistan in 1979. Russia has massively overreacted to the
situation in Georgia. It has hit targets across Georgia, well beyond
South Ossetia, and has killed both Georgian military personnel as well
as civilians. The international community is right to condemn this
illegal attack on an independent country and United Nations member.

But this is not a repeat of the Soviet Union’s aggressive behavior of
the last century. So far at least, Russia’s aims have been clear: to
oust Georgian forces from the territory of South Ossetia, one of two
secessionist enclaves in Georgia, and to chasten a Saakashvili
government that Russia perceives as hot-headed and unpredictable.

Regardless of the conflict’s origins, the West must continue to act
diplomatically to push Georgia and Russia back to the pre-attacks
status quo. The United States should make it clear that Saakashvili
has seriously miscalculated the meaning of his partnership with
Washington, and that Georgia and Russia must step back before they do
irreparable damage to their relations with the US, NATO, and the
European Union.

The attack on South Ossetia, along with Russia’s inexcusable reaction,
have pushed both sides down the road toward all-out war – a war that
could ignite a host of other territorial and ethnic disputes in the
Caucasus as a whole.

The emerging narrative, echoing across editorial pages and on
television news programs in the US, portrays Georgia as an embattled,
pro-Western country struggling to secure its borders against a
belligerent Russia. Since coming to power in a bloodless revolution in
late 2003, Saakashvili has certainly steered a clear course toward the
West.

The EU flag now flies alongside the Georgian one on major government
buildings (even though Georgia is a long way from ever becoming a
member of the EU). The Saakashvili government seeks Georgian
membership in NATO, an aspiration strongly supported by the
administration of George W. Bush. Oddly, before the conflict erupted
on its own soil Georgia was the third-largest troop contributor in
Iraq, a result of Saakashvili’s desire to show absolute commitment to
the US and, in the process, gain needed military training and
equipment for the small Georgian Army.

Russia must be condemned for its unsanctioned intervention. But the
war began as an ill-considered move by Georgia to retake South Ossetia
by force. Saakashvili’s larger goal was to lead his country into war
as a form of calculated self-sacrifice, hoping that Russia’s
predictable overreaction would convince the West of exactly the
narrative that many commentators have now taken up.

But regardless of its origins, the upsurge in violence has illustrated
the volatile and sometimes deadly politics of the Caucasus, the
Texas-size swath of mountains, hills, and plains separating the Black
Sea from the Caspian.

Like the Balkans in the 1990s, the central problems of this region are
about the dark politics of ethnic revival and territorial struggle.
The region is home to scores of brewing border disputes and dreams of
nationalist homelands.

In addition to South Ossetia, the region of Abkhazia has also
maintained de facto independence for more than a decade. Located along
Georgia’s Black Sea coast, Abkhazia has called up volunteers to
support the South Ossetian cause. Russia has now moved to aid the
Abkhazians, who are concerned that Georgia’s actions in South Ossetia
were a dress rehearsal for an attack on them.

Farther afield, other secessionist entities and recognized governments
in neighboring countries – from Nagorno-Karabakh to Chechnya – are
eyeing the situation. The outcome of the Russo-Georgian struggle will
determine whether these other disputes move toward peace or once again
produce the barbaric warfare and streams of refugees that defined the
Caucasus more than a decade ago.

For Georgia, this war has been a disastrous miscalculation. South
Ossetia and Abkhazia are now completely lost. It is almost impossible
to imagine a scenario under which these places – home to perhaps
200,000 people – would ever consent to coming back into a Georgian
state they perceive as an aggressor.

Armed volunteers have already been flooding into South Ossetia from
other parts of the Caucasus to fight against Georgian forces and help
finally "liberate" the Ossetians from the Georgian yoke.

Despite welcome efforts to end the fighting, the Russo-Georgian war
has created yet another generation of young men in the Caucasus whose
worldviews are defined by violence, revenge, and nationalist zeal.

Charles King is professor of international affairs in the Edmund A.
Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is the
author of "The Ghost of Freedom: A History of The Caucasus."

259471&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
A ug 10, 2008 23:40 | Updated Aug 10, 2008 23:46

Analysis: Russia sends a message to the West
By TOVAH LAZAROFF

Georgia lost a foolhardy gamble in thumbing its nose at its powerful
neighbor Russia, which this weekend bombed Georgian cities and wrested
control of its breakaway province of South Ossetia, according to
Israeli Russian experts.

Russia had seen a "golden opportunity" to teach Georgia and its
neighbors a lesson to "behave properly," said Hebrew University
Russian expert Yitzhak Brudny, as he explained how a small military
flare-up between Georgia and South Ossetia had turned into a major
military exercise for Russia and drawn world attention away from the
Olympics in Beijing.

With all eyes turned toward China, Georgia’s pro-Western President
Mikheil Saakashvili had hoped he could respond harshly to a skirmish
with South Ossetia on Friday and try and regain control of the
separatist province, said Russian expert Amnon Sella of the
Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya.

"It backfired on him because Georgia, which has a very small army,
can’t take on Russia," which had obviously been prepared for such a
move given its swift response, said Sella.

"Saakashvili is a young president who is not well seasoned in
international affairs," said Sella. He had hoped the international
community and in particular the West would support Georgia’s moves in
South Ossetia and that Russia would not respond, he added.

Saakashvili, explained Brudny, has a reputation for being a "hothead"
who does not always think through what he is doing.

Instead of responding diplomatically, Russia, which has granted
passports to most South Ossetians, sent combat troops into South
Ossetia and attacked Georgia from the air.

The bombardment was a way for Moscow to kill a few birds with one
stone, Brundy and other academics said.

It showed both Georgia and the West that Russia was a regional
superpower to be reckoned with, said Brudny. The message was: "We are
going to use force, we are not going to tolerate a hostile regime on
our borderland."

"Russia wants to maintain the status quo, meaning they wield influence
over the region," including a monopoly on sources of energy, said
Sella. Running through Georgia is the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipline, the
second largest in the world for the transport of crude oil, he said.

By flexing its military might against Georgia, Moscow paid the West
back for its recognition of Kosovo’s independence; a move that Russia
had opposed, said Brudny.

In addition, he said, Russia hoped that its violent response would
mark the beginning of the end of the Saakashvili government, which
seeks to join NATO and had moved the country away from Russia in favor
of the West. Moscow would like to see a pro-Russian government replace
Saakshvilli, he added.

Russia is nervous because NATO is expanding into its back yard with
both Georgia and the Ukraine seeking membership at the same time that
NATO is putting an anti-missile system in eastern Europe, specifically
in in Poland and Chechnya, said Zvi Magen, a former ambassador to
Russia and the current chairman of the Institute for Eurasian studies
at the IDC in Herzliya.

While the system is supposedly aimed at protecting Europe from Iran,
the Russians are still uneasy about it, he added.

Saakshvilli, in a way, had been "ambushed" by the larger forces in
play here, said Magen. For some time now Russia had been in opposition
to the West in its region, but had been able to do little more than
verbally protest – this was an opportunity for it to flex its muscles,
said Magen.

In this way, he added, it also sent a message to the American
administration that will replace Bush in January: Russia is not a
force to be ignored.

Aug 10, 2008 22:36 | Updated Aug 10, 2008 23:46

Jewish Agency evacuates Jews from central Georgia
=1218104259185&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FSh owFull
By STEPHANIE RUBENSTEIN
Two hundred Jews in central Georgia were evacuated to the country’s
capital, after Russian bombing posed a threat to the area’s safety.

The group was taken to Tbilisi which is not expected to become
dangerous, as Russia is focusing on the South Ossetia region, said
Jewish Agency spokesperson Alex Selsky on Sunday. Some of the Jewish
men decided to stay in the city of Gori and its surrounding towns near
South Ossetia where that region’s Jewish community resides, in order
to secure their homes, he added.

As of Friday, there was no risk to the Jewish community in that town,
but as the conflict escalated between the feuding sides, the border
became part of the battleground. The Jewish Agency sensed a threat and
moved people to the capital in buses and cars, Selsky said.

Gregory Brodsky, a Jewish Agency emisarry in Georgia reiterated
Selsky’s assurance that the capital was safe.

"There is no immediate danger [in Tbilisi], and there is no
expectation that a dangerous situation will develop here in the
future. We are going to do everything that we can to help the people
here."

There are currently around 12,000 Jews in Georgia, most of whom live
in the capital. Should the danger increase, the Jewish Agency says it
is prepared to evacuate people to Israel. Information rooms in both
Tbilisi and Israel have been opened in order to help inform the public
about the status of family members and hometowns in the embattled
region.

Selsky said the Jewish Agency is acting in full cooperation with
Foreign Ministry, which is also working to provide updates to Georgian
tourists in Israel.

Those calling the hotline have been mainly requesting information
regarding what they heard on the news, or how they can get in touch
with family members in the area, according to Chen Mor, a hotline
receptionist for the Jewish Agency.

Chief Rabbi of Georgia Ariel Levine who arrived in Israel on Thursday
said there were reports of three or four Jews missing from the city of
Tskhinvali, which borders South Ossetia.

"People are afraid of bombings and artillery fire. The Jewish
community is located only 60 kilometers from Gori, which was already
bombed," Levine said.

The following are the hotline numbers: Israel: 02-620-2202; Georgia:
995-32-98-7091.

Matthew Wagner contributed to this report.

From: Robert Bedrosian <[email protected]>
Subject: Georgia: Reckless Saakashvili took on Russian Goliath Putin

/europe/article4500160.ece

>From The Times
August 11, 2008
Georgia: Reckless Saakashvili took on Russian Goliath Putin
Michael Evans, Defence Editor

Georgia’s attempt to seize control of the secessionist South Ossetia
region has been a gamble too far, reckless in its timing and founded
on a fundamental misjudgment.

President Saakashvili of Georgia thought that he had the West on his
side but he has been outsmarted by Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime
Minister, who now holds all the cards.

Although Mr Saakashvili has had American military personnel training
his army to serve in Iraq, there was never any question of Washington
taking on the Russians on his behalf.

The military adventure had all the hallmarks of rushed planning and a
fingers-crossed strategy, launched in the hope and expectation that
the Russians would not react, but that if they did, the Americans and
Georgia’s other Nato friends would come to his aid in one form or
another. With President Bush at the Beijing Olympics, was, perhaps,
the US eye off the ball when the Russians moved in?

After only three days, the Georgian leader has had to pull back,
partly because his troops failed to seal off the Roki tunnel, 2½ miles
(4km) long, that links South Ossetia with North Ossetia and provided
passage for dozens of Russian tanks and armoured vehicles. It was a
military blunder.

Five battalions of Russia’s 58th Army, which fought in Chechnya, drove
through the tunnel. With 150 tanks, heavy artillery and overwhelmingly
superior firepower, the Russian troops were able to seize control of
all the heights around Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia.

The 58th, which is based at Vladikavkaz in the North Caucasus military
district in Russia, was backed by ground-attack aircraft, presenting a
formidable fighting package. At the same time there were indications
that the Russians planned a second front, moving into Abkhazia. The
tiny Georgian Army never stood a chance.

It was also a classic misreading on Mr Saakashvili’s part of the
relationship between Washington and Moscow, and a misunderstanding of
what Mr Putin was prepared to do to maintain his image as the tough
guy in the region and on the world stage.

Mr Putin has on a number of occasions publicly dismissed any
possibility that the Cold War could return. But the decision by Mr
Saakashvili gave the Russian leader the opportunity he was waiting for
to stamp his authority over Georgia and at the same time to cock a
snook at the West. He knew that he could get away with pouring troops,
armoured vehicles and artillery into South Ossetia to "protect" the
majority Russian passport-holding inhabitants. All he had to do was
wait for Mr Saakashvili to make the first move.

The seeds of the Georgian misadventure were sown in Bucharest at the
Nato summit in April, where alliance leaders gave out mixed messages
about their enthusiasm for Georgia to join the US-dominated
organisation. Adroit diplomatic pressure by Mr Putin when he was
Russian President forced a split in the alliance, with President Bush
finding himself in a minority when he urged his colleagues to sign up
Georgia for Nato’s membership action plan, the key stage to joining as
a full member eventually.

Despite the summit’s declaration that both Georgia and Ukraine would
definitely, some day, join the alliance, Mr Putin would have realised
that Nato was not yet prepared to go all the way, fearing the damage
that it might cause to relations with Moscow.

Mr Saakashvili put on a bold front, despite his disappointment,
especially after Mr Bush had been so publicly in favour of Georgia
joining Nato, and, probably, at that moment, started thinking about
launching a military operation against the secessionists in South
Ossetia, and, if successful, possibly to move against Abkhazia, the
other separatist region. Perhaps he judged that Nato would then be
spurred into action.

However, with Russian troops never far away, it was always going to be
David versus Goliath. But this time a slingshot was not good enough.
He had Mr Putin to deal with and there was never any doubt who would
win that battle.

Russia’s cold-war mentality
By going to war with Georgia, Russia is drawing a new Iron Curtain.

The Christian Science Monitor
from the August 11, 2008 edition

A new Iron Curtain is being drawn around Russia. It’s not so
impregnable or wide as the Soviet one. But Moscow’s willingness to war
with NATO-aspirant Georgia sends this clear message to the expanding
West: Thus far, and no farther. Given Russia’s strength, the West has
few options.

Neither the US nor any other NATO country will fight Russia over
Georgia’s two tiny separatist enclaves ` South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Russia invaded South Ossetia Aug. 8 after Georgian troops tried to
reassert influence there. Meanwhile, Russia’s sending reinforcements to
Abkhazia. Both territories have been protected by Russian peacekeepers
since the early 1990s, when they broke from Georgia in bloody
rebellions.

The US is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who wants war with
Russia over this?

Neither does the West have much diplomatic or economic leverage with
oil- and gas-rich Russia, whose autocratic regime has broad support
from a population satisfied with stability.

As Russia’s swift and deadly military response in Georgia shows, the
West has underestimated ` indeed sometimes aggravated ` Moscow’s fears
about growing Western influence eastward.

Over the last year, Europe and the US pushed ahead with Kosovo’s
independence from Russian ally Ser
bia. While this may have been the
right thing to do, it happened over the Kremlin’s vigorous objections.
And the US has not relented on anti-missile installations in Poland and
the Czech Republic.

But if others underestimated Russia’s determination to control its
"near abroad" ` and perhaps no one miscalculated more than Georgia’s
pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili ` Russia grossly
overestimates the threat of the West’s eastward march.

NATO is not an anti-Russian military alliance. The EU has improved the
economies, governments, and lawfulness of its new eastern members. This
benefits Russia as an EU trading partner and neighbor.

When he was Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin accused the West of
reigniting the cold war, but it is actually Russia that’s stuck in the
cold-war mentality.

Bullying through energy blackmail and now tanks and bombers, it reaches
for its imperialist past and believes it requires a buffer to protect
itself from threatening democracies. It would love to get back, or more
tightly control, parts of Ukraine and Moldova, the long-disputed region
of Nagorno-Karabakh, and parts of central Asia.

The West can best respond by starving this cold-war mentality ` and
weaning itself from Russian fossil fuels. If there is nothing for
Moscow to fear in NATO and EU expansion, its members should not act as
if there is. Russia deserves a strong rebuke, but at the same time, the
West must be careful not to feed Russian nationalism.

The arguments to be made to Russia now must be ones of reason: Its
support for separatists can come back to bite it (think Chechnya); and
is violating another country’s sovereignty something Russia would want
for itself?

This must be part of a patient strategy that may, in the near term,
result in Georgia having to give up its enclaves in exchange for peace.
But for the West to abstain from the cold-war game appears to be the
only way, over time, to win it.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Is the Caucasus becoming more Balkanized than the Balkans?
By M.A. Saki

Tehran Times
August 10, 2008

Both Russia and Georgia claim the current conflict started after the
other side violated a ceasefire in South Ossetia.

But whoever is responsible for the clashes, it is never acceptable to
kill innocent civilians. Moreover, the fighting could even lead to a
wider war between Russia and Georgia.

What is the sin of civilians that they should fall victim to the
ambitions of Ossetian separatists or Georgian or Russian leaders?
Should civilian neighborhoods become battlegrounds in the conflict
between Georgia, which enjoys Western support, and Russia, which is
angry over NATO’s encroachment into its sphere of influence?

The escalation of the situation in Ossetia comes as a shock in a
volatile region where there is already a rivalry between Ukraine and
Russia, enmity between Armenia and the Azerbaijan Republic over Nagorno
Karabakh, and a seemingly interminable war in Chechnya.

With so many ethnic groups in the region, serious efforts must be made
to ensure that the Caucasus does not become more Balkanized than the
Balkan region itself.

The news of civilian deaths at the hands of governments is a disgrace
for the two countries. When legitimate governments kill civilians, how
can they condemn terrorists for indiscriminately massacring of
civilians?

Unfortunately, the UN Security Council failed on Frid
ay evening to
agree on the wording of a statement calling for a ceasefire.

The UK, the U.S., and France are pinpointing what they say is Russia’s
aggression as the key factor in the slide toward war, while Moscow
insists Georgia is to blame.

When major powers that regard themselves as the guardians of
international peace quibble over the wording of a call for a ceasefire
while civilians are dying, it makes us wonder if we have really entered
a more civilized era

Rich hit by property crunch – super-rich unscathed
Dominic Rushe, New York

The Sunday Times
August 10, 2008

REIGNING over 68th Street between Central Park and the designer shops
of Fifth Avenue, the Henry T Sloane mansion has one of the most
desirable addresses in Manhattan.

Finished in 1905 and designed by CPH Gilbert, architect to New York’s
rich at the turn of the century, the mansion was built in Manhattan’s
`Great House’ era and its 19,000 sq ft provide 30 living rooms, 15
bedrooms, 17 bathrooms and five terraces.

Sloane, heir to a luxury furniture firm whose clients included the
White House and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, built the mansion after the
collapse of his marriage to a society beauty. Jessie, the former Mrs
Sloane, remarried five hours after her divorce came through. Sloane
never married again.

When his estate sold the mansion in 1941 to the Armenian archaeologist
Hagop Kevorkian it fetched $199,999. At the time it was a princely sum
but in today’s terms that money is worth $2.9m (£1.5m), allowing for an
average rate of 4.1% inflation. That is about the price of a
three-bedroom flat in Manhattan. Sloane’s mansion, however, is on the
market for $64m.

Multimedia
Pictures: The Henry T Sloane mansion

His house lacks many of the comforts buyers ‘ especially rich buyers ‘
would expect: no airconditioning for a start.
Not so long ago it
comprised 11 apartments and the new owner will be the first for decades
to return it to its former glory as a single family home.

`It’s like Doctor Zhivago when he returned to find 20 families living
in his home,’ said Paula Del Nunzio, agent at Brown Harris Stevens and
the Sloane’s seller.

Whoever buys it will have to pour a second fortune into it to make it
habitable. It’s the most expensive `fixer-upper’ in New York. Its agent
does not think it will be short of buyers, however. While the rest of
the property market has dropped faster than you can say `Fannie Mae’,
the top end of the housing market is holding firm.

Del Nunzio, a former Hollywood writer, has $400m worth of property on
her hands in New York. She specialises in town houses. If the Sloane
fetches its asking price, it would be the most expensive town house
ever sold in the city.

It is a record Del Nunzio already holds with the 2006 sale of the
Harkness Mansion a few blocks north for $53m to J Christopher Flowers,
an investment banker.

`In New York at least it seems the very top end is a very different
market,’ said Del Nunzio. `So far our buyers don’t seem to have been
affected in the same way that people in other sectors of the market
have been.’

Just a few rungs down the property market, prices=2
0are still sliding
fast. Houses aimed at the merely rich ‘ not the really rich ‘ are
suffering. In nearby Connecticut, home of hedge-fund managers and Wall
Street bankers, prices are down 30% and inventories are up 20% as more
homeowners have decided, or been forced, to get out of their homes.
Earlier this month Antares Investment Partners, a builder of big
mansions, pulled out of the market as its buyers disappeared.

`Connecticut is a wealthy state but a lot of that money depends on what
happens on Wall Street. If they are not getting bonuses, everything
goes into retreat,’ said Ken DelVecchio, president of the Connecticut
Association of Realtors. `It’s a good time to be a buyer.’

The sub-prime lending debacle mainly affected the banks that made the
loans and the very bottom end of the housing market. But the problems
are spreading upward, with higher quality loans, and more expensive
homes, being sucked into the crash.

In a recent conference call with analysts, James Dimon, chairman and
chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, said he expected losses on prime
loans at his bank to triple in the coming months and described the
outlook for them as `terrible’.

At the top of the top end, though, the credit crunch has yet to bite.
In part this is down to supply and demand. During past recessions most
of Manhattan’s town houses were broken up into=2
0flats and few remain as
single homes, said Del Nunzio.

`People used to move to the suburbs to raise their families. Now they
want to raise them in the city and they want the space to do that
comfortably,’ she said.

Those American families are now competing with newly wealthy buyers
from Brazil, Russia, India and China as well as Europeans using the
weakness of the dollar to bag top properties at bargain prices.
Proximity to Central Park ‘ Manhattan’s biggest green space ‘ and good
local schools adds to the premium prices.

With apartments fetching an average price of $7,500 per square foot,
Fifth Avenue ranked in third place in Barclays Wealth Bulletin’s recent
survey of the top 10 most expensive residential streets in the world,
behind Avenue Princess Grace in Monaco ($17,750 a square foot) and
Severn Road on the Peak in Hong Kong ($11,200 a square foot). London’s
`Billionaires Row’, Kensington Palace Gardens, came in fourth place
with an average price of $7,196 a square foot.

`Foreign buyers have always been present in New York,’ said Del Nunzio.
And while interest has grown, she said more often than not Americans
ended up taking the top properties. If there had been a change in the
nature of the buyer `it’s that they have got richer’, she said.

In 2000 Forbes magazine estimated there were 306 billionaires
=0
Aworldwide. Last year the figure was 946. Living beyond the constraints
of salary or bonuses, Del Nunzio’s buyers are not directly affected by
the credit markets because they do not need loans. They pay cash.

The Sloane mansion is not the most expensive New York property for
sale. A short walk away, apartments are fetching record prices at 15
Central Park West. Musician Sting owns a flat in the newly opened
building as do top investment bankers including Goldman Sachs chief
executive Lloyd Blankfein and former Citigroup boss Sandy Weill.

Demand has been high and Dolly Lenz, another of New York’s top estate
agents, recently told a property conference that some new residents
were already looking to turn a profit and asking somewhere between $80m
and $125m for their apartments. She said one flat was `quietly’ on the
market at $150m.

Asking price and sale price don’t always tally but, despite all the
problems lower down the property ladder, top-end homes are still
fetching top-end prices.

Last month Candy Spelling, widow of television producer Aaron Spelling,
paid a record $47m for an apartment in Los Angeles.

In May Donald Trump sold his Palm Beach estate for $100m. Trump’s sale
points to some softening in the market ‘ he had originally wanted
$125m.

However, property expert Jeff Meyers said that while the number of
buyers might have shrunk slightly at the very20top end of the market,
prices in general remained firm.

`When you get north of $20m, most of the buyers don’t need financing.
But those buyers who took out jumbo mortgages for $3m, $4m, $5m . . .
they are in trouble.’

Meyers, the founder of Meyers Builder Advisors, said the present slump
most closely resembled the 1970s when a sharp fall in the housing
market was triggered by rising job losses.

This time things are different and the job market remains strong. If
that changes, though, the rich will suffer as well, he predicts. In the
recession of the early 1990s California lost 500,000 jobs. `Nothing
moved,’ said Meyers. `If job losses rise, that’s going to affect prices
at the top end, too, because then everyone loses confidence. The
undertow at the bottom end of the market is unbelievable.’

So far that undertow has no more than ruffled the surface of the pool.
So far.

D94885&cat_ID=1##

Copyright (c) 2008 The Daily Star

Friday, August 08, 2008

Armenian refugee camp to be demolished

By Willy Lowry
Special to The Daily Star

BURJ HAMMOUD: Sanjak camp is disappearing. The expanding Beirut suburb
of Burj Hammoud will consume the 20,000-square-meter area within the
next few years, and in the process eliminate one of the last remaining
Armenian refugee camps in Lebanon. Sanjak is being demolished to
accommodate the growing population of Burj Hammoud and its busy
shopping district.

The Burj Hammoud municipality plans to replace Sanjak with St. Jacques
Plaza, a commercial and residential center.

Vasken K. Chekijian of VKC Design and Planning is the architect in
charge of the project. He said that the plaza, which is the first
project of its kind supported by a municipality in Lebanon, will
consist of two eight-floor apartment buildings and one 10-floor
apartment building. The plaza will also have a landscaped area, he
added. It will also contain the first multi-storey parking garage in
Lebanon, he said.

Today, a large field of rubble and a few rows of dilapidated buildings
are all that is left of Sanjak camp. Streams of running water flow
through narrow walkways that are cluttered with debris. Personal
belongings such as sneakers and clothes lie abandoned in empty homes.

The camp was established in 1939, in response to Turkey’s annexation
of Alexandretta, an autonomous territory, within French mandated
Syria. Historian Vahe Tachjian wrote in an e-mail to The Daily Star
that approximately 15,000 Armenians lived in Alexandretta, which was
located at the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea, an area that
is now the Turkish province of Hatay.

According to information provided by Tachjian, the majority of the
Armenian population of Alexandretta fled the province in July of 1939,
just prior to its inclusion into Turkey. They migrated south to French
Mandate Lebanon. They settled in various refugee camps throughout the
country, which had been set up by the French High Commission. In the
fall of 1939 a small number of the fleeing Armenians settled inland of
an already established "quarantine" area – the present day Karantina –
along Beirut’s northern coast and next to Burj Hammoud, which at the
time was farmland.

The name "Sanjak" is Turkish for "district" or "province." It alludes
to the lost Armenian "Sanjak of Alexandretta," from which the camp’s
settlers originated.

Throughout the last half of the 20th century the camp gradually
expanded and its population diversified. The camp grew to include
several other ethnic groups, primarily immigrants from Syria,
Southeast Asia and Armenia, said Elyse Semerdjian, a professor of
Middle East History at Whitman College in the United States who took
up the history of Sanjak in a recent issue of the American publication
Armenian Weekly.

While immigrants from various parts of the region moved into the camp,
many of the original Armenians who could afford to move relocated to
Burj Hammoud. Raffi Kokoghlanian, the deputy mayor of Burj Hammoud,
said that just prior to the first phase of demolition, only 30 percent
of the people living in the camp were descendants of the original
Armenian inhabitants.

In recent years, as Burj Hammoud has expanded and prospered, the camp
has remained impoverished.

Kokoghlanian says that for the past several years the Municipal
Council debated what should become of Sanjak camp, which he said had
become "a slum and problematic."

The council, he added, decided to build "something that would improve
and increase the accessibility of Burj Hammoud’s shopping district and
create more middle-class living space."

According to Chekijian, the plaza will create 184 new apartments,
which will be affordable to the lower-middle class, and the parking
complex will add 950 parking spaces to the cramped suburb. St. Jacques
will also have 70 commercial shops.

Today, half the camp has been leveled. Semerdjian estimated that the
camp originally contained about 300 shops and homes that housed around
160 families, while fewer than 45 homes remain.

Semerdjian believes "Sanjak Camp lies at a crucial intersection," she
wrote, "not only for the commercial vitality of Burj Hammoud, but also
for the moral consciousness of the greater Armenian community."

The Armenian diaspora has created a large and relatively affluent
community in Lebanon. They number roughly 150,000 and represent
approximately 4 percent of the country’s population. Many are
descendants of people who escaped the Armenian genocide, however;
some, like those who live in Sanjak, are the progeny of the roughly
15,000 Armenians who fled Alexandretta in 1939.

Today, the majority of Lebanese Armenians reside in either Burj
Hammoud or Anjar, a town in the Beqaa.

Although no census has been conducted in Lebanon since 1932, it is
believed that 150,000 people reside in Burj Hammoud, of whom 80
percent are Armenian.

According to information provided by Semerdjian, many of the original
Armenian refugee camps were still standing 20 years ago.

The increasing urbanization of cities and the need for more space,
which is something not unique to Lebanon, has led to the eradication
of important historic and cultural sites in countries throughout the
world, and this may become the fate of the Armenian refugee camps in
Lebanon.

Semerdjian used Tyro camp as an example. The camp, which was located a
few blocks away from Sanjak in Burj Hammoud, was recently leveled and
replaced by the Harboyan buildings, said Semerdjian.

For the moment, progress on the St. Jacques project has come to a
halt. The remaining residents are refusing to let the municipality
buy them out, saying that they are not being offered enough money.

Semerdjian wrote in her Armenian Weekly article that "most families in
the camp reported that they were receiving about $3,000-$5,000
compensation from the municipality."

"The municipality was paying more than the value of the current
homes," Kokoghlanian said.

He added that he believes it is only a matter of time until the
municipality and the enduring residents reach an agreement.

Kokoghlanian said the construction of St. Jacques Plaza is an
"improvement that will help Burj Hammoud evolve and continue to
thrive."

The suburb, which is two square kilometers in size, is one of the most
densely populated areas in the Middle East, say several Web sites; and
the city block that Sanjak occupies is precious space.

The Armenian diaspora in Lebanon has made no significant attempt to
prevent the camp’s destruction. In reaction to their posture,
Semerdjian asked if the community "will continue to ignore the social
and economic factors that have contributed to the persistence of this
Armenian refugee camp for over 60 years?"

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress