David Richardson

One reason you don't get gun crimes in Sweden like you do in the USA, despite there being loads of high-powered rifles in circulation (owned by hunters of elk, bear and wild boar) is that the possession of firearms is strictly licensed here. To get a gun license, you first have to do a three-month course (usually run by the Swedish Hunting Association). Then you have to apply to the police and demonstrate that you're a stable, law-abiding person. You have to have an approved gun safe at home, and you have to keep the firing mechanism locked up and separate from the rest of the gun. After that, the police can do regular background checks on you, and if you get arrested for drunk driving, or harassing your ex-partner, it's a racing certainty that the police will be around to collect your firearms immediately. They'll also revoke your gun license and the only way to get it back is to apply to the courts (who'll want fairly concrete evidence that you've dealt with your emotional problems). Sure it's a restriction on your personal freedom, but, then again, I'm not free to drive on the left-hand side of the road here either! In other words, we're all subject to all sorts of restrictions just by living in a society. The question is how reasonable the restrictions are. I remember my first visit to the States very clearly. It was in 1982 and I stayed with American families and met 'ordinary' Americans in Atlanta, Knoxville and Washington DC for three weeks. During that time violent incidents happened to three of the people I met, or to people very closely related to them (i.e. during the three weeks I was there). The most tragic one was the family in Knoxville who proudly showed us their home arsenal, which ranged from hand guns to a belt-driven machine gun! They had 14 firearms about the house altogether ('to protect themselves from burglars' in a very quiet, gated community …). Whilst we were in Washington DC, the mother we'd met was doing the ironing, and the 14-month old baby got hold of one of the hand guns. Before she had time to do anything, the baby had pulled the trigger and died. What most surprised - and shocked - me was that this was only one in a succession of similar incidents in that extended family, but none of them drew any conclusions about the keeping of firearms where children could get to them. My take on all this is that every society has taboos it just can't discuss. In Sweden it's alcohol (or, rather, letting go of your rationality), and in the States it's the possession of firearms. In the UK, it's most things relating to sex and the human body. If you happen to live in a society where you don't suffer from that particular taboo, you can see all sorts of reasonable solutions, but people who are subject to that taboo just can't take in what you say. So … I'm not expecting much in the way of a reasoned debate about the possession of firearms from our friends and colleagues in the US. However, this doesn't mean you have to give up - societies do change.

Carl Bildt is a bit of special case within Swedish politics. He spent his years out of office cosying up to US neocons, and he's definitely a loose cannon within the current right-wing government in Sweden. I'm sure that the rest of the Swedish government would endorse his sentiments if pressed … but they'd rather not be pressed to support him. Bildt is in quite a vulnerable position at the moment. His private financial interests in Sudanese oil and Russian gas severely limit what he can say about human rights, so he has to find somewhere in the world that it's safe for him to express his indignation about.

Here's something from Encyclopaedia Britannica (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-52743/Vietnam): "Meanwhile, in May 1941, at Ho Chi Minh's urging, the Communist Party formed a broad nationalist alliance under its leadership called the League for the Independence of Vietnam, which subsequently became known as the Viet Minh. After a short period in jail, Ho was released by the Chinese and began to cooperate with Allied forces by providing information on Japanese troop movements in Indochina. At the same time, he sought recognition of the Viet Minh as the legitimate representative of Vietnamese nationalist aspirations. When the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, the communist-led Viet Minh ordered a general uprising, and, with no one organized to oppose them, they were able to seize power in Hanoi. Bao Dai, the Vietnamese emperor, abdicated a few days later and declared his fealty to the newly proclaimed Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Clearly the Communist Party had gained the upper hand in its struggle to outmaneuver its disorganized rivals, such as the noncommunist VNQDD. The French, however, were determined to restore their own colonial presence in Indochina and, with the aid of British occupation forces, seized control of Cochinchina. Thus, at the beginning of 1946, there were two Vietnams: a communist north and a noncommunist south." And here's something from The History Place (http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html): "1941 Communist activist Ho Chi Minh secretly returns to Vietnam after 30 years in exile and organizes a nationalist organization known as the Viet Minh (Vietnam Independence League). After Japanese troops occupy Vietnam during World War II, the U.S. military intelligence agency Office of Strategic Services (OSS) allies with Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh guerrillas to harass Japanese troops in the jungles and to help rescue downed American pilots. 1945 March 9, 1945 - Amid rumors of a possible American invasion, Japanese oust the French colonial government which had been operating independently and seize control of Vietnam, installing Bao Dai as their puppet ruler. Summer - Severe famine strikes Hanoi and surrounding areas eventually resulting in two million deaths from starvation out of a population of ten million. The famine generates political unrest and peasant revolts against the Japanese and remnants of French colonial society. Ho Chi Minh capitalizes on the turmoil by successfully spreading his Viet Minh movement. July 1945 - Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, World War II Allies including the U.S., Britain, and Soviet Union, hold the Potsdam Conference in Germany to plan the post-war world. Vietnam is considered a minor item on the agenda. In order to disarm the Japanese in Vietnam, the Allies divide the country in half at the 16th parallel. Chinese Nationalists will move in and disarm the Japanese north of the parallel while the British will move in and do the same in the south. During the conference, representatives from France request the return of all French pre-war colonies in Southeast Asia (Indochina). Their request is granted. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia will once again become French colonies following the removal of the Japanese. August 1945 - Japanese surrender unconditionally. Vietnam's puppet emperor, Bao Dai, abdicates. Ho Chi Minh's guerrillas occupy Hanoi and proclaim a provisional government. September 2, 1945 - Japanese sign the surrender agreement in Tokyo Bay formally ending World War II in the Pacific. On this same day, Ho Chi Minh proclaims the independence of Vietnam by quoting from the text of the American Declaration of Independence which had been supplied to him by the OSS -- "We hold the truth that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This immortal statement is extracted from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. These are undeniable truths." Ho declares himself president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and pursues American recognition but is repeatedly ignored by President Harry Truman. September 13, 1945 - British forces arrive in Saigon, South Vietnam. In North Vietnam, 150,000 Chinese Nationalist soldiers, consisting mainly of poor peasants, arrive in Hanoi after looting Vietnamese villages during their entire march down from China. They then proceed to loot Hanoi. September 22, 1945 - In South Vietnam, 1400 French soldiers released by the British from former Japanese internment camps enter Saigon and go on a deadly rampage, attacking Viet Minh and killing innocent civilians including children, aided by French civilians who joined the rampage. An estimated 20,000 French civilians live in Saigon. September 24, 1945 - In Saigon, Viet Minh successfully organize a general strike shutting down all commerce along with electricity and water supplies. In a suburb of Saigon, members of Binh Xuyen, a Vietnamese criminal organization, massacre 150 French and Eurasian civilians, including children. September 26, 1945 - The first American death in Vietnam occurs, during the unrest in Saigon, as OSS officer Lt. Col. A. Peter Dewey is killed by Viet Minh guerrillas who mistook him for a French officer. Before his death, Dewey had filed a report on the deepening crisis in Vietnam, stating his opinion that the U.S. "ought to clear out of Southeast Asia." October 1945 - 35,000 French soldiers under the command of World War II General Jacques Philippe Leclerc arrive in South Vietnam to restore French rule. Viet Minh immediately begin a guerrilla campaign to harass them. The French then succeed in expelling the Viet Minh from Saigon."

Here's something from Encyclopaedia Britannica (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-52743/Vietnam): "Meanwhile, in May 1941, at Ho Chi Minh's urging, the Communist Party formed a broad nationalist alliance under its leadership called the League for the Independence of Vietnam, which subsequently became known as the Viet Minh. After a short period in jail, Ho was released by the Chinese and began to cooperate with Allied forces by providing information on Japanese troop movements in Indochina. At the same time, he sought recognition of the Viet Minh as the legitimate representative of Vietnamese nationalist aspirations. When the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, the communist-led Viet Minh ordered a general uprising, and, with no one organized to oppose them, they were able to seize power in Hanoi. Bao Dai, the Vietnamese emperor, abdicated a few days later and declared his fealty to the newly proclaimed Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Clearly the Communist Party had gained the upper hand in its struggle to outmaneuver its disorganized rivals, such as the noncommunist VNQDD. The French, however, were determined to restore their own colonial presence in Indochina and, with the aid of British occupation forces, seized control of Cochinchina. Thus, at the beginning of 1946, there were two Vietnams: a communist north and a noncommunist south." And here's something from The History Place (http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html): "1941 Communist activist Ho Chi Minh secretly returns to Vietnam after 30 years in exile and organizes a nationalist organization known as the Viet Minh (Vietnam Independence League). After Japanese troops occupy Vietnam during World War II, the U.S. military intelligence agency Office of Strategic Services (OSS) allies with Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh guerrillas to harass Japanese troops in the jungles and to help rescue downed American pilots. 1945 March 9, 1945 - Amid rumors of a possible American invasion, Japanese oust the French colonial government which had been operating independently and seize control of Vietnam, installing Bao Dai as their puppet ruler. Summer - Severe famine strikes Hanoi and surrounding areas eventually resulting in two million deaths from starvation out of a population of ten million. The famine generates political unrest and peasant revolts against the Japanese and remnants of French colonial society. Ho Chi Minh capitalizes on the turmoil by successfully spreading his Viet Minh movement. July 1945 - Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, World War II Allies including the U.S., Britain, and Soviet Union, hold the Potsdam Conference in Germany to plan the post-war world. Vietnam is considered a minor item on the agenda. In order to disarm the Japanese in Vietnam, the Allies divide the country in half at the 16th parallel. Chinese Nationalists will move in and disarm the Japanese north of the parallel while the British will move in and do the same in the south. During the conference, representatives from France request the return of all French pre-war colonies in Southeast Asia (Indochina). Their request is granted. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia will once again become French colonies following the removal of the Japanese. August 1945 - Japanese surrender unconditionally. Vietnam's puppet emperor, Bao Dai, abdicates. Ho Chi Minh's guerrillas occupy Hanoi and proclaim a provisional government. September 2, 1945 - Japanese sign the surrender agreement in Tokyo Bay formally ending World War II in the Pacific. On this same day, Ho Chi Minh proclaims the independence of Vietnam by quoting from the text of the American Declaration of Independence which had been supplied to him by the OSS -- "We hold the truth that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This immortal statement is extracted from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. These are undeniable truths." Ho declares himself president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and pursues American recognition but is repeatedly ignored by President Harry Truman. September 13, 1945 - British forces arrive in Saigon, South Vietnam. In North Vietnam, 150,000 Chinese Nationalist soldiers, consisting mainly of poor peasants, arrive in Hanoi after looting Vietnamese villages during their entire march down from China. They then proceed to loot Hanoi. September 22, 1945 - In South Vietnam, 1400 French soldiers released by the British from former Japanese internment camps enter Saigon and go on a deadly rampage, attacking Viet Minh and killing innocent civilians including children, aided by French civilians who joined the rampage. An estimated 20,000 French civilians live in Saigon. September 24, 1945 - In Saigon, Viet Minh successfully organize a general strike shutting down all commerce along with electricity and water supplies. In a suburb of Saigon, members of Binh Xuyen, a Vietnamese criminal organization, massacre 150 French and Eurasian civilians, including children. September 26, 1945 - The first American death in Vietnam occurs, during the unrest in Saigon, as OSS officer Lt. Col. A. Peter Dewey is killed by Viet Minh guerrillas who mistook him for a French officer. Before his death, Dewey had filed a report on the deepening crisis in Vietnam, stating his opinion that the U.S. "ought to clear out of Southeast Asia." October 1945 - 35,000 French soldiers under the command of World War II General Jacques Philippe Leclerc arrive in South Vietnam to restore French rule. Viet Minh immediately begin a guerrilla campaign to harass them. The French then succeed in expelling the Viet Minh from Saigon."

"You said we're headed to war in Iraq -- I don't know why you say that. I hope we're not headed to war in Iraq. I'm the person who gets to decide, not you." http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...20021231-1.html President Bush, 31st December, 2002. It's shooting fish in a barrel, really.

When thinking about the Domino Theory, you also have to bear in mind that it wasn't just China and Vietnam who were enemies. There has been a constant struggle in Indo-China for at least the last thousand years, with three strong powers, Thailand, Vietnam and China, and two weak ones, Laos and Cambodia. Each of the strong ones has had several periods of hegemony over the entire region, whilst the two weak ones have had one period each (in Cambodia's case this was when the civilisation which built Anghkor Wat flourished). The US blundering into this region had a lot of similarities to the blundering into Iraq - I heard today that the Mahdi Army in Iraq have withdrawn their entire top two echelons of leadership to Iran, with the express aim of returning once the Americans have inflicted severe punishment on their Sunni enemies - more or less the favour the US did for China in keeping their enemy, Vietnam, busy for a few years.

Sweden's socialised medicine system introduced a national guarantee system for non-urgent medical treatment in 2005, which can be summed up as 0-7-90-90. This means 0 days to get to come to a local clinic (i.e. you should be able to get an appointment at a clinic immediately); 7 days to be able to see a doctor; 90 days to get an appointment to see a specialist; and 90 days for treatment to begin after seeing the specialist. These are maximum times - there are very few patients who have to wait that long. So, John's knee replacement surgery example would work like this in Sweden: you could get to your local clinic immediately. If there wasn't a doctor who could see you that day (very rare occurrence), you'd see a GP within 7 days. If you were referred to a specialist, that would happen within 90 days and you'd get surgery less than 90 days after that. I.e. in the worst possible case, a knee replacement would involve a wait of 6 months. In my county the times are less than half that, on average. You pay about a fee of about £10 at each 'level' of the system (though this varies from place to place) and there's an upper limit of about £100 per year for medical fees and the cost of medicines. Once you've paid that amount, you get free treatment after that. My wife needs asthma medicine, for example, and we pay the full price once a year - after that it's free. Visits to less specialised therapists (such as physiotherapists or speech therapists) cost a little less. Most medical aids (wheelchairs, crutches, physiotherapy equipment, etc) are free of charge. If the treatment you need isn't available locally, you can demand to be referred to another county - or even another country in some cases - at the expense of your local county. This means that each local area has a strong incentive to make sure that all the common treatments and surgical procedures are available locally. The county I live in has a population of 233,000 people and is served by three major hospitals. There are local clinics all over the place (I live in Kalmar, which has a population of 60,000 and has four local clinics). The emergency system is separate from this. If you're taken acutely ill, or if you have a potentially life-threatening condition, you gain treatment immediately.

I remember ex-President Nixon being interviewed on CNN to speak against Clinton's attempt to reform the US medical system in the early 1990s. "People from all over the world come to America for medical treatment," he growled. He missed out a word: if he'd said "… from all over the Third World …", I'd have bought it. I can't, however, imagine anyone from Sweden going to the US for medical treatment … except in those vary rare cases where some kind of specialist treatment is involved, and I'm fairly sure that there's as much traffic in the other direction (especially since Sweden is one of the world leaders in stem-cell research). I've met more than one Brit who found it necessary to re-emigrate to the UK because (relatively) minor accidents (such as a broken arm) were threatening to bankrupt the family.

Dear Cristina, I'll certainly spread the word. One of the contacts who comes to mind immediately is one of our hourly-paid teachers who lives in Valladolid and has been working as an Internet tutor on the side for us for nearly 10 years now. Jon (Clark) is trying to set up distance courses in Castilla y Leon, and might well have some interesting insights. Another contact could be one of my colleagues who teaches music. One of our most popular music courses is a course in playing the guitar which is entirely on-line (together with plenty of photos and sound files we've produced ourselves). We've got about 6 on-line music courses as the moment. I'll also get in touch with Calmare International School to see if they're interested in the project. Yours, David

Since we were last in contact we've heard that our Norwegian contacts have just been awarded about €45,000 for 2007 to create a learning environment in the virtual reality world, Second Life (http://secondlife.com). We'll probably have something up and running in April or May. Part of this project is research and evaluation and this could be something to add to your EU application.

We're now into our second round of 'one-code application' courses. Previously on our English distance courses (with the exception of the entirely on-line Business Writing course) we decided which study centres to use in advance and students applied to one of them. It was a nice idea in theory, but it didn't work in practice because students just ignored the fact that they didn't actually live anywhere near the centre they applied for. Lots of them just applied for all of the centres too. The result was a great deal of wasted effort around course start time as you fixed studio time for students who had no possibility of actually travelling to that studio. (You need to bear in mind that Sweden's a very big country, and the distances we're talking about are like London to Leeds.) With one-code application we just accepted the fact that people will apply from wherever they happen to live. We fix studios when we know where the students are, and anyone who can't be part of a small group is invited to join the video conferences via Marratech. There've been some very interesting developments. One of them is that lots of expatriate Swedes are getting on the course. I'm busy organising day-time conferences now because we have Europe-based expatriates who can study whilst their kids are at nursery school linking up with Australia-based ones for whom the European morning is their evening! All these little details point to what happens when you start organising your courses flexibly. We've taken away many of the artificial barriers to learning - such as the requirement to be in a particular place at a particular time. This puts the pedagogical design of the course into sharp focus. The teaching materials - and the interaction they create among the students - become extremely important … and it's very difficult to image how traditional 'one-size-fits-all' materials could work on this kind of a course. You could, of course, take away the interaction … but then the courses tend not to work, since it's the interaction which keeps students going.

We had our first, brief project meeting in Bryan's 'classroom' in Second Life this afternoon (even though I haven't got my new iMac yet). We're picking it up really quickly. I have a feeling that none of us are quite prepared for how quickly this environment is going to be produced (since we can afford to have someone else do it for us!). And I suspect that it's going to come as a bit of a surprise for our bosses too, since I reckon the news that Kalmar has a part in a joint Second Life educational environment is going to make national news in a small way. One of the main newspapers in Sweden, Dagens Nyheter, had a feature about Second Life a couple of weeks ago … but I don't think there are any other universities or schools who're even near appearing there. I've seen some of the work our builders have done, and it's really nice. I'm still hoping I can persuade my colleagues to go for the 'ice hotel' idea.

Doesn't time fly when you're enjoying yourself! Suddenly it's January a year on from when I started this thread … This year is the year of Moodle for us here in Kalmar. We've just been reorganised and amalgamated with another department which also has a lot of in-house expertise in computing (so we can sidestep the IT section and get on with doing real things). Moodle's just another course management system, really, but it's got the advantage of hundreds, if not thousands of programmers around the world tweaking it all the time. The Open University have just adopted Moodle as their CMS of choice too, so there'll be even more development. Moodle makes it very easy to include things like podcasts in course materials. Even the link-up to iTunes is neat and easy. I've also just got the nearly latest version of iLife on my Mac, so I've got all the GarageBand podcasting features. It's really easy! And it makes nice small files. One of the neatest aspects of GarageBand podcasting (to use one of Bill Gates' favourite adjectives!) is that you can drag and drop slides from KeyNote (Apple's superior version of PowerPoint) into your podcast, so that you can have visual aids accompanying your podcast. It makes podcasting take a bit longer, but the end product is a lot more organised. GarageBand produces .m4a files (.mp4 instead of .mp3), which appear as QuickTime movies if you click the link on screen in Moodle. In iTunes the visuals appear in the iTunes window that usually shows album artwork, and the pix appear on screen if you listen on an iPod. We're going to be playing around with wikis as ways of getting students to write discursive essays this term too. If anyone would like to take a look, just mail me and I'll send you the enrolment key, so that you can log on to a course as a guest.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. The Time Machine idea is a great one - I'll pass it on to the project team. One of the people in the team has already been involved in the Virtual Harlem project, which recreated Harlem at the time of the beginning of the Jazz Age as a virtual teaching environment, and is currently working on a Virtual Montmartre (from the time of Toulouse L'Autrec) together with the Sorbonne. At the moment our hands are very free indeed. We've got enough cash to purchase 'real estate', build a virtual centre on it, and run one very limited course in it during 2007. Then in 2008 there's going to be lots of cash to do all sorts of things. The idea so far is to purchase at least three 'islands', which are basically 3D spaces on which you can build anything you want. Molde, the main partner, are interested in research into interaction in general and systems analysis (as a subject), particularly at post-graduate level. CMSU is a teaching college (like Kalmar), and they've got a whole range of subjects that could use the environment. Bryan at CMSU has been teaching academic writing there for a year there now, using borrowed space. As for Kalmar, it'll depend very much on who we can get to work in the space. My suggestion for the 2007 course (which we've decided ought to be aimed at post-graduates) is a course in schmoozing at academic conferences, which is something Scandinavians aren't very good at in general. A task could be to draw up our 2008 application for further funds! We're thinking of making one island a 'systems analysis' island, another a teacher training island and a third one a media island. I'd love to get teacher trainees doing drama on the teacher training island, and we all have a lot of music going on … The point is that in 2007 we've got the opportunity of creating a learning environment which could be used by all sorts of teachers to do a variety of things. We're commissioning some people in Canada to actually build the initial centre (which is why we need to decide what it's going to look like), but after that anyone with the skills or interest could ask to use part of it.

One mistake I think a lot of us make is to imagine that educational policy in the UK is actually driven by concerns about education … The provision of education is one of the heaviest costs on the state budget - if you can reduce the amount spent on it, you can spend more on cutting taxes, buying armaments, etc. The problem is that so many of the voters have children - damn them! And these incredibly biased parents make unreasonable demands on politicians that education should actually work …

I'm involved in a project which has just been granted around $50,000 by a Norwegian government fund to produce an educational environment in the virtual reality programme Second Life (http://secondlife.com/). The main partner is the University of Molde in western Norway, and the other two places involved are Kalmar and Central Missouri State University. The funds we've been granted are for 2007, and if we do something useful with them, we'll get at least as much again for 2008. Since this is a purely internal Norwegian affair (they've got oil money coming out of their ears!), the application process was very quick and painless. We managed to get an application together in about 48 hours, and the whole process, from application to decision took about 2 months. This meant that we haven't done a lot of the detailed work of deciding what we should do with this environment yet … which brings me on to you lot reading this! The first thing we have to do is to design an educational 3D environment in which our avatars and those of our students can interact with each other. We're going to pay an outfit in Nova Scotia $15,000 to do this for us … but what is it going to look like? Swedish, Norwegian and American is the answer … but what does that actually mean? Here are some thoughts I've just sent to my colleagues: "It got me thinking about the environments that I've seen in SL so far - they've all been sub-tropical, with palm trees and people wondering around in T-shirts. They've also tended to be very technological and fairly flat. Scandinavia for me, though, is hilly, forested … and cold! What about the Ice Hotel as an inspiration? (http://www.icehotel.com/). "Ecological" is another term which springs to mind. What about a sedum roof? (http://www.organicgardening.org.uk/factsheets/gg38.php)" We've had some fun ideas about what you're going to be able to do in the environment too … students and teachers can do all sorts of things you can't do in RL (the 'in' term for 'real life'), like fly. Before I carry on about those fantasies, do any of you readers have any suggestions you could make?

I've met Richard twice at E-HELP meetings in Sweden, which is enough to be able to say that Richard is so self-evidently an excellent teacher, and a very serious colleague. The threshold at IST must be extremely low if it can't accommodate a person like Richard … Whilst I have no idea what the substantive issues are behind Richard's sudden dismissal, the whole situation seems a bit absurd. Is the management of IST so unsure of itself and so weak that it can't handle the kind of action that a teacher of Richard's integrity is likely to take?

Niall Ferguson (whom I usually just skip, since his stuff is so often right-wing nonsense) gave an interesting background perspective in the LA Times the other day. Here's a quote (from http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-...on-columnists): "As with all history, the same events can be narrated in at least two mutually contradictory ways. Here, first, is Somalia's recent history from a neoconservative perspective: Somalia's troubles can be traced to its partition by the incompetent European imperial powers (especially the cheese-eating French), but the rot really set in during the late 1970s, when the detente-obsessed Carter administration failed to assist Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre in his war against communist Ethiopia. After Siad's overthrow, the country descended into civil war. As a failed state, it became a potential base for terrorist operations. In 1993, the Clinton administration sent U.S. troops to Somalia. This was a disaster for four reasons. First, the intervention was authorized by a United Nations Security Council resolution, thus compromising American freedom of action (by giving the French a say). Second, President Clinton reduced the size of the U.S. military presence when he should have increased it. Third, unforeseen operational difficulties led to the loss of two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters and 18 U.S. military personnel, damaging American credibility in the region. (The number of Somalis killed is not known.) Finally, instead of seeing the intervention through, Clinton cut and ran, even specifying in advance the departure date for U.S. forces. These blunders had negative consequences for U.S. national security. Al Qaeda established a base in the south of the country. The 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were almost certainly planned there. Last summer, a militant Islamist organization calling itself the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts seized power in Mogadishu. Similar to the Taliban in its militancy, the council imposed strict Sharia law. There were prohibitions on chewing khat, the local drug of choice, and even watching soccer games in public places. The overall head of the council was Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, a suspected Al Qaeda operative. As U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said in December, the council leaders were "extremists to the core." U.S. policy has been to prevent Somalia from becoming a new front in the global war on terror, but without overt intervention, which could be politically problematic. Accordingly, the United States provided logistical naval support to the recent Ethiopian invasion and has announced an aid package of $17 million to assist the new transitional federal government of Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi. As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday: "The Somali people … have a historic opportunity to begin to move beyond two decades of warlordism, extreme violence and humanitarian suffering." Now let me offer you the alternative reading of events. Long before the arrival of European imperialism, Somalia was a country plagued by warfare. There were recurrent attempts by Ethiopia to subjugate the Somalis. There were also frequent feuds between the various Somali clans themselves, like the Hawiye clan, which has its base in Mogadishu. The new prime minister is in fact a Hawiye, but has forfeited much credibility by acting as an Ethiopian puppet. In the eyes of many Somalis, recent events are just the latest of many wars with Ethiopia. That is why the recent rout of the Islamists is unlikely to be the last act in the Somali tragedy. The Islamists offered Somalia order; not a Western order, to be sure, but order nonetheless. Under their rule, the price of an AK-47 in the Mogadishu markets slumped to $15, a sure sign that the warlords were being forced to downsize their militias. Young men no longer roared through the streets in the Mad Max-style vehicles known locally as "technicals" — trucks mounted with antiaircraft guns. Some were returning to school and university. Others were getting jobs with private electricity companies and airlines. Internet cafes were beginning to displace militia training camps. Kalashnikovs were being traded in for mobile phones. Now, with the Islamists gone, the most likely scenario is a return of the warlords. Worse, the Islamists may now revert to the tactic of suicide bombing to destabilize the new government. As has happened in Afghanistan, the overthrow of an Islamist government will be followed not by a new order but by the old disorder. As I said, it would take a satirist of Evelyn Waugh's genius to do justice to this story — to lay bare all the unintended consequences of yet another enforced regime change. At least in the Cold War, "our son of a bitch" — the local anti-communist strongman — could be counted on to impose a brutal kind of order. Now, in the war on terror, the United States would rather see a country torn apart by multiple sons-of-bitches than ruled under Sharia law. But the more U.S. foreign policy promotes anarchy instead of order, the stronger the Islamists' appeal will be. And the darker the shade of mischief that will ensue." My best bet is that the US military were trying to throw up some dust to divert attention from the shrub's attempt to escalate the war in Iraq.

I think it's all about a current debate in the UK about religion. Some of the apologists for religion are claiming that the mass murderers are all atheists. The fact that Adolf Hitler was a Catholic doesn't fit in with this theory, which is why it's necessary to bring this fact to light.

Fascinating insight into the workload of teachers in the UK - reminds me why I don't do that any more! You might be interested to hear of the situation in my daughter's school (she's in the 9th class at the moment, which is the last year of secondary, compulsory school in Sweden). Each term there's a parents' evening, most of which is devoted to propaganda from various school bodies about whichever subject is closest to their hearts at the moment (the benefits of teetotalism is the current one). There's also a 15 minute meeting with her form teacher at which she goes through my daughter's progress in each of the 15 subjects she studies (i.e. we don't meet each teacher separately). These meetings are preceded for her form teacher by consultations with the teachers involved, and she usually has one or two sentences from each of them to guide her - like a school report. Swedish teachers have their home phone numbers printed in the school catalogue, and it's expected that parents will phone the teacher at home if they've got anything on their mind.

Although I'm not a historian, it seems to be a very ignorant list too. If we're going to take this approach and look at people who wore crowns, where's Henry VII? Perhaps the reminder of the Wars of the Roses and the person who used terror in order to break the power of the aristocrats is a bit too strong for the Tories. It might turn too much attention to the fact that monarchs are usually either people who should have at least got ASBOs, if not been tried for war crimes … or their descendants.

If the USA were a candidate country for entry to the EU, she'd have to abolish the death penalty just in order to be in consideration, since the absence of the death penalty is one of the thresholds the EU has establish to determine whether a candidate country is civilised and democratic. Ironic, isn't it.

I'm going to be teaching US Culture and Society in the spring - parallel with teaching Twelfth Night. One of the points I make is about Malvolio and his closing remark "I'll be revenged upon the pack of you". I point out to students that Shakespeare assumes that his audience (especially the groundlings) would know a lot about Puritan religious doctrine, since he ridicules it in such detail in the play. And that Puritans were especially pissed off with the irreverent treatment they got in theatres. Twenty years later, Malvolio's buddies were heading for New England on the Mayflower … with one of their aims being to create a society where smart asses like Shakespeare wouldn't have a voice. In other words, hand-in-hand with the US aspiration towards freedom is the US aspiration towards total ideological control. It was a very common phenomenon in the Soviet Union, of course, but I reckon that Europe has learned (via very painful lessons called things like the Thirty Years War) to tolerate at least the expression of other opinions. This also happens to be an important element of what's called 'western scientific method'. Let's just hope that our American friends manage to win their country back from the modern-day Malvolios …

There's a new entry on the 'Spartacus' page on Wikipedia - at least for the time being. It reads: Spartacus is also the name of an excellent source of information for schoolchildren and others around the world about history. You'll find it at http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/

This is why I read the Education Forum - to get information I couldn't get easily in other ways. How interesting that Wikipedia has succumbed to right-wing pressure. And what a shame that the USA, a country that could be great, is so tawdry, so often.