Our Turn

Looks like it is going to be a wet and miserable week around here...

Japan gets its turn at typhoon season, and it is another big one.

Here in Tochigi we are rather far inland, and well screened by mountains along the approach, but we'll get buckets of rain as the storm breaks up.

Folks out in the middle-country, Nagoya and points just southwest of there, are going to get hammered. Here's hoping all that disaster preparedness practice pays off.

Nizeyimana arrested, sent to the ICTR

This has been a long time coming...

A Government of Uganda spokesman says Rwanda's former intelligence chief Idelphonse Nizeyimana was arrested Sunday in Uganda.

"Who?"

Here's his profile (WikiP citation; please note links there to sources); a look at that might give you an idea why this is important.

Report Out on Russian Dam Accident

It is one heck of an indictment, too.

Outlining a report on the causes of the Aug. 17 accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant in southern Siberia, Rostekhnadzor director Nikolai Kutin described it in chilling detail. Part of an overstrained turbine unit weighing 1,500 tons snapped off its restraining bolts and sailed into the air, he said, unleashing flooding, short circuits and wreckage that crippled the plant and doomed dozens of workers in seconds.

While the direct causes were essentially technical, he said, bad decisions stretching years back set the stage for a catastrophe that could probably have been avoided.

A 140 page report goes into most every detail of the disaster that caused the deaths of 75 workers. Here's the media summary report.

However...

...the finger-pointing at Anatoly Chubais should be taken with at least a cautionary pause. The Putin-Medvedev-run Kremlin machine has hung a number of things on Chubais to deflect public criticism of the government from back in the "privatization" time in Russia. The question is not "did he get rich by playing the system back then?"; the question is "was his leadership party to the negligence and mismanagement that led to this disaster?", and that remains to be proven.

***

This item was first posted here in August, with the news of a massive accident at RusHydro's Sayano-Shushenskaya power station.

Philippines Typhoon adds to disaster

Thankfully, it seems to have avoided a direct hit on the Manila metro area, instead brushing by to the north, but given the sheer size of the storm it is likely that secondary flooding will add to the disaster already present.

Officials had feared rain would spark fresh floods in Manila since reservoirs and dams around the capital are full and the sewage system is inundated with mud and rubbish brought by last week's deluge.

"Our relief work slowed down because we placed our troops on standby for possible rescue operations in case of floods," said Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres, spokesman of the national disaster agency.

"But the typhoon was hardly felt here."

If that is all, then wonderful. Rescue/Recovery efforts in the Manila area can go on, and new resources as they arrive can be tasked to the north of Luzon where the latest damage is pretty severe.

*Rumor* has it that the Reagan Carrier Strike Group of the U.S. Navy is likely to be diverted to provide aid now that this storm has swept through. That would be a good thing.

...because this is shaping up to be a bad autumn in Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Nigerian Amnesty

It is on, but will it hold?

Here's hoping. As of today's reports,

Militant commanders Ateke Tom and Farah Dagogo, whose fighters have mounted many of the attacks on the oil industry in the eastern Niger Delta, led gunmen from their camps in the mangrove creeks of the Niger Delta to the oil hub of Port Harcourt.

President Umaru Yar'Adua has offered all gunmen in the Niger Delta an unconditional pardon if they surrender their weapons by Sunday.

One more leader and his men should come in shortly. The numbers said to have disarmed are in the hundreds. However:

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said on Thursday it had encouraged Tom, Dagogo and other commanders to step aside for the safety of their families.

Government Tompolo, who commands thousands of fighters in the Niger Delta, is the last known militant commander with links to MEND that has yet to surrender.

That's the kicker. If the main force doesn't abide by the amnesty, then this is mostly for show. The militant followers are not being detained or in any way prevented from going back into the bush under other leaders, either.

I'd like to believe that this is a first step toward a regional peace. I will believe it when I see it happen.

Gothic Serpent anniversary.

Yes, I know I missed some very important ones back in August/September while I was obliged elsewhere... but be that as it may, here is the first of October's days of memorial:

Gothic Serpent, as memorialized here last year.

16 years, now.

...and the job still isn't done.

Will "No" stand?

It is voting day in Ireland for the second try by the E.U. to pass the Lisbon Treaty. Ireland remains the only E.U. member state to put this version of the centralization-of-power-in-Brussels to a referendum, and the last time, it went "No" by a margin of ~7%... in European politics, that kind of margin made it "Hell No".

But never let such little matters interfere with the dreams of the Eurocrats. If it wouldn't pass on the first go, make them vote again.

The BBC has it that "Yes" will win this time.

Time for the Irish to save civilization, again, and make the Beeb look bad in the process.

Vote No on the Lisbon Treaty.

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Update 3. Oct

Aw... RATS.

The final numbers are not yet in, but Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Brian Cowen's government is claiming victory for "Yes".