Getting Lost in the Tech "Support" Jungle

New York Times' tech reporter David Pogue wrote a piece laced with sarcasm about trying to get tech support at Dell. I also had some serious problems with those guys after I bought a Pocket PC from Dell a year ago. Tons of calls, little result. Dell says they get awards for tech support and I always wonder how that could possibly be. My friend Vadim Makarenko even recounted my troubles in an article in a Polish daily on outsourcing to India. Believe me, Tom, Dick and Jane on the phone are chatting with you from Bangalore.

Just like Pogue, I have resisted buying Dell equipment ever since, even though Northwestern Law was offering a discount on their laptops. And I'm glad about that. My Thinkpad's fan recently got annoyingly loud. I placed one call, and the next business day a super nice female techie from IBM showed up at my door to install a new one. Not bad.

Butcher of Srebrenica Still at Large

Well, another rumor, another disappointment. Looks like Ratko Mladic is still out there. The rumor mill is still churning and maybe he will soon be captured. For now, The Hague will have to wait.

Mladic Ready to Surrender?

There's been rumors reported over the last 24 hours that one of the two most wanted Bosnian Serb leaders may soon be heading to The Hague for a trial at the Yugoslavia Tribunal. There's been rumors in the past that Ratko Mladic, the general responsible for the killing of about 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, was about to be captured. I remembered receiving several calls like that when I was on duty at the Amsterdam office before I left in July of last year. But this is looking like the big one. Great news!


On top of the genocide at Srebrenica, Mladic and the Bosnian Serb civilian leader, the crazy former psychologist Radovan Karadzic, are also indicted for 12,000 deaths during the siege of Sarajevo. That doesn't count thousands of other men and women killed in the war. These crooks, along with Slobodan Milosevic, perpetrated some of the worst war crimes since WWII. The trials at the Hague tribunal are not pretty, but they do show that the world, even if incredibly late, will not let these atrocities go unpunished.

Of course Slobo's trial still snails on and who knows when it will end. But, nonetheless, I am glad Mladic may be heading to The Hague very soon. Good luck to the reporters in the Netherlands who will have a lot of work on their hands soon.

Poland to Iran: No 'Research' to Back Holocaust Denials

When I see things like this I am proud to be Polish. Poland's foreign minister says the country would never allow Iranian "researchers" to "examine" the scale of the mass murder of Jews and other victims of the German Nazis on Polish soil during WWII. To give the slightest legitimacy to pseudo historians denying the Holocaust and the unprecedented destructions of human beings in Nazi death camps would be a crime in itself.

One of the most moving and painful experiences of my life was walking through deaths factory in Auschwitz. The wooden shacks, the collapsed gas room. It is beyond any understanding that just 60 or so years ago human beings were capable of such evil. And so I'm enraged that there are people out there who want to downplay the Nazi atrocities. Did the Nazis kill six million Jews or was it five and a half? I think you're missing the point.

Oh, and believe it or not, part of my tuition is supporting one of these Holocaust deniers right here at Northwestern. The university did condemn the comments and I appreciate the fact that the man should not be fired for views not related to his job. But it is still shocking that anybody educated could make these comments especially here in my own backyard.

Chicago Poles Wanted Trib to Cover Pres

Came across this note on some Polish community in Chicago complaining that the city's biggest daily, the Chicago Tribune, didn't do enough to cover the visit of Poland's President Lech Kaczynski. I mean the Polish president is here and it's not on the front page???

Of course not. There was no news coming out of Kaczynski's meetings with the Polish American Congress and the mayor. This is something that folks out there often don't catch. Journalists are not PR people. We don't cover every movement of a politician if he doesn't make any news. Now if he came with his twin brother Jaroslaw and did a little skit from the movie they did when they were kids, that would be something else!


The Trib did send its London correspondent to Warsaw to do a piece on Kaczynski, the conservative voice in Europe, before he came to the U.S.

Polish Catholics Not Crazy about New Madonna

Muslims, it seems, are not the only folks unhappy with news media playing with religious icons. In Poland, the Catholic church is up in arms about a pop culture magazine Machina superimposing the image of Madonna, the singer, over Madonna, the mother of Jesus. This is especially irritating to some Poles because the image used is the Black Madonna, Poland's most revered religious icon.


How do I feel about this? I think it's silly. Come on, people, get a life. And even worse, looks like some Poles are desperately putting themselves in line with fanatical Muslims calling for heads of anybody even remotely responsible for the Mohammed caricatures. For God's sake...

I Don't Get Jon Stewart...

Looks like I'm not the only one who doesn't get Jon Stewart. I tried several times to watch his show, even staying up late to catch it on CNN International when I lived in Europe. In my view he's mostly a self-righteous whiner and complainer with a "too-cool-to-care" attitude. Man, am I losing some serious cool points among my friends for saying this.


And I don't get Seinfeld. Probably for similar reasons...

Professor in the News - Greed is Good?

A friend in class just pointed out an article in the Chicago Tribune about my Business Associations professor. The article is quite critical, but gives an interesting background. For example, Prof. Fischel has been quite close to Michael Milken, the disgraced junk bond king of the 1980's. And he's already got 200 cases under his belt... I'm curious what role Fischel will play at the Enron trial.

English Politician 'Plays' an Idiot on TV

If you're searching for the dumbest politician out there, look no further than British member of the parliament George Galloway. The man just spent three weeks locked up on the British version of reality show Big Brother, where he 1) danced in a red leotard, 2) lapped imaginary milk from a saucer like a cat, 3) did a terrible Elvis impersonation and 4) pissed off pretty much every other pseudo-celebrity in the house, not to mention most of Britain. All this while taking his salary from the British government. Can you imagine any U.S. politician pulling off a stunt like this???

He finally got booted off. A day earlier, conservative tabloid The Sun released a video of Galloway, who bashed Bush and Blair over the war in Iraq, chilling with Uday Hussein back in 1999. To be fair, I should also point out that on Thursday Court of Appeal upheld Galloway's $270,000 libel victory over the Daily Telegraph. But Galloway still faces the possibility of a UK fraud investigation looking into the Iraq oil-for-food corruption scandal.

I wish this disgrace of a man would stay locked up much longer. Go away, please...

Come Smoke in Chicago

Just as Chicago has banned smoking in restaurants, with bars coming soon, RJ Reynolds is hoping to glamorize cigarettes again by opening a trendy smoking lounge in the city. With many advertising avenues closing up, looks like cigarette makers are desperately looking to market their products through unconventional means. This looks a little ridiculous on its face, but these guys are great at promoting a product that everybody knows is deadly. And it's a welcome change from just relying on discounts and free gift catalogs. Hey, it's still an $87 billion industry.


Next, I'm looking forward to sipping some poison in a posh tasting bar...

PR People a Waste of Journalist's Time?

Here's a thought-provoking interview with Jack Shafer, a caustic media critic at Slate. I particularly enjoyed his opinion about PR people:

I have found, with only rare exceptions, that PR officers are impediments to journalism. They are the people who man the barricades, who salt the earth before you can get to it to plant your story... They're time-wasters, hall monitors.

I'm not sure if PR people are thaaat bad, but I have also wondered why some of these folks call themselves "spokespersons" if they hardly say anything of use. Not sure if the regular "no comment" you get out of them complies with the definition. Most of the time they just repeat what you can read in the press release. But there are those rare gems out there who are willing to speak to journalists, be honest and even open. I love them.

Tom Bans South Park

Oh no! Paramount will never again show one of the funniest South Park episodes after Tom Cruise said he did not like it. Shocking, apparently he didn't dig the "Tom Cruise will not come out of the closet" theme. I thought it was a great commentary on that pseudo-religion he's in... Too bad, world. You missed a good one.

Can the World Rely on Russian Energy Supplies?

Here's a fantastic quote from Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili after a mysterious explosion knocked out the supply of gas from Russia.

"I think the world should wake up to the threat of this kind of behavior. Yesterday it was Ukraine, today it is Georgia, tomorrow it might get anywhere where Russia sells its gas and electricity."

Europe, you can now officially be frightened (if you were not already after the Ukraine embargo). Putin is not fooling around anymore and he's got the gas to prove it.

Lessons Not Learned: The Saddam Trial

Today I listened to a lecture on the Saddam Hussein trial by David Scheffer, a visiting professor at Northwestern Law and a CNN legal analyst. Interesting stuff, but I came away from it wondering why it is that judges, prosecutors and other legal folks working on these crimes against humanity trials don't learn many of the lessons from the previous tribunals.

For now it looks like Saddam will follow the Slobodan Milosevic book on hijacking his trial for political reasons. Come on, when was the last time you read about Slobo's trial, which is still going on and on and on?

So, first blame the Americans. Check. Second, question the legitimacy of the tribunal. Check. Then rant and scream and complain about everything, including the lack of clean underwear. Check.

Next thing on the list -- and don't be surprised if this happens soon -- start complaining about your blood pressure or other ailments to delay the trial. (By the way, Slobo wants to get some medical treatment in Russia). Who knows, maybe with the new lead judge there will be less of this, but for now, it looks like this will take years, just like with Slobo.

On top of allowing the defendant to dominate the proceedings, another significant mistake seems to be starting with a lesser charge. I realize that this might be a trial run, but why not nail Saddam with one of the bigger crimes, especially gassing of the Kurds.

Finally, while in the Slobo trial there is one defendant doing a good job at making the trial excruciatingly long, at the Saddam trial there are 11 additional defendants to make things even more complicated.

This trial is crucial for the Iraqis to see how evil Saddam was. I hope it won't turn out to be as messy as Slobo's, for the sake of the Iraqis and the world.

One interesting tidbit from Prof. Scheffer. Don't be surprised to see Tariq Aziz as a key prosecution witness.

Oh, and don't get me started on Ramsey Clark...

Martin Luther King, Jr. - The Logo

Today's Martin Luther King's Day in the U.S. So Google decided to make his head as one of the O's in its logo on the main search engine page. A little distatesful, if you ask me.

Legally Odd: Thief Steals Law Textbooks

A fellow student posted a note on the Northwestern Law listserver looking for replacements for his Business Associations textbooks after a thief stole them during a break-in. Now there is an ambitious or clever thief. Either he knows that these damn textbooks cost like a $1000 each or he may want to take some law courses soon. I'm surprised he wasn't caught napping a few feet away. Some of those books are deadly boring...

To be fair to the thief, he took the books that were in a nice backpack in the student's apartment.

Maybe he should have taken a Criminal Law book instead?

What the... -- Polish Driving Lesson

For all you linguists hoping to learn a few juicy Polish words, I recommend this little lesson for drivers from the recently launched Google Video.

Ex-Communist Leader to Testify on John Paul's Sainthood

This beatification process of John Paul II is getting more bizarre by the minute. Sure, looking for miracles is already out there in the modern world. But now it looks like John Paul's biggest nemesis, former communist leader of Poland Wojciech Jaruzelski, is set to testify in the beatification proceedings, according to Polish daily Rzeczpospolita. That's quite a long way from when Jaruzelski and the rest of the communists tried to do all they could to keep the pope from breaking their stranglehold over Poland. How times change...

Friend Launches His Own Blog on Eastern Europe

Piotrek Skolimowski, a guest writer at this blog, has launched his own blog, which will concentrate on East Europe's macroeconomy. Read the post on Poland's new finance minister. His take: the ruling party is snatching talent from the opposition to try expanding its base. Clever stuff.

British Soldiers Mock Boring Dutch

First they come drunk to Amsterdam's redlight district for sloppy stag parties and now this?

Reuters: Dutch troops in Pakistan say mocked by drunk Brits